82. Stop Working 5 Days a Week: The 2-Day CEO Framework for Burned-Out VAs & OBMs

In this episode of Soulpreneur Scaling Stories, I reveal the game-changing "Two Day CEO" approach that has transformed my business and can transform yours too. If you're constantly tied to your laptop, responding to client messages at all hours, and struggling to truly disconnect from work—this episode is your blueprint for freedom.

I share my personal journey from being an "always available" service provider who couldn't take a proper vacation to creating a business that allowed me to spend two weeks in Switzerland without my laptop. This transformation didn't happen overnight, but through strategic shifts in how I structured my business and client relationships.

You'll discover why spreading your work across multiple days is actually decreasing your effectiveness, the CEO skills that will transform your scattered service delivery, and a practical framework for identifying and eliminating the "invisible work" stealing your time.

This isn't about hustling harder or magical productivity hacks—it's about fundamentally redesigning your business so you can have both the income and lifestyle freedom you started your business for in the first place.

Key Points Covered:

✨ The "Fragmentation Effect" that's costing you 23-40% of your productive capacity

✨ How to escape the "False Availability Trap" that keeps you tied to your computer

✨ The three phases to transition from "always on" to a consolidated work schedule

✨ Four pillars of the Two Day CEO framework that create true freedom in your business

Ready to reclaim your time, deliver better results for your clients, and fall back in love with your business? This episode gives you the exact roadmap to make it happen.

Thank you for being a part of the Soulpreneur Scaling Stories community!

FREE RESOURCES
🔗 Free Business Growth Resources
(⬆️ Live Business Growth Trainings for VAs & OBMs, The Premium Offer Starter Kit, Peaceful Profit Vault)

LET'S CONNECT
📸 Instagram
🧵 Threads
👩🏼‍🏫 LinkedIn
🎥 YouTube
💻 Website

WAYS I CAN SERVE YOU
✨ 1:1 Business Coaching
⭐️ Core Offer Alignment Intensive
👩🏽‍💻 Framework Flow Mini-Course (use code PREMIUM for a special discount)

🎧 Podcast produced and edited with love by @FerAssists 🩵

Transcript

[00:00:00] Andrea Elibero: Andrea here, your host and passionate business coach and scaling strategist for soulful service providers and coaches. Welcome to another episode of Solepreneur Scaling Stories. Have you ever wanted to look behind the curtain of your fellow entrepreneur's business to see what actually went into scaling it?

[00:00:22] Well, you are in for a treat 'cause that's exactly what we are doing here. In each episode, we will be uncovering the truth of the lessons and the stories behind what it truly takes for sold entrepreneurs to scale their businesses intentionally. I'm hoping that their stories will help you to unlock the true potential of your business so you can create your own soulful, abundant, and aligned laptop lifestyle through intentional scaling.

[00:00:46] So whether you're just starting out on your scaling journey or you're a seasoned entrepreneur seeking inspiration, this episode has something incredible in store for you. Are you ready to rise, grow, and create a business that fully supports your dream life? Well, let's [00:01:00] dive in. Before we begin, make sure to hit that subscribe buttons.

[00:01:03] You never miss an empowering episode filled with real stories and soulful insights.

[00:01:10] Welcome to Solepreneur Scaling Stories. I'm really excited today. I'm excited every day, but I'm extra excited today to talk to you about the two day CEO and how to structure a service provider business, va, OBM, whatever. I. Into 20 hour work weeks, two focus days a week. So this is a concept that has completely transformed how I run my business.

[00:01:37] So let's dive in. And what you are going to learn today, by the end of our time together, by the end of you listening to this, is why spreading work across all the days is actually decreasing your effectiveness. Some of the skills, the CEO skills that will transform your scattered service delivery into strategic condensed work.

[00:01:59] How [00:02:00] to start transitioning. Away from doing all this scattered work and into this more condensed packages that allow for more freedom. A framework for identifying and eliminating the invisible work that is stealing your time and how to handle daily tasks without being tied to your computer all day.

[00:02:18] This is not about hustling harder or magical productivity hacks, and it's about fundamentally redesigning your business. So you can have both the income and lifestyle freedom that you started your business for in the first place. All right, so let's dive in. I'm going to share a story with you.

