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183 | Why CEO Time Is the Most Important Time Block for Business Growth · Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Mastery, Wealth Mindset, Leadership Principles, Intuitive Decision-Making, Human Design

• 0:00
  Erin Gray: If I looked at your calendar last week, would I know that you are the CEO or would you look like a busy employee?
• 0:07
  Erin Gray: Today I'm going to be walking you through the CEO time, what I think CEO time actually should look like, and then what I advise my clients to look at when they work with me.
• 0:17
  Erin Gray: So let's dive in.
• 0:18
  Erin Gray: Okay, I've talked about CEO time before.
• 0:20
  Erin Gray: I think that CEO time, it probably has more than three pillars, but these are the ones that I came up with is one is like your energetic leadership.
• 0:28
  Erin Gray: Like think about leadership, feminine power, feminine energy.
• 0:32
  Erin Gray: That's one part of CEO time.
• 0:34
  Erin Gray: The financial oversight, like the actual 3D of like looking at your numbers, having someone like me in your corner, going over a lot of the business stuff that needs to happen in your business.
• 0:43
  Erin Gray: And then the third part is like the vision, the future vision, you being the visionary.
• 0:48
  Erin Gray: I always say like the founder is the endless vessel of their company.
• 0:52
  Erin Gray: And so it's very important that you allocate time to envision, to visualize all of that.
• 0:58
  Erin Gray: So let's talk about the first pillar, that feminine energy.
• 1:01
  Erin Gray: I want you to ask yourself, how much are you in feminine energy?
• 1:04
  Erin Gray: I obviously have told you multiple times that I have been around and worked in very masculine energy industries, right?
• 1:12
  Erin Gray: Financial planning and construction, very masculine.
• 1:15
  Erin Gray: And so I've had to turn back on my reconnect to my feminine energy.
• 1:19
  Erin Gray: And the more that I do this work, the more that I work with women and I see like this is actually how it you actually lead with feminine energy, and then you have the masculine that like molds and helps you structure things and steward and flow money and things of that sort.
• 1:35
  Erin Gray: So, how much are you in your feminine energy?
• 1:37
  Erin Gray: I would also look at from a spirituality standpoint, how connected are you to God and dialed in there?
• 1:43
  Erin Gray: That is something that over the last year, I think that was a big missing piece for me.
• 1:46
  Erin Gray: So, how much are you trusting?
• 1:48
  Erin Gray: How much are you connected to God?
• 1:49
  Erin Gray: How much are you looking at Him as your supply versus your clients, your business, investments, things of that sort?
• 1:56
  Erin Gray: Are you allowing time for rest?
• 1:58
  Erin Gray: Are you allowing time for play?
• 2:01
  Erin Gray: What is your visualization practice like?
• 2:03
  Erin Gray: Think about what is your meditation and meditation can look like whatever, but like how much time are you allowing for stillness, for what I call being bored?
• 2:10
  Erin Gray: Are you just like for a while?
• 2:12
  Erin Gray: I just put in my calendar, like be bored, like 10 to 15 minutes a day.
• 2:15
  Erin Gray: Just sit because if we constantly have every single second spoken for, we don't have the capacity or the allowance to allow for ideas to come in, right?
• 2:25
  Erin Gray: To to hear from God, to have our intuition, to listen to our intuition, things of that sort.
• 2:29
  Erin Gray: Are you journaling?
• 2:30
  Erin Gray: Are you reflecting?
• 2:31
  Erin Gray: Like, what is your practice of spiritual practice as well as taking care, like self-care practice?
• 2:36
  Erin Gray: Do you have or are you in the process of hiring people to support you in ways that you want to be supported?
• 2:42
  Erin Gray: You know, I reached out to um someone that I've been referring clients to, and I've also used her for my husband's business.
• 2:50
  Erin Gray: And one of the things that I said is like, I know how to do all of this stuff, but I would love some help because I just want to do the review of what you come up with, and then I will review it versus me actually having to sit down and do it, right?
• 3:01
  Erin Gray: So just think about the ways that you want to be supported and are you allowing and taking care of yourself and receiving that support?
• 3:10
  Erin Gray: What are you doing for your money mindset and your relationship with money?
• 3:14
  Erin Gray: Like, are you loving on your money?
• 3:16
  Erin Gray: Are you appreciating it?
• 3:18
  Erin Gray: Are you energetically in alignment and congruence when it comes to money?
