Think Like a CEO | 016

Music.

Welcome to the profit connections podcast. We are here today with someone that you are going to enjoy very much. Her message is going to just really make you feel great about how you run your business and what is the potential of how you can scale yourself so that you can have the business that you really want instead of having to do all the little things yourself. I'd like to introduce Lynne Rowe. Lynne guides business owners in developing Strategic Action Plans and sound decision making that leads to dynamic business growth. She takes business owners from entrepreneur to CEO of a successful and profitable business. Lynne is the author of Leadership in Action, inspiration for intentional leadership, a book designed to help leaders of all types improve their leadership skills a little bit every week. Welcome Lynne,

thank you so much for having me today. I'm so

excited that you're here. Um, so what I was alluding to in your introduction is that whole CEO you go from business owner to CEO is is the greatest paradigm shift that you can have. And I've actually heard business owners say, Oh, I don't want to be a CEO. I think after we have a conversation with Lynne today, and you understand what that actually means, you might have a new goal for your business. So Lynne, tell us a little bit before we get started. Tell us a little bit about how you how you found yourself here, what, why you're doing, what you're doing, and a little bit about your background.

Yeah, so I'm a business coach. I've been doing this for many years, and I help business owners grow their businesses rapidly. I really like working with businesses that are already making six figures. They've got a business, and they want to scale to seven figures or more. And the reason is because that's when you have the most growth as a business owner. You have tremendous growth as a business owner at that point, because usually at six figures, you're still doing almost everything yourself. But if you want to become a much bigger business than a 10x your business. Let's say you can't do that and still be doing everything yourself. So that's that's really the focus of it. And that means that you actually have to shift from thinking like an entrepreneur to thinking like a CEO of a business. And

also, and I've mentioned this before on earlier podcast, you have to, especially if you come from like the business world, or you've worked for someone else, and now you're a business owner, you have to make that first shift from employee to business owner, and then from business owner to CEO, and by the time that you're at six figures, you probably have made that shift. I just wanted to acknowledge that there is that sometimes that first shift is necessary as well. And you know, we are this chief cook and bottle washer, as my parents used to say, You're doing everything yourself. And you can set yourself up to have your business run your life, or you can set yourself up for you to run your business,

yes, and your business

to support your life? Yes, yes, absolutely, exactly,

yeah.

So let's talk about like, what? How do you envision CEO? Let's define CEO for everyone. Sure,

in my mind, a CEO is the person who is making the plans for the business, figuring out where the business is going, how you're going to get there, and working with the team to make that happen. Because as an entrepreneur, you're doing it all yourself, but as a CEO, you cannot. You can no longer do it all yourself. You can't run, you know, a multi million dollar business with with just you.

But wait, Lynne, if I don't do it, it won't be done, right? I can't let go of anything. Please help

it's so true, and that's exactly what happens with these business owners, is they have trouble. They really have trouble giving it up. And to me, that starts with a plan, like, what's what is it? What's the lifestyle I want to be living? Some people love their 80 100 hour a week job. I don't recommend that, but some people love that. Some people want a huge business that is that's going to allow them to buy a jet and jet set around the world, and that requires a certain size business to be able to support that lifestyle. And some people want to work four hours a week or four days a week, and, you know, have time, have long vacations so that they can spend time with family or go someplace. So I really believe that's that planning out your business, figuring out where you're going and what you're going to do. Do. That's the job of the business owner and the place. So start with your bed in what is the lifestyle I want to be

living? That's that was the key I was going to get to. Yes, what is the lifestyle you have? You ever sat back and said, after you said, I want to be a business owner and said, Wait, what lifestyle do I want to have? Right? So if you've never asked yourself that question before, ask it today. Sit down very first question, yeah, I love that. I love that. And

then you design your business to allow you to live that lifestyle. So you figure out how big does my business have to be, and how much team do I have to have in order to run that So, and that's, that's really the start of a strategic plan. What's the lifestyle I want to be living, and what does my business have to look like to support that? That's the start of a strategic plan, and that's the primary job of the CEO, is to figure out what the business is going to look like and how it's going to happen. How to make it happen? Yeah,

so that, so whenever you're the CEO, you're not, not that you're above answering a telephone. However, that's probably not your primary job, not that you couldn't write a work order or purchase order or anything that you need to do paperwork wise, is that you have now created systems and processes and put them in place, and put people in place to do that job and to do those functions, so that you are free to do just what Lynne said, to create the the culture of the business and where you're going and what you're doing, that is what a CEO does. That's where you know you if you are a tactician, and all you want to do is you want to hit the buttons, and that's all you know. You always want to be hitting the buttons. That's okay. You can be a business owner that does that work, and you could still be a CEO where that's part of what you do, and you can release the little things that you don't need to do. And that's why CEO this, the type of CEO that we're talking about is so attractive and not something that you don't want to be exactly

