The Captain Coder Podcast

Part 2 - How I'm Reinvigorating My Business

August 09, 2022 Marisa VanSkiver, Captain Coder Season 2 Episode 13
The Captain Coder Podcast
Part 2 - How I'm Reinvigorating My Business
Show Notes Transcript

I did it! I took my week remote and the time away from my standard day to day.

I feel like my week disconnected from my norm was 100% effective.

But did I actually hit the goals of everything I planned?

Listen in to see how I improved my boundaries, created better habits, and got my business groove back.

Welcome to part two of how I'm reinvigorating my business or how I did it, because obviously that was a couple weeks ago. Now, if you've noticed, if you've been paying attention at all, if you followed this podcast, you know that there wasn't an episode last week, full disclosure. I fully intended to record this episode last week and it came time to record it and really talk things out. And here's, here's the big thing. Here's what I learned over my week in Colorado and taking time away and reentering, which sounds really woo. Woo. And I'm not all that. Woo, woo. But it really was kind of a, um, nothing is gonna burn down. No one will die and it's okay for me to take some time. So if you have been waiting with baited breath for the last two weeks to hear how this all went, I'm gonna break it down for you. In today's episode, you're listening to the captain coder podcast each week. I take you through actionable strategies that can help you grow your online business. I'm your host, Marisa VanSkiver, AKA captain coder. Okay. So let's just recap a little bit and talk about what I did. So if you haven't gone, you can go back and listen to the most recent episode where it's part one of how I'm reinvigorate, reinvigorating my business. Say that five times fast. The big thing that I was trying to do was I literally, for the first time in years picked up for the first time ever took the dog with me and decided to work remotely. Now, obviously I work from home. So kind of technically I always work remotely, but I wanted to work from an environment that I wasn't in every single day. I had planned this out for a week that I knew that my projects were a little lower, where we didn't have any big deadlines. I had a very nice little gap from finishing a project to starting a project. And I knew that I could control that timeframe and keep it easy for me to do this and not feel overwhelmed. Now I, 100% had a plan for the week. Well, not like a plan plan, but like I knew what I wanted to work on. My original concept was I was gonna go away. I was going to finish some training and some coaching that I had been working on for far too long, I was going to create a marketing plan for the rest of the year. And I was going to work on my website and I was going to finish my website theoretically, and maybe even launch it that Friday. How many of those things do you think got done? Well, let me just break it down for you. That would be zero, zero of that got done. And you know what? I am 100% okay. With that. Let me just kind of break down my week and really where I'm coming from here. So you can kind of see why this was not a failure. I'm really okay with how that week went. And actually, I'm very grateful that I decided to do what I did with my week. So Mac and I left Kansas, which here I'm here in Wichita, Kansas, in case you didn't know that where it has been over 100 degrees or over 95 degrees, four weeks, we had a very kind of chilly spring. Like it was kind of cool and chilly in may and, uh, June 1st hit. And basically it's been a hundred degrees since that's a long time to be this, this hot. I mean, it's, I, it's not bad. I have, I have of old AC those man, it has kept up, but that's a long time and it's a long time for a Husky to be hot. And I started dreaming of cooler temperatures. So that's why we went to Colorado and we went to the mountains. Like we, we went up to the 9,000 feet mountains where it was 70 degrees. So you could imagine the temperature drop alone was definitely calling my name. Um, and we drove up there on Sunday. We got to our Airbnb and I was exhausted. We would, it's a nine hour drive, eight, eight ish hour drive. And we had a stop a few times cuz um, have you, you have never traveled with a Husky if you guys don't know what it's like to have a Husky. Imagine having a whiny toddler who never stops talking and you can't explain to them what's going on. Even though like, I keep trying to tell him like we're going to the mountains and he tells you when he's upset and add the fact that he wants to stick his head out the window of the car at all times, the first couple hours of the car, he literally winded wine. The whole time we got out after a couple hours, he had a walk around, he was much better. He chilled out a little bit more, but then we got to the mountains and he got all excited again, which that's fair. So it was kind of an exhausting drive and I knew he was gonna have to be by my side 24 7, cuz I couldn't just leave him in these Airbnbs. He's got some separation anxiety already. I did not need to not need to do that to a poor, poor P that Sunday night we kind of just chilled out. I checked a few things I had planned theoretically to just work the next morning. And we did, I had, I had my team meeting. I had another meeting. We got a good walk in first thing in the morning. I think we actually took a walk like at 7:00 AM.

