The CEO Help Desk from Run Like Clockwork

It's no secret that the more choices you have to make, the more it wears on your brain, and after the last few years we've all had… I don't know many people who aren't feeling the effects of decision fatigue.    In this episode, we share: Four main symptoms you may be experiencing The psychological effects of not addressing it now Our top three solutions for combating decision fatigue Ready to kic...

Freedom or control… what do you want more?   Because you can't have full freedom and full control.   Too often people either want freedom from their business, but can't let go of the control… or completely abdicate from the business and are frustrated by the (lack of) results.    On this episode Adrienne and Emily share one of the most important mindset shifts our CEO's need to make when they are...

The revised and expanded edition of Clockwork is out today! Clockworking is an iterative process, and after years of working with our clients and learning the best ways to implement these systems, it became apparent that the content in the book needed to be updated to reflect the most efficient ways to Clockwork.  This has been a long time in the making for us, and we are thrilled that old and new...

There are a lot of really fun reasons to clockwork, like vacations, retirement, and parental leave.   And those are the types of reasons that you can anticipate.    You plan for them, practice your systems, and make sure all of your ducks are in a row… for a lot of people it can actually be very neat and tidy.   And then, on the other side, there are really serious, unplanned, and scary reasons to...

Today we want to talk about one of the clockwork traps we need everyone to watch out for - the 3T Trap.   When we talk about clockworking we often focus on the leader's role - how we can move them closer to their ideal 4D mix and remove them as the bottleneck.    And that IS true, but we have to be careful not to turn someone else into the bottleneck in the process.   In this episode of the Run Li...

Clockworking is a lifelong practice, so like any major lifestyle changes or habits you are working on developing, it's only natural that there will be ebbs and flows as you implement it.  In this episode Emily talks about the three most common reasons our clients feel like they stall out on their progress:  "I don't have enough time in the day" "I can't do it perfectly so I'm not doing it at all"...

Sometimes (a lot of the time) it's the small tweaks to a system that make the biggest impact.    But sometimes knowing that there are endless things you could be doing to improve your business is more overwhelming than your actual workload. This is why we are so focused on continuous improvement here at Run Like Clockwork.  The mindset shift from "everything must be perfect" to "done is better tha...

She's back, folks! After a 13 week maternity leave Adrienne is plugged back into Team Run Like Clockwork and she's ready to share all the details about what it's really like to be unplugged from the business for that long. She's joined by Emily in this episode, and they cover everything, like: What her new role will look like now that she's back Advice she would give to the 2017 version of herself...

Mistakes happen all the time. But unfortunately, the culture around admitting your mistakes can be highly problematic. People are afraid of being vulnerable. They are worried that admitting they made a mistake will weaken their position at a company, or undermine their authority. We need to reframe mistakes as a necessary part of the process because they are unavoidable. In this episode Gabbi and...

Today we wanted to record an episode specifically for all the team members, so if you have a team be sure to share this one with them. As you know, we are obsessed with continuous improvement here at Run Like Clockwork, and that doesn't just refer to our systems… we are also focused on improving ourselves! We are responsible for our own growth… which for a lot of team members can oscillate between...

Just over a year ago, on this episode , we interviewed Julia O'Grady about her experience Clockworking her business ITM Events during the pandemic. We get a ton of positive feedback and general curiosity about how Julia's business is doing now that her industry is opening back up… so we knew we had to have her on again.   Julia is an incredibly valued member of our RLC community and is notoriously...

  Every quarter we host a quarterly planning call for our clients, and while we don't have time to do a whole session on this podcast, we do want to share a few high-level tips for you to get started!   These planning sessions are essential to the growth and success of our business, so grab a pen and paper because we are covering exactly what to cover and how to structure your meetings. In this ep...

Well, we did it! Team RLC passed the final Clockworking test for our company – we planned, preppedt and hosted a brand new 2-day live event totally without Adrienne. While we have considered ourselves "Clockworked" for a while, meaning Adrienne can be completely removed from the day-to-day of the business, she is still the face of the company. So when she announced her second pregnancy to the team...

We are laser-focused on improving team culture standards and we've identified one of the fastest ways to undo it.   We work hard at Clockwork to create autonomy on teams, and along with autonomy comes the understanding that we have to take personal responsibility when things don't exactly go to plan.   But too often people turn to blame.   In this episode, Emily talks about how personal responsibi...

Overcoming resistance is one of the bigger challenges our Clockwork leaders face during their journey with us. It can be frustrating, time-consuming, and overwhelming, but not addressing it head-on often leads to even more issues. In this episode, Emily talks about the two distinctly different types of resistance that leaders face as they are clockworking their business, and some tips to get to th...

Part of our process here at Run Like Clockwork is encouraging our students to take multiple vacations a year. But it's not actually about you getting a break, not that you don't need one.   It's about your business and team having multiple opportunities to run without you. This is the most efficient way to highlight any gaps with your Clockworking which is why we provide a debrief call with Team R...

The first module in our program asks the question "What are the qualities of the leader you want to become"? We've been collecting the responses to this question for years and the answers are fascinating. You can be confident in the mechanics of running your business, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.  You need to have the leadership skills to back it up. In this episode, Emily and Julie ana...

With Adrienne out on a 12-week clockwork vacation, we thought this would be the perfect time to throw it back to one of the Run Like Podcast origin episodes! In this episode, Adrienne shares what the new verb she made up, "clockworking," your business even means, why the vacation is just a carrot + not really the point of it, and how to get started clockworking your business.   Plus she dives into...

We talk a lot of hype about the 4-Week Vacation, and as our Clockwork CEO's unplug from the business their team members are always asking us the same question – What is this actually going to be like? Team RLC has expanded our team recently and as we prepare for Adrienne to take her own unplugged leave from the business, our newest team members have been wondering the same thing – how will this pl...

The best part of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast is having the chance to share the stories of our amazing Clockworkers, and on this episode we are joined by Brenda Blakenship, owner of Express The Hearts School of Performing Arts.    After 24 years in business, Brenda was ready for some operational changes to her business and new that Clockworking would give her the freedom she was looking for. She...

You asked, we're answering!   We've been talking about hiring and retaining your staff for a few weeks now and we have been loving all the questions you've been asking in response. This is such a nuanced process and can be very specific to the season your business is in, so we knew we needed to dedicate an entire show to it. In this weeks episode Emily answers your top hiring questions, like: How...

When you don't have a team you can trust, it's impossible to step away from the business for any length of time. You're constantly being pulled back in, you can never fully unplug, and things can't move forward without you…   But you can't do it alone, either — finding your dream team is essential to the business no longer being dependent on YOU.   In this weeks episode Emily shares more details a...

When Team RLC was making our nominations for Clockie recently, Danielle was a unanimous winner. Not only is she dedicated to making the clockwork systems work for her, but she's also built an incredible team of 40+ women during the process.    And the icing on the cake? She has now officially taken all of her Clockwork vacations, and is a member of the 4-Week Vacation Club! In this episode, Daniel...

You might feel like you've crossed the finish line once you've made that new hire, but in reality, you're just getting started.  Now we must begin the (arguably harder) work of retaining them.  In this episode, Gabrielle and Emily share their top tips for keeping your team, including: The importance of building an S-Curve together How we conduct our annual reviews What the data from your time trac...

If there is one thing that never hurts to focus on, it's finding the joy in the mundane. And that includes your hiring process. Too often we overlook the multitude of ways that finding and onboarding a new team member can change our lives because we are too bogged down in the day-to-day of it.    In this episode, Adriana and Julie dive deeper into: Her journey into Clockworking, and how she knew a...