[Transcript starts at 0:40]
Hello, hello, hello my podcast people and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite online business podcast. If you are listening, if you are watching, if you are tuning in on the day that it drops, it is Monday, July 6th. Welcome to July.
Real talk, this is one of the reasons that I hate batching content, particularly podcast episodes, because it makes time go by faster. The day that I'm actually recording this, it is June 23rd and I'm over talking about July 6th and I'm like, the days already go by too fast, right? I'm like living in the future, but you know, don't love it, but the show must go on. So if you're listening to this episode on drop day, it is July and I am still in Gstaad, Switzerland.
It'll be our last full day there and we'll fly back tomorrow. So the plan is actually to stay in Gstaad this time and do a hike. Last year, we went to Zurich for our final day, met up with the wonderful Claudia.
She's the best tour guide. We put a lock on the bridge, you know, it was great. But we're staying in Gstaad this time, going to explore, go for a hike, whatever Lux wants to do.
But I'll tell you about how the trip went, not next week's episode, but the following week's episode because hashtag batching the episodes. But being on quote unquote vacation in Gstaad made it feel very logical. Also, I'm saying Gstaad because that's what our neighbor says.
And when I'm there, some people say Gstaad. It feels very American to say Gstaad. There's a G. So if you're sitting there listening and I'm like, you know, your ears are bleeding, I'm sorry.
I'm going by our neighbor who has family there and that's what he calls it. So yes. But being on vacation there right now, it made it feel very logical to do this episode and offer up my two pennies regarding the discourse surrounding work and vacation and working on vacation.
So I want to preface this episode by saying that I do not lead a life that I need a vacation from. And I say that in the least condescending or judgmental way possible. I am always going to do what I need to do for me.
I have always done that my whole life. And so much of what I'm going to share with you regarding what I do with work is based on the fact that I work hard, but I work hard on things I want to be doing. I have clients I love.
I live at the beach. I don't have any kids. I don't have any fucking kids.
I'm healthy. I play beach volleyball three times a week. I have fur babies.
One is sitting right behind me right now. Rupert is sitting behind me and kicking me. I go to the beach three times a week.
I am not going on vacation to escape anything. It is totally fine if you are. But I'm saying that because I don't mind bringing my regular life with me on vacation.
I'm not there to leave that behind and have a different world. So as it relates to working on vacation, the title of today's episode, working on vacation is not a red flag. Y'all already know my shoot from the hip answer when it comes to should you work on vacation or not is do what makes you happy.
If you want to work, work. If you don't want to do shit, don't do shit. If you want to do a hybrid, which is usually what I do, do that.
I just always think that the best approach for anything is to do what feels good for you, do what is aligned with your values. It's a big thing, your values, not where I don't have borrowed goals or borrowed values and do what also considers your clients because, you know, ideally you are having a relational interaction with them, not just purely transactional, right? So something worth noting to start off is that online business, especially as a solopreneur or someone with a really small team, right? It's unique in that you could probably always be doing something. Always.
You could answer an email, you could change something on your site, you could update some copies somewhere, you could change the back end of something. Like there's always something you can do. Jill and I talk about this.
Her husband is a firefighter and it's like when you're, he's not at work, like he's not at work. When we are anywhere, we're is client-facing and you may actually have, you personally may have a lot of async offers and or creative tasks that allow you to be doing work at basically any hour of the day, right? So to me, this introduces a variable to vacation in that you have to decide what you want to do. It's not like it's decided for you because you're like, I could do this, right? Obviously when it I actually did hop on a live call for Legacy.
That's the mentor mine that Jill, my bestie Jill Fitt and I ran, but she ran the call, right? So the time difference meant that it was like, it was like nine o'clock at night or something or eight o'clock at night, something late. And going into it, I had discussed with Jill, I was like, hey, can you run this next call? I will do my best to hop on, but I don't know what the internet's going to be like and the time difference and like, can you plan on running the call? And she was like, of course, but I was able to hop on, right? Conversely, I was also running round one of my press publish program. It's my podcast launching program.
And we skipped that week entirely, right? The trip was somewhat last minute. And the women in that crew from round one, they actually encouraged me to go. They're like, you have to go.
