5 Actions for a Frantic CEO
You know when I'm at my worst as a leader? It's when I'm frantic, right? It's when I'm running around like my hair's on fire. It's when I don't have really time or energy to apply specific single-minded attention to anything because my mind is on everything. And my family suffers, my work suffers, my customers suffer.
Alex Judd:Nothing gets done really well because I'm just trying to do everything all at once. And the right word for that, I actually think this is true, is frantic. And so what do we want to remember? Well, if you want to put your business in order, then start by putting yourself in order. And so often, when I find myself deviating from the type of centered, stable, strong leader that I want to be, when I find myself frazzled or frantic or working too much in the business or feeling like I'm just trying to keep up with everything that needs to get done, man, it's so helpful for me to have a course correction, to have a moment where I say, Okay, the trajectory of where we're going doesn't end well.
Alex Judd:I know that that's true. And so I'm going to do different things to get different results. And that's what this podcast is focused on. It's focused on five actions for frantic CEOs. These are five actions that they're relatively simple.
Alex Judd:You could do any of them today. I wouldn't recommend you do all of them today. However, if you do one of them today, it could bring you back to center. It could make you remember what matters. It could make you simplify your life.
Alex Judd:And it could make you start to feel like, man, I am on a path, and that path is bringing me towards something. I don't have to have it all figured out all at once. I just need to do the next right thing. And that's going to be my goal for you out of this podcast episode is just do the next right thing. I hope that what we focus on today will help us take a deep breath and expand our vision for what does it look like to get off the hamster wheel, what does it look like to get off the emotional roller coaster, To stop being so frantic, to stop being so frazzled, and to just do the next right thing.
Alex Judd:So with that, five actions for frantic CEOs. Number one, create a morning routine that makes you centered, stable, and strong. I see this principle ring true in my life and the lives of the leaders that we work with all the time. As goes your morning, so goes your day. And I think we all have heard enough content around morning routines to know that's true.
Alex Judd:We've done our own morning routine episode that we'll put as a link in the show notes of this episode if you want to go deeper on this specific action. But what I want us to remember is that if our morning is frantic and frazzled, if it feels like it's in a rush, if it feels like it's hurried, well, that is setting a tone for the rest of our day. So, so often, when we coincide with leaders that they're like, man, I just need to bring some order, some stability to all of the chaos of what's going on. Well, so often we ask them the question, what's the one thing that if you were to focus on it, it would make everything else, more effective, more central, more stable? And inevitably, the answer almost always comes back as something that they could do in the morning.
Alex Judd:But here's what I want to argue against, some absurd, extravagant, world beater morning routine for you right now. If you're in a stage of frantic or frazzled leadership right now where you just feel like you're trying to keep your head above water, it can be really tempting to listen to a personal growth or even business growth podcast and say, I need to go establish a world beer morning routine where I'm waking up at 4AM, where I'm doing my sixty minutes of exercise, where I'm drinking like two gallons of water and all of that is greens and I'm reading 30 pages of book, right? And we list all these tasks and then what happens? Well, we have a lot of energy because that's the type of personality type listens to this podcast. We have a lot of energy whenever we come at it initially, but then eventually it starts to dwindle because it's unsustainable.
Alex Judd:And we start to sacrifice. We start to compromise. We start to not have the same heart for it that we had before. And as a result, we start to be inconsistent with it. And what we find out is that that extravagancy isn't sustainable.
Alex Judd:And as a result, it eventually falls apart and maybe even is detrimental to us being centered, stable, and strong. So the question that I'm posing to you is actually really important. It's not what's the biggest, best, most grand morning routine you could have. Rather, it's this. What's the most simple morning routine that you could apply yourself to consistently that would make you more centered, stable, and strong?
Alex Judd:Again, what's the most simple morning routine that you could apply yourself to consistently that would make you more centered, stable, and strong? Listen to me. Lots of you have multiple kids. I only have one right now. So I can't imagine what it's like to have four kids, which I know a lot of you do.
Alex Judd:Apparently, Path for Growth attracts a lot of people with four, five, six, even seven kids sometimes. So I can't imagine, right? And then on top of that, you're trying to prioritize your marriage and be really attentive there. And on top of that, you're trying to grow your business and move that forward. On top of that, you're trying to be physically active and make sure you have a rhythm for doing that.
