A Week In The Life Of Kate November 18, 2024

All times are EST.

Family:

• Mattie (husband)
• Jackson (son; 6)
• Gemma (daughter; 4)
• Rachel (assistant coach at SWS)

Please feel free to comment (not ‘suggestions’) with any follow up questions you have to anything I’m doing!

Note: many of the links I’ll share here are affiliate links.

• 8:45 am: Wake up. Ugh. I had to ask Mattie to switch drop off/pick-up with me because I couldn’t fall asleep last night until 2 am and was dead tired this morning. I’ve been staying up hours later than usual the past few nights (first I couldn’t stop watching season 2 of Tell Me Lies) and then last night I was researching AI helpdesk software until midnight when I forced myself to go to bed and ended up reading All Fours for 2 more hours. Easily one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, and also one I clearly cannot put down even though I should be unconscious.

• 8:54: am: On the tread, doing my morning routine. I don’t want to be redundant from last month’s WITL, so make sure you read that for the specifics of how I start my work ritual. A Week In The Life Of Kate October 28, 2024

• 9:34 am: Done with my morning start-up ritual. Today is very full, especially since I’m getting a later start, as I’ve got therapy and a mastermind call, plus I’m hosting the kick-off call for our **Get it Done Week**today (it’s not too late to join and it’s free). We have 417 people signed up for this one (4x what we normally have) and I’m not sure what to expect in terms of live turnout and engagement. But I’m stoked to help everyone create a nurture sequence and the training I have planned for today is SO good! I can’t wait.

  • It’s also Day 1 of our **Anti-Black Friday Daily Deals**today, and I still have 3 more days of deals to write emails for and set up the tech. Getting sick in October, plus the election, has really got my behind schedule and I’m normally much more of a planner. But I’m also embracing being in the moment and being present and the gifts that allows, while calming myself with my favorite mantra when I’m busy and start feeling overwhelmed: “Nature never rushes. I have plenty of time and everything that needs to get done will get done.”
  • I was able to get through customer service a bit faster than usual today because after last month, Rachel and I decided to switch days. So she does Mon/Wed in the helpdesk and I do Tues/Thurs; and then we switch for the Slack channel to do the opposite. I’ve also been working behind-the-scenes to automate more of our customer service with some cool new AI tools and improving our auto-responder and communication after someone purchases to cut down on the tickets we get about things like access/login issues. We also changed our memberships to offer self-billing so people can cancel on their own without reaching out to us. I have LOTS of thoughts on this… do we need to do a BTS call or loom on this topic?

• 9:52 am: Walked 2.22 miles now while I’ve been doing all of this and going to go do a quick 10 min resistance training Youtube workout, grab some breakfast and then sit down to work until it’s time for therapy.

• 10:24 am: Workout complete. I did this one from one of my fave channels! Leftover Chinese for breakfast–egg drop soup and an egg roll with protein coffee with egg nog… apparently there was a big egg theme happening. Ice rolled my face while everything was being made. Definitely doing to need some eye masks before the live training today.

• 10:29 am: Working on the Anti-Black Friday sale Deal #3. I got it all set up yesterday and now I need to write the emails for it. Pomodoro timer, let’s go!

• 11:23 am: Done with deal #3. Quick refresh before therapy starts in 7 minutes. Requested to meet virtually today because schedule is jammed. But I won’t sacrifice this time.

• 12:30 pm: Done with therapy. Quick check-in with Rachel and Slack and now off to eat some lunch. Leftovers from Saturday night dinner–steak frites. And adding a green smoothie. Caught up on some Voxers with my biz buddies while I ate.

• 1:00 pm: Back at my desk. Going to keep working through Anti-BF stuff and get Offer #4 prepped.

  • Also taking a quick peek at this Google doc offerto see if it’s something I think I’ll use…decided no. I don’t need another planner, I thought this might help me make workbooks for my courses. Money saved!

• 2:31 pm: Finished up deal #4 and heading upstairs to shower and get ready for our 3 pm kick-off call for GIDW****.

• 2:46 pm**:** Back down at my desk and doing a little prep before our call in 15 minutes.

• 3:00 pm: Hosted the kick-off call and training for GIDW. So fun! Nearly 100 people came live! Lots of great questions asked and love seeing familiar faces there.

• 4:10 pm: Joined my peer mastermind for co-working on Black Friday.

  • Working on segmenting out people who shouldn’t get our Anti-BF emails based on their behavior/purchase history.

