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 obstacle that is restricting your growth and holding you back. Right. 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 a P. Now the session is free. It’s 15 minutes. And all you have to do is head on over to Viv guide.com forward slash game plan. Yes, that’s Viv guide.com/game plan right now. Pick a day, pick a time that suits you and let’s chat. Well. Hello and welcome to this episode on getting back into your work groove, post holidays, post vacation.

[00:01:32] So you know how it is when you’ve taken time off. Well, we are gonna be covering how to get back to optimal working capacity. How to avoid that overwhelm when you get back from vacation where you kind of think, oh my gosh, this is just so much to do. And finally getting through that brain fog, you know, and knowing where to start.

[00:01:54] So let’s dive in.[00:02:00]

[00:02:01] You’re listening to marketing without social media. With me, Viv guy, 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.

[00:02:24] Actually feels good to you.

[00:02:35] Okay. So I’ve been back to work literally. 24 48 hours. Now after five weeks off work and I checked into, uh, the group program, like community that I’m part of. And I wanted to kind of see what was going on. And I was hearing a lot of people talking about, you know, this. Getting back into work when they’re back and how to support [00:03:00] their clients come September.

[00:03:01] If you’re in the UK, that’s when kind of schools go back, um, how to support clients, uh, when they’re back, you know, who have got, got kind of post holding brain fog is the best way to describe it, or you kind of thinking, I know I’m back, but I’m really struggling to kind of formulate clear thoughts and really articulate.

[00:03:22] Um, you know, it’s that, it’s that brave fog and how to avoid that overwhelm. So I was kind of seeing a lot of this and I thought, do you know, it’s so true and actually said to, to one of my biz buddies collect that, you know, I said, I’m back and I’ve got my plan. You know, I did a six week plan before, before I went away.

[00:03:39] You can hear how I ponded for my time off and my return. So my business didn’t come to a standstill in episode 30, which I’ll link in the show notes and what’s changed from a year ago. But yeah, the big thing that I guess I wasn’t prepared for was coming back with. Brain fog. You know, [00:04:00] it’s kind of like, I, I guess, you know, walking through tree call thinking through tree call is how it feels, uh, because I have really managed to switch off on this holiday and that’s the big difference I think, from.

[00:04:13] From last year, certainly. And I have switched off on like week long breaks, but this was five weeks. Okay. Last year I didn’t, because I, I created a, I was launching something on the 1st of September and I hadn’t prepped things in advance. I was still on social media. Just, uh, last August. So I was kind of showing up on feeling I had to be present doing lives all the time on social media.

[00:04:37] So it wasn’t things I could batch in advance last year. So it, it, it meant I didn’t fully switch off, so I didn’t have this whole kind of fuzzy brain thing going on. So, but it, it really made me think that this is something that’s, that’s a real problem, you know, when you take time off and especially, I think now, you know, reflecting.

[00:04:59] Speaking to other [00:05:00] people that have come off social media, when you take time off work, you are really off. Yeah. It’s not like, even if you say, oh, I’m not posting on social media, I’ve batched everything, blah, blah, blah, for work. When you are still present on social media. So you are still scrolling through Facebook, through Instagram, through whatever TikTok.

[00:05:23] And especially if these are our platforms that you use for your business. So Instagram, Facebook, and your members of communities, you’re signed up to groups. Well, when you go on your kind of, your newsfeed is filled with kind of other people. Like for me, it might have been other coaches and. So on and so forth.

[00:05:40] So I’m seeing what everyone else is doing. And it automatically gets me back into switch on, well, they’re doing that, that looks better than what I’m doing. Maybe I should be doing this, you know, what am I doing wrong? Duh, dah, dah, dah, all of those kind of thoughts, the imposter syndrome, the doubts that the questioning that comes in, you know, when we look at.

[00:05:59] At our social [00:06:00] media feed when we use social media for business. And as I say, then it comes in on our personal feeds. So when we are taking time off, even if we’re just scrolling for fun, and I kind of say this, you know, and I say, in this, in air quotes here, because. When we’re going on our feeds, we are being bombarded with all this kind of stuff that we have looked at before shown interest in.

[00:06:23] So business stuff, it is going to come up and that is going to stop you fully switching off. So if you do kind of use social media while you’re away, if you don’t do a full social media detox, just be aware that that’s something that will kind of keep you switched off. So I’m talking about, if you have fully switched off disengaged from everything.

