How do I disconnect to do big picture business planning?

Corey Winter 0:01
Welcome to 10 minutes to being boss, a bite sized show for creative business owners where we give you actionable insights, tools and tactics on Korea winter. And here's your host, Emily Thompson.

Emily Thompson 0:14
All right, Cory, what do you have for us today? That's all you got.

Corey Winter 0:18
Thank you for the segue. I'm just gonna go right into it. How do you disconnect from the day to day operations to do big picture planning in your business?

Emily Thompson 0:28
This is a question that comes up often times with bosses who are taking their business to the next level. So in the very beginning, are often just like heads down, doing the thing, not coming up for air, just making it do whatever, whatever it is we need to do to build our businesses. And then we always get to a point where we understand that we need to have some bigger picture planning in place in order to go to the next place in our business. But whenever you've created a business that just has you with your head down, doing the work constantly, it's hard to switch gears and turn off the like day to day operations mind and go into bigger picture planning, and provide $1 for every time I heard, I've heard a ball say I can't take a day off. Then I wouldn't be here recording this podcast, basically, or I would be but I wouldn't be sitting in my office at home. In this home. I'd be like, I can't take a day off condo in the beach. Well, Cory, when's

Corey Winter 1:33
the last time while you're taking a day off? I'm still working boss.

Emily Thompson 1:38
You can't blame me for that. Um, when's the last time you had like a big picture playing day? Have you ever done that?

Corey Winter 1:46
I did one over Christmas. Like I tried to take a Christmas vacation. But I guess I was still working this. So. But working in the sense that I was doing big picture planning and not day to day stuff. Sure.

Emily Thompson 2:00
Okay, good. Good. So you did it. So you made time you made time to do it. So let's talk about doing the big picture planning then. Because this is really important for you to pull yourself into that CEO mindset like you actually being the boss of your business as opposed to your business being the boss of you. The first thing that I recommend, this is always the first thing that I recommend situations like this is put it on your calendar, put it on your calendar, like you would any any meeting that you are definitely going to go to or any, whatever it is that so important that you would never miss it, put it on your calendar with that sort of mindset of this is that because it is it is the most important day or days in your business is the days where you're laying out the plan to really move forward in your business with intention. So first and foremost, pull up in your calendar or find a day or two, preferably two, back to back days, and the relatively near future and block them off. And then don't let anything touch those days. Don't let that one client decided they have to have a meeting on that day. Don't let your mom be like girl, I'd really like to have a lunch break. None of those things like these are days that you are blocking off to work solely on your business. Then when those days come up, and actually there's some things that you can do to prepare for those days. So things like making sure you know what your eating situation is going to be like those days I'm feel like I'm always meal planning that always does go back to that place like you're not going to want to have to think about anything during those days, you are going to make sure that everyone in your life knows that you are unavailable those days, you are going to want to make sure you're putting up your vacation autoresponder on your email so that everyone knows that you are going to be unreachable those days. So sort of draw some hardcore boundaries around those days and all the ways that you need to so that you can really get in there and focus and then once you arrive to those days turn off all notifications do Don't you dare open your email. Whatever it may be like you have to be in on these days focused on working in your business. And the thing that I want to illustrate here is that you're completely breaking the habits that you have in your day to day operations. For the purpose of these days day to day you walk in you check your email you do the thing you go have lunch, you're back you're doing the thing you have that meaning all the things that That's day to day operation habits which is great for day to day operations. But for big picture planning days, your days need to look completely different and they need to be held with more importance. Because the work that you do and these days are really dictates the entire year in some cases of what's happening your business back sometimes The next five years, sometimes just the next three months, whatever it may be.

Emily Thompson 5:04
So you're gonna hold these hold these boundaries around these days, turn off all your notifications, sort of treat them like a vacation, and that you are completely unavailable to your team, to your clients, to anyone in your business, who can take you away from that big picture planning and pull you back into those day to day operations. Also, when you're going into these big picture planning days, you need to have a goal, you need to know what it is that you want to accomplish within these days. And this can be anything from a specific problem that you're trying to solve. Or maybe it's that you want to come out of this with a specific marketing plan for a launch that you're doing, or for a course that you're wanting to create, or the next product you're wanting to make, or whatever it may be, have a goal for what it is that you want to come out of this day with. And then also, once you're in there, there's a bit of like, sort of getting your mind right, sort of, again, breaking those day to day habits and pulling them into this different setting that is these big picture planning days. For me, I like to use these days, like get up, have a really great breakfast, go for a walk, taking a slower morning, so that I'm like really reserving my energy for sitting down and doing this big planning work. Sometimes this could be completely changing your settings. So maybe you know, if you're usually working at your home office, maybe you take a blanket to the park that day. Or you maybe you are usually working at a co working space, I do recommend that you find a space where you can be really focused and not disturbed by anyone sort of rummaging around you do the things that you need to do to sort of get yourself very focused on the work that you're doing, and then get to work. There's a lot of prep that can go into setting aside a day or two to do this. But it is really, really important. And when it comes to the work that you're doing during these days, it can look like anything that you want it to. Some people have very rigid structures for the things that they're doing during these sort of big picture planning days. We call them here SEO days is the day that you are being the CEO, not the pixel pusher, or the copywriter, or you know the project manager, you are the CEO of your business during these days. Over the years, we've worked with a number of different tools to help us get really into that big picture planning of our business. And we've actually packaged these up into our CEO day kit that has us doing a couple of exercises around things like knowing our numbers, looking at our sales funnel, creating a marketing plan for 12 months. And that's really helpful for us. But this can look like anything you want it to look like whatever it is that you need to do to dive into your business. That CEO day kit is a really great tool. So if you are needing help going from those day to day operations or really thinking about big picture planning in your business, you can check that out being boss club slash CEO. It's a really great set of tools that will help you and some structures that can help you reach your goals during those days. But the biggest piece of this is you have to take this very seriously. And if you want to be a business owner you will take it seriously it's sort of the most important part of being a business owner is being able to plan your business from that 30,000 foot view.

Corey Winter 8:24
I just have a very quick follow up to something you said earlier about you know finding a blanket or not finding a blanket but like taking a blanket and go into a park would you recommend doing these big picture planning days in a different venue from where you usually do your day to day operations because I know personally if I were trying to do my big picture planning in the same place I usually do my work I don't want to get sucked back into my usual usual work and get distracted

Emily Thompson 8:50
absolutely leave go somewhere else. Um I never do my CEO days at my desk ever I don't think I've ever done one I don't think I could like you said like I would just open my email and check it without even thinking about it. So that muscle memory of what happens when I sit down on my desk and the difference can be as easy as me going you know and instead doing it at the kitchen table or at the counter in the kitchen or the dining room table or the counter in the kitchen or maybe is going to a completely different setting. I think a park is a beautiful It's a really nice outside and I'm stuck inside now I can think about is taking a blanket to the park. But yes, absolutely change your surroundings again. break those day to day habits. In order to get into this different mindset that is big picture planning.

Corey Winter 9:38
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