What I’m Doing This Summer to Simplify and Strengthen My Business

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Table of Contents

Podcast Description

Are you feeling the need for a reset?

In this episode, I’m sharing a big update: I’m taking a summer break from the podcast, and here’s why that might inspire your next best move too.

Whether your business has felt a little “meh” lately or you’re wondering if something needs to shift, this episode is here to remind you: slowing down can be the key to moving forward.

What you’ll learn:

Why I’m taking a summer break (and what that really means)
How I’m using this time to reset and realign my business
3 quick ways to start simplifying your own business right now
The truth about consistency, guilt, and giving yourself space

If your business feels cluttered, chaotic, or just off… this episode is your nudge to take a step back, clear the noise, and make room for what’s next.

Links Referenced in Episode:

▶ Systems Reset Kit

▶ Join on Threads

▶ FREE Workshop: 3 Steps to Overcome Task Overload

▶ Systems Savvy Society

Connect with me:

Website | Instagram

Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Episode Intro

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs that like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelmed goodbye. Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner. It’s your time to shine. So let’s get started

Hey, hey. Welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chance podcast, or if this is your first time tuning in, hi! I’m so glad that you’re here. Now, if you’ve been listening the past few weeks, you know I’ve been talking about this pretty big business revamp. And today’s episode is going to be a little bit different because it’s part announcement, part pep talk? Maybe? Because I want to share what’s happening with this podcast over the summer and give you a little encouragement and some ideas.

If you’ve been feeling like something in your business just feels off, like maybe it’s not quite working the way that it used to, or it’s just not flowing the way that you want it to. So whether you’re a long-time listener or brand new to the show, this episode is for you if you’ve been craving some clarity or wondering if it’s time to make some bigger changes behind the scenes.

And speaking of behind the scenes, like I said, if you’ve been listening to the last few episodes, then you know that I just wrapped up a mini-series sharing the revamp of the Systems Savvy Society. And y’all, that project ended up turning into something way, way bigger than I had ever expected.

It has seriously taken a life of its own, in the best way possible, of course! But, it also made me realize that I needed some space to fully focus on where things are headed next, which really brings me into today’s episode.

Why I’m Taking a Summer Break From the Podcast

Because I have officially decided to take a summer break from the podcast. It’s going to be a very intentional pause to create space for some of the serious back-end, CEO brainstorming, strategizing, systemizing work that I have already been doing, honestly, all year.

But to really just let myself stop feeling like I need to keep up with all of the things that I said I’m going to do, right? That narrative of what it means to be consistent. And even though I absolutely love, love, love this podcast, I really need to dig deep into all of the foundational stuff that’s actually going to set me and my business up for the next level.

And in order to do that, I need to stop trying to do everything, which I know we shouldn’t be doing anyways. And sometimes I still fall under that trap because I do have things so systematized and sometimes I still overload myself with things that I’m like, “Oh, I can handle it. I can handle it.” And truthfully, I can handle a lot.

But even with that, I still have to give myself room to think, reflect, and rebuild. I still cannot do everything. It’s me, myself, and I. I have a VA that helps me a few hours a week, but for the most part, it’s me, myself, and I.

So for the summer, at least, I will be pressing pause here on the podcast. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to pop on if I ever feel inspired to share something random or juicy or totally off the cuff. That absolutely might happen. I have taken “breaks” before and then I come back two weeks later, I’m like, “I have something to say.” And then I go back to disappearing.

And sometimes it makes me feel bad because this podcast is all about productivity and what you think about productivity. It might not be how I’m reflecting that productivity. But just like I’ve mentioned, consistency doesn’t have to mean every single day, every single hour, every single XYZ.

It just means I keep showing up, and I keep showing up whenever I can, whenever I feel inspired to. But I do know that officially taking a pause, or at least telling my brain that I’m taking a pause, will open up the ability to focus on other stuff and other projects without feeling that pressure of, “Oh my gosh! I need to record a podcast episode.”

And if I miss the podcast episode, feeling a little bit guilty for it. So I’m not about that rigid life of where I have to stay on this schedule. If it can’t happen, it can’t happen. But it doesn’t mean that I don’t end up having feelings about it or feeling bad about it or still having to bring my brain back from that place that it goes to of all of the things of you’re not good enough.

