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Metrics That Matter With Maritza Davila · The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

• 0:36
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm so glad that you're joining us today.
• 0:38
  Jennifer Johnson: We live in a world absolutely obsessed with numbers.
• 0:42
  Jennifer Johnson: From our daily step counts to our quarterly revenue reports, metrics seem to drive every decision that we make.
• 0:50
  Jennifer Johnson: But here's the thing.
• 0:51
  Jennifer Johnson: I've been thinking about this lately.
• 0:53
  Jennifer Johnson: Are we measuring the right things?
• 0:56
  Jennifer Johnson: And more importantly, how do we use metrics to actually improve our lives rather than just stress ourselves out?
• 1:04
  Jennifer Johnson: So today I have the pleasure of speaking with Maritza DeVilla, who's a business strategist dedicated to empowering service-based businesses to achieve their growth goals.
• 1:16
  Jennifer Johnson: She helps teams streamline operations, align leadership, and eliminate inefficiencies.
• 1:21
  Jennifer Johnson: We're going to dive deep into how metrics can be powerful for both your growth personally and professionally.
• 1:30
  Jennifer Johnson: And when we use them thoughtfully, how we can really harness them to take our business to the next level.
• 1:36
  Jennifer Johnson: And Maritza, I have seen you speak on this topic before, and I've been enthralled with it.
• 1:41
  Jennifer Johnson: I've been very interested.
• 1:42
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm like, you have to come on my podcast.
• 1:44
  Jennifer Johnson: We have to have this conversation.
• 1:46
  Jennifer Johnson: So welcome.
• 1:47
  Jennifer Johnson: Thank you.
• 1:48
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm honored to be here.
• 1:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:51
  Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely.
• 1:52
  Jennifer Johnson: So I'm just going to dive right in because we have so much content, so many things that we can talk about with respect to metrics.
• 2:00
  Jennifer Johnson: But when you actually hear the word metrics, what's the first thing that came to your mind before you really started delving into this?
• 2:09
  Jennifer Johnson: And how has that changed since you started really looking into metrics and how you can use them and teach your clients how to use them?
• 2:18
  Maritza Davila: Yeah, metrics to me means feedback.
• 2:21
  Maritza Davila: And it's really just feedback so that I can make decisions.
• 2:26
  Maritza Davila: I learned uh a few years ago that I'm the type of entrepreneur that makes decisions based off her gut.
• 2:35
  Maritza Davila: And so, and a lot of us can be like that.
• 2:39
  Maritza Davila: And so that was very interesting to me.
• 2:42
  Maritza Davila: Uh, so even though I talk about metrics and data, um, my natural inclination is to use my gut.
• 2:50
  Maritza Davila: But I've learned um over the years that your gut is great for some things, but um, if you're going to be making, you know, really important decisions in your business, you should have data to back up what you feel, right?
• 3:05
  Maritza Davila: In your gut is correct.
• 3:07
  Maritza Davila: And so there's this happy balance of I'm gonna make a decision based off my gut, or I'm gonna make a decision that backs up my gut with the data, right?
• 3:17
  Maritza Davila: With evidence that this is what I should do.
• 3:20
  Jennifer Johnson: That's the important part, right?
• 3:22
  Jennifer Johnson: Because, like you said, you can have that gut feeling, and we, you know, especially as women, we have that intuition.
• 3:28
  Jennifer Johnson: Right, right.
• 3:29
  Jennifer Johnson: 100%.
• 3:29
  Jennifer Johnson: When it's numbers, you're right.
• 3:32
  Jennifer Johnson: You want to be right on the target.
• 3:34
  Jennifer Johnson: 100%.
• 3:35
  Maritza Davila: Because I mean, some of the decisions were you, you know, you make small decisions, large strategic decisions, um, you know, all the time, right?
• 3:43
  Maritza Davila: But um little day-to-day decisions, sure.
• 3:46
  Maritza Davila: But if I'm gonna be making really important decisions about strategy in my business, then I need to make, I need to make sure that this is just not an inclination, that I'm totally off the ball, right?
• 3:58
  Maritza Davila: And it's no, but really the the data and the feedback is really that's what metrics is to me.
• 4:04
  Maritza Davila: It's feedback of am I going the right direction in my business?
• 4:09
  Maritza Davila: Am I making the right decisions?
• 4:11
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 4:11
  Jennifer Johnson: And it's a look back.
• 4:12
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 4:13
  Jennifer Johnson: Because you can't really look ahead.
• 4:15
  Jennifer Johnson: But so your personal journey with using metrics, was there a specific moment or experience that you can remember that made you all of a sudden go, oh, that's the key here.
• 4:29
  Jennifer Johnson: That's the part I'm missing.
• 4:31
  Maritza Davila: Yeah.
• 4:31
  Maritza Davila: So I um like many people, um, you know, we we track everything, right?
• 4:37
  Maritza Davila: Not just in business, but um, you know, our weight.
