Heyyy Reader,
Every summer, my business runs a little experiment without meaning to.
The experiment is: how far can I step back before something breaks?
This summer we've got weeks of cottage time booked. Trips scattered through July and August. Long stretches where I'm taking two, maybe three calls a month, and that's it.
And here's what I keep coming back to: This is the most prepped I have ever been for a summer off. Not because I crammed before leaving, but because the systems are already built.
Let me tell you what that actually feels like, because I think it's the thing nobody sells you properly.
A couple of summers ago we spent 10 straight weeks traveling around Europe.
Last summer we did 5 weeks mostly off the grid in cottage country.
And in the middle of all of it? The business keeps running. Sales came in while I was in the middle of a lake, paddling one of my kids around in a canoe, or cozied up for a movie night after a full day of hiking in the Swiss alps.
Money that showed up because the emails sent themselves, the funnels did their job, the offers were already built, and the content was already out working. None of it needed me in the driver's seat.
That feeling never gets old. It's the whole ethos behind why I built the business the way I did. There are seasons where I hustle, and seasons where I step waaaay back.
There are a LOT of people in my world who talk about using AI to save time and buy back their life.
And then behind the scenes they're working more, always-on, and running a white-knuckle business.
The message and the reality don't match.
I brought someone onto my team recently who got a front-row seat to how I actually operate. And she was genuinely shook at how much I practice what I preach. How much is truly built to run without me. How much time I take off. How we run a calm company.
I'm not saying that to toot my own horn. I'm saying it because I think most entrepreneurs have been sold "freedom" as a vibe, not as a system, and it's very much a system.
This summer, while I'm off being present with my kids, the business will keep making sales. And it won’t be because I got lucky. It’ll be because I spent a decade building, and now have an AI team and infrastructure doing the heavy lifting in the background.
I'll have more to say about that part soon (we have an event coming up that you’ll DEF want to stay tuned for).
For now, I just want to leave you with the question my summer asks me every year:
If you stepped back for 8 weeks, would your business keep going? Or would it quietly fall apart?
No judgment if it's the second one. That was me too, years ago. But it doesn't have to stay that way.
More soon.