Take a break from your agency or face burnout!

I don't know about you, but when I am preparing to go on holiday, you really seem to pay the price work wise just before you go because everything seems so frantic. And then of course you are away on holiday and you probably worry about what you're going to come back to and then you get back to the office and there's a ton of work to catch up on. And really quickly all the goodness of taking a holiday has disappeared and you're left wondering whether it was even worth taking the time off in the first place. So if that's a place you find yourself in, then trust me, I've been there before and I'm recording this just two days before I go on vacation. In fact, as you listen to this, I will be on vacation. But right now I am in that pre vacation crazy mode. So I wanted to talk about some of the things that I do to make sure I can take a holiday and the world doesn't fall apart. So that's what I want to talk about in today's episode. And let's get started with the show. I'm Rob Da Costa and this is the Agency Accelerator Podcast. As someone who has stood in your shoes, having started, grown and sold my own agency, I know just how it feels in the ups and downs of agency life. So this podcast aims to ease your journey just a little by sharing mine and my guests experiences and advice as you navigate your way to growing a profitable, sustainable and enjoyable business. If you run your own agency, it might seem a bit of a pipe dream to take a holiday, but in terms of balance and self care, it's absolutely vital that we take a breath away from our work and we get refreshed and we get a bit of perspective and we come back feeling energized. And if you really feel like you can't do that, then you really need to look at some of the ways you're running your business. Because when you were an employee you were entitled to four weeks holiday a year and now you are running your own business. You don't want to be working for a worse boss who refuses to give you any holiday. So definitely you should be planning every year to take some time off. But there are also some things that you can put in place and plan for before the holiday to ensure that things don't fall apart, that clients don't leave and you don't spend the whole holiday worrying about what's going on in your business. And if you get really organized, you don't have to have that frantic feeling of Being so overworked and working such long hours leading up to the holiday that as soon as you relax, you get sick, which I'm sure a lot of us have found before that it seems really ironic that we go on holiday and then we get sick. Well, it's because you've been running on adrenaline and then suddenly you stop. So we want to make sure that doesn't happen so that you can genuinely relax and truly enjoy your holiday. And there's a number of things that you need to do and a number of things that I do and I'm doing right now. As I prepar to go on holiday for two weeks. I'm actually going to be away in the States for a month, but it's going to be two weeks holiday and then I'm going to be spending two more weeks out there working because I'm fortunate enough to be able to work anywhere and I'd rather be in sunny Florida in October than in grey and rainy England. So what have I done to get ready for my holiday? And what am I doing to make sure I'm not working 24 hours a day in the days leading up to heading out to the us? Well, the first thing I do, which I am a big fan of and I suppose spoken about before, it's I batch create content. And this serves me really well when I'm going to be away for a while. So of course I release my podcast every single week. I also write an email to my list every week and I schedule some social media posts. And I've been really consciously working to have at least the next six weeks worth of content done. So not only am I covered while I'm on holiday, but I'm not going to have that frantic feeling of kind of being in catch up mode when I start back and my head's not quite in the game. So I've got about three or four weeks buffer when I get back to work of content I've already created so that I don't have to worry about that. And I'll put a link into the show notes of the episode on batching content. But the basic premise of batching content is that you record, for example, a whole series of podcasts in one day, or you record a whole series of videos for your YouTube channel, or you write a whole bunch of blogs, or you write a whole bunch of emails. With the premise being that while your head is in that mode, it is much easier to map out and for example, record four podcasts in a day than it is to think okay, I've got to write record a podcast now. Let's map it out and let's record it so it's more efficient and effective to batch produce. And that serves you really well when you're about to head out on holiday and it makes sure that you don't have a kind of frantic chaos when you get back to the office after your vacation. So that's my first tip, which is to get organized and batch produce your content. Of course this is good practice in general, but really comes into its own when you are planning to take a vacation. And of course you don't want your marketing and your outbound comms just to die a death while you're away and you can be sure that you know people are still hearing