This past December, I did something a little crazy that I’ve never done before…
Before I spill the tea on what exactly I did, let me paint the picture for you.
As a business owner, you can probably relate to feeling like the work neverrrr ends. Between client work and all of the things that you want to do for your own business, it’s like the to-do list is 1,000 pages long at any given time.
No matter how many things you check off one day, you know that there’s still a million other things you can do.
Not to mention, the LIFE that you have to live!
Like yes, I’m out here making sure business owners have the tools they need to run their business legally AND run a whole law office simultaneously, but also I have a husband to hang out with, babies to feed, dogs to entertain, a house to clean…
(Spoiler: the house is never clean even if I spend the entire day cleaning said house.)
And honestly it can feel so extremely overwhelming if you let it.
This past December, I was feeling all of that. The to-do’s I had piled up did not match the time that I had, so I decided to take the entire month off of client work and claim a CEO Month!
Now, you’ve probably heard of a CEO Day, so this concept isn’t new or created by me, but considering my inner perfectionist, I knew that a day (or two) wasn’t enough.
I wanted a whole month to dedicate to The Boutique Lawyer! And let me just say… it was glorious. So much so, that I continue to find myself searching for ways to make this happen more often! Obviously, it’s not always feasible to do, but intentionally planning for it can be a major game changer.
In case you’re like me and feel the pressure of the never ending things you can do in your business, this blog post aims to introduce you to the idea of a CEO Month, share some behind-the-scenes of what I worked on during December, AND give you a list of potential ideas for how to spend your own.
What Is A CEO Month?
If you follow along with any entrepreneur or business owner on social media, you’ve probably seen them mention a CEO Day. But if you aren’t sure what exactly that means, it’s essentially the trendy way of saying they’re spending the day working ON the business, not in the business.
And yes, there’s a major difference!
Working on the business = activities that involve strategic planning, setting goals, developing systems and processes, and overall steering the direction of the company.
When you’re working ON your business, you’re typically taking a high-level view of your company and focusing on its long-term success and growth.
Working in the business = day-to-day operational activities necessary to deliver products or services to customers and keep the business running smoothly.
When you’re working IN your business, you’re typically focused on executing tasks, managing daily operations, delivering client work, etc.
As a business owner, it’s super easy to get caught up IN the business that you neglect the work ON the business.
While you of course have to tend to daily operations, it’s important to carve out time where you’re thinking at a high level and implementing new strategies in order to keep growth alive and your business moving in the direction you want it to go.
The concept of a CEO Month is very similar to that of a CEO Day, it’s simply a longer timeline that allows you to focus on various things and actually ensure that they get done!
For me, a CEO Day simply wasn’t enough. I knew that in order to accomplish what I really wanted to accomplish, I needed a longer period of uninterrupted time, so that’s what I did in December.
You can implement this however you see fit – some people take a weekly CEO Day, other people take a CEO Week each month, while others sprinkle different versions of this concept throughout each quarter.
The key is that you choose what works for YOU in order to make the most traction in your business!
What I Accomplished During My CEO December
Since I was conducting a CEO Month during December, the FIRST thing I did was start the month by vision boarding where I wanted my business to go. I looked at 2024 and thought about what I wanted to be like this time next year.
From there, I was able to make a plan with the best version of myself in mind – both personally and professionally – in order to do all of these things.
Even if you’re not doing a CEO Month during December, it can still be beneficial to start with a vision in mind. Journal what you’re feeling now and how you ultimately want to feel in the future. Think about what you truly want or need to accomplish in your business in order to make real traction and progress.
The goal here wasn’t just for me to do random tasks, but rather work on things that would make a true difference in the grand scheme of things and edge towards a specific goal.
To make this happen, I decided to assign two tasks per day that would move the needle in my business. “Needle-moving tasks” are those activities within your business that have a significant impact on the overall performance, growth, and success.
Up first, I knew I wanted to revamp our affiliate program because we had big things on the horizon for 2024.
(Psst: if you’re a TBL Affiliate, you recently received the news in your inbox! 👀)
This was an example of a larger project that needed a lot of my time, so it made sense to do this during dedicated CEO time.
