CEO vs Entrepreneur - Part 1

Hello, everybody. How's it going? Here we are, back in front of the group.

So good to see you guys. Hey, if you're jumping on, I see you guys coming in, let us know in the chat. I'll pull that up right now. Let us know where you're from. Who's all here? Let's see. I've got chat and I've got questions. So let's see who's here, guys.

The technology side of all of this. It's fun. Seems to be going well. Everybody I'm seeing. Yes, I'm seeing the comments come in. Awesome. Adair is here from Nebraska. Hey, girl. Oh, good. This is going to be awesome. I am pumped. What better time to get everybody on track, Finding some strategies we can put in place for Q4. This is going to be awesome. I love it.

I love watching this roll in. Look at you guys. I know it some cheeseheads in the house.

Montana, New Jersey, Idaho.

Idaho. We were just talking about Idaho. Sarah's headed to Idaho this weekend. Yeah, Yeah.

I fly to Pocatello on Friday and then la.

And then LA Dare's here from Retail Bootcamp. I don't know if we're seeing you in LA next week, Adair, but those of you in Retail Bootcamp, we've got a trip planned. Can't wait for that.

Yeah, Alabama.

All right, as you guys coming in today, make sure as we go through the webinar today, we're going to be super mindful of time. We know this is noon Central time. Maybe you're grabbing lunch and you're multitasking, but if you have questions, drop them in the comments. We are really excited to just kind of, I think mid year, bring this back on track. What is there left in the year, Sarah? Like 120 days or 100. And what are we at now? 118 days.

Yeah, I saw. I. Yeah, I saw the countdown for Christmas was under 100 days.

So does that freak anyone out a little bit? Last night I was sitting out, like in our living room and it was raining really hard and I was like, huh, what would this feel like if it was snowing right now? And for like, just a brief moment, I was excited about Christmas, but I'm really not excited about Christmas. Like, I don't want summer to be over, but just, just for a moment I was. Does that, like, make anyone else excited? Are you still kind of, like, panicking a little bit? Thinking about holidays and getting ready? Curious where you guys are at.

I think for the retail side of it, I mean, if you don't get excited about the holiday season in retail. I mean, the buzz, people are just happier. It seems like when I had the store, that was one of the best things. Everybody just, you are busy, you're in a buzz and all that stuff. But ultimately it's a happy time of year. Stressful, I know that. But, yeah, people just seem to be. They are ready for. Ready for something to be excited about. The joy of the children and all that kind of stuff brings. Brings out the best in us. So should.

Anyway, that's true. It is a happy time of year. So hopefully we all remain calm, happy, excited as we go into it. Right. Well, as I am thinking about that, so I am thinking about this time of year, right. And this idea of just having 100 and some days left. And as much as I want to spend today actually talking about holiday strategy, I think before we have to talk about holiday strategy, we have to talk about time and productivity. And I don't know about you guys, if you, like, come to certain times of the year and you kind of feel like you hit a wall for me this time of year and like kids being back in school and middle school sports, I know you've got high school sports, I feel like I can't keep up. So coming back to this reminder of time and systems and processes and being a CEO versus being an entrepreneur and stopping this, like, hustle hamster wheel that we get stuck on, that's the most important thing for me anyway, right now to focus on. And then holiday can come next. Do you agree?

Oh, my gosh. For sure. For sure it is. You know, as women, you know, you and I, I know we're guilty of this, and I know there's plenty of guys listening that, yeah, we're just doers, you know, and we just feel obligated from some weird. I don't know where this comes from, you know, to just do. And ultimately something gets dropped. And so we're. I'm pumped about this session today, these. These next two days where we can kind of chat and put some clarity on this and give you guys some power, you know, some just. Yeah, the power of positive thinking here. The power of yes, I can and no, I can't. And, you know, where. Where is it okay to draw the line and principles to put in place? So this is. Yeah, this is great timing.

Good timing. All right, so for those of you who are here, here's the game plan for the next two days, because this couldn't come at a better time. Today and tomorrow at noon Bring your lunch. We're going to hang out together. We will keep it concise, and we're going to talk about mastering time. And here's how we're going to break it up and just to kind of kick off the content for today in your email. You should have gotten an email right before this webinar with a download. Some of you who are already members of the Hub or you've been in retail Bootcamp, you may have this download because it's something we talk about a lot and it's kind of a precursor for everything we're going to hit on today. And that's this idea of being a CEO versus an entrepreneur. And we've talked about it, but for today, Sarah and I actually spent a lot of time taking this to the next level and digging deeper. Yes, we talk about the difference in a CEO and entrepreneur, and you can see that in your download. But what does that really mean? And what we've decided is it all comes down to five pillars of success that CEOs have in common. So today we want to just really dig deep. And what are those five pillars? We're going to cover two of them today, and we're going to dig deep into three of them tomorrow so that you don't just have this idea and then wonder, well, how do I actually implement that? Like, we want you to walk away from today going, okay, I have an actual plan. Here's how I'm going to move into the CEO side of my life and not to the entrepreneur side of my life and be a better planner so that I'm ready for the holiday season, so that I'm ready for 2022 and everything that's going to come next. Sarah, you want to add to that?

Yeah. And it's fun because, you know, as you and I are talking to different business owners and, you know, providers, services, entrepreneurs, whatever it is, all across the country on the Daily.

Right.