[00:02:35] Um, so that really highlights this and I'm sure that you can relate to.

[00:02:39] So I started as a VA in 2019 and I went to Bali. I went to Bali for three weeks. And to me this was like a little literal dream because I was able to quote unquote work from anywhere. My God, I could work from my laptop in Bali. How amazing is that, right? And so I did, like, I worked, I did my client work most of the days.

[00:02:56] I haven't signed a new client while I was there, which is kind of cool, right? [00:03:00] And. Well, I'll get to that in a second. But then a few years ago, another example came to my brain as I was working as OBM, monthly retainer clients. Everything looked great on paper, making lots of money, handful of clients, but I was really tied to my business even as I was preparing and then moving.

[00:03:21] From the US to move to Spain. As I was getting everything together, as I was preparing, as I was selling all of my life on Facebook marketplace, as I was training my dogs to be able to fly, you know, giant dogs like across the world. And then once I got to Spain, figuring out how to be a functional human in a new country, figuring out how to go to the grocery store, like all of that.

[00:03:40] I did not take a day off except for maybe the travel day, right? Because I had things to do,

[00:03:46] so I had to be responsive. I was important in my client's businesses. I had to be there for, you know, I didn't feel like I was able to take a day to take that time off without losing money because I was doing so busy doing other things that I [00:04:00] couldn't like fit in more time before or after this trip, right?

[00:04:03] So I wasn't working like crazy, but I was working with a capital W and so in that time. Overwork was not my problem, but freedom. A lack of really true freedom was, you know, as I said, I really couldn't take extended time off without losing income. That was difficult to make up. And I know that you have dealt with this too, right?

[00:04:24] As you try to take time off, you're like, oh, either I lose the money or I have to work a lot extra. And me, I'm a traveler. Like I'm a traveler in my soul. And finally, last year, something really cool happened. I went to Switzerland. Two weeks, and you know what didn't come with me, my laptop. It was amazing, and it might not sound revolutionary, but it was the first time that I had been able to truly disconnect since I started my business for that long.

[00:04:52] I. Because you know, as I said before, with these retainer clients, I had to cram all my hours [00:05:00] in or lose the income or work while I was traveling. So I'm curious. I feel like this is probably really familiar. You're probably nodding your head, you know, along. If you've experienced things like struggling to take off real time without financial penalty, if you've found that you know your work is really spread out across many days in smaller chunks, you feel like you really need to be on and be responsive most days.

[00:05:24] Um, you have these tasks that seem to require daily attention. And you just really can't manage to consolidate things and you can't figure out how to do that.

[00:05:32] And so I understand that a lot of you might be thinking like Andrea, I have hourly retainer clients. I work like my clients are sometimes like 40 hours, you know, whatever.

[00:05:41] Like I can't fit that into two days a week, or like I manage client inboxes or have other things that I do daily. I can't just do that. Task twice a week. And I get it. I get it. This two day CEO approach is not a magic pill. Things are not gonna change instantly, especially if you're doing this type of work, [00:06:00] right?

[00:06:00] Like these daily tasks, these hourly retainer models, things like that. What I want to show you today and prove to you today, that there is a path to get there, and this path does not immediately require dropping your clients or completely changing your business model overnight. And this path is effective.

[00:06:18] But first, let's talk about why so many VAs oms and service pros feel shackled to their laptops every day. There are three flaws in how this your business is structured. And this is not your fault because this is how you're told to structure your business from the beginning when you don't have to. So flaw number one is the fragmentation effect.

[00:06:39] So when you're spread out your work across all of this time, you are creating massive inefficiency. There is research that shows that every time you context switch between clients or projects, you lose somewhere between 23 and 40% of your productive capacity. So if you're working with four clients across five days and you're shifting multiple [00:07:00] times a day, mental gears, right?

[00:07:02] So you're going from one thing to another, this client's thing, to that client's thing. This requires you to do a number of things to refamiliarize yourself with where you left off. Right. Like what was I doing? Reloading that client's specific processes into your working memory to adjust to their communication style and expectations and settling into that particular type of work.

[00:07:23] And this. It happens every time you switch, right? So this mental startup cost happens all the time. And when you're working in this fragmented way, then maybe you're working, quote unquote 40 hours, but you're only getting like 25 hours of actual productive output. Like that's all that you're giving. So it's very inefficient.

