Annie:
Hey there. Does the idea of booking car service for your executive or maybe an important client make you just a little bit nervous? If so, try using Savoya. When I use their car service, they did a fantastic job of keeping me informed with real time status updates via email and text notifications. And while they provide an amazing experience for your executive, the booking process and technology is geared towards you. The executive assistant. They have an easy to use travel management portal I use to book trips and easily manage them with passenger profiles that save your credit card information that may be different and frequent locations. Now we know itinerary changes are almost inevitable, so Savoya plans for it. Their client care and customer success teams take the burden off of you and find solutions to ensure your executives travel is seamless.
Annie:
No matter the circumstances. Whether you're booking in town or across the globe, the service is always consistent, meaning peace of mind and less stress, which we all know I'm a fan of. Mention me to the sales rep or click the link in the show notes for 20% off your first three trips. Welcome to the Whole Assistant Podcast. I'm your host, Annie Croner. I'm a former assistant who's passionate about our profession and I'm also a certified coach who's invested in your success. You've come to the right place if you want to know what it looks like to stand in your power, achieve success as an assistant free from overwhelm and burnout. Now onto today's episode.
Annie:
Today we are talking about giving yourself the permission to rest. If you are anything like me, you may need a bit of permission to take a beat, to step back and to maybe not do some of the things that you normally do. So in case you didn't notice, there was no podcast episode last week. October is so full of many blessings for me. I'm going to be speaking at the admin Professionals conference here in Denver later on this month. I had the privilege of going into an organization last week and then doing a live two day training with an organization here in Denver. It was actually a day and a half and I just loved it. I love connecting with executive assistants.
Annie:
I love pulling us out of our silos for a little bit of time, just a knowledge share and to really leverage the knowledge in the room. And I do feel like those events whenever I do them, it just allows for the space and time to connect with one another and to not feel quite as alone in our roles and also to really leverage others experiences. So I just love it. I've also had the fantastic opportunity to judge an internal competition or not competition, but there's this organization that actually puts people up for recognition, and so I was able to judge that. So just a lot of amazing things going on this month for me personally as well as professionally. We also have birthdays in our family this month. So I decided not to do a podcast episode last week in the name of mental health and in the name of rest. And I do think that it is important to prioritize your mental health, and as a piece of that, to prioritize your physical and mental rest.
Annie:
I was presented with an opportunity that I just turned down, and it was kind of hard for me to turn down because I had total fomo. And for those of you who don't know what fomo is, it's fear of missing out. I was invited to do a LinkedIn learning training, and this company had pitched the training already to LinkedIn, and they had agreed to pay for it. And so we were working out a deal for me to fly to San Diego and to work with a producer and to go through all of this rigmarole. And my ego was like, Annie, this is a great opportunity. You could be exposed to so many more people. Your audience could grow by a lot. But ultimately, I had to turn it down because the time commitment was so huge and the pay was so little.
Annie:
But I do think that it is important to say no sometimes in order to make room for yes. And I'm going to be launching another offer later on this month for those who've already gone through my program and or who have worked with me one on one. And I'm really excited about that offer, and I really want to show up more in service of my people and of my clients and of my current audience of you all. So I had to take a step back, and I couldn't do the fun LinkedIn learning training that I had so many ideas for. And that's okay, too, because I'm deciding to prioritize my mental health during the season. Now. I honestly considered just having a push season. And for those of you who don't know what a push season is, that's probably because I've not actually defined it yet.
Annie:
So I call a push season any time that just gets super crazy busy, but in short spurts. Like you should only have a month or two of push season before things begin to even out and before you begin to find your rhythm and your pace again. And I'm kind of coming out of a push season over the last couple months, as I've launched the next round of the leveled up assistant, we just had our onboarding call. We just had our first training, and I'm loving that. And I'm like, I don't know that I have it in me to do another push season at this point. So I decided not to take that opportunity of doing the LinkedIn learning training. And I have to tell you, it was really hard because I view myself as a high producer. I view myself as someone who can carry a lot of weight on her shoulders and do a number of things.
Annie:
My productive output is really, really high because I got my processes for managing my time effectively. And still I'm beginning to recognize that I am reaching my capacity. So with that, I just could not take on another thing, especially something as big as this LinkedIn training and commit 25 hours and then fly to San Diego and then re re navigate my calendar for that week and do all the things like that. Just, it wasn't going to work out. And so I'm beginning to recognize what my capacity is, and I'm also going to be giving myself more permission to rest throughout this upcoming season as I recover from this past push season. And I also feel like sometimes it's okay to show up imperfectly in my business. I do have this philosophy that I've shared with both my community manager and my very fractional executive assistant that I don't want to create fire drills. I want to give us a luxurious amount of time to get work done and to create good work.
Annie:
And I know what it's like to have someone around who actually creates fire drills, and I don't want to be that person. Which is another reason why I decided to cancel the podcast episode last week, because it would have created a fire drill for me to have produced it, which means it would have created a drill for my team to have gotten it up and live. And I've actually come up with a plan of action so I can work more into the future with my podcast episodes. There was a time in the past where I was very good about working ahead, and lately I've been going the live the week of and then putting out the podcast episode the week of, and that's not actually how I want to be showing up in my life, and it's not actually how I want to be showing up in my business. But in the meantime, I've decided that it's okay to show up imperfectly from time to time. And there I've only really missed three podcasts episodes. I've only actually skipped three weeks worth of podcast episodes. The first week was back when I was working full time as an executive assistant, and it was a busy season at work, and it just didn't happen.
