Failure To Execute

Let’s be real…

If we could just come up with ideas all day and then check the stats, that’d be PERFECT! We wouldn’t have to DO anything!

Ahhh…. a man can dream.

But, that’s not how things roll in reality. About that…

One of the things I sometimes need to remind myself of is what an EXECUTIVE does.

I mean, if you’re building up and growing an online business of any kind, YOU are the executive. You might be a one-man show (or one-woman show), but you’re the executive.

You also happen to be the employee, the janitor… everything. That’s what it is like when you work for yourself. But, that role of EXECUTIVE is super important and many people forget to wear it.

You’ve likely heard before about the distinction between working ON your business versus working IN your business. It is pretty much another way of stating that there are different “hats” in your business. One is executive and the other is worker.

What is the job of the executive? I view it as 2 things…

1. To create strategic plans.

2. To ensure planning becomes actuality.

Now, if you look at those 2 things, are you doing both? Are you fully being the executive?

Personally, I’m pretty good at #1. But, I sometimes fall flat on #2. Not always. Obviously, if I totally bombed on #2 all the time, there’d be no Blog Marketing Academy. But, there are certainly things I have plans for which haven’t been done.

The job of the executive is to ensure plans become REAL. That they happen. And when plans are not being accomplished, that is a failure of executive leadership.

The twist on the whole thing is that… those of us working for ourselves sometimes forget about that separation of hats. We forget that executive is a separate role – a VITAL role – that must be done even if we’re the ones doing all the work.

If you want the future to rock for you, you need to wear that hat of the executive.

It’s funny… many of us tend to do that at the beginning of the year. We come up with those fancy “new years resolutions”. We make those plans. We look at our lives and think about things we can and should do in the coming year.

But, then too often those plans don’t happen. And that’s because most of us dropped the role of EXECUTIVE once we get into mid-January. So, plans don’t become actuality.

I’ve done it, too. My scale shows it.

The root of the word “executive” is EXECUTE. Execute means “carry out or put into effect (a plan, order, or course of action).”

So, ask yourself this…

What systems and new habits can you put in place to help ensure you are and continue to be the executive throughout the year?

Perhaps revise your morning routine so that you actually put a little intention into how your day goes and what you get done…. rather than just react all day?

Perhaps some kind of app to help you stick to habits?

Perhaps keeping some stats so you can see right there on a a graph whether you’re progressing on things?

What can you do that works for you?

No…

What WILL you do?

Because, coming up with an idea is the easy part. Making planning become actuality… that’s the true test. That’s where the rubber meets the road.

Tech Talk

Digital Ocean is increasing prices on it's VPS servers (called droplets). They have not increased prices in many years. The smallest droplet price used to be $5/month and now it is increasing to $6. More than likely, this is due to inflation and rising costs on their end.Of course, my preferred way of dealing with providers like that is through Cloudways. Cloudways is a "middleman", of course, but one that provides the simplicity of a control panel to make dealing with VPS less nerdy. As of now, I've heard of no pricing changes with Cloudways, but I'd let you know if that happens.Fluent Forms came out with version 4.3.6 last week, adding some cool new enhancements. One is AirTable integration, so you can send form input right into AirTable. They're also bringing on more advanced quiz scoring capabilities, bringing Fluent Forms closer to being able to take on something like Thrive Quiz Builder. You can learn more about this update here. Also, 4.3.7 just came out, too, to fix a few minor things that came up in 4.3.6. Ahh.... updates. 😉