Catch up on some related episodes:

Balancing Work and Time Off: How to Take a Break Without Falling Behind

Today’s talking points:

So in today's episode, I'm going to share five ways you can find that time this summer and how to actually make this happen.

Why a mid-year review is a non-negotiable to help you figure out what you want to focus on over the summer
How to set your summer hours (and why reevaluating your values and priorities every season is important)
A review of your Weekly Prep Meeting and how it'll help you make things happen quicker
The importance of saying "no" over the summer and identifying what's important to you
Why to change up your environment over the summer (with lots of examples!)

Book a free 30-minute Strategy Session

Join the Make It Happen Mastermind

Hello, and welcome back to the podcast. I hope you are doing well, taking care of yourself and ready to make things happen in your business today. Happy August. Wow. Here we are. And we are officially in the second month of Q3.

In this week's episode, I wanted to continue with this theme of walking you through some of my favourite things.

Best strategies to really be thinking about as we continue through these summer months. And I hear from a lot of people that summer is a season in our business where often our clients might be away on holiday, their kids might be home from school, they're out of routine. And we start to get this feeling of, well, no one's really paying attention right now, so maybe I should just press pause on the business, hangout for the whole season, and then pick up again when autumn comes.

Well, Sassy Holly is here to tell you that that is not the best approach for anyone who is serious about maintaining and building that momentum in their business. And even if summer is a little bit quieter for you and you don't tend to make as many sales. And that is proven with data. I can directly tie the activities that I am doing, especially the marketing activities that I am doing in the summer months to the results that I get when things start to pick back up again in September, October, and so on.So I wanted to come on today and share how to find that time this summer.

A quick recap

Now, just to recap, in last week's episode, we talked about how to take a break without feeling like you're falling behind and how still doing your weekly prep meeting every single week is the one tool that you need to keep you on track with making your goals happen.

In next week's episode, I'm going to talk about the things that you can be doing this summer that will set you up for success in the autumn. So tangible things that you can do. And so for this middle episode of the series, I wanted to really cover the middle ground, aka how to find the time to actually make this happen.

And really, it's not about finding the time. This is also something that makes Sassy Holly come out when people say, ‘I don't know how to find the time to do the next thing for my business.’ Or they come to me and say, ‘Holly, I really want to launch a podcast, but I don't know how to find the time. I really want to launch a new program, but I don't know how to find the time. I really need to work on my business systems, but I don't know how to find the time.’

I am here to tell you, and before I say this, keep this in mind that this is coming from a mom of two who runs her business on 20 hours a week, okay? There is no finding the time. You have to make the time. You have to make decisions on what you want to focus on and plug it into your calendar if these things are going to happen. The time is not just going to magically appear. We all have 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. You have to make the time for your goals and you can make the time.

And that's what I want to share with you today, especially because during the summer, sometimes the things that might work for you during the regular course of the year, kind of just get thrown off course during the summer months.

So, I've got five things today to help you find the time this summer to work on your business. So let's dive straight on in.

Get clear on your big picture goals

The first thing that I want you to do. is to get clear on your big picture goals for the summer. Now, this is where your mid year review comes in. If you haven't done a mid-year review yet, I highly recommend that you do.

I actually did an episode about this last year, it's episode 193: How to do an effective mid-year review for your business. It walks you through the full step by step of how to do a mid year review. It also comes with a free mid-year review workbook. This is so powerful because often We get to this point of the year and we're not clear on what our goals are anymore.

You know, like the goals we set six months ago, we're not connected to those, we don't understand them, or we're not actually looking at them every single day, we're not thinking about them, they're not in front of us. So I encourage you to sit down, do a mid-year review and get clear on what your top three goals are during this season.

Why limit it to three? Well, I tend to limit things to just three goals because otherwise we have a habit of putting way too much on our plate. And when I'm talking about a goal right now, what I want you to be thinking about is, something that you want to create, something that you want to do, something that is 100 percent within your control.

Tracking your goals

So often when we are setting goals for ourselves and our business, we're saying, ‘I want to hit this revenue number’, which is fine, and I encourage all of my clients to have a revenue goal. So maybe you're saying, you know, I want to make 5k over the summer. Like that's my goal for the summer. Okay. Amazing.

And you can definitely track that. But what's even more powerful is if you flip that and say, what am I committing to this summer that will help me make that 5k? So, maybe instead of the goal being, I'm going to make 5k this summer, maybe your goal becomes, I'm going to revamp my signature offer and I'm going to sell X amount of spots over the summer to generate 5k, and that becomes your focus, your core goal for the summer.That is something that's more in your control. Something else that could be within your control.

So one of the things that I'm working on at the moment is my rebrand. I've had my kickoff call, with the team that is going to do my rebrand, that process is starting. And so one of my clear goals over the summer is to get all of the pre-work done for that so that the team that is doing my rebrand can then take over.

