Visionary CEO Podcast

About This Episode

Throughout Season 2, you have seen the Visionary Pyramid in action—offering more time, productive teams, and promotion within your business. The case studies show clients with the ability to take a step back and have a clearer understanding of what they do, how they do it, what value they provide, what team they need to accomplish it, and what culture they need underneath to support it. Breanne and Jill dive a little deeper into some of the interwoven themes that emerged from the case studies presented this season. In the Visionary CEO Podcast season finale, discover how putting the foundational structures of habit in place builds the foundation of the Visionary Pyramid.
 

Key Takeaways

[2:46] Reflecting on the case studies we shared this season, we realized the conversations had interwoven themes we wanted to highlight.

[3:37] The idea of empowering your team and creating the space for your team to be empowered.

[6:12] Intentionality and how you choose to spend your time.

[8:58] How structure creates the changes for time, teams, and promotions.  

[9:54] What results are we trying to achieve? 

[12:42] The Value Map—looking at every little bit of what it is that you do and that your clients do and how that exchange of value works in practice.

[15:21] The High Value Hybrid—how you can do things differently.

[17:47] The Product Ops Team and Ownership—how does getting other people on your team to take ownership free you up?

[20:16] Promoting yourself up the Visionary Pyramid.

[21:36] Having a SHARP culture in place.

[29:43] Stay tuned for season three! We’ll be exploring common mistakes that people make as they try to scale their business, how to avoid them, and how to fix them so you can scale successfully and reach your goals in your online business.

Read the full transcript of this episode.
 

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy

Mentioned in This Episode

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

 

Production for Visionary CEO Academy Podcast is provided by Podcast Taxi.

About This Episode

Promoting yourself is all about getting out of the day-to-day grind and allowing you to focus on higher-level leadership responsibilities. Join Breanne and Jill for a debrief on Autumn Witt Boyd’s conversation from the last episode so you can apply the learnings inside your online business. This episode of the Visionary CEO Podcast explores how promoting yourself can result in a sustainable high-touch business model and a high-performance team culture.

Key Takeaways

[1:48] Debriefing our conversation with Autumn Witt Boyd from the last episode, so you can take some of the specifics that she talked about how she was able to promote herself and help you apply them inside your own business.

[5:15] How to avoid a ‘cobbled-together’ team: have the right seats on the right vehicle for the vehicle to perform its best role. 

[8:31] Give your team space to come up with ideas.

[11:10] The billion-dollar team exercise and expanding the team with new hires. 

[13:57] What a strong culture can do for the business and what happens when the values are reflected throughout the culture.

[22:01] How your business can now be high-touch.

[24:14] The whole point of promoting yourself is to get yourself out of the day-to-day so that you can focus on the higher-level leadership pieces of the business.

Read the full transcript of this episode.

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy

Mentioned in This Episode

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

Production for Visionary CEO Academy Podcast is provided by Podcast Taxi.

About This Episode

Last year, Autumn Witt Boyd's law firm experienced rapid growth. She needed to figure out how not to be involved in everything as the firm's founder and lead attorney because she was doing 19 people's job descriptions. Autumn shares how she is successfully managing the rapid growth while scaling a high-performing team and developing a thriving team culture – all while removing herself from the day-to-day weeds of the business – on this episode of the Visionary CEO Podcast.

Key Takeaways

[0:47] Meet Breanne and Jill’s third case study of the season, Autumn Witt Boyd. She is an attorney whose law firm works exclusively with online businesses and has been working on narrowing down her focus and developing a core offer.

[1:28] What Autumn’s job was like before she started working with Breanne and Jill. She describes herself as having 19 jobs as the founder and lead attorney at her firm, managing everyone and not giving her team proper ownership. Autumn was experiencing rapid business growth and needed to figure out how to not be in the middle of everything.

[5:02] Where Autumn was seeing things slip through the cracks because there were no checks and balances.

[6:23] Niching down Autumn’s market segment and front-end core offer. 

[10:09] Focusing the core offer brought an influx of business. Autumn needed to expand the team and nurture a thriving culture.

[11:50] How Autumn was able to step back from being the air traffic controller in her business – stepping back and letting other team members fill the roles she did not need to be filling.

[14:47] Autumn’s new simplified review process has reduced her client workload by 80%! Go team! Autumn now has time for more high-level strategic planning and execution.

[19:25] Building culture and how Autumn empowers her team members.

[24:08] Being able to see Autumn’s values reflected in her business and her team member’s lives.

[29:17] Join us next episode as we debrief this very interesting conversation with Autumn!

Read the full transcript of this episode.

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy

Mentioned in This Episode

https://awbfirm.com

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

Production for Visionary CEO Academy Podcast is provided by Podcast Taxi.

About This Episode

How do you perceive your role as CEO of your business? Is it time for a promotion? Breanne and Jill think so. You will need a new job description that encompasses what you really want to be doing as a business owner. But with a new job description comes new responsibilities. To be successful in this promotion, you will need to create a space for yourself and your team to accept the new role and put in place success measurements. At the same time, you must prioritize internalizing how effectively you are implementing the new promotion. This episode of the Visionary CEO Podcast will reveal how you can successfully give yourself a promotion in your own online business.
 

