Are you ready to level up your business AND life?
My friend and colleague, Josephine Owusu is back - to talk about this incredible idea of CEO Time. This episode comes with tons of practical advice as Josephine shares her insights on setting strategic goals, focusing on revenue-generating activities, and the magic that unfolds when you give undivided attention to your business vision.
If you are ready to….
CEO time is the ticket!
May this episode be a reminder that taking time for strategic planning is not a luxury but a necessity for taking your business AND life to the next level!
Learn more about Josephine:
Website: https://www.theowusucollective.com/
Check Out Josephine's New YouTube Channel
Connect on IG: https://www.instagram.com/iamjosephineowusu/
Ed Mylett's Episode Mentioned: https://chrisharder.me/ed-mylett-secret-to-happiness-and-success/
Learn more about Carla: https:/www.carlareeves.com/
Connect on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevescarla/
Connect on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/carlasreevesaz/
Explore Coaching with Carla: https://bookme.name/carlareeves/lite/explore-coaching
Support the podcast! Check out the merch! https://www.bonfire.com/store/the-differently-shop/
Are you ready to level up your business AND life?
My friend and colleague, Josephine Owusu is back - to talk about this incredible idea of CEO Time. This episode comes with tons of practical advice as Josephine shares her insights on setting strategic goals, focusing on revenue-generating activities, and the magic that unfolds when you give undivided attention to your business vision.
If you are ready to….
CEO time is the ticket!
May this episode be a reminder that taking time for strategic planning is not a luxury but a necessity for taking your business AND life to the next level!
Learn more about Josephine:
Website: https://www.theowusucollective.com/
Check Out Josephine's New YouTube Channel
Connect on IG: https://www.instagram.com/iamjosephineowusu/
Ed Mylett's Episode Mentioned: https://chrisharder.me/ed-mylett-secret-to-happiness-and-success/
Learn more about Carla: https:/www.carlareeves.com/
Connect on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevescarla/
Connect on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/carlasreevesaz/
Explore Coaching with Carla: https://bookme.name/carlareeves/lite/explore-coaching
Support the podcast! Check out the merch! https://www.bonfire.com/store/the-differently-shop/
Josephine, welcome back to Differently. Thank you for having me, Carla, I'm so excited that you're back. I for people listening. If you haven't met Josephine, you can go back to Build a Business and a Life. She was on in March of this year March 30th and so we're so excited to have you back. And today we're talking to you about CEO Time. So how is that, maybe just as an intro, how is that playing a role in your life? Most recently?
Speaker 2:Yes, so, with CEO Time, it's something that I am so passionate about and it's something that I've incorporated in my business, and it allows me to actually look at the big picture for my business, the big picture vision, think about where I want to go in the business, come up with any ideas of services or even products that I want to launch. So it allows me to think strategically and creatively in my business.
Speaker 1:And so, for people who have never heard of CEO Time, take us a little deeper into it. What does this mean for you? Take a little deeper into it. What does this mean for our life and our business, and why is this so ever important? Yeah, and you know your passion behind it, like I know. You see things when you're working with people, when we are regularly setting aside time to work on our business instead of in our business kind of paint that picture for us.
Speaker 2:What CEO Time is is specific time that you've actually dedicated, as you said, to work on your business, because it's very easy as a CEO to wear many hats and do everything in the business and so we can get stuck in the weeds, Whereas if you put aside dedicated time, it allows you to think about okay, what are the things that I can do to hit my financial goals? What are the things that I can do to grow my business, to take it to the next level, to stand out? And so it's that dedicated time where you really kind of get away from all the noise and you focus on a specific thing. So, for example, last year I went away on a CEO retreat. So I went away for five days and I booked an Airbnb two hours from where I live.
Speaker 2:And because I was in a process where I was looking at what my services were, my main focus for that week was actually really just looking at okay, what am I really good at, what have other results that I've been getting with my clients, and what kind of service do I want to provide going forward. And so I kind of just sat down and got in the weeds and I had loads of papers and was mapping things out, doing creative brainstorms. So there's so many different aspects, but you can structure it in such a way that you get a result at the end. So it's dedicated time for you to actually think strategically and creatively.
