Episode 15: Erika's 2026 Lessons for Success
As a business consultant, helping leaders create reliable systems and reduce stress is what we do. These six lessons—drawn from Signal Operations' CEO—are proven, actionable behaviors you can adopt in 2026 to improve cash flow, team performance, productivity, and decision-making.
Quick overview (TL;DR)
Schedule short monthly finance check-ins (20–30 minutes).
Hold regular team one-on-ones; solopreneurs still need accountability.
Practice radical transparency with yourself and your team.
Write down goals and create accountability systems.
Let go of perfectionism — aim for 90% + feedback loops.
Trust your intuition; validate quickly and iterate.
1. Monthly finance check-ins: 20–30 minutes that save you headaches
Why it matters:
Regular, short financial reviews keep you aligned with revenue and savings goals and reduce end-of-year surprises.
Action steps:
Block 20–30 minutes in your calendar monthly.
Open your accounting software and bank statements.
Track one or two KPIs (cash runway, revenue vs. goal, burn rate).
2. Weekly team one-on-ones (or monthly for solopreneurs)
Why it matters:
One-on-ones build alignment, uncover blockers, and maintain morale.
Average time spent: 3–3.5 hours/week across multiple one-on-ones—adjust to your team size.
Action steps:
Schedule recurring one-on-ones: weekly for teams, monthly for solopreneurs with an accountability partner.
Use a short agenda: personal check-in, wins, blockers, priorities.
3. Radical transparency: own the problem and own the wins
Why it matters:
Transparency reduces friction, speeds learning, and improves trust.
Admitting mistakes and celebrating wins keeps the team motivated.
Action steps:
Ask: “Am I creating roadblocks?” Be honest.
Keep mantras visible (sticky notes, desktop reminders).
Celebrate wins publicly; analyze failures privately and constructively.
4. Review goals and build accountability
Why it matters:
Goals drift; without accountability they become moving targets.
Action steps:
Write down goals and review them with your team or accountability group.
Break big goals into smaller milestones.
Consider external accountability: coaches, groups, or goal workbooks.
5. Let go of perfectionism—iterate and request feedback
Why it matters:
Perfectionism kills speed. Delivering 90% and asking for feedback drives collaboration and faster outcomes.
Action steps:
Deliver a near-complete draft to clients/team and solicit structured feedback.
Establish a feedback loop and finalize quickly.
Track time spent vs. value added to avoid over-polishing.
6. Trust your intuition—and validate fast
Why it matters:
Intuition often flags good or bad decisions early; honouring it and validating quickly prevents big mistakes.
Action steps:
Pay attention to gut feelings (both positive and negative).
Validate with a small experiment or pilot before full rollout.
Log intuition outcomes to calibrate your internal signals over time.
7 Practical templates & checklist
Finance check-in agenda (20–30 min):
Review cash balance & runway (5 min)
Compare revenue to goal (5 min)
Note 1–2 actions or concerns (10–20 min)
One-on-one agenda:
Personal check-in (2–3 min)
Wins & progress (5 min)
Blockers & support needed (10 min)
Next priorities (2–3 min)
Goal review routine:
Update status, metrics, and next milestone weekly or monthly.
FAQs
Q: How often should I meet with my team?
A: Weekly for teams; monthly or bi-monthly check-ins for solopreneurs with an accountability partner.
Q: What if I don’t have an accountability group?
A: Start small—partner with your spouse, a peer, or hire a coach. We offer coaching and goal workbooks.
Q: How do I measure intuition success?
A: Track decisions driven by intuition and their outcomes. Over time patterns will emerge and calibrate your gut.
Want help implementing these lessons?
If you need help building recurring finance check-ins, setting up one-on-one structures, or designing goal accountability systems, our business consulting team can help. Book a free consultation or explore our coaching programs to get started.
Book a consult: Schedule a call
Learn about coaching: Coaching Services
Episode Transcript
00:00-01:20
Erika: Welcome to the Business Flow Formula podcast. I'm Erika Dowell, the CEO at Signal Operations.
We've come into a new year, and we're also maybe coming into a new layout for our podcasting.
But today, I wanted to go all through the 2025 lessons that I am bringing into 2026.
First and foremost, having regular meetings and check-ins with your finances. I'm not talking about spending multiple hours every single month with your finances. I'm talking 20-30 minutes per month just to check in with yourself to see how you're getting on with your finance goals.
Erika: I know that almost all of us have some type of finance goal, whether that's saving $500 or maybe it's only $10, or it's growing your company by 20/30% percent. Whatever that looks like for you, having that 20-30 minute check-in is going to save you so much stress at the end of 2026 and keep you more on track.
Grab a quick coffee or tea, sit down at your desk or coffee table/dining room table, whatever feels good, and just open the accounting software, open up your bank and sit through how you feel about it. Even if it's bad news, it's still the right path forward.
01:21-02:17
Erika: The next thing is have regular check-ins with your team. Even if you're a solopreneur, you still have some type of team member, whether that is a friend or a family member that is supporting you and cheering you on. Give them a little update, have a little bit of accountability with them.
