043: The Secret Must-Do List That Modern CEOs Swear By

Get ready because everything is about to change. There's a new way of living life and doing business that will blow your mind. This is a podcast all about the timing of life and the timing of success. It's what we call the Right on Time Life. And you are listening to the Right on Time podcast with Amber McHugh. Welcome back to the Write on Time podcast. Amber McHugh here. I'm excited to dive in with you as we continue our Modern CEO Must Do List series. This is the last episode in this series and I am coming at you bright and early this morning. Still in Chicago actually. We're going to be making some changes soon and maybe headed to D.C. in a couple of weeks. So more on that soon. I may have kids interrupt us and walk down in the middle of all this because this is real life now. This is real life. They're popping up at meetings all over the place in lives. I went live in the Plan A thon group last week and I thought I was in. They were quiet doing their thing and I was sitting in the kitchen thought oh the light's great in here, let me sneak a live in. Because I wanted to introduce that the Plan A Thon for the first time ever is coming back in June for a mid year Plan A thon the edit. It's a mini plan Plan A Thon because let's face it, many of us have some edits to make to our plans right now. So if you've joined us for a Plan A Thon before, you know that we're gonna get some good planning done. And if you haven't joined us before and you need to make some fresh plans for your business right now like I needed to do in both of my businesses in the last few months. I wanna invite you to join us@theplanathon.com you've got ple plenty of time. We're just kicking off a little bit of a pre party this week and we officially get started with our first ever mid year plan a thon the edit on June 1st. So definitely pop on over and feel free to join us@theplanathon.com we'd love to have you because planning is definitely more fun together and the engagement in there, it's gonna be amazing. But all of that to say I just wanted to warn you that those kids might pop in. They're popping in all over and it's been a lot of fun showing up and engaging and connecting and doing business really in a different way. You know, the modern CEO looks different than CEOs. How they have looked for eternity, right? A little bit removed in the corner office, high up there in a skyscraper, looking out over everything, you know, so it's very different than it was. But even this new season that we're in requires a whole new level of focus, right? Like the kids popping in periodically requires a whole new level of patience and grace from me and truly compassion. And I have to reground myself in that and remind myself like, this isn't their fault. Like this isn't anyone's fault. I don't have to beat anyone up for this, not even myself. I just have to be in a space of much more flow. But it also requires that my to do list is much more focused, that I prioritize much better than ever before in my life. I'm already pretty practiced. Yes, I say practice. It's always practice for me in prioritizing, practice for me in focus and bringing myself back to what is most important for me in life right now. What's most important for me to work on with my clients right now? What's most important for me to work on in the business or with my team right now? Constantly practicing, bringing myself back to that idea, practicing focusing on the $100 bills, constantly practicing and bringing myself back to that. And it's more important than ever right now. And that's exactly what we have been talking about in the Modern CEO Must do list series the last three weeks and this is our fourth week bringing us home in our final episode in this series and in Today's episode, Modern CEOs, we are going to talk about what should be on your to do list based on the stage of business you are at. Right? We've got endless to do lists. The to do list just like we keep adding stuff to it. I know I wake up in the morning, I'm like, oh, I got to add those three things. I go to bed at night, I'm like, oh, let me write those things down so I don't forget them tomorrow. In fact, just as I say that, I'm like, oh, I didn't. I didn't write those three things down. Last night, three things popped into my head. I don't think I wrote them down. I'm gonna have to double check. Otherwise, I've got to think really hard. I usually forget if I think of something at night and don't write it down. In fact, it doesn't matter what time of day it is if I don't write it down. There is so much going On Day to Day, moment to moment. And let's be real, after I was pregnant, Baby Brain set in really strongly and oh my goodness, just a story around this. Once Baby Brain was happening, we were at my house doing an all day series of photo shoots for our photography business, three Boudoir. And my dad happened to be staying with us in the basement and he was working overseas at the time and he was in the US staying with us for a while and he would lock himself in the basement totally hidden away while we would do photo shoots in a separate space. And one day I forgot about him and he said, amber, just be sure to unlock the basement door so I can get inside and hide away before the photo shoots begin. And I forgot about him and he was locked