• 3:22
  Erin Gray: Or are there things that you need to clean up in your relationship with money?
• 3:26
  Erin Gray: I think about like our energy, the more as I evolve, right?
• 3:29
  Erin Gray: Like how precious my energy is.
• 3:31
  Erin Gray: And I'm very, I don't like the word protective, but let's just say honoring.
• 3:35
  Erin Gray: I honor my energy, taking care of my nervous system.
• 3:39
  Erin Gray: Are you taking care of your nervous system?
• 3:41
  Erin Gray: Let's call it a calm system instead of a nervous system.
• 3:43
  Erin Gray: So if you feel dysregulated, if you're rushing around, if you're overextended, if you're saying yes to everyone else, then your business is going to like everything as a mirror.
• 3:52
  Erin Gray: Your business is going to mirror that, your money is going to mirror that, your relationships, the people that are in your business are going to mirror that.
• 3:58
  Erin Gray: So I want you to think from the feminine energy standpoint that CEO time includes luxurious space to think.
• 4:06
  Erin Gray: Like could be multiple hours a week to think and contemplate.
• 4:09
  Erin Gray: Like that is one of the most important things you can do.
• 4:13
  Erin Gray: Time to feel into decisions that you're currently making.
• 4:16
  Erin Gray: Like if you need to ride your wave, are you allowing yourself the time and the space to be in your own auric energy?
• 4:24
  Erin Gray: Or are you constantly with someone?
• 4:26
  Erin Gray: You know, reflection, reflecting on things that you've decisions you have made on where you're going before you just like we want to get out of that reactive energy and we want to get into a responsive.
• 4:38
  Erin Gray: But in order to be responsive, you got to take care of your nervous system.
• 4:41
  Erin Gray: You got to take care of you first.
• 4:43
  Erin Gray: And then also, are you honoring, you know, the boundaries, like very clear boundaries?
• 4:47
  Erin Gray: And I know that that is something that I've had to work on because yeah, I don't think I've respected my time the way that I do now.
• 4:54
  Erin Gray: And so that is something that I have had to work on over the last, well, probably six years, but like really being more focused on it over the last probably six months.
• 5:03
  Erin Gray: Okay.
• 5:03
  Erin Gray: So that's like think about it from a very feminine, taking care of you, flowy energy as well as self-care, self-love.
• 5:11
  Erin Gray: So that's one pillar.
• 5:12
  Erin Gray: The second pillar is like the actual 3D, the masculine energy, the financial CEO time.
• 5:17
  Erin Gray: So I always say it's always your responsibility to know your numbers, to not outsource your power and to know actually what's going on in your business.
• 5:27
  Erin Gray: You know, some of my clients in the past have said things like, well, I'll just let like, I don't really want to deal with that.
• 5:31
  Erin Gray: Like, I'll just let the bookkeeper and the CPA do it.
• 5:33
  Erin Gray: And like, I don't really like that.
• 5:35
  Erin Gray: I don't really enjoy looking at the numbers or I'm not so great at it or whatever.
• 5:38
  Erin Gray: It's like, no, this is part of being a CEO.
• 5:41
  Erin Gray: If you want to go from where you are to whatever number you want to get to, you need to take responsibility for running your business.
• 5:49
  Erin Gray: And that includes numbers.
• 5:50
  Erin Gray: So if you don't have someone like me in your corner, maybe it's time that you reach out and we have a conversation and see if we're a good fit.
• 5:58
  Erin Gray: Because having someone like me in your corner that loves on you, that supports you, that looks at everything from a very holistic view and isn't just like, okay, here are the numbers.
• 6:07
  Erin Gray: But we're looking at your team, we're looking at all of your advisors that, you know, your CPA and your bookkeeper and you know, your insurance, like we're looking at the whole picture in your business and also your personal life, right?
• 6:18
  Erin Gray: And so when you have someone like me who can easily look at things and be like, hey, have you thought of this?
• 6:23
  Erin Gray: And then you run it through your filter.
• 6:25
  Erin Gray: I think it one is so much more fun when you do business with people that can support you.
• 6:30
  Erin Gray: And two, like, even though it is a more masculine energy thing to do is to look at your numbers, you have someone that can support you while you do that.
• 6:40
  Erin Gray: So I think that you need to be looking at your financials once a week.
• 6:43
  Erin Gray: You know, what are your numbers, your PL, your balance statement?