Speaker 1:I love this so much and for anyone listening who's like, oh my gosh, five days, that sounds amazing but that's not possible. That's something we can work towards, right, Like really setting goals. So we can work towards that even in our CEO time. But I know we can do this on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis, right, when it doesn't have to be. It could maybe be a chunk of three or four hours or a day. Speak to that a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yes, so there's different ways that you can incorporate your CEO time. So the five days, that was a luxury. That's amazing. I'm building myself up so I can do that every quarter, but last year I did it once. And another way and this is the one that I encourage the most is for you to take whether it's half a day or one day every single week where it's your CEO time Now in that time as well. So, in addition to strategizing and creative brainstorm creative brainstorming it might even be you doing marketing tasks, so right bulk, creating your blog post, for example, or your LinkedIn post that's all part of it, because those are revenue generating tasks.
Speaker 2:So the key thing when it comes to CEO time is you want to be focusing on tasks that will move your business forward and tasks that are revenue generating tasks, and so you can look at your schedule in the week and look at when are the busiest times, when is it busiest with my clients and when do I have the down times in my week, because everyone's weeks are different. I've had previous roles where I was working in corporate and we were working with teams in Dubai, and so towards the end of the week it actually got quieter because in Dubai they didn't work on Fridays and so that was like, okay, that's my downtime. But then I've also worked in other roles where I was working with other different teams and it was actually quieter at the beginning of the week. So it's all about looking at when can you slot in that time where you can just be unapologetic, you can focus on those marketing tasks, focus on even connecting with people on LinkedIn. So LinkedIn is not just content, but it's also actually building connections. So getting in those DMs and building relationships not just selling to people, building relationships and then also kind of planning out times when you can go to, for example, any business events or networking events, in-person events or workshops.
Speaker 2:Or if you want to increase your visibility when it comes to speaking engagements, in that CEO time you can map out your speaking engagements. If you are someone who wants to be on podcasts more in your CEO time, you can work on pitching podcasts. So, for example, if your goal is I want to be on more podcasts this year, for example, you can create your one sheet, for example, and with all the information what your topics are and everything, and then you can dedicate the next few weeks of your CEO time to pitching different podcasts, and before then you might even have to do some research into what podcasts are going to be good. Who has the same audience? That are my ideal clients, and so there's so many things that you can do with your CEO time. I've just given you a bunch of examples, but it's really about what is the goal. What do you want to achieve at the end of it?
Speaker 1:I love this so much and just to kind of recap, what I heard you saying is that one we need to think about our own natural rhythms and in our business and in our day to really look at like what would work best for us in our life and our energy and all of that to plot out where we might carve out time for CEO time. And then I also hear you saying it's like it's not this, we're not doing the same thing every time, but it's working on those things that like really move the needle in your business and that we often are so focused on delivering our service that we're not making time for those things. And I mean, I'm guilty of that. I can see those things that move the needle that like they dropped to the bottom of my list when I don't have that allocated time.
Speaker 2:Agreed. If we don't prioritize it, if we don't schedule it, it's not going to happen. And what I find is that a lot of us who are business owners, we prioritize our clients work, which is obviously very important and so but we also take that mindset of as if we're an employee. So let me explain when I first started my business, I kind of took the approach as if I was an employee working for a company. When you're an employee for a company, you are at 100% capacity, 100% capacity and you are working for your clients. You are working on different projects.
Speaker 2:And so I adapted the same approach when it came to my business, because I thought, oh, I need to be at 100% capacity with clients for my business to be effective. And then I soon realized, oh, no, that's not how it should be, because then how do I have time for my marketing tasks, for my revenue generating tasks? I won't have time for it. And so what I've realized is that we need to be at 80% capacity with our clients and at least have 20%, for example, where we're focusing on things that will push our business forward. So I completely agree with that, and if we're not intentional with it, we just find that we're always working on our clients' work and getting them so many results, but then we're not thinking ahead with our business, we're only working in the present. And then that's where you have that time where you might be doing really well with a client project or with your clients and things are thriving, and then the next month it's crickets because there was nothing being done to move forward.
