163. Are You Stuck in Creator Mode When Your Business Needs a CEO?

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Have you ever poured your heart into cranking out product after product, only to watch your sales drop instead of soar? I’ve been there, and it turns out, I was stuck in what I call “creator mode.” In this episode, I’m sharing how I learned (the hard way) that sometimes what your business really needs isn’t another new thing to sell, but for you to step up and put on your CEO hat! Trust me, getting out of my comfort zone as a creator and actually leading my business has made all the difference, and I’m breaking down exactly why.

We’ll dive into what creator mode really looks like for digital product sellers. Think dreaming up new ideas, designing, tweaking, and all the fun stuff we love. But then there’s CEO mode, which, let’s be honest, probably feels a lot less exciting: reviewing data, analyzing your numbers, and making strategic decisions that actually move your business forward. I’ll talk you through the big mindset shift I had to make, and why hustling in creator mode without direction can leave you feeling burned out and discouraged, even if you’re busy every single day.

Most importantly, I’ll walk you through the practical systems I use now, like my monthly CEO days and simple time blocking tricks, to make sure I’m not just creating into the void. You’ll hear why both roles matter, how to balance them, and some gentle but firm encouragement to look at your own calendar. If you haven’t given yourself CEO time lately, this is your nudge to finally make it happen. Your business, and your sanity, will thank you!

00:18 – The danger of staying stuck in creator mode
01:42 – What creator mode actually looks like
03:18 – Why CEO mode matters for business growth
06:21 – How I use time blocking for CEO and creator tasks
08:40 – Simple steps to start your monthly and weekly CEO habit

Links & Resources:

• Episode 161, I Said Yes When My Gut Said No
• Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co 
• Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
• The Savvy Seller Collective
• Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
• More resources for growing your TPT business
• Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts

Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode163 

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Episode Transcript

Kristen (00:00):
Have you ever wondered why your sales are slipping,
even though you're creating moreproducts than ever? Here's a
thought. You might be stuck increator mode, when your business
desperately needs a CEO. Ilearned this myself the hard
way, when my own sales startedslipping despite cranking out

(00:22):
new products left and right.
See, I was making whatever Ifelt like creating without any
real strategy behind it, and Ihadn't taken the time to step
out of creator mode, which,let's be real, that's my
favorite thing to do in mybusiness. I hadn't taken the
time to step out of that creatormode and put on my CEO hat to

(00:43):
think strategically about mybusiness.
So today, I am sharing thedifference between creator mode
and CEO mode, plus how to knowwhich one of those hats you
should be wearing right now toget your business back on track.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on

(01:04):
platforms like Teachers PayTeachers, Etsy, or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place. Welcome toThe Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen
Doyle, and I'm here to give youno-fluff tools and strategies
that move the needle for yourbusiness without burning you out

(01:27):
in the process—things like SEO,no stress marketing, email list
building, automations, and somuch more. Let's get started,
y'all.
So let's start with the funstuff that most of us love.
Here's what creator modeactually looks like. This is

(01:49):
doing the things that most of usthink of as the fun part of our
business. We are imagining andcreating new products, maybe
even designing social mediagraphics or website pages. It's
those things like creating andrecording new video trainings or
courses, even things likepodcast episodes and blog posts.

(02:09):
Maybe you really enjoy tweakingwebsite layouts and product
designs. Maybe you get caught upin tweaking and adjusting your
logo or your brand fonts.
These are the things that formost of us as creative
entrepreneurs, they light us upand they feel fun, but sometimes
we can get stuck in this modeand not move on to the CEO mode.

(02:32):
See, a creator mode feelsproductive because at the end of
the day, you've made something.
You can physically see whatyou've accomplished, and that is
energizing and exciting, and itfeels good to check something
off a to do list and have aphysical product or a digital
product, in our case, that wehave done today.
Now, creator mode is obviouslysuper important. Our creativity

(02:58):
is that thing that sets us apartfrom our competition, that makes
our audience love our products,it's what makes us unique. But
where things get tricky is thatmost of us can often get stuck
in creator mode and avoid CEOmode.
So the less fun reality is thatCEO mode is important. It is

(03:20):
doing the business of runningyour business. When I say CEO
mode, I'm talking about thingslike looking at the money,
reviewing data, setting goalsbased on your metrics, making
those strategic decisions basedon some data analysis, updating
your offers to make them sellbetter, but not just based on
what you think you should do,based on the data you've looked

(03:43):
at. Even things like hiring andtraining team members is part of
that CEO mode, and it'simportant for running a growing
business.
Now, if you sat there listeningto all of that, thinking, Oh,
that sounds terrible, I totallyget it. These aren't usually the
fun parts for us as creatives.
But the hard truth is, you can'twear both of these hats at the

(04:06):
same time, and your businessneeds them both.
So what I have found works forme is to make a conscious shift
between modes. See both of themmatter, because as important as
the creative work is, withoutthe CEO work, we can run
ourselves and our business intothe ground, cranking out tons

(04:26):
and tons of products with nostrategy behind it, or spending
forever and ever in the weeds oftweaking tiny things on our
website or our logo that aren'treally making a difference in
our business. So both roles aresuper important.
But the thing that trips most ofus up as creative entrepreneurs
is that the CEO work doesn'tfeel as productive. Like I said,

