Note: at this time transcripts are automated and unedited, which means errors may occur. But we hope you find them helpful!

[00:00:00] Viv: Welcome back to another episode of marketing without social media. Now, before we dive in, I wanted to let you know that if you are a service based business, thank coaches consultants, therapists who wants to get to $7,000 plus recurring months. Yes. Every month, but needs help with growing your audience.

[00:00:18] Maybe with generating regular leads or landing paying clients, then I’d like to invite you to a free. 15 minute leads, game plan call. Yes, just 15 minutes to work on your marketing plan. This is a super fast pace call. And in this call, we are gonna take a look at your current situation to see what is, and isn’t working for you right now in your business.

[00:00:41] We’re gonna figure out and identify what’s possible for you and your business in the next six months and beyond we’re gonna uncover the number one. That is restricting your growth and holding you back right now. And finally, we are gonna develop a three step action plan. [00:01:00] Yes, three step action plan that will get you results in your business.

[00:01:04] A S P. Now the session is. Free it’s 15 minutes. And all you have to do is head on over to Viv guide.com/game plan. Yes, that’s Viv guy.com/game plan. Right now, pick a day, pick a time that suits you and let’s chat. Well, hello there. Now this episode is for you, if you are either of these people, if you are that person that is either posting or scrolling to check comments, et cetera, when they aren’t officially working.

[00:01:39] You know what I mean, guys, weekends days off when the kids are at home, because you feel you have no, no choice or you are that person who totally. Switches off from social media for a week or two or three or four, however long you have for your holiday or vacation. But then you feel that feeling of [00:02:00] dread at having to get back into social media when you return to work.

[00:02:03] And that is the one I hear. So much after the summer break, if that’s the way you feel, then this episode is for you in this episode, I am talking to you all about how things have changed for me from last summer when I was still on social media back then, how I’m preparing for. Five weeks away from the business.

[00:02:28] I do this every year, but this year is especially different because I will not have any social media presence. I won’t have it on my phone. I don’t have it on my phone or any access to it at all. So how are things going to be different? Well, guys, let’s dive in, get your pens, get your paper.

[00:02:55] You’re listening to marketing without social media. With me, Viv guy, [00:03:00] the podcast for people who want more clarity, connections, and cash in their business, I’ll be sharing with you proven techniques from leading entrepreneurs and experts from across the globe to help you to market without social media and to grow your business in a way.

[00:03:18] Actually feels good to you.

[00:03:29] Well, welcome to this episode and I am not in my business. As you listen to this, if you are listening to it at the time of it going live and airing, then I am not here. I am far, far, far away from rural Lancaster over in Australia. I’m visiting my sisters. We haven’t all been together with my. For four years, four years.

[00:03:57] It’s just crazy. So I’m away. [00:04:00] I am away. So I’m recording this or have recorded this in advance because I kind of wanted to share what’s gonna be different for me this year, but also how I’m preparing for taking five weeks off, because I know a lot of business owners have this freak out. Uh, like they maybe wanna take time off if they’ve got kids.

[00:04:20] Maybe if they don’t have kids, they wanna take a big chunk of time out of the business. And they’re really worried about how to do that. Now. I used to be the workaholic. I ran my first business for 12 years and I worked 80 hour, weeks, 60 to 80 hour weeks were the norm for me. So when I got to my holidays, obviously I would be unwell.

[00:04:43] I would be ill for the first week because I was burnt out as. Yes. I won’t say the F word, but, uh, that’s how I was. I was really in a bad place. So things are a bit different now. And I knew when I started, um, my [00:05:00] second and my third business, there was no freaking way that I was gonna work those hours ever again, because I realized, you know, life is too short to work all those hours.

[00:05:11] And there were more important things there in my life that I actually wanted to, um, invest my time in. So I knew I’d work 20 hours a week and that I would work. A maximum of 40 weeks a year. Yes, 12 weeks off a year. So that means I plan my entire business, uh, and structured my entire business model around this, around working just 40 weeks a year and taking a, a longer break over the summer when my, my girls are off school and a nursery.

