How to Build a Client Report Card for a Calmer Business with Karen Sergeant

I want to catch problems early before there's emotion wrapped around it before we start hating each other before anyone cries. I want to hear about the problem so that I can solve it one way or the other. It is a Calm KPI. It actually engineers Calm into a business if we all speak up about tiny problems and give each other permission to do that.

Hi, friends. Susan here, and this is Beyond Margins, the show where we deconstruct how to engineer a calmer business. Managing the relationship with your clients is probably one of the most challenging aspects of being a service provider. A huge part of the perceived value of whatever service you're offering is your ability to manage expectations, to communicate effectively, and to make sure the boundaries of your service are clear from the beginning. But how do you actually know if you're doing a good job?

My guest today, Karen Sargent, created a client report for her business that helps her understand what's going well or maybe not so well with her ongoing clients. She's a pocket COO who helps small business owners turn their goals into actions. And as someone who spends a lot of time in the operations side of businesses, it's especially challenging to maintain boundaries and to keep the client scope in check. It's really easy to get sucked into the chaos in a business. And Karen uses her client report card process to help her identify when the scope is creeping or when problems might need to be resolved proactively.

She uses this process to help her business stay calm even if she's working inside another business that might not be the same. This is Karen's Calm KPI. Karen and I geek out about the specifics of her report card, so what she's actually evaluating, how she evolved this process in her own work, and how you can apply this technique in your own business to make it feel calmer. So you are here to talk about your client report card. How did you end up coming up with the idea of a client report card?

Like, what was happening in your business?

Yeah. Yes. So in self defense, I created this in self defense. So as a fractional as a fractional anything, I think if you work with clients, a lot of the times, all of your focus is on the client issue. Right?

What is going on? How do you problem solve? How do you do the work? And very little of it is about the container. How are we working together?

Do we like each other? What's going well? What's not going well. And I am forever focused on the work work and I so rarely focus on the container until there is a problem and usually a really big problem, like the frog getting boiled in the soup problem. And then it's a little too late and then I'm really resentful.

And it's a harder problem to solve the more you wait. I was working with an accountability coach at the time and I was like, you know what I need? I need to like review this every week and I need to understand like, how is it working? How is it maybe not working? And, and so I journaled about things that could go wrong and things that when they're right, they're really right.

And it feels right. And then I came up with my original criteria. And then over the years, I've been using this for six of them, eight years and they've just changed it, sort of migrated into what works for me and what things do I need to keep an eye on so that I'm forever happy and that, you know, that if we if we decide not to work together, it's about some other reason, not because I haven't spoken up because, you know, things are going south and I didn't realize it.

I think you're right, especially in fractional roles. It's so easy for that engagement to go just off the rails because by nature of it being fractional, it's really difficult to figure out what guardrails to put in. It's very difficult to create a scope of work for a fractional role when normally in a consultant engagement, you have a thing that you're delivering or a product or something. But the nature of the fractional role and why they're also so powerful is that they kind of incorporate everything that that c suite whoever would incorporate. So it makes it very difficult to create guardrails, and I love the boiling a frog thing because it never happens all at once.

It's always like, oh, here, I'll do one thing. That's not quite in scope, but, like, it's not it's not out of scope. So I'll just do it this one time. And then that one time, you know, six months down the road with this client, you're like, I don't know what happened. I don't like this.

And I'm not sure that they do either.

Oh my gosh. Exactly. And then other item that I feel like kinda creeps up on you is that so many of us fractionals are problem solvers. Right? We walk into a mess and we fix it.

It's not exclusive to the COO suite. I mean, I'm sure other fractionals are like, oh, I do the same thing. I walk into a mess and I fix it. Well, our clients sometimes cooperate with the fixes and sometimes it takes a minute for them to learn new habits. And so they can be setting fires all along.

And it is in scope for me to fight the fire. Right. But too much of that. And that's really, that's the snaker for me is when they is when you come in with your expertise. So it's not just the doing, it's the expertise that we're bringing.

And when that doesn't get fully, fully incorporated in our client's mindset, it can be a drag. And I want to watch that and actually call that out and talk about it with my client before I'm just like, you know what? I don't like working with you.

I think you're right. I think one of the biggest challenges I know and work with my clients and other fractionals that I've talked to is when you come in in a fractional role, it's sort of a weird place to sit as an organization because in order to give your best advice, to do the best problem solving, you have to have a really strong understanding of what's happening throughout the company, especially in operations or finance. I mean, honestly, even in, you know, a CMO role, you really need to understand what's happening in all areas of the business, which means from a, like, strategic planning perspective or even just a day to day perspective, you really need to be integrated. But the nature of being a consultant sometimes means it's really difficult to create that relationship and, like, get embedded when you're in a fractional capacity. Is that something that you you find as well?