• 6:46
  Erin Gray: You know, what does revenue look like?
• 6:47
  Erin Gray: What does cash look like?
• 6:48
  Erin Gray: What is cash flow projections and, you know, money moving in and out of your business?
• 6:53
  Erin Gray: What does sales look like?
• 6:54
  Erin Gray: Like just all of the things that you have ideas on for like projections, looking at that stuff as well as looking at, because you know, all of your reports that you're gonna look at, that's all a past, right?
• 7:05
  Erin Gray: So you also want to be thinking about where you're going, but also know like what is it, you know, my dad would always say, like keeping a pulse, right, on the company.
• 7:13
  Erin Gray: And you have to think about like your financials in that way.
• 7:16
  Erin Gray: So, you know, I would know like what our AR, our AP, what cash looked like, how much cash we needed on a monthly basis, what was payroll like.
• 7:24
  Erin Gray: Just knowing all of that, I think also calms the system, right?
• 7:28
  Erin Gray: When you know what it is, then you're able to be like, okay, you're allocating money towards that.
• 7:33
  Erin Gray: And also you are aware of where your money is.
• 7:37
  Erin Gray: Like it is our responsibility as CEOs to know where our money is and where it is going.
• 7:43
  Erin Gray: So you got to know your numbers.
• 7:44
  Erin Gray: I also think about this, you know, from the masculine part is yes, you have the support and also like money wants to be directed.
• 7:53
  Erin Gray: So from like I'm very masculine, like I think money is feminine and also masculine.
• 7:58
  Erin Gray: So money likes to flow, it likes to go in, it likes to go out, it loves to be loved on and supported and appreciated.
• 8:05
  Erin Gray: You know, think about it as a relationship.
• 8:07
  Erin Gray: And it also likes to have, I don't like boundaries as the word, but like, where does it like to be stewarded to?
• 8:13
  Erin Gray: It likes to know where it's gonna go when it comes in.
• 8:16
  Erin Gray: So think about how by sitting down and doing, you know, this, the financial part of the CEO time of like, okay, where are we gonna allocate this money that came in this week or this month or whatever it might be?
• 8:26
  Erin Gray: You know, what am I planning for expansion in my business?
• 8:29
  Erin Gray: So, really like knowing where your money's going and where it's going to go.
• 8:33
  Erin Gray: Money likes to be guided.
• 8:35
  Erin Gray: So, CEO time, I think also too, should include that financial block every single week.
• 8:41
  Erin Gray: And I think it also what this does is it's another opportunity for you to check in with how you feel about money, how you feel about your business, you as a CEO and a leader and a woman and all of that.
• 8:52
  Erin Gray: So it just gives you another opportunity to show appreciation and gratitude for how far you have come, for where you are going and appreciate everybody that's in your business.
• 9:01
  Erin Gray: And it's just a nice thing to feel on a weekly basis for sure, and also to show that gratitude and appreciation.
• 9:08
  Erin Gray: And then the third pillar is like I think about like visionary direction, expansion.
• 9:13
  Erin Gray: So are you staying focused on what you're good at and letting others support you in your company?
• 9:19
  Erin Gray: Or are you having like shiny object syndrome, or are you more so dialed in and like focused, right?
• 9:24
  Erin Gray: And so this is where no becomes so valuable because I think we really want to be saying no more than we're saying yes.
• 9:32
  Erin Gray: We have to honor our time.
• 9:33
  Erin Gray: We have to honor our energy.
• 9:35
  Erin Gray: When you say yes to something, you are effectively saying no to something else.
• 9:39
  Erin Gray: So you got to be crystal clear on what you want, where you are going, what your vision is, and spending, you know, where you are investing your energy.
• 9:47
  Erin Gray: Because if you aren't clear, then you wake up and you're like, oh, now I'm in this and now I'm in this.
• 9:51
  Erin Gray: Like I remember it was my dad and my uncle, you know?
• 9:54
  Erin Gray: And and sometimes other ideas would come into for different ways for revenue.
• 9:58
  Erin Gray: And we would always go back to, yeah, but what do we do really well?
• 10:01
  Erin Gray: Right.
• 10:02
  Erin Gray: Like you have to stay focused and know where you're going because it's so easy.
• 10:06
  Erin Gray: Like we want to do all the things.
• 10:07
  Erin Gray: I get that as entrepreneurs, and we have to stay really focused on what am I really good at?