• 4:41
  Maritza Davila: Um I uh I I remember I spoke a little bit about this, but like I even like track like how well my marriage is doing.
• 4:49
  Maritza Davila: And how about that?
• 4:51
  Jennifer Johnson: You you're you brought it up, so we are gonna talk about that if that's okay.
• 4:54
  Maritza Davila: Yeah, no, yeah, no problem.
• 4:55
  Maritza Davila: Um I'm as uh I'm as transparent as they come.
• 4:58
  Maritza Davila: So open book, really.
• 4:59
  Maritza Davila: But yeah, so I I you know we track a lot of different things in our life.
• 5:04
  Maritza Davila: And it what I learned or what was uh fundamental to me was that I was always tracking results or achievements, right?
• 5:14
  Maritza Davila: Because since I've, you know, was a little you know, kid, um, it was you know, very achievement driven of like I need to do this, I need to do that, right?
• 5:23
  Maritza Davila: Like step one, two, and three.
• 5:25
  Maritza Davila: But I wouldn't track right what actually led me to that result or that achievement when I was young.
• 5:32
  Maritza Davila: Like I didn't understand that before.
• 5:35
  Maritza Davila: And so the big turning point for me was learning I need to be really proud of the work that I'm doing and the things that I'm doing to get to this, right?
• 5:48
  Maritza Davila: Because it's starting to change my character.
• 5:52
  Maritza Davila: It's starting to change, right, the way that I look at work so that it's not just results driven, which I'm all about results, right?
• 6:03
  Maritza Davila: Like really in my business, you know, but um, but it's what causes the results, right?
• 6:09
  Maritza Davila: And a lot of times we can't control so many things in our life, right?
• 6:14
  Maritza Davila: We can't control um, you know, the market, we can't control the economy, we can't control government, we can't control, yeah, even the weather, anything, right?
• 6:25
  Maritza Davila: We can't, you know, we're you know, if you're married, you can't control how your husband uh deals with things, right?
• 6:30
  Maritza Davila: You can't control you can only control like what's here um between the six inches in your brain.
• 6:36
  Maritza Davila: And so all I'm saying with that is I started when I finally learned I really need to just focus on my inputs rather than the outputs and the results of things.
• 6:47
  Maritza Davila: If I focus on that, then then I'll it's a lot easier to get to the results, but it's not really what is as important anymore.
• 6:55
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 6:55
  Jennifer Johnson: Let's let's talk about you said the marriage piece that you you even track your your marriage.
• 7:04
  Jennifer Johnson: So what does that look like?
• 7:05
  Jennifer Johnson: Why, why did you decide to do that?
• 7:07
  Jennifer Johnson: And what have the results been from that as far as yeah, a hundred percent.
• 7:13
  Maritza Davila: So um I've been married eight years and have been with my husband, like dating um for about 11 years now.
• 7:21
  Maritza Davila: And so, you know, my marriage in the very beginning was very easy.
• 7:27
  Maritza Davila: I was like in the honeymoon, you know, bliss for a few years.
• 7:30
  Maritza Davila: And then um, you know, life happens and things get a little more difficult.
• 7:34
  Maritza Davila: And so when we started having more issues, I was like, what is going on?
• 7:39
  Maritza Davila: You know, and I knew it was I knew eventually it would happen, right?
• 7:42
  Maritza Davila: Because everyone I know that has a long um marriage, been in marriage for a very long time, they've all told me, right?
• 7:49
  Maritza Davila: That there's work.
• 7:52
  Maritza Davila: It's work, yeah.
• 7:54
  Maritza Davila: And no, it's not the honeymoon all the time.
• 7:57
  Maritza Davila: And so when we started having a lot of issues, I downloaded this app and this app is called Marriage 365.
• 8:03
  Maritza Davila: And what I noticed is that they have you qualify or you know, your marriage uh about like once a month, and they have different categories.
• 8:13
  Maritza Davila: So they would talk about communication, conflict, um, a bunch of different things, right?
• 8:19
  Maritza Davila: That all happen with in any marriage.
• 8:22
  Maritza Davila: And so I learned from that that I can give a grade.
• 8:28
  Maritza Davila: And so that's how that's that's how I've uh adjusted it to my own thing, right?
• 8:32
  Maritza Davila: Because you don't need to have the app to like A B C D.
• 8:36
  Maritza Davila: Right, A, B, C, D, F, right?
• 8:38
  Maritza Davila: I'm like, okay, great.
• 8:39
  Maritza Davila: Yeah, unfortunate, but I mean, it happens, right?
• 8:42
  Maritza Davila: And so um, yeah, and so at any given moment, I can really just ask myself, what would I qualify my marriage right now?
• 8:52
  Maritza Davila: And like I can give an answer to that, you know, it's a it's a qualitative metric, but I can immediately come up with an answer, whether, you know, and a lot of times, um, you know, there's a lot of feedback that goes into that, right?
• 9:07
  Maritza Davila: Are we um speaking?
• 9:09
  Maritza Davila: Are we spending time together?
