IAM1236 – CEO Helps Businesses Create Brands that have a Lasting Impact
Podcast Interview with Natasha Davis
Natasha E. Davis affectionately known as “The Chief Visionary” is a baccalaureate-prepared Registered Nurse certified in Emergency and Trauma nursing for over 12 years. She emerged as a Branding Strategist and Corporate Trainer in 2007, with the launch of her 3rd company Impact Branding Consulting, Inc. a certified-owned Owned Small Business. Natasha advanced her career and pursued her Master's in Business & Marketing in the Fall of 2009. Her specialty is helping executives, entrepreneurs, and companies create brands that have a lasting impact.
She thrives on fixing problems and eliminating frustrations for companies and their executives. Over the past 10-plus years, Natasha has worked with several companies and executives to assist them in enhancing their business potential, brand equity, brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, and marketing strategy through the power of brand positioning. Utilizing her “Brand First Principle” she has taken companies from a negative 8% profit margin to a flourishing 40% profit margin and on average increases company revenue by 30% per year. She quickly identifies performance gaps, finds solutions, gets results, and improves outcomes.
- CEO Story: Natasha’s turning point to become an entrepreneur was when she felt so disconnected and so inauthentic about what she should be doing. And so she put on the full armor of entrepreneurship and helped several companies through branding consultancy.
- Business Service: Strategic brand positioning, customer satisfaction, and marketing strategy.
- Secret Sauce: Enabling the entrepreneurs to bring back how they have started and why they started. Making sure to define the personality of her client’s company as a good foundation.
- CEO Hack: Making sure you have a CEO day – how to strategically move the company. How to work on your business.
- CEO Nugget: As an entrepreneur, you must have a clear and final destination to get to plan A. No place for plan B. You may take multiple routes, but it only takes you to plan A.
- CEO Defined: Be able to take everything you have in your heart and in your mind, and have it mobilized through the power of others. Having true control of the legacy that you’ve been destined to fruition on this earth.
Website: impactbrandingconsulting.org
Facebook: impactbrandingconsulting
Instagram: impactbrandingconsulting
Youtube: channel/UCP4PZfF4Vn7QgSX6mQXUPhw
Twitter: impactbrandingconsulting.org
natashadavisvisionary.com/books
Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE
Transcription
The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!
Please Note: Our team is using the AI CEO Hacks: Exemplary AI and Otter.ai to support our podcast transcription. While we know it's improving there may be some inaccuracies, we are updating and improving them. Please contact us if you notice any issues, you can also test out Exemplary AI here.
00:22 – Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:49 – Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Natasha Davis of Impact Branding Consulting Inc. Natasha, it's great to have you on the show.
00:59 – Natasha Davis
Awesome. Thank you so much. I am really looking forward to being here and sharing a few hashtag golden nuggets.
01:06 – Gresham Harkless
Yes, absolutely love that. We all love hashtag golden nuggets. One of the things that I want to do before we get into those nuggets is talk a little bit more about Natasha so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Natasha, affectionately known as the chief visionary, is a baccalaureate, prepared, registered nurse certified in emergency and trauma nursing for over 12 years. She became a branding strategist and corporate trainer in 2007 when she founded Impact Branding Consulting Inc., her third company, a certified women-owned small business.
Natasha advanced her career and pursued her master's in business and marketing in the fall of 2009, and her specialty is in helping executives, entrepreneurs, and companies create brands that have lasting impact. She thrives on fixing problems and eliminating frustrations for companies and their executives. Over the past 10 years, Natasha has worked with several companies, and executives to assist them in enhancing their business potential, brand equity, brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, and marketing satisfaction through the power of brand positioning. Natasha, you're doing so many phenomenal things. Super excited to have you on. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
[restrict paid=”true”]
02:08 – Natasha Davis
I am ready to speak to the I AM CEO community. And thank you so much. You know, a lot of times, there's a lot of people here, the bio, they hear it. And then at the same time, we always forget that I hear it as well. And after being in business for all these years, it still empowers me and I'm honored to be able to do what I do. Cause you never realize how much you're doing until you hear it.
