How to Embrace Being the CEO of Your Brand
Welcome to the UnCloned® Insider audio newsletter. My name is Audria Richmond, and I am your marketing and launch strategist. I work directly with my clients to show them how to build unclown brands and launch profitable marketing campaigns. We are the brand that you come to when you want to become or remain the obvious choice of your industry. Hey, y'all.
Audria Richmond®:Welcome back. I am so excited about this audio newsletter because it is going to be deep. Okay? So make sure you grab your notebook pen and paper. Okay?
Audria Richmond®:And I really want you all to be open to what we're about to talk about. Okay? Mainly because you have to be open to this idea. And the reason I'm saying you have to be is because I see so many people, including myself, who should be bigger than where we are. And if you if you know what I'm saying, you know what I'm saying.
Audria Richmond®:Right? Like, I'm telling you, this is gonna be a hard, hard conversation for some people, and I also wanna make sure that I hit a lot of the important points. So as you all are listening, you really can understand where you are with your brand. Right? And so a lot has happened since the last time I talked to you all, which was last week.
Audria Richmond®:Right? And so I've had to make really, really hard decisions because we're actually gonna go over what does it mean to be the CEO of your company and, like, the things you need to be thinking through and all of that. So this is gonna be really, really good. Alright? And the reason I'm gonna be coming to you all from this perspective today on embracing being the CEO is because a lot of people don't see themselves as CEOs.
Audria Richmond®:Like, they have a company. They run a company, but for some reason, they don't assume the role of a CEO. And even though it's your company and you own it and you're the founder, you are essentially the CEO. You're the one that is responsible for making decisions. And please don't come for the messenger.
Audria Richmond®:But and this is was a hard truth for me before I say what I'm gonna say. But if your business and your brand is not where you want it to be, then that is a reflection of your leadership. Oh, I know y'all wasn't ready. And so I'm just letting you know, if you do not like your brand, if you don't like the business that you have, if you don't like your business model, if you don't like your team, if you don't like what you sell, if you don't like how much money you've been making, if you don't like any of those things, it is nothing but a mirror and a reflection of your leadership because it's because it's your company. And this is another thing too.
Audria Richmond®:Sometimes people go and hire coaches to be their CEO. And what I mean by that is whenever you forfeit your, your ability to strategically think for your company and you let someone else do it for you, you are forfeiting your right and responsibility as the CEO of your company. Now I'm not saying that you can't hire people to get support and to get help and so on and so forth, but those people should always be secondary to your vision as the CEO. Alright? And so I wanna talk to you about a time when I really didn't embrace being a CEO.
Audria Richmond®:Like, I had this company and you gotta keep in mind that, like and this is another thing to kinda think about too. Your background will determine how you run your company. Your education level will determine how you run your company. Your relationship with money will determine how you run your company. There's so many things that take a play when it comes to running our company because, you know, the truth of the matter is this business thing is all mental.
Audria Richmond®:And so if you are thinking small, your business is gonna operate and be small. Your ideas are gonna be small. Your marketing efforts is gonna be small. Your energy is going to be small. But if you're thinking big, right, and you got big vision, big goals, big big big driving, factors to yourself, that means that you're out here making this money, you're doing the work, you're doing what it takes, you're not making excuses.
Audria Richmond®:Right? And so when I say, you know, what does it take to, like, you know, embrace being a CEO, I wanna tell you about a time when I really wasn't embracing it. Like, when I first started my business, I was just trying to make money to pay my bills. I wasn't thinking about being a CEO. Hell, I was just happy to have a business.
Audria Richmond®:I'm like, what do I need to legally do to collect money? You know what I mean? Like, I gotta go get this, I need to go get a business license. Do I need I need to go get my LLC. Like, I was just thinking about the things I need to do to be able to collect money legally, right, as a business and operate as a business.
Audria Richmond®:And one of the things you will learn very quickly, and I think some of the reasons why a lot of people don't see themselves in this light, again, it has a lot to do with how you see yourself and how you see your company, your business, your brand. Do you even have a vision? Do you even know where you're heading? Right? And so with that being said, it wasn't until I started making money in my business that I understood the assignment.
Audria Richmond®:And it wasn't until I needed team that I understood the assignment. It wasn't until I had to get I had to be the leader of my brand and create brand plans and annual plans and strategic, thought processes and I had to be over the marketing campaigns and hiring and all of the things. Right? And so there's a lot of responsibility that comes with being the CEO of your company. And just to kinda give you context, you know, if you Google new CEO and or, you know, CEO just got hired or CEO just got fired, Sometimes people will create companies and they will hire CEOs to run it.
