Hello and welcome to another episode of Maximize Your Career. I'm your host, Stacy Mayer, and super excited to be here with you again this week, as always.

So this week has been my birthday week and it's been really, really fun, but also incredibly low key in the grand scheme of things. I'm not having a rip roaring party, I'm just sort of hanging out with my family. I have two very small children, five and a seven year old. And so while they give very, very lovely gifts, they're usually quite simple and precious, of course. My son offered to go on a walk with me, which is amazing. I couldn't ask for anything more. And then my daughter drew me a hilarious picture that I posted on Facebook because it was so funny and it made me laugh. It was a portrait of me. And yeah, you'll have to go check that out on my Facebook page. But yeah, it's been, it's been good. It's it's good. It's quiet. Things aren't too crazy in either direction. And that actually leads me into today's episode is about things being good, quiet and not too crazy in either direction. And when you think about how you want to grow in your career and your 3xed vision and where you're headed, I think what a lot of people are afraid of is as they grow to become the chief financial officer, the chief strategy officer, the chief marketing officer, whatever that might be for you, aS they grow towards that role, they don't see their life being good, relatively simple, easefull, kind of awesome. They see it as getting harder as being a lot more work. As being like: yeah, I mean, of course I want to be successful, but do I really want that added responsibility?

And these are legit questions. Definitely ask yourself these questions now, because the truth is, you don't want to become a chief financial officer, only to be pulling your hair out and stressed out and spending very little time with your family and not knowing if you're making the right choices and constantly second guessing yourself and feeling like you're working 80 hours a week. Who wants that? Nobody wants that. Everybody wants this easeful, lovely life.

And I have to tell you, this year, 2022, in terms of success, has been the biggest year of my entire career. I think I have so much more to grow. I think this is only just the beginning and I can't wait to see what comes next. But in terms of of income, in terms of impact, oh my god. Look at my book and the work that we're doing inside of Executive Ahead of Time that now has lifetime enrollment.

And so these women are not only getting promoted, but they're getting coaching from me every single week. And the thought leadership that I'm putting out, the ideas I'm coming up with, I'm already working on my second book, this podcast. Everything that I'm doing is way, way bigger impact than anything I've ever done in my entire life, ever. I have two small children, a wonderful family. I live in Berkeley, California. I am frickin living the life. And I'm not telling you that to brag. I'm telling you, as I have become more successful, I'm actually happier, I'm actually more content, I have much more ease in my life. And I kind of look at it and I'm like: Wow, things are going really, really well.

And here's the fun part, and this is why I'm recording today's episode for you is the women who I am getting promoted into these higher level positions, senior vice president becoming C-suite officers because of the work that we're doing inside of Executive Ahead of Time. And my advanced program, The Leadership Table, they're bringing that same level of contentment with them into more and more successful, impactful, higher paying roles. They are bringing a new quality to their leadership. They're not pulling their hair out. And it's because of what I teach. Module one inside of Executive Ahead of Time, Chapter two in my book, is all about getting out of the weeds. And we have to start doing that work right now in order to set ourselves up for success in the future.

Because I meet all kinds of executive leaders that hate their life. And I don't want you to be that person. And the truth is, you're not going to want to get promoted or have more success because you have other priorities in life. You're like: I don't want to be burned out. I don't want to be stressed out all the time. So we have to start doing that work right now. Even if you're already a senior vice president or a chief financial officer, wherever you're at, we can start breaking down those habits right now to lead you into a more content, full, yet higher impact lifestyle. Done.

So today's episode is all about teaching you how to do that. And I'm going to lay out for you my step by step three year plan. This is the three year plan to get you promoted to the executive suite without stress, without burnout, and frickin loving your life.

