What's up, guys? Welcome back to Build. And today I want to talk about something that every CEO struggles with, which is dictating your priorities. Nobody else is going to dictate your priorities for you.
Nobody is going to come and save you from your workload. Nobody's going to save you from your stress. Nobody's going to save you from your calendar. Nobody's going to tell you that you need to change your calendar. In fact, if you need help, if you need relief, or if you need to change direction or what you're focused on, It's on you to make that call and you only. And there's this common misconception that as you grow in business, things are going to get easier.
One day you're going to have the right team in place and they're going to organize your whole workload for you, your whole calendar for you. And guys, I will say this, that is like 0.1% of the population. And a lot of times people organize it for them and then they fuck that shit up all over again.
Meaning like it wasn't done right and it wasn't actually what was most important. And so that is a fantasy. It's a fantasy to one day people are going to come in and say like, let me take this off your plate. Let me do this. Let me take that. Like nobody's going to do your job for you, right? And the reality is this actually, is that the higher up you go and the bigger your company becomes, the less external structure exists.
You don't have a boss who sets your agenda. There's no roadmap or course or mastermind telling you where to focus your time. And the business doesn't operate in like a neat little box. You can't like Google and figure out what to do next. It's like, shit, we're in uncharted territory.
And so your job as the CEO of the company is to define the structure. Because if you don't define the structure, here's what does happen. Here's what I realized I had started slipping into in this last quarter, which is what prompted this podcast, which is one.
People assume you want to be involved in everything. They literally add you to calls because they're like, oh, I felt bad. I didn't want to leave you out of the call. Or like, oh, I added you to the Slack group because I didn't want you to not be in the Slack group. I want you to have visibility.
Right? And then your calendar, your calendar gets filled by whoever grabs your time. It's like, oh, I thought you'd want to hear about this. I thought you'd want to be involved in this. I thought you'd want to... And here's the thing. Nobody has a freaking clue how much shit comes your way. and nobody has a clue how long it takes you to do the core elements of your job that drive the business forward.
You cannot let your priorities be dictated by other people's crises, by other people's opinions, or their preferences. Because a lot of people are also going to prefer that you help them do part of their job, right? It's like, well, in that case, it's tough. And so I want to walk you guys through a framework to help you take control of your time, protect your energy, and make sure that you focus on what actually matters. And the reason I think this is important is because
Most entrepreneurs that I meet work really, really, really, really, really, really hard. They just don't work on the right stuff. It's like I feel like it's actually very seldom. And when I do meet them, they're just definitely not my people. But it's very seldom I meet somebody. who's working not hard at all and not getting results.
Like, that's not the case. It's usually people are working, busting their asses, trying everything, doing all the things, but they're just not doing the most effective things. They're not doing the most important things, and they're not doing the things that only they can do. It's usually that they're letting their priorities get dictated by other people.
And I understand because it happens to me all the time. You know, you say yes to one more meeting, you say yes to one more one-on-one, you say yes to one more Slack group, and then all of a sudden you're like, shit, I have 10 more meetings a week. because i was trying to help these couple people and oh my gosh i've got you know this person and that person on this project now and i said qa this and all of a sudden you're like crap i'm so busy helping my team helping other people
QA-ing things in the business, being involved in discussions, that I don't actually have time to move the business forward. And here's the thing. As the business gets bigger, you actually want to have more time to reflect. And this is something that I learned in my last business and I've... Because this business has just grown so quickly, I've had to continue to learn it even faster here. And today was definitely a forcing function of that. But...
Essentially, you have to have more time to reflect. And the reason that you need more time to think and to reflect as the business gets bigger is because think about like this. If you think of business as a boat, when your business is small, it's like you have a rowboat or you have a sailboat. And so if you...
make the wrong turn because you didn't really think about it, it's not that hard to turn it around. But as the business gets bigger, you've got like the Titanic. And so if you just are haphazardly making decisions and pivoting the Titanic,
It is painful, it is tough, and there's a high likelihood that you hit an iceberg, and it could be catastrophic, it could be existential, it could literally end the business because you made a bad decision because you just weren't thinking, you weren't reflecting, and you weren't putting your time into the right stuff. And so I want to make sure that you take control of your time, that you know where you spend your energy, and that you focus on the stuff that actually matters. Because I get it.
And I will say that like, I eat my own dog food. Today, I sent two memos to my teams telling them of things I am not going to do anymore. And I put together what I think the plan is for how to not do those things, as well as what I need feedback on. But I didn't ask for permission. I told them what was going to happen because I know it's not the best use of my time. I know there's people who can do it better. And I know who those people are and how it can get done.