Audria Richmond®:And so that could that should give you another thought process as well. Like, then you can be a person that just own the company and somebody else run everything. Right? You hire a CEO. They can work for the company.
Audria Richmond®:They are responsible for all the things that they need in order to drive results with the business. But, again, your business should be growing year after year after year. And if it's not growing, again, it's a reflection of your leadership. And so today, like I said, I really wanna go deep on what it means to embrace being the CEO of your brand. Right?
Audria Richmond®:And so when we talk about being a CEO, we first need to define what does it even mean to be the CEO of your company. Like, what is the responsibilities of a CEO? And if you want to really dive deep on this, you could just go to Google and type in job description of a CEO. Obviously, it's gonna vary from company to company, or you could just look for some general information around what does it take to be the CEO. But I'm a give you 10 things that is the like, your responsibility.
Audria Richmond®:Right? And then, obviously, some some of these things may or may not apply depending on your business. But for the most part, CEOs of smaller companies all the way up to enterprises and national and global brands have this responsibility. Right? And then, obviously, sometimes when the company gets super big, they may hire multiple CEOs.
Audria Richmond®:Right? And so number 1 is your respond you're responsible for setting the company vision and direction. RJ, what do you mean? What are you talking about? Well, it's a you it's it's your responsibility to decide where the company is going and create a clear vision for everyone to follow.
Audria Richmond®:That's your job as the CEO. And so if you don't have a written vision and a plan on what you're gonna do with your brand, then that means that anybody you hire gonna be lost. That means that you gonna be lost on a daily basis because you're gonna be waking up every day like, what am I supposed to be doing? What am I supposed to be focusing on? What am I supposed to be growing?
Audria Richmond®:Right? There's a level of clarity that is required in order to have momentum and drive. So if you see people who are like killing it, grinding it, and doing it, they are focused and they're clear. They're clear in their focus, they're focused and they're clear. Right?
Audria Richmond®:And so that's number 1 is setting a company vision and direction. Number 2 is making important decisions. So you have to choose the best path for your company, especially when facing big opportunities and or problems. So I recently had to make a huge decision in our organization, about an offer that I currently have, and I made the decision to, close that particular offer or sunset it or, I I guess you could say close and sunset it, however you wanna do it. But it was a very, very, very difficult decision for me to make because I was looking at the company and I was looking at, you know, our revenue goals and our revenue targets.
Audria Richmond®:And my high ticket program, which is my my mastermind, I realized that I'm not gonna be able to scale it. Right? You know, when you think about, like, oh, how I'm gonna grow this business to a 100 thou you know, not a 100000, a 100,000,000. How I'm a grow this this business to a 100,000,000? How I'm a grow it to 10,000,000, 5,000,000, 15,000,000, 20,000,000, 50,000,000?
Audria Richmond®:How can I do that? And the way the company is currently designed or the way my offer was designed, it wasn't gonna work. Another thing, I needed to create my certification program. That was a huge decision we had to make as an organization. How do we standardize coaching?
Audria Richmond®:How do we how and not only how do we standardize it, but how do we validate the integrity of the frameworks, the processes, and things like that. And that's why we decided to really legitimize how we coach and train our coaches and consultants and advisers who work directly with our with our clients. And so one of the things I want you to know is that you gotta have to make important decisions. And this is the thing, you cannot be waiting a long time to make decisions. You can't sit on a decision for years years years.
Audria Richmond®:Oh, I thought I said I was gonna do that. I think I and then this is the thing. You can't be you can't be fickle. Right? I know sometimes people just be, you know, won't make a decision.
Audria Richmond®:Just indecisive. Right? And if that's you, you need to really figure out how to make quick decisions because as a CEO, the strength of your ability to make decisions is really gonna be the strength of how great of a CEO you're going to be. Alright? Number 3 is build and lead the executive team.
Audria Richmond®:Now, I will tell you, when I was looking for, like, you know, when I was looking for books on executive teams and things like that, things like that, I was actually looking at my community like who can coach me on building an executive team. Right? Like, who can help me think through, like, who I need to put on my team and so on and so forth. Right? And so look at it like this, When I say build and lead the executive team, it is your job to hire top talent, top leaders, and managers who can help execute your vision and keep them motivated and aligned.
Audria Richmond®:So you're gonna have you're you're the CEO, meaning you're the head person that's overrunning the entire organization. Underneath you would be your executive leadership team. Underneath your executive leadership team is their direct reports. And so, again, if you don't even understand company structure and things like that, which I didn't because I wasn't originally from a corporate background, it is important to understand a lot of the corporate lingo because essentially you are running an organization. You are the decision maker.
