Hey you guys, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited for today's episode. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and organizing my ideas and naming things you're going to notice throughout the episode. If you did like this episode, let me know. I love hearing from you when these episodes resonate, when they are meaningful to you.
So send me a DM on Instagram or send me an email or whatever, but I would love to hear if you like this. So today I'm talking about how I get stuff done. I'm calling it the seven modes of CEO. And so I'm going to go through the seven modes on how I do what I do. I think this is like one of the most common questions I get for when people want to pick my brain in quotes, or the questions that I get more about like lifestyle, not necessarily business strategy or mindset stuff.
But it's like, how do you actually do it all? Because if you're new to the podcast, welcome. I run a business, obviously. I have one on one clients. I have group programs. I have this podcast. I'm creating content. I also am raising three babies. I guess they're not babies.
I have a seven year old, a five year old, and a three year old. They're all about to turn their next age. So almost eight, almost six, and almost four. So I'm busy. I'm busy in motherhood. I'm busy in business. I also like my downtime. I like to read. I like to go out hiking with my family.
I play basketball. I feel like I have a very holistic life. I work out every day. I get a lot of stuff done. And I don't usually talk about like productivity, I guess. but I wanted to share kind of behind the scenes on how I do it. And the point of this episode is not to say, this is how you should do it.
It really is just kind of giving you an inside scoop on how I get it all done. Just going to say it right now. I do not do it by myself, which in the fourth mode that I'm going to talk about you're going to see how many ways I kind of wanted to share what it really looks like in this season.
I also think it'll be cool one day to look back on just this time period of my life and how I was getting everything done because I am a high producer. I get a lot of stuff done. I make a lot of things happen. I attribute a lot of that to working on myself and growth. I read a lot of books. I take a lot of courses.
I get a lot of coaching and mentorship myself. And there's like certain things that I do that have allowed me to leverage my time and to make leaps in my income and productivity, but also just like my peace of mind. There's this person that I follow. I love her name's Jade Bonacolta.
I think is her last name. She runs a newsletter called the quiet rich, and I'm obsessed with that idea, but like the quiet rich don't just have money. And I think that that was always important to me. I didn't just want to make money. I also wanted to have great relationships. I wanted to have a connected spiritual life.
I wanted to have true peace and joy, not just fake, like I'm not just faking the stuff, like genuinely loving my life and making the amount of money and serving the amount of people that I want. I wanted a holistic success lifestyle. And the seven things that I'm going to share today, these seven modes that I'm referring to them as, have made an astronomical difference for me.
So, I hope that it helps you. These have been developed over time. I will share different stories throughout today's episode, but I did not just land here. I started my business over six years ago. And at the time, if you track the ages of my kids, I was a brand new mom, basically.
I had an almost two year old and a baby when I started my business. And I was very busy. I was nursing full time. She was like exclusively nursed. And obviously like having a two year old is very busy. I started also in a very different financial situation that I have now.
And so we're going to talk a lot about that when I talk about all the support that I pay for and have in my life. But I just want you to listen. Like I said, this is what works for me. And this is what I'm actually doing in my business, but this is not how I started. And so I'm going to share some of these stories on how I developed these modes.
So mode number one, I'm calling visionary mode. And this was, I think a lot of my work in the beginning is like, what do I really want for my life? And this is something that I come back to all the time because it is evolving just like I am evolving. My vision for my life and my business and my family is also evolving.
And so I think answering the question with specific detail, what do I really want in this season of my life? What am I working towards? Because if you don't know where you're going, it's like the classic Alice in Wonderland quote, from the Cheshire Cat. It's like, well if you don't know where you're going, it really doesn't matter which direction you choose.
And so the vision, clarifying where you want to go, you don't just stumble on it. You decide it is a very powerful decision. And this is what gave me peace of mind is that you're not locked in for life. Just because you say you want something doesn't mean you have to stick with it no matter what.
It just gives you a direction to move towards and the vision can evolve and change over time. One of the things that was really helpful for me was this idea that your vision is like a painting. And if you think about a painting, I'm not an artist. So in my mind, this is how it goes. And this is how I imagine creating a vision for your life as well.
The first thing you're going to do is sketch it, the outline. So you kind of know the vague idea. And then over time you add different colors and different details. And what's cool about being an entrepreneur or being visionary is that that can evolve in real time. Maybe to use the painting example, you were painting a mountain landscape, but in the world of entrepreneurship, you can immediately change and be like actually I want to paint a lake.
What that can look like is for me, it's been like, I'm going to be a one on one coach. And that was the beginning of my business. Like I'm going to be a life coach. And then that evolved into I'm going to be like a high powered life coach. I'm going to work with people who are high achievers and moms starting businesses and founders and things like that.
And then it evolved into I'm going to start a group program, and now I really feel like I have this micro education company. Part of that's coaching. Part of that's education. Part of that's this podcast. And my vision has evolved for what I want my business to be. And so don't stress about knowing what your biggest vision will be in seven years.
From where you're standing right now, where do you want to work towards? For coaches who are brand new, a lot of people, it's like, I want to make a 100K in my business. A lot of the time my clients, after they cross the six figure mark, they're like, okay I'm on the path to millions. What does that actually look like?