• 10:12
  Erin Gray: What do I want to continue?
• 10:13
  Erin Gray: What is profitable for me and move in that direction?
• 10:16
  Erin Gray: So think about the CEO time from the direction, the expansion, that kind of pillar of like, are you doing quarterly?
• 10:23
  Erin Gray: I don't want to say quarterly plans, but quarterly reviews, quarterly visions, like moving forward.
• 10:29
  Erin Gray: Are you evaluating where the revenue is coming from?
• 10:32
  Erin Gray: Do you still like doing that?
• 10:34
  Erin Gray: Is it something that you want to pivot on?
• 10:36
  Erin Gray: Like really giving yourself the time to decide what you want to continue to pursue, maybe what you are no longer in love with, and what are your next level moves?
• 10:45
  Erin Gray: And this comes from that long-term thinking, that long-term vision, you being the founder, not the short-term reacting.
• 10:53
  Erin Gray: So, really allowing yourself the opportunity for visionary forward vision casting.
• 11:00
  Erin Gray: Where am I taking my company?
• 11:01
  Erin Gray: You know, who's coming with me?
• 11:03
  Erin Gray: Who might have we outgrown?
• 11:04
  Erin Gray: Things of that sort.
• 11:05
  Erin Gray: Okay, so let's talk about then if you want to do a time audit, I definitely advise that.
• 11:12
  Erin Gray: And I'm gonna give you just some ideas and then you play with it, you run it through your intuition and you see what you what feels good.
• 11:20
  Erin Gray: And maybe these time amounts, you know, don't necessarily fit you, but it's just something to go off of.
• 11:26
  Erin Gray: So from a financial review every single week, 60, 90 minutes, it may even become shorter.
• 11:31
  Erin Gray: The more you do it, the better you'll get at it.
• 11:34
  Erin Gray: You'll be in a in a system, an autopilot, right?
• 11:37
  Erin Gray: Not that you're won't be aware, but like it'll get easier because you have looked at, you know, however many times of a PL and a balance statement and cash flow projection and all that kind of stuff.
• 11:47
  Erin Gray: So what is your cash like?
• 11:49
  Erin Gray: What is your PL?
• 11:51
  Erin Gray: What is your AR, your AP?
• 11:53
  Erin Gray: Just knowing what your numbers look like.
• 11:56
  Erin Gray: The next one is the leadership, right?
• 11:58
  Erin Gray: I think this actually should be every day.
• 12:00
  Erin Gray: And I also think that you should block out some time, uh, maybe an hour, a week, even more.
• 12:05
  Erin Gray: But I think every single day you need to be like from that, from that feminine leadership.
• 12:09
  Erin Gray: Like, how much are you resting?
• 12:11
  Erin Gray: How much are you playing?
• 12:12
  Erin Gray: You know, what is your meditation and journaling and walking and thinking and contemplating, like allowing that luxurious space to do that?
• 12:20
  Erin Gray: Think of it also.
• 12:21
  Erin Gray: So that would be like the daily that you'd be doing that.
• 12:24
  Erin Gray: Then on a weekly basis, like, what is my team health look like?
• 12:27
  Erin Gray: What is my the morale?
• 12:29
  Erin Gray: What is the culture?
• 12:30
  Erin Gray: Like, how can I continue to support my people?
• 12:33
  Erin Gray: Like, you know, if you're getting constant feedback from your people, then you're able to correct whatever needs to be corrected.
• 12:40
  Erin Gray: If anything needs to be corrected, you're able to do that on a weekly basis versus three months goes by and you've been sensing that an employee has been having some feelings, but you haven't really addressed it, right?
• 12:52
  Erin Gray: So if you're in constant connection and contact with your employees and they are sharing, you know, what's working, what isn't, what they want, you know, to see different, then you're gonna be able to have that more constant feedback.
• 13:06
  Erin Gray: And then you're able to take action and modify things.
• 13:09
  Erin Gray: Also, too, like from hiring decisions, you know, you're not gonna be doing this every week, but like, okay, as you're growing, you need to be thinking about hiring people before you're at that level.
• 13:18
  Erin Gray: So who would be a perfect fit?
• 13:19
  Erin Gray: Planning for that, what would what is that gonna look like?
• 13:22
  Erin Gray: Envisioning that person, things of that sort.
• 13:24
  Erin Gray: And then the vision, you know, vision casting, blocking out time for envisioning envisioning and vis visualization a couple hours a week.
