Why You’re Avoiding Your Business Metrics (It’s Not What You Think) with Amy Traugh
- Amy Traugh
- Jan 28
- 11 min read
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Why You’re Avoiding Your Business Metrics (It’s Not What You Think)
Why do so many business owners avoid looking at their metrics, even when they know they should? This pattern shows up at every stage of business. And while it looks like a numbers issue, it almost never is.
Most business owners point to logical reasons for avoiding metrics, such as:
Their business feels like it is already working
They do not fully understand what the numbers mean
They are not sure what to do with the information
It feels like one more thing on an already full plate
While those reasons make sense, they are rarely the real cause.
What is actually driving the avoidance is fear. Not obvious fear, but subconscious fear that your brain uses to keep you safe.
Why your brain avoids metrics
Your brain’s primary job is survival, not growth. Anything unfamiliar gets flagged as risky, including looking at your numbers. Even though you logically know metrics will not hurt you, your subconscious is trying to protect you from discomfort.
That is why actions like these feel easier:
Scrolling social media
Checking email
Doing busy work that feels productive
These activities feel familiar, and familiar feels safe. Metrics do not feel safe because they might show you something you are not ready to see.
Over time, this creates a pattern:
Fear leads to avoidance
Avoidance keeps you stuck
Staying stuck reinforces the fear
Why avoiding metrics is risky for your business
Avoidance does not mean something is wrong with your business. It means you are missing awareness. And you cannot change what you are not aware of.
We see this clearly when we compare companies like Blockbuster and Netflix.
Blockbuster stuck with what felt safe and familiar
Netflix paid attention to data and made strategic adjustments
Only one of those businesses adapted.
Assuming instead of gaining awareness is dangerous because growth requires feedback.
Metrics are feedback, not a verdict
Metrics are not a judgment of your worth. They are information.
When growth stalls, most business owners jump straight into fix-it mode:
Creating new offers
Changing pricing
Adjusting messaging
Adding more platforms
Sometimes those actions help. Often they do not, because they are treating symptoms instead of addressing the root issue. Metrics show you what is actually happening behind the scenes so you can respond strategically instead of reacting.
The identity layer most business owners miss
Avoidance is not just about fear. It is also about identity.
If you believe things like:
I am not a numbers person
I hate spreadsheets
My business works fine without metrics
Your actions will protect those beliefs. Your brain values consistency more than growth. It would rather stay right about who you have always been than risk becoming someone new.
This is why waiting to feel confident does not work.
Action comes before confidence
Evidence comes from taking small steps
Evidence creates safety
Safety creates clarity
How to break the avoidance cycle
You do not need more time, higher revenue, or a complicated dashboard.
Start here:
Write down what you are actually afraid will happen if you look at your metrics
Ask yourself how likely that fear really is
Identify the best possible outcome and the clarity it could give you
Start with a few core metrics and treat them as neutral feedback.
If you're ready to finally ditch the data drama and create a simple, repeatable process for growth, this is exactly what we do inside Metrics Mastery.
Get started for free at amytraugh.com and let’s build a business that’s backed by strategy, not stress.
Until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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Transcript for Episode 454. Why You’re Avoiding Your Business Metrics (It’s Not What You Think)
@0:14 - Amy Traugh (Amy Traugh)
Why do so many business owners avoid looking at their metrics, even though they know they need to? This is something I see over and over again across all industries, revenue levels, and stages of business.
On the surface, it looks like a numbers problem, but it's almost never a numbers problem. And over the years, I have noticed that the real reason business owners are avoiding looking at their metrics.
It falls into a... Some business owners say that, well, my business has done really well up until this point, so why would I even bother messing with something that's already working?
Others tell me that they don't really understand what they mean or what they would even do with the information.
So it doesn't feel like it's worth the time. And yes, these reasons sound really logical and make so much sense.
But for the vast majority of business owners, these aren't the real reasons. What's actually driving the avoidance is something so much deeper.
And most people don't even realize that it's happening. Because at the root of this avoidance is a deep fear of failure.
