The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 330: A Week with Melissa Lin
Today I am going to share with you a behind the scenes of what my week looks like. I am going to be diving into all the day to days in my week from how I batch things in my business throughout the week to what each day of the week usually looks like for me and so much more.
A WEEK WITH MELISSA LIN
BY: MELISSA LIN
Today I'm going to be sharing what a week with me looks like. So over the last few weeks, I have received tons of questions just about the behind the scenes of my business, you know, what is it that I do throughout the week? What does my team do throughout the week? What is it that I like to do each day? When do I start my workday? A lot of questions about kind of my day to day. So, I was like, well, you know what, let me take you through what a typical work week really looks like with me.
One of the things about being, you know, an entrepreneur and owning your own business and working virtually is that every week doesn't necessarily look the same. However, I definitely do have some things that I like to keep it routine and do at the same time every single week. There were a few other things that do get to be a little flexible in case I'm heading down to see my mom, down in Oregon or going over to visit some friends somewhere for a few days. So yeah, I definitely get to be flexible with some of the things that I do, which is one of my favorite things about running my own business is that I do get to create my own schedule and do whatever I want whenever I want and that's truly how it is. If this is something that you're wanting to do, I would love to really support you.
My Weekly Hours
So on average, right now, I'm working anywhere from 20 to 25 hours per week. It really depends on the week and the month. There's always different seasons of business, and we can definitely chat about that. But right now, on average, 20 to 25 hours and will depend on the number of coaching calls that I had that week and whether we're onboarding new team members or what is going on in the business. Some weeks, I may have a little bit of a higher work week and then we, you know, work a little less the week after, but on average, 20 to 25 hours per week. Again, there's always things that pop up, so we may have a season in business that I may be working in a bit more. If we're creating something brand new or projects that we're working on, our brand new funnel or about a launch, I may be adding a few more hours than usual, but in the long-term I am totally okay with that because it's something I'm so excited for and passionate about. I'm so passionate about what I do. I love, love, love what I do, and I love helping you move things forward and moving the needle forward in your businesses.
So there could be things that pop up and I could be working a little more here and there, but right now, 20 to 25 hours is really perfect for me. I've had some people ask me like, "Melissa, do you ever want to be like Tim Ferriss and work the four hour work week?" And it's funny they asked that because Tim Ferriss's book was one of the very first ones that I read as I got into entrepreneurship and definitely a huge favorite author. I learned so much from him and his book. But I don't know if I'll ever, at least not in the next few years, get to that four hour work week because I don't really want to, I love what I do. I love coaching. I love supporting you. I love creating these podcasts. I love creating brand new content. I mean, if you go and check out my Instagram or my Facebook group, we have got loads and loads of content. Like we're creating so much content for you because we're truly excited about it. I'm truly, truly stoked to help you and move the needle forward for you and your business.
Day To Day
Now, I want to go into what the different types of days I have are and some examples of what each day looks like and what I like to do on those days. So I like to have CEO days, I like to have content days, and I also like to have coaching days and I will never have all three in one day. I may mix two together, but I won't have all three in one day. I like to either have a CEO/coaching day, or a CEO/content day, or maybe a content/coaching day, but I will not do all three. That's just too much in one day, too many different types of activities in my business, right?
Content is creative flow. Then, CEO days, it's more admin and more projecting things and planning and organization and systems. So I like to only have two of three, um, on the same day. Sometimes just one. So I like to have those. So you may be asking, "Well, what does that mean? Melissa, also what is a CEO day? What is a content day? What are the differences?" So glad you asked.
CEO Days
So on CEO days, typically this will include, you know, some team meetings, usually some launch planning, some program planning. Sometimes administrative work with my team and then a lot of systems organizations, organizing the week, the month, designing, planning. I really like to have at least a few of these days throughout the week, because like, yes, we're working in the business and we're also continuing to grow, to move it to the next level. So these CEO days are definitely critical in order to do that. If I only had coaching and content days, that business wouldn't really have too much of a chance to continue to grow at the pace that we are. So that's what a CEO day typically includes.
Coaching Days
So coaching days, usually those will include exactly as the title, coaching days, which includes coaching with my clients. So group coaching calls, private calls. If I host any trainings inside of my free Facebook group, that goes into my coaching day as well.