[00:06:42] So if you come back to work, regardless of the activities you’ve engaged with, while you’ve been away, social media or not social media, if you feel fully switched off and your experience, this kind of brain fog, walking through tri call, when you get back, I wanna talk about what you can do. Okay. So this is [00:07:00] what I found, and I’m only 48 hours into this guys, but you know, thinking about habits and things that I’ve built up over the years and experience from other people I’ve worked with, um, co.

[00:07:11] Coaches mentors. There are things that I have put into place over time for even shorter breaks. So I wanna share these. So the first thing to avoid this feeling of overwhelm, when you get back, cuz that’s so easy, we get back and we kind of go shit. I have got so much to do. I need to do this. I need to get 20 new clients.

[00:07:32] I need to make a hundred thousand pounds, da da, da, da. You know, I need to, uh, now write 10,000 emails because I’ve not got anything batched ahead of time. I need to do all my batching. Podcast, whatever it might be. So we can get into this whole overwhelm. I need to do all of these things. So how do we avoid that?

[00:07:50] Well, again, I talked about this in episode 30. The best advice I can give is to create a six week plan before you [00:08:00] go away for your return. Okay. If you haven’t done that the day you get back to work, put everything else aside. For an hour and put a six week plan together. What are the things you need to do?

[00:08:15] What is your priority? Is your priority getting in new clients? Okay. If it’s about sort of revenue building. getting in new clients now then obviously, what are those activities that you can do? Can you reach out to past clients? Can you reach out to your, your warm network? If it’s about, um, audience growth, then what kinda lead gen activities can you do?

[00:08:34] Is it creating a new free B? Is it running a workshop? What is it? A webinar? What can of things can you do? Okay. So think about what. Focus is for the next six weeks. That is the first priority for you. What are you going to be? What’s your main aim over the coming six weeks, because that is gonna be the focus of your work over that period of time.

[00:08:57] And when we really simplify things and focus on [00:09:00] just one sort of key priority, of course, we want to be bringing in new revenue all the time. Of course we wanna bringing in leads all the time, but I want you to think about what is the. Urgent thing in your business right now. So if you haven’t done any lead generation for three months, well, eventually, you know, your, your pond as you might call it, you know, if you think of a pond full of fish, you’ve fished in there for all the clients that you’ve currently got, then eventually that pond, you know, will run out of fish.

[00:09:24] So you need to keep topping it up with fish if you like that metaphor. Um, so if you haven’t done lead generation, for example, for three months, and you’re trying to sell. You are potentially going to see a slow down and a reduction in take up on those offer if you haven’t, um, done lead generation. So you might say, right, I know now my focus is gonna be lead generation for the next six weeks.

[00:09:48] And then maybe I’m gonna go into selling cycle after that. So really think about what that is okay. For that focused six weeks. The next thing I want you to do is [00:10:00] really break that. Day by day in your first week. And I want you to ask yourself, are you coming? Full full full-time hours, whatever, full time, hours off you.

[00:10:09] So I’m not back 20 hours a week. My children are still off work for ano off work. child labor, uh, off school for another three weeks. So I am on reduced working until they are back at school. And then I only worked 20. But I was like that hell, you know, I’ve just flown from the other side of the world. I am still a little fo foggy, muggy headed from the jet lag and kids not sleeping, cuz they really suffered with the jet lag.

[00:10:39] So I was like that I am not hiring. And my, you know, my, my friends are off with their kids, so I’m like, let’s hang out. Let’s do things. Let’s actually get that time together. So ask yourself, you know, am I coming. Full till does that feel realistic to me? Am I gonna be able to, to kind of energetically sustain that momentum this week and if not, give yourself a break [00:11:00] guys, come back and focus on your priorities.

[00:11:03] Okay. Um, so what I want you to do is then take each day and just put in what are the key task? What’s the one key thing that relates to. That six week sort of core activity. So is it lead generation? What one thing can you do for lead generation today? What one thing can you do as a sort of conversion activity, a client kind of generator activity?

[00:11:21] What is that thing? Okay, so just have that so that, you know, whatever happens each day, you are making one step closer for me, obviously it’s also, you know, and, and if you’re doing client work, you’re probably gonna want to do catching up with clients after time off. So that’s a. What else do you need to be doing?

