Remember, Reader, looking at a business month by month makes patterns harder to ignore and easier to correct, especially under real constraints.
This is a brief review of what mattered, what shifted, and what stayed steady for me this month, based on decisions already in motion, the signals they reinforced, and the adjustments it required.
Let's talk about May.
1. The Overall
What kind of month this was at a strategic level in one sentence.
May was a boring month, on purpose.
2. The Reality
What actually moved and what didn’t in the business.
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The Build Business Better Conference became a higher priority (and will stay there for the next several months).
- Hired a copywriter.
- Completed market research interviews. Over 75 quotes collected across the full VOC process.
- Built out a Notion dashboard using Claude as the execution partner.
- Private podcast did not launch. Welcome sequence is what's holding it.
- Conference homepage and waitlist are live at buildbusinessbetterconference.com.
- Delivered a post-speaking engagement follow-up sequence and started mapping the cold-to-warm communications path for new contacts.
- Hosted The Decision Lab mid-month.
- Did a full tech stack audit and re-evaluated what's earning its place.
- Reconnected with dormant contacts and warm leads. Building a list for more connections and reconnecting in the coming months.
- Did not activate the CRM. Again.
3. The Numbers
The metrics I paid attention to this month.
- Net list growth: +66
- VOC interviews completed: 3.5 (The 0.5 comes from one that wasn’t a formal interview)
- Total VOC quotes collected: 75+
- New client: 1
- Decision Lab registrants: 14
- Days traveling: 6
- Upcoming speaking engagements: 0
- Tools canceled/reworked: 2
4. The Removals
What was stopped.
Two opportunities that looked good on paper. One was a workshop funnel concept with a real future, just not right now. The other was an external partnership with genuine appeal and requiring a lot of my energy. Both were a no.
The monthly speaking streak ends with the beginning of June. However, the goal of growing the list every month remains. The method to attain that goal is shifting.
5. The Additions
What I intentionally reinforced or introduced.
A clear division of labor between AI tools. ChatGPT is for brainstorming when an idea is not fully coherent. Claude is for execution once it is. That distinction alone tightened the workflow considerably.
A personal energy management protocol going into summer. Summer tends to be a season that is quieter, meant for rest, and a decided change in energy levels. To honor that time, more scheduled email sends when off-hours work strikes and deciding the singular task needed to be accomplished for each day.
A reference library for landing page design. When something looks good, it gets saved.
Copywriting as a deliberate skill investment. Time and money are both going into it and will continue to until the gap closes. The welcome sequence work, for the podcast and the conference waitlist, is where that investment is showing up most visibly right now.
A deliberate return to past calls, including client conversations, referral partner exchanges, business development discussions. Mining the recordings and notes from those connection calls to discover problems solved, testimonials, content angles, and missed opportunities costs nothing and surfaces more than starting from scratch.
Conference announcement infrastructure. The waitlist is live.
6. The Adjustments
What this month clarified or confirmed for my business.
This month confirmed that doing the same things repeatedly, when those things are working, is the strategy. And it is not a placeholder while something better develops.
The Decision Lab mid-month clarified a sequencing issue. The people who showed up were genuinely interested. The format asked them to move too fast. A group call is still proximity, and proximity has to be earned a step earlier for a cold audience.
The lead that said no after months of warm signals was useful. Getting to no faster is the better outcome than staying in a hold pattern. Outlook is that the pipeline is staying clean while the follow-up process continues to get sharper with more repetition.
The speaking streak ending is not a setback. It is a signal to find list growth mechanisms that do not require a stage every month. This also honors the change in energy and output available in the summer season. That work is already starting.
The CRM gap is now two months running. That has a cost me. It’s a priority for June.
7. The Carry-Forward
What I’m taking into next month.
The conference announcement goes out. The waitlist opens publicly. Ads start running.
The private podcast launches. The welcome sequence gets finished.
The CRM gets activated. This one does not roll over again. (Hold me to it!)
May did what it needed to do, even when it did not do everything it planned. The conference is the thing and everything else is lining up behind it nicely. The plan is to stay purposely boring in the lead up to the conference while executing to bigger goals.
One more thing before I go.
I built infographics to accompany this series. I've been playing with my workflow for writing and sharing this since it started. If you are curious to see what they look like so far, just hit reply and I will send you the link. And if you have thoughts on whether they should live inside the email going forward, I would genuinely love to know.
Until next month,
Chanaye
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The Archive: This series runs monthly. You can find previous editions below as they’re published.
January 2026
February 2026
March 2026
April 2026