TODAY WE’RE DIVING INTO HOW TO INTENTIONALLY PREPARE FOR SUMMER AS AN ENTREPRENEURIAL FAMILY. We can get pretty strategic when we’re going into a busy season for work, but what does it look like when we’re gearing up for a slower season, or a season where our family will be the focus, or when we’re intentionally gearing down after a busy season?
We are going into summer, the kids are home, and we’re all wondering how we’re going to juggle it all. We tend to think that things will just naturally happen, that we will naturally break out of our “hustle” mode. But what if we come into it like we go into a launch or a season of intentional growth in our business, and we planned for it, we strategize around it, we communicated about it, we looked forward to it and we geared up for it? How would that look and feel differently for our kids?
Let’s raise them up right!
IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER:
[2:23] Diving into Summer
We are entrepreneurial families. We are not just entrepreneurs who have families and we are going to dive into summer like we are diving into the most important season in our business.
We’re going to be geared up for summer. We’re going to be focused, we’re going to be aligned with it, we’re going to know who’s playing what role, we’re going to bring in the support we need. We’re going to do all of this stuff that we do so well and automatically in business because it has to happen.
Summer is not just time off. It’s not just “foot off the gas” time where you feel like you have to make up for that time later and it’s a burden. It’s a purposeful time that we need to prepare for.
[3:39] Casting the Vision
The first step that we’re going to talk about is casting that vision.
Do you plan for this or do you fail to plan?
If you were to launch a new offer or if you were going to host an event, how successful do you think that event or that offer would be without planning? How many wins do you think would come from that or how much of a burden and a stressor that experience would be?
So, sit down and plan your summer. What’s upcoming, what’s exciting about it, what are you most inspired by? What do you want to come out of it? How do you expect those things to come to fruition? What do you have to do differently from what you’re doing now?
That long term vision is step number one and you’re going to apply it in your home the same way you would apply it in the entrepreneurial space, and it’s going to set the stage for a really aligned, awesome, uplifting, positive and needle-moving summer.
[5:47] The Intention
The second piece is bringing intention to this time.
What are your goals as a family during this period? What can be different and what can stay the same?
We’re coming out of a really busy time as a company. It has been intentionally busy as we strategize around the launch of the Raising Luminaries Co(op) and we’re planning for Camp Luminary, and all these things are happening at once. But we timed it, knowing that July and August is our team’s time to be super strategic and intentional around family, around recovery, rest, learning and growth. So, we set really specific family goals and personal goals during this time period, the same way we set them for our business. We then look at our calendar and the granular of the-day-to-day to see what can stay and what can go.
So, sit down with your spouse or your kids or on your own and set some family goals for the summer.
[7:58] The Support
The third thing is thinking about the support you need to do this.
What support do you need, either in your business or in your family life, to make these goals a possibility, to make the life you’re envisioning for the summer viable?
It might be that you need more support with the kids. Or it might be that you need less support with the kids because you want to be more present and work shorter days. It might be that you need more support in the business because you’re going to take your hands out of some portion of the business for the summer. Maybe you hire another VA or somebody to support you in your inbox or on your social media. The cool thing about that is that when you do go back into ramping up in the fall, you have someone trained that can support you as you head into your busier season. Maybe you need some mental support around your business. Maybe you need someone to help you break your workaholic addictions or your phone addiction. Maybe you have health goals this summer, and you want to hire a trainer or work with a functional medicine doctor.
What do you need to live out the life that you’re feeling called to this summer?
[9:46] Prepare Your Business
This next step is in the same vein with the previous one, and that is – is your business equipped for what you’re about to do?
This is a struggle that I see in a lot of service-based business owners. people who trade time for money, which is a super common way to operate in business. You have one-on-one clients, you’re consulting, you’re providing a service and you’re receiving payment for that service. If you want to be more present this summer and you’re totally service based, what happens is you can either work 18 hours a day on certain days to fit all of your clients and take more days off or you work less and you make less money.
So, how are you starting to be strategic about prepping for what summer looks like? Maybe instead of taking one-on-one clients in the summer, you only take group clients and you do group coaching programs in the summer. This also might be a mindset and a business shift that has to happen with time. You might have to work up over the next few years to build that in fully but you can start thinking intentionally about it. You can bring in a team to support, you can stop saying “yes” to things that don’t support the vision and way that you want to live as an entrepreneurial family this summer.
Start thinking about your business and are you equipping it for how you want to be living.
[11:36] The Mental Shift
The final piece of the puzzle is – are you making a mental shift?
You can’t just do the physical things. You can’t just prep the business, hire the team, bring in the support or cast the vision and not mentally shift. You are still you, you are still that hustling entrepreneur that wants to knock it out of the park, and you need to consciously walk into the summer and work on your mindset. Does your day start by opening your inbox or does it start with reading or just quiet time with the kids? You have to shift both the behaviors and the ways that you’re viewing that time period, otherwise it’s just going to feel like you’re falling behind.
Don’t make peace stressful. Don’t make the goal of being an intentional and a successful entrepreneurial parent this summer something that ends up being a burden on you. Make it a gift.
I hope today’s episode gave you exactly what you needed to get you and your family ready for an aligned, awesome and uplifting summer.
If today’s episode spoke to you, make sure to subscribe and leave us a review. Come connect with me on Instagram at @elizhartke and if there’s a topic, a question or a guest you want to hear on the show or an idea you have for us, just reach out and share that.
We do this for you so the more you tell us the more we can serve!
RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:
