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Most service based business owners think becoming a CEO happens later. After a team. After more revenue. After things feel more “legit.” But that belief is exactly what keeps you stuck in constant doing mode instead of real growth. You don’t become a CEO someday. You decide to lead like one now.

In this episode of The Real Truth About Business, Michelle breaks down the critical shift from operator to CEO and why it has nothing to do with titles, team size, or revenue milestones. She explains how being great at your craft is not the same as owning and leading a business, why staying in doer mode limits growth, and how simple CEO level decisions create clarity, sustainability, and momentum even if you’re a party of one.

Whether you’re a coach, consultant, OBM, VA, designer, copywriter, or ADHD entrepreneur, this episode will help you stop identifying only as the service provider and start leading your business with intention and authority.

You’ll learn:

1. The real difference between operator mode and CEO thinking
2. Why being busy and productive doesn’t equal business growth
3. How to make decisions based on facts instead of urgency
4. What CEOs actually do and why you don’t need a team to be one
5. How stepping into leadership creates clarity, profit, and sustainability

This is the real truth about business growth, especially for neurodivergent service providers who crave clarity, structure, and results without falling for every trend online.

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Here's your Next Steps:

1. Take the "Where's the Gap in Your Business Strategy" Quiz
2. Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads or Facebook
3. Visit my website to learn more and apply for the Focused Visionary Accelerator
4. Sign up for my newsletter - Sunday Morning Brew - delivered every Sunday at 6 am

About the Host:

Michelle DeNio is a business strategist and growth advisor for service-based entrepreneurs, especially neurodivergent and ADHD business owners. Creator of the Focused Visionary Accelerator and host of The Real Truth About Business podcast, she helps clients simplify, focus, and grow sustainably. With 15+ years in business operations, she’s known for turning big ideas into simple, profitable action plans.

Hey, let's talk about the fact that most people think becoming a CEO.

Like, I really want you to think about this term right now what CEO means.

And most people think about a CEO happening, like hiring a team, managing people, hitting a certain revenue number when your business is a little bit more legit, right?

Like, I don't.

I'm not a CEO.

I'm.

I'm just a copywriter.

I hear this all the time.

I'm just the.

This.

Okay?

And that's not really how it works.

And that's what I want to talk about today is this shift from operator to CEO and how it really doesn't have anything to do with the title that it has everything to do with how you see yourself and how you see your business and how you can have a very quick mindset shift, even if you're a party of one.

Okay?

So that's what we're talking about today, the shift from operator to CEO in your business.

You ready to dive in?

All right, let's make it happen.

Let's talk about it today.

Operator to CEO.

This is one of my favorite topics because I think so many people relate to this, right?

I hear it all the time of, like, when people ask you what you do, or somebody asks like, well, tell me about you.

And it's like, well, I'm a web designer, or I'm just this.

I hear this all the time.

This.

Just for first of all, take just out of it, like, you're not just anything.

You're a skilled web designer, you're a skilled content creator.

You are a skilled business coach, business strategist, mindset coach, whatever it is, right?

Like, that is one hat you wear, but you wear it with confidence, okay?

And so there's.

There's that, right?

So there's being a copywriter, and then there's owning a copywriter business, right?

A copywriting.

Excuse me.

I'm like, where's my English?

Okay, so, like, that's the shift I really want to talk about, right?

Is the shift between, like, being a copywriter and owning a copywriter.

Business copywriter.

I said it again.

Copywriting business.

Same skill, very different way of thinking, okay?

One is very focused on doing, focused on tasks, and the other one is really focused on decisions, okay?

And this, to me, is the shift that needs to happen, especially if you are in this place of growth of like, why am I not growing the way I want to?

You may not be seeing the growth you're looking for because you're still stuck in operator mode.

Operator thinking, Operator doing Okay, so let's dive into and talk a little bit about like what is the difference between the skill, right.

Versus the ownership?

Okay, so being an operator, right?

