2024 Annual Performance
My First Year in Business as a Consultant for Sustainability Innovators
2024 was a year of evolution, learning, and refinement for Anim8 Collective. As a consulting business at the intersection of sustainability, technology, and strategy, this year’s performance audit revealed insights into market dynamics, audience engagement, and business development. From hosting high-impact events to refining lead generation strategies, this review provides an example of systems thinking analysis and tactics to continuously improve a business and its trajectory.
Click the [ ] icon at the bottom right to go into “Full Screen” mode for best interaction with the graphic.
The Performance Audit Framework: Systems Thinking in Action
A performance audit is more than just a review of numbers, it’s a systems thinking approach that integrates lean principles and design thinking to assess the people, processes, technology, stakeholders, and other aspects of the market environment in which a business operates. This year, I utilized Miro to construct a comprehensive business systems map, identifying key levers for growth and efficiency.
My experience conducting performance audits stems from my education in industrial design (voice of customer listening and user journey mapping), time at high-growth startups where budgets were tight and every action mattered, and a huge level-up in skills as a Lean Facilitator at GE Digital, where I developed a deep understanding for building enterprise data streams to optimize the business-market interface. One of the frameworks that continues to inspire my approach is flow systems thinking, which helps leaders engineer seamless business interactions with the market.
In a commercial environment, we traditionally use the term “funnel” to describe the journey that customers take before a transaction. This is evolving in the industry to include all interactions throughout the customer experience or lifecycle as we know continued engagement and nurturing are key to up-sell, cross-sell, and brand loyalty, especially when a customer is not in a buying cycle. This study focuses on the traditional performance funnel due to the small size and early stage of my business.
Top of Funnel: Awareness and Reach
Impressions: Cross-Pollination and Viral Content
Q1 was a period of introspective exploration, as I took a sabbatical to focus on health, research the market, and refine strategic ideas. I was passively engaging on social media. This time allowed me to test a prototype "Feedback" site and explore investor referrals for Seed phase startups, laying the groundwork for future consulting projects.
Impressions surged during my travel across the East and West Coasts from March to May, suggesting that in-person engagements facilitated new network connections and expanded reach through connection networks across different geographies.
One standout moment came in October when a post about greenwashing in packaging and recycling labels went viral, garnering unprecedented visibility. This underscores the importance of timely, issue-driven content that resonates with industry and challenges.
Engagement: Resonance and Relationship-Building
Engagement metrics revealed a strong correlation between high impressions and meaningful interactions. Throughout Q2, Anim8 Collective actively engaged with both public-facing and private clients. Major spikes in engagement were observed around PNW Climate Week and the year-end client push, indicating that localized and industry-specific conversations foster deeper connections.
The year also saw strengthened referral relationships through ecosystem stakeholders including investors, accelerators, and other leading consultants, enhancing networking and credibility within the sustainability ecosystem. A key engagement strategy involved attending small-ish intentionally curated industry events, including the Wall Street Green Summit, Women in Tech Regatta, and the Global Changemakers Summit, all of which proved invaluable for building relationships and expanding reach.
Engagement Rate: A Measure of Content Quality
Engagement rate remains one of the most critical quality indicators for top-of-funnel performance. The most successful engagement tactics included in-person event follow-up posts, tagging other relevant strong connections in discussions, proactively requesting engagement when collaborating on content, leading posts with a conversation-starting statement, as well as quick follow-up in post comments. These approaches not only increased visibility but also fostered deeper community participation.
Leveraging AI for Content Optimization
I began 2024 knowing I needed to start incorporating AI into my workflow. I focused on doing this with every project, gradually building up an understanding for where AI performs and fails, as well as the importance of structured prompting when presented with free-form interfaces. I adopted the mentality of having an intern and structuring micro workflows for specific data gathering, analytics, and production tasks.
A significant breakthrough this year was the strategic use of ChatGPT to analyze my top 50 posts. This helped refine my brand voice, develop a social media template aligned with success factors, top topics that resonate with my audience, audience segments, recommendations for improvement, generate a 90-day content plan centered around the most engaging topics, and then curate weekly posts. See an example of a fully automated strategy being tested in real-time right now by Allie K Miller, a leading AI expert.
Key early insights: The highest engagement came from posts that were relevant to recent news, resonant trends and challenges, or personal reflections, and the least with reposts and summaries of articles for learning. Moving forward, I plan to rework my social media automation for weekly trending topic inputs and prioritize building an efficient workflow for personally generated video content.
To boost my skills moving forward, I invested in the Microsoft Power BI Certification course on Coursera as well as Allie K Miller’s AI for Business Leaders course. Additionally, I used January as a month to strategically focus my new media channel on AI in the sustainability communications workflow space, an opportunity to get the attention of target business leaders while also learning about the latest in innovation.
Middle of Funnel: Conversion Strategy on LinkedIn
Shifting the Lead Generation Model
A crucial realization from this year’s audit was that business inquiries and conversions were happening primarily through LinkedIn rather than traditional website funnels. This indicates that the middle-of-funnel process should be redefined at the “follower” stage and colleague-associated rather than the standard lead form conversion funnel approach. This is also a finding to promote greater collaboration between or the merger of marketing and sales teams for the highest performance. The business structure and KPIs should be integrated and networked rather than a linear flow model.