How can I do that? Who do I need to become? Things like that. I think if you have a vision for what can be, it helps you and informs you on what decisions you need to make, what you need to learn, who you need to get around, the skill sets that you need to develop, the type of person you need to become, as far as the traits and the behaviors and the mindset, and the character that you have, all these things become clear.
And I think the mistake would be being like, well I don't know my vision, so I must not have one. It's like, no, you decide. And one of the things for me has been huge is the vision is nurtured just like anything. So when I started out, my vision was bare bones. It was like, I just want to make enough money to contribute to my family income.
And then as I reached that goal, a new vision was born. It's like, oh I want this level of income. Oh, I want to be able to hire people. Oh, I want to help this many people through my content and in my programs and things like that. And it has evolved and gotten clearer, but it is a decision, and no one can make this decision for you.
And so I spend a lot of time thinking about what I want, rehearsing what I want. I have a vision board in my office. I spend time on Pinterest, looking at images because I think having a clear vision for your life is helpful. The other thing that I think has been super useful for me is to learn from people who have done the impossible in my mind. People who are achieving things that I am in awe of because this is what's interesting. I know comparison gets a bad reputation, but this is what's fascinating about comparison. When I compare myself to someone doing a lot more than me and I have no judgment for myself, the comparison is actually really useful.
It shows me possibilities that I didn't know existed. I think comparison is a poison when we compare ourselves and then judge ourselves or are critical of ourselves. And so I use comparison in an expansive way, not a limited way. I use comparison for inspiration, for expansion, for imagination. And I spend time there.
I spend time thinking about what I want. I spend time imagining what I want. And so I call that visionary mode because that is a mode of a CEO. You have to have the vision. And I think for a lot of people who are ambitious, they get kind of sometimes sucked into the weeds of their business or sucked into the weeds of their goal.
And they forget to almost like pull their head up for air and be like, where are we going? It's so important to spend time thinking about what you want. In fact, I'm actually getting ready to host a VIP day with a private client. And that was something that I want to work on with her is what's the vision and getting more clarity, even though we've been working on that in our sessions.
I think in an intensive experience where that's all you're thinking about, like how do we make this vision real? I think is really useful. In fact, I do this quarterly. So I reflect on my goals. I decide if the vision that I've said I wanted is still in alignment or how close I am. How can I refine it? What specifically do I want?
I think those things are so important to spend time answering for yourself. Visionary mode. Mode number two, I'm going to call attack mode because the work is unavoidable. I'm here creating this podcast. No one can do this work for me. I'm not willing to let AI record this podcast for me, right?
And there's some things that I'm going to share that only you can do. And so those things are very important to me. So attack mode to me is like the things that I am committed to doing on a day to day basis. This is daily breakdown. Visionary mode may not happen daily, but attack mode happens daily for me.
And there's five areas. I am going to refer to them as my power five that I do or focus on every day. And it might look different day to day and this will make more sense as I explain what the power five are, but it is a daily breakdown.
And so I am attacking it because it has to be done. There is no, I maybe did it. I make this very binary. Either I did it or I didn't do it. So the five areas, the power five that I focus on a day to day basis in attack mode is my mind, my body, my business, my relationships, and my house because I'm a mom. So we'll start with the mind. I, every day, spend time making my brain more valuable. Sometimes that means reading books or taking courses. Sometimes that means meditating. Sometimes that means journaling. Sometimes that means getting my own coaching. It doesn't matter. It can rotate through any of those categories that I just shared, but I am working on my mind every single day.
One of the things that you've probably noticed on this podcast is I refer to a lot of books because I always have at least one, two, or three books that I'm reading at any given time. I'm a very ferocious reader and I love it. And I also know, we're going to talk about this in number seven, abundance starts in our mind.
And so I'm always nurturing thoughts. I'm always getting new ideas. I'm always learning something every single day. And that's binary, either I devoted time to working on my mind or I didn't. The next one is body. So I work with my own fitness coach. So for me body means my nutrition and my workouts are scheduled ahead of time.
And I either did that, like I ate according to my nutrition plan or I didn't. And I either worked out and did the workout or I didn't. Sometimes my workout is a walk on the treadmill. Sometimes my workout is lifting weights. Sometimes my workout is a walk outside. I'm moving my body, I'm taking care of my body, and I'm fueling my body.
Business. So this is dynamic. It can change, you know, depending on the day. But what I mean here is not client care. So when I think of my power five, I'm moving my business forward. Another word that I would put here is like marketing or like planting seeds for the future. I don't include client care because client care is a non negotiable for me.
Answering Voxers, showing up to my client calls, of course hosting my group coaching program, etc. Like those things don't take a lot of brainpower because it's like, I'm just committed to doing it. I'm not like wondering if I'm going to show up for this call with my client.
On my calendar, I know I am. And so for these power five, this is about my business. So I'm moving the needle. I'm doing something that will grow my revenue every single day. And this is, I think, challenging if you're not committed to this or if you're new, especially. When I was a brand new coach, I remember some days I just didn't know what to say on Instagram.