Alex Judd:And here's the deal. All of that in itself is remarkable if you attend to it really well over the course of a day. And so what we need from your morning routine is not for you to become some personal growth junkie that people marvel at. Your personal growth routine is not for other people overtly. It's so that you can be centered, stable, and strong so that you can go into the world to serve other people.
Alex Judd:I think so often we make commitments whenever it comes to our morning routine to try and impress people. And in reality, it's probably better to reframe it as like, what would best equip me to serve people? So get the sleep that you need to get. Establish a consistent wake up time. Put food in your body that's good for you and that's life giving.
Alex Judd:Maybe don't focus on doing a full workout. Maybe just do a handful of push ups or something to get your body moving in the morning. Maybe take in some particular amount of scripture. You don't need to read an entire book or even an entire chapter, but maybe have some rhythm of saying, yeah, I'm gonna go through the book of James. I'm gonna go through the book of John.
Alex Judd:I'm gonna go through the book of Genesis over the course of a month, or I'm gonna read a chapter in Proverbs every single day for the course of next month so that you're getting exposed to truth because exposure to truth guards against insanity. And maybe the grand total of all of that takes twenty to thirty minutes, but it's not the twenty to thirty minutes one day that's going to make an impact. It's the twenty to thirty minutes every single day that's going to make an impact. And I've said it on here before. I'll never forget hearing John Maxwell say it and the timbre of his voice with which he said it.
Alex Judd:He said, every single day messes people up. And so are you going to be a leader that prioritizes extravagancy? Wow. Look at this amazing morning routine I can do, but putters out three weeks in when there's no longer attention or applause for what you're doing. Or are you going to be the leader that prioritizes consistency?
Alex Judd:That says, what could I consistently do that would represent me being centered, stable, and strong in service of others? And then what would it look like to apply yourself to that every single day? It's why the very first thing that we do in one on one coaching with CEOs is not related to their business. It's related to their personal growth. And we say, let's establish a high return habit.
Alex Judd:What's the number one thing you would do that when you did it, it would add exponential value to the other areas of your life? And that's what's so cool is that not all habits are created equal. Not all actions are created equal. And there are certain things that if you did them every single day, it would have a ripple effect and have exponential impact in the other things you do every single day. So action number one, if you're frantic and frazzled, is to create a morning routine and apply yourself to it that would make you centered, stable, and strong.
Alex Judd:And get after that. Establish that. Apply yourself to it. Take action on it because that's what's going to move the needle. Okay.
Alex Judd:Let's go to number two. Have a consistent start and end time. Now I'm particularly talking about your work day. So often, especially with CEOs and business owners, it can be really easy to allow inconsistency to slip into when we start and when we end. And we can do that in the name of freedom.
Alex Judd:We can say, well, I started this business or I own this business or I lead this business. And what is one of the perks or benefits that that gives me? It gives me incredible freedom to start when I want to start or to end when I want to end. And when you say it like that, it sounds a lot like freedom. What I often see is that in practice, it actually feels a lot more like tyranny.
Alex Judd:When people don't have a consistent start time or consistent end time, the way they experience it doesn't actually feel like, oh, I just feel so free. I can just work when I want to work and then I turn it off when I want to turn it off. And what I often see is people just feel like they should be working all the time and sometimes they just do. And what I would rather you do, the thing that I've experienced the most fruit from is just by saying like, hey, my workday is this. From eight to nine I write and don't open any tabs on my computer.
Alex Judd:From nine to ten I do prep and correspondence, so I prepare myself for the day, engage in any extraneous correspondence. And then I work up till through, often lunch, up till 03:30. And then at 03:30, I start to close it down. And that closing down time is really it's actually more hard than the start time for me. But establishing those boundaries has been so helpful for me because then it's like, Okay, well, what do I need to accomplish?
Alex Judd:What does winning look like in this timeframe instead of like, what is done? Because what is done? I don't know what done is. I started this business for the particular purpose that there is no done. And so if I don't establish a consistent start time, then I will always feel like I'm starting late.
