DW176: How Do You Take a Vacation (From Your Business)? with Diane Rolston

Diane Rolston: 00:00:00

Are you wanting to take some time off? But you think, man, how can I go from my business when I have so much to do? Then this episode is for you.

Diane Rolston: 00:00:14

You're listening to the Dynamic Women podcast. Each week, you'll be inspired by our global community of women. They'll share with you tools and stories to help you be dynamic in every area of life. Here's your host, award-winning coach and the CEO and founder of dynamic women, Diane Rolston.

Diane Rolston: 00:00:34

Hello lovely dynamic women and welcome to the Dynamic Women podcast. I am Diane Rolston, your host, and today I'm going to talk about how do you take a vacation from your business. And I'm going to go through the secret that has really helped me to be able to get away from my business, and to take a vacation where I actually get to enjoy my vacation, where I'm not working all the time. This topic came about one because of the secret that's been helping me. But more so because there were moments when I was soaking in the pool in Mexico, meeting people who have a nine-to-five, and even meeting some business owners who said, Man, how can you take two weeks vacation, I'm taking one week, or I still have to check in, I still have to do work everyday. And I thought yeah, not everyone knows this.

Diane Rolston: 00:01:42

So as I was sitting and sipping on some pinacoladas in Mexico for a week, and as I was laying on the beach in Maui, watching the surfers without any Wi Fi access, or I didn't even get data, because I knew I didn't need it. When I was sitting there. In those moments, I thought how amazing that I do get to work remotely. And that is part of the trick, right? If you need to be in an office, selling a product in a shop, or if you're working a nine-to-five, then this isn't going to work as well for you. And maybe the next step for you, the next task would be do I want to move to that more location freedom lifestyle, I have the ability to do that. But without this secret that I'm going to tell you about. And I'm going to tell you about the three ways that I really implement that. Without that, before, I was needing on vacation to put a few hours in a day just to kind of keep on top of things. Or I'd work like a dog before I went. And so I'd be pulling 12-15 hour days just to make sure that I got everything done before I left and then when I got back, I'd be dreading the email that was inbox that was so full.

Diane Rolston: 00:03:05

And so what is the secret then that has been able to help me just on a whim like, oh, yeah, okay, I'll say yes to going to Hawaii and oh, no, I'm gonna say yes to going to Mexico and really still being able to pull off my business to do a bunch of things, like launch a program or bring on more team members, and still have my podcast, blog, newsletters, all of this stuff happened behind the scenes, what's the secret, have a team or at least a team member.

Diane Rolston: 00:03:38

So for many years, in my business, this looked like having an assistant. I had Canadian assistants for probably eight years, the first three years kind of on and off with different people, nothing really formal, and then moving into specific amount of hours every single week, from a specific person, that worked out really well. But then I wanted more hours and I wanted more kind of, more skill set with technology and a lot of the software that's out there now especially if you are a business owner that you know, there are CRMs, right, you've got your Keap, constant contact, Mailchimp, you've got landing pages, maybe you're doing that through Keap or Infusionsoft or Click Funnels or all the other software's that are out there. Our list of software is massive, and bringing someone on to be able to handle that has been really the secret sauce to my business and me being able to step away and take a real vacation. So it's just talking to my team today, two of my main members, and just thanking them, for me being able to really check out and have that vacation time that I that I needed. I needed to reconnect with myself I needed to not be needed by anyone because the joy of it too, is that I went away without my family. which was such a privilege. And I'm so grateful to my husband for not giving me permission, but for holding down the fort, so that I was able to go. So I'm going to go through three things that you can do when you have a team member.

Diane Rolston: 00:05:14

I have now two team members from the Philippines. I also am have another six team members from the Philippines that are supporting clients of mine so that they also can go on vacation. But here are the three things that you need to do.

Diane Rolston: 00:05:29

The first is do tasks in advance. So I talked to my team and I said, What do you need from me before I go, and it was I need you to approve this email, I need you to give us some direction. And this part project or this part of the business, I had some two blogs that I wanted to approve in advance so that I just had kind of the small social posts that were going out, and to create some social media content, on my end the pieces that I do, so that my team could could move forward. So doing tasks in advance simply when you have a virtual assistant, or a VA, which I'm now going to refer them to is to ask them, What do you need from me? And to also look over your calendar for the week that you're going to be away and think, What do I need prepped in advance? So that I can be away and things just seamlessly happen?