It's funny because Ashley and I'll get back together and chat and we'll be like, oh, I was just talking to so and so, and she said this. And I was just talking to so and so and she said this. Or, you know, when we were at Magic or wherever we were, we're always sponges, right? We're taking in these things.

And.

And it's funny because there's consistencies in the people that are running the businesses, in the CEOs that are really moving the mark in their business. And it's fun because we're able to find those consistencies and Realize what's trending and bring that back to you guys. And so that's what we're aiming to do today. And as we collectively talk to these stores that are really doing well.

Right.

And we said it, you know, the million dollar boutique owners and you know, these boutiques that are really thriving, that have survived all through Covid and not just survived, but really thriving. And you're like, all right, what's, what's the parallel here? What are they, what do they have in common? What are they doing? And, and so those strategies, you know, to go along with what Ashley and I continually talk about and train about. Yeah, we wanted to bring those to you guys today. So I think you guys are in the right seats and take some notes and get ready. And you know, for some of you guys might have, this seed may have been planted a little bit earlier somewhere along the line. And all of a sudden you're going to be like, oh my gosh, yes, I do remember talking about that, or that is important or that's me. She's talking to me right now. And I need to focus here. So hopefully what we're going to drop to you guys today really opens your eyes kind of, you know, prepares you, get you ready. So. I know, I know. Just going over it in my mind, it, it gave me more clarity. Just readdressing these things on the daily is important. No matter who you are, no matter who you are, we're not, no matter. Nobody's perfect in this stuff.

Yep, absolutely. And when your business isn't growing, like when you're thinking about just trying to constantly improve, it usually comes back to these key, these five pillars that we're going to talk about today for sure. And I think about this post it note that's always on my desk. Are you the bottleneck of your business? For me, anyway, this is where this always stems from is how do I not be the bottleneck of my business anymore? Because no one wants to live on that rat race. So tell me in the comments, are you a CEO or you're an entrepreneur? Let's start there and get your guys feedback on which one you think you are. And just as a high note, here's a quick difference. To me, a CEO values time more than they value money because they know you have to have time to create more money. So this is where scale always comes from is how do I invest to create more time? Because really that's the only thing that's limited. We only have 24 hours in the day, but money is abundant and when we can create more time, we can create more money. So Sarah, jump in here with me. But I see this as entrepreneurs are DIYers and we will try to save our way into prosperity. Like, oh, I'm going to save my way. Like someone in school got this totally backwards. You should have a savings account and saving is what's going to make you rich someday. When really it's investing in the right things is what's going to make you rich. Investing in creating more time, investing the right things with your money. Right, that's what makes you rich someday, not saving. And we're going to hit on that in detail. The CEO also values making sure there's systems and processes and team and there's long term goals, all these things. But when we break it all down, it comes into these five pillars. So if you're ready for it, jot this in your notes. And this is going to be the five keys we cover over the next two days. The first is CEOs manage time. The second is CEOs manage the right trends. Analyzing the right trends. The third is CEOs set long term goals. The fourth CEOs have the right daily habits. And the fifth is the CEOs eat the elephant. Not literally. So if you have those five, we're going to cover two of them today because these are in depth. We want to give you the nitty gritty of how, how to do each of those things and then we'll cover three of them tomorrow. So how many comments?

I just want to say, you guys, it doesn't matter, you know where you're at if you're in that entrepreneur state, right? And we want to move you into that CEO mindset. There is no wrong in being in that CEO or that entrepreneur mindset. Everybody starts somewhere, right? And having that entrepreneurial spirit is. We're not saying that's a bad thing by any means. That could very well be the fuel to your fire. And that is awesome. There just comes a point in time as you grow your business. You know, I always say you're never going to be as small as you are today. And the bigger you get, the bigger your problems, right? But yet you still only have the same 24 hours in a day that you did when you started. So what we are trying to do today and tomorrow is talk you through these pillars. They are going to help you identify these different things in your business where you can continue to grow versus where you keep running into these walls, where you're running into the ceiling. You want to say or whatever it is, it is going to just harness you back or hold you back. So I am so glad to see all the different comments coming in. It is very helpful. And just know that you know the person at the top of the mountain that you guys are looking at and you're thinking, I want to be her. You know, we always say, don't compare yourself to other people because if you're looking at that person on the top of the mountain and just thinking, oh, they're at the top of the world, I got to be there. You aren't focusing on all the stuff that they do to get there, all the times they fell backwards, all the times they had to start over again, all those things. But when they get there, they have to stay there. And the top of the mountain is really a small spot.

Right.

So that doesn't just happen by chance consistently. It might happen by chance once, maybe twice, but long term, it does not. So that's where these pillars really come into play.

Yeah. And you know, Sarah, that's a good point because I feel like there's times where you go back and forth, like you scale to a new level of growth in your company and you're like, okay, I've been doing the CEO thing and actually scaling up until this point. And then you're like, oh, crap, I can't keep my hands around it anymore. And now I have to go to a new level of what it means to be a CEO and letting go of the vine, as they say. So that's really. I think it all comes back to. No matter if you're at the beginning stages of being that CEO mindset or you're a multi, multi million dollar boutique, as we've talked about, everything comes back to these five pillars and constantly reevaluating where you are inside of these five pillars. So let's kick it off with pillar number one. Sarah, I know this is on you talking about pillar number one is CEOs manage time and there's three Ps of time management. You want to talk about what those are?

