E122: Q4 Success: Clarity Over Chaos for Entrepreneurs

Too many entrepreneurs treat Q4 like a sprint—piling on offers, chasing every dollar, and crawling into January exhausted. I know, because I did it for years in my bakery until my body gave out.

In this episode of Kitchen Table Dreams, I’m sharing how to reframe Q4 so it becomes a season of clarity, ease, and celebration—not burnout. You’ll learn why one core offer beats a dozen scattered promotions, how to simplify your sales funnel, and why choosing a visibility anchor can change everything for your business.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• The hidden costs of treating Q4 like a sprint
• Why one clear offer is more profitable (and sustainable) than many
• How to simplify your sales funnel for the busiest season
• The role of visibility anchors in growing your business
• Why protecting your energy and planning celebrations are non-negotiable

Q4 doesn’t have to drain you—it can position you for your best year yet.

🔗 Join the Six-Figure Creator 90-Day Sprint and step into 2026 with clarity and momentum: https://kimberlyihouston.com/mastermind

Transcript

Kimberly Houston (00:11.502) entrepreneurs love to tell themselves I'll just push hard until the end of the year and then I'll rest. here's the truth pushing out a plan that doesn't create success Kimberly Houston (00:30.478) entrepreneurs love to tell themselves I'll push hard until the end of the year and then I'll rest but here's the truth pushing without a plan doesn't create success it creates exhaustion and q4 is not about crawling to the finish line it's about setting yourself up so December feels like a celebration and not a collapse years ago when I was actively working in my bakery. I treated Q4 like a sprint because it was for me. At least that was a thought process I had. I loaded up on offers. I was offering platters and know thousands of cookies at a time and taking on corporate orders, chasing money, skipping rest, telling myself I figured it out later. But instead of momentum, I ended up burnout and in 2020 I ended up And if you don't know that story, just go back two weeks and listen to that particular episode. I'll make sure I link it below. But I talked about what happened to me in November of 2020 when my body literally just gave up on itself and I lost all the strength in my hands and my arms. But what happened was, you know, after you do all that sprinting, after you make all that money, I didn't enjoy the holidays. And I did this for many, many years. I can remember the swelling in my ankles after, you know, going hard, going hard, going hard, cakes, cookies, cupcakes, custom design things, cookie boxes, Christmas gifts for companies, like all of the things. And I can remember the cramps that would happen in the middle of the night in my legs. My hands got stuck one day and they were like just stuck and I couldn't move them almost like I had arthritis in my 30s. It was like literally horrible. The swelling in my feet was crazy and like my left foot swole more than my right foot. So for almost eight years I wore two different size shoes where one foot was larger than the other just because I could not get the swelling under control and it was simply because I was going, going, going. Kimberly Houston (02:41.856) and not resting and that's a different level of burnout, right? That's literally just physical exhaustion where your body doesn't have the time to regenerate the things that it needs to because you continue to push it beyond its limits and your body will just give out on you. And here's what shifted for me. Q4 has its own rhythm. If you align with the rhythm of the last three months of the year, you can finish strong and set up your next year for ease. Don't try to launch three things. Don't scatter your focus. Pick one offer that will carry you through. ask what's the one product or service that will deliver the most results for your audience and the most revenue for you. So for example, how you got your clients to anchor in on whatever it is you're offering. So if you are a caterer, right? It may be that you very specifically are only going to make hams or turkeys for the holidays instead of doing. full catering events this year, you're only offering like trays of vegetables, of mac and cheese, of yams, like things that don't cost a lot of money, don't require a whole lot of time and energy, things that you can plan out really easily and make in bulk, right? That's all people can order from you. If you are a bakery, then we have very specific things that we're offering and maybe you do some pre-orders for it, right? We're going to pre-order 50 Bush de Noel this year. and you put that out at the end of October, top of November, let people order them and then starting December 15th, people can pick them up, And so now you've got 50 already on the books, already paid for, and then your team can go and execute that. You set up an assembly line and boom, in and out, right? Like what are the ways that you can create one offer that will carry you through the holiday season? Kimberly Houston (04:42.732) that's easy for you, pleasing for your clients, and will allow you to make money and rest. Once you know that offer, you can build that system that's going to support it, and then you're not working against yourself, and you're not doing something like throwing up a pop-up sale in December, just trying to grab what I like to call the stocking stuffer money, where you're in the checkout line, and parents just start grabbing things in the checkout line to throw away as a stocking stuffer. That's what pop-up sales in December feel like to me. You're trying to grab the stock and stuff for money, and you really could have been getting the things that were in the aisles. You