  • Questioning whether this is the best way to set this up, as our GIDW participants are all getting 1 email/day from me this week, PLUS 2 emails a day for the BF sale… it’s a lot. But I think my right fit people want to hear from me and don’t want to miss anything, right? I’m hoping people use a tool like Leave Me Alone to rollup their fave emails like I do so they won’t be annoyed. Or at least gmail filters ;)

  • Decided the only people I’m going to exclude from BF are people who have already purchased the offer and then people who are also in my welcome sequence won’t get the 2nd reminder, but they’ll get the first announcement.

  • Should I add an opt-out link for BF promos? Thinking about this…

  • And now just need to decide on what my last deal #5 is going to be. I had this planned out but then I didn’t like what I planned. I feel like I should do something for MBA, but we just had our anniversary sale a couple weeks ago so… I don’t know. Maybe something like 40% off everything in the shop + MBA? Going to make final call tomorrow because my brain is feeling fried.

  • Super proud of myself for pulling this sale out of my ass at the last minute and getting it done in the most minimum viable way. No big fancy sales pages, just simple deals and savings.

    • Got 25 unsubscribes from my first email announcing I’d be donating 10% of all proceeds to Planned Parenthood because this, plus a couple angry responses. Those aren’t my people. That’s okay.

• 5:11 pm: After answering a few emails, it’s time to pick the kids up from school, grab our grocery pickup order from Kroger and spend some family time.

  • Let the kids play on the playground at Gem’s school until it got dark, which is now before 6 pm, so it wasn’t too long.
  • Decided to grab Chick-Fil-A for dinner because Kroger pickup ended up taking 20 minutes and I really just did not feel like cooking.
  • Played MarioKart with the kids after dinner, one of our favorite things to do together as a family.

• 7:45 pm: Kids are asleep, and I’m curling up on the couch to watch some King of Queens re-runs. I’ve also had this really gross habit ever since the election of watching pimple popping videos on Youtube. It’s so satisfying and calming for me and I don’t even want to know how many hours I have watched in the past 3 weeks. I even asked ChatGPT why my brain likes this disgusting thing so much and apparently it’s because my brain gets a little dopamine hit every time I see a problem solved. Basically, my brain is like, “Ah yes, order restored. Chaos vanquished. You’re a hero.” Which is both fascinating and mildly concerning.

• 9 pm: Upstairs to take a lavender epsom salt bath and read All Fours. Asleep by 10:30. Hallelujah!

• $165, 6 sales of 1:1 Personalized Critique, Feedback + Audit

• $37, Simple + Sustainable SEO

• $18.50, Email Empowerment Engine

• $7, Instant Income

• $104.18, Painless Publicity

• $10.32, Fast-Track Workshop: Boost Traffic with E-A-T for SEO

• $72, 8 sales of Launch Lab

• $31, 3 sales of Tripwires, Bumps + Upsells

• $132, 3 sales of Get it Done Week: Next Level Nurture VIP Pass

• $7, The Room: Weekly Group Coaching Calls

• 7 am: Wake up and get the kids ready for school, do drop-offs. End up sitting in my car for 20 minutes when I get home and Voxing my friend Sarah, who used to work for me for 4 years and is now just a good friend.

  • Been having such a hard time waking up lately, even when I go to bed early. I slept for 8.5 straight hours last night and I was still dead tired this morning. Gemma had to come wake me up because I kept snoozing my alarm. Really ready for this HRT to start giving me more energy instead of just more periods. I’m also on my period for the 4th time in 9 weeks right now. Meeting with my endo this week to see about adjusting my dosages. Ugh! Fatigue is real.

• 8:25 am: On my treadmill, filling in this doc from where I left off last night.

• 8:36 am: Morning start-up ritual commencing.

  • 8:54 am: Answering helpdesk tickets.

• 9:27 am: Helpdesk tickets done. 2.57 miles walked. Going to go lift some weights (I did this upper body workout) and eat breakfast. Chocolate Hazelnut protein ball from Daily Harvest (I’m pretty sure these have been in my freezer for 3 years and I just found them), and a spinach egg bite with my decaf coffee.

• 9:50 am: Back at my desk. Looking at my to do list for today/this week:

  • Anti-BF Deal #5…still need to decide what I’m going to do for this
  • Submit final materials for Jessica’s bundle
  • 2 Voxer Unstuck sessions
  • Host the Room call
  • Mastermind call
  • Write email promo for Asmita’s bundle
  • Set up MBA flash sale for GIDW attendees
  • Edit video training from yesterday’s GIDW

• 9:54 am: Responding to Kartra about a glitch I’m having with all my buttons that randomly started last week.