Yeah. Your three teams are your three Ps of time management that I think are really important is your priority versus priorities and something. When I, I was doing some research about this a while back and it's so funny, I am not a student of English.

Right.

Like, I speak English, but that was not my. I did not thrive in English class. But what I did learn is that the word priority is singular. And it wasn't until much later on, actually pretty recently, that it became Priorities. And at the same time the word priority came on, the word overwhelm came about. So I think it's really interesting if you go back in history and you look at the word priority right there, you cannot actually have more than one at a time, which I think is on us that we do this all the time.

Right.

We are like, what are my priorities? Well, if I am really focusing on getting this thing done, I can't call these other things priorities. I have to narrow down my focus and figure what is really important to me, what do I have to get done? What do I need to be focusing on? Then these other things can come next. But those are actually tasks then that become that priority. And so, again, as we're looking at our day and our day and we're mapping things out, a lot of us have a thousand priorities. You know, we have all these things we enjoy and all these things we want to do. And, you know, all the pressure we're putting on ourselves with this thought of, I've got to get this done, I've got to get this done, I've got.

To get this done.

And we call them priorities. And all that does is really overwhelm us. So I think the, you know, the first P in priority is narrow that down. Just go back to the root of that. And it's one thing, one thing at a time.

Yeah, man, Sarah, that's spot on. I've not thought about that perspective, actually. And it reminds me of that Gary Keller book, the One thing. And the one thing is the question, right? What is the one thing I could do today that makes everything else easier or unnecessary? Yep. Simple. Right? But I think we think we're giving ourselves like this, I don't know, shot in the arm of, oh, I've got my priorities in order. But no, we're just causing more overwhelm. That's really, really good.

You know, so it even goes deeper into that. And Lainey right now is studying anatomy, physiology. And so we were having this conversation this morning at breakfast, and it reminded me of, you know, how one needs to work with the other and all.

This kind of stuff.

And the human body is amazing, able to do all these kind of things, and the brain is able to do all these things. The human body cannot sing two different chords at the same time.

Right.

You cannot do that. And when I was younger, I was like, is that really, really right? You can't do that. Well, you also cannot 100% focus 100% on two things at one time.

Yeah.

You just can't it's not possible.

Yeah, you'd have to be a really bad singer in order for that to happen. It doesn't say a lot, but that's a good. You can't. And as women especially, we're like, oh, but I multitask. Oh, that you're really bad at it. Actually, the studies show that it takes an average of 15 minutes every time you try to multitask to get yourself back in what you need to do next because you're constantly flip flopping and then you're like, oh, squirrel, the Gabby case on social media. And now I'm reading all the news articles. Right. And you can't get it in line.

Yeah. The quote that goes along with that is, when everything is important, nothing is important. And so, you know, if you guys are taking some notes, write that down. I think that is so important. When everything is important, nothing is important. And yeah. So what is that priority? Where are we going to focus? It doesn't mean you aren't going to have tasks. You are not going to have things coming that are going to be important tomorrow. Right. Or I am going to get to this later. But right now, what's my number one priority? We need to. And that's. That's something on all of us that we need to start using the word priority instead of priorities. So that's the number one P. The number two thing I think that's really important is protect your time. Learn how to say no. Learn how to say no. And I, and those of you guys that are in retail bootcamp, you've heard me say this. When I had my store, I actually had to work practice saying no one into the mirror because I would be, you know, you know how it is. The chamber needs you for this or somebody needs you for that. And somebody's coming in and out. You know, they, they're asking you to help volunteer here, be on this committee. And then whatever it is. And then you're, you know, you're whatever. There's a thousand things and I don't know why, but the word yes just kept coming out. And next thing I said, I'm like, oh, my gosh. Why? How did I get roped into this? And one of the girls at the store said, well, you said yes. And I was like, why? Why did I do that? I got to stop doing that. So I did. I just, I practiced it. I would say to myself in the mirror, no, I'm sorry, as much as I would like to, I'm just unable to do that at this Time next year. Please keep me on the list or whatever it is. Right? And it's funny because in retail we get told no all the time. Right? You know, somebody doesn't like a shirt we're showing them, they say no. Somebody puts something in the cart, they abandon it. They say, no big deal, does it? I mean, so we move on, but yet we feel the need to like, I don't know, make everybody's lives easier by making our lives harder. So that is such a value. Protect your time. If you don't find value in your time and actually put. Put some sort of a value on it, you won't protect it. We protect what is really meaningful to us. And if we don't value that, we will just let it be.

Yeah. And if you don't value your time, no one else will. Will. Oh, my goodness. For sure. That's such a. I need to write that down for myself. Because then people start to take advantage of your time. Oh, can I pick your brain for 15 minutes? No, because that turns into 90 minutes and 17 follow up emails. Right? So when you don't value your time, no one else will.

I think somebody's making fun of the way we say no. So not making fun, but I think somebody said, I like the way you say no. And when I read the comment, I was like, okay. And then I thought, it's our. It's our accent.

Midwest. Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe you should start practicing how to say no. Like you are straight up out of North North Dakota or Wisconsin.

No, it's the long O's. No, you betcha.

Because it's so fun to say it that way. Maybe we'd say it more.

Yes. People will definitely take you serious if you say it with a North Dakota accent. I'm convinced for sure.

