Ep. 152: How & Why I Do My CEO Days
For the past few years every Monday is my CEO Day and these have become non-negotiable for me.
They are a partial answer to the common complaint of, “I never have enough time to work on my business!” If you are waiting around to find the time, it’ll likely never come. That’s why it’s imperative to intentionally pre-plan it out and get it on the schedule.
It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, or the frequency, that’s for you to decide. But having them gives you time for the things that help drive future success without leaving you scrambling to get everything done.
Things like financial tracking and forecasting, content planning and creation, business development tasks, strategic planning, and more.
In this episode I walk you through what I do and why it helps me keep momentum toward revenue growth without working more.
Links:
Plan for Profit: bit.ly/planforprofitguide
-
Recently in a Facebook group that I'm in, somebody was asking about CEO days. Yeah, I have done them for a while now and I have a podcast episode about them. And then when she went to go look for the podcast episode, confined it, she reached out to me to see if I know which one it was.
And that was when I realized I didn't have an episode about it. Uh, what I was thinking, why I thought I did is because I have my money Monday episode, which I've re-entered multiple times because it's one of my most popular. Um, and I've also talked about CEO days in a lot of the. Episodes, but I never did one dedicated solely to what I do and why I do it.
So in some of the other like planning ones or like workflow ones, um, I definitely know that I, I mentioned it, but I feel like it deserves its own explanation. So that is what I am talking about in this week's episode. So I've been doing them for, I'm going to say at least two years now. Um, obviously the last few years with the pandemic time feels very fake.
You know, it's like, I don't know about you, but, uh, I I'm like why when, like when did that happen? Like, I don't know, time just feels funky. Um, but I definitely know, um, before we moved to. Michigan. I was doing them and we moved here at the end of 2019. So yeah, it's been several years that I have been doing them and mine are on Mondays because that is just what works for me.
But it doesn't really matter when you do yours. Uh, it also doesn't matter how many hours they are or anything like that. Right? The, the. That I want to make very clear is that this is something that you can make your own because we all have different lives, different responsibilities, different businesses, different energetic capacities.
And so you might not have a whole day at your disposal to be able to do everything that I'm going to be sharing. But you could also do, uh, like a power hour, right? So I have a past episode on power hours and you could have a few different power hours during your week where they are just dedicated to CEO time.
Right? Uh, different points of my life. I have not had an entire Monday, uh, available for this. Um, but for the last several I have. That is why I do it that way. And I can just kind of, uh, take care of everything all at once, but you, you know, yourself and your life best. So do whatever works for you. So, as I said, mine are on Mondays and I always start with my money Monday practice, which also has a previous episode on, and this takes me about.
20 to 30 minutes to do well, actually it kind of depends. It fluctuates. Um, I, uh, I would say that when things get, you know, when you get faster at something, obviously it can be, you know, it starts to go faster because you're more practiced at it. Um, but also, you know, even though I can kind of do it in 15, 20 minutes of.
The one that I just did this week took a bit longer because there were a few other things that I wanted to look at being, uh, that it's right around the end of Q1, stuff like that. But I basically, if you want to learn about what I do with that, definitely listen to that episode. I always budget in about 30 minutes of time to sit down and look at my numbers and look at, um, projected revenue and to organize my expenses and this way, pretty much in an instant, I can see where I'm at in my business with like profit and loss, um, you know, projected.
Revenue, as I already mentioned, um, upcoming expenses, anything, anything like that? So, yeah. And, uh, so do I do that first and foremost, just because I want to make sure that I prioritize it because historically I have not been somebody that is great about sorting. My numbers and looking at my data and things like that.
So I just, I put it right up top, so it can't can't get skipped. Um, then I also look at the weekend and I map out each day. Um, I divvy up my to-do like the, my, my to-do list on the different days. Right. So rather than, um, just trying to pile it all on. Monday, I will look at the week ahead and see where I can move things to now because I have longer stretches of interrupted time.
On Monday. I do tend to try to do more of my to-do list on Monday, because one thing that I know that is really common and usually. Beat ourselves up over it. But I now just know that like, th this is how things go. And so rather than feeling like I'm failing, I just, I'm proactive. I plan ahead for this is that things always come up, right.
