142 - Ditch Your 9-5 Before the End of 2025- Step 6: Step into CEO Mode

142 - Ditch Your 9-5 Before the End of 2025- Step 6: Step into CEO Mode
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[00:00:00] back to the MaYapinion Podcast, where I share my opinions about entrepreneurship and leadership. I'm your host, Maya Roffler, and I'm really excited to close out this incredible series that we have been covering called Get Your Nine to Five Before the end of 2025. It's been a journey. I hope these steps have been helpful for you, but we cannot have this series without talking about the last step, which is step into CEO mode, which I think can sound intimidating for a lot of people, in my opinion.

If you have not run a business before or. Have not really gotten in the mindset of thinking of yourself as a founder or CEO, and that's why I put this as the last step in our ditch, the nine to five series, because you have to step into the feeling, the mindset, and waking up [00:01:00] every single day. Feeling like I can do this.

I can be a CEO, I can be a founder. Maybe you don't wanna build a Fortune 500 company. Maybe you don't wanna build even a billion dollar company, right? Maybe you're just looking to build something for you and your family. That's okay. But you still need to have the mindset of a founder, A CEO, someone who's running a business, because that's exactly what you're gonna be doing.

So even if you're. Creating something that's a side hustle for now, you are building something that is your own. You have to think about yourself as the boss, as the person that's really stepping up into this and is really gonna take time for this. And that's what we're gonna be talking about today because in the last episode when we talked about executing the exit, you are done now.

If you've completed that step, you are done. You've ditched your nine to five, you put in that resignation, and now you're ready to step into [00:02:00] CEO mode. Even if you're not ready, we're gonna help you get ready. So what does that really mean? What does CEO mode mean? Well. It means that you are going to wake up every day knowing that you've got a business to build.

You've got a business to launch, you've got a business to take care of. Maybe those of you who already have a business are thinking, okay, well I already have a business, Maya, like, you know, maybe I'm just not owning my CEO mode or mindset. This is a great episode for you as well. I think sometimes we need a little bit of a shift and we need to really recognize what we're doing right and really think about what we're doing intentionally.

So whether you are just launching or you've got a business already, these are some really great things to be thinking about. So we're gonna talk about time on a weekly and then more of like a 50,000 foot level, like a big level. So on a [00:03:00] weekly basis. We ha like, it's overwhelming in my opinion, just to think about, oh my gosh, what are all of the things that I need to get done this week?

It's overwhelming. Just laundry, running errands, you know, cooking for kids, cleaning the house, paying bills. That's our personal life. And those are just things that have to get done. Now we've gotta add in. We don't just go to an office and clock in nine to five, leave it there. We have a business that we're running.

And it takes up a good bit of time. So time management is a huge part of CEO mode and stepping into your CEO mode, what I tell people all the time is I live, breathe, die by my calendar. If it's not on my calendar, I don't know what's happening. I schedule things on my calendar that people laugh at me for, like they crack up.

Like I will schedule my dog's walks into my calendar. I will schedule a catchup session with a friend that I don't see all the time in my calendar. [00:04:00] And people laugh at me for this, but the reality is it is super helpful in my day and it also helps me with like my to-do list and checking things off.

'cause let's say I didn't get to everything in my to-do list for the day. I got to those things and I checked those off and I can really help you feel more accomplished, especially in the early days where you feel like. So overwhelmed. It feels like a huge mountain. You have to climb, but you're only gonna climb that mountain one step at a time.

So having a to-do list every day is a must. You've gotta have a to-do list every day, to-do list every day. Okay. I get cute a little. Tip for me is I'm very kitschy and I like cute things. So I get like animated, cute to-do lists and I still manually hand write my to-do list. But I put my calendar stuff into my actual, like my phone, and I put the calendar stuff in there and I schedule it like dog walk is happening at three to four today.

