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“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
— Peter Drucker
The Red Thread This Week
CEO Work
Last week, I sat on a Zoom call watching a talented audio producer explain why she couldn't launch her own branded podcast network.
She had the vision. The relationships. The technical chops.
But she was drowning in client work; editing other people's shows, managing their RSS feeds, troubleshooting their hosting issues.
"I just need to get through the end of the year," she said. "Then I'll have time to build my own thing."
I've heard some version of this story a hundred times.
From musicians who spend all day tending their social media, instead of working on the new record.
From freelancers who stay buried in client work, instead of building their own products or frameworks.
Here's what I’d argue is happening:
The problem isn't time. It's that they’re so busy IN the business, that nobody's running the business.
Because when you're an independent creator, freelancer, or small business owner, you're not just the person doing the work.
You're also the person deciding what work to do next, how to price it, and where to invest your limited hours.
That's CEO work.
But most of us never learned to think that way.
We learned to execute tasks. To follow instructions.
To be really, really good at doing what someone else decided matters.
And that training is killing our projects and businesses.
So the Red Thread this week is about recognizing the strategic role you're already playing (whether you know it or not) and getting better at it.
~ Jaime
🔑 The Unlock
You’re Already the CEO
The podcast producer I mentioned?
She chose to take on five more client shows instead of building her network.
That's a strategic decision about resource allocation. It's CEO work.
I’m not saying her decision was the wrong choice. Just that it’s a choice.
And when you don't recognize these choices as strategic decisions, you can't evaluate whether they're moving you toward what you actually want to build.
Here’s what I mean:
1️⃣ Every “Yes” Is a Bet on Your Future
A video editor I know spent years saying yes to every corporate training video gig that paid well. Steady work. Good money.
Then a documentary filmmaker reached out about a passion project, and he had:
no time, and
no portfolio reel that proved he could tell stories that moved people.
He’d been so busy executing, he never asked: “Am I building the portfolio that leads to the work I actually want?”
Because every client you take on:
Shapes the skills you develop
Shapes what you become known for
Shapes the bandwidth you’ll have when the right opportunity finally shows up
You’re not trying to win a “fill the calendar” contest. You’re placing bets on your future.
2️⃣ Your Rates Decide What’s Possible
Charge $50/hour and you need volume: more clients, more admin, less time to think.
Charge $200/hour and you can specialize, say no, and buy back hours for your own projects.
A branding consultant I know charged $75/hour for years; booked solid, working 50-hour weeks.
When she raised her rate to $250/hour, she lost 40% of her inbound inquiries…but the clients who stayed/booked respected her time and expertise.
That one change gave her 15 hours a week to finally build the workshop program she’d been postponing for years.
The rate wasn’t just about money.
It bought back the time required to think like a CEO.
3️⃣ Delegate, delegate, delegate
The podcast producer I mentioned earlier spent 10 unpaid hours every week on tasks like:
uploading episodes
writing show notes and metadata
scheduling posts across social media
A virtual assistant could very easily handle all of it for $500-1,000/mo.
If she used those same 10 hours to pitch her network to new potential sponsors, and landed just one at $2,000/mo., the VA would pay for itself.
The CEO question isn’t: “Can I afford help?”
It’s: “What becomes possible if I’m not doing everything myself?”
4️⃣ Structure Beats Hustle
A newsletter ghost-writer I know had great engagement and loyal clients, but he was capped at 20 clients, charging $500 per issue.
He was trading hours for dollars and running out of hours.
One structural change helped him level-up: He created a template system + training program for his clients.
Now he charges:
$2,000 for setup
$200/month for ongoing support
Same expertise. Same time.
But the new model lets him serve 50 clients instead of 20. Revenue tripled.
📌 Remember: The goal isn’t to hustle harder, it’s to redesign how your work works.
💡 Creative Edge
The CEO Mindset
A lot of us (myself included) ask: "How do I get better at what I'm doing?"