Yes. I mean, we have the delicate balance, especially us fractionals that work with really, really small businesses. We are partners as much as we are part time employees or part time contractors. You know, we are expected not just to fall in line and do the work, but to come in with new ways of doing the work. And that is always a dance.

That's what they actually pay for. That's what they're eager to get at the beginning. And sometimes that doesn't last because it's a drag to change your habits. It really, sometimes over time, I feel like I'd fall in line and fight the fires that I I'm gonna go around and keep setting. And if we create a culture where we're talking about that from the get go, and we're having that, that agenda item is always, so how's it going?

You know, that sort of like, how are we working together? If we're always addressing that from the absolute get go, and I have real agenda items for that.

Not just like, yeah,

it's really great, Susan. It's it's fun working with you. I was like, well, here are some hiccups. Do you have any feedback for me? You know, like, it actually creates real agenda items for that part of the meeting, for that part of the one on one.

And if you're gonna give, you know, honest feedback back and forth, start at the beginning before there's any problems, and then you're just gonna have a healthier relationship altogether.

Yeah. I love that. So let's, let's get into the meat and potatoes because now you have prompted so many more questions that I have. So kind of describe the report card to me. What kind of criteria are you measuring?

Like, what's actually in this report card?

Yep. So for me, I end up having 10 criteria, and I measure them weekly on a five point scale. So the five point scale is just a typical one. Five is high, one is low, and I have actual sentences for each of the fives. Like the three, you don't really want to hang out at a three.

A three is a few things are going right. And a few things are going wrong and it's not actually where you want to be. So it really truly is a midpoint. You really want, I guess the average to be in the fours. And of course the fives are, are awesome.

And I call a two and a one, a code red. They're just like they, like they have to be addressed. And I made, this is when I was back working with my accountability coach. I, I had sort of sworn a solemn duty to put on the agenda, anything that had a two or a one, or that slipped below trend. Report card is half the battle talking with your client about what you're seeing is really where the magic happens.

But for me, what the habit of a weekly report card solves for me is, I don't know when you get to the end of the week and you're exhausted, you're like, oh, this is never, this is this client. It's never been going right. It hasn't gone right in years. You know, that kind of, and you just get it's whatever just happened last colors all of your thinking. Mhmm.

And what I was trying to do is get away from that. There are things going well. And there's one thing that dipped in. It's been three weeks since it dipped. You know, so it allows you I mean, I guess maybe I'm a little bit of a data person, but it allows me to get really good perspective on how bad is it?

How long has it been bad? You know, so that there's contours to the problem instead of just like drinking on a Friday night and muttering into your beer, you know?

No. I love the idea of creating I think especially when it's a routine that happens weekly or monthly or core you know, where you're touching base on a regular basis, I think it gives you so much qualitative data. Even if in this case, you have quantified the data, what you're actually doing is quantifying qualitative data about the relationship, how you feel about it, all of those different things. And that is such a valuable reflection as a business owner to figure out where you need to change things, what does need to be modified or tweaked or improved. And at least for me, my weekly reflection process is the thing that keeps me on track.

I I'm not so much with the external accountability. I I'm very demand avoidance, so I don't like anybody else telling me what to do. I don't even really like myself telling me what to do. But having regular touch points allows you to create a pattern recognition where almost when you start doing it frequently enough, you can start seeing problems before they actually start happening.

A %. And also for us fractionals, this can happen for anybody. You can be an employee, you can be a business owner, you can do this no matter what your role, but for us fractionals, we give up a lot to stay fractional. And one of the things that we hope that we get in return is the flexibility and the freedom and the ability to, to love our work and to love our clients. And so it's almost putting our money where our mouth is or putting accountability where our mouth is, is that let's make sure that we stay with clients.

I know that you're fond of saying that calm is a KPI. And for me, vibe is a KPI. This is all I love that. It's one of the most important KPIs in my business. Do I love and do I love the work with my clients?

You know what's so interesting is, like, you know how when you have, like, coffee chats with folks and they're like, oh, so who do you work with? Who should I send to you? And I always have the hardest time because, like you, I'm like, it's a vibe. Like, it's really values based. You know?