All my meetings are happening, all my networking are happening, all those things. [00:05:00] So the first thing I would advise you on is you're gonna live and breathe by your calendar. If you were already doing that in corporate America, great. But like remember this is all coming together. Your personal calendar and your business Cal calendar, you can color code them.

'cause that's what I do. Like my personal stuff is color coded in one thing and then my business stuff is coded in another thing. 'cause I run more than one business. So it's helpful for me to do it that way. However, I'm. Always seeing it all in a calendar view on my calendar, so I'm not double booking myself and I'm really hyper aware of what my calendar looks like.

That is CEO boss mode, in my opinion, for sure. Having a good handle on time management and really looking at where you're spending your time too, because the more you put it in your calendar and the more you organize yourself, you're going to be able to analyze like, where am I spending my time? Is this the best use of my time?

And that will come later. So start documenting that and it's gonna help you organize yourself. From there, you need to look at gaps of time and how you're gonna spend that [00:06:00] time. So as you're building your business, quite a bit of your business is going to be spent on prospecting. Not all of us love sales, okay?

I am not one of those people. I love sales. I enjoy it. As a business owner, you have to learn to like sales, okay? You don't have to be a salesperson forever, right? You have, you can have salespeople that work for you eventually, but in the beginning, you have to learn to like sales the best way to really step into that CEO mode and embrace sales.

Because a lot of people feel like it's like I'm salesy, ick. The way to break out of that and to step more of like in an ownership role and to really step into that CEO mode of it is to understand, one, what we talked about in the first five steps. You are helping people solve a problem, whether it's through a product or a service, whatever you're doing right.

Feel good about that? Change your mindset around that. The second you change your mindset around [00:07:00] that, that will help you because why wouldn't you love se sales and selling to people if you are helping them with a problem? This is what I tell so many founders that are like, I don't like selling. I'm like, why wouldn't you love selling your product?

Helps women? You know what? Whatever it is, get more time back through. Hiring people to help them, right? Or your, you know, service helps women with this. Why wouldn't you be excited about that? A lot of people tell me, I really don't wanna feel like I'm pushing this on people. You are not.

You are not. The people that wanna buy from you will buy from you. The people that aren't for you aren't for you. Let it go. But if you're never talking about your products and you're never, or your services, or you're never really, if you are not excited about it, how is anyone else gonna be excited about it?

So it's something for you to keep in mind. But a good bit of your time in the beginning is going to be brand awareness, people learning about your products or services, and that's selling and that's marketing. And so carving out intentional [00:08:00] times during the day, which I talk about this on my guide, again, you can go to MaYapinion.com and it's linked in our show notes here as well.

And you can download my free guide where I give you these six steps. And on this step I have the weekly and then kind of from a high level as well, but I have like the different. For you to focus on, and I want you to really think intentionally about how you're going to be focusing on your sales, your marketing, your leads, how are you gonna spend that time during the week and really spend your time, maybe Mondays or Fridays, wherever you like Thrive, planning your next week, and how you're gonna spend that time.

You also need to be thinking about content creation. So if you are a new business, which most of you listening are. Like social media is a non-negotiable guys. People live, breathe, die by social media these days. You don't have to be an influencer to be successful in business. Sometimes people will, when I'm working with them, they'll say, oh my gosh, did you know they'll name like a really famous person?

[00:09:00] Did you know so and so actually doesn't have that many followers? I'm like, right, but their brand does. But another thing I I encourage people to not get so hung up on is how many followers people have? Followers do not. Equal money. There are so many people out there that have a million followers, 5 million followers, even a hundred thousand followers, whatever it is, whatever number feels big to you and like what you would aspire to have, and they don't know how to monetize those numbers.

I've worked with those people. I've worked with them. I'm like, wow. Way to go. Like, your content is amazing. Content is is great. Clearly it's speaking to people. I've worked with those people, they're like, yeah, but mine, but how do I make money off this? Now, I'm not a content like strategist, right? That's not, I'm more of a business strategist and I have great people that I work with that can help with content specific stuff.