• 9:10
  Maritza Davila: Am I serving my husband?
• 9:12
  Maritza Davila: Is he, you know, like so many things.
• 9:14
  Maritza Davila: And so, but it is something that I track because my marriage is very important to me.
• 9:18
  Maritza Davila: So um, so yeah, that's one of the things I do.
• 9:21
  Maritza Davila: And how has that served you in your marriage by tracking this?
• 9:24
  Maritza Davila: So back to my other point is it wasn't just um tracking the inputs.
• 9:29
  Maritza Davila: So I understand my husband, um, like his, you know, love language, his main love language is acts of service.
• 9:37
  Maritza Davila: And so I know that.
• 9:40
  Maritza Davila: And so I didn't know that for a long time though, but I did learn that over the years.
• 9:45
  Maritza Davila: And so I've noticed, okay, well, when I'm cooking more, when uh he's asking me, you know, like to give him a back rub at night when I'm so tired and don't want to do that, or when he's asking me, can you get up at like 10 o'clock and get me a guss of water?
• 10:00
  Maritza Davila: You know, like little, little tiny things every day that, you know, um come up.
• 10:06
  Maritza Davila: I uh I think to myself at that point, like, okay, like this is like a, this is like a like I'm checking, you know, like I'm I'm adding to this.
• 10:16
  Maritza Davila: So it's almost like, am I serving him daily?
• 10:20
  Maritza Davila: Because that's actually the way he feels loved.
• 10:22
  Maritza Davila: Sure.
• 10:23
  Maritza Davila: So as long as I'm pouring into him the way that he wants me to, then I know, well, that's what I can control, right?
• 10:30
  Maritza Davila: I can't control what he does back to me, but I can control what I input into the relationship.
• 10:37
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 10:38
  Jennifer Johnson: So now I'm I'm gonna ask you it more on the personal continuum, but you know, and I'm sure that that our list, the the listeners right now can probably relate to this.
• 10:49
  Jennifer Johnson: There's so many things that we can track on a daily, daily basis now.
• 10:54
  Jennifer Johnson: We've got the the little ring thing that you can put on that tracks your everything from your sleep to your breath to your heart rate.
• 11:01
  Jennifer Johnson: We've got the watches.
• 11:02
  Jennifer Johnson: We have all of these things, these tools that help us track absolutely everything.
• 11:07
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, you know, maybe it's our weight, maybe it's even our productivity.
• 11:11
  Jennifer Johnson: Like, what am I doing with my time?
• 11:13
  Jennifer Johnson: But is there a certain point at which it becomes obsessive or causes you to have anxiety?
• 11:23
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, how do you deal with that?
• 11:25
  Jennifer Johnson: How do you navigate that so that you're not constantly?
• 11:27
  Jennifer Johnson: I know I have this app on my watch that tells me my heart rate, and I'll look at it and go, my gosh, I'm having a heart attack.
• 11:36
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 11:36
  Jennifer Johnson: And then then I, you know, it it escalates.
• 11:39
  Jennifer Johnson: So how do you deal with that?
• 11:40
  Jennifer Johnson: That's so funny you brought that up, which is an um just a side note.
• 11:46
  Maritza Davila: I went to the doctor and they asked me, Are you nervous?
• 11:50
  Maritza Davila: And I was like, no, I'm not nervous because like in my brain, I was not nervous.
• 11:55
  Maritza Davila: Like I didn't have, you know.
• 11:57
  Maritza Davila: And then they took my pulse and they're like, you're 104.
• 12:00
  Maritza Davila: Normal 60 to 100, you know, pulse.
• 12:03
  Maritza Davila: So I was like, oh, I guess I am nervous.
• 12:06
  Maritza Davila: My body is telling me something else, you know, but my brain was telling me, so that's just it was just funny to me.
• 12:11
  Maritza Davila: But I think um the way that you separate, you know, the healthy obsession to when metrics is actually beneficial for us is when you track the things that matter the most to you.
• 12:26
  Maritza Davila: So, you know, I brought up my marriage, so that's very important to me, right?
• 12:31
  Maritza Davila: So my business is very important, so I track that.
• 12:35
  Maritza Davila: Um depending on how I'm feeling about my health, I may or may not be tracking my weight, right?
• 12:42
  Maritza Davila: Right right now, I'm pretty comfortable where I'm at.
• 12:46
  Maritza Davila: So I'm not tracking my weight.
• 12:48
  Maritza Davila: However, when I want to make a change, sure, I might add that back in, right?
• 12:53
  Maritza Davila: So I think it's really just adjusting to making sure you're not having all of this overreporting in your life over things that don't even matter to you or that are just gonna bring so much chaos into your brain more.
• 13:09
  Maritza Davila: It's just let's focus on the top three things that are most important and just focus on that, right?
• 13:15
  Maritza Davila: Like those are what's priority, and we don't need to focus on everything else, you know.
• 13:20
  Jennifer Johnson: That's really good advice.
• 13:21
  Jennifer Johnson: The top three things that are important to you, because my top three may be different than your top three.
