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Build a Schedule You Want with Sarah Olivieri [Episode 427]
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Episode Description
Most nonprofit leaders are running a calendar built out of obligations they accepted on autopilot. The board asks. The donor meeting. The standing call that has been on the schedule for so long nobody can remember why. The week fills up, and the week after that, and the work that actually energizes the leader gets squeezed into whatever is left. Which is usually nothing.
Sarah goes solo in this episode to walk through how to design a schedule around energy and alignment, drawing on the way she has run her own organization on roughly sixteen hours a week for a decade.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn
Why every yes on the calendar is also a no to something else, even when nobody names it out loud
The exercise of designing your week, starting from what energizes you, not from what is already on the calendar
Why blocking the time you actually want is step one, and figuring out how to make it work is only step two
What happens to output when leaders move into the work that fits, and why energy is a multiplier on time
The line between obligation and alignment, and how to tell which one is driving a given commitment
Who This Episode Is For
This episode is especially helpful for:
Executive directors whose calendars are full but whose mission is not advancing at the pace they want
Nonprofit leaders heading into a new quarter or year and ready to set the rhythm differently
Leaders running on willpower instead of structure, who suspect the schedule itself is the problem
Anyone who has ever said yes to a recurring commitment and then resented it every time it landed on the calendar
About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri
Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human…
Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth.
She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results.
Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together.
Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them.
A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life.
Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey.
Links
Website: saraholivieri.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-olivieri
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