However, social media is a non-negotiable. It is a part of the world. You have [00:10:00] to get into it. And sometimes people grumble about that too, just like sales. But this is a part of a business. Have fun with it. Have fun with it. Make it your own. I feel like people get really hung up in this because they feel like they have to do what everyone else is doing.

What makes you unique and what makes you better than anyone else in what you are doing is you, are you. So turn that camera on and make it you. You are solving a problem. Tell people, ask people about their problem. Bait people, get them involved in that problem and they will listen to you. They will want the solution.

When you're asking them about it and encouraging them, it's really interesting because I've met many women and had many women on this show in the past that don't have crazy, huge followings, and they're very financially successful because they know how to tap into the audience that is following them and solve a [00:11:00] problem for them.

They speak to them. I've worked with people as I mentioned before, that make really cute videos and are super fun to follow. And maybe they've had some brand deals and that's great, but they don't know how to make actual, like continual revenue and bring these people that are following them into a sales cycle with them or bring them into their products.

Maybe they purchase something here, maybe, you know, they do UGC, like, you know, they get a brand deal. They get paid for, you know, user generated content a couple times, and that's all great. But are you wanting to do that? Are you wanting to be an influencer? Are you wanting to build an actual brand? Are you actually wanting to build a company with a product and or service?

If you work with me, people say, yeah, I wanna build a product or service, or if you listen to the show, I wanna build a product or service. So you're wanting to connect on a deeper level with your audience, and you're wanting to connect in a way where they're going to [00:12:00] trust you. Like you buy from you, and that's how you do it by sharing how you're gonna solve their problems, as we talked about in earlier episodes about this six step process.

But when you're in CEO mode, which is what we're stepping into with this last step, feel confident when you go to post on social media. And when I say that, I'm not saying like, you have to have the best lighting, the best cameras. Just start talking to people, especially on TikTok. It's a different, it's a different vibe on Instagram.

It's aesthetically more pleasing, less is more, you know, you're not posting 10 times a day TikTok, you can't post enough. That's just my advice. But the reason I give you kind of this little snippet here about content creation is it's gotta take up some time. You have to be working on it every single day you're in the office.

So if you've committed to working on Monday through Friday schedule, you're gonna go into a typical schedule [00:13:00] for work. Especially think about what your brand does, right? If you were, let's say you're a wedding planner, you're gonna be working weekends, so maybe your days off, or Mondays, Tuesdays, right?

When you're taking Monday off, maybe you're giving yourself some time. That's fine. Commit to yourself on the days that you know you're gonna be in your office or you're gonna be out in the field. That's really, really important that you're realistic about that and build your content creation schedule into that.

So maybe for me, let me give my opinion and example of this. Okay. So I run an event logistics company, so I'm often working on the weekends. So I will give myself kind of a free day on Fridays if I don't have a lot of prep. If it's very difficult for me to take Mondays off, I might have a flex day during the week if I work a weekend.

But when I have that day to meet, that's, you know, I try to make the most of it. Again, love to talk about laundry. Okay. I love my clothes, so I [00:14:00] do my laundry on those days. I run errands on those days, pick up the dry cleaning, a lot of clothing stuff happening. Grocery shopping, things like that. Very few things I do by myself these days 'cause I have to have the time to myself.

But again, things for my dogs, those happen on those days. So when I'm scheduling my week, I'm very strategic because Mondays most people have been out of the office during the weekend, so I'm plummeted with emails, so I'm time blocking. It's a CEO mode thing to do. Time blocking is where I take my calendar again, and I'm blocking out time on my calendar where I am just focusing on email or I'm just focusing on responses, or maybe I'm sending over proposals to different clients, things that came through over the weekend, especially if I took some time on Friday.

Some people will respond on Friday, so I've gotta make up for that. So that's what that looks like. I'm also prospecting throughout because I want more clients, right? I want to work with more clients. I'm at a [00:15:00] place now where that doesn't take as much of my time 'cause I thrive off of referrals now, which is a wonderful thing.