[00:07:44] Now within this, I know like there are some things that I mentioned before that you're going to tell me again, right? I can't fit in my retainer hours into two days. If, again, if you're currently working, you know, 30 to 40 client hours weekly across multiple retainers, you're right. I. You can't physically fit that [00:08:00] into two days.

[00:08:00] Here's the thing though. The transition to this two day CEO is not about cramming the same work into fewer days. It's about a fundamental shift. You're shifting how you charge moving away from hourly and towards value-based packages. You're shifting what you deliver. Instead of delivering time, you shift to delivering results, and you shift to when you deliver.

[00:08:26] Batched versus scattered, and this transition can be gradual. It's not an overnight shift. I'm going to show you the path to get there in a moment. And then the same thing I said before. The other thing that people tell me a lot is that, well, I have to do this daily. Right. I have to do this daily. And you're right, some tasks require daily attention, but it doesn't mean that you have to be doing them daily, and it doesn't mean that it has to happen all day every day.

[00:08:51] So there are a few different approaches that you can take to dealing with this. One is task redesign, so you can redesign some of these daily tasks [00:09:00] into a batched schedule. Second is having mini systems. You can create processes that reduce the daily work to 15 to 20 minute check-ins instead of it taking an hour or two hours.

[00:09:11] The third thing is strategic delegation. Maybe you have somebody that can help you. Maybe you can bring somebody on your team to do some of this so you don't have to do it every day. And then maybe it's client filtering, which means gradually shifting away from clients that need this daily support to clients that are more aligned that don't need this.

[00:09:30] I had one of my coaching clients who was, uh, managing client inboxes, and she created a triage system. She had templates, she had filters, so she was able to batch 90% of her work to twice a week, and then it just required 15 minutes on the other days. And her clients like this better because there was a system there that was easy.

[00:09:50] That was great. So it might be for you that this two day CEO model is two days plus mini check-ins, or maybe it's three [00:10:00] days. You know, it's not about perfection, it's about progress towards more freedom and control. So that's flaw one. Flaw two is the false availability trap. And I know that you have done this, maybe even today, I've been guilty of this as well.

[00:10:16] You're working on something, right? You're like, no, you're working. And then you hear the slack message or an email, you know, from a different client. So you stop what you're doing and you go immediately answer that client every single time. You interrupt what you're doing, you interrupt your flow because oh, you got a thing from that client, they have question or they need something.

[00:10:34] And you could do that. It takes you five minutes. One you already know. It doesn't take you five minutes 'cause it takes all that context, switching time. And two, this is not necessarily top-notch service because your. Wasting time, you are not giving them your full attention or to the other client, you know, and now you are training them.

[00:10:56] You are unconsciously training them that you are going to be available all the time, [00:11:00] 24 7, and you're training them. To expect constant availability because you're responding to messages all the time because you're taking calls whenever they say, because you're available like all day, every day. And because you did not set boundaries right around response times, your availability around anything, and there's a vicious cycle that happens here, the more available you seem, the more clients expect you to be available.

[00:11:27] Then the more obliged you feel to be available, like it's a, you know, it's a trap. So now you're trapped in this web of constant low level responsiveness, and now you can't do focused high impact work. You see how that's actually a disservice to your clients? And here's the thing is that I realize that your clients don't need you every minute of every day.

[00:11:51] They think they do because that's what you've trained them to expect. Much like this reminded me of my dog. My dog is 14, and this is [00:12:00] my partner's fault, but 13 years. We went on regular walks and everything was good. For some reason, my client, my client, my partner, decided he was going to introduce treats on these walks.

[00:12:13] Now my dog expects treats on the walks. And we have trained him to have these expectations. 'cause now we have treats with us on the walks and that's not benefit anybody. Maybe him, but like, not really, you know? But we trained him to do that. Just like you're training your clients to expect you to be available all the time.

[00:12:32] And of law number three, which is my favorite because this is a mindset one. It is at the core of everything, and this is that I have seen that so many VAs OMS online service providers operate with this task door mindset, this employee mindset, and not a CEO mindset. You have a business, you are the CEO of your business.

