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Listen, you are exhausted. It was a wedding season for the books and you're wondering how am I going to get through this off season of sales and client support and all the things I have to do when I feel so tired. That's why I'm recording today's episode of the Power and Purpose podcast. I'm going to walk you through a really simple exercise that will help you to feel rejuvenated and refreshed so that you can get back to serving your clients and feeling good about your work. You're here to grow a business, but not just any kind of business.

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You want to grow a profitable business with purpose. A business where you wake up every single day driven to serve your customers and make a difference in your own life. I'm Candice Copela, published author, Business coach, and your guide to building a profitable business with purpose. Join me here every single week as we explore how to build and grow your business with purpose. Get ready to dig in and have meaningful conversations about the strategies and techniques that will help you build your dream business.

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This is the power in hey there. Welcome back to the Power and Purpose podcast. It's me, your host, Candace. And listen, today's episode is going to be that little injection of permission to take rest and how you can do this in your business during the off season when you feel like you need to start from scratch all over again with a new set of clients. I know that you're tired.

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I know that you deserve rest. And I know you feel like you just want to take a nap for the next year and never answer another email again. And you're wondering if the love you have for your business is fading right now after a whirlwind 2022 wedding season. I know this because I work with wedding pros just like you who are equally exhausted. So the first thing I want you to know is this feeling of exhaustion that you have, you're not alone.

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And honestly, it happens every single year. I know this because I lived it myself. I never went through a year 2022 with COVID rebookings and crazy number of clients that you've had. I've never gone through that exact experience. But I have overloaded my calendar and I have had busy years and I have completed my final wedding of the season and wondered, seriously wondered if I could do this again.

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And not only could I do it again, but could I serve the customers who've been patiently, and maybe not so patiently, maybe not so patiently waiting for me to have finished my wedding season so I could focus on their projects. I know what that feels like and I also know what to do in this scenario to rest, rejuvenate and refresh so that you can show up in your business, feel good about the work you're doing, bring back that passion and that purpose, and serve your clients? Well, that's what we're going to talk about today. I'm going to walk you through a really quick exercise, a nonnegotiable exercise. If you made it here listening to this episode, you have to do this.

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Okay? Sorry. And you're going to be a lot better for it. The benefits of doing this exercise are what I've explained, feeling good about your work, being ready to go back to work, being ready to start from scratch with a new set of clients, and feeling like you can live to see another wedding season, which is half the battle of being a wedding pro. Now, before I share this exercise with you, I want to remind you that the doors to my mastermind, Wedding Pro Insiders are opening soon.

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And you, my friend, you need to be on the waitlist. Go to Weddingproinsiders.com to learn more about this high impact coaching experience for women in the wedding industry and to sign up for the waitlist today. In order to join Wedding Pro Insiders, you need to be on the wait list because we invite Wait Listers to apply, and Wedding Pro Insiders is by application only for several reasons, the most important being I want to make sure that Wedding Pro Insiders is the right fit for your business at this time. It's not the right fit for everybody, and you may not be ready for it just yet. So in order to find this out, you definitely want to go to the wait list and sign up.

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If you've been looking for a business coach and you want me to be that person for you, and you also want a seat at the table with other women in the wedding industry who are doing big things, who are growing their business, who are breaking through barriers and boundaries, who are just, quite frankly, doing the damn thing and doing big shit. If you want to seat at that table, you want to be surrounded by those likeminded women, you want that energy in your business, you're definitely going to want to sign up for the waitlist. So go to Weddingproinsiders.com to learn more, to see if it could be the right fit for you and make sure your booty is on that wait list. All right, my friend, let's get into today and this exercise I want you to do do you have a pen? Do you have a piece of paper?

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Do you have your notes app open on your phone or on your computer? If you're driving right now, just come back to this portion of the episode. You're going to want to write this down and do this. So this is the exercise I have for you today to get some control over your calendar. You have control over how this off season is going to feel, and I want you to find time for refreshment and rejuvenation.

