208: How To Leap Into Success with The CEO Mindset

This is the intentional advantage podcast with your host, Tanya Dalton, entrepreneur
best-selling author, nationally recognized productivity expert, and a mom of two. On
Season 16, Tanya is taking real to another level, sharing more of her story and
opinions and engaging in conscious conversations to start bringing more women
together. Are you ready? Here’s your host, Tanya Dalton.
Hello, hello, everyone. Welcome to The Intentional Advantage podcast. I’m your host,
Tanya Dalton. This is episode 208. It’s also our very last episode of this season, which
has been an incredible season. I have to be honest. We have been talking about
conscious conversations and I sure am hoping that at this point, 13 weeks after we
began, you’re realizing it doesn’t matter what your past looks like or how you once
limited yourself.
When it comes to the possibilities, it’s up to you to choose what life looks like. It’s
time to move forward into a brighter, more positive future. A future that you create
for yourself. I want you to let go of the pattern of who you’ve been and step into who
you want to become. Here’s the thing, why shouldn’t we dare to dream?
Why should we dare to dream about what the next 12 months will look like? Why not
make our decisions today a springboard to move us forward to scale our businesses
and our lives into this bountiful lucrative success that we really want? No, better.
Let’s forget dreaming. Let’s actually choose to leap onto that springboard to take all
of your amazing potential and all of the opportunities that lie before you today,
next week, next year, and all the years to come, let’s choose to see our future as
something that we can create for ourselves. It is absolutely possible to reframe any
negative or uneasy feeling that you have about your future. And that’s what I want to
explore today. I want you to put away the chaos and the frustration that maybe is
lingering in your brain from the past year.
I want all those things that went wrong or didn’t happen or got pushed aside. I want
you to push those away and I want you to choose to shift your mindset so you can
leverage all the good things, all the amazing things that you truly need to make
success happen, not just at work, but in your life as a whole. I want to see you
flourish.

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I want to see you thrive. I want you to feel excited every morning when you get out
of bed. And that’s what happens when we understand that we are in charge of our
future. You know, we touched on this idea last week, what we want and what we
deserve is, is not just a happy life. We want more, we want a lucrative life filled with
abundance.
Yes, an abundance of happiness and joy, but also opportunity and wealth and
freedom. All of that is within reach. All of that is possible, but here’s the truth. It’s time
to stop sitting on the sidelines, just waiting for the good things to happen. Let’s
make it happen. You know, we can sit back. We can dream about all the things that
we want and we can hope, hope, hope that they’ll magically appear, but let’s be real.
That’s not how life works. Dreaming and hoping is not going to be nearly enough.
Yes, we need dreams. Yes, we need to think about them, but we need the action
behind them. The truth is in order for the things that we want to happen to have
them manifest right in front of us, we need to adjust our mindset.
We got to get our heads in the game. We have to prepare for all those good things
to actually happen. We have to believe it. We have to see it. We have to believe it.
And we have to take action in order for it to really happen. It’s time to allow ourselves
to truly take flight,
to step into that ideal image that we have for ourselves to be truly you authentically
Holy in all aspects of your life. It’s time to adopt the CEO mindset. This mindset
applies to business, but no surprise. I’m sure to you, it goes far beyond that. If you’ve
listened to me for any length of time, you know that the strategies, we talk about a
lot here on the show,
and if you’ve heard me speak or you read my books, you know, it’s about that holistic
life. So it applies to all areas of you, your relationships emotionally, spiritually,
personally, and yes, of course, in your business life. So let’s dive into this idea. I want
to tell you what the CEO mindset really is, because truly,
I believe when you start applying the CEO mindset to your life, that is really when
you transform and shift into becoming the person you really want to be. The CEO
mindset is feeling confident in the decisions that you make and really embracing the
decision-making process yes. In business and in your personal life, but really feeling
good about how you’re moving forward. Moving forward with vision,
clearly seeing the direction that you want to take. It’s learning how to create
freedom in your life, where you actually decide what life looks like, which means yes.
If you want to have more time for family, make more time for family. If you want to

