So last year we sent out a really juicy email with 5 (attainable) ways that you can elevate your travel business! And one of the things that resonated most with our beloved readers was our ideal of creating a CEO day.

Now much to our surprise, most readers had never heard of the concept but loved the idea… So let’s dig in on what a CEO day is, why you need it, and how to structure/schedule it into your business life.

What is a CEO Day?

At it’s most basic level, a CEO day is one day a month where you ONLY work on YOUR business.

No client inquiries or emails. No itinerary creation days. Nothing related to your client to-do list. To create a true CEO day, this is all about you and your beloved travel business.

That can look however you need it to:

• Taking time to analyzing your marketing strategies
• Writing that newsletter you have been putting off
• Batching your social media content for next month
• Giving your client experience a refresh
• Auditing your business’s website

Shoot – it could even look like you taking a half-day to get your nails done and simply back away from the daily hustle (because you deserve that too)! This is that one day out of the year where you are prioritizing you or your business instead of clients.

Why do you need a CEO day?

CEO days really serve two purposes:

01. They allow you to catch up on the tasks that can sometimes get pushed to the side.

When you are a small business owner you are wearing a lot of hats, and it is easy to get swept up into only serving our clients. Don’t get us wrong, this is incredibly important since our jobs rely on finding and booking travel for clients.

But client work is not the only job! To grow your business and create a healthy balance of internal and external growth, you need to pause and put your business first too.

Some of our followers say that they do half-day CEO days on a weekly basis to keep on top of things, while others set aside that one glorious day a month to put their blinders on and knock out that to-do list. There is no right or wrong way to do this, just make sure that is works with your business schedule.

02. They minimize the burnout that can come with constant client management.

Let’s face it… Ever since 2020, our jobs as travel professionals have become increasingly harder. Not only are we booking travel, but for the last two years, we have also been educating clients on the ever-changing entry requirements, preparing them for travel with reminders about testing and protocols, playing therapist while a confused client decides between traveling while feeling unsafe or canceling their dream trip altogether.

It has been hard. And the burnout that we have seen across the board is at a record high. By setting a weekly or monthly CEO day, you are taking a step back from the constant client requests and turning inward to focus on the growth of your business!

How do you structure a CEO day?

Glad you asked because this is the most important part. CEO days are not always a break from the action (although again they can be if that is was you need as a CEO). They are an intentional time block where you pour back into your business.

The easy part is picking a day on your calendar to block off. But you don’t want to go into that day blind. You need to make sure you have a plan of attack.

What I do to ensure that I am accomplishing as much as possible is to create a CEO day event on my Google Calendar that spans across your entire business hours. Make sure the mark this event as “Busy” so any of your scheduler integrations will not allow clients to book this day for a call.

Throughout the month as I think about tasks that are not pressing at the moment but important for me to get to, I will use the description in my CEO day calendar to make notes about;

1. What I need to do (urgent, must be done on that day tasks)
2. What I want to do (tasks I should prioritize once I complete my “need to do” tasks)
3. What I would like to do (things that are not pressing but important to note in case I have the time)

This system allows me to walk into each of my CEO days with a plan and never feel like I wasted a day that could have been spent on client work!

We are making it our personal mission to help you step into your power as a CEO… because running your business should make you feel like a true boss (Beyonce hair toss ??‍♀️).

If these tips resonated with you, leave us a comment!