228: Return on Time: The Mindset Shift That Changed My Business
I used to obsess over ROI—until I realized I was asking the wrong question. What really changed my business was thinking in terms of Return on Time.
In this episode, I’m walking you through one of the biggest mindset shifts that helped me build a profitable business without burnout, constant launching, or chasing shiny objects. You’ll hear how I use a rinse-and-repeat system anchored around a promotional calendar to guide all of my content and sales strategy. I’ll also share how I evaluate every task using a simple 3-question filter to make sure my time is always working for me.
If you’re constantly busy but not seeing the results you want, this episode will help you shift focus and build a business that runs with more ease and efficiency.
What You’ll Learn
Why ROI can be misleading in the early stages of business
The three simple filters I use to evaluate every task
How my rinse-and-repeat system works behind the scenes
The power of anchoring your content to a promotional calendar
How to do a weekly time audit to identify high-ROI activities
What evergreen summits can do for your long-term growth
A simple time shift that can dramatically improve your results
When you start thinking about Return on Time, your priorities—and your results—start to shift. If you're ready to build a business that respects your energy and time, this episode will give you the clarity and next steps to do just that.
👉 Listen now and let’s start optimizing your most precious resource: your time.
Mentioned in this episode:
Time Is Your Most Valuable Business Asset—Here’s How to Protect It
For years, I focused on ROI—return on investment. I obsessed over ad spend, funnel conversions, email open rates. And while those things matter, I eventually realized I was asking the wrong question.
The real game-changer? Shifting my focus to return on time.
Why ROI Alone Can Be Misleading
In the early stages of business, your ROI can feel downright discouraging. You're putting hours into funnels that don't convert, creating content that barely gets seen, and sending emails that fall flat. If you're only measuring success by immediate returns, you're going to burn out quickly.
That's when I started asking myself: What’s giving me the best return on my time—not just my money?
My 3-Question Filter for Every Task
This shift changed everything. Now, I run every decision through these three questions:
Does this move the business forward?
Do I want to do this?
Am I good at it—or am I forcing it?
If a task doesn't pass this filter, it's likely not the best use of my time. And when I say yes to something now, I do it knowing it will actually create momentum.
The Rinse-and-Repeat System That Protects My Time
I built both my businesses—Hobby School and my personal brand—on a rinse-and-repeat system centered around one powerful tool: my promotional calendar.
Every piece of content I create supports a specific promotion. That means no more scrambling to figure out what to say or build. I know what I’m selling, when I’m selling it, and what content will support that offer.
Instead of reinventing the wheel every month, I optimize and repeat what already works.
Evergreen Events = Time Freedom
One of my proudest shifts this year was evergreen-ing our live summits. After we run a summit live once, we repurpose it into an evergreen format—same emails, same funnel, same speaker videos. This gives us a repeatable, low-lift way to generate leads and sales every month without the stress of live event prep.
It’s one week of live work turned into an asset we can run again and again.
The Weekly Time Audit That Keeps Me Focused
Every Friday, I do a quick time audit. I look at what moved the needle, what drained me, and what I want to double down on. I bucket my time into four categories: revenue-generating, admin, learning/planning, and busywork disguised as progress.
That simple practice has helped me say no to shiny objects and stay focused on what actually matters.
One Small Shift You Can Make Today
If you're ready to get more from your time, start small. Trade 30 minutes of low-ROI tasks—like over-researching or tweaking Canva graphics—for 30 minutes of high-ROI work like pitching, selling, or serving your clients.
Your time is non-renewable. The more intentional you are with it, the more freedom and results you’ll create.
Want to build your own rinse-and-repeat system that respects your time and grows your business? Come join me inside the Digital Product Growth Lab—I’d love to help you map it all out.
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Transcript:
Welcome to the Creator's MBA podcast, your go-to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destini Copp, and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product businesses without being glued to their desks, constantly live launching, or worrying about social media algorithms.
Hi there, Destini here. Welcome back to the Creator's MBA podcast. Today, I want to walk you through one of the biggest mindset shifts that has helped me build a business I can actually sustain—without burnout, without constantly starting over, and without chasing shiny objects every single week (which is very difficult for me!).
If you've ever looked around and wondered how some entrepreneurs seem to do it all while you're stuck in the "figuring it out" phase, let me tell you: it's not just about systems or better time management. It really comes down to how you think about your time and what you expect in return. I'm going to walk you through all of this today.