Okay, so the third P you guys is the Parkinson's law. Who knows what the Parkinson's law is? I think the Parkinson's law is really interesting because it says work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. That's the law. So basically all of us. I'm not going to. I shouldn't say all of us, but the majority of us work till we work. Work till we're done. Right. Or not work till we're done. Work till we can't do it anymore, Work till somebody comes and says, mom, I need you, or the bus is here, or work till whatever it is. Because we don't give ourselves deadlines. We have a guy on our team that gets a lot done and he has a hard stop on his day. And the whole team knows it. Everybody here knows that if you want anything from this guy, you better get with him before this time of the day because he's not available after that time. And he's super productive in his hours. If we have a meeting, he will say, we have 15 minutes left, we have 10 minutes left, we have four minutes left. And it is like he turns into a pumpkin at the end of that hour. But he is not available. So we are very, very. We get a lot done. We're productive in that time. Yeah, I look at our. And so that Parkinson's law, I think is, is, is really important when we are considering the tasks at hand.

Right.

And the time that we're giving to things. If we give endless amounts of time to a project, it will take us forever to get it done. You know, we have to have that deadline. And that happens with neg negotiations and all these things. But ultimately, time management cannot. Time cannot be managed without a deadline. It's not actually being managed.

You know, it reminds me of one of the. In the download that you guys have for today, we talk about boundaries, right? CEOs are better at setting boundaries than entrepreneurs. Because entrepreneurs do. We work until it's done. We hustle, right. We're in the Gary Vee hustle and grind mode. But CEOs can't live like that, right? You'll burn out so fast. So to me, one of the most important values we have is setting that boundary. And I'm sure you know me, Sarah, you, like many of you here, you wanted to be an entrepreneur so you could have what the F word? Freedom. Freedom. And what happens is then we start to work 80 hours a week and there's no freedom. Right? And we want freedom so that we can, what, spend time with people we love. We want to build relationships. Well, all of a sudden we become entrepreneurs and we hustle and there is no time for relationships. And so the only thing that stops that is setting the hard boundary of this is my start time, this is my stop time, and everything will fit in between. And studies show we are more productive and we can get a 40 hour workweek done in 20 hours when we have hard boundaries without distraction. Oh, totally feel that.

Yeah. And that's one thing. I'll just go back, you know, as I'm working with different store owners across the country, that is something that they realized the flip of the switch when they realized they had to value their time.

Yeah.

Because every. Especially with slack like this is a. This is an issue. If you guys communicate with your team in Slack or, you know, Facebook messenger or text message, whatever it is. I mean, it doesn't take anything to just type up a message and ping it to somebody, right? Like it takes. They want the answer, so they're going to send it to you. And sometime internally you're like, oh, they need me. Even though it's 9:30 at night, I'm laid up on the couch with my husband watching a movie or I'm sitting, you know, in line at the grocery store having a conversation with my child and all of a sudden my phone goes off. And you don't value that time with your child or with your husband or whatever it is? Or maybe it's just your time sitting on the, on the couch reading a book. Whatever it is, if you don't value that, it'll get taken advantage of. So that's a big mindset change than what we see trending happening with so many of the store owners and the business owners. The CEOs that are really moving the needle is that those three Ps I think are very powerful.