[00:11:40] Okay. Yes. Get your weekly email out. Um, but again, I decided to batch my first week E uh, the first week I was back those emails because I knew I was gonna be like, well, I can’t really be asked this week. I’m tired. My kids are out routine, da, da, da, da, duh. And I dunno, what else would happen? [00:12:00] So I made sure I had that week planned, but if you haven’t, you know, what are the kind of non-negotiables we don’t want to drop, if you are consistent with emailing your list, if you’re consistent with showing up whether it’s podcast, you know, if you use social media, whatever that is, we want to make sure the kind of non-negotiable things.

[00:12:16] Are in your diary, but everything else, guys, it, you know, it can wait, you know, build back up to it. I don’t want you to come back and in a week, feel burnt out kind of going, oh my God, my holiday feels like so long ago. Um, bring that like refreshed, revitalized energy back with you, but give yourself some space to get back into it.

[00:12:37] Okay. So that’s kind of how to avoid that overwhelm. So, number two, how do you get through the brain fog? Okay. Okay. So now let’s talk about how do you kind of get your brain firing on all cylinders again, and maybe, you know, that’s. Easier for you than maybe it is for me and other people. But what I’m hearing, uh, across a lot of my, my BI piles is that this is [00:13:00] something that everyone has when you’ve really relaxed and kind of got out of your rhythm out of your flow.

[00:13:08] So here are some of the things I find help. Um, the first thing is. To put into place those habits that you’ve probably dropped while you’ve been on holiday. So for me like that daily structure, starting with journaling again, cuz I took my journal to Australia and I did not touch it at all. Um, it just, I just didn’t, my routine was out the window.

[00:13:32] So it wasn’t something I did. So the first thing I’ve done when I’m back is now start journaling. Another part of my morning routine is that I read with the kids each morning. So they do kind of, you know, their phonics, their reading, whatever that might be. Um, and even though they’re not back at school, I wanted to get back into the habits so that when they go back to school, they’re okay.

[00:13:53] And they’re kind of back in the routine of it. And that’s just part of my morning routine. So building these [00:14:00] things in kind of gets your brain back into, I, I, you know, I guess think. . Yeah, this is kind of when, when I do these things, this is kind of how my day works. My brain’s kind of getting prepared.

[00:14:11] This is what it’s normally used to doing before I go to work and write content before I, um, create a podcast episode, whatever that might be. Cause for me, the hardest thing when I come back is. What I struggle with when I get back is that I just haven’t had this focused time on any activity. And it’s about sort of rebuilding that discipline again.

[00:14:41] And that habit it’s a habit. Focusing is a habit. It’s something we need to build and learn. And if you are a procrastinator, it’s something that, you know, we, it, it it’s to be learned. Can I start and focus on a task for two minutes, build it up to five minutes to 10 minutes to 20 minutes. And that’s, what’s quite difficult.

[00:14:56] And with that, I kind of find. That’s where the brain [00:15:00] fog comes in because they kind of go hand in hand. I, you know, I’m finding it really difficult to concentrate because I have not had to do this. It’s a new habit, which is kind of using more energy and therefore, because I’m more focused on like trying to really be focused, then it can make that writing task for me, cuz writing’s not something that I find comes really easily and naturally to me, sort of more D.

[00:15:24] So where I’ve struggled to come back and think, okay, what do I want to write about? Here’s something I have a content plan. I have an idea section of things from my sort of core categories that I want to talk about, that my audience, you know, and my perspective clients need to believe in order to be willing to invest with me.

[00:15:46] But here’s the thing I didn’t do on my actual like weekly content plan. I did not map out the, like a short summary, like a couple of sentences saying this is what I wanna talk about in my emails. And that would’ve [00:16:00] been a big help. Instead. I came back kind of looking, I’ve got kind of, these are the things I talk about each week, kind of the topic.

[00:16:07] So is it a selling week? Is it a, um, nurture week? Is it, what is, what kind of week is it? Um, Because I have a, a kind of repeating cycle and process each month, but so I know those, I know the categories, I know the weeks, but I hadn’t actually kind of put sort of a summary of content I could put against each of those.

[00:16:26] And that would’ve been so different and transformative for me. And would’ve really sped things up for coming back, as opposed to me kind of sitting there at the computer going, oh, this feels really tough. Did it felt tough. And I still managed to write my email this week. The other thing I would say is obviously that that’s a lesson for, for the future.