Like, if they're a hustle bro, we are not gonna get along. We don't have the same values. We don't have the same perspective on the world. We don't have the same perspective on how we treat our team members or our community or ourselves. Like, it's it's entirely vibes based, and it's hard to it's hard to quantify that.

So I love that this is vibes based.

It is. It is. So my first two out of the 10, my first two are very vibey. Yet the CEO values me and my contribution and my interaction with the CEO sort of frequency and style. So these are things that they're really kinda hard to qual, to quantify.

But, you know, like, you know when it is. And so that came out of my journaling. Like, when that is awesome. I love working with my clients. So they keep their regular meetings.

They don't slack me too often in the meantime, like, so there's actual like things I can bring up again in a meeting with them that says, listen, there's too many off cycle stuff. Like things are fixable when they're smaller. So let's notice the trend and then identify it right away. So the next two are about the team. What's my interaction with the team?

And then for me as a COO, this item strengths or gaps on the team. And this is an important one because this is the, potential trouble on the horizon metric for us COOs because we're gap fillers. So if we're gap fillers, just this once, just so we can get this thing out the door, I wanna know how many gaps I spot so that

All of a sudden, you're an entire department of people, just you.

Crap. So often you're like, well, Karen does a good job. Let's just keep her no. So I like to know if we let somebody go or someone, you know, after all isn't isn't working up to their potential, you know, things like that. What do I see on the team that might spell a little bit of trouble for me?

And I want to get those officially closed, not Karen closed, but like officially closed. So that's a, that's a great one for me.

We're gonna take a quick break to hear from our sponsors, but when we come back, Karen will walk us through the next few segments of her report card. And then we'll talk about how you can apply this in your own work.

These are sort of brass tacks, the next couple hours, hours and intensity. And I like measuring that because, you know, there are certain times a year that are busier than others. And you can kind of forget that there was a lull time when you're busy and you forget, you know, like you you're just put in it. And what I want to know is how long have I been in it? How long has it been this way?

Is this the new reality or is this just busy time? So hours and intensity and then compensation Is the amount and format okay with the work? So don't don't those don't necessarily change often unless other things are getting out of whack. But I do like it's important to feel well appreciated. And it's important to know that if if other things aren't going well, that at least I'm getting, you know, like this is I'm getting good, well compensated for my effort.

So that kind of helps me keep my perspective. So the next two, ability to stay on scope and ability to stay on priorities. And they're not the same thing because for those of us who, whose scope is to problem solve, I can technically still be on scope, but I am in react mode, firefighting, run around like an idiot mode, And that's what the priorities one measures. So if we say that these three things are important and I'm off doing five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 for a living, then we're not staying on our priorities. And that's an occasion for me to speak up and, deal with it at the, client level.

The last two are probably the most qualitative. And they're so important to me because I think these two are everything. The last, second to last is the problem set is fun. Am I having fun? Like, is this work fun?

I love that. Period. And then the last one, am I happy, engaged and generous? And I got that one from Brene Brown because she said that the most generous people she knows are the most boundaried. And I was like, And then I noticed that for me, that one of the early warning indicators is when I start to bean count.

Like I'm by nature, I'm not a bean counter. But if I start to go down that route, if I'm like, this is the second time she's asked me to like that kind of stuff. I know that there's trouble because that's not natural for me. And for some reason you're starting a trouble on the horizon.

You've overridden the boundaries you have, you don't know about.

Yes. And so that is just a, like, I just close my eyes and I'm like, do I love being generous on this team? Like, do I love, like, am I happy to, you know, pitch in and things like that? And that is just like almost everything else doesn't matter. That's the one that really matters.

It's kind of the most loosey goosey, but that's the one that I care about kind of the most.

I would agree that for me, that would be the most important one.

And so every week I just have one big long, in fact, it is years and years long Evernote note where I just grab the last week. I put it up at the top. I zero it out and fill it in. And I do a quick paragraph of just sort of like, almost like a journal, like this happened and then that other happened and then this happened. So I have a little context and then I fill it out.

I highlight anything that's a two or a one, or I highlight anything that's suddenly went down or up off trend. And then I go fill out, like if there's an agenda, if we have a shared agenda with a client and there's anything I feel like we need to talk about, I flip over and add it to the agenda and that's how it works.

So, one, are you using this at all in your sales process? Like, when you are getting a vibe from you know, you're on a sales call, you're trying to figure out if they're gonna be a good fit or those kinds of things, does this show up there as well?

Yes. Although not as diligently as it does once I'm on the job, but you would think that I would, that I would use this. You know, I probably have this so well dialed into my heart of hearts that I, I probably bring some of that to bear. And, you know, I always ask for strengths and gaps on TV. Yeah.

