What would it mean to your business if you could harness the power of intentional, purposeful focus? That's what we're talking about on today's episode.

It's time for the Becoming a Profitable CEO podcast and it's all about providing you with the tools to succeed on this ever-evolving business-building journey. My mission is to make sure you know you are not alone, that it is possible and that you, yes YOU, CAN do this. You matter, the world is a better place for having you in it, and your voice is needed!

I’m Teresa Cleveland and I believe we can all make a difference and that having a successful online business is one of the best, most effective ways to do that.

Let’s get to it!

Hey, thanks so much for being here. Let's get started. All right. It is week nine of 2021. It's the last month of the first quarter of the year. Let's talk about how things are going. When I started out at the beginning of the year, I said that I would check in with you every week just to give you a reminder, to check in on your goals and see where things are going great.

And where you need to course correct. So this week, I want to talk with you specifically about those goals that you set at the beginning of the year. As you look at the year, how are the actions that you've taken thus far this year contributing to that quarterly or annual goal? Like so many things in life and business, there are some unknowns that pop up. We don't know what we don't know until we actually get into the doing the implementing of the steps that it takes to reach those goals. So kudos to you for setting them to begin with.

Something that I see is as these unknowns pop up, we get pulled in different directions and down rabbit holes and can sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. So I want to ask, how often are you purposefully checking in on your movement towards those goals, bringing ourselves up out of those rabbit holes, reining ourselves in and sitting down and actually looking at the big picture? And when you do, how deep are you going?

Are you just looking at some numbers or reports or are you sitting down and really analyzing the things that are going on, the things that have come up, and how they're moving you forward?

It's inevitable as we grow our business that things pop up and that we get pulled in different directions. Setting up a campaign may take longer than you thought it was going to. You may find when you're rolling out your plans that you need different pieces of content that you haven't even created yet and that just wasn't built into your timeline.

And, you know, you want to get these things out. So what do you do? You are in one window on your computer and you're trying to set up your blow or your funnel. And you got to stop that because you've got to go over here real quick and either find that content or create something new. And as you're creating that content, you realize, oh, I need to also have this image and I need to do these other things.

And before we know it is the end of the day and what we thought was going to be set up and done by the end of the day is still on our To-Do list. Even when you have a team and you're delegating things to your team, there's turnaround time. So a lot of times because we're doing it in the moment, we'll go ahead and do it ourselves or do it to the best of our ability and say, OK, better done than perfect.

And while I do believe in better done than perfect, I also believe that we have a standard in our businesses that we don't want to just slap something up. We want it to be meaningful. We want it to speak to our audience. We wanted to actually help them.

And there are a whole variety of rabbit holes that we could go down or that our attention gets pulled to that aren't just frivolous. It's not like we're just out there scrolling through Facebook or sitting on the couch eating bonbons or deciding, hey, I'm going to go for a walk instead of doing this.

It's real work that we're doing. But because we didn't know everything that was involved, we simply didn't plan for that in our time frame. And while we're busy focusing on that, something else could be falling through the cracks or we lose sight of our metrics or whatever it is, we've taken our eye off the ball. So today I want to talk with you about that, about harnessing the power and clarity that intentional, purposeful focus will bring to you, to your business and headaches that it can alleviate.

So what I'm talking about are CEO Days. You may have heard of them. I know when I've talked with other female online business owners, they say, "yeah, I've heard of those but you know what? I don't even know where to start. I don't know what should be in them. I don't even know how often I should do them or when I should do them." And because they don't have the answers to those questions, they have failed to implement them in their business.

One of the great things about owning your own business is that you get to decide what things look like and one of the downfalls of owning your own business is that you're never quite sure what that looks like. And that's why checklists, guides, and templates are so hot. We just need somewhere to start. I'm going to walk through some things today that I recommend that you include in your CEO day and the things that you're going to measure and the different areas that you're going to include in your CEO day are going to be specific to you in your business.

So let's talk about when. I think what we should do them every month. I know some people do theirs at the end of the month. I personally like to do mine at the beginning of the month because then I can look back at last month and I can look forward to where we're going. And the information that I'm gathering on that day and analyzing is going to help the past inform the future.

So some of the things that you want to have on hand going into your CEO day, obviously some snacks and your favorite beverage and be sure to schedule in some breaks as well throughout the day as well as your lunch. I like to order a special lunch or prepare it for that day. You don't want to break your rhythm and step out to go to the restaurant or anything like that. So make it very, very easy for yourself to stay engaged.

Now, I do recommend stepping away from your desk. Do not eat at your desk. What you'll find is that when you step away and you're eating your lunch, whether you go outside or wherever you are, you're going to find that your mind is still kind of mulling over the things that you've gleaned from the morning.

You want to also have your reports and your metrics that are specific to your quarterly plan. I mean, yes, you're going to look at revenue, website traffic, your email stats and your social following, but that's not all. That's like at the higher level, you want to look at the things that are specific to your quarterly plan. You want to dig down deeper to the specific activities that are moving you toward those goals.