(04:50):
that creator mode feels superproductive because you've done
something, you have a thing atthe end of the day. When I'm in
CEO mode, a lot of times at theend of the day, what I have is a
to do list, and that doesn'tfeel so much like I've
accomplished anything. In fact,it can sometimes feel like you
just gave yourself more work.
The reality is, though, thatwork that you've come up with

(05:13):
for yourself out of your CEOtime is better quality work. So
the CEO time that you put in nowsets you up for doing the right
creative tasks later, for makingthe right strategy based or data
backed changes to a product or asales funnel, by preventing you
from some endless trial anderror of just, well, this

(05:36):
product isn't selling as well asI want, so I guess I'll try this
and wait a little while, andokay, it hasn't really turned
around. So let me try this newidea. Let me go to chat GPT and
see what ideas they can come upwith for me. See, when we do
that, we get stuck in this cycleof trial and error constantly,
and we're doing all this workthat maybe the data could have
told you wasn't going to work inthe first place, or was

(05:59):
addressing something that's noteven the problem. So when we put
in the time on that CEO work, itcan really help set us up for
better creative work down theroad.

Unknown (08:29):
For me, I have to treat these as separate things. I have
to put tasks on my to do listthat I know are CEO tasks, and
other tasks that are creative.
And I do this with a little bitof time blocking. It's pretty
casual in terms of the way thatsome people talk about time
blocking. I don't have a sethour of the day that I must do
CEO work or anything like that.

(08:51):
But generally speaking, I dohave a monthly CEO day. So every
month, on the first of themonth, I do some CEO tasks.
These are essentially the thingsthat you need to do to kind of
close out the previous month andget ready for the next one. So
during my monthly CEO day on thefirst, I am looking over the

(09:11):
numbers. I am paying invoicesthat need to be paid on the
first. I'm paying my team andmyself. I am looking at things
like taxes that might be due.
But I'm also looking ahead atthe coming month, and I am kind
of making some strategic plansfor how I'm going to spend my
time during each week, whatthings need to get done by a

(09:32):
certain week. If I've got a bigsale happening the third week of
the month, then I know in weeksone and two, I'm gonna need to
do some email writing and thingsgetting ready for that sale.

Kristen (09:44):
Now on a weekly basis, I also drop in a few CEO blocks
for those tasks that just needto be done every week, things
like responding to emails andactually addressing whatever was
in them. You know, it can beeasy to put off answering an
email about an error in aproduct or something that's not

(10:05):
working the way that it'ssupposed to, or, you know,
someone who has a question, butthose things are important for
keeping your business movingforward. So I drop in some CEO
blocks for those every singleweek.
Now for me, and this may betotally different for you, but
for me, I do my best thinkingand deep creative kind of work
in the mornings. So my morningsare when I block out creative

(10:27):
tasks, and I do the CEO stuff inthe afternoon, when I'm not
feeling as creative, maybe myenergy is down a little bit, and
I just need to sit and kind of,you know, check things off a
list and not have to do a wholelot of deep thinking.
You may feel the exact opposite,and you might need to do the CEO
stuff in the morning, or maybeyou do all your work in the
evenings and on Saturdays.
Whatever you do, you just needto think about your own energy

(10:48):
patterns, the way that you workbest, and make a plan to block
out some time for that CEO levelwork that you need to do for
your business.
So here's what I want you to do.
Start with some monthly CEOtime. Block out the first of the
month for a half a day or so,two to four hours, depending on

(11:09):
how much you need to get done.
During that time, you want to dothings like reviewing last
month's numbers, paying yourselfor your team, any kind of
financial tasks that need to getdone, and start looking ahead at
the coming month, mapping outwhat you'll need to get done
during each week. Put it in yourcalendar now on a recurring
basis, and treat it as a nonnegotiable. I block it in my

(11:30):
calendar with a recurrence onthe first every single month,
and it is marked as busy time,so nothing else can get blocked
in there.
And then every week, add somelittle weekly CEO blocks as
well, one or two, maybe three,shorter blocks of time. For me,
I do that during my low energytimes, and this is when I am
handling emails, fixing issues,maybe checking over some weekly

(11:54):
data if I've got things like adsrunning that need more frequent
data checks.
Just keep in mind, like I said,you need to schedule this to
match your energy levels. Formost people, you need to

(12:15):
schedule your creative workduring those peak energy hours
when you are most effective andexcited about work, and then
At the end of the day, yourcreativity is absolutely what
makes your products and youroffers special, and it sets you
apart from everybody else. Butwithout the CEO work, it's
schedule the CEO work for thetimes when you might be feeling
almost like you're creating intothe void. You don't have any

(12:38):
strategy behind it, and you'rejust throwing things out there
and hoping that they work.
Really successful digitala little more drained and less
creative. If you're just gettingproduct sellers know when it's
time to create, and when theyneed to lead their business,
because a successful businessneeds both.
started with this idea, startwith just one hour a week, and
So my challenge for you is tolook at your calendar right now
and ask yourself, when was thelast time you really, truly,

(12:59):
honestly put on that CEO hat,and did the CEO work? If you
just build a habit of blockingthat into your schedule.
can't remember, then maybe it'stime to schedule some CEO time
in today. I'll talk to you soon.