Hello my friends, and welcome to another episode of design your dream life. My name is Kara. I am your host. I am so glad you're here.
Today we are going to talk about summer vacay and I'm going to talk about my journey with going from complete hustler to definitely more space, more freedom, more money, more creativity, Better results in a change of mindset, a change of action. And so I used to be that person who if I went on vacation, I would dread it. I don't know if you've ever been there.
And it's so like you're trying to get everything done before vacation. You go on vacation, you completely cut ties and then you come back and you are so whomped and it's like the post vacation creep that just.
And you're like, oh my gosh. And so for me, I wanted to find and play with a way that worked well for me. And again, listen, I want you to be your own guru.
Take any of this advice that resonates with you. Leave the rest. I'm just gonna tell you how I've been able to just feel like I have a complete freedom lifestyle and what has worked for me.
And you might not agree, and that's totally cool, but there might be some ideas in there that will work for you. So I, for the longest time I was just like, okay, I need to completely disconnect. Like, I need to, I, when I go away, I need to completely unplug.
I need to completely rejuvenate. And it was like this bold action.
And I had this idea years ago that I was like, wait a minute, maybe I'm creating too much resistance in when I work and when I play. Like, when I play, I cannot be connected at all. And when I work, I'm in work mode.
But what if there was a difference in the way that I showed up and did all of this? Completely different. What if there was a way where I feel rejuvenated in my actual work that I do?
And so when I am on vacation, I can still check in and have no guilt or no shame or no pressure or anything. Like, what would that actually feel like?
And I started to implement that years ago and I am getting ready right now, actually gearing up for a 20 day international vacay. And I'm sharing with you everything that I am now.
Now I just feel really good in my planning process, in my ability to disconnect on vacation, but also still remain connected. And for me this works because I don't know about you, but I also I just. I like to know what the frick is going on, and I like to be plugged in.
I don't. I actually am somebody who's. Yes, I can be disconnected, but only for a certain amount of time before I just. For me, I personally get uncomfortable.
I have some friends that are completely the opposite. And they're like, no, man, I just need to completely disconnect for a long period of time. And so I. Again, you have to do what kind of works for you.
So for me, what I do is when I'm traveling for periods of time, and I've done this for years, you guys. I have traveled literally the world, and I've even done a whole summer of travel. That was super interesting. I. Yeah, that was a lot.
Where we did all of western Canada, and then we ended with an Alaskan cruise and we had the kids, and it was just. Yeah, we literally traveled all summer and I worked through it all. And last year we went to Italy and Greece and all that. And this year, I am.
We're about to go to Dubai, so we're gonna go to Dubai for a week. We are then going to Kenya and to Africa. I donated a classroom. We are going on a donor trip to help open that classroom.
And then we are going to go to London, England, on the way back before coming back home. And I feel like a lot of my friends, too, they'll start messaging me like, oh, I'm getting into summer mode. And what is summer mode?
So many people are like, oh, summer mode. I don't want to work. I want to enjoy summer, and I want to. And the reality is that we all do that. So for me, there are two things.
I decided to create base in my actual work so that therefore, I actually don't necessarily feel like I even need a vacation. Now, I will say this with a disclaimer.
There are times where, yes, if I'm in production mode, and I know that I'm in a short, busy season, if I'm launching a new product or I'm creating a funnel or something like that, I know that can be busy, and I'm okay with that because here's the reality. It's not like it's funnel after funnel or it's course after course. It's being able to pull back and know yourself of what you can handle the most.
Yes, there will be seasons of busy, but in general, I have designed my work week and my business, and I've set the boundaries. I've set the expectations of what I work.
And I also know this mindset of the more that I have free time, the more money I make, the more money I make for other people and the more money I make for me, because I know that for my brain I need space. And if I have space, I get even better amazing ideas, which makes everybody money.
And I think so many of us, we get caught in the grind in the day to day that we lose sight of our creative brain. And that is what is ultimately your ultimate problem solver, but also your ultimate revenue generator.
