March 25, 2025 • 25 mins
We unveil why dedicated CEO time transforms your business from a hobby into a strategic enterprise that delivers sustainable income and impact without burning you out.
• The critical difference between working IN your business (client work, content creation) versus ON your business (strategic planning, vision)
• Why working in pockets of time makes it challenging to reach your most creative flow state and strategic thinking
• How CEO time (whether weekly, monthly, or quarterly) helps you make proactive business decisions instead of constantly putting out fires
• Practical CEO time activities like reviewing finances, analyzing marketing performance, planning campaigns, and refining your offers
• Strategies for integrating CEO time into your schedule even as a busy parent or neurodivergent entrepreneur
Message us at Intuitive Marketing Collective on Instagram to share how your CEO weekend or time goes. Tune in to our next episode where we'll share how we created months' worth of content during our CEO weekend together.
Ready for Support from Meg & Chelsea?
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👉🏼 We can take a deep dive into your client journey or your visibility strategy and show you exactly what's working, what's not, and how to fix it. Ready for clarity and a plan that actually works book your audit today at www.intuitivebusinessbydesign.com/audit
👉🏼 Explore the services offered by our marketing agency Intuitive Marketing Collective and request a free Discovery Call to explore how we can support your business. Go to www.intuitivemarketingcollective.com
👉🏼 Follow the agency on Instagram to continue to conversation beyond the podcast @intuitivemarketingcollective
Want to connect more with the hosts?
Follow Meg on Instagram @megoneill10
Follow Chelsea on Instagram @intuitivebusinessmentor...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What if the biggest thing holding your business back
right now isn't lack ofstrategy, but the lack of
dedicated time to think, planand lead?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We're sharing why CEO time isn't a luxury.
As you grow your business basedon thought leadership, as a
coach, speaker or author, it's anecessity how we structure ours
, and why it's a game changerfor our business hey there
friends, welcome to theIntuitive Marketing Podcast,
where we ditch the bro marketingBS and bring you big sister
vibes instead.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I'm Meg and this is Chelsea.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Your new biz besties.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We met on TikTok in 2023.
Fast forward to now and we haveteamed up here to guide you
through the wild world ofmarketing your business with
heart and soul.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Are you feeling lost or overwhelmed, maybe unsure of
your next steps, but you have abig vision of where your
coaching, healing, speaking orwriting career could be in the
next five years, 10 years.
Don't worry, we've got yourback.
We'll help you tap into yourintuition, build a brand that
lights you up and leverageproven marketing strategies to
grow towards a six or even sevenfigure business in a way that
(01:06):
won't make you cringe.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
We're actually here to help you bring the magic back
into your marketing.
Because marketing should feelgood, not gross Grab your
favorite drink, get comfy andlet's get started.
We are actually experiencingright now a CEO weekend.
Meg and I, even though we arein separate rooms recording this
podcast just so that it soundsgood, are in the same house, and
(01:32):
that is very unique because Meglives in Massachusetts and I
live in North Carolina.
So what it looks like to havefor us a CEO weekend or maybe
it's a CEO day, a CEO hour aweek, a CEO week of the month
We'll talk through some of theoptions, but it's about having
(01:52):
for us whether I do thissometimes by myself the amazing,
unique opportunity to be ableto do it together.
It's about looking at acatalyst, like not just oh, my
gosh, I'm going to rail througha bigger to-do list than I
normally would.
It's, I think, a time to stepback, have bigger picture
thinking, refining an offer,exploring if a pivot is needed,
(02:15):
like really energeticallyconnecting to your messaging.
I think for me and for a lot ofour listeners, if you're a mom
or you have a day job or you'rea caretaker, so many of us are
running our businesses inpockets oh, I have 30 minutes
right now.
What can I work on?
And it's really challenging forme anyway to like, oh, I'm just
(02:35):
going to drop into my mostcreative deepest flow state in
pockets of time, and so for me,it's also about just allowing
some expansion of time.
Sometimes I literally need toget like bored, watch a Netflix
show, to then be like, oh mygosh, my brain is excited and
ready, and in my day to day Idon't get that.
I think for me, part of it ishonoring that my creative
(02:57):
process requires time and doingthings that are on my own
schedule and being able to dropin and be like, oh okay, let's
think some of these biggerpicture things that aren't just
tasks.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And I think if you don't make that time, whether it
is weekly or quarterly thenyou're always just working on
the serving the clients andwhich is very important, but
you're not being able to setgoals or see the bigger picture
of and that's actual likebusiness leadership.
So many of us start ourbusinesses because we're so
(03:31):
passionate about something, butwe haven't been trained in like
any kind of business leadership,CEO type.
So we have to learn that inorder, especially us who are
building businesses.
In the pockets of time, likewhen my kids are home or have
vacation or I'm solo parenting,it is really hard to carve out
the time to think of what do Iwant to be doing in May?
(03:54):
How are we launching that?
So we have to set the time.
I think also, as two busy,neurodivergent moms and my kids
are older, they're in a lot ofactivities like to have this
weekend first of all in a bedthat's like really comfortable
to sleep in and not just beingin.
Everybody else's energy on theday-to-day is just my brain is
(04:18):
like able to just focus.