Well actually probably like 6:

00 AM. And then we took another walk around 10:00 AM just to around the neighborhood. We were on a mountainside in a mountainside neighborhood. It was a very nice little area to be in, easy to get a mile and a half walk in without, you know, going anywhere, um, and dirt roads. And so it was nice and it was beautiful, nice little view of where we were, but afternoon came and I'd had my meetings. I'd done a little bit of work. The wifi wasn't good enough for some of the things that I was wanting to do. And I was frustrated and I just wanted to be outside because it was absolutely gorgeous outside. I mean it was 70 degrees and sunny. Why wouldn't I wanna be outside? It'd been 104 for days before that. So we went on a hike on, um, Monday afternoon and just a couple miles, not too bad. And then we went and found dinner. We walked around the downtown area and we just kind of chilled and we just rested and that's kind of how the rest of my time there went, we went on. So by the end of the week, I think we had gone on probably we'd walked or hiked five to seven miles a day for about four or five days. Um, if you <laugh>, I want you guys to think about this. Okay. So I'm coming from Wichita, Kansas, um, which is, you know, not any elevation at all. It might be below zero. Okay. Not literally, but it's very not high. And I went to 9,000 feet and I did hikes where you had at least a 500, 600 foot elevation gain on these hikes. Um, I'm asthma. <laugh> like, I'm saying these things like who, let me do this. I don't even understand. And you know, we hadn't really trained, like we walk a mile and a half a day, but that's not the same thing at all. And honestly I was very happy. My asthma was actually doing very well. All things considered, which was probably why this happened. Like we went as long as we did. Um, but then I was really tired in the evenings, which was also fine in that entire week. I think I, um, you know, I'm very lucky that I have my junior developer, Nicole and my manager, Erin who were keeping things going. I didn't have, I just kind of had to do a few emails. I just had to do a little bit of communication. I this is why I love my business. Sometimes I was literally coordinating, I was texting a client who was texting me just a quick issue that we'd had and texting Nicole, the problem. Cause I only had text signal on the side of the mountain and got the situation. Like she was able to resolve the situation while I'm on a hike. And it was just mind boggling to me that that could happen. Like we launched a website Monday, like the first day I was in Colorado, we launched a website. And when I say we, I mean, Nicole did, this is the first time that she, you know, I've really let her take this on. And it was because I knew she could a, it was past time for her, for me to let the go of those reigns. And I just knew that I didn't wanna do it because I was kind of, sort of on vacation. Like I didn't turn on a vacation auto responder because I was still keeping up with emails. I wanted people to know that I was still available, but it was so nice to like, I actually took a vacation that week when I got home. So I keep track of all my time, um, which I don't like looking at some weeks, some weeks. It's awful. When I got home that week, I think I worked only 14 hours the entire week. And some of that time was, you know, Erin and I sat down and we did, we did some strategizing, we worked on same things that I wanted to get done. I was able to think it through, we had tried talking about it the week before and I was like, I don't know. I literally don't know. Like I just don't have the brain capacity right now. Can we talk about this next week?<laugh> like, do you ever feel that way? Because with your own business, especially, and this is the other thing that I think that I learned the most that week. Yes, I did not get my website done. No, I did not get my marketing plan done, which, um, my click up keeps telling, reminding me that I did not get it done. You know, I did not do all of the things that I thought I was going to do, but all my clients were taken care of. They're all happy. They were all like most of my clients were very excited. I was taking time off and they were kind of telling me to do it and to stop talking to them. But they were still texting me. Don't you love that? But the thing I learned was that as a service provider, and if you provide services for anybody, you understand this, we give sometimes 110% plus to our clients' businesses. And yet we don't really take a lot for ourselves. And for me over the last two years of captain coder, especially I've noticed that I not only do I not take the time, my personal time, like I should, I don't prioritize those boundaries, which Erin, literally, we talked about that on our call that week. She was like, yeah, let's, let's put some of these boundaries back in place. And my clients, the next Monday got an email with a new process for submitting changes for their websites so that it goes to Erin and Nicole and me. So we all get to see it. So in case I'm unavailable, somebody can take care of it, you know, and we put a couple other things and other processes we're putting in place to allow me to take these times, because what happens as a service provider is you forget to put up those boundaries and you forget to take care of your own business. One of the biggest things I think I took away from really lets me on is like my first vacation in five years really was that nobody's nobody's business was gonna burn down. No nobody was gonna die. I am very lucky in the industry that I am in and in the job that I do, that the stakes are monetary, they're financial, and there are real financial stakes. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that. And I manage people's websites. If I have a client whose website is down, that's a full blown, panic emergency situation for me. But if we're gonna take an extra 12 hours or 24 hours or 48 hours to make a small change to their website, or if you know, I communicate, Hey, this is the timeframe that I need to get this done because we have other projects on deck. Or if I just communicate, Hey, I am just not really responding to emails today. I will get to this tomorrow. No one, no one's gonna like everyone was okay with that. That's the thing. That's what I learned the most that clear open communication of my boundaries. Nobody was mad. Most people were very happy to accommodate that. In fact, I had one client who I just basically had to say, I am so sorry. I am in a spot right now that I don't have wifi. Cause I was, I think I was like up a mountain and I could barely send an email. And so I hadn't responded to her all day and she kind of sent a follow cuz usually, cuz this is the thing I usually respond within minutes, let alone like