Yeah, very powerful. Those are so good. Let us know in the comments if you guys agree. Which of the P's was most powerful for you? I want to take what you said, Sarah. The three P's. I am sitting here taking notes actually, as you're speaking, because these are the I need to remember too. This is so good. But I want to take it into something those of you in retail Bootcamp have heard me talk about and make this tactical in terms of the four part to do list. So what does that look like laid out in your week? And again, some of you have heard this, some of you have our planner. So you have seen the four part to do list in our planner. But real quick, here is how this lays out. So if you think about how do I set that boundary, what does that look like? In my week, I had to walk through this process for myself. And so this is a solution and a strategy I built with myself in mind and now have refined after working with thousands of you on this very thing. So there's four lists I want you to brainstorm in your notebook. Number one is this. What is the list? My every week list. The things I have to do every single week, like clockwork, they never go away, right? So shipping and receiving and ordering and reordering and photo shoots and social media and working with the team and the kids. Soccer practice and date night with my husband and wherever my boundary is on the things I must do, Every week. Please do not leave off health and wellness from this list because that is always the first thing that gets cut. Oh, I will go to the gym when. Oh, I will eat healthy when I have time to. Uh, no, it is a priority, right? Because Crystal Rose, who some of you know Crystal Rose. I have been working with her for the last year. She is a self love coach. One thing she taught and Eric works with her as well. One thing she taught us that I think is just like kind of blew my mind a little bit. We always have this analogy that you can't feel someone else's cup when yours is empty, right? So we think, okay, well we have to fill our cup and then we have to pour from our cup into other people's cups. Right? That's kind of how my brain visualizes it anyway. Well, she was like, no, Ashley, that's the wrong analogy. When your cup is full, it's so full that it's overflowing into other people's cups. You don't ever have to tip your cup to fill someone's. Yours is so full, it's overflowing. Well, when we don't take time and set the boundary on our own health and wellbeing, mental and physical, our cup is never full. It can never overflow. Right? So there is nothing to give to anyone else. We are stuck in the dry hustle and dry grind, which no one likes a dry grind in our every single week list. I am just going to drop all the terrible jokes as we go along this webinar. You are welcome. Ok? You are welcome in case you caught that. So our every single week list has to have that personal priority included. Gasp. That was list number one. I don't even know where the scrap comes from. List number two. List number two is what is my priority this week? Okay, so we have our every week list. I'm just, I'm going to tell you all these and then I'll tell you what to do with them. So list number one every single week. List number two, this week priority this week. This does not get to be a list a page long. This gets to be no more than three things a day. So small list, right? That's a max of 15 things depending on their size. So this week biggest priority and when I say biggest priority I mean biggest rock. It's the 20% of your list that's going to get you 80% of the results. So this week only list number two. List number three is my later list. So this is my list that I think of at 2 in the morning, I put it down in my notebook. It's for next week, next month, next week, year, next millennium. But it's somewhere, so it's out of my brain, off my shoulders, and I can sleep at night. And then list number four is my outsource list. So where can I say no? Where can I ask for help? And where can I just flat outsource and hire someone to do this? Because again, being a CEO versus an entrepreneur is. I'm investing in time, which really, a lot of times means people. I'm investing in people. A babysitter, you know, I'm going to spend 50 bucks on a babysitter for, you know, a couple hours. Today I'm going to do another live sale and I'm going to make 2000. That's a pretty strong ROI. So where do I need to outsource? So again, our every week list, list number one are this week list list number two, our later list list number three, and then our outsourced list list number four. And then what we do with that list is that's where the foundation of time blocking starts. And we can look at our time in our week and we start with list number one and we go, okay, I've got these blocks, right? We, social media has to come in one day, ordering and reordering, working with vendors, maybe comes in two days, photo shoots, another day, content creation, whatever that is. And if you have a team, this has to be in coordination with your team. And those times are all blocked. And the time with our family, so pick up from school soccer games, if that's the stuff that is our priority and our boundary, that goes on the list first. And then when you have those big rocks laid out, list number one, then you lay in from list number two, your tiger time. So I got this from Amy Porterfield. I think she's a brilliant marketing mind. And that is the time that is uninterrupted for you to accomplish list number two. For me, it's typically eight to ten every single morning. Nothing is scheduled during that time. It's only my time to tackle list number two. List number three, you set it and forget it. And then list number four, you have to use the word no with your North Dakota accent and tell people no and be willing to ask for help and make it a game. When you look at your schedule every single week and you're laying it out in your calendar, right, And I'm going through my to do list, I can actually say, what am I committed to saying no to? Not what do I need? What do I need to say no to? That is such a weak wiggle word.

Need.

Oh, you poor thing. It's like a wah, wah. Oh, I need to. I should. Oh, you're right, Sally. I. I should do more working out. No, I'm committed to. There's a huge difference. Need and should are crap words. I'm committed to is a I'm going to get this done and watch me get this done word. So I am committed to doing that this week. So that's the four part to do list.

Yeah. I would add something, just something that helps me. And I think back to when I had the store. There are some things that are on those week to do lists. The weak. Not like weak. Like, not strong. That. That just suck. Right? That is like, I just don't want to do those things. Well, welcome to the adult world of running a business. So get those things done first. That's why my date with my numbers was always on Monday, because I had to get that done. Because otherwise, if I said, oh, I'll get to it, I would never get to it. Oh, yeah, I would never get to it. So get the hard stuff done first. And once I was able to check that off, like, Ashley was checking something off her to do list earlier today when we were chatting, and she's like, ooh, the endorphin rush, you know, and just by slight, you know, striking through that or whatever. But do that hard stuff first. And then the next thing that I love to do is get those 30 second to a minute things done. Just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I love to, like, delegate those out to our team. I remember saying, okay, these are on the list. Who wants something?

Right?

And it could be little bitty tasks, but they don't take a lot of time, don't take a lot of effort. So then you can really make headway. So now you've got the tough stuff done and you've got the really fast stuff done. Your list has gotten. You've got so much clarity now to be. To come up with new ideas and to come up and try new things because you've just. You have minimized the need in your business, right? And those daily tasks or those weekly tasks, because you've actually done the homework now you got time to watch a movie.

Right.

Is what I like to say with my kids. You want to do this, you want the reward, you got to get this done first. Well, same as in our business.

That is so good. And then how many times tell me if this is you like, you get to the end of the day and you are like, gosh, I really deep down I would like to watch a movie. But you feel like in your mind. But I really should be working. But I could get this done and, but I could get that done. And it is because we have just trained our brains to have this stupid never ending to do list. And then we never give ourselves permission to be okay walking away from it. And so I think of this idea of a to done list, you know, sitting down at the end of the day. Sarah, just basically what you're saying and marking down. Okay, guess what? Today I did this. And letting yourself feel good about it. Hey, I might be leaving at 2 o' clock today to go to a tennis match, but today I did this, this, this and this. Yes, I feel good. And not this like constant state of lack and the distance between where I am and where this never ending to do list is. And we never make up that headway and so we can't ever sit down and enjoy that movie. So just simple to done list. Such a simple thing to do that makes such a huge difference.

Yeah. And getting that stuff, those hard things done. We're going to talk about this here the next in this next section. Section. But the clarity it gives you to make better decisions in your business. Right. Is so important. Or make better decisions in your life or with your family or whatever it is. And your mind is so much clearer. So it's just that's a non negotiable. And that's one thing I again I would say as we're talking to different business owners and I love the term not negotiable. Right. Because there are things in our business, in our daily walk as a business owner, as the CEO that just aren't negotiable. We can't falter on those things because if we don't do them, they the business really struggles. You know. And I go back and I look at raising a child is like raising a business. Well, if you choose to just ignore the kid and not feed, doesn't thrive.