Now, I've had my business actually, I just got the LLC renewal and it said 2016 was when I officially filed for my LLC and I was coaching for several years prior to that in other areas in women's leadership. But since 2016 I have had my business. Some of the clients that I currently have, I have had since 2019. So three years, three years I have worked with a handful of people for an entire three years. And about three or four years ago I came up with in my head the ideal three year plan. If I could coach somebody for three years to the executive suite, this is how I would do it. I came up with some ideas. This is how I wanted them to be able to grow. But truthfully, I was making it up. I was making it up based on my own personal experiences and my own personal desires for how I wanted to grow my business, how I wanted to grow into other areas of success. But I was also willing to pivot along the way. Now, if you are somebody who has to develop strategy at your organization for three, five, ten years out, you know that you also are often making it up. It's a guess. Your guessing as to where you want people to end up after three years, after five years. Where you want your team, where you want the project. How you think it's going to grow the organization. Everything is our best guesstimate. It hasn't been done before and we're basing it off of other things that have been done. Other people who have created certain levels of success in their life. But really truthfully, what we're working on at work has never been done before.

What you're working on in your career has never been done before. What I was trying to create for my clients had never been done before. But I laid out a plan. I laid out a three year plan, and I am laughing right now because I was just telling my husband, I said, Oh my frickin God, it is happening. It is working. My clients who have been working with me for three years are the examples of this three year plan. It's happening people. Not only are they getting promoted to the C-suite, they are making more money and they are so much happier content and making such a bigger impact with lower volume of work than ever before. I created a plan. I executed on the plan and it's frickin working. And so I just want to tell you everything that's in my plan. I'll try and give you as many details as possible, but know that what I am sharing with you today is based on my hypothesis from four years ago as to how I wanted this to unfold and then reality. Now I'm going to be totally transparent. This is reality of like four or five people. This isn't reality for hundreds and thousands and whatever measurements of success that you want. But to me that is amazing. That proves to me that this three year plan works.

Now, we'll keep doing it. We'll keep iterating on it. We'll keep figuring out where the loopholes are, and I'll course correct as I go. But I'm like: Oh my God. And as you listen to this plan, I really want you to ask yourself, does it work for you? Does this make sense to you? If it could work out, if you could know that at the end of three years of your life, that you would be in a higher position with more pay, more autonomy, more authority, more time freedom, more impact, being brought into the conversation, stepping into your thought leadership, really owning who you are as a leader, unwavering confidence, being a role model for other women, being able to lift them up into higher levels of positions for themselves because you are the example, if you could know beyond a shadow of a doubt that that would happen at the end of three years, would you sign up? Genuinely ask yourself, would you sign up? If it was promised that this is how it's going to turn out on the other end? Would you sign up. Now your doubt and all that stuff might come in and like: Well, that's not possible for me or my situation, but I just want you to go with it. If you could be promised that this would happen at the end of three years, would you sign up? And I think the answer for most of you is yes. You're willing to try. You're willing to give it a shot, you're willing to see what happens. And I'm going to show you how that all works out.

So when women first get started working with me and now it looks like Executive Ahead of Time. But three years ago it was one on one coaching with me, but we were working on the same exact core principles. Every single corporate badass woman that came to me was in the exact same place and still is right. They are a corporate badass when they come to me. When you acknowledge that you want this vision that I just shared with you. You have to know that you already are a corporate badass, because the only reason that you're able to look at that and sort of say, well, yes, they see if it was guaranteed, if it was possible, I of course, I would sign up is because you are in fact a corporate badass. So what is a corporate badass means? It means that you're generally very good at your job. You get above average performance reviews, you have some level of competence, competency at your work. You're very well respected people like you. All of those things make you a foundational corporate badass.

And the way that we really become a corporate badass and the work that we do is this three year plan. That's when we elevate our corporate badassery so that other people also know that we're a corporate badass. But in truth, in essence, in your wiring, in your DNA as your birthright, who you were born to be, you're a corporate badass. Let's just start there. So these women come to me stuck, frustrated, annoyed for whatever reason, not because of their work itself, but because of the respect. They don't have autonomy. They feel like they should be further along in their career. They want higher pay. They feel like they're ready for more. They want to be included in those higher level leadership conversations, regardless of where they are. They might be at the vice president or senior vice president level, but for some reason they feel excluded. They're working too hard. They're burning out. They're exhausted. They're being treated like crap. Maybe there's a lot of bias at their organization. So they see other people getting promoted, but not them, people who don't look like them. People who look like the rest of the room. And then they're over here struggling, doing all the work. So that is still a corporate badass. And that person comes and starts coaching with me. And I'm just going to give it in the context of Executive Ahead of Time.

