The Yes Filter: A Decision-Making Framework for Entrepreneurs
Every time you say yes without a clear reason, you’re unconsciously giving up something far more valuable: your time, focus, and the chance to say yes to what truly moves the needle. This isn’t just about overcommitment; it’s about the opportunity cost, the invisible trade-off where every new “yes” represents another “no” to your biggest priorities.
That’s why your growth isn’t limited by what you can say yes to, it’s limited by what you should. The good news? You can flip this on its head with a simple decision-making framework I developed, I call it the Yes Filter. It is designed to help business owners like you make deliberate choices that align with their goals and protect their capacity.
As a consultant or solo entrepreneur, your time isn’t just another resource, it’s the foundation of your impact and income. With the Yes Filter, you’ll stop reacting impulsively and start responding with clarity. This isn’t about rejecting opportunities, it’s about choosing the yeses that multiply your results. In this article, I’ll show you how.
Prefer to watch the full breakdown? Here’s the video version:
The Yes Filter: What Is It and Why It Matters
Every entrepreneur faces the same problem: requests, opportunities, and demands for their time never stop. Some are appealing, some feel urgent, and some are simply distractions in disguise. Without a clear system, it’s easy to default to saying yes, especially when the request feels small, flattering, or promising. The result? A full calendar, drained energy, and stalled progress on what matters most.
That’s where a decision-making framework comes in. At its core, it’s a tool that allows you to make choices based on pre-set criteria instead of emotion, urgency, or guilt. Rather than reacting on the fly, you filter decisions through rules you’ve already established. The Yes Filter is my personal decision-making framework, created to help consultants and entrepreneurs stop scattering their energy and start focusing it.
Why the Yes Filter Works Better Than Ad-Hoc Decision-Making
The Yes Filter is built on one idea: your time is finite, so every yes must earn its place. It was born from a turning point in my career: realizing that each yes was quietly draining resources from the priorities I valued most.
This isn’t about cutting yourself off or rejecting opportunities entirely. It’s about creating clear boundaries so that only aligned, strategic yeses make it through. Here’s what sets the Yes Filter apart from ad-hoc, in-the-moment decisions:
Clarity: You know in advance what qualifies as a yes.
Boundaries: You’ve already decided what automatically gets a no.
Focus: You keep distractions out and protect your calendar for what matters most.
Without the Yes Filter, decisions pile up emotionally. You say yes out of habit or fear, then pay for it later in lost time, resentment, and fatigue. With it, you gain the space to focus, create, and build momentum where it counts.
Why It Matters for Entrepreneurs
For consultants, coaches, and business owners, time is more than hours on a clock. It’s the foundation of income, impact, and reputation. Every unnecessary yes reduces availability for high-value clients, limits opportunities to grow a signature offer, and drains the energy needed to scale.
By using the Yes Filter as your decision-making framework, you will:
Stop making emotional yeses in the moment
Protect your calendar from becoming a holding pen for other people’s priorities
Reclaim energy for the work that grows your revenue and your freedom
This is the shift that changes everything: moving from reactive to proactive, from scattered to strategic.
Rule #1: Pre-Commit to Your Biggest Priorities
One of the biggest reasons we say yes to the wrong things is because we haven’t already decided what the right things are. If everything feels like an opportunity, then every request becomes a judgment call in the moment and that’s where guilt, FOMO, and flattery win.
Pre-committing changes that. With a clear decision-making framework and deciding your priorities in advance, you take the emotion out of the moment. You’re no longer re-deciding every time someone asks for your time, you’ve already done that work once.
How to Choose Your Top Priorities for the Next 60–90 Days
Keep this simple: pick one, two, or three outcomes that would make the biggest difference in your business right now. Not tasks. Outcomes.
Instead of “work on content,” your outcome might be “publish a new offer page”.
Instead of “find new clients,” your outcome might be “sign two high-fit clients at your new rate”.
Instead of “get organized,” your outcome might be “set up a simple system so projects run without you micromanaging”.
These priorities become your anchor. They are the standard you measure every yes and no against.