And so if you are somebody who somehow at the end of each week you're feeling kind of scattered or you're feeling overwhelmed, I really want to encourage you to take a step back and think about how you could restructure your week where you have more clear space in your calendar.
And I promise you, even if you think it's not possible, it really is possible, especially when you make it a non negotiable and you have to restructure how you work. So I did that years ago. I restructured my entire work week and how I work and even how I make money.
And so in general, I feel I have that balance in my life where I've got really amazing focused work time. I've got really amazing enjoy every day time. I light load my Mondays. I don't take calls on Mondays or Fridays.
Like, it's just, I generally don't work on Fridays, but sometimes I do because I feel inspired to work on a Friday. And I think that's okay too. I think some people sometimes get into these plans of no, like, I'm doing this. Like, this is what I'm doing.
And you get so, so caught up in the fact that you've planned this thing and you're not like, I have so much flexibility, you guys. Like I said this, that's my general rules. But listen, I'm just so flexible, it's okay if I work. And you know what?
There are times where I get inspired. On a Saturday or Sunday, my friend and I get into my office and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so good. And I just allow myself to be a creator.
I allow myself and my creative mind to, to work when it wants to work, when it wants to feel inspired. And I don't put it in a fucking box. I just allow myself to be.
And so I think when you, number one, decide to create a work week like that, you have this sense of peace that comes over you because you know that you're still producing at such a high level. And I do. Like, I Produce at such a high level that it makes up for all of the things.
So then the next part is, if you are a person who wants to travel or you have a desire to do experiences and all of those things, how does that fit in with your current business model? And for me, I like to take a lot of December off. I love, like, I love Christmas and I love to travel in the summer.
And I will tell you, the business still runs, I still make my clients a shit ton of money. And how do I do all of that and still enjoy the summer? So I'm going to tell you about that today.
I'm about to go on this trip and I now have my own personal brand here, right? So I've got a couple of things that I need to prepare for. Right? I've got to prepare for this podcast.
I'm going to be away for almost a month and so I need to batch. Here's the thing that's already part of my schedule, you guys. I already batch record my podcast and I'm just starting out with YouTube.
But I made the decision because I got so sick last week and that was my batching week. So again, it's rolling with the punches. I got so sick and I was like, I. There's just no way that I can show up and record videos. I know, thank you.
And so I decided, I'm like, okay, I just started my YouTube channel. There's not very many videos on there. I'm gonna pause until I get back.
And I'm going to be okay with that because I don't feel well, my energy's not there and I look like a fucking truck ran me over, literally. It's just. No. So I made that decision and I'm okay with that. And I'm like, you know what? I still get to batch my con, my content for my podcast.
And you know what? Things might not work out where I'm getting everything that I want on social media.
And I'm going to be okay with that because that's part of the personal now for my consulting type of my business. All my clients know I am traveling. There are no meetings. Whenever I travel, I generally try not to take any meetings.
I am available via Voxer, I'm available via Slack, and that's how you can communicate with me. I'm also anything that we're launching, we pre plan. So example, one of my clients, we're launching a brand new funnel.
We're launching it this week so that when I am traveling and I'm checking in, I'M just, like I say, I like to go on coast mode. So I'm traveling. And that doesn't mean that you've got to work these long days. No, it's.
Yes, I'm traveling, but part of my work and part of what I enjoy is I check in on things. Now, I don't necessarily have to do that every single day. I generally do just because that's just.
I've also leaned into who I am and what my nature is. So I'll check in and make tweaks every day, but I let everybody know ahead of time. Like, I'm going on maintenance mode.
So it's not that you can't reach me. I'll be likely slow to respond. And also I will be checking in on the things that I'm responsible for.
And so just so you can feel secure that I'm not going to abandon you. But at that same time, I can still enjoy my vacation tremendously. But it's just the same, like on the weekends, right?
Like, I don't work on weekends for my clients. Right? So again, it's being able to set up a schedule and have clear communication that allows you to have the freedom that you want.
Now, if you are one of those people who feels like you need to completely disconnect, I guess my question to you is why? And because maybe it is a mindset thing and maybe you're like, oh, I need to completely.
