How to Take a Break and Scale Faster
Episode Summary:
Hello friends, today I wanna talk to you about a very important topic – how to take a break from your business and how taking a break can actually help you scale your business to six figures consistently faster. I've always told the story of how I sold out my business before my maternity leave, but I never put together that actually taking my maternity leave and taking six weeks off in my business is what helped me succeed so early on. Now, I have multiple clients who I’ve helped or am helping prepare for their maternity leave and/or vacation and are selling out their business and making more money than ever before. I’m so excited to talk about this with you today!
Topics Discussed:
How a maternity leave or vacation can set you up for success and exactly how to prep your business for your time away
Choosing a time that you can take a 2-4 week break in your business this next year and the importance of setting deadlines
The nine steps that Anna uses to guide her clients through taking a break
Questions to ask yourself when you’re mapping out your timeline for taking time off
The mindset work you can implement to believe that it’s okay to take time off in your business
Playing the long game as a business owner
Episode Resources:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
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Anna Rapp (01:20):
Hello friends. Today I wanna talk to you about a very important topic and that is how to take a break from your business and how taking a break ironically can help you scale your business to six figures consistently faster. You guys know my story and that I was able to sell out my coaching practice right before I took a maternity leave and quit my job. But I've never, I just put together this week because I've been coaching several of my clients through taking maternity leaves and one of them just had a successful maternity leave and came back making a ton of money. Another one of my clients is prepping for her maternity leave. Another one of my clients had another successful maternity leave. When I say successful, it's like we're able to really make a lot of money around their maternity and I think something clicked for me.
Anna Rapp (02:10):
I've always told the story of like how I sold out my business before my maternity, but I never put together that actually taking my maternity leave and taking six weeks off my business actually I think is what helped me succeed so early <laugh>, and it sounds wild, right? But I think about my clients now when I coach them on how to prep their business for a big break, whether it's for a maternity or for a vacation, right? Like even if you don't have kids, you are, I think a lot of times women without children feel like they're not justified like in the workplace to like take a break or like you're just as justified to take a break even if you don't have kids, right? And the beautiful thing about prepping your business for a leave is I see it like a marathon, right? When you set up for a marathon, not that I've ever done one so I wouldn't know,
Speaker 2 (02:59):
But my guess is you're gonna be really good at going on your runs and training because you know that marathon is around the corner. Suddenly it gives you that motivation to train. For my clients that have set maternity leaves or vacation plans, I find that they kick into gear on these c e o tasks that they should have been doing anyway but never had an excuse to do, right? For example, really learning how to batch your content, really starting to hire and trust your team, right? Really selling out things in your business so you're not having to sell all the time, right? Your business is you're getting your B business fully booked, right? All of these practices are so important but we don't prioritize them unless we have a reason. So I really wanna encourage you this year to plan a four week leave in your business plan, a three week leave, a two week leave.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I don't care how long it is, but I think it can be such a big gift to you. Number one, because you need a break, you need a break. Like if I told my client the other day, I'm like, if we're not enjoying the freedom and flexibility from entrepreneurship, like why not just get a day job? Because there are stressful parts of entrepreneurship too, right? So we have to enjoy the upside and one of those things is that freedom and schedule flexibility. So I wanna encourage you today to take a two to four week break from your business sometime in the next 12 months. And I'm gonna tell you today how to do that, okay? But I just wanna tell you the importance of it. Number one, you get a break. Number two, it's that marathon concept of systematizing your business and giving you motivation and a deadline to get some SHS done, right?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