It’s what are your people going to think? My brain absolutely goes there. And so to prevent that from happening, I am officially taking a pause on this podcast.

What I’ll Be Working on Behind the Scenes

So while I’m on this break, what am I going to be working on? Well, it’s the summer, so I definitely plan on taking an expected time off. We have some vacations planned, and there’s going to be so much work that I’m doing in the background as I have been doing all year. I feel like a hermit crab where I’ve been hiding in the background. I haven’t really been putting myself out there this year. I haven’t really been participating in collaborations, and that’s really going to change.

But before that, I’ll be diving deep, deep, deep, deep into revamping and streamlining my back-end systems, all of the stuff that I tell you to do? Yeah! It’s my turn. It’s my turn to do a full-blown audit of what’s been working on my business, what’s not, and really looking at what’s supporting me, what’s just adding noise, what needs to be simplified, or maybe even just cut out completely. And once all of this is said and done, what else could I add to this, to my business, to my marketing, that will help me reach that next level of success that I’m aiming for?

So I’m also going to be doing a ton of content repurposing. So just because I’m pausing the podcast does not mean I’m pausing my marketing anywhere else. I will definitely be going back and turning my podcast episodes into blog posts and other content streams, like Threads and Instagram and email. I’m going to be all over the place still because honestly, there’s still so much value already sitting here on my podcast that deserves a second or third life.

So yeah, I’m going to be repurposing it everywhere. So overall, I’m working on anything that will set my business up, not just for ease and efficiency, but in a way that will allow me to come back stronger than ever in the fall. I’m talking about high visibility, next level energy, refined offers, a new YouTube strategy. Hint, hint, wink, wink. A big push to really get my name back out there.

Because like I said, I have not done any visibility efforts this year, really. My business is feeling it. My business is feeling it. But I’m doing it all with purpose and intentionality, which was my word of the year. So this is a visibility season in the making. It’s the preparation that’s happening behind the scenes, and you are seeing it here first.

The Systems Reset Kit

So if you are listening and you’re thinking, “You know what? I feel like I might need this too.” Then, you don’t have to do this all alone. You don’t have to figure out how to go about getting this all done by yourself and what to audit, what to do, what systems that do you need, which ones do you need to optimize, which ones can you just remove.

You don’t have to figure all of that out alone. This is exactly the work that my systems reset kit is designed to help you do. So this is a self-paced toolkit that walks you through auditing your own business systems to help you find what’s working, what’s not, where you can optimize, which tools you can cut so that we can save on some business expenses.

So basically, this is the reset that I’m giving myself this summer. And this same reset that I’m doing is packaged up and ready for you to do it as well. If you’re feeling like, “You know what? Something’s feeling off about my business. I don’t know what to do next.Everything feels a little meh. The things that used to work aren’t working anymore.” It’s time for a reset.

If your business has been feeling cluttered, chaotic, off, this kit is going to help you clean it up and get realigned without the overwhelm. So I’m going to drop the link for that in the show notes so that way you can check it out.

Summer Productivity Tips

But of course, before we wrap up this episode, you know that I will not leave you without a few helpful tips.

So if you are thinking about simplifying your business over the summer, or honestly, whenever. Whenever you’re listening to this, but if you are listening to this in real-time, then it’s about to be summer, or maybe you’re in the summer time right now, here are three simple strategic things that you can do.

Do a quick audit

The first thing is to do a quick audit, just like what we talked about, but it doesn’t even have to be intense or super detailed like the way I’m doing it. But even if you just ask yourself these three questions, is it three? Yes, three.

What’s working? What’s not? And what feels clunky or heavy? That alone, this awareness alone is powerful because it’ll start to let your brain observe or make observations of like, “Okay, this is what we’re working on? Let me try to pick out what else is working or what is not working.” And it’ll help you find solutions for it.

So even if you’re not doing a massive audit, just really taking a minutes to think about where you’re at in your business will help open the gates for new information, new opportunities to come in that will help fix all of these things for you.

Revisit your content library

The second thing is to revisit your content library. So is there something that you can repurpose instead of starting from scratch? If you have any content out there, blog posts, podcast episodes, social media captions, social media posts and carousels or threads, all of this. Emails, email newsletters.

