Amanda McVicker (00:00):
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the OBM Educator.
I'm excited to talk about today's topic because I think it's going to be something that applies to not just OBMs, but really any type of service provider. I mean, honestly, even if you're in a nine to five, right?
It's going to be about how to take time off when you are the one people rely on to take time off. I have been in the online space industry for five years now.
This is my sixth holiday season that I am a service provider for. And so I have seen a lot of things from a lot of people, but I've also experienced a lot of things ranging from clients that take the entire holiday season off and that includes their team, people who work through the holidays and act like it's a normal day. And what I feel is more common, the person who takes time off during the holidays but then expects their team to be there to pick up what they're not doing.
And so I'm gonna be talking about how to handle taking time off during the holidays when this comes out, we're mid-November. So Thanksgiving is coming up here in the US, and then it's going to be Christmas and New Year's time that's normally typically taken off. And so now is the time to be preparing for that. And I hope that this episode helps you in your preparations. So let's get into it.
Welcome to The OBM Educator. I'm your host, Amanda McVicker, a veteran OBM who serves six and seven-figure entrepreneurs as well as educates new OBMs with the skills and confidence they need to start and grow their own successful online business management business. Follow along as I share valuable insights, behind-the-scenes, sneak peeks, and proven strategies to help you build a better OBM business.
So the first thing I want to start with is of affirmations as we are approaching the holiday season. You may or may not need these reminders. You may or may not need to tell yourself these things.
But if you have a hard time with the idea of taking time off, these are some things that you might want to write down, repeat, remember, all of that good stuff. So, you deserve to take time off. You are allowed to take time off. And it's okay to take time off, right?
You deserve to take time off. You are allowed to take time off and it's okay to take time off. There's a lot of mindset hurdles that we have to overcome, especially when it comes to taking a break. When we're first starting our business, we're trying to find clients, we think...
You know, we just need to work harder. We just need to post more, all of that stuff. And it puts us into kind of a hustle mentality. And then when we get clients, we kind of keep that, you know, it could be even if you have an hourly retainer, but definitely if you have like a package retainer, you can be trying to do so many things and just keep going. There's always more to do. The to-do list is never done.
And so the idea of taking time off, especially planning it, is a little stressful and it's a little hard bring ourselves to do.
And so the mindset piece of it is kind of the first thing that you at least need to acknowledge the, why does this feel hard? Why does this feel sticky? It's probably because I have a mindset block on taking time off, on not working, on being able to unplug, turn off notifications and not respond to things, right? First service providers, OBMs, VAs and know, all of us as service providers, that's a hard thing to do. That's a hard thing to not be there for our clients because we pride ourselves on that. We pride ourselves on being there for our clients and so we want to always be available and so taking plan time off is hard.
So after you have the mindset piece of it, not figured out, but at least acknowledged, now we can get into the logistical piece of it. And the logistical piece of it is what's going to help us get over the mindset piece of it. Because if you're, you know, not all type A, but if you're type A, like you know, planning helps you mentally. So we can plan for it. It's going to help us mentally in the situation. So the first thing that you are going to want to do and remember we're mid-November right now as this episode goes live if you're listening to this at future date great you have more time but right now mid-November you want to start giving advance notice.
So I would say that if you were planning on taking time off for the holidays for the winter Christmas to New Year's anytime in there you need to let your clients know now you need to give advance notice so that they know what your plans are.
And it doesn't have to be anything fancy or formal or anything like that. I like to just send a simple email saying, hey, just wanted to give you a heads up that these are the dates that I'm gonna be out of the office.
Depending on your situation, if you personally have a VA who is going to be available, you can list them as someone who will be available for them.
If your VA is not available, you don't have to say that. You can just say, get me what you need from me by X date, usually like a week before you go out. Or if you're gonna need anything from me during this time, let me know as soon as possible.
By giving your client advanced notice, you are putting it on them that they need to get whatever it is that they might need during that time beforehand. You let them know is now on if you have a client who likes to do a lot of last minute things, like these are the times to really hold your boundaries, right? I need whatever it is that you need by X date or else I will get to it when I return.
