How I Manage the Summer Months as a CEO & Mumma
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Summer is here and as a business owner you’re likely preparing for the summer stretch. Whether that’s the juggle of the kids' holidays or preparing your business to keep running smoothly while you take some well-deserved downtime, there is a shift in routine.
Every year, my approach to managing business and family time during the summer months evolves, as my business grows and scales.
In this week's episode of The Magnetic Woman Podcast, I'm sharing insights on maintaining business operations, setting boundaries, and the importance of self-belief, to enable us to have our businesses working for us behind the scenes.
Here's a peek at what you'll learn:
How I set detailed boundaries and plan my calendar in advance
The importance of having a strong strategy and business model that allows for time off without affecting client service.
How my team supports the business and each other during the summer months.
How to schedule like a boss to maintain consistency
Resources:
Grab the Magnetic Mid-Year Review
Transcript
Hello. Hello. And welcome to this episode of the podcast. I did a similar episode around this time last year, and I decided to do it again because I know that a lot of you in my audience are mummas as well. And we are just about to embark on the six weeks of summer holidays, so I wanted to do another episode of How I Manage the Summer Months as a CEO and a Mama.
Now, it probably looks a little bit different to how it looked last year. And the reason for that is every year that we grow, scale, activate more freedom, deliciousness, success in various forms within the business.
A big priority of mine is something that I call the Triple S System, which is Systems and Structures create Spaciousness, which ultimately means that the business can run more and more efficiently without me needing to be in it all of the time.
And so last year, I would say I worked a little bit more than I plan to work this year. And I'm gonna explain a few reasons, as to how I'm I'm able to do that.
So firstly, I thought I would share that I'm never completely out of the business. You know, my business is my third baby. I have my daughter Romilly. I have Lenny, my furry baby. And like I teach them how to be independent, I teach my business to be independent as well.
I will be out of the office, here and there, but I will be thinking of it. I will be tending to it in ways that I can. And I wholeheartedly have my energy and thoughts, in my intentions and goals for the summer months. And I will be taking action. It just looks a little bit differently. And when six figure, multi six, seven figure business owners say that they're stepping away from their business, this is usually what they mean.
I think this is a really important thing to share because the language can often imply that we're literally putting down the business.
But at this level, that's just not possible.
There are responsibilities that we have, people to pay, people that rely on that, and that's a big deal. For me, I am very much devoted to the responsibility that I hold as being a multi six figure business owner, not just for my team, but also my clients, and also for myself.
I love that my business can work independently.
However, like any really delicious divine relationship, there is give and take, and you have to work at communication and manage time management and really work on that union.
There is a way, however, that we can do this, that feels nourishing for us and then, of course, supportive for our business and for our clients.
That said, we have now got to a level in the business where, from next year, I will actually be taking August off. And that's something I haven't done before, but something I have been feeling into, certainly, I'd say this year, is when will we get to a point where I am able to actually take a full month off.
And a few things have happened recently.
The first was a mentor of mine, Sofia Sundari, recently took a month off, and I was very inspired by her decision.
And then I was speaking to an incredible client that I coach in Expand to 7 who said that she had decided that she would be taking August off from her clients and would be putting that in the contract.
And as always, the seeds are being sown, and I had a conversation with my coach about it and realised that this was now possible for me. It hadn't been before, in the sense that our cohorts in both The Expansion Accelerator and Expand to 7 were six month cohorts, open cart, closed cart. So open the doors, then we close the doors, and then we open again after that six month period.
Now that they are open all year round, typically we do shut them, and we are now shutting them for the summer until the autumn.
What that means is that, actually, as long as it is within the contract and, obviously, I inform any client that decides to join after February, as long as they're notified and they're okay with that, then we are able to do it.
Now the way that we are going to do this is first, I think it's really important to say that, this has come from my self belief being stronger than ever.
It's taken me a really long time to feel safe to to do this.