[00:05:45] And even when they’re grown up, ho will still do this and have this nice summer break. Um, Let’s talk about what’s changed. Okay. Aside from the working hours, how, how do I do it? How do I take [00:06:00] this time off? What do I plan in my business? How do I make sure it doesn’t come to a grinding hole so that when I get back after my, my break that I have zero lead.

[00:06:11] That I don’t know what I’m gonna do and where my next clients are going to come from. And let’s also talk about what’s changed from last summer. So I want to start with the latter what’s changed from last summer. Well, last summer. So summer of 2021. I was in my last couple of months of being on social media, hadn’t made the decision at that point.

[00:06:34] I hadn’t put my hard finished date, uh, out there, but I knew, and it was one of the big factors summer. For me, it was a big factor that really pushed me, tipped me over the edge to go fuck this. Oh, there you go. The FBOs there. Sorry. If this kid’s around. It was last summer that absolutely highlighted for me, that things had to change.

[00:06:54] Sure. I was taking time off. And I’m saying this in, in air brackets [00:07:00] here? Um, yeah, I was off, I was away. You know, from the business, I wasn’t sat at my desk, but I wasn’t off. I wasn’t switched off. I wasn’t fully present. Why? Because a couple of things, one, I had something launching on the 1st of September, which was the stupidest, dumbest idea ever.

[00:07:24] Sure. We had done loads of our, our tech prep and everything was kind of in place ready to. But I was having to show up on social media on Instagram, on Facebook to do lives. To kind of promote the thing and I resented it so much, so I didn’t give it my all, I was kind of half in half out, which is definitely not the way to be.

[00:07:46] You’ve gotta be all in or freaking all out because you’re not gonna get the result you want. Um, and it went well, it went okay. but it could have been better if I’d been able to put more into it. But I, my heart wasn’t in it because I was resenting it, it was [00:08:00] taking me away from family time and my brain, you know, I was using brain bandwidth.

[00:08:06] Just thinking about having to go live or what was I gonna say tomorrow? Um, I was also part of somebody else’s summit, so I was having to do loads of promotion for this and I. Standing in a freaking field in the bright morning sun with my phone there doing lives. And she was like, your promo’s amazing.

[00:08:27] And I was like, well, thanks. But you know what? Freaking sucks. I didn’t say that bit, but it sucked. It really did. And this is what I see. I see a lot of people who. When they’re in their downtime, they’re switched off time. Their personal time, they are still on social media and they can be like, Hey, I’m lying by the pool.

[00:08:47] I’m totally off work. I’ve got freedom in my business and from my business. But I’m like, have you freaking really? Because you are thinking about work right now. And even if you love your business, I love my business. I it’s my third [00:09:00] business. I love business. I love what I do. I’m really passionate about serving people, but you know what.

[00:09:06] I’m passionate about looking after my, my family, giving the best of myself to those people that are important within my life, which means me being present and also giving myself the time to, to switch off fully because when we fully get the time to switch off, oh my God, we come up with such amazing ideas.

[00:09:27] I remember I got back from my honeymoon years ago in my first business. And my coach then said to me, she was like, uh, she was like, have you. Been on honeymoon or have you been on some like business , um, mastermind and I was like, I’ve been on honeymoon. She was like, wow. I, I literally came back firing on all cylinders with so many amazing ideas that just like were transformational for the business.

[00:09:50] And that was because I had actually like given myself permission to switch off, not be present and, you know, lying by the pool. With my cocktail or whatever I was doing walking up [00:10:00] mountains, I was walking up, um, Mount Aetna, you know, and the mind was obviously just churn away and processing, but without any pressure, no need to kind of feel like I had to show up to be present, you know, or my business was going to suffer as a result.

[00:10:15] My visibility, my, my, my face. Users and, and groupies and whoever else. So there was this big, you know, this, this big pressure that I think a lot of people have that I still need to show up. I still need to talk. I need to share everything about my life and my personal life, you know, and sharing personal, um, parts of your life is great.