And we've already been doing weprobably we've worked the amount
that like we usually work in aweek and like a day just because
we have this time carved out,and I think that the other thing
that I want to just like notetoo, is that our businesses are
movements.
The people that come to us havethese amazing offerings to give
(04:41):
to the world.
But so many of us are alsotrying to balance being a mom or
doing all of the mental loadthat comes with also being home,
and if you don't carve out thetime to actually treat your
business like a business, thenit's a hobby and it's not
(05:03):
something that is going tonecessarily have the income
producing quality that you wantit to have like.
You have to treat it like it issomething that's going to give
back to you in that way and whenyou do, it's going to reward
you.
Essentially, it is reallyimportant.
So the weekend to me is reallyimportant, and then also I keep
(05:24):
Mondays as my CEO.
That's when I try to do mybookkeeping, my backend stuff,
have meetings with you and nottake client focused things.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So whatever cadence works for you as a business
owner shorter, quicker touchpoint or like batching almost
sometime for yourself, I think,for me, having this I have been
doing quarterly-ish I'm gonnacall it where my husband often
is like shouldn't we just planthese ahead of time?
Because you just get to a place,I get to a place where I'm like
(05:56):
I need this, I need time away,a big launch is coming, or we
have big goals and I just can'tmake it happen.
And so it always like, when welook at when I get to that
breaking point, it's aboutquarterly-ish.
And so he was like maybe youshould just plan these.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Your nervous system will probably thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
But for me it's about allowing for sustainability,
because for me I work a littlebit of a weird schedule because
my son has just half dayafternoon pre-K time and then I
usually work on Saturday becausemy husband is home, and so I
already have this like a littlebit of a weird flexible schedule
(06:33):
.
For that to be sustainable, forme to be able to put in enough
energy and creativity and clientwork time, like it does have to
have that kind of catch-allevery couple months where I can
be like okay, I know I want torevamp our membership page, but
that's not a 30-minute project.
That can be when, likeallocating time and energy and I
(06:54):
think also, just so many of ourclients are healers, coaches,
you're preparing a keynotespeech, you preparing like
thinking through your next booklaunch.
There's so many micro decisionsthat happen and I find that
condensing the micro decisionsaround a topic to be like, okay,
(07:15):
I'm gonna really feel into it,and it's not like we're and
sitting here like working everysingle second quote unquote
working like grinding out, likewe've had time for doing rituals
and we're pulling cards andwe're going out to lunch and,
like it also just allows you tonot just be okay, I got to close
my laptop to go do the nextthing.
(07:35):
Okay, let me have a little bitof integration time on some of
those conversations we had.
And how is that going to pop upinto an action 90 minutes from
now, which you often don't getthe luxury of?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Exactly, and I think that just everyone who's
listening is clear too.
There's a difference betweenworking in your business and
working on your business, andthat's what kind of the nuance
that we're talking about.
We're doing both this weekend,but most of the time spent in
entrepreneurship is like workingin your business, like serving
(08:07):
the clients, getting the freebieup, doing those things.
But to step back and to say I'mworking on the business gives
you that sustainabilitylong-term too, because you're
planning for the future andyou're not just saying, okay,
now I'm in a launch and now Ihave to do this.
You want to get to the point inyour business where there's
some kind of cycle that youunderstand, so you're not just
(08:29):
like flying by the seat of yourpants all the time.
And that's what I mean.
I was in that as an entrepreneuron my own for so long.
I was working in my business, Iwas doing the day-to-day, I was
putting the content out, I wasserving the clients and a.
What I think our goal is to dois to like get a little bit
farther away from that so thatwe can grow into the business
(08:53):
that we know, like the scale ofthe business that we know that
we can have.
If you are constantly in theday to day, you can't put that
visionary hat on.
It's really hard to do that solike you can get that visionary
hit and be like, oh, this isthis, oh, I know this is where
I'm going, but it gets put onthe back burner.
And it gets put on the backburner again because it's not
(09:13):
that money, like that needlemoving money activity.
So, having the CEO time to,even if it is just weekly, to
journal through what that visionis, or to and then from there
carve out these are the actionsthat I need to take.
So we're doing it in more of acondensed weekend, but it is
really important to think aboutthat quarterly.
(09:35):
You don't have to go away.
You can do this just on aFriday or something with your
business to really get clear onthe vision for it.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, I think for me as a generator I know Meg was
like I think you might have morestamina, but for me I reflect
on these times.
If I look back at past CEOweekends, for myself they have
been catalysts, because it's notjust another workday of okay,
let me just rail through thingsthat have backed up.
(10:04):
There's some things that Icould be like, oh, I should get
caught up on a couple of clientcommunications, but like in my
mind I'm like, no, that will bethere Monday or maybe two,
because I might need a littlebit of a little work over.
I'm taking Monday off.
You're flying, yeah, but it'snot just about catch up ideally.
It is like you were sayingthose high level planning, and
so to me that means how can Iimprove an offer?
(10:28):
How can I audit what's working?
Do I need to log in and getsome data?
Do I need to see the conversionrate of a sales page?
What do I want to do with thatinformation?
Do I need to be looking at somemarket research?
Like, maybe you have peoplefill out testimonial sheets or
fill out why they joined acertain offer, but you don't
(10:50):
really like look, sit down andlook at them.
