Action without intention is like throwing spaghetti at the wall and just hoping something will stick. AKA - you might be moving, but it’s going to take a heck of a lot longer to get where you want to go. 

This is why CEO Days have become a non-negotiable part of my routine as a CEO and within our team culture here at The Awakening.

It isn’t enough to set the goal and take the action. In order to get your goals to a state of actualization and work smarter rather than harder in the process, you’ll want to create some space for CEO time. 

So, what exactly IS “CEO Time?”

CEO time = a dedicated time in which you sit down to work ON rather than WITHIN your business. It’s when you assess the business as a whole and ways in which you can improve your efforts, processes, and strategies in order to see results. Think of it as leading your business forward. 

One of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face is having to wear ALL the hats in the business (especially in the early stages prior to a team being in place). 

This can lead to placing the highest priority on working WITHIN your business. Think tasks like admin work, content creation, and even client work. Are these important? Yes. But they do not equate to you working ON your business. 

But why is this so important?

If you’re just working IN your business, it’s a form of operating from a reactionary state. You’re working to get all of these tasks done, but we aren’t measuring their importance or effectiveness to the overall business strategy. 

Working ON your business is what allows you to move the needle forward - not just in a year's time, but every.single.day. Think tasks like reviewing your financials, assessing your pipeline & brand strategy, and outlining your next 1-2 weeks with new tasks to increase results. 

See the difference? 

When you take the time to work ON your business via something like CEO Time, you’re able to gather a whole new level of clarity and awareness around what to work on WITHIN your business. At the end of the day, it will save you time & lead to greater results. 

So, where can you start? Let’s break it down.

Start with your numbers

Something I always tell my clients when we start working together is that “we’re going to get them extremely comfortable playing with their numbers.” I have found that SO many entrepreneurs claim that they get “too busy” to look at their numbers. 

But if you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know your business. 

At a minimum, you need to take a look at the following at the end of every single month: your overall income, expenses (based on category: team, marketing, administrative, etc), net income, and overall profit margins. 

From there, take a look at what % of your income is coming from each product or service. This will give you so much awareness as to where to put your focus from a leads and sales perspective. 

Lastly, do a quick assessment of how you’re currently tracking with the revenue plan you have in place (if you don’t have one of these, I’d recommend doing that first). Are you on track to hit your annual revenue goal? What are you doing in the following month to stay on track?

Click here to see behind the scenes of one of my CEO Days!

‍

Assess 1-3 key areas

Something I like to do for my CEO Days is identify the 1-3 key areas I want to review. These will be dependent upon what we’re currently focusing on in the business. But I’ll always choose from the following categories:

The CEO Audit → This is an assessment of how I’m feeling and what I’m seeing to be important as a CEO (a great time to practice self-trust as a CEO).

The Sales Audit → We’re reviewing sales process, conversions, pipeline, and lead generation, as well as client experience here.

The Visionary Audit → This is a favorite of a LOT of our clients. It’s time to tap into the visionary side & consider the long-term vision of your company as well as how that’s informing your current actions.

The Internal Audit → Think behind the scenes of the business, backend, project management, team communication, client processes, and more. This is where we consider ways to improve our internal processes!

The Brand Audit → I also take time to holistically consider our brand, how we’re being perceived in the market & with customers, as well as improvements we’d like to see. 

Ultimately, you’ll want to take a deep dive into the areas that are most relevant for your business (for many folks starting out that’s going to be the Sales Audit)!

‍

Review & vision cast

*This has to be the most important step.*

‍

If operating from a reactionary state in our business is what we want to avoid, then we need to consider ways that we can be extremely proactive and intentional. There are two ways that you can do that during your CEO Time:

1) Review your progress.

Myself and my team meet every single week and operate on weekly work sprints. This means that we are reviewing our progress on a weekly basis (I find that every week or every other week is a good flow for this).

Instead of continuing to simply go through the motions in your business, take the time during your CEO Time to assess your efforts over the last 1-2 weeks. 

What’s working?

What’s not working?

Areas to improve?

Being in business = a commitment to regularly problem-solve. It’s SO important to assess your efforts and see where you can improve. This leads me to number two:

‍

2) Vision cast for next steps

Once you have reviewed your recent efforts, allow that clarity to inform how you’re moving forward in the coming weeks. Instead of doing the same thing and creating the same result, ask yourself:

What can you test moving forward?

What’s something new you’d like to integrate?

What will you change?

Then, you will rinse and repeat every 1-2 weeks for optimized results over time!

If you’re ready to shift from reactionary to → wildly profitable in your business, check out our Awakening Membership.

Here’s to your next productive CEO Day!