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Welcome back to another IBG in between guest episode on the LCR Media Podcast. I'm your host, LCR Neil Ortali Farrow and I wanted to recap briefly about my my trip from from like taking a break for your breakthrough conversation, you know, summer vacation, taking time off like I I typically do this time of year or sometime throughout the over the summer every year just as like a PSA public service announcement, you know, a friendly reminder to make sure you take some some time off. Like I know we're working hard and we have a lot of work to do and especially for owner operators, you know, we're the only ones getting the work done. Then like how else is the work going to get done if you don't get it done? Right, I get that and there's different ways to to manage that. You know, I've talked about this on many pre previous episodes as well as through social media and through my coaching and so on of how you can take some time off either for a family vacation or if you're going to an event like Equip or the, you know, the LCR Summit adequately. If you're taking a whole week off at Equip starting with the LCR Summit and then you know, the rest of the week at Equip or if you're going to Profit accelerator live this June 26th and 27th, which, that's a weekend anyway, it's a Friday, Saturday. So I mean, unless you're booked all the way through Friday. But if you got a four day mowing schedule and you just don't schedule anything else on Friday, you know, and depending on how the weather goes, you know, you can play. If you just do that, then you can easily make profit. Accelerator live in Richmond, Virginia. If you're close enough, within driving distance or, you know, you can fly as well. But definitely if you're surrounding states, it's super easy to just drive up and spend a couple days with us and you know, learn how to make some money faster in your business and get some more time in your schedule as well to take time off. Right. And not, not just depend on the weekends to have that break because the summertime is, you know, it's hot. It's obviously going to be more exhausting when you're out here working in this, in that type of environment. So it's a good time. You know, kids are off of school, it's just, it's the summer, so they call it summer vacation for a reason. So that's, that's just a really good time. It's not peak necessarily for any of our businesses. You know, it starts getting hot, things are slowing down. It's not the grass isn't growing as much. The trees, plants, nothing needs to be pruned as much in the middle to the end of the summer, right. So there's that good couple of months where it's slower and it's not taking as long to cut the grass. You're not double cutting anymore, you're not trimming and edging every single detail as much anymore because again, like I said, the growth slows down. So that is a time to capitalize. At the very least to take some time, you know, six, seven, eight months into your season to take some time off, rest, recover, do a little bit of relaxing if you can. Enjoy time with your friends and family and just be ready to finish the second, you know, the rest of the season strong. But like I've said before, take a break for your breakthrough. Because a lot of times we're going so fast that, you know, we're going so hard and so fast that our, our brains don't even have time to process everything enough for us to come up with like a new idea or a new solution to a challenge or a problem that we're having or you know, potentially avoid in the few in the near future. Like we're just running and gunning and we don't allow ourselves time to process that in the background. Like when you stop, give yourself a few days off more than just a busy weekend, that you're probably running errands and doing whatever else. If you have more than a couple of days off then you know, you actually start to, these ideas start to bubble up and resurface. Maybe you read a book or listen to some, finish some podcasts or something that maybe you haven't had time for or an audio book or whatever it is on your drive to wherever you're going and that helps kind of put some of the pieces together in the background for your mind. Like oh, you know what, let me write this down. I think I'm going to research this or I'm going to apply this to my business or I'm going to talk to the team about this when I get back because I think this is a good idea. This might be the breakthrough that we need, right? This might be the solution to give us that breakthrough. So I mean a lot of times it takes longer or it never even happens to have those type of aha moments when you're just stuck in the grind, in the weeds, head down, working, working, working. So that's why I make episodes similar to this every year in the summertime. Just as like a friendly reminder that and to give you permission right with it. Hopefully everyone takes some sort of a break, even if it's just a few days. I'm not saying, I know not everyone goes on a cruise or to Disney World or wherever, you know, for like a week or, or more. I get that financially and time wise it just might not be feasible for you to do that right now. But hopefully that's something in the future. You know, if there's, there's one of your goals, not just to make a certain amount of money, but to have some time or to have some experience, some high quality experiences that create life lasting memories for you and your family and friends, whoever you're, you know, participating in that experience with. So, but with all that being said, I, I, I definitely take a vacation. My family and I take a vacation at least once a summer. I mean we, we, I say at least once because there's plenty of little getaways that we