← Strategy Hour | Online Marketing for Business Growth
Strategy Hour | Online Marketing for Business Growth
954: How I’m Rewriting the Rules for a “Successful” Summer
00:32:12
What would your summer look like if peace, ease, and cash flow could just exist together?
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- [00:02]
Abigail Pumphrey
Welcome to the Strategy Hour podcast brought to you by Boss Project. I'm your host, Abigail Pumphrey, and I'm dedicated to supporting online businesses. I don't believe in one right way to build a business. I'm here to help you build business your way. One that supports not only the life you have, but the life you want. I'm on a personal mission to help you become financially free. I'm taking all the lessons learned as I turned a layoff into a seven figure online business. I'm here to help you prioritize your life every step of the way, whether you're creating your first digital product, growing an email list, or scaling an already profitable business. Settle in. It's time to talk strategy.
- [00:42]
Unknown Speaker
I have in my head that the more I work, the more successful I will be. But I know for a fact I want to work less. Those things are indirect competition. What if you didn't need to work harder for the next level? What if less effort actually created more results, more space, more creativity, more cash flow? This summer, I'm breaking up with the idea that success requires intensity and redefining what's truly productive. Every summer that has rolled around since I started this business, I have sat in my office and I have worked. And I would often be jealous. I wasn't outside. Jealous of myself, my other self, the self that could be having fun and doing all the things and being outdoors and enjoying the sunshine and being in the pool, all of those things. But I felt this, like, sense of obligation that I was supposed to be in the trenches and doing the work and writing the things and producing the content and all of it. I know why I was doing it. I convinced myself that if I kept going and I kept pushing that this would help me avoid backsliding. Because we're all under this assumption, whether we want to be or not, that more work equals more success. And it's so wrong. This summer, I am rewriting those rules. I'm testing what happens when I work less, I focus more, and I trust that space like I actual real space might be the missing piece between where I am and where I want to go. I think oftentimes when we have a narrative that's going on in our head that we are searching for proof that the thing we want is even plausible and still ethical, especially if you're running your business baked in on your values. And I think I finally have the proof that I could trust in my own brain. And I wish it had happened sooner. I wish it had happened years ago. I wasn't ready emotionally, physically, I don't know, maybe the business wasn't ready. But for whatever reason, I was holding on to this previous version of myself, this version that felt like she had to be at her desk. So I've been in business 10 years and my brother in law, he is just a couple of years younger than my spouse. I watched him graduate from college, start his own business, you know, ultimately grow a staff and, and now he's been in this a hot minute. Okay, he's been working less years than I have for sure, but he's been doing the work. And a couple Fridays ago, I met him and his daughter, I. E. My niece, at the park with my spouse. And we were playing and we were having so much fun and laughing and it was beautiful outside. And I seemed confused for a second because I knew I had switched to this four day work week, I think last summer. So it's. We're coming on almost a year that I've only worked four days a week. And I said something to the effect of, oh, like you don't have any clients today. And he's like, I just decided I don't want to work Fridays anymore. And there was something bizarre about that interaction because I was like, what, you can just decide to do that? Even though I was literally standing with him at the park, having made that same choice previously. And when I started my business and he started his, for a long time I felt like I was further along and had more clients and more steady income because I had been doing it years longer than he had. But at some point in my brain he didn't say this, he didn't put this idea in my head. It was all self induced. I had decided that he was now more professional than I was, more legitimate than I was. I don't know if it was because he had an actual office, like staff who came into the office, there was a conference room. I don't know, I don't know if it was that.
- [05:50]
Abigail Pumphrey
I couldn't tell you what it was.