I don't want you to wait for permission from somebody on your team or permission from somebody like myself or permission from a mentor that you have to decide what's on your plate and what's most important for you to do. you probably know what it is. So that being said, let's dive in. I want to separate this into three parts. The first part I want to talk about is the illusion of external structure. There was a Harvard business study that found that the average CEO spends 72% of their work week
and meetings. Just in meetings. And they only spend 28% on strategy, communication, personal development. Think about that. So three-fourths of your time is spent reacting to what's on your calendar. Here's the thing. If you don't actively dictate your focus, your days will get filled with whatever is most urgent, whether or not it's actually important. And ironically, McKinsey has a study.
that found that the top 10% of CEOs spend 50% more time on strategy and communication compared to the other 50%, I'm sorry, the other 90%, their counterparts who have lower performing companies. So what does that tell us? That tells us that the best CEOs don't just work hard, they work on the right things. And that's why you can't rely on external structure to create clarity for you. Now, what do I say? What does external structure mean?
external structure is your calendar external structure is what people ask of you external structure is your email external structure is your asana your project management it's all the external things that are coming at you You have to decide what's most important from an internal structure. The internal structure is you. It's you knowing your business. It's your intuition. It's you understanding what's going to move the needle for you, for the business.
how to unlock the future, how to unlock growth. But we're so caught up most of the time in this illusion that this external structure has to be right because it's in front of our face. It seems important. People tell you they want you involved, but it's not. Honestly, 90% of the time, you allowing external structure to dictate where your time goes actually is bad for the business. Because you become the glue. You become who everyone relies on. You become the one that does 10% of everyone's job.
And suddenly you suppress people on your team who could have been growing. You don't allow people to develop that could have developed in that area. And you don't allow other people to shine. And so it doesn't help your team. It doesn't help you. And at the end of the day, your job is to make sure this business grows so they can all realize their dreams within your business. And if the business doesn't grow, nobody gets to achieve their dreams. Not you, not your employees, not your customers.
And so what I'd like to give you permission to do is I'd like to give you permission because it seems like you might need it to rip apart your calendar, to not do things that your team asks you to do. to not respond to emails that you don't give a shit about, to not talk to people who want to have a phone call, I'm giving you permission to say no to work that you did not agree to.
Just because your team pushes it to you, just because the external world pushes it to you, just because somebody else pushes it to you doesn't mean you need to do it. It's an illusion and it's because you don't want to offend people and you need someone to give you permission to say, nope, not my job. Why is it not your job though? And I want you to really think about this because your time is the most.
precious resource in the whole company, the whole company. So if you're spending your time and an exorbitant amount of your energy on things that are not absolutely necessary to be done by you. then you rob yourself of that energy that could have been put towards something that grows the business. And that is a bad utilization of resources. So what does that mean?
The second point to this, if you need relief and you need space, you have to call it. Nobody is going to tell you when you shouldn't do something, when you need a break or when you have too much work. Nobody's going to look at your workload and say, oh gosh, you should step back and focus on bigger priorities. You know what? You're too stretched thin. Let's just adjust your role. You know, this isn't the best use of your time. And even if they do.
it doesn't matter because you're the only one who can decide to actually make a fucking change. And so if you're overwhelmed, you actually really only have two choices, right? One, keep pushing, dilute your focus, and let your business suffer. Right? Keep accepting mediocrity. Keep taking on tasks that you know you shouldn't be doing. Allow your focus to dilute. Allow yourself to be stretched thin. And then allow that to show in how the business grows. Or you can.
step back, reassess, and take control before the external structure controls you. But you have to step back to do it. Because here's the thing, the best CEOs don't just survive in the role, they create systems that keep them from getting too spread thin, too overwhelmed in the first place.
And I really, I don't know if I can like pound this through anyone's head enough. In the beginning, it is important that you're willing to do everything, get your hands in everything, wear all the hats, do all the rolls. But that does not make for a great CEO of a larger company. That does not make for a great leader. And that does not make for a strong team. It's not sustainable. It doesn't make sense to keep doing.
In order to get to a place you've never been, you have to do things that you haven't done. You have to break old habits and make new ones. And what does that look like? It looks like becoming a different person. I'm just going to say it because it's what many people are thinking.
Yes, you have to adjust areas of your personality. Our personality is just made up of a bunch of little habits that we do every day. And so if you change the little habits you do every day, you will in fact, quote, change who you are. and in order to keep growing a business and stay in the role and not replace yourself which you could replace yourself that's also an option but if you want to remain the leader of your company if you want to be the ceo and the founder you have to change
And if you don't change, the business won't either. So how do we do that? I put together this framework that, gosh, I wrote it like, I want to think it was like 2019 when I realized I need to step back in my last business. allow other people to take on some more responsibility. And I called it the power framework. And so this framework is what I use and I walked myself through over this weekend to prioritize my time.
to avoid being distracted, and to focus on the highest impact things I can do to actually grow my company and grow my people. Okay, so P from the Power Framework, because I wrote it that way, is prioritize ruthlessly. Okay, how do we do this? We have to know every quarter what our top three priorities are. If something doesn't align with those priorities, it's a distraction. And you might say that you have time.
for the other thing, but that doesn't mean you have attention or energy for the other thing. And that's where a lot of people get this wrong, is they think just because they have time, they should take this other thing on. But you could have spent that time resting. You could have spent that time studying. You could have spent that time reflecting to do the top three things that actually drive the business.
forward. And because you steal that time and allow it to go towards all these tiny little things, you don't actually show up with your best foot forward to tackle your three most important priorities. So that's P. Now what's O? O? is own your calendar okay if you don't control your schedule somebody else will and here's the thing your priorities should dictate your calendar your calendar should not dictate your priorities
Most people get this wrong. They look at their calendar and they think to themselves, oh my gosh, how am I going to fit in all the things I've got to do this week? I changed this about myself about six months ago.