do. We'll go camping for a week and maybe take a three or four day weekend. Especially with holiday weekends like Memorial Day, Labor Day and the fourth of July, something is close to a weekend. We sometimes capitalize on that as well. But you know, because there's a Lot of those are holidays that, you know, my wife will have off and my daughter is an adult. Both of my kids are adults now. My daughter's been working full time for a few years now. So she has that whole thing. She's got vacation time and holidays and a busy schedule. So the older your family gets, the more challenging it gets to kind of plan and coordinate all of these times to have off to go on a trip or a vacation. That definitely gets more challenging as time goes on. So yet another reason to do it now while you're. If you have kids and they're younger because once they grow up it's harder to reconnect. It ends up being like holidays that you alternate different families. Especially if and when your kids get married and then they have their own family and there's in laws and it just gets fewer and fewer. That's why every moment is precious. So really hold on to that idea so that you can get as much out of every opportunity and every day and every moment that you can. Because you know, time keeps on ticking and things change as everyone gets older and things in the world change and you don't ever want to take any of that stuff for granted. So. So whether my family can go on a week long vacation once a summer or more than once a summer or not, we still find a way. And every summer is a little bit different. But we always make sure that we spend time with each other more than just dinner or a weekend here and there. We try to actually schedule some things like I said, like camping trips or a beach trip. We live in Virginia so we can drive up and down the east coast to so many different wonderful beaches that are within hours worth of a driving distance. We've even driven to Tennessee before, which has nothing to do with the beach, but it's beautiful mountains and hiking and a lot of great stuff there. So we've gone all over the place driving wise, which saves a lot of money. You know, it does take longer if you're driving to like Tennessee for us anyway, you know, that's. I don't know, five hour trip maybe something like that. We've driven to Florida a couple times, which is something depending on where you go in Florida, that's like a whole day's worth of travel. So yeah, you know, there's definitely takes you longer than flying in most cases, but it's all. It's a lot more expensive when you're flying and it's. And honestly it's, it's a little more exhausting when you Fly, if I'm being honest, especially if you have to change planes, you know, in between and just a lot of hustle and bustle, making sure you're getting to your next flights and getting to your first flight, your next flight. Checking bags. If you're checking bags, it's just kind of a lot of. It wears on you. If you don't know, then you don't know. But if you do know, you know that it just sneaks up on you and you're just exhausted from just flying around. It is. It is shorter typically, and you're not trying to stay awake, driving and stopping, pulling over to go to the bathroom or get something to eat. You can just stay on the plane and kind of do that more conveniently, but it is still exhausting. I think it's nice to alternate and take a drive every now and again with family, have great conversations, listen to music, you know, see the sites, you know, have a plan maybe to make some strategic stops for sites along the way and obviously eat and restroom breaks and everything. And we have a dog as well. We've all. We've always had a dog is our second dog, though our other. Our original family dog is no longer with us, but our. Our second family dog. You know, she. She is a social butterfly and loves the water and loves just doing everything, loves the car, loves the outdoor. She's just a happy, happy girl. So we try to plan vacations, including her as well. So driving, that. That makes driving more of a. Of a. A priority, right? More of a necessity so that we can take her with us because we're not gonna, we're not gonna fly with her and keep her down in wherever that I don't even know. I don't even know the. The deals with that anymore. But I think you, you know, you check your pets, like, their bags, you know, like they're in like luggage and they go down in some. Where the luggage is essentially in a nice safe spot, but that probably seems terrifying for. For them. So anyway, and if they're small enough, you can have them like with you, like on the seat or something. But she's not that small. And so it just seems like way more of a hassle and torture potentially for her to go flying. So that's another reason why we, we stick this. Finding places we can drive to as well. But so there's a lot of different scenarios there, a lot of different things, and we will do that. Like we, like I said, drive down to the beach, you know, locally for, for a few days or A week. Go camping often. There's plenty of campsites around here. Go for day hikes, day trips. So we do a lot of things throughout the summer to spend time with each other as, as a family. But we do normally book at least one week long vacation. A summer vacation. Right? Cause everyone's out of school. You know, my, my son is still in college, so he's on summer break like everyone. And when my kids were in high school, you know, then they had summer break. So we would take vacations in the summer, of course. So. But this summer we don't have any family vacations planned per se. We're still, you know, summer's still young. We're still thinking that maybe we can whip something together. But we'll probably just. This will be