Annie:
It was just one of those seasons at work where I was going so hard and going so fast and also had babies at home, and I just couldn't, couldn't produce the podcast episode. The second time was when my youngest was in the hospital for five days with RSVD. So I was sleeping over in the hospital with him and trying to navigate things in my work life and trying to make sure that we were all taken care of, and the podcast episode got set aside. And then this last time was just because my week was so full and I could have really stressed myself out, but I just made the intentional decision that I just was not going to worry about a podcast episode last week. And sometimes we have to say no to make room for yes. And more and more, I'm recognizing this need in myself to say no to make room for yes in terms of my mental health and in terms of my capacity. And you guys, this has been a hard challenge for me. I pride myself on my consistency.
Annie:
I pride myself on consistently showing up. That's why I'm a big fan of creating systems. And yet, sometimes the system gets set aside in the middle of all the crazy to deal with something else. And so I actually just this morning came up with a plan to work in advance on my podcast. Again. I have a plan to get six months worth of 2025 podcast done by December 31, or at least written so then I can just record. And so I'm coming up with plans to rectify what happened last week and to make sure that I'm setting myself up for success. And also, I'm beginning to also recognize what my capacity actually is and learning what it looks like to say no in order to make room for yes.
Annie:
And to also give myself some time throughout my week to actually rest. I don't know if any of you guys can relate to this, but I have two small boys, two and four. We also have a 16 year old who has just started driving, which is also kind of scary. But I've got a two and a four year old, which means that my weekends are also equally full, which means that there is very little rest time and downtime for me. So I've decided to set aside Monday mornings to be my rest time, to be my me time to be my sabbath, in a way. And still, I recognize that even that is not going to be perfect. There are going to be things that come up on Monday mornings that I'm going to have to deal with. And so how can I then kind of re navigate and negotiate my calendar to allow for rest throughout my week so that I can have the energy on the weekend to spend with my boys, so that I can have the energy for my husband and my family, and so that I can have the energy to show up intentionally for you guys, my people who I love.
Annie:
I genuinely enjoy producing this podcast, and so figuring out all those pieces will take time and patience with myself. And beating myself up over a missed podcast won't actually serve anybody here and there again, I've come up with a plan of action moving forward to work well into the future of my podcast. But until I'm there, Grace is the name of the game. And giving myself permission to rest and sometimes rest over being productive has been one of the hardest and yet most rewarding choices I have ever, ever made. And I would encourage you all to look at your values. Sometimes there will be busy seasons for sure, but then make sure that after the busy season, you are filling yourself up. You are doing what you need to do for yourself, to take care of yourself and really look at what you're valuing right now. Is there some misalignment in how you're working and how can you bring that alignment back? And also, how can you align yourself with your values and then bring those values to your work? I'm also a big fan of setting the standard in your office.
Annie:
So if your executive is nearing burnout, I'm a big fan of you being a good example for them, setting the standard and also having their back so that they know that you've got them covered in the event that they actually need to take a step back. It can be a challenge to be under so much pressure as an executive, and it can be such a challenge to be supporting somebody under that pressure. It can also be a challenge to be under pressure yourself. Right. As an executive assistant, we often take on the pressures of our executives, and that is an okay thing to do. I feel like that's the kind of key to being an executive assistant, not like ingesting their anxiety or anything like that, but recognizing where they're at and then helping them, almost coaching them in a way to solve for where they're at so they can get to a better place. So that's what I have for you guys today. Really be intentional about taking good care of yourself.
Annie:
Give yourself permission to rest, even if it means that you are going to show up imperfectly from time to time. Okay? And I'm just so excited that you're all here along this journey with me. And also when it comes to figuring out what your capacity is, this is all just a journey of self discovery, figuring out what you need to do to take care of yourself, figuring out the time you need to get back to yourself. I also had to cancel two afternoon appointments with my clients on Friday afternoon because I knew I'd be dead and I knew I wouldn't be able to show up, bringing the fullness of myself and the fullness of my coaching and the fullness of who I was to those meetings. So really take care of yourself. Do what you have to do. Speak up. Use your voice.
Annie:
Advocate for yourself in a way that feels good to you. And also just know that you are the standard setter in your organization, or you certainly can be. And so allowing yourself to be kind of counter cultural in the name of rest and good mental health, maybe something you would want to reflect on and also bring to your executive as well. If you notice your team is going at such a clip that they are suffering mentally, this may be something that you want to bring up and advocate for. Okay guys, that is what I have for you guys today. I hope you found it helpful. If you'd like to run anything by me with regards to this podcast episode, I'm an open book. Please feel free to email me at annie@wholeassistant.com and I look forward to seeing you on the podcast next week where I will be answering an ask Annie any anything question.
Annie:
And that is what I have for you guys today. Be intentional. Be whole. That is all for now. I help assistants apply the concepts I share on this podcast. If you're ready to take your growth deeper and you're curious whether working with me in a coaching capacity is right for you, please email me at annie@wholeassistant.com to schedule your complimentary discovery call.