And I'll do an episode on that later to more to come. And that's a wonderful place to be when your business starts rolling. But when you're new, it's not gonna work that way. So you have to prospect. You have to know where to find your clients. Which we'll also be talking about more 2026, how to find your clients.

Where are they? Where do they live? But think about this. Blocking your week out for admin tasks. As you're building your business, those admin tasks are different than responding to emails. 'cause you're not gonna have a ton of emails in the beginning. So for all of you who are just starting, it's going to be like building my social media pages and building up my, you know, my emails, getting into Facebook groups, like putting my name out there.

Um, prospecting, all of this kind of admin stuff. I do encourage you to kind of break out your prospecting as a, as a sales like mode versus just your admin mode. So. [00:16:00] Look at your calendar and like an admin, and then write it out like, we're gonna spend an hour on email today. We're gonna spend, you know, an hour on prospecting.

We're gonna spend, and that will shift like a lot more prospecting in the beginning. Couple hours a week for sure. Two to three hours a day and then beginning, and then that will shift over time. It's gonna be more about managing your current clients social media, content creation. Maybe block in one to two hours, two to three days a week, and build up some videos, build up some content.

I promise you, you will burn yourself out if you're trying to do videos every single day. For me, I highly enjoy it, so I don't mind posting a video here and there throughout my day, but on the weekends and or if my day that I'm trying to take for myself is a Friday or Monday or whatever that flexes to, I will prerecord those videos so that I don't fall behind.

What's wonderful is Instagram, TikTok, which are the big players in the space, they'll let you schedule those videos now, which is amazing. So [00:17:00] think about that. The other thing you wanna think about in your schedule is networking. Networking is huge. You should be networking virtually, and you should be networking in person.

Don't underestimate virtual networking. The huge eruption that we had during the pandemic was a gift. With this virtual space, I have built my business with so much virtual density. It is incredible. But I also think we need to, as someone who produces most virtual, like both virtual and in-person events, I think we also need to remember that people are virtual fatigued.

We enjoy the convenience of virtual and it's not going anywhere. Our life is so virtually connected, and it's one of the things we can thank the pandemic for, because I think it's important to be gracious and grateful even when something really difficult happens to us. But on the flip side. We have to remember, this is my experience.

In my opinion. People are [00:18:00] really fatigued from virtual and we miss that in-person connectivity and so embrace that as well. So find connectivity locally where you can get involved. I would encourage you in your new, in your business. Your your week is going to be pretty heavy in networking and sales and outreach.

It's because you're not gonna have a ton of leads coming in. You're not going to have a ton of lead gen just naturally coming in. So getting out there, you should be going at least to one in-person networking event a week, and at least took one to three networking events virtually in the beginning.

And then when you start to get busy, like, please scale back on that. I don't go. To events like that anymore at all. At all. But I still go and people are always like, oh my God, Maya, it's good to see you. You're like, we haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been? And I'm like, busy. I'm booked and I'm busy.

And you'll say the same thing too. But I used to really, really be out there multiple times a week, and it's called old school. [00:19:00] Pounding the pavement, and I think pounding the pavement is really important. And I think going into businesses, don't underestimate going to your target audience too. Like if you know you really wanna work with someone, go out and meet them.

Go out and spend time with them. Don't just send them a LinkedIn message. That's CEO mode. That's stepping into CEO mode. Going out there and getting it going the extra mile. Find out where these people hang out. Find out where they network, find out the events they go to and go and meet them on their turf.

They're gonna take you really seriously at that point. People have to see you and interact with you multiple times before they buy from you. Depends on how high the ticket item is, right? A low ticket item, it doesn't take all that much to trust, right? But if you are selling a higher ticket item, they need to see you and trust you and understand why they should work with you.

And if you're going to where they're going, they're gonna work with you. Don't underestimate setting a time [00:20:00] aside for learning as well. You should be setting aside time to be learning and growing. Evolving as an entrepreneur, you should be setting aside this time because this is new for you.