Key Takeaways

[2:34] Promoting yourself at your job: how you think about the job that you give yourself and how you perceive your role as the CEO of your business.

[6:58] Be clear on what it is that you're promoting yourself into and what you're promoting yourself out of.

[8:30] Job promotions need new job descriptions, with success measures to track progress.

[12:22] Create space for yourself and your team members to succeed in your new job promotions.

[13:42] How do you write a job description that doesn't end up being multiple full-time jobs? Decide what is not part of your job anymore.

[19:28] Prioritize and internalize this new way of thinking on a regular basis.

[26:25] We’ll be sharing a case study from a client that has seen tremendous revenue, business, and team grow after a self-promotion in our next episode. 

Read the full transcript of this episode.

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy

Mentioned in This Episode

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

Production for Visionary CEO Academy Podcast is provided by Podcast Taxi.

About This Episode

The secret to super-profitable teams is to build a culture that empowers and creates efficiency. We learned from Jeni Bee last week that she accomplished this by effective management. Her managerial role was that of a facilitator and learner, not a dictator; Jeni inspired and empowered her high-performing team. In this episode of the Visionary CEO Podcast, Breanne and Jill discuss how you can use Jeni's management techniques to give your team ownership in your online business.

Key Takeaways

[2:21] What it means to manage in a way that doesn't turn you into a dictatorial jerk – allowing your team members to operate in their zones of genius in a way that is multiplicative.

[5:12] Debriefing Jeni Bee’s conversation from last episode: Why transfer of ownership fails; was a space for ownership created?         

[7:59] How Jeni was able to create space for her team’s ownership.

[9:52] Jeni’s job as a manager was amplified by putting herself in a learning mindset with her team members.

[13:01] Getting the team to work together so all of the work doesn’t have to filter through the manager.

[18:16] Be human with your team and set a regular communications rhythm to get to know and care about your team members.

[22:53] Getting the team to know each other. 

[27:57] Next time, we’ll be looking at what you want your job description to look like and what do you want to promote yourself to?  

Read the full transcript of this episode.
 

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy
 

Mentioned in This Episode

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

Production for Visionary CEO Academy Podcast is provided by Podcast Taxi.

About This Episode

We talked with Jeni Bee about how she rejected the typical top-down management styles and opted for team ownership and empowerment in its place. She managed a group of contractors into a seamless team by aligning on communication, building culture, and removing the owner from the sole decision-making process. This led to a highly motivated and productive team, a fun and inspiring work environment, and a management position open for strategic roles rather than micromanagement. Learn how Jeni made the transition on this episode of the Visionary CEO Podcast.

Key Takeaways

[2:24] Jeni Bee joins us for a conversation about management and giving teams ownership – how she transitioned from a self-employed copywriter consultant to an employed management position.

[6:49] Why Jeni went from a contractor with her current employer to a full-time employed manager, why the switch made sense for her, and why it may make sense for you to ask your best contractors if they would consider making the same switch inside your business.        

[9:59] Assembling the team and establishing communication systems, a sense a culture, and alleviating the owner from being the centralized hub for decision-making.

[16:48] Jeni explores how she was able to take ownership and then be able to give ownership to her team as well, and how that was different from how she had been managed in the past.

[20:16] If Jeni is trying to be an anti-patriarchal, decolonization of work-type manager, where does she spend her time as a manager? Breanne wants to know! She’s freed-up to be more strategic.

[22:59] Letting your team members work in their zone of genius.

[24:47] Jeni’s message to CEOs and founders as a manager of a high-performing team. 

[28:25] Next time, we’ll be looking at how you can apply some of what Jeni has learned and is doing to both take ownership and give ownership to your team members in your own business.  

 
Read the full transcript of this episode.

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy

Mentioned in This Episode

https://www.pre-kpages.com

https://www.instagram.com/thejenibee/

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

About This Episode

When you empower your teams with ownership, the real magic happens. It is true ownership when your team members understand what is best for the business and want to learn how to make better decisions on their own, freeing you from bottlenecking the process. When Breanne and Jill show you what authentic team empowerment looks like for your business, you may learn that you were doing it wrong. In this week's episode of the Visionary CEO Podcast, find out how to empower your team to avoid feeling burnt out.

Key Takeaways

[3:01] The thing about teams - giving ownership to team members. I thought that’s what I was doing but I’m still working too hard and making too many decisions. What am I doing wrong?

[3:47] How teams get bottlenecked: the dogwalker scenario or the hub and spoke scenario.       

[7:32] What team ownership looks like, illustrated with an example.

[14:16] When expectations are not met, resist jumping in and fixing it. Give your team members ownership by performing a gap analysis to see where a mismatch in expectations or lack of clarity exist.

[19:37] Giving your team ownership is a skill: learning to lead our team members, learning to communicate with them, and learning to set expectations.

