308: Recharge With CEO Fridays

Steve Haase  0:00  
Welcome to the Superabound podcast with master coaches, Erin Aquin and Steve Haase, where spiritually minded entrepreneurs learn to build a generous business without sacrificing what matters most. You are listening to episode 308: recharging with CEO Fridays.

Erin Aquin  0:18  
Okay. Today is legendary. This is something that we probably get asked about a lot, and I was convinced that we had already done a very full podcast episode all about CEO Friday, and I couldn't understand why people were asking me for it. But it turns out, I don't think we actually have and if you are new to our world, you might be thinking, What the heck is CEO Friday? But if you've been around for a while, if you follow my weird and wonderful Instagram Stories from time to time, every so often, I share a sneak peek into sort of what we are up to on Fridays in our business and in our lives, and we affectionately call them CEO Fridays. But basically, a few years ago, I realized that I was kind of working 40 to 50 hours a week. I was working in moments that were not official business moments. I was working during family time which our kids had a problem with Steve kind of understood, but, you know, our kids were definitely like a big no to that. And I went on a exploration to see if I could reduce my actual working hours at my desk to give myself Fridays off.

Steve Haase  1:47  
And it worked. Well, it

Erin Aquin  1:49  
took a lot of work. It didn't just work. I did get there eventually. It took about a month or two to really sort of dial in my systems, my processes, my strategy and to have a good hard look at some of the things that I was very busy with in our business, but weren't actually yielding the kinds of results that were bringing us closer to our Next lantern. So I eventually was able to do it, and Friday became this kind of magical day in our world.

Steve Haase  2:30  
The interesting thing about how it came about, though, is not the systems and the decisions and the prioritization, it was actually the curiosity about, is this possible? Can I make this happen? It started with the belief that we can get done the things that matter most in a shorter time period. And it's pretty radical to kind of remove workdays, especially if you are an ambitious person, if you want to have a big impact, if you're an entrepreneur, you're probably ready to just roll up your sleeves and work 100 hours a week, you know, 120 hours a week, like, just do what it takes. And to say, You know what, actually, I'm going to dial that back on purpose, for the sole reason being to actually live my life, to be present with the people who matter most to me, and not put everything into the business we talk about in our book, we talk about that as the putting on the blinders of doom where you're like, I'm going to reach this goal no matter what. And yes, you can reach the goal, but you often end up sacrificing some really important things along the way. So the foundation, like the philosophical foundation for CEO Friday, was our tendency as entrepreneurs and leaders, is to put on those blinders of doom. So let's be very deliberate about removing them and making space in our day, in our week, in our life, for life, for ourselves, for our family, for our own well being, for your own well being,

Erin Aquin  4:15  
yeah, and I think at the the reason I was, I mean, I was curious about if it was possible to do of course. But I also noticed a phenomenon that I'm sure is understood by a lot of people who listen to this podcast, but my most creative ideas, my best business ideas, usually come to me, not when I'm sitting at my desk thinking, Hmm, what are we gonna do? Steve, what are what's the next plan? They often come when I'm laying on a massage table, when I'm taking time in the sauna, when I'm out for a walk. I realized that when I am kind of more emotional. Emotionally available when I am spiritually tuned in, when I've been kind of doing the practices of listening to my own inner wisdom, my intuition. There's a communication that happens with that, that muse, let's call it, and a lot of times those really amazing ideas sort of drop in. If anyone has ever read Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Big Magic, she articulates this really beautifully. But a big part of what why I think that kind of magic happens and those ideas come is because we've made ourselves available. So if you're a creative entrepreneur, in any way, if you have to generate content for your business, if you're doing even if it's like just the social media or writing landing pages, if you have any creative component to what you do, which I think every business owner definitely does, there also has to be space in your life, for you to rest, for you to think, for you to get inspired by sources that maybe aren't directly related to your business. So CEO, Friday, you know, it's something we try to do each week, something we try to do on Friday. Hence the Friday. But what we hope to offer you today is the inspiration to take, maybe it's a day, maybe it's a half a day, whatever you can sort of manage at this stage in your company and your growth, but to actually take that day and build out your own dream CEO day every week.