outside of the house all day. And at the end of the day I saw him sitting out there and I said, dad, what are you doing outside? Why? Why are you just sitting there? Oh my gosh. Poor guy. Oh my God, I felt so terrible. But that is the extent my brain will totally forget about all the things if I do not write it down or take action immediately. So with that I want to invite you if you have a similar thing happening, feel free to grab pen and paper. As we go through some of this today, I'm going to try and keep it and sweet and focused for you as well because we're going to break down these to do's to consider so that you can start to harness and focus your to do list. Wrangle it in so it's not endless anymore and you can start to look at some of those things on your to do list and identify if there's something you can put in your million dollar parking lot or if you can pull in the 3Ds that we talked about in the last episode. Maybe this isn't something I need to do right now so I can delete it, maybe I can delegate it, or maybe it's something I really do need to do because it aligns with where I am in my business right now and it's gonna propel me to the next level. So let's get started. First up, we're gonna start with our startups. Now remember, even if you're not in a startup phase or your business has grown beyond startup, you may find yourself returning startup mode if you're entering a new level of business or you're opening up a new product line or you're opening up new markets. For example, we returned to startup mode in our photography business two months ago when we opened up the virtual photoshoot.com and we started doing virtual photo shoots. We went through all the stages of startup again, right? We moved through them more quickly because we're practiced, right? We've done startup activities before, so the next time you do them, you might have more focus and it might move faster, but you'll likely still go through some different activities again. Excuse me, I don't know if you heard that. I had a little hiccup there. Hopefully that is not reoccurring. So with in the startup phase, things that may be on your must do list, I want to invite you to talk to one person every day about your offer. It could be one to one or it could be on social media. Talk about your offer. Okay. In the startup phase, on your must do list, think through and refine one aspect of your offer every day. Your sales page, pricing, features, benefits and the transformations that people may go through as they engage and connect with your offer, products or services. Number three, must do list. Figure out your point of sale for your offer, sales page, consultation or in person and measure how many people are getting there and turning into customers weekly. Right? So how are people going to get there? How many people are getting there and how many people are converting. And maybe they're not converting yet. Right? But that's something that we're going to be working on progressively daily. Must do list item number four for startup, learn and implement marketing. There might be a learning element here and implementation element. This is where we employ a little bit of just in time learning, right? If you don't have the knowledge yet, it's okay to get some knowledge here, right? This is where courses are hugely valuable. Learning from a coach, a mentor, getting a just in time strategy to implement. Not to put in your bank for another day, not to put on your shelf and not implement. Get that information and put it in action. Set aside time every day to learn more about marketing, your offer and time to implement what you've learned. A quick win around this, send out a note to the people you already know announcing your business. If you haven't announced your business yet, people might have a great connection or a referral for you. Okay? Okay. Now we're going to share the must do list daily list for our ramp up stage. Now ramp is the next stage. You've actually started selling those offers, you've sold a few, but it still feels like a surprise, like where did that sale come from? Right? So now you're thinking about getting systems and structure in place so you're not flying by the seat of your pants anymore and at the ramp up stage your must do list starts to look a little bit different. And number one I want you to set aside a block of time to take care of your clients every single day you've made those sales, now you want to start serving. Number two document or refine one business system per day. Not going to try and boil the ocean. Just one business system per day and I want you to prioritize those based on what's going to be most impactful to your business. Number two Take some time to get intentional for self care. Right we can get way in the weeds grinding it out, especially when we're in startup mode. I was just there with the virtual photo shoot so this is not so far away from me that I forget so I can get there grinding it out but start to re engage and reconnect to self care. Number four Create and share a piece of content around your area of expertise and pursue opportunities for greater exposure. Right? Guesting on podcasts, guest posting collaborations JV Start to get this offer out into the world in a little bit bigger way and start to think about how you're going to do that and your final daily to do