Speaker 1:That's so important. So I wanna back up a little bit because, since you were on the podcast last, you have integrated some things in your business that I believe are probably a result of your CEO time a while ago, right, so share a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Okay, so since we last spoke, I have okay, so it's changed a lot actually. So I got serious. I think I mentioned to you that I was getting serious with LinkedIn. Yes, so I started posting on LinkedIn, and then I also launched my YouTube channel, which I mentioned that I was going to do as well.
Speaker 1:You did yay.
Speaker 2:Oh yay, and that has been amazing. I like such an amazing experience. I wish I'd started sooner, but it's been absolutely brilliant. And so it's kind of shifted how I work, because there's a lot of content that I need to create. So I'll even give you an example over the summer I've also been working on a Women in Entrepreneurship certification, which has been taking a lot of my time. So that, coupled with LinkedIn and YouTube, just it became a lot.
Speaker 2:And so what I did is I actually took the month of August. Unintentionally, I kind of slowed down when it came to LinkedIn and YouTube, but I didn't just slow down and then just leave it. What I did is I took that time and I really ramped up that CEO time and I looked at okay, what are we doing for the rest of this year? What does it look like from a content perspective and how does it all connect so they all make sense, and what does it look like from your business as well? So one of the things I've come up with a 12 month program, a strategy and accountability program, and that's because I've had the time to really sit there and analyze and review the kind of results that I've gotten with my clients previously and whereas I was working with them just for VIP days. Now I've got VIP a VIP day offer and I've also got this 12 month program, and that has come because I've had that time to actually sit back, reflect and just to actually strategize and come up with creative ideas.
Speaker 1:Hmm. Well, first of all, congratulations on the changes that have been a result of all that in your business. I'm so excited and please tell people where they can find your vlog. Is that what you call it A vlog?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, well, yes, there's vlogs on there. There's vlogs on there. So if you go onto YouTube and you search Josephine, a Wusu strategist, I should come up and I'll also give you. I'll give you the link as well, so that people can.
Speaker 1:Yes, we'll put the link in the show notes and please check it out. Josephine is in London and I it's just such a delight for me here in the US to like travel with you and see where you are and see the countryside and the city and what you're doing, and you tie it all into your business and life and it's just, it's beautiful. So thank you for the work you're doing. I'm so glad that you've stepped into that.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm just, I'm in the countryside, english countryside, just about our outside of London, because I was born and raised in London. But yeah, just move to the countryside and you'll get. If you, if you love anything to do the English countryside, you'll get to see all different aspects of that. But I'm also weaving in things to do with entrepreneurship as well.
Speaker 1:Amazing, so good. So what are some of the things that get in the way for entrepreneurs when it comes to making this time, like, what are the things that get in our way from doing this?
Speaker 2:I would say overwhelm, I would say client work. So if client work is booked to capacity, I would say also just being stressed and not planning, because the key is in the planning. So if you've got, if there's someone who doesn't even know how to plan for their week, or they don't even have time to plan for the week or the next month, that's something that will get in the way of CEO time, because naturally we prioritize everyone else. We do, we do this with everything. So, for example, you might make a date with a friend to meet up for a coffee and because you've made that date with the friend, you don't want to disappoint them and so you will make sure that you turn up, unless something like an emergency happened. But how quick are we to cancel on appointments that we make with ourselves?
Speaker 1:So true.
Speaker 2:We do it all the time, and so I find that, when it comes to CEO time, sometimes we don't see it as a priority, but it should be it really should be, because it's sorry, Gron.
Speaker 1:No, I've just. You're making me think that I have this block on my calendar for like end of the month, planning for the next month. And here we are. It's we're recording on the 31st and I have moved that meeting probably like three times already, so I better get to it this weekend. But you're right, you're so right. We don't honor it the same way that we do other commitments in our life, and when we do, it makes a real difference.