Steve Haase  6:43  
And the more enticing you make it, the more motivated you will be to make it a reality. And like we talk about with the progress formula, that vision of what's possible is the ultimate fuel, if you can put together a Friday that just lights you up as a human being, also as a business owner, right? It's called a CEO Friday. You can make space for ideas to drop in however you want, if it's on the golf course, on the massage table, spending time with people that you love, going out for lunches, whatever it is that source of inspiration is going to be the fuel that will carry you through the challenging terrain of clearing your Friday because, right, that's the reason that a lot of people don't do this, is because they think, Well, I'm just so busy. How am I supposed to run a company if I'm not available that day? You know all the reasons that come up in your mind, that is what's in between you and having that CEO Friday.

Erin Aquin  7:44  
Yeah. And what we are also going to do along with this episode, is give you some kind of sample plans, in case you are a person who, like, can't deal with the idea of just free time on your calendar, if you see a blank day on your calendar and you cannot handle that, I hear you. I still pretty much plan, even my weekends. I often will have something on the calendar so that I have an anchor point. We'll give you some sample plans, real plans that I have used, that Steve has used, and we are going to share that with everyone inside the Superabound Collective at besuperabound.com/collective, so if you're not already in our free community, it's a great place to be, because not only do you have some access to us to talk about what's going on in your business, but you get all of our book bonuses. You get some special events that we only do for members of the collective, like co working days, which is the opposite of CEO Friday, some meditation events when we do those, and other little like bonus goodies that we share with our community. It's absolutely free, and if you're not a member, you're not in there, come on in. Say hi. Sign up for that. That link is also in the show notes. Yeah,

Steve Haase  9:12  
it's a good time over in the collective. So Erin,Aquin want to know what are some of your favorite things to do on a CEO Friday, and how do you make them happen?

Erin Aquin  9:21  
Okay, so what I will start with is, some of you may know I was an acupuncturist for many years, and in that kind of spiritual philosophy of of Chinese medicine, of acupuncture is we have these two energies, and in that particular system, everything in the universe, is made up of a combination of yin energy, which is more receptive, more nourishing, and yang energy, which is more active and fiery and kind of like proud. Activity would be more of like a yang quality. These two things, I think a lot of people mistake these two as like polar opposites. They're actually just two sides of the same coin. They are dynamic. They are reliant on one another. Nothing is entirely Yin, nothing is entirely Yang. There is a mixture, and they're always in relationship. And so I don't practice Chinese medicine anymore, but I do think I was steeped in that sort of way of looking at the world for so long that I try to incorporate things that lean more towards the the Yin receptive, nourishing kind of work and the young, the more active, challenging, growth, focused work. I tried to do that in my daily life, but really on CEO Fridays as much as possible, I try to kind of figure out what the combination of those things is going to be based on what I need. So if I have had a mind bendingly challenging week, if I have been solving problem after problem, my CEO Friday is going to be a little more Yin in nature, meaning I am going to be napping. I'm going to be resting. I might go get a massage. I might go get a facial. I'm going to be doing things where I am the recipient of the care, where I am not generating a lot, where I'm not speaking a lot. I'm going to be doing a lot of more receptive work, I might be kind of more contemplative and meditative on weeks where things have been maybe been not so challenging. Maybe I've skipped a couple of workouts, which I try not to do, where I feel like I have a lot of energy and I'm feeling really inspired and visionary, that kind of sounds to me more like, Okay, I've got a lot of young energy within me, and it would be very easy to just turn on my computer, get to work, and use all that productive energy for something which might be great, but as strict as I'll try to be with myself on CEO Friday, trying to be unplugged from the business, from work. I'll spend those types of weeks where I have that young energy to spare doing like my own learning. I might pick a topic that I really wanted to study for a while. It could be business related. It might be something totally different. I will do the toughest workout of my week on those Fridays, the longest one, the toughest one. Sometimes we go for really long walks when the weather is nice and we'll just like, get out and explore. What about you?