Oh, how does this shift, mymessaging, how can I better
connect with or better serve?
I think there's often the howdo I become more visible?
Right, you're so much more thevisibility queen.
I'm more of the client journeyqueen, but I think there's both.
When we spent I don't knowalmost six hours yesterday
(11:16):
collecting content, we did thatin such a big burst because
we're not together in person,but even my husband and I have
been chatting about this.
We're not together in person,but even my husband and I have
been chatting about this.
Like we should just find ababysitter.
Ask my parents if we had amonthly brunch date and then he
took an hour to capture B-rollfor me after it just sets future
Chelsea, future Meg, futureyour business up.
(11:38):
Like whatever is challenging foryou to fit into the day-to-day
can be part of that CEO time.
So if you have a messy houseand you just never feel like you
can get B-roll or content, thatcan be part of it.
Maybe some of your CEO time iswe went to a co-working space
and I know in our next episodewe're going to talk more about
how we organized and batched asmuch content as we did, but
(11:58):
because that is something for usto fit in day to day.
That can become also a priorityin your time.
I feel like Because it's likewhatever you cannot typically
fit in creativity-wise,messaging-wise, reassessing it
just so that it can really feellike you are putting that
different hat on and then say,okay, in the next three months
(12:19):
these tasks can be done in thehat of execution and getting the
actions done.
It's also a great time to assesswhat you're delegating.
If you haven't listened to ourepisode from last season on,
like how to figure out what youcould be or should be delegating
in your business, it is a greattime to look at to-dos that are
not getting done on a regularbasis and deciding if you really
(12:42):
need to keep doing that or ifit's time to say, oh, I need to
hire a bookkeeper, I need tohave a VA who's not, who can be
in their zone of genius to dothese things that I'm not
getting done, and when you canjust step back and look at it.
It's really a helpful time toassess that.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, and it's so important because I think, again
, it's like that leadershippiece that not everyone is
desiring, necessarily, when theyget into entrepreneurship.
But then you love your business, you want to pour into it and
you have to step into thatleadership position and it helps
if you know that you have thistime carved out every year too.
It helps avoid the restrictivedecision-making and, like the
(13:22):
burnout, because you know it'scoming, coming, you can plan for
it.
You're going to evaluate,you're going to look at the data
.
You're going to say, okay, thisis what burnt me out, this is
we have a plan of writing theemail sequences and stuff like
that that you can spend sometime.
We're not doing it this weekend, but like somebody could
essentially say, okay, that'sgoing to be the project, or and
it also helps you justprioritize what's going to move
(13:44):
the needle, what we keep comingback to.
We knew we had to get this done,so in order to be on the
timeline that we wanted, sowe're able to look at the things
and say, okay, this is going tomove the needle, these are the
things that we need toaccomplish, and it puts that.
It puts that hard boundariesand structure around it, which I
think is really important,especially where so many of us
are so intuitive.
It is great and that's the waythat we want people to run their
(14:06):
business.
That's how we want to run ourbusiness.
And also we have to be groundedin the three day to we're
taking people's money right,like we're exchanging a service,
like you have to have.
There's a level ofprofessionalism that you want to
treat your business with, tohonor the people that are
showing up and paying you, andit also just creates a space for
innovation and strategic pivots, like for us, having a
(14:28):
partnership and having apartnership that is not
physically close.
We spend a lot of time onTelegram and that is great, but
we work opposite schedules, so Iwork more so in the morning,
chelsea works more so in theafternoon evening morning,
chelsea works more so in theafternoon evening.
So we don't get that time asmuch to just have conversations
(14:49):
and look at like strategy, beinnovative.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
We're more like okay, we're going to drop off.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
We had this idea.
We need that time to be like,okay, this is a great idea, but
like when are we going toimplement it?
And just having knowing that wewere working towards this space
together gave us like a placeto put things and not feel like
it was this like weight on yourshoulders of when am I going to
get it done?
Okay, we have this time.
We can spend talking about itwhen we are together.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And we did create a Google Doc in advance of the
things that we thought we wantedto be able to get done.
And, as always, it's like areality check of like you want
to get done more than everythingtakes, longer than you think it
will, so that you don't feelrushed or in hustle mode, and
then like constantly we've beenchecking in.
Ok, what if we can't geteverything done?
(15:36):
What's the next most importantthing?
The topic that's harder to do inpockets.
What's the thing that we wantto be focusing on?
How can we stay on top ofthings?
And so we're going to runthrough.
I think we've got a list offive examples of CEO time key
activities.
So if you're exploring this,you can have some direction and
idea.
And then we're also going totalk about, like, how to make,
(15:57):
how to make this happen, causewe can just do this by chance
and give you some homework.
Here's some key activitiesspecifically.
So one is reviewing businessfinances, going through your
bookkeeping, going through anyexpenses that like, oh my gosh,
maybe we can cancel thissoftware system we're not using.
Running your business as lean aspossible requires paying
attention to what's coming inand what's going out.
(16:18):
Marketing performance, really.
Maybe you are someone oppositeof us who, like, really pays
attention to insights, yeah, butlooking at what social media
platforms have been bringingbusiness, have you been ignoring
a platform that used to bringyou business?
How has that been impacting you?
