Unbound is a weekly podcast, created to help you achieve more as a leader. Join Chris DuBois as he shares his growth journey and interviews others on their path to becoming unbound. Delivered weekly on Thursdays.
0:00
Curious about the habits of successful CEOs. Today's episode is for you. Are you a leader trying to get more from your business in life native. So join me as I document the conversations, stories and advice to help you achieve what matters in your life. Welcome to unbound with me, Chris DuBois. Donna Dubay is a certified Director of Operations Business Growth strategist and the host of the CEO amplify podcast. If your works with established online service based business owners who are ready to make a bigger impact and maximize their profit, Donna helps business owners work smarter, not harder. And today, we're going to explore exactly that. Donna. Welcome man, Ben.
0:44
Thank you. So happy to be here, Chris.
0:47
Yeah, I'm glad to have you. And now to hear your origin story.
0:52
Yes. So you know, many of us have a very wavy path to get to where we are today. And mine is certainly one of those. I actually started my career in ICU nursing, and then had children and felt the shift work wasn't really for me. So I came home and was with my kids for a while homeschooled them for a number of years, and then wanted to get back into the online work and was trying to figure out where's the place for me, I've always been a planner, I've always been able to take a big idea and break it down into smaller pieces. And so I started working with entrepreneurs in project management. And when I got in the back end of many online businesses, I realized, whoa, there's a lot going on here. And a big area, which I can help out with even more than just project management. So I dove into a little bit further got into operations, and now work directly one on one with six and seven figure business owners in their business, helping with the back end with the operations. And also have a group program where I help entrepreneurs really live and believe that they are true CEOs.
2:02
Awesome. So it's what are the the habits that you believe are critical for a CEO to adopt?
2:11
Yeah, we can go on about this all day. But to narrow it down. I truly believe that as CEOs, we cannot be chief everything officers, we really do have to leverage the time we have. And I believe that time is our greatest asset. And so in order to do that, there's certain habits we have to put into place so that we are working at that high level, we're not getting stuck in the weeds of the day to day operations in our business. So things like having a CEO Power Hour, which is like a CEO date once a week with yourself time to review, reflect and set up your top priorities. Having a strategic story, a strategic to do list. Now I know many of you have a to do list, it's never ending, you're gonna tell me. But is it strategic? Do you just go to your list and knock off the top things first? Or do you randomly pick the ones that you like to do first, neither of those two options are using strategy. So using the Eisenhower matrix, we can really delineate which tasks are important, meaning their revenue generating and which tasks don't have an urgency or have an urgency. And as CEO, we need to be ensuring that we're spending our time on those growth level tasks, meaning the tasks that are going to move our business forward, drive more revenue. So things like our partnerships, or networking sales, if that's part of your business model still, you know, working on webinars or things where you're going to bring new people into your audience into your world. Those things that are SEO tasks that you're not going to be delegating to someone else do you have time in your week each week to be putting those into place. And that brings me to the third habit, which is what I like to call the scheduling ninja, which is really your calendar. And we can have this ninja working for us or against us. And I'm assuming most of you would like it working for you. And so that's really taking the time to build your weekly calendar for a way that fits you and the season of life that you're in. So that means putting things on your calendar that are important to you, whether it's family, whether it's personal self care for you, whether it's outside things that you need to do in your life, but making sure those are in your calendar and blocked off. And then setting up actual time when you are work. Working when your business is open when your clients and your team can expect to find you and get a response from you. Sure, you might work outside of those hours. But let's set dedicated hours when the laptops open and you're focusing and working. And then of course we want to make sure we have white time and space in our calendar. Chris and I were just talking about this before We got started. And you know, we can end up going from one meeting to another meeting to another meeting, and we don't have that break, we don't have that whitespace. And so it's a myth to believe that the more I do, the better I become, the more successful I am. It's really about doing less, but better.
5:20
Yeah, that last one, or sorry, sorry to cut you off. But Essentialism by Greg McGowan. One of my favorite books, rather than one of my most gifted books. I've probably said it too many times on this podcast. So people are getting annoyed by now. The discipline pursuit of less is what he talks about. And like it resonated right when he said that, what's the last effort?
5:40
Yes. And then the last habit is really a CEO Score. And so this is not really the money that's going in your pocket or money that you're paying someone else, but it's looking at the time and energy that you're spending in your business, and what type of tasks you're doing. And so you score yourself each week, based on some criteria. Again, those growth level tasks, high level CEO tasks are going to get a higher score than the maintenance tasks, things like admin, things like customer service, your invoicing, fixing that landing page and making the Canva image. Those are things you can delegate. But those higher level tasks want to make sure that you have time each and every week in your calendar to do and so just sort of a way of tracking and keeping track of where you're spending your time so that we can ensure you're doing the high level tasks.