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There's one quote I want to share with you. I don't know who it's by, so I can't properly attribute it, but it's not by me, which is the most important thing to know. And that is you don't need to earn your rest. Shout out to Sirana on my team who shared this quote with me, and now I get to share it with you. You don't need to earn your rest, my friend.

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Quite frankly, you've earned it. But you deserve to take time off in this offseason, and I'm not talking three days or a week. I'm talking legit time off. And you can take time off this offseason and still serve your clients really well. That is what I'm prepared to teach you in this episode.

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So let's get started. The first thing I want you to do is find that last wedding, if it hasn't happened already. Girl, let this be a lesson for you. Like, you don't need to book weddings all until the end of the year unless it's your wedding season. And I know for some of you in the south that this is prime season, but for my Northerners, like, girl, why are you working in November?

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Nobody wants to work around the holidays. But anyway, I want you to find that last wedding. That is sort of our jumping off point for rest. We need to complete that last wedding, and we will be in the end zone. We will be scot free, ready to take on this challenge of rest and rejuvenation while still serving our clients.

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So find that last wedding date, and I need you then to determine how much time you'll need after it to sort out your 2023 clients. I know they've been waiting patiently for you and some impatiently, as I mentioned earlier, I know they've been waiting patiently for you to show up and to start giving them attention. And so you need to determine from that last wedding how much time do you need to meet with these folks. Give them some shit to do so they get off your back. Give them a project to work on.

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I like to say, like, it's like a kid. Give them a coloring book and some crayons. Or maybe these days, like, give them the iPad. Bad parenting. No, it's great parenting.

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Give them the YouTube, the iPad, and be like, listen, go over there and occupy yourself, because I have shit to do. We need to do that with your clients. How much time do you need to get them sorted to give them a project to dig in so that you can take uninterrupted rest? Determine this. Do you need a week?

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Do you need two weeks? Do you need a day? Some of you guys might not need any time at all. You might just need to put up an autoresponder. Like, bitch, I'm out.

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Bye. But let's determine how much time we need so that we can care for those clients and prepare them for the rest. We're about to take the time off. We're about to take and the shift in energy they're about to feel. The best way to do this is to care for them and communicate.

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This is how you will avoid people being pissed that you're not around. And if you're scared that your clients are going to be pissed, this is how you're going to avoid that. Okay? By clearly communicating, taking care of their needs, clearly communicating what's happening next, and sending them on their merry way for a couple of weeks to be preoccupied. I should also say that this time of year is really the perfect time of year to do this because holidays and end of year preoccupies clients a lot.

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I know this from my twelve years of planning. I could really fly under the radar this time of year and take dedicated time off, which I did, to rest and rejuvenate and people really didn't bother me. Why? Because they're busy. They're busy enjoying the holiday season.

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It's winter season for most. Like, they're busy and they're not necessarily fully focused on their wedding. So it is the perfect opportunity for you to take rest. Once you've determined how much time you need to sort out your clients and all their BS and everything they need, give them their iPad and their video to go watch. I want you then to block off a number of weeks in your calendar to decompress and rest.

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Not days, weeks. And if you're in the US, I want this to fall over Thanksgiving. I want Thanksgiving week to be that week where you can hibernate. If you host, you get to host. If you travel, you get to travel unencumbered by text messages and phone calls and emails and deadlines.

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So how much time do you need to decompress? Do you need the rest of the year? Do you need four weeks? Do you need six weeks? What do you need?

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Take the time. You won't be able to get it back. And if you continue at this pace without giving yourself uninterrupted deep rest, you will feel the effects next wedding season. What those effects will be, I can't say for sure, but I do know it will include not loving your business and feeling overwhelmed and stressed to the point of maybe not being able to work. I don't mean to scare you, but we've all been there.

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You might be there right now. You may have felt the consequences of not taking a break. So what I need is for you to take some deep rest, not a week off. I'm talking weeks. Make it at least two.

