How to vacation and not burn your business!

Hey, new listener. Thanks so much for checking us out. And there's a good chance you have adhd, so I quickly wanted to ask you to please follow this podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whichever app you're listening to this on. Don't leave it until later because you will forget. Thank you. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. In this episode, I'm going to tell you how you can go on vacation and actually enjoy yourself without crashing and burning your business. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, and welcome to the weeniecast. I'll be honest, I feel like a bit of a hypocrite talking about this topic. I have grown up in a place that is a vacation destination, and I never go on vacation. I think it's just. It's how you get trained. When you grow up in a place that's beautiful and people pay to go to, it's. You're like, oh, cool. Like, I can just be on vacation whenever I want. The other side of this is I really enjoy working. It's one of my favorite things to do. And maybe that sounds sad, but it just. It genuinely is. It's one of the things that I can never. I can never imagine retiring or giving it up. I say this to you as someone who is notoriously bad at actually going on vacation, but many of my clients are very talented at going on vacation, and they do it often. And the panic that comes up before, during, and after a vacation for an ADHD business owner is exactly the same for each and every person. In this episode, I'm going to show you how you can set yourself up for success and reduce your anxiety when you go on vacation and take a break from your business. So before we even talk about the planned vacation, let's talk about before you even planned a vacation. Okay? So this episode, you're actually going to walk away with some homework. And I'm sorry, maybe you didn't plan on doing homework today, but too bad. Suck it up, buttercup. You're going to do this and you're going to email me afterwards and tell me what your standard operating procedure is. And why do we care about a standard operating procedure? Well, let me tell you why. The number one question I get from clients after they come back from vacation is, I forgot how to do my job. I forgot what I do every single day. How do I post on social media? How do I get clients? How do I respond to an email? That last one, I'm kind of exaggerating. But anyway, before you even plan a vacation, you need to document exactly what you do day in and day out. And I'm not going to give you the homework that we're all used to getting that is completely undoable for people with adhd, which is as you go through your day, just document every single thing you do as you do it. You know, it's like the food diaries that nutritionists want us to do where every single time we sit down to eat something or we have a snack, we pull out our little journal and we jot it down, we write down how it made us feel and what our emotions were that made us eat it and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. Because that doesn't work. Maybe neurotypicals have the ability to add an extra action into all the actions they do every single day. As a one off thing. ADHD people can't do that. It does not work for us. So I want you to open up your phone. If you're in a safe place where you can do so. If you're driving, I want you to try really, really hard to remember this for when you get somewhere that you can safely do this. And I want you to go into your phone and set an alarm for 6pm every single day for the next week. And in this alarm, I want you to name it, create a list of all the shit you did and I want you to count everything from you commented on People's posts on LinkedIn, you answered a few emails, you had three client calls, you did a few sales calls, you created content, you did a webinar. I want you to just document all, all of it. Because I can tell you from personal experience and secondhand experience through my clients that a two week vacation can make you forget half of it. I've had clients come back from vacation having completely forgotten that they need to post to social media. I talk a lot about not relying on motivation to run our businesses and leaning more into momentum. The reason it's so important to lean into momentum is because people with ADHD actually don't have the ability to automatically do habits. Meaning that for neurotypical when they wake up, the first thing they do without thinking is brush their teeth and take a shower. The second thing they do without even thinking about it is make breakfast. And it's like the breakfast that they eat, they don't have to think about it. They may get their briefcase together. If people still use briefcases, I don't know, it seems kind of out of date these days. If they have children, hopefully they're Also feeding those children and getting them off to school. And doesn't that sound amazing? Just waking up and doing the things that you need to do and not having to think, okay, cool, here's how much time I have. Here are the things that I need to do. I need to brush my teeth at some point. I need to do this. I need to do this. Which order do I want to do it in? What do I want to have for breakfast when I shower? Do I need to shave my legs? Oh God, should I get my hair wet? Because then I have to blow dry it. Like, it's insane the