Audria Richmond®:Right? You are the one that's responsible for running and operating and foreseeing the vision of the brand. Right? And so that's number 4. Number 5 is allocating resources wise wisely.
Audria Richmond®:So it's your job to decide how to use the company's money, people, and time to get the best results. Number 6 is that you represent the company externally. Right? So this means that you're gonna be the face of the business, you're going to be in meetings, you're gonna be in partnerships, You're gonna be a part of media appearances and to the public. So, like, you know, Ardur Richmond, the public, you know, a public figure who operates as a personal brand, and I'm the CEO of Unclown Media.
Audria Richmond®:Hopefully, that gives you context, but it's my job to go out and speak on behalf of what we offer, the brand, what we stand for. It's my job to go out and look for strategic partnerships and alliances and things like that. And so just think about that like you are the company's representative. You are the you are your company's spokesperson. Right?
Audria Richmond®:Alright. Number 7 is monitoring business performance. So it is your job to keep track of the company's progress using financial statements, performance reports, and key metrics. So as the CEO of your company, do you know let's say you have a VA. Do do that VA have their own metrics?
Audria Richmond®:Are you meeting with that that person? Do do they have responsibility? Can you track and measure the success of each and every team member on your company in your company? And so those are some of the things to think about. Right?
Audria Richmond®:Do you know how to read your financial statements? You know, I've been working with my current accountant. She's so good. We meet every single Monday, and they develop, you know, financial reports that I have to look at and review. I have to look at my company's profitability on a week by week basis.
Audria Richmond®:I have to look at our sales and quota. Like, all of these things sound foreign. Right? But that's your job. And the reason I'm saying this to you all because it is so easy to get caught up in the hype of the online marketing space, and I'm using air quotes, you can't even see my face right now.
Audria Richmond®:But, like, there's so many people that's online that's keeping you distracted from being a CEO. See, they want you to be a client and a customer, and they want you to be distracted and they want you to lean on them. And one thing that I am a huge advocate for for all of my clients, it doesn't matter how you work with me, I always always always advocate for my client to step up and be the leaders of their company. I'm not gonna make the decision for you. This is your company.
Audria Richmond®:And so my my job as a coach consultant advisor is to help my clients work through the decision making process so they can trust the decision that they came up with, not a decision that I'm giving them. Right? And so there's that's something to really, really think about. Alright? Number 8 is setting and oversee strategic goals.
Audria Richmond®:So it's your job as the CEO to break down the vision into, specific goals and oversee progress to ensure that it's achieved. So if you say, hey. Next year in 2025, we wanna do a global marketing campaign. What does that look like? Hey.
Audria Richmond®:We wanna introduce a new product suite. What does that look like? We want to launch our first conference. What does that look like? We wanna publish a book as an organization, what does it look like?
Audria Richmond®:It's your job to foresee all projects and make sure that they come to completion. And now, I know you all are listening to me and you're like, Audreea, some of the stuff I know how to do and some of the stuff is just so foreign to me. This is why you need a coach. This is why you need somebody helping you and advising you because honestly, the longer you wait to hire somebody to help you, you're just delaying your success. That's essentially what's happening.
Audria Richmond®:If you are not a person who is innately going to go out and find books and research and invest in courses and do what you need to do to grow your business, then essentially you're just not you're setting yourself up for failure. Right? And so when you see people online saying, oh, I gotta quit, this ain't for me, this, that, and the third, like, let me just say this, entrepreneurship is not for the weak. And I'm not saying that people who quit are weak but, you know, I've been in business for 16 years and I had plenty. When I say plenty, plenty of reasons and opportunities to quit.
Audria Richmond®:And so you have to make you have to make sure that are you built for this Seriously. Right? Like are you truly built for being the boss and the CEO of your company? It is so crucial. It's so important.
Audria Richmond®:Alright? Number 9, your job is to manage risk and crisis crises. So, like, identify potential threats to the company and take proactive steps to minimize it. So, like, do you have any technology that's going to disrupt your entire business? Then what you gonna do?
Audria Richmond®:Right? AI really messed up a lot of people businesses. And so what are you going to do? And for some people, it enhanced their business. But for the most part, you gotta be able to identify risk.
Audria Richmond®:Are there any laws that you need to abide by? Are there any policies that you need to abide by? Like, are there any things that's going to affect the growth of the company? Right? And so you have to think about those things.
