CONNECT the DOTS
CONNECT the DOTS
Show Notes
Entrepreneurs wear a lot of hats in their business.
There are a lot of roles to fill when you’re building your business.
Sometimes you don’t even remember which hat you have on.
Knowing what hat you’re wearing and what hat you need to be wearing can prevent you from making ineffective and inefficient decisions in your business.
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Description
This episode is about shifting into a CEO mentality when you need to make decisions in your business. When you’re so used to being the employee in your business, you have to remember to consciously shift from employee to CEO in order to make the best decisions for the business instead of making the best decisions for the employee. Employees like things to be easy. CEO’s like things to be successful. When you’re both people you get to make things easy and successful.
In order to step into the shoes of the CEO, where the CEO, you have to be brave.
As I’m going through this journey of the 100 Days to Be Brave, I notice that the things that I’m being called to do are very similar to some of the things I’m being called to do as I step into the CEO role, as I put on that CEO hat and take off my employee hat.
My mindset has to shift around what I’m doing and how I’m doing it, why I am doing it and when you do that it is a very different perspective that you have to show up and create the business you want or the life that you want. I noticed that I experienced this a lot towards the end of 2021 and I’m continuing to experience, here in the first part of 2022.
As an employee don’t you look at OK what’s the next thing on my list and you don’t really think about what you’re doing or why you’re doing it you’re just saying oh yeah my manager my leader or whoever told me to do this.
Maybe it’s the experts in your field, maybe it’s the marketing experts, maybe it’s a group that you’re in, maybe it’s a Mastermind you’re part of. It might even be your one on one coach telling you to do these things. That’s fine.
It’s still important even if there are things that you really should be doing or that you really want to do to grow your business to build your business to make money as coach then it’s still is helpful to put on those different hats in order to do what you’re doing well and do it purposely and do it successfully. It’s really helpful to make a conscious decision about what hat you should be wearing at any given time to show up in the best way you can IN THAT ROLE.
One of the simplest things that you can do for your business is to be conscious of what hat you’re wearing as you’re working in your business, as you’re working on your business. Stay aware of what hat should I be wearing today . Some days there may be multiple hats that you need to wear, but just be aware of what hat you’re wearing and what your perspective is, the lens that you’re seeing your business through, the lens that you’re seeing the tasks that you’re doing through, when you’re wearing that hat. Shifting to a different hat could shift your perspective and could shift the outcome of whatever you’re doing.
I have been noticing this and since I’ve noticed it in myself, I’ve been noticing it more in my clients. I can tell when they’re showing up as employees and when they’re showing up as a CEO and I can tell the difference in their mindset. I can notice a difference in how they make decisions and how they commit to those decisions and how they execute on those decisions. It’s a noticeable difference between when they are coming from a CEO perspective and when they’re coming from an employee perspective. CEO’s are decisive, but employees can be not so decisive. They’re like, let me check with my manager or I don’t know what to do. CEO’s take ownership and employees pass the buck.
This occurred to me as I was going through the 100 days to Brave and specifically with days 26 and 27 days a day 26 was about open doors and Day 27 was about closed doors.
This is really important to this discussion about which hat you’re wearing because as an employee you’re not as likely to recognize an open door or a closed door in your business. God closes doors for a reason, for a purpose and he opens doors for a reason and for a purpose in order to direct us to things that we might need to do next in our business or in our life and it’s really helpful to be able to recognize that.
In order to recognize that, you have to notice what hat you’re wearing and what hat you need to be wearing in order to have that big picture perspective.
One example of this is when I was going through the 100 Days to Brave. Originally I embarked on this journey because I thought “hey this will be neat. I’ll go on the journey and as I’m going through this journey I will share part of that journey with you. Anything that I learn might be helpful to you.
I decided to share the parts I was learning with you on social, with my emails, but what happened unconsciously unintentionally was that turned into a social media campaign and that was not my intention.