Diane Rolston: 00:06:22

Then that comes into part two, or the second piece that you need is to give your team the power or your person the power. That power means that they have access to documents that they need access to, or access to websites, access to logins to different pages, by giving them the access that they need that power to get into things and do things you can very easily on the fly. Kind of say, Okay, can you do that? Can you do this? Can this happen? Can you go in here and make this happen? Because not only is it going to be a case of things that they maybe normally you would do that you want to pass off, but tasks that they need to be doing as well as things that just kind of pop up that you didn't know that they were gonna happen. And now you're like, oh, okay, yeah, can you go and share that document. So I actually had one of my VAs when I was away, create a new contract, because we have a certain contract that we do for our virtual assistants. But we were hiring a bookkeeper from the Philippines to support our clients. And we needed a new contract made. So I was like, can you just go into the old contract? Edit that out? And I'll look it over? And then we'll send it out. Now, could I have done that? Yes, I could have done that. Did I want to leave the pool to do that? No. Now how did I know that needed to be done? Because I have with my team, a couple of apps that we use on our phone. So it's super simple for me to just look, see the message and give them a reply. Or to go into our project management tool. And to give them some feedback on something, just quickly look at something. And so the last piece about the power is actually give them the ability to do some decision making. So we were doing the hiring. And I just said what do you think in this case? Who do you think we should do? Bring on? Who do you think did a better job? Can you evaluate their tasks? Now, this isn't something that maybe you can just on the fly, say, can you do these things, you might want to start training in advance of your vacation to know that you can pass it off. And it's great in your business to keep looking at what you have, and what you have to do what's on your plate as a CEO and ask yourself, Where can I pass more of this work off and give more power to my person or my people so that there's less for me to do? And I can step up into more higher impact tasks.

Diane Rolston: 00:08:49

And the last piece is systems and processes. That is crucial if you are going to want any time off. Or if you even just simply don't want to micromanage people. So having some systems and processes allows there to be some consistency and activities that happen. Also, it really helps your VAs to know that they're on track without having to ask you, for example, for us this was in our newsletters, we have a specific system that happens, a process that we follow in sending it out and preparing it. Our podcast has a very specific system with lots of different processes in it. And also like our content creation every week has a system. And the beauty of this is we just roll through the system every week, and or everyday or every time we do something. And so my team now can say to me, Hey, are we doing XYZ like we did last time? I'm like, yep. Or they'll say, Hey, can we need to refine our system and do this additional step? I'm like, that's perfect. And so I know that there's consistency in their output. And while I'm on vacation, I don't want to worry. Are they going to do this right? Are they going to do that right? I know that If we have already put in systems and processes that, they're just going to follow it. And it's going to be so amazing to see the results. Even if you're not going on vacation, you need to have these things so that you can start stepping away from certain projects, certain tasks, certain departments or parts of your business. That's why even we're bringing on the bookkeeper to really help with even more for our clients.

Diane Rolston: 00:10:24

So I want you to ask yourself, when is the last time you took a vacation? From your business? Not just a vacation in life, but a vacation from your business? And on a scale of one to 10? How confident are you that you could completely step away from your business, 10 being I could completely step away. One being not at all. If you ask yourself that question, you are going to get to that place of okay, well, if I'm an eight out of 10 in confidence that I can step away from my business for a week. What is that two, that two extra points there? Is that because you still need to check your email? Or you still need to oversee certain parts of your business or you're just afraid? Then what would be the difference. And maybe it's these three things, maybe it's doing tasks in advance so that you can look things over and give approval, maybe it is to give more power through logins access, decision making to your team. And maybe the last piece around systems and processes, maybe you can't leave because you don't have those dialed in, you can do it.

Diane Rolston: 00:11:32

Now if you want to do this on your own, go for it. I did it on my own in the beginning, and then brought on team members and hired them with the assistance of a program. If you want to know that program, you can ask me. And now I just hire them for you. So if you want to be involved in a program that I have called VA Made Easy, we're going to link the information into the show notes so that you can jump on board with that, where we hire a VA for you. We teach you how to delegate how to create systems and processes or even better have them create them for you. And also, if you are like I just want more information about how all of this works, then I encourage you to jump on to one of our training sessions. These sessions are called Go From Overwhelmed to Ease Without Sacrificing Your FInancial Growth, you can check in the show notes for a link to our next session. And if the date has passed for that session, then please email team@dianerolston.com. Just ask when the next VA info session is taking place. Or otherwise, just reach straight out to Kristine at team@dianerolston.com. And let her know that you're ready to hire a VA. And we will help to bring one on to your team or into your business so that you can have that vacation without worrying and step away from your business so that when you come back, you're refreshed, you are ready, you've tapped back into some maybe some visioning or into yourself, and you just feel ready to go again.

Diane Rolston: 00:13:11

So I hope that you have learned from these three different ways that you can use that secret power of your VA to be able to take that vacation, I'd love to hear which part you felt was most helpful to you and put a comment below and even better write a review. If you haven't yet or if you want to run another one, just write a review and then send a screenshot of that with your mailing address to team@dianerolston.com so that we can send you a little something special in the mail. Do you have a friend who is a businessowner who really needs to hear this message today? Hit share with them and for your own entertainment and educational value. please hit subscribe so that you don't miss out on any future episodes. So until next time, everyone. Stay dynamic! Bye.