Because I realized it was time. I do not look at my calendar and say how am I going to fit things in. I look at my calendar and say what do I need to move to I can fit this shit in. Or delete. And then half the time Sundays I'm like delete, delete, delete, delete. Don't need it, don't need it, don't need it. I can do that next week.
Not a priority right now. Say no to that. Tell them, cancel again. I know they hate me. But it's like, I have to do that because nobody else is going to do it for me. They don't want to. Because think about this, right? We're already so afraid.
of disappointing people ourselves imagine somebody else disappointing people on your behalf like people don't want to do that we need to audit our time and make sure that when we look at our calendar our time is being spent on things that are driving those initiatives forward not on sucking our energy, our time, and our bandwidth on things that don't drive stuff forward. Now we have W, okay? Work only where needed.
Delegate everything else outside of the highest value activities you can do. This is a very tough step for people. Work only where you're needed. Not where you're wanted, because you're wanted in many places. Not where you're asked, because you're asked all the time, but where you're needed. Where are you going to have the highest impact on the company?
You need to look at your calendar. You need to figure out that. Ask yourself, go look at your calendar right now and ask yourself, how many of these calls last week did I need to be on? Do I really need to be on this call? Do I really need to be on this? If this person, if I have a one-on-one with them, do I really need to also be on their team meeting?
Or should I just be on the team gig or not the one-on-one? Like, we have to be ruthless with our time. Make sure that we understand where it needs to go. So if your calendar doesn't align with your priorities, reconsider your calendar.
Don't allow it just because meetings have populated there to be something that you feel like is outside of your control. I think this is especially hard for people if they've ever had a job. Because when you were in a job, you didn't have control over your calendar. And so you're like, wait, my calendar says it. I got to go do it. No, not anymore. You're the CEO. You're the founder. You dictate where you go. Which brings me to E, which is enforce boundaries. This is especially important.
when you are in a fast growth company and you are continuously having to readjust priorities over and over and over again. So I can't tell you how many people come to me and they're like, Layla, I said I don't want to be involved in this. And they asked me anyways. I'm like, right, so what did you respond with? And they're like, well, I did it. No, if you're constantly being pulled into decisions, into projects that you shouldn't be doing, making, being involved with, it's because you allow it.
And so we have to prompt people for them to remember that we should not be involved in something. Ask them, can you solve this without me? What's your solution? Why do I need to be involved in this? And I think that especially for people who you might be like me, which is like, I'm very much of the mindset of being a servant leader. Like I want to help my team. I want them to succeed. I want to lead the way. Right.
But sometimes that means that we are too lax with what gets brought to us and how we accept things that are brought to our desks. And so we have to set clear guardrails. and enforce those boundaries. Nobody's going to do it for you, not your EA, not your director of operations, not your leadership team, you. They're probably all in some way going to try and pull from you too.
You are the only person that can enforce these boundaries and you have to keep it top of mind. Otherwise it can be very tough to do. I suggest if you struggle with this, take a little sticky note, tape it to your computer. Enforce boundaries, like put the power framework on there. Shit. And that brings me to R, which is review and adjust. Okay. Every quarter, if not every few weeks, audit your time.
look at where it goes versus where you think you should have spent it. Because if you're getting pulled into meetings, fires, distractions, or you look at a whole week and you don't know what you drove forward, things can be really tough for you to focus. So we constantly want to be pivoting because the thing is like what you spent your time on last quarter, last week, last month, it might not be what you want to spend your time on in the coming ones.
And it's really only for you to decide and dictate what that looks like. But it's very important because I can tell you that my calendar is constantly changing. Like what I spent my time on last month, two months ago, four months ago, it looks nothing like what I'm spending my time on now.
So I hope this framework was helpful for you guys. This helps me when I realize that I am allowing other people to dictate my priorities, dictate my time, steal my attention, my energy. And the thing is like at the end of the day,
Being a CEO is not about doing more. It's about doing the important things that nobody else can do. It's about deciding what matters. It's about taking control of your time, of your focus, and of your decisions. And nobody's going to come in. They're not going to do that for us.
So if we don't dictate our priorities, somebody else is going to do that. So if you're listening to this and you're feeling overwhelmed, ask yourself these questions. What are my top three priorities? Where is my time actually going every week? And what do I need to let go of to do the most important things? Because the sooner that you take back control of your business, of your time, right? And you start working for you and being your own boss.
that's when your business is going to grow. So if that resonated, if this was helpful for you guys, go ahead, share it with somebody else who needs it. We all need to take control of our time and keep pushing forward. So hope you have a great day, week. walk, lift, whatever it might be. And I will catch you on the next one.