Enjoying Your Summer & Still Making Progress in Your Business | 78
As the summer season approaches, I see lots of business owners itching to take a break from their business. They want to enjoy time with their families, take a vacation, and just let their business take a back seat for a moment.
But, many people are afraid to step away from fear that their business can’t run without them, or they will lose all the effort they put into marketing throughout the year. I want to reassure you that these things don’t have to be true.
Here are five tips to help your continue marketing and working throughout the summer while also enjoying a well-deserved break:
Tip #1: Schedule Your Vacation in Advance
A trip planned in advance will save you a headache when it comes to your business. Sit down and plan your vacation, buy the plane ticket, and then block out that time in your calendar.
Quite literally, I want you to put blackout dates in your calendar. This will keep you from scheduling anything during that time, and allow you to organize your to-do list around these days.
Tip #2: Batch Content
Batching content is my number one piece of advice for preparing for time off. Batching is when you create lots of similar content at the same time. For example, you might write four emails at one time, and then schedule them out.
By batching content, you can help yourself get ahead and make your business run itself while you take time off. When you schedule your items in advance, they will post themselves - all while you enjoy a margarita on the beach.
Tip #3: Schedule a Content Break
Another advantage to scheduling your vacation in advance is that you can also arrange your marketing and content breaks to take place at the same time. For example, you can end a season of your podcast right before your vacation, or take a pause from social media. This saves you from having to pre-plan and batch content for your vacation period.
My only advice for taking a content break is to let your audience know. Tell them that you are taking time for yourself, and you’ll be back soon!
Tip #4: Set a Big Goal
Let’s be honest - the warm sun sounds a lot more fun than creating Instagram posts. To keep yourself motivated during the summer and to get your energy flowing, set a big goal for yourself.
Maybe you want to launch a new product or service in September. The work you put in during the summer will then benefit you later. Having a big goal keeps you looking ahead!
Tip #5: Reevaluate Systems and Procedures
During these slower months, take some time to reevaluate your systems and procedures. As you are preparing to take time off, think about how you can make your business function better and more smoothly. This not only will make vacationing stress-free but will help you during busier periods in the year.
I talk more about how you can continue marketing in the summer and plan to take time off in Episode 78 of my podcast, Market, Scale, Grow. Give it a listen!
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @heyitsjenzaia and tune in next Saturday for more business tips and strategies!
xo, Jenzaia
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Episode Transcript:
JD-MSG 78
[00:00:00] Hayden I'm Jenzaia. And this is market scale growth. A podcast created for ambitious teacherpreneurs, looking to have a bigger impact on the world. Achieve freedom, flexibility, and ultimately make more. With weekly strategy sessions and inspiring stories from fellow teachers, just like you. My goal here is to help you create a customized marketing strategy so you can grow your teacher business beyond your wildest dreams.
Okay. So before we hop into the episode, I just want to remind you to download my free guide to Facebook targeting audiences. It has been created specifically for teacher business owners, and I go through the warm lookalike and cold interest based audiences that you need to have set up to be [00:01:00] running Facebook and Instagram ads.
There are checklists and brainstorming pages so that, you know, you have everything, but as an exciting special, I'm opening up some audience audit calls where you can hop onto a 15 minute zoom call with me and you'll get my eyes on your audiences so that you can make sure not only you have all the audiences, but they truly are.
Perfect for your business. So head to marketscalegrow.com/audienceaudit to book your free audience audit call today. Okay, now into the episode.
Hello, hello! I'm so excited for today's episode. We are going to be talking about enjoying your summer and not giving up on marketing. while you're doing so, so today we just booked a trip.
We haven't traveled as I'm sure many of you [00:02:00] also haven't traveled in a while. And so I'm really, really excited. We're going on. It's our fifth anniversary this year. So we're going on a little adventure, just two nights away. Get rid of the kids, I guess. So I'm really excited and that's kind of what inspired me. This is how to balance enjoying your summer enjoying the slower season, potentially enjoying that time off if you're still in the classroom, but also continuing to market your business.
And this can be taken at any time of the year because as your business grows and you have more freedom and flexibility. There will be these pockets of time that you want to enjoy your life and also grow your business.
And how can you balance both simultaneously? So here are my five tips for enjoying your summer, your slow season, but also continuing to market at the same time.
Tip number one, schedule your [00:03:00] vacations or your time off in advance, but also schedule your work blocks. So I've already blocked off the time in my calendar for when I am going, when my husband has his vacation weeks and when we're going on trips, it's all already blocked off.
And also I'm starting to schedule in when I need to do things. Whether it's in those vacation weeks or not. So that I have an idea and I have those blocks of time before, during, and after these, the slower weeks, the vacation weeks, so that I know exactly when everything is going to be getting done, because my clients are still going to need weekly reports.
I still want to be showing you. Audience in some capacity and I'm planning on doing a live series over the summer. And so just making sure that I have those pockets of time scheduled in, helps me to relax and know, okay. I'm going to be able to enjoy my family and enjoy my summer [00:04:00] and also get everything done.
So that's tip number one is use your schedule, use a calendar system of some sort and have it all. Set number two is to batch everything you can. So right now, when I'm doing things like creating podcast episodes, or I am creating graphics and sound bites for the podcast or. When I'm doing pretty much anything that I can, if I sit down to do one, I'm trying to do like five or six of them and just batching it out.