[00:10:37] It is great for sharing connection, but does that mean we have to be freaking showing up when we’re lying in our bikinis, by the pool side, showing what our kids have been doing, or, you know, sharing those like. Pictures after you’ve been to the dentist and you’ve got new, like invisible braces or whatever it might be and talking about that.

[00:10:56] And it just drives me party, you know? [00:11:00] Um, so I didn’t wanna be that person. And that was a big thing for me. So. There’s there’s that kind of, if you’re that person who doesn’t feel like you have no choice, well, you do have a choice. You absolutely do have a choice and it is about making that choice. Um, and my amazing, one of my amazing coaches that I worked with a few years ago, Joe Hooper, uh, check her out Madden SADD club.

[00:11:19] She’s been on the show previously. I’ll link her episode in the show knows she was a great person that I worked with because she just kind of gave me that permission. She said, What do you want your business to look like? And I was like that I don’t wanna work beyond 3:00 PM. I don’t wanna work evenings cuz I’m shit in an evening.

[00:11:36] I’m tired and my kids don’t sleep. Oh, they didn’t back then. You know? So I don’t wanna have to think about going to work in an evening, blah, blah, blah. And she was like, okay, so just do it. And it’s almost like someone saying, yeah, just do it. And that’s what I do with my clients. Now I’m like, if that’s what you want, then absolutely just do it.

[00:11:55] And yet it might take some coordination and some planning and some restructuring of, of [00:12:00] the pricing of your packages, your business model, you know, contracts and how you deliver things. But it is absolutely to totally doable and. You may also, you know, resonate or be that person who absolutely is amazing at boundaries switches off from, from social media and work.

[00:12:20] Puts your phone away, locks it in a box, whatever you do for a week or two weeks, when you go on holiday or vacation, and then you come back to work and the dread, the dread sets in, oh, because you have realized how amazing you feel at being off social media. And I hear this so often at this time of year, you’re getting back to work and you do not want to go back on social.

[00:12:44] Cause you’re like, it was awesome, but you feel, you have to, and I hear. but I have to. Um, so if you feel that way, I suggest you consider changing things because you do not have to do that. If that’s how it’s making you [00:13:00] feel, right. This is your one life. Yeah. Bit of a cliche, whatever, but you got one shot this life.

[00:13:06] So why are you spending it doing, you know, things that make you feel that level of dread? Okay. It’s time to kind of move on and do something else. So for me, this has been the big change from last summer that I am not beholden to showed up on social media, or I am not that person that decides I’m not gonna show up at all.

[00:13:28] I’m gonna have boundaries and then I’m gonna freak out and be worrying over summer, actually, while I’m off that that I’m gonna. Fucked up my algorithm. I’m gonna have lost massive amount of engagement because I’ve not been showing up consistently. Yeah. I may have done some pretty scheduled posts, but I haven’t been doing live.

[00:13:46] I haven’t been doing X, Y, and Z, you know, so it’s still been playing on my mind. Uh, what’s that gonna do? What if I got to do to get that engagement back? So these are just some of the big changes. So for me, the big change this summer is I don’t have to think about any of that stuff. [00:14:00] Okay. So what do I need to think about now?

[00:14:03] What have I thought about differently? Well, obviously I still wanna be showing up. Hello, I’m recording this in June and you’re not receiving it at the time of me recording it. Why? Because it’s really important. You know, that I’m still consistent and being off social media, I can be consistent. But I can do it way in advance.

[00:14:25] I can batch my emails. I can batch my podcast content. I can create YouTube videos. I can do so much visibility stuff that does not need me to fight an algorithm that, um, that needs me to be showing up live okay. To actually have any opportunity and chance of, of, of getting engagement and reach. So that’s the big difference.

[00:14:50] So how have I done? So I set myself the goal, um, just before wit break. So the end of may that when I [00:15:00] came back, I would write two extra emails per week. So I send out two weekly emails as a standard. Usually I decided I’d write two extra weeks or four emails a week. So that, that would cover me for six weeks.