So let's say they join Executive Ahead of Time. That's the beginning of the three year plan. And in Executive Ahead of Time, they're going to learn foundational skills. And these are the foundational skills that I've been working with my clients. These examples of the three year plan, this is what we did in the beginning. We worked on number one, getting them out of the weeds. I ask them, what is their 3xed vision? Where do they see themselves going in their career? Where do they even want to be? If they could write their future as an executive officer, what exactly would that look like? And even in terms of time, freedom and the ability to lead other leaders, what does that path look like for them? We start to create essentially their three year plan. We start managing their emotions. If they have a difficult boss, if they keep feeling stuck, if they keep hitting a wall, if they're being treated like crap, if they have trouble managing their team, we work on managing their emotions and their expectations of what is actually available to them. We do 15-Minute Ally Meetings. We start to build relationships across the organization, knowing that a promotion is not a reward for your hard work. We create a promotion blueprint. They have a step by step guide to how they're going to get to that next level of leadership, what a promotion means to them. So if it's not a title, is it is it having more responsibility in this area? Is it taking on a global team? Is it no longer traveling? What is a promotion to them? Is it higher pay? Whatever that might be? We create a promotion blueprint.

My friends, this is all part of a six week program called Executive Ahead of Time. I say six weeks because it is literally those are the six modules that I just laid out for you. And then what we do is you get lifetime enrollment so that we can continuously implement it over the next year. Lifetime enrollment, of course, however long it takes. But traditionally it's about six months. So over 6 to 9 months, you're going to learn these foundational principles. You're going to start to implement them and then you're going to fail and you're going to feel frustrated and you're going to come to weekly coaching with me and then you're going to course correct. And you're going to try again and try again and try again. But what people are doing in that first year of coaching with me, the first year of becoming the leader that they really want to be, is breaking down a lot of old assumptions. Trying something different. What worked for them in the past is no longer working.

They're learning how to communicate at that executive level, how to build those relationships. What it looks like to become that Executive Ahead of Time, how to pull themselves out of the weeds, what a promotion pathway looks like for them. So all of this, I mean, it's like it is an ongoing game. You'll you'll think, oh, I mastered this one area. I'm finally out of the weeds, but now I have no relationships. I've done this, but now I realize my 3xed vision is off. And that's why we're coaching together for life. Because everything just comes up. As you start to apply the principles in Executive Ahead of Time, things will come up. But essentially the first year of my three year plan to get you not only promoted to the executive suite, but to have that impact that you so desire to be seen as that thought leader is to literally do the foundations, to learn the difference between where you are right now and becoming that executive leader. For every single person, it looks a little bit different, but the work is exactly the same.

So year number one and client after client, now we're in the hundreds. Hundreds and hundreds of women have gone with me on this year, first year of leadership. So they'll start to master this. They'll feel like: wow, I really got a handle on all of these elements. I know where I'm headed. I have my promotion path and perhaps they get promoted. Some some women take to this work and they get promoted in two weeks of joining. Some women get promoted in six months. Some women get promoted in the first year. Some women switch jobs, whatever that might be. But whatever that is for you, you start to develop some level of success and mastery.

Now, the second year of my three year plan is to then be able to be the executive. So the first year is about becoming the Executive Ahead of Time. The second year is literally owning it. Getting that unwavering confidence. So these women go through Executive Ahead of Time and then they want more. And that's when they transition into The Leadership Table with me so that they can really become that executive. Literally, this is where the coaching just opens up to general executive coaching. How do I succeed at this executive level? So whether it's leading their team, challenges with their boss being able to create the strategy for their organization, whatever that might be, it's all about developing that grounded confidence as well as stepping into their authentic power. Really owning their leadership style. Other people are repeating their leadership style. They're starting to notice that opportunities are coming their way. They don't have to work so hard at it. It's starting to feel easier. Their 3xed vision is starting to feel possible.