Operator mode, meaning you identify with the work you do, right?

Your day to day is driven by like delivery and execution, right?

So even if you're a consultant, it's still the deliverable is the session, the consulting, the emails, the whatever, right?

Like the actual being a consultant or a coach or a strategist or a freelancer or whatever, it's all driven by the execution of the what, whatever you're selling, right?

Okay.

And then if you shift into that and you're wearing now the CEO hat, right?

It's about owning a business that delivers a service, right?

It's about the business ownership of it, not just being the service provider of it.

You make decisions with direction, structure, sustainability.

You're not just throwing spaghetti at the wall, right?

It's not just a, oh, this sounds cool right now, or squirrel syndrome or shiny object syndrome.

It's you're making decisions that are rooted in facts, that are rooted in non emotional responses, right?

Okay.

And your success is really measured by results, right?

It's not measured in effort, it's not measured in how busy you are or how many clients you have or anything of that sort.

Right?

Okay.

And so this is where I see a lot of people get stuck, right?

You get, you get really excellent at this skill, but you never really stepped far enough back.

But here's what I want you to also remember, and I've said this before, and if you listened, you've heard me say it a bunch of times, is that you have a skill that you decided to use to start a business, right?

That's how 90% of us start our businesses, right?

Is like, we're good at something, we decide to start charging for it and voila, we are a business owner.

I mean, that's the beauty of entrepreneurship, that it really is that simple, right?

You get good at something, you build something, you create something, you decide to put a price tag on it and oh my gosh, you're a business owner.

That's amazing.

But just because now all of a sudden you're a business owner doesn't mean you're an expert at business.

And I say that with love because, right, like it's my job to be an expert at business as a business strategist.

That is my, that is my skill, that is the service I bring to the table, right?

I have years and years, 15 years plus business experience, business growth, business operations, business Accounting, right?

Like that is my skill.

Skill.

All right?

So that doesn't mean, just because all of a sudden I became a business owner, that I'm now a web designer, right?

Because as a business owner, I have to have a website, but that doesn't mean that I know how to build websites as a business owner.

It doesn't make me a brand specialist.

It doesn't make me a copywriter.

Even though all of those things are very important in being a business owner.

That's not my skill.

But what I see happen all the time is these service providers, all of a sudden, they start charging for their service and then wonder why they are not an expert at business, right?

Because you're not.

That's not your skill set, right?

Just like web design and copywriting is not mine, okay?

And so anyways, that's part of what I mean by this operator mindset, right?

It's like this operator doing, trying to figure it out as you go.

And I.

And I love that.

I love that for you.

But here's why.

Doer mode limits your growth, okay?

Because doer mode is very much focused on productivity, right?

It feels safe.

It feels familiar.

You can do this in your sleep, right?

We know it.

We know it like the back of our hand.

It's not like it takes any effort.

We just know we are good at this skill.

All right?

But it also keeps you in a very reactive state, right?

Because you respond instead of deciding.

You chase what feels urgent.

You don't take time to look at what's actually working for the most part, right?

When you're in operator mode, you're kind of just in doing mode and you're in this, like, I gotta do this, I gotta do this.

You're checking the boxes, you're doing all the thing.

Even if those things feel like administrative, you're still just like doing the things, creating content, doing this, doing that, right?

Creating offers, pricing them, doing all of that.

But, like, are you actually sitting down and looking at it and going, okay, but what do I really need to do today?

All right?

And so that's the shift that we're talking about here of, like, shifting into that situation.

CEO thought is, you know, looking at it through.

What is the data telling me that I need to do?

When is the last time I actually sat down and reflected on what is working, right?

What's not working, what's not going well, where am I spending time with very little return, right?

This is where we sit down and we look at facts.

Not necessarily feelings, not necessarily assumptions, not emotions.

This is facts, okay?

And I was at an event recently, and I.

And I got to disagree with this statement.

Is she.

And I was actually super surprised, too, because she asked a question and said, how many of you in this room are CEOs, are the CEO, right?

