HSH 073: Why I Took A 6-Week Break
If you’re an avid follower of the podcast, you may have notice that for the past 6 weeks I haven’t been around. I wanted to share the reasons why I did this and the action steps I took that allowed me to do it. So let’s pull back the curtains and talk about this!
Back when I decided to get into business for myself, it really came from a desire to be able to wake up and make my own rules. To this day, this continues to drive me!
6 weeks ago I got to a point where I was feeling burnt out, uninspired and overworked. Everything from the outside looked perfect with the business, but sometimes looks can be deceiving.
These feelings were coming up right before the launch of our flagship 5-Figure Challenge program. For the launch I had big goals ($250,000 in sales), and a lot of things in the launch didn’t convert the way we wanted them to. We still made $107,000 in revenue, with $67,000 in profit after expenses, but it wasn’t what I wanted - our biggest launch ever.
Although we had tons of issues (with Facebook ads, team structure, tech issues and more), I should have put things in perspective at the time and realized that this was still a very successful launch with a healthy profit.
Still, I had lingering thoughts of how my audience wouldn’t trust me as I teach marketing and wasn’t able to hit my own goals for the launch. It was then that I decided to step back from the business, although I had a real fear that once I did so, I wouldn’t want to come back.
I can now see the reason I needed to step back was because I wasn’t taking the time to do the things that make me happy, like getting regular massages and even something as simple as taking baths. I had gotten so comfortable with the work being the reward that I forgot to reward myself outside of the work!
The first thing I did was that for two weeks I did just about nothing, and I just reassessed my situation. Entrepreneurs often have a “Superman Complex” and try to do everything for fear that the whole business will fall apart in a few weeks (it won’t)! Understand and accept that some stuff will happen, but you can do whatever it takes to make it right for the customer after the fact. To do so, I empowered my team to make decisions such as offering bonuses to customers who may not have been happy with the product or service.
Next, identify where the profit will be coming from for the time that you are taking the break. Where can you create it with a minimal time and energy investment on your part? Remember that you can always use future money to validate today’s need for a break! One way to do this may be to schedule consulting calls for the time after you return.
Finally, figure out how you’re going to recharge. For me, I recently spent an entire day at the zoo while on a trip to Australia. I also spent a day at the pool doing nothing but hanging out with friends, and I traveled to towns that I had never seen before. Just taking a break isn’t enough; you have to find the things that recharge you. It will also help to release things that aren’t serving you at this time (for me, I left a number of Facebook groups I had been a member of).
One quick note - ease back in to work! If you come back to a pile of work that you don’t enjoy, the feeling of being recharged will quickly go away.
A two-week break isn’t going to kill your business, and I don’t subscribe to the mentality that if you’re not growing, you’re dying. If you’re at a point where growth has become so painful and such a struggle that you need a break – take one! In a lifestyle business you are the business, so ultimately you need to make taking care of yourself a priority.
