MBA1352 Are You Doing Your Job as CEO? + Free Ride Friday!

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Welcome to the $100 MBA show. Because great businesses don't get built by accident. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online. And in today's lesson you will learn. Are you doing your job as a CEO? If you're the leader of your business? If you're the CEO, Sometimes we get lost in the weeds. We get so busy with everything that needs to be done that we really forget what our job really is. We neglect the most important aspects of our jobs because we want to make sure we're ticking every single box, we're completing every task, we're pleasing every customer. Today's episode is going to be a very open and honest episode. This past year has been very challenging for me as a CEO, as the leader of my business. I had to change who I am. I had to change what I do and how I approach my role in order for my business to grow. At some point, and you might be at that point right now, your business is going to plateau because you're not focusing on how to grow your business. You're not focusing on doing the things to make that happen. I'm going to share with you a little bit of my journey, my struggles, as well as what are the things you really should be focusing on as a leader of your business, and what are the things you shouldn't be focusing on, what you shouldn't be spending your time on. Some of the things I really had to let go of that were really hard. I'll even share some of the things I haven't let go of yet that I eventually will have to if I really want to do what I'm supposed to be doing as the leader of my business. We get into all that and more. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. When you start your business, sometimes it's just you or maybe you and a co founder or you and a few other teammates, and everybody is doing everything. Everybody's helping build the product or create the service or deliver the service or talk to customers or answering emails or scheduling calls. We're hustling, we're really grinding it out. But once your business starts getting some traction, starts getting some customers, you start growing, growing. You start having a viable business on your hands. One of the first things you start doing is you start hiring. You start bringing some more people on your team to help you with that growth. But what often happens is we bring on new talent, we bring on new people, they do certain jobs, and we never let go of the things that we're doing on a daily basis as the leader of our business. We don't focus on new things. And here's something I learned the hard way this past year is if you want your business to change, you have to change as a leader. This is a tough truth. This is something that doesn't come easily. It doesn't sit well with us because you're working so hard to build this business. You put your blood, sweat and tears in this and you're basically telling yourself right now what you're doing, who you are is not good enough for what you want to build. And once you kind of get over that and realize, okay, I have to accept that. I have to accept that I have to become something else. I have to do other things. I started to look at how I was spending every day, how I was spending my time when I was working on the business, the things I was doing. Then I looked at some of the entrepreneurs I aspire to be, like, the ones that I really look up to. And you don't have to look up to, like, the best of the best. You don't have to look at, like, what did Steve Jobs do every day? Or what. What does Elon Musk do every day? Does he write the marketing copy on the. Or does he have a team of people doing that or somebody doing it? You can also look at entrepreneurs you look up to that are a few steps ahead of you, maybe a few years ahead of you, where you want to be in a few years, somebody you can reach out to and talk to and say, hey, can you just tell me what you do every day? I want to be where you're at really soon in the next few years, and I want to know what I have to do to get there. Most entrepreneurs, most leaders, most founders are happy to share and help, are happy to. To spend a few minutes to share their journey and share what they do, why they see themselves in you. But more importantly, this is a question for you to reflect on. Great leaders that build great businesses understand that their time is their biggest asset, and they gotta spend their time on what helps the business grow. So let's talk about that. What helps the business grow? And I had to kind of talk myself into this and ask myself these questions. So what helps the business grow is a great product, right? A great service, whatever you offer, it's gotta be fantastic. Now, how does that get done? Well, you have to have a great team to make that happen, to build a great product. So one of your jobs as the leader to help your business grow is to grow your team, to find great talent, to find great people to fill the positions you need. That's probably one of the number one things you should be focusing on. Finding great people that are a great asset for your company. Whether that's writing a job description and posting jobs and interviewing. Maybe that's what you do at the start. Maybe it's networking and understanding people in your space so you can get referrals. It also could be being A great leader. So you encourage your current employees to recommend people. So what else you need to grow a business to move to the next level? Well, you got to keep the people that are doing a good job, right? You got to make the people that you have happy. And most people, the number one thing that makes them happy is not their pay. Once you get to a certain level of pay, you know, you kind of COVID all your expenses, you're good to go. An extra few thousand dollars or whatever it is is not going to really move the needle. It's not really going to change their life that much. Maybe it will for some, but for most, they can work anywhere, they can get a job anywhere, and they're going to get paid pretty much the same anywhere else. So really the differentiator is their job satisfaction is do they feel fulfilled? I know when I was working as a teacher in my career, the reason why I moved on from one job to the next is not because of the money. It was because I wasn't feeling fulfilled. I didn't feel challenged, I didn't feel like I was growing. I didn't feel like there was a future where I was. So your job as a leader is to make sure your team understands those things that they do. See the future, you sell the future to them, that you give them an opportunity to grow, to advance their skills, you challenge them, they work on exciting things and projects. You speak to them and find out what fulfills them and you make sure that those opportunities are there in your company. That's what a leader does. What else helps your business grow? Customers. Right? You need more customers. So working on a strategy to bring in new customers, working with experts in marketing and sales that you can bring onto your team or hire externally to refine that system in your business to serve your customers at a greater scale. Whether it's through content or through hiring somebody to build that content, or speaking on stage, stage at events or being available to help people at scale like on a webinar. Some of the best and memorable brands that we know are led by people that understand this, that understand that, hey, I have to have a connection with the customer so I can encourage them to tell others about us and bring in more of them. I mentioned Steve Jobs, I mentioned Elon Musk. There's plenty others. Entrepreneurs like Barbara Corcoran, who's on tv for crying out loud. Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Winfrey didn't become a billionaire. One of the most successful self made people in the world. 2.6 billion in net worth. By doing a talk show, right? The talk show is what connected her with her customers. She has her own TV network, she has her own magazines, she has her own products. She became integral to her business and brand. And you could do the same. And you don't need to be introverted. You don't need to be some sort of person that loves the limelight. You could simply just attend conferences. You don't have to speak at them and speak to your marketplace. Speak to the people that you serve or want to serve. Get to know them, let them get to know you on a one, on one basis. What's another thing that helps your business grow? Well, the right decisions. Making the right decisions. Your job is to make decisions as the leader. Whether it's the next hire, whether it's a strategy, whether it's the next market you're going to go after. That's really your main purpose, is to make those decisions. And you can't make great decisions if you're stressed out, if overwhelmed and bogged down with admin work that you haven't hired out for yet. If you're not sleeping enough, if you're not exercising, if you're not treating your body right, if you're not eating right, are you in your prime health and position to make the right decision, to make the best decisions possible on a regular basis? Are you spending the time to get better, to educate yourself, to be around the right people that will influence you to become a better thinker? Like Jim Rohn says, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Are you careful about the company you keep? Are you careful how you spend your recreational time? The choices you make as your business grows will affect it greatly, especially as you start growing. Once you have an established business and your decisions have greater weight when you're getting started, a bad decision can easily be recovered from. But if you're making, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, you got thousands of customers, you have lots of employees, everybody's counting on you, and a decision that is going to take you two steps back is going to have a greater effect on everybody. So remember, make sure you're in the right position, the right mindset, the right frame of mind where you can make solid decisions and feel confident about can't do when you're stressed out. If you can't sleep on a decision, there's something wrong here. You shouldn't rush things. You have to have time to think. These are things I learned the hard way. I was doing a lot of things I shouldn't be doing. I started to realize I need to hire Alfred this. I need to get, you know, executive assistance. I need to get somebody to handle the market. I need to get somebody to take care of this, that and the other thing. Now I don't have to make all these hires at once, but I need to have a plan of action as the CEO to start hiring, to make a process. I'll make one hire this month, the next month another one. And as we make more revenue, I'll make the next hire. And as I offload each task to the new hire, you have to ask yourself and be very careful, what am I going to do with all that extra time? Am I going to fill it up with more busy work with things I shouldn't be doing as a CEO? Or will I be doing more of the things I mentioned today that allow you to grow your business?

