Black-and-White ROI Energy Audit
Expose wasted effort by charting time, money, activity, and return
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 95%
When progress feels unclear, move the business out of memory and emotion and onto a simple chart. List the activities receiving energy, then record the actual time and money invested in each during a defined period. Pair each investment with an observable return such as revenue, leads, retention, reach, learning, or completed strategic work. Comparing these columns exposes activities that feel productive or enjoyable but deliver little value, as well as overlooked actions with strong returns. Use the findings to continue, improve, reduce, or stop each activity. Repeating the audit weekly or monthly creates an evidence-based allocation loop in which limited resources gradually move toward the work that produces meaningful outcomes.
Origin
Extracted from The Jasmine Star Show when Kelsey Humphreys described how she responds when creative work is not producing results.
Core principles
- 01Memory and emotion can distort performance
- 02Visible numbers make tradeoffs harder to avoid
- 03Time and money are both investments
- 04Enjoyable activity is not automatically effective activity
- 05Resource allocation should follow evidence
How to run it
- 1
Choose the audit window
Select a recent period such as one or two weeks that is long enough to contain meaningful activity but short enough to remember accurately.
Pro tip Use calendar, payment, and analytics records to improve accuracy.
Watch out Do not mix unrelated periods with very different operating conditions.
- 2
Inventory the activities
List the projects, channels, offers, meetings, and recurring tasks that received meaningful energy during the window.
Pro tip Include behind-the-scenes work that customers never see.
Watch out Do not omit favorite activities because their performance feels uncomfortable to examine.
- 3
Record the investments
Write down the actual time and money committed to each activity. Add other scarce resources when relevant.
Pro tip Estimate conservatively when precise tracking is unavailable.
Watch out Ignoring founder time makes expensive activities look deceptively cheap.
- 4
Record the returns
Attach measurable outcomes such as revenue, qualified leads, retained customers, audience growth, strategic learning, or completed deliverables.
Pro tip Choose the return that matches the activity's intended purpose.
Watch out Vanity metrics should not substitute for the result the activity was designed to create.
- 5
Reallocate resources
Continue strong activities, revise uncertain ones, and reduce or stop persistent low-return work. Schedule the next audit to test whether the changes improve results.
Pro tip Change a small number of allocations at once so their effects remain visible.
Watch out Do not kill a sound long-term investment based on an unrealistically short measurement window.
In the wild
A creator charts five social channels, a newsletter, client calls, and a recurring video series. The chart shows that the newsletter and calls produced nearly all qualified leads while two high-effort channels generated attention but no customer action.
→ She reallocates time toward the newsletter and customer conversations while reducing weak channels.
A founder records the full staff time and spending attached to a fun monthly event. Despite strong internal enthusiasm, it produces minimal revenue, retention, or strategic learning across several audits.
→ The event is redesigned or discontinued instead of being protected by affection alone.
Common mistakes
Auditing from memory
General impressions of being busy or productive hide the real distribution of time and money.
Counting only financial return
Some activities legitimately produce learning, retention, or strategic assets, but those returns still need explicit evidence.
Protecting the fun activity
Enjoyment can make a low-performing activity feel indispensable even when the market consistently rejects it.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for creative founders who feel busy or stuck but cannot see which activities are creating or destroying momentum.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for evaluating very early experiments whose learning value or delayed return has not yet had time to appear.
From the transcript
“I actually stop and make a chart of what I've been doing.”
“What has been the ROI on that?”
“But on paper the numbers don't lie y'all.”
From the episode
Launching Your Business Before You’re Ready