Other examples included:
- Updating my email welcome sequence to ensure it was up to date and relevant for new subscribers
- Organizing my Google Drive – while this might seem random and not necessary, it was actually causing a lot of inefficiency in my day-to-day work because of how jumbled things were, so doing this now allowed me to be more productive in the future
- Analyzing the backend systems of the business and making sure they were updated and made sense for how we work
There were a lot of other things on my list that I was able to accomplish during this month, but this gives you an idea of the purpose of a CEO Month and a little inside look to what I worked on for The Boutique Lawyer specifically.
5 Things You Can Focus On During Your Own CEO Month
So, if you’re thinking about implementing your own version of a CEO Month into your business, but aren’t exactly sure what you would work on during this uninterrupted time, I have a few ideas for you to get your wheels turning:
- Strategic Planning
Depending on the time of year, it may be wise and make sense for you to review and refine your business’s strategic plans, including setting goals and planning for growth.
December was the perfect time for me to do this personally, as it was a natural time to plan for the new year ahead.
In addition to the end of the year, you may benefit from doing this quarterly to ensure that you’re staying focused and working on the right things throughout the year as a whole.
- Backburner List
We all have one of these… whether you realize it or not! A backburner list is essentially that long list of things that you want (or need) to eventually do in your business “when you have time.”
Well spoiler: we often have to MAKE the time for these things to happen! And that’s where a CEO Day, Week or Month can come in.
Your backburner list will be specific to you depending on how your business runs and what you need, but generally speaking, a list of this sort might include tasks like:
- Update or refresh current lead magnets
- Update or refresh lead magnet email sequences
- Templatize emails and other correspondence in your CRM
- Update your LinkedIn (when’s the last time you logged in? 😅)
- Create a Pinterest account for your business and schedule a few pins for the month
- Update your website
- Create a branded email signature and other brand assets, like thank you cards, business cards, etc.
Essentially all of those things that are important, but aren’t necessarily urgent might fall on your backburner list and a CEO Day or Month is the PERFECT time to work on all of these!
- Hefty Projects
In addition to your backburner list, it’s a great time to work on larger projects that typically require more of your time.
For example, this might be re-branding, designing a new website, creating new lead magnets, etc.
All of these things are tasks that of course require more time than just your regular 8 hour day, so it can be beneficial to plan for them in advance, schedule a CEO Month on your calendar, and know that this is the time where you’re going to knock those things out!
- Personal, Professional, or Leadership Development
If you’re anything like me, you mightttt be a learning junkie. This means that you probably have an inbox full of courses, masterclasses, or workshops that you’ve signed up for with good intentions, but then when the time came around, you actually didn’t have the time to really devote to the learning.
As a business owner, it’s so important to stay on top of your personal, professional, and leadership development, which is why I believe it’s necessary to intentionally carve out time for this specifically.
Block your calendar with a set time during a CEO Day, Week, or Month and choose what you’re going to spend that time learning.
Is it the course you purchased 6 months ago and never opened? A workshop recording that’s been sitting in your inbox for weeks? A book you bought that’s still in the Amazon package?
I know you can relate! So choose what makes the most sense for you during this season of life and make it happen. 👏🏼
- Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency
When you’re in the day-to-day grind of your business, it’s easy for some things to go overlooked, but in order to maintain a top tier customer experience and operational efficiency, it’s vital that you spend time in each of these areas!
This can include gathering feedback from your customers, analyzing their responses, and adjusting or adapting your processes as needed based on what you’re hearing.
Additionally, a CEO Day, Week, or Month is the perfect time to analyze your operations and ensure that all of your internal and external processes are streamlined, workflows are optimized, and any inefficiencies are minimized in order to maintain your performance and productivity.
This often includes automating certain tasks where you can, reducing business expenses where it makes sense, and overall improving the efficiency of which your business can run, so you can avoid any unnecessary setbacks.
Overall, a CEO Day, Week, or Month can be anything you desire it to be, but the ultimate goal is for you to step outside of the business and instead work ON it.
Because after all, your business can’t keep growing the way that you want it to without intentional, high level vision and work from you.
So give yourself the gift of this concept in a way that makes the most sense for you and FINALLY check off the things that you’ve been meaning to do, but simply “don’t have time for.”
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If we haven’t had the chance to *virtually* meet yet, hey I’m Amber – not a regular lawyer, but a cool lawyer that helps online business owners sell without getting sued.
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