Right.

And I see a lot of business owners especially just getting started where you allow yourself to be lax on some of these non negotiable efforts and strategies and to dos and next thing you know, you have a real mess, you have a real, real mess of a business and it just puts you, you know, it sets you, it sets you back versus moving forward. And you know, as we're talking to business owners that are really doing well, that is one of those Things too, that they realized where their boundaries were, what they were setting, what they were good at, what they weren't, where they were going to delegate, like to what Ashley was saying, where they're outsourcing and they were committed to that. And then they can check these boxes and they can move forward.

Yeah. All right, guys. So that was pillar number one, managing time for CEO versus entrepreneur. I'm curious which one, which piece of that spoke the most to you? Like where you feel like, oh, man. Okay, I'm going to take this home. I am committed to implementing this one thing. I'd love to know that in the comments. And for those of you that are asking about the lists and the numbers, I wanted to pull this up and highlight is in the planner. So if you have the new planner this year that we'll, we'll talk about, we'll show you in more detail. The four part to do list is in there and how to use it. But then you can get the four parts to do list this thing right here in the tear off sheets so you can actually sit down every single week, fill it out. What's my priorities? What am I going to say no to? What am I going to outsource and tear it off week by week? So that is coming. Absolutely. Yeah.

This is what it looked like, our new branding material and everything will be for this year.

But yes. Yeah.

These, these come in the bundles.

Yes. Oh, gosh.

Okay.

So many planner questions. We'll walk you through the planner. So if you have planner questions, the. The pre sale of the planner is October 4th, so you can mark your calendars because it's not available yet. So October 4th, mark your calendars for that and we'll show you what that's all about later today. All right.

You know, I want to, I'm going to, I'm going to jump in on. I forget somebody, it scrolled real fast. But somebody said they open their emails. Rebecca said, I open my email first thing in the morning. I get sucked in and spend so much time. You know what you guys, I started to do is not use my cell phone as my alarm clock because I have an alarm clock. It sits right there because the numbers are nice and big and I can see it from wherever I'm at in my room. But the idea of going and making and using that as my alarm clock, where I touch that first versus rolling over, grabbing my phone to shut my alarm off. Because as soon as I do that, all of a sudden I see all these notifications and that is just not Healthy and, you know, making a priority in your day. If you have your cell phone, the first thing you grab it is like the devil sneaking back into your life saying, hello, here I am. I'm your priority. And you don't want that. You don't want that.

Yeah. Email is a holding place for other people's agendas, right? Notifications, same thing. It's a holding place for other people's agendas. So when you start your day off like that, you're starting your day on defense. And then if you want to play sports, who wants to start on defense? No, like, give me the ball. I want to play offense. Right. And man, that's a good tip, Sarah. That's absolutely right. Yes. Okay, so pillar number one, pillar number two. You guys, this is a detailed one. So if you're taking notes, this is a big one. CEOs analyze the right trends and KPIs. When I say the right trends, what does that mean? It means CEOs analyze not just sales. Right. Or not just vanity metrics. Followers, but they. They know what the actual metrics are that are moving the needle in the business and how to measure them, and they're committed to them. So often I think we get busy and we're like, oh, I'll look at the numbers later. Oh, there's money in the bank. I'll order more inventory. Or I made this great amount of sales over the holidays, but then I got to January and went to pay my tax bill and I didn't have any money left. Right. Raise your hand if that's been you. Everybody has been there. Everyone's lived that. Right? So how do we really make sure, as a CEO, we're measuring the right numbers and the right analytics? So we're going to talk about this in three chunks. So the first is financial. The second, traffic and social. And the third is team. So, Sarah, let's talk about financial. Talk with the right financial metrics that we're measuring.

So ultimately, what we. What I have seen when I've talked to a lot of different boutique owners is what I like to say is bank balance accounting.

Right?

You open up your online banking or you go to your QuickBooks, you scroll at the bottom of your P and L, and you scroll to your bottom of your. Your online. You're like, oh, yes, I have money. That looks awesome. Well, it isn't. That's not the true. The full story, right? And so when we say trends, I don't mean shackets or jackets. I'm talking what's trending in your numbers, what's trending in your financials? So as we're looking at sales trends, right? What year you sell in October is a lot different than what you're selling in February, right? And where your trends are showing in your business and where you are moving, moving the needle and where you're not, that really affects how you operate your business, right? Like look at sales trends and let's just use live selling, right? How, where are we at with our sales? Are we, are we continuing to grow? Are we getting new customers? Are we, you know, are we showing new products? How many different items are we moving? Right? What is the average order value? All of those things go into your sales trend bucket. But to just look at the dollar amount of what came in doesn't tell the whole story. What did I have to discount? Right? Something else we look at is talking about products. What products are moving, what products are sitting, right, what are those inventory classifications? And that's why when we did the planner, you know, when we, when all these, all of I have the old version of the planner, but all of these monthly comparisons, sales tracking sheets and things. When I say trending, like I, when I say trending, I'm going to open up to the sales and inventory. I like to see it all month by month. You know why? Because then I can see what's trending and I can numbers wise, are we trending up? Are we trending down? Are we, are we stagnant? And the thing is, if you don't look and see what you've done in the past, what your goals are for the future and where your benchmark is, you're not actually analyzing anything, right?

