Streamlined CEO

Summer Ready CEO: Streamline Now, Relax Later

• Karalee Gault • Season 2 • Episode 9

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In the warmth of summer, I balance my dual roles as an Ohio business owner and homeschooling parent. This episode of Streamlined CEO shares how I merge work with enjoyment, offering tips on setting boundaries, task delegation, and using automation to prioritize family time.

We'll explore strategies that keep my business thriving amidst summer activities. I'll cover the importance of structured processes, maintaining a personal touch in an AI-driven world, and utilizing tools like ClickUp and Slack for smooth operations. Join me for insights into achieving a harmonious blend of professional success and personal relaxation this season.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Embrace Boundaries and Delegation: Learn the importance of setting clear boundaries to separate work from personal time and how delegating tasks can enhance productivity.
  2. Automation for Efficiency: Discover how utilizing automation tools can help manage business operations, allowing more quality time with family during the summer.
  3. Structured Processes: Understand the significance of having structured processes in place to maintain business momentum even when enjoying leisure activities.
  4. Human Touch Amidst Technology: Recognize the value of maintaining a human touch within your business practices, even as AI and technology play larger roles.
  5. Leveraging Tools for Streamlining: Get insights into how using organizational tools like ClickUp and communication platforms like Slack can optimize business efficiency for a balanced lifestyle.

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Speaker 1:

All right, welcome. Today we're taking a break from our usual deep dives into strategy and automation to chat about something equally important. All right, summer, all right. I don't know about you, but as I write this script, the sunshine is streaming through the window and I can't help but think about the shift that summer brings. It's a time for lighter schedules, more connection and, of course, a little bit of fun or maybe a lot of fun, who knows, right? So now I live in Ohio, I'm in the US, and for us, summer means beautiful flower gardens. I can't keep anything alive, but my neighbor, on the other hand, has amazing flower gardens that I get to gaze at whenever I want. Okay, lazy afternoons on my back porch just looking out at all the beautiful scenery and adventures and field trips, and all of the fun with my family, especially my kids. So for me, as a business owner, summer also means something else, right? The freedom of a little bit more of a flexible schedule. Now I homeschool my kids, so our schedule stays very similar all year round, except for I like to go out and do more things when it's nice and sunny outside, right, do you? I'm sure you do too. So a lot of people see my schedule and wonder how in the world do I do it all? And the truth is I absolutely do not. I have to be very strategic when I prioritize tasks, I have to be very firm on my boundaries, and I also surround myself with some amazing people who support me. So, between prioritizing tasks, holding firm to boundaries and surrounding myself with people that support me, this is how I'm able to run a business and actually, you know, have fun in the summer and basically inject connection and fun into every single day in some way. Right, but we have to have those things figured out our time and our support before we can actually have those things really easily, all right. So, of course, we like action steps around here, and so I'm going to give you some tips and some, you know, some steps. If you're looking at streamlining right now so that you are ready for summer, so you can relax this summer, all right.

Speaker 1:

So the first action step that I want you to take is I want to give yourself a monthly schedule review, ok. So all of you CEOs out there, this is for you. My schedule is a living document. Okay, is your schedule a living document? A living document means it can change and fluctuate as you need it to, but this is how I try to not be, you know, bombarded with a bunch of last minute changes. Okay, so, every month, I take a dedicated time to review it. I review my calendar, I review my calendar, I review the tasks. I check in with the CEOs I work for. I make sure that everything aligns with my current priorities. All right, so if my current priority is to make sure I spend lots of time with my family this month, then it's going to look different than if it was a hardcore like we're. We're. It's a work month, right, so we have to make sure that we can, you know, plan things accordingly. So here's what you can do you can grab your calendar and a notebook.

Speaker 1:

I want you to block out a dedicated time each month to give yourself a monthly review. You're reflecting on the things from the past month and you're looking forward to the next month, and you can ask yourself these three questions what are my top three business goals for the next month? Okay, what personal commitments do I want to make time for? Right, these are family vacations, hobbies, et cetera. Now, as you can see, you can do these for every single month. This isn't just for the summer, but we're talking about it because we really want to be intentional during the summer, right?

Speaker 1:

And the last question here is are there any tasks that can be delegated or automated to free up my time? Right, depending on who you are are you the CEO that has a team? What can you delegate or automate to free up your time? If you need to have a conversation with someone like, go ahead and do those things every single month and it's absolutely amazing, I do this with my virtual assistants, I do this with my CEOs. It's already integrated into each month. Okay. So the next action step that you can take once you have decided to do your monthly review, you can do it right now. You can put it on your calendar. Whatever step you are at, do it, okay.