Use the “Does This Advance My Priorities?” Filter
Once your outcomes are set, every request runs through this simple question:
Does this directly move Priority #1, #2, or #3 forward?
If the answer is yes, it earns your time. If the answer is no or even not yet, it’s off the list for this season.
This filter works because:
It eliminates guesswork. You’re not spending energy debating if something “might” help someday. Either it aligns with your priorities now, or it doesn’t.
It keeps you grounded. You stop handing out yeses from fear or people-pleasing, and start making decisions based on the business you’re actually building.
The real benefit of pre-committing? Momentum. Instead of scattering your attention across half-finished projects, you channel your best energy into the few things that matter most and those yeses compound into meaningful results.
Rule #2: Define Your “No” Criteria
If Rule #1 is about deciding what gets a yes, Rule #2 is about protecting it. The truth is, most of us don’t struggle with knowing what we should do, we struggle with saying no to everything else. And when you leave that decision for the moment, it gets messy. You end up caving because the request feels small, or the person asking is someone you like, or you’re worried about burning a bridge.
That’s why you need “no” criteria built into your decision-making framework. These are the boundaries you set ahead of time so that when the request comes, the answer is already decided.
What Goes On Your “No” List
Think about the types of asks that consistently drain your energy or distract you from what matters. Those become your default no’s. A few common ones:
Unpaid brainstorms or “pick your brain” calls: They sound quick, but they eat up energy and rarely turn into real business. You want your best ideas saved for paid work.
Random favors or tiny requests: Even “just five minutes” pulls you out of focus. And let’s be honest, those five minutes are never just five minutes.
Projects outside your zone: If it’s not in your niche or tied to your current priorities, it’s a no. Even if you could do it, that doesn’t mean you should.
Meetings without a clear agenda: A meeting without a goal is just another block of time you’ll never get back.
Write them down. Once they’re clear to you, it becomes much easier to stick to them.
How to Say No Without Burning Bridges
Having boundaries doesn’t mean you have to be harsh. The key is to have go-to responses ready so you’re not scrambling for words in the moment. Here are a few you can borrow:
For free brainstorm requests
“I don’t do one-off brainstorm calls, but I do offer paid strategy sessions with clear outcomes. Want me to send you the details?”For projects outside your niche
“That’s not where I’m focused right now, but I know someone who’s great at this. Want me to connect you?”For meetings without an agenda
“Can you share the goal and what decisions need to be made? If my input isn’t essential, I’ll pass so I can stay focused on current priorities.”For speaking requests without a budget
“I’d love to support your event. My speaking fee is $X does that fit with your budget?”
These responses are short, clear, and professional. They also redirect the conversation in a way that still keeps the door open if the other person wants to move forward in a way that aligns with your boundaries.
Why You Need a Policy, Not Case-by-Case Decisions
Here’s the truth: if you make these calls one by one, in the moment, you’ll end up saying yes more often than you want to. Because it’s hard to say no when the person is right in front of you, or the request seems reasonable, or you don’t want to disappoint someone.
That’s why a policy works. When your no criteria are clear:
You don’t waste energy debating each new ask, you already know the answer.
People respect your boundaries more because they see them as consistent, not personal.
You protect your best time and energy for the priorities you already committed to in Rule #1.
This isn’t about being unkind. It’s about being clear. And clarity, about what you say yes to and what you don’t, is what allows your business to grow without running you into the ground.
Rule #3: Limit Your Yeses by Category
If everything you say yes to falls into the same category, it doesn’t matter how intentional you’ve been, you’ll still end up overextended. That’s why the third rule of the Yes Filter decision-making framework is simple: limit yourself to one yes per bucket at a time.
Think of your life in terms of categories or buckets. The three that matter most for most entrepreneurs are:
Work: The projects, clients, or offers that drive your business forward.
Family: The commitments that allow you to show up fully for the people you care about most.
Personal or spiritual: The practices, habits, or communities that keep you grounded and fueled outside of work.