the, like I said, every year kind of changes and alternates different things based on various different scenarios and everyone's schedule. But you know, this year we're probably just going to do a bunch of local stuff, day trips and weekend trips and all the different examples that I've mentioned. You know, we're not planning on driving down to Florida this year. We did that last year and spent a week in Florida, if you remember, if you've been listening long enough. When we took our dog with us and we went to the only dog dog beach, like not dogs welcome or dog friendly, where, you know, dog on leash but they're not allowed in the water, that sort of thing. No, we went to the only dog only beach, meaning that dogs are welcome to. Like it's, it's meaning it's only for dogs. Like if you don't have a dog, you don't belong at this beach. Like, you become like the minority. Like, what, what are you doing here, bro? This isn't your beach. Where's your dog? This is the dog's beach, not your beach. It's pretty funny and comical and amazing, to be honest. Of course you have your bad apples. People with their uncontrollable dogs that had no business being there. That kind of scare, you know, cause a little bit of chaos and scare some of the dogs away and whatever. So there's always going to be those people, unfortunately. But for the most part, all the dogs are super friendly and they just run around off leash having a good old time jumping in the water. You can play catch and Frisbee and all the dogs are making friends and it's, it's an amazing experience for dog lovers for sure, and for the dogs themselves. So my wife did a ton of research. I'm not saying that there is no other dog only beach, but from a Internet aspect, the only thing she could find, find after tons and tons of research was this one down in Florida. I have forgotten already what it's called. I think it's. It's somewhere like St. Pete's or something like that. St. Pete's beach somewhere in that general vicinity down on the west side, closer to Tampa. Like maybe an hour and change away from Tampa, St. Petersburg, that whole area. So I think it's St. Pete's beach and there's a specific beach for the. For the. That the dog beach is called. But at any rate. And it's like by a fort, but. So we drove all the way down there last year. It was definitely a long drive, but it was worth it. Spent the week down there, had a blast. I mean, no. What kind of vacation. What. What better vacation than to spend with your dog living their best life while you're living. Right. Your best life, right? Instead of just leaving, boarding your dog somewhere, or having someone watch your dog while you're gone. And you're living your best life and they're just all sad, missing you and everything potentially. You know, we don't really know what's going on in their head, but it seems like they're sad, so it's great to bring them with you. So we did that last year and that, you know, that was a. That was fun. So this year we're probably, like I said, just gonna do some of the more local, shorter trips because my wife and I just came back from our 25th wedding anniversary trip. So we were gone for two weeks. That's the most. Yeah, two. I said two weeks. That's the most we've ever been gone, ever. Like when we were dating all the way to now. So, like before kids, you know, during kids, and now that our kids are grown up, like, this is the first time we've ever gone away for two weeks. The longest before that was one week. I think it was maybe like eight days or something. Seven nights, eight days, you know, that whole thing. But we were gone for a full week, like right after Covid, like when things started opening back up. After Covid, we had a bunch of vacations that were like backlogged from COVID So we were. It was kind of like you had a certain time frame to redeem them all. So we were just kind of banging them out one month after, like they were all paid for. So it's not even like we were like living some luxurious life or something or. Or strapping ourselves thin with. With finances. You know, they were already booked. They were just all postponed. So we were just booking them one month after another after mother after another. And one of those vacations was my wife and I. We had gone, just the two of us. The rest were family vacations, but the two of us, we went to, you know, we flew somewhere and spent a week, and it was amazing. And that was the longest we had ever been away, ever up to that point. You know, normally, my wife and I, when we were dating, we had gone. We. You know, we were. We were kids, we were in college. We didn't have the finances or the wherewithal or whatever to. To plan a vacation for a week. Not. Not even really knowing where to go, what to do. Like, we're just young and young and in love and just doing whatever and having a good time with life. But any kind of vacations we would go on, they were pretty short. Short and sweet. You know, we'd go on maybe some family vacations with our families and. Or just muster up something, some little getaway with just the two of us for, like, a few days. You know, like, it was never, like a whole big thing. It wasn't until we had kids where we really focused on planning family vacations for a week, you know, the typical family vacations. So, you know, so there definitely wasn't time for my wife and I to go on any long vacations until they got older and they were able to take care of themselves, take care of the house, take care of the dogs or dog at the time, you know, our original dog, family dog, with help from Grandma at the time, when she was younger and better to, you know, better fit to handle that. That was, you know, what, maybe six or seven years ago now. It's a little stressful for her to do all. To do