But on average, I went and looked this up, on average, I spend three to three and a half hours every week doing one-on-ones with my team members. And those one-on-ones span many things, from how was your weekend? What did you get up to? How are you feeling about life right now? to actual work tasks and those kinds of things, but all of that keeps everybody on track to achieve their goals.
So have those regular check-ins. If you're a solopreneur, that probably looks more like a once-a-month, maybe every other month check-in. But if you have team members, definitely do it weekly; otherwise, you're going to fall out of sync with each other.
02:18-03:55
Erika: My third lesson that I'm taking into 2026 is being fully transparent and honest with myself, and this is both on the good and the bad stuff.
Ask yourself if you're the problem. Are you creating roadblocks for your team or your clients, or even yourself? Are you doubting yourself?
If you are, what are some ways that you can work through that? What are some mantras?
I know for me, I have a few mantras that I have to remind myself of. Sometimes I write them on a sticky note, put them on my wall or my office door, have them on my computer somewhere, just to remind me that “don't be the problem, be the solution.” Also, how are you going to grow and learn from mistakes that you make?
It's very natural for people to make mistakes or mess up. And it's important that we take a step back, learn from those mistakes, acknowledge that they happened, apologize and move on. Giving space for people to make mistakes and grow makes everyone better in the long run.
Erika: But other than the negative side of being transparent with yourself, also be transparent with yourself about ways that you're winning. It's easy to really doubt yourself. Humans are programmed to always find fault in themselves first. But what ways are you winning? What ways are you succeeding? Where are you growing most?
Take time to recognize that and stop moving the goalpost as soon as you get there. Then, finally, sit with yourself and remind yourself about your actual why. Why are you doing this? Why do you have this business? What's important to you? What is your ultimate? Why? I bet it could change from time to time.
03:56-05:19
Erika: My fourth lesson that I'm bringing in is reviewing my goals and having accountability around those.
I recently joined a goal accountability group just to try it and see how it feels to have some type of external support. See what other people are doing as well. And in that goal support group in front of like 40 other people, I had to put down my goals and communicate, and recommunicate how I'm doing on them.
Of course, I do that with my team in our quarterly finance check-ins or my weekly one-on-ones if my team is asking me about them. But write down those goals, communicate and communicate and see how you're achieving them. Sometimes these goals can seem like you're always just pushing the deadline forward and forward. Sometimes in those moments, I like to just take a step back and say, you know, what is this goal actually serving us? Is this actually going to help us succeed in the way that I define success? If it's not, maybe it's time to rewrite that goal or break it up into smaller pieces that's more attainable.
My accountability partners also range between my team members, but also my spouse and of course, that accountability group. So if that's something that you need accountability in, we do offer coaching sessions, of course, and we can help keep you on track, or you can just get a goal workbook. I like the productivity planner as well.
05:20-06:09
Erika: My fifth lesson that I'm bringing into 2026 is that if it's not perfect, it's okay. And perfectionism is actually killing my productivity.
I get so wrapped up on is this the actual most perfect end product that I could offer someone? If I don't know the answer, it's okay to tell the client that I don't know the answer, but I'm going to get to the bottom of it for them. Hey, I prepared this for you. How is this looking? Can I get a little bit of feedback? Take that feedback. Give it into the final product so that it's a teamwork makes the dream work kind of situation.
Now that's not saying that I only do 10% of the work, get feedback, but we're getting it 90% of the way there and then asking for feedback, so then we can finish that product or project right away.
06:10-08:58
Erika: Finally, the last one that I am bringing into 2026 is trusting my intuition. And this is something that it never fails to amaze me, how much my intuition has really guided my business.
I'm always reminded that the gut intuition is a very valid decision guide in my business, or my personal life as well.
Every single time, my intuition was blaring all alarms, whether that was the quietest little alarm that you could barely hear, or it was a security systems and breached-style alarm, it's never wrong. And you have to trust that instinct and that intuition, whether that hire is right or wrong, new branding decision is right or wrong, you will know before you actually need to make that decision because your gut will be telling you if it's right or wrong, or if you're pulled in the right direction.
Of course, it's kind of really hard to articulate what that intuition moment feels like, but if it is, “you're making the wrong decision kind of intuition”, it feels like dread keeping me up at night, for example, waking me up at 3 am and then I just know I should not sign that client, maybe I shouldn't do this project or something like that.
But on the flip side, I could also wake up at 3 am and be like, oh my God, I have the best business decision, best business idea, and then I can start implementing on it.
Intuition goes both ways. It's not always bad, and quite often it's quite positive, and it leads to positive solutions.
Erika: For example, at the end of 2024, I actually had this feeling that I needed to start expanding Signal into all the other areas, and that's what led to the podcast. We have our marketing brand, our people ops brand, our bookkeeping brand that we've of course always had, but from there we were able to create an entire what we call Signal Island, or all of the elements, all of the brands that we have. The candle, the lighthouse, the signal, and, of course, rocks for people ops. We have all of those things, and that was really an intuition and gut decision that I made and then executed on over months until everything was fully launched and released into the world, only just this past October. And that took us ten months to get from that first intuition decision all the way out to rolling out everything.
Those are just my six lessons that I'm taking into 2026, but I would love to hear from you on what your lessons are that you're bringing into 2026, and see how it can be better in this year.
Hope you have a great start to the year, and we'll talk soon.