How Online Creatives Can Design and Plan Personal Retreats and Time Off
Time Off is Non-Negotiable
Changes to the newsletter
Join the waitlist for The Mint Collective. Think of it as a mix between a mastermind and group coaching program.
Upcoming Paid Workshop Details:
Make Money Daily (Paid Workshop)-This 2 hour hands on workshop will take what you learned in the One to Recurring Workshop and walk attendees through implementing the strategies within their personal projects.
Final dates are shown below
Hosted via Zoom
You will work through worksheets and refine your monetization during this workshop. Topics covered: Affiliate marketing, Messaging and Content, Pitching and Sales. Be prepared to participate :)
You’ll also have an additional co-working day for asking questions and working through your monetization strategies in June (the group will decide on that date)
Cost: $97
Click Here to Reserve Your Spot Today!
Dates (you may attend both dates if you like)
Thursday, May 23, 2024 at 6:00 pm MTN/8:00 pm EST
Friday, May 31, 2024 at 12:00 pm MTN/2:00 pm EST
Are You Scheduling Time Off ?
It’s the end of the first week of May and I’m realizing that I really need a break. Not necessarily a vacation, but some time away so that I can refresh my energy. Typically, I schedule time-off each quarter. During that time I head to the mountains, or even somewhere in town where I can focus just on me without interruption. These day or days away feel a little bit indulgent and in the beginning I would feel guilty for prioritizing these trips. Especially when most people view online content creation as fun vs. work. In fact, it has only been in recent years where it feels like people believe that content creation is actually work.
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Building and creating online is a lot of work.
And it wasn’t until I started taking time off throughout the year that I understood how important it was for my creativity, focus and energy to take time off. What time off looks like in my business is the following:
Taking a break during the day for a long walk
Front loading my week so that most of my weekend is free for me to spend time with friends and family.
Saying “no” to single pick your brains and instead focusing on helping the people that I serve in group sessions.
And, I schedule breaks away from home.
5 Tips For Scheduling Time Off In Your Business
#1-Work away from home
So You Actually Get Work Done
I try to work away from home as often as possible. My place is so distracting that I find myself focusing on things that I could fix, clean or move around. Here are some of the places that I work from.
Resort Pass-This is one of my favorite new tools. If you’ve ever wanted to use hotel facilities for the day (to swim, soak in the sauna, etc.) You can now book a day at participating hotels from all over the world that are on the platform.
The Public Library-One of my favorite places in the world is the public library. They typically have great internet, work rooms and are super quiet. Just make sure to check when the Baby and Me Story Times are happening. They can get a little nosey.
Co-working spots-For the longest time I used the subscription tool “Deskpass” the business model has changed and now customers just book their day at the space vs. a monthly subscription payment. The cool thing about Deskpass is that they have offices all over the United States.
Coffee Shops-If you follow me on social media you’ve likely seen that I love to work from coffee shops. My favorite shops will have great coffee, wonderful team members and patio that I can work from. I do pay for snacks while I’m there and working from a coffee shop typically is cheaper than working from a co-working space.
Bougie Bars-Yes, I’m serious. There are a number of bars that are designed with internet and the expectation that people may work from them. I was just at one last week and plan on testing out different spots around town. They even have mocktails for folks who don’t drink alcohol.
#2-Batch Your Work
There is a temptation to work incessantly in and on our online businesses. Creating content, recording podcasts, being interviewed, etc. It can get overwhelming and super tiring.
Have you tried batching?
While there are some pieces of content that might not work for batching, most content can be batched if you have the following strategy in mind.
Once you have enough content batched-you can take TIME OFF without worrying about content.
How Does Batching Work?
Basically you would allocate a day, week, month or quarter to focus on producing a significant amount of content with the goal of giving you the space to market your work vs. working on your content.
Decide which content within your brand works well for batching.
Podcast episodes/podcast notes
Social media scheduling
Podcast interviews as a guest or with guests
Website focused content
Set aside uninterrupted time in a space that is conducive to you actually getting work done.
Utilize AI tools to make your content creation process more efficient.
Schedule that content as far ahead as is appropriate for the type of content you’re publishing. Caution when it comes to scheduling social media ahead of time because you can accidentally schedule a post and something could happen in the news making your content potentially problematic.
#3-What’s Your Business Flow?
A couple of weeks ago I shared a newsletter where I discussed how summer is the secret weapon in my business. I work a lot more on my business during the summer. While it can be a slower time of year for sales, it’s a great time for me to do the following:
Work on a launch
Build my list
Test out a new product
Batch out essential content
Plan my Holiday Sales strategies
Knowing my business flow throughout the year makes it easy for me to plan time off. I’m in the habit of taking time off from mid-November until mid-January because things slow down significantly in my business.
#4-Try to Plan Ahead
By now you’ve recognized a recurring theme in the tips that I’ve shared so far. Being forward thinking and intentional with the following:
Your business goals-be honest about what you want.
Intentions specific to the actions you’re taking
Recognizing your personal capacity.
Taking time off means that you’ll need to spend some time developing a broader view of your business. Many folks would call this designing a strategic plan.
#5-Make Taking Time Off Non-Negotiable
Creative businesses often fizzle out because the creator burns out. I’ve experienced this more times that I would like to admit. Intentionally allocating time to be creative, joyful and to have fun has made a huge difference in how I experience my business. I look forward to creating and working on and in Creators Getting Paid and the other niches I’m focused on. My work is joyful more than 80% of the time and I consider that a win. Some of your work is just going to be a little bit painful and there’s no getting out of it. That’s the work that you’ll eventually delegate to someone else.
Bonus Tip: Plan Your Next Retreat
I’m sharing how I plan an extended retreat with a focus on rest, work and professional impact. Paying subscribers will learn where I’m going this fall, how much I plan on paying for the retreat and the what I hope to get from it.