that. You may want to start integrating. Check out those KPIs weekly income expenses, lead gen conversions how are your KPIs looking? A quick win in the ramp up stage get your onboarding systems buttoned up right. You've got clients coming in, you've got projects coming in. You've got people buying your products. What does that experience look like when they first come in contact with your experience and when they first become a customer, you want to wow them from the jump. So there's a quick win. As you start to think about the systems that you'd focus on first. It may be, if you don't already have it in place, that initial touch point when someone first becomes a customer. Next up, what's the daily must do list look like at that scale up stage? Look like now As a reminder, at scale up you've got consistent sales of your offers and you're beginning to realize the limitations of your time. So we maybe have to bring on team members to scale, but you're starting to shift from being in it to wanting to expand it. Now the list the daily must do considerations Number one Check in with your mastermind or mentor for accountability and get feedback from that curated group of people you trust. Number two Check in with your team members. Number three Nurture your network. Do you have colleagues? Do you have peers that you haven't reached out to or checked in on in a while. Number four do some daily mindset work. Limiting beliefs come up throughout our entrepreneurial career because let's face it, running and growing a business is a huge personal development endeavor. And daily mindset or mind growth work, as we talked about a couple episodes back, is a huge opportunity that's going to fuel your growth here. Number five Set aside a block of time to take care of your clients every day. 6. Review those KPIs daily and explore key partnerships and a quick win for our scale up CEOs. Create a list of all those things you have to get done regularly in your business. We call this tracking your time, time tracking or doing a time inventory. What are those things that keep coming up as you're tracking your time and doing that inventory and why? What is this going to help you do? It's going to help you start to identify what you may want to hire for or those tasks that you can keep doing. And we break this down in detail in how to clone yourself and in freshly implemented if you're looking for more information around this, but this is going to help you get some leverage and help you get started to assess where do I need to systematize and where do I need to start to think about hiring and better leveraging my time and then at our CEO up level. Now remember, you might be at that CEO up level if you got the business like you feel like I've done it, I've done it. And you might have the team in place already that you trust in to run it. Even if it's just a couple of people who are one person. You're like, that's my person. We're doing it. Might even just be you. I'm doing it. But now you're starting to wonder, all right, how's this going to work long term, right? How am I really going to lead this business forward? Making time Number one Daily must do list for big picture thinking is now a part of your job. Again, checking in with your mastermind or mentor for accountability feedback from that curated group of people. Number three Daily practice around detachment and surrender and potentially guilt over your new role as you start to expand and lead and you get out of being in the weeds. Guilt over coming out of the hustle and the grind is real. 4. Checking in with your leadership team as you start to build a team. Right. Are you checking in with people on a regular basis? Number five nurturing your team, your clients and intentionally fostering the culture you desire to create it aligns with the vision that you've had and the vision you want to create. And lastly, reviewing those KPIs you're going to stay closely connected to your business always. And knowing those KPIs helps you assess at a bird's eye view what's happening deep in the business. So you stay deeply connected to the business through KPIs without going into the weeds all of the time. KPIs are very powerful and this is why I want you to start checking them regularly at that ramp up phase. So early on we're starting to look at KPIs. Even in that startup mode we start to look at KPIs as early indicators. But early on at that ramp up phase, I want us to start getting in the routine of looking at them regularly and then at the scale up in the CEO phase, you might even start to set up dashboards. But you're going to be very practiced when you get to ramp up and CEO up of having a dashboard and knowing what KPIs am I looking at regularly to see forward momentum or not to know where you need to adjust in your business and at the CEO up level. Your Quick Win Book out three hours a week on your calendar for CEO time. Be protective of this time and don't schedule anything over it. I've got some of that time on Monday. I've got some of that time on Friday. Every Monday, Every Friday I have CEO time. Without a doubt non negotiable. If I don't have that time. Over the years I observe that. Oh, what's happening this week? Something's off. Oh, I didn't set my priorities on Monday. I didn't check in, I didn't realign. Then again on Friday I didn't reflect. I didn't wind