Hello from the other side of my annual sabbatical, friend. If you’re new around here, then this is the first you’re hearing about how I take an intentional period of rest every year in order to pour back into myself and my business through some dedicated time away. I call this my annual sabbatical and it’s honestly one of the things I treasure most about my work year.

Over the years I’ve taken a sabbatical, I’ve received so many questions from creatives just like you who think man, that sounds amazing! But how do I make that happen?

If you’ve ever felt like taking time away from your business—whether that’s for a sabbatical or even just a vacation—is a luxury reserved for someone else or that taking time away from your business is just out of your reach, then today’s post is for you, my friend.

Today, I’m going to walk you through the three blocks that are keeping you from taking that time to invest back in yourself. And trust me, they aren’t as big and scary as you might think! In fact, they are so easily fixable that you too can kick these blocks to the curb and carve out some dedicated time for rest.

HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR FEAR

The number one block that’s keeping you from taking a sabbatical is that you’re afraid of what others will think.

Friend, this is such a common mentality for us to all fall into and it’s such a sneaky pitfall that I think we need to just call it out for what it is—utterly false and pure nonsense.

If you’re fearful you can’t take time away from your business because you’re afraid your clients will think that you’re not working hard or that your colleagues will think you’re lazy or that some random person on the Internet will think poorly of you because you’re pouring back into yourself—that’s a flawed mentality that we need to break.

Because here’s the truth: no one will actually notice that you’re gone.

I get it. You and I are so close to our businesses and the work that we do, and we really do feel the pressure of our audiences on social media, our clients, our industry friends, and our colleagues. We think we have all of these people watching our every move. 

But realistically, no one is sitting at your Facebook page hitting refresh every 5 minutes waiting to see what you’ll post next. No one is checking their phone every hour on the hour to see if you’ve posted something new to Instagram.

The truth is so many of us are so wrapped up in our own work, our own lives, and our own businesses that we simply don’t have the mental capacity to keep tabs on what other people are doing every single day.

So if you’re making decisions based on what you think others will think of you, you can just go ahead and cut that out right now because I promise you, no one is actually going to notice that you’re out of the office.

In fact, a week or so ago I popped back into work after my sabbatical and I came back to Instagram posting regularly and someone sent me a message saying, hey I’m so excited to see that you’re back but if I’m being honest I had no idea you were even out of the office!

To me, this is so encouraging because even now, years after I’ve made the decision to consistently make a sabbatical an annual part of my routine, it’s just so encouraging to know that I can take all the time I need to pour back into myself and my business and the world is not going to stop spinning.

HOW TO AFFORD A SABBATICAL

The second sneaky block that’s holding you back is you believe you can’t afford it. 

I won’t lie, planning for any amount of time off takes some intentional planning and budgeting. I take roughly a month off every year and during that time, I’m not in my inbox, I’m not taking on new clients, I’m not progressing with current client work and any payments that I do receive are through outstanding client payment plans or passive income.

I’m not actively earning massive amounts of income at that time and I’m okay with that because I go into my year knowing that I need to build my sales goals around taking one month off.

Pst! Fellow designers and strategists, I have a FREE training for you that walks you through how you can earn MORE while working LESS next week on August 7th at 11am CST. Join me here to learn how you can 3x your income without taking on more branding clients (and so you can spend more of your precious time doing what matters most!)

To do this, I simply shift my goals around 11 months of the year to cover the time I’m out of the office. And on top of that, I’m upfront with myself about where my money will be going during that sabbatical. If I’m taking a trip, I factor that into my budget. If I want to have a cozy staycation with no big expenses, then I can adjust accordingly.

If you’re telling yourself you can’t take time off simply because you cannot afford it, I believe that’s because you have unintentionally missed the opportunity to plan ahead. Now, if you go into next week and decide you’re going to take the next three weeks off and you haven’t financially prepared, then you probably can’t afford it. But if you’re giving yourself months in advance to prepare for this and honestly hitting your sales goals—you can afford that time off.

And friend, you will not notice the difference between 11 or 12 months when you budget this way.

WILL BUSINESS DISAPPEAR?

The third and final block that’s holding you back is you’re afraid business will dry up.

What I mean by that is you’re afraid that if you take time away from actively posting on social media or creating new blog content or getting your work out in front of new prospective clients that you will not be able to come back in post-sabbatical and pick up where you left off.

You believe in order to move the needle forward in your business you need to be the one doing the work and actively have to be in the office every day in order to make that happen.

Friend, at the core of that block is one sneaky self-limiting mentality and that is one that is rooted in scarcity. If you believe your business will dry up and all or any potential clients will disappear if you take time off—that’s because you believe money is a finite resource.

This mentality makes you believe that clients are in limited supply and success is meant for someone else and not for you.

If you buy into that scarcity mentality that is going to hands down be the most crippling thing that keeps you from having any kind of dedicated time away from your business through a sabbatical or vacation.

So if you’re fearful that your business will cease to exist as you know if you take time way, then we have some deep mindset work to do. I want you to remember that the world we live in is not one of scarcity, but rather one of abundance. 

There will always be more clients.

There is always success to be had if you’re intentionally chasing after it and doing the diligent work.

And I do believe that money is an infinite renewable resource. It might not feel like it right now, but I promise you it is. As easily as money goes it can come right back into your business, so don’t let that hold you back.

On top of that, if you’re fearful that business will come to a screeching halt if you take the time away my challenge for you is this:

What can you do ahead of time to make sure that doesn’t happen?

What steps can you take to book a few clients who will be waiting to dive into their project with you when you come back from sabbatical? 

What can you do in order to potentially launch a digital product that can be selling for you when you’re out of the office?

There are a lot of different ways you can front load your work and marketing efforts prior to time out of the office so those systems are still doing the heavy lifting for you even if you’re not the one manually moving them forward.

For example, before I took my sabbatical this year I worked really hard to get an evergreen sales funnel up for my course, the Brand Strategy School. In order to do that I had to work really hard in order to put together that training, the registration pages, and make sure every piece of the funnel was working beautifully.

But when I was out of the office, I had this peace of mind that this evergreen sales funnel was working for me and converting webinar viewers into course students when I was completely disconnected from my inbox.

And to be honest, for part of my sabbatical I was in California where I didn’t even have cell service. So to know this funnel was working for me brought such a sense of peace.

The 3 (easily fixable) blocks that keep you from taking a sabbatical

So friend, trust me. Your business will not be negatively impacted by your sabbatical. If anything it will be the exact opposite. Every year I’ve taken time away from my business in order to refill my cup and I’ve come back feeling a renewed sense of creativity, an overflowing number of ideas to implement in the future, and a true sense of growth as a person and creative force behind my brand.

Being able to step back into my business post sabbatical not only a better business owner, but also a better person is truly what matters most to me.

Friend, if you’re dreaming of taking a sabbatical and are loving the idea of building this kind of dedicated time of rest and self-care into you routine I highly encourage you to make that commitment to yourself. 

If you’re really excited about the idea of not only how to work more self-care and intentional growth into your business, but you’re also excited about the idea to learn how to elevate your brand strategy, woo your ideal clients, and transform your bottom line through a group coaching experience with yours truly, then I want you to be the first to know that doors for my six-month group coaching program—the Heartfelt Brand Society—are reopening so so soon!

If you want to be the first to get exclusive access to this application-based mastermind and group coaching experience before anyone else, then add your name below to get all the juicy details!