Like, there's no question. You have to go. They are the bestest women.
So I just moved the call to the following week, right? This year, I have two calls when we get back, the week we get back. And I actually moved both of those to the following week because I knew that that would just feel better with everything. My brother's going to be here.
And we actually spent some time together. So, you know, and I asked the groups and everyone was okay with, everyone was very much okay with the switch, right? These groups are smaller groups and they're more advanced. So switching, it wouldn't derail anything, right? So, you know, the action item here is whether or not to take calls while you're on vacation.
And when I say calls, I mean like actually running a call for people. I think some things to consider, number one, how's your internet going to be? That's the most important thing. You can have internet.
Second thing, do you actually need to do it, right? I'm going to lean towards yes, probably hosting it if you're at the very beginning of a program, if the group has large numbers and it's really difficult to reschedule, or if it's a situation where consistency is really important and like skipping would derail things. I also want to think about, right, so the first one is do you need to host it? The next thing I want to think about is what will be the best experience and be the most helpful for the attendees, right? Oftentimes adding in an extra week to things is good for people. People are very busy and so to have them have more time to be able to do that thing, it's by and large, it's actually a good thing.
Continuing with that, having bad internet, terrible experience. That is the worst of all the things, right? The worst possible thing that could happen. So just make sure that when you're thinking about should I run it or not, we are considering the client there, right? So again, I've done both.
I typically try to avoid it largely because of the internet situation. I don't know if it's going to be good or bad, but if it needs to happen, I will absolutely make it happen. One-on-one calls, however, my one-on-one coaching calls, I am not doing them on vacation, right? My schedule is fully blocked off.
I make sure that folks get in before or after. And to me, this is the most clear cut because it feels the same as when I was an in-person PT, right? You know, many years ago, like you can't take that on vacation with you. So there's like no discussion about that.
And so it's the same, same, right? If you personally want to take coaching calls while you're on vacation, more power to you. Again, do what makes you happy. But big thing, how is the internet? How is the time difference? Is it really necessary? That person can probably wait a week.
Can you schedule them on the front end of the pack end of that thing? Next thing to think about when it comes to work is client work. So this is the async stuff. And this is the async stuff that is probably the heaviest lift, right? For me, and when I say async, async meaning it's asynchronous.
So I'm doing this stuff on my own for a client, right? For me, so that would be like, you know, any kind of copywriting stuff that I'm doing for somebody. I am not going to bring that on vacation, largely because for me, I need more time for those tasks. And being on vacation, I don't have big blocks of open space.
I will have, you know, periods of open space, but not just a big block where I can sit like I would at home and not really devote time and energy and focus to this task, right? So I'm going to look to get those things done before I go or pause them until after and I'll let people know, right? And yeah, this is probably more of a niche, you know, work item and it largely applies to folks that provide done-for-you services. But it is the thing, right? I don't want to cover anyone with an online business. Another type of work to think about for vacation is communication with you.
So I use what's called Voxer with all of my clients as a voice messaging and text messaging platform. I love it. I use it with my friends as well.
It's probably my favorite thing that I offer because this is communication and you can just talk and you can hear the person and you can speed up messages. They save, they can text if they want. I just, I really love the connection with Voxer.
I personally don't stop it during vacation, right? My people are great, though. So I should, you know, preface that. My people are great and they never have like fire alarm emergencies anyway, even when I am home.
It's never like, oh my God, the worst thing happened. What can you do? Like, my people are fucking great, right? But the folks do, my clients will know that I'm going away. And, you know, most try to get their questions in beforehand.
But I tell them like, I'll be available. I'll just be slower to respond, right? I do it because I like doing it. I'm not worried that I'm going to lose a client if I stop doing it.
Like, I like, I like hearing from my clients. I like talking to them and they don't need much. Vacation for me, oftentimes has downtimes where I'm not doing anything and it doesn't stress me out to answer Voxers, right? But that is also because the questions that I typically get on Voxer, they're generally like talking through things.