[00:15:13] I’m away from the business for five weeks, but I wanted that week, I came back to be covered. And so that’s the goal. I set myself, I set myself the goal of having a load of podcast episodes recorded the podcast episodes I’m doing pretty well with. I’ve got a load of amazing guests episodes for you over the summer.

[00:15:33] Um, some freaking awesome, awesome guests that you’ll be hearing from and have heard from already at the time of, of listening to this episode, the emails. I was pretty shit. I’m gonna tell you that you will be getting your emails, but my God, I left it to the last two weeks. I have been a content creating in a content, creating.

[00:15:57] Flury and fury, um, which [00:16:00] was crazy because I hadn’t realized that also I was also gonna need to kind of, uh, in the last couple of weeks, cramming, uh, making sure I had some extra one-to-one sessions with my one-to-one clients, uh, with my group, uh, coaching program clients, if they needed some extra support needing to do those one-to-ones in those last two weeks.

[00:16:18] So I did overload myself. So lesson learned for next year. Really block that time in my diary, when I say I’m gonna batch two extra emails a week, do that in advance because yeah, my head has been a little, I’m not working extra hours, but I’m distracted and I’ve felt a little down in the dumps. I’m gonna say, I was just say to my husband, I’ve been a little low this week because, because I feel mentally.

[00:16:46] Tired and you know what, I’m freaking ready for my holiday. It’s, you know, I’m so excited. I can’t wait to go I’m. As we used to say, a friend of mine in the equestrian world, I was gate happy. Uh, [00:17:00] I think it’s gate happy. You know, when, when the horses are like, uh, racing and they ready to get out of the gate, I was like gate, gate, happy gate, ready, uh, ready to kind of get out the start in blocks, uh, and get on my holiday.

[00:17:10] So yeah, that’s been a bit of a toughie. Mental health wise, mindset wise, just kind of really set yourself that time to, to do that extra batching in advance so that you can still show up, um, and, and be visible now showing up, but just producing content isn’t enough. Okay. , that’s nurturing my existing audience, but how am I bringing in new leads when I’m away from the business?

[00:17:41] So I am. In a, another bundle because you know how I like bundles, batched the content already to kind of bring in some new leads. Now, what would normally happen is I have a thank you patient that says, Hey, you’ve landed here. You’ve got my freebie. Do you wanna book in a game plan, call with me to [00:18:00] go deeper?

[00:18:00] So that’s what happens. Um, and my window on that is normally within, like, you’ve got a book within 10 or 14 days. I don’t have it open for, for, you know, miles in advance. One of the things I decided to do was, and this is testing entirely this year and I’m happy to come back after summer and let you know how it goes.

[00:18:17] One of the things is I am testing. Putting in dates for when I return to see if a people do book though, that far in advance and B, um, to see if people had to show up that far in advance. Now I moved over to using Calendarly. So people do get text reminders because I found email reminders when I was just relying on my dub Sodo, scheduler, just people were still missing.

[00:18:41] The, the calendar is being transformational for me, but I’ll see when people are booking so much further in advance, whether that works. But that’s bringing in some new leads. I’m also, um, hopefully in the summit that I’m just waiting to hear back on. Uh, there is, there’s some partnership stuff I’m doing.

[00:18:57] Uh, the week I get back, there’s an [00:19:00] amazing webinar that I am, uh, a partner and involved with with, uh, one of my previous podcast guests, Sarah on CRO. Um, you know, so there is still stuff going out to share. Um, what I do and to this sounds wrong, expose me, expose me to new audiences. Sorry. It’s really bad when you make yourself laugh by this.

[00:19:25] And it sounds really, really stalkery grim. I don’t want to say I’m exposing myself to new people, but in, uh, Bringing myself and putting myself in front of new people and having other people, so other amazing partners, collaborators out there share what I do talk about me so that people can come into my world.

[00:19:47] So that is that’s awesome. So I’m still gonna be doing leads. Is it gonna be the level I would normally be at? Am I gonna be bringing in 890 leads in in a. Probably not, but I’m [00:20:00] okay with that because in my months, a couple of months before, so may June, I made sure I sort of went a bit harder on sales. So I knew that I was at capacity at the time of going off in summer and that I knew I still had things ticking along I’ve got.

