Adam - Hello and welcome to the show this is Adam Chandler and the content for this episode was taken from one of our Tuesday digital rainmakers broadcasts, where our client success director, Meredith banka shares five tips for becoming the CEO of your own life and business and how to uplevel your results in your life by thinking and operating at a higher level, the way a CEO does now. She also is going to be sharing one tool that she implemented and a habit that she started implementing into her daily routine that she attributes to allowing her to triple her network marketing business in just one year, without any further ado, take it away Meredith,

Meredith - we're just talking about being the CEO of your own life tonight. It should help a little bit, which is always good which is always good, but I was just saying that I was thinking about what from 2020, I wanted to pull forward into, into 2021 started to make me think about when I worked in corporate. And I was around a lot of different CEOs and I bet you've been around your fair share of CEOs too.

Adam - I believe so

Meredith - Yeah, and you know they're successful CEOs, and there's not so successful CEOs. Right. And so if we think about ourselves as entrepreneurs sometimes. I think that we don't think about ourselves as the CEO of our own business. We really treat it like a side hobby we treat it like you know something we're doing part time because maybe we are rather than treating it like the leading multimillion dollar opportunity that you're sitting on top of. And so I want you to really pull forward that CEO mentality into 2021. And so I thought to myself okay I'm gonna start with the definition of a chief executive officer like what is a chief executive officer.

So a chief executive officers the highest ranking executive in a company. And if you guys are catching this live tonight comment below if you feel like you're the CEO of your own company, like do you refer to yourself that way do you think about yourself that way or do you think about yourself differently so drop me a one if you're the CEO of your business. So as the CEO your primary responsibility includes making major decisions, managing overall operations and resources, acting as the main point of communication between the board, and the corporate operations, and being the public face of the company. So the CEO is elected by the board of directors and the shareholders.

So if you are the board of directors the shareholders and the CEO you basically just hired yourself to run your own business. So now's the time to step up and start acting like you're a CEO, so I thought tonight what I would share with you are the top five things that I learned from just the awesome CEOs that I had a chance to be around. And I'm just going to share those tips with you and Adam I want you to jump in whenever you can. Let me know when you agree with these but the number one thing that I learned from being around CEOs, is that you've got to focus on yourself.

And that might sound horribly selfish. That might sound like you're really putting you know yourself before everybody else but here's the deal, in a certain sense you need to because CEOs, know that they cannot serve the people that are following them unless they have served themselves. First, your bucket, has to be full your mindset has to be strong, your confidence has to be high. And the only way that you're going to get that is if you focus on yourself first. This is not meant with a selfish intention. It's meant to be done, so that you can serve other people, you've got to serve yourself first,

Adam - just like on an airplane when you've got to secure your own oxygen mask before you help anybody else, with their oxygen.

Meredith - That's totally, totally okay so so Joel says he feels like he refers to himself as the owner of his business Joel switch that up, I would encourage you to start talking about yourself and thinking about yourself as the CEO, just that tiny little switch up from like owner operator to CEO can make a huge, huge difference so you've got to put the oxygen mask on yourself first, and this needs to be done in three categories, physical which is like your exercise your diet your sleep your healthcare your hydration, mental, your meditation your self development your downtime and emotional relationships fun recreational laughter.

You've got to be hitting on all of these cylinders and you might not be every day all the time, but have a consciousness around them right know that you need to fill your own bucket before you're going to be in a position to fill anybody else's. Do you agree with that dropped me a one in the comments if you guys are sucking at doing this, then maybe give me like a sad emoji or something.

But if you know you've got a chance to get better there's always, always the next day, right. So next pillar, Adam this, this I will say I continue to give so much gratitude to you for helping me to own my morning. But owning your morning is absolutely pillar number two of a successful CEO, great CEOs wake up every day knowing exactly what they need to do that day, they are not in La La Land right they know exactly what to need, they need to do. There is a plan and they work the plan. They have priorities and they follow those priorities without exception.

Okay, so I'll tell you a little story about myself here. I had an old way of doing things, and that old way of doing things was to have an alarm go off and I literally hit snooze somewhere between one and five times you know just keep slapping it hoping it's gonna go away. I had no routine. My life was super stressful. I was very aggravated. I started my day, my work day after my kids and my husband left the house for school, and for work. I always felt behind and I always felt like I was rushing.

