Stop Guessing, Start Testing

Sue McLachlan
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Start 2026 strong by using the power of data to help you make better business decisions! Learn what questions to ask, how to evaluate clues and how to move from the stuck place of "what should I do?" to confident decision making. And this isn't the bury your head in boring spreadsheets kind of data. It's tiny tests to help you uncover clues and evidence. Spend more time doing work that makes the biggest difference.

Episodes

  1. 16 HRS AGO

    Stop throwing spaghetti at the wall: Why you need to test, not copy

    Have you ever seen that Netflix show, Nailed It? It’s the one where amateur bakers try to recreate a masterpiece cake. They have the recipe and the ingredients, but the result is usually a hot mess of sliding cake layers. That is exactly what happens when we buy "shortcuts" and blueprints in online business. We have the template, but we don't have the same team, budget, or experience as the person selling it. In this episode, we’re talking about why copying someone else’s homework is risky, and why you need to stop throwing spaghetti at the wall and start understanding why things work. We chat about: The "Nailed It" reality: Why having the exact recipe doesn't guarantee the result (especially if you don't have the same "kitchen" as the guru).The Highlight Reel: The invisible details you don't see in a blueprint—like their ad budget, their full-time social media staff, or how long they warmed up their audience.Tactics vs. Strategy: Why copying an action (like sending an email at 9am) fails if you don't understand the strategy behind it (creating urgency).The Spaghetti Problem: Why making sales from a random guess is actually dangerous—because if you don't know why it stuck, you can't repeat it.Changing one thing at a time: Why testing a new offer, new price, and new audience all at once makes it impossible to know what worked. Today’s Tiny Test: Write down one thing you are going to change in your business (e.g., your email frequency, your price, or your subject line style). Don't change everything at once. Just change that one variable and compare the results to what you were doing before. That is how you get actual data instead of just guessing. Mentioned in this episode: The 2026 Experiment: If you want to stop guessing and start testing alongside me, come join The 2026 Experiment. It’s a year-long living laboratory where I share every experiment, every clue, and every honest debrief (including the flops). Join for 50% off (Early Access) until midnight Dec 31st: theunicornadvisory.com/2026 Connect with Sue: Instagram: @theunicornadvisoryVoxer: @unicornsueWebsite: theunicornadvisory.com

    17 min

  2. 1 DAY AGO

    How To Get Out of Decision Paralysis

    We are currently in that weird, liminal space between Christmas and New Year’s. You probably don’t know what day of the week it is, and you’re likely fueled by leftover chocolate. But if your brain is anything like mine, it hasn’t switched off. In fact, it might be spinning faster than ever. You’re looking at 2026 and suddenly, the "good ideas" feel heavy. You’re asking: Should I launch a new product? Should I change my pricing? Should I start a YouTube channel? It’s easy to get stuck because every decision feels like a "Babushka Doll"—you open one decision, and there are ten more tiny decisions hiding inside it. And if you pick the wrong one, it feels like the whole house of cards will fall down. In this episode, I’m talking about how to get out of that paralysis by stopping the gambling and starting the eliminating. We chat about: How one simple decision like what product should I create, can suddenly turn into 50 tiny decisions about pricing, launching, and tech.Using the "Guess Who" idea to eliminate the options that definitely won't work, rather than trying to magically pick the winner straight away.Why you need to look at your actual reality to narrow down the list.Why you should cross off any strategy that feels like painful and difficult (even if the gurus say it works).The story of how I used ChatGPT to plan this podcast when I was stuck with video anxiety and limited time.Why you need to get in motion first to get data and why a "good enough" decision is always better than a perfect one that never happens. Today’s Tiny Test:If you are stuck on a decision, grab a piece of paper. Write down the decision.List your constraints (Time, Money, and Energy/Assets).Look at your options and cross off anything that clashes with those constraints.Pick the "lightest" option left standing and treat it as your first test. Mentioned in this episode:The 2026 Experiment: If you want to watch me use this exact elimination process to plan my own year—and see the real-time data from every experiment I run—come join me inside The 2026 Experiment. We kick off on January 1st! Join for 50% off (Early Access) until Dec 31st: theunicornadvisory.com/2026 Connect with Sue: Instagram: @theunicornadvisoryVoxer: @unicornsueWebsite: theunicornadvisory.com

    25 min

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    Business is a Forever Game of Guess Who

    Ever looked at your business and thought “why isn’t this working?” or “what should I do?” and then jumped into a new tactic because you saw it on Instagram, YouTube, or in someone’s email? In this first episode, I’m explaining why running an online business is basically a forever game of Guess Who. The goal isn’t random guessing. The goal is asking better questions that give you clues, reduce uncertainty, and help you choose your next move without spiralling. I also share why decisions feel extra loaded when you are the product, and why “it didn’t work” is often meaningless if you never defined what you were trying to achieve in the first place. To help you start, I give you a tiny test you can do today, so you can move from “what should I do?” to “what do I need to learn to decide?” I also introduce The 2026 Experiment, where I’m turning my business into a full year of tests and sharing what I try, what I learn, and the debriefs as I go. In this episode✔ Why guessing is gambling, and questions are how you win ✔ How clues help you stop reacting emotionally and make clearer decisions ✔ Examples of clues: visibility, clicks without sales, patterns in buyer questions, pricing feedback ✔ Why you need a goal first, or the numbers mean nothing Tiny test from the episodeWrite down one decision you are stuck onWrite: “What do I need to learn to decide this?”Pick one clue you can gather to answer it LinksConnect on Instagram: @theunicornadvisory Ask me anything this week on Voxer: @unicornsue Join The 2026 Experiment (half price until Dec 31): https://theunicornadvisory.com/2026

    28 min
  • 3 Episodes

About

Start 2026 strong by using the power of data to help you make better business decisions! Learn what questions to ask, how to evaluate clues and how to move from the stuck place of "what should I do?" to confident decision making. And this isn't the bury your head in boring spreadsheets kind of data. It's tiny tests to help you uncover clues and evidence. Spend more time doing work that makes the biggest difference.

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