Content Days
Then, my content days, those usually include content for new programs, for courses, content for making updates to programs and courses, because we are making updates to programs throughout the year and our clients, when they hop into any of our programs, they do get to keep that program at least at this time, right now, for all of our current programs, they do get lifetime access and future updates. So we're always working on that because there's always new tools on social media and new updates to things that we can be doing. Some other things that come into content day are creating captions and podcast episodes and other things that are more on the creative side. I do content usually, half of Thursday and then some of Friday, because I love to wind my week down into that creative side, that creative flow.
My Non-Negotiables
So, you may be asking, okay, "Well, what does this look like in your week, Melissa?" So I want to talk about some non-negotiables in my business before I go into my week, because these non-negotiables aren't necessarily described and unlike my CEO days or my content days or my coaching days, they happen daily. The first one is always supporting my clients. So checking in with my clients, I go into my group programs every single day, check in, support my clients, get feedback on things and mentor. Then, the second is always checking in with my team as well. So those two are the first thing on my list, they always get done. It always happens, every single day. That's how important it is, supporting my clients, supporting and checking in with my team.
Now, the third non-negotiable that I have in my business is that I get to add value every single day to one of my platforms, whether that's sending out a value email, whether that's uploading a new caption that can help you move the needle forward in your business, whether it's adding a mini training on Instagram stories, recording a podcast, always adding value. So adding value on my platforms is key. One of my biggest drivers, one of the biggest things that I truly believe is that you get to add value. I think value is so important and I want to add value into your life. Regardless if we ever work together down the road or not, I want you to build and move forward in your business so that you can help more people as well, because that's the goal at the end of the day is to create an even bigger impact together.
Then, the third non-negotiable is selling. So we sell every single day in our business. Non-negotiable. It gets to happen because selling is serving. Some of that's automated, some of it's not automated. So we do selling all throughout the day, all throughout the week, all the time. Again, non-negotiables. These three things get to happen every single day, regardless if it's a CEO day or a content day or a coaching day. Those are some of the big non-negotiables and then I always have my morning routine as a non-negotiable as well.
So I always add in my morning routine each day, and that's typically from seven to eight in the morning. I like to journal and grab my espresso, cuddle with Pearl and do some reading. Usually it'll be from seven to eight. Then, I recently started to add in a morning walk from eight to eight thirty. So I love to just get some movement in, it's usually a little over a mile or so, and then a home workout usually mid afternoon after the majority of my work day.
So, some days I'll get my workday started at about nine. Other days, it's a little closer to 10, so lots of different things going on there, but again, my morning routine is so key and non-negotiable as well.
So I've definitely shared some non-negotiables things like it to happen every single day. Just to kind of give you a better idea of what my morning looks like. If you've ever wondered what that is, now you know. I usually get up around 7:00 AM, sometimes 6:30, depending on when I get into bed, but definitely getting that morning routine started around then. Then I usually start my workday around 9 or 10.
CEO Days: Mondays
So the way that I have structured my week is all based off of how I want to live my day to day. So I like to create flexibility in my schedule. So for example, let's say Monday, I typically don't like to have coaching calls with clients because I like that flexibility of maybe extending, you know, my vacation an extra day or using Monday to kind of get back into work mode after a vacation for a few days or whatever that looks like. Then similar to Fridays, I don't like to do coaching calls because I'm usually traveling somewhere and that just adds another bit of complexity because I got to make sure I've got the proper Wi-Fi and things like that. So I like to create some flexibility and you'll start to see that as we go into some of those day-to-day.
So Mondays are always CEO days. Always, always, if you go watch my Instagram stories for the next few Mondays, you'll typically always see a CEO day. Sometimes I'll add in content, but usually it's just a CEO day. What this looks like is usually from 10 to 2, we've got a few team meetings. So I usually have an operations team meeting where I meet with my operations team and we go over what things are going to happen this week and big projects for the quarter. So we're definitely doing bigger vision things for the business. Then I also have a meeting with my OBMs together and go over to some of the things I get to get done. Then my OBM is starting to take over some of that role as well. So we have a few team meetings on Monday mornings, and then we get into some funnel work, some launch planning. So it's a lot of the, you know, designing and planning and admin staff and just program planning and systems that we really like to do on Mondays. Just have out in front of us on our Asana board, just all of the things laid out in our project management tool of what gets to get done this week, next week, the next month, the next quarter, you know, Q3, Q4, we've got all of that mapped out and all of that mapping now gets done on our CEO days on Mondays. So usually from 10 to 2, I've got a few meetings and doing some of that work.