Audria Richmond®:I'll give you an example. So I was recently going to go to an event, by Sephora and they end up having to cancel on the day that my I was supposed to have my ticket mainly because of the storm, the hurricane that came through. And one of the things that we that we noticed was, it was like they canceled the event, obviously, because of the hurricane. But just imagine the the CEO. What decision did they have to make?
Audria Richmond®:Like, hey. This hurricane is coming. It's going to affect our whole situation. What are we going to do? Right?
Audria Richmond®:And so they really had to figure out a solution. We ended up, you know, they end up canceling our event the day we were supposed to go, and, they end up giving a refund. They did give us an opportunity to get our our bag shipped to us that we were supposed to get, like, the swag bag. But for the most part, you know, you have to be able to make again, it goes back to what I said earlier, you gotta be able to make important decisions, not just about the business and the growth and all of that stuff, but you have to be able to make decisions based on the risk that that that may be associated with your particular type of business or industry. Alright?
Audria Richmond®:And number 10 is communicate with your stakeholders. Right? And so you may be saying like, it's just me, well, communicate with yourself. Right? But, eventually, you know, if you decide to go public or if you decide to have a board or something like that, you know, you gotta regularly update the shareholders, the board members, your employees, and the customers of your of your company status and progress.
Audria Richmond®:And so that these are things to really think through. I'm a go over the list really quick. I'm not gonna break it down like I just did, but I'm a go through the list really quick so you can we can recap and you can get it right. And then I'm a give you some some books that you can go and read, to get started with some of these things to get some clarity around it. So number 1, you wanna set the company vision and direction.
Audria Richmond®:Number 2, you wanna make important decisions. Number 3, you wanna build and lead the executive team. Number 4, you wanna create and manage the company culture. Number 5, you wanna allocate resources wisely. Number 6, you wanna represent the company externally.
Audria Richmond®:Number 7, you wanna monitor business performance. Number 8, you wanna set and oversee strategic goals. Number 9, you wanna manage risk and crisis crises. And then number 10, you wanna communicate with your stakeholders. And so it is important that you embrace being a CEO because at the end of the day, the day gotta end.
Audria Richmond®:I'm just joking, but nevertheless nevertheless, it is important for you to understand that you are a CEO. That's why I'm having this conversation with you. I'm I'm when I tell you I'm on such a different wavelength that I cannot even articulate it. Right? When I tell you, like, I'm here to show up for anybody who's willing to show up for themselves, but there's a lot of uprooting and un deprogramming that I'm gonna have to do with my community because we ain't finna die broke.
Audria Richmond®:Okay? We ain't finna we're not finna be out here struggling with our business. Matter of fact, I don't even want my clients saying the word struggle when it comes to their business. We're not even finna identify with that. Right?
Audria Richmond®:And so I really want you to to understand that. So hopefully, you now have a clear understanding of the responsibility of being a CEO and what does that mean. And so I wanna give you a list of books to read to really understand what it takes to be the CEO. Now these books are not in any particular order, but I do recommend you read all of them. Okay?
Audria Richmond®:You know, leaders are readers, just FYI. And so, typically, I wouldn't start with this book, but I'm a start with this book because of the nature of what we're talking about. And so I have a really good friend who recommended this book. He it the name of the book is The Motive. And so when he recommended it to me, I was just like, okay.
Audria Richmond®:It's a cool little leadership book or whatever. It's about, you know, this CEO or whatnot. And I read the book, and when I tell y'all, it was like a line in the sand. It was like, you're gonna do what it takes to be a great leader and the CEO of your company, or you're gonna hire a CEO because you cannot avoid what it takes to build to be the CEO of your company. And so the name of that book is called The Motive.
Audria Richmond®:It's a fable. It's a business fable. It's like a fake story to illustrate a point, but it's a really, really good book. So it's called The Motive, And then the next one is called traction. The next book is Vivid Vision.
Audria Richmond®:The next book is teamwork. The next book is start the work. The next book is called how to be a great boss. The next book is 2nd in command and the next book is called the 2nd CEO. Let me go over those books one more time.
Audria Richmond®:The motive, traction, vivid vision, teamwork, start the work, how to be a great boss, the second in command, and the second CEO. So I really, really, really do hope that you all enjoyed today's audio newsletter. Please let me know your biggest takeaway inside of our free uncloned marketing Facebook group. You can learn how to join our Facebook group by visiting the description section wherever you may be listening to this audio newsletter. And until next time y'all, let's go live an unclone life and build an UnCloned® brand.
Audria Richmond®:Bye y'all.
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