02:33 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I'm so happy that you said that because I think so many times when you're in kind of like the inside of it or working in the middle of the business, sometimes we don't celebrate the wins as much as we should or even recognize those wins. So it's always great to kind of hear, you know, a little bit about that. But I guess before we get into the wins, I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I like to call your CEO story.
02:57 – Natasha Davis
Oh my goodness. So I'm going to take you way back to the young Natasha Davis, right? And so Natasha actually emerged as a registered nurse, knew she was gonna be a registered nurse, emerged as a registered nurse, worked in the emergency room doing trauma care, absolutely loved it. Never had nor do I still have any regrets. Had a really great career. And about 5 or 6 years into it, I got bit by the entrepreneurship bug. However, I didn't respect it because I thought it was just a thing, mainly because I grew up in an entrepreneurship family. I have a very rich family of entrepreneurs and I have entrepreneurs on both sides of the spectrum. And I was sitting in the parking lot and this is where the evolution happened. This is where the great transformation took place.
I sat in there and I felt like this heavyweight. I felt like I was just dying, like my soul wasn't thriving. And while I was sitting in the car, finished working, I just cried, just bawled, because I felt so disconnected and so unauthentic to what I should be doing. And I just, realized something had got to change. And so that was my big turning point that I couldn't continue to dip my toe into entrepreneurship. I had to actually put on the entire armor of entrepreneurship shoes, outfit, and all. And so, so I stepped into that, and then I transitioned over.
And what I will say guys is I stepped into it, but I knew my craft, but I didn't have the confidence that I could be a great business owner. I didn't even know if I could be a great CEO, to be honest, okay? I didn't know if I could be an entrepreneur. I just knew my craft, I was good at my craft. Well, I had to now learn how to run a business and that took on a very different dynamics because you're no longer an employee. You're now an employer. And those are 2 different trains of schools of thought. Those are 2 different ways of practicing, behaving and thinking.
And it took time for me to learn how to make that transition. But when I did, I mean, I took the ceiling right off and there was nowhere else to go but up. Now, currently, I do work with business owners, corporations, executives, and things of that nature. However, I always am in a place to help that leader, that executive, and that business owner remember where they started. And that's the sweet spot with me. That's the difference with me or that's what, you know, when people say, what's your USP or your superpower? Well, that's it. I'm able to draw people back to the moment of their initial why. Why did you initially start this? Because see, on our way up, right Gresham, on our way through, we're gonna hit walls, mountains, boulders, okay?
We're gonna face opposition and obstacles. And so when we hit those obstacles, those oppositions, we have to remember at that moment, what was my initial why for stepping into this, for putting on the armor of entrepreneurship, for putting these shoes on, because that's what's going to carry us through. Many people don't understand their initial why or they forget it and therefore they do what? Retreat. They let it go because It's too hard. Well, you know what? It's not too hard. You just have to remember what your initial why was, get focused, and go for it.
06:06 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. And I think as we've been kind of alluded to and kind of talked about as you go through the journey of life and especially a business and leadership, however, we define it, it starts to get quote-unquote noisier. And sometimes it's not that we don't have that why sometimes we lose that past. So I love that that's like your secret sauce, that superpower that you have that you can kind of help people to, you know, align with that or get maybe realign with that might be a better way to say it. And so you feel like that's a strong kind of foundational aspect to like how you work with your clients and how you helped them to even you know develop those brands and be able to make that impact?
06:38 – Natasha Davis
It is it absolutely is. I still have the brain of a registered nurse. I still have a critical-thinking brain. We can't fix something if we don't know what's wrong. And so therefore, in order to know what's wrong, we have to kind of, as we said, take a retrospective walk back. We have to look back. We have to go back to see Where we have this issue. When did this happen? How long has this been going on? Tell me when it was great. And then let's identify when did things turn. Was it when you hired that particular person? Was it when you purchased that other company? Was it when you started working with that client? Was it when you stopped doing what you used to do?