[00:16:49] Uh, and something I will certainly implement myself is to just start, just start writing, you know, there’s the, [00:17:00] these, the, um, website sort of app you can get for your computer called, uh, 500 words. Think it’s 500 words. I I’ll link you to that in the show notes. And. It’s to help you get into the habit of writing and you can use this daily.

[00:17:15] I, I have it installed. I will admit, but I do not use it. It’s not something I use. Um, but it is something that has been recommended to me. And I know a lot of people use. And the idea is that every day you sit down and you just write 500 words and it doesn’t matter if it’s shit. It doesn’t matter if it’s gobbled de goo.

[00:17:36] But the, the idea is that when you start writing, and you start doing these 500 words. It, you, you open up that creative flow. And so if you are struggling, just start writing, write shit. And I say to people, when they start writing emails, not post vacational holiday, just in the, your first instance. You know what they will be shit.[00:18:00]

[00:18:00] So much of what we do when we start out in our businesses or when we start new things is crap. I mean, hell guys, go back and listen to my first couple of podcast episodes. Ugh. Yes. Um, you know, I, I cringe, uh, how I was, I cringe it. Oh my gosh. So much. Um, but. You just gotta do it just start and it will get easier.

[00:18:25] So my big tip there is if you’re struggling, if you’re thinking, I don’t know what to write, I’m really struggling with this. Just get started and give yourself more time. This was the big thing, you know, if, if normally writing in an email takes you 60 minutes writing and publishing an email, pre-holiday give your.

[00:18:45] 90 minutes. I’m not gonna say give yourself endless amount of time cuz you will. Um, you will fill the time you have got, but if you kind of think this is something that I struggle with when I come back, but again, look at how can I improve next time? How can [00:19:00] I make this thing easier if lead generation and getting back into lead gen activities is really hard.

[00:19:06] What could you do to make it. Okay, can you have a list of 10 hopes that you’re going to reach out to on week one of your return? Listed drafted. And you know, those hopes, you don’t have to go through your hub database, deciding who you’re gonna reach out to, you know, who you’re going to reach out to what are those activities?

[00:19:27] Okay. Um, but you know, the big thing here guys is be kind to yourself. You’ve had this time away. You’re probably feeling amazingly recharged. Um, maybe not if you’ve been off with kids over summer, but you’ve had this space, your li your kind of habits, your routines have been different. To be kind to yourself and allow yourself to get back into these, because remember if we suddenly try and build multiple habits again, cuz if you’ve kind of missed doing something for a few days, it’s, it’s a, it’s, it’s a lost habit.

[00:19:57] It’s a broken habit. You need to kind of restart, [00:20:00] forming that habit or reform that habit. So don’t try and do 10,000 things up once, you know, on day one, build them up over the week habit, stuck those things over the week and do it gradual. So I hope this has helped you, um, kind of really get out of your funk, find your groove post holiday, post vacation, and really find your flow.

[00:20:26] So take care guys. And I look forward to speaking to you soon. 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.

[00:20:49] 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[00:21:00]

[00:21:04] and.

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Getting back strong

Post Holiday Groove

Show Notes

It is the end of summer break for us here in the UK. Some of us had just been back from vacation with our family – and are now gearing to get back into work. 

But the thing is that after having a chunk of time off over summer or a disrupted work pattern (especially those parents out there), getting back into work can be tough.

The problem here is though that when we lose our focus we drop the ball on something.

This is my longest time away from my biz so far. I take summer off every year but have had extended time off and reduced hours coming back to work mid August so I have lived the post hols struggles myself this year.

In this episode we will talk about how we can come back strong by not just giving yourself a massive to-do list of all the things you think you ‘should’ have done before time off or over that time off. You will learn:

  1. How to start back strong in your biz after time off
  2. How to get out of the post holiday ‘meh’ funk
  3. Avoiding overwhelm post hols

Connect with Viv

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Connect with me via email – hello@vivguy.com

Website 

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Links mentioned in this episode

Here’s a glance at this episode:

00:00 Intro

3:00 Catching up, what happened after the summer time off

07:00 How to start back strong in your biz after time off

10:00 Importance of taking a break

12:37 Getting through the ‘brain fog’

19:27 Being kind to yourself

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