7 HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL CEOs | for Small and Creative Business Owners

Hello and welcome back to my channel for another video. Today I want to share with you seven habits of highly successful CEOs, meaning these are habits that from my own experience and research on productivity and success can be especially helpful for those of us who run our own small businesses or consider ourselves creative or digital entrepreneurs. I hope this list gives you some insight and inspiration for some new positive habits you may want to consider adding to your life if it makes sense for you. Habit number one is to reach inbox zero every week. So this is an amazing habit for keeping yourself organized and on top of your business because for many of us working online our email inbox is where a lot of our work comes from in the form of customer service emails, communicating with clients and contractors and keeping on top of updates, market research, orders and more. It all centers around the email inbox for most creative business owners so make sure you're processing your emails regularly. I like working in my inbox twice a day once in the late morning and once again by the end of my work day. Now I want to be clear reaching inbox zero doesn't mean you have replied to and completed everything in your email. Sometimes things will take longer than others to respond to but the point of inbox zero is that you've seen all of the requests, you know about them and you have taken those action items and put them on your to-do list so that nothing is missed and becomes an emergency later on. If you want more tips on how I hit email inbox zero I'll link another video of mine in the description box for you to check out. Habit number two is to perform a sales activity every day. Now I really think out of all of the habits on this list this one might actually be the hardest to digest because I think many of us fear selling but selling, engaging in sales activities is a significant part of your business success so I recommend getting into this habit daily. Now what constitutes a sales activity can vary. For me a sales activity could be creating some content and posting it. It could be sending an email to my list. It could be sharing customer testimonials or opt-ins on Instagram. It could be creating and sharing targeted Pinterest posts. For other people it could be networking on a Facebook group or taking a discovery coaching call. Anything that helps spread the word about your business and encourages people to become leads of your business and of course customers is something every small business owner needs to be doing every day and the more you do it the easier it'll become and the more experience and data you're going to collect on what works and what doesn't work for marketing your business online. Habit three is to systemize everything. As a small creative business owner myself I know how important it is to create systems for everything you do essentially and a system doesn't have to be some complicated or intimidating concept. It's just making a codified process for how you do what you do. Think of it like creating a business manual for how you run your business. Creating systems and having them written out step by step helps you as a business owner save a lot of time and energy deciding how you would like to do things. Once you've found your way for doing something in your business write it out, make sure it's a complete step-by-step process and use that document as reference to help you manage and estimate your work moving forward. Not all systems in your business will become automated systems but by all means automate the heck out of whatever systems you want to take off of your plate but step one is to define those systems and refine them over time. It's hard for me to give you a specific expectation for how often to be working on your systems but I would say as you go about your day and through business just start listing out the tasks you do repeatedly and the next time you do them write down the steps, review the process and consider how you can optimize that process to be simpler or more effective. Habit number four is to do daily mindset work. Again this can come in many different forms. It can be meditating, it can be repeating affirmations, it can be writing out and challenging limiting beliefs but get into the habit of cultivating the mindset of that ideal successful business owner that you desire to be and shift into that headspace at least once a day at the start of your day would be great. Habit number five is to journal your business vision often. So journaling can definitely be used as mindset work but it's also a great way to help you get your big picture vision out of your head and onto paper. Journaling on what you're creating for your business is an awesome way to tap into your inner guidance and get clarity on what you're working towards. So I like to journal specifically on business related prompts at least once or twice a month but more often if I feel particularly unclear about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. To help you with finding clarity with your business through journaling I actually have a great free resource for you. I created a business planning clarity journal pdf that you can download for free right now and use to explore your business vision and understand how you plan to take that big picture and break it into manageable daily actions. These are prompts that I come back to month after month to ensure my actions are aligning with my intentions so I'll leave you the link to download the business journal in the description as well. Habit number six is to make sure you plan for white space in your day. White space is that buffer time where you can rest relax and do non-work related tasks. Part of a healthy balance of white space in your day is to schedule breaks and a dedicated lunch time for yourself but it also encompasses the idea of how you plan and how you should intentionally put less on your daily to-do list and schedule so that you don't overwhelm yourself and ultimately get behind on work if and when some tasks take longer than anticipated or if unexpected tasks interrupt your day. So plan for breaks in your day, take your breaks, give yourself time to rest and relax so you can do your best work consistently. Speaking of planning if you are a creative business owner influencer or digital marketer who's searching for the ideal planner to manage your business targets objectives digital marketing and finances right now I'm running a valuable promotion on the CEO strategy planner set of print on demand business planning inserts. This is the ultimate business planning tool for paper planner lovers who want to get their big thoughts plans dreams and ideas out of their head and onto paper so they can get down to business. I will leave a link to learn more about the CEO strategy planner and this limited time offer in the description box of this video. Finally habit number seven is to make time for daily self-care. Where white space is going to help you manage the ebb and flow of your energy during the day dedicated self-care time is going to refill your energy so you need to prioritize this every single day. There are endless things to do for self-care. I love taking a bath or a nap especially in the middle of the workday to refill my energy. You can work out go for a walk read a book go get a massage whatever thing you like to do to rest and recharge make time for that each day. It doesn't have to be the same self-care task each day I love to vary my activities but make sure you spend time tending to yourself each day if you expect to keep clarity focus and energy up for your business. So those are the seven habits of highly successful CEOs all of which relate to helping us manage our time energy and tasks so that we can continue to operate at a high level of continued success. Let me know which habit you think will be the most valuable to you in the comments. If you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and feel free to share this video with anyone you think would find it helpful. For more of the behind the scenes of my productivity life in business make sure you're following me on instagram at mistrenchcoat and if you're not yet subscribed to this channel what are you waiting for hit that subscribe button for more awesome videos by me and I'll see you next time.