I am not good at presenting data

I saw a post recently about how important "how" you present your data is...

And how looking at changes month over month when presenting to the leadership team, the board, etc. doesn't always tell the full story (and in some cases you end up shooting yourself in the foot and opening up more hard questions about growth when dammit, you're actually growing over time.. it just doesn't scream at you on the chart)I grouped Exit Five podcast downloads by month vs by quarter. Because last night I was looking at that the top bar chart and being like "man, I wish this thing was growing faster" -- and then I remembered. Wait. Group it by quarter - let's see if it looks different.

Not only does it look different, but I FEEL DIFFERENT about it. I'm now saying, heck yeah -- this podcast is growing! Let's keep growing it!

If anything it is more reflective of the slog of growing a podcast; it happens in 5-10-20% chunks over time, not 50% - 100% growth spurts for most.

Sometimes you can tell a better story when you ZOOM OUT. And I wish I was better at this when I was a marketing exec. It's so easy to get on the monthly stress hamster wheel vs being able to think + talk strategically about what's happening. There will be weekly and monthly stress, sure. But ultimately the only way to survive and thrive in a marketing leadership role is to be able to think both short term and long term, and that includes being able to look at the bigger picture and talk about how marketing fits in the 1-3-5 year plan for the company.

Hope you are hanging in through the rest of the year, I am sure the next 2 weeks will be slow :)

It would make my week if you search for "Exit Five podcast" on Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you listen and subscribe to the podcast. There's some good stuff you can catch up on from now until the new year.

Also: I am looking for a great guest for a 1 hour interview all about ABM --> someone that can give a top to bottom, 101 to 201 conversation about all things ABM for the podcast in 2023. I am open to pitches, just holler back to this email or email hello@exitfive.com

- Dave

PS, if you aren't a member of the Exit Five community yet read this:

I usually don't do this but here's a discount to join Exit Five - use code 22 and get 22% off until 12/31

All of the holiday cheer has me feeling like, dammit I should do a quick offer to join the Exit Five community.

I usually am AGAINST discounts like this, because I do not want a "discounted" community. In fact, I want to raise prices for new members in 2023 and the last thing I want is hundreds of people flooding the group and reducing the quality.

But that's where a small but meaningful discount like this can work.

So I'll run this until the end of the year.

You can join the Exit Five community right now and:

Save 22% off an annual membership, and that means pay $131 for this year instead of $168

^ click on that link and then where it says add discount code, plug in 22 and you'll get the discount