But I have found that since I've set my life up this way and then I set the expectations this way, I can go away and I can do a little bit of work, but I'm still disconnected from the work. I'm not in my. I'm not in my regular work mode. I'm in summer mode and summer mode. I am. I am still productive.
I'm still producing results, Things are still getting done, but I'm not hardcore into it because I'm in summer mode.
And for me, I have found that has been able to balance my life and create this sense of freedom and also gotten rid of that freaking vacation stress bomb that happens before and after a vacation where it's, oh, my God, all these things build up and you come back. It's funny, I was with a friend last summer who, she is an actual employee, and she was feeling that.
And because she had X amount of weeks off and they were with us for part of the trip, and I remember her coming back and being like, oh, damn it, I did it. I opened my work email before coming back, and it's just oh, my gosh, it's ruining. I shouldn't have done that.
And so many people feel that way, especially as an entrepreneur, if you have team members or whatever. And it's just, again, for me, I have everything set up in a way of okay. I generally don't have a ton of fires in my life. And I think.
I honestly feel like those are the boundaries and intentions. And I'm not saying no fires ever occur. They certainly do. But then there's people in place and procedures in place that help put out the fire fast.
Or help. Yeah, I'm just gonna say help put the fire out fast.
So if you are somebody who is entering into summer and you're like, oh, I would love to work less this summer, but then maybe you have summer guilt or you have guilt about your business, I really want to encourage you to just pull back and think about how can you bring more summer into your business on a regular basis so that when summer comes, you can also show up and enjoy summer, but you can also work and be a badass and get really good results. And so for me, I know that I am a batch creator. Batching for me has been a game changer. I batch content and I time block.
I time block work for my clients I like. And for me, those two things have been able to allow me to really own my calendar.
And like I said, I am a person that does not have a lot of meetings on my calendar. I have a lot of white space, and I love to lean into it. And the last thing I want to say is, too, is sometimes we are.
We forget how much of an overachiever that we are. And so I know for me, this year, I have really leaned into some of the days.
And I think I've said this before on the podcast, your blah days, like the days where you really don't feel like doing much and you know you should, but instead of persisting through those days and making myself work through those days, I lean into the blah. And I allow my body to rest and I allow me to rest.
And if that means that it's a ne Netflix binge day or whatever, like, I allow myself to have that and decided that I'm not gonna feel guilty about it. And when I do, then I just feel like I'm.
I have more energy and I'm more fully charged, and my creative brain works so much better because I'm not necessarily forcing it and pushing it through things that it clearly doesn't want to do. So with that, my friends, I hope that you have an amazing summer. I can't wait to tell you all about this amazing trip that I am about to embark on.
And this will be my second time going to Kenya. I went a couple years ago with a client who was so sweet to gift it to me. And so I was there as a guest and she had done a classroom.
And when I was there, I was like, I'm going to come back as a donor. And now I am going back because I donated and my husband gets to come with me.
So I'm just looking forward to going back to a place that just really also puts life into perspective. And I will probably do an episode completely all about that. How life changing.
That was the first time I was there, but I'll do an episode about how life changing, I'm sure it will be the second time around. And also being able to see it through my husband's eyes.
Because it's just if you need a different perspective on something, my goodness, you go to a third world country and you watch and you interact and you talk with people and my gosh, if it doesn't give you the biggest cup of gratitude that just flows over your entire body, I don't like nothing else will.
But anyways, my friends, I hope you have a fantastic week and I hope that something has inspired you in this episode to either a get a little more white space in your everyday and then also be able to go away on summer vacay or go or just even add vacay into your work. Like it's not really even vacay. Like it's just a part of who I am.
Like, people know that I travel and I work and I do both and I'm not burnt out, you guys.
I just also want to say that I want to give you permission to be able to go and take a long trip and not have to feel like you have to completely disconnect from work, but you can have a lifeline and still feel the fulfillment of that vacation. Still let it totally charge your cup and also still allow you to run your business. All right, my friends, have an amazing week.
I'll see you on the next episode.