So I wouldn't, and now that does not happen for me. Every day I am posting content. I am creating value. I am doing something that will allow my business to continue to grow. That as the saying goes, it's like grow or die. And so I'm always creating something that is moving my business forward every single day.
Sometimes that looks like posting on Instagram. Sometimes it looks like recording a podcast. Sometimes it's more private, like working on a sales page or making a product better. Maybe adding a module or spending time creating a presentation, but every day I'm doing something that is moving my business forward.
The next one is actually something that I coach on a lot with my one on one clients is relationships because we don't live in a vacuum. It'd be so easy to create our businesses in a vacuum, but I don't live in a vacuum and neither do you. And so I have three little girls that I want to be very present for.
I have a husband that I want to make our marriage the most important part of our life. And so that means that there's activities that I can commit to that will nurture the relationships that I want. Like I said, all of these are binary, either I did it or I didn't. So some of the things I wanted to share because I think this is how my brain actually works.
So it's like, did I make my kid laugh today? Did I ask good questions when they came home from school? Did I do something non household related with them? Play a game, watch a show, have a conversation, read a book. Because I know if I'm doing those things that is nurturing our relationship.
Quality time, to me, is very important. I want my kids to know, like I want to be an active part of their life. So I demonstrate that. To me, relationships is not just what you think about your loved ones, it's what you're demonstrating. And I really learned this from my husband actually because he demonstrates at a very high level his love for his family.
And one, I'm very blessed and lucky, but I was like, that is so good. It's not just what he thinks about me. It's what he's demonstrating. And especially for kids, I think that this is so important, like to demonstrate how you feel through quality time. And so just to kind of reiterate the things that I do, did I make my kid laugh?
Did I ask them good questions about their day? Did I engage in quality time with them that wasn't dinnertime, chores, brushing your teeth? I think that's what matters to me is like knowing that I spent quality time with them that wasn't household business related. I wasn't telling them hey, go brush your teeth or hey put your plate away. I was playing a game, reading a book, watching our favorite show or something like that together. Same goes for my husband. It's like, did I spend quality time with him? Did I ask him good questions?
Was I curious about his day? Did we make eye contact while we were talking? Instead of being roommates, I want to be his wife. So I'm asking good questions. I'm curious about what happened at work. We also go on date nights and things like that. That's more on like a weekly basis. So, when I talk about the power of five, it's daily.
Every day I'm doing these things. Did I greet him when he came home, like with a big hug and a kiss? Was I excited to see him? Those kinds of things are what I'm thinking about for my optimal day. The next one, because I am a mom, is household. And because my husband works out of the house and I'll share this more in number four when I talk about team mode, which is more support, but Wesley's super supportive.
And I am primarily responsible for a lot of the things that happen in our house. I make the appointments for the kids. I schedule grocery delivery. I pay our bills and things like that. And so I make sure that I'm managing to the household every day. And I learned this, I don't even know where I learned this from, but it was like, all it takes is 15 minutes.
So one of the concepts that I teach is like entropy. Entropy for the sake of simplicity and for the sake of this conversation, is a tendency towards disorder, right? And if you're a mom with kids, or you raised kids, or even you can just remember what it was like growing up if you don't have kids, kids are messy.
There is a strong tendency towards disorder. And I'm not perfect at this at all. I'm not perfect at any of this, just full disclosure. This is just what I think about. And so I try to spend time, this is nerdy, but this is how I think about it. Like the opposite of entropy is applied consciousness. So if I spend time just tidying up my office and my kitchen for 15 minutes, it looks dramatically different. If I spend time doing dishes or folding clothes, my house works better. And so every day I'm chipping away because of entropy, because my house tends towards disorder, I spent time every single day making it a little bit better.
This just also makes me feel better. I think there was a time period early on in my business where I felt like I was in full creative mode. This is when I was building my website. I was taking a lot of courses. I wasn't working with a lot of clients because I was doing more tech stuff. It was like getting my LLC and like building my homepage and learning how to charge credit cards and things like that.
And it felt very tedious. And I remember my hair was in a bun and I was in my workout clothes all day because I felt like I was squeezing in work between when I was taking care of my kids. And it was very difficult. It was long days. I was very tired. And I remember one day I looked around and my house was just a wreck.
There was toys. There was dishes in the sink. And I was like, I don't feel good. And what was interesting is I just spent a little bit of time tending, tidying, cleaning, whatever, and I felt so much clearer and I actually got more work done and I was like, oh there actually like is an ROI for taking care of my house.
And like I said, not perfect, but I try to put it on my power five list for the day because I know I feel better. My family feels better. My husband has less anxiety when he comes home from work. People know where to find things. So I spend, it doesn't have to be a ton of time, but just like a little bit of time focused on something that I'm making better in the house.
So that is how I am in attack mode. The power of five mind, body, business, relationships, house. Those five things. I just do one thing prioritized every day, and you'd be amazed at how much you can get done when this is compounded. I do this every day for a year. Now we're talking about high performance. One of the things that I learned early on is that high performance or mastery is just never missing the fundamentals. They never miss the basics. And so that comes to my mind when I want something to be sexy or complicated, I'm like, no masters focus on the basics. Masters focus on the fundamentals.