Coaching Days: Tuesdays
Then Tuesdays, I always have set aside for coaching days, sometimes it's only every other Tuesday. I love to batch. So I love batching my coaching calls, I love to batch my content creation. I usually stick to only coaching on Tuesdays. So I may have group coaching calls with my academy, I might have group coaching calls in my masterminds or my private clients, some private calls. Then if I ever do live training, it's usually on Tuesdays as well, because that goes into my category under a coaching day.
Again, every single day, we're also doing all of those non-negotiables so supporting my clients, supporting my team, checking in with them all adding value every single day and selling every single day as well. So we can't forget about those non-negotiables.
Wednesdays
Now moving into Wednesday. This is the day where I usually like to mixing up a little bit because it is the halfway mark of the week, starting to move towards the end of the week. So, usually this will be a mix of maybe a CEO day and a coaching day. It's sometimes a coaching day/content day. Wednesday is usually the day where there is a mix of coaching and something else, coaching and CEO or coaching and content. It really depends on what we're working on in the business at that time and what season of business it is for us.
So usually in the first half of the day, from 10 to 12, I usually have a few team meetings. So for example, this week, we had a team meeting with our support coaches in our programs. We have bi-weekly team meetings with them where we can go over, you know, our clients, how they're doing, some of the projects that we're working on inside of those programs and different things like that. Then, we also had our weekly operations meeting. We have multiple meetings with our operations team throughout the week. So we had a second one Wednesday. We like to have a midweek check-in.
Then we also do, if there's any time outside of that two hour window, just any other behind the scenes business items that we may do under the CEO period, whether that's onboarding or off-boarding clients or sending out new welcome gifts, because we know how much I love to send new clients welcome gifts. So lots of different things are going on there. Then, usually the second half of the day will be that coaching aspect. So 12 to 2, usually some coaching calls, again could be group coaching calls, could be some private client calls, it really depends on the week of the month.
Thursdays
These are usually always a coaching/content day. I would say it's heavier into the content day. I typically have at least one group coaching call on Thursdays and may have 1-2 private calls. Thursdays are creating; creating captions, new content for programs, new podcasts, etc.
Fridays
Fridays are usually a small bit of CEO, but mostly content. So at the moment, every Friday we do company metrics. We review company metrics. I love having a poll. So how the business is doing, and then the rest of the day it's some content creation. So Friday, I'll record podcast episodes and lots of content creation. Sometimes, I'll take the majority of the day off outside of my non-negotiables, again, I've got those non-negotiables and the rest of the day is content creation or taking the day off to go and, you know, grab lunch with some friends. But yeah, Fridays are definitely much lighter days. I would say my lightest days of the whole week.
My Weekends
So that is a bit of the behind the scenes, a week with me. Oh, I haven't even gotten into my weekend when it comes to the weekend. Of course I do have my non-negotiables. However, those non-negotiables are fully automated, so I am out of the business on the weekends and I'm actually, you know, filling my cup, spending time with family, with friends, trying new things. We're currently working on building our first home, my partner and I, and so lots of things going on during the weekends and really ensuring that I'm filling my cup. Because I get to, and you get to fill your cup too. I choose to do so heavily on the weekends. Then I definitely add in some play throughout the week. I always add in play usually after my work day, sometimes kind of in the middle of my workday, but plays a big thing that I've been adding in for probably the last year or so, like every single day into my life, because play is so, so important. Right? The more fun we have, the more money we make, the more people we get to serve. So go ahead and make sure you fill your cup.
So, that's a quick overview of my week, the things we do in the week, how it usually looks. Thank you for hanging out with me today. I would love to hear your biggest takeaways, thoughts, whatever you want to send my way. Feel free to message or tag me on Instagram @The_MelissaLin. I would love to hear all about it! I am always going to be your biggest cheerleader so you taking the time out of your day to spend with me truly means the world to me. Iβll see you next time!
Topics we cover include:
My Day To Day
My Non Negotiables
CEO Days
Content Days
Coaching Days
And so much more!