Ep #194 How To Take Time Off As An Entrepreneur

Are you a good time off taker? Are you able to turn off your phone and get present with the people and experiences, or do you feel ancy, agitated and anxiety wondering what you are missing and what messes will await you when you return? Most business owners I meet are TERRIBLE at taking real time off and it is actually hurting their businesses more than they realize.

Join me on this week's episode as I share my recent journey to rest and rejuvenation after taking 12 days off (and not just "entrepreneur off", but "off, off".)  I share insights on how we can gracefully step away from our businesses to recharge, and why it is SO important to do so for enhanced productivity and creativity. 

Learn practical strategies I used to disconnect from technology, set boundaries, and delegated tasks to ensure a seamless break while maintaining business momentum and ease of re-entry.

Get the CEO checklist at https://www.foodbizsuccess.com/ceo and know exactly what to do when you put on the CEO hat 🎩 in your business.

If you would like help to create this foundation to create your own beautiful business, Master Your Business is now open for applications. We will officially start in January, but you don't want to miss the Q4 bonus classes to get your business ready!

Food Business Success is my signature program that helps you launch your delicious idea and grow it to $100K. Includes step-by-step videos, tools and 5 months inside the Fuel membership for coaching + community. And it's guaranteed to make your program fee back or I'll refund your money. Learn more at https://www.foodbizsuccess.com/program

Pick up your copy of "Key Ingredients" on Amazon here.

Check out my YouTube channel at www.foodbiz.tube for how to videos to start and grow a packaged food business.

Transcript

Sari  0:00  
Every business has 10 problems at any given time that need to be solved. And the way we solve our problems is by asking questions and getting answers that help us to get to the next step, to get into action, and try things because we can't just solve problems in thought, we need to actually take action, and to help you get into action, to help you feel confident, and provide clarity so you know what to do next, I am hosting two free, completely free, live asked me anything sessions on May 21st and May 22nd. They are kind of divided by pre launch if you haven't launched yet, I'll take questions about that. And then post launch if you have a business and you're ready to grow it. Or maybe you have questions about whether you checked all the boxes correctly, I'll focus on those questions. And to register totally free, you go to foodbizsuccess.com/AMA2024. Get yourself registered, you can come to one or both of them. And it's a way for you to get to know me and my expertise after working with hundreds of packaged food brands and helping them launch and scale to 100k and beyond. This is a great way for you to come and ask that burning question so you get an answer and can move forward and get more success more quickly. When we get into motion and action, we see success and we get momentum. So come join me, get yourself registered. The link is also below in the description. See you there!

Welcome to your Food Business Success. This podcast is for early stage entrepreneurs in the packaged food industry ready to finally turn that delicious idea into reality. I'm your host Sari Kimbell, I have guided hundreds of food brand founders to success as an industry expert and business coach, and it's got to be fun. In this podcast, I share with you mindset tools to become a true entrepreneur and run your business like a boss, interviews with industry experts to help you understand the business you are actually in, and food founder journeys so you can learn what worked and didn't work and not feel so alone in your own journey. Now let's jump in!