Speaker 2:Yes, and this. I thank you for sharing that example. We have all done it, including myself. Like hands are up. We have done it where it's like, oh, we could just move that because we know it's us. It's like, oh, we can just move that and we. I think there needs to be a mindset shift. Where it needs to be an unnegotiable I need to have this CEO time because if I don't have this, think about what you can lose by not having it. There's so much benefit when you do have it. That is what allows you to push the business forward. If you're at a certain level in your business, it's only having that CEO time that will allow you to get to the next level, to be intentional. But if you don't have that time and you you're, all your time is looking after your client work and getting them the results, then you're just going to stay at the same place. And I want to share with you. There's a man called Ed Milo so amazing. He works with oh I heard him.
Speaker 1:Yes, amazing podcast.
Speaker 2:Absolutely amazing. Yes, he's amazing and I listened to him on a podcast where he was saying that the reason why I think so. He said a lot of people ask him about imposter syndrome and he said the reason why a lot of people experience imposter syndrome is because they don't trust themselves, because they have broken too many promises to themselves. So when they say that, oh, I'm going to go and exercise at 6am tomorrow, and then it's 545 and it's like, oh, I could just sleep in, they've broken that, the promises to themselves over and over again. So they don't actually trust themselves to deliver. And Wow, yeah, I can share that the podcast with you so that you can share it with your listeners.
Speaker 1:That would be amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that blew my mind because I was like, oh, I've broken promises to myself so many times and it's natural that we break more promises to ourselves than we do to other people and I had breaks every week. Yeah, that's that. That was a hard run. I think by really honoring our CEO time, we're just making a shift and we're prioritizing. No, this stuff needs to get done. If I really want my business to grow to the level that I want it to be, then I need to prioritize this, just as I prioritize my clients. It's just as important.
Speaker 1:All right, I got to go. I got to go do some CEO time. Josephine, you're totally inspiring me. I'm so excited because when we talked about having this conversation, I think I was more thinking that CEO time is this vision, strategy work, which it is but you've opened my eyes that it's also carving that time to do, actually do the work that really moves the needle in your business. I'm really inspired just to your talking. I feel like I got to go do that right now, but I guess I am doing that right here.
Speaker 2:Yes you are. I'm glad that you're inspired. I think everyone should just think of CEO time is doing those tasks which aren't client-related but will still benefit your business, will push your business forward, those things that are needed. But you need to just carve that time out, because else you'll just be pulled in different directions.
Speaker 1:That's right. I think something that I've been really good at in my business for lots and lots and lots of years is having a vision and revisiting that vision almost weekly, because that guides what I'm doing on the daily. The power of that has been tremendous, not only in my business but in my life. Having a vision for my marriage, having a vision for my family and my parenting, and whatever it is, has had incredible, incredible results. I've seen those visions that some of them I've carried 10 years and that have recently come to life. Sometimes we have to carry those a long time to really see all the fruit of that, but it's an investment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I completely agree with you on that one. I love the fact that you mentioned that you have to keep on reminding yourself of that vision on a weekly, daily basis. It's true, because if we don't remind ourselves of that vision, we can lose focus. That's when other things may come around or opportunities that look good but they don't align with our vision. We might take it because we're like, oh, but it looks good, but if we kept on reminding ourselves of the vision, we'd realize that this doesn't align. Right now, this is great, but let me park it until it does align with the vision that I have.
Speaker 1:It's true, and sometimes I can fall into doing the things that I love to do, that are really fun to do or creative. I tend to gravitate to those kinds of activities and those are great, but they're not always the thing I need to be focused on too. So, as far as thinking about how we schedule our CEO time, do you have a recommendation of how we figure out what we're going to do in that particular chunk of CEO time?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what you could do is, first of all, look at what other things that you have had on your list for quite a while which you know are important to pushing your business forward. You know exactly what you need to do, but you've just never had time and I say it with air quotes to do so. I would say, write down a list of all those things and then pick one. Pick one for that week so you could even plan your CEO time across the month, so you could write down a list of OK, these are the things that I know I need to do.
Speaker 2:So one of my things is I need to start my email list. I know I've needed to do that for forever and so it's my priority over the next month. And so you want to write down do a brain dump all the things that you know have been on your list for forever, which you know will either push your business forward towards the goals that you have or increase your revenue, bringing more revenue, their revenue generating tasks. And then time block. So if you know that, ok, I've got three hours every week, every Monday, I have three hours Time block and put in your calendar going to work on this task and be specific. Don't just put a generic thing so that when it comes to the day, it's like OK, I'm just going to move this because I don't even know what I'm going to do and I'm just overwhelmed with having the thoughts.