For me, I fully believe why I was able to sell out my business so quickly is I had a little fire under my booty and a baby in my belly like a ticking time bomb of a reason why I needed to sell out my client spaces, right? And so I feel like we have less, it's almost like game time, right? For me, even though I had sales blocks, even though I had money mindset blocks, I actually don't think I had as many because I was like, well even if I have beers around it, too bad I gotta do this anyway because I got a baby on the way, right? And so I think having a deadline really forces us again to make some of those c e o decisions around like, I better hire a team member. I better set up my away messages. I better batch my content, right?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Things that we should be doing anyway. But there's no reason there's no deadline to batch your content if you're gonna be around, right? And so what's always gonna take precedence is our email inbox is our client work. Does that make sense? And so I hope this is a good argument for you to consider taking a break from your business in the Cell with Heart Mastermind. I literally have a document, it's 13 pages long and it's a guidebook for my clients to take a break from their business and they fill this out and there are nine steps, okay? So today I wanna share those nine steps with you so that you can start wrapping your mind around what this takes really. I call it take a break doc, but really it systematize and scale your business and the vacation is just the motivation to help you do it right?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So I'm really excited to talk about this cause I've never really talked with it through this frame. But before we start, I want you to just right now say out loud to yourself, what month are you gonna be taking your break in the next 12 weeks? I'm sorry, in the next 12 months. <Laugh>, when are you gonna be taking your break? Can you own it? Can you go right now and pause this and go to your calendar and block that time off, right? Can you get serious about this again? Because it really is the biggest gift to have that deadline other, again, it's like a c e o deadline and why like having a coach is so useful cuz it like makes you prioritize c e o time, otherwise like we really don't do it. So I want you to get clear on one month you're gonna take your break and around how long?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Okay? let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see. Okay, I'm gonna go over the nine steps. I'm gonna say them to you. And then today, since we only have a little time for this training, I'm gonna go over the first two steps to take a break from your business in depth. We're gonna go in depth on two of the steps and if you want all nine, join Cell with heart <laugh>. I would love to personally guide you through this again because it's taking a break, but it's also systematizing and streamlining your business because in cell with heart the goal is to sell out your business. But guess what? The goal also is to systematize and streamline and scale your business, right? So that you can consistently be making more and more money even when you're sold out, right? Then you have to start scaling and leveraging your time, whether it's with a group program or with team members, right?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Okay, I'm so excited for this and I hope this really plant some seeds for you to take that break. And again, I never connected the dots of like, oh I think I've always shared with my community that I sold out my business early on and I took a maternity, but I've never said that. I think the reason I was able to se to sell out my business and create so much ease so quickly is because that maternity forced me to really do some simplifying and some systematizing in my business super early on, right? Okay, here's the nine steps that I want you to think through. If you're in a season of getting ready to scale your business and take a break. Okay, timeline, when's the timeline for your break? Number two, the mindset behind it. This is what holds women up the most from taking a break in their business.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
We want the break, but then also we have like a lot of mindset drama around. Same thing with money. We wanna make a lot of money, but then also we have all these fears and blocks and hesitations and reasons why we wouldn't be good at managing the money and blah blah blah, right? No. next is stabilizing your income. Next is automating your marketing. Next is notifying your clients and making a plan around client care. Next is notifying your audience and making a plan around that. Next is systems and systematizing next is while you're away, <laugh>. So I find for a lot of my clients they make this epic plan to be away, but then when they're away they're like, oh my gosh. Like what do I do with myself? What do I do with my life? How do I have good boundaries, right? And then finally the transition back.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
The transition back, because obviously there's a lot of pros to being away, right? But it's kind of like when we go on vacation, there's also that transitioning back period. And so I have stuff on that. So again, all of this I share in so with heart. And so if you're interested in the next round of the mastermind in July, feel free to fill out the application. I would love to see your application applying doesn't obligate you to anything, but it's gonna get you some breakthrough. Just filling out those questions that'll help you. And I know if this program is a fit for what you need to grow your business to sell out your business in a super heart-centered way. And I told my friend the other day, like this is the container that I really pour out all of my love and my care and my attention.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
