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You’re tracking the wrong thing

June 5, 2025

You finally commit to outbound—scrape leads, write punchy messages, start hitting send,

and now you're refreshing your inbox like it's Christmas morning…

Naturally, you want results—right?

A big shiny number to point at. Something to scream “Look, it’s working!”

But here’s the twist:

That’s the wrong way to measure success.

You’ve probably heard me say this before…

But inputs ≠ outputs!

Results are weird. They come in waves. They’re moody.

Sometimes they ghost you for weeks, then show up all at once like they remembered your birthday.

Worse—outputs are often out of your control.

So what should you focus on? Inputs.

The stuff that is IN your control.

Let’s break it down…

You’re running cold email campaigns and you (commonly) measure “success” by the number of calls booked.

Sounds logical.

But if you get 0 calls…

It feels like failure, even though you might actually be making progress.

What should you track instead?

The number of emails sent, for example.

Because if you’re sending, you’re testing. You’re gathering data.

And with data? You can tweak, optimize, and eventually dominate.

Same goes for any goal, project, or attempt at greatness.

Focus on the inputs (in your control) and less on the outputs (out of your control),

and success becomes more repeatable—not a random lottery win.

So ask yourself:

→ Are the outcomes we’re aiming for in our control?

→ Are we obsessing over outputs instead of stacking the right inputs?

→ And are we putting in enough of those inputs to earn useful feedback?

Zoom out once in a while to check your outputs (results), sure.

But don’t live there.

Live in the reps. The sends. The tests. The tweaks.

That’s where the magic happens.

See you all next Thursday 👋

PS. Whenever you're ready... Here are three ways I can help you become more replaceable:

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