[00:20:18] And the other thing is, um, There’s a big thing planned for when I come back. So let’s talk about this. So there are leads coming in for when I’m away from the business. But the other thing that I want to talk about is coming back from holidays because it’s not always the being away from the business.

[00:20:37] It’s the coming back business. you know how it is when you’ve been away, you’ve really chilled out. Your days have been like lazy starts in the morning. If you don’t have kids maybe, or they’ve grown up, but you know, if you’re in that camper, , as I remember pre kids where you can have lazy starts to the day Bruns, you can’t be lying by the pool or going on nice days out [00:21:00] wine tasting or whatever it is, you know, when you’ve kind of spent your days in that, and you’ve got fully into the chill when you get back.

[00:21:08] Oh, my God. How hard is it to get back into a rhythm you can spend the first week or two just pissing about totally. Like I’ve gotta spend a day on my emails. I’m gonna check my messages because it’s easy and it’s there. Don’t have to think much beyond that. And this is the track we fall into. Yeah. Uh, we get distracted with all of that kind of stuff.

[00:21:38] So here’s the thing. Here is a great strategy for you plan your six weeks for when you get back before you go. Yes. You heard me plan it before you go. So, you know, when you get back, what is on your first week’s planets? On [00:22:00] my wall, I have my six week implementation plan. Um, so I know exactly what I need to do on day one when I’m back.

[00:22:07] Okay. Aside from client catchups and calls, because that’s gonna be the first biggie for me that week, I have specific tasks. Why do I suggest this well, a we don’t need to piss away another few weeks. Uh, that’s gonna be really impactful in a negative way on your business. As in you don’t come back, you don’t get back into lead generation.

[00:22:28] You don’t get back into any sales activities and. You don’t do nurture activities, cuz you’re just not back into the rhythm. And that is all going to really impact you in the coming weeks and months. And you know, the whole, the action you take today, you’ll see the impact of that in 90 days. It’s freaking true.

[00:22:48] It is true. I know in the past historically, um, lessons learned here, guys, you know, I’ve been there and done that when I’ve gone. Yeah. I’m just not gonna do anything now. Um, Happened to me a couple of summers ago. I [00:23:00] was like that. Oh, I don’t wanna take on any new clients at this point, cuz I can’t give them enough of me before I go off in summer.

[00:23:05] It’s like two months before summer. Of course I could have done. So I, I just stopped. I literally stopped emailing. I stopped doing anything cause I was like, do you know what? I, I’m not gonna take on any new clients. So why put out any content? Uh, I wasn’t really focused on lead generation back then. Uh, and again, I was like, oh yeah.

[00:23:24] So I didn’t do it. And. I paid for it because then it took me months. To get like people on calls and back into to, into that, that rhythm, um, of consistent lead flow and conversion activities to generate, uh, hot prospects and, and hot leads, uh, to convert into, to paying clients. So that is a big E so I’m gonna encourage you now, if you’re stepping away to think about not only nurture.

[00:23:52] But lead generation activities as well. And what you’re going to do when you get back and some great advice [00:24:00] from, uh, another previous guest on the show, Gemma Gilbert is to plan something big for within a, the first couple of weeks of your return. Okay. What do I mean by big a workshop? A Q and a something, something that is going to get people, you know, engaging again, get you in front of people again, get you do some really go deep nurture activities.

[00:24:26] So make sure you plan to face and it will, it will put a rocket up your ass as well. Cause you come back and you’re like, oh shit, this is happening. I need to create content. So it will get you back into your rhythm much sooner than if you kind of come back and go. I’ve got nothing in there though. It’s really.

[00:24:41] Essential for me to kind of work towards right now. Um, so, so that is the, the big, big mistake to avoid is to kind of come back and not have that plan. So get the plan done before you go. It doesn’t need to be an epic plan. I want you to writes schoolings of to-do list. I want you to look at your [00:25:00] calendar and I want you to focus on what the priorities are and have a big something in there that you can invite your audience to.

