7 Days Offline as an Online Business Owner

I've got a question for you today. Do you sometimes find yourself working more in your business than on your business? And you'd like to flip that if so, you are in exactly the right place. The best time to plan to get time off in your business, to streamline so that you can scale and increase your profit without working 24, 7 is not the moment that you need that for an unexpected or unplanned reason like a vacation. The best time to plan for time off and to streamline and scale your business is now. So we like to do that through a fun lens called the vacation test. In fact, if you caught my last vacation, I showed you my trip to Morocco and how I did not, unfortunately, pass the vacation test. But you know what? It happens. As business owners, you're gonna plan for something and you're gonna have to adapt because something unexpected is going to come up. That's why we like to plan for the vacation test in advance. So I didn't pass the trip to Morocco. I wanted a second chance. And we're going to see if I pass the vacation test on my trip to safari in Masai Mara, Kenya, with some incredible friends and clients. But before we head out on safari, let's make sure we're all aligned on what the vacation test is. The vacation test has three parts. Do you pass these three parts? Number one, can you take at least seven days away from work? Number two, can you take those days without your team or clients having access to you? Yes or no? Three, can you come back from the vacation and not feel like you need another vacation? Okay, let's go. Time to head out on safari. So first up, I was flying from Abidjan, Cote d', Ivoire, to Nairobi, where we go from Nairobi to Masai Mara, Kenya, where our actual safari was taking place. I planned to work on day one, before my clients arrived, before my friends arrived, so that I could really focus. Because now, remember, I had just finished a trip in Marrakech and I landed in Abidjan. The girls, Lily arrived to hang out with the girls while I went on safari. Lily's my oldest daughter who lives in San Diego. So I had a few things going before the trip, but I really wanted to just reground recenter before I immersed myself in the incredible Savannah. Well, turns out I got to the airport in Abidjan quite early, and I didn't feel like doing any work at the airport. I had a lovely breakfast. I had some coffee. I listened to some podcasts and some music. I figured it'd work When I got to the hotel in Nairobi. But I got to the hotel in Nairobi, and I was really enjoying being in a new environment. So I did not pause to work. Then I went up to my room and I took a nap. Then my business partner arrived later in the day. And of course, once she arrived, I really wanted to spend time with her. So we went out to explore a little, get our nails done and go to dinner. Late that night, the rest of our crew that was going on safari arrived. So I waited for them in the lobby to greet them and welcome them and make sure they got to their room okay. Day one, no work. Even though I actually had planned to work a little bit to reset before I went into the actual vacation, to be honest, I was feeling okay. But I just wanted to check in on a couple of things before we headed out on Safari. Day 2. We woke up bright and early to go from a lumble airport in Nairobi to an airport in the park at Maasai Mara. The second you drop into the Savannah, feelings of anxiousness, feelings of thinking about other things or worry fade away as you are overtaken by the quiet power that surrounds you in this incredible environment. So at this point, I had wondered if coming up to this moment, because I've been on safari before, I wondered if I feel different. I wondered if I wouldn't enjoy it as much. And as I was dropping into the Savannah, I realized, oh, my gosh, this place gives you so much peace. So immediately, I'm feeling good. And I am looking around, wondering, do they feel it too? Does Joanna? Does Nicole? Does Sarah? Are they feeling this, too? Later, Joanna let me know that she was indeed feeling the calm and the sense of peace that comes from being in Savannah. In fact, she shared with me that she had heard how incredible the savannah was from me describing it before. But the feeling, yeah, it was something she needed to experience for herself. So we drop into the savannah and we head to our lodge, where we're going to be staying and spending the majority of our time in Kenya. This lodge is at an incredible location. It overlooks a river where the hippos hang out. And boy, did we see hippos all week long. Such an incredible and beautiful place to stay. Of course, on our first day, we also headed out for a little safari in the Savannah. And guess what happened on our first day in the savannah? Oh, yeah. We get stuck in a river where the hippos hang out. So we were pulling up to this river, and our guide, Milton, could see that the water was kind of high. So he is like, ah, I can't risk this alone. Like, I'm not going to do this alone. If we're with people, we'd be there to help each other, we'd be there to get each other out, but we're alone. So I got to turn around, we got to get out of there. But then two other groups came up and Milton chatted with them and thought, okay, if we are together, we can do this. So another vehicle actually went first and made it through. Pretty simply. The second vehicle went through and they got seriously stuck on one end. A car was towing them and pulling them out and we even went in one at one point to give them a little push and a little nudge out ourselves. Then it was our turn and I thought, okay, the first car did it fine. The second car, we had to give them a nudge, but they were okay. And then it was our turn and we got seriously stuck. Even though Milton had all of the strategies and he knew exactly where to go after learning from the other two vehicles so that we didn't hit the same literal rocks. So this was such an adventure and every single person in our group was in shock. But also seem to be enjoying this a little bit because, you know, your leader, your guide Milton in our case completely has this. He was a total pro and we were surrounded by other experts. And yes, we did get out of this high water, rolling river with hippos nearby without being harmed. And you just know that you're