• 9:58 am: Going through some emails to see what other bundle/summit tasks I need to add to my list

• 10:05 am: Filling out forms for the program I’m a client in, Collective Momentum with Lizzy Goddard.

• 10:30 am: Brainstorming Black Friday ideas and posting a poll in Slack to get people to vote on what they want… vote here!

• 10:43 am: Chore time. Started a load of laundry, cleaned up some things in the kids room and some art work that was left in the kitchen, just generally straightening things around the house. I needed to get up from my desk and move around a bit.

  • 11:15 am: Cleaning up my desktop and clearing space on my computer. I subscribe to SetApp and use the CleanMyMac app.

• 11:30 am: Voxer Session with my client Maren.

• 12:00 pm: 1:1 Call with my client Erin.

• 12:37 pm: Catching up on emails, sending our sponsor from last week stats and sending Erin the link for her sponsorship in December.

• 12:50 pm: Quick snack break before the Room call.

• 1 pm: Hosting The Room co-working call today. I’ve been answering some helpdesk tickets and an issue I’m having with one of the summits I’m in.

• 2:10 pm: Room call complete, got such great feedback from folks how helpful it is to be in the energy of other action-takers with dedicated time to get something done. Love it! Now time for a lunch break.

  • I’m having a hard time focusing today, and sometimes when I get like this the worst thing to do is power through, whereas the best is to take a break. I wound up just lounging in the couch for a couple hours this afternoon, watching TV and snuggling with my kitties. I’ll come back fresh tomorrow without any distractions. I’m also honoring that I’m on my period and my energy is lower, plus it’s a full moon which always makes me feel a bit antsy and it’s raining today which is making me lazy. I’m not going to fight it. What we resist, persists and I trust myself to move through this phase like I always do.

• 3:15 pm: Voxer coaching with my client Stacy.

• 4 pm: peer mastermind call with my biz buddies

• 5:35 pm: Off my mastermind call and I just love these women so much. There are 7 of us in this group and every week we meet is so restorative and inspiring, even when we’re commiserating about how hard things can get or how anxious we feel or whatever. This is the first group I’ve ever been in that is truly such a support of each other both emotionally and also in business, as in we all promote each other and help spread the word and really collaborate in a way I’ve never seen before. It’s really special.

• 5:50 pm: Answered a couple quick emails and sorting the helpdesk until my kids get home. They went to my brother’s house to take care of his dog tonight so I have a bit more time to myself. I’m still on the couch, 4 hours later. Thank God my boss is understanding ;)

• 6:03 pm: Kids are home, time to go make dinner. Carnitas bowls!

  • Dinner was delish and so easy–I used the pre-made carnitas from Butcher Box and just added shredded romaine, cilantro rice, pico de gallo, guacamole, shredded cheese and Cholula. So good!
  • Snuggled with the kiddos on the couch, Gem wasn’t feeling great (this time of year, somebody is always sick!) and played MarioKart again after dinner.
  • It was my turn to do bedtime, and the kids were so wound up by the time we went upstairs around 7:45. Regretted not giving them melatonin like we often do. Finally got them calmed down, read a few books and was back downstairs just after 8.

• 8:15 pm: Mattie had to work late so I just went back to my KOQ re-runs and pimple popping videos. OMG, this is humiliating to write out publicly, I much preferred it when this was my secret guilty pleasure. LOL.

• 10:30 pm: Up to bed, took a quick shower and read for a few minutes before falling asleep.

• $97: Inbox Insights: Weekly Email Coaching

• $3.50: Pitch Perfect: A Custom ChatGPT

• $194: 2 sales of The Room: Weekly Group Coaching Calls

• $29.60: Simple + Sustainable SEO

• $126: Launch Lab

• $7: Tripwires, Bumps + Upsells

• $22: Mindful Planning Printables

• 6:45 am: OMG I was actually okay to wake up this morning. What a feeling! Even just an extra 5-10 minutes makes the mornings much more relaxing when I’m not rushing around. Jackson was cuckoo this morning, like a wild banshee, screaming everything he said and just being so goofy. Which is kind of cute but also just way too early to have that much energy! Thankfully I drop him off first and the rest of the car ride was much quieter and calmer with just me and Gem. We listened to the Lion King soundtrack and just chilled after the tornado that is Jackson was gone.