amount of thinking that ADHD people have to do. And we don't realize that not everyone has to do this. Like when I realized that neurotypicals don't have to go through the daily planning to figure out how you can fit all the things in, it's just something that they do, it made me very angry. That's not fair. Like, I'm exhausted. There's no wonder I take a granny nap most days because the amount of decisions that we have to make as humans with ADHD is already exhausting. Add to that all the responsibilities of a business owner who owns multiple businesses or even just one business, that's a lot. It is nap worthy. And on a daily basis, we can forget things that we do every single day. And I say this because I know you're a safe place to share this and you won't judge me because you probably do the same thing. There are days where it's 2pm and I'm like, oh my God, I forgot to brush my teeth. So if we can forget a habit that we've done every single day for our whole lives of having, you know, teeth in our mouths, think about all the things that you struggle to build a habit around in your business and imagine not doing them for two weeks and coming back and trying to remember them all again and trying to figure out how to fit them all back into your schedule. It's really hard. Just remembering them is really hard. So I don't want you to lean into your perfectionist at all when you do this. I want you to just brain dump every single thing that you did in your business every day for the next week. And if you want a gold star for extra effort, put in the things that you also wanted to do and didn't have time for. So once you have this list, ideally what you're going to pull from it is you're going to pull from it the daily things that you do every single damn day or that you should be doing every single damn day. Let's be real. You're not doing it all, all the time. You're also going to pull the things that you do weekly or a couple times a week. And in addition to that, you're going to pull the things that you should be doing monthly. And I say should because, like, oftentimes we forget about it if it's something that we're doing on a more consistent, frequent basis. And a fourth list you're going to make is the things that you should be doing that you don't quite get to. This is your standard operating procedure. We're not going to overthink it. We're not going to make it more glitzy or glammy or more organized than that. I want you to save these lists in a place that is visible so that you'll remember that it exists. Because remember, when something's out of sight, it doesn't exist anymore because we have a little thing called object impermanence. Funny story. So over the last few months, I have this tiny, tiny bedside table. And like, my bedroom's kind of small, so it's really the only size table that fits next to my bed. And to give you an idea, it's like 14 inches wide and 12 inches deep. It has a lamp on it. It has a box tissues. It has, like my favorite hand lotion. It has a gazillion hair ties. It has pens. So many pens. It has white out also because, you know, sometimes when I'm like doing some work from bed, I make mistakes and I have to use whiteout, obviously most people. And, you know, it has like Advil and just a bunch of other random shit that ends up on your nightstand. Right? Literally. I try to cram so much stuff on this that I'll like scoot a little mug of tea on it and like, things will fall off the back. And this has been driving me absolutely mental for months. The other day I was cleaning my room and I'm looking at this nightstand and I'm like, this is a problem. I need to figure this out. And I'm looking at the nightstand and I realized it has a drawer. This nightstand has always had. I keep things in the drawer of the nightstand. Literally, I was. It's not like this was a surprise drawer. It's not like it was hidden. I've legit had this nightstand for 23 years. I've had it for more than half of my life. It's something that I think we got from one of my grandmothers. And I had it as a child. And then I've just taken it with me wherever I've moved. This drawer has things in it, I'm sure from middle school. And I just realized that I could use the drawer to put things inside. Now I put a bunch of stuff inside and we'll just have to see. If I remember, I could. I could honestly have a crisis of no more hair ties. You know, I may go out and buy another big bottle of Advil. You know, I might have to go order more pension because out of sight, out of mind. And I share this with you not to. Not to brag about how smart I am, but to showcase how important it is. If something's important, we need to keep it out and visible so that we don't forget that it exists. When I had this aha. I literally called my best friend to brag about how smart I am. She was very impressed. Okay, so that's your homework. That's your homework. I want you to do this before you even plan a vacation. Next on our timeline, let's talk about what you do when you actually plan the vacation. So there are a few things that are super important for you to do when you're planning a vacation is a figure out what kind of communication you need to have with your existing clients. Are you going to be unreachable? Is there someone else that they can reach out to if they need help? Are you going to complete projects before then? Do you have someone filling in for you