all that by herself, to watch the kids, you know, make sure the kids aren't doing too crazy stuff. And the dog, you know, now she doesn't really have to do anything because the kids are adults, so they can do stuff. So. But anyway, and. And I was able to step away from my business because I had a crew leader at the time and everything was good. But I was actually gone for my business for two weeks that time frame, because the week before my wife and I went on vacation, we went to Equip. I went to Equip for like, you know, the second half of the week. I didn't have my event yet, so I didn't go until, like, probably Tuesday night or maybe even Wednesday morning, something like that. I came in, I probably came in Tuesday night. So I was there, you know, so like on Monday, I made sure that everybody, you know, my whole team had all the assignments, Everything was good. Any last minute questions, make sure everything was set and ready to go, double and triple checking everything, right? Working with everybody on Monday. And then I, and then I essentially left on Tuesday, drove down on probably Tuesday morning, got there Tuesday evening, and then I came back briefly, you know, drove back home just to unpack, repack, like unpack, do laundry, repack, shower all that good stuff and leave the next day with my wife to go on our vacation together. So I was gone from my job, from, from my business, I mean, for two weeks and essentially home for almost two weeks. And that worked out well. And that's just one of the examples of how you can take time off when you have a team that's doing the work for you, right? And you can rely on them, you've trained them properly. So there's that and then there's this time when we, we. So we've been going. We went away for two weeks, which is amazing. Like I said, it was great, you know, and, and that's part of the reasons why I went away for so long was because that was the trip that we picked, was designed that way. It was night 11 day trip. We had a great time. But it's also, you know, 25th anniversary, but. Well, I'm sorry, it was a 10, 10 night 11 day cruise. You know, I don't, I'm sure you don't care about all of my business, but personal details, but we had to fly in the day before and then fly out the day after. So like, so that's where you get 13 days. So we were gone for 13 days technically. So I mean, you know, 14 days is two weeks, but we just round up to two weeks. Just easier to say. That LCR Media podcast is proudly sponsored by Toro and they're giving listeners a powerful tool to run a smarter, more profitable business. Horizon360 helps you schedule jobs, track crews, monitor equipment, and understand what work is really paying off. LCR listeners get an exclusive 7 month free trial with promo code LCR. Claim yours today. Click the link in the episode description. Part of that reasoning was because it was our anniversary at 25th anniversary. You know, that's a big deal. For those of you that don't know, 25 is a big milestone. Like your first year is a big milestone, right? And then every year after that, it's great to celebrate Another year. But then 25 is a big milestone and 50 is the next big milestone. You know, I didn't really know much of this because I never really had that kind of exposure as a kid. But, you know, once I got married and kind of got educated and cultured a little bit by my wife and just life and society and friends and family, I kind of learned all that. But yeah, 25 is a big deal. That's kind of like the first big deal. And then 50 is the, the next big deal. I don't know what else beyond that, but 25 and 50, those are big ones. So 25 years we've been married, which is kind of crazy when you think about it. And people think how young I am or look, I am young. Ish. But, you know, people think I look younger than I actually am and to have two adult kids and everything. But, you know, yeah, my wife and I definitely met. Well, we met in college so that, you know, you can just do the math there, right? We met college and got married, had kids. You know, we were, we were young, but we were in love. And that's, we weren't wasting any time on life. So that, that's that. And now our kids are grown up and we're still relatively young. Say our kids are grown up, but I mean, they're technically adults. You know, they're in their early 20s. Right. So early and mid-20s. So, you know, we're, we're, we're still relatively young ourselves. So we can travel the world and do all these things now without having to worry about being too old or older. Right. Where maybe, you know, we're not in the best shape anymore. Our bodies aren't as strong to do some of the things that we've done because when we were gone for two weeks recently, you know, we, we did a ton of exploring. We went all over the plate, like every, all of our destinations that we were at. On the cruise. We, you know, we did a ton of. I think the first day we did like almost 30, 000 steps, which I don't know if, you know, if you have any, anything to relate that to, but that for us, that's a lot of steps. Almost 30, 000 steps is a lot. I don't know what that equates to. Miles wise. I, I forgot we never did that math, but it's, it's many, many, many miles, that's for sure. But so there was a lot of walking. It was exhausting, but fun. And, you know, a couple, we did a couple Other days where we were in the 20,000 steps and then the rest of the days on average there's like, you know, 10, 8 to 10,000 steps, just in general, on average for some of the lighter days. So, you know, we definitely did a lot. That's a lot. And there was a lot of older people. You know, there's a whole mix on a cruise of younger and older people, and there's a lot of older folks that were there and they were struggling, you know, some