• 7:45 am: Back home and started to do this hip-opening yoga video, but got interrupted when my friend called and I was dying to talk to her. So I paused and will come back to this later today (or so I tell myself) and chatted with her for an hour. Something she shared about what’s going on with her daughter made me so grateful for Matt, so when I got off the phone I went upstairs to find him and he had gone back to sleep in our daughter’s bed. So I climbed in with him and just snuggled him until his alarm woke us both up at 9:30.

• 9:30 am: Told him how much I love him and how lucky I feel to have a husband who truly sees me and can handle me and all my big emotions and trauma and physical manifestations of anxiety and PTSD. We had a nice moment and then I came downstairs to make coffee and eat an egg bite.

• 9:45 am: Sitting down at my desk and updating this doc where I left off last night through now.

• 9:57 am: Alright, all caught up now and ready to start my morning work ritual.

  • Noting that as I’m tracking my daily sales, the first 2 days of my Anti-Black Friday sale were much slower than expected. Only a couple sales of each one. Interestingly, today’s deal has already resulted in 7 sales in the first hour, so much improved.

  • Making my to do list for the day/week as I go through some emails and tickets:

    • Anti-BF Deal #5…still need to decide what I’m going to do for this. Someone wrote in an option in our poll, but it’s not something I’m able to offer even though the most people have voted for it. So that’s a bummer.
    • Create opt-in page for Jessica’s bundle
    • Write email promo for Asmita’s bundle
    • Set up MBA flash sale for GIDW attendees
    • Edit video training from yesterday’s GIDW
    • Write WSL
    • Pay affiliates

• 10:34 am: Emails, helpdesk, Slack complete. Poking around a few Shopify things to make sure my add-on apps are set at the right billing plan based on a few changes I want to make.

  • Noting that I got an email from a buyer who said the Planned Parenthood donation is what made them say yes and purchase. THOSE are my people!

• 11:00 am: I sold a rug on Facebook marketplace and the guy just got here to pick it up, so helped him load it into his car.

• 11:07 am: Setting up opt-in page for Jessica’s bundle. Decided to record a loom of how I do this so I’m able to get my contribution for all bundles and summits ready in 10 minutes or less. Just added it to the portal for $1k/day, so you can watch it here.

• 11:28 am: Paying out my affiliates, one of my favorite things to do every month because it means my friends and partners have shared about me and brought new amazing humans into my world!

  • First I’ll check my Kartra payouts. I owe my friend Sage Grayson.
  • Now checking Shopify payouts. I owe my friends Kate Ahl and Amy Porterfield payments.
  • Some I send via ACH and some via Paypal. I’d like a better system for this that is faster and more automated.

• 11:43 am: Trying to decide what I want to work on. WSL or Black Friday #5. Ok BF is more time-sensitive so I’m going to do that. Thought through the plans because we just had our 1st Birthday sale for MBA which was $1,000 off. And on the 26th we have another flash sale for MBA for all of our GIDW participants, so not the full list but still a decent size group. So if I’m going to do something for MBA for Anti-Black Friday… I need it to be different, and I want to reward our early action takers, so here’s what I’m thinking

  • 1st birthday was $1000 off
  • Anti-Black Friday will be $800 off (40%)
  • GIDW Flash sale will be $500 off
  • End of Year sale…? No more than $500 off, but maybe just bonuses instead?
  • This way, the sooner you join, the more value you get which is why NOW is always the best time to buy.
  • Okay that feels good. Going to write those emails and set up the tech now. Start the pomodoro timer! I use this chrome extension.

• 12:39 pm: Time for a break. I need to go get ready and I’ve got another family therapy session at 1.

• 1 pm: Family therapy session, great idea to do this before Thanksgiving all together next week ;)

• 2:05 pm: Lunch break. Ranch-seasoned salmon salad (like tuna salad) on sourdough with swiss cheese, white beans and pickles. Clementine on the side.

• 2:45 pm: Back at my desk, going to finish up Black Friday stuff.

• 3:45 pm: Finished!! Yahooooo. That feels so good and I’m really excited with everything I’ve cooked up. Now hopping onto a MixerMind call to learn about a new possible mastermind I might join.

• 4:55 pm: Just got off the Mixermind call. I decided to join. I already have my amazing peer mastermind, but I think this will be an awesome complement as I’m really looking to continue going deeper with my relationships and collabs in 2025.