One Yes Per Bucket at a Time
Within each bucket, choose just one active yes. That doesn’t mean you can’t have multiple responsibilities. but it does mean you don’t commit to multiple new or extra priorities at the same time.
Work example: You might focus on launching a new signature offer. That becomes your one yes. Until it’s complete, you’re not also creating a course, revamping your website, and volunteering for every speaking opportunity that crosses your inbox.
Family example: You might volunteer at your child’s school this semester. That’s your one yes. When that commitment ends, you can take on something else, but not until then.
Personal example: You might commit to a weekly practice, like attending one class or one group that recharges you. Not three at once, just one.
This simple boundary keeps your commitments realistic and sustainable, without spreading your attention so thin that nothing gets done well.
Why Depth Compounds and Scattered Effort Stalls
Here’s the real payoff: depth creates momentum, scattered effort stalls it.
Depth builds mastery: When you give focused attention to one project at a time, the quality of your work improves. You learn faster, deliver better results, and see measurable progress.
Depth compounds over time: Completing one meaningful yes creates momentum that makes the next yes easier and more impactful. Each success builds on the last.
Scattered effort dilutes energy: When you commit to multiple things in the same bucket, you’re constantly context-switching. Progress feels slow, projects drag on, and frustration grows.
Think of it this way: one yes carried all the way through is worth ten half-finished yeses. By limiting your yeses by category, you protect your capacity across the areas of life that matter most. Instead of being everywhere but effective nowhere, you give yourself permission to go deeper, move faster, and create results that stick.
Making Your Yeses Count in Business and Life
Every yes comes at a cost. The hidden cost of scattered yeses is your time, your focus, and the energy you need to grow the business you actually want. The Yes Filter helps you take back control by:
Pre-committing your priorities so you’re not making decisions from fear, guilt, or FOMO.
Defining your no criteria so you protect your best work without second-guessing yourself.
Limiting your yeses by category so you can go deeper and see results that compound, instead of stretching yourself too thin.
When you put these rules in place, your yeses start multiplying your results instead of draining them. You stop reacting to every request, and you start building with clarity, confidence, and momentum.
If you want support putting this decision-making framework into practice, so you can protect your time, sign premium clients, and scale without burning out, join me inside Consulting Offer Accelerator. It’s where I’ll help you create a consulting offer that’s designed to protect your energy and position you as the go-to expert in your space.
Your next yes could be the one that changes everything. Make it count.
FAQ
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A decision-making framework is a structured process for evaluating opportunities and making choices based on pre-set criteria. For entrepreneurs, it helps eliminate emotional or impulsive yeses and keeps decisions aligned with your top priorities.
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Using a decision-making framework gives entrepreneurs clarity, reduces wasted time, and protects their energy. Instead of scattering focus, every yes supports long-term goals, which helps businesses grow faster and more sustainably.
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The Yes Filter is a simple decision-making framework designed for consultants and entrepreneurs. It uses three rules—pre-commit your priorities, define your no criteria, and limit your yeses by category—to help you choose commitments that create results instead of draining your capacity.
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Every yes carries an opportunity cost. Saying yes too often leads to a full calendar, scattered energy, and missed opportunities to focus on high-value work. Without boundaries, entrepreneurs end up burned out and resentful instead of building a business that scales.
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You can define “no” criteria in advance. For example, unpaid brainstorms, off-niche projects, and meetings without agendas are common default nos. Having these rules built into your decision-making framework helps you respond with clarity instead of guilt.
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I’m Laura, a growth strategist and mentor to consultants.
As a serial entrepreneur who has scaled multiple six and seven-figure online and offline companies over the last twenty years, I can genuinely say that consulting is the best industry I’ve ever been in. Not only does it give me the freedom to spend time with my family and do the things I love (hello, tennis!), but working alongside world-changing entrepreneurs on their business strategies is one of the most rewarding roles I’ve had as an entrepreneur. This is a blog where I share my secrets of how to become an in-demand consultant.
Learn a decision making framework to pre-commit priorities, set clear no criteria, and protect your time. Includes scripts and next steps.