Kate McKibben walks through the traffic-light audit, a visual exercise where you list every offer, traffic source, and conversion method from the year and color-code each one green (keep), orange (improve), or red (cut). The system cuts through vague feelings to show exactly what's working, what needs fixing, and what to eliminate.
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All right, it's the end of the year, and if you're like most business owners, you're probably feeling a mix of exhausted, overwhelmed, and confused about what actually worked this year and what really didn't. So today I'm kicking off our end of year planning series with the simplest, most clarifying exercise you can do right now. It takes just minutes, and it's called the traffic light audit. By the end of this episode, you're going to know exactly what to keep, what to fix, and what to leave behind in 2025. You ready? Let's dive right on in. Hey. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Doing It Online podcast. I'm Kate McKibben, your host here from hellofunnels Co and welcome to our annual end of year planning series. Over the next few days, I'm going to be dropping four special episodes with four simple practical exercises you can do to close out 2025 strong and set yourself up for an incredible 2026. There's no fluff. There's no overwhelming strategy sessions. You don't need a whole bunch of data. We're going to give you just clear, actionable steps you can take right now. And we're starting with one of my favorites, the traffic light audit. Here's the thing. Most people go into a new year without actually looking back at what worked and what didn't in the previous year. They just keep doing everything or they randomly cut things without really thinking about why. And that's a problem, because when you don't know what's actually working, you keep spinning your wheels on things that aren't moving the needle. So today we're fixing that. The traffic light order is simple. You're going to list out everything you did in your business this year. Don't worry, it's easier than you think. And then you're going to categorize it. Green light, it worked. Keep it. Orange light, it kind of worked, but it needs some fixing. Red light, it didn't work. Kill it. By the end of this exercise, you're going to have total clarity on what to focus on in 2026. All right, here's what you need to do. And if you want to go grab a pen and a piece of paper to do this, hit pause. Go do that now. Or even a Google Doc. Fire up a spreadsheet. Whatever works for you. So what you're going to need to do first is you're going to need to list out just three things. So first of all, you're going to list out every single offer that you promoted and made sales of this year. That is everything that you sold. Your courses, your programs, your one on one services, your memberships, your low ticket offers, paid workshops, all of it. Stop and list out every single one. When you've done that, we move on to number two. Now you're going to list out every single traffic source that you use this year. And by say used, I mean the ones that you actively put time and effort into. So where did people find you? Was it through organic Instagram, paid social media ads? Your email list from LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook referrals, JV partnerships? And if you use a combination of both organic and paid from the same platform, like organic Instagram and Instagram ads, list them separately because they behave differently and get you different results. So done that. Wonderful. Now onto the final thing. You're now going to list out every conversion mechanism that you used. So these are the actual activities that you used to convert people into buyers. So did you use a webinar? A challenge? Did you have a funnel, A couple of funnels, a DM strategy, a discovery call? Process any and all of those, list them out. And if you had multiple conversion mechanisms for different offers, like for example, you had two different webinars for two different products, then list those out separately as well. So by now you should end up with three lists. All of your offers, all of your traffic sources, and all of your conversion strategies, AKA all of the things that you did, all the activities that you took to make sales, just brain dump it all down, make sure it's all out on paper. Have you done that? Wonderful. Let's move on to the fun part. So now you're going to go through each of these items on your lists and you're going to give them a traffic light rating. If you're doing this in a spreadsheet, I like to actually color code the cells they're in. Or if you're doing it on a piece of paper, grabbing some textures, some colored pencils and actually fill. Physically doing this so that you can see the different colors I find is the most effective. So now go through every single one of those items on each three lists and assign it a color. So green light, obviously color it in green. This worked really well. Obviously there's always room for improvement. But overall it felt good, it was profitable. It didn't feel like a struggle. This one is a keeper. Orange or orange light? This one worked okay. You made some sales or you got some traction, but it didn't feel like everything was just all the Pieces were falling into