The Level #72
3 min
Championship Mindset: Creator to CEO
My journey from player to champion started with a dirt court in my backyard.
I spent hours making that court playable, even convincing my parents to install lights for night practice. My rule was simple: I couldn't go in for dinner until I made a shot from every spot around the perimeter without missing.
This wasn't just basketball practice—it was my first lesson in creating conditions for success. I was learning to design a system, not just perfect my skills.
This same kind of strategic thinking transforms talented creators into successful CEOs. Here are four mindset shifts you need to build a sustainable, recurring revenue business as a creator.
1. From Executor to Architect
Players execute plays. Champions understand the entire game.
The first and most fundamental shift is from seeing yourself as the person who does the work to the person who designs how work gets done. This means:
✅ Strategic thinking: Looking beyond immediate tasks to design entire systems
✅ Process creation: Building frameworks that others can follow
✅ Decision architecture: Creating guidelines that enable decisions without your involvement
When you view your business as an architecture project rather than a to-do list, everything changes. You stop asking "What should I do next?" and start asking "What system would solve this entire category of problems?"
2. From Reactive to Proactive Decision-Making
Players react to what happens. Champions anticipate and shape what happens. One of the clearest signs of the creator-to-CEO shift is how you approach decisions:
✅ The Decision Minimization Framework: Design systems that eliminate unnecessary decisions
✅ The 10/10/10 Method: Evaluate choices based on impact in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years
✅ The Delegation Decision Tree: Determine what only you can do versus what can be systematized
When I was forced to reduce my work hours by 75%, I had to become ruthlessly efficient about where I focused my limited energy. This wasn't just about time management—it was about strategic decision minimization.
The goal is not about faster decisions, but fewer decisions because your systems handle routine matters automatically.
Is your next big bet on... yourself?
Over the last 60 days, five creators have completely transformed their approach to recurring revenue in our MRR Accelerator. We've helped them establish the right strategies to run smoother, scale faster, and generate more predictable income than ever before.
In this program, we marry your expertise with our business acumen & unmatched recurring revenue prowess to build multi-5-figure MRR machines for people like you.
If you feel something stirring inside of you, urging you to reach for more: more freedom, more certainty, more stability, more job joy, more time with your kids/partner/family/friends, don’t ignore it.
Here's your question: Will you be watching from the sidelines, continually burning through more money and time, or implementing these same strategies in your business with 2-4X MRR?
Yes, I want to accelerate my monthly recurring revenue.
Get the clarity you need to know if our next MRR Accelerator cohort is for you.
3. From Creative vs. Strategic to Creative AND Strategic
Players either score or assist. Champions do whatever the team needs.
Maybe you've fallen into a similar false dichotomy: believing you must choose between being creative or being strategic. But successful creators understand it's both.
🔸Scheduled creativity: Protect time blocks specifically for creative work
🔸Systems for inspiration: Create processes that feed your creative thinking
🔸Strategic deployment: Use business frameworks to amplify creative impact
Your creative gifts don't have to diminish when you become strategic. In fact, proper systems create the space for creativity to flourish and reduce the burden of administrative chaos.
This is my favorite paradox of the Creator CEO approach: the more strategic you become, the more your creativity can actually express itself.
4. From Self-Doubt to Leadership Confidence
Players hope they can win. Champions know—with time and a LOT of hard work—they will.
In basketball, I learned that true confidence is earned confidence—it comes from preparation and teamwork. When you understand your position, the overall strategy, and develop your own competence, individual confidence follows.
The final and perhaps most crucial shift happens in how you see yourself:
✔️ Identity evolution: Embracing your role as a business leader, not just a practitioner
✔️Decision confidence: Trusting your strategic judgment even with incomplete information
✔️Resilient leadership: Maintaining vision and direction through inevitable challenges
This shift in self-perception isn't about ego—it's about responsibility.
🔸When you truly see yourself as the CEO, not just a creator who happens to run a business, you make fundamentally different decisions.🔸
The transformation from creator to CEO is about seeing yourself as the architect of systems rather than the executor of tasks. It's about thinking in frameworks instead of to-do lists.
Champions—and CEOs—create the conditions for success and then trust the system they've built.
Which of these mindset shifts is most challenging for you? Reply and let me know where you're struggling to think like a CEO in your business.
Did you miss this game-changing convo?
One of our MRR Accelerator participants, Dan Cumberland, joined me on a LinkedIn LIVE this week, showing you how to augment AI for your business—from "a calculator to a supercomputer." You can't miss this. It will change your AI paradigm—guaranteed.
Next Week
Next week, we begin a series through critical business development phases, starting with a recent strategic session with Amanda Goetz.
See you then,
- Amanda