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say no to your business, more often saying no to your business, more often, let’s let
go and say goodbye to that heavy weight of guilt.
That CEO mindset is what helps you understand how you are the architect of your
own time and how that time is spent. It’s all about reigniting, your passion, and your
excitement for life and letting go of the burnout because you know, and you
implement strategies and systems that make life feel so much easier. The CEO
mindset is one that can really dramatically change you and transform your life for
the better where you are able to focus on things that you truly care about.
Things that actually matter to you in your personal life and in your business life. And
this is the thing that can take you from a place of simply dreaming about a better
future, and to actually feeling confident and fully prepared for that future to happen.
I want you to infuse more action into your dreams and into your goals that you set
for yourself because I want the things that you envision,
all the success that you want. I want it to take flights. I want you to stop feeling
stagnant and feeling like you’re falling short time and time again. I’m ready for you
to push off the ground. I’m ready for you to fly. I mean, damn, doesn’t that feel good?
Doesn’t that sound good to think about you being in charge of what your future
looks like,
taking some real serious action on your goals and your big dreams that you have in
mind for yourself and in mind for your business, so you can finally, finally catch that
break that you’ve been searching for. I mean, that’s what works for me. I’d like to see
you soaring right next to me. So let’s dig into this. All right. Let’s talk about the CEO
mindset.
And I think it really starts with putting away any kind of awkwardness or discomfort
that maybe you feel with that title of CEO of really owning that title of CEO. I think far
too often, we equate that with this man sitting up somewhere in a big fancy office,
running a big corporation, earning scads of money in the process while everybody
else is doing the dirty work for them.
Right? I mean, okay. Traditionally, maybe, you know, back in the past, that was the
way it was before women truly emerged on the scene in business. So that image
may have been valid at one point, but guess what? Those old rules, the way that
business was run in the past, yeah. We’re no longer doing it that way.
We’re at a precipice right now. We are creating brand new rules to live by. And you’ll
notice, I didn’t say there are new rules. I said we are creating those rules. And here’s
the thing. CEO doesn’t have to stand for the chief executive officer. It can stand for

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the chief entrepreneurial officer. We hear that term CEO. And we think it means we
have to be involved in a huge corporation or some sort of big business,
but here’s really when we get to the heart of it, CEO simply means you’re leading
and you’re not just leading, you are leading with vision. The CEO mindset is choosing
to claim your own power in business and in life. It is time to stop operating at
ordinary levels and choose to be extraordinary. Yes, you can choose to be
extraordinary. And I want you to think about this,
this whole idea of what it means to step into this role and owning this title of being
the CEO. Think back, think about when you start a business, or really when you start
just about anything, you’re often doing it all on your own. You’re doing everything.
You’re the solopreneur. You wear all the hats, doing all the work and it feels like you
just pinged from one thing to the next.
It’s no wonder it’s exhausting, but then you get a little bit of traction. Maybe you start
bringing on some team members, not necessarily employees, but maybe so could
be VAs or contractors to help with specialized areas. Okay? Now you’re an
entrepreneur not doing it all on your own, but it’s still kind of feels that way. Doesn’t
it. There’s a lot of hands-on work you’re doing.
And you’re still working a hell of a lot harder than you should because you are still
somehow wearing all those hats, still wearing all the hats. You aren’t leaving
everyone. And sometimes you feel like, gosh, you know what? It might just be easier
if I just fire everybody and just do it myself, which is not true. But I get it.
I’ve been there being an entrepreneur. It means you’re still in the trenches way too
much. We need to get you where you’re not running the day to day where you’re not
doing the hands-on part of the work that is when you start. SEOing when you are
the visionary leader, guiding the teams who work for you. When you have a vision
that makes it easier to lead with your values,
it makes it easier to enjoy the income of the work you’ve created. That’s when you
have plenty of time to spend with family because you’re not constantly working or
thinking about work when you really want to be focused on family. This is when you
can truly give yourself fully to your personal life. You can be more present. You can
give those people.
You love the fullest best version of you. When you stop wearing all the hats, we,
women need to be willing to step into becoming the CEO and to stop playing small.
And assuming we can never reach that coveted status better yet. We just stopped
throwing our hands up in the air and refusing to put any dreams we have into action
in the first place.

