162. How to Slow Down Without Losing Momentum When Life Gets Busy

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This summer I found myself racing toward burnout, and it made me stop and ask, “What if I slowed down instead of keeping up this crazy pace?” That question led me to what I call minimum viable marketing, focusing only on the few essentials that truly move your business forward and giving yourself permission to let go of the rest during busy seasons. In this episode, I’m sharing what that looks like in my own business, why I’m taking September off from podcasting, and how you can create a plan that keeps your business sustainable without burning yourself out.

01:28 - Recognizing the signs of burnout and why slowing down is actually smart business

03:00 - What “minimum viable marketing” really means and how to identify the essentials that move your business forward

05:25 -  The difference between scaling back vs. needing a true break and my plan for September

07:40 - Tools and strategies for sustaining minimum viable marketing

09:23 - Giving yourself permission to step back and why it’s smart for long-term business health

Links & Resources:

• The Savvy Seller Collective
• Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co 
• Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
• Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
• More resources for growing your TPT business
• Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts

Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode162 

Feeling overwhelmed by all the things you think you need to do to grow your digital product business? Take the Savvy Seller Quiz and find out exactly what to focus on right now to actually move your business forward. 

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Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
Hey, y'all. Can I be honest with you about something
today? I have been running nonstop all summer, and it hit me a
couple weeks ago that I washeaded straight for burnout
city. Yes me, the girl whoteaches you not to do that in
your business. So I had to askmyself, What if I just slowed

(00:23):
down instead of trying to keepup this pace? Today, I am
talking about what I callminimum viable marketing.
Basically, what are theessentials that you need to keep
going when life gets busy, andwhat can you just let go of for
a while? I'll share my minimumviable marketing plan, and I'll

(00:47):
tell you why I'm actually takingSeptember off from podcasting
after this episode.

Kristen (00:53):
Are you a digital product or course creator,
selling on platforms likeTeachers Pay Teachers, Etsy, or
your own website? Ready to growyour business, but not into the
kind of constant hustle thatleads straight to burnout? Then
you're in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no-fluff tools andstrategies that move the needle

(01:15):
for your business withoutburning you out in the
process—things like SEO, nostress marketing, email list
building, automations and somuch more. Let's get started,
y'all.

Unknown (01:28):
You know, there are a lot of reasons to need to take a
little bit of a break and toneed to slow down. Sometimes
it's just life. Life just kindof happens. Right now we are
headed into baseball seasonagain with my son, he's playing

(01:50):
fall ball this year, I have aretreat to attend, and then I am
hosting a retreat, and we've gotsome personal travel coming up
as well. Life just gets busy.
And while all of these thingswe're doing are great and they
do fill me up, they also meanthat I don't have as much time
for my business. And if Icontinue trying to squeeze in

(02:11):
all the things I normally do, Iam going to burn myself out,
just like I'd started to do overthis summer.
You know, as human beings, wehave to rest. Our bodies need
rest, our minds need rest, andthat time to just recharge and

(02:31):
refresh. And if you think aboutit, taking those rest periods,
giving yourself permission to doit, it's actually smart
business, because you can'tcontinue to grow in your
business if you're completelyburnt out from going too hard
for too long without givingyourself rest. The goal of
owning your own business, ofputting in all the work to grow
this thing, isn't to continueconstantly hustling, it is to

(02:55):
have a sustainable business thatactually fits into your life.

Kristen (03:00):
So what does this look like from a very practical
standpoint? Minimum viablemarketing isn't about doing less
for forever. It's aboutidentifying the one or two,
maybe three things that reallydrive your business forward, and
when you need to take a stepback, when you need a period of

(03:21):
rest, you only continue doingthose things, and you put other
things on the back burner for alittle while.
My typical minimum viablemarketing plan is a
non-negotiable weekly podcastepisode. This is what connects
me with my audience. I lovedoing it, and it gives me things

(03:41):
to talk about in all of the restof my marketing. So my podcast
episode is usually anon-negotiable. I also do one
weekly email at minimum, usuallythat is sharing the recent
podcast episode or somethingelse that's important that's
going on right at that time.
Beyond those two things, I mightpost quick Instagram stories

(04:04):
instead of spending tons of timecreating reels. That's a me
thing. I spend a lot of timewhen I'm making a reel, but I
can post a story in just acouple of minutes without having
to think about it too much. So Imight post stories instead of
reels during that time. I mightalso recycle old content on
social media using somethinglike smarterqueue or even just

(04:25):
reposting it manually, and thatis totally fine, too, if you
want to keep showing up withouthaving to come up with a bunch
of new things.
Now, keep in mind my minimumviable marketing looks different
from yours because my businessis different from yours. We all
have our own businesses and ourown things that really drive the
needle for us. Those things thatare essential for me, the

(04:46):
podcast and the weekly email,are essential because those are
the things that drive mybusiness forward. That is where
I get new clients and customers.
So you'll have to figure outwhat actually moves the needle
forward in your business, andchoose the things that you need
to keep doing during that slowerseason when you need to move

(05:06):
into your minimum viablemarketing plan. Maybe for you,
you need to keep doing Pinterestmarketing, or you need to keep
putting out blog posts or aYouTube video, whatever it is
that moves the needle for yourbusiness, keep doing that and
pull back on the other things.