• 13:26
  Jennifer Johnson: And, you know, I you can get down that rabbit hole of listening to all these experts talk about these are all the things that you need to track, and then all of a sudden, that is your full-time job.
• 13:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 13:34
  Jennifer Johnson: That's great advice to to say, you know, track your top three.
• 13:39
  Jennifer Johnson: Now we're gonna shift gears a little bit to the business world because metrics in business can really make or break a business, right?
• 13:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Um and I I imagine the the things that we've kind of been talking about already apply to business as well.
• 13:56
  Jennifer Johnson: But somehow the stakes feel a little bit different, you know, when we're talking about, you know, the metrics of our weight versus the metrics of our business.
• 14:06
  Jennifer Johnson: And uh really knowing what what are the biggest mistakes that that companies make or organizations make when it's when they when they need to choose what they're going to actually measure so that they're measuring the right things.
• 14:23
  Maritza Davila: Well, what I see most often in business owners is that they don't track anything week over week.
• 14:32
  Maritza Davila: And they are only waiting until what their bookkeeper or accountant tells them how they did.
• 14:38
  Maritza Davila: So that's the number one I think I see most common in small business owners, or you know, in a small business is anyone under like with under like 500 employees.
• 14:48
  Maritza Davila: So it's the vast majority, but um that they don't track anything.
• 14:52
  Maritza Davila: So that'd be number one.
• 14:54
  Maritza Davila: And then number two would be what we spoke about before.
• 14:58
  Maritza Davila: They're always tracking the results or the outputs or lagging indicators, however you want to.
• 15:05
  Maritza Davila: They're all the same thing.
• 15:06
  Maritza Davila: They're always trying to lagging indicator.
• 15:09
  Maritza Davila: You're calling a lagging indicator uh an output.
• 15:12
  Maritza Davila: An output, yes.
• 15:13
  Maritza Davila: Yeah, so it just depends on uh they're they're the same thing, though.
• 15:17
  Maritza Davila: It's you know, inputs to me it'd be a leading indicator, and input is is the same thing.
• 15:23
  Maritza Davila: A leap lagging indicator would be like an output or a result.
• 15:27
  Maritza Davila: And so most business owners will track sales and you know how much cash is in the bank account and what the net profit would be for the end of the year when their you know accountant tells them.
• 15:41
  Maritza Davila: Those are the typical things that they're tracking, but they aren't tracking what actually causes the revenue, right?
• 15:48
  Maritza Davila: And then what you know, so those are the inputs.
• 15:50
  Maritza Davila: So I thought that's the other common mistake I see is they're not they're not tracking that.
• 15:55
  Jennifer Johnson: And that's based on the business and what what things drive that business is how they decide what they're going to track?
• 16:01
  Maritza Davila: 100%.
• 16:02
  Maritza Davila: So every business is a little different, right?
• 16:05
  Maritza Davila: So we customize it.
• 16:06
  Maritza Davila: And so, for example, right, you own true fashionistas.
• 16:09
  Maritza Davila: I am a client of true fashionistas, by the way.
• 16:13
  Maritza Davila: So, yes, so I do go there.
• 16:15
  Maritza Davila: And so, you know, the I I guess like the top three things I would say for for that business would be well, I would track what's my foot traffic for, you know, just as a general business metric, how much foot traffic am I getting uh every week or, you know, every day, whatever, you know, and then from there, my second thing I would track, well, what's my conversion ratio?
• 16:35
  Maritza Davila: How many of these people that are coming into the store become clients?
• 16:39
  Maritza Davila: Same for a realtor, right?
• 16:41
  Maritza Davila: So a realtor may make cold call or may have outgoing calls.
• 16:45
  Maritza Davila: So I would want to be tracking what is the revenue generating activity, right?
• 16:50
  Maritza Davila: For every business, for that retail store, I would say foot traffic for a realtor might be calling, right?
• 16:56
  Maritza Davila: How many people did you talk to that week that want to sell or buy a house in this market?
• 17:02
  Maritza Davila: And then what is my conversion ratio?
• 17:05
  Maritza Davila: How many of them actually bought something at the store, and how many of them actually want to buy and want to buy with me, right?
• 17:11
  Maritza Davila: They want to buy with me.
• 17:12
  Maritza Davila: And so, and then the third thing I would probably say for general business metrics to track um for true fashionistas, it would probably be what is the average transaction value?
• 17:24
  Maritza Davila: So how, you know, on average, how much do people spend in the store per, you know, per per week?
• 17:31
  Maritza Davila: And then for the um realtor, which is more service-based, would be, you know, what is the average lifetime value of that customer?
• 17:40
  Maritza Davila: Because typically, if you do a good job, people will come back to you if they're still living in the same city.
• 17:47
  Maritza Davila: And people buy houses every five to seven years.
• 17:51
  Maritza Davila: So, you know, you do have a lifetime value.
• 17:54
  Maritza Davila: It's it's not as recurring, but it does come back.