And I would say, out of, like, I don't know how many people were in the room at that point, maybe 60.

I would say maybe only 10 hands went up, which to me felt sad because I wanted everybody to raise their hand because every single business owner in that room is the CEO of their business, right?

CEOs make decisions.

CEOs look at facts.

Now, where I disagreed is she said, CEOs don't make decisions.

They use a board to make decisions.

Now, she said that because that's what she was selling, right?

Like, let's just be.

Let's just call a spade a spade.

Here we go again.

But, like, she was selling a mastermind.

So she was trying to paint the picture of that.

But here's my point is, like, that's exactly what a CEO does, right?

A CEO is there to look at the information and make educated decisions from that information, right?

That's really, truly what a CEO does, is they're there to make decisions, right?

So this shift here, like, think about it.

Your operator mindset is, I gotta fix this right now.

I feel so behind everybody else is doing this, right?

A CEO decision sounds like, well, what does the data really say?

What are the facts telling me?

What is actually moving the needle?

What happens if I don't do this?

What happens if I say no to this?

Right?

And so one is acting and operating out of a place of urgency.

The other one operates from a place of clarity.

There is a time and place for both of them.

Sometimes we do need to be in operator mode, and other times we need to be in CEO mode.

And this is where it's like that shift.

I'm not saying that, you know, if you're a party of one, and if you're the one doing the thing and you're executing and you're providing the service, right?

You can't get out of operator mode.

And I'm not saying that you should.

But what I am saying is that at some point, you have to give yourself the space, the freedom to say, I'm also the CEO of my business.

And the CEO takes time to sit down and look at what's actually going on.

And so maybe that's once a month, right?

Inside of the Focus Visionary accelerator, we do this once a month.

We have our monthly reflect and refine meetings.

And that is designed to put the CEO hat on, right?

We take the operator hat off and we sit down for 90 minutes and we look at everything that went on through the lens of a CEO.

Okay?

What worked, what didn't work, where do we need to put more focus?

Where do we have leads we need to write?

Like, where do we have leads we need to follow up with?

What information do we need to really look at?

Right?

It's really more about, like, where can I optimize this?

Where can I double down on this?

Where am I spending too much time on this?

Right?

It's all about.

About looking at your business through a different lens.

And I'm not saying you have to do this on a daily.

It would be exhausting, right?

You can't be in one or the other, I think, every day, all day, right?

But what you can do is give yourself maybe a day, a week or a day, a month, if nothing else, to shift into this CEO mode and really look at your business through the lens of facts and saying, okay, what decisions do I need to make here for the betterment, for the growth, for.

For the increase in profit, revenue, time, whatever you're chasing, how can I.

What decisions do I need to make in order for that to happen?

That's all it is.

That's what being the CEO is.

And the CEO does make the decisions, okay?

And so then you make those decisions, and then you maybe have to shift back into operator mode to execute on those decisions.

But at least you've given yourself the time and space to really look at your business and put that hat on and just pause, right?

You don't need a team, you don't need a board.

Maybe you have a couple, you know, maybe you have a mentor.

Maybe you have a strategist.

This is why I do this as a group inside of Focus Visionary Accelerator.

Because again, like my point I said earlier, it's my job to be an expert at business, not yours.

Unless you're also a business strategist.

But, you know, if you're not in the business strategy and consulting growth space, then it's not your job to be an expert in business, it's mine.

Right?

And so that's why I do do this as a group.

Because, yeah, I do help them make the decisions.

I do help them to analyze what's actually happening.

I do help them to look at and recognize and see patterns, right?

That's what I.

That's my role.

Okay?

But even if you don't have me, which you can Right.

Like the Focus Visionary accelerator.

That's what this is for.

And it's so inexpensive.

The link is in the show notes.

Go check it out.

I don't want to.

I could go on a rabbit hole about that.

So I'm going to try not to.

But anyway, right?