CEOs ask: "Am I doing the right things in the first place?"
Try This: If you group your last month of work into 3 buckets, it might look like this:
10% CEO work: Strategy, business development, systems building
80% execution: Client work, content creation, delivery
10% maintenance: Admin, bookkeeping, email
Now ask: What if you tweaked those percentages a bit?
What if you spent 20% on strategy instead of 10%?
What if you hired someone for that maintenance work?
Here's a test: For every task you did last week, ask "Could someone else do this for $25/hour?"
If yes, it's not CEO work; it's task-doing that could (should?) eventually be delegated.
And the 6-month question: If you keep doing exactly what you're doing now, where will you likely be in 6 months?
If the answer is "possibly the same place; definitely more tired," you're not doing enough CEO work.
📌 Mindset shift: Real growth requires structural changes, not just more effort.
🎲 Prompt Playground
Your CEO Audit
Use this to shift from execution mode into CEO mode.
Copy + paste the prompt below into your AI tool of choice (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) and fill in the blanks.
Prompt:
You are my strategic business partner and advisor with deep experience building and operating successful organizations and companies. I need help thinking like a CEO about my current operation.
Context:
What I do: [your service/product/content]
Monthly revenue: [amount]
Weekly hours worked: [number]
Biggest time drains: [list 3-5 specific tasks]
What I keep postponing: [strategic projects]
Help me with four things:
Categorize each time drain as CEO work (strategic), execution work (delivery), or maintenance (admin). Be brutally honest.
For maintenance tasks: Could someone else do this for $25/hour? What would delegation cost monthly?
If I freed up 10 hours weekly, what's the highest-value CEO work I could do? Give specific revenue impact.
Suggest one structural change I could make in 30 days that would shift me from hour-trading toward leverage.
✅ Bonus: "If I could only work on 3 things next quarter and had to delegate or eliminate everything else, what should those 3 things be and why?"
📔 Field Notes
My internet this week:
50,000 AI tracks flood Deezer daily and 97% of listeners can't tell the difference — Music Business Worldwide
Meta earning a fortune on fraudulent ads from scams and banned goods — Reuters
iHeartMedia and TikTok launch creator podcast network — Tubefilter
Gen Z's 2025 holiday habits: creators, AI, thrifting — ICYMI
We legalized sports betting. Was it worth it? — Pirate Wires
Michael Caine can Now Voice Your Ad — ElevenLabs
🛠️ Creator Tools
Voicetype AI – Powerful AI voice-to-text turning your natural speech into clean, structured writing.
YT Chats – Summarize and chat with any YouTube video; great for learning on the go.
Vertech Academy – Learn anything with AI as your personal tutor. Designed for students and educators.
Memorr AI – Remember everything across your AI chats. No more repeating prompts or losing context. Great for larger projects.
💼 Open Opportunities
Director, Marketing – Capitol Records/UMG (Hollywood, CA) View Role →
Audio Producer, The Daily – The New York Times (NYC) View Role →
Your next move in Music
Explore the MBW Job Board →
Crack into Podcasting
Check out the Sounds Profitable Job Board →
📌 Know someone looking? Forward this to them!
⚡ Before You Go
Here are 3 ways I can help:
🗓️ Get 1:1 Support from Me: Need a thought partner to help shape what's next for your project or team? Let’s talk.
🎙️ Podcast Health-check: Get pro-level eyes on your podcast without hiring a full-time producer.
🚀 Speaking Engagements & Workshops: Looking for a speaker for your next live (or virtual) event? Or someone to lead your next strategic workshop? Drop me a note.
And I could really use your help:
🧶 Take a quick 3-minute survey and help me improve the newsletter for you going forward.
💬 Leave a short testimonial if this newsletter has ever helped you think differently, or take action.
Both make a real difference, thank you 🙏
Thanks for spending time with Red Threads this week, I’m glad you’re here :)
~ Jaime