So in general, you wanna give probably like one to two months notice of significant time off, like talking half a week to a full week. If you're just taking like a day, you could probably let them know a couple of weeks in advance, but the more notice that they get, the better.
The next thing that you want to do is probably the piece I know for me that always like stresses me out before actually taking time off. And that is the preparation because you're essentially doing double work leading up to it and probably double work afterwards so that you can take the time off, especially if you have a retainer or however it is that you work out your payment structure. But you do need to prepare for the time that you are going to be out, whether that is...
scheduling things in advance, setting up specific automations that can run when you're not there, or whatever preparation specific to your client. We all have different things that we do.
But you'd want to spend a good chunk of time preparing. If there are things that another team member has to take over or that your client has to do and maybe they don't know or they're not as well versed in the systems, creating loom videos or updating your SOPs so that they can take that over while you're out is going to be really important.
So you want to make sure that you are really well prepared so that you can do the final thing, which is actually take the time off.
So I had this as one of the steps of taking time off because, and I am so guilty of this as well, but I know so many people who take time off, go on vacation, whatever it is, and they spend half the time on their phone or computer trying to help their clients through something, right?
If you are well prepared, if you have gone through everything with your clients so that they know what they need to be doing or a team member knows what they need to be doing, there is no reason that they need to be contacting you.
But this is super important.
Most of your clients will not hold your own boundaries. I have definitely had like, you know, the rare client who I message while I'm on vacation come back with, excuse me, you're on vacation.
This can wait. And that's awesome. We love that client.
But there are going to be a lot more of the other clients who will take your responding while on vacation as permission that they can bother you more. And so you need to hold your boundaries. And when you're giving the advanced notice, it's really important to say like, what are your communication boundaries when you are out? Are you off the grid?
Are your notifications off? you sorry, can't get to me until I get back. Is it for emergencies? You can text, call, message, whatever what is defined as an emergency.
You want to have those clear boundaries in place so that when it comes to you actually taking your time off, you know, and your client knows what it is that you're going to be responding to but you want to actually take that time off for a few different reasons, definitely so that your client doesn't take advantage of the next time that you want to be out. And they're like, well, last time she was okay with me texting her, she'll probably be okay texting again, right? The actions that you do now are going to probably affect in the future.
But this is also your time to unwind. You know, in our nine to fives, we would have usually two, three, four weeks of paid time off, of holidays, of vacation. We took that time so that we could reset. And this is the same thing. As someone who owns our own business, we are responsible for making sure that we get that time.
And when we have deliberately taken that time, we want to make sure that we are really using it because if you keep going without properly taking time to reset, you are going to become burnt out.
So those three things, give advance notice one to two months, do preparation, get everything done that you need to get done, make sure that the people who are gonna be taking over things know what they need to be doing. And then actually taking the time off, that is how you are going to be successful at taking time off during the holidays as an OBM, as a VA, as a service provider.
I hope this was helpful as we are heading into the holiday season. I know for me personally, I am taking a week off at Thanksgiving and a week off between Christmas and New Year's because I take it off around my kids' schedule.
And so I am looking forward to that time. I hope that this helps you get ready for your time off and excited as we head into the holiday season. I am excited to share that in December. So starting in a couple episodes from now, I am going to be doing a series each Thursday in December, where I am going to be interviewing an OBM who is crushing it in the online space in their industry. I'm really excited. I had my first interview the other day. I'm really excited to bring some stories to you guys of people who are living their OBM life, doing it well, but that are just like you, right? Just like me, just like you. People who have built a business for themselves that works well for them and their family. I'm hoping that it provides some motivation as we head into the new year.
So be ready for that in December, because I am super excited. Okay, well, I'll talk with you guys next week. Bye.
Thanks for joining me for this episode of The OBM Educator. I hope what you heard today is helpful for you in your OBM journey. If you loved today's episode I would so appreciate you sharing it and leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Want to be a guest on The OBM Educator? Fill out the form in the show notes and I'll be in touch. Join us next time on The OBM Educator.