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There's one more thing I want to mention. You are the leader of the business, but your job is to also hire great leaders. You can't lead alone. You can't be everywhere at the same time. Your job is to find great leaders that can join your team and and lead your departments and lead your team when you're not around. A great business is when you can step away from it for a bit and it's a well oiled machine. You need to find people that are sold on your vision, that are motivated, that have the right attitude, that are positive. That will make people feel good. I know that sounds wishy Washy lovey dovey woo. But it's true. People want to feel good when they go to work. They want to feel good about what they do. They want to feel good when they go to a meeting. They don't want to make it feel like is depressing and hard and it gives them knots in their stomach. No. One of the things I look for when I'm interviewing a leader to join our team is do they smile? Do I want to hang out with this person? Does this person make me feel better or worse after the call? Getting great leaders on board are one of the best things you can do as a CEO and for your business. So this weekend I want you to think to yourself, take some time away from the office, from home for a second. Just take a walk to a park, even just simply take a walk, right? Just walk around your neighborhood and give yourself a chance to answer that question. Are you doing your job as a CEO? Are you doing the things you should be doing? Are you doing the things I mentioned today? How can you start transitioning because that's how your business is going to grow. You start doing different things, more significant things, things that will help grow your business. It was hard for me to admit that I was not doing what I was supposed to be doing. I did a good job to a certain point. I did what I was supposed to be doing. But the business grew and I had to change and grow with the business. And I'm still growing and I'm still changing and I'm still adjusting. It's a tough one. But your business will be better for it and so will you. Thank you so much for listening. Today's episode's not over though, because it's free ride Friday. Let's see who won this week's free ride. And the winner is Rico Travasian. Rico says great lessons, incredible presentation, five stars. It's not that Omar is bringing mind blowing ideas to the table. It's how he takes a great business idea or ideas and breaks them down in a way my brain can absorb them and allows me to digest them throughout the day. Well, thank you, Rico. You are our free art Friday winner. Thank you so much for listening to the show and for the great review. Your mission is to email me over@omarr mba.net so we can hook you up with the lifetime access to EZcourse, our $500 course over at EasyCourse co. It's yours for free. And anybody who's listening right now, if you haven't left us an itunes rating and review yet. Do it now so you can enter our weekly random draw. You are in the draw automatically for every week until you win. It's that simple. It's our way to say thanks for showing us love on itunes. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. One of the hardest things to do in life is changing who you are, is changing the way you think about things, is changing what you do, changing your habits. It's totally uncomfortable. It's something you're not used to. It's something that it doesn't feel right at the start. It feels foreign. It feels like you just want to go back to the way things are or used to be, but you just can't grow that way. You can't change. And you can expect different results if you do the same thing. So it may be challenging at first, it may be uncomfortable at first, but trust me, it does get better over time as you start seeing results, as you start seeing the benefits of the things that you're doing. And once you start realizing, hey, the new person I'm becoming, the new things I'm doing are not that bad. They're actually pretty good. It's actually pretty great. Thank you so much for listening and I'll check you in Monday's episode. Have a wonderful weekend. I'll see you then. Take care.

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