Things come up that you have to tend to. And so if you have yourself to. Like over-scheduled overbooked, uh, overburdened with tasks. Then when those things come up and things have to get pushed to another day in the week, you end up getting to the end of the week and you're like, oh my God, I still have all these things on my list.
And typically new things pop up as well. Right. I try to, uh, not overload the rest of my week with like tons and tons of tattoos, because I want to leave some margin and some room for, uh, for fitting those in later. Um, and also I'm not attempting to literally get every possible thing done myself. Uh, I. You know, I definitely rely on my team.
And even before I had team, I would always prioritize my to-dos and some stuff just keeps getting pushed off. And then you realize, oh, this is not a priority. Right. So I'm not going to talk too much about that today. There's that could be, you know, we could go off on a huge tangent, but basically, um, I try to be pretty balanced around my, my to-do list is what I mean.
Um, and then I also try to look at, you know, what, what can be delegated, right? So, um, when I'm looking at certain things, I think, you know, do, do I have to be the one to do this? Or can I message my team and have them take, you know, take on some more or all of a certain, uh, task. And that's just, you know, a constant practice of checking in with myself around that.
Um, and I also part of why I have a. Uninterrupted stretch of time is that I don't do any client meetings, discovery, calls, trainings, anything like that. Right. So my, my booking calendar is not with, with a few rare exceptions. Um, does not have space open. Monday's uh, so sometimes I'll have a call with my team on Mondays.
She's like a check-in call that we usually have once a month. Um, but other than that, I don't really have anything. And so I can just kind of work straight through, which is really, really nice. So that is typically what stays the same from week to week. And then. What changes from week to week is what I'm going to go into next.
But again, make this your. So, uh, as I already mentioned, sometimes I do have a call with my team. Um, sometimes I will book myself in with someone else. So if this is, you know, somebody else gives me their booking link and we need to have a meeting about like a talk I'm going to do inside their program, or, you know, something, something like that.
Or, um, maybe it's a coffee chat and I. When I booked it in, I'm like, you know what? That like, yes, it's on a Monday, but also that feels really doable, especially if it's towards the end of my working day, because then it gives me something to look forward to as well. But I try not to, but you know, sometimes stuff happens and especially if I'm like traveling in the month and I have to, you know, shift my schedule around, I, I figure it out, make it happen.
Often I will prep content or create it. So, um, I have an episode on batching and, uh, it's one that a lot of people really like, because I really break down batching. Uh, I feel like batching gets really confusing for people because it feels like, oh my God, I have to do like a million things, uh, all in the same day.
And that's not how I do it. So some Mondays I will batch the prep for the podcast, meaning I will, um, write in like my show notes, my recording outline. Things like that. Um, and then on another day, like another Monday I will batch record. So I pull up all the notes and then I like record all of the episodes or sometimes like, is the case this week.
Uh, I'm recording this on a Tuesday. So yesterday I wrote out the show notes and then looking ahead at my to-do list for the week and like my appointments for the week and everything I realized, oh, I have some little pockets of time here and there where I could. One or two episodes cause may episodes aren't super long.
So, you know, things like that, but by having it prepped, then when I have 30 minute window of time, I can just quickly turn my stuff on and, and go and record it. Um, handed off to my team to finish it. Um, sometimes I also will do future planning or looking back and assessing and, uh, pre COVID. I really love to get together with a friend, um, like a couple of times a year and we would go to like an Airbnb or a hotel, and we would do this together over a weekend, uh, that, you know, definitely.
Happened in a while. I also moved away from where she lives. Um, but you know, sometimes I just will pull out, um, post-its and paper and my laptop and everything, and just give myself some time to really do some future visioning and things like that. And it's, it's really, uh, it's really, really nice. And that is especially good to do.
Um, You know, around like the like quarterly, uh, is always a good time if you're like, I don't know, like when, or, you know, at the end of a month or at the beginning of a month, like to just kind of look back and look ahead, uh, you don't necessarily need to spend your whole day doing it, but, um, it's nice to have that time.
To do it. And that way you sort of don't get swept up in the momentum of things, just happening to you in your business, you can kind of cast the vision and then work, uh, and, you know, create a plan and then work the plan. Um, and sometimes I will also do business. Tasks like learning or building out components for new offers, which could be like free or paid trainings.