You want to know like what, what kind of, what kind of deal you're walking into. The way I work generally is we either have a project that we're gonna, like a finite project we're working on together before we move on, or we have a ninety day thing. So I usually get in there and use it and use it very diligently during our honeymoon process just to see if we wanna move on.

Yeah. I'm I'm very much the same. I do intensives to get a the the point is to make sure that, like, we're a good fit to work together, and we like each other, and there's no, like, red flags on either part that this isn't gonna be a good fit going long term. I think especially in, like, operations, finance, stuff that, like, is really in the heart of the business. I think it's so important to make sure that the trust is there because you might be a good vibe fit, but, you know, maybe they just don't respect your expertise and you know that they are never gonna get the value out of working with you because they don't wanna listen to anybody.

Right. Right. Right. Exactly so. And then can they handle the feedback?

That's the other thing is like, like the second part is I'm going to be showing up giving you this kind of feedback. I think it's valuable. And if they're like, only talk to me if there's problems or just go solve your own problems or whatever that is. And then, and then we know that that's less of a vibe than we were hoping.

Yep. So are you using this explicitly with clients or are you using it to generate the topics that you need to bring up with clients?

It's the latter. I think it would be hilarious. Now, Susan, you've slipped from a three to a two, and I last week I

just like, I could see a world where, like, some sort of touch base like, quantitative touch base, maybe not as explicitly as you are using it on the personal side, but some sort of, like, explicit how do we both think things are going perspective could be really useful. So I was curious if it had evolved into that at all or if you're just using it to kind of allow yourself to manage the client relationship better.

You know, I use it just to manage the client relationship better. And I do in fact, I ask this on interviews. When I interview, for my clients, I ask what is what is your criteria for evaluating a potential client or a potential gig. I'm always interested in the yardstick that people show up with for what success looks like for them. So I am also asking that of the client.

I know what her top three are, maybe not her top 10, but I know what her top three are. And I can sort of self evaluate, you know, my own self on what she values. And if that's not in alignment, if she values things like hop to it or chop chop, you know, that kind of like don't question, just do, or, you know, things like that, then I know that we're instantly not aligned. But, generally, I just let this generate agenda items that I just, I mean, maybe they know, maybe they don't know that I'm evaluating it on the regular on the outside.

So how does this kind of stand alone report card integrate with the rest of your business? So are there other systems that you have that kind of play into this data that you need to collect regularly to make this work or that this goes into? How does this integrate in the overall rest of your processes?

That's fascinating. You know, I have only started tracking maybe in the last year or so, befores and afters so that I could have a transformation story in my own marketing and case studies and things like that. Before that I did a lousy job. I would just, honestly, I was so focused on the client experience that I wasn't building my own repertoire of case studies and what do I do when I walk into a business. Just all of my processes and things like that.

So there's an intake form in you. It's again, mostly qualitative. And how do you feel about your team? Are the people in the right seats? You know, those types of operational questions.

So I can track like the impact of my work with a client. And I wonder if this is true, I would love if we could just like zip in a client to see if they would agree with me. So often, so they're very grateful for the changes in their business. They really are. I mean, when the business runs better, they're able to do what it is that they, you know, dreamed of the business doing.

But I would venture to say that just as important and even more important is the feeling that they're understood, the feeling that they're well mentored, the feeling that they get when they work with me is almost more important than or just as important as, you know, the business is better. Right. Right team now, you know, all of that stuff. It is a lonely business being a founder CEO, especially

of

a small business. And your spouse might not get it. Your girlfriends are tired of you. They're talking about your team. Where is that person where you get to unload?

And, you know, without over explaining like she gets it. And, and also just like, you know, the kind of complaints that you would never do to, like to someone who, you know, who works on your team. I am a team, but it's a different relationship. So I think my clients have something similar, whether they have it explicitly or not, they must know because these are the types of things that I think they value as well.

So what is the impact of having this system for you? So how does this make your business or your work feel calmer or more sustainable for you?

So for me, it allows me to raise issues and address issues when they're tiny, when they're small. Doesn't mean there's no issues. It means that we catch them early when they're solvable. Like when I'm a fractional team members like report into me and I have one on ones in a, in a managerial role with them. I, I don't know.

I don't explicitly ask them to keep a report card, but I have that agenda item and I expect them to show up with, how are you feeling this week? How are things? What are things going on? Mostly because I wanna catch problems early before there's emotion wrapped around it before we start hating each other before anyone cries. I want to hear about the problem so that I can solve it one way or the other, before it, you know, rears its big ugly head.