And, look, we're a year away, so, I've got a bit of time. I've made the decision for next year, 2025. It's also my fortieth next year, and I think that that has had an impact in really just thinking about what I want that year to feel like for me. And so taking that that month off in August is a representation of how that year gets to feel. And so, the first thing is that self belief piece. I think that's why I'm ready to do it.
I also truly believe in going first.
And recently, we went down as a company to a four day week, and I have been thinking about other ways that we get to support women, so the team, one of which also has children, and also show other women what gets to be possible. I really feel like me saying to my clients (of which, likely at that point will be thirty women in an intimate space), saying to them, ‘listen, August, I'm off’.
I like to think that those with or without children will feel inspired by, actually, yeah, you know, can I do the same.
We do get to be expanders of what gets to be possible.
Let's get into it.
How will I manage the Summer Months as a CEO and a Mama?
So the first thing is being clear in my boundaries, and my calendar.
So my calendar is very much in detail. I pretty much now at the beginning of the year, put half terms, summer holidays, inset days, all in the calendar.
And I do that before I book anything else or plan anything else. All of my calls are the same times on the same days every two weeks without fail, so they are set for the duration of the year.
And then when new clients come into places like Expand to 7, we have monthly 1:1’s. They all get booked in as soon as that client joins.
We put everything in the diary very much in advance because that's how it works for me.
I co-parent, so my weeks do look a little different each week. On my daughter's week, I will be working Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which is when most of my calls are.
If you've heard me talk about how I manage my weeks, Tuesdays and Wednesdays is very much in-service days.
And then I will have her Mondays, Thursday’s, and Fridays. So three days of the week.
On the weeks that she's with her dad, I will have her on Mondays as an extra day, the occasional Friday if he needs me to. And I will work Tuesday to Thursday.
So, I will be working two days a week or three days a week. I always take Fridays off.
That said, I have holidays booked, so there are two weeks of that where I won't be working. So the week that I'm on holiday with Romilly, we have a holiday plan, just the two of us. I will be offline, and I set those boundaries with my clients, and we will let them know, probably this week that that will happen for a week in August.
The other week that I have off, we just reduce the days.
So typically, I'm off on Fridays, and I will be off that Monday as well. So, still very much in service to my clients, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. That works for me.
The way that I typically check-in with clients is first thing, 10AM, and then last thing at around 2 - 3pm. So they hear from me, twice a day, unless there's something bigger going on, in which case, obviously, I'm very much heavily in the Slack channel, supporting them.
So that's how we do that, boundaries.
I always believe that it starts with me.
So, to myself, it's very much these are the times and dates that you're going to check-in, and I'm really committed to being online for my clients.
And to my clients, we just always really make it clear and in advance, if there's any times that I'm gonna be offline.
I'm pretty sure my clients won't see the effect of me taking more time off at all, because, ultimately, it's a lot of the other things that we do in the business that end up being automated, scheduled, etcetera.
So, for my actual clients and the service to my clients, they won't really see a huge amount of change.
Which comes to my second point, which is having a really strong rock solid strategy.
The business model that I work to means that I am able to take more time out of the business.
I don't have a 1:1 structure, the majority of what I do is in group. Obviously, Expand to 7. there is, a 1:1 element, and we have actually closed the doors until the autumn for that reason, knowing that I didn't want additional 1:1’s in my diary, knowing that I wanted to pull back on work over the summer.
Something else I should say, and I think this is also important, is that I made the decision to want to take more time off even outside of having my daughter, because the start of this year has been particularly very busy.
Not only did we launch the Live Launch Method, we've had a bigger launch for The Expansion Accelerator, and I just managed a four month house renovation on my own single-handedly.
I'm looking forward to spending a little bit of of downtime over the summer. You know?
And and I think this is important to share because
there are different seasons of business.
Had we had a much slower start to the year, I might not feel like I needed to take so much time off over the summer.
But I do because, the season of business from January to July has been busier than normal.
And that, again, was a decision that we made. So, that's important to to say.
I do have whole weeks that are uninterrupted.
So other than the clients who have access to me via Slack, we I have whole weeks that there are no calls, and that's set in my diary from the beginning of the year. So I'm able to go on holiday without it impacting anything.