They're not like some super detailed nuance back and forth, right? So of course, when I'm on vacation, if I'm on vacation, I'm going to prioritize vacation things, you know, breakfast, exercise, getting to the in this case, right? Going to watch the volleyball matches, seeing things, but I will gladly respond during downtime, right? And sometimes the time difference really works in my favor, depending on where you're, you know, could work in your favor as well, depending on where you go, right? Because I, you know, we're going over to Europe and like, that's like the complete opposite there. And so I'm responding while people are asleep. So it's not even like, you know, they're waiting to hear back from me that they wake up and the message is there.
So it can work out really well. All right. Next item regarding work, email.
Listen, I don't want to email when I'm not on vacation. So I'm definitely not fucking emailing when I'm on vacation, right? Yes. I look at my email every single morning, but I don't get a ton of emails that I need to respond to.
And that's intentional, right? Because I tell my clients, don't fucking email me, Voxer me. I don't want an email. So the action item regarding emails largely depends on your email situation and your feelings about email, right? I would suggest regarding emails that you pay attention to that third factor.
Remember I listed out three factors to consider earlier. One is what you want to your values and three is considering the client. So I would really pay attention to that third one in this case.
And I would let folks know that you're going away and would put up an out of office, you know, autoresponder. If you tend to get emails that are time sensitive and require responses. I did used to do this when I, when I was doing a lot more with like emails and when I was treating and hadn't having my own treat like PT business, then I would put it up.
But for what I do now, nothing is super timely. I don't put up an autoresponder because again, I don't get that many like time sensitive emails. And you know, because of the fact that I don't get that many, if I did receive a time sensitive email while I was on vacation, I would probably call the police.
No, I would just write back, take my time and write back. I take my time to write back now as it is like, I just don't feel the need to be rushing to do things. That is just me.
You run your business how you want. But I get back to DM right away. Creative work.
So this is the biggest lift for me is a very big part of my business. I'm writing emails, doing Instagram posts. Maybe you personally blog for me, big one right here.
You're listening. You're watching podcast episodes. Podcast episodes are very tough to bring on the road with you on vacation because you need a mic and you need an area that isn't noisy.
But in general, to me, creative work is one of the easiest things to bring on vacation. It's one of the heaviest lifts though. So I will oftentimes hybridize my approach to this.
So podcasts, I do them before because I can't literally, I'm not trying to do them on the road. I have done them on the road in the past. And that's when I was traveling in town for Rock Tape and I was actually wanting to interview people on the road.
So I had a whole setup, but I never like did it my solo episodes on the road. There's just especially not on vacation. There's just no need.
I will just get it done ahead of time. This is why I'm doing, I've done six episodes in the past, like two days because I have two podcasts, right? I was just getting done ahead of time. Sound quality is so important to me.
So I will get it done early because I had the setup and the task lens itself to getting it done early. And so I just get it done. Yes.
It's also totally viable to just tell people you're going to be away and skip that week. I personally would never do that. It's just, I don't like it.
I don't like doing that, but I'm not judging you if that's what you want to do. Like just don't do it. It's 100% a viable option.
Like, again, my suggestion would be to let people know that it's not coming out, but it's also like not the end of the world if you don't have an episode. I'm thinking about E-Train Prosper and I wish they would just give us a heads up. For the most part they do, but it's Brian and Aaron when they're not going to have an episode.
But like also I know that they're going to come back and like the podcast will go on, but it is nice to let people know. And if you can't let people because something happens, it's okay. Life happens.
It's okay. It's a rubber ball. It will bounce.
So that's my thoughts around podcasts. Emails. This is like newsletter when I say emails, not the like correspondence ones, but with newsletters.
I go back and forth with this and oftentimes I will just do them when I'm on vacation. I write a minimum of three emails a week. I write one to my mafia.
I write one to my full email list, my full newsletter. If you're not on it, you should join it. We'll link that in the show notes.
Thank you, Courtney. And I do one to my paid blog. Yes, I have a paid blog.
We'll link that as well. You can check it out. And so technically I write a blog post and then I just let them know every Saturday like what blog posts I've put up.
