How To Get Into A CEO Mindset: A Simple 4 Step Breakdown
I've talked about this multiple times, but I used to be a hairstylist and I also used to have a hair salon. On the days when I didn't have to do hair, I'd wake up, and I would be lost. I would know that my to-do list was a mile long and that there were things I should do in my business. But I didn't really know where to start.
Can you guess why? Because I did not understand what it takes to be a CEO. Maybe you can relate.
That’s exactly why we're going to talk about this. I'm here to stir the pot and dive into how to get you into a CEO mindset. But before we even get there, we need to talk about why.
Here’s the thing, this topic may not be for you. What do I mean by that? Maybe you make hats, and you love it. But you have no desire to take the show on the road –you're not trying to grow your team. You just make what you can, when you can. You have your own thing. That's awesome. So stepping into this strong CEO leadership mindset may not be what you're looking for right now. And that's okay.
But if you have had dreams and aspirations of taking your business to the next level, whether that's growing your team, getting more visible, or opening multiple locations –then this, my friend is for you.
What My Version of CEO Is
When I heard the term CEO back in college (I studied entrepreneurship, for those that don't know), I would think of CEOs as people in charge of Fortune 500 companies, or nerdy tech guys that had tech startups with a bunch of funding. That's what I thought of as a CEO.
I came to a new realization about what being a CEO meant when I had my own hair salon. On days when I had my hair salon open –I knew I had to show up for my clients and do hair. I knew how to do that well. I would show up for my people, take good care of them, take photos, post content, and engage on social media.
But on the days that I had, quote, unquote, off, I didn't really know what to do. All I knew was my to do list was growing and growing and growing with things like QuickBooks, and scheduling social media content. I also did weddings, so I had to manage my bridal clients, too. Little things like that on paper seem like they wouldn't take very long. But when you type them out, you're like, wow, I have a lot of things to do. No wonder I feel overwhelmed.
Well, that's because at that time, at that chapter of Kelsey, I did not understand how important it was to switch my mindset from I'm Kelsey, a hairstylist, to I'm Kelsey, a CEO of a business.
I had goals that were big. At the time, I wanted to grow a team and eventually open a salon with multiple locations that also did onsite work. I had big goals. I've always had big goals. I've always been a big dreamer. But I realized at that moment in time, I was getting in my own way from ever growing up because if I'm a hairstylist, I can physically only do so many haircuts physically. If I have goals and aspirations of growing beyond me, I have to come up with a plan to do that. And if I'm not in this mindset of being a leader in my business and devoting time and strategy to that, I'm never gonna get there unless I win the lotto.
Embodying the CEO mindset as a business owner is so important. People I look up to will say that the whole CEO mindset thing is for established business owners that have a certain number of revenue under their belt or a certain number of team members and locations. I genuinely disagree with this advice.
I think any business owner should embody a CEO mindset if they have big goals because if you can practice that now, it's actually going to get you further faster. So let's break down how to get into that mindset.
How To Get Into The CEO Mindset
Figure Out Your Why
It first starts with your why. I encourage you to think really big about this. If you're clear on your why, your purpose, the thing that is to the core of who you are, if you're really clear on that. It makes everything else make more sense. It also gives you clarity on when to say no.
I would venture to guess, if you're like me, my why wasn't to cut hair. My why was to help people take action on their dreams. I did that through hair because I could connect with people and engage in these conversations while they sat in the chair. We all know we spill the beans to our hairstylist. I knew a lot about my clients, and I saw a lot of them have successful businesses.
But at the end of the day, that was not my why. Which is why long term, that's not where I'm at anymore. I know this because I sat into this exercise and got clear on my why and I was able to make these changes in my business. I’m still making changes in my business and I always will.
If you don't know your very big picture your why the core part of who you are and how you make decisions. If you're unaware of that, the rest of this isn't going to make sense. So step one has to be that you have to start with your why.