so one a great exercise for a business owner is to write down everything you're doing and then figure out, how much would I have to pay somebody else to do this? And if you're usually when people do this, they find that, you know, 30 to 60% of their time is spent doing $20 an hour work or $30 an hour work. And what that means is that you're not doing the 300 or 500 or $1,000 an hour work that you're actually capable of doing, and that that's why you started the business, was to do that more more valuable work, right, right? So if you, if you start to look at it that way, you think, oh my gosh, I'm really holding myself back, really holding myself back by doing these little things. So that's when you start to say, okay, what can I give up? What can I give to someone else? And that, when you think about that, it's, it's a couple of things. You know, it doesn't have to be, I have to hire somebody, oh, my god, full time part I've got to pay payroll. All that doesn't have to be that. It could be a part time person in another country, depending on your business, of course, right? But a part time person in another country might be the one solution for you, but another solution for a lot of things is to hire an expert to do it, because they can do it a lot faster than you, because that's their job. That's their primary job. They're experts. So for example, creating a website, any one of us can learn how to create a website, and when we're done, it will be okay. It'll be okay. It won't necessarily be great, because unless we are a designer, you know, a website designer, we don't have the experience to do it right? I was talking to someone who really wanted a great website, and he spent, he said, he added up 80 to 100 hours learning how to develop a website, right? He took a course. He learned from people, he practiced, he worked on it, and when he was done, he had a website that was good. He normally got paid about $600 an hour for the work that he charges himself out for.

So how much did that website really cost? Exactly?

How much did that website really cost him? He talked to a website designer who said, Yeah, I could do that for you in about two weeks, and the cost is a couple $1,000 Oh, my goodness. And the website, when he had the website designer do it was so much better than what he had done because he wasn't an expert in website design. So that's the other thing, that as a CEO, you have to make these decisions. What should I not be doing? What should I be hiring an expert to do? It will save you time and money. Yeah, and that whole

DIY. I. I'll do it myself. It's faster, it's easier, it's better if I do it is, is so counter to what actually works and how you can actually move your business forward. So I love this example because it's just, it's crystal clear that, you know, the guy's getting $600 an hour that website cost way more than hiring more

professional to do it, yes, and get that product. Love it exactly. And you know, so now, now you know, I've been doing this for a long time right and now, anytime I take on a new technology that I don't know, I don't know the technology, I always pay somebody to help me get it set up, because once it's set up, then I can run it, and it'll be great. But if I spent the 30 hours, or whatever, 20 or 30 hours it would take me to get it set up the right way, that would it would be a waste of my time and and a waste of money too, because I wouldn't be doing the other things that you know, I do get

paid to do Right exactly. That's, that's brilliant. I really, I really like that. I and, and we don't think about that whenever we're because it's okay. This is okay. I want you to eliminate this phrase from your vocabulary. It's just easier. It's just easier. What usually proceeds, it's just easier. If I do it, if it's just easier, if you it's it may be it, first of all, it's not easier. Second of all, it's going to take way more time, and it's going to cost you money in the long run. So and

the other thing is, what happens if suddenly you can't do it because you got sick or, you know, there was a, there was a family emergency, it still has to get done now you don't have anybody who can do it for you, and that actually can kill your business. Yeah, totally kill it. I've had so several very sad calls where someone, someone's wife, called me and said, my husband's in the hospital. I don't know if he's going to recover. I don't know how to do anything in his business. And he doesn't have anybody else in the business. He was doing it himself, yeah, so it was a loss of income for the entire family because he was doing it all himself, and he didn't, he didn't have any backup.

Yeah, let's, not do that.

That's no, don't do that. Don't do that to yourself or your family. Yeah. Wow,

wow. So what else for for a CEO, for to get you into that CEO track, what other things do we need to we need to look at?

So one of the first things I recommend to my clients is you have to think a little differently. You know, normally as as an entrepreneur, we think, Okay, I've got to do this. How do I get it done? How do I do it? Well, instead of thinking, How do I do it, you need to start thinking, who can do it for me?

Oh, it's

not a subtle shift, but it's a big change in terms of, in terms of actually getting the work done. Who

can do it for me? I love that question. If you are not driving and you're not on a piece of the equipment, exercising, and you can write this down, write that down. That was a that was important, yeah, how who can do it for me, not how can I instead of, how do I do it? How do I do it? Who can do it? Who can do it? I love that. Yeah, that's

a big that's a big, easy one to remember, but it's a huge shift. It's a huge mindset shift, exactly,

exactly, and that's, and that's a power move. It's actually a power move. It puts you. It elevates you in so many ways, to change the way you're thinking about what you're doing, and actually sends you. It sends you further along that CEO path to actually be thinking that way. Because, you know, multi, these multi business owners are not thinking if they had a good idea. They're not like, how do I do that? They're like, okay, let's bring somebody in to get that done for us. Yep, love it.