Speaker 1:

So prioritization for productivity Okay, so, we all want to be productive and we all know that we had to prioritize in order to be productive, no matter what. So once you have a clear picture of your goals and your commitments and you prioritize your tasks, that is when we are able to be super productive. So, not everything, regardless of what we think needs immediate attention or immediate action, right, we need to make sure we're scheduling in your mentorship calls right, your high-level business calls your personal development sessions, your self-care. And of course, you also have to make sure you're scheduling in those fun outings with your family, your friends, whoever those important people are in your life. And just to remember, a well rested and happy CEO is a productive CEO.

Speaker 1:

I don't want you to be burnt out. I don't want you to feel like you have to work at all hours of the day every weekend, all the things right there are. There are times when you're scaling. That sometimes has to happen, but I don't want this to be the normal. All right, we want to have parts like right quarters where it's a little bit more heavy. We don't want it to be forever.

Speaker 1:

And in the summer ordinarily we're not scaling things in the summer to a full extent. We're taking summer a little bit slower so we can relax a little bit more, we can rejuvenate, right, and so I really hope that that's something you're able to do. So you're going to have that monthly schedule review right. You're going to look at all those things and you're going to jump right into what are the actual things that I need to have on my calendar so then I can put the other tasks, all my other things around it. So we're making a, as my mentor, Holly, always says, we're making a life-based business. We're not having a business based around our life, or we're having a business based around our life, not the other way around, right? So the third action step here's the final one, but we're also going to give you a whole bunch of other gold, too is I want to share with you some of the power of streamlining.

Speaker 1:

So I want to talk about what happened when I used to prioritize my business over everything else. Right, it wasn't just my personal life that suffered. Okay, my work actually became way, way, way less effective, and not only that, but I wasn't creative, I wasn't productive and, frankly, I wasn't even happy. I have a business that I love, but when I was just bogged down in the weeds and I just I was doing everything all hours of the day, I actually felt like I was on call all the time. Right, that is not how I go from hustle to hammock.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I have a hammock out back of my house, if you you've probably seen in some of my Instagram stories, if you follow me over there, and it's amazing to just sit there and just, you know, take in the fresh air, take in the birds singing, right? That's what I want to do. But I can't do that if my business isn't streamlined. We have to have things running in the background, so we are focusing on certain things during certain hours, but things are running all the time, right? So this is one way that I'm a firm believer in giving my body, and then my mind, what it needs, and sometimes it just needs some time in the hammock, right? But here's also the thing. Here's also what happens. Your body needs certain things and your mind needs certain things, but it's the same thing with your business. Your business, like your body, needs that time to relax in that hammock, right? Your business needs structure and processes and automation. These are your friends, okay. They free you up to focus on what matters most and they prevent you from going into a state of burnout, right? Not everyone can see that.

Speaker 1:

How to streamline the things? That is my natural gift, and so I want to take you from hustling the whole summer to being able to chill in your hammock, and if that's something that sounds amazing to you, then I definitely want to chat with you. But before we move on to that part. We have a few more things that I want to share, so you can literally hire me to streamline your operations for you. We have plenty of options on how to do that, but I do want you to walk away with not only those three action steps to help you start actually streamlining things so you can have a little bit more of an enjoyable summer, you know, relaxing in that hammock. I'm on the hammock kick today, man, I need to go lay in my hammock after I'm done with this. Anyway, here are some ways you can streamline your operations.

Speaker 1:

Okay, here's three different things. I want you to sit down with a notebook and I want you to identify repetitive tasks. You have a task management system. If you write it down on pen or write it down on paper, whatever it is, I want you to identify what do you do repeatedly, whether that's every day, whether that's weekly or even monthly. Are there any tasks you find yourself doing just over and over and over again? Okay, these are prime candidates for automation. These are some things you might be able to automate, and if you explore some tools and software to automate these tasks, depending on what they are, we have to identify them first, but it will be able to free up your time for more strategic work. Okay, the work that an automation cannot do, right? It's in your brain. It's being strategic with your business, right? So that is the first one. I want you to identify those repetitive tasks. If you haven't had a pen and paper, you might want to start this episode over and write them all down, because I'm giving you a whole lot today.

Speaker 1:

And then the second way you can streamline your operations is by actually delegating effectively. Okay, so if you have a team, or even just one virtual assistant, don't be afraid to delegate tasks to them. They are there to support you and if you hired the right team members, they love supporting you. Okay, this doesn't mean giving them all the hard work and keeping the easy stuff for yourself. No, that's not what that means, although they might enjoy it, depending on if that's their strengths right. But we want to delegate tasks that are ultimately a good fit for their skill sets and empower them to take ownership over those tasks. Right, when you're able to have an effective delegation process. This is where you're utilizing your team's strengths along with yours, and you're dispersing them between everyone so that your business runs really smoothly. And if you have the right team and you're delegating effectively, this is the best way to streamline operations. And then, if you're adding in automation, then we even have, like, like we're doing even better, all right, and so these all kind of going together.