down before I rolled into the weekend. I didn't set myself up for success rolling into Monday. Right. So and I've established routines around this. We go over these extensively and repeatedly in our online mastermind and implementation incubator. Freshly implemented for those of our clients who are in freshly implemented. You know I come back to these all of the time. But it is so important and it's so powerful and it can have such an impact not only in our business but on the carryover to our lives. So block that time. Be protective of that time. Start now with that time. If you're in startup phase and if you're at that CEO up level and you don't already have that time, that is your quick win That I want you to get now. Block that time. All right? These daily to do's are the new to do's I want you to start to think about based on your stage of business. Now, if you were listening to those and you were thinking, I've got a million other things on my to do list, I've got things out here that don't align. I do things that aren't on here or they are on here, but they're not having impact on my business today. All of this, regardless of what I said or regardless of what's on your to do list right now. The most important thing is that what you are doing day to day, moment to moment, moves your business forward, moves you closer to your goals. And if it's not, let's delete it. Let's reevaluate the action steps you are taking. If it's not moving you closer to your goals, if it's not moving you closer to your goals, let's look at deleting it, let's revise it, let's scratch it, let's not even delegate it at this point, right? If it's not working, doesn't work to delegate it either. We've got to reevaluate it or potentially delete it. So with all of this in mind, I want to invite you now to reevaluate how you're looking at your plans, how you're looking at your daily to do list, how you're looking at how you set yourself up for success every single week. Because change happens, yes, with the big vision and the big goals, you've got to have that. But ultimately it comes down to how we implement and what we do. But moment to moment, it's the incremental small steps that add up and build momentum and that will ultimately get you where you want to go. So I want to keep that focus on the daily, the moment to moment to do's that you are implementing and executing on. And if they're not serving you, they're not moving your business or your life forward. If they're not moving you closer to your goals, gotta go, adios, goodbye, let's ditch them. And if you have question about your plans and what you're working on and what you're focused on right now, you have got to join us in the upcoming plan A thon. I know I mentioned it at the beginning, but I'm just gonna say again, in case you have not made the decision to join us already. This event typically only happens once a year at the end End of the year, as we prepare for the new year, we are breaking our own rules this year because we are in a different time. And so we had people reaching out to us saying, I planned for the beginning of the year and everything has changed. Everything has changed for me. And so after reflecting on that and processing that, we thought we can help. Let's bring back the Plan A thon and we're going to bring it back in mini form, in micro form with bite sized information that you need now to help you move ahead. Because let's face it, many of us need a new plan. And not only do you need a new plan, we need a new way to plan. Because the old way of doing things is not necessarily going to serve us going forward. So in the plan a thon 2020, the edit, which starts June 1, we're going to break down the new plan that we're going to create together. But we're also going to show you the new way to plan that's going to set you up for success going forward. That's going to allow you to be more nimble and more agile as we are in a landscape of change. Because let's face it, not only as entrepreneurs are we facing a bit of change now. We're, we are constantly facing change. Change comes up for us all of the time. So we need to always be ready to adapt and change. And that is a gift that we have as entrepreneurs and small business owners. We can adapt, we can change, but we need a plan and we need a way of planning and a way of doing business that enables us to consistently be ready to adapt. And this new way of planning I'm going to show you in the planet on 2020. The edit is going to show you just how to do that. So if you haven't already joined us@theplanathon.com I want to invite you to sign up and join us for June 1 start date. But of course, we're pre partying now, so come on over, we'll welcome you into the group, we'll get some intros going and we're going to get started with the new way to plan. With that, thank you so much for going through the Modern CEO Must do list series with us. Next week we're going to kick off something new as we step into the Mini Plan a thon season that we are rolling into next. I hope you have an amazing weekend. Hope you had a great week to hear from you. Give me a shout out if there was anything in this episode that resonated with you. I'd love to hear from you in a review or on Instagram, Facebook, social media media. I'm @amber McHugh on Instagram and cannot wait to connect with you there. Lots of love. Bye.