Speaker 1:That's what I've been guilty of. Ok, be specific. Put it in the notes, yes, what you're actually going to do. Then you don't have to think about it too right and spend all that trying to come up with what you're going to do. Love that.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. So an example I've just given you the example of the email list. So one of the CEO days or CEO hours that you have, you can, you can put right down the first, the first email for the email sequence, or write down the first three emails. Write the first three emails for the welcome sequence, or one of it could be research what platform you're going to join and join. I get that. Do you understand? So it's literally just doing things that are going to push you towards the goal of launching that email list.
Speaker 1:I love this so much because I've experienced that, like, just as you say, that like write the first email or write the first three, doing that gets you so excited about what you're doing and often leads to you wanting to carve out more time to do it, because you actually can now visualize and see this thing that you've been wanting to do and it sort of comes to life. Amazing, exactly, love that. So how frequent if somebody's just starting to do this? Like what is the frequency that you recommend?
Speaker 2:Ideally we'd want to do once a week, but if they're just starting out and things are a bit tight right now, try and at least do it once a month, Like at least get one day a month. But ideally you would want to actually get into the habit of this and so maybe start with a few hours every week, so it could be on a Monday, it could be on a Friday, it could be on a Wednesday. You look at your schedule and you carve out. So even if you said I'm just going to carve out two hours a week but just get into that habit and then you can increase it, but ideally you would want to have it once a week at least. We want to get you to the point where you're at least half a day to a day a week and on your CEO time you want to make sure that you block out your calendar so clients cannot book in meetings around that time. So I'll give you an example In my business my core time for like certain sessions for my clients is Tuesday to Thursday.
Speaker 2:So Mondays I do not do any meetings. Fridays could be my overspill. So if there's something, Ken, it's like the schedule is really not working. We can work with that. But Monday is like no, no, no, that is 100% CEO time. And then Fridays can be doing some admin or some prep for client work, those things where I could just do the deep work and focus. But if I do need to take a meeting on a Friday then I can put it in there. So I would say, just put it in some regular time and stick into it. That's going to be the hardest thing, so scheduling it will be the easiest. Sticking to it is the one where you have to show up for yourself every day.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think for me it helps to turn, you know, put my phone on silent, close my door if I can, if I can get behind a closed door is good. It helps me just kind of focus. And I, I mean, I, I like what you're saying about, you know, start with whatever you can carve out and then grow that over time. I've done that with reflection time. You know, as a new mom years and years ago I had to start with like 15 minutes, you know, whatever I could carve out, but then that started to become so valuable that I was, you know, really willing to find and get really creative about how I could create more of it. And I know, in my business, when you have that extended thinking time, it it I feel like it's like compounds, like there's value in going deep on something and the ideas start to come and they build on each other and you can't do that when you don't have an extended chunk of time. Would you agree?
Speaker 2:I 100% agree, and I'll give you an example. I told you that I had to spend a lot of CEO time over the over the month of August and I was sitting down mapping out my content for YouTube and for LinkedIn, and even that's when the ideas for my email list came up. And then I had more ideas of things that I could do with my clients, and I was just getting excited because I was realizing that my creativity was being awakened, because I had that space to breathe. And even another thing is your CEO time could be remove yourself from your actual environment. So go to a coffee shop, for example, or go to the park or go to the beach if you live near a beach and be inspired by nature, go for a walk and sit, sit on a bench and take your notebook and just put yourself in a different environment. You will be shocked the creative ideas that will come.
Speaker 1:So incredibly true, so incredibly true, so good. Okay. So tell us a little bit, as we start to close, the rewards of this that you've seen I mean, we've talked about some of them, but that you've seen and you've seen in your clients lives like what are some of the things that people can look forward to?