And then in the third year of working with me, in the third year of my three year plan, you graduate into the boardroom. And so now you've gone from becoming an executive leader, Executive Ahead of Time, to stepping into the leadership table, really owning your seat at the leadership table to joining the boardroom. And what is the boardroom in in my three year plan is stepping into your thought leadership who you are, what matters to you in the world. And usually it has to do for my clients. It has to do with their with their particular industry. But it can also have to do with their leadership. So do they want to be a role model for other women leaders? And so what they'll start to do is start their own podcast, writing blogs, being interviewed for other people's blogs. I had one woman that rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. They're stepping into what matters for them at a higher level. So usually this thought leadership starts coming out at about a year and a half of working with me into that two year mark. They feel much more secure in their job. They feel like they have that pathway which opens up all this freedom to be the woman that you really, really wanted to be.

Maybe you start mentoring or joining a board for real. Not just the boardroom inside of my group programs, but you join the boardroom. Whatever that might be for you. And here is the beauty of it is that at the end of three years, doing this three year plan. Oh, my God. Over and over again. They're just like: Stacy, my life. I don't even recognize the person that I used to be. Opportunities come to them so easily. They have autonomy. They can take time off. They don't feel like they're constantly having to prove themselves. Sure, they have challenging situations at work, but they know how to pivot. They know how to change. They feel confident in the work that they're doing, so much so that they're willing to put their ideas out there on a bigger stage. And if you're not the type of person that wants to be on a bigger stage, that bigger stage, like I said, can be mentoring 101. It can be hiring practices. It's shifting culture inside your organization. I see this as well. Part of the process that I teach is building a relationship with your CEO. So then now you have your CEO looking to you for guidance, especially around culture, because you are getting yourself promoted into those positions of authority. And now you actually have that voice. You have that seat at the table so that you feel confident to go out and make those decisions and offer those suggestions, and you start to notice that culture shifting.

And again, I want to remind you that I didn't make any of this up. This is actually what I am describing to you is actual things that have happened to my clients over the past three years. In my three year plan, they have simply executed on what I am teaching them and this is the person that they become at the end of three years. So essentially guaranteeing them to not only have that higher title, more pay, but to have that real impact and being able to influence at that higher level. They're creating a legacy for themselves through their thought leadership. If they had started out at the beginning of the three years when they were still in the weeds, they didn't really understand executive leadership, they were trying desperately just to keep their head above water, they didn't know what their long term vision was, if they had started out in that place with thought leadership, it would be this constant battle. You would feek like Jekyll and Hyde. You'd be putting yourself out there as a thought leader. But then your day job sucked. And that's when women decide to quit. To give up, to transition, to stop going for the promotions, because it's just too hard.

So we do the foundational principles. Part one of my three year plan. Then once that happens, you'll start to get the promotions. You'll start to be called on for opportunities. You'll begin to feel that grounded confidence. You'll know who you are as an executive leader, what you stand for. And then in your third year, you're going to be able to start putting that out on the greater stage. And it is such a joy, such a privilege for me to be able to witness this in real time, to witness companies changing, to witness organizations literally changing from the C-suite out. That is happening right now. And not just because they got themselves out of the weeds, but because they stuck with my plan. For the long haul. They didn't just get themselves promoted and then say, okay, Stacy, I'm out of here. I don't need coaching anymore. It's like: no. They ask themselves, okay, what's next? How can this get better? How can I lean into this even more? How can I make an even bigger impact? How can I make even more money than I ever thought was possible? That is all laid out for you in my three year plan, but it starts in Executive Ahead of Time. That is where we start. We always start with the basics we have to understand and then how quickly you execute on the three year plan is up to you.

I have some women that are actually already into this third tier in just a year, a year and a half. But it's such a a brilliant leadership path. And if you are listening to this and you're just salivating like I do. Just so excited to see what's next for you. I invite you to join us in Executive Ahead of Time. We are open for enrollment right now. Lifetime enrollment. You just go to ExecutiveAheadOfTime.com. Check it out. Let me know what questions you have. Shoot me an email, follow up because I want to get you in there. I want you to start understanding these foundational principles so that we can get you on this three year plan. We can get you started on that dream, that guarantee at the end of the tunnel that you are not only going to have position authority, but you're going to be making that bigger impact. You're going to have that voice at the table and you're going to be creating a legacy for you, for your leadership, for your organization. You're changing culture. The work that you do now matters. And I am so thrilled to have this plan, this three year plan to help you get there.

Alright my friends, have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.