#590: Meet My New CEO! A Candid Conversation With Jawesy

The lessons my new CEO & I have learned as we’ve both transitioned into new roles

I have exciting news to share -- and it’s that I have a brand new CEO! Her name is Jenn, but we call her Jawesy, and she’s my former content director. 

If you’ve been listening for a while, you probably know that I have been serving as the acting CEO, taking on the day-to-day operations of running the business. 

I’ll be honest -- it’s been a lot for me to work in this capacity and be the visionary of the company at the same time, so I’m excited to pass the reins over to Jawesy. 

Not to mention, she’s incredibly smart, experienced, and knows my business inside and out, so it’s a win-win! 

In this episode, Jawesy and I have a candid conversation about the lessons we’ve learned as we work through the transition of me stepping fully into Visionary, and her stepping into the role of CEO.

You’ll hear: 

• Why we intentionally took an entire year to transition into our new roles
• The fears we both had about stepping into our new positions
• The challenges we’ve had and what we’ve learned from them
• How we prepped the larger team for the changes

I hope you walk away with some new insight – whether you see yourself bringing on a CEO long term, or you’re hiring your first employee.

Here’s a glance at this episode...

• [05:05] Jawes has been with me for 4 years, but she just became my CEO last month. I'm going to share with you why I decided to bring on a CEO after 14 years, and the transition.
• [09:43] During an annual planning meeting, Amy mentioned she wanted to bring on a CEO. Jawes made a joke about being the CEO. 
• [12:00] This was a year ago. Jawes has always had a pulse on the business. She was the director of content and Tony Robbins even bragged about her. 
• [13:37] She had a unique way of understanding the business and she cared about the finances. I knew she had a great pulse on the business when I asked her to be an integrator.
• [14:11] It took a full year to navigate everything. We created job descriptions for Jawes' role and Amy's role. 
• [15:54] Jawes began coaching and slowly started taking over some things. Last year she was heavily involved in the budgeting. 
• [16:29] Her coach reminded her to let the team know what's not changing. Don't forget to stabilize in times of change.
• [17:38] Amy coaches with Michael Hyatt and Jawes coaches with his daughter Meghan. Amy is a proponent of paying for someone who has gone there before you. 
• [19:21] We didn't have all of the answers. We told the team what we knew but we didn't go into all of the specifics.
• [20:29] We have a leadership team with directors. We have a director of ops, director of customer experience, director of community, director of content, and two marketing directors.
• [21:13] It was a lot for Amy to manage these six people along with her book launch. Jawes is managing these people, and running meetings and she's deep into finances and budgeting and projections. 
• [22:18] One of Amy's fears was losing her connection to the team and sense of community. Jawes was worried about stepping into Amy's shoes and doing justice to the brand Amy spent 14 years building. 
• [23:11] On a personal level Jawes is concerned about the balance between being the best CEO she can be for the company and being the best wife and parent for her family.
• [23:38] Jawes is the mom of a precious baby girl. She shares a cute story of her daughter's reaction to her new position. 
• [25:55] Amy is excited about being able to pitch and catch with somebody who already feels responsible.
• [27:26] Having the sounding board of a CEO and a founder working together makes a huge difference. It's exciting to see where we'll take the company. 
• [29:00] Hobie is really excited about the transition. A year from now, we'll come back on and share how it went. 
• [29:58] You don't have to always know exactly where you're going to get there. Dreaming big is amazing, but for some people it's about leading with your heart and adding value. Don't stop believing in yourself.
• [31:38] If you want to hear more behind-the-scenes episodes, send me a DM @AmyPorterfield and let me know what you want to hear.

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