  • Spending the rest of my afternoon just closing things out here, in emails, Slack, etc.
  • Confirming Kartra affiliate credits so I can award KKCredit to those who join through my link

• 5:26 pm: Kids are home, family time chaos begins!

• 6:15 pm: Kids are taking a bath and I had to make a quick fix to our upsell page for the Room that a lovely new MBA client alerted me too.

• 6:20 pm: Now heading to make dinner. Chicken nuggets, mac and cheese and fruit. Classic kid dinner. Mattie and I ordered salads from Chop’t.

• 7:30 pm: It’s Mattie’s turn to do bedtime, Jackson fell asleep on the couch watching Spidey and Friends, a recent new fave in our house, so it went quick. We watched a couple episodes of KOQ and then I went upstairs early to take a bath.

• 8:30 pm: Reading my book in an epsom salt bath with a clay face mask on.

• 9:30 pm: In bed and reading until I fall asleep, which turned out to be only a few minutes.

• $7 Beyond the Scroll: How to Create a Static 9-Grid (with Templates!)

• $9 Fast-Track Workshop: Astrology 101

• $97 Inbox Insights: Weekly Email Coaching

• $7: The Room: Weekly Group Coaching Calls

• $44: Get it Done Week: Next Level Nurture

• $93.50: BTS $1k/Day Experiment

• $128: Launch Lab

• $528: GIDW Bundle for Anti-Black Friday

• $2,700: 2 sales of MBA Mindful Business Academy

• 7 am: Woke up after a glorious 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Glad to be back on my normal sleep schedule… staying up past 11 (or really even 10) is just not good for me. I’m excited to meet with my endocrinologist tomorrow to adjust my meds though because I probably could’ve slept for another few hours this morning and I need this fatigue gone!

• 7:45 am: Back home from taking the kids to school, they were so cute and funny this morning. And it was freezing (only 39F)! I really welcome the cooler weather. Decided to go for a long walk this morning. I’ve been listening to this audiobook, and after 45 minutes, I ended up talking to my friend, and then my mom for a while. Stopped and got a decaf latte on my walk too. Love living in a neighborhood where I can walk to so many things! Ran into a neighbor and chatted for a few minutes too. 3.5 miles down this AM.

• 10:07 am: Sitting down to work for the day. I’m going to try to do my morning start up ritual before I have a Voxer unstuck session at 10:30.

• 10:29 am: Phew, I did it. Off to do some Voxer coaching and

• 10:52 am: Now time to go back and update this doc from last night.

• 10:58 am: All caught up now and need to go get something to eat. I’m suddenly ravenous!

• 11:05 am: Alright, fresh coffee in hand. Eating the rest of my salad from last night (I recreated my favorite chopped salad from the Cheesecake Factory (I know… I’m a former food writer, but I love this salad from this cheesy chain) from Chop’t, which delivers to us…and I have a feeling I will be ordering it weekly now.), looking at my to do list for today:

  • Profit First allocations
  • Write WSL
  • Write email promo for Asmita’s bundle
  • Write email promo for Blake Friday Bundle
  • Set up MBA flash sale for GIDW attendees
  • Edit video training from GIDW
  • Host final GIDW call
  • Update OOO message

• 11:10 am: Starting with Profit First. It’s been a really good few months so this has been really fun to do every week. A nice change from last year when this was anxiety inducing and I panicked over how I was going to make payroll. Gotta say, I’m really loving the solopreneur life, just working with contractors as needed.

• 11:15 am: Time to write the WSL. I usually write these on Wednesdays, but the Anti-BF sale took up most of my focused work time this week. I’ll probably work a bit tomorrow, Friday, too, just because I’m planning to take 90% of next week totally off.

• 12:19 am: Done with the WSL and ready for a lunch break.

• 1:09 pm: Back from my lunch break. I was really craving a burger (probably from menstruating so much and being iron depleted), so went to pick one up and watched a show while I chilled. Now I’m going to write a bundle promo email for Saturday. Been listening to this album while I work lately on repeat.

• 1:51 pm: Quick refresh before the GIDW co-working call.

• 2 pm: Host the co-working call. I personally led a training on invisible funnels and then spent some of my co-working time finishing up the email promo for the bundle.

• 3:05 pm: Call over but Rachel and I stayed on for 10 minutes to chat about plans for the next couple weeks with the holiday.

• 3:19 pm: Sent myself a quick test email to review and then scheduling for Tuesday.