All of this can be repurposed into another avenue, especially with AI now. It makes it so easy to do and it keeps it in your original voice. So, take a look at your content library because you might be surprised at what’s already in your vault that could be refreshed and reused.

Give yourself permission to pause

And then lastly, give yourself permission to pause. If something feels heavy or misaligned, then take a break from it, or at least consider taking a break from it.

Create a little bit of space so that way you can think more clearly and really move forward with intentionality. That’s exactly what I’m doing here. I love the podcast, but I have been feeling it in my intuition that I’m being called to do something different and that it’s officially time to put an official break. I’ve never taken… I think the longest break I’ve taken is maybe one or two months, and I think this might be the same.

I don’t know if it’s going to be longer than that. I don’t know at this time what’s going to happen or when I’m going to come back. I just know that I do plan on coming back, but I don’t know those details yet, and that’s okay. I’m giving myself that permission, and I’m giving myself the permission to pause this podcast, even though it’s been around for three years.

What to Expect Moving Forward

Even though we’re 100 episodes, and even though three years means I should have had more than 150 episodes, and I’m not there. It’s all okay. And so if you feel like something is just not aligning with where you’re heading, then give yourself that permission to take a break from it, even if it’s just for a little while, because even just that little tiny break will give you so much clarity on how to move forward.

So with that being said, what’s next for the Cheerful Productive Chats podcast?

Well, like I said, the podcast is staying right here and the episodes are not going anywhere. I will still be around on Instagram, on Threads, and definitely my email list. That has always been my top priority in my business. So my email list is really where it’s at. And over the summer, I’ll really be focusing on the behind the scenes changes, improving my systems, and laying the foundation for what’s coming next.

And yes, that includes changes to the society, to the Systems Savvy Society, and possibly a few to the Productive Entrepreneurs Club. And then who knows what else? I’m not going to say much right now because I’m still in it. I’m still figuring it all out, but it is all going to be part of this bigger picture.

So in the meantime, if you do need productivity pep talks or advice, please scroll back through the archives because there’s so much gold in these episodes that’s still relevant. And because I’m optimizing everything, including my past podcast episodes, it will soon be easier for you to search and find what you need as well.

So yeah, that’s what’s going on. That’s what’s going on over here in the Cheers to Productivity world. The summer can really feel weird. It’s a weird time in business because even though I have more free time because the kiddos are in camps, my son is older, so he doesn’t need his mom as much anymore.

Technically, I have a little bit more time, but my brain wants to not really be front-facing and not work sometimes. It’s just weird. It’s weird vibes, weird time to be in business, specifically. Maybe a little slower, a little scattered, all over the place, but it’s also the perfect opportunity to reset.

So whether you are planning on taking a full on break over the summer or just giving yourself a little bit of breathing room so you can go back and optimize your business so you can come back even stronger in the fall, just know that you are allowed to slow down in order to do that, in order to make that happen. I’m doing it, and if that feels aligned for you, then I do invite you to do it as well.

If you are ready for guided support to reset your systems again, or maybe for the first time, then check out the Systems Reset Kit. It’s simple, powerful, and exactly what I wish I had when I first started optimizing everything behind the scenes in my business.

So that link is in the show notes, and I will catch you whenever I catch you. And wherever, whichever avenue you decide to reach out to me on, you can come say, “Hey!” on Instagram @cheerstoproductivity. You can follow me on Threads. Come let me know what you’re resetting or simplifying over the summer because I would absolutely love to hear from you. And be sure that you are on my email list because my email list never, not hears from me.

They always get the best advice on productivity and systems because I love my email list. It’s my priority. I definitely… That’s my minimum marketing effort. So get on my email list. And to do that, just head to the show notes and grab the free resource, or you can sign up for my free private podcast to dive deeper into making your business efficient.

All right, friend. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I will catch you in another episode.

Episode Wrap-Up

Thank you so much for listening to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast with me, Lucy Reyes. To view the full transcript and all the links mentioned in today’s episode, visit cheerstoproductivity.com/podcast. And before you go, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening so that you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers to your productivity and success!