of them were, were, you know, around us in similar trips and excursions, as they call them, like tours, you know, on our, our stops. And they were struggling at times, you know. And you could see some of them were physically, you know, they were not handicapped, but they had physical restrictions or limitations. There you go. They had physical limitations that you could see. Like they had a cane or they just weren't walking the best or whatever, you know. And it's like, geez, like we don't. We didn't want to wait until that point in our life to then try and do all these things and then. And you can't always plan that, of course, but that's how, that's how our life has been. We got married young, you know, we fell in love young. We met young, fell in love, got married, had kids, kind of did in the opposite. There's two different ways you can live your life and then have kids or have kids and live your life, whatever. So like my wife always says, we're. When our kids are all grown up, we'll still be relatively young and we can just do a whole bunch of stuff and not feel like, you know, we're not physically capable of it. So anyway, so we, that's what we did. Had a great time for two weeks. It was definitely exhausting, but it was refreshing, if that can make any sense to you. That might sound like an oxymoron, but it was super refreshing because we were together for two weeks, undivided attention. Like, we didn't get any WI FI packages or pay for international network or anything like that for our cell phones. We just kind of checked in periodically. Like some of our stops there was free wi. Like if we go to a restaurant or something might be free WI fi. And we would just check in periodically in case there was any kind of emergencies or anything that we needed to check up on. But nothing, nothing, nothing crazy. Like we weren't trying to. We were on real quick, boom, boom, boom, and then out. We more used it to like make sure our plans for the. For the day or the rest of the week up to that point were, were good, you know, and still on track, essentially. Like, you know, that that was about it and like downloading information and screenshotting maps and things of that nature just so that we had it while we were in the middle of the ocean or, you know, at a, at a, you know, at a destination and not, not having any, any service. So this way we were essentially phones free. We just used our phones to take pictures and videos of, of everything and that was it. So that was great because there was zero distraction or minimal distractions, I should say. So it allowed us to spend more time together and really kind of reconnect because life is crazy. Everyone's light, life in general is crazy. And all of our lives are crazy at different levels or at different levels for different reasons. And it's just, it's good to be able to connect and to reconnect, I should say. Reconnect, refresh, kind of separate yourself from the busy hustle and bustle of life and just get yourself, you know, especially from a marriage perspective, right, like take a break for a breakthrough. Right. But from marriage, it's great to be able to reconnect and really fully process in the fact that we've been together or we've married for 25 years, what that means, you know, and look forward to the, to the next 25 years and, and just really process all that and enjoy and celebrate it together. So that was, that, that was a big trip for us that we just came back from and it was amazing. Like I'm, you know, back out here on the lawns and I don't feel overly exhausted at all, which is kind of surprising. I mean, I'm sure as the day progresses I will naturally, but you know, I start, I start off the day refreshed and feeling great, even though we barely got any sleep because, you know, we flew to the other side of the world essentially. So it was a six hour time change and so just, it was just kind of crazy. We were, we were essentially up for 24 hours from the time that we woke up to start our travels or to start our day and then all the traveling to come back to the United States, to Virginia and then go to bed. It was 24 hours. It was over 24 hours that we were awake. So it was just kind of, you know, we pulled an all nighter, even though it was during the day. It was just crazy because of the time change. But so we were definitely exhausted and struggling last night. Those final hours of the night to get home and, you know, try flying and everything else. But we made it and we, we got minimal sleep. But, I mean, I didn't really have a whole conversation with my wife about it. But, you know, she, she woke up happy. I woke up happy. You know, she seemed, she was good, you know. No, we, neither one of us felt sick or had a headache or looked miserable. We, we, you know, we, you know, got just, we're still beaming from everything and got ready for work and said, you know, we'll see, you know, hugs and kisses, have a good day. We'll see, see each other at the end of the work day and, and, and, and unpack, because we didn't do any of that. We just kind of chucked everything on the floor and just like, we were done. So, but anyway, we, I, I feel pretty refreshed and grateful for sure, for that experience and being able to do that. And so to, to end this conversation, this, this episode, what I did now, because I don't have a crew leader and a crew at the moment by design, I, I, I, I had a good friend of the show, Charles Nelson, with Stepping Stone Landscaping. You may or may not remember me, speak of him or heard of him on any of the episodes. He's, he's a great guy, great business owner, and always shares good insight or great insight on the, on the podcast as well. And his team took care of my properties for the two weeks that we were gone. So big