[00:25:10] The next thing I wanted to talk about, gosh, I thought this was gonna be a shorty episode, but there’s a lot, there’s a lot to take him five weeks off and I really wanna make sure you’ve got that, uh, VA. So I really rely on my VA because she’s gonna check my emails. She’s gonna make sure if there’s any.

[00:25:27] Like problems or anything for my, my clients, um, that, you know, that comes up, she can respond to them. She can signpost them to a resource that maybe they’re struggling with, uh, anything like that. So having a VA here, having a VA, a VA here to delete any shitty junk in my inbox. Awesome. So I don’t come back.

[00:25:49] So again, you don’t get stuck in that. Um, Email kind of bog for days on end, you can come back and you know, the stuff that you need to action. [00:26:00] And for me, it’s been so wonderful. My, my VA, Nick who’s on maternity leave at the moment, um, lives in Perth, Australia. She’s actually from Lancaster, from the. Place I live weirdly, but she lives in Perth.

[00:26:14] Um, and it works so well because their school holidays are totally different. So she’s not gonna take time off when I’m off. And that just is awesome because, you know, she can still have freedom with her family. I get freedom to have time off when I want time off, but we know that there’s always somebody here, um, present within the business just to support.

[00:26:35] Our clients, because that’s really important to me. I do not expect my clients to have to wait five weeks to, to get support if they need it. Um, you know, so that was a big thing for me to always make sure people have that access to that support. You might be saying, but Viv, I can’t afford a VA. Okay. A VA does not have to cost you at fortune.

[00:26:57] You could have a VA just. [00:27:00] Two hours a week for you while you’re off just keeping, you know, firefighting, any issues supporting clients, you know, with, as I say, links to access issues or links to resources, any kind of customer support things. So that, that is something I would recommend. Uh, and you can find, uh, VA agencies that will offer that service where you can just buy a certain number of hours for just one month.

[00:27:27] Okay. But make sure you’re really clear what you’re looking for. So this guys, these are my tips for taking time off, you know, blocks of time. Four five plus weeks from your business. Okay. Even two weeks because we still wanna make sure it doesn’t have a negative impact on us in the following subsequent period.

[00:27:49] Am I perfect at this stuff? No. I’ve just told you how shit I am at the moment. Batching in advance. This last minute.com is my middle name or it should [00:28:00] be in this instance. You know, takey take warning. If you can schedule better than I did, um, really give yourself permission that it’s okay to switch off and understand that switching off is going to really do you and your business.

[00:28:19] A lot of favors because I, I swear you are gonna come back really, really fired up with so many new ideas. You give yourself that head space, uh, to be creative. Okay. Uh, and, and finally, as I said, if you, you know, if you’re taking time away, really do think about how you can keep leads coming in when you’re away from the business.

[00:28:43] So, um, I will see you when I am back from Australia. Um, I will be, there will be many, many tears because I’m meeting my newest niece. Who’s nearly one already. Uh, while I’m away, I [00:29:00] get to see my other niece and nephew who I have not seen in four years, four years. One of them was baby. The other one. Not quite three.

[00:29:09] Uh, and I haven’t seen my sisters and we have not been together as an entire family since 2018. So gosh, this is, this is important that I take time off. This is important that I switch off and I absolutely allow myself the permission to, to be fully present with my loved one. So guys, don’t forget if you would like support with creating a business that really supports the lifestyle, the way you want to run your business, your life.

[00:29:44] Then please do book in a 15 minute game plan, call with me where we will really be able to go deep in that short space of time and understanding and uncovering what we need to do. To get you there because it truly is an honor and a blessing. [00:30:00] Uh, when you design a business that gives you the freedom to take, you know, 12 weeks off a year.

[00:30:06] I love it. Um, so looking forward to speaking to you soon, take care guys. So there you have it folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of marketing without social media today and feel inspired to take action in your business, whatever that looks like for you. And as always, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for tuning into another episode of this podcast.

[00:30:33] And if you haven’t done so already, please do subscribe to the podcast. So you don’t miss an episode, speak to you soon.