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Three or four is more ideal. And during this time you're unavailable. Like, I don't even want you listening to my podcast. I want you filling up your cup with things that are not business related. This isn't time for you to work on your business plan and like sort out some other bullshit like your books or your numbers.

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Okay? This is time for you to do nothing. It's time for you to watch Hallmark Christmas movies, if that's your jam. It's time for you to go out and day drink at 02:00 in the afternoon, if that's your jam. It's time for you to go have a spa day.

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It's time for you and your hubby or your partner or your spouse to go and have a couple's weekend, okay? Don't come back with any kids, please. Can you really handle that? I'm just kidding. But seriously, it's time for you to rest.

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It's time for you to rejuvenate. It's time for you to find time for yourself. Read a book, okay? Binge watch a show, I don't know, clean your house, decorate garden. Do whatever it is you want to do, but take rest.

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Don't be answering emails and don't be working on your business, okay? You need this rest in order for you to come back stronger next year and in order for you to be what your clients need you to be. So if you're worried about how your clients are going to feel, you're going to tell them this and you're going to prepare them for this, your annual postseason sabotage. Okay? This is what we do every year, even if it's the first time you're going to give them a project to work on.

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You're going to give them a to do list. Focus on this and you go enjoy your holiday season. I'll see you on January 3. It's that easy. And if you want to check in with your clients, that's up to you, girl, but I encourage you not to do it, okay?

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So I want you to decide how much time you're going to take off for rest and to decompress. And do yourself a favor. Start planning some things during that time to get you excited and motivated, all right? For that rest and relaxation, hey there, wedding pro. I want to share with you what I use to send professional invoices secure payments, create ironclad contracts, schedule appointments quickly, and do this with some powerful automations.

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If you've been looking for a software that can do all of that plus more, I want to invite you to sign up for a free trial with our partners over at HoneyBook. I've been using HoneyBook since 2013. It's been almost ten years and I could not do business without it. Honey book helps me to manage my leads and my customers so that I can focus on what I do best in my business. If you'd like to learn more about HoneyBook, go to Candacecopala.com HoneyBook to learn more and sign up for a free trial.

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When you use the code purpose, you'll save 50% off your first year subscription. That's Candacecopola.com HoneyBook next, and it doesn't end there. The final step in this exercise is to decide how you're going to come back to work for the rest of the year or for the rest of the offseason. You get to make the rules up in your business. You get to decide what your office hours are, what days a week you work, what days a week you don't work.

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And this gets to change whenever you feel like it. If you don't know this, let me be the first to tell you that you're the fucking boss of this business, okay? You started this business so you could be the boss. So it's time that you start bossing yourself around and making decisions that suit your lifestyle and your needs, okay? So you get to decide when you want to work and when you don't.

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And when you come back from this epic season of rest and relaxation and doing, you you can work two days a week, three days a week. You can work from ten to two. Can you imagine? Girl, you do your thing in the morning, it's 10:00. You get to your desk, you work till two.

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You shut your laptop. You're like, Bye, bitch, I'm out. 02:00, clock out. Just picture me clocking in and out. I'm literally making the clock out motion.

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Clock out. Bye. You get to decide how you want to spend the rest of your off season. And I do recommend that you have modified work hours and you cut down drastically on the amount of hours and days that you're available for client meetings, for consultations, for client work, for emails, for communication, for all the crazy shit that you are responsible for in the off season. The little thing I learned a long time ago and it's that if I give myself 10 hours to do something, I'll take 10 hours.

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If I give myself 4 hours to do something, I'll take 4 hours. Ask yourself would you like to take 10 hours to do something? Or would you prefer to take 4 hours to do something and have 6 hours to do something else, not workrelated? You be the judge. So it's time for you to reimagine what life is like during the off season and what hours you're going to work.

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Now, once you've made these decisions, okay, it's time for you to implement this plan. Your first step is to create an overview of what needs to be done so that you can get all that client work settled and situated in your customers in a great place, caught up, happy with their iPad. And are the kids watching like Dora the Explorer? Probably not. But their iPad and their show, they're ready so that you can take time and rest.

