Episode 2

Issue #2: Rewiring Decision Fatigue

Feeling overloaded by choices? Learn how to fix decision fatigue with the P.A.C.E. method, a practical tune-up for your brain and business systems.

Transcript
Speaker:

Ever have one of those mornings where you

sit down to get caught up and by 10 30

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you've already made 47 micro decisions

and it feels like a week's worth of work.

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You've picked a caption, fixed the

funnel, replied to three client

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messages and opened eight tabs.

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That all start with the words?

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Maybe I should.

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That's not poor time management.

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That's decision fatigue.

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It's the silent drag on your day that

turns small calls into uphill climbs.

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For most of us running service-based

businesses, coaches, consultants, agency

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owners, this hits harder than we admit.

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We've built our brands on being the

go-to person, the person with all the

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answers, but every choice from pricing

to platforms drains the same finite

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battery that's supposed to fuel your

creativity, clarity, and your leadership.

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By the time you reach your

actual deep work, you've already

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burned through the good gas.

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What's left is the fog

that spinning indecisive.

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Why can't I think straight feeling?

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That's decision fatigue.

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And I can almost guarantee you

it's killing your clarity more

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than any algorithm ever could.

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So here's what we're gonna do today.

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We'll look under the hood

at why this happens and walk

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through my system for fixing it.

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It's called the PACE method.

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It's what I use with clients

who are drowning in good

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ideas, but starving for focus.

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By the end, you'll know how to

build a rhythm that keeps your

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brain cool and your decisions clean.

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Decision fatigue isn't about

laziness or lack of willpower,

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it's about load management.

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Your brain runs on glucose,

oxygen, and limited willpower.

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Every decision.

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Even small ones like should I reply now

or later, pulls from that same supply.

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Most service providers burn

through their supply before lunch.

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Not because they're doing too much,

but because they're deciding too much.

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You're talking between different client

dashboards, scrolling for inspiration,

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second, guessing your next move, and

you're not running your business.

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You are basically running

interference for your mind.

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That's the hidden tax on

every solopreneur calendar.

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Mental context switching.

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It feels like productivity, but

it's really just fragmentation.

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So here's what that

looks like in practice.

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If you're like me, your

energy spikes early.

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You handle the big stuff first, but then

you still have 60 minor tasks waiting

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each, demanding another yes or no.

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By three o'clock, your clarity fades,

and every option looks exactly the

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same, so you default to easy or

emotional choices or worse, none at all.

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And you just put it off for tomorrow.

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Last but not least, your control slips.

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What started as a business now

feels like babysitting 19 taps and

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the irony of it all, you built this

business for freedom, but you can't

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access freedom if every single task

still requires your mental signature.

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So let's stop trying to

hustle our way out of the fog.

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Our goal today is to tune your system

so it runs smoother even when you don't.

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The fix pro decision fatigue isn't another

productivity hack, it's architecture.

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You don't solve a leaking

engine by flooring the pedal.

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You rewire how the machine runs.

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Here's how to build your cognitive

cruise control one lever at a time.

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First, we got a prune.

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Simplify what touches your brain.

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Every new choice is a cognitive cost.

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Pruning means reducing the number of

things you let into your mental inbox.

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Every new choice you have to

make has a cognitive cost.

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In real terms, that might mean cutting

your offer suite from four to two,

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choosing one CRM and learning it deeply,

or creating one signature process for

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how clients move from lead to onboarding.

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The effect you're gonna

get is instant clarity.

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Every layer you remove gives

your brain room to breathe.

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And the deeper truth is that

simplicity signals confidence.

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Clients trust clean offers.

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Teams trust consistent systems.

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Pruning makes your business

look more professional, but more

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importantly, it lets you feel in

control again, after we prune, it's

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time to automate build decisions

once and then reuse them forever.

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Automation is a love

letter to your future self.

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It doesn't mean making your business

robotic, but it does mean giving

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your human self space to lead.

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If you're answering the same,

when is our next session?

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Or where do I find that

link Question twice a week.

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That's not customer service.

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That's a system failure.

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Build the automation once and

never think about it again.