Speaker 1:

This third tip for streamlining your operations is to invest in the right tools. Right, you don't need a tool that only does one thing. You can invest in some all in one things, but there's a plethora of tools available to help you manage your business and streamline your workflows. Right, to create those automations. Right, you can explore some project management software. Of course, if you've been listening to this podcast, I'm going to suggest ClickUp, because a solopreneur all the way up to a team of 22 members or more, whatever you have Right, potentially Right, it can grow with you, all right. So the project management software I'm going to suggest you look into is ClickUp.

Speaker 1:

If you have any questions, go ahead and shoot me a text. All right, you can find that in the show notes. Same with communication tools. You need communication tools to be able to delegate effectively and be able to get quick responses. Right, so I'm going to suggest to you Slack. Slack is absolutely amazing, and if you listen to one of the previous episodes we talked, we had a guest, tamra, and she has a team of 22. And she's like Slack is the thing that everyone needs. So you don't have to take it from me. You can go check out that episode if you want.

Speaker 1:

And a customer relationship tool or system that's a CRM. If you're like, what's a customer relationship tool? It's a CRM. It's where you keep track of who in the world is interested in either working with you or whatever that looks like. Have they, and the right tools in this scenario can make a huge difference. All right, streamlining everything allows you to relax more and rest.

Speaker 1:

Okay, someone as me, I'm a projector. If you look into human design and one of the biggest things that I realized after I realized I was a projector and I dug really into it when my mentor, holly, talks about all the time and she's like you need to rest, you literally cannot keep pushing through, you need to rest, and I was just like no, I've been doing this for my whole life, I'm fine, but I wasn't fine, and so what I realized is that I actually needed to rest more routinely. Listen to my body, give it what it needs in order for me to continue working. But that also meant streamlining my operation. So I had more time, so I felt like I could rest more, right, and in reality I could. So I actually rest every single day. I put on some de-stress meditation music of sorts and I lay down for just 30 minutes and I am good to go for the rest of the day. And it's empowering what 30 minutes of intentional rest can do for you once you figure out what your nice combination is.

Speaker 1:

But that's a slight tangent. But it can help you with streamlining your operations to be able to rest more, because rest isn't earned, it is given right. You need to give it to yourself, no matter what, all right. So here we have our last step, which I want action step. Here I want you to build a support system. I would not be the business owner I am today, or have even made it this far, without an insanely supportive support system.

Speaker 1:

And if you're mostly women listening to this podcast, so as women in business, we often feel the pressure to do it ourselves. Now, if you're a man, you might also right. As an entrepreneur, we feel like we have to do it all. It's kind of like in our nature. But here's the secret it's actually not really a secret, but you don't have to. You get to delegate tasks, you get to ask for help and you get to surround yourself with positive and supportive people, plain and simple.

Speaker 1:

And if you don't have those things, we get to talk about how to get those things into place for yourself. Because, let me tell you, my team is incredible and they help, shoulder a lot of the load for me and keep things running smoothly. So, even if some software or tool or something cannot do it for you because there's not tools out there for everything we cannot replace our own brain, no matter how much AI is trying to do that. But I digress but you can have an actual person that can be on your team that will help you actually run these things very smoothly. If you're not necessarily there to do it right, or maybe you don't want to do it, maybe you don't like to, maybe it's not a strength, right? So if you're ready to create a life and business that allows for more fun, connection and rest right Without sacrificing any results in your business, I want to connect with you to see how streamlining your operations and even maximizing your team right Because that's also in streamlining can make a ton of difference for you as the CEO of your business, right?

Speaker 1:

Or if you're a virtual assistant, whatever. If you're a virtual assistant, you're a freelancer, you're still a CEO of your business. It's just a. It's just you, right? It doesn't matter if you're a solopreneur or if you're a CEO with a six plus figure or six plus member team, right, it doesn't matter. I would love the opportunity to hear your stories and maybe even have a deep conversation, which here's a little tidbit, by the way it's kind of like a love language for me. I love deep conversation. We don't worry about the niceties in the beginning, we just get deep and I get to solutions for you, plain and simple. That is my jive.

Speaker 1:

So before I close out this episode, I want you to think about how you want your summer to be right and how do you want it to feel. And then, what do you need to make it happen? Right, I gave you a bunch of things that you can do to streamline operations in your business so that way you can, you know, not hustle all summer and you can be more time, spend more time in the hammock or in that back deck or in the pool with your kids, whatever. It is right. So what do you need to do to make that happen? And if you're not sure what that looks like because you might not I want you to head to the show notes and I want you to send me a text. Okay, and I want you, I want to chat about next steps to getting these things squared away before summer.

Speaker 1:

Now, I know summer starts in a couple of weeks when this airs, but I we can get a lot done in a very short amount of time, because I'm thinking that my summer is going to be all about fun. And let me tell you, in my five years of business, my business has never brought in more revenue, it has never been more streamlined, it has never felt more aligned than it does right now, and I want to help you be able to feel that too. So what are you waiting for? Let's chat, head to the show notes and send me a text, and let's see what we can do together to streamline your business now, so that way you can relax more this summer.