And so if you want a coach that's in your corner in that way, I love to support you. Okay? Today we're gonna go deep on timeline and mindset, timeline and mindset because I think that is what you need to do. Now all of the other pieces can happen over time before your break. So let's say you're like, okay Anna, six months from now I wanna take a two week vacation and really take a two week vacation, right? Some of these things are gonna happen over the next six months, but what needs to happen like now a k a today is you need to decide your timeline and you need to get clear on your mindset around this, right? So that it's a done deal. Does that sound good? So let's do timeline and then let's do mindset. And again, I would love to hear your timeline on this.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Okay, so timeline, there's two parts. Number one, what are the exact dates you're taking off? I want you to literally let me know, email me whatever you wanna do. Tell me the exact dates that you're planning on taking off. The second question is, I say I call it part-time off. Is there time away com? Is your time away completely off or will some of it be partially off? Right? There are some times we need to be completely off the grid, right? Like when I had my baby, I really was off the grid for a while, right? I also went to inpatient group therapy. Like during my divorce process I flew to Tennessee and they literally took my phone away from me for seven days. <Laugh> and all technology. It was actually very lovely and an amazing process, but like I was truly off the grid, right?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So there's that and then, but if you are not doing something extreme like that, I really would suggest having kind of like this hybrid and for me, I'm a big fan of like working part-time where I'm still serving my clients behind the scenes, but maybe I limit the days I take clients. I limit the amount of sales calls I do. I don't do any like external marketing, right? For me, right after I had my baby, I had some weeks where I didn't see clients at all, but then after a little while I saw clients but phone only on a, on like one day a week, right? And so what I like about partial time off is it really for me is less work because then you're not feeling like you're prepping your business for the zombie apocalypse. Okay? <Laugh>, you're like, okay, I'm just taking two weeks off, right?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
And that's how I was really able to take, I think I actually took over eight weeks total in my business. But how I did that is I did a few weeks a little bit more intense and then others less intense as far as time off. And so I really want you to ask yourself, you know, okay, maybe I wanna take four weeks off and one of those is gonna be completely off the grid, right? The other three, I wanna work one day a week, right? Or I wanna work one half day a week, right? Or I wanna week work two days out of the whatever, four weeks or whatever it is, right? But I'm a big fan of this partial time off because I think we get so feast and family in our mindset and then it's almost harder to take a break because we're doing so much prep and then it's kind of harder to get back into our business because we've like really pulled out and we've really disengaged.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And so highly recommend considering something like that. Okay? That's part one. Timeline part two is my favorite part, which is like really thinking through some of the mindset around taking a break. And I really wanna dive deep on this and I want you to consider journaling on this Today. I want you to take out a blank Google doc or a blank journal page and really do some of this mindset work around believing that it's okay for you to take a break in your business. It's safe for you to take a break in your business, right? And not just that, but doing this really will help you stabilize and streamline your business, right? Okay, how many do I have? 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. I have eight things for you to think about when it comes to the mindset of taking a break. Are you ready for this? Number one, what are your concerns?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
What are your concerns? What fears or concerns do you have about taking time off, right? Just kind of an open prompt because I find for every woman this is different, is it like a really practical concern? Like will I be able to like continue cl signing clients and making money or is it more like feeling guilty around like, do I deserve a business where I'm allowed to have this flexibility and freedom? I know for me when I switched to doing morning workouts a few months ago, I had a lot of guilt and judgment around that, which sounds so weird because like I was like, I wanna switch to morning workouts, but like, am I really that girl that like, oh, just rolls into the Pilate studio and like takes her morning, you know, her morning Pilates clap. Like I don't know, I just had so much judgment around it.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So I just think it can be helpful to start off with a blank slate and ask yourself what fears or concerns do I have practical or impractical around taking time off? Okay, second journal prompt is accepting trade-offs and the term trade-offs is something my coach Lacy Seitz uses this term a lot and I love it so much. What I wrote here is, even though you know there will be upsides to taking this break, it's okay if there are downsides too, right? You are grieving whatever trade off is coming with a time off, like saying no to a project or feeling a little disconnected from your business, right? Every decision is gonna have pros and cons, right? If you stay engaged in your business 24 7 and never take a break, that has pros, but that has cons too, right? When I changed my aim from making perfect business decisions to making best business decisions, right, everything became clear and I became less decisive.