Prioritising your goals

You have to have that clear priority because if you don't have the clear priorities, you don't know what you're making time for. And if you don't know what you're making time for, you don't know how much time you need. You don't know what kind of environment you need to be in. You're just kind of hoping you're going to be able to squeeze it in.

You need to know what you are thinking of creating because the environment also is really important in that case. So I always say to boil it down to your top three goals for the summer.

I would love to hear from you. What are your top three goals for the summer? What are you trying to create this summer and focus on? Focus on that, rather than maybe a goal that you don't have a hundred percent control over. Revenue goals are great, but let's get ahead of that a little bit. What is the thing that you're focused on that you need to make space for to hit that revenue goal?

Commit to something, commit to an activity. It could be, I'm going to batch all of my content so that I'm a month ahead for my blog, or my podcast, or my newsletter, whatever that is. Maybe it could be my goal is to ramp up my visibility, so I'm going to pitch myself for interviews and speaking opportunities so we can say, okay, well, how many speaking opportunities do you want to land?

Because that is in your control. I'm going to ask every single client for referrals. I'm going to go back and ask. X number of clients for referrals. My goal is to get 10 referrals, so I'm going to contact 30 people. So think about what are those goals that are going to help you move forward over the summer months so that you can figure it out.

Each of these goals could be slightly different. So if you have a goal of creating all of your content, batching your content, getting ahead of content, it's a different timeline to do that. There's a different amount of time involved in that than say, sitting down to write a book.

You have to be very clear on what you are focused on and about how much time and energy that is going to take for you. And part of this too, is getting really clear about the time that you have available, which we're going to pick up in a second. So the first thing to find time over the summer months to work on your business, you need to know your goals first.

If you don't know and you need to check in, go and listen to that mid-year review episode and download the workbook. And please DM me on Instagram @abranchofholly and let me know what goals you are working towards over the summer? And hey, if you want to make one of them happen quicker, book a Make It Happen Quicker Intensive with me and we can do it together.

Shameless plug, but I could not resist.

2. Set your summer hours

Okay, second thing to help you find time for these goals that you've set over the summer, set your summer hours. Now, this might be applicable to you, it might not, but I've worked with a lot of clients who set summer hours.

How much are you working over the summer?What are you committing to? Maybe your summer hours look like you are taking Friday afternoons off. Maybe you're on the other side of the spectrum and you're taking more time off to be with your kids, but Tuesday is your business day. And that day contains all of your work hours for the week.

Over the years, my working hours have changed as my life has changed, as my family situation has changed.So each summer has been different so far for me since I became a mom in 2021. And I'm always deciding. Okay, what are my hours this summer?

So examples could be, you take one day off a week, so one day off, four days of work. It's up to you what day of the week that would be. You might do two days off, three days on.Maybe you work mornings and take every afternoon off. It's going to be so dependent on you and your situation, but just explore your summer hours.

If you haven't ever heard me talk about a model calendar, a weekly outline, this is where you actually need to plug those summer hours in. So if you are going to change up your schedule a little bit and have summer hours, what I really recommend you do is sit down and figure out, okay, what exactly are my working hours of the week?

And you have to decide that. Like, what are the hours I'm working from now until the end of summer? Typically for me in this season, my working hours run from about nine in the morning until half twelve. Because that's when I pick my son up from nursery, he'll actually be starting preschool in September. How that happened, I have no idea.

And my parents look after my daughter, who's nine months old, during those work hours. Now, this will change, not next summer, so summer 2026. That will be the first summer that my son, Jacob, is on school holidays. So I know I have that coming up and I'm working towards that.

Maybe you want to take afternoons off so you can go on spend time with your partner or reading your garden. So you might say, okay, I'm going to do early doors. I'm going to do from 8 to 12 during the summer and then have afternoons off.

Experiment with your working hours and try to figure out what hours make the most sense for you in your business during the summer season.

3. Hold weekly prep meetings

The third thing I'm going to encourage you to do is to have your weekly prep meeting. Now, last week's episode was all about this, episode 273. Go listen to that for a full deep dive.

As a reminder, I do my weekly prep meeting every Thursday with the Make It Happen Mastermind. We do it together in a coaching and coworking session. It takes us around 30 to 45 minutes max. This is a dedicated appointment you have with the CEO of your business, aka yourself, to check in on your business.

And as a debrief, what are we doing during this session? We check in on our 90 day plan. Are we on track? Are we off track? Are we behind or ahead of our deadlines? I look at what are my biggest priorities this week. What do I need to get done this week? I look at my calendar and make sure I've blocked in time to get those things done.

So for example, a big project that I'm working on at the moment is building out the curriculum for the Make It Happen Mastermind. I have huge blocks of my work time blocked out to make that happen. And this is something I do during my weekly prep. I'm looking at my calendar. I'm looking at everything that I've got going on.