That’s one of the things that happens when you’re not paying attention to what hat you’re wearing is you get distracted, you go off the path. The CEO part of me was thinking of this would be a good journey for me to go on and I’ll share it with people as I’m on the journey so that they can benefit from it to they can you know all I’ll be a leader in this and I’ll share what I’m learning with the people that I’m leading. That came from a CEO perspective. I was wearing my CEO hat when I decided to do that. But what happened was as the CEO I was assigning the work to my employee to post on social media and what my employee interpreted was oh turn this into a social media campaign.
So that’s what happened. When I realized that the intention had shifted, I had to bring the employee in and set her straight. When I give you something to post, go ahead and post it, but it’s not going to be a full out campaign. I’m just sharing things I learn whenever I think they’re helpful.
This is really just a journey that I wanted to go on for myself and I’m just gonna share something with you whenever I think I have some insight that would benefit y’all .
That’s an example of taking you know you know making sure that I understand what hat I’m wearing at any particular time and making sure that what I’m doing at home showing up is coming from the hat that I want to wear versus maybe a hat that that I just forgot to take off like I put the employee hat on to do the post but then I forgot to take the employee hat off to get back into the plan for my business so that’s that’s one thing I wanted to share with you.
Take a look at what you’re doing that you’ve inadvertently over complicated or things you’ve added that were unintentional. Check in to see if they make sense for you and be willing to realign yourself and your time and your tasks with your purpose. Your purpose and the purpose of the things you do-how you invest your resources, should be pretty closely aligned. And those should align pretty closely with who you are and who you want to be.
If you’re wondering why I haven’t been sharing too much from 100 Days of Brave, I’m only sharing stuff when I find something particularly helpful and today is one of those days. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about you can go back on social media a couple of weeks where I was sharing something every day and know what I’m talking about or you can just ignore that part.
100 Days to Brave is a daily devotional style book by Annie F. Downs . Today’s episode I’m sharing part of the journey of 100 Days to Be Brave. It’s been super valuable to me so far. If being brave is someone you want to be, it’s a quick daily check-in that I think you might find valuable as well.
As I said, Day 26 was What’s an Open Door and Day 27 is What’s a Closed Door? This can be helpful to think about in terms of my business. I want to focus on the Open Doors and walk past the closed doors instead of getting wrapped up and spinning and stuck because a door I wanted to be open is closed.
Annie F. Downs, the author, shared this: “you can be brave because you can trust God. Brave people commit their work to the Lord and trust that His plan for their lives might not look the way they planned. And that’s okay. “
Being a CEO and wearing the CEO hat requires you to be brave. It requires you to do hard things and to feel hard things. But when you’re brave you step forward and do those hard things and feel those hard things, because that’s the hat you need to wear that day.
On Day 27, she shares this advice from Proverbs 16:3. “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.”
Recently I was coaching a client and she was struggling with a decision she was trying to make. She had deliberated over it, agonized over the pros and cons, but she resisted taking the decision to the Lord. When I asked her why, she said she was afraid of the answer. This is the main reason I find that people don’t want to address their money mindset. They’re afraid of what they think they might find. She already knew the right decision. It was already planted in her heart like a sled ready to sprout up and grow. And she knew the discomfort that would come with that decision. Taking it to God would make it real. It would make it impossible to ignore. Just like Jesus’ first real miracle- turning the water into wine at the wedding in Cana. It was a pivotal moment in His ministry, one He knew He could not undo, for it would set off a chain of events that He could not deny. It was like a locomotive at full speed. It’s not an easy thing to stop, or even slow down. It’s like a roller coaster as it’s at the peak of the track. Once it crosses over the peak and begins down that slope, there’s no turning back. You’re going for a ride.
She didn’t want to take it to God until she decided she was ready for the ride. On her coaching call, we talked through her options until she could clearly see her next steps and knew how she would bravely and power- fully step into her plan (and God’s plan for her). We know it’s not going to be all fun and excitement but it also doesn’t all have to be fear and terror. She’s clear on her role on this and she also knows she has support-from her husband, from her coach and ultimately from her God. She has everything she needs. And knowing all this might not make it easy, but it does make it SIMPLE.