• 13:33
  Erin Gray: And like I said, play with this and see what feels good.
• 13:36
  Erin Gray: But like this is space to think and contemplate how far you've come, where you're going, being in such gratitude of where you are, all of that feminine energy, like taking care of you, the plane, the expansion.
• 13:49
  Erin Gray: And then one other one that I would throw in is just do an energy audit.
• 13:53
  Erin Gray: I know I've done a podcast on are you leaking energy?
• 13:56
  Erin Gray: But maybe it's something that you do, maybe it's once a week, maybe it's once every other week, you know, as you fine-tune it.
• 14:03
  Erin Gray: Like I always like to look at things as like we're just constantly fine-tuning and being more precise.
• 14:08
  Erin Gray: So if you are, you know, you've done this multiple times and you're pretty clear, but then maybe you go to once a month.
• 14:14
  Erin Gray: You're just gonna have to play with this and see what feels good.
• 14:16
  Erin Gray: But like, where are you leaking energy?
• 14:18
  Erin Gray: What is feeling heavy?
• 14:19
  Erin Gray: What are you avoiding?
• 14:21
  Erin Gray: What are you tolerating that you've outgrown that you haven't decided, okay, time to let that one go, or let I don't mean let that one go as an employee, but let whatever it is go, right?
• 14:31
  Erin Gray: Are there boundaries that you need to put up for yourself to put to honor your energy?
• 14:36
  Erin Gray: So, what I see most of the time with women is that we overgive, we are over-available, we have thoughts about our worthiness or our lovability.
• 14:46
  Erin Gray: And so we're doing things that other people in our organization can do.
• 14:51
  Erin Gray: And we're doing that because we don't want to feel like there's not a place for us or like, hey, but really ultimately, you should put yourself out of, and I'm you're quoting a job, right?
• 15:02
  Erin Gray: You should really just be that vision planning higher 30,000 foot view, and then having people that support you.
• 15:09
  Erin Gray: If you're avoiding any type of financial stuff, right?
• 15:12
  Erin Gray: If you're not looking at your numbers, if you're saying yes just to keep the peace, like that, that isn't true leadership.
• 15:19
  Erin Gray: I think a lot about that is more so self-abandoning, right?
• 15:24
  Erin Gray: It's disguised as generosity, it's disguised as like, oh, I'm being so kind.
• 15:29
  Erin Gray: But I think when we're saying yes to people before we're saying yes to ourselves and taking care of ourselves, we're people pleasing in some way.
• 15:36
  Erin Gray: So I want you to think about CEO feminine energy is calm, bold, it is confident, it's decisive, it's financially literate, it is has boundaries and it doesn't apologize for it.
• 15:51
  Erin Gray: It's future focused, takes care of herself, like all of those things.
• 15:55
  Erin Gray: So think about where are you already doing this?
• 15:57
  Erin Gray: And then where can you start making some shifts?
• 16:00
  Erin Gray: And where you want to grow to isn't going to come from doing more.
• 16:04
  Erin Gray: It's going to come from doing less.
• 16:06
  Erin Gray: It's going to come from contemplation, being in your feminine energy, being more bold, being more like a decisive leader, cleaner energy, right?
• 16:15
  Erin Gray: Like knowing what you need to do and just doing it, like collapsing what I call collapsing that time or the gap between when you're a yes for something, you've ridden your wave, and then when you actually take action and move into it.
• 16:28
  Erin Gray: So over the next week, do a time audit and see what you come up with.
• 16:32
  Erin Gray: That's always the first step because awareness, like we cannot change what we are not aware of.
• 16:36
  Erin Gray: And then you can start making changes from a new identity because what you find on your calendar and what you're not a fan of, there's an identity associated with that, right?
• 16:46
  Erin Gray: So who is the woman that is tolerating that on her or in her calendar?
• 16:50
  Erin Gray: And then from that place, you get to start feeling different and taking different action.
• 16:54
  Erin Gray: And if you want someone like me in your corner that acts as the holistic advisor and supports you and your business with full financial team integration and intuitive leadership, I would love to see if we are a good fit.
• 17:07
  Erin Gray: You can schedule a call with me and and we can have a visit and see what you're needing support with and how it could help.
• 17:13
  Erin Gray: Okay, as always, I'm rooting for you.
• 17:15
  Erin Gray: I love you, and I will see you in the next episode.