Alex Judd:And if I don't establish a consistent end time, then there will always be more to do. And as a result, I experience it not as incredible freedom, but as incredible tyranny. Here's the deal. Our work is going to start and end. And I would way rather you choose when it's going to start and end for the season that you're in intentionally instead of stumbling into it accidentally.
Alex Judd:We got to get this crazy idea out of our head that structure, consistency, discipline are all opposed to freedom. Rather, what I have experienced, especially with this structure, is that structure, consistency, discipline are the things that when I apply myself to them actually give me the ability to experience and exercise the freedom that God's already given me. And so placing boundaries around my work also helps me remember that, man, my work is not who I am. My work is where I serve. And I've been given these hours of work time to steward and to play all out in.
Alex Judd:And I'm just gonna crush it in those hours. And that's just been such a gift. It also is aligned with the fact that this is a theology idea, right? That work is not punishment for doing something wrong. Work is not a bad thing to be avoided.
Alex Judd:Rather, work should be the overflow, the joy, the service that we get to embrace. It's where we put our gifts to work in service of others. And so we shouldn't be trying to constantly saying, how do I work less? How do I work less? How do I work less?
Alex Judd:That reflects a poor theology of work. Rather, we should start asking the question, how could I organize my work in such a way that for the hours that I'm doing it, it's delight and not dread? In Psalms, it says trust in the Lord and do good. An act of trust is faithful obedience with what you have in front of you right now. Trust in the Lord and do good.
Alex Judd:So establish a consistent start time and stick to it. When are you going to open your laptop? When are you going to open your phone? And when are you going to actually get into it? And I would say, I already shared it with you, schedule out the first couple hours of your day to promote effectiveness and productivity for the next few hours of your day.
Alex Judd:And sometimes people tell us, I can't do that. And it's like, oh, I'm sorry. This podcast is particularly for business owners and CEOs. And it's like, if you can't do that, then you're actually putting yourself not in the role of business owner or CEO. You're putting yourself in the role of victim.
Alex Judd:And we need to regain some agency so that you can do that because the reality is that you do have the freedom to be able to do that. Number one, create a morning routine that makes you centered, stable, and strong. Number two is have consistent start and end times. Number three, hire and maximize an executive assistant. It is wild to me.
Alex Judd:It is wild to me how often I coincide with leaders sometimes of $5,000,000 10 million dollars 15 million dollars a year companies that they're still booking their own travel. They're managing their calendar. They're the only one that's in their inbox and organizing their inbox. That just drives me crazy. The reason why that drives me crazy is because all of those tasks, all of those individual items are things that are relatively easy to delegate.
Alex Judd:People will always throw out the red flag of like, oh, you just don't understand my circumstance or stuff like that. What I am telling you is that those tasks are relatively easy to delegate. In thirty days, if you follow a legitimate plan for delegation and onboarding of an executive assistant, you can delegate that stuff. And here's why that's so important is because as the CEO of a $10,000,000 company, you have so much influence. And I think what's actually happening here is you're underestimating your influence.
Alex Judd:And whenever you're the CEO of a $10,000,000 company, where do we have to be investing your time? Well, we have to be investing your time on any activity that multiplies the efforts of others. That's what leadership at that level actually looks like. And anytime you're not investing time, so it doesn't create an exponential return, rather you're spending time on things that don't create return or impact for others, it doesn't multiply others, well, then we are actually wasting your time. We're not even just spending it.
Alex Judd:And so, man, when you're just Xs and Os blocking and unsubscribing and moving to folders in your inbox, or when you're booking your travel and going through what's the best rate to fly from here to there on this day, and what hotel room should I get, and all of that. When you're doing all of that or any of the day to day tasks that it's like, man, this could be given to someone else relatively easy, You are not just spending your time incremental return. You are wasting your time because that time could be dedicated to multiplying the efforts of others. Think about that. If we took ten hours of the time that you spend doing tasks, travel planning, correspondence, stuff like that, even personal tasks, going to the dry cleaning, ordering gifts for people, stuff like that, right?
Alex Judd:If we just took ten of those hours and applied it to activities that made you more inspired and made the people on your team more inspired and more effective at what they do every day. And maybe we as a result, the 20 people that you were able to meet with as a result in some capacity in a couple different meetings or a couple different scenarios or things like that, They each got even 10% better. If you are getting 10% better and 20 people on your team are getting 10% better, the return on that is insane. But you're going to tell me you should still be doing all this stuff. Absolutely not.