going to be okay because you are in the best of hands of people who know what they're doing and they've done stuff like this before. But there is that moment you're like, oh my gosh, what is happening? We made it through. We got back to camp, we had an incredible dinner. And this is the point where I'm thinking, man, I really want to just check in on a couple of things at work. So I have peace of mind. The rest of the week, I did not open my computer. I happened to be talking to Lily, my daughter who also works on my team. I am so lucky. And I was just checking up with her on how the girls were doing since she was watching them and taking care of them while I was away and everything's fine. We're catching up on life and we have some guidelines and some rules in our family and in my partnerships with friends. They've never been stated, but we all just kind of know we're not going to talk about work unless we really need to. When you are on vacation, when it's the weekend when we're doing family activities. We just organically put those boundaries in place for ourselves. And it's an unstated sort of rule that I just probably articulated for the first time. So near the end of my conversation with Lily, I said, I hate to ask, but I just got to know everything's cool. She said, oh, yeah, everything's fine. You have nothing to think about, nothing to worry about. So end of day two, had a beautiful day. Wasn't thinking about anything until we got back to the lodge after the safari, because I was so present in every moment, and Lily said everything was fine. That was the most work activity I've had so far. And honestly, that didn't even feel like work because we didn't talk about anything. I just got the A. Okay, that all is well. Now let's move in to day three. Day three, we headed out on a safari. And wow. You know, when you're on safari, I mentioned, you're. You're with experts. They know what they are doing. You are well taken care of and in good hands. But when the lion approaches, your heart beats for a minute. And early on this day in the savannah, a lioness was approaching our vehicle with a gentle roar, calling in her pride. And right behind her was the lion, who was just trailing her and following her and wondering, where are we headed? I'm up for this adventure. So the lioness wraps around our vehicle, which was an incredible sight. And then the lion comes, and I can see him coming, and he's moving a little closer. So I inch myself behind the vehicle and was expecting him to loop around like the lioness did. But instead, as I'm inching out and around the vehicle, the lion comes up under me. And it's in this moment that I realize, oh, my gosh. I know we are in incredibly good hands and we are fine, but this is a little too close for comfort. And I inch back ever so slightly as to not get the lion's attention. And I thought to myself, with a little bit of guilt as I say this to you now. I really hope that lion doesn't see me and he sees my friends first instead. And of all of the things that happen on safari, you may wonder or you may worry or there may be elements of excitement and maybe fear that pop up. This was the only moment on the 1, 2, and 3 safaris that I have been on where I thought, oh, my gosh, I'm not ready. I'm not ready to go. And of course, the lion stops there. To go to the bathroom for a moment. I could not see what he was doing. My friends and colleagues and clients next to me could see what he was doing. But I just knew he was frozen there. And I was equally as frozen. And after he relieved himself, he got back on his way and followed the lioness. And at that point, I moved back to the center of the vehicle. And I didn't think nothing on this trip was going to get me that level of adrenaline, that level of presence that I had in that moment with that freaking lion. Even talking to you about it now, my heart's racing a little bit. But we continued on and we followed the lioness and this lion as other lionesses and other lions came, came to join. And it was such an incredible sight. They were chilling. It looked like they were looking for their meals and planning and strategizing a little bit. And we sat there with them for a while before we continued on our way. But later in the day, we found out that those lions did in fact get dinner. And we were so worried it was going to be this sweet baby giraffe that was tramping around the savannah on its own. We're very worried about that giraffe knowing that there were lions around, but it was not the sweet baby giraffe. It was actually a cape buffalo. And we did not see the incident itself, but we arrived after and were able to see the lions relaxing after their feast. So we have just concluded day three, and of course, we're headed back to our incredible lodge to dine at the river spot overlooking seen the hippos. And I did not do any work on this day. So day three in, and I am still passing the vacation test. Day four, we safaried some more. And at some point, as we're safari and as we are exploring the savannah, I started to wonder, will I ever get sick of this? Will I ever have that feeling of like, enough, okay, I'm ready to get back to life? Nope. We did not have as much excitement on day four as we did on days two and three. But it was still the most incredible, most peaceful that I feel. You know, I love the beach, and I feel so much calm sitting on the beach and hearing the roar of the ocean. But there is something so incredibly powerful about the quiet of the savannah and the presence that's required to look for all of the things that there are to see in the savannah. So day four was pretty uneventful compared to the other days so far, but it was still amazing. And really found myself relaxing both at the Camp and in the car as we bounced around across the savannah. And guess what? Day four. I am still passing the vacation test. Day five. Okay, Day five. Yes, we're gonna do some more safari. But also on day five, we took a trip to a local Maasai village. First, we went into a city where I needed to pull some cash from the atm. And I was really surprised. I forgot that in Kenya, out of the atm, your money will come in Kenyan shillings, or you can choose to get dollars out. I thought I was just hitting, like, a currency conversion button, but I ended up getting dollars out of this machine instead, which