• 3:30 pm: Now need to write the Blake Friday Bundle email promo.

• 4:09 pm: Email done. Quick helpdesk check-in.

• 4:14 pm: Need to take a quick break and just walk around and move my body. Did this quick 5-minute full-body dumbbell workout. Love squeezing in quick movement throughout the day like this

• 4:25 pm: Back at my desk. Going to start setting up the MBA flash sale for GIDW. I usually just clone a sequence we’ve already used, but I’m going to tweak this one a bit based on feedback from our birthday sale and better conversion rates.

• 5:58 pm: Done with the GIDW -> MBA sequence. I’m excited about this! Kids are home now, time to go hang with the fam and cook dinner.

• 6:00 pm: Jackson’s piano teacher just got here so he’s going to have his 45-minute lesson. And Gem just reminded us that her school project is due tomorrow, and we haven’t started anything. That’s my bad. I get so many dang emails and texts between their two schools, and the greater Atlanta Public Schools updates it’s hard to keep up. So we helped her build a hospital for her “community center” with a shoe box, a lot of pictures cut from the “doctor’s issue” of atlanta magazine I had kept for some unknown reason that now came in quite handy (it pays to hoard), and some drawings of ambulances we colored together.

• 6:45 pm: Got dinner ready for the kids while Mattie grilled some pork chops and I roasted broccoli in the air fryer.

• 7:15 pm: Jackson’s been obsessed with MarioKart this week, so we played for 20 more minutes before bedtime and Mattie and Gemma went into the “kids room” (we converted our dining room into a play room where the grand piano is too) and watched Daniel Tiger.

• 7:45 pm: My turn to do bedtime, everyone was wiped so we just read a quick book and they went to sleep quickly. Love a 5 minute bedtime routine. We only bathe them every other day and that’s Matt’s job thanks to the Fair Play cards

• 7:55 pm: Back downstairs with Mattie and while we’ve been trying to avoid the news somewhat, we decided we wanted to catch up on some late night, so went to Jimmy Kimmel and The Daily Show (I am OBSESSED with Desi Lydic and Ronny Chieng), but everything just depressed me too much, so I ended up going upstairs to read just before 9. Fell asleep by 10.

• $16.75: 2 sales of Beyond the Scroll: How to Create a Static 9-Grid

• $14: 2 sales of Tripwires, Bumps + Upsells

• $77: 2 sales of $1k/Day Experiment

• $123.25: 3 sales of Evergreen Funnel Formula

• $176.00: 4 sales of GIDW Bundle for Anti-Black Friday

• $7: 2 sales of Instant Income

• $222: 2 sales of No Social Bundle for Anti-Black Friday

• $37: Painless Publicity

• $7: Pitch Perfect: A Custom ChatGPT

• 7 am: The kids were up a lot last night (so much for uninterrupted sleep), and Gem ended up in our bed. I could not wake her up this morning, she was soooo sleepy and moving so slow. Finally got everyone dressed and fed and dropped off.

• 7:45 am: Stopped in at Starbucks to get a decaf pecan latte. Then stopped at the car was and gave my car a good rub down and vacuum. I recently got a Hyundai Sante Fe and it is my most favorite car I’ve ever owned, including others that technically had fancier names. I usually take it through the car wash a couple times a week because I’m a neat freak about my car and the kids destroy it every time they’re in there. Caught up on Voxer with my old employee Sarah, who is one of my favorite people and just such a great friend. I love hearing her voice and feel so grateful to still have this relationship nearly 8 years later.

• 8:25 am: Back home and going for a walk. It’s FREEZING outside again, but it feels so good to have cool air on my face. Chatted with my friend for half an hour, then my mother-in-law and then my mom. 2 miles later, back home and made some spinach egg bites for breakfast.

• 9:57 am: Sitting down at my desk to update this doc from where I left off.

• 10:10 am: Alright, caught up and now going to take care of some personal errands.

  • Respond to my CPA about her recent tax projection

  • 10:20 am: File another BOI report. I already did this for my S-corp, but I actually converted my business from an S-Corp to an LLC in March now that I don’t have employees anymore. So apparently I need to do this for both entities now. Ugh!

  • 10:28 am: Respond to my bookkeeper’s P&L video for October. Ahhh I am at a 71% net profit margin for the year. OMG!

  • 10:44 am: Done with that and now talking to my friend again. Her daughter is having surgery today so she’s nervous.