Now to understand this, you have to understand how your brain works. Your brain's number one job is survival. Not growth, not success, survival.
And only about 5% of your mind, of your conscious streams of thought, are conscious. That part of you that logically knows that sending the email, raising your prices, or looking at your metrics is not going to hurt you.
You know what you need to do, but you have this 95% of your mind running the show, and it's subconscious.
Your subconscious mind interprets anything unfamiliar as a potential threat. Anything unknown feels risky, even something as simple as looking at your metrics.
So while your conscious mind says, I know I need to look at these, your subconscious is already 10 steps ahead, quietly trying to keep you safe.
That's why things like scrolling on social media feel easier. Checking your email feels harmless. Doing busy work feels really productive.
It's because it feels familiar and familiar feels safe to your brain. Looking at your metrics doesn't feel safe because they might show you something that you don't want to see.
Maybe they confirm a fear you didn't even realize you were hearing. And so instead of consciously thinking, I'm avoiding this because I'm afraid of something, your brain simply nudges you towards avoidance without you even realizing it.
But over time, that avoidance turns into a cycle. Fear leads to avoidance and avoidance keeps you stuck exactly where you are.
Staying stuck reinforces the fear. It's a form of self-sabotage in business, not because you're trying to hold yourself. But because your brain is trying so hard to protect you and uses fear to keep you in the same place.
But if you truly want to grow your business, you cannot keep doing what you've always done and expect different results.
We've seen this play out in massive companies. Think about Blockbuster. Remember them from the 90s? Everybody had a Blockbuster card.
I live in a little city south of Cleveland, and in my town, we literally had at least six of them that I can remember.
They were so incredibly successful, and everything was working until it wasn't. They ignored the shifts in consumer behavior and changes in the marketplace because sticking with what they knew and always did to get the results felt safe.
Now compare that to a company like Netflix, who started out as a... They'll order company, right? You would go online, you'd request the DVDs you wanted, they'd send them to you, and then you'd mail them back and get more.
But what did they do? They paid attention to the data, and when they noticed changes early, they made those strategic adjustments.
And now Netflix is so highly successful, and we stream it. We all have some form of streaming service. So what it comes down to with these two companies, one was avoiding the feedback, and one was using it, and only one is still here.
This is why assuming instead of gaining awareness in your business is so dangerous, because you cannot change something you're not aware of.
And if your brain is wired to avoid looking at your metrics, it thinks that awareness, that looking at these metrics will create discomfort, even if that discomfort's not easy.
And your brain is trying to predict the future constantly. It thinks that if it can predict the future, it believes that it will keep you safe.
But the problem is our brain typically predicts from fear. Fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of confirming a story you already believe about yourself.
And a lot of times, that fear around metrics is tied to past experiences that have nothing to do with your business today.
Maybe you did look at your numbers once, and they weren't what you expected or hoped to see. You really didn't understand what they meant, and suddenly it triggered a familiar feeling.
Maybe it took you back to high school algebra, sitting in a classroom and staring at a test with zero clue how to solve the problem right in front of you.
Which means... Which means... It you feel behind. It made you feel like a failure. It made you feel like, you know what, I'm just not good at math.
Your brain logs that experience as a survival mechanism. It remembers the emotional pain attached to that one incident and decides that it is better to avoid the situation altogether.
So avoiding your metrics becomes a way of saying, well, I'd rather stay at this revenue level than risk feeling that way again.
But here's what's so important. Metrics are not a judgment of your worth. They are simply feedback. For example, my youngest daughter dealt with ongoing stomach pain for over a year.
We took her to the doctor and tried all the usual routes, watching what she ate, taking an acid, managing her symptoms, but nothing was working.
So her doctor... The ordered some blood work, and it turns out she had markers of an autoimmune disease, specifically celiac.
So we decided, okay, well, it could be this, but we went to a gastro. They said, you know what, let's do an endoscopy.
They biopsied, and it confirmed celiac disease. So once we were able to address the root cause instead of her symptoms, everything changed, and she's feeling amazing.