See, because when we get started, there are some things that we do to help us get to point A and then the things that helped us, we drop it because we think that we don't need it anymore. We don't need the foundation. And so I always get to that point. And I said, talk to me about the soul of the company. There's an exercise that I do with my clients where I have them define or speak about the company as if it were a person. Describe the character, the soul, and the personality of your company. When we can do that, when we can actually put a voice and a soul into the company, all things change.
08:01 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, And I think that we're starting to see that I don't know if it's shift. It may have already been there, but just like I said, sometimes we just like to lose the essence of that or it gets a little bit too noisy where we don't realize that. But it seems like there's a great, I guess, trend or growth towards finding the voice of the company, finding the human aspect of businesses, not just what we do, but why we do it, how we do it, what is our secret sauce or our superpower and those things. So I love that you have exercises. It sounds like helping people to really align with that and get back to sometimes their why of what they're doing and why they're doing it. So I know you touched a little bit upon, you know, like how you work with your clients. Was there anything additional that you wanted to touch on how you serve your clients through Impact Branding and Consulting, Inc.?
08:43 – Natasha Davis
Yeah, the main thing that we do is make sure that our clients understand because I believe that nothing beats understanding, right? Nothing beats a clear understanding. So I like to make sure our clients have understanding. There's understanding between me and my team and my clients and their team. There's true understanding. And one of the ways I do that is when I ask clients, tell me what you want. When I hear people start throwing around the term branding, I ask them to explain to me what they mean without using the word branding. And the reason I do that is because branding has 2 sides of the house.
Branding has a creative side, logos, graphics, and marketing, and it has a strategic side, infrastructure, foundation, architecture, systems, and strategic plan, right? When I ask people, when you call and say, I need branding, perfect. Or do we need to improve our brand, okay? Without using the word brand, explain to me what exactly is it that you need or want to see, but you cannot use the word brand or branding. When I get to do that, the person is able to now truly tell me from their heart and soul and from their mind what they're looking for.
Sometimes I come across a client who really just wants logos and a new website. Well, that's creative branding. We do strategic branding. We do strategic branding. So we're on the strategic side of the house. So when someone says, my main focus is XX and X and everything is around the website, the logo, maybe some new collaterals. Well, that's the creative side and we can refer them out accordingly. When we hear someone saying, you know, we have to improve the way our customers are being serviced. We have to improve our customer delivery. We have to get more customers. We need to improve our processes. Maybe we're constantly behind or we don't have performance. Now you're talking to me about the strategic side and that's where we're able to help. So we work on the strategic side of the house.
10:41 – Gresham Harkless
Nice, I appreciate you breaking that down. And I think that's also a great reminder of the power of questions. And I think so many times we can get caught in, for lack of a better term, buzzwords or things that we hear that we need, but we don't actually do that due diligence. We don't ask those questions like, what do you mean by that? So that we can make sure that we're getting, exactly what we want and what we need ultimately for our business. So I absolutely appreciate that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
11:16 – Natasha Davis
So okay, goodness, so many. Okay, a CEO hack. Here is one that was an absolute game changer for me for my clients across the board making sure that as I'm growing I always allocate one day a week one full solid day a week for CEO day. And that goes on my calendar, it's honored. It doesn't get shared or commingled with day-to-day operations. Having a CEO day that is actually dedicated to strategically moving the company forward.
That's where we say, how do I work on my business, not in my business? That is where it is. So having CEO Day on my calendar is a CEO hack that has completely revolutionized the way my company has evolved, even the rate at which we've grown. And it also has changed the way that my companies, my clients, I should say function as well, and how fast they have grown.