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So again, to help you figure out how

this works in the real world, if you

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are a high ticket coach, you might

use go high level to send automatic

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onboarding sequences that feel

personal, but take zero daily effort.

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If you're an accountant that uses

Zapier, you might copy client notes

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into the CRM automatically, so

that means there are no more manual

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updates after every single meeting.

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And if you're an agency, you might

use Airtable automations to trigger

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follow-ups based on project stage.

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That way.

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You never miss a handoff ever again.

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The effect of automation is that your

mind stops living in what's next mode.

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You move from firefighting to flow state.

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You feel lighter.

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Not because the work is gone,

but because the decisions are.

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So we've pruned, we've automated.

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Now it's time to chunk.

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Group decisions by context.

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Context switching kills creativity.

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Chunking creates rhythm.

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Instead of reacting to whatever pings.

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Next, you schedule decision windows

for similar types of choices.

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One window for finances, one for

client content reviews, One for

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proposals, one for follow-ups.

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When you group tasks by context,

your brain knows what gear it's in.

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It stops grinding to switch between

strategy and admin every 10 minutes.

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So again, taking it to the real world.

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All right, we pruned.

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We automated, we chunked.

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And now we need to energy map.

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And this is important because this is

how you protect the hours that power you.

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Every entrepreneur I've ever coached has

a two hour window where their brain works

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like a Formula One engine, and yet most

of them, fill that slot with busy work.

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Energy mapping means tracking your

real rhythms, not the ideal ones.

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So basically creating your own routine

instead of following the one that

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you got from Pinterest or Google,

when are you actually at your best?

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When are you foggy?

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What drains you the fastest?

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Then you restructure your week.

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So the heavy lift work lands

inside those high octane hours

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and the repetitive low stake stuff

gets relegated to your low gear.

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Maybe that's deep strategy

calls before:

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Or creative flow in the

quiet of the evening.

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Either way, you stop scheduling

your brilliance around

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everyone else's availability.

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Set yours first and create boundaries.

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That shift alone, game changing.

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You'll stop presenting your

work because your work will

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finally respect your energy.

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So, client story.

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One of my clients came to me

like most of my clients do.

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Talented overbooked and convinced that

they just needed better time management.

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She had three group programs.

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Two courses, a small team, and

more systems than she could

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count by four o'clock every day.

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She was emotionally toast, I mean,

completely burnt, no bandwidth

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to strategize, no space to think.

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Just decision debt piling up

faster than she could pay it down.

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Here's what we discovered.

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Lena wasn't bad at business.

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Her systems were just asking her to

be a genius, 48 times a day We took

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her workflow through the Pace method.

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She cut two products double

down on her best seller.

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And she finally stopped confusing her

clients, which meant less questions

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about what's next or what do you do.

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She automated her onboarding, that

included the emails, payment reminders,

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and scheduling that all handle themselves.

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Now, while she was asleep, she chunked

her work, so Monday became marketing day.

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Wednesdays were client days,

and Fridays were CEO day.

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Finally we were able to help her map her

energy mornings became her creation zone,

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no meetings before 11:00 AM and no admin.

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After 4:00 PM the first week she panicked.

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I still remember her coming to me like.

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It just feels too quiet, like there's

not enough going on, like I need

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chaos and commotion or something.

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But by week three she called

me back laughing and she was

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like, you know, it's weird.

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I make more money, and somehow I

feel like I'm doing so much less.

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The real thing was that her job didn't

change, even though she cut back

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those two products, she was still

serving the same number of clients.

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But because she didn't have to keep

making those decisions, keep sending

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out those emails, keep responding to

things, when they didn't align with

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her, the work just got done in a more

effective and efficient way for her.

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So her brain wasn't making those decisions

the way it used to when she was having to

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click the yes button every single time.

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And that's the thing

about decision fatigue.

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When you stop giving every thought equal

weight, you start thinking like a CEO.

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Again, not a freelancer,

just trying to keep up.

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For this episode, I wanted to do something

a little bit different, and so I have

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a section called Rev Ops Breakdown.

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For those that don't know, rev

ops means revenue operations, and

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so we're gonna cover what happens

when you fix decision fatigue.