One of the metrics I was just thinking about, comments sold, right? Because we just had a webinar with comments sold on Friday about their new Instagram selling feature. And so one thing that always is top of mind is potential revenue, right? And just thinking about that trend as well. So Sarah, I know you're on the inventory tracking page, but I'm even on this sales tracking page in the planner. And so there's last year sales, this year sales and then dollar amount growth over and under percentage growth, but then also inventory. So what did I have on hand to make those sales this year versus last year and then dollar amount over and under, percentage over and under. So like potentially what could I have? But then here's like how it's actually comparing sales and inventory comparison. So this keeping this top of mind only attract number grows. I just think we make such different financial Decisions when we're constantly looking at those numbers.

Yeah. I talked about it earlier, how I said, you know, my. One of my big rocks in my business, and one of the things that wasn't always the most fun was doing all my numbers.

Right.

It was. At first, it didn't. It wasn't fun because it was kind of foreign to me, like, where am I pulling these numbers from? How do I do this?

Right.

All that kind of stuff. Well, then it just became old news. Like, I just. It was easy. It was super simple. I knew exactly what buttons to push, what formulas turn, all those kind of things to put the numbers here. But then what was really interesting was I stopped saying stuff like, oh, we, you know, we had a $75,000 month this month, and, you know, last month we had an $85,000 a month, so our sales are down. Well, I was actually able to go in here and look and be like, oh, you know what? We have a $75,000 month, but we were down in inventory by 50,000. So that made a big difference.

Right.

So before I start getting all mad that our sales were down 10,000, all of a sudden I looked. I'm like, yeah, I was down 10,000, but we did it with a quarter of the less inventory. So therefore, all of a sudden, my expenses, what I was. What was going out of my business was less. The bottom line was higher. Weirdly enough, I was able to pay more bills.

Yeah.

Then I got to looking and thinking, huh, is that. Should I be looking at. At this across the board? Am I offering too many options for my customers? Are my customers maybe getting confused to where they're not buying as much because I'm showing them too many things? Can I do more with less according to my numbers? All of a sudden I was able to realize that because I was seeing what was trending month after month after month, because I had it all wrote down here in my planner. And that was ultimately where my business took a big turn, because I stopped just looking at that one number, overall sales. And that's where I started to say, all right, as much as I think shoes are adorable, we're not a shoe business.

Right.

Or as much as I think sandals are adorable, we're actually better. We do a better job with boots. So if we're going to do footwear, we need to really focus on the boots. Let the sneakers and the sandals go to the shoe store next door. That's their thing, right? Denim, whatever it was. Outer. Whatever it was, that category. But that's where that's where when you become that true CEO and you start analyzing what's trending, that's where your money is. Because so many times we hear, I talked as businesses all the time, they're like, I just not able to pay my bills. I don't know what's happening.

Sales.

I feel like sales are good. But then we've got to look, you know, we've got to look a little deeper into those numbers to see what, how the, what's happening in our business, the trending and the forecasting going forward, how we can make better decisions based on that.

Yeah, man, Sarah, this is so spot on. And when I think about going into holiday, right, which is what's on all of our mind, or just because I said comment sold, I even think about like the contest. Comment sold always has, like the sales contest. I love those things. But those are two prime examples of times where we easily get sucked into sales and then we really do. Like you're saying, have to back up and go, what does it actually take to get there? Or what did it cost me to get there? So, so when I think about holidays and how easy it is to go, oh, Black Friday, oh, Cyber Monday, oh, 20% off site wide. Oh, I'm just blanket discount everything, right? And then Sarah and I are now going to be in the back of your mind screaming at you, going, don't sell the diamonds with the dirt. Like, don't do that. You can't blanket sale everything because now you lost all your margin. So like you said, where can I do more with less? How can I be smarter? How can I manage my term rate per vendor, per product, per classification and start to see what inventory is actually making me money, which, what inventory is actually costing me money. So huge opportunity there.

You know, I, I'm going to call Angela out here. Angela, Bull. You made a comment in here and I just love it. And I'm. Ashley always says I am full of analogies and I'm just, I'm going to spin off of what you said here. So in the comments, she said you could call your sales trend inventory, financial data, your dashboard, like all the different numbers on your vehicle's dashboard, gas, tire pressure, et cetera. And here's the thing, I love that because if one of those does not work, if you have a car with no air in the tires, it does not. I don't care how cute your car is and how cool it is, if you got fuzzy dice hanging from it, it does not. It's not going anywhere, right? Or gas Exact same thing, right? So all of these things, you have got to have the right amount to make the car work properly, to be efficient. Right. To get the most out of it. That's an excellent example. And you've got to look at them all, right? If you fail to notice these things, next thing you know, your family's packed up in your car, ready to go on a big old vacation. Everybody's there, seatbelts on, engines on, but there's no air in the tires, you're not going anywhere or one of them's flat, right? So I love that analogy. That's so spot on. And that's why, you know, when we talk to boutique owners and we ask them like, what are they really focusing on? Um, you know, you say, what is your priority? And they've got somebody that lives and breathes in these numbers and they've got to. And I know a lot of people are when they're small, it's hard because you're wearing all these different hats. But it comes down to mapping out that time, like we already talked about in the first pillar, to not let these things go because they're so important. They are so important. Just like the air in the tires.