12:12 – Gresham Harkless
Nice, I love that. And, you know, creating that CEO day. And I think so many times that first of all, there's sprinkles of the E-myth there and understanding like the difference between working in the business and on the business, being an expert at what it is that you do and actually managing and doing all those intangible things that I think sometimes we forget. But I think too, it kind of speaks to me like a muscle. And I think when you set up that time and you consistently start to think from a strategic standpoint, you have that space that's created for that. When times again, are less than ideal, you've already kind of started to build that muscle.
You already started to think strategically about your business. It doesn't necessarily give you the answers, but it lets you develop those muscles so that when that time comes, you're actually prepared for it. So let me ask you this now for what I call a CEO nugget. Anybody already touched on some of these, but this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell your best client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.
13:05 – Natasha Davis
As an entrepreneur, whether you're starting, you're stabilizing, or you're scaling, as an entrepreneur, you can't have a plan B. It can only be one plan. Now You can have multiple directions to get to plan A. I can have a, my GPS can take me this way to avoid a collision or to avoid something else, some construction to avoid that. But I'm still heading in the same direction. When an entrepreneur develops or has a plan B mindset and a plan B heart, the business will suffer because that means that that entrepreneur is not all in. So I would say you cannot have a plan B. It is absolutely a distraction.
Your plan A has to be the only and ultimate destination because, during this journey in entrepreneurship, you are to become a CEO and become a business that is profitable, right? Not just generating money, but that's actually profitable. You are going to encounter so many obstacles and you have to know, I don't care what comes up in front of me. It cannot stay there. I must go through it. I must go over it or I have to go around it, but it will not stop me because I have a clear focus. I have a destination and I must get there.
14:20 – Gresham Harkless
I absolutely love that. I appreciate you so much and sharing that. I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Natasha, what does being a CEO mean to you?
14:32 – Natasha Davis
Oh my goodness. I love this. I love it question because a CEO to me personally means that one, you have transitioned through the entire journey. So in order to be a CEO, you understand what it means to be a business owner. You understood what it meant to be a co-creator. You understood what it meant to be an entrepreneur and You understood what it meant to be a co-creator. You understood what it meant to be an entrepreneur and you understood what it meant to be a solopreneur because that's the only way you could have gotten to CEO.
To be a CEO means to be able to fully operate your business but not be tethered to it. To be a CEO means that you are able to really take everything you have in your heart and in your mind, and have it mobilized through the power of others. That's what that means to me. Having true control of the legacy that you've been destined to bring to fruition on this earth.
15:27 – Gresham Harkless
Truly appreciate that definition. And I of course appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know, and of course, how best people can get a hold of you and find about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.
15:41 – Natasha Davis
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. It's really been an honor to be here and just share these golden nuggets with you and your audience as well. And of course, you can find out more about me. You can connect with me. You can even learn about me, on Natasha Davis visionary.com. That's a quick way to find out who is this girl here. Got a Natasha Davis visionary.com. And for those that are like, just take me straight to the company. You can go to impactbranding consulting.org.
16:08 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Natasha, truly appreciate that to make it even easier. We're going to have the links and information in the show notes. I truly appreciate you for doing that and reminding us of that of course. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:18 – Natasha Davis
Awesome. Thank you so much. You do the same.
16:20 – Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
00:22 - Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:49 - Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Natasha Davis of Impact Branding Consulting Inc. Natasha, it's great to have you on the show.
00:59 - Natasha Davis
Awesome. Thank you so much. I am really looking forward to being here and sharing a few hashtag golden nuggets.
01:06 - Gresham Harkless
Yes, absolutely love that. We all love hashtag golden nuggets. One of the things that I want to do before we get into those nuggets is talk a little bit more about Natasha so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Natasha, affectionately known as the chief visionary, is a baccalaureate, prepared, registered nurse certified in emergency and trauma nursing for over 12 years. She became a branding strategist and corporate trainer in 2007 when she founded Impact Branding Consulting Inc., her third company, a certified women-owned small business.