So as you block out your week and you're thinking about time to be networking, time to be prospecting for leads. Time for administrative work, time for all of your work. That's admin. Not just email, but also thinking about setting up your website, all the things that you're doing. Productive work, right?

Actually working on your product craft offering. So that's another chunk that you wanna just recap, be working on. Content creates creation. You're working on that, right? These are all the things that you're working on, you wanna be learning too. So whether that's working with a mentor. They're helping you along this journey [00:21:00] and giving you feedback.

Maybe you're a part of a group where the group is helping you along your journey and like maybe you're in a community, whatever it is, set aside time for that as well, and also find your mentor and or find your group. I cannot tell you how important that is. It was so important for me along my journey.

Going about it alone was very challenging, and when I found the right mentors, I catapulted further in my journey. So whether. You work with someone like me or you work with someone who's more specific in your community. We also are going to be launching, I'm really excited about this, a mentorship community in 2026, so stay tuned.

Don't forget to follow us. We'll be talking more about it where you guys can connect with me and other women who are stepping into CEO mode, just like you. I think it's important. Community is what has been life changing for me in everything that I've done. [00:22:00] Everything. My role as a founder, my role as someone who has built more than one brand, it's just always gotten stronger and more inspiring as I've.

Looped people in and found, and I've done this by reaching out to the right mentors, embracing mentorship, but then also building a community by connecting with women who maybe are a couple steps behind where I currently am and helping them along and having mentorship from women who are steps ahead of me.

That's what's so important about this. I hope this is helpful. I hope that you guys are really intentionally thinking about how to plan out your week, and in addition to all of the things I mentioned, don't forget to block out your strategy time, your hour where you hour one to two hours at least a week, where you're building out your next week, and you're also strategizing about what's next in your [00:23:00] business.

How you're going to plan your weeks. And then also not just so micro, think macro as well, what do I wanna accomplish this month? Where do I wanna see myself in 90 days? Where do I wanna see myself? Six months, a year, five years? In my opinion though, I think when we start micro first, it can feel more digestible, which is why I tend to focus on that.

Just a hair more. So set those expectations up for yourself. But when you are having these strategy times and it feels like the right moment for you, it's never gonna feel perfect. But when you feel inspired and you're like, I could see this going somewhere, that's kind of that mind mindset kind of shift when you're like, I could see this happening.

Embrace that moment of excitement and start writing out your goals because. You have to get pen to paper and things down to start seeing a clear vision. If you are just going into something blindly, that's why we've [00:24:00] done these six steps, you're not going to have a clear vision for the future. So as you're planning, you're also going through where do you really wanna see this?

Give yourself a clear vision, write things down. Just know it can shift, it can change. MaYapinion has shifted and changed so many times. The show has changed. My brand has changed, but what was so important is I've always had a clear vision of where I was going, and it's shifted because I've shifted and as I've shifted, I've had these tools to be able to pivot.

In an earlier episode, I talked about pivoting. That's okay. What's not okay is when we have no vision at all and we're just winging it. We can't just wing it. We can always pivot, but we can't just wing it. We have to have a clear vision of where we want to go, because when we're driving fast towards that and we wanna change routes, that's okay because we were driving towards [00:25:00] something and we decided this was gonna work a little better.

If we're not driving towards anything, then we're never going to accomplish anything. We're changing just because the path works a little bit better this way. To the right, to the left, wherever we're going, that's okay. In my opinion, that's okay, but we can't just not know where we're going. That's not gonna work.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this series. It's the six steps work really, really well, especially when you have a business that maybe isn't going the way you thought it was, and maybe you need some help along the way. Or if you're brand new to launching your business, your brand. Your product. These steps will definitely help you.

Download the free guide MaYapinion.com. It is located in the show notes below. Again, great series. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to follow us here on the MaYapinion Podcast and we'll be back with new episodes in 2026.

See you [00:26:00] then.