Welcome back to the podcast. So glad you are here with me today. I am feeling so good. So rested. I'm still relaxed after coming back from 10 days off. What! That my friends is a huge milestone, huge accomplishment for me as an entrepreneur. And it's something that I work with a lot of you especially in Master Your Business about how we set up our businesses to be able to take time away from our business, to not have it always running us and instead we are directing it. And we are creating systems and processes and bringing in who's to help us. So as I was thinking about what do I want to talk about for the podcast for this week. I have an amazing guests coming on for next week's podcast. But I thought it would just kind of catch you up on me. Some of you love it when I share a little bit about my personal life and so I thought I would do that first. And then I want to talk about our obligation as entrepreneurs, as people doing hard things in the world, that we need to rest our brains, that we need to have downtime, we need to rest our bodies and our minds. And it will actually be better for our businesses when we come back. So I'll get into some of the science and the reasons and how you can set yourself up to be able to take time off well, and not just do a case of the of like I'm so burnt out that I have to take time off or maybe your body is forcing you to take time off that we can do it with much more intention and grace and still make money while we're taking some downtime. All right, so first, I just got back from a 10 day trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, never been there in particular before. And I actually had kind of two trips going on. I had a women's retreat at the beginning which was really great in so many ways. It really helped me in some areas of business. But also personally, I had some really powerful transformations, some ahas, such great conversation, I find that when I get myself into spaces with other like minded people, and many of the women on this retreat were entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial. And so I had some great questions asked of me, and I was able to also have great conversation and offer things to others. It was also super interesting being the oldest one in the room, with these I think are 11 of us total. And for so long, I have been the baby in the room, I was on the younger side of graduating from high school, and going out into a career. And so I feel like for much of my life, I've always been like the kid, you know, the young one. And this time around, you know, everyone was younger than me. And it was an interesting, I just noticed what an interesting position it is to be in that place. And to have these awesome women kind of looking up to me as the wise one, which in some ways, puts a lot of pressure on me. But also, it's fun. It's fun to go to places and feel more confident in my skin and in my decisions, and just feel really comfortable with who I am. And so it was a really great time, well spent. And then I am dating someone and he does not live in my state. So we have been navigating a long distance relationship. But he came down and had the rest of the time with me in Puerto Vallarta. And we had a really great place. We had a private balcony that was over, you know, facing the ocean, we were right on the beach. And it was just a lot of downtime. And I'm super proud of myself, I just really wanted to disconnect. It's so hard, I get it. We are addicted to our phones. We are addicted to email, to social media, we get dopamine hits when those little things go off. And many of my clients who have online stores, they get the notification every time a sale is made. And that's really fun. And there's a lot of value in totally shutting things down. So I took off my Apple watch, I turned my phone on DND. I usually just left it in the room. I didn't even want it on my person because I didn't want to be distracted by that at all. And it was kind of bittersweet honestly as I was picking up my watch on the last day and I was like, okay, we're putting the watch back on and back into the world with my phone and all the things, right? But I love that I gave myself some buffer time. We flew back home to the states on Friday, I took the weekend off, you know, you don't have to take the vacation all the way up to Sunday night. It was a beautiful thing to be able to do laundry and go grocery shopping and meal plan and I feel I'm doing kind of a reset on my diet and my nutrition and exercise and alcohol and all of that. And so that feels really great to come back and do a reset, feels very loving for myself and exactly what I need. I did not feel stressed everybody I've talked to on calls. My clients are like, are you super stressed coming back? You know, day one, day two, and I was like, no, I'm really good. I set it up well from the beginning. And I really hooked myself up this time because I have taken "vacations", call them vacations, in the past that I have been on my phone the whole time, I've been distracted.

I've been able to take you know, it's usually less time and I'm stressed and nervous and worried and anxious and all the things and this is like a new leaf for me and I want to help you to be able to do the same thing. So there's so much evidence that shows us that we need to have downtime, we need to have rest. I have another podcast on my Reinvent Podcast called Rest Is A Responsibility about as you go into, you know, summer tends to be a season of vacations and time off. And it can be really difficult as an entrepreneur to step away from our business. But we know from research that when we take that downtime, and not just forced downtime, like I cannot do another thing, alright physically, mentally, but we actually do it on purpose. And we say, I'm going to disconnect, that when we come back, we are more refreshed, we're more creative, we can solve problems faster, we're more productive. And I have definitely found that to be very true. I'm recording this on Wednesday, I got back Friday, Monday and Tuesday were super productive. I have just been on a roll. I have so many ideas. I put together like really quickly the asked me anything, came together really easily. So you guys will heard that at the beginning. But in case you skipped over it, I'm doing two sessions of just come and ask me your questions because I want to help you make progress. I want to help you solve your problems and feel more confident in your next steps. And I want you to get to know me to interact. This is a podcast is a one way platform, right? So come and join me if you want to get registered for that, you go to foodbizsuccess.com/AMA2024. And it's totally free. So you can come and ask me your questions and just engage with me, which will be super fun. So yes, I can attest, even though it's scary to put the phone away, to turn things off, to disconnect. I can say that on the other side of it, I am so much more productive, creative, happier. My clients and Fuel members are getting the best from me, because I took that time. So not only I want to give you permission to take time away, but that it's actually a responsibility that your business will be more successful, you'll have more momentum, you'll solve problems faster. Just give it a try. And a lot of times with my entrepreneur clients, I say like let's just take one day off a week. And for those of you who do farmers markets, there can be a lot of guilt about like, alright, well, I worked all weekend, but now it's Monday and everybody else is working. And giving yourself permission to say I'm going to take Monday's off, or I'm going to take Tuesday's off, and actually do it. Put the phone down, get outside, rest, take naps, read. You don't always have to be productive. And we really need that, our brain needs us to take a little break. So that said, that it is a responsibility, I don't want you to just do the case of the efforts where you don't plan for it, and you don't do it intentionally, and then you have consequences on the other side. The last thing that we want is for you to create more drama, more problems when you come back. Because what you end up doing is reinforcing a message in your mind that like see, I can't take any time off. And then it's that constant like swing of, well screw this, you know, you're kind of playing the child and then also the boss. And it's just not a great relationship. And you're training yourself to only take time off when you've reached some kind of end of your rope. And then more drama ensues. So not a great cycle, don't recommend it. So what we want to do instead is be really intentional and plan this out. Ideally, if you're going to take every Tuesday off, that you're going to set that up for success from the beginning. Or if you're going to take two weeks off or a week off or take a vacation this summer, that we're going to execute a plan and make sure everyone's taken care of so that you can come back and be like, everything's good. Everybody knew what was happening, everybody was informed, and that you maybe had to get some help to support you. But you did that ahead of time. And you weren't like calling your friend last minute and be like, oh my gosh, I forgot to deliver this one product and can you run this over? So whether you're doing markets, or you're doing online orders, or you're doing wholesale, you just want to think about ahead of time, how are you going to set that up and communicate well in advance? Or what is the necessary communication that needs to happen? So for a farmers market for instance, like let's say you're going to take time off a week off or two weeks off, you want to be sure that you give plenty of notice to the market managers for instance, that maybe you try to find help to work your booth instead. Or that you see if you can find a replacement for yourself depending on what the market rules are. So you want to do that and you even want to communicate to your customers ahead of time, like, hey, I'm not going to be here next week, get two of them or whatever it is, like encourage them to pre purchase, let them know you're going to be taking a week off. Because even customers can get a little bit agitated kind of subconsciously, when you're not there at the market and they expect you to be there, and then they go find a replacement, and they may or may not come back. So it's a good idea to just be really communicative. I think a lot of times what we do is we're like, I'm just not going to tell anyone because I'm worried about what they're going to think. And so I'll just, you know, I'll answer emails and things when I'm on my vacation, or I'll just pretend like it's not happening, but let's not pretend. Let's just do it with responsibility. 