And so a really great example is the podcast graphics yesterday. I was working on that for an upcoming episode and instead of just doing the one for the upcoming episode for next week, I did as many as I could into the future. And so all of the podcast graphics all the way through the summer are basically done, ready to go, which is such a good feeling.
And I just like one less thing on my mind. And so batch [00:05:00] everything that you can upfront so that it's all ready to go. The other way that you can batch is if you are creating videos for a course, for example, you can record all of the videos and then you can do all of the transcripts and then you can create all of the workbooks that go along and you could do all those similar tasks together.
And so whether you're batching. Specifically, like to get ahead for the summer season or just in general, grouping tasks together helps you to be more productive because your brain isn't switching and switching and switching and switching, you can really get into a group. Okay. Tip number three is to actually schedule a break.
So for example, my podcast, we're going to be doing a two week hiatus in August. And so I'm scheduling that break. So this is a little bit like scheduling the fun blocks and the work blocks, but this is actually like pausing something. So it's okay to step [00:06:00] away from your content or to step away from social media or to step away from whatever else.
But schedule it in and then talk about it because it is healthy to take that break. It is healthy to set boundaries and to say, my brain isn't doing this. Like we're not doing it. And so not only for me, but for my teams, I'm taking that break. We're taking the time off. In August so that everybody has a little bit more breathing space and to normalize, taking care of yourself and taking care of yeah.
Just taking care of yourself and knowing that it's okay. So scheduling that break and then talking about it. Not. Hiding it or being cagey about it or feeling like you've done something wrong. Celebrate the fact that in your business, you're earning six figures and you can take two weeks off. You can take some time for you and your family, even if you're not actually going on an adventure of any sort.
Even if [00:07:00] you're just going to be sitting at home with your feet in your pool, enjoying your life. Celebrate. Tip number four is to have a big goal driving you. I find when I have something big coming up like a launch or a big sale or a promotion or something like that, I. Have all of these like little steps that I want to accomplish.
And I'm super excited about the big goal. And that keeps me motivated. So maybe planning something in September that will have some little steps that you can take leading up to it will help keep you motivated. Now you have to know yourself for this one. I know that if I had a big launch coming up in September, I'd be more likely to show up, live more likely to consistently email my list.
More likely to continue marketing through the. Because I have, again, that big goal that I'm like, okay, I need to meet all of these steps. And these little steps are going to lead me to that bigger goal that I want. So if you're that kind of person [00:08:00] that a big goal really motivates you and drives you, then think about considering.
Setting one for September, like a launch of some sort or a big product release or whatever it might be. And then that way over the summer, you will be more committed to emailing your list, creating the content, and showing up on social media. And then tip number five. My last tip for you is to spend this time looking at your systems and your procedures.
So the summer is often a slower period of time. More people are on vacations, spending less time in their businesses and on social media, whatever it might be. And so there are definitely times of foundation setting in our business and times of growth in our business. So use this slower period as a foundational piece so that you can look at it.
The things that through the year, when you're a bit more, go, go, go, go, go. You don't necessarily have the time. So do you have a podcast? And if you do, or maybe you have a blog, do you have systems and [00:09:00] procedures around that? How do you create an episode from start to finish? Or maybe it's your onboarding that you want to really dive into and look at and really take to the next level.
So figuring out if there's some systems or procedures that you really want to dig into. And get yourself set up for fall when things are going to start to get busier again, and we're going to start. Tip tore away, hopefully slowly, because time just goes so fast. But once fall gets here, then we start to prepare for the holiday season, which is generally much busier and crazier for everyone.
And so use this season as that foundation. Preparing season, so that you're ready for your next growth season. So just to recap, the five tips that I have for you tip number one is to schedule your work blocks and your fungal blocks so that you know exactly when everything is going to be happening. Tip number two is to batch [00:10:00] everything that you can always, I'm not usually a big batcher, but leading up to this period, batch everything that you.
Tip number three is to schedule a break or a pause from whatever you're doing, and don't be afraid to talk about it. People need to hear, and it needs to be normalized that you're taking time off from our business and you're turning your computer off and it's just done. Right. Tip number four is to have a big goal that is driving you, maybe a big launch of your course or your program in September.
And then at tip number five is to spend time working on your business, working on your systems on your procedures. So you can get set up for huge growth. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I really, really hope that you are getting it. For an adventure filled summer or a rest and relaxation filled summer, whatever is really going to fill up your soul, fill up your heart and to keep you happy and healthy.
That's what I really am hoping for for you. So thank you so much again, I will be back next [00:11:00] Saturday with an exciting interview. I'm really, really excited about this one. So see you then. Thank you so much for listening to market scale growth. If you're ready to build your email list and generate consistent leads on autopilot, then we would love to partner with you.
Our growth package is perfect. Of course. Service writers and coaches look to inject their list with fresh leads so that they can amplify their amazing program and get it out to new people. This six week package is perfect for you. If you have a proven lead magnet that you're ready to turn into an established lead generation machine to get started today, head to marketscalegrow.com/worktogether. Fill out the application and someone from my team will be in contact with you to schedule [00:12:00] a free strategy session, to ensure that it's a good fit and to get you on the path to consistent lead generation with team D thank you again for listening and I look forward to working with you.