Quality Over Quantity: Refining Connection Strategy
Upon evaluating new connections, it became clear that inbound requests required a quality filter. Many legacy connections needed cleanup, and while I do have a good volume of target industry leaders, a more targeted approach was necessary to level up seniority and engage key decision-makers.
During Q3, the challenge of running out of runway became evident. Job applications and client outreach intensified, highlighting key learnings:
Curated events were the highest-quality sources of leads and meaningful business connections.
Prospective clients often preferred task-based engagements over comprehensive strategic planning.
Customer education was essential for proving the value of programmatic execution, especially when backed by data.
A shift toward video content and tangible proof of work increased trust and credibility.
My technology and automation skills are winning. I needed to upskill in data science, AI, and then confidently showcase the tech stack optimization skills I already have.
The Follow-Up Imperative
One major takeaway from 2024 was the importance of proactive lead nurturing. Rather than waiting for prospects to act, I implemented a structured follow-up system:
Review Recent Viewers & Followers - Observe who is on target and send a thoughtful connection request.
Immediate Follow-Up – If they engage to meet, qualify in the meeting, then continue outreach for one month post-interest.
Delayed Follow-Up – If no action is taken, re-engage after a few months.
Live Event Tactics – Screenshot speakers and attendees, save LinkedIn URLs, and initiate personalized follow-ups. Always leave a quick message in the moment so you remember the context of your conversation later.
Company Page vs. Personal Page Strategy – The stark contrast in engagement between my company and personal LinkedIn pages highlighted the need for active curation of company page views and systematic connection requests with engaged followers.
Bottom of Funnel: Website Performance and Lead Quality
Website Performance Insights
Website analytics showed mixed results:
Average time on page: 2 minutes, 13 seconds – Over double the industry benchmark, indicating strong content interest.
Bounce rate: 67.87% – Significantly above the 40% industry benchmark, suggesting that follow-on CTAs to keep exploring content and UX need improvement to drive deeper engagement.
Action items:
Conduct a full SEO audit to boost organic rankings. Optimize titles, tags, and keywords for improved search visibility (note - in 1mo now ranking for “Fractional Growth Officer”).
Shift from publishing on Medium to hosting original content on my website.
Create a Google Business profile.
As I already had a significant experiment happening with prototyping an AI-assisted social strategy, I elected to pursue quick website wins by focusing the navigation menu on sales pages and only including links to sales CTAs on those pages. All other pages are in the footer or de-prioritized in the blog. “Keep reading” blog posts are upcoming virtual events or sales CTAs only.
Lead Quality and Lessons Learned
Q4 underscored the challenging job market, with hiring freezes, AI-driven resume filtering, and restructuring impacting opportunities. I lost a large project bid as #2 contender because the client didn’t think I had partners to scale with. Despite extensive networking, most meetings were with:
Other consultants seeking referrals
Founders seeking mentorship
Other professionals exploring career transitions
People who just want a custom proposal or pricing
While these conversations were enriching for community-building, they did not translate into business revenue. In response, I introduced a quote builder for those who want pricing, a paid booking link for advisory sessions, and paused voluntary consultations until my workload allows for them. I also initiated the Collective partner network aspect of Anim8 to establish publicly listed scale relationships. Prioritizing self-sustainability over unpaid mentorship became a critical realization.
Digital-first buyers mean that showing what you do online is key. I published the sales pitches for strategic packages to show what the initial investment can achieve and eliminated custom pitch prep. This landing page is my Technology Audit package! Views Sales Enablement & Strategy here, and an example of Personalized Marketing Programs here.
Final Takeaways and 2025 Strategy
What Worked:
High-quality, issue-driven LinkedIn content drove meaningful engagement.
AI-assisted client processes helped accelerate deliverables to meet the cost demands of the market and my preferred hourly rate.
Curated in-person and virtual events were the most effective for fostering quality connections.
The client engagements that did happen went really well with positive reviews!
Pilot project opportunities to better understand customer needs, expected deliverables, and pricing expectations were important, as well as listening to rejections.
What Needed Improvement:
Website content optimization to sell without using my time.
A social selling strategy to scale exposure, and travel to reach new networks when possible.
Targeting Series A+ funded companies ($10M-$50M funding or revenue) instead of pre-seed and seed phase startups, as well as market-growth-focused outreach rather than pursuing personal excitement for science-backed solutions. Hype and dollars do not always follow science.
MarTech optimization for automated follow-up and structured lead nurturing.
My reputation as an AI and commercial technology leader.
Looking Ahead: 2025 Goals
Implement a more focused client acquisition funnel on LinkedIn.
Develop a scalable content strategy blending AI automation with personal insights.
Strengthen business development efforts in well-funded sustainability and innovation sectors.
Continue optimizing website SEO and conversion pathways.
Recognize the reality of the political environment and focus on aligned, universal values for the outcomes of sustainability solutions, such as ROI, rather than selling sustainability.
As we move into 2025, the goal remains clear: refine, optimize, and scale. The insights from this audit serve as a roadmap for building a more resilient, impact-driven business in the years ahead.