• 17:58
  Maritza Davila: And so is that client worth 10 grand to you, 20 grand, you know.
• 18:02
  Maritza Davila: So those are the the things I would track depending on the business that customizes to each one though.
• 18:08
  Jennifer Johnson: So, how would you suggest someone track that?
• 18:11
  Jennifer Johnson: What's the most effective way to actually do the tracking of it?
• 18:15
  Maritza Davila: So it really depends on the size of the business.
• 18:18
  Maritza Davila: Because since I often see many people don't track anything, it's it's I'm almost like my hurdle is like, please, like, let's track, you know?
• 18:28
  Maritza Davila: Just do it.
• 18:30
  Maritza Davila: Do the thing.
• 18:31
  Maritza Davila: I promise you that when you do it, it's going like you're going to have so much clarity.
• 18:36
  Maritza Davila: That's the that's the thing, is once you start implementing it, you start to see, okay, all right.
• 18:43
  Maritza Davila: I'm seeing, you know, true fashionists.
• 18:45
  Maritza Davila: Okay, great.
• 18:45
  Maritza Davila: Okay, I'm seeing I'm getting, you know, 500 people came in this week.
• 18:49
  Maritza Davila: Okay, great.
• 18:50
  Maritza Davila: Um, we converted 20% of them, right?
• 18:53
  Maritza Davila: So we're at 100, how many, how many people have actually spent?
• 18:57
  Maritza Davila: Okay, they're spending $500, $100.
• 19:00
  Maritza Davila: I don't know what it is, right?
• 19:01
  Maritza Davila: Okay, so then you have this now.
• 19:03
  Maritza Davila: And if you say, well, my my goal for the year is this, you can you can know on August 20th, where am I in relation to my goal?
• 19:14
  Maritza Davila: And I don't have to wait for someone else to tell me how well my business is doing, as often business owners do.
• 19:22
  Maritza Davila: I don't have to wait for the accountant or the bookkeeper.
• 21:50
  Maritza Davila: I know myself.
• 21:52
  Maritza Davila: And so I can course correct week over week.
• 21:56
  Maritza Davila: Maybe I need to let more people know about my business, however, however, that may be.
• 22:02
  Maritza Davila: There's a million different ways to do that.
• 22:05
  Maritza Davila: But you can you start to see, okay, well, this this week I did not go as well.
• 22:10
  Maritza Davila: Maybe I need to double down next week.
• 22:13
  Maritza Davila: But it's not until you start implementing it.
• 22:16
  Maritza Davila: Um, it's like health, right?
• 22:18
  Maritza Davila: Everyone knows you just have to eat well and you have to work out to be healthy.
• 22:22
  Maritza Davila: But how many people actually do it?
• 22:25
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 22:25
  Jennifer Johnson: And and you don't know unless you actually track it.
• 22:28
  Jennifer Johnson: Because how many times have we said, Oh, I don't eat any sugar?
• 22:32
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 22:32
  Jennifer Johnson: And then you start tracking, you're like, wow, I really didn't think I ate that much sugar.
• 22:36
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 22:37
  Jennifer Johnson: And in the juice.
• 22:39
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 22:39
  Jennifer Johnson: It's in everything, right?
• 22:41
  Jennifer Johnson: But so I guess I'm really curious about how you balance the short term metrics that you need to look at versus the the long term things to make sure that you're you're being sustainable in what you're doing.
• 22:59
  Jennifer Johnson: Because there's nothing worse to, you know, out of the gate, you're like, oh my.
• 23:02
  Jennifer Johnson: Gosh, I'm gonna do this.
• 23:03
  Jennifer Johnson: And and then you start doing it, and then you you trail off because it's just too much, or you don't really see the results, or you don't really see the why behind your why you're doing this.
• 23:12
  Jennifer Johnson: So, how do you kind of balance that to make sure that what you're doing is actually sustainable for short term and long term?
• 23:20
  Maritza Davila: Yeah, so all the metrics that the the two types of metrics that I like to implement with my clients is one general business metrics.
• 23:29
  Maritza Davila: So, what we spoke about a little bit prior.
• 23:32
  Maritza Davila: Um, right.
• 23:33
  Maritza Davila: That is very related to their goal of you know growth.
• 23:37
  Maritza Davila: And everyone's just gonna be different.
• 23:39
  Maritza Davila: Everyone will be different.
• 23:40
  Maritza Davila: Yeah.
• 23:41
  Maritza Davila: And then the second one would be relating to their bottleneck.
• 23:45
  Maritza Davila: So what is the bottleneck of the business?
• 23:47
  Maritza Davila: So there are a million and one problems in every business.
• 23:52
  Maritza Davila: So let's prioritize the bottleneck because there's only one bottleneck, there's only one constraint that affects your growth, right?
• 23:58
  Maritza Davila: Of what your capacity is.
• 24:00
  Maritza Davila: So I have I I want to measure both of those things.
• 24:06
  Maritza Davila: And the I the way I look at it is we always have a long-term goal.