- [05:51]
Unknown Speaker
Specifically, but there was something about it where I felt like the work he was doing was more legitimate than mine. All subconscious, of course. I'm not sure I even ever like thought those exact words, but looking back now, that's definitely what was happening. And I found myself jealous of his situation, which is so funny because there's a lot about his business that I want to. Nothing to do with, right? But he's in an industry where when you do the work and you develop the relationships that you are rewarded for that Work for years, sometimes decades to come. And I felt like I do all of this to serve someone in this certain season of their business. And either they graduate or they move on, or they're learning from other people, but there's way more people, volume wise, that come in and out of the door just by the nature of being in the education space. It's not that I'm doing anything wrong, it is because that is how the industry is shaped. And the reason I was jealous was not because of what he was doing or how he was showing up, but it was because he was able to be rewarded for his efforts long after he had put in the work. Which is so odd, honestly, because that's the furthest thing from the truth. Like, not that he's not being rewarded from the work that he's done previously, he is. But so am I. And I have continued over and over and over again to discount that. And I don't know if it was until I said these words out loud that it all clicked into place for me, but I was saying something to my husband, we were talking about what was coming up in the months ahead. And I said something to the effect of like, if I do no more launches, if I focus on just serving the clients I have right now, if I just fulfill the contracts that are existing, I will make. This is the part that like kind of makes me want to vomit because it doesn't feel real. If I do no new things for the remainder of the year, I will still make an additional multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm not going to get into the exact. Because that's irrelevant. But I already did that work and it is rewarding me. But I put this pressure like I'm in a freaking pressure cooker all the time, that I have to do more, that I have to fill the hours, that I have to be professional, that I have to be at my desk, I have to be available. I am done with that. I built a business for freedom and I do have freedom and I take advantage of a lot of it. But there is a whole lot that I could be doing that I have the capacity and the financial means to do. But I have not let myself experience out of pure fear. It is completely self induced. It is not because my business is going to fall apart. I have built a business that is sustainable. I have built a business that is steady. I have built a business that is reliable. And I am treating it like a business that needs me all the time. But this isn't just about me. It is about you too. So I want to start with a lie that we've internalized, that working more, doing more, putting in more hours, maybe even filling your calendar is what drives growth. That's what you've internalized. What if doing less isn't just okay, it's actually more effective? Like if you had a visceral reaction. Me too. Because here's the thing. Energy output does not equal impact. Busy seasons don't guarantee better results. Overworking can actually hide inefficiencies and distract from deeper clarity. So last year I tested the four day work week. I tested it for the summer and by the end of the summer I said I'm never going back. And now I officially work four days a week. And I'm not sure I'm even ready to say this out loud because it feels so scary. But for the summer, I want to work fewer hours. I already know that. So my challenge to myself is to work four hours, four days a week. Now, I have done this in the past. I have worked as little as 12 hours a week in this business. And my business has been successful and still paid me and all of the things. But somewhere along the line of this scaling and growing, I felt the need that to be taken seriously. I had to take my business seriously by always being in it. At the beginning of the year, I made a new self induced rule that I only take meetings on Monday. If I'm going to have any meeting, it's on a Monday. That way I have so much blank space and it has been actually fantastic. Love is so efficient, you know, have I had to pepper in a few things here and there? Yeah, life happens. But 99% of the time I will say if it can't work on a Monday, it's just not happening. Now that's not to say that I can't do other things, that I can't have fun, that that's part of it. But this summer I am trialing. In addition to the four hour workday, I am trying. No meetings, none. The only thing that's going to be on my calendar is fun social activities and the occasional podcast interview. But only on a Monday. I'm not going to keep spinning my plates just to prove I can juggle. If you want your life to feel different in a new season, your definition of success also has to change. Like, think about it. I have in my head that the more I work, the more successful I will be. But I know for a fact I want to work less. Those things are in direct competition. Direct competition. And I'M guessing if you're resistant to something or you keep saying you want something, but it's not happening that way. It's because your success metrics, the things you've defined for yourself as what success looks like, you are still striving for success regardless of what you say you want. So the reason you're not getting there is not because what you want is not possible. It's because you've decided it has to look a certain way. I know you're feeling called out. I'm so sorry. So some new success metrics for me. One, I like