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It’s like I said earlier, dreaming about success in our lives is not enough too often. We
fall into this false safety net. That words like manifestation and the light provide us
with. And while manifesting the things you want is part of the process. I absolutely
believe in manifesting, but it’s actually a lot more to it than that. I feel have a lot
more to it than that.
We need to be willing to think and take action. That’s what really manifesting is it’s
thinking about what you want and then putting the wheels into motion. So it
actually comes true. It’s not enough to say we’re putting something out into the
universe and magically expect it to happen. You can make things happen by
thinking about them, yes; but then follow it up with actionable steps.
Here’s the truth. We all have the potential to lead. It’s about stepping up and
choosing to run your life. Instead of feeling like life runs you, success takes work.
That’s the truth of it. If we tear apart and we pull apart everything else, that’s at the
heart of success, it does take work. It takes the willingness to make significant shifts
in our thinking and our behavior.
Both of them hand in hand. For example, if you want to be an author, you can’t just
sit by and watch the world, pass you by and go, gosh, I’d like to be an author. You
have to sit down, you got to put the pen to paper. You gotta write the book so that
people can see it on the shelves.
That’s how we make it happen. Thinking plus action together. That’s how we
become what we want to become. And the same holds true with being the owner of
your business or mastering your life in a way that things actually do run smoothly.
Just like you. One stream, they would, it can happen, but we have to make it happen.
I like to say that the difference between somebody in middle management and
someone who holds the title of CEO is that the CEO is not someone who’s constantly
doing all of the things. That right there, that is what separates the six from the
seven-figure businesswomen; not doing everything and not feeling like you should
be doing everything.
I used to say it was like driving the bus and getting everybody on your team on
board. And I sat down with my dad not too long ago. He’s a former C-level executive
of a Fortune 200 company. And he and I had a really interesting conversation.
He and I talk a lot about leadership cause he’s an excellent leader. And he’s really one
of the people I look to when I think about the management of my team, and this
conversation I had with him made me really rethink this metaphor. It’s not about
driving the bus. It’s not about you taking charge of the wheel and doing all the
turning; it’s rowing a boat and getting everybody else to grab an oar.

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And to row is–you’re not turning the wheel, everyone on your team shifts the
rhythm of the rowing because you lead them. And when you’re ready to turn that
boat, they do it with you, right? You are the visionary at the back of the boat, making
sure the strokes are long and strong and everyone is getting the team where you
want them to be.
That’s what leading really is. Now, this is true whether we’re talking from a
professional standpoint or even a more personal standpoint. Last week, we talked
about how you are the CEO of the office and also the CEO of the home. So a lot of
this mindset applies to both areas of our life, to all the areas, really, because as we
said earlier,
you’re more than just working home. But as the CEO of the home, you can apply this
same thinking to creating systems that work at home so that you can feel free to
really do the things in your personal life that matter to you. And it can allow you to
focus a hundred percent on your business because you know, home life is running
smoothly.
And again, the CEO mindset is a matter of thinking and doing both of those hand in
hand, it’s taking a good, hard look at the things you want and then asking yourself,
what do I need to change about my behavior right now? So the lucrative life I want
becomes my reality. That right there is the key. What do I need to change about my
behavior right now . . .
So the lucrative life I want to lead becomes my reality? From there, anything is
possible. And I truly mean that because I’ve been living with the CEO mindset for
quite some time. And it’s only when I have been willing to dive in deep and put
action to my thoughts that the life I want, the success I dream about, has truly been
able to happen.
I’ve seen it manifest directly in front of my eyes because I’ve done the thinking and
I’ve done the action required to make it happen. So let’s talk about some of those
behaviors that we need to help us step into that role of the CEO in our own lives. I
want to dive into that. Let’s do that next. But before I do, let’s take a quick
mid-episode break because if you’re in business and you’re looking to scale to the
next level, I have something really special in store for you.
In this episode, we’ve been diving into this idea, this concept of what the CEO
mindset looks like, but I also want to give you some strategies to really begin to
implement the mindset into your business. I want to really help give you the tools
that I have learned that allowed me to scale to seven figures with my own business.

