Every so often, we change up the format around here and I offer you a sneak peek behind the scenes of Simple Pin Media and how I run the business. If you want to know more about how I built Simple Pin Media from the ground up, our fostering story, and how I built my team, you can click through to listen to those episodes.
In today’s episode, I am going to talk about my philosophy of rest…taking the time to pause and refresh.
To be honest, when I added this topic to the podcast schedule, I had no idea that we would literally still be in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. I figured that it would be long over.
The interesting thing is that Covid-19 has not killed my business or caused any forced downtime. In fact, the opposite has happened. Here’s a snapshot of what has transpired at Simple Pin over the past few months:
- Pinterest usage has exploded during the pandemic and has been at an all-time high. This means our clients’ accounts are growing at a faster rate, so they demand more attention from us.
- We’ve experienced the necessity of creating and releasing products that we didn’t plan to release until the fall of 2020 or sometime in 2021.
- Our website has experienced several hiccups through this crazy growth (and you know how frustrating and time-consuming tech challenges can be!)
- I created and launched Simple Pin Pro. This new offering is my way of giving back by teaching others how to grow their own Pinterest management agency.
With all of this unexpected activity and growth, I needed to take a forced pause so that I could reflect on the business. It was during this pause that I was reminded of how important those natural breaks are when you are a business owner.
What I want to do in this episode is to share with you five strategies that I’ve adopted during my seven years in business to help me prevent burnout and fuel my creative spark.
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My Philosophy of Rest
1. Take a Weekly Sabbath Day
The most important thing I have done when it comes to developing regular rhythms of rest is to take one day completely off every week — no looking at my computer, no checking email, nothing work-related.
I have designated Saturday as my weekly day off. The one caveat to this is if I have planned to have a working weekend.
Most weekends, I leave the internet behind from Friday evening at 6 p.m. until Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m.. This break includes walking away from Instagram. I love Instagram, but it can be mentally draining in its own way and I need the break.
During this time, I may work on house projects or spend time on my hobbies and doing things that give me joy. Let me be honest about my “sabbath”. I don’t spend it binging Netflix series or reading hefty novels. I am mostly active and working on some type of project. But that is what I love to do. My business coach calls it “active meditation.”
For me, when I’m creating something, it centers my brain and actually helps to organize my thoughts. It’s a weird form of rest, but it works for me.
Are you an active meditator? Email me, please! I rarely meet other people who rest by creating and I’d love to know that there are more people like me out there!
2. Plan a Weekend Away Once Per Quarter
As an extrovert, I am not interested in going away for an entire weekend alone. I’m much happier having a couple of people with me. During these quarterly weekends away, I build in both work and rest.
I’ve gone away for a weekend with members of my Executive Team. We complete some planning, while also having plenty of time left for dinners out, and downtime to catch up on a favorite show.
I also like to take weekends where my husband and I go away (those are true rest weekends). I leave my laptop at home. It’s a chance to completely unplug from work and the online world for a brief reprieve.
3. Consider Taking a Month Off
In his book, Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself, Mike Michalowicz poses the question,
Could you walk away from your business for 4 weeks and have it continue to run perfectly fine without you?
That question challenged me when I read it.
I am not (yet) at the point where I can leave Simple Pin for an entire month. But I have gotten to the point that I can take a full week off three times a year.
My team now has rules in place for who needs to do what and systems for determining how important decisions are made. Ultimately, we need to keep in mind that it’s Pinterest marketing. Nobody’s life is on the line here!
I take a full week in early spring to meet with my CEO Mastermind, and a full week at the end of July to head to the beach with my family. I also take off the week between Christmas and the New Year.
4. Take a Break from Content Production
This one is hard for me. First of all, I adore content creation. Coming up with content ideas and bringing them to fruition is so life-giving for me.
I also feel the pressure to keep the content coming for my audience. With Pinterest changing so rapidly these days, I feel an obligation to keep you all as informed and up to date as I can.
Related: Pinterest Changes Fast: How to Keep Up
Because I write for the SPM website and create content for the podcast, I am almost always in content production mode.
I was challenged by a good friend to take a break from the podcast when I explained to her how much work goes into producing each episode. And my immediate reaction was, “No! I can’t take a break from releasing podcast episodes! People depend on me!”
But the reality is that people will be fine if I don’t release a new episode for a while. So, in 2020, we are taking a few weeks off in July.
5. Build In Rest for My Team
As the owner of this business, it would be easy to give myself regularly scheduled breaks but expect my team to plug along as usual. But I view rest for my team as necessary.
Each member of my team gets 60 hours of vacation per year. And I’m serious about it.
If you’re on my team and you’re supposed to be on vacation but I see you answer an email or answer questions in the Facebook group, you’re going to hear from me. This is particularly true when it comes to my leadership team. I want them to truly step away from it all.
If I’m going to completely step away during my time off, I want them to be able to do the same.
This is how we do rest at Simple Pin Media.
And now I’m curious, as you listen to this, whether you’re a one-person show or you have 38 team members like me, how do you press pause in your business to keep your creativity flowing?
And how do you press pause in your Pinterest marketing to keep from going crazy?
Tag me on Instagram and let me know how you incorporate rest into your life and business.
For Further Listening/Reading:
Resting is necessary but the execution is also most important aspect I think habits can help us here is winning the game.
I like the term “active meditation.” This is also true for me – I need to step away and do something else, rather than continue to ponder an issue. The insights come to me when I’m focused on something else.
Totally Louise! You are My People!