place. Something still felt a bit off. It wasn't super easy, but it also wasn't really hard. It felt like there were definitely things that could be improved, and if you did, it would be a green. So these are the things that need work but are going to be worth putting the effort in. Those we color code orange. Now, finally, our red lights. This is anything that was just not worth the effort. This was a full struggle. It was unprofitable. It was crickets, or it just took way more work than it was worth and you didn't deliver results. This is stuff that is draining you, that is draining your focus, that is draining your effort. That is. Well, basically, it just needs to go. So be honest here. Don't give something an orange light just because you spent a lot of time on it. If it was a red light, call it a red light. Go with your gut. Now, here's why this method is so powerful. When we write things down or just try to evaluate them in our head, it can sometimes feel murky emotions come into play. It's hard to be really clear. You end up in this gray zone of, well, this thing kind of worked and that thing kind of didn't, but nothing really gets decided. But when you force yourself to pick a color, just three colors, green, orange, or red, you're making a clear categorization. And the visual cue actually helps your brain to also be able to decide and then notice patterns and trends way faster. So now you can literally see your business on a page. And at a glance, you can see what worked and what didn't. So that clarity, that's what makes this audit so powerful. So don't skip this step. Pick your colors, make it visual, and then look back and assess now the final piece of the puzzle. So now you've got everything color coded. Here's what you do with it. So red lights, these are staying in 20, 25. They're done. You're not going to do them again. Let them go. I don't care how much time or effort you put into them. They are only dragging you down. I know it can feel hard, especially for something that has maybe worked in the past or that you really, really tried to make work. But if it didn't work by now, dragging into the new year is not going to help you. So cut it loose. All right, your orange lights, these are your maybes. These you're going to take a closer look at and see if they can be fixed and if they make sense to be fixed in alignment with everything. Else you're doing and have planned for in the new year? Is there a tweak that you can make an update to the strategy you can try? Could you potentially try a different offer combination or a different conversion combination? Or try mixing it in with some of the other green items on your list to see if that is a puzzle piece that will take that one item from an orange to a green. This should be something that you can optimize or update. The aim is to turn your oranges, the ones that you keep, into greens in 2026. So if that is a yes, great. If it's a no, it might actually be a red light in disguise. So feel free to recategorize it if you need. Now, the green lights. These are your winners. These are what you're going to go all in on in 2026, as long as they make sense with your bigger picture strategy, of course. These are the things that worked, the things that felt good, the things that made you money without burning you out. Double down on these. Now, here's where it gets really powerful. When you look again at your green lights, is it possible to combine them? Can you take a green light traffic source, pair it with a green light conversion mechanism and use it to sell a green light offer? Or maybe you've got two green lights and one orange light. Can you optimize that orange light to turn it into a green and suddenly you've got a full system that just works? Because when everything in your business is a green light, when your traffic, your conversions, and your offers are all working together, are all in line with your strategy, everything just gets so much easier. You're not fighting to make sales. You're not constantly troubleshooting. You're just running a smooth and profitable business. And that is the goal. All right, here's your homework for today. If you haven't already, go and do the traffic light audit. List out your offers, your traffic sources, and your conversion mechanisms. Give everything a color and then decide what's staying, what's going, what needs work, and also, are there any gaps there that need filling? This is going to give you so much clarity heading into the new year. And in our next episode, we're diving into part two of the End of year planning series where we're going to talk about setting your 2026 revenue goal and how you actually make it happen. So make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss out. And look, if you're sitting here thinking, I need help figuring out how to turn my orange lights into green lights, or I'm missing some green lights. And I want to make sure I set up a system that is green all the way in 2026. Come and DM us over at hello Funnels on Instagram. We can chat about the best way to support you in the new year, because 2026 is going to be your year, and we are here to help make it happen. Alrighty, that's it for part one of the end of your planning series, guys. Go do your traffic light audit and then come back ready for part two. I'll see you then.