Natasha advanced her career and pursued her master's in business and marketing in the fall of 2009, and her specialty is in helping executives, entrepreneurs, and companies create brands that have lasting impact. She thrives on fixing problems and eliminating frustrations for companies and their executives. Over the past 10 years, Natasha has worked with several companies, and executives to assist them in enhancing their business potential, brand equity, brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, and marketing satisfaction through the power of brand positioning. Natasha, you're doing so many phenomenal things. Super excited to have you on. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
02:08 - Natasha Davis
I am ready to speak to the I AM CEO community. And thank you so much. You know, a lot of times, there's a lot of people here, the bio, they hear it. And then at the same time, we always forget that I hear it as well. And after being in business for all these years, it still empowers me and I'm honored to be able to do what I do. Cause you never realize how much you're doing until you hear it.
02:33 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I'm so happy that you said that because I think so many times when you're in kind of like the inside of it or working in the middle of the business, sometimes we don't celebrate the wins as much as we should or even recognize those wins. So it's always great to kind of hear, you know, a little bit about that. But I guess before we get into the wins, I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I like to call your CEO story.
02:57 - Natasha Davis
Oh my goodness. So I'm going to take you way back to the young Natasha Davis, right? And so Natasha actually emerged as a registered nurse, knew she was gonna be a registered nurse, emerged as a registered nurse, worked in the emergency room doing trauma care, absolutely loved it. Never had nor do I still have any regrets. Had a really great career. And about 5 or 6 years into it, I got bit by the entrepreneurship bug. However, I didn't respect it because I thought it was just a thing, mainly because I grew up in an entrepreneurship family. I have a very rich family of entrepreneurs and I have entrepreneurs on both sides of the spectrum. And I was sitting in the parking lot and this is where the evolution happened. This is where the great transformation took place.
I sat in there and I felt like this heavyweight. I felt like I was just dying, like my soul wasn't thriving. And while I was sitting in the car, finished working, I just cried, just bawled, because I felt so disconnected and so unauthentic to what I should be doing. And I just, realized something had got to change. And so that was my big turning point that I couldn't continue to dip my toe into entrepreneurship. I had to actually put on the entire armor of entrepreneurship shoes, outfit, and all. And so, so I stepped into that, and then I transitioned over.
And what I will say guys is I stepped into it, but I knew my craft, but I didn't have the confidence that I could be a great business owner. I didn't even know if I could be a great CEO, to be honest, okay? I didn't know if I could be an entrepreneur. I just knew my craft, I was good at my craft. Well, I had to now learn how to run a business and that took on a very different dynamics because you're no longer an employee. You're now an employer. And those are 2 different trains of schools of thought. Those are 2 different ways of practicing, behaving and thinking.
And it took time for me to learn how to make that transition. But when I did, I mean, I took the ceiling right off and there was nowhere else to go but up. Now, currently, I do work with business owners, corporations, executives, and things of that nature. However, I always am in a place to help that leader, that executive, and that business owner remember where they started. And that's the sweet spot with me. That's the difference with me or that's what, you know, when people say, what's your USP or your superpower? Well, that's it. I'm able to draw people back to the moment of their initial why. Why did you initially start this? Because see, on our way up, right Gresham, on our way through, we're gonna hit walls, mountains, boulders, okay?
We're gonna face opposition and obstacles. And so when we hit those obstacles, those oppositions, we have to remember at that moment, what was my initial why for stepping into this, for putting on the armor of entrepreneurship, for putting these shoes on, because that's what's going to carry us through. Many people don't understand their initial why or they forget it and therefore they do what? Retreat. They let it go because It's too hard. Well, you know what? It's not too hard. You just have to remember what your initial why was, get focused, and go for it.
