My Monthly Review - June 2023
I have been publicly sharing my monthly business reviews since January 2022 (scroll to the bottom of this post to see my others).
This is a reset process I go through on the first of every month to review the month that has just been and to plan for the month ahead.
I highly encourage all of my clients and students to do a similar process each month as it helps keep you accountable and see what is working and isn’t working in your business.
If you want a free checklist to use you can grab that here:
If you aren’t regularly tracking what is happening in your business then it’s very difficult to assess what’s working, what isn’t working, what progress you are making (or not making!) and how you can improve.
My review process normally takes me about 20 minutes to complete each month and when I look back on my previous entries I’m so grateful that I have a record of what has been happening so I can look back on how far I have come!
A quick note before we start…
I share this information publicly because I’m a completely open book and want to encourage and inspire other women and mothers about what is possible with their businesses.
When I was starting my ow business I used to follow a few business owners who did something similar to this and I found it hugely inspiring and helpful as it showed me what was possible in my own business.
However, I’m aware that some people find the sharing of business results and revenue numbers triggering, so if that’s you then I suggest you skip this post and jump in to some of my other free content instead :)
Here’s my review from June 2023.
Looking back - review last month
Revenue
Revenue for June was $236,547
Expenses
Main expenses in June:
Paid advertising: $31,491
Virtual Assistants: $2,816
Software Subscriptions: $1,081
Social Metrics
Total student enrolments: 19,035
Email/newsletter subscribers: 51,490
Instagram - TLDC: 99.6K
Instagram - CLR: 10.5K (not currently active)
YouTube - CLR: 10,978
TLDC Facebook Page Follows: 26K
Facebook Group: 14.5K
Pinterest Follows: 11.31K
Pinterest monthly views: 931.2K
LinkedIn Follows Personal: 782
LinkedIn Follows Business: 196
TLDC Website visits: 33K
Bounce Rate: 76%
Top 3 Wins Last Month
New design and business templates created and launched
Course migration and back end system upgrades completed
Updated existing business short courses and closed down Circle platform to improve my students’ experience
Notes from Last Month
What went well, what didn’t go well…
Business:
Felt like a massively productive month in June. I worked extremely hard on creating and launching my new design and business templates. I have been thinking about creating these for so long now and I get requests for them all the time. So I’m happy to have put the effort into create them. During the launch sale I’ve sold hundreds of the new templates and have had some fantastic feedback from people about how much time they are saving them and how helpful they are finding them. It’s always so rewarding to get feedback like that from things you’ve put a lot of effort into creating.
Interestingly I have launched something brand new every year at this time for the past few years now - this is a pattern that I realised a few days ago. This year it was my design templates, last year it was my Online Course Creator program and the year before it was my business mentoring program (that I no longer run). I wonder what it is about this time of year that makes me want to do this and get so creative/productive? I think what happens is I get to about March/April and often feel like I haven’t achieved much during the year so far. Normally I’ve had ideas brewing in my head about new things I want to create and so I decide that to get this created by the end of June feels like a good goal. I always work best to a deadline so I think this is what helps me really pull my finger out and get things moving. I think with my brain surgery in the past now it’s also helped me to feel more like moving forward with lots of new projects now.
This month I decided to run my first ever EOFY sale. Normally I only run one sale per year on my courses (over Black Friday weekend) but I have been questioning why I do things that way. A sale definitely helps people who have been sitting on the fence about purchasing make a decision on whether or not they will purchase. This year I also like the idea of offering a couple of sales so people can get things they need to improve their business at really low prices (especially given the economy is a crap). So my new thinking is that I will run three sales per year instead of just one:
EOFY (end of June)
Black Friday weekend in November
Boxing day/get started with the new year type sale
For July and remainder of 2023, now that I’ve got the back end of the business sorted out, my focus is to get back to creating lots more free content for my community. I have lots of ideas in the works for new projects I want to work on. I also want to get my podcast launched, which I’ve been talking about for years now! And I also want to get back to posting on YouTube, which I have also been talking about forever! I really enjoy making content so I’m looking forward to getting back to doing more of that.
I was hoping I could say I had hit 100K Instagram followers before writing my update this month but I should definitely have reached that milestone by next month. I’m not really into vanity metrics as it doesn’t really mean anything at all, but the 100K mark does feel like something to celebrate given how much time and effort I’ve put into my Instagram page over the past 10 years or so.