6:30
Right. And so speaking of delegation, right, you, you can't as the CEO, do everything, as you've already alluded to, what are some of the things you can be doing, like through delegation, I guess, to stop from overextending yourself and from, you know, basically becoming that bottleneck for your entire company? Mm hmm. Right?
6:49
So there's a few things we can look at, because some people will say, Well, I don't have anyone to delegate to. So that might be an issue, is it time to hire, if you are going to hire? What kind of person do you need? And for how many hours? And what kind of budget can you afford? If you do have people on your team already? What are their strengths? And what are their capacity, there's possibly things that you are doing currently a CEO that you could pass on to them that one they have time for. And two, they might do better than you and enjoy better than you. So again, it's really looking at what you're doing week to week, and saying, is this really high level SEO work? And if it's not, who do I have on my team already, that I can pass this off to? And if I don't have someone on my team, do I have the bandwidth to hire someone to take that on. And remember, in this online world, it doesn't need to be a full time employee, we can hire someone for five hours a week, right? To take things off our plate.
7:51
Now, even as a CEO, I've been a CEO and in a past life. And there's this constant balance of like having all the work and making sure that I'm not the one doing all the work, but rather being able to supervise and make sure we're strategically doing the right things. But then you also run the challenge of having the work life balance, and making sure you're not just at work too much. What is it? Because obviously, being able to recharge makes you better when you're actually at work? What are some of the things you're coaching and doing with leaders in order to help facilitate that?
8:24
Yes. So a lot of clients who come to me say, I have no time, my family, I can't be present with my family, evenings and weekends, I feel like I have to turn on my laptop. I'm putting off doing enjoyable things that I like to do to do work, right. So if you're in that position, then again, we need to get strategic look at that list. And let's see, what can we delegate? What can we automate? And probably most importantly, why can we pause? Because along the way, I am sure you have started doing things in your business because you should do them. Someone else is doing them they're successful. It sounded like a good idea at the time. But are those things really bringing you a return on investment now. And so I'll give an example. I was working with a client once. And they were at the brink of thinking about hiring a second social media assistant to help because they needed to be on all the channels, their target audience were young people, new graduates from university and so they figured we need to be on all the channels because young people, that's what they do all day. And so what we did was we actually looked at the data. So we went behind Google analytics to see which channels were actually bringing people to her business, and which channels were actually converting meaning whether she was selling something or she had, you know, to book a call or come to a free webinar, which channels are actually making people take action. And what we realized was that two channels were doing that Facebook and Instagram. The rest of the channels were hardly getting any traction for her And more importantly, Facebook was the one that had the conversions. So this was just a relief for her because she was able to say, I don't have to worry about the other seven 910, whatever number of channels there are, I can hone in on what's working for my business, and really double down on that, which is exactly what she did. She had her social media person who was already working for her, just really focus on Facebook and Instagram, and let go of the other ones. And so in this situation, you can see she didn't need to hire a second person to bring not much return on investment.
10:34
Right. So I guess that that's a skill in itself, right? Being able to look at the data, make an educated decision, what are some of the leadership skills, you can say you see the best leaders doing things that everyone else should try to emulate and learn for themselves?
10:52
Right. So I think, again, we really have to focus on our current team, do they know what our priorities are? Do they know what our vision and our mission is? Do they know our values, and if you're not sure, if they do, that's important to communicate to them. So whether you meet with them weekly on a team meeting, or you'll have a quarterly meeting, whatever that looks like for you, but ensuring that the current team you have knows exactly the direction you're going, they know what the priorities are for the quarter, and they get to row the boat, if you will, in the same direction as you makes it much more easier when you're delegating and asking them to do things. The other piece of that is that our team can't read our mind. And so it's important that we have some sort of procedure, some sort of document for them to know, this is how I would like this task done. And these are the expectations and what success looks like with this task. So whether that's a video or you've written something out on paper, but you have to have something for them to go by. So they know, this is how my boss wants it done. And I know I'm successful when I've met this criteria.
12:07
Having a system like that, and having a documented is probably, I mean, it makes it much easier to retain the team, right? Because you've built this predictability into everything they know what to expect. And so they're going to become more comfortable doing that. What are some of the things you're doing now to attract more talent, rather than just retain them?
