Welcome, welcome to another episode of Hit the Mic I’m of course The Stacey Harris and today we’re gonna talk about taking time off from social. I’m really excited about this topic because I feel like not enough people who do what I do for a living are telling you that it is not only just okay to do this, but it’s a good idea.
I have found that my clients specifically often come back so energized, and refreshed, and excited that the results they get are better. But, we have to figure out how to do it without losing momentum, and without losing consistency, and without our audience being like, “Wait. Where have you been?”
So, here’s what we do. These are the things we’re gonna talk about today because these are the pieces that allow us to step back a little bit. All right?
I also want to remind you that the price … We’re less than four weeks out from Backstage being completely brand new for you and if you haven’t yet joined us, now is the time to join us, because of two reasons.
One, there are trainings currently in Backstage that will not be in Backstage after January 8th. They will be gone forever, and ever, and ever, and they’re not coming back that have a ton of really great content in them still. There are a lot of foundational stuff that’s really good to listen too, so if you want to listen to those do it now.
Also, know the price is going up January 8th, so join us as a member. It will be $97.00 per month, but you can join us right now today for $40.00 a month. Well, technically you can join us today for just a dollar and just check it out for seven days. And then, the reoccurring charge is $40.00.
Here’s the cool thing, you keep that price forever and ever, amen. Like, if you join us at this price that’s the price for the life of your membership. For as long as you’re a member, that’s your price. The only way your price could change is if you cancel and then came back later. Then the price goes up because you rejoin at the current member’s price.
But, I don’t think you’ll do that. I think you’ll stay forever, and ever, and ever because most people do. And so, join us right now and reserve that price for life. You’re essentially saving like 60% per month. I totally made that up, I’m bad at math, but ish per month.
So, now’s the time to join us. Also, I’m just really excited about that. We’re almost done with the videos, it’s coming together, and then more we finish the more I’m like, “Why did I say I was gonna do it all at once? I want to do it now.” But, I’m sticking with it, I’m doing it all at once.
So, let’s dig into planning for some time off, because a lot of what we’re gonna talk about actually in the new version of Backstage is gonna be really helpful for this.
Up first, you have to have a plan.
I feel like I say this every episode, but you have to have a plan and that plan for time off … We talked about this a little bit at the end of last week’s episode, is knowing how long you’re gonna be off and what content is gonna be created in that time off, because that’s how we can work ahead.
So, figure out how long you’re gonna be off. I think I said last week I’m taking two or three weeks off this year instead of the whole month of December because we’re in production for these videos for Backstage and launching the agency.
So, I had to figure out what content needs to go out during this time because I’m also doing a little bit of a launch behavior around this price increase happening. And so, I really needed to make sure I had my ducks in a row.
I could do that because I have a plan and we’re actually gonna have an episode in January where I sort of walk you through what that was like, and how it went, and all of those things.
Stay tuned for that, but right now I’m able to look at me taking time off the next couple of weeks because all my social is created, all of my content is created, all of my emails are written and scheduled.
I’ve got funnels, I’ve got your guys’ regular emails. All of it’s ready to go so that I don’t have to be present and this stuff can still work. That happens though because I knew how long I was taking off and I knew what was going on in my business during that period of time.
You unplugging, you taking time off does not mean that nothing goes out. Now, again I also mentioned in last week’s episode if you are somebody who is teaching people to value some unplugged time it might make sense to, while you’re unplugged be sharing less frequently and be sharing about that.
Like this is how you do that. For me, for the most part, you’re gonna see about the same frequency that you normally see from me. It will have just been scheduled or posted by somebody on my team because I’m on vacation. I’m off.
So, figure out what that is and what needs to happen. That’s what we’re building into our plan. So, how long are we off, what needs to go up, and how are we getting it up?
It might be that you outsource it to your team, it might be that it’s scheduled, it might be that you’ve got some sort of automation in place, so when it’s scheduled in one place it trickles into another place as well. Whatever it is that you systemize there, you need to build that plan.