two hours. And because I hadn't responded all day, she was like, um, so like help <laugh>. And as soon as I explained what the, what was going on, she was, oh no, that's totally fine. But she only had that expectation because I had created that expectation. And so what I did last week, not only because I was just outright exhausted from hiking 30 miles in the mountains and you know, not doing any kind of preparation to do that. Um, but I also decided to take it easy last week. I didn't post on Instagram or any other social media. I didn't record this podcast. I took a break and I just took care of my clients. And I did some business work for myself. I also, you know, I did a couple other things. I had some days where I worked more than other days, but I just took it easy and I kept those boundaries in place. I didn't respond to emails rapidly. I chose not to do some things quickly. If it didn't need to be done quickly, like I gave myself a break. I've reminded myself every time it's okay. Like they, and they don't. Here's the other thing when we're service providers, um, I would bet you money. The 99% of our clients do not expect us to answer them immediately to do the thing immediately, whatever the thing is or to, you know, or that they're our only client. They know that they're not now granted I'm in enough Facebook groups. I know that the clients out there exist, who believe those things, but that's not who I wanna work with. And I'm very lucky that none of my clients feel that way. They were all, they're all happy to accept my boundaries. I just had to put those boundaries in place and clearly communicate them. So this week too is starting a little slower for me. My brother happened to be in town this weekend. They were here today and I spent the whole day today. Um, it's, I'm recording this after we spent the whole day together, we started at a science museum here in Wichita this morning, my six nieces and nephews. And then we took them to the trampoline park this afternoon and we were there for hours. Like they finally had to kick us out.<laugh> honestly like I think they were like, you have been here too long. We did not intend you to stay. Even though you paid for like an all day pass. They're like, yeah, you need to, you need to go. Like we had been there for like four hours and the kids were still having fun and it was so nice to spend the day with him. And yet I was able to answer a couple of emails from clients while I was just on my phone. I was able to answer a phone call and help a client with something else. And I was able to text back and forth with a client on a couple things like things still got done. Communication still happened. And Nicole was working on projects. Erin was working on things. She was assigning me tasks. Like it was so nice to be able to take a day to be with my brother. And it's getting easier and easier to put up those boundaries. The more I do it. So if you take anything back from this, if you are like, I was a few weeks ago where your brain feels a bit like mush, you don't feel like you can think straight, you got You know, you're not prioritizing your own business. Like you should, you are missing boundaries with clients. They're asking for things that are perfectly reasonable, but you're maybe delivering them too quickly, not even too quickly just within timeframes that you So it creates this unnecessary anxiety for you to get it done. Like within a matter of minutes, you know, if you, if you were feeling close to burnout, because honestly I was getting close to burnout by the time I left and I literally sat there and I told my best friend, I was like, I just need to get out of this state. Like I just need to get out of this damn state. And it wasn't like, I didn't need to leave Kansas to do this. Although it was really nice. The only reason I left Kansas was because I knew I needed to mentally disconnect from my typical work day or I wasn't going to disconnect from my typical work day. So if you have the opportunity, even if you don't have a Nicole and Erin, like I do, if you are getting close to that burnout, just take one day. I was very lucky. I was able to take five, but just take one day to put those boundaries in place and just really practice. And if you can't go to a place where you don't have cell signal and you don't have wifi and it becomes way easier,<laugh> way easier to put those boundaries in place. Cuz you literally can't answer people like that was really nice. I had a client that wanted to do a last minute video call on my last day in Colorado. And this was not intentional at all that I got to the, the second Airbnb I was at, the wifi was not as promised and it didn't sustain a video call. I tried to have a scheduled one I had that morning and I said, I'm really sorry. I just, I barely have phone signal here and I don't have enough signal for a video call. So here is my email response and she, again, she was totally fine. So if you need to, if you feel like you're approaching burnout or if burning out, take a break. Like I <laugh>, I, this is, this is really for me. I'm gonna play this back for me in six months, probably three months when I'm really stressed out again, like I'm just literally going to listen to this and go, oh yeah, dumb, dumb, dumb, Marissa, go do this again. Right. But if you are like me and you give your all to your clients and you're trying to run your business and you're trying to juggle everything else in your life, give yourself permission to take a breath, take a break and disconnect. Even if all you're doing is driving an hour away from home and staying in a hotel or driving two hours away to go for a hike and leave your phone, you know, off while you're gone or go to some place without cell signal, like just do what you can do, what you need to do because I am more excited. I'm actually antsy today because there are things that I wanna work on that I can't couldn't work on. Cuz I was with my family and I, I don't get me wrong. I am so excited that I gotta spend the time with my family today and to do everything we did. But I have not been this eager to work on things for a while because I was just tired. And now I have my energy back and I'm so excited to be back in and back at my desk and I'm still taking it a little easy and I'm being okay with it. So workaholics it's okay to take a break and relax and hopefully, hopefully over the next few months, I won't fall back into bad habits. Thank you all for tuning into our show this week to catch more captain coder, you can subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app. Now, if you have any questions or you wanna learn more about digital marketing and how it can help grow your online business, follow us on instagram@captaincoder or visit us online at captcoder.com. Can't wait to talk to you all again next week.