guardrails. Okay. So the reason the four day work week worked for me is I said I'm committing to this and I committed for a season, allowed myself to reevaluate and I ultimately decided to keep it. So if I'm going to trial a four hour workday without meetings, I am going to commit to that and fully go into that, see how I feel at the end of the summer and reevaluate. It is not a forever decision. And I think when you really put those parameters around it, that you are testing something for a set period of time, then all of a sudden it allows something in your brain to open up like, oh, you're not asking to change the rest of your life, you're just asking to change the next few weeks. Okay, I think I can do that. That feels far less intimidating. So in the past, success has looked like very steady, specific amounts of income. So if I want to make X amount per year, my idea of success was dividing that by 12 and expecting that of myself every single month. But that often meant planning last minute launches that I wasn't anticipating doing, which because there was no lead time, didn't, you know, become as big as they could have and thus really only bought me the rest of that month, maybe the next six weeks. And then I felt this pressure to do it again. And so I am giving myself some space because I have the ability to and definitely have a big enough base where I can feel good about just making my base of pretty much guaranteed income every single month with more space between launches with bigger blips, that is bigger blips up and letting that momentum carry me for longer. Now that is definitely not for everyone. I think there is a lot of sexiness to a super steady, reliable amount of money. But also keep in mind that these were very large sums. Like, I think at one point the success metric was $110,000 a month. Do you know how much pressure that is? So much Pressure, like if I think back to when I started my business, I would have been really happy with like 5,000 or 10,000. Like that would have felt fantastic. So I think if you have a small enough, like reasonable expectation of yourself, that that's super steady is a doable way to go about it. But I've just been in this realm of huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge for so long that I just, I want and need less pressure on myself because it's not necessary. Like, I am good financially. I don't need more. I want to make a bigger difference. Success in the past has always looked like very defined cadence. Meaning if I say I'm going to send X emails on X days of the week, that happens every single week, like clockwork. And I do love routine. And so I don't necessarily want to get rid of that specifically, but I put that same pressure on everything, not just on emails or podcasts that I put out weekly. And it creates this urgency around things that don't need to be urgent. So I am giving myself space to rest. I do not have to work on a new project every week. There can be weeks where I just do the regular routine because for actual years, years I would do the routine plus be actively working on something like above and beyond that. Whether that be new course curriculum or you know, new products or website changes or branding updates or whatever, I always had something new happening. I guarantee you I would feel a heck of a lot better if I had more weeks in a row of just routine. Because I know I can get the routine stuff done quickly. I mean, realistically, I could get the routine stuff done, I would say in six to eight hours a week. And so instead of trying to fill those remaining eight hours, because I talked about a 16 hour work week, which still is wild to me, instead of trying to fill that with a new project, like, what if it was filled with creativity? Like not knowing what I'm going to do with that time. Like wild hair here. What if I read a book? What if I listen to a podcast? What if I learn? What if I do nothing? This is like challenging parts of my personal identity. But I know it's things I want. But that doesn't mean there aren't some things I am doing. Like there are some things that are not necessarily new but like tweaks to the system. So I'm definitely going to be updating some evergreen funnels, which I definitely talk about my process for that in next level funnels. But I very easily go from teaching someone how to do that and then not following through myself because I just did all this work to like explain how someone else can do it, which is the equivalent to me doing it for myself. But then I'm worn out, right? So space to actually get some of those things done and more of that I can delegate than I ever have. I have always felt this deep need to be in control of funnels. But I have some very capable team members that are smart as hell and they can get me a draft and it doesn't mean I can't tweak it and it doesn't mean I can't add to it. But I don't have to start from scratch. More than anything, I am planning for margin, no stacking projects. And if I am going to do something new, I'm not doing more than one new thing at a time. It's just not how I'm going to roll. It's way more stress than is necessary because there is an opportunity cost to always working. Like if I think about even just the last three years, there are I'm trying to think maybe two or three moments of my work that come up for me is like really happy, joyful, like memories, right? Everything else is life related. It was, you know, date days with my spouse, it was trips, it was hanging out with friends, it was doing new things, it was seeing my nephew and niece and it wasn't working. And if I have the financial means to work less and I'm depriving myself of living life more, what if that's costing me? What if that's costing you your next breakthrough? Working all the time doesn't just wear you out.