shout out to, to Stepping Stone Landscaping and Charles and the team there for doing that. He's done that a few times. I mean, normally it's just for like a few days or a week. Like last year when we went to Florida, they took care of it for the week that I was gone. And before that, there had been like, a couple of different times where it was like, you know, it started off with like, it was like in a pinch, like around Covid times, you know, when we were, we were all struggling with staffing, and I had a vacation plan with family, another local drive to vacation, and I, I was literally on the verge of canceling. That was like debating, should I just not go? Like, I didn't want to cancel the vacation. I'm like, maybe I just won't go because I don't have enough people to get everything done. I'm gonna have to be the one helping get everything done. I can't leave, you know, like, I don't know what to do. My family's just gonna have to go without me. And it was super depressing. And Charles just happened to call me one day, just, like, it was almost like divine intervention. I was. I was literally sitting in a parking lot of a gas station, like, trying to figure out how I'm going to get everything done while my guys are working and just not having enough, like, you know, being understaffed and just taking, like, a. I must have been taking a break, like, lunch, whatever, and just contemplating all these things and should I not even go on the vacation? I was having all these conversations with myself and feeling pretty. Pretty, pretty bummed about it all. And then Charles calls me, and I'm like, wow, what are the odds? But, I mean, you know, like, now, in hindsight, what are the odds of that? But when he called me, I was just like, hey, what's up, man? Say, hey. Just checking in, seeing how you're doing. I know it's been crazy with everything going on in the world, and, you know, I'm sure you're, you know, I don't know if you're struggling with staffing. I know we're struggling and blah, blah, blah. And we just had a conversation about it, and then I just started kind of pouring my heart out, like, yeah, honestly, I'm in a tough spot right now. And he could just see and hear how, normally, I'm a pretty motivational and positive person, but we all have our moments. You know, we're all human. And I think he could just sense that I was really in a. In a rough spot. And he was like, well, how many yards you got left, man? I mean, I. I know, you know, we. We're struggling, too. We don't have. I don't have a whole lot of extra help either. But, I mean, if it's just like, you know, a couple of days worth of work or whatever the number was, you know, we might. We might be able to squeeze it in. Like, just let me know. Maybe there's a way we can figure it out. Like, let me know what you got left where they are. Maybe we can figure something out. So that's what happened. Like, you know, I think I had one or two days left of work that I was like, you know, I would have had to work all weekend instead of going on vacation. Would have had to work all weekend to get it done and with everyone. And he was like, no, we. We got it. So I went on vacation, and his team took care of the rest of the lawns. And so, you know, my guys didn't have to work on the weekend neither. Neither did they. They. They. You Know, stepping stone landscape. Didn't have to work on the weekend either. They just were able to fit in. You know, the rest of our lawns, like on. On Friday or something on Thursday and Friday or just Friday and got it all done for us while we finished up whatever we could on Friday. And then I went on vacation and the rest of the guy, you know, my guys had the weekend off and whatever anyway, so. And then, to be honest, I don't remember what happened while we were on vacation. I don't think we were on vacation for a whole week. That was another, Another. Another option. Like we would do these shorter weeks, you know, even they were family vacations, you know, like, everyone knew I have lawns to mow, I have a business to run. Like, I can't until I get things set up properly. I can't always take a whole week off. So we would kind of do like a half a week. We kind of leave midway through one week and come back midway the other week. And I just like, smush the yards one way and the other way, you know, like, get them all done the front half of the. Get them all done the. The rest on the. Not the rest, like the following week. Get all the lawns done the back half of that week and whatever. Like, just make it work so that I could smush, you know, piece together like a five to six day vacation. And that would be for us, like, to drive somewhere local, you know, take maybe half a day to get there. And then, you know, we can still have a good four or five days of solid vacation, enjoying each other as a family at a beach or wherever. So I don't remember what the scenario was with that particular vacation. I know I don't think we were gone for a whole week. I think we were gone for maybe four or five days. So we probably came back on like a Tuesday or Wednesday. And me and the few people that I had at the time, we just worked the second half of the week and probably worked on a Saturday and got everything done. But at least I was able to go on vacation. My guys were fine. They still got paid to work. They still had work to do. They just had to work a different schedule for one week or whatever. So there's all kinds of ways to make it happen. Right Is my ultimate point and the point that I try to make every year when I have these type of episodes. There's always a way, even if it means being super creative, there's always a way. So you just have to think creatively, think outside the Box think that there is a way for one thing, instead