And as you work through this, here are some questions that you want to be able to answer.
What worked?
What didn't work?
What's missing?
Is there something that I need to learn or someone that I need to bring in to make this more successful?

So definitely be prepared to answer those questions again. What worked, what didn't work? What's missing? What do I need to learn? Or is there someone that I need to bring in to help this be more successful? Again, what you're going to look at in your business is going to be specific to your goals and the activities that you're taking to move towards those goals.

So, for instance, ad campaigns. Obviously, you want to look at conversions with that. Right? And you can look at your ads to see very quickly what's working and what isn't. And again, you want to figure out why, why is this working and this isn't? And obviously, you can course correct. You can change that. But you want to look at it.
Is it your audience targeting?
Is it your messaging?
Is it your image?

You want to be able to look at those things and really figure out why things are working or they're not working? When it comes to your email list, of course, you want to look at opens, clicks and conversions to your call to action. And so you can kind of see overall what the numbers are, but then you want to, like, dig down in there if you have some that are not converting and figure out what's happening there. And obviously you're going to do more of what did work and less of what didn't.

If one of the ways that you're marketing and getting the word out is by being a guest on podcast interviews, yu want to look at more than just how many podcasts you were on.

You want to know how many people responded to your call to action on that interview. If that number is high. Then kudos to you. But if it's not, why isn't it?
Was it the wrong audience?
Was it the wrong call to action for that audience?
Did the conversation leading up to that call to action, was it in alignment? Was it a clear path for them to go from where your conversation is?
Did it spark enough interest that when you have that call to action that it made sense to them?

These are all questions that you can ask in some way, shape or form regarding all of the ways that you're getting your message out to your market, too.

Like Facebook lives.
Are people showing up?
Are you doing enough to get it out there?
Have you sent it out to your list so that they even know that you're doing the Facebook live?
Have you set up a clear format to your Facebook live that takes them through the steps of what you're sharing with them and logically leads them to whatever your call for action is?

So that part of the CEO day for me, I just put that under marketing and I list all the ways that we are getting the word out. And then we look at those and ask a lot of those questions about each one of those, you know, what can we do better?

Another area that you may want to include if you have a team is a team review. So looking at your team, looking at their performance, were there any places that the ball was dropped? Were there any places that they just knocked it out of the park? And of course, I hope when that's happening that you are letting them know as it's happening what an incredible job they're doing.

Even if you don't have a team yet. I would still include that in your CEO day, because based on what you found out as you reviewed all of your marketing efforts, it may become very clear that there are some people that you want to add to your team.

And even if that's not this month or this quarter, I would still leave that space in there so that, you know, these are the roles that will be able to help you make a greater impact. You can also start looking into what the options are there and what it may cost to bring those people on. And of course, then you can think about ways to generate the income to do that.

Something else that I think is really important to include in your CEO day is looking at your spending. What have you spent the previous month? On team members, on tools, on courses, or education so that you have a clear eye on that and it'll keep those things in front of you that maybe you purchased and haven't done yet. Has anybody about any of those $27 or $47 products lately and just not gotten to them? Go ahead, put that there so that, you know, this is there and you don't lose sight of it. Of course, look at when you're going to be able to sit down and take advantage of whatever that purchase was, because it may be that one of those purchases will contribute directly to one of the areas that you reviewed in your marketing efforts.

And then opportunities is another area.

What have you had to say no to?
What are the things that you've said yes to?
What caused you to say no?

I mean, if it was not a good fit, that's one thing. But if you had to say no because you didn't have the time or you didn't have things in place to support you as you took advantage of that opportunity, that's definitely an area that you want to fix so that you can say yes in the future.

Are there any relationships that you need to pursue, whether that's referral partners, colleagues, or someone in your industry that you simply want to get to know better?

So I think those four areas are key to any business. I would put those in there. And then again, depending on your business, you'll want to add in the things that are important to you. So when it comes to CEO Days, I would highly encourage you to try them for at least a quarter. I believe that you'll be able to see the clarity and the power that it gives you to meet your goals and make a greater impact.

I believe that you're going to get so much clarity and focus and just the power of that to help you move closer to your goals, make a greater impact, and it'll provide you with more ease and confidence.

I'd love to know how it goes. You can reach out any time. you can find me over in the Facebook group. You can get there by going to ThePurposefulCEO.com/Facebook. And look, if you're just not sure where to start yet or if you need help going through this process, I am more than happy to help you structure yours and work through one with you.

If you want to talk more about that, you can go to ThePurposefulCEO.com/CEO.

That's it for today. But be sure to tune in this Thursday when my guest is Rachel Nice of Pine Hill Marketing. She'll be sharing one of the shifts in her journey to becoming a profitable CEO and how she's supporting other female online business owners on their journey.

Until then, let's go make a difference.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Becoming a Profitable CEO. I'll be back next week but in the meantime, let's continue the conversation. Head on over to our Facebook Group at GrowthStrategiesCafe.com/Facebook and share your take on today's episode.