Most of us are told to focus on ROI—return on investment—and that absolutely matters. But here’s the truth: no one talks about how terrible ROI can be in the early stages of business. You're spending time setting up funnels that might not be converting yet. You’re publishing content that barely gets views. You're sending emails that may be ignored—and that’s completely normal.
So I started asking a different question: not what gives me the best ROI, but what gives me the best return on time?
Now, when I look at a project or task, I run it through three simple filters:
Does this actually move the business forward?
Do I really want to do it?
Am I good at it, or am I forcing it?
This mindset shift has saved me from wasting months on tasks that feel productive but don’t actually create momentum. It’s why I paused social media for my personal brand, said no to launching on Product Hunt for our Newsletter Profit Club collaboration app (even though I wanted to), and focused on what was truly driving results—like skipping bundles and only saying yes to summits that bring in the right people.
Because time is a resource I can't get back, I built both of my businesses—HobbyScool and my personal brand—around what I call a rinse-and-repeat system. It runs off of one core tool: my promotional calendar. That calendar tells me what I’m selling, when I’m promoting it, and drives the content that supports it.
Instead of reinventing the wheel each month, I anchor everything around those core promotions and let the rest of the content flow from there.
Here’s what that looks like in practice: For HobbyScool, we run five live summits a year. Each promotes a VIP pass and ties into one of our memberships. Every week, I send out a newsletter, publish a podcast episode, and write a blog post—all supporting that summit’s topic. If we’re running the "Monetize Your Craft" Summit, all my content that week focuses on how to make money from your creative work.
And here's the kicker: I’m not creating content just for fun. I’m doing it because it directly supports what we’re selling.
For my personal brand, I host monthly live webinars to promote our memberships—the Digital Product Growth Lab and the Newsletter Profit Club. Between webinars, I drive traffic to Tripwire funnels and promote workshops that members get for free but others can buy at a higher price.
All of my content—podcast, newsletter, blog—is aligned with what I’m promoting that month. And if something works, like a particular webinar, I don’t reinvent it. I repeat it and optimize it with 1% tweaks every month. When I look back at last year and compare it to now, those small improvements have added up.
I also do a weekly time audit. Every Friday, I sit down and ask myself:
What moved the needle?
What drained my time without delivering results?
What’s worth doubling down on?
Then, I categorize my time into four buckets:
Revenue-generating activities
Admin tasks
Learning and planning
Busy work disguised as progress
Once you see that breakdown, the decisions become clearer. For example: Do I build another $15 digital product for my Shopify store, or double down on a summit that brought in over $20,000 in VIP pass sales? That’s not even a question anymore.
This year, I started evergreening our events. We put so much work into them—lining up speakers, writing emails, building funnels—so I wanted to get more mileage out of them. After a live summit, we repurpose it into an evergreen version. Everything stays the same, but in months when we’re not running a live event, we can rerun it like a live event. For instance, we reran the "Monetize Your Craft" Summit from January in June, using the same assets and structure.
We even ran ads to it. The expert presentations went live day by day, just like a live event. People had 24 hours to watch each day’s content. That one week of live work now becomes a lead generator and revenue stream we can use over and over.
If you want to apply this to your own business, here’s what I recommend:
Audit your time. Track how you actually spend your work hours—not how you wish you did.
Rate your activities. Use a 1 to 10 scale:
8–10: High return on time (sales, marketing, offer creation)
5–7: Medium return (admin, client support)
1–4: Low return (scrolling, over-researching, perfectionism)
Make one shift. Trade 30 minutes of low-return time for 30 minutes of high-return time.
For example: less inbox time, more pitching; less Canva tweaking, more client conversations; less new project planning, more repeating what works.
Then each Friday, review:
What gave you the biggest return?
What drained you?
What gets your best hours next week?
The hardest part about return on time thinking isn’t the math—it’s admitting that half the things we do every day don’t actually matter. Busy work feels productive, but your business doesn’t care how busy you are. It only cares about results.
The rinse-and-repeat system protects my time, gives me space to rest, and helps me stay profitable—even when I’m teaching full-time or traveling (like I will be in July!).
If you want help building your own rinse-and-repeat model, come join us inside the Digital Product Growth Lab. I’d love to help you map out your calendar, core offers, and the exact content to support them—without overwhelming you.
Thanks so much for listening today. And remember: You have the same 24 hours as everyone else—but how you spend them is what sets your business apart.
Talk to you next week. Bye for now!