So it is a calm KPI. It actually engineers calm into a business. If we all speak up about tiny problems and, and give each other permission to do that because nobody really wants to be like, here's a tiny thing. Give me all the tiny problems. I want to solve problems when they're tiny, but I can see how someone feels like it's not that big a deal.

I won't bother Karen with it.

Yeah. Especially when it is small and you're like, oh, it's just, it's just a one off. It's not gonna happen. And then by the time it's, you realize it is a new habit that's been created or a new pattern. It's almost too late to undo it.

Now it's a big thing because now you have to break the habit and retrain either communication style. You have to retrain different solutions or you have to build a new system to, like, counteract the habit.

And it's awkward conversation sometimes too. It's like that thing that you do, Susan, I wish you had you started six months ago, and I wish you don't get anything. You're like, wow. Where were you five months ago when I thought this was a good idea? To me, it allows me again to see, is this is this a one off or is this a new trend?

How problematic does it look like it is? You know, it gives me all the perspective, not just the data, but the perspective and the context of where is this in our overall relationship, how much of a deal is this, and how would I bring it up with my client in order to get this fixed.

Yeah. And I think the fact that you're, you know, tracking every week and touching base on it gives you so much trend data. It gives you so much information to decide whether or not something's a problem, where if you were doing this once a month or once a quarter or even once a year, you're not gonna have that information, and it's so easy to forget things week to week. I know for me, sometimes I get to Friday, and I'm like, I have no idea what happened this week. I'm here to do my weekly review self.

What the heck happened? I have no idea.

Exactly. But you know what I do do quarterly and yearly is look at the trend of so this isn't client specific, but it's almost like my business specific. Like, what do I tend to be lousy at? What do I, what are perpetual problems that I seem to walk into? I attract clients who do this, or I don't step up and address it.

Or like, what, what is a trend for me that I can, that is a thorn in my side. And then like what systems or accountability, or what do I need in order to engineer that the hell out of my business so that I won't be so that I don't have like, let's go ahead and do problems instead of these. So it really is a report card on stuff that I'm not good at addressing. And so I can get better at that. I have retooled like my service products to engineer more scope and to engineer more communication.

Back in the day, I would have CEOs that would ghost me that simply would not show up for meetings.

For something that they're paying

for you.

I know.

I know. I know.

Like, I'm paying for you, but I can't be bothered. And, CLL services don't come cheap. Like Right.

And then, Law Fight would go continuing the work, and then there would be rework because what they really needed to do was show up and tell me about a course change or whatever. Once I figured that out, that the CEO values me and my contribution, regular meetings that they keep, like those are the top two. They need to show up fully themselves. I'll engineer you out. And I engineer the service products I provide so that you almost can't, you wouldn't be attracted to what I sell if you weren't interested in, in showing up and, and doing the work.

Tell me more about that. Cause you know, I tend to geek out on service design. So tell me more about how you're actually thinking about structuring your services to circle back and enforce kind of the behaviors that you find you work best with.

Yes. A lot of it circles around that call, that call that we meet. So I make sure that it is a one on one. Very rarely can a third person show up. And that's because we need as leaders, we need to, we need to dish about the rest of the team and we need to dish about what's not going right.

And if there's that third person or if it's recorded in that third person can see it, there's a different vibe and the honesty and those kinds of, agenda items will not surface. And yet they will still surface and bite me in the butt later. And I would again, rather have an earlier than later. So you must show up for calls and you must show up alone for calls. And pretty much you need to show up ready to speak about, like I would, like I have a KPI dashboard.

I don't review the dashboard on the call. You know, like you have to have reviewed it and under have a question or things like that. And so I make sure those expectations are really upfront so that they so that we're actually getting to the work right away. I'm not an executive assistant, you know, giving them a report that they can read while I drum my fingers. You know, like we're really working together.

Many of my clients, this is the first relationship, business relationship that they had. A lot of my clients don't have corporate experience.

Mhmm.

And so having a wingman that you have to show up per just as prepared for, like I show up prepared, we start cooking with gas. If you show up prepared and I show up prepared, there's nothing we can't do. But if we're gonna waste some time and then you're gonna be like, wow, that meeting with Karen's a drag, you know, like that kind of it's not, we waste twenty five of that sixty minute call. Then they'll start devaluing it. And then I can understand why they wanna be like, not this week.

