Episode 237 – Make the Most of Your Business Owner Thinking Time

When you’re running a consulting business, it’s easy to get swept up in client delivery, meetings, and an endless task list. But without dedicated time to think, you risk repeating the same results year after year.

In this episode, Melisa breaks down how to make “business owner thinking time” a consistent and practical part of your operations. She shares why this space is critical, what happens when you skip it, and why tools like AI can’t replace your own brainpower.

Melisa outlines four ways to maximize your thinking time, including when to schedule it, how to use paper to deepen your processing, and how to avoid overcomplicating it.

Then, she explains the five pathways to structure your thinking time, each designed to help you approach your business from a new perspective:

1. Awareness: What thoughts are helping you move forward, and which are quietly holding you back?
2. Problem-Solving: What’s the real issue beneath the surface, and what assumptions are you making?
3. Ideation: If you had no constraints, what would you try? How would you 10X your results with 1/10 the resources?
4. Goal & Vision Relationship: On a scale of 1–10, how confident are you in achieving your goals, and what would make it a 10?
5. Identity: How would your future self (the business owner you want to become) think about this situation?

Melisa also shares two fun ways you can put this into action right away, including the free Business Brain Challenge and her structured Business Brain Journal.

This strategy isn’t about more hustle; it’s about carving out the time to think like a business owner and aligning your decisions with the bigger vision you want to achieve.

Tune in to Episode 237 to learn how to build a thinking practice that makes your consulting business more intentional, innovative, and successful.

🔗 Companion Resource: The Business Brain Journal

To put this episode into action,

1. Join the Business Brain Challenge
2. Shop Growth Atlas Products:
   1. Quarterly Business Planner
   2. The Business Brain Journal
   3. The Project Map Desk Pad

FOR MORE INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT RESOURCES:

1. Coaching for Consultants: Click here to apply to work with me.
2. Book: Grow Your Consulting Business: The 14-Step Roadmap to Make Your Independent Consulting Goals a Reality
3. YouTube Podcast Channel
4. LinkedIn 
5. Website
6. Related Podcast Episodes:
   1.  Episode 230 – Overcoming a Revenue Plateau in Your Consulting Business