could have gotten that money if you had planned for it. Build a funnel, not a circus. Here's what I mean for that. You don't need 15 new platforms or a complicated funnel. You need one clear path to lead people from awareness to trust to purchase. In Q4, Simple sales. People have enough on their plates. Do not make it difficult for people to give you money. So here's my tip for you. Audit your current funnels. Are they working or is there a leak somewhere? I need you to walk through the funnels that you've already created for your business as the client. I talk a lot about the client experience. You put it in place, you think it's working, but if I go to your website and I click something and it doesn't work, baby, I'm not sending you an email to tell you it doesn't work. I'm logging off and I'm going to do a Google search and find somebody else. People are not going to tell you your stuff doesn't work. Ask me how I know. They're not going to tell you your stuff doesn't work. You need to walk through like you're a client. The way I double check myself is whenever I do a new page, whenever I do a new offer, I send that to my accountability partners. I send it to my best friends and I'm like, hey, click through this. Here's a coupon code for you. Go through this entire process and tell me, if there were hiccups anywhere. Whatever they tell me, I go back in and adjust it. They're like, there's too many steps here, too many pictures, too many words. I'm going to adjust it because we know people's attention spans are much, shorter now. So here's a secret. Your funnel is only as strong as your visibility strategy. So what does that mean for you? Q4 is busy. Your audience is distracted. So instead of spreading yourself, then choose a visibility anchor. Maybe that's going to be YouTube. Maybe it's email. Kimberly Houston (07:08.608) maybe it's Instagram, but I need you to choose one platform and that one platform is the one that gets all of your energy. One offer, one platform and go hard. If it is email, if you have a robust email list and you focus on email marketing only for Q4, you can post some things on social media. That's secondary, but it is not where your energy goes. Your energy is going into those emails. Your energy is going into YouTube, right? Depending on what your goals are. It could be LinkedIn, right? Just depending on what your goals are, pick one platform, one offer. Share. So for me, here's one of the ways I did a visibility anchor. Every time that I know I'm speaking at a conference and I've spoken at several throughout the course of the year, every time I speak at a conference, I strategically start posting about things related to whatever I'm talking about at that conference about 14 days out. The reason I do that is once you, for me, after doing a business audit back in January, I discovered that my number one form of marketing is me being on a stage. Pitching from the stage is my number one form of marketing. Go figure. Me speaking is what increases my income. And so since January, I have been working on ways very strategically to be on more stages. And so I went to a lot of conferences this year. I spoke at a lot of conferences. I've done a lot of things online. We have the podcast, right? And I've created a new YouTube channel. And so speaking pays me. And so because I know that, I was posting on YouTube as my visibility anchor. until I realized that after conferences, when people would Google me or when they would look up my name, they were instantly landing on Instagram and LinkedIn. And I was like, okay, all right, let's work with that. So my Instagram page, my LinkedIn page, both are being updated with information that's so Kimberly Houston (09:27.822) whatever I was talking about at that conference, right? So that way when people hit my social media, they don't walk into, I think of it like a store. They're not walking into a store that doesn't sell whatever it was I was just selling them, right? I think that that's disadvantage for a lot of speakers is that they are delivering presentations on things. But when people come to your social media, there is no proof that you are an expert in that. And I am an expert in everything that I talk about. or else I wouldn't be talking about it. And so when people land on my social media, they see information that supports whatever I have been talking about for two weeks prior to that. Now, they may be mixed in before that, but definitely for two weeks, I wasn't talking about anything other than whatever I was talking about at that conference because my follows go up, my email newsletter subscribers go up, people inquiring about coaching go up every time that I am. on a stage, right? And so that is how I use my visibility anchor. But here's the T. Visibility without energy management, that is where you will self-sabotage. So Q4 can pull you in millions of directions. Client requests, family obligations, last minute opportunities. Without boundaries, you're going to bleed your energy and resent your business. or resent the people in your life who just want to spend time with you. It is important for you to protect your CEO time, protect your rest and protect your mental space. You are going to have to some boundaries in place. You know, on the last podcast, we talked about the nine lessons that I've learned over the last year. And one of them was rest is a part of your strategy, right? Like rest is a part of your revenue strategy. If you do not build in rest, it is going to be very, very difficult for you to have sustainable success. Okay? If you don't understand it, go back and listen to the last episode. But when your energy is protected, you can lean into the best part of Q4. There's an energy around those last three months of the year that is