• 24:13
  Maritza Davila: So depending on every business, at least like one year, right?
• 24:17
  Maritza Davila: Where it's a one-year goal.
• 24:19
  Maritza Davila: And we we break that up into weekly metrics.
• 24:24
  Maritza Davila: So it is a short-term metric of junk pieces.
• 24:28
  Maritza Davila: Right.
• 24:29
  Maritza Davila: It's in pieces, right?
• 24:30
  Maritza Davila: So it's digestible.
• 24:32
  Maritza Davila: So you can say, you know, I want to make a million dollars, five million dollars, 10, whatever the number is.
• 24:38
  Maritza Davila: Great.
• 24:39
  Maritza Davila: Let's split, let's now, how many, and then I, you know, we talk about the business and we I find that information to come up with this number of great.
• 24:47
  Maritza Davila: So this is what your weekly number needs to be, and not just for the owner, right?
• 24:52
  Maritza Davila: This is for the team, sure, right?
• 24:54
  Maritza Davila: Because everyone needs to have ownership of how are we growing this business, right?
• 24:59
  Maritza Davila: Everyone needs to have the buy-in.
• 25:00
  Maritza Davila: So your responsibility.
• 25:02
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm glad you mentioned that.
• 25:03
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes.
• 25:03
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm glad you mentioned that because you know, the whole there's no I in team.
• 25:07
  Jennifer Johnson: If you if you don't share with other people, they have no idea what your roadmap looks like.
• 25:11
  Jennifer Johnson: 100%.
• 25:12
  Maritza Davila: And often as owners, we tend to keep to ourselves all these things, right?
• 25:18
  Maritza Davila: We're constantly thinking about the business, right?
• 25:21
  Maritza Davila: We're up at two in the morning and we're thinking, oh, that, you know, all these things, but our team does not, right?
• 25:28
  Maritza Davila: So they're not typically like that.
• 25:31
  Maritza Davila: So we need to communicate these things.
• 25:34
  Maritza Davila: So they need to know.
• 25:35
  Maritza Davila: And so that's one of the things I do is we get all the at least the leadership staff on board, and everyone in the company should know what is the goal for this for this year, and what are you gonna do to pitch in your part so that you feel like you're you're a part of this, you're a part of this, right?
• 25:52
  Maritza Davila: You're in right.
• 25:54
  Maritza Davila: There is this buy-in, there is this ownership of I'm accountable for this metric, me, you know, little me, that I'm like, what whatever it is, right?
• 26:03
  Maritza Davila: Because yes, you do, because whether or not you believe it, uh you start to see it.
• 26:09
  Maritza Davila: When you look, when you're looking at this scorecard um every week and you see, oh, I did this, and okay, great.
• 26:16
  Maritza Davila: And we're getting there slowly but surely.
• 26:19
  Maritza Davila: And everyone, the buy-in, everyone's has ownership over this growth goal.
• 26:26
  Jennifer Johnson: So yeah, that's I attest to that because we started a dashboard.
• 26:31
  Jennifer Johnson: That's what we call it.
• 26:32
  Jennifer Johnson: So it's something that you share with management or whoever it is that you feel that you need to share it with, and then they be then they're able to see it because otherwise it's this pie in the sky, it's this number on a on a whiteboard that they're looking at and they're like, oh, it went up.
• 26:47
  Jennifer Johnson: They're more inclined to work towards it if they see it.
• 26:50
  Jennifer Johnson: 100%.
• 26:51
  Maritza Davila: And, you know, bringing it in.
• 26:54
  Maritza Davila: Um, the other part with metrics is there's got to be accountability over these metrics.
• 26:59
  Maritza Davila: So we can't just have this big audacious goal, but no idea of how we're gonna reach that.
• 27:04
  Maritza Davila: And so that's why we have to do this weekly metrics so that everyone understands and what's my part in this goal, but also you're accountable for the goal.
• 27:14
  Maritza Davila: So the owner is not accountable.
• 27:16
  Maritza Davila: I mean, obviously they're accountable for everything, but I mean, at the end of the day, right, you're accountable for everything, but you have a team for a reason.
• 27:26
  Maritza Davila: So you are delegating responsibilities and delegating metrics so that they have to report on the number and they have to say, you know, whether or not they hit it.
• 27:39
  Maritza Davila: And they're gonna, it's gonna be as clear as day whether they're underperforming, uh, they're performing where they should be, or they're a high performer.
• 27:47
  Maritza Davila: It will be as clear as day.
• 27:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Right, to everyone.
• 27:50
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 27:51
  Jennifer Johnson: And that that sometimes creates that I've got to step up my game kind of thing.
• 27:57
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, have you ever seen where you've heard the term analysis paralysis, but have you ever seen where this uh, you know, tracking metrics and someone really getting into tracking the metrics kind of took it a little too far, or I don't want to say took the eye out their eye off the ball, but kind of focused on the numbers and the metrics so much that they missed the bigger picture out there, the story, because everything has a story.