for their sessions? Depending on what kind of business you run, figure out what that communication is and figure out how much advance warning they need that you're going to be off for whatever amount of time you're going on vacation for. Make sure that they are set up for success in that time. One of the things I'm so grateful I learned from previous jobs is you always wanna think about what that customer or client experience is and what are the things that can make it go well and go badly. Now, something that can make it go badly is if you send out an email on, say a Thursday night saying, hey, client, so tomorrow's my last day in the office before I go away for two weeks. Do you have any questions before I do this? Otherwise, I'll see you in two weeks. Right? Your client may not see that email until Friday afternoon. And at which point maybe they have some major questions and then it either becomes their emergency or your emergency. And if it's their emergency, you have an unhappy client. If it's your emergency, then that's eating into days of your vacation you don't want either. Warn your clients, communicate with them in advance what they need to know about how long you're going to be gone, how things are going to be handled while you're away, and touch base with them multiple times to make sure that things are taken care of before you go. It's better to over communicate than under communicate. Next. What kind of visibility needs to happen while you're away? This is one of the hardest things for me because I struggle with batching content. I really do. I'm an intuitive writer. I kind of sense what does the universe need to hear from me today and then just write whatever that is. It's hard for me when I'm batching content to think, okay, what will the world need for me on Thursday the 17th? It just doesn't work the same way. So there are some ways that I manage this for myself and there are strategies that I walk my clients through. If you're curious about those, then I invite you to either join the Hyper Focus membership where I guide a lot of our members through these types of questions, or book a generate Income strategy. Call with me so we can find a custom strategy for you and your business so that you can consistently create content that attracts high paying clients. As you're planning a vacation, you want to make sure that you're not dropping the ball on visibility because if people don't know that you exist, they can't give you their money. And while you're off enjoying life and living it up and on the beach or at museums or diving with turtles, whatever you know tickles your fancy on vacation. You don't want to be stressing about. Oh my God, there's no new clients coming in. Oh my God, people aren't going to know that I exist. Oh my God, my audience is going to forget that I exist. What will help you enjoy your vacation more is knowing that you have pre written and pre scheduled all the posts to go out for the time that you're out of office. And let me tell you, it is so much easier when you're at the beach enjoying your time having a margarita, which actually you shouldn't have at the beach because I just learned that lime juice can actually cause you to get chemical burns on your skin if you're exposed to sunlight at the same time. Which is absolutely crazy to me because it feels like lime is a major ingredient of day drinking things. They should really warn people about this early on and I say that as a non Drinker. I want everyone to be able to drink whatever frosty vacation beverage they want while they're on the beach and in the sun, but do so with safety for your skin in mind. Also, wear sunscreen. I feel like this is the most ADHD episode we've had in a while. But anyway, while you're on the beach enjoying that beverage, it's so much easier to just log into social media and respond to comments than it is to log into social media. Think, oh my God, I have to post something. There's nothing being posted right now. I have to post something that's interesting, inspiring, gets people to book a sales call with me. But not right now, in two weeks when I get back to the office. It's way more fun to just go in and see the responses that people had to whatever you wrote three weeks ago that got posted this morning without you having to do anything and just comment on their comments, maybe DM them Live on the wild side. It's your vacation or not. You don't have to do that also. But the point being, you need to plan for how you're going to stay visible while you're on vacation without requiring yourself to do work while you're on vacation. The last bit when you're planning a vacation may sound like a no brainer and you may hear this and be like, oh God, I would never do that. That's, that's crazy. Who would do that? I hear you. And also I know better and I try to do this all the time. So I warn you, like, your brain is used to trying to squeeze in work and do things with a very limited amount of time, right? Because that's how you've done everything. You've written papers the night before, you've crammed for tests like the morning of, and you've pulled it off because you learn really fast and you thrive under pressure. Any launches you have coming up, anything that's being put out into the world is brand new. Any big promotions you're running, look at the schedule and make sure that none of those actions are happening during