And then I said to myself, you know what, this isn't working. So I'd ask you to ask yourself, is your morning routine working for you right now, or are you the, if you've got kids are you the yelling parent. Are you the one that's screaming at the dog. Are you the one that's leaving dishes in the sink. Are you the one that you know comes home to the, the whirlwind of, you know, aftermath of getting yourself out the door when you come home at night. If that's you, I highly suggest you focus on this pillar, and you find a new way.

So for me that new way started by waking up at the same time every day, every day, even on the weekends, and it also started by setting a morning routine for myself, which included mindset, meditation, reviewing my goals. Exercise hydration and, and honestly eating breakfast every day. All of those high priorities I got done before 730 in the morning, so that no matter how the rest of my household woke up whether they needed me whether they didn't whether it was the right side of the bed or the wrong side, I could start my day, feeling accomplished. And I will tell you that I was able to triple the results in my business by implementing this in one year. In one year, just because I made better use of my time. So thanks Adam.

Adam - You're welcome

Meredith - I learned that from you.

Adam - Well the morning formula made a big, I mean what you know just just by just doing like you know we're talking about the you know the morning routine here but it's like just the one element of the morning formula and like having some things to like, you know, to look over and some, like, you know, pictures of what I want my future home office to look like and like you know affirmations that I that I that you know that I want to, you know, just keep present every single day like adding in like testimonials and things like that so that I can remind myself that you know the work that I'm doing is important, it makes a difference, things like that. It's like, just that alone. You know has, you know, had a tremendous impact on me and that was something that I got from my mentors and. So, definitely happy to pass some of that stuff on to you know to you and to our clients, you know other people that come into our world.

Meredith - Yeah, I mean, and I can't, I'd love for you to get you guys to drop us below if you have a morning routine, drop, drop me a guess if you've got a morning routine, and then tell me. Like what your favorite part about it is, you know like, What's your favorite part of your morning routine for me. My favorite part of my morning routine is this morning formula that we teach to our clients which is this set of affirmations and really a vision statement what you're looking forward to. And in mine, I always put things that haven't happened yet.

Right, I always have some kind of forecast, if you will, of what is coming because I fully believe that when I set an intention, it's out there, it just has yet to actually happen yet, and that's okay, right. So, I put things in my morning formula and yet to happen, and it is absolutely amazing because a certain amount of time will go by, and then I'll be like, Oh yeah, that won't happen. So now I've gotten into this habit, in my morning formula which I have written out when something happens I just little checkmark next to it. And it was so cool last year because I was able to put like about eight checkmarks next to things that I was forward looking that I was saying we're going to happen in my life, and then they actually happen.

So now I've gotten into this habit, in my morning formula which I have written out when something happens I just little checkmark next to it. And it was so cool last year because I was able to put like about eight checkmarks next to things that I was forward looking that I was saying we're going to happen in my life, and then they actually happen. And I think it's because I was drawing energy there I was focusing there and so having some kind of routine. He owes the Warren Buffett's of the world the Steve Jobs of the world the bill gates of the world like them hate them doesn't matter. They plan their days and their time with intention, and that's really what the lesson is here.

And they do it in a couple of different ways. One, you've got to have a vision to, you got to have the rules that you're willing to live by. And then three like Adam said you've got to have principles and affirmations that you're reminding yourself of who you're becoming. So, for our third secret from CEOs, you've got to be a lifelong learner, you must be willing to continue to keep learning all great CEOs are invested in education, they realize the goal is not to be the smartest person in the room, but to be in the room with the smartest people and to never quit learning.

When I worked in executive marketing. I had a major, major epiphany at one point, when I was doing some hiring. And I realized I needed to hire people that were better than me. I needed to hire people that knew more about me in the area that I needed them to contribute. I wasn't going to be the best graphic designer the best web designer the best coder the best creative director or the best project manager, I needed to surround myself with the best in each of those categories so that I will be the best marketing executive. So is, that's what CEOs figure out, they figure out how do I surround myself with the best. So then the tide rises for everybody in the boat. It's a simple concept, but we often don't do it. And I think as a CEO of your business.

The way that I suggest that you go forward with that in, in 2021, is to figure out what your learning objectives are, you know, we spent all this time like writing goal plans for ourselves and breaking them down and, you know, doing all this stuff but it's not often that we write down like this year I want to learn. Fill in the blank.

