🎯 Work Smart Wednesday - June 4, 2025
Why traffic doesn't matter (and what to do instead), a useful strategy exercise I'm doing a lot of recently, and a quote from Harry Dry.
Work Smart Wednesday
👋 Hey there!
Here is your fortnightly dose of Work Smart Wednesday.
In these emails I will share with you 3 things to help you work smarter.
1. 👀 Why traffic doesn't matter (and what to do instead)
Almost 50% of all internet traffic now comes from bots, and that share is growing. It used to be that traffic meant customer interest. Not anymore. Bots don’t buy.
At the same time, AI is changing how search engines work. Even if you rank #1, expect traffic to drop. SEO isn’t what it used to be.
But here’s the real issue: traffic was never the point.
When I started my first business I made a common mistake - I obsessed over numbers that looked good but didn’t actually help my business grow. I now call these vanity stats.
🪞 Some examples of vanity stats:
Revenue. Who cares if you made $900k if you only took home $20k in profit? You don’t pay your bills with revenue.
High hours worked. There is no prize for burnout. No trophy for exhaustion. Working long hours is not the same as being productive.
Traffic/impressions. I don’t care if I got 500k impressions if I got no leads. Every influencer I have ever met is broke and clueless as to why.
I know from painful experience that these metrics might boost your ego, but they won’t build your business.
Instead, you need something I like to call sanity stats - the numbers that actually move the needle.
🧠 Here are some examples of sanity stats:
Profit Margin. An entrepreneur with a 60% profit margin on $100k makes a lot more than someone with a 2% margin on $1M.
CLV (customer lifetime value). How much do people pay you throughout the entire time they work with you? Do customers stick around?
CAC (customer acquisition cost). How much does it cost you in time, energy, software, and marketing spend to land a client?
Lead-to-customer conversion rate. I’d rather have 10 qualified leads that turn into clients than 100 tyre-kickers who ghost.
When you run a business you’re bombarded with data, advice, things you think you should do. Most are distractions. Very little of it matters.
It is easy to drown in metrics that don’t matter. The most successful entrepreneurs aren’t the ones doing the most, they’re the ones focused on what actually drives growth. They know how to filter signal from noise and they’ve often got someone in their corner helping them do it.
We all have the same number of hours in the day. The winners do less, but better. More focused.
Track the right numbers. Ignore the noise. Build your business with intention.
That’s what keeps you sane - and successful.
2. 🌪️ A useful strategic exercise I'm doing a lot of recently
Sanity stats are useful, but there is something that is even more important. Clarity.
Do you know how your business actually works - can you map out the full journey from stranger to paying client?
Most entrepreneurs can’t. And I truly believe that is at the absolute core for why so many entrepreneurs feel lost, confused, busy but aimless. Calm requires clarity.
Lacking clarity feels like you’re constantly doing things - posting, replying, tweaking your website, launching offers - but nothing seems to stick. There’s effort, but no momentum. Wins feel random. Growth feels fragile.
You feel like you’re missing something, but can’t quite name what. There’s this low-level anxiety humming in the background. The numbers don’t make sense. Leads appear and disappear without explanation. Some people buy, but most don’t and you don’t know why. It’s like trying to complete a puzzle with half the pieces missing.
You end up jumping between strategies, tools, and advice hoping the next thing will be the thing that finally works. But it never feels grounded. It’s trial and error without a feedback loop. Underneath it all is that quiet, uncomfortable question: Is this really working? Or am I just getting by?
This happens when you don’t know what the “flow” of your business is. When you don’t know how the pieces fit together. It will leave you feeling disconnected from your own business, like you’re not really in control but just reacting.
I was seeing this a lot in new clients that came to me recently, so I switched up my process. I started helping people outline their funnel to bring about instant clarity.
“Gurus” talk about funnels all the time and make it seem complicated. But funnels are simple.
A funnel isn’t a clickfunnels landing page, or a bunch of automations or email sequences, or a “tech stack” you copy from a YouTube video.
A funnel is a clear path that turns strangers into paying clients. It’s knowing what needs to happen at each step. I like to outline it in a little diagram.
Knowing your funnel is the foundation of a business that runs with clarity, not chaos. That means knowing:
Where leads come from
What makes someone a good fit
What they need to see or hear to say yes
What happens once they sign on
What happens after they buy
How long they stay, and why
If you don’t know your funnel, you don’t really have a business. You have a bunch of random activities that sometimes feel like progress (but that often feel like going round in circles!).
Calm, high-profit, low-stress businesses aren’t built on guesswork - they’re built on clarity. Grab a pen and paper - or head over to Canva - and outline your funnel.
You can see some examples of funnels below in the screenshot and video, I encourage you to give it a go. Knowing your funnel flow makes everything else so much easier.
Many people do find this exercise overwhelming and tricky, so if you would like my help to you outline your funnel you will be pleased to know that I’m running a promo for my popular Fix Your Funnel Flow Mapping Sprint for June only. Typically 499, it is 200 off for bookings made in June using the code FLOWSTATE.
😊 A 1:1 workshop to outline your complete funnel taking leads from strangers to sales. The session will last as long as we need to completely outline your flow and for you to feel confident with the next steps, which typically takes around an hour.
🗺️ You will receive a custom funnel diagram we build together on the call, as well as guidance on how to properly understand and use the diagram.
🤝 Expert advice on which parts of your funnel to focus on and how to fix your flow for optimal sales 💸. Know exactly what to focus on next to improve flow and grow sales.
You can buy the Fix Your Funnel Flow Mapping Sprint here: https://buy.stripe.com/14A5kDeu5cEx4hD8YtaMU0x
Video: How outlining a funnel together is useful (2 mins)
3. 💡 Quote I'm pondering
"Want to grow twice as fast? You can spend twice as much on ads, or take conversion from 1 to 2%. I know which I’d choose.” - Harry Dry
The difference between 1% and 2% conversion is NOT 1%, it is 100%.
When you increase your landing page conversion from 1% to 2%, you double growth.
Most entrepreneurs waste their time trying to get more customers, more impressions, more followers, when they would be better off focusing on doing less but better.
Harry Dry is well worth listening to, his copywriting skills and insights are some of the best I have seen. This particular quote comes from a fantastic interview he did on how to improve your copywriting. You can watch a snippet of it here, or the whole thing here.
My client Jen (link to her business here) told me she found the video so useful that she went and watched the full thing twice.
🆕 What I did instead
Across the last two weeks I’ve done quite a lot.
Despite spending a week on holiday in Valencia, Spain, I still brought in more than $20,000 that week. You might think that meant I was working while I was there, but I wasn’t. I didn’t answer emails, I didn’t have sessions. I took proper time off. When your business is set up properly and flowing you still make money even while you’re away.
Here are some photos of things I have done in the past two weeks with my free time, the things I chose to do instead of working more.
I do recommend checking out the world’s largest hackathon event I attended (free), it is happening all of this month all over the world. I got hands on with some really cool tech, including some great AI stuff, and the freebies that come with signing up make it more than worth it. Join a team, or just check it out solo. It is worth it.
What did you do with your free time?
What would you like to do more of if you had more time?
Let me know in the comments below or by replying to this email.
👋 Want to work together?
When you're ready, here's the best way to get my help:
🔍 Clarity Call - We will discuss your business and create a step-by-step action plan together so you know exactly what you need to do next for maximum impact.
That's it! I can't wait to hear what you think. What did you find most useful? What do you want more or less of? Reply to this email now and let me know.
Also, if you have anything interesting to share, I want to know about it😊
Have a great week,
John
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