I'm super clear on my sales strategy for the summer.
We are predominantly focusing on the Be REEL membership.
Interestingly, I'm taking time off, but there is still a sales strategy. We will still be selling. And the Be REEL membership, we actually tested it pre-summer, and within a week, we had ten members. So, we knew that this was in demand.
Obviously, I'd done my market research beforehand, but it's also a very scalable offer. We foresee that there will be 50 - 75 clients in that space by the end of the year.
We've also got a new low-cost money focused offer coming out. So again, about July, we're setting up that funnel ready to rock and roll from August.
It means that there is an opportunity for us to be making sales throughout the summer and supporting my clients. We will also go into a resale of the Live Launch Method come August, knowing that for a lot of you, you will be building your assets to go into launch in September.
For a lot of people who don't have live launching in any capacity over the summer, typically, September/October is a really, really good time to launch.
So knowing that, a lot of you will be building your assets in August, so we will do a presale of the Live Launch Method that month too. We do have recurring revenue in the business, so our base revenue remains, anything that we get additional to that is more.
And then behind the scenes, we have funnels set up driving people to the Live Launch Method and The Expansion Accelerator, which doors will open again come autumn.
Our marketing strategy means that we work in advance, and in real time. I have locked in a no onboarding month for July and August for The Expansion Accelerator and Expand to 7. And then weekly CEO reflections emails have been written and scheduled.
So that means that the entire six weeks of the summer have been written, scheduled, good to go.
And podcasts will be done, by the end of today. At the time of recording this, I have not just this one to record. And that means that we then have the podcast for the rest of the summer as well.
I will batch some reel content. I will do a probably a half day content creation morning, just recording some B rolls. And I have written enough content for three reels a week for the first three weeks and then stories, which is our typical amount.
I do that because as much as I love batching content (and I find that newsletters it's a really smart way to build out your marketing plan and execute your marketing plan), when it comes to Instagram content, I do like to be in the moment.
I have batched a a percentage, let's say, 50%, but I know that ideas will come to me in real time. And as long as I've got the assets for that, the messaging will just come through in that moment.
So we work on in advance and in real time, and that works for me as a manifesting generator.
It works for me in the way that I like to execute my marketing.
I don't love having everything scheduled. I like to be in the energy of it.
I'm the person that still posts all of her reels, at the same time every day because I love it. I love being in the energy of it.
So we also have a sales plan in place should someone have a question about working with me over the summer.
And that leads me to number three, how am I able to manage the summer months.
I have a superstar team.
My OBM and my VA are brilliant. They'll be holding the house. They have holidays scheduled as well, and we obviously honor that.
So actually this week, before the kids go to school holidays, we're having a bigger team meeting about a review of the last six months and then planning the summer, in more detail. So everyone knows what they need to do.
I have said to my VA who manages the podcast, listen, you know, they're all there. If you send me the show notes, you can schedule them all. You can schedule them so that you also get to free up space and time for your summer.
So, we work as a team knowing that everybody will want to take certain amounts of time off.
The fourth piece I think is important. I've mentioned just a little bit, but scheduling.
Scheduling like a boss.
I've written here, knowing our strategy for Q3 meant that I was able to create content easily. There was a real laser focus across newsletter, podcast, Instagram.
So everything that could be scheduled was, or will be with by my team. And as I say, I always like to leave space for downloads. I find that when I'm on a plane, I get my best downloads. I don't know whether anyone else finds that, but because we're so clear on what consistency looks like in the business, scheduling feels really easy for us.
I think a fifth piece is creating a really ripe relationship with my clients.
I know to be true that a lot of my clients, a lot of my former clients, have felt nervous about taking time out, nervous about being offline from clients.
And I love my clients, I'm there for them wholeheartedly within the boundaries of my working hours.
So we have really set times, Monday to Thursday, 10 till 4. And I'm really consistent in that. If I say I'm gonna come back to you within 24 hours, I always come back to a client within twenty four hours. And if I can't, then I will let them know.