06:06 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. And I think as we've been kind of alluded to and kind of talked about as you go through the journey of life and especially a business and leadership, however, we define it, it starts to get quote-unquote noisier. And sometimes it's not that we don't have that why sometimes we lose that past. So I love that that's like your secret sauce, that superpower that you have that you can kind of help people to, you know, align with that or get maybe realign with that might be a better way to say it. And so you feel like that's a strong kind of foundational aspect to like how you work with your clients and how you helped them to even you know develop those brands and be able to make that impact?
06:38 - Natasha Davis
It is it absolutely is. I still have the brain of a registered nurse. I still have a critical-thinking brain. We can't fix something if we don't know what's wrong. And so therefore, in order to know what's wrong, we have to kind of, as we said, take a retrospective walk back. We have to look back. We have to go back to see Where we have this issue. When did this happen? How long has this been going on? Tell me when it was great. And then let's identify when did things turn. Was it when you hired that particular person? Was it when you purchased that other company? Was it when you started working with that client? Was it when you stopped doing what you used to do?
See, because when we get started, there are some things that we do to help us get to point A and then the things that helped us, we drop it because we think that we don't need it anymore. We don't need the foundation. And so I always get to that point. And I said, talk to me about the soul of the company. There's an exercise that I do with my clients where I have them define or speak about the company as if it were a person. Describe the character, the soul, and the personality of your company. When we can do that, when we can actually put a voice and a soul into the company, all things change.
08:01 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, And I think that we're starting to see that I don't know if it's shift. It may have already been there, but just like I said, sometimes we just like to lose the essence of that or it gets a little bit too noisy where we don't realize that. But it seems like there's a great, I guess, trend or growth towards finding the voice of the company, finding the human aspect of businesses, not just what we do, but why we do it, how we do it, what is our secret sauce or our superpower and those things. So I love that you have exercises. It sounds like helping people to really align with that and get back to sometimes their why of what they're doing and why they're doing it. So I know you touched a little bit upon, you know, like how you work with your clients. Was there anything additional that you wanted to touch on how you serve your clients through Impact Branding and Consulting, Inc.?
08:43 - Natasha Davis
Yeah, the main thing that we do is make sure that our clients understand because I believe that nothing beats understanding, right? Nothing beats a clear understanding. So I like to make sure our clients have understanding. There's understanding between me and my team and my clients and their team. There's true understanding. And one of the ways I do that is when I ask clients, tell me what you want. When I hear people start throwing around the term branding, I ask them to explain to me what they mean without using the word branding. And the reason I do that is because branding has 2 sides of the house.
Branding has a creative side, logos, graphics, and marketing, and it has a strategic side, infrastructure, foundation, architecture, systems, and strategic plan, right? When I ask people, when you call and say, I need branding, perfect. Or do we need to improve our brand, okay? Without using the word brand, explain to me what exactly is it that you need or want to see, but you cannot use the word brand or branding. When I get to do that, the person is able to now truly tell me from their heart and soul and from their mind what they're looking for.
Sometimes I come across a client who really just wants logos and a new website. Well, that's creative branding. We do strategic branding. We do strategic branding. So we're on the strategic side of the house. So when someone says, my main focus is XX and X and everything is around the website, the logo, maybe some new collaterals. Well, that's the creative side and we can refer them out accordingly. When we hear someone saying, you know, we have to improve the way our customers are being serviced. We have to improve our customer delivery. We have to get more customers. We need to improve our processes. Maybe we're constantly behind or we don't have performance. Now you're talking to me about the strategic side and that's where we're able to help. So we work on the strategic side of the house.
10:41 - Gresham Harkless
Nice, I appreciate you breaking that down. And I think that's also a great reminder of the power of questions. And I think so many times we can get caught in, for lack of a better term, buzzwords or things that we hear that we need, but we don't actually do that due diligence. We don't ask those questions like, what do you mean by that? So that we can make sure that we're getting, exactly what we want and what we need ultimately for our business. So I absolutely appreciate that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
11:16 - Natasha Davis
So okay, goodness, so many. Okay, a CEO hack. Here is one that was an absolute game changer for me for my clients across the board making sure that as I'm growing I always allocate one day a week one full solid day a week for CEO day. And that goes on my calendar, it's honored. It doesn't get shared or commingled with day-to-day operations. Having a CEO day that is actually dedicated to strategically moving the company forward.