So, really, looking at themarketing activities and
(16:39):
upcoming launches If you'resomeone who does live launches
or even just thinking through,oh, in this month I'm going to
be speaking more about thisparticular program and just
planning out a little bit sothat you're having those touch
points.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
And another thing that you can do is map out
content and campaigns with a bigpicture strategy.
So a lot of us are just likewhat am I going to talk about
this week?
But what we're doing, we didmap out like three months of
content and then we like pivotedour messages slightly so we
might go back to that, but itdoes give you the time to think
through what launches are comingup, so that you feel grounded
(17:17):
and more stable and it's notjust Sunday night and you're
like what am I going to talkabout this week?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Also analyzing and refining offers, messaging,
pricing.
Have you gone through a recentcertification and you realized
you don't even say that anywhere?
Maybe you should increase yourprices because of it?
Like reflecting what's happenedin the last couple months.
Should something be shifting?
Or have you gotten feedback?
Are you hearing every clientwho hires you saying, oh, I
(17:44):
really resonate with the factthat you blah.
Oh, is that reflected on any ofyour sales pages?
Or are you just hoping peoplefigure that out about you?
So really just like looking atthings through a less personal
lens and more from like feedbackcan be really helpful.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So the other thing that you can do in your CEO time
, too, is identify bottlenecksand make decisions so that you
can streamline your operations.
So in the day to day it's hardto say.
You might be able to seesomething and say, okay, this is
a bottleneck, but you justdon't have time because you're
doing the day-to-day.
Having that CEO time can giveyou the space to sit down and
(18:22):
say, okay, how am I going toremediate this?
And say how can I make it morestreamlined?
Who can I delegate it to who?
How can I make it morestreamlined?
Who can I delegate it to?
Who can fix this for me?
And it gives you the time toactually make the change instead
of just realizing this is abottleneck and not being able to
shift it, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
And then, of course, setting clear goals.
If you're doing it quarterly,quarter to quarter, looking at
what your goals are, or evensetting longer term goals if
that resonates with yourpersonality.
But just to really OK, now I'vegathered some data, I've felt
into my offers, Maybe I've madesome tweaks.
Now what am I hoping to seecome out of the business?
How many of certain packagesare going to sell?
(19:01):
Or for us, we have ourmembership and so we're setting
goals of like how many memberswe'd like to have in it by the
end of next quarter and what arethe plans to get there.
So it could be financial goals,number of clients that you plan
to serve, number of stages youwant to get booked to speak at,
or even like planning for a booklaunch, like whatever is coming
up next.
Getting really clear on somegoals and then making sure that
(19:23):
your actions are going to be setup to support that.
That's the exciting part for me.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I like that, just like logistically, how do you
make CEO time happen?
Like I, from the start of mybusiness, I have, like I said, I
have made Monday my CEO day andit ebbs and flows, but I really
try to keep to that.
And then for this weekend itdid take.
It took planning for us.
We have kids, we have to buytickets, find somewhere to stay,
(19:48):
all of those things, andsometimes it's like you have to
bite that bullet to say I'mputting my flag in the sand here
.
We're making this happen andthat's really.
You're really honoring yourbusiness in that way.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, it almost feels like an initiation in some way
or an expansion to say all ofthese other roles or obligations
I have that are important.
But this is important to askyou, I think one of the scary
things as a mom you have to askfor the help.
I can't just disappear right.
You just leave your threechildren.
So you have to ask for help andsay out loud this is important
(20:23):
enough to me that I need helpfrom other people to replace me,
and I think that can be alittle bit of a hard thing to
say out loud.
That's just growing.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And then just like figuring out what the structure
is going to be like, how muchtime or we spent a big creative
day yesterday and we knew thatwas going to take a lot of time
getting that content and how areyou going to split your time
between planning, makingdecisions, keeping yourself on a
schedule?
So you really do honor the,have an intuitive flow about it,
(20:53):
but also honor the time thatyou're putting in dedicating to
your business.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Should we give them some homework?
I guess we've been weaving itin.
But a couple of specifics.
I know you have some good ideas, yeah, so first, schedule this
CEO time.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
So maybe it is Monday , like I said, or maybe it is a
weekend.
Maybe just start with adedicated half day.
So block it off no client callsand take a few hours to set
some goals and get thosebottlenecks cleared up.
Things like that.
Choose two to three focus areasfor your CEO time, especially
if you have a limited amount oftime.
Maybe it is just that financialreview and content planning.
(21:27):
Find two areas that are reallygoing to move the needle or just
honor your business in a levelthat you haven't before, and
finally, just set up a simpleCEO day structure.
So maybe that is time blockingfor content, for visioning for
and spend some time journaling.
Look, create some templates.
(21:49):
Have tools in place that keepyou on track for the goals that
you want to accomplish with yourtime.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I know when you first showed up, we were like this
kind of feels surreal and nowI'm like I don't want Matt to
fly back home.
I know now it feels normal,just come on, move in.
But we're going to be wrappingour CEO weekend up this
afternoon and shifting back intonormal life.
So if you have questions abouthow we ran this or if you want
to share how your CEO weekend ortime goes, make sure to come.
(22:20):
Message us at IntuitiveMarketing Collective over on
Instagram.