• 28:27
  Jennifer Johnson: There's a story behind everything.
• 28:28
  Jennifer Johnson: Right.
• 28:29
  Jennifer Johnson: But so much so that they missed that that big thing, the elephant in the room.
• 28:33
  Jennifer Johnson: Have you ever had that?
• 28:35
  Maritza Davila: This is very common in corporate settings where they over-report and exactly what you said happened.
• 28:42
  Maritza Davila: So there's analysis paralysis, and there's this famous story of Amazon in their early days where they were talking about they were the data was reporting that their customer wait time was less than a minute.
• 28:59
  Maritza Davila: But they were getting constant customer complaints saying they had to wait to get to talk to customer service rep.
• 29:05
  Maritza Davila: So, what did Jeff Bezos do in the leadership meeting?
• 29:09
  Maritza Davila: He called the number and it took more than 10 minutes to get someone.
• 29:14
  Maritza Davila: One, these people were before he called, they were defending it.
• 29:19
  Maritza Davila: They were saying, no, it's less than a minute.
• 29:21
  Maritza Davila: So, number one is when you get over reporting and there's too much data, we have to make sure it's accurate because you know, there's obviously things in the back end, there's technology, all these things.
• 29:32
  Maritza Davila: And so, one, it might not be accurate.
• 29:35
  Maritza Davila: And then two, like you were saying, there's so much data that we don't know what to do with it.
• 29:41
  Maritza Davila: So, data is only beneficial if it leads you to making a decision.
• 29:46
  Maritza Davila: And so often what happens, or what I've seen in corporate settings, is they report in silos.
• 29:54
  Maritza Davila: So, for example, in Comcast, if you are a technician that goes out and fixes, you know, your TV, it's not working, they have their own metrics and they know how much rework they have to do, which is how many, like if they have to go back out to the same place that they've already gone to, they know, you know, how much gas they've spent that week, things like that.
• 30:17
  Maritza Davila: The supervisor will know how many accidents have happened that week on their team.
• 30:22
  Maritza Davila: They'll know how much inventory do they have, they know how much gas all of them have been putting, how many miles on the they know things that they need to know in silos of what they can actually control.
• 30:33
  Maritza Davila: So we don't want all of this information where I am like the receptionist and I can't do anything.
• 30:42
  Maritza Davila: I'll cover them through.
• 30:43
  Maritza Davila: Right, exactly.
• 30:44
  Maritza Davila: So it's using the the reporting and making it in silos to what actually you control uh rather than everything.
• 30:54
  Jennifer Johnson: That makes sense.
• 30:55
  Jennifer Johnson: So as we as we start to wrap up, I want to make sure that our listeners have some concrete takeaways from this.
• 31:03
  Jennifer Johnson: And so if someone's listening right now and and they're thinking, you know, I really this is something I'm interested in, and I really want to get better at tracking my metrics of my business or my life, where would you suggest is step number one?
• 31:16
  Jennifer Johnson: Clarify what your vision or your goal is, is number one.
• 31:21
  Jennifer Johnson: Okay.
• 31:22
  Jennifer Johnson: Now, if you personally could track just one metric in your life, whether it's personal or it's business, what would it be?
• 31:31
  Jennifer Johnson: Sorry, I I I it's I'm not sorry, but I'm curious.
• 31:35
  Maritza Davila: I'm like the the most important metric to me is uh very simple.
• 31:39
  Maritza Davila: And really it's how much how much time am I spending with the Holy Spirit?
• 31:46
  Maritza Davila: That is my most important metric because when I don't, it everything is off about my life, and that is what's most important to me.
• 31:56
  Maritza Davila: So that is the most, you know, and it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm like spending hours or anything like that, because you know, life, but as long as it's a continual daily uh that I'm able to spend time with him, then that's that's really the most important metric in my life.
• 32:16
  Jennifer Johnson: I love that.
• 32:17
  Jennifer Johnson: I really do love that.
• 32:19
  Jennifer Johnson: I do.
• 32:20
  Jennifer Johnson: And it's gonna be again different for everyone.
• 32:22
  Jennifer Johnson: Different for everyone, yeah.
• 32:23
  Jennifer Johnson: So um I have at the very end of all of my podcasts, we do the final four.
• 32:33
  Jennifer Johnson: Are you ready?
• 32:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Are you ready for the final four?
• 32:36
  Maritza Davila: Born ready.
• 32:39
  Jennifer Johnson: It's four questions that I ask everyone because I am so curious as to how everyone answers these questions.
• 32:46
  Jennifer Johnson: So the first one, what's your favorite book that you've read recently?
• 32:50
  Jennifer Johnson: And why, what was it that it made it stick with you?
• 32:54
  Jennifer Johnson: So my favorite book recently, not of all time.
• 32:59
  Maritza Davila: It can be all time.
• 33:00
  Maritza Davila: Okay.
• 33:00
  Maritza Davila: Um my well, I'm gonna give you the most recent one because it's the most uh I re I know what book it is.