your vacation time. And I know you're going to be like, well, who would do that? That's crazy. No, you don't do that stuff around vacation. And yet as ADHD business owners, we are often looking at, you know, the best way to do something and we're like, yes, absolutely, that is the best way to do it. But I can probably do it in a different way. I can probably hack that. I can probably set this up to run in the background while I'm on vacation? No, because things go wrong. That's not an if. That is a guarantee things go wrong. Email sequences will get up your tagging sequences. If you have an email system, you know what a tagging system is. If you don't, then don't worry about it. Signups go wrong. People have questions. They may have ordered the wrong thing. Don't plan promotions or launches during your vacation time. Either do it sooner or do it after. Don't think because you're smart and brilliant and can usually pull off that it'll be different for you. Because while yes, you are smart and brilliant and can usually pull things off, don't try to pull this off. It will ruin your vacation. And if you have a team supporting you who's dealing with things going wrong for you, they will feel so terrible reaching out to you, asking you questions while you're sitting at the beach or in a museum. And finally, what do you do when you come back from vacation? This is one of the most important parts because ooh, what am I going to say next? Well, you'll have to keep listening to find out. But first, squirrel, Squirrel Squirrel Squirrel. The hyperfocus community is the inner sanctum of the Weeniecast. It's a club that's designed just for you, where you'll learn how to leverage your ADHD to grow your business. In the hyperfocus community, we are realistic about the challenges that face ADHD business owners and we don't believe in one size fits all solutions. We believe in creating strategies that fit you. On day one of signing up, you'll experience that deep sigh of relief that comes from walking into a room full of people like you who you do not need to make mask your quirks in front of in order to fit in because they get you in the membership every single month. You'll get two group calls. One is an ADHD group coaching call and the other is a networking call with fellow ADHD business owners. We will also have co working sessions designed for the ADHD mind. Monday Get Organized Sprint calls to keep you out of overwhelm. Access to weekly Brave BizLab calls where I will give you practical advice to grow your business. We'll also have the occasional expert training which are absolutely ADHD vetted and of course, community support by folks like you. And those who pay for the year up front get a surprise bonus. Visit weenicast.com hyperfocused and stop procrastinating the things that will grow your business. That's weeniecast.com hyperfocus or click the link in the episode description. And finally, what do you do when you come back from vacation? This is one of the most important parts because you know that feeling when you get back from traveling and you feel like you need a vacation from your vacation. And then add to that exhaustion, maybe some jet lag, and maybe like crap ton of laundry that's gonna sit on your floor in your suitcase until you get the energy to do it. I don't know, next couple weeks. And then the guilt and embarrassment that it's still there that you're going to experience for that first week back. It'll be like a month down the road and you'll have completely forgotten about the guilt as you step over your suitcases that still have like dirty laundry hanging out of them. But that first week, it's kind of hard because you have this expectation that you should be doing it. Add to all that going back into your business and panicking that you don't remember what you should be doing. It is the literal worst. So here's what you're going to do to set yourself up for success so you do not have a gazillion panic attacks that first week back. First, you're going to create a minimum of three posts that you're going to share on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That week, three of those other days. I don't care if it's Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, whatever cadence you want to do, you're just gonna share pictures from your vacation. You're not gonna worry about it being clever. You're just gonna share pictures of your vacation. You're gonna make some people jealous. But what it does, when you share that kind of stuff about your life, it makes people feel like they know you. It makes them feel like they work with you. You know, it's the kind of stuff that if you were at an actual networking event and you're meeting people and talking to them, what do you do? What do you do? Blah. Like, wow, like, you have a tan. Like, did you go somewhere? Like, you would pull out your phone and you would show pictures of your most recent vacation. You and I both know you would. Anyone that you go to coffee with or have lunch with or bump into, oh my God, let me show you the beach. It was so beautiful. It's something that makes people feel like they know you, like they're close to you. Share it on social media. It builds trust and it makes your content creation for the week so easy so you don't have to Overthink it. And as you and I both know, the most important thing that you can do in your business day in and day