Alex Judd:And so what I wanna tell you is that oftentimes, I coincide with leaders that they've tried the EA route and it just didn't work out or they're a little bit hesitant to try. What I would tell you is you should not allow the fact that it hasn't gone well before to deter you from believing that it could go well in the future. We need to find you the right person. So we need to make sure we interview for culture, chemistry, character, competency. That's what we teach within our coaching program as it relates to interviewing assistants, but actually all roles.
Alex Judd:And then we need to make sure we have a killer onboarding plan for them where you and them get aligned. And then part of maximizing working with an executive assistant is you having success statements for them that really define their role so that they're clear on the outcomes that you're trusting them with. And then for you to take your hands off and say, I trust you and I empower you to take action on my behalf. And then just to have a regular rhythm of one on one meetings that I would recommend they run for you, that they come to the meeting with an agenda, and you just have a regular touch point to see how things are going. That's what it looks like not just to hire an EA.
Alex Judd:A lot of people hire an EA. That's what it looks like to maximize an executive assistant. And so number three, if you're frantic right now, oftentimes, it's actually a really practical tactical thing. Stop trying to do it all on your own. Let's hire and maximize an executive assistant.
Alex Judd:And I'd be remiss not to recommend that the first executive assistant that I worked with, and we still work with them for our bookkeeper as well, was through an organization called Belay. They just do such good work. And they have a great process both for helping you find an EA that you would work well with, but then also onboarding that EA. And so that's a good place to start. I'm not getting paid to say this or anything right now.
Alex Judd:I just really trust and respect them as an organization. We'll put the link to Belay in the show notes of this episode. Let's go to number four. Get financial peace of mind. So often, this is one of those things that if you haven't solved for it, you will be frantic.
Alex Judd:Things could be operationally humming. But if you have financial dread or financial ambiguity, you internally might feel frantic and frazzled. Conversely, it's wild how, man, you might have challenging, turbulent, or struggling times in your business right now. But if you have financial peace of mind, that just looks like a puzzle to be solved for instead of something that you have to dread and be terrified of. And so it's so crucial that as a leader, you get what you need to have financial peace of mind.
Alex Judd:And what I would tell you is, especially for a lot of people of the businesses of the size that are listening to this podcast, a lot of times this doesn't look like you having to do this all on your own. Sometimes you need to hire someone in house to help you with this and you need to trust them to provide you with financial guidance and insight. Or you need to outsource this and work with someone fractionally. You all know this. This is why we recommend fulling management and accounting.
Alex Judd:Rusty is just a pillar of our community and he's loved that business for twenty five years now. They just do such great work in helping people find solutions for the stage of business that they're at. Particularly, whether you work with Rusty and his team or someone else in house or you solve for this in a different way, I just want you to focus on having four things whenever it comes to your finances. Number one, I want you to have visibility. Do you have the ability right now to look into something and see how are we doing in the areas that matter most with regard to our finances?
Alex Judd:Like if I ask you, how are you doing in the areas that matter most with regard to your finances? Would you not just be able to tell me, would you be able to show me? And if the answer to that is no, I wouldn't be able to do that, man, it's going to give you so much peace of mind to just go find that, right, to get help creating the right dashboards, analyzing the right metrics. Most of you, you don't run incredibly complex businesses. Some of you do.
Alex Judd:I know we get a lot of construction companies listen to this, so rip reports are a whole arena that I don't want to get into on here, I would get help with that. Right? But you just have to have visibility to look in and say, how are we doing? And how could we expect to be doing over the course of the next few months with some cash flow forecasting and some budgeting? So visibility, number one.
Alex Judd:Trajectory, number two. We already hit on this. How does it look like we're going to be doing? What can we expect to spend? What is cash flow going to look like moving forward, all things equal?
Alex Judd:What would occur if we were able to secure this next deal or if we were able to pursue a 10% increase in sales or if we were able to hit our sales goal for Q3? So we want conversations and insight into visibility of our finances. We also want the trajectory of our finances. And then we want to plan for our finances. What are our goals financially for you personally as the owner, but then also for your business and how you're reinvesting?