Like it's really just about sitting down and asking those questions, giving yourself space and being honest.

Being honest.

And whether you have a group of people that you can share this information with and they can help you make decisions.

That's okay.

Right?

But even as a party of one, you are still running a company, right?

You are still running a company, whatever your company name is.

I am still Michelle Denial Consulting llc.

That is my company name.

Right?

Yes.

I execute on all of these other things.

But look at like all the different legs my company has.

It's got the podcast, it's got a community, it's got one on one consulting, it's got speaking.

Right?

Those are all pieces of Michelle Denial Consulting.

Yes.

I am the one executing them all right now.

But maybe not always.

In the future, maybe I'll bring in another consultant.

I don't know.

Because I don't intend to have a team.

That's not.

I didn't get into business to have to manage people.

So I don't.

That's not a goal for me.

But it could be a goal for you.

Okay, but even if it's a party of one, you are responsible for the direction that it goes.

You are responsible for the decisions and you are responsible for the sustainability of it.

Right?

It's nobody else's responsibility.

Right?

So that makes you the CEO, the CEO, the owner, the founder, whatever you want to call it, I don't care.

But understand that like you aren't just a service provider.

You are a business owner.

You are the CEO of your business.

And you are also a web designer, a service provider.

Okay?

And so I just really want you to sit and reflect with this a little bit.

And maybe you ask yourself, like, where am I spending so much time doing and not ever giving myself the time to make like slow, educated decisions?

I mean, educated meaning educated from what's actually going on in your business.

When was the last time you looked at like your actual numbers?

I'm going to record another episode around like what I call KSF.

Some people call them KPIs, but why I call them KSFs and not KPIs.

But again, like, where are you looking at those numbers?

What are you measuring?

What are you tracking?

Right.

Or are you just tracking the things on Your to do list in the boxes you need to check, right?

And, like, where are you operating out of a place of urgency instead of from a place of intention?

Okay, These are the leadership questions.

This is you leading your business.

That's why companies hire CEOs, right?

Because they need somebody in the leadership role.

Sometimes the owner doesn't want to be that person, and so they bring somebody else in.

Again, that.

There's outsourced CEOs, there's fractional CEOs, there's strategists like myself that can help be this person for you.

Because I know.

I understand.

I have so many clients that say to me, michelle, I don't want to do this shit.

I don't want to be this person.

This is not who I want to be as a business owner.

I want to be the person that gets to do the fun stuff that's creating.

That puts me back into my zone of genius, right?

Where I love to be and where I can utilize my skill.

Like, I don't want to be this person.

And I get that.

Okay, you don't need to be this person all the time, right?

And you can hire people or you can join programs like fva.

That will be the CEO that will help you to be the CEO when you.

Like, once a month, right?

Like, that's it.

And that's what.

And that's really all it needs.

Okay?

So, because I just want you to really remember, is that like being in operating mode all the time and operator thinking creates exhaustion.

CEO thinking creates clarity, creates expansion, creates growth.

Okay?

And that creates sustainability.

All right?

So this is not about a new title.

Although I would love for all of you to give yourself the title of CEO.

To give yourself the title of business owner.

When you introduce yourself, instead of saying, hey, my name is Michelle, and I am a business strategist, say, hey, my name is Michelle Denayo.

I own Michelle Denial Consulting.

I am a business strategist.

Da, da, da, da, Right?

I own my business.

It's not.

It's not just Michelle as a business strategist.

It's no.

Hi, nice to meet you.

I'm Michelle Denial with Michelle Denial Consulting.

I own Michelle Denial Consulting.

Right, Whatever you want to say, however you want to say it.

Okay?

So shift that thinking.

That's all it is.

It's just a simple shift.

Maybe you need to actually visualize taking one hat off and putting another hat on.

If you're a visual person, maybe the visualization will help you.

But again, one is about doing.

One is about decisions.

And the decisions are what set the tone for growth.

Okay.

I love you.

I believe in you, and I will talk to you soon.