Coffee Chat Take 4: You’re Doing CEO Work Without CEO Systems

Welcome to another Coffee Chat Take! A bite-sized episode designed to feel like a quick voice note from a friend who gets it.

If you’ve been feeling the weight of growth and wondering why it doesn’t feel as good as it looks, this is your reminder: you don’t need to work harder. You need the right structure.

Today, I’m talking about a trap I see way too many consultants fall into, doing CEO-level work without the CEO-level systems to support them. On the outside, things look great. You’re booked out, clients love you, and the opportunities keep coming. 

But behind the scenes? You’re juggling endless details, repeating the same tasks, and cleaning up problems that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

If you’re tired of your days being filled with chasing client info, fixing preventable mistakes, or typing the same email for the tenth time, this one’s for you. I’m sharing a real client story that might sound a lot like yours and the one shift that helped her stop working harder and start leading her business like a CEO.

In this short but powerful episode, you’ll learn why success can start to feel heavier instead of lighter, how to pinpoint the process that’s draining you the most, and the simple way to start building systems that give you back your time, energy, and focus.

Resources Mentioned:

Episode 216 - The Must-Fix Business Systems That Make or Break Your Growth

🔍 Want to see exactly what’s going on behind the scenes in your business?

Grab the Back Office POWER Checklist which is a simple, fillable Google Doc you can complete right on your screen. It will help you spot what’s working, what’s missing, and where your systems are quietly slowing you down, so you can focus on fixing the real issues instead of chasing surface-level solutions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thank you for joining me for another coffee chat.
Take Now.
I was thinking about somethingyou mentioned to me before, that
sometimes you look at yourcalendar and you think I am
finally living the dream.
This is exactly what I'veworked so hard for.
You've got the clients, theprojects, the opportunities keep
coming in.

(00:21):
So from the outside, you'vedefinitely made it and
congratulations to you becauseyou deserve it.
But when you sit down at yourdesk, you open your laptop, that
feeling changes.
So instead of excitement, thereis a quiet weight that settles
in.
You already know your day isgoing to be a mix of chasing

(00:46):
details, answering the samequestions and putting out fires
you did not see coming.
So you start thinking well, whydoes this feel so much harder
now that I'm finally succeeding?
Well, you're not alone.
I had almost the exact sameconversation with one of my
clients recently.

(01:06):
On paper, she was killing it.
She was booked out for months,Referrals were pouring in,
clients were singing her praisesand testimonials and it looked
effortless on the outside, butbehind the scenes, every single
project was taking more time,more energy and more brain space
than it should.
She was ending most dayscompletely exhausted mentally

(01:29):
and emotionally, and not becauseshe didn't love her work or
because she didn't know what shewas doing, but it was because
the way her business was runningwas just asking too much of her
.
There were some basicfundamentals in her operations
that are missing, and those gapswere costing her more than she
realized.
Her discovery calls were waytoo long, and most of them they

(01:53):
weren't even with people whowere a good fit.
Why it's?
Because she was starting fromscratch every single time.
Now, even though she had anonline scheduler, there was no
intake form attached, so shewent into every call with zero
context.
She had no idea of their budget, no clarity on their priorities

(02:16):
, sometimes not even a clearpicture of what they actually
needed and if she could helpthem.
So this meant that she wasspending precious hours on calls
that never should have even hither calendar in the first place
.
And when she did find a good fit, onboarding oh, that was a
whole nother race.
She was pulling documents fromdifferent folders, digging up

(02:39):
old emails to copy and pasteinstructions which were not
always correct, and she wasrelying on her memory to make
sure that nothing slippedthrough the cracks.
But things did slip through thecracks.
Well, into the project, sherealized that she forgot to send
a key resource or confirm someimportant details, and then she

(02:59):
would have to stop everything tofix it, and that can be costly.
Now I know you're probablythinking well, that's me, but
I'm not a messy person.
I'm actually super organized inmy life.
And that's exactly what I toldher, because this wasn't about
her being careless, lazy ordisorganized in her personal

(03:20):
life she was on top of things,but in her business she didn't
have the kind of systems that aCEO should be able to rely on to
keep things moving without themhaving to touch every single
step.
So she had the skills of a CEO,but the infrastructure of her
business was not meant or put inplace to support that.

(03:42):
And, friend, that's the thing Iwant you to take away today.
Doing CEO work without CEOsystems is not sustainable.
It doesn't matter how good youare at what you do, it doesn't
matter how much your clientsadore you.
Without the right systems, yourbusiness is going to keep
taking more from you than itgives back, and I know that you
felt it.

(04:02):
You know those days whereyou're exhausted and it's not
from the work itself, but it'sfrom all the extra that comes
with it being pulled indifferent directions, having to
send repetitive emails, havingto search for misplaced client
information the mistakes thatyou shouldn't have to fix in the
first place are costing youeverything.
Ceo systems aren't about makingthings pretty and it's not a

(04:26):
trend.
They're about creatingconsistency, protecting your
time, your sanity, your energy,giving your clients a smoother,
more professional experiencefrom start to finish.
Then the last episode of thepodcast actually talked about
the must fix business systemsthat either make or break your
growth.
That's client onboarding,project tracking and

(04:48):
communication for starters, andthese aren't someday projects.
They're the backbone of abusiness that grows without
burning you out.
So if you're wondering, well,where do you even start?
Here's my advice I want you topick just one thing, not three,
not five, not ten, just one.
Pick the process thatfrustrates you the most or eats

(05:11):
up the most time.
Maybe it's your onboarding it.
It could be your scheduling.
Maybe it's how you check inwith your clients or give them
or deliver your deliverables.
Whatever makes you sigh theloudest when you think about
having to do it.
Start there, and here's why,when you fix just one process in
your business that's broken,you start to see a positive

(05:34):
domino effect almost immediately, because you get time back, you
feel more in control and youmake fewer mistakes.
That momentum you can keepbuilding on and as you build
systems it gets easier to keepgoing and you don't have to burn
it all down or overhauleverything overnight.

(05:56):
But you do have to startbuilding those CEO systems now,
before your growth becomes thevery thing that makes you want
to throw in the towel.
Now, if you want a simple way tofigure out exactly what's
missing in your backend, thenplease grab a copy of the
Backoffice Power Checklist.
It's a quick, eye-openingchecklist that you can use to

(06:19):
identify exactly where you needto focus on in your systems
first, so that you can step intoyour role as a CEO with
confidence and leave the chaosbehind.
Go to theshannonbakercomforward slash checklist and
download a copy today andcomplete it.
You can do that in less than 10minutes.

(06:40):
That's a great first step thatyou can take today.
So that's today's coffee chattake.
Remember it's no pressure, justprogress.
So I'll see you back here nexttime.