from you. The second thing is if you're a one person agency or a freelancer, you really need to make sure that you have a VA who can keep things going for you, who can check your emails, who can respond to basic requests and and obviously do things like promote social media. My VA team is so important and integral in running my business and it gives me confidence that while I'm away they'll be able to deal with any particular client inquiries to a certain degree. And talking of clients, one of the obvious things you need to do is tell them that you're going to be on holiday and tell them the dates and also put some boundaries in place so that you are telling them how frequently you're going to check email or you won't be checking email at all. I'm actually going to be out in the ocean, so I'm not going to have a very good signal. So there's a really good chance that I won't be able to respond to emails for about 10 days. So I'll be telling my clients that I'm on vacation, that if there's anything urgent I will endeavor to get back to them. But I'm obviously trying to sort of have a break and a detox and they can hopefully respect that as well. Talking of that, I think it's really healthy and this is something I'm going to try and do and I'll report back when I get back. But I really am going to try and have a digital detox. Like I said, I'm going on a cruise, so we're going to be out in the ocean without a signal. So it's the perfect, perfect time to extract my phone from my hand and lose that feeling of having to check my emails constantly that we are all addicted to or Checking social media. So I'm gonna really try and have a digital detox and I think that's something that we should all be trying to do while we're on holiday. Because when you're on holiday you want to be present and you're never going to be present experiencing the beautiful sounds and sights and food and smells and everything else if you're constantly worrying about emails or even worse, checking your phone regularly for emails and replying. So make sure you've got good boundaries with your clients and that you've explained to them when you're going to be away. Now, another good tip that I appreciate not everybody has this choice over is that you want to try and plan your holidays around quiet periods in your business. So if your business has is seasonal, then make sure you try and plan your holidays around that. When I ran my marketing agency, we always used to take two or three weeks off over the Christmas period because that was always a pretty quiet time for us. My business now isn't as seasonal so I try to take holidays avoiding the school holidays. And I totally understand that some of you have got children will have to take your holidays in the school holiday time. But if you have the choice, try to take holidays when it's quiet in your business because that will lead you to worry less about being detached from your business. You know, a break means a break. And if you want to truly be refreshed and you want to look after your mental health and you want to be able to give your clients the best service possible, then you need a break. None of us are supermen or superwomen, so we need a break. And if you're on holiday but you've got half your mind into work, then you're not going to be anywhere near as refreshed as if you take time off and really disconnect. So I'm kind of putting it out there. That's what I'm going to try and do. And I will record a podcast when I get back telling you how well it went. But I am going to do my best to avoid my phone and avoid emails. And of course there's some other things that you're going to want to do, such as put your out of office on and direct your emails to somebody else. If there is somebody else that can look after it. Make sure if you've got a team that they are clear about what might happen while you're away, but also make sure that they understand that they shouldn't be contacting you unless it's an absolute emergency because you need to have your peace and quiet and recuperate and enjoy your vacation. Okay, so those are the bits of wisdom that I have for you. As I said, I will report back how it went and I'm kind of making a pledge to you guys that I am absolutely going to try and detox, but I will be very honest with you and let you know how it went. So I'd love to get a bit of feedback from you here. Is this the kind of podcast topic that you like? It's a little bit out of the ordinary, it's a little bit more personal to me, but trying to share some of the wisdoms and things that I apply and hopefully they help you. But I would love you to reach out to me. Just drop me an email@robert dacostacoaching.co.uk and let me know if this is the type of content that you would like to see me put more into this podcast in addition to all those great guests we have and other more kind of business like topics. Okay, that's it from me for this week. Do me a massive favor and make sure you hit subscribe and do me even in a bigger favor. It would really make me smile while I'm on vacation and leave a review on Apple Podcasts because as you know, that helps the algorithm show it to more people just like you. Which means I can help more people just like you. But meanwhile, I'm heading out on holiday and I will see you for the next episode next Thursday of the Agency Accelerator Podcast.