Speaker 2:When you really prioritize your CEO time, what you will find is that you will. You will see that you, you, you will actually do things that you've been saying that you've wanted to do for a long time. So it's like you will put them into action. They're no longer a dream, but you're putting action behind them. So, for example, if I had not taken CEO time to actually sit out and plan out what are my, what videos are we doing for YouTube, before I'd launched my YouTube channel, I wouldn't have launched the channel because I would be sitting there thinking I'd be, I'd have the mindset of over one, which I'd had for a long time of but what am I gonna post? What you know, what are people gonna be interested in? Whereas when I had that time to sit down and really just brainstorm and Think about things and be creative, then it was like, oh, I could do this, I could do a video on this and I can look at my schedule as well of any events that I'm going to that can be Incorporated as well.
Speaker 2:I had I've got a client who she Came to me because she was struggling in terms of getting Clients, and so she had some consistent clients, but then she just needed more revenue in her business and we did a couple of strategy sessions and I told her what she needed to focus on. I told her about CEO time. I Said you need to carve this out. You need to work on your content for LinkedIn, for example, and we realized she had so much video content that could be repurposed on LinkedIn and so I was like we need to do that and I gave her a whole strategy of things she needed to focus on in her CEO CEO time. And the last time she updated me she's got a waiting list of clients and she's booked out.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh, that's amazing. So, just as you're saying all of that, you know getting those things done that we've been wanting to do, that we talk about but haven't done. That is like that just makes you stand up taller in everything that you're doing when you actually follow through on the things that you've been saying are so important. I just have to reiterate that. And, yeah, to love the client's story, and you reminded me that, actually, this conversation that you and I are having is a result of CEO time, which I hadn't Called it particularly that, but there was a day where I sat down and I was really thinking about the podcast and when I started the podcast, I, you know, I, I want it was really important to me to have people on that I'd had a personal experience with.
Speaker 1:But after two years I started to like I had kind of tapped into all of you know my circle and so I was really thinking like what am I going to do? And I went back to that, that value, that was really important to me and I thought I really had some time to dream and I thought what if, what if I went back and invited my favorite people back to the podcast and we could go deeper in conversation and then I reached out to you and a number of others like so this is a result of that and that was like that allowed. That idea allowed me to start to plan the podcast out for almost an entire year and plot people and start. It's just, it's been amazing. So that's another example of what this can actually do for you in your business.
Speaker 2:I love that you shared that, because it's so true and I, when it comes to CEO time, it it's almost like it allows you to get excited about your business again, or excite allows you to get excited about those things.
Speaker 2:So, for example, for you, it got you excited about the podcast again because you know you were just kind of like, okay, I'm going through the motions now, I've been doing well, I've been sticking at this, but I need to inject Right next. Yes, and so it allows you to kind of step away from the day to day and come up with innovative and creative ways to just Revive your business, to bring life, for you to just get excited about things again. Um, it also allows you to be more proactive in your business, because when you don't have CEO time, you're actually just being reactive. You're being reactive to your client work, you're just being reactive to what happens. But when you have that dedicated CEO time, you are Not just letting things happen to your business, but you are being intentional and you are Creating that plan, you're creating that strategy and you are walking in action to achieve what you set out to achieve.
Speaker 1:Wow. Go back and rewind right now to what Josephine just said. That is that is it. That is it. That is the power of it. You just said it. You just summed it all up so beautifully. Um, okay, josephine, where can people find out about the amazing work that you're doing?
Speaker 2:So you can go to my website wwwthewoosucollectivecom. It's thewo wu Collective. I nearly forgot. This is part of my last name, but we'll also link it with you. It'll be in the show notes and you can also find me on linkedin on Josephine Arusu or search the Arusu collective, and you'll find me and that will also be in the links as well. And I'm also on instagram at iamjosephinearusu, and you can find me on youtube as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, like we talked about. Well, I just love this woman. If you are listening and feeling like gosh, this all sounds amazing, but I don't know how to do this. I you know I need help getting started and being accountable to it and all of that. Uh, josephine is your gal and check out which the incredible work she's doing, and she will be back and Stay tuned because we have some other things in store for you too, um, that we've been talking about. So, josephine, always a joy, um, to be with you. Thank you so much for coming back.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me, kala. I love speaking with you. So, yeah, and thank you everyone for listening. Have an amazing day.