We hope that you found thisepisode of the Intuitive
Marketing Podcast as inspirationto help you bring the magic
back into your own marketing.
Our goal is for this podcast tobe a compass in the chaos.
We know how you get bombardedwith information, options and
conflicting ideas out there onthe internet streets.
(22:40):
We hope that you tune into thenext episode, where we will be
sharing how we created as muchcontent as we did this weekend,
which is quite a bit that willcarry us through honestly, for
probably a few months until ournext time.
Hopefully that we get togetherand we're also going to share
some of the lessons that welearned as well around gathering
as that as much content as wedid, and also some of the
(23:01):
mindset stuff around, seeingyourself gather putting yourself
out there, so we're going to besharing some of the lessons and
if you're someone who desiresto get into content batching on
any level, you should definitelytune in awesome.
What if the biggest thing holding your business back
right now isn't lack ofstrategy, but the lack of
dedicated time to think, planand lead?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We're sharing why CEO time isn't a luxury.
As you grow your business basedon thought leadership, as a
coach, speaker or author, it's anecessity how we structure ours
, and why it's a game changerfor our business hey there
friends, welcome to theIntuitive Marketing Podcast,
where we ditch the bro marketingBS and bring you big sister
vibes instead.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I'm Meg and this is Chelsea.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Your new biz besties.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We met on TikTok in 2023.
Fast forward to now and we haveteamed up here to guide you
through the wild world ofmarketing your business with
heart and soul.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Are you feeling lost or overwhelmed, maybe unsure of
your next steps, but you have abig vision of where your
coaching, healing, speaking orwriting career could be in the
next five years, 10 years.
Don't worry, we've got yourback.
We'll help you tap into yourintuition, build a brand that
lights you up and leverageproven marketing strategies to
grow towards a six or even sevenfigure business in a way that
(01:06):
won't make you cringe.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
We're actually here to help you bring the magic back
into your marketing.
Because marketing should feelgood, not gross Grab your
favorite drink, get comfy andlet's get started.
We are actually experiencingright now a CEO weekend.
Meg and I, even though we arein separate rooms recording this
podcast just so that it soundsgood, are in the same house, and
(01:32):
that is very unique because Meglives in Massachusetts and I
live in North Carolina.
So what it looks like to havefor us a CEO weekend or maybe
it's a CEO day, a CEO hour aweek, a CEO week of the month
We'll talk through some of theoptions, but it's about having
(01:52):
for us whether I do thissometimes by myself the amazing,
unique opportunity to be ableto do it together.
It's about looking at acatalyst, like not just oh, my
gosh, I'm going to rail througha bigger to-do list than I
normally would.
It's, I think, a time to stepback, have bigger picture
thinking, refining an offer,exploring if a pivot is needed,
(02:15):
like really energeticallyconnecting to your messaging.
I think for me and for a lot ofour listeners, if you're a mom
or you have a day job or you'rea caretaker, so many of us are
running our businesses inpockets oh, I have 30 minutes
right now.
What can I work on?
And it's really challenging forme anyway to like, oh, I'm just
(02:35):
going to drop into my mostcreative deepest flow state in
pockets of time, and so for me,it's also about just allowing
some expansion of time.
Sometimes I literally need toget like bored, watch a Netflix
show, to then be like, oh mygosh, my brain is excited and
ready, and in my day to day Idon't get that.
I think for me, part of it ishonoring that my creative
(02:57):
process requires time and doingthings that are on my own
schedule and being able to dropin and be like, oh okay, let's
think some of these biggerpicture things that aren't just
tasks.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And I think if you don't make that time, whether it
is weekly or quarterly thenyou're always just working on
the serving the clients andwhich is very important, but
you're not being able to setgoals or see the bigger picture
of and that's actual likebusiness leadership.
So many of us start ourbusinesses because we're so
(03:31):
passionate about something, butwe haven't been trained in like
any kind of business leadership,CEO type.
So we have to learn that inorder, especially us who are
building businesses.
In the pockets of time, likewhen my kids are home or have
vacation or I'm solo parenting,it is really hard to carve out
the time to think of what do Iwant to be doing in May?
(03:54):
How are we launching that?
So we have to set the time.
I think also, as two busy,neurodivergent moms and my kids
are older, they're in a lot ofactivities like to have this
weekend first of all in a bedthat's like really comfortable
to sleep in and not just beingin.
Everybody else's energy on theday-to-day is just my brain is
(04:18):
like able to just focus.
And we've already been doing weprobably we've worked the amount
that like we usually work in aweek and like a day just because
we have this time carved out,and I think that the other thing
that I want to just like notetoo, is that our businesses are
movements.
The people that come to us havethese amazing offerings to give
(04:41):
to the world.
But so many of us are alsotrying to balance being a mom or
doing all of the mental loadthat comes with also being home,
and if you don't carve out thetime to actually treat your
business like a business, thenit's a hobby and it's not
(05:03):
something that is going tonecessarily have the income
producing quality that you wantit to have like.
You have to treat it like it issomething that's going to give
back to you in that way and whenyou do, it's going to reward
you.
Essentially, it is reallyimportant.
So the weekend to me is reallyimportant, and then also I keep
(05:24):
Mondays as my CEO.