Number two thing is that scheduler piece.
I get a lot of questions about what scheduler I use and what the right schedulers to use. I’m a huge fan of eClincher, it’s a less well-known tool I find. I don’t know why, because it’s fantastic. You can schedule all the networks there, you can actually push stuff directly to Instagram.
You’ve got analytics built in. It is a fabulous tool, so I highly recommend that. I also really like Planoly, P-L-A-N-O-L-Y for Instagram. It’s super attractive, you can pre-save groups of hashtags, so you don’t have to do that research.
A lot of people really like Buffer. I’m not a huge Buffer fan, but a lot of people really like it. Hootsuite, I think gets a bad wrap. I think it’s much better than it used to be, it’s just not my favorite work environment.
There’s a reason that there are so many of these tools, is pick the one that works for you. Don’t worry so much about jumping tool from tool, pick one that works for you and go with it. Like I said, I highly recommend eClincher.
I’ll have links to all of these tools and I have some reviews of … I think I have reviews of every tool I’ve mentioned just now. Not Planoly. Planoly, however, you pronounce that. But, the other ones I do have reviews for.
But, they’re older now, so the features aren’t as relevant, the price points aren’t the same. So, maybe I should do some … Would you like to see updated scheduling tool reviews next year? If so, send me a DM on Instagram and let me know.
Just say, “Yes to tools reviews.” Or something. I don’t know. Say something in a full sentence or I won’t know what you’re talking about. Okay? So, jump in and let me know that, but those are the tools I like. Figure out what that tool is for you and just pick one.
The other piece of this is to figure out, do you need some help?
Do you need to have some support to get this stuff done? If the answer to that is YES, then get that support now. Like, it sounds simple, but it’s not gonna be simple. Figure that out.
If you need some recommendations, email me. We can certainly send you in the right direction. We’re not onboarding any agency clients until after the first of the year, so we can help. But, there are some people you can bring on to help you before then. So, figure out how to get some support.
One of the things that I had a client tell that she did early in her business, and I thought this was so genius is she took sort of … She modeled after something she did with her kids, which is she swapped sort of child share with a friend of hers.
So, Monday and Thursday or Monday and Wednesday rather, she would take her kids and her friend’s kids. And then, on Tuesday and Thursday or whatever … Two days of the week her friend would take all the kids, and then Fridays they split back and forth or something like that.
They did the same … You can do the same thing with your social, so I’m gonna post your prerecorded stories for this week. And then, the next week I’m on vacation and you’re gonna share my stories.
You can make this work in a ton of ways. Now, that’s not my favorite option. I would recommend that as sort of a last resort. It’s also okay if nothing goes out, it’s also okay if nothing gets posted for a week. It’s not a big deal.
So, if that’s what you decide, then that’s cool too. But, I do highly recommend taking some time … Maybe it’s not in December, maybe right now is peak season for your business. Then, great. Make it in February, make it in March, make it in July. I don’t care when it is, but take some time to figure out kind of just rest and nothing else.
This is something that I’m getting better at. I’m not necessarily super good at. It’s something that as I go through my January or rather my 2019 plans I was like, “Okay. Here’s the plan. Now I’m gonna look through it again and where can I strip some days out? Where can I strip some time off?”
This doesn’t always have to be months at a time, doesn’t always have to be weeks at a time. It could be one day a week that you aren’t worrying about stories. You don’t see a ton of stories from me on the weekend, because I don’t tend to post a ton on the weekend.
That’s cool, that’s okay. Just because you do this for a living does not mean your audience needs to be completely in your life every single moment. All right? Constant is not the same as consistent, is essentially the takeaway I want you to come away with. All right?
If you are taking some time off, there are some tips. I’m really, really looking forward to my time off and I’m really looking forward to you taking some time off too. So, do that. Let me know how it goes.
Stay tuned in January, we’re gonna talk more about how I am launching while vacationing. I will see you guys next week. Bye.
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