Alex Judd:And then what's your plan, right? And how are you splitting up the profit even, right? So often I see that businesses and business owners don't have a plan for their profit. And so what they end up with is a lot of money that it's like, well, we could just establish this as an owner's distribution. Or more often than not, we just reinvest this into the business.
Alex Judd:But oftentimes if there's not a strategy for reinvestment, it becomes really unintentional and we're not looking at that investment through the lens of return. And, man, I've been susceptible to this. What is your plan for your profit, and how are you going to dedicate that either to spending or investing? And if you are truly investing that profit into the business, what's the return you're anticipating or expecting or holding people accountable to? And then how are you measuring that?
Alex Judd:Visibility, trajectory, plan, and then finally, generosity. I see that my financial peace of mind goes up whenever I am proactively practicing generosity with my finances. And this applies to me personally and this applies to our business. And I'm not telling you you have to do this. I'm not even telling you that this is my prescription.
Alex Judd:What I am speaking to you now about is my personal experience. That my peace of mind as it relates to everything, but especially as it relates to finances, goes up when I am proactively exercising generosity. And that kind of makes sense, doesn't it? Because any time you exercise generosity, what are you deciding to say? You're deciding to say, okay, God, these finances that you've blessed us with, these aren't mine, these are yours and you just give it to me to steward.
Alex Judd:And part of stewardship is service. And what do we always say? Well, it's our core value, Strength is for service. So, man, if I'm feeling financially strong, I'm going to exercise a loose grip on this, make sure these finances never become an idol, and I'm just going to give this away. And, man, there's something so powerful about giving to causes or to people anonymously that they can't do anything for you.
Alex Judd:And there's not necessarily a direct line to how it benefits you or your business. Man, in so many ways, I just think that's trust of God in action. That's really what generosity is. And so if you're looking to gain financial peace of mind, I would tell you generosity is a powerful way to do that. But what's crazy is if you do visibility, the trajectory of your finances, and the plan for your finances well, that generosity becomes something that you can engage in proactively instead of just like when you have left over.
Alex Judd:You can plan to be able to give. You can set yourself up with margin so that you can be outrageously generous to your team members, your team members' families, to even customers by offering discounts or sponsors or things like that, and even to causes that you might not have anything to do with your business but that you do believe in and feel called to contribute to. Okay. Let's go to number five. The fifth action for frantic CEOs is to simplify your job description.
Alex Judd:Let me ask you a question. As a CEO, if I were to ask you, hey, what is the simplest version of your job description in this season? My bet is that if you've got any wherewithal and you've been listening to Path for Growth for a while, you'd start to say, well, as the CEO, the simplest version of my job description is vision, culture, profitability of the business, leadership team direction, and accountability, and maybe strategic roadmap. Right? You would say, that's my job description in this season.
Alex Judd:Those are the outcomes that I need to be focused on. And I would say, man, you're such a great student of Path for Growth because that's what we challenge and teach CEOs to focus on. But what I would tell you is that's not actually the simplest version of your job description. Here's what I've found to be so helpful is when things feel like they're getting crazy, when I feel like my wheels are spinning, when I feel like my jaw is clenched, whenever I feel frantic, whenever I'm struggling to turn it off, whenever I feel like I'm constantly behind and I can't do enough, I see images of other businesses that I'm like, man, I'm not keeping up with them, I can get into a real dark headspace real quick. And I actually think some of the tools, quote unquote tools, that we have access to online actually exacerbate that.
Alex Judd:And then there's a bunch of messages that come to you on LinkedIn and stuff that say, oh man, we're going to help you scale your business three times over the course of the next year and all of that. You just feel like, oh my gosh, I'm just struggling to keep up. I'm not doing enough that as it is. And it can be really challenging. And it's in those moments that, man, in times of quiet prayer and reflection, I think God has really challenged me.
Alex Judd:Alex, simplify your job description. And what is your actual job? What have you been entrusted with today? What is the thing that if you were to do it, it would represent you being faithful? Number one, glorify God.
Alex Judd:With the things that are in front of you today, Glorify God. Is he your aim? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew six thirty three says that. It was Jesus who said that.