Steve Haase  13:01  
I tend to be more of a push kind of guy. My conditioning is, like, if I've got time, I'm gonna go for a long bike ride. I'm gonna, you know, go for a sauna cold plunge. But even even then, like, maybe even do a workout in the sauna, or something

Erin Aquin  13:20  
that's crazy.

Steve Haase  13:22  
It is crazy, but yeah, also on that, the reading definitely speaks to me. I love the ability to just stretch out and explore topics that I find really interesting. Yeah, follow paths of learning. We are in a time right now where so much is changing. But if you're not taking time to really step back and say, how do these new insights, how do these new technologies fit into my larger vision of my business and what's possible, you are definitely missing out on possibilities, on whether, whether it's like business models or operations, or any of these things. As a CEO, a huge part of the value that you bring to your company is in the ideas and the what's next, and the seeing around corners, if all you're doing is grinding it out in the day to day, because you think your main value is in the work that you're doing, you're missing that whole upper layer of what kicked off your business in the first place, which was some level of being ahead of everybody else, right? Having a vision, having a sense of possibility, and this investment in your own space to hear yourself, think your own, following the curiosity and creating networks of meaning and networks of relationship. That's a huge part of the value that you bring. So lest you think we're just talking about bubble baths and saunas as those. Are, you know, indulgences with no inherent value. They do have inherent value because you have inherent value. But you know, as a separate conversation about, you know, growing your business, giving yourself that real room for, you know, like you mentioned, Erin,Aquin to drop in is one of the core value values that you bring to all the people that you work with.

Erin Aquin  15:28  
Yeah, and I think that the main event of the CEO Friday is that it is for you, and that may what you need from week to week may change. So it's really important that you throughout the week, you know, you don't just, like, work yourself to the bone and then Fridays, you say, Okay, it's that one day I get to, like, figure out who I am. Again, you have to be sort of in tune and checking in so the practices that that we both use throughout the week is we both take time every day, pretty much every day, to go and be in meditation, to be in spiritual practice, to have time to think, to journal, to either get coaching or to do some of our own healing static work, which we talk about extensively in our new book. But it's not just a let's ignore self investment for the whole week and then Friday's the one day I can do it. It has to be something that is constantly a conversation in your life that you're having with yourself, and Friday you just have a little more space to stretch out. I love what you said, Steve, about the job of a CEO or a visionary leader of any kind, even if your title is not CEO, you are kind of the distillation between what is happening in the world, what is happening in your company, and where you want to go, just to like it's interesting, because we're Talking about the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang. One of the other beautiful pieces of that very rich philosophical system is also that humans are the intermediaries between the cosmos and the earth. We are the we are the spiritual and physical entities that make things possible. And so you have to have a healthy body, a healthy energetic body, healthy mind, in order to bring about the vision in the world, in order to take care of all of the things that matter to you. And I don't have to tell anybody listening to this podcast about how important it is to take care of your business, but I may have to remind you that none of it exists if you aren't deeply, deeply nourished.