That's when I try to do mybookkeeping, my backend stuff,
have meetings with you and nottake client focused things.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So whatever cadence works for you as a business
owner shorter, quicker touchpoint or like batching almost
sometime for yourself, I think,for me, having this I have been
doing quarterly-ish I'm gonnacall it where my husband often
is like shouldn't we just planthese ahead of time?
Because you just get to a place,I get to a place where I'm like
(05:56):
I need this, I need time away,a big launch is coming, or we
have big goals and I just can'tmake it happen.
And so it always like, when welook at when I get to that
breaking point, it's aboutquarterly-ish.
And so he was like maybe youshould just plan these.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Your nervous system will probably thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
But for me it's about allowing for sustainability,
because for me I work a littlebit of a weird schedule because
my son has just half dayafternoon pre-K time and then I
usually work on Saturday becausemy husband is home, and so I
already have this like a littlebit of a weird flexible schedule
(06:33):
.
For that to be sustainable, forme to be able to put in enough
energy and creativity and clientwork time, like it does have to
have that kind of catch-allevery couple months where I can
be like okay, I know I want torevamp our membership page, but
that's not a 30-minute project.
That can be when, likeallocating time and energy and I
(06:54):
think also, just so many of ourclients are healers, coaches,
you're preparing a keynotespeech, you preparing like
thinking through your next booklaunch.
There's so many micro decisionsthat happen and I find that
condensing the micro decisionsaround a topic to be like, okay,
(07:15):
I'm gonna really feel into it,and it's not like we're and
sitting here like working everysingle second quote unquote
working like grinding out, likewe've had time for doing rituals
and we're pulling cards andwe're going out to lunch and,
like it also just allows you tonot just be okay, I got to close
my laptop to go do the nextthing.
(07:35):
Okay, let me have a little bitof integration time on some of
those conversations we had.
And how is that going to pop upinto an action 90 minutes from
now, which you often don't getthe luxury of?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Exactly, and I think that just everyone who's
listening is clear too.
There's a difference betweenworking in your business and
working on your business, andthat's what kind of the nuance
that we're talking about.
We're doing both this weekend,but most of the time spent in
entrepreneurship is like workingin your business, like serving
(08:07):
the clients, getting the freebieup, doing those things.
But to step back and to say I'mworking on the business gives
you that sustainabilitylong-term too, because you're
planning for the future andyou're not just saying, okay,
now I'm in a launch and now Ihave to do this.
You want to get to the point inyour business where there's
some kind of cycle that youunderstand, so you're not just
(08:29):
like flying by the seat of yourpants all the time.
And that's what I mean.
I was in that as an entrepreneuron my own for so long.
I was working in my business, Iwas doing the day-to-day, I was
putting the content out, I wasserving the clients and a.
What I think our goal is to dois to like get a little bit
farther away from that so thatwe can grow into the business
(08:53):
that we know, like the scale ofthe business that we know that
we can have.
If you are constantly in theday to day, you can't put that
visionary hat on.
It's really hard to do that solike you can get that visionary
hit and be like, oh, this isthis, oh, I know this is where
I'm going, but it gets put onthe back burner.
And it gets put on the backburner again because it's not
(09:13):
that money, like that needlemoving money activity.
So, having the CEO time to,even if it is just weekly, to
journal through what that visionis, or to and then from there
carve out these are the actionsthat I need to take.
So we're doing it in more of acondensed weekend, but it is
really important to think aboutthat quarterly.
(09:35):
You don't have to go away.
You can do this just on aFriday or something with your
business to really get clear onthe vision for it.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, I think for me as a generator I know Meg was
like I think you might have morestamina, but for me I reflect
on these times.
If I look back at past CEOweekends, for myself they have
been catalysts, because it's notjust another workday of okay,
let me just rail through thingsthat have backed up.
(10:04):
There's some things that Icould be like, oh, I should get
caught up on a couple of clientcommunications, but like in my
mind I'm like, no, that will bethere Monday or maybe two,
because I might need a littlebit of a little work over.
I'm taking Monday off.
You're flying, yeah, but it'snot just about catch up ideally.
It is like you were sayingthose high level planning, and
so to me that means how can Iimprove an offer?
(10:28):
How can I audit what's working?
Do I need to log in and getsome data?
Do I need to see the conversionrate of a sales page?
What do I want to do with thatinformation?
Do I need to be looking at somemarket research?
Like, maybe you have peoplefill out testimonial sheets or
fill out why they joined acertain offer, but you don't
(10:50):
really like look, sit down andlook at them.
Oh, how does this shift, mymessaging, how can I better
connect with or better serve?
I think there's often the howdo I become more visible?
Right, you're so much more thevisibility queen.
I'm more of the client journeyqueen, but I think there's both.
When we spent I don't knowalmost six hours yesterday
(11:16):
collecting content, we did thatin such a big burst because
we're not together in person,but even my husband and I have
been chatting about this.
We're not together in person,but even my husband and I have
been chatting about this.
Like we should just find ababysitter.
Ask my parents if we had amonthly brunch date and then he
took an hour to capture B-rollfor me after it just sets future
Chelsea, future Meg, futureyour business up.
(11:38):
Like whatever is challenging foryou to fit into the day-to-day
can be part of that CEO time.