So you engineer, you have an agenda, you have, expectations, and I'm very upfront about that.

Anything around the report card or managing the client relationship, I think, is especially important that we haven't touched on that you think we we should.

First of all, I would urge anyone listening to do this. Absolutely. I would only use my list as a jumping off point because my categories are not your categories. You might phrase them differently. You also might throw a couple of them out and put it into a couple new ones again, but start by journaling or just mentally journaling.

Like what's great about your greatest client? What are the things that are on track with a great client? And then what are the things that bite you? Very typically as a trend. That's your first category of, of items.

Run with those and start tracking them weekly. Get your own five point scale, put your own words to it and start tracking it weekly. It really is the habit of tracking them. There's no glory in creating a report card and not using it, but track them and then start to see what the fallout is from that. Sometimes you'd almost have to adjust your perspective, which is, well, she does that one thing, but the other nine things are great.

So maybe I just need to problem solve that one thing or just be grateful. Everything typically isn't going bad. And it's usually one or two things going bad. And they've only been going bad for the last three weeks. You know, like that kind of perspective can really help you manage your own expectations and your own mental head space when it comes to clients.

Client wear and tear, I think is sort of like the secret, the dirty secret of fractional work. It's never the work. And we always feel like, you know, like we try to find the good ones and hang on to them, but you never know. And we just feel like we're in the washing machine. This is one of the ways to pull yourself up out of the washing machine and just get some good perspective on it and get a grip on it.

And if you're a fractional, you almost need to have something like this in your work so that you can manage that part of your work that can really take it out of you.

Agreed. So what is your favorite way to make your own work feel calmer besides this?

Oh my goodness. My favorite way is reserving certain days for calls and reserving certain days for non meeting work. Sometimes when my clients try to book on Fridays, I always say, gee, they go, oh, that's right. You don't work on Fridays. I work on Fridays.

I just don't take calls on Fridays. It's a totally different thing. And having those big, long white spaces where there's just not going to be interruption is transformative for my work, whether it's going head down into a, you know, pivot table or something like that for a client where if the phone rings or something like that's twenty minutes of trying to get back into that rabbit hole before I know what's going on, or it's doing the marketing for my own team. Like it's, there is just stuff that I need to have really long focus for. And once I started time blocking for those things, I really saw a big difference in the quality of work that I could produce, but also my mood and, how just bothered I was by the end of the day or how lack thereof.

And so really kind of taking that out for myself, I think was the, was the biggest thing.

I do the same, and it was really transformative for me having, like, full days where there's no calls, there's no interruptions. I can be very focused on whatever it is that I'm building or doing or creating that day. And, yeah, sometimes I'm still interacting with clients because, you know, I'm working on something for a client, but that's not getting interrupted. It's like it's on my own terms that I'm interacting with people versus sometimes it can kind of feel like just a wave of chaos at you where you just it is very unpredictable when you are in a fractional capacity or, really, I think if you work with clients on any kind of retainer model, it's very unpredictable when they are gonna decide that they have a challenge, and all of a sudden it becomes your challenge. And so being able to create those big white spaces, I think, is is so important.

Amen, sister.

Managing a client relationship is one of the most challenging things you ever do as a service provider, and it takes practice. You have to learn where your engagements might go off the rails. You You have to get better and better at being able to identify red flags when you're having sales conversations. And we all mess it up, even those of us who have been at this for over a decade. Karen's client report card is a really way to identify issues in a more systematic way.

You could even take this idea and build a report card or a more standardized evaluation process for your prospects so that you can use it during your sales conversations. Now if you've been doing this for a while, you might not actually need a formal evaluation process. You might have a pretty finely honed, process internally, but it's a great way to collect data and then use it to get feedback on where you're hitting the mark with clients or where you might need to improve. You can also use it to remind yourself that things are actually going well when you're in one of those dips where you actually hate everything or to to get engagements back on track before they really go off the rails. Designing your own client or prospect report card can be a really effective way to evaluate what that relationship is really like.

And as it does for Karen, it can actually make your business calmer. This can be a calm KPI for you. And if you decide to implement this in your own business, let me know. I'd love to hear about how you apply this to your own work. Big thanks to everyone who supports Beyond Margins.

If you're a listener, a sponsor, or a partner of any kind, I couldn't do this show without you. You can support this show by leaving a rating and a review. It really does help new listeners hit play with more confidence, and you can support our sponsors by using the links in your show notes. All of this helps me keep this independent podcast going and growing. So thank you, and thanks for listening.

Until next time, stay calm.