My five fundamentals. For CEO mode on how I get stuff done as a wife and a mom and a business owner are these five things: mind, body, business, relationships, household, every single day. Attack.
Okay. Let's talk about three. So these are my tools for productivity and this is just what works for me. I'm just sharing resources here. So one of the things that I just recently did a few months ago is I got a timer and if you've heard of like the Pomodoro method or anything like that, it's basically 20 minutes on or very focused work and then you take a break, very focused work, take a little break, very focused work, take a little break.
And so I'm working on some pretty big projects that take me a lot of focus and a lot of time. And because of my schedule where I don't work 40 hours a week, I work like 25 hours a week, I have a limited amount of time that I can get stuff done, but I have very big dreams for my life and my business.
And one of the mistakes that I had early on was I was very much in all or nothing. One of the things that I noticed about my brain was if I started a task, I wanted to finish it. If I started a blog, I wanted to write the whole blog in one sitting so I could complete it. But bigger projects like writing a book, for example, I cannot sit and write my entire book in one day.
And so I turn on my timer and I'm like, okay, I'm going to write for 30 minutes and I cannot check my phone for the next 30 minutes. And I get more done in that 30 minutes. I'm hyperproductive because I force myself to get stuff done without distraction. So having a timer is a huge tool for me for productivity.
The next one is my AirPods, noise cancellation. I definitely use that in my house when I'm writing because kids are allowed. And I think it also just blocks out all my air conditioning or the dishwasher or whatever, just blocks out all noise. And so I can really focus. Going on walks is a hat for productivity for me, especially like without input.
So I love going on walks and listening to podcasts or audio books, but I also prioritize going on walks without those things so that I can get downloads and I can organize my ideas. Some of my best ideas ever have come on walks. And so I give myself that space. And the next concept is double dipping or repurposing.
So this has been really helpful for me creating content is I try to look for areas where I can like double dip. I'm like, where can I double dip? Maybe it's scrolling through my podcast and then using an idea that I know I could teach easily and writing an Instagram post. Maybe it's using the same idea for an email and then I create a podcast episode.
Or if it's something like a conversation I had with a client, I'm like, ooh, this is an amazing concept. I'm going to teach this to the Matrix. Where can I double dip? Where can I make this easier? It's another tool that I use. The next one is time blocking plus ideal calendar.
So this is something that I work on in detail with my private clients is really honing in their ideal calendar because in the beginning of a business, you're like, I will work with anyone at any time. I know for me, that was the case. I worked with clients on Saturday mornings, at night. I was just like, I will do whatever it takes to make money and to get experience.
As you grow as a business owner and you become more advanced, you have clients, you're making money, your brain and your coach brain and your business brain have more experience. I know for me, like in the beginning, I was just a noob. You know, I was just like trying all these things, and I'm grateful for that season of my business.
So if you're in that season, don't have judgment. Like everyone started there. And so I was just more willing to break my future rules. And what I mean by that is I knew that it was a season that I was in that would not be forever. So I would work on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. I was like, I will not be doing this the rest of my life.
This is not ideal, but in the season it was required. And so I did what was required based on the season I was in, but I always had an ideal calendar in my mind. I knew that I wanted to have a nanny. I knew that I wanted to work normal work hours. I knew that I wanted to have evenings with my family without answering a phone call or like, you know, tending to business or client stuff.
And so, I had that in mind and I made steps and progress towards it every day. And that is how I get stuff done. So I do have a calendar, right? I have office hours. I have hours that my clients can book calls and hours that clients cannot book calls. There's times where I block off, record a podcast like today, what I'm doing right now.
This was blocked off in my calendar. I have things blocked off for like appointments and trips, client calls. These things go into my calendar. And I have an ideal calendar. So like one of the things that I remember always wanting was like, I don't want to work on Fridays. And so I don't work on Fridays.
It is all blocked off. That is for me and my girls to have fun. And I don't do anything work related and it's great. That was part of my ideal calendar. And there's other things that I think I'm still working towards, right? One of the things that I want is to take two weeks off in December and like a whole month off in the summer.
I'm not quite there yet, but I'm making strides towards it. And so I think the ideal calendar is one of those things that are always evolving with you. But I think this would be a really good exercise for you to do. What is your current calendar? And then what is your ideal calendar and how can you start closing the gap?
This means hard conversations. This means boundaries. This means saying no. And that's part of the journey, right? Like we have to be willing to say no to things that aren't for our highest good or the things that we want most. And so I really feel like the decisions that are the hardest are the things that are between something good and something that's the best, something that we want most and prioritizing that. The next thing that I do as a tool for productivity is I do not have any notifications on my phone. I have a work mode. If you have an iPhone, this is like the best hack ever.
I have a work mode, so like my nanny can contact me. My husband can contact me and that's it. So like I will get phone calls from friends or family members or spammers, right? That they are immediately sent to voicemail, and I don't see the notification until I turn off work mode. Very useful. I don't have any notifications on for Instagram, or Voxer, or email.