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And so really knowing that like taking a break from your business is a great thing, but maybe there are some downsides too and that's okay. It's okay for you to grieve that. Like for my clients that take maternity, they do a little bit of grieving about like feeling a little disconnected, right? Or feeling like they're missing out a little bit. Of course we want to sell in advance and automate and everything so that our income doesn't take a hit. But I think like knowing that it's okay if your Instagram account doesn't like triple in size, like the four weeks you take off because it probably won't, right? Okay. I also think we need to think about business more as like a long game. I honestly think this is why I've had so much success in my business over the past seven years consistently.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Like you'll see a lot of on online entrepreneurs like show up and then fizzle out. Versus for me, when I was like prepping my income reports to show the bank to get a loan on my home, which I bought, yay. I really, I'm such a safe investment from a bank standpoint, right? <Laugh> because my business really has been making more money every year just like do do, do very steadily. And I think a big part of this is I really look at growth in the big term, right? Instead of like really obsessing over like how much money I make a month, I try to ask myself like, how am I making each quarter? Right? Like there's just fluctuations. And so like, just knowing that like when you take a break, right? Like you're really looking at the overall, your overall year, right? Like does it make sense in the year to take a rest?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yes it does. Okay, next journal prompt is thinking positive. It can be so easy to dwell on what we're missing out on, what we're losing on, what could go wrong instead of like what a privilege and honor it is to have the Freedman flexibility to have a business that can accommodate for our life, right? <Laugh>. And I think we forget like, oh yeah, like this is amazing, right? I think about this all the time, right? With my kids that I can like, without a doubt, like take time off for their field trips, right? Like, you know, when my family gets sick, I can still take client calls if my kids are resting in the other room, right? Like it really is such a blessing to have this freedom and I think we forget it. And so I really want you to think positive and I want you to ask yourself like what are you most thankful and excited for when it comes to this break?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
What are the advantages? What are you most yeah excited for? And I want you to list at least five things, right? Like maybe one of the things you write is like, I'm thankful to like take a break where I don't have to work. Like I'm grateful, like I'm excited to like watch more Netflix or go salsa dancing. Like I do whatever you wanna do, right? Maybe you say I'm grateful for the time to spend more time with my kids, right? Maybe you say like, I'm really thankful that I get some time to like reset and recharge in my business and in motherhood and in life, whatever it is, right? Maybe for you you're like, I'm grateful I have the time where I can like prioritize scaling my business and this is kind of like forcing me to do that, right? Okay, next journal prompt is releasing comparison.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
This is a big one. Nothing pulled me out of abundance mindset. Like knowing that I would be pausing my business for maternity leave and it felt like everyone would be charging forward without me and I would be like stuck in molasses, right? And I felt like I'm not gonna be learning new things. I'm not gonna be launching new things, right? So I think more than ever I really had to be intentional around like staying in my lane, celebrating my wins, right? Celebrating other people like succeeding around me, celebrating their past, celebrating all the things they were launching while I was not launching things and remembering as literally ya created a business was for times like this where I could stay on my own path. And so I really had to stay outta comparison, remembering that I was out of, you know, running my own race knowing that resting and pacing is a big part of winning a big long-term race, right?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And so the journal prompt I have for you is like, what do you wanna tell yourself when you get stuck in comparison? <Laugh>, it's a big one. Okay, next one is there's always more to be done, right? Someone told me this really morbid thing that's always stuck with me and that's that we'll die with emails in our inbox. And I was like, oh yeah, we will, right? And it just helped me really stop prioritizing things that don't matter so much. Like maybe sometimes I have laundry on den, maybe sometimes I have dishes in my sink, right? Like maybe sometimes my email inbox isn't always perfectly tidy, right? But do you mind doing the things that matter most? Like are my clients responded to? Yes. Are my children fed? Yes. Right? And so I think it's remembering that like there's always more to be done in business and I think taking a break kind of highlights this piece.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