I love the fuzzy dice analogy. Those fuzzy dice, they look great on Instagram, but there ain't no money in the bank at the end of the day, so. Good. So real quick, just to kind of recap that, Sarah, because when we're talking about this dashboard, so the first two things we really hit on was sales trends that are part of dashboard, right? So sales by product classification, vendor season, what's being wait listed or what's on your restock notifications and then sales by channel. Yeah, sales pieces and then also your margin. So margin by product, margins by classification, margins by vendor, margins by season, margins by channel. Am I doing better on E Commerce versus live selling in terms of margin?

And I want to, I want to throw in, especially as we're talking about fourth quarter, the idea of pop up shops, right. And because a lot of, a lot of times we show up at a vendor event or we set up for a holiday event or a little pop up of something.

Right?

So make sure you're tracking those things as well. Track that separately. That becomes a different avenue, a different channel than your brick and mortar, a different channel than what your E Commerce was, Right. So you want to track. And that way next year when they send you that little flyer in the mail or the girl comes knocking and says, hey, would you like to participate in this again? You know, do I want to participate in this? If I say yes, I need to do this, right? Because we're tracking that, we are tracking what worked, what didn't. And in the inventory, I always say, what are we feeding, what are we fixing and what are we forgetting? And you know, to me, in my store with my shoes, that was a big category, right? Am I going to feed that, that shoe category, go get more of more shoes to generate more income? Or do I need to fix something there by saying no sandals, more boots, or do I need to just forget the whole thing altogether, clear out that inventory space on my website or in my brick and mortar and allow that to go to some other category that's paying me more money back, right, that's got a better roi, but all of those kind of things, if at the end of the season I just look and like, oh, we don't hardly have any shoes left and I assume shoes has done well and I go back to market and buy more shoes or do I go back and look at the data and what's trending and saying, oh God, the reason you don't have any shoes is because you did a $10 all shoe sale one day and just said, get them out of here, I never want to see them again.

Right?

Maybe that's why we don't have any more shoes left. So there's truth in those numbers. And you can't, you can't ignore those things. And that's why, you know, in these, in these inventory classification, these, these report sheets in the planner, that's why they're so important to go ahead and write those things down. Because your best inventory classification, what is the lowest, right? I even have something down here in the tracking, in the, in the tracking, what could you not give away this month? What are those? Identifying and asking. That's one thing about the planner. We ask you a lot of tough questions there that in your mind, you think, oh, I already know the answer to write it down. Because I guarantee you, eight months from now, when it's time to start investing in that inventory again, you're not going to remember or you're going to be emotionally attached to something you saw on television that says you have to carry that in your store. But if the data and the numbers is telling you it does not trend for you, there's no traction there. Or the way I did it in the past did not work, so I need to fix it, then you can start making better financial decisions.

You always have this analogy, Sarah, the three Fs, and we talk about this. Those of you that are asking like, how do I learn this? Retail bootcamp is really how you learn it. But the three Fs, what do I need to fix, what do I need to feed and what do I need to forget? I think that's a good way just to wrap your mind around those three buckets in inventory. Fix, feed and forget. And what is my data telling me falls into what bucket as I go in to rebuy this?

Absolutely. And then I would say on the last thing about analyzing Trends and these KPIs, you know, is that profit versus revenue? Right, the profit versus revenue. And I touched on it earlier, so I don't want to harp on it too much, you guys, but just if all you want to do is focus on what's coming in to your business, right? If all you want to do is focus on the money coming in, but you're not paying any attention to all the stuff going out, you're going to really be struggling when it comes time to pay the bills. And these, the stores that are successful, they every dollar going out of their business is accounted for. It's a decision that you think about. You think about it over and over again before you spend the dollar. And that's what really makes a difference. That's where your profits come in, right? That's where your, you know what, where your money is at in your business, where it's hiding, right? What inventory classifications that you need to either fix or forget or just holding your cash hostage in your business where you can't spend it somewhere else. So the reason why this goes back to time management, you guys, is because when you go to market, I'm going to use a shoe example again. If I went to market and found myself like pretty shoes, pretty shoes. And I just go spend 45 minutes there. What's that?

Roller skates?

Yeah, yeah, roller skates. I spend 45 minutes there. That's 45 minutes that I'm not spending in an income generating activity or class that my customers want, right? And all of a sudden I've spent 45 minutes of my day and dollars tied up over here in hopes that it's going to work for my customers. And I know because of what I have written down and what I've been tracking, they just don't want it. They already have. They in our town, they had that resource and it wasn't me. And I needed to just own that, right? I could dabble in it here and there, but I damn sure did not need to be investing, you know, 10% of my inventory in that or 20% or whatever. Whatever I thought was because I thought shoes were cute. So nonetheless, that profit versus revenue is so important to really move the needle in your business. And all too often, we get caught up in how much money came in, but we're not tracking how much money is going out. And that was another reason why we did this in this expense tracking sheet in the planner. And the reason I think this is really important is because you are mapping and tracking all of the different trends. The different trends in your advertising, the different trends in your apps, your fees, your different trends in your payroll, different trends in shipping and receiving, all of those kind of things. Map that out every month. Not only does this document in here help you with tax preparation time, but you are able to kind of look back and like, holy crap, we spend a lot of money on trout, on food when we travel. Is that important? Should we maybe rethink that?

Right. Those $15 margaritas, they will get you when you're in Vegas. Convertibles.