I don't see them come in. I only check it when I really want to. And that is also a productivity hack. For those of you who do use Voxer with your clients or MarcoPolo, or anything that's like, messaging between, I highly recommend that you turn your notifications off or else it creates a lot of anxiety because you're always like, oh my client's talking to me.
Oh, they need something. Oh, I need to respond. That is not true. You do not always need to respond right away. And turning off the notifications will help you decide consciously when to go into the app and when not to go into the app. The other things is like, I think it was Layla Hermosi talking about this.
She's like, have a season of no. And I called it like, just say no to a lot. I say no to a lot. Full disclosure, I don't have this like huge friend group. I have a close circle of friends who are very good friends and that's it. Especially friends that are supportive of what I'm trying to do with my life, right?
Like they support my ambition. They support my vision. And they encourage me. They cheer me on. They don't think like I'm weird. Well, maybe they do. I don't know. Maybe they think I'm weird. But like, I think the friends that I surround myself with are minimal and very intentionally, they're the type of friends that help me get to where I want to go.
I also just am not a super social person. And if that's not for you, that's totally okay. I just wanted full disclosure and full transparency. I don't do a ton of social activities. I do work activities. I do family activities. I do taking care of Amber activities. And that's basically it. And so I just wanted to share that like, I think it's okay.
At least this is what works for me. Okay. Those are my tools for productivity. I use a timer. I have AirPods. I go on walks. I double dip, right? I look for places where I can repurpose content and things. I time block. I have an ideal calendar that I'm always refining and working towards. I don't use notifications and I say no to a lot.
Those are my tools for productivity. Number four is team mode, and team mode is just how I'm supported. And so this is where I want to give the disclosure. How I am supported now is not how I used to be supported. So depending on where you're in your business, some of us will resonate and some of this won't.
When I was brand new, I had zero support. I had Google, right? Like I was Googling how to build a WordPress website. I was Googling how to register a business. I was Googling how to share my Instagram post to Instagram stories. Like I remember these things. I didn't have someone that I could help with.
I didn't have childcare. I didn't have a coach. I didn't have a mentor. I didn't have a nanny. So many things that I have now I did not have. And so over time I have invested in support for my business, and I wanted to talk about those things because they make my life so much better and it allows me to make more money.
And that was the big aha for me is like, if I invest in support, I have the freedom, the brain capacity, and the time to make more money. So it is an ROI. So the first investment that I made was a mommy's helper. This was when, let's see, I was about like eight months into my business or so and I hired someone in my neighborhood.
She was like a senior in high school. And so her schedule was such that she had afternoons free because she only went to school in the mornings. And so I would pay her like $10 an hour to come and play with my kids for two hours, so that I could get work done undistracted. And I remember being like, oh my gosh, I am so productive.
Because up until that point I had just been working kind of like on my laptop while my kids are playing or watching a show or while they napped. And it was like chaos. And so to get some time back was huge. It also allowed me to make the leap from working at nights and Saturdays until I was able to take some clients in the afternoon.
I started changing my schedule. I also started seeing myself differently. This is what's interesting about getting support is like I saw my time as valuable. I could pay her $10 an hour because I knew that my time was worth more than $10 an hour. And that's when things started to change for me. It was like, oh I have an hourly rate. And if I can pay someone less than my hourly rate to get my time back, that is worth my investment.
And that's kind of changed how I think about investing in things. So I could invest in a coach or a mentor to get time back because they give me, you know, shortcuts and ways of avoiding failure. So I'm going to pay coaches and mentors. I pay my nannies to help me, so that I can work during the day.
I pay my house cleaner. Like I'll just go through all the ways that I'm supported. So that was my first support. I hired a nanny's helper. Then I bought a course. I was like, my second investment was like how to actually run a business. I invested in what was called KBB by Dean Graziosi and Tony Robbins, which was like the Knowledge Business Blueprint or something like that.
Basically like how to sell your ideas, right? Through coaching, through masterminds, through a course, that was kind of the idea. And so that was like my second investment. And I remember it felt very scary. Beyond that, then I started investing pretty heavily.
I was like, oh I get this. Like I pay for a $3,000 course and I make $6,000. And I started going, oh like I see how this works, right? I invest in knowledge, I apply it, I make more money. And so from there I started investing pretty heavily in my personal development. So I've hired my own coaches.
I've hired like a website designer and brand designer. Shout out Rebecca. You're amazing. I have a podcast editor. Allyse, you're amazing. She's listening to this right now. I'm sure because she's editing it. Anyway, she's great. So that helps me get my time back. I get to record this episode, send it to her.
She edits it, writes notes, publishes it for me. It's amazing. So I get my time back to make money. I also have my own CFO bookkeeper. So she does my taxes. She helps me manage my bookkeeping. So like my profits and losses every month. She helps me be tax compliant or whatever. She helps me think through investments that I want to make and how much I'm spending versus how much I'm making.
Like I love Caitlin, you're amazing. So those are the things that I know have made a huge difference in getting my business time back. I've also just signed with someone to help me with social media, so I can produce more high quality content. The other thing that I use is Kajabi, right? I invest in software support.