I'm looking at all the tasks that I'm responsible for, and I'm asking myself, when am I going to get these done? And then I'm plugging them into my calendar. Is there someone I can outsource this to on my team? Do I need to ask for help somewhere? Or is there something I can just take off the list?

Because often we tend to go into planning and we put things on the to do list that we think are a great idea, but really they're not essential. So every week I'm asking myself. Is this absolutely essential or is this a nice to have?

I've tried to set up my weeks so that I'm focused on what is most essential first. And the nice to haves, if I get time for them, I'll get to them. But I have to make sure I'm very clear on what's most essential, what's most important, what is going to move the needle towards my goals. So those weekly prep meetings are important and we have them every Thursday in the Mastermind.

4. Learn to say no

The next thing, number four, say no, say no, a lot.

This is so hard for us. I think, especially women of my generation, we're told we need to say yes to everything. Everything can be an opportunity. So you need to say yes. You need to say yes. You need to say yes.

But really what I want you to understand is once you have those priorities in place, you have to know that each time you are saying yes to something that is not one of those priorities, then you are saying no to those priorities.

It’s okay to say no

So if my priority is working on the curriculum for one of my programs, as I said, that's one of my big goals, and I've blocked out that time into my calendar for the month ahead during my work hours in the mornings, that means I can't say yes to things that are in that time. If someone reaches out to me and says, Oh, can you fit a call in on, This Tuesday at 10am, and I can see in my calendar that's when I've got my curriculum creation time blocked out. I can't say yes to that.

If some of my cousins want to meet up with me so our kids can see each other and play and say, hey, can we come in the morning? I have to say no. Those are my work hours. Can we do something in the afternoon? But I can't do anything earlier than half twelve, one p. m. You can have boundaries and still be kind.

You can have boundaries and still have space. Remember, structure equals freedom. It is okay to say no. Because every time you are saying yes to someone else's request, you are saying no to yourself. And I think this is really, really important.

This is one of the reasons why I find managing my calendar is so helpful because, my instinct when someone reaches out and says, Hey, it's been a while. I would love to catch up with you. Or, you know, I'd love to pick your brain about XYZ. Are you available to do that? I'm like, Oh yes, let's do it. Recovering people pleaser. But I can look at my calendar and very clearly say that's not a time I have available and I can make it work for me in a better way.

So we have to remind ourselves that we are able to say no. And if you have a hard time saying no right off the bat. You can always tell people when those requests come in, like, thanks so much for thinking of me. Let me look into that and I'll get back to you. I think that's a really good way of giving yourself a little bit more time to process if that makes sense or not.

Saying no in your personal life

And that's kind of in the business related context. If you need to say no more in your personal life, so maybe things that feel like obligations from family and friends, let's say, for example, you've got so many birthday party invitations for your kids that you can't keep up and then you end up saying, you know, what? I can't have every single weekend over the summer being taken up by kids' birthday parties, so we're going to go to two a month or something like that.

Again, these are just examples. It's all about what works best for you. Birthday parties are really funny. I think as well, when my cousin's kids were really young, they used to throw these massive birthday parties, but now they're all at school and I say, Oh, you know, should I put in my calendar that we've got a birthday party to go to?

They're like, nope, too many people to invite. We're just doing something with close family. You might love throwing birthday parties. Maybe you don't live near family and you're getting requests from them that they want to see you over the summer. Summer can be a busy time, especially socially, and there can be this pressure where you have all of these people who want you to go and do all the things and be with them and sometimes you just have to scale it back and look at your calendar and be proactive.

It's okay to say no. And managing your calendar and having boundaries will really help you do that. Coming up with your boundaries and your sort of rules will help you do that. It will help you stay in alignment with what you want to do.

5. Get out of the house

And then the final tip that I want to give you for how to find more time to work on your business this summer is, to get out of your house.

Now, I know that a lot of you are like me, I work from home 100 percent of the time. I am recording this podcast episode in my home office right now. I love it. I am so grateful to have this space to work in. I'm planning some updates to the office. So there's a wall behind me where I want to have bookshelves to put all my books on, for example. Even sometimes I get distracted when I can hear my kids laughing, or I see my parents taking them out for a walk.

So, how can you get out of the house? Now for me in my working hours, it's not actually a problem for me because I'm in mum mode every afternoon. But if you're working more, if you're working full days, how can you switch things up? Can you join a co-working space? Can you go to your local library or a cafe?

A place where you know you can just go and you're going to have the space to get done what you need to get done. I am going to work at my local library in the future. It's such a great resource. We love trips to the library. They have quiet rooms. It's free. Maybe there are other spaces within your community where you could go. Maybe you've got a business friend that lives locally and you, you go to their house for some coworking and then you treat yourself to a summer pub lunch outside.