just threw me for. Even though I had experienced that before, I had forgotten. And it was a weird experience to be getting, oh, wait, dollars out of the machine. So we stopped to get some cash in the local small city, a town, several thousand people probably living there. And then we drove into the country a bit where the Maasai village was. And this village is made up of about 300 people, and their homes are in a circle inside of the community walls. We were greeted on the outside and welcomed with a song by the men that we had expected to meet both the men and the women on our tour, but the women were away at a meeting during our visit, so that was a bit of a bummer. But the men were very gracious and very welcoming and gave us an incredible tour of the community. The men had no shame and were very proud to share how hard working the women in the community were. They showed us that women are taking care of the children in this community. They are taking care of family, and they're making food, and they also are working and they build the houses. This is traditionally a responsibility of the women in this particular community that we were in. And I was just floored and so in awe by the heart and the soul and the level of work that these women are pouring into their community. It was really, really, really inspiring. Then as we got a tour of the community, we learned about some of the culture and the dancing, and we were welcomed into their homes. We also had the opportunity to check out some of the goods that they make. There's a big open space behind the 300 houses where they're selling crafts and they're selling goods. They probably export them as well to the city or to other areas. But we had an opportunity to see some of them in person, and it was an incredible negotiating experience. There were no prices on everything. What they invited us to do was to walk around the stands in the circle, in the market, and they asked Us to pick up different items that we were curious about or that we'd want. And then we'd figure out a price later. We'd negotiate. Well, because I live in West Africa, I had some prices in mind for myself, and the items that I picked up were several hundreds of dollars. And I thought, oh, my gosh, I would be happy to make a donation to your community, but I cannot pay several hundred dollars for the small number of items that I was picking up. So we negotiated a bit and ultimately they said, no, thanks, it's okay, get out of here. So I ended up not buying anything on that trip, and I was actually pretty proud of myself. I am usually a spender, but I've learned a couple. I have two excellent female friend negotiators here in Aubidjan, and I learned from them some negotiating strategies. So I was putting those to work in the village that day. I did make a donation. As we left the tour, we tipped the community and we thanked them for what an incredibly powerful experience and for welcoming us into their environment. This is day five, and yes, I still am passing the vacation test on day five. Okay, day six, it is time for us to sadly leave Masai Mara and head back to Nairobi. We hopped on our plane and we made our way back to our hotel to recharge. And then we wanted to go see a little bit of the city. I wanted to go to a local market and just have a taxi driver take us there and drop us off. But the concierge at the hotel said, please do not do that. Go here instead. So instead of going to a local market, we went to a what was very much a high end upscale mall. It was very fancy outdoor feeling. You would have thought you were in California. Just no, Kate, you could have been anywhere. You could have been anywhere. This is just an incredible space. And I was so pleased because on this particular day, they also had local artisans. A market where local artisans gathered in the garage of this mall as well and had the best time negotiating, shopping, picking up those things that I previously wanted to grab, but passed on and did that very quickly and had a ton of fun doing that. After going to the market, we headed over to a neighboring hotel that has a rooftop bar called Hero Bar that is one of the top 50 bars in the world. And it is all superhero and comic themed. The drinks, the mocktails, the menu. The entire space was so stunning. It was really fun to sit there and enjoy coming to the end of our trip with our crew at this incredible rooftop bar that overlooked the city. And we just had a really good time there. So if you're ever in the neighborhood, definitely recommend checking it out. And if you're ever in the neighborhood, definitely recommend checking out Hero Bar. It is such a cool immersion experience in branding and how you can create super fun experiences for your clients. And then after the bar, so we had some drinks at Hero Bar. We ended up eating some food there before we headed back to the hotel for an earlyish night in because we had to prepare and get ready for some flights on day seven. So we're rolling into day seven and I have still passed the vacation test every day so far. Day 7 I was heading back to Abidjan and the rest of the crew was headed back to their various locations around the world. And again, I did not work on the flight, I did not work at the airport. And so I spent this seven day trip on the Quiet Edge retreat in Masai Mara without doing any work and really dropping in to peace. I came back from that trip so inspired, so motivated, so fired up and ready to go. It was such a great feeling to harness that energy and pour right into a big marketing campaign that we were getting ready to launch and we were ready to go because I planned before and I came back and we had finishing pieces to put on and we were ready to execute. And that is the power of getting things in place before you even need them so you can streamline and set yourself up to scale and profit without you working 24 7. And it's also, that's also what's going to allow you to be able to pass your very own vacation test. Whether it's five days, whether it's seven days, or whether it is a whole dang month. You deserve it. Be sure you grab the resources below that I have for you to help you streamline and work more on your business versus spending all of your time in your business. Thanks for coming on safari with me. I hope to see you on the real one next time.