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OK, so you need to map out a plan of how you're going to get this stuff done. It might require you to put a little overtime in the next couple of days, OK? So that you can take rest. It's worth the overtime. It's one of the few times it's worth working late into the day to get things completed, right.

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Once you do that, you need to bring your clients into the fold of this master plan. Of getting them caught up to speed and your plan for rest. I recommend sending a personal email to each one of your clients, letting them know the status of their project with you and what they can expect going forward for the rest of the year and any deadlines that you've set that you want to hold yourself accountable for. And what happens when you take time off? Very important email.

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Take your time writing it, take your time putting it together and clearly communicate what they can expect when they can expect it, and then what happens when you take time off. One of the biggest reasons why clients get disgruntled, why they're disappointed, is because you don't communicate clearly. Take this as an opportunity to clearly communicate to your clients. You will save yourself a lot of questions and a lot of headaches. The good news is you'll do this every year.

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You'll get better and better at figuring out what you need to tell people and how you need to tell them that information. And every year your clients will feel more comfortable with this. Sabbatical OK, the next step after that is to do the work and to prepare your clients to do the things that you've said and to prepare your clients for your time off. If you have a team, I recommend giving them this time off as well. They also need time and space, but you may need people to hang out and run your operation while you're not there and that's okay.

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So we'll need to also prepare your team for what they'll be responsible for. My advice would be modified work so not the full work schedule and you're not taking all your tasks and dumping it on Sally, but you're giving Sally a few critical things that cannot be left unattended and she's responsible for those things and that's pretty much it. I don't recommend overloading your team while you're gone, otherwise they're just going to bother you and have a million questions and have a million mistakes and you're going to be pulled in a million different directions and you're going to fucking hate it. Can you feel that right now you're like, Yep, Candace is right. But your team does need rest too.

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So if you have the opportunity to give them this time off as well and literally put the closed sign up on your business, except for maybe inquiries and sales, give them that support. Okay, this is your action plan. Your next steps are to go and figure out what needs to be done for your clients. Set some deadlines so you know what needs to be done when so that you can take time off. Then I want you to pick dates on your calendar where you're away.

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Not a week, not two, preferably three or four, so you can get deep rest with no work. And then you need to decide how you're going to come back to work after that rest on a modified schedule. You don't need to work five days a week. You don't need to work 10 hours a day. You're the boss.

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You get to make the decisions around here. That's one of the perks. It's one of the perks. You don't have to do corporate work hours and all that bullshit. You get to do what you want, and it's time for you to decide.

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Once you make those decisions, you need to communicate this to your clients as clear as possible. If you need to host meetings, go ahead and do that. It's worth the time. Get your clients up to speed. Let them know what they can expect.

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And then, girl, clock out and go live your best fabulous life. Get on a plane. Go somewhere new. Go check into a cabin with your spouse. Have a little romantic weekend.

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Watch Gilmore Girls. Binge. Watch all seven seasons. Live in your sweatpants. Put no makeup on, do you?

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Girl, it's you. It's all about you getting some rest so that you can come back better than how you left. That's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me today. I want to hear what you thought of today's episode.

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So head over to my Instagram at Candace Copla and share with me the days and weeks that you're taking off for absolute and complete rest. This is how you're going to hold yourself accountable to doing the work. Okay, head over to my Instagram. Share with me the days and weeks that you are taking for rest. Nonnegotiable.

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I want to hear from you. And a reminder that the doors to Wedding pro inciters. Will be opening soon, and you're going to want to put your booty on that wait list. Go to weddingproinsiders.com to learn more and to sign up. As always, I am here to remind you there is so much power in your purpose.

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I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Power and Purpose podcast. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and consider leaving a review. Head over to Powerandpurposepodcast.com to access all of the resources and links mentioned in today's episode. That's Powerandpurposepodcast.com.

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I'll see you next time.