And I think that what I love the most about the relationship with my clients is that because they feel so held by me and because I will often go out of my way, and within my boundaries - but beyond the boundary sometimes - to support them, I also empower them to know that they have the answers within.
So an example is, let's say someone leaves me a message at 5PM on a Thursday, and I'm not gonna get that until Monday morning, all's not lost. Right?
Because most of the time, they'll leave me another message, 24 hours later and be like, do you know what? I've been thinking about it, and I've got the answer, and we're just gonna run with it. I'm there to support them, but equally, I do empower them to take their own action and steps and know that they have the answers within them.
Practically speaking, with the right relationship with clients, so last week, we did a six month training on planning, which means that each client now knows what their goals are for the next six months.
And I will then go deeper with them individually so that we know what we need to be moving, over the summer in order to meet that wider goal, bigger goal.
So everybody's held. Everybody gets that time with me, and I do that initial training ahead of the summer so that I feel like I've done everything I need to support them that I can, and that they know what they're doing.
So, you know, there's just a a real sense of empowerment of I know the goal. I know the action. Let's go.
And that means that they're held and that I'm able to step away a little bit more than I would, knowing that they've got it.
So, I think the thing to finish here is that, ultimately, I am able to take time away from the business because I've created a business model, strategy, systems, relationship with my clients that mean that I can.
I've also, and I think this is a really important thing to share, I've worked a lot on my own inner BS. Right? My wounded masculine.
So I no longer feel like I have to keep forcing or being available for people so that they love me.
Former people pleaser that was very much like, ‘but people need me'. People need me. People need me’.
My clients do not need me. Right?
They choose to invest in a business mentor who can help them reach their goals at a quicker speed.
And so, there's me talking about the practicalities of being able to do this. Actually, there's been a whole load of inner nourishment to be able to do it as well.
So if you know that taking holidays and creating freedom in your business is important to you, start building the foundations that I've shared with you today now.
Yes, I can help you with this. Please let me know if you would like that.
But I do also think it's important to share that once you are up that six or multi six figure mark, a trade off is that you have more responsibility. And in many ways, I prioritise the business because it gives me the life that I desire to live. Right?
But the trade off is that I have responsibilities. I do have people to pay each month that depend on my revenue to live their lives and the lives that they desire to live.
If we can all get very comfortable, especially at that multi six high multi six seven figure mark, you've got to get comfortable with your trade offs because there are many of them, and a big part of that is the responsibility that you hold.
I have to be so consistent with my daily rhythms, and my weekly rhythms, and my monthly rhythms. That's just what it is to run a multi six figure business. If you can get comfortable with your trade offs, if your mind can get on board with those trade offs, if you energetically can lean in, ‘that's the trade off and I'm owning it’, scaling your business will be so much easier.
I hope this has been helpful. I'm gonna pop in the shownotes two resources that will help you.
One is a mid year review. I bring it out every year, the Magnetic Mid Year review. So if you want to do a bit of a reflection on the past six months and some visioning for the next six months, know that you have six whole months left to get the result that you want to get or that you have for yourself in January.
If you started this year thinking ‘I've got this big, juicy goal and I'm going to reach it’, and you're halfway through, and you're not there yet. Know that you've got a whole other six months. Okay?
And, also, I'm gonna link in the details to Be REEL, which is my new membership. Ultimately, every week, you get the templates, you get the hooks, the caption ideas, the calls to action, trending audios, how to use them so that you can up your content, your real content and your carousel content in a really, really big way.
There's bonuses, messaging bonuses so you can really understand how to speak to your ideal client.
Ultimately, it takes out the guesswork and the procrastination that you might feel when it comes to content creation. So I'll pop that in there as well.
If you have enjoyed this episode, please do give me a review.
It really does help to allow this podcast and the content to go further and wider to more women who want to build a multidimensional wealth for themselves, and I would be very much appreciative. So if you do leave a review, come let me know so I can say hi and thank you.
Appreciate you listening today and sending big love from my corner of the world to yours.
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