of thinking, this is impossible, I don't know how to do this. You can say, I don't know how to do it, but don't say, it's impossible or it's never going to happen, or there's no way. Those are like, close the door, shut the idea off, no more options. It just kind of closes the whole loop and the whole creative conversation when you use kind of words and terminology and phrases like that and have that kind of negative mindset. So you got to try and stay positive and say, okay, this is going to be challenging. How do I make this work? How do I make this work? Right? How can I make this work? Because it'll be amazing when I do figure out how to make it work, you know? And then sometimes you get that call from a friend that you didn't realize you were going to get, like, hey, man, just thinking about you. Everything all right? It's like, wow. It's like, again, divine intervention, like, how'd that happen? So you never know. You never know until you try. You never know till you ask. You know, worst thing is no. They say no or it doesn't work out, and you go, go to another, figure out another plan. But at least if you try at, you know, at least if you try, then you know, if you don't, if you don't make these attempts, if you don't try to do one thing and another thing, then you'll never know and you'll just live with regret and you'll miss out on these opportunities and you won't have the breaks to have your breakthroughs. So just remember all that. Hopefully everything that I just said was, was helpful and valuable in some way. I just, you know, I. I want, I want all of you to, to win. You know, I want, you, want you to. To enjoy your life. Because we're not here. We shouldn't live to work. We should work to live. And I know we've all gotten into this business for various reasons, but we should be designing and creating the business that serves us instead of us serving it, feeling like a servant to it, where we're just slaves to our business like it's our business. We should be able to design it and create it however we want. Of course there's going to be ups and downs and speed bumps and challenges and everything, but that doesn't mean we give up. That doesn't mean we just throw our hands in the air and become the lowest paid, hardest workers for our own business. That's not what that means. It means we're the owners. Let's figure it out. And then if we need help, we need help. If we need a mentor or local friend or a coaching group or whatever that is a community of some sort, events to help you get through that sticking point so that you can keep moving forward and not feel essentially miserable in some cases, you know, or feel like you're just not getting ahead or you're falling behind and you can never catch up and what am I doing this for? And I'm not even making enough money. And you get kind of get in the hamster wheel of destructive thinking. So stay positive, do what you have to do to learn and experience what you need to so that you can get past some of these sticking points. And that's, that's all I'm trying to do here on the podcast is share this kind of information to hopefully give you some insight, some creative ideas or maybe spark some thoughts, some words of affirmation or encouragement for you that maybe you'll do for your, for yourself and maybe others as well, your team so that you can win. But also, don't forget, if you haven't signed up yet, there's still some time left, but not as much time as you might think to sign up for the Profit accelerator live this June 26th and 27th in Richmond, Virginia. The link is in the episode description. You click on that, find out all the defi. All the details. Excuse me, all the details. Get your tickets right now. There's still buy one, get one free if you get two tickets. So if you want to bring your spouse or business partner, you can for free essentially get two tickets for the price of one. So go ahead and do that while you can still and hope to see you guys there. It's going to be super exciting. Again, all the details are in there myself and I'm going to be speaking multiple times, sharing multiple frameworks that I've used in the, over the last decade to be able to take time off and be able to design and create the business that serves me and not feel a slave to my business and miserable. And that's the whole reason why I got into this business and left retail management, because I felt like a slave to retail management. You know, it wasn't my business, so. And at times I still feel like I get kind of overwhelmed and strapped down to my business or handcuffed to my business, you know, in the early years especially. But I've, I've put systems and I've learned and created and implemented or AKA put systems in place so that these kind of things, those, those things don't happen anymore. And I and I have the business that I enjoy, the business that I that I want, the business that serves me so I don't feel like a slave to it. And I just keep sharing this at all different levels on the podcast, in person events, you know, coaching group master classes, you know, slash webinars online just to help share as much as I can so that you can learn and grow as well. Because I'm just super passionate about it because this business business really helped my life improve and that's what I want to that's what I want for all of you. So I hope to see you at Prop Accelerator Live again. Link is in the description. Or just go to profit accelerator live.com and hope to see you there. Thanks for listening as always and hope you're having a great summer or start to your summer or end of your spring whenever you hear this episode. And thank you to the Toro Company for sponsoring the LCR Media Podcast. Until the next episode, this is Nail or Tyler Farrell signing off.