But this is what's happening in business. When growth hits a certain point and stops, most business owners jump straight into fix-it mode.
We're doers, right? So we create new offers. We adjust our pricing. We change all of our messaging. We add another platform.
And while, yes, these actions can be very helpful, but without looking at your metrics and truly understanding them, you don't know if they're actually the right solution.
It's like treating the symptoms instead of addressing the underlying issue, just like with what happened with my daughter. Your metrics will give you clarity on what's actually happening behind the scenes so that you can respond strategically and proactively instead of reacting in your business.
But there's another layer here that matters just as much, and that's identity. And this one is really, really subtle, but it really runs the show for a lot of business owners.
Because if you believe, even on a subconscious level, that I am not a numbers person or I hate spreadsheets or my business is doing just fine without taking the time to look at my metrics, your actions will naturally protect that identity.
You'll avoid things that challenge who you believe you are, even when that avoids Your brain values consistency more than growth, and it would rather be right about who you've always been than risk becoming someone new, because becoming someone new feels unknown, and unknown feels unsafe, right?
So when you're trying to do something you've never done before, your brain has no proof that it is possible for you to achieve the result that you want, or that you're even the type of person that can do it.
So it defaults back to that protection. From the outside looking in, this might seem so simple, so why not just look at your metrics?
But inside, your brain is telling you a story. It's telling you, I've never done this before. I'm bad at math.
I don't know what this means. This is not who I am. And suddenly, what such a small action turns into this dangerous activity for your brain?
Now, it's not just your fear of looking at your metrics that's working against you. It's the fear and identity working together.
And this is where self-awareness as a business owner is critical. When you try to take action, your inner narrative will start to whisper, you know what?
This isn't you. You're not good with numbers. You're not this type of person. But here's the part people miss.
The action you want to take has nothing to do with who you've been. It has everything to do with who you're becoming.
Your brain will always look to the past for evidence of who you are. That's why... You can't wait to feel like a different person before you act, because if you do, you'll stay the same person forever.
Instead, you need to act first. You need to do something different than you've never done before, even when it feels uncomfortable and unfamiliar.
And over time, those small, repeated actions create evidence, and that evidence shifts your identity. And you start to see yourself differently, because you've proven through action that you are capable.
This is why you cannot wait until you feel ready or confident. You don't become a different person and then take different actions.
You take different actions, and over time, your identity catches up to match the evidence. If you keep waiting until you feel like someone who understands...
You'll stay exactly where you are. Action comes first, even when it feels uncomfortable, even when it's unfamiliar. It's the small, repeated reps that create proof.
And proof creates safety, and safety creates clarity. So if you're listening to this and thinking to yourself, okay, Amy, you've called me out right now.
Here's what I want you to do. Grab a pen and paper and ask yourself, what am I actually afraid will happen if I look at my metrics?
Write it down. Get it out of your head and onto paper. And then I want you to get really curious.
Ask yourself, well, what are the chances of that really happening? They're usually much lower than your brain is telling you.
And then I want you to flip it. What's the best thing that could happen? What clarity might this give me?
What decisions could this support? Maybe I'm actually doing way better than I think I am. Awareness is what breaks the avoidance cycle.
The goal here is not to eliminate your fear because you'll never get rid of it. You need to learn how to lean in, take notice and work with your fear.
It is to become self-aware and diagnose in the moment. Metrics are just feedback. And when you start using your metrics as neutral feedback, instead of a judgment on your worth, everything changes.
Evidence creates safety. Safety creates clarity and clarity leads to better decisions and business growth. You do not need to wait until you have more time.
You do not need to wait until you're at a certain revenue level. You do not need a complicated dashboard.
And this is actually why I do not recommend dashboards for most of my clients. I want you to start with three core metrics.
Dig into your fears and give yourself permission to start before you feel ready. If this episode resonated with you, this is exactly what I love helping clients with one-on-one.
And inside my signature program, Metrics Mastery. You can get started for free at amytraugh.com. And until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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