2. Cut Out The External Noise
Number two –you have to cut out the external noise. You might hear advice that is different from mine and that's okay. Learn to cut out the noise. Learn that there is no one person who has the perfect package of information to share with you that you're gonna agree 1,000% with. That is okay. Learn to seek out that inspiration, motivation, and expertise when you need it, and then learn to ignore it when you need to, too.
Those who do a great job of being in a CEO mindset do not pay attention to what their competitors are doing. They are not scrolling aimlessly on Instagram to see what Betty down the block is doing. They do not have the time and they don't care because they are so focused on their why and their mission. They’re evangelical about communicating that to their team and that is the central focus of their business. It should be for yours, too. So cut out the noise.
3. Lay Out The Path Of How You’re Going To Get There
Number three is to lay out the path. So if you know your why, your purpose, and the big picture of where you want to go, whether you have a team of one or many, you have to lay out how you’re going to get there. The ‘how’ comes third.
I think this is something people miss. So often, they start to focus on things they quote unquote, think they need in business, when it actually isn't what they need in their business. For example, I have a client right now, who has talked about doing a podcast. Down the road, this would be super duper fun and cool and I think this person would do a great job at it. However, when we got clear on the why and the big picture goals, it's not step number one, or two or three, actually.
If you are clear on your why, and you're cutting out the noise, and you're just listening to your true internal compass, you can lay out steps –whether you're taking them or your team is taking them– that get you on that path.
This is different than being someone who's working inside the business. Meaning, if you are an insurance agent, you're not meeting with clients on the regular and not mapping out the future. The more you grow, the more you actually step away from an activity that got you into business and focusing on leadership and leadership only.
So number three, you have to lay out that path. But in order to know what next steps to lay out, you have to have the time to define what they are and decide what they are right. I hope you're picking up what I'm putting down here.
If you really want to step into this leadership position, it takes intentional time and mindset to make that happen. This means maybe going from being a hairstylist five days a week to maybe four days a week or three. Maybe that's the reason you haven't grown your business –because you're working behind the chair too much to actually have a vision for the future. There is a ceiling of how far you can go because no one is steering the ship and directing it. And that has to be you.
If you don’t have these big goals or if you want to just sustain, I would argue you probably could do that pretty well. But if you have big goals and you really want to go places, this is what it's going to take laying out those next steps.
You have to be the one to decide what they look like. When are they happening? Who was doing them? That's what I mean by laying out the path.
4. Define What Success Looks Like
Once you get into this mindset, you have to define what success looks like, for you, for the people around you, and the people on your team. Because guess what? At this point, if you have team members, that's probably less and less time that you're interacting directly with clients, and more time focusing on other parts of the business.
If you don't define what success looks like, you’re probably going to be paying a very expensive payroll with no idea if it's worth it or not. Because other people are doing the work and you were providing the vision. So are you doing a good job providing the vision? How do we know if you're doing a good job?
This shift either a) people make intentionally and do a great job, which is amazing. Or b) they have no idea how they got there. More often than not I talk to people who say, Gosh, 20 years ago, I started my business, I blinked, and now I have over 20 employees and I have no idea how we got here. This is a great opportunity for them to really embody that CEO mindset that has been lacking. Because if they got this far without stepping into that CEO mindset, imagine the magic they can do once they fully embody that leadership.
How To Use These 4 Steps To Reassess Your Path
So after you lay out the path, and you define success –you know where the finish line is and you know that once you get to this finish line, you have a next step or goal and you’re working towards this goal. But then you revisit that why and decide you're actually going to let go of that goal because that's not a fit anymore. You're actually going to go over here and focus on this instead. That is your job as the CEO.
Again, I don't care if you have a team of one or many. It is crucial that you embody this.
Practice Persistence
Next, I want you to practice persistence. I find this is the hardest. Because if you are a solopreneur, a one person show, and you take clients, if you're doing a good job, because you either have clients or you don't, you're either getting new people new interest, or you're not. So it's very easy to measure what's working and what's not. And the growth is quick.