Unknown (05:25):
Now, sometimes minimum viable isn't quite enough.
Sometimes you need more of areal break. And if I'm being
really honest and transparentwith you guys, I kind of hit
that point this summer. If youremember me sharing last summer
that our plan was to summerhard, and we did. I pulled back
to that minimum viable marketingplan, and I really summered hard

(05:48):
with my kids. I only workedabout a half a day while they
were doing things inside,reading, chores, all of that
stuff in the morning. Let's behonest, the teenager was
sleeping in. I did my work inthe morning so that in the
afternoon we could go out and dofun things together, spend time
at the pool, whatever it was. Weactually also took quite a few

(06:11):
little long weekend kind oftrips and things like that, and
it was wonderful.

Kristen (06:15):
But this year, I didn't do that. This year, I kept going
all summer, just like I doduring the school year. And what
happened is by the end of thesummer, I was feeling like I had
just wasted my entire summer onwork, and I was feeling so burnt
out because I didn't give myselfthat time to rejuvenate, I
didn't pull back and do myminimum viable marketing. And so

(06:37):
what that did is it put me intoa scenario where I needed a
bigger break.
So what I am doing for Septemberis I am taking the entire month
off from podcasting. I willstill be sending out my weekly
emails, but those are going toget scheduled ahead of time so
that I don't have to do itduring September, and I will be

(06:58):
posting on social media onlywhen I feel like it.
Now, with that said, there aresome parts of my business I will
still be showing up for, like mymembership and client projects
that I have booked, but I'mpulling back a lot from the
other things to give myself thattime to really take a break and
recharge. Keep in mind, slowingdown, even a big slowdown like

(07:22):
this is not the same thing asgiving up. It's respecting
yourself as a person, as a humanwho has needs, and giving
yourself the time to do thatrefresh. I'll come back in
October refreshed and ready tocreate better content than I
would if I just kept pushingthrough when I'm tired.
So here's what I want you to do.
Figure out your essentials now.

(07:44):
Don't wait until you'reoverwhelmed. Maybe you're
overwhelmed already, and that'sokay too, but try to figure out
those essentials before you getto that overwhelm point. What
are the one or two mainmarketing activities that
actually bring you customers andsales? And then create a backup
plan. What kind of tools canhelp you when you're in that

(08:05):
minimum viable marketing mode?
Canva templates are great, AItools that you've trained,
content recycling apps likesmarterqueue is fantastic. All
of those things can help youwhen you're in minimum viable
mode, but they can also help youmaybe avoid getting there, if
you put in some time on gettingused to using them and making
them part of your systemongoing.

(08:26):
And once you've kind of createdyour minimum viable marketing
plan, look for the signs. Justkeep your eyes open. Pay
attention to the signs that youmight be starting to feel that
burnout and needing to shiftinto your minimum viable mode.
Some of those signs for me are Iam tired all day, maybe my sleep

(08:46):
is suffering, I am waking up inthe middle of the night with a
to do list rolling around myhead, feeling overwhelmed that I
can't get it all done. Familystuff starts ramping up, we
start getting into a busyseason, like the one that we are
headed into right now. Or you'refeeling that early burnout. All
of those are good signs thatit's time to shift to that
minimum viable marketing mode.

(09:08):
And if you're feeling all ofthose like I have been for the
last few weeks, that is whattells you you need to take a
bigger break for a little bit.
Take that break to recharge andget back to a good place where
you can show up authentically inyour business and be excited to
do all of the marketing again.
Building a business that fitsyour actual life really does
mean that sometimes you have toscale back on some of the things

(09:31):
that you're doing, like yourmarketing, and it's not just
okay, like I said earlier, it issmart business because it's good
for your long term health, foryou and for the business.
Whether you need that minimumviable marketing plan for just a
busy season, or you need to takea bigger break, like I'm doing
in September, I just want togive you full permission to do

(09:51):
what you need to do, and I wouldencourage you to give yourself
that permission too.
Now, if you want to be around agroup of people who support
building a business that fitsyour life, one that is
sustainable, that is already setup to allow you to take breaks
when you need them, becauseyou've got the systems in place.

(10:12):
Then come join us in The SavvySeller Collective. We are all
about keeping your businesssustainable so you actually love
it long term. With that, I willbe back in October with fresh
episodes and some renewedenergy. Until then, I'll talk to
you soon.