If you weren’t allowed to use referrals at all next year, what ONE marketing activity would feel the most natural for you to sustain?

If you could only hit one of these goals next year and it still led you toward a million-dollar business, which one would it be and why?

@Christy Cox What I need to make this happen Not a massive project management system, but a repeatable weekly rhythm I can stick to even on the weeks when my life looks like a tornado wearing a toddler backpack. My work moves in pockets, so my system has to do the same. On sales and content strategy My plan is simple. I’ll keep building my ecosystem through the community itself. Every time I teach a tiny, practical win or share an experiment, engagement goes up and people ask for the tools behind it. My sales strategy is baked into the content. The content comes from the work. That loop is my pipeline. How people will find it By leaning into the platforms where my audience already talks about the chaos of running a creative business: Pinterest, Threads, IG, and Etsy. My growth isn’t going to come from big launches. It’s going to come from visibility through useful moments, shared tools, and the kind of posts that make people say, “Finally, someone is building something for people like me.” How I’ll keep them engaged By designing the community around micro-wins, not long lessons. When people can get a result in five minutes, they show up more. When the space feels human instead of performative, they stay. My engagement strategy is to make the community feel like the easiest corner of their business, not another thing they need to “keep up with.” People, processes, priorities, performance Here’s my version so it actually fits my business: • People Serve the humans who build in pockets and want AI they can actually use. That keeps my messaging tight and my decisions clean. • Processes Pocket-sized workflows only. Nothing that breaks if I lose a day. Nothing that requires a version of me that doesn’t exist. • Priorities One: build the membership spine. Two: create consistent weekly visibility. Everything else gets cut. • Performance Measured by stability, retention, and calm revenue… not complexity, not volume, not loudness. This year isn’t about growing wider. It’s about building a business I can carry long-term without setting myself on fire to keep it running.

I’m not at the “hire help” phase yet, but I am at the “stop doing things that drain the life out of me” phase. My January demand setup is simple: one clear offer, one consistent place I show up, and one follow-up workflow I can actually stick to in the pockets of time I have. The more I strip away the busywork, the easier it is for the right people to find me. Seeing you step into your Ideal Role so cleanly is a good reminder that protecting our energy is part of building demand too.

This is such a smart question. A lot of small businesses don’t realize how accessible grants actually are. We received a national one last year, and it completely shifted my perspective on what “grant ready” really means. It wasn’t about having a polished 40 page plan. It was about being able to clearly articulate three things: 1. what we were already doing well 2. what specific gap the funding would close 3. what measurable change the money would create That clarity alone put us miles ahead. If a grant landed today, I would invest it in the parts of the business that strengthen long term stability: smarter systems, cleaner operations, and anything that increases capacity without increasing burnout. Those are the upgrades that make future funding easier, not harder. Small, strategic improvements are what make you fundable long before you feel “big enough.”