Episode 163 Transcript

Heather Porter (00:13.198)

Hello guys, welcome back to episode 163. Now, I just got back from a two week trip overseas and get this. So I have a team of 12 to 15 at any given time, depending on the projects we're working on. And one of my most important team members is my account executive or project manager, essentially managing all the different moving parts of

 

all the different amazing clients we're working with at any given time, whether it's one-off projects or retainers, et cetera, working with all the different teams, holding everything together. And I had already planned this trip overseas for my 50th. Yes. Oh my God. I can't believe I said that out loud. Yeah, I'm 50. Ooh. So anyway, I'm 50. And I planned a trip away with my best girlfriend for two weeks and we planned it for a little while. And I was just about to tell this team member I was going away for a couple of weeks and she's like, oh,

 

Heather, can we have a call? So I said, yeah, yeah, no worries. So she beat me to the punch and she told me she accepted a new role. Now I'm not angry for her, by the way, I would have said to her, this role, cause it is phenomenal, like unbelievable that she got this. So anyway, she got this new role. She's like, guess what? My last day is going to be with you on the 26th of May. I think it was something like that.

 

Anyway, I was leaving two days before. So two days before was my plan. So literally the whole time I was away, she was gone. That was it. Like she laid two days in crossover. So why am I explaining this to you guys? Because I still did two weeks away and I worked on average an hour a day or less. And I'm

 

sharing this with you in case you're in your business, meaning really in your business and you're like, I am never going to be able to take time off. How seriously will I be able to take two weeks off or one week without stressing? And so I wanted to explain to you what I actually did briefly short little podcast to fill you in. So by the way, if you're wondering, I was half the time away one week in London, I stayed with my partner, Neil's sister.

 

Heather Porter (02:38.474)

and his mom in their place with my friend. And then half the week in Dubai. my gosh. Okay. I never knew what the opulent meant until I went to Dubai. Amazing place by the way. So that's where I was. And here is what I've done to essentially work one hour or less a day for two weeks when my core project manager

 

left essentially and I still right now I'm literally screening people for to find her replacement. So three core things that I focus on number one was mindset. I really had to work on my mindset and gear myself up. I remember I had almost like a day where I was absolutely panicked when she let me know that and I knew the timing was bad and I was like, Oh God, how am I going to do this? I let myself just freak out and then I got to work on my mindset. So number one,

 

I really worked on knowing that things are not going to be perfect. I am a bit of a perfectionist and I had to really be okay with when I'm away, my business, my work is not going to be perfect. And that's cool. And that's just how it's going to be. Number two, I had to be okay with missing things. I had to be okay with that or else I was going to be freaking out looking at my DMS and emails all the time.

 

And by being okay with that, I was like, okay, well, cool. If it's meant to be, it's going to be. To the point, you guys, I lost a potentially really lucrative speaking gig where I would have been paid to go to three cities in Australia and right in front of my target market. And I'm actually okay with it. And I'm just thinking, well, there's a reason why I, you know, didn't go. It's because I didn't get back to them quick enough and they needed to lock in a speaker really quick. So.

 

There you go, missed out on that opportunity, but I'm okay with it. Also, the third thing with my mindset was to make sure I did not feel guilty. So important. I've struggled with that one for years. Like even when I'm normally in front of my computer working, if I don't work during or stay on top of things, I had been known to feel guilty or like, you know, I should be doing more. So I just let that all go. No guilt, have fun, enjoy my time.

 

Heather Porter (04:57.058)

The next thing I needed to do was trust that the paperwork I would do would carry me for the next two weeks. So I did a whole bunch of work. Hey Neil, Neil, I'm recording a podcast. Can I just ask for four minutes that you stop?

 

Okay, so that's cut, cut, cut. I'm gonna come back to the last point and then we'll record that or edit that back in. Okay, I'm just gonna get quiet in the house. Here we go.

 

All right. The very last thing I did for my mindset was to trust that all the pre-work that I did would carry me for two weeks. So I methodically prepared things to a level where if I didn't get back to people straight away, it would be okay. Like whatever project I was working on, I would get them copy or get them designs or whatever it was. Right? So there was, there was sort of normally like time of a week.

 

give or take back and forth with a client on a particular approval process or whatever it was. And I knew that, okay, well, let's just say there's an extra week chucked in there. So I did a lot of pre-work prior in order to sort of buy my time. So those are the four things that I worked on for Mindset. The next thing I did was I told my clients that I would be away. So I told every single one of them that are on retainers or middle of projects right now that I was going to be away.

 

I also had to announce to them that their account manager was leaving. So was kind of an interesting time, but it worked. And so that was something that I did was just communicate. And I know in the past, like I normally would never say that I would just sort of like shove it under the rug and work weird hours. But you know what? We're, all in this together. We're people, right? And everyone needs a break. So just be honest about it.

 

Heather Porter (06:55.522)

And I found that I had a lot of well wishes and my gosh, enjoy your time away and where are you going and all that stuff. And so that was something new to me to really admit, you know, I'm actually away for two weeks and we'll do our best to, you know, continue the project as needed. One of my clients even said, good timing. I'm away for two weeks too. There you go. So then had I not said that, I wouldn't even had to know. I didn't need to stress on that project either. I also had a template that my assistant used. So she would check my emails every single day and I'm for the

 

the urgent emails that did come through, she would use that template to respond to any urgent emails. So number one, I worked on my mindset. Number two, I told my clients I was away. Number three, I organized very simple systems for me to follow when I was away as well. So I checked Slack, I use Slack internally for communications. I checked Slack, that was like my main hub of communications. So my assistant would essentially Slack me if anything urgent came up. And do you know what?

 

there really wasn't much. was only a few things. So shout out to Peru. Thank you for holding down the fort, so to speak. So that, so that happened as well. And then I have a lot of clients that we do, you know, ads for, whether it's LinkedIn or Google ads or Meta. So I basically just jumped on once a day for quick check, very quick, just making sure everything was, was good. But prior to leaving,

 

I launched all the big new campaigns. did all the optimization with my team to get everything set up in a way where two weeks was just going to be pulling little levers here and there to find two things, if anything. So those are my three things. Mindset, tell my clients those way and organize simple systems. And was it perfect? Absolutely not. Definitely not. Did I lose work? Yes, I did. And right now I'm actually delayed with a few big proposals that I'm sending out.

 

So who knows what's going to happen there. but I think that is the key is like, if you work within your, I think mindset actually is probably mostly everything for this is just making sure that you can do what you need to do. Right. And that is having fun and that is taking time off. So just be aware that you must take these moments off for yourself. It's so important. It is so important to take these moments off.

 

Heather Porter (09:17.782)

So if that's you and you're really feeling that you need to do something like that, then just remember if I could do it during a time when my main project manager left me, literally during the time she was away, if I could do that, you can do it. So just remember this conversation I'm having with you. You don't have to be perfect. can communicate with your clients and your team, simple systems, and give yourself the break that you need.

 

because it's really important to refuel yourself as you're growing your business. All right, you guys, thank you so much for tuning in. I will chat to you very, very, very soon. Thanks, bye.