unmatched, right? People are joyous. Kimberly Houston (11:46.863) the marketing teams have come together and, you know, Hallmark launching Christmas movies at the top of November. Y'all, that's not by chance. In 2020, during the pandemic, when Hallmark started playing Christmas movies in September, that was a marketing thing. It was done on purpose. It was done on purpose. We needed joy, right? Beyonce decided to release Renaissance before Cowboy Carter. It's because we needed some joy. Hamilton in the 10 year anniversary that is happening right now, bringing back Leslie Odom Jr. as Burr is literally giving us a joy infusion in the midst of all the chaos that is happening around American politics, particularly when it comes to American, our historical context with politicians to use a show that is about politicians in history. and give this number one cash infusion for Hamilton for sure because the ticket prices went through the roof. But also if you haven't seen it, if you just go back and look at September 9th when Leslie Oldham Jr. walks out on that stage, he has the first line of the show. The show cannot start until that man says, how does? He couldn't get the how does out of his mouth. And there are so many views, so many vantage points on social media. of that first and Leslie walking out of the wings and the crowd is losing their ever loving minds. It is complete standing ovation as soon as this man walks out on the stage, right? They gave the arts community this jolt of joy that has been missing in the midst of what is happening in what is right now current America, right? So You have to understand that we can create moments of celebration. That is what the creators do. We create moments of celebration. And if you use that energy in Q4, you can absolutely be rewarded financially for it. So let's talk about this. Success is not about hitting revenue goals. Kimberly Houston (14:08.302) Success is not about hitting revenue goals. It's about enjoying the fruits of your labor. So start planning now for the celebration. Decide how you're going to mark your wins. What does success look like for you? And how are you going to be able to go, oh, we just made, we hit this marker. It's time for us to celebrate. What are you going to do? The very first time I had a coach tell me to do that, I want to say it was when I hit maybe my first $5,000 month. It might have been, it was my first $5,000. or it might've been my first thousand dollar a week. Not really sure which one it was, but to celebrate, she was like, nope, right now, buy yourself something that you want it. And I bought myself a coffee cup that was Bridgerton themed. And when you poured the hot liquid into it, the cup would change, right? So it was just a black cup when it was cold. And when you poured the hot liquid into it, it would change. And you could see like this Bridgerton scene. appear and that was the thing. So every time I use that cup or someone in my house uses that cup, I am reminded that this is how we celebrated a win a couple of years ago, right? So begin to figure out how you're going to celebrate your wins. Create rituals that honor your progress. Is it that you're going to reach a nil, son? That you earned a couple of star books? Like whatever it is. create rituals that honor your progress. That way you can enter January fueled and pumped up for the new year as opposed to So Ian, if you want to step into Q4 with not just a plan but community and structure holding you up, here's a way that I can help. So it is not too late for you to join the Six Figure Entrepreneur Program, the Six Figure Creative Program that I am offering for the last 90 days of Q4. And so October 1st is when we officially started, but it's not too late for you to join yet. If you are still interested, if you go to kimberlyihusen.com backslash mastermind, you will be able to see all the information. You'll see all of the deliverables, the things that you're going to learn, but this is a 90 day sprint and it's an opportunity for you to go from stuck to successful, right? We're not going to drag this out. Kimberly Houston (16:28.94) This is going to be you showing up for yourself in the way you never have before. This is you making an investment into yourself, possibly in a way you've never made it before. But that is also going to require me to show up in a way that I probably have never shown up before as a coach. And believe you me, I am ready to do just that, right? I'm taking a max of 20 people into the Q4 90-day sprint because I want to be able to make sure that you all get some one-on-one time with me. and 20 people just feels like more than enough. But we will be in community for 90 days, whatever your goals, your hopes, your dreams are, we are here to support you and root you through it. And so that is an opportunity for you to be able to work in community with other entrepreneurs who are absolutely ready to take control of their life, their business, and find some balance, not necessarily work life balance, but find balance in their life that will support living the life of your dreams. So let's bring this all together. Q4 success is about clarity and not chaos. Focus on your core offer. Keep your funnel simple. Choose one visibility anchor. Protect your energy with boundaries. And plan for celebration instead of planning to rest later, instead of planning to rest when you're dead, instead of planning for collapse. This is exactly the work that we do in the Six Figure Creator. We don't just talk about growing income. We create aligned strategies that let you scale without burning out. If you want this Q4 to be one that carries you into your next year with clarity and confidence, come and join us at kimberlyihuston.com backslash mastermind. Friends, Q4 does not have to drain you.