Epic Success with Dr. Shannon Irvine

Episode: How I Run My Business In 10 Hours A Week

Release Date: February 20, 2026
Host: Dr. Shannon Irvine

Episode Overview

In this solo episode, Dr. Shannon Irvine reveals her foundational framework for running a multimillion-dollar business in just 10 hours a week. Centered on becoming a "hardwired CEO," Dr. Shannon lays out actionable, neuroscience-backed systems allowing entrepreneurs to operate as true leaders instead of burned-out founders. Listeners will learn about the power of the CEO Calendar, the Dashboard, and the Weekly Meeting Rhythm—three pillars that foster freedom, effectiveness, and scalable growth without sacrificing personal priorities.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Problem: Founder-as-Bottleneck (00:30–03:20)

• Shannon observes that most founders unintentionally build businesses that revolve around them—leading to stress and burnout.
• Quote: "Most founders accidentally build a very stressful job, not a business that works without them... Everything relies on you." (01:12)
• She stresses the need to trade “doing the work” for “leading the work through systems.”

2. The CEO Operating System Shift (03:15–05:02)

• Dr. Shannon identifies the essential mindset and operational shift required to scale:
  • Stop being the person every decision and process orbits around.
  • Plug in scalable CEO systems instead.
• Quote: "The shift to scaled CEO is trading doing the work for leading the work through systems so that you can compress your CEO hours and still grow." (02:19)

3. The Three-Part Framework for Operating in 10 Hours a Week

A. The CEO Calendar (05:15–13:15)

• Purpose: Choose and defend your hours; structure your week for high-leverage work.
• Three core time blocks:
  • Leadership Meeting Time: 90 minutes weekly
  • CEO Deep Work Time: 2-3 hours for thinking, reflection, decisions (Dr. Shannon now takes 2-3 hours daily)
  • Office Hours: 1–2 hours for one-on-ones with key leaders; leftover time is for family or personal pursuits
• Implementation Tips:
  • Lock in priority family or personal time—don’t wait for “someday.”
  • Every task or concern not essential for the CEO is delegated, deleted, or assigned clear ownership and metrics.
• Quote: "You’re never going to get to the point where you make enough money, where you change your schedule. It’s not going to happen." (12:45)
• Memorable Moment: Personal example—blocking off her daughter’s 2pm soccer games as non-negotiable.
  (11:40)

B. The CEO Dashboard (13:18–22:30)

• Purpose: Externalize business metrics so leadership doesn’t rely on daily firefighting or gut instinct.
• Key Elements:
  • Simple Google Sheet is enough—columns for metrics, rows for weeks.
  • Updates are weekly (not daily or monthly)—weekly helps spot patterns without causing overwhelm.
  • Each metric has a single owner (not the CEO) and a target number.
  • Owners update their metric and add a one-line update if off-target.
• Three Dashboard Sections:
  1. Evergreen Numbers: Always-on metrics (revenue, profit, client health).
  2. Focus Signals: 3–5 metrics aligned with current quarterly goals/sprints.
  3. Value Engines: Conversion, delivery, retention—how you attract and serve clients.
• Bonus: The “North Star Number” (NSN)—the single metric that, if neglected, could kill your business.
  • Example: Footlocker’s “Feet Measured” metric tripled sales in one year.
• Quote: “Emotions lie. Numbers don’t. Looking at them once a week, not every day, not every month, allows you to see trends and patterns of the 90-day goals that you have.” (19:50)

C. CEO Rhythm: The Weekly Operating System (22:35–27:30)

• Purpose: Replace daily chaos with a steady, systemic approach.
• Process:
  • Hold a focused meeting at the same time every week using the dashboard.
  • Quickly scan for off-track metrics, discuss with owners why they’re off, and agree on corrective actions.
  • CEO’s role: Protect the system, ask better questions, avoid directly solving issues.
• Outcome: Shifts 40+ hours of firefighting into a few high-impact leadership sessions, supporting true self-scaling business.
• Quote: “When you do this consistently, you trade 40 hours of reacting and responding and decision-making for a handful of high-leverage, guiding people who own the numbers, own the day-to-day, and own revenue generation. That, my friend, is real, real freedom.” (25:55)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dr. Shannon Irvine on Founder Burnout:
  “Everything that you built, which is amazing by the way, built you into a prison.” (01:45)

• On True CEO Focus:
  “Your brain can’t lead from chaos. It needs a system, needs repeatable patterns and constraints—or it will keep saying yes to everything.” (13:00)

• On Delegation:
  “As soon as you put Sam or Lauren or whomever’s name by that particular key performance indicator... they feel like real owners and they really start to step up.” (17:21)

• On Scaling:
  “Scaled CEOs don’t run their businesses from their inbox or Slack or Asana—they run it from a simple system like this.” (27:20)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:30 – The common founder mistake: building yourself into a business bottleneck
• 03:15 – Breaking free: switching from “founder OS” to “scaled CEO OS”
• 05:15 – CEO Calendar: mapping your hours and protecting your priorities
• 13:18 – CEO Dashboard: creating your “external brain” and assigning ownership
• 19:20 – The North Star Number concept and Footlocker case study
• 22:35 – Weekly CEO Rhythm: running the business by system, not by inbox
• 25:55 – Real-world freedom: outcome of the system and how it works

Episode Takeaways

• Shifting from founder-led chaos to system-led growth is vital for freedom and scaling.
• Structure your CEO hours around leadership, deep work, and key leader check-ins.
• Build a visible, simple dashboard with clearly assigned metric ownership.
• Anchor your week in a systemized, repeatable meeting that focuses on numbers, trends, and accountability.
• The “Scaled CEO OS” allows you to grow a business to $10M+ with far less time stress.

Further Steps

• For listeners interested in Dr. Shannon’s help building their own CEO operating system, she invites them to book a free “scaling audit” (see show notes for link).
• She encourages listeners to connect via Instagram DMs with their feedback and to check her YouTube for more in-depth videos.