[20:23] What true ownership means.

[27:07] Ownership perception: you are responsible for making sure your team is empowered, not responsible for how they execute. 

[27:59] Join us next time for a conversation with a client’s manager, who was both empowered and able to empower other team members with powerful results. 

Read the full transcript of this episode.

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy

Mentioned in This Episode

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

Production for Visionary CEO Academy Podcast is provided by Podcast Taxi.

About This Episode

Breanne and Jill dig into Keila's case study from the previous episode to glean some lessons that can be applied to a larger set of businesses. Keila shared with us three key elements for gaining control of how time flows in her business: creating partnerships with her clients, empowering her employees to collaborate, and stepping into a leadership role. Listen to the Visionary CEO Podcast to find out how you can apply the same principles to your business so that you have more time flexibility and keep yourself out of the day-to-day weeds.

Key Takeaways

[00:00] Thoughts on the recent Derek Chauvin trial verdict and Breanne reads attorney Desiree Attaway’s statement, followed by a moment of silence for all Black lived ended too early.

[4:13] Today we dig into Keila’s case study from the last episode to pull out some of the lessons to help apply them to a broader set of businesses.      

[6:57] Creating partnerships with your clients.

[8:39] Putting some of the work back on the client - the difference between the guiding hand and the leading hand.

[12:01] Why you need the opportunity to fail.

[13:09] Minimize obstacles so long as it doesn't negatively impact the outcome – your clients need to be challenged to learn.

[15:31] Getting your team members to ask the question, “How can I do better?” so that the business gets better.

[16:39] Leadership’s role is to remove obstacles that are preventing your team from doing their best work.

[25:01] Stepping into leadership and putting boundaries in place for how you manage and budget your time and knowing when to say no.

[30:14] Next time, we’ll be covering the thing about teams and delegation.

Read the full transcript of this episode.

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy

Mentioned in This Episode

https://www.littlefishaccounting.com

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

Production for Visionary CEO Academy Podcast is provided by Podcast Taxi.

About This Episode

Keila Hill-Trawick joins us this week for a conversation about time and how she was able to get more of it in her business. In this case study, Keila demonstrates how focusing her core offer and aligning her team brought more time into her accounting firm. By building the foundations learned in Visionary CEO Academy, she now has the flexibility to take time off during weekends and the year. Her team has also found empowerment during the process, further adding to Keila’s bank of time. Learn how Keila was able to do it on this episode of the Visionary CEO Podcast.

Key Takeaways

[1:00] Meet today’s guest Keila Hill-Trawick, owner of Little Fish Accounting, a CPA firm serving online businesses across the country with accounting and financial guidance.

[3:54] Keila’s struggle with time: working too many hours each day, burned out, and exhausted. Sound familiar?    

[6:00] Making the changes by building in time-off and times of business closure, and the positive effects on the team. 

[8:57] Keila was able to make these changes by focusing her core offer down and narrowing it down to what created a sense of partnership with her clients.

[11:51] How Keila is leading her clients and giving them responsibility in the relationship.

[15:59] Empowering the team - Keila brought her team into alignment and accelerated productivity and gained time for everyone.

[19:50] The entrepreneurial journey isn’t about SOP’s and processes, it’s about the mindset and foundations that you build moving up the visionary pyramid.

[25:20] Actionable advice from Keila: if you want to make changes to your time management, be intentional with how you treat your relationship with time.

[28:50] Next episode we’ll debrief this conversation and give you tips on how you can apply some of what Keila talked about to other kinds of businesses.

Read the full transcript of this episode.

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy

Mentioned in This Episode

https://www.littlefishaccounting.com

https://www.instagram.com/littlefishaccounting/

https://www.facebook.com/littlefishacctg

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

Production for Visionary CEO Academy Podcast is provided by Podcast Taxi.

About This Episode

When it comes to time, it's really more about priorities than about time itself. Breanne and Jill introduce you to a method they call the "Apocalypse List" to help you figure out your priorities. Plus, learn the most effective way to block your time so you're kind to your future self. Listen to this episode of the Visionary CEO Podcast to see how to find time to create the systemic and structural changes you need to reduce the number of items on your to-do list.

Key Takeaways

[2:35] Time is the number one challenge business owners face when they come to us.

[4:25] What do you do when you know time is your problem, but you don’t have the time to fix it?   

[6:56] What should you be prioritizing? Start with the “Apocalypse List”.

[10:46] Time-blocking done the right way – be kind to your future self!

[17:41] The key isn't to manage time, it's to manage energy.

[23:53] Setting and maintaining boundaries.

[27:51] In our next episode, we're going to be talking with one of our clients as a case study who implemented these time management techniques and sharing those results.

Read the full transcript of this episode.

Sponsors

Visionary CEO Academy
 

Mentioned in This Episode

visionaryceoacademy.com/podcast

https://www.facebook.com/visionaryceoacademy

https://www.instagram.com/VisionaryCEOAcademy

Production for Visionary CEO Academy Podcast is provided by Podcast Taxi.