Imagine, if you start with one client, and then you get a second and they both tell people about your service, now you have four clients. Then everyone tells others about you. So now you have eight. It's rapid, it's quick. Because it's your direct bank account, and it's just you, you see that growth. It means you also see the months where it's not going as well, but you see the growth, it's right in front of you. But as you grow your team, you're further and further and further away from it, unless you're interacting with it daily.
What I mean by persistence is maybe you are rolling out something new, and you need to pay it off, maybe you bought new product for your team to use, maybe you bought into a new service offering that your team is now rolling out –be persistent in continuing to educate them and continuing to provide excitement to them, continuing to encourage them and give them the tools they need to roll this thing out. Things will take longer to have ROI (return on investment) as your team grows.
Now, unless you are in tech or certain industries, I feel like this advice may not fit. But in general, if you're a small business that has organically grown, odds are for things to grow, it's going to be a gradual thing. It's going to require you to show up and show up a lot in the same way over and over and over again and be patient, truly be patient.
Even my solopreneurs. I know so many that they have launched and it goes really well and then they chase that high over and over again. But the best thing that they can do is just practice persistence because you want that persistent sustained growth over time. Personally, I would rather grow a little bit every year and continually grow for 10-20 years than have a massive wave of growth in year one, and then a crash in year two and three.
If I'm practicing persistence and I'm sticking to my plan, I'm sticking to my authentic self and who I am and I'm consistently doing that over and over –I know that's much more sustainable and will probably get me further down the road. Not as fast, but it will get me there and it will get me further down the road.
Prioritize Your Leadership
The last piece of advice I want to provide for you here is to prioritize your leadership. Here's why I built an entire mastermind around CEO. Most people who get into business, small business owners who are growing –they love what they do. They're good at it. Whether you're an interior designer, salon owner, spa owner, in real estate, a lawyer, a financial advisor –whatever industry you’re in, odds are you're pretty good at what you do. You love people, and your people love you.
Then you grow and you have team members. Here's what you don't know: you don't know how to be a leader unless you've sought that out. If you have, then congratulations, some entrepreneurs I know have and have done a great job. But I'm not talking to those people.
So often people get in this position where they're a leader, they blink and overnight they’re a leader. Not that have five employees and are struggling to communicate with them. They don't know what's going on. Have you ever done any leadership training? No. Would it be fair for you to hold yourself to that level of expectation without any training whatsoever?
I know this because I did this too. I've had different employees and I don't always get it right. Sometimes I mess up, and sometimes I communicate poorly. Sometimes I think I'm being clear and I'm not. But for me, my current muscle I am building the most is leadership. And it's because I wasn't a leader before. I was just a business consultant giving advice one on one to people. Now as I'm growing, my team is growing, I have to become a better leader.
Odds are, maybe that's you, too. Maybe you're like, crap, I don't even have employees. But I am very reactive. I just do things in the moment and shoot from the hip or make it up as I go and parachute on the way down.
If you have big goals, you can't do that because it's not going to be sustainable.
Leadership is something that is important. Oftentimes, we get to this place where we are put in these situations, where we are leaders, and we don't realize how we got there. Then we feel bad. Imagine if you've been playing soccer your entire life and then all of a sudden you open your eyes and you're on a baseball field and you don't play well. It would be like that, but within your business.
So stop holding yourself to this really high standard that is unachievable. Instead, get the tools and resources you need to be a better leader. Because this whole thing about being a CEO, a lot of it comes with mindset. The next big part of it is leadership. Again, whether it's a team of one or many, this is so important.
When I talk to business owners that have been successful, it's because they understand this, and they constantly are working towards perfecting it. And they never stop learning. They continue to master over and over and over again.
My intention here is to help equip you to step into that leadership mindset because I do think it's game-changing. I do think these tools will help you get further along in your entrepreneurial journey. Instead of hoping things happen to you, it allows you to really take control and be the captain of your ship. Because at the end of the day, we did not start businesses to have someone tell us what to do. So who does tell us what to do? It's you.
If you don't know where you're going or why, then get the tools to really figure that out for yourself because you owe it to yourself to confidently do that and chase your dreams. Go be the leader in your business. Your business is craving you to step into. You are destined and made for amazing things.