So Kajabi is amazing. And Kajabi hosts my website. Kajabi helps me have an email list. I can send emails for marketing. It hosts my courses and my membership. It has a community app for all the people in the Matrix. I can use Kajabi to collect payments.
Like, I love it. And I remember that when I signed up for Kajabi, I was really nervous because it was a big investment for me when I signed up for Kajabi. So Kajabi is like 200 bucks a month. But I think I was only making like a thousand dollars a month when I signed up for Kajabi. And I was like, ooh that's like a lot of money that I'm making.
But I remember thinking like it is an ROI. It will help me make more money because it can process payments. It can do all these things for me. The other thing that I became very clear about was like all the six figure plus earners that I respected all had Kajabi. And I was like, oh if I want to be someone who is making that level of money, this is part of the process.
And so I did it. And it did. It did help me make my first six figures, and I still use it at multiple six figures for so many things. And I'm very grateful for it. And of course my nannies. I didn't even talk about them. So I have two nannies. I started with one nanny, and she's a student.
And so I actually had to bring on someone else to supplement because her hours have drastically changed. And so I actually have two people that support me with my girls during the week. And this is a game changer, right? So like I can work during the day. Two of my girls are at school in the morning.
And so my little three year old, almost four year old, you know, she gets to play and go to the park and things like that while I get work done because I have my nanny helping. The next thing that I wanted to add here is that my husband is very supportive. So I kind of mentioned this earlier on managing the household, when Wesley is home.
And I wanted to share this because I coach a lot of women whose husbands maybe aren't as helpful or they don't see the needs in their house. And that's an added burden. And I just wanted to speak to that because I know that this is a privilege, and I think chose really well. Like I chose a really great man.
So I wanted to share that like full disclosure. Another way that I'm absolutely supported by my husband is like not insignificant; it is very significant to me. So he will do laundry sometimes. We're like 50/50 on laundry. Fifty percent of the time I do laundry; fifty percent of the time he does laundry.
He vacuums. He does the dishes. He cooks dinner, I'd say 50 percent of the time. He is very active with the girls, and he takes care of my car, and he changes like the light bulbs, and he takes out the trash. Like he's very supportive of helping me in the house when he's home which I know is a huge blessing and so I also want to mention like that is part of my team.
So team mode is like supporting yourself in all the ways. And I did not do this overnight. I have gradually layered in support, right? Like I said, the first thing I did was like, have someone help me with my kids. Second thing I did was software and courses. Then I hired my own coaches and I joined masterminds.
And then I hired like a brand designer and a podcast editor, all these things, but it layered in over time based on where my business was at. This is why mentorship is so powerful. My mentor helped me decide when to do these things. Like I remember one of the calls I was kind of overwhelmed and she's like, do you have a house cleaner?
And I was like, no. She's like, why? I was like, I don't know. I just, I feel weird about it. And she was like, no listen, like. It was so helpful for me to get her perspective. Cause she's like, you need a house cleaner because you're making enough money that like that is an investment in your family to get a house cleaner, so that when you're done with work, you don't have to clean the house.
You can be with your kids. And I was like, oh yeah. I see that. And among other things, she really helped me decide when it was time to hire my CFO bookkeeper, when it was time to get branding done, when it was time to invest in different things. She helped me with that. And I do this with my clients too.
I'm like, hey, it's time to get some software. Hey, it's time to pay for housecleaning. Hey, I think you should get branding done. Mentorship is really powerful that way because you've walked through that path before. You can see what needs to be done, see what investments make sense, see what support makes sense for the level of income that you're creating and the level of income that you want to create.
So that was very useful for me. Okay, that was team mode. Let's talk about organizer mode. So I have what I call a CEO day, and I do not mean business. So when I say my CEO day, I think of life and business. So when I have a CEO day, I'm making appointments like dentist appointments, doctor appointments, eye appointments, all the things for my kids.
Because I have a daughter that, she has eczema, she has glasses, she had surgery last year. We have a lot of appointments. And so I make sure that I have time to organize those appointments. I make time to pay my bills for my business and household.
CEO time also includes thinking time and strategic thinking time for business. So it's like, okay, is there something that I want to integrate into the Matrix? Like, okay, what does that look like? What do I want to add or what do we want to take away? It's organizing my life and business, so that everything can be taken care of without chaos. Some other things that I do in CEO time is schedule my appointments. This is embarrassing. But when I had my first two babies and my business, there was a time where like I didn't go to the doctor or the dentist for like two and a half years.
And I remember feeling really ashamed about that because I wasn't taking care of myself. And I was embarrassed that people would find that out. And it's funny, but I think about that a lot. I remember one of the things that I got coaching on early on was like that I am the golden goose.
This isn't her phrase, but this is what I use with my clients. Like you are the golden goose of your business. So you have to take care of yourself to run the machine. And so if I get sick, or if I'm not feeling well, or if I'm not optimized, I can't take care of my business and my clients and my kids and my husband the way that I really want to.
And so part of CEO time is taking care of me. So that looks like scheduling my own doctor's appointments, prioritizing getting my nails done, or going to the dentist, or getting my hair done, or time away. This is when I schedule groceries. Like it's how can I optimize myself and my life by being organized?