[00:12:56] That's amazing. Why are you not [00:13:00] acting like it? When you're a task doer, you react to requests. When you're a CEO, you create systems. Task doers fit into client processes. CEOs design their own processes, task doers, focus on hours worked. CEOs focus on outcomes, delivered task doers, spread work and get it all done.

[00:13:23] CEOs concentrate work for maximum leverage. When you would think of yourself. Like, oh, I'm just this, you know, I'm just, just this thing. I'm just a va. I am just a whatever. Now you've created yourself. You made yourself into an employee. Now you're reactive. You're constantly on, excuse me. When you are the CEO, you take charge.

[00:13:48] You have your own business. You make the rules, you have boundaries, you have systems. You have your own business. You are literally the CEO of [00:14:00] your own business. That's huge. So why aren't you acting like it? Why aren't you claiming that? For me, it was when I got really burnt out. When I got fed up is when I restructured my business.

[00:14:12] I moved away from this constant availability to more concentrated work with primary focus days and minimal check-ins. I was nervous about it, of course, but you know what happened? My client relationships improved because now they knew what the expectations were. They knew what the boundaries were. My work quality increased 'cause now I have focused work time, right?

[00:14:31] Like I could actually do my work. I had days that were truly mine without guilt. My income remained stable and eventually grew again. This did not happen overnight. But each step towards this style of working gave me more freedom and more control, eventually allowing me to take that two week vacation to Switzerland without my laptop for the first time in five years.

[00:14:54] So here's what I want you to take away from this. Your value is not determined by how many hours you work [00:15:00] or how many days you work. It's determined by the quality of your work. Your effectiveness was, has nothing to do. Your effectiveness has nothing to do with how much you're available. It's determined by how you structure those hours and the systems you create around them.

[00:15:16] So what's the solution, right? You're like, okay, like I, I believe you now. Right? So how do you actually transform? So first it starts with a mindset shift. As always, your job is not to be constantly available. Your job is to create maximum impact. And to do this, you have to reject some myths that are really common that keep.

[00:15:39] You stuck. I keep you trapped in this always on cycle. And the first one is believing that being more available means better service. In reality, better systems and processes equal better service because when you design powerful systems that deliver consistent results, clients get more value from you and it [00:16:00] takes you less time.

[00:16:00] So it's a win-win all around. Myth number two is I need to be available 'cause clients have emergency seasons come up. They need me for this. Listen, here's the reality. We're not doctors. I was a nurse back in previous life and those were emergencies. The this was happening in this online world. This is made up.

[00:16:21] Like these are not emergencies and most things that people call emergencies can be, are predictable things that can be systematized. And every so often there is an emergency, right? But you don't have to be always on. You do not have to be always on. And myth number three, I, this is going to limit my income.

[00:16:41] I can't make money working just two days a week. That's crazy. But the reality is when you concentrate your work, you increase your per hour value dramatically, and this makes raising your rates natural and justified because your worth is not determined by how many hours you work. I am [00:17:00] sure that you have things that you are brilliant at, that you do super fast because you're brilliant at them.

[00:17:05] So why are you penalizing yourself for being good at what you do? I have a client now who is a whiz of this very specific type of accounting. She's fast, she's knowledgeable, so she charges a premium for this. She doesn't charge less because she's good at it, right? Like it, it's fast for her. So now we've gone through these myths.

[00:17:24] So what is a realistic path away from having to be available 24 7 shackled to your computer, to something more consolidated? There are three phases to doing this. So phase one. For this two day CEO framework is consolidation within your current structure. So even if you have hourly retainer and hourly retainer model, you can start consolidating your work.

[00:17:49] Now, you can group similar client work on the same days. You can have designated deep work days where you batch most of your projects. You can have light days that are [00:18:00] established. You can have no call days. You could have two days of the week. I recommend two days of the week to have calls, and that's it.

[00:18:06] And you can set clear expectations for your response time for when you work for your boundaries, start setting boundaries within your work. So those things are going to buy you some more freedom. I. Then we move on to phase two after you do that, which is restructuring your offers, which is your retainer restructuring.

[00:18:24] So with new clients, with new contracts, now you get to shift away from this hourly retainer model into more results based packages. Create steered tiered service options with different, you know, with response times that are respective build in batch deliverables instead of this continuous. Work and establish really clear boundaries around your availability and.

