January 20, 2025 • 14 mins
Running a creative online t-shirt business doesn’t have to mean sacrificing your personal time or sense of balance. Establishing an away message can help manage customer expectations, combat burnout, and maintain professionalism, making both you and your customers feel valued.
• Setting boundaries helps prevent burnout and maintain work-life balance
• Customer expectations need to be managed through clear communication
• Away messages enhance professionalism and reduce feelings of being unresponsive
• Redirecting customers to resources while they wait can keep them engaged
• Crafting an inviting away message is essential for effective communication
• Testing and tweaking your message ensures it meets customer needs
Share your new away message on social media, and don’t forget to tag me @sunkissedvirtualassistant
Got an idea for an episode? Shoot me a message and tell me about it!
Get all of the links and podcast in one place, by visiting the show notes.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Turn Down the Hustle challenges.
So this is a new series I'mgoing to start hosting weekly
inside of my podcast.
We're going to focus on small,actionable tasks to help you
move the needle forward in yourt-shirt business without burning
yourself out.
Now these weekly challenges areall about simplifying,
(00:26):
strategizing and making progressone manageable step at a time,
and I'm going to break all thatdown for you Now.
Each challenge is pulleddirectly from my product drop
organizer.
It's a powerful tool I designed.
This is the fourth year I'vereleased it.
It's to help you stay ahead ofyour planning, your product
drops and promotions with easein your handmade business.
(00:49):
So if you're ready tostreamline your business and let
me handle the heavy lifting,check it out at
wwwsunkissedvacom.
Now let's dive in today in ourfirst challenge and take the
first step towards building athriving, sustainable business
that works for you.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You're listening to Turn Down the Hustle, the
podcast dedicated totransforming how you run your
creative online t-shirt businessby working smarter, not harder,
so you can spend more time withyour why, people and passions
that matter most in your life.
So throw on your favoritegraphic tee and turn up the heat
.
Press, because it's time toturn down the hustle.
Here's your host digitalmarketer.
(01:32):
Cold brew lover, t-shirt maker,freckled hype girl and owner of
Sunkist Virtual Assistant, amy.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
How many times have you scrambled to respond to a
customer at 11 pm, or even maybewhile you were trying to record
a kid's soccer game?
You kept getting notificationsor messages and you didn't want
that customer to feel ignored,so you quickly responded and
left the current moment that youwere in.
(02:02):
This today's Turn Down, theHustle Challenge, is going to
fix that.
We are going to set up an awaymessage on Facebook Messenger,
and it can even translate overto your Instagram messages too.
Why should we set up an awaymessage?
First things first, customerexpectations.
We are in the age of instantgratification.
(02:25):
People expect a quick response.
They expect that you are abusiness owner 24-7, which I
guess you are, but we're notworking 24-7.
However, our customers want tofeel valued and they want to
feel attended to.
In a way, message shows youthat you are attentive, even if
(02:47):
you're not available at thatexact moment.
You can keep your customersinformed without adding pressure
on yourself to replyimmediately.
Also, when you set up an awaymessage, this sets boundaries
for yourself.
Running your business can bleedinto every aspect of your life.
That's kind of the double-edgedsword of being an online
(03:08):
business owner.
It's not as simple as oh.
Walking into the boutique,turning the lights on and then
turning them off at the end ofthe night.
We run our business from ourmobile device, which we have on
us all the time, so setting upan away message can help you
protect your personal time.
Also, this can help aid inpreventing burnout, giving
(03:28):
yourself permission to unplugwithout even showing a sense of
any unprofessionalism oranything like that, which, on
that note, setting an awaymessage also builds trust and
professionalism.
That auto response the momentyour customer hits send shows
that their inquiry has beenacknowledged, and it also helps
(03:51):
you build credibility byproviding instant clarity and
answers.
So maybe they don't even reallyneed you to respond.
Your away message can take careof that for them.
Lastly, why you should set upan away message is it could help
you avoid missed sales or evenfrustrated customers.
Without that timely response,customers may decide to shop
(04:12):
elsewhere.
Maybe they're wanting to askhow to shop or where to find
this item.
Your away message can help them.
You can also redirect them toresources like your website or
your FAQs to keep them engagedwhile they wait for a personal
reply.
Most likely they might beasking a question that you have
already answered, or maybe youhave published this information
(04:34):
on your website and you canredirect them.
Now let's talk about whathappens if you don't take this
step.
So this is going to be a themein our Turn Down the Hustle
challenges.
I'm going to give you the why,what happens if you don't, and
then I'm going to walk youthrough how to complete the
challenge.
If you don't take the step,customers may assume that you're
unresponsive, which isn'tnecessarily the case.
(04:56):
You just might be living a lifeat 8 pm on a Tuesday night, or
it could be unprofessional intheir eyes again in the
customer's eyes leading to lostsales.
Then, turning it inward, thestress of those constant
notifications can take a toll onyour mental health and
productivity.
We are not here for the shortgame.
(05:16):
We are in here for the longhaul.
So we need to set up systemsthat are going to allow you to
stay in business and not burnout.
Also, it could be a missedopportunity to set expectations
for response time to yourcustomers.
This could alleviate anypossible chance of any
unnecessary frustration for bothyou and your customers.
(05:37):
Right, we're managingexpectations.
Okay, now what I want you to dois hit pause on this episode if
you need to, or if you'reconsuming this content on
YouTube, pause the video, openup another tab and I'm going to
walk you through the steps onhow to create this away message.
The first thing you're going todo is access Facebook Business
(05:58):
Suite.
So go to your Facebook page, goto your Facebook Business Suite
, and then I want you to go tothe inbox tab.
It should look like a littlechat bubble.
From there you're going toselect.
It's actually like an icon.
It has like crossing.
It kind of looks like a StarWars, kind of look to me like a
world or something like that.
(06:19):
Click that.
That's going to be theautomations button.
Okay, so once you're there, youcan select create automations
in the top right, and it's goingto give you quite a bit of
different options.
You can either start fromscratch or you can use some of
the templates they have alreadyprovided.