Write this word. This year I want to learn, like, what is it you want to learn. For me, these were my categories of learning that I want to improve in 2021. I want to learn more about finance I'm like I'm fascinated by the stock market and investing and all of those kinds of things but I don't know that much about it. I want to know more. I know that to be a great coach and to be a great leader, I have to continue to learn about marketing, no choice. I know in order to grow my business I must be able to bring people in, and convert them. So I must increase my sales skills, who know more about that. And I'm also fascinated with neuroscience with the mind how does it work, how do we help people do that. These may or may not be your categories I don't know Adam, you might have some of your own this next year for 2021.

Adam - Oh leadership is definitely is definitely one that I you know that I you know I make a point to, to, you know, continuously learn, marketing, I just love it and and it's me it's one of my favorite things to study. And I know I know it's you know probably the same for you but it's like. I mean, you know, the, the, like I will always be studying marketing just because not because it changes all that much but just because it's like, just because I like it so much and I know that like with something like that I'm never going to arrive right it's like there's always more, you know more and more to learn and there's always people that are doing it in different ways and better ways and I want to, you know, I want to stay on top of my game and studying those people what they're doing is going to make a big difference for that to do.

Meredith - Absolutely right so just knowing what you're planning to learn and and setting aside time to educate yourself and to continue to grow. That's an important part of being the CEO of your business. secret number four. Set share and review goals. So, great CEOs, that share and review goals, because they know that goals drive the daily activity of the successful CEO goals provide clarity and focus, and often I see people set goals, and they put them in a nice little package, they tie them all left with a cute little bow, and they put them on a shelf. And that's their annual plan, and they're like well I have a plan. Awesome.

You can do anything with it, are you sharing the plan. Because when you share your plan with other people as a human being that makes you be a little bit more committed. Right. If you have a public life, the private life and the secret life and your goals are only kind of hanging out in the secret life, which is between you you and you, then you can you can kind of you know fudge a little bit. But as soon as you start to tell other people what your goals are and you've shared them with other people with john the hook a little bit. And then when you start to review your goals regularly, then you really can start to have accountability.

Adam - That's why they say that if you like the number one thing if you want to quit smoking or some kind of a bad habit like that it's like it's like the number one thing that you can do is make a post on Facebook saying, I just smoked my last cigarette, or like I just did this for the last time, because the fact that you put that out there. It's such a public way. It's like Europe, it's you, you might be okay with disappointing yourself, but you're not going to disappoint. All of those people.

Meredith - Right. Totally agree so some of you guys are commenting here you know what what you like to do Joel's favorite part about this morning is meditating and visualization I totally love that too I think those are huge. but I'd like for you guys to comment now. Do you use that share and review your goals and if you share them comment. Who did you share your goals with. That'd be interesting to see that you share them with family, did you share them with team members co workers Did you share them maybe on Facebook with strangers right.

Who did you share your goals with to help you with accountability and here's a few more tips to help you set, share and review goals. So, set your goals annually monthly and weekly. So, you know, if you wanted to run a marathon, you wouldn't, and you had never run a marathon before you wouldn't go out on day one and try to pound out 26 miles, right, unless you were maybe you know into like really hurting yourself or something, you would plan it out, you'd be like okay next week I'm going to go for a run I'm gonna see how far I go the first time sweet, maybe I did four miles okay now I can plan, the marathon is, you know, four months away, and I can run for miles now, but I need to run 26 miles in four months you would break it into increments and you would work towards those increments right well your business is the same.

You want to make a certain amount of money you want to bring in a certain number of people, you want to enroll a certain number of customers if you want to create a certain number of leads. Start with the end in mind and then break it down into pieces. But don't stop there, with this kind of, I guess I would call it, you know, tactical kind of dry numbers driven plan, because you'll pretty much give on that and give up on that pretty quick. right, you need to tie those goals to some kind of an emotion. So as you're looking at those goals, ask yourself, how am I going to feel when I achieve this goal. So I want you all to think right now about a goal that you have for 2021 if you want to drop in the comments Awesome if you don't, that's cool I get it, maybe you're not ready to share it quite yet.

Adam - It's not pretty intimidating.

Meredith - Yeah I know we're super intimidating right. I strive for that actually No kidding. But I want you to drop in, how would your life change, what's the emotion that you would tie achieving that goal to, would you be less stressed, would you feel you know more accomplished, would you would you feel pride, would you feel joy like what is the emotion that you would feel and tying your goal to that emotion is just critical, because there's going to be days in this next year that are going to be hard maybe you've already had a couple right 12 days and maybe you've had a couple of rough days.