- [23:11]
Abigail Pumphrey
Want to learn exactly step by step how to get paid to generate leads in your business? I'm ready to give you the exact steps that help me generate tens of thousands of qualified leads and millions in low ticket digital product sales. I won't just show you what I did, but teach you how you can do it too. I'm talking not just how to create low ticket digital products, but also showing you how to use them strategically to generate leads for your other existing or future offers. I'm sharing it all@bossproject.com jumpstart including exactly how I made $8033 and generated 277 leads my very first month selling digital products. Find out more at bossproject.com jumpstart May is Small Business Month and FreshBooks is here to support your business with special savings. FreshBooks is the user friendly accounting platform for your business. Switch to FreshBooks for a better accounting experience. No more late nights drowning in paperwork or searching for lost receipts. Snap photos of your expenses on the go, send professional invoices in seconds and track payments seamlessly. FreshBooks automates invoicing and expenses, processes payments, connects bank accounts, and provides real time reporting. Streamline your bookkeeping with FreshBooks today. Switching to FreshBooks has never been easier. Even if you're coming from another accounting tool. FreshBooks makes migrating your data simple and their support team is ready if you need help. Happy Small Business Month. Celebrate with special savings from FreshBooks. Get FreshBooks 50% off for 6 months@freshbooks.com that's 50% off for 6 months@FreshBooks.com it.
- [24:53]
Unknown Speaker
Crowds out your clarity, your creativity, your in the insight that will actually move you forward. There is a reason my best ideas have come in the middle of the night when no one else was around and no one else was distracting me and I was alone with my own thoughts. But I don't have to have insomnia to be creative. I can make space. We have got to step back and stop equating time with results and start building systems that give us both freedom and cash flow. It's not about stepping back just for wellness or your health. It's about stepping back strategically. I'm choosing leverage over labor, sustainability over sprinting. I'm talking leverage like evergreen funnels that can without live effort, paid offers that sell while I'm offline, tasks that are delegated that free up my brain space. The rules you've followed until now, the ones that you made up because this is your business and you're following your own rules, they aren't the only way to succeed. What if summer wasn't a season you had to survive? Like I think of all the parents in my community. There are so many people who will have kids home all summer and the reason they're stressed is not because their kids are home, but they're trying to figure out how to keep life exactly the same as it is in the middle of the school year. What if it doesn't have to be? Like, what if you got to spend more time with your kids but instead of feeling guilty that you're not at your desk, instead of blaming them for what you're not getting done, what if you got to appreciate that time? Now I know I don't have kids in school and I know that's different for me. But you don't have to survive or make up for stuff. You can create a better rhythm that works for this season. You can have a clearer mind and a business that supports your life in real time. I really want you to reflect. What's one thing you're doing just to quote unquote, keep up that you could just let go of? What would your summer look like if peace, ease and cash flow could all coexist together? I want to hear from you. I want to know what success looks like for you this summer. You can find my profile by going to Boss Project on Instagram. Abigail says is linked for you there. Go send me a dm. Let me know what success looks like for you this summer. What are you going to try? What are you looking forward to? And if this episode gave you permission to do less, share it with a friend who needs to do the same. But I will remind you that friend is far more likely to jump in and do it if you're willing to do it too. So how can you commit to less and take other people on that journey with you?
- [28:37]
Abigail Pumphrey
Hey, a few quick favors before you leave. I'd love if you'd share today's episode, send it to a friend who needs to hear it, and post on social. You can show us where you're listening from, your favorite takeaway, or why someone else should listen. Be sure to tag me, Abigail says, and ossproject so we can share it.
- [28:54]
Unknown Speaker
Okay.
- [28:54]
Abigail Pumphrey
Second favor to get podcast updates and.
- [28:57]
Unknown Speaker
All the behind the scenes news from bossproject.
- [28:59]
Abigail Pumphrey
I'd love if you'd join my VIP list. Just head to bossproject.com signup to make sure I have all your contact details. Really love this show. It would mean so much to me.
- [29:10]
Unknown Speaker
If you'd leave a rating and review.
- [29:12]
Abigail Pumphrey
It not only helps more listeners find the show, but allows us to bring on quality sponsors so we can keep bringing you this valuable content for free.
- [29:19]
Unknown Speaker
Thanks so much for listening. Until next time.