Hopefully you'll join me in implementing a concept for this year called “quarterly retreats.” I’ve been talking on the podcast recently about topics like mental health and taking vacations. I think I first introduced it three weeks ago in my mental health episode and then kind of talked briefly about it in the vacations episode. So, now I’m talking about a new strategy for content creation, and mental health awareness, and vacations kind of all rolled up into one, and it all kind of boils down to this new strategy which is something that I'm implementing this year.

The goal is prioritizing taking a mini-vacation, a long weekend, or any type of three day period, every three months, every year. That is four times a year, which is why it's quarterly, with the specific goal of getting away alone just to do work. The purpose of this is threefold; one, it is a mental health break from other outside responsibilities and allows you to focus on your business but also focus on yourself. Two, to be able to get away, putting yourself in a new environment and reducing outside and pulling your attention away from your business. And three, it's also going to be filling up your time away in your vacation cup. This will inspire us to get more strategic and more creative on how we run our businesses, and it's retraining our brains to think of how we can do things in new ways.

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That's how we grow in business, by training our brain to look at problems and develop new strategic solutions for them. So these quarterly retreats are a great way to take that strategic time. First of all, it’s a great opportunity to utilize some exercises to think about how you can retrain your brain to focus on things differently. And the next piece is just time alone, just being able to de-stress and relax. It's nice to be able to just get away and sleep until noon if you want, and to spend some quiet time alone with your own thoughts. See what comes to you in those quiet moments. Keep a notebook, so that you can record ideas for your business as they come up. For example, I have a notebook that sits on the coffee table next to me, and I'll think of different things like a great idea for an Instagram post, a great idea for a podcast. I try and put together all of my podcast topics for several months in advance. II have a notebook with the topic of each episode topic written at the top of each new page, and iIn the morning when I'm drinking my coffee, I can easily scribble down a note.

I think it is really going to be super helpful to be able to get away from your distractions and let your body dictate your sleep and rest schedule where you're not beholden to anybody else. You don't have to worry about what time your partner or your kids are getting up or going to bed. That way you're working when you're most inspired and when you're at your best energetically and that's going to help to give you a lot more clarity and a lot more efficient use of your time.

I recently took three full days to focus and refresh my mental health and to focus on my business, and while I was away I had a conversation with the most amazing woman. While waiting for our takeout order at the local restaurant, she and I were having a chat and I told her what I do for a living. She mentioned she was getting married but she's still having trouble finding somebody who is available. I realized that while I work in the bridal industry, I know about timetables and when people should be booking hair and makeup for their wedding, but that’s actually not common knowledge. It really made me aware of that, so I wanted to make sure to share with the potential brides out there some information about what your expectations should be for when you should book hair and makeup. That's a much more engaging introduction to the podcast topic than just saying “hey if you're getting married in the summer, it's time to be booking your hair and makeup trials now.” That’s just stating facts, but if you put them into a context, and say “hey she's getting married in three months and she talked about how she was she was surprised it was so hard to find somebody still available.” Then listeners might be like “oh yeah, that sounds really relatable.” They can put themselves into the place of the person that you're talking about in your caption. The information will penetrate and make more sense to them because they're literally able to see themselves in that person's shoes. So just by putting yourself in new situations and having conversations with new people about what you do, it can really inspire you to think about your business from different perspectives.

What kind of story can I tell about that and how can I relate that to my business? How can I use that interaction as a way to inspire people to take action within my business? So just having a new location and these new experiences is so valuable to our growth as business people. Another example is in thinking about marketing and content creation. Like maybe your home is not the kind of place where you want to film reels for your social media accounts. Maybe you don't have a cute studio, and you're worried about your house being messy, and you know that's why you're putting off filming reels or videos or tutorials, etc. Focusing on only sharing the finished photos from weddings, if that's your content strategy, it looks like just sharing finished photos. You're not putting enough of you and your personality into your marketing. That's what really attracts people, is they want to see you and they want to get to know and trust you. That personality factor is hugely important in determining who brides hire. It's no longer just about the good work that we do. They want to know who you are. It’s also a keystone of booking luxury clients, so if you want more money and you want to book higher quality clients, you have to put yourself out there more you have to be a selling point and a feature to your business. But if you're not doing that because you're putting all of that off and saying “well my house is messy, and I don't have time to do all of that by getting away” then you might want to rent a cute house with a great backdrop. Then you are able to film 7 or 8 reels and then post those over the next couple of weeks, until you have an opportunity for your next quarterly retreat.

The greatest benefit of having a quarterly retreat is that it is a tax deductible work expense. It is now a work trip, so you are taking a mini vacation which is mentally helping you, but it is also with the purpose of creating content and getting some work done in a new environment. So here's some tips if you want to start incorporating quarterly retreats into your business. Plan them during times when it's not as busy with your regular life. Look at your calendar for the times where you have lulls. Think about what steps you first need to take to accomplish this goal of doing the retreat. What systems do you need to set up or automate in your business? Going away and booking a retreat somewhere doesn't have to be that fancy, it just has to be as simple as getting the fuck out of your house, sitting alone in an Airbnb with a notebook and just relax, de-stress and let all the new stuff come to you. I'm excited for the growth that it helps to inspire inside my business, and I hope that you will find this to be true for your own business as well.

What's Next? Register for my FREE training, The Essential Systems You Need In Your Bridal Beauty Business To Achieve Higher Levels of Success & Freedom.  You can watch on demand and learn the exact blueprint I teach to my students inside Next Level Bridal Business on how to grow strategically and sustainably without burning out.