  • 11:19 am: Going through my screened mail from Leave Me Alone

  • 11:24 am: Going through school emails from my kid’s teachers. Signed up for holiday volunteering, got a parent teacher conference scheduled, donated to non-homeroom staff, etc.

  • 11:34 am: Submitting superbills to health insurance for reimbursement

  • 11:43 am: Ahh that feels good to get some of those admin things taken care of. Now going to update the daily sales tracker and add . revenue here.

  • 11:59 am: Done. Time to take a break and figure out how I want to spend the rest of my afternoon. Ended up making some bolognese sauce for dinner tonight, and the sat down by the TV for lunch. another open-face salmon sandwich with a mandarin and some pistachios.

    • Caught up on a few texts I’d been meaning to reply to this week with some holiday invitations. And also took a rain check with my friend for dinner tonight. I just feel like being home and cozy before we travel next week.

  • 12:59 pm: Looking at next week’s calendar and schedule to make sure I’m prepped for being out of town. Also mapped out my email calendar for bundles/summits through the end of the year

    • 1:34 pm: Gonna go upstairs and take a shower. Ended up doing a scalp mask and voxing with my money coach and my friend Kate for 20 minutes. Then blew my hair dry… I only do this like once a week because it takes so freaking long and no matter how many gigantic clumps of hair fall out in the shower, I still have the thickest hair ever. Blessing and a curse I think.

  • 3:01 pm: Just got an email about a bundle submission I need to get in before the holiday, so going to work on that real quick.

  • 3:21 pm: Going to work on a few customer service things that I’ve been pondering and look at some of the AI tools I’m considering.

  • 4:00 pm: Call with my endocrinologist about adjusting the dosages of all the meds I’ve been on the last 8-ish weeks to treat my PCOS, hypothyroidism and hypopituitarism.

  • 5:00 pm: Watching hilarious videos of my friend’s daughter talking as her anesthesia is wearing off. OMG, this is the funniest

  • 5:15 pm: Working on a new autoresponder for our customer service tickets. I keep running into an issue with Gmail that my reply is too long and have to use plain text, which looks horrible. Ugh!

  • 6:04 pm. Giving up for now. Time to go feed the kids spaghetti!

• $11.15: 7-Day Aligned Business Blueprint

• $14.65: 2 sales of Beyond the Scroll: How to Create a Static 9-Grid

• $4.50 : Blog Optimization Roadmap: A Complete SEO Checklist

• $14.00: 2 sales of Tripwires, Bumps + Upsells

• $13.50: 2 sales of Decision Tree Spreadsheet

• $92.50: Evergreen Funnel Formula

• $7.00: Fast-Track Workshop: A Feminist Calendaring + Productivity System

• $7.00: Instant Income

• $11.15: Launch It With Soul Mini Course

• $45.00 5 sales of Launch Lab

• $222: 2 sales of No Social Bundle for Anti-Black Friday

• $18.50: Painless Publicity

• $3.33: Pitch Perfect: A Custom ChatGPT

• $56.26: Simple + Sustainable SEO

• $97.00: The Room: Weekly Group Coaching Calls

• $9.67: 2 sales of Ultimate SEO Editorial Calendar Spreadsheet

• $22.29: Website Welcome Mat: Home + About Page Toolkit

Customer Service

I really need to cut down on the amount of time we spend answering customer service/helpdesk tickets about things that could easily be resolved without a human. I’ve already been using Ellie AI to help me reply faster, but even that isn’t enough right now. One of my big goals to accomplish before the end of the year is to automate more of this and improve clarity in our customer communication to avoid helpdesk tickets in the first place. A few things I want to put in place:

• An AI email triage and responder in Gmail, which probably means I’m going to stop using Kartra’s helpdesk feature and move back to Gmail. A few tools I’m considering:

  • Richpanel, which integrates with Shopify and could be really helpful
  • Desku, another Shopify app
  • My AskAI
  • Ready to Send
  • Mailo.AI
  • Lindy

• Updating my email auto-responder to go out at all times, not just when we are OOO and to answer the most common questions we get asked that people can 9/10 resolve on their own without needing us. I actually created a Zap to export 250 emails from Gmail to Google Sheets, which I uploaded to ChatGPT and asked it to do a sentiment analysis, identify the top 25 FAQs and themes and it was EYE OPENING!

• Updating all of our order confirmation/welcome emails to include more information about how to login and access products, how to cancel if they need to, etc.

