Welcome back to Lesson 4 of Building Your Own Personal Board of Directors on Listenable!
Since you are the CEO of your own life, let’s review in detail the most critical executive positions you may need on your personal board of directors. You can always add more based on your specific life objectives, but these are the core positions I recommend. Then we will determine what their responsibilities would be on your personal team of executives.
Chief Financial Officer: The CFO is responsible for the company’s financials which include budgeting, accounting, reporting, forecasting, and investing. The candidate you are looking for in this role is an expert in finances or managing money. Despite their degree or professional expertise, if they have not demonstrated the personal success you are looking for in your own life, then they may not be a good candidate for you. All executives at a company must understand the mission of the company. For your personal team, your success is the mission and this person needs to represent that mission. You are looking for someone to provide you guidance when you need to make financial decisions. For example, one of your candidates may only invest in real estate and that is the only way they generate wealth, but you are not interested in real estate, they could be very successful but still not be a good match for you at this time. You want to find someone who can teach and advise you while staying focused on your life mission.
Chief Operating Officer: The COO is responsible for all day-to-day operations. This person would be your accountability expert. They would help you with establishing realistic timelines and a specific action plan to achieve your goals and keep yourself accountable. They can help you determine how to manage your life within your new financial guidelines that you have set for yourself. It would be someone you trust and respect to be candid with you. This is the person you call when you are tempted to deviate from your life strategy. This person knows your strengths and weaknesses and they will be there to pull you back in line when you stray. When you want to go to lunch for the 3rd time this week, but your plan calls for limiting that activity to twice a week, this is the person who can gently remind you of your life goals and why you have chosen a new path to financial security. This person will need to be someone who has demonstrated discipline in their own life.
Chief Development Officer: The CDO is responsible for revenue generation for the company. This person is your career advisor. They will help you evaluate your career to determine if you are maximizing your income. They help you navigate and network to get to the next career opportunity. You may know your top strengths but this person can help you define all of your unique characteristics that you may not be fully utilizing. This person can also help you determine other potential sources of revenue like a side job or turning your own talents/abilities into a side business. Maximizing your skills to make as much money as possible is necessary as you begin to move toward wealth creation. If you increase your salary by 20%, that is 20% more money to go towards your new financial future. It is easy to get comfortable in a job and stay there too long. This person will help you evaluate what your next steps need to be in your career.
Chief Marketing Officer: The CMO is responsible for marketing, public relations, and brand management. This person is responsible for the “packaging of you”. You need to admire and respect how this person presents themself to the world. That means the entire package. How they Look, How they Dress, How they Walk, How they Speak, How they carry themselves. This candidate knows how to put themself together appropriately for all opportunities: interviews, meetings and any place you can shine. Developing strategic relationships with the right people and circles is a crucial element to success. This candidate understands the value of relationships and how to help you present the very best of you to the world.
The ultimate goal is to develop a balanced team of knowledge and expertise for well-rounded life guidance. In a corporate setting just these 4 experts on the C-Suite team come with a hefty price tag – hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you apply this approach to developing your own personal board of directors or executive team, then you surround yourself with the same experts for FREE! Honoring individuals who have already experienced success in their life by asking them to serve on your personal board of directors is a win-win! Trust me, they will be honored to be considered.
As you achieve personal success in your life journey, you may need to add or replace candidates in exchange for new knowledge and advice. You simply change out individual board members and bring on new or broader expertise. It doesn’t mean you fire them from your team, but you may not depend on them as much as your needs change. A wealth of knowledge surrounds you! By tapping into it you save valuable time and avoid pitfalls that can be costly.
Now that we have reviewed each job description and the personal benefits to your life, I want you to return to your original list you have been working on. Review your list and start writing the specific job that each person on your list could fill on your personal board of directors. For example, if you have a person with a marketing background that you admire, then you should write CMO for Chief Marketing Officer beside that person’s name. I want you to do that for each name on the list so that you can now start to categorize the names on the list by specific position. You can now group all the CFO, COO, CDO, and CMO candidates together by position. If you are missing names in a specific category, then brainstorm for additional names for that specific role. You may not have direct contact with an ideal candidate, but someone you know does, so don’t rule them out just because you are going to have to work a little harder to reach someone. Ask your close circle of family, friends and colleagues who they know and utilize your contacts to reach others that may be one circle removed from you currently. If you were CEO of a large company and you knew you needed a specific person on your team then you would find a way to reach them through your network. Remember, the CEO is responsible for the failures and successes of the company just like you are responsible for the failures and successes of your life.
Thank you for listening to this course on Listenable! I know it will add value as you become the CEO of YOUR OWN LIFE!