But writing is harder for me, right? It takes longer because it's compared to a podcast episode. And I really like writing based on being inspired by the moment. So I will oftentimes leave that email for the flight or for some time during the vacation, like usually the same day that I would do it when I'm at home.
Real talk, I hate working on… I hate working, period. I hate working on flights. I'll do it, but I would rather watch movies.
I love watching. I love chilling on a flight. I love it.
I fall asleep before we even take off, right? So more often than not, I will likely be writing at the hotel or writing wherever we're staying once we're on the ground as opposed to writing while we're flying. Doesn't matter how long the flight is. Posting.
I am not the posting monster that I once was, but that definitely never got batched beforehand. My go-to is to just be okay with posting less, but I know that I'll be in my stories a ton. So there's a lot of value with that and it can kind of balance out.
You do tend to get more views while you're on vacation. If posting is a very important part of your business, then you do what works best for you. Because another component of posting on vacation is the type of posts that you do and how you operate.
So videos, if that's what you do exclusively, then maybe they're best to batch them beforehand. But if you are an in-the-moment type of creator, then maybe you're better off just bringing your gear. You can just bring your phone and a microphone.
I've done that before. I've absolutely brought my microphone. I'll probably bring it this time.
And you just record as you go. Another option would be to lean into the post types that are easier to do on the road or lean into the post types that are easier to batch. Maybe you do a bit more of written posts.
Again, it's up to you. Whatever you decide, make peace with it. And the last topic here is launching.
Launching while on vacation. This is pretty exclusive to online business, though. Absolutely, you could run an online promo for an in-person services.
But when it comes to launching, I have absolutely launched while on vacation. Lex and I actually just launched this most recent round of Lecture Mind while we were in Playa del Carmen. But for that, the only thing that was happening during vacation was receiving applications and responding to people, responding to questions.
So it's our third time running it. We have the sales emails already done, already scheduled. So it was a fairly low lift with that.
Could you do more while on vacation in terms of launch? Sure. Would I need to do a full fucking launch? Would I recommend it? No. You are introducing a layer of unpredictability to a launch.
It's not super ideal. Jill actually recently did this while they were in DR celebrating Keith's birthday. And Jill is the goat of online business.
And she was dealing with Wi-Fi issues and just the stress of a launch. And she was like, I probably would not do that again. All right.
But the reason that I included this section is that sometimes, you know, just because of how things line up and how things came up, like, you got to do it. My time flexibility is one of the biggest rewards and benefits of running your own online business. But that might mean that you have to do something while on vacation.
And so my suggestion would be do it and then never do that again. So looking at the time, I'm going to wrap this up. But speaking of Jill Bestie, I went to her wedding.
We went to her wedding last October and it was in Hawaii. And it was fucking awesome. I reminisce.
I do. I did bring my computer. I always bring my computer.
I don't think I've ever gone somewhere and not brought it. I just like like to have it big, you know, big Internet. But I did do a few things while at the wedding.
But this point I'm making is not about me. After her wedding, Jill went on her honeymoon. And when I got back from Hawaii, I did not go on her honeymoon.
I went back home. I came home and ran one of the legacy calls solo because Jill said, I am not going to do any work on my honeymoon. I'm fully shutting it down, fully stepping back.
And I think that might be like the only time she's like ever done that. And that is absolutely an option as well. Right.
I think what's notable there is that that decision came from a choice, not because she was like, I need to break from all of this. I'm so stressed out. I can't like she was just like, I wanted to be fully present and just see and try and do that.
And I can. And can you run that call for me? Of course. And you see earlier in the call, we talked earlier in this podcast episode, talked about me being in Gstaad.
And I was like, hey, can you handle that call? And that's one of the nice things of working with somebody. But the point that I was making there is that she fully shut it down. And that is an option.
Right. Fully shutting it down. Totally an option.
Hybridizing. Totally an option. Main takeaway that I want to deliver today is that working on vacation in general is, in my opinion, not a red flag.
Right. I think something super important that I spent not that much time on during this episode is, you know, building a life that you don't need a vacation from. And again, I'm saying this in the least condescending way.
And it is a privilege. I feel incredibly fortunate and privileged to live this life and have built this life that I don't. And a lot of it was it was intentional.