They could be opt-ins they could be paid offers, et cetera. Right. So, um, I will often say this to my clients that like your peak creative brain time, like for creation or, um, planning or, you know, anything like that. A lot of times we. Fit learning in like, especially if we're in programs where like, oh, I, you know, I got to do this learning.
Um, but you know, depending on you and how your brain works, I actually find that I need to save my like sort of golden creative time for. Specific things in my business that move my business forward and then I can use other time. Um, and sometimes this is not just on Mondays. Like sometimes it's just, you know, like the late afternoon, uh, where I don't really have the creative energy to be like strategizing or ideating or creating, but I do have enough brain capacity left to be learning, to be like going through.
You know, videos or materials or, you know, things like that. Right. So that is what I will do then, and this way, um, really, uh, and I should've said that said this at the top, but CEO days for me are the antidote to, uh, You know, when, when we, when like you hear people say, um, and you may have even said this, like I never have time to work on my business.
Um, or, you know, I'm, I'm always doing client work and I never do for myself what I do for my clients. Um, and it feels really frustrating. So, uh, the way that this is the antidote to that is because when you are. Prioritizing it, when you are scheduling it in, then you are sort of forced to shift the rest of your business to support that.
Right. So when you make something a non-negotiable, right, like for instance, let's say it, you know, let's just say you have kids and they have to be picked up from, you know, you have to pick them up from school every day at. Two o'clock uh, so you would have a hard stop then probably around like one 30.
Right? So that becomes a non-negotiable because you're not just going to leave your children at school. If you're the one who has to go pick them up. Right. So you, you already have that. And so you can do that for yourself. As the CEO are allowed to give yourself a blocked out time. That is just for yourself where you're like, yeah, no, nobody can book in a, not doing any.
Client-facing anything, um, between this chunk of time or on this specific day. And then you use that time to do those things of working on your business. And then with the remaining time you it's, you know, it's good to look at that and be like, what is the remaining time? And then actually see if your offers and your pricing and your marketing and all of that can support the.
Time. And again, I say this as somebody who like originally, like I I've been running businesses for a long time and, and a lot of that time I was homeschooling, right? So at a younger kid, I was homeschooling. We had different like classes and things that we were driving to and had to be present for. So I had a lot less time than I do now.
And I had to get really creative and whenever my schedule has fluctuated. Due to external factors. Like my son is in school now and we have to, um, drive him a few days a week. So, you know, I like that is an external factor or it could be me being like, I don't want to work on Fridays and I don't take calls on Mondays.
Right. So, uh, and I don't work super early and I don't work super late. Right. So I have a very compressed schedule by choice. And then I need to make sure that my offers my pricing, um, you know, my. Marketing time, my marketing plan, like all of that, I have to make sure that everything is congruent. I have to make sure that everything is in alignment with my needs and my desires so that it works.
And the reason that I. Able to have such strong forward momentum is because I, I do not wait around to have the time to work on my business. I give it to myself and just like how I start my CEO day with money Monday. So like, it's like do not pass, go until you've done the money stuff. For me. That's why my CEO day is Monday because it's like, you do not pass, go until you've had some time to, you know, you've, you've done these things that really need to get done again for you.
It might be totally different. Uh, your life might be such right now that may be, you have to do it on Wednesday or Friday or Sunday, or, you know, three mornings a week, um, broken up. Yeah. Uh, if you do this already, I would love to hear, um, tell me on Instagram at Erica Kevin's consulting, what your CEO days are like.
Um, and if you are going to start CEO days, I would love to hear about that too. So tell me, you know, when you're thinking you're going to do it, what you're planning on doing during that time, any and all of the things. And of course, if you're. I don't know how I'm going to make it all happen and hit my revenue goals without working more.
If I'm giving myself extra time where I'm working on my business, then reach out. You can always go to chat with erica.com, get on my calendar and we can talk. Cause that's what I do. I help people like you figure out how to make more without working more. Um, and of course, as always without sleaze, Thank you for being here.
Thank you for listening. Share this with a friend who might love it, and as always happy selling.