I’ve randomly met 5 ‘followers’ out and about in person this month, which is lovely (and also a bit surreal!). It’s actually always so weird to meet people who know me when I don’t know them. I do enjoy saying hello though. It’s also funny to see how I get recognised more often now that my community is growing so fast - I never started my business to become an “influencer” or anything like that - but it just shows that this can happen if you’re putting lots of value out into the world and being vulnerable and opening up about your life, goals and what you’re working on. The online business world is definitely a strange place!
Personal:
I have been continuing with my weekly stretching/mobility sessions with Kirsti from Pilates to You for the whole of this month. When I signed up with her my hope was that paying for the accountability would help me to embed a stretching/mobility habit into my routine. And I’m thrilled that so far this has been working so well. I have not only had a weekly virtual session with Kirsti each Wednesday, but I have also stretched for about 20-30 minutes almost every other day of July. This has helped me feel so much better at training and I’ve also got rid of so many injuries that I have been carrying around for a long time now.
I have also signed up to work with a nutritionist, Darcie Ellen, this month. I have always been guilty of the “all or nothing” approach to eating. Thinking of some foods as “bad” and avoiding them - only to find myself eating too much of them at other times, then feeling really guilty about it. With that cycle continuing over and over!! In my early 20s this was a very self-destructive pattern of behaviour. Luckily these days I have only very mild versions of this left. However, as with my stretching and mobility, this is an area I’m keen to completely get on top of during 2023 so I decided, once again, that paying for accountability around this would be my best chance to help myself succeed. I’ve had one session (of 12) with Darcie so far - so will be interesting to see where that journey leads me. I’m always keen to work with experts to help me keep working on myself and improving bit by bit.
I’ve been really focusing on eating lots of protein for the past 6 weeks or so. I am aiming for 150+ grams per day, which I hit most days. I also started taking BCAAs about 5-6 weeks ago as well, in the hope it would help me with recovery. I think both of these new strategies are really helping my performance at training at the moment. I’m feeling strong and making improvements, which is rewarding after my brain surgeries and going backwards for a while.
Our house build progress is going well now - definitely a lot more progress this month. We have all the frames up for downstairs plus some of the brickwork has started. It’s stressing me out that I haven’t finished the design so I decided to book in with all the suppliers to have our selections appointments - e.g. choosing tiles, stone, meeting with joiner - and I’m hoping this will force me over the weekend to get the house designs completed. They are giving me lots of sleepless nights as I want this house to be perfect for how our family lives. It’s taking a lot of brain power to make sure I get that right - so much harder to design my own house than a house for a client! Once again, having a forced deadline should help me make some final decisions about it all. I’m actually also excited to use the new templates I’ve made for my community for my design. I think they will make the process much quicker and easier.
Thinking about starting a home build series for YouTube so we can document the journey for the boys - and for anyone else who may be interested in watching. Might go and record the first episode of that over the weekend. Need to rope Paul into being my camera man! :)
The boys are off to Queenstown next week for a ski trip. I do miss them when they go away for these trips - but I have to admit I’m also really looking forward to a week by myself. I have lots of things planned - mainly to do with the house, doing some cleaning, sorting, donating and decluttering. Sounds boring to others I’m sure but I find that sort of thing very mentally cleansing so I’m looking forward to it!
Looking forward - plan this month
Focus this month:
🏡 House selections, supplier visits and finish design drawings
👏🏻 Content revamp - start back with long form content and get back to creating heaps of free content now back end of business has been set up properly
Projects this month:
Facebook group update
100K follower give away
Content about templates
Relaunch YouTube channel (including a home build series?)
Plan Podcast
Finish new house design
Declutter house and reorganise everything
Goals this month:
$150K in revenue
House is designed and all selections made
What would make this month amazing?
Get back to creating lots of free content across all my platforms. Also finally getting the house design finalised so I can stop worrying about that all the time.
If you would like to follow my business journey you can read my other monthly reviews via the links at the bottom of this page.
And if you would like to download my free Notion template to conduct your own monthly business review you can do that here:
Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects
DO YOU WANT TO….
Improve your professionalism?
Find more clients?
Bring in more revenue?
Create better systems and processes?
Then check out my business courses and templates for designers and architects.
These courses and templates leave you with work done - not just a long list of things you need to do next. We have a really strong focus on taking action and getting things created that improve your business.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