[00:18:50] Then you get to phase three, which is the true two day model. So you can transition to primarily working to these designated days, having [00:19:00] a framework, having a core offer. Stop doing all those random stuff that you don't wanna be doing anyways. You know, have, you know, you can also have minimal check-ins on the other days.

[00:19:09] That might take you just one to two hours depending on what you do. Package services that deliver results with your framework, not ours. And systems that support consolidated work schedules. And so remember, again, this is a journey. This is a journey. That's why there are phases. That's why you can really start focusing.

[00:19:26] But every step you take makes a huge difference towards moving towards intentionality, moving towards consolidated work. It's not about achieving this perfection overnight. So let's move into.

[00:19:41] The four pillars of a two day CEO. So what are the pillars? So pillar one is strategic consolidation. So again, instead of spreading your client work across the week, intentionally consolidated it to designated power days.

[00:19:56] It's not just time blocking, it's really about being intentional and redesigning your [00:20:00] client delivery system to support focused work. In this way, when you're not being interrupted all of the time, you deliver quality work, there's fewer errors while you free up your time. Pillar number two is proactive client education.

[00:20:18] So your client follows the patterns that you establish. The key is to proactively design these patterns and lead them rather than reacting. And like actively falling into patterns. So what does this look like? This means setting up clear expectations from day one. This means training your clients to work on your schedule with a positive focus.

[00:20:45] By the way, you can tell them the actual reason you're doing this is because you need time to work. You need time to be able to focus, so you need uninterrupted time and so for them, for your other clients, so you can deliver the best work [00:21:00] possible. And that's the angle, right? It's not about not being available.

[00:21:05] It's about you delivering the best work possible. You can create systems for non-emergency questions and you can establish protocols for real emergencies. I. And it was interesting because when I was doing this transition, I expected a lot more pushback. And at first there is some, you know, there was a little bit of pushback depending on the client and things like that.

[00:21:25] But I got amazing feedback afterwards, right? Like I got feedback about. Uh, now they know what to expect. They got feedback on, on, you know, how the communication is clearer. I got that type of feedback. And again, not every client is going to like this, and they, they might not be an aligned client at that time.

[00:21:42] So then we move into pillar number three, which is energy based scheduling.

[00:21:48] And this is really cool because look at yourself. So this is the time for you to examine yourself and think, you know, when is my energy the highest? When do I do my best work? And design your [00:22:00] schedule around that to support you.

[00:22:02] Create rituals also to signal that in your brain. Okay, this is my deep work time. I have a section in my office. That is my, uh, sacred content creation quarter. So when I go there, it's content creation time, you know, things like that. So maybe there's a candle that you light, maybe there's a little thing, you know, a song that you play.

[00:22:21] You're like, okay, this is work time. So. Recognize when you're most creative, when you're most strategic, and schedule your work. Like have an actual schedule this day. I'm his this, between these hours I'm doing that. Things like that. So you are more productive and you're supporting yourself. You're supporting your natural flow, and so that way you get to be energized and feel accomplished and get everything done.

[00:22:44] And then the last pillar is the CEO decision filter. So. I love this because now you actually get to step into your CEO Power. Decide what deserves your time, what doesn't for everything that you do. Pass it through your [00:23:00] brain. Pass it through the CEO decision filter. Does this drive results? Is this the best use of my time?

[00:23:06] Can I systematize this? Can I delegate it? Can I not do it? Is this an alignment with the business that I want to build? And you get to say no to things because you are CEO. And you get to design your dream business, right? So all of this is not about working harder in less time. It's really about redesigning the approach that you take to your business and to your work.

[00:23:30] So you're doing what really matters and you're doing it in the most supportive way possible. So now I have a little exercise, and so feel free to kind of pause. I'll go through it quickly, but feel free to pause to actually do the exercise. Um, so this is, okay, step one, right? So we're gonna do like, we're starting at the beginning and how do we have a more consolidated schedule, regardless of what you're doing now.

[00:23:52] So grab your notes app, grab a paper, grab something, and we're gonna do a consolidation roadmap exercise. So step [00:24:00] one, pick one client, and then eventually you can do this for the others. And list. All of your current routine tasks when you list them, categorize each one as daily. It's time sensitive. Could be batched with the right system or only happens occasionally or on a project basis.