Alex Judd:Right? And so is your aim the glory and power and wonder of God? I get frantic. I get frazzled when I start building my kingdom instead of building the kingdom. And sometimes I just need to get it back to center and say, like, man, my focus here is to glorify God.
Alex Judd:And I God cares less about the things that I'm doing, and I think he actually cares more about the person that I'm becoming. And so am I engaging with the day's activities in a way that glorifies him? And what's crazy is, man, if you just ask the question, I think this is ask, seek, knock. Right? Ask and the answer will be given to you.
Alex Judd:Seek and you shall find. Knock and door will be opened to you. If you just ask and say, what would it look like to glorify God in this meeting, in this sales call, in this customer conversation, in this leadership team retreat? What would it look like to glorify God? What's crazy is if you just ask the question, oftentimes you're given an answer.
Alex Judd:And what is accompanied with that answer is great peace. Cause what I often see is, oh man, I was trying to do all these things and I had all these cares about image or approval or achievement or external outcomes that I don't actually have all that much control over. And in reality, God doesn't care about any of that. And it helps me to focus on the things that he actually does care about. So we need to glorify God, and then we need to love and serve people.
Alex Judd:Again, it simplifies things. It makes things so much more clear whenever we stop asking, man, how do I need to impress people? Or what's gonna grow my business? Or how are we gonna hit our goals. And that's all focused on me.
Alex Judd:Right? It's my business, my goals. And there's a reason why the letter I is smack dab in the center of pride. Man, if we just step back and just say, I'm going to glorify God in what I do, and then I'm going to focus on serving people. And if we just say, in everything that I engage with today, even if it's really hard or uncomfortable conversations, even if it's moments where I need to apologize for something that I did last week or a bad decision that I made, Even if it's having to report to someone that, man, things aren't going as well as they were going.
Alex Judd:Or maybe it's conversely, it's like, man, we're doing as well as we've ever done. We're winning right now. Our business is growing right now. What does it look like to communicate that message in such a way that it serves and loves people and recognize that is your job? And so so often, man, we crowd our job description in with things that God doesn't actually care about because what did he say?
Alex Judd:He said the first and greatest commandment is this, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then he said, and the second one is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. So loving people is like loving God, and when we do the two of those things, that's our job description. That's what you're supposed to do today. And anything that's not that, to the degree that it's not that, you're not going to enjoy it, and you're not going to be really thrilled with the outcomes of it.
Alex Judd:To the degree that you do make it those things with all the strategic plans you're creating and the way that you're thinking about the future and the business that you're building and all of that, to the degree that you can do all of that and nest it all under, man, I'm gonna glorify God and I'm gonna love and serve people, oh my gosh. You're going to move forward with such joy and stability and centerness. And I think you're going to start being less frantic because you're going to stop thinking it's all about you, and you're going to remember that this is about something and someone much greater than you. So I gave you five actions. Let's review them.
Alex Judd:Create a morning routine that makes you centered, stable, and strong. Have consistent start and end times. Hire and maximize an executive assistant. Get financial peace of mind. And simplify your job description, the question that I told you at the beginning I was going to ask you is what's the next right step?
Alex Judd:Well, there you have it. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode. If you want any of the information or resources that we mentioned, that's all in the show notes. Hey, before you go, could I ask you for one quick favor? Could you subscribe, rate, and review this podcast episode?
Alex Judd:Your feedback is what helps our team engage in a sequence of never ending improvement. We wanna amplify what's valuable to you and obviously reduce or even remove the things that aren't. Also, you leaving a positive review is what helps us connect with, build trust with, and serve other leaders around the country. So thanks in advance for helping us out on that front. Are you a leader that wants to grow your business in a healthy way, serve people exceptionally well, and glorify God in the process?
Alex Judd:Go to pathforgrowth.com to get more information about our community of impact driven leaders and schedule a call with our team. Hey. Thank you so much to the Path for Growth team, Kyle Cummings and the crew at PodCircle, and the remarkable leaders that are actively engaged in the Path for Growth community. Y'all are the people that make this podcast possible. Y'all know this.
Alex Judd:We're rooting for you. We're praying for you. We wanna see you win. Remember, my strength is not for me. Your strength is not for you.
Alex Judd:Our strength is for service. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