12:27
Yes, yes. So again, it starts right from the job description. Are you clear on what the requirements are for the job? Are you clear on what your values are? And is that in your job description, so that right from the beginning, when you put that out in the world, you are attracting the people with the values that align with you and repelling those who don't, you want to have a clear description of what's expected of them. Because let's face it, the skills that are what I like to call the hard skills, things like learning to use the software, and that software that can be taught by having someone have the discipline and the values that you have, and want to be able to carry that out in your company. Those are softer skills, and they're harder to teach. So you want to make sure when you're bringing new people in that you're aligned with that. And then once they're once they've agreed you've interviewed them, you're going to hire them, then you want to make sure you have some sort of onboarding process. Now this doesn't need to be way blown out of proportion and a big corporate way. But certainly you have to have some process for them to go through to get to know your company more. Right. So whether it's some documents to read, whether you sit down and go over things with them, or someone, another leader on your team does that with them, but they need to get a bigger overview of what the company is about and where it's headed.
13:54
So let's say we're looking at attracting talent, we've at some point made a decision, hey, it's time to start bringing the links we're looking to scale. Right? Like as an operations, like specialists, you, you know, the ins and outs of like what's required in order to make those decisions and kind of make those bets that hey, we are going to be growing, I guess what are what are some of the ways you can evaluate if it is the right time to hire and start growing your company? Yes. Right.
14:21
So again, it's going to be looking at the jobs that you want on so the tasks that you want on your current team, and of course, your budget. And so looking at your current team's capacity, do I have the right people in the right seats? And there's a little handy checklist download that comes from EOS operating system, which I'm not certified in but certainly familiar with. And this checklist really I think hits the nail on the head when it comes to white people and right seats. And basically what it goes through is you have each person and there's three criteria got it, want it and aren't able to do it, I'm getting the last word wrong. But the bottom line is you want to evaluate each person on your current team to say, are they in the right seats? And if they're not, then let's do some org development and some org switching before we go and bring on new people.
15:17
Yeah, cuz you just you might find one individual can be, you know, have three times the output just by moving him into a position they like more or they have they're better fit for.
15:25
Exactly. And generally, I find this online businesses, we don't do this enough. We bring people in. And then over time, their role evolves and changes. And we haven't actually sat down to look at where is their skill set, compared to what I need? And is this fitting?
15:42
Yeah, that was a eye opening for me. We had a team member who hired as a marketer to take over clients and stuff, and didn't was very introverted, and was uncomfortable running the engagements. And before she even had a client, we just said, Hey, are like, do you want to run clients? Like now? I'll do it, because that's what the job requires. Rather just create content? Like what you do you create great content. So why don't you just do that, and now she's like lead content specialist for the company and creates content for like prolifically for all clients. So it's just like, we wouldn't have got that if we weren't willing to switch. So yeah,
16:19
exactly. It's usually just taking that time, sometimes you may have to have the one on one with them. But the insights again, is well worth the time.
16:30
So something I've noticed from entrepreneurs, a lot of them started a company because they were good at something. And they had like a different way of doing something. And they said, I'm gonna serve a bunch of people and do this. And so they start working throughout the business, and they grow it, they slap on a CEO title, because they got a team around them now, but they're still the ones doing the work, because they like the technical stuff. Right? How do you transition them from, from being like, doing that to being in a leadership role where they're starting to think more strategically? And running those? Those plays?
17:04
Yes, yes. Really, Chris, it's a mindset shift. So they have to believe that they are the leaders. And if they're not doing the strategy, and the vision, and the direction of where the company's going, who is. And we all have a certain capacity, whether you want to work 30 hours a week, 50 hours a week, whatever that is for you. But at some point, you're going to reach 100% capacity. And when you do, you really have to start looking at being stuck in the weeds. I'm not giving myself time to be that visionary, to really focus on this strategy. And so again, we have to delegate the tasks that aren't that high level CEO. Because the truth is the responsibility for where the company and the ship is going lies in their hands. And if they don't take the time to do that strategic direction, how will the team know where they're going?