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Last week on the show, we talked about what a lucrative life looks like, and I want to
help you achieve that. I’m in the seven-figure club and there are far too few women
in here with me, truly. That is one of the things I want to see more of. I want to see
more powerhouse women earning lots of money, building their businesses in a way
that feels meaningful to them because I know it’s possible.
I’ve achieved it myself. It’s possible to feel incredible about the work you’re creating.
And I do that with a four-day workweek and unplugged vacation days. I want to
show you how I’ve done that because I want that for you as well. So I’m offering a
free masterclass called mastering the CEO mindset. You can sign up by going to
Tanyadalton.com/Masterclass. It is an hour-long live training,
and you’re going to want to show up live because it’s really interactive. We have a lot
of fun. You’re going to want to show up live. So make plans to join me. If you feel like
this is the time for you, this is the time you want to rise up in your business and in
your personal life. I want you to push pause right now and go sign up.
Don’t wait. Don’t make excuses head right now to TanyaDalton.com/Masterclass and
sign up. I would love to see you there.
Okay, let’s go back to really diving into this idea of the CEO mindset. And I, as I just
mentioned in that mid-episode break, in that master class, I’m going to give you
some episodes to apply this mindset immediately into your business.
But what I want to focus on for the second half of this show is really getting back to
what the CEO mindset means and what you need to do to adopt this mindset in
your life. Because first, we have to think about it, then we need to act on it, right? So
let’s get the thinking part here so that when you join the masterclass,
you have the action part ready to go. Here’s the truth that I feel like a lot of people
don’t realize it is absolutely mindset work that gets you to the next level you want to
get to. That is what makes the biggest difference. You have to change the way you
look at life and your business in order to grow into that space of expansion.
I have to laugh because when I started working with my own coach, I started
working with her about a year ago. I told her on our very first call. I said, ‘You know
what? I don’t feel like I need any mindset work.’ I felt like, you know, I’ve done a lot of
work.’ There’s a lot of mindset work that gets into getting you to that seven-figure
mark.
In fact, I don’t believe in most people I know at seven figures say, you can’t get to
seven figures if you haven’t done the mindset work. So I felt like, all right, I’m good. I