out is do visibility. People can't hire you if they don't know that you exist. And your clients are already your clients. They're going to stay with you, but once they're done, you need to be able to backfill them. Don't create a vacuum where you have no one to backfill them. With your first day back in your business, you're going to a reach out to all of your clients and check in with them, make sure nothing blew up. Make sure that they have their next meeting scheduled with you or whatever it is that you do with them. Touch base. If you have a team that was supporting them, touch base with the team and see what the progress is and just do a touch base. Talk to so and so and they said that they got to X point in this program project they're working on for you. Sounds like some great progress was made. Here's what we're looking to do this week as I get back into it. This will make your clients feel so taken care of. And that first day back. After you do that, you're then going to go onto social media and you're going to engage. You're going to comment on all the comments that were made on your post while you were away. You're going to go and comment on other people's stuff, depending on the platform you're on. You don't want to do this for LinkedIn, but if you're on TikTok, go and share relevant videos. What you want to do when you come back is you want to wake up the algorithm, right? Because if you were on vacation and away from your business, chances are you weren't as active as you normally were. So the algorithm has started reading. Oh, they're not that active. We shouldn't show their stuff to many people. The first thing you want to do is wake that up and that's it. Your first day back. Make that enough. Don't schedule more. Block your calendar for sales calls. You're not going to be good on a sales call the first day back from vacation. I know you think you're going to be arrested, but you and I both know that's bull. To get from vacation to your home, you had to have a travel day. I don't care what level of first class status you had on, what transportation mode you took to and fro your vacation. Traveling is exhausting, especially for people with adhd. Because it's a lot. Because it's a lot of decision making. It's a lot of stimulation that we don't normally have to deal with. A lot of sounds, a lot of, like, different visual stimuli. Your brain needs just a beat to reset and recalibrate back to being home. And that's okay. Your first week back from vacation plan, a light week. Okay? You do not have to come back and give it 110% right away. The goal of starting a business, the way we talk about on this podcast, is to create a business that can withstand you being human, that doesn't require you to be a robot, to be 110% productive every single second of every single single day. It's just not realistic. And when you set the expectation that you should be doing that and then you don't meet it because you're exhausted, and that's not a realistic expectation, the only thing you do is you start associating the work you're doing with failure. And what happens when we start associating something with failure? We start avoiding it. Because you've already failed at it. You're not going to get any dopamine from it. I can't tell you how many clients I've had go on vacation, come back, they have a session with me, like a week after they got back, and they admit to me as if they'd murdered someone. Like, murdered someone and their whole family and their dog. Like, with that level of guilt that they hadn't posted to social media since they got back. Like it was the worst thing in the world. And they felt so bad. And it's like, well, I should just give up. If I haven't posted in the last week, then it's over. I won't be able to post again and it's done. I should just close up shop now. And of course I'm exaggerating, but not by much. Perceived failure is really painful for people with adhd. So stop setting yourself up for it. If you build a business while being a human and being realistic about the things you can get done every single day, you're going to build a business that's successful by you being a regular human that doesn't require you to give 110% all the time. And that's the goal. And that, my friends, is how you successfully go on vacation as a business owner. Squirrel. Squirrel. If you're ready to stop being a weenie and actually run a business that makes money, then go ahead and book a generate income strategy. Call with me by going to weenycast.com forward/strategycall. On this call, we will talk about your goals, your dreams, and your frustrations in getting there. And if it's a fit for both of us, then we can talk about different ways to work together. Now, time to get on with your homework. Ha ha ha ha. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. Join the weeniecast hyper focused community and unlock a whole world of support. Get direct access to me in exclusive calls. Turbocharge your network with unlimited referrals, and boost your productivity with Sprint calls and accountability sessions. But that's not all. We're talking expert talks, masterclasses, and more. Register now to get in front of the line for this at the introductory price of just $77 per month, it's time to elevate your entrepreneurial game. Let's do this together. Go to weeniecast. Com Hyperfocus. All one word. That's weeniecast. Com Hyperfocus.