So include your family include your friends include your co workers, especially if you want them to support you along the way, especially if you're going to be spending extra time working or saying no to some opportunities with those people say hey I'm saying no to doing that for you because I'm working on this over here and I'd really appreciate your support.

Would you check in with me in a week and see how I was doing. People love to help people. So ask for the help. And then lastly, you got to review the goals, if you're not reviewing the goals, and you're not scheduling time to review the goals, then you might as well just put that little plan right back up on the shelf and let it you know gather dust. It's got to review what your plans are. So last tip that I had to share for tonight in my five things that I learned from CEO, is that they have a weekly plan for success. A great CEO works from a plan or a list every single week. The plan covers all areas of their life in business, they review and plan their day, every day and then they course correct, and they end each day knowing what is going to happen the next day.

A great CEO is not flying by the seat of their pants they simply have too much at stake. So if you go back to your morning formula and your, your vision statement your vision board whatever it is that you created this year, ask yourself, How much do you have at stake. What's gonna happen if you're if you don't meet your goals. What's going to happen if you're not successful. And if that. If that doesn't like make you throw up in your mouth a little bit, then you probably haven't dug deep enough, right.

You know, it needs to make you feel a little bit like kind of sick, that's when you know you're onto something. But a CEO that knows that he's trying to you know double revenue in a year or, you know, I was talking about, you know, trying to put humans into space for you know SpaceX space travel this year. That's a hard goal right being me being a network marketer it's not all that hard. And I learned this right here from Adam, this is Adams, so maybe I'll let you walk through it I think you actually did it earlier today. This is Adams daily plan. This is how he puts together. His week, oops, every single week. Right. So,

Adam - yeah, exactly. I mean, it's like I mean I just do it on, on, you know, just on like a notepad like this which is I specifically get grid paper just because I want to be able to like make Hawaiian so you can see like on the left side is like Monday Tuesday Wednesday, so you can see the squares. Right, so it's like you know Monday, Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday, right, it's like, I want to. Okay, so the first is, you know, week of whatever that week starting that Monday, and then what are the outcomes. So it's like. So it's like process its outcome goals and then under the non negotiable actions, those are what what you might call process goals, or production goals. It's like what are the actions that I'm going to need to take in order to hit the goals like the you know the the outcome goals for the week.

And then you want to assign a day of the week to those things, B and F then that that just that alone was such a game changer for me, because I would make lists of things that I wanted to accomplish that week, but then at the end of the week I would look back at my list, and I'd be like you didn't do any of it you didn't do any of these things that you said you were going to do, because, you know, the urgent things come up and we, I mean how many of you know that like when you do what is urgent, as opposed to instead of what's important. Like, you get in trouble right that's where business owners, you know really get you know get get in trouble.

So it's like just the act of taking one of those actions and assigning it to a day, that was a huge game changer for me. And then, you know, what are the, you know, what are the things that I'm going to study, and then the critical communications Like, who do I need to, who do I need to reach out to this week who do I need to follow up with this week.

Meredith - Absolutely and the satisfaction that comes from I follow this very similar path everybody you can always take something like this and put your own lens on it right if there's something else important that you need to track. You don't have to do what we say verbatim right but take this and make it your own converted into something that works for you, and the satisfaction like I put little checkboxes, and I may or may not admit to having like tons of cute little stickers and things like that, you know, whatever works for you. Do it right checking things off putting a little sticker next to the items that I completed crossing them off with little you know hash marks whatever works for you. But knowing that you got to the end of the week, and you've got done what you needed to get done.

This is another huge lesson that I, again, learn from from coaching with Adam is it's not the end, it's not the end goal, right, those are your lag indicators it's the lead indicators that you need to track on a daily and weekly basis. If you want to grow your revenue you can't just sit at your desk and you know like think revenue revenue revenue, not just gonna like the sky open and ready shit you know you're gonna fall down on your desk. You need to be sitting at your desk thing like Leads Leads Leads Leads Leads right sales, sales conversions conversions relationships relationship, group members group numbers right you need to be concentrating on the things that are going to get you the end goal. And that's where your daily actions should really should really come in.

 

Thank you for listening to the digital upload show. Adam and the D U team are committed to leveling up the network marketing profession, by equipping distributors with 21st century systems and skill sets that decrease resistance and increase cooperation with prospects and team members, visit Digitalupline.com/subscribe to get notified when we release new podcast episodes, and to get exclusive access to our weekly live trainings.