• Updating the portals to include more information about these things too.

• Potentially create a Slackbot to remind people of our 4-day work week and OOO message with the same info to go out every Friday AM.

• Make it easier for people to manage their own billing in Kartra and Shopify, and more clear how to do that.

• Create a wiki/FAQ page on our Contact page to help with this as well.

• I already have a Chatbot on our website that can help with this, as well. Make sure it’s fully trained on everything.

• Update our MBA refund policy (right now it’s 14 days with proof of work and an explanation, but I’m considering making it 3-7 days no questions asked or maybe just no refunds for any reason like this).

• Update our Live Call reminder emails to include information about replays as we’ve been getting a lot of responses about that lately with lots of new clients coming in the door.

Hours Worked by Day + Revenue Earned

• Monday: 5.5 hours; $584
• Tuesday: 5.5 hours; $479.10
• Wednesday: 4 hours; $3,614
• Thursday: 6 hours; $689
• Friday: 2.5 hours; $658.50

Total Hours Worked: 24 hours worked

Hourly Rate: $251/hour

Top Product Sales

1. Mindful Business Academy (MBA) – $2,700
2. No Social Bundle for Anti-Black Friday – $444
3. GIDW Bundle for Anti-Black Friday – $704
4. Evergreen Funnel Formula – $215.75
5. Launch Lab Membership – $271

Lessons Learned

This week brought a mix of clarity and questions. I realized how much emotional energy goes into balancing work, family, and the mental load of running a business. Between managing customer service, strategizing for moving the business forward, and navigating relationships, it felt like every part of my brain was being used simultaneously. That’s not sustainable, and I’m seeing more clearly where systems need to step in to give me space. Moving forward, I’m doubling down on shorter work windows, intentional breaks, and protecting my 4-day workweek.

Oh, and speaking of non-negotiable—when you’re juggling a flash sale/launch/promo, live trainings, and therapy sessions, let simplicity be your guide. Minimum viable effort can still lead to maximum impact. I leaned into doing just enough this week, rather than doing it all. And you know what? It still worked like gangbusters.

Also, I learned (once again) that even with the best plans, life loves to throw curveballs—like a kid’s last-minute school project and a random wave of melatonin-worthy fatigue. Flexibility isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential. And I’m so grateful I’ve built a business where my life comes first.

One thing I’m working on is giving myself permission to slow down. On Tuesday, I hit a wall and couldn’t push through, so I let myself take the afternoon off. Historically, I would’ve judged myself for “wasting” time, but I’m learning to trust that rest is productive, too. It’s part of the process, not a detour.

Finally, the importance of aligning with my values has been front and center. The backlash I received for supporting Planned Parenthood reminded me that I can’t and won’t please everyone. The people who resonate with my work are out there, and focusing on serving them feels like the best use of my energy.

Practical Tips

• Leverage AI with heart. Tools like Ellie AI Email Assistant and Zapier make automation feel less like a soulless robot takeover and more like a soulful time-saver. Bonus: you can still write thoughtful, human responses while shaving hours off your inbox time.
• Move your body, even just a little. My treadmill desk turned otherwise sedentary admin time into active movement.
• Batch similar tasks. Grouping like tasks into focused time blocks made everything feel less overwhelming. Customer service one day, emails another, and creative work in its own slot. Context-switching is a productivity killer, and this really saves my sanity.
• Honor your energy. If you’re feeling tapped out, take a step back. Rest days aren’t just a luxury—they’re a necessity for sustainable productivity.

Behind-the-Scenes on Key Decisions

• MBA Discount Strategy: Reward early action-takers with progressively decreasing discounts, reinforcing urgency while maintaining fairness. It felt incentivizing, and allowed me to maintain the integrity of my pricing.
• Customer Service Overhaul: I’ve been diving into AI and automation tools to streamline our helpdesk. My main focus is on updating confirmation emails, refund policies, and a chatbot that can answer FAQs. These changes aim to reduce repetitive tickets while maintaining a personal touch.
• Reevaluating Refund Policies: With an influx of new clients, I’m debating whether a shorter, no-questions-asked refund window might better serve everyone involved. It feels cleaner and less emotionally draining for both sides.

Resource Recommendations

• Ellie AI: A lifesaver for managing email responses efficiently without sacrificing personality.
• Kartra****: Handles affiliate payouts, course portals, and funnels seamlessly.
• SetApp’s CleanMyMac****: Great for clearing digital clutter and speeding up workflows.