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It's not uncommon for entrepreneurs to build a business that feels like a job because of the strain on their bandwidth. But if you want to scale and experience exponential growth in your business, you'll need to understand and execute the CEO mindset. You have to be the leader driving your company, or you'll stay stuck in the daily grind.
The CEO mindset is not just a cute Instagram meme. It's a philosophy and way of building a business that helps you scale in a way that doesn't involve all of your time.
Here are three CEO-level mindsets that create freedom and financial independence. These mindsets allow you to build a business that aligns with your values, purpose and vision.
Related: It's the CEO Mindset that will Make Your Business Grow
1. Understand the importance of self-prioritization.
Too often, we're fed the belief that it's egocentric to prioritize ourselves, needs, goals and the way we spend our time. We give ourselves to outside circ*mstances, often not leaving enough for what we need to build our business.
If you're going to build a business that scales, you must understand the importance of self-prioritization. There is a big difference between being selfish and self-prioritizing. Our goal should be to put ourselves first and give from a place of abundance.
True freedom means spending time the way you want to spend it and doing what you want to do. It means you wake up, look at your schedule and see items and tasks that make you feel good about how you're going to spend your day.
If your schedule is full of the demands and desires of everyone else, you're never going to build a business that gives you the kind of freedom you're looking to foster.
Self-prioritization means you work on yourself, your goals, and the tasks you need to accomplish (first) and then let the outside world have access to your energy. You give from a place of completeness.
Related: 3 Ways Optimized Entrepreneurs Structure Their Time Differently
2. Tune out the unsolicited requests for your energy.
You're an entrepreneur, and as you build your business, you'll no doubt get into the spotlight. As you get more exposure to consumers, there will be more requests for your time and energy. A CEO-level mindset understands that you won't have enough for yourself if you give your time and energy to others.
As hard as it can be to say no, it has to become a daily habit if you're going to spend your time on the tasks and goals that help you optimize your energy. Your energy should be spent in a focused and intentional way if you're going to have enough of it.
Treat your time as your most valuable resource and let that be reflected in what you allow access to your energy. Prioritize what makes sense for your next steps and evaluate each request for your energy regarding that plan.
3. Spend your time building a business that aligns with your vision.
In the world of digital entrepreneurship, we're exposed to all sorts of different views of building a business. We see success and failure being played out every day on social media. Those views of entrepreneurship shape the way we develop our business, whether or not we realize it.
Your goal should be to build a business that aligns with your vision of entrepreneurship. It's okay to model success. It's fine to use the success of others as inspiration, but at the end of the day, this business has to be your business.
If all you do is spend your time doing things you think are what you want to do — instead of what aligns with your vision — that will be wasted time. Spend your precious time in a focused way.
Your energy speaks before you ever say a word. When you give off CEO-level energy, you attract high-end clients that understand your value. If what you're attracting now is barter and free request type of consumers, check your mindset and the energy you're putting out.
Be the CEO of your business. Spend your time working on creating the type of business that gives you true freedom, financial independence, and the ability to do work that fulfills your purpose.
Related: Vision: The Driver Of Entrepreneurship