Getting out of the house really helps, so I really encourage you to find that second base and that way, when you get to the day, which will happen, especially if you have kids at home, You have so many people asking for you. It's like mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, look at this, mommy, look at this. I love them. You will want a place to escape to. So have that escape plan. Okay.

Have a second place to go in the back of your mind so that you know where you're going to go to do that business work. It's just something that having that plan will give you a lot of relief so you can get those big things done.

Review

Okay, so let's review these five strategies of how you can find more time to work on your business this summer or create more time, we should say.

So first, get clear on your goals. Again, that mid-year review is going to be really helpful for you to realign yourself with your goals for the year and then gain clarity on your top goals for the summer season.

Second, figure out what your summer hours are. You are allowed to change your working hours. You don't have to have an arbitrary, I work from nine to five, because that's what you think you should be doing as a small business owner, make your own hours. If you want to get up and work from five in the morning till 10 o'clock in the morning, and then call it a day, do that.

If you want to hang out all day and then sit down and work from 7 PM till midnight, do that. If you want to work from eight in the morning until 1 p. m. and then you can be done and you can spend every afternoon with your kids, do that. Set your summer hours. I think it's also helpful to then articulate them to the people in your life. So tell your family, tell your team, if that's applicable.

Third, do your weekly prep meeting. So just set a time in your calendar, set it for an hour. It's such a game changer. When I've been speaking to my clients in the Make It Happen Mastermind about what features of the program they love the most, the weekly prep meeting comes out on top every single time.

This is the habit that really shifts things for them and their businesses. It helps them stay more focused. It helps them be more accountable. And It's also there to teach you how to be accountable on your own. If you have to depend on outsized sources to stay focused and accountable, it's going to be a really hard journey for you.

You have to learn how to do these things for yourself. And the weekly prep meeting is a tool, a strategy assistant to help you do that.

Four, say no. It's okay to say no. Just remember every time you're saying yes to something that's not one of your top priorities, you're saying no to those top priorities.

So if you have those things that are really causing you anxiety, they're wearing you out, they're making you over scheduled, it's okay to say no. It's okay to say no to your friends. It's okay to say no to your family. It's okay to say no. And I encourage you to say no. Okay. Make your own rules for how much you want to commit to.

And then number five. Get out of your normal office space. Even if you love working from home, it's okay to change up your environment. I am also getting a little bit woo woo here, but we all love a little woo woo. There's an energetic shift when you go out and work somewhere else and see all the humans in the real world.

It's a game changer. So I really encourage you to find that second place that you can go to when you need to get some things done. And that way you're not feeling resentful and stressed that home and life is distracting you.

So I hope this is helpful. I would love to hear from you. What is the one thing from this episode you are going to take away and start implementing today to help you get the most out of the summer?

Summer series

As a reminder, this is part of a summer series that I'm doing here on the podcast. Last week we started, next week we're going to wrap it up.

The final thing that I wanted to mention is, if you know that you are ready for more support with this, if you know that you need that game plan for the summer and you want to make sure that you know exactly what you should be focused on in order to achieve those specific goals that you're setting for yourself during this three month sprint, I really encourage you to book a Make It Happen Quicker Intensive.

I have six spots available in August. If you have a big goal that you want to achieve in Q3 over the summer, we can come together for 60 minutes, break your goal down and create a tangible plan with a checklist of steps for you to implement and put into practice. This is for the ambitious business owner who wants to make their next big goal happen so quickly. Much quicker.

If you are someone that says, for example, okay, September, I really want to hit a 10K month. How do I do that? These sessions are for you. So the way that we usually make this happen, pun intended, you will fill out a questionnaire and tell me all about the big audacious goal that you have and what is currently stopping you from achieving it. I will dive into the questionnaire to get to know you, your business, and your goals.

We'll then come together for 60 minutes to discuss the goal, and I'll come prepared with ideas for how I can help you make it happen. Together, we will break it down, plot it into monthly and weekly tasks so that then you walk away with a Notion or Google Doc, your preference, of the exact tasks and action steps that you need to do to put it in place to make it happen. It's so, so exciting. I will then tweak the plan after our session and send it to you.

So six spots are available in August. This is going to allow you to have the support you need, the systems that you need, and the structure that you need to make sure that the summer slowdown does not impact your business.

Because if the summer can throw you off course, you'll be spending the rest of the year trying to catch up and running your business from that place is not much fun.

If you want to get involved you can join the Make It Happen Mastermind by using the link below. You can also DM me on Instagram, just send me the word intensive on Instagram and we'll chat back and forth to see what you want to discuss. And then you can get a spot booked in.

Again, let me know what you are implementing from today's episode and the comments I would love to hear from you. I will see you next week in the next episode. Bye for now.