And so organizer mode, my CEO days are very special to me. And they are blocked out on my calendars, so that I make sure that they're done because like we talked about earlier, like the entropy is very real, right? Like that two and a half years that I didn't go to the doctor or the dentist, oh I still can't believe that happened, but it did, right?
Because like I didn't make time to schedule my own appointments. I didn't make time to go to my appointments. And that was sad to me. And I was like, this is not my life. I'm going to make sure that I take care of myself. Not just so I can take care of the business, but also like my life and my wellbeing is my top priority.
This is something that I learned from my husband, and I've talked about this idea before. Actually, I think I'm going to have him on the podcast because I think it's a really useful idea. When we were dating, he said something like, I've got to take care of number one. And he was talking about himself.
And as a woman who struggled with people pleasing and codependency, I was like, what? That's so selfish, right? You're supposed to take care of everyone around you. You're supposed to like burn yourself out almost like a badge of honor. Not like, this was subconscious, right?
Like I had to believe that my value came from how much I supported other people. Especially, this is a sneaky one, is like if I struggled because taking care of people, like that was somehow courageous and worthwhile and good. It made me good if I burned myself out taking care of other people. Like I said, that was a subconscious belief I would have not articulated that at the time, but that is what my belief system was.
And so when he said something like I take care of number one, it rubbed me the wrong way at first. Because he has type one diabetes, if he doesn't take care of himself, he could die. And if he doesn't take care of himself, he can't take care of me. He can't take care of the girls. He can't go to work, right?
So he actually identified something that I think is the correct order is like you have to take care of number one and you are number one in your own life. When I think of organizer mode, that's what I think of. CEO time means I'm taking care of myself and the things that matter. I'm prioritizing room in my calendar for myself.
And if I don't do that, there will come a time where I am sick or overwhelmed and burned out, and I never want to get there. And so I make that a priority. Okay. That was number five is like organizer mode. So then number six is reflect mode. So I build this into my calendar as well, but I think it's important to evaluate and reflect on what's working, what's not working.
What will you do differently next time? I do this with my family. So me and Wesley have these conversations about what's working in our marriage, what's not working in our marriage, what's working in the household, what's not working in the household, what's working about meal planning and dinners, what's working about our kids activities.
We're always trying, like I said, none of this is, I'm perfect at it. I hope that I made that very clear, but this is something that I work on with him. Communicating about what needs to happen, what's working, what's not working. I also do this in my business. I do this for my launches. I do this for my podcast.
What's working? What's not working? What's working for social media? What's not working? What will I do different? What went well with that launch? What didn't go well? What will I do differently next time? Building time in to reflect is so important. For a couple of years, I used Brendan Burchard's high performance planner, and it really helped me kind of structure my thoughts.
I don't use a structured planner anymore, but I do spend time journaling and writing these ideas, right? What worked, what didn't, what will I do differently next time? You could apply that to every area of your life, but you have to make time for it because this is what helps you optimize.
One of the things that I started to notice in my business is I was doing the same launch mistakes three times in a row because I didn't notice that I was doing the same thing and it didn't. This is specifically what happened.
I was launching during the summer and it didn't work. And I did it for three summers in a row. And when I saw that, I forgot to mention this. I also have help from my mom. So my mom like team mode, my mom does admin support for me. So she helps me catalog all my launches.
She organizes my ideas and projects, kind of like project management. And so I was talking to my mom because she does this for me. Shout out to you, Mom, if you're listening to this. And she was kind of going through and she's like, did you notice that like this month is not good for your launches?
And I was like, oh my gosh, how did I miss this? And so if I had reflected earlier, I could have avoided a lot of mistakes. And I've plenty of experiences where that has been true. And so now I spend a lot of time reflecting, collecting data, looking at my data, and making new empowered decisions based on what I'm seeing, so that I can avoid mistakes, so that I can actually create what I want.
And so building in time for evaluation, I think is super important. I also think on a day to day basis, this is important. So when I lay down to sleep, before I fall asleep, I kind of do a quick reflection, like what went really well today? What do I wish I did better? What will I do differently tomorrow? What am I grateful for?
Those are kind of the questions that ping pong in my mind as I'm falling asleep. This is not a formal exercise. It can be. I know some people that make it very formal, where they evaluate every day, and they write in their journal every night, or whatever. It can be formal or informal.
I just think the priority is that you are doing it. These three questions are so powerful. What worked, what didn't, what will you do differently next time? You could do that for your house. You can do that for your business. You can do it for a child. You can do that for your office, for social media.
You can apply it in so many different ways. What worked, what didn't, what will I do differently next time? And then actually do it. I also think keeping a catalog, especially for launches or business, actually documenting it in writing has been very useful for me.
Number seven is an idea that I call wealth mode. And I'm going to reference a podcast that really changed my life from Brooke Castillo. I think it's called like Three Abundance Assets. I'm pretty sure that's what it's called. Anyway, she talks about how to allocate your brain, your time, and your money as the three abundance assets, right? These three things create wealth.