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have a good mindset. And now not too long ago, I was laughing with my coach and I
was telling her most of what we’ve done in the last year is mindset work.
I needed to shift my mindset to up-level once again or never. Through growing, I
kind of needed that reminder myself. We’re never done growing. And it definitely
helps to have a guide there whose who’s done it themselves to have someone walk
you through what that mindset looks like because they’ve already walked that path.
In fact, that’s one of the things that I really find so surprising,
the number of coaches and experts who want to tell you how to do things when
they’ve never done it themselves, business coaches, who’ve never owned a business,
but they talk theory all day long, but they have no idea how it actually works because
they’ve never done it themselves. You need someone who knows the path, who
once was standing in the very same shoes that you’re wearing right now.
That’s what you need to guide you. And that’s what I want to share with you. The
CEO mindset, because I have been there. And the main point I want to make here is
this action can only happen once you’ve made the decision, making the decision
requires shifting away from your old thinking and reframing your mindset of what is
possible. When you choose to expand your possibilities.
There is no going back to the old hustle, but you have to begin by believing what
those possibilities may be. Mindset work is thinking. The action follows next, creating
the strategy, simplifying the processes, scaling, and growing with less stress. Choose
the mindset. Then take action steps to bring the possibilities into being the key to
the CEO mindset is consistency and flexibility.
It’s a willingness to constantly shift your perspective so you can see the bigger
picture of what you want to do to reach your goals and then narrowing in your focus
each day to make sure you’re taking action on the steps that are most important.
You can say that you want to scale your business. And at the same time, you can say,
you want to make changes.
So you can actually lead that lucrative life. But none of it is going to happen. None of
it is possible unless you’re willing to put in the effort to change your mindset and
behavior. It all starts with you. And that’s what I want you to remember that you
absolutely have the ability to make these choices for yourself and to have them
come to reality.
So before we close out today, I want to give you a couple of momentum builders to
get you started. All right, let’s start with momentum builder. Number one, I want you
to make yourself accountable for your goals and for the things that you’re dreaming

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about. And one way to do this is to make your goals known. Don’t keep them bottled
up any longer.
You need to put them out into the world and find the courage you need to put some
action behind them. So I want you to take out a sheet of paper and I want you to
write it out in all caps. I want you to write out the big audacious, incredible vision you
have for your life. It may be something that is so big, you’re almost nervous to tell
other people about it. If that’s you, perfect. That sounds great.
Whatever it is, write it down and take a look at it. Take in the words that you’ve
written. And then I want you to imagine yourself a few years from now looking at
that exact same sheet of paper, knowing you’ve achieved it. I want you to bottle up
that feeling and take it in.
I want you to think about what would that look like? Really visualize it. I want you to
feel the emotion you will feel at the moment when you look at that paper and go,
damn, I did it. I did it. And now I want to ask you, what do you need to do to make
that happen? So let’s just start small,
start easy, take that piece of paper, put it somewhere. We’ll you’ll see it from time to
time, maybe in your purse or your mirror in the bathroom, or maybe it’s the desk
drawer that you open a hundred times a day. Put it where you can’t forget what
you’ve written. And then I want you to do something just to put the wheels in
motion,
just a tiny something. And for some of you that might actually be a momentum
builder number two. So here we go, Momentum Builder Number Two: if you are a
business owner or an entrepreneur, and you’re ready to take action. If you want to
look at that sheet of paper and then say to yourself, ‘Wow, I actually did it!’
I want you to press pause on the podcast and I want you to go sign up for the
masterclass. Let’s put some wheels in motion. Let’s get the thinking there and let’s
get the action behind it. Put those thoughts into action and take the leap because I
believe in you. And I want you to believe in you too. Success doesn’t just happen, we
need to make it happen.
And we can actually do that. So to make it happen; start by signing up for the
masterclass, TanyaDalton.com/Masterclass. Save your spot. The only thing you’ve got
to lose by signing up is that plateau you’ve been sitting on for way too long. Alright? I
want to see you there, and I really want to encourage you to show up Live.
I love interacting with each and every one of you on these masterclasses. So now it is
time to close out this season. It has been an incredible 13 episodes talking to you
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about conscious conversations. And I know from the emails and the DMS that so
many of you have felt exactly the same way. I’m loving that this has meant so much
to so many of you.
So as we close it out, here’s the one big takeaway. I want you to remember having
the courage, to put yourself out there, having the willingness to take action, and to
leap onto the springboard of what the future can look like for you. That is an
incredible choice that you can make today. That’s a decision you can make that
changes what your future looks like.
The truth is having a business and a life of ease is a choice, but it’s surprising how so
many don’t choose it simply because they don’t know they can choose your mindset
because when you decide how you think, when you feel more confidence in your
decisions and in the direction of your sales, when you really wholeheartedly know
you are moving forward with a clear vision, that is when you know you’ve got the
intentional advantage.