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Revenue operations is the coordination

of marketing, sales, and delivery.

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So it is the full customer journey.

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And decision fatigue.

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It's the friction inside

every one of those gears.

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When you implement pace, here's

how it rewires your business flow.

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So first is your lead flow efficiency.

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These are your marketing ops.

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When you prune your offers and automation,

your messaging sharpens clear positioning

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means fewer, confused prospects, faster

decisions, and shorter sales cycles.

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You get to stop chasing leads

that don't fit because your

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system already filters them.

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The result are higher conversion

rates, lower acquisition costs,

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and fewer wasted consults.

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The next area is your sales

velocity, so your sales operations.

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When repetitive follow-ups and

proposals are automated, you remove

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human lag from your pipeline.

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No more.

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I forgot to send that link.

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Every step.

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Fires on time.

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Your sales team, even if that's

just you, focuses on high quality

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conversations, not admin pings.

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The result is that you get faster

close rates, cleaner data, and a

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consistent buyer experience that

builds trust, which builds referrals.

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Speaking of referrals, the next area is

client retention or your service ops.

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Your service operations, when you

chunk down client touchpoints and

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standardized delivery workflows.

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You eliminate chaos.

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Clients feel cared for because

nothing falls through the cracks.

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You feel lighter because your calendar

matches your capacity, and the result

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is higher satisfaction, more renewals

and predictable project velocity.

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And wait, there's more.

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We also have team alignment.

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So your internal ops, When

you energy map, you're weak.

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Your team mirrors your rhythm.

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when you're in alignment, meetings happen.

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When minds are sharp, deliverables

sync up with your best hours, you

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stop asking everyone to operate

at random, and you are able to

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start building operational harmony.

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As a result, you can expect fewer

internal misfires, less burnout, and

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more consistent output across the board.

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And last but not least, are my

favorite things to talk about, the

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profitability ops, your financial ops.

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Less decision churn means fewer

reworks delays and inefficiencies.

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Time that used to vanish into

I'll decide later now shows up

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as billable or creative hours.

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The result here.

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Higher margins without new hires.

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In rev ops terms, pace

is your anti leak system.

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It doesn't just save energy,

it converts it into revenue.

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here's a quick diagnostic.

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Is your decision engine overheating?

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Which three decisions drained

you the most this week?

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What do you redecide daily that

could live in a rule or SOP?

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When in your day do you

feel mentally crispy?

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What causes that?

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What's one decision you'll delegate,

automate, or batch by Friday?

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If clarity or fuel, where is

your biggest leak right now?

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Decision fatigue doesn't

mean you're broken.

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It means your brain's doing

what it's built to do.

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It's built to protect you from overload,

but if you don't build structure

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around that instinct, it'll protect

you from your own progress too.

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Your job as the business owner

isn't to make every single call.

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Your job is to build a system that

makes the right calls without you.

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That's how freedom feels on the inside.

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Quiet, clear, and consistent.

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If you ask my client

just a little bit boring.

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So let's tune up your week.

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I'll help you map your decisions,

your energy, and your automation gaps.

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The goal isn't to think faster, is to

think less often and better, because

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clarity isn't a mood, it's a system.

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About your host

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Tarletta Williams

Tarletta Williams from Black Dragon Marketing will share business and marketing insights, tactics, tips, and strategies from her own experience and interview experts in the marketing, sales, and leadership space.

Tarletta is your more than average multi-passionate creative and has learned the art of monetizing all of the things she loves to do, acquiring valuable life lessons and business growth methods along the way. As the founder of Black Dragon Marketing and a strategic growth navigator, she speaks to business owners, speakers, and coaches on innovation in leadership, business, and resilience. Her signature speech is titled The Leader You CRAVE. Tarletta has worked with hundreds of clients, employees, managers, and entrepreneurs and has spoken to audiences with as many as 500 people in attendance. She has helped several organizations and business owners breathe new life into their passion and create profitable endeavors from expensive hobbies.

Tarletta hosts several small business events throughout the year for business owners looking to improve their position and learn strategies that really bring home the bacon.