Like, I never wanted kids ever. I'm like, there's too much fucking work. Right.
But, you know, for me, not needing a vacation from things. And I'm not saying this in likes. I'm like, I never need a vacation.
It's just like, literally, I'm good. Like, would I travel some places? Yeah. But like, I also just love the routine here.
And part of what helps with that is that, you know, I take breaks throughout the day. I go outside. I go for a walk.
I've been at this desk for a long time doing these batching. But like, I'll go outside. And when I go outside, I see palm trees and the weather is always nice.
I set appropriate deadlines for things. You know, I'm doing these website audits and I give myself two weeks to run the audit. Not two days.
I have two weeks from the time I have the intake call to the time that it has to be delivered. Two weeks. That is totally appropriate.
I know I can get it done within that time and not be stressed out. I'm never taking on too many clients or too many projects that I'm like, I'm so stressed out. And if I do have a season that's busy, it's coming on the tail end of a season that's slow.
And it's like, all right, cool. There's a balancing of things. I price things appropriately.
That's a big one. If you're really underpricing your services, suddenly you have to do that much more work or take on that many more clients to try and, you know, make ends meet. And like, that's a problem.
Additionally, I prioritize my health and fitness. All right. I work out first thing.
I get it done first. Is it a privilege? Yes. Have I worked hard for that privilege? Also yes.
I get it done in the morning and y'all know I've been talking about doing the Paragon, I'm not Paragon, tactics stuff. And I do it early because if I, if I wait, I'm not going to fucking do that Metcon at nighttime. I ain't doing it.
All right. But I get it done first and I'm prioritizing and I have both had a gym and both had a home gym. I spent a lot of money on that home gym.
We have everything. And it's, you know, I have a life here. I've built a life here that I don't need to escape from.
So I realized when people take vacations as well, sometimes it's not escapism, right? Sometimes, not that there's anything wrong with that either, but sometimes it's just like, I just explore exploration. I'm not the exploring type. I've, I've traveled a lot.
I'm 41 years old. I have been to many places. There's like a handful of I actually am interested in going to Portugal.
I think that would be really, I think it'd be like, just like being here, to be honest. And I would bring work. I would absolutely bring work with me.
So you know, in thinking about this, in writing this episode out and just thinking about these things, I do liken this whole approach, this whole like way I view it. I liken it to fitness and workout styles, right? I have always been really good at pacing. Always.
I don't like to, you know, I don't like to go fast, you know, take a big rest, go fast, take a rest kind of workout. Jill likes that stuff. I don't fucking like it.
I'm like, let me just like go here, moderate to moderate plus for a long time. I just, let me keep going. I will pace it out.
All right. I am the, I am great with negative splits. If you know, if you know what that is great.
If you don't, that's fine too. But that's how I approach work, which basically allows me to just go forever, right? Is a deload week nice every now and then? Sure. Yes.
And it's helpful. And you come back recharged, but it's never that I need a deload week because I'm breaking down or I'm burning out, right? It's like, okay, cool. Like this is actually necessary and helpful.
I should say this is helpful for progressive overload. And during that deload, which is what I really like about power, about Jesus keeps saying that what I really like about tactics stuff is that they're still programming things. It's DLO, but it's not do nothing.
There's still, you're still moving. They're still workouts. You're still lifting.
It's just that like 55% of, you know, you're 85% of your training training max, right? Like that's the kind of DLO that I like. So when it comes to working on vacation, um, those are my, my two pennies, my 97 pennies. Uh, and what I like to do, what you do, what you should do a hundred percent up to you.
All right. Like I said, I think there's three big things to consider. One, what feels good for you to what is aligned with your values and three, what also considers or takes into consideration your clients, because ideally you have, you know, relational interaction with them, not just purely transactional.
All right. All right. I'm gonna wrap it up there.
I'm looking at the time. It's a little bit longer one, but this is a fun one. I like it.
Uh, summer is here. So perhaps you're going on vacation. If so, I hope you enjoy it and you do what works for you.
Okay. As always, endlessly, endlessly, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you until next time, friends, Maestro out.
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