And so this is kind of like a general idea. This is not a specific idea on how I get stuff done, but I wanted to add it because it had such an impact on me. I remember her saying this, and I was like, I get it. She said, my number one abundance asset is my mind, my brain, my thinking, my creative power, and I've never forgotten it.
And so I am always investing time and money into my brain. I read books, I get coaching, I learn new skills, I attend workshops, you name it. I'm investing into my brain because my brain can create more time and more money. And I can use my money to create more time, and I can use my time to make more money.
But your brain is the one that manages it all. So it's so important to develop and create more value within your mind. So making your brain and mind more valuable has been a huge hack for me. Learning business skills, learning coaching skills, learning self management skills, learning emotional intelligence skills, learning communication skills like copywriting or speaking, learning how to do a podcast. And this is the other thing that I want to tie in. So these ideas are not my own. So the abundance assets is from Brooke Castillo, but the other idea that I got from Myron Golden. He talks about the levels of wealth. I don't know actually if that's what he calls it. I apologize, but I'll share with you.
So he talks about like there's four levels of creating wealth. And at the bottom is implementation. Using your muscles to get something done. You are very limited if you have to use your body to create something. And his idea was like a construction worker, or someone who collects trash, or a cashier at the grocery store.
And he's not throwing shade at any of them. He's like, but there is absolutely a cap on what they can make, right? So if you're using your muscles to make money, you are limited. Level up is like manager. People who manager all the trash can collectors of the city probably make more money than the people who are actually collecting the trash. The manager of the grocery store makes more money than the cashier. So if you can manage people, that's like next step up in wealth. Then he says, this is where wealth starts to become exponential. And so he talks about using your voice or your mind as the two levels above manager.
So think of like singers, right? Like some of the richest people in the world. I think of like Taylor Swift uses her voice and her mind, right? The lyrics she writes and the songs she sings make her multiple, multiple, multiple millions of dollars, right?
I think we could apply this to the knowledge industry as well. I'm using my voice right now, right? I'm using my mind to create content, to create solutions. And then he talks about people like Steve Jobs, who uses their creativity or imagination. Other people that I think of are like Walt Disney, people who use their imagination at a high level can get paid the most.
The same thing is true, I think of like Warren Buffett. He uses his mind and his imagination to make decisions, what to invest in. He makes billions of dollars. And so it's interesting to see this play out and you combine that with the abundance assets, right? That means I want to use my mind and my imagination and creativity to make money, not my time, not my muscles, not my actual physical body if I want to make more money.
And so I have seen that. So like when we tie this back to the idea of team mode, if I can pay someone to edit my podcast, that gives me freedom to use my imagination to make more money, my creativity because it doesn't need my physical body to actually spend time editing it.
Or social media, if I can hire someone to help me, it gives me my time back, to make more money from imagination and creativity, not implementation. And so that has been huge as I've leveled up as a CEO, I guess, of my business, CEO mode, is encompassing all of these things. So it's not just what I implement, it's how I think.
And so spending time, making my mind valuable, learning skills, higher level skills. So in the beginning, it was like, how to set up a website, right? Then I learned I could pay someone to build my website, and I can create a product that can serve thousands of people and make a lot more money than me spending time on my website. And one of the first places I read this, I just want to give reference. Cause this book really helped me was Millionaire Success Habits by Dean Graziosi. And he talks about what to delegate, what to delete, like delete or delegate activities, so that you can spend time on the things that make the most money.
That takes cognitive power, right? Like you have to think at a certain level, and I would argue like the higher level that you can think, the more money you'll make if you can get people to implement with and for you. So that has been really useful to me to understand that the thing that matters most is my own mind. My consciousness, my skills, my mindset, who I've become dictates all of this.
And so I wanted to share that. Okay. This has been one heck of an episode. Just to recap before you go, how I get stuff done, how I stay in CEO mode are seven things. Number one, be visionary. Visionary mode. I spend time thinking about my big vision. Number two, attack mode is where I have my power five.
I do something every day to optimize my mind, my body, my business, my relationships, and my house. I shared my tools for productivity, right? Timer, AirPods, walks, time blocking, notifications, say no more. Number four, I called team mode where it's like I shared all the places that I've built a team around me to support me in doing what I do.
Cause I definitely do not do this alone. Number five was organizer mode, right? My CEO day. Blocked off time where I'm like paying bills, making appointments, taking care of myself, looking at my budget, looking at bills that are due, looking at things that need to be done, going through my mail, things like that.
I block time off to do that. Number six is reflect mode. So I build in time to evaluate what's working, what's not working, what will I do differently next time in all areas of my life? And number seven is like, I am building my abundance assets. This is wealth mode. I'm making my brain more valuable.
I'm using my time to create money, and then I'm managing my money well. That can look like investments that can look like, not just investments in the stock market or things like that, but you could also invest money into people. You can invest money into software. You can invest money into your business.
You can invest money into yourself. I think managing those three assets to make yourself more valuable so that you can create more money and then your money can create money and other people can help you create money, like it just is infinite. And so allocating those ideas, those assets that you have is part of being a CEO as well.
Okay. I hope this was helpful. If it was, I would love to hear from you and I will talk to you soon. Bye.