So if you're doing wholesale orders for instance, you want to let buyers know well in advance, like I will be gone these dates and if you need an order, please get your order in by this time, our last delivery date is XYZ. And I have started doing this. I remember I was just so nervous to tell my clients that I was going on vacation, and I was like, I could take a call when I'm traveling, or I can email them or you know, get to them on Slack. And it just, it ruins the vacation. It's not me being in the best of service to them and they're fine. I don't know why I was like, felt like I just should never take a vacation like my clients take vacations all the time, right? They're like, hey, I won't be in town, can we do our call on this week? And so I started just emailing my clients a couple of weeks before saying, hey, I'm going to be out these dates, and I'm not apologizing for it, I'm not making excuses. I don't have to give them a bunch of story about it. I'm just saying, these are the dates that I'm going to be off, I will be out of pocket, I will not be answering emails, Slack, texts, whatever. And if you would like to schedule a call with me before I leave, here's my link to do so or go ahead and book for when I'm back. And it's no problem, they usually write back and say congrats, I hope you're going somewhere fun. Amazing, right? We'll see you when you get back. So it's just not a problem. But I got to communicate ahead of time because it's actually worse when I don't. And so same with your buyers, really communicate with them, let them know the dates, and then put it out of office on. And can you find somebody who could be available. You know, whether it's somebody on your team or a friend or a partner, somebody who could check the email or could be available as part of your out of office, like if you really need something urgently, call this number, text this number. And then with e commerce, if you are the only one shipping, if it's just you, or you and your partner are both gone at the same time that the best thing to do is put a big notice on your website that like on the product page and at the top that says you know, we're taking a short break, we'll be out until this time, orders placed after this date will be shipped on this date, like just tell people. Again, the more we communicate upfront, I just find it for myself and for my clients were so nervous about doing it and then we end up making more drama for ourselves. So those are a couple tips. Also, I just wrote, I use my note app and I created a ton of checklists, both for packing and everything I would need because it was a long time for me to be gone, gone, gone, out of my place. And so making sure I had a whole checklist there. And then I was capturing like what are the all the to-dos that need to happen before I leave, and also continually prioritizing those because we always think that we can get it all done. And the reality is not all of it was urgent, right? And again, where can I communicate that says, well, you know, I know you asked for this, but I'm going to be out of the office here. I'll get it to you a week after I'm back, right? Like you can just reschedule things, you can tell people the dates that you are available and not everything is urgent. So creating that list but prioritizing it, continually prioritizing it, and capturing every little thing if it's like I need to email that person back. I need to do you know little tiny things, because we can only hold about somewhere between five and nine things in our brain in any given time. And I find when we start to get overwhelmed it's because we're trying to capture it all in our brain instead like get it out on paper. So you wake up in the middle of the night and I go, oh my gosh, I forgot to do that,  have note pad by your bed or how use your note app and just do that really quick, get it out of your brain. And then finally ask for help, get support. And we talk a lot in Master Your Business about not just delegating by abdication. But having systems and processes set up ahead of time, always ideal, I recognize you may not always have that as the case. But really, you know, I brought in April now as our Fuel Community Manager, and she's also a coach inside Fuel, where she has processes so she knew how to support me, it you know, in my out of office, it said, if you need something urgently, email April. So I had support there, which was so awesome. And it was like really helped me to be able to be comfortable shutting down and disconnecting. And, you know, if you don't have anybody on your team yet, then even just working with a friend or something, but really doing the process first and making sure that it works. And not just like hoping that they can read your mind and figure it out. But I highly recommend, you know, don't wait until you have to take time off like when something bad happens, like get these systems and processes in place. And Master Your Business is actually, I'm going to be opening up pretty soon to just be able to get the course. And so this might be something that you want to consider grabbing, because I show you exactly how to do these processes and systems and the tools that I like to use and some of our other CEOs and brand founders use as well. But really helpful to have all of that in place ahead of time, we actually want to make you obsolete in a way, I mean, you're never going to be totally obsolete, but we want you to not be in the center of your business all the time. You should not be what everything hinges on. And it's probably only in your brain, we need to start bringing in who's to delegate certain things out, whether you're taking time off or not, right? Just in the course of your business, stop the mentality of I am the only one, I have to do everything. Or I'm the only one because I can't afford any help. I think the most successful entrepreneurs that I see, they hire and bring on support, I'm not talking about hiring a full time position, but they bring in support a little bit before you're ready, it's uncomfortable, but it's going to help you to really go to the next level, and to take this really important downtime for you as a business owner. And I think lastly, the biggest obstacle you have to overcome is yourself is the letting go of the control, of the worry of like, I don't want to let anybody down. Or I want to be there for everyone all the time. Put communicating ahead of time, putting all those things in place, the out of office, the notes, all the things that you can do to really set yourself up for success. But then know that you're kind of addicted, we all are to our phones, to our computers, to our inboxes, to social media, and make decisions ahead of time. Know that it's hard to set those things down because every time we check our phones, we get dopamine hits, and our brain likes dopamine, right? And so it can be really challenging to actually relax. I was just talking about that with the client right before recording this. And he's like, yeah, usually takes me like two days before. I'm all antsy and wound up and I don't know what to do with myself. And it's like, yeah, I get that. 