• 33:08
  Maritza Davila: That's my favorite book, but I can't uh like it's a business book, but I can't remember.
• 33:12
  Maritza Davila: That's okay.
• 33:13
  Maritza Davila: But um, but recently it would be it's called Never Play It Safe.
• 33:20
  Maritza Davila: I love just the title of it because it's it reinforces something in me about what I believe.
• 33:26
  Maritza Davila: And but he he said something in that book about failure, which I don't know about everyone else, but I have had.
• 33:35
  Maritza Davila: So um I was very interested in what he had to say about failure.
• 33:40
  Maritza Davila: And he basically said that this person that was is known for climbing Mount Everest, or you know, um she re-worded failure and she said, uh, I'm afraid to fail.
• 33:53
  Maritza Davila: And she reworded it and said, I'm afraid to live.
• 33:57
  Maritza Davila: And that stuck with me because she was making goals that were really like she could die climbing this mountain.
• 34:09
  Maritza Davila: Um it wasn't, you know, a matter of, oh, am I gonna quit my job?
• 34:13
  Maritza Davila: Like you're not gonna die if you quit your job.
• 34:15
  Maritza Davila: But she, her goals were life or death.
• 34:18
  Maritza Davila: And she said, Well, you know, I'm afraid to fail.
• 34:22
  Maritza Davila: No, I'm afraid to live.
• 34:23
  Maritza Davila: And so now when I think about failure, I think about that because I said, Well, you know, what if this all what if this fails?
• 34:32
  Maritza Davila: Well, okay, well, I'm I'm I'm I'm afraid to live right now, you know?
• 34:37
  Maritza Davila: And so I think the point of life is to live it boldly.
• 34:41
  Maritza Davila: So that's that's what I that's recently my favorite book.
• 34:45
  Jennifer Johnson: Awesome.
• 34:45
  Jennifer Johnson: Which leads me into my next question.
• 34:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Do you have a favorite quote or piece of advice that someone has given you that has stuck with you?
• 34:54
  Maritza Davila: Yeah, that'd be my mom.
• 34:55
  Maritza Davila: I always come back to this.
• 34:57
  Maritza Davila: Uh, she was scolding me when I was a young girl because I uh didn't like cleaning, um, as most teenagers don't.
• 35:06
  Maritza Davila: She was she she um I didn't clean the bathroom that well, I guess, one time.
• 35:12
  Maritza Davila: And she came and she told me, if you're gonna do something, do it well or don't do it at all.
• 35:17
  Maritza Davila: And something about the way she said that to me, like really just stuck with me.
• 35:22
  Maritza Davila: And so I really try to apply that in every area of my life.
• 35:26
  Maritza Davila: So if we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it well, or we're just not gonna do it at all.
• 35:31
  Jennifer Johnson: And you can hear her voice every day, every time, right?
• 35:33
  Maritza Davila: Yeah, yeah, 100%.
• 35:34
  Maritza Davila: It sticks with me for sure.
• 35:36
  Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely.
• 35:37
  Jennifer Johnson: And what is one habit or practice that has really changed your life?
• 35:44
  Jennifer Johnson: Prayer, worshiping.
• 35:45
  Jennifer Johnson: That's like the one thing, yeah.
• 35:48
  Jennifer Johnson: Okay.
• 35:49
  Jennifer Johnson: And if you could have dinner with anyone who is living or not living, who would it be and why would you choose that person?
• 35:59
  Maritza Davila: So I don't know if this applies as well, but this is who came to mind.
• 36:04
  Maritza Davila: I would really love to have dinner with my 30-year-old kids.
• 36:12
  Maritza Davila: My I don't have kids.
• 36:14
  Maritza Davila: Yes, because I don't have kids yet.
• 36:17
  Maritza Davila: So, but I would really love to have dinner with them once they're adults and you know they've already made up their minds about what they truly think and how they live their life.
• 36:31
  Maritza Davila: And I would ask them, what did I teach them or like what stuck with them?
• 36:37
  Jennifer Johnson: Love that answer.
• 36:38
  Jennifer Johnson: I've never heard that answer.
• 36:39
  Jennifer Johnson: And I think that's that's really, really cool.
• 36:43
  Jennifer Johnson: I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together today.
• 36:47
  Jennifer Johnson: Me too.
• 36:48
  Jennifer Johnson: And Maritza, if if if any of our listeners want to get in touch with you, how can they do so?
• 36:55
  Maritza Davila: Very simply, they can go to www.businessclarity.co and they can schedule a call with me if they're interested in learning more.
• 37:06
  Maritza Davila: Um, or just follow me on social media.
• 37:08
  Maritza Davila: You know, it's Maritza DeVilla or underscore maritza devilla and anywhere I am.
• 37:14
  Jennifer Johnson: Fabulous.
• 37:15
  Jennifer Johnson: And thank you so much for being on today.
• 37:17
  Jennifer Johnson: And thank you again to all of our listeners.
• 37:20
  Jennifer Johnson: Thank you, Jennifer.