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This has been an lcr media and Mr. Producer production.
Podcast Summary: LCR Media Podcast #566 – IBG, How to Get Off the Hamster Wheel
Host: Naylor Taliaferro
Date: June 4, 2026
In this "In Between Guest" episode, host Naylor Taliaferro delivers a heartfelt and practical solo talk focused on the importance of taking real time off as a lawn care, landscaping, or service business owner. Through personal anecdotes and actionable advice, Naylor emphasizes how breaks can be the catalyst for business and personal breakthroughs, helping owners escape the “hamster wheel” grind, reconnect with family, and return refreshed to lead their business more effectively. The episode also shares strategies for making time off possible, including leaning on industry peers and planning creatively, as well as an invitation to the upcoming event: Profit Accelerator Live.
“A lot of times we’re going so fast... our brains don't even have time to process everything enough for us to come up with like a new idea or a new solution.” (05:14)
Strategies:
Family Dynamics: As children grow, coordinating schedules becomes harder, highlighting the need to take advantage of opportunities for family vacations while they last (10:15).
Driving vs. Flying: Driving can be preferable—cheaper, more flexible, and allows you to include pets and family bonding (13:15).
Including Pets: Naylor shares stories of planning vacations to bring their dog along, finding unique, dog-friendly destinations (e.g., the only “dog only” beach in Florida) (19:25).
Quote:
“We shouldn’t live to work. We should work to live.” (37:20)
“There’s always a way, even if it means being super creative… So you just have to think creatively, think outside the box...” (34:12)
Anniversary Trip Story: Naylor recounts a two-week, phone-free cruise for a 25th wedding anniversary, highlighting the power of downtime for marriage, family, and personal health (25:40).
Memorable Moments: Reconnecting with a spouse and reflecting on 25 years of marriage, emphasizing that these experiences would not be possible without intentional planning and business structure.
Quote:
“It was definitely exhausting, but it was refreshing, if that can make any sense to you...” (29:25)
“We were together for two weeks, undivided attention... There was zero distraction or minimal distractions, I should say.” (30:45)
"Take a break for your breakthrough. Because a lot of times we’re going so hard and so fast that our brains don’t even have time to process everything..." (05:20)
“Every moment is precious. So really hold on to that idea so that you can get as much out of every opportunity and every day and every moment that you can.” (11:55)
“I was literally on the verge of canceling… I don’t have enough people to get everything done… and then Charles just happened to call me one day—it was almost like divine intervention.” (35:26)
“We should be designing and creating the business that serves us instead of us serving it, feeling like a servant to it, where we’re just slaves to our business.” (37:30)
“You never know until you try. You never know until you ask. You know, worst thing is no… But at least if you try, then you know. If you don’t… then you’ll just live with regret and you’ll miss out on these opportunities and you won’t have the breaks to have your breakthroughs.” (36:10)
Naylor closes by reinforcing the message that creating margin for yourself is both possible and vital, not just for you but for your business and family. He offers a nudge to attend the upcoming Profit Accelerator Live event (June 26-27, Richmond, VA), where business owners can learn frameworks for designing a business that provides more freedom.
“...I'm going to be speaking multiple times, sharing multiple frameworks that I've used over the last decade to be able to take time off and be able to design and create the business that serves me and not feel a slave to my business..." (39:18)
Summary Takeaway:
This episode is equal parts motivational and tactical—useful for service business owners struggling to step off the hamster wheel. Whether you’re solo or have a team, Naylor’s advice and personal stories highlight that taking a meaningful break is both necessary and possible, and often leads to the breakthroughs and joy we need to move our businesses and lives forward.