And so I like to decide ahead of time when, if at all, when I'm going to check email. So let's say you're going to go on a vacation. And you're like, you know, I really do need to monitor my email. So you make a decision about that. And then you say, okay, these are the days I'm going to do that. This is the time I'm going to give myself 30 minutes, or whatever time you decide, but you do it ahead of time. You write it down, you let your, if you're traveling with others, you tell them so that they know  the plan. And they know that you're not going to always be on your phone, but that for a short period of time, this is what you're doing. Or maybe it's twice during the day or whatever but you decide ahead of time and I've worked with my clients on this a lot when they need to take time off or want to take time off of like creating the plan ahead of and then know that your brain is going to fight you on it, it's going to say, oh, but just a little bit longer, or it's not a big deal if pick up my phone, you know, and start reading my email, I'm just standing in line anyway, what's the problem? No, we have made decisions, you are the CEO of your business and your life. And so make those decisions ahead of time. And you can also decide what constitutes as an emergency that you are going to go outside of that. But you're going to honor your word, and it's going to be hard the first couple of times, but you're going to break the habit. And then when you come back, you're gonna have such a better relationship with technology, because technology is there to serve us, not for us to be a slave to it. And so taking downtime where you shut things down, man, I can tell my brain has reset and rewired in such a positive way. And so I want that for you, too. So know that you're going to be the biggest obstacle and make decisions ahead of time. No, it's going to be hard. Do it anyway, force yourself, maybe that's shutting your whole entire phone down. Maybe it's putting it in the drawer, taking your watch off, just don't have those things. Get them out of your, you know, out of your proximity. Make it hard to get to that technology, and your brain, your business, your friends, your family and you will thank you for doing this. All right, that's what I have for you today. I just thought it'd be fun to talk about how to take time off well, and the importance of it. And I hope you'll join me for those asked me anything sessions, the links and everything are in the description. And if it's after that time, I'll probably put up a waitlist. So I'd love to know if people want me to continue doing those. So you can still go to that same link and put your name in there. Alright, let's do this again. It was really successful. All right, that's all I have for you today. Please, please, please go take some downtime. Take some rest, disconnect. And until next time, have an amazing week!

The smartest thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to invest in a who to help you with the how to speed up your journey and help you skip the line. When you are ready for more support and accountability to finally get this thing done, you can work with me in two ways. Get me all to yourself with one on one business coaching, or join Food Business Success which includes membership inside Fuel, our community of food business founders that includes monthly live group coaching calls and so much more. It's one of my favorite places to hang out and I would love to see you there. Go to foodbizsuccess.com to start your journey towards your own Food Business Success.