That's where we say, how do I work on my business, not in my business? That is where it is. So having CEO Day on my calendar is a CEO hack that has completely revolutionized the way my company has evolved, even the rate at which we've grown. And it also has changed the way that my companies, my clients, I should say function as well, and how fast they have grown.
12:12 - Gresham Harkless
Nice, I love that. And, you know, creating that CEO day. And I think so many times that first of all, there's sprinkles of the E-myth there and understanding like the difference between working in the business and on the business, being an expert at what it is that you do and actually managing and doing all those intangible things that I think sometimes we forget. But I think too, it kind of speaks to me like a muscle. And I think when you set up that time and you consistently start to think from a strategic standpoint, you have that space that's created for that. When times again, are less than ideal, you've already kind of started to build that muscle.
You already started to think strategically about your business. It doesn't necessarily give you the answers, but it lets you develop those muscles so that when that time comes, you're actually prepared for it. So let me ask you this now for what I call a CEO nugget. Anybody already touched on some of these, but this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell your best client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.
13:05 - Natasha Davis
As an entrepreneur, whether you're starting, you're stabilizing, or you're scaling, as an entrepreneur, you can't have a plan B. It can only be one plan. Now You can have multiple directions to get to plan A. I can have a, my GPS can take me this way to avoid a collision or to avoid something else, some construction to avoid that. But I'm still heading in the same direction. When an entrepreneur develops or has a plan B mindset and a plan B heart, the business will suffer because that means that that entrepreneur is not all in. So I would say you cannot have a plan B. It is absolutely a distraction.
Your plan A has to be the only and ultimate destination because, during this journey in entrepreneurship, you are to become a CEO and become a business that is profitable, right? Not just generating money, but that's actually profitable. You are going to encounter so many obstacles and you have to know, I don't care what comes up in front of me. It cannot stay there. I must go through it. I must go over it or I have to go around it, but it will not stop me because I have a clear focus. I have a destination and I must get there.
14:20 - Gresham Harkless
I absolutely love that. I appreciate you so much and sharing that. I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Natasha, what does being a CEO mean to you?
14:32 - Natasha Davis
Oh my goodness. I love this. I love it question because a CEO to me personally means that one, you have transitioned through the entire journey. So in order to be a CEO, you understand what it means to be a business owner. You understood what it meant to be a co-creator. You understood what it meant to be an entrepreneur and You understood what it meant to be a co-creator. You understood what it meant to be an entrepreneur and you understood what it meant to be a solopreneur because that's the only way you could have gotten to CEO.
To be a CEO means to be able to fully operate your business but not be tethered to it. To be a CEO means that you are able to really take everything you have in your heart and in your mind, and have it mobilized through the power of others. That's what that means to me. Having true control of the legacy that you've been destined to bring to fruition on this earth.
15:27 - Gresham Harkless
Truly appreciate that definition. And I of course appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know, and of course, how best people can get a hold of you and find about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.
15:41 - Natasha Davis
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. It's really been an honor to be here and just share these golden nuggets with you and your audience as well. And of course, you can find out more about me. You can connect with me. You can even learn about me, on Natasha Davis visionary.com. That's a quick way to find out who is this girl here. Got a Natasha Davis visionary.com. And for those that are like, just take me straight to the company. You can go to impactbranding consulting.org.
16:08 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Natasha, truly appreciate that to make it even easier. We're going to have the links and information in the show notes. I truly appreciate you for doing that and reminding us of that of course. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:18 - Natasha Davis
Awesome. Thank you so much. You do the same.
16:20 - Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
Sign up to receive email updates
Enter your name and email address below and I'll send you periodic updates about the podcast.
[/restrict]