17:58
Right. So we set the strategy, we got to be able to measure if the strategy is actually working. So I guess what are some of those key metrics that you're looking to kind of inform smart business decisions? Knowing that, right, there's so many variables that we might have to consider when, when doing this? But are there like certain pieces that you're always looking for? Yeah,
18:21
for sure. I'm a bit of a data nerd. So I love looking at the data, because I find it helps so often in making decisions. Otherwise, I'm trying to make a subjective decision. And that's not the best way to go objective is much, much better. And so in terms of which metrics to look at, for sure, we want to look at revenue, most business owners are already looking at that. But beyond that, we want to dig down into what profit is actually left, because revenue is great. But of course, we have a bunch of expenses that are going to knock that off. And so we want to look at what's our profit margin? And more importantly, how is that trending over time, especially as we're growing and scaling, that that relationship will change? Because as we grow and may have some more expenses before we see that return on investment, so really tracking that profit margin over time is helpful. The other piece to track is how are we getting new people into our world. So sort of a leading and lagging metric, if you think about it that way, but we want to ensure that we're constantly getting people in to the top of our funnel, whatever that looks like for you, whether that's an email list or a, you know, call for or make an appointment for a call or proposal or whatever that is, but how are new people finding out about you, and ensuring that you're measuring that metric month to month so that you are continuously getting new people into your world because, as we know, they start at the top of the funnel and eventually trickle down into where they're purchasing and buying. And so if we don't get enough people into the top, we're going to notice the effect on our sales. And then third from there is really spending time looking at which things that we're doing are actually bringing us a return on investment. So if we want to have a new product or service, how much time are we going to have to put into making that thing be ready? And then what's the revenue that we're gonna get off the back end of that. And so, lots of times when I sit down with visionary CEOs, I want to look at their product suite that they already have, whether it's a program service, whatever that looks like, because many times there could be something that they enjoy doing, they enjoy delivering, but it's not actually giving them the return on investment that they're expecting. So that doesn't mean that we have to throw it the offer away. But more so we have to look at how much time is the CEO putting into this? And what's the return? And where can we change things? Can we adjust it so that maybe the CEO doesn't have to deliver every piece of this, maybe we can hire someone to deliver pieces of it, maybe the pricing model is off. And so it's a good offer, but we're not pricing appropriately for what's involved. And so just digging deeper into that, and making sure that the offers that we do have, give us that return on investment.
21:17
So I guess, last question here is around around the systems and processes, that you're instilling in these companies. What are you? I guess which ones are you prioritizing to optimize? Like fast growing companies, right to? Like someone who's looking to scale up? What should we actually be focused on internally to make sure it can happen? Yes.
21:40
So I like to focus on three major systems within our business, we need them for each offer that we try and sell marketing system, sales system and delivery system. And so within each of those, we want to make sure we have one strategy that is working well. It's giving us a return on investment. And we have a rinse and repeat system built. Meaning that there's processes there already, our team knows exactly what they need to do to make that happen each and every week, you as CEO know what pieces you have to do to make it happen every week. And it's rolling. It's a well oiled machine. Once we have one strategy for each of those systems, marketing, sales and delivery, then we can start thinking about, let's add on another strategy. So just as an example, you're running a business, you want to start a Podcast, the podcast is helping on your marketing to bring new people into your audience and for your visibility. You want to make sure that you have that system running. So your job is to do the recording, someone on your team is going to do some editing and some posting on social media. And so once you have that system in place, and everyone knows what they're doing, then you can think about adding something on Well, now the podcast is growing, I want to start running ads to the podcast as an example. Or I want to start bringing on a different level of gas. So we're going to pitch a little bit differently, whatever that looks like. But I want one strategy that's solid first, before we move on and layer ones on top. Many times as entrepreneurs, we have 1001 good ideas. And we're trying to implement them all at once. And that confuses our team, and also makes it difficult for us to get momentum on those processes and systems. And I think the last part of that is I really like to break things down into 90 Day segments. So you might have your 12 month goals. But let's break those down into 90 days. What are we really focusing on as a company in the next three months? Whatever that is, make sure your team is aware. And that each of the things that you're doing each week align with getting towards that goal. Yes, you might have other ideas and other things you want to implement, put them in the ideal parking lot. And they can come up during the other 90 Day segments. But for this 90 days, you've got your blinders on. And you're focused on that one or two goals that you you really want to hone in on.
24:13
All right. Lots of great advice. This episode. I got three more questions for you. Yeah, with the first being what book do you recommend everyone should read? Yes.
24:22
So I'm biased. I actually have two favorites. I really, really like atomic habits by James clear, so many golden nuggets in there that you can apply to your business, but really also to your life. And of course, I'm biased towards operations. So I really enjoy attraction as well.
24:42
Next is what is next for you professionally. Hmm, yeah,
24:46
thanks for asking. So I will be opening up my 90 Day Program CEO 90 Day sprint in January of 2024. So I'm excited to have some new entrepreneurs in there we work together Focus, prioritize and mentorship and accountability.
25:05
All right. And finally, where can people find you? Yeah,
25:08
thank you. So my website is CEO and provide that ca. And I also have a podcast called CEO amplify. So if you enjoy listening to podcasts and you want to head over there, spend a lot of time talking about SEO job descriptions, strategic to do lists, the power hour all the good stuff.
25:27
Alright, awesome. Donna, thank you for joining me.
25:30
Thank you, Chris. It's been a blast.
25:36
If you enjoyed today's episode, I would love a rating and review on your favorite podcast player. And for more information on how to build effective and efficient teams through your leadership visit leading for effect.com and as always deserve it
Transcribed by https://otter.ai