[00:24:18] So you have all the things you do. Is it daily? Can you batch with a system or is it occasional? Once you have that, step two is for the things that say, okay, I have to do this every day. Brainstorm now. Hmm, how can I reduce the time required? Are there templates? Are there systems? Are there filters? Are there things like that?

[00:24:39] Create parameters around when you check in, right? Not all day, whenever things pop up, like when do you actually check in and stick to that. And then the third thing is maybe you can delegate or automate this in the future. Maybe you can suggest that too, right? To your clients. So that's for the must be done daily tasks.[00:25:00] 

[00:25:00] And then for the could be batched tasks. Identify one specific task that you could experiment with next week. So, oh, could you batch something? Right? What day would you do it? What would you need to communicate to your client in order to have a specific day that you do this on? What system could you create to actually make this possible?

[00:25:20] I. So step four now is identify two days that could become your primary work days where you schedule your deep work, your project based things. These won't be your only work days yet, but your most focused days, and really start making the schedule for yourself. And then the last step is write down one small boundary that you could implement next week.

[00:25:44] You could start this next week and start training your clients to be. On your schedule to follow this boundary. So maybe you have times for checking messages, maybe you have a specific intake process for requests, like a clickup form. Um, maybe you [00:26:00] have, you start setting expectations and response times.

[00:26:02] Like, I'll go back, get back to you and within 12 hours or 24 hours and not immediately. Right. So those are your steps, um, to do this exercise to start to. Have a business that really supports you. Remember, this is not about completely transforming your schedule overnight. It's about taking the very first step towards a more intentional, consolidated approach to your client's work.

[00:26:24] And I am curious too when you do this, like reflect on how it feels. It's 'cause the key thing here is that even a small shift towards consolidation can have a big impact on your freedom and your effectiveness. And I also want to acknowledge that there are, but I said this before, but I really want to acknowledge there are some clients where this whole thing just won't work, period.

[00:26:44] No matter what you do, as you elevate, as you elevate your business, you're going to naturally transition away from these clients. As you start working with more aligned clients and that is okay, that's a good thing because you want them to work with people that are excited to [00:27:00] work with them, right? Like you don't just wanna do it 'cause you feel like you have to when you really dislike it.

[00:27:04] 'cause that's the disservice to your client. So remember that as well. And so for me, when I started making these shifts in my business, you know, again, it wasn't immediate. It was a gradual process and it really gave me each step, gave me more freedom and more control, eventually allowing me to take that vacation and having a much, much better schedule now, and being so far away from burnout as compared to what I was doing before.

[00:27:27] So.

[00:27:28] Can you see how becoming a two day CEO would really allow you to do things like create super clear boundaries without feeling guilty to deliver even better results for your clients in less time to reclaim entire days for your personal life and passion projects to position yourself as a strategic expert rather than this always on support person and to feel energized and excited about your business again.

[00:27:52] So there's so much that goes into this, and I really, really hope that this helped you and you took away some amazing [00:28:00] things from this. And remember that if this is something that you are truly excited about, but maybe you're unsure about how to implement this transformation in your business. I would love to help you through that.

[00:28:11] My signature way is through expansion, which is now a four month long coaching experience, and I have a couple more beta spots left at a really reduced price, so please, please reach out to me. All the things are listed in the show notes, how you can do that. You can check it out if you have questions and if that doesn't feel aligned, I have other ways to work with me, but I have helped.

[00:28:33] Dozens and dozens of VAs ubms saw online service providers transform their businesses. Ha regain peaceful profits. Have an effortless offer flow, and it is my greatest joy because I know exactly what you're going through. 'cause I have been there also. So thank you so much for joining me today, and I will see you guys on the next episode. 

[00:28:56] [00:29:00] Thank you so much for joining us today. I really hope you found inspiration and insights from today's episode. You know, scaling your business intentionally and from the inside out is a transformational process, but I'm here to support you every step of the way. Head on over to dancing leaf solutions.com/resources for free tools to help you do just that.

[00:29:22] And thank you again for being a part of the Solepreneur Scaling Stories community. Your presence and dedication to growth inspiring me every day.