And I always say that you as a business owner, in order to grow, because you can't if you're doing everything yourself, you're holding yourself back. You there's no way that you can grow if you're doing it all yourself. So what you have to build is two teams, a human team and an invisible team. So we just, we just talked about the human team, but the invisible team is the combination of the processes and procedures that you set in place about how you do something so that somebody else can on your on your human team can pick it up and do it for you. And it's the automations that you can put in place so that you nobody has to touch it. And then it's the simplifying factors that you put in place, like checklists for Okay, let's make sure all of these little things, little bits. Of things that have to happen in order for it to work properly, make sure all those little things happen. So it's a combination of those things that are kind of running in the background that make your business run smoothly.

Yeah, I love that idea. Had never thought of it that way, of your human team and your invisible team and then working together in concert to do what you need to do. And it is. It's a really so simple. Now I can now I know how to organize it. I have a human team. I have an invisible team. Now I now I know how to move forward, just in that reframe that was beautiful, Yes,

yep.

All right, so I heard Lynne, that you have a gift for our listeners. Would you like to tell us about that?

I do. I have an entrepreneur to CEO assessment, which helps you figure out where you are right now and what you need to fit, what pieces you need to put in place to actually become the CEO of your business. Go ahead, yeah, no.

I love the fact that this is like, look at where you are now. So right? You can't. You can listen to this podcast and be like, oh yeah, this is actually a tool for me to go all right. Now, where am I? What pieces Am I missing, and where, how do, where do I go from here? That's really, it's a great assessment. And it really can be a real like, eye opener for where you are and what you you really need to do in your business. And

it helps you identify, Okay, I need to, I know, I need to put these four pieces in place. You know, what do I what am I going to work on? First, second, third. Because nobody, nobody does it all at once, right? It shouldn't be overwhelming. It should be okay. I've gotta do all this eventually. When do I do it? So

I love that. And sometimes we get stuck in the perfectionism of having to do everything before we can move forward. I love that. This is This is you. You do it as you go.

Yes, exactly, exactly. So if you want to take the assessment. It's Lynne's free gift.com. That's L, Y, N, N, E, S, free gift.com.

Awesome. So we are going to put Lynne's free gift.com into our show notes and into our portal for our profit connectors club, so you can access the information there. The profit connectors club is your portal, where you will get all of the information about all of our guests, podcast episodes. So Lynne's information will be there, her bio, how to connect with her, link to her free gift. All of that information will be in there so that you can reach out to her and connect with her through the portal. So it's profit connectors. Dot c, l, u, B, that's profit connectors. Dot club, because you are the profit connectors, because you are out there making all of the connections and helping to build your business through the connections and land. Lynne, I first of all, this has been an amazing conversation. I want to make sure we got your gift in, and we're going to talk a little bit more the the whole concept of that we've talked about, about creating that CEO mindset, and the systems and the processes that we need to have in place, and the the tools that we that we can use, and also the invisible team and the human team. All of this has been a remarkable conversation, and I really hope for our listeners that it's opened your eyes into the power of stepping into that CEO role and what it can actually do for your business. And I wanted to see if you have any final thoughts that you'd like to leave with us,

I do. I started by saying, you know, you need to make a plan for how you're going to grow, right and when you're going to put these different pieces in place. Very quickly, the average person spends about 15 hours planning a one week vacation, and it's rare that I meet a business owner who spends that kind of time planning for the success of their business, and that's what's going to pay for your vacation. So my recommendation is spend some time creating a strategic plan for how you're going to get to where you want to be, because if you don't, it'll just be, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, and you won't actually get there nearly as quickly as if you have a plan that you can follow.

Thank you. That is, that is so beautifully said. And just, you know what? How did you put it? We were going to create, how we who, where, what we want to be, you know what? What was the very first thing that you said? And I've lost it. It's been a long day. What

the business is

going to look like to support your your lifestyle,

your lifestyle. That was it. That was the first thing. And I think that was, for me, the biggest aha, the lifestyle that you want to have. Like I always talk about, you need to define what your goal is. Where are you going? If you don't have my address, you can't come visit me at the beach. You can get close, you might even get to the right state, but you won't get to my house, right? Not easily anyway. And this just takes that to the next level, to what is that? Not just the What are you where you want your business to be, but what do you want that lifestyle to be? And then you build your business around that

beautiful because living that lifestyle is the purpose, right? Yes,

love that. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Lynne, thank you for listening. Thank you for joining us here on the profit connections podcast, and we will see you next time.

Thank you so much for having me. Thanks. Lynne, you.