At some point we have to be okay with unplugging and embracing the journey, right? Like, so I really encourage my clients when they're preparing for a leave to create a must get done list and a someday get done list, right? And first go over the things that are imperative for you to set up in your business, right? Because I think when we take a break from our business, it's almost like, have you ever done this before? Like sometimes when like take a vacation in like my normal life, I'll be like, oh my gosh, I need to hang that picture and I need to clean out the fridge and I need to X, Y, Z. And it's like, yeah, I actually probably should clean out the fridge before I go on vacation, but I probably don't need to hang that picture before I go on vacation, right?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I think it's like the equivalent of nesting. And I think when we take a break sometimes we get hyper excited instead of like, no, what actually needs to be done here and can I prioritize that? And then if I have extra energy, then I can prioritize other stuff, right? Okay, next is releasing perfectionism. Releasing perfectionism y in this process you'll notice all the gaps in your business and you'll be tempted to fill them all at once, right? Updating your branding, updating your website, totally reworking your social media strategy, updating your offers, changing your funnels, right? <Laugh> the goal is to see all the holes in your business and to fill the want. Like what I say here is see the holes, wave, hello, write them down and fill the ones that are absolutely necessary, right? And this is so important in business in general, as you're growing and scaling and really in life, like there'll always be projects, like there'll always be a house project, there'll always be a mindset project.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Like especially cuz we're in the personal growth, personal development world. There's always something I wanna work on in motherhood. There's always something I work wanna work on in my business, but the goal is to be able to not have anxiety over that and to be able to prioritize and to know what we're, do, what we should do and don't need to do right now. And to be okay with that, right? And I feel like again, before we leave on a vacation, often that perfectionism comes up. But can it be so useful to say like, okay, these are all the problems that I need to solve, which ones make the most sense to solve right now? Again, I do this with my mindset in that like, ooh, these are the things I kind of need to work on in my personal growth journey. Maybe I wanna be a better listener.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Maybe I wanna be less controlling, right? Like, but like honestly, we're a human and you deserve to take a break even if you're not perfect. Like which ones make the most sense to work on first? And now, and this is so true with projects in your business, right? Okay, two more left. The next is identity and value alignment. Remember, taking time off is likely a big part of why you decided to have this business. Okay? What values or release do you have in your business that will support you taking the time off so you feel really good about it, right? What do you believe about when you're not working? So for example, I really believe my body comes first. The more rested I am, the better business owner I am. The happier I am, the easier it makes. Money. Resting is a natural part of business and life growth, right?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
After a long-term financial success for long-term financial success, right? I also believe I'm a valuable human being. Even when I'm not accomplishing things. I might not be accomplishing business things, but those other things I'll be accomplishing, right? I kind of just brain dumped those. But those are just some examples of value statements that can be so important to write down so that you remember like, oh yeah, I do believe that with rest I'll be more productive with rest, I'll make more money. It's safe for me to create that culture in my business, right? And so the journal prompt here is really writing down some belief statements. Okay? Finally is it's okay to find a new normal as you shift and grow and experience big life business changes or life changes. It's okay to find a new normal. Things may not be like, like they were before as you systematize and streamline and scale your business, right?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It might look a little different, it might like feel a little different to like go from like creating content in the moment to batching it right? Or whatever it is, right? A lot of my clients that go on maternity have support coaches they hire so they're not doing all the coaching, which is amazing, but also it can be a little like nerve-wracking and it's like, wait, do my clients actually need me? Right? It's so really believing that like as you find a new normal in this scaled, streamlined up level business, it's for your good. It's for your good, right? Okay. I hope this was so useful for you. And if you're a client of mine and you're listening to this, make sure that you check out the take a break doc if you haven't already. And I'm happy to give you feedback on this because I really feel like this is something that's so key and so essential to growing and scaling your business. And the fun bonus is you get a break, you get a vacation, and guess what? You so deserve it.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.