So if you have a messy houseand you just never feel like you
can get B-roll or content, thatcan be part of it.
Maybe some of your CEO time iswe went to a co-working space
and I know in our next episodewe're going to talk more about
how we organized and batched asmuch content as we did, but
(11:58):
because that is something for usto fit in day to day.
That can become also a priorityin your time.
I feel like Because it's likewhatever you cannot typically
fit in creativity-wise,messaging-wise, reassessing it
just so that it can really feellike you are putting that
different hat on and then say,okay, in the next three months
(12:19):
these tasks can be done in thehat of execution and getting the
actions done.
It's also a great time to assesswhat you're delegating.
If you haven't listened to ourepisode from last season on,
like how to figure out what youcould be or should be delegating
in your business, it is a greattime to look at to-dos that are
not getting done on a regularbasis and deciding if you really
(12:42):
need to keep doing that or ifit's time to say, oh, I need to
hire a bookkeeper, I need tohave a VA who's not, who can be
in their zone of genius to dothese things that I'm not
getting done, and when you canjust step back and look at it.
It's really a helpful time toassess that.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, and it's so important because I think, again
, it's like that leadershippiece that not everyone is
desiring, necessarily, when theyget into entrepreneurship.
But then you love your business, you want to pour into it and
you have to step into thatleadership position and it helps
if you know that you have thistime carved out every year too.
It helps avoid the restrictivedecision-making and, like the
(13:22):
burnout, because you know it'scoming, coming, you can plan for
it.
You're going to evaluate,you're going to look at the data
.
You're going to say, okay, thisis what burnt me out, this is
we have a plan of writing theemail sequences and stuff like
that that you can spend sometime.
We're not doing it this weekend, but like somebody could
essentially say, okay, that'sgoing to be the project, or and
it also helps you justprioritize what's going to move
(13:44):
the needle, what we keep comingback to.
We knew we had to get this done,so in order to be on the
timeline that we wanted, sowe're able to look at the things
and say, okay, this is going tomove the needle, these are the
things that we need toaccomplish, and it puts that.
It puts that hard boundariesand structure around it, which I
think is really important,especially where so many of us
are so intuitive.
It is great and that's the waythat we want people to run their
(14:06):
business.
That's how we want to run ourbusiness.
And also we have to be groundedin the three day to we're
taking people's money right,like we're exchanging a service,
like you have to have.
There's a level ofprofessionalism that you want to
treat your business with, tohonor the people that are
showing up and paying you, andit also just creates a space for
innovation and strategic pivots, like for us, having a
(14:28):
partnership and having apartnership that is not
physically close.
We spend a lot of time onTelegram and that is great, but
we work opposite schedules, so Iwork more so in the morning,
chelsea works more so in theafternoon evening morning,
chelsea works more so in theafternoon evening.
So we don't get that time asmuch to just have conversations
(14:49):
and look at like strategy, beinnovative.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
We're more like okay, we're going to drop off.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
We had this idea.
We need that time to be like,okay, this is a great idea, but
like when are we going toimplement it?
And just having knowing that wewere working towards this space
together gave us like a placeto put things and not feel like
it was this like weight on yourshoulders of when am I going to
get it done?
Okay, we have this time.
We can spend talking about itwhen we are together.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And we did create a Google Doc in advance of the
things that we thought we wantedto be able to get done.
And, as always, it's like areality check of like you want
to get done more than everythingtakes, longer than you think it
will, so that you don't feelrushed or in hustle mode, and
then like constantly we've beenchecking in.
Ok, what if we can't geteverything done?
(15:36):
What's the next most importantthing?
The topic that's harder to do inpockets.
What's the thing that we wantto be focusing on?
How can we stay on top ofthings?
And so we're going to runthrough.
I think we've got a list offive examples of CEO time key
activities.
So if you're exploring this,you can have some direction and
idea.
And then we're also going totalk about, like, how to make,
(15:57):
how to make this happen, causewe can just do this by chance
and give you some homework.
Here's some key activitiesspecifically.
So one is reviewing businessfinances, going through your
bookkeeping, going through anyexpenses that like, oh my gosh,
maybe we can cancel thissoftware system we're not using.
Running your business as lean aspossible requires paying
attention to what's coming inand what's going out.
(16:18):
Marketing performance, really.
Maybe you are someone oppositeof us who, like, really pays
attention to insights, yeah, butlooking at what social media
platforms have been bringingbusiness, have you been ignoring
a platform that used to bringyou business?
How has that been impacting you?
So, really, looking at themarketing activities and
(16:39):
upcoming launches If you'resomeone who does live launches
or even just thinking through,oh, in this month I'm going to
be speaking more about thisparticular program and just
planning out a little bit sothat you're having those touch
points.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
And another thing that you can do is map out
content and campaigns with a bigpicture strategy.
So a lot of us are just likewhat am I going to talk about
this week?
But what we're doing, we didmap out like three months of
content and then we like pivotedour messages slightly so we
might go back to that, but itdoes give you the time to think
through what launches are comingup, so that you feel grounded
(17:17):
and more stable and it's notjust Sunday night and you're
like what am I going to talkabout this week?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Also analyzing and refining offers, messaging,
pricing.
Have you gone through a recentcertification and you realized
you don't even say that anywhere?