Steve Haase  18:17  
And so I think, as a philosophical container CEO Friday, kind of animating question. I love the power of a animating question is, how can I nourish myself? How best can I nourish myself? And so in those times when it's connection with others, prioritize connection with others. In those times when it's solitude, connection with the natural world, find ways to make that happen and again, it doesn't have to be the whole day. It doesn't have to be some epic thing. If you're Friday calendar doesn't allow for it, allowing yourself to follow that question, how can I nourish myself in service of not just my business, but really my purpose, my purpose here on Earth, my vision for the impact that I want to have, and you know, with your business as as a part of that, as a very big expression of that will open up these pockets, not just on that one day, but maybe in an evening, maybe in a morning, maybe a different way to spend your lunch hour. Maybe it's, you know, even how you structure your meetings, or what you expect of the people around you, that animating question of, How can I support myself? How can I nourish myself? Because I am the intermediary between heaven and earth, between you know, the cosmos and the and the and nature is so crucial and and we often just take that one for granted. We're like, I'm fine, I'm just going to get to work. But we're missing out on this huge range of possibility for what we can bring with our imagination, our creativity, our spiritual intuitions and connections. Yeah.

Erin Aquin  19:58  
I think that that's important, because a lot of folks don't realize that the side effect of doing this one day a week, or one half day a week, however you kind of start, is it changes what you will tolerate and what you won't. A lot of people, I think actually, this has been shared with me by more than one person, by many people. They kind of fear that if they get used to feeling good, it's going to ruin how they've been pushing themselves, how they've been overworking, how they've been creating dynamic relationships with people who don't treat them very well. CEO Friday could really fuck up your life, actually, because you might realize how good it feels to be nourished, how good it feels to heed your own wisdom and intuition. You might realize how much you've been shutting yourself down to accommodate other people or to sacrifice everything for the next, you know, really important lantern, and you might come to terms with the fact that some of that's probably going to have to change. This is actually what happened to me? I live with someone who's very spiritually minded. And, you know, it didn't destroy my life, but it really changed a lot of things. I had to let go of some friendships that were, you know, not great for me in my life. I had to. I didn't have to, but I like chose to just let some relationships come to a close that were not really respecting me and my time and my vision. I had to adjust a lot of where I was putting my energy in order to strengthen my own personal filter, something we talk about a lot here, but the things that don't really resonate deeply with how good your life could be, how fun your work life Could be, how joyful you can feel in your business. If you have this amazing Friday, you're not going to tolerate it. If Mondays always suck, you're going to find another way of working. You're going to make the adjustments. You're going to come into your own creative depth so that your Mondays don't feel like a universe away from your Fridays, and that, that is definitely the experience I've had, is I look forward to my CEO Fridays, but I don't dread any other day. I'm not like, oh, it's Wednesday. Wednesday's the worst. When's it gonna be Friday? I never feel like that in my business ever, and I think that's because not only have I given myself that space and nourishment on the Friday, but everything else is reorganized around helping me support that energy that I want to have.

Steve Haase  23:26  
Because if your question is, How good could things be? That's going to start to permeate everything, the relationships that you have with your colleagues, the kind of work that you're pursuing, the money that you're receiving for that work, the impact that you're having with that work, this quest for super abundance, for you know how much richness is possible in this world, will make it so that all the unquestioned assumptions You have about just the way things are will start to become clearer, and you can make those changes across every area of your business in life. So this is far more than just having fun on one day and then going back to the grind the next week. It's it becomes a a new filter, a new a new lens through which to see your business in life.

Erin Aquin  24:21  
And it's super fun, but it also does take some restructuring. It takes a commitment to yourself. We're actually working on this in our mastermind that we have as a small group of business owners right now, a lot of them have shared that like it's going to take something to create this CEO Friday. It's going to take conversations with their team. It's going to take redistributing how they do the work and what they're actually involved with. It's going to take, you know, stepping back from any micromanaging that might be going on. It might take hiring somebody so there are shifts and changes that could. In and or might need to happen in order for you to make this real. But that is also what we're here for. That is what the collective is here for. And we want to invite you to come on down to the Superabound Collective at besuperabound.com/collective we're going to share our plans so that you can have a formula to follow and adapt. And we'll share some of the questions you can start to ask, as Steve said, that will really help you shape your CEO Friday and start to consider what you might need to invite in or let go of to create that space for your most brilliant self to really stretch out thrive and for you to have what you need hope to see you there.