Maybe you should increase yourprices because of it?
Like reflecting what's happenedin the last couple months.
Should something be shifting?
Or have you gotten feedback?
Are you hearing every clientwho hires you saying, oh, I
(17:44):
really resonate with the factthat you blah.
Oh, is that reflected on any ofyour sales pages?
Or are you just hoping peoplefigure that out about you?
So really just like looking atthings through a less personal
lens and more from like feedbackcan be really helpful.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So the other thing that you can do in your CEO time
, too, is identify bottlenecksand make decisions so that you
can streamline your operations.
So in the day to day it's hardto say.
You might be able to seesomething and say, okay, this is
a bottleneck, but you justdon't have time because you're
doing the day-to-day.
Having that CEO time can giveyou the space to sit down and
(18:22):
say, okay, how am I going toremediate this?
And say how can I make it morestreamlined?
Who can I delegate it to who?
How can I make it morestreamlined?
Who can I delegate it to?
Who can fix this for me?
And it gives you the time toactually make the change instead
of just realizing this is abottleneck and not being able to
shift it, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
And then, of course, setting clear goals.
If you're doing it quarterly,quarter to quarter, looking at
what your goals are, or evensetting longer term goals if
that resonates with yourpersonality.
But just to really OK, now I'vegathered some data, I've felt
into my offers, Maybe I've madesome tweaks.
Now what am I hoping to seecome out of the business?
How many of certain packagesare going to sell?
(19:01):
Or for us, we have ourmembership and so we're setting
goals of like how many memberswe'd like to have in it by the
end of next quarter and what arethe plans to get there.
So it could be financial goals,number of clients that you plan
to serve, number of stages youwant to get booked to speak at,
or even like planning for a booklaunch, like whatever is coming
up next.
Getting really clear on somegoals and then making sure that
(19:23):
your actions are going to be setup to support that.
That's the exciting part for me.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I like that, just like logistically, how do you
make CEO time happen?
Like I, from the start of mybusiness, I have, like I said, I
have made Monday my CEO day andit ebbs and flows, but I really
try to keep to that.
And then for this weekend itdid take.
It took planning for us.
We have kids, we have to buytickets, find somewhere to stay,
(19:48):
all of those things, andsometimes it's like you have to
bite that bullet to say I'mputting my flag in the sand here
.
We're making this happen andthat's really.
You're really honoring yourbusiness in that way.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, it almost feels like an initiation in some way
or an expansion to say all ofthese other roles or obligations
I have that are important.
But this is important to askyou, I think one of the scary
things as a mom you have to askfor the help.
I can't just disappear right.
You just leave your threechildren.
So you have to ask for help andsay out loud this is important
(20:23):
enough to me that I need helpfrom other people to replace me,
and I think that can be alittle bit of a hard thing to
say out loud.
That's just growing.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And then just like figuring out what the structure
is going to be like, how muchtime or we spent a big creative
day yesterday and we knew thatwas going to take a lot of time
getting that content and how areyou going to split your time
between planning, makingdecisions, keeping yourself on a
schedule?
So you really do honor the,have an intuitive flow about it,
(20:53):
but also honor the time thatyou're putting in dedicating to
your business.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Should we give them some homework?
I guess we've been weaving itin.
But a couple of specifics.
I know you have some good ideas, yeah, so first, schedule this
CEO time.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
So maybe it is Monday , like I said, or maybe it is a
weekend.
Maybe just start with adedicated half day.
So block it off no client callsand take a few hours to set
some goals and get thosebottlenecks cleared up.
Things like that.
Choose two to three focus areasfor your CEO time, especially
if you have a limited amount oftime.
Maybe it is just that financialreview and content planning.
(21:27):
Find two areas that are reallygoing to move the needle or just
honor your business in a levelthat you haven't before, and
finally, just set up a simpleCEO day structure.
So maybe that is time blockingfor content, for visioning for
and spend some time journaling.
Look, create some templates.
(21:49):
Have tools in place that keepyou on track for the goals that
you want to accomplish with yourtime.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I know when you first showed up, we were like this
kind of feels surreal and nowI'm like I don't want Matt to
fly back home.
I know now it feels normal,just come on, move in.
But we're going to be wrappingour CEO weekend up this
afternoon and shifting back intonormal life.
So if you have questions abouthow we ran this or if you want
to share how your CEO weekend ortime goes, make sure to come.
(22:20):
Message us at IntuitiveMarketing Collective over on
Instagram.
We hope that you found thisepisode of the Intuitive
Marketing Podcast as inspirationto help you bring the magic
back into your own marketing.
Our goal is for this podcast tobe a compass in the chaos.
We know how you get bombardedwith information, options and
conflicting ideas out there onthe internet streets.
(22:40):
We hope that you tune into thenext episode, where we will be
sharing how we created as muchcontent as we did this weekend,
which is quite a bit that willcarry us through honestly, for
probably a few months until ournext time.
Hopefully that we get togetherand we're also going to share
some of the lessons that welearned as well around gathering
as that as much content as wedid, and also some of the
(23:01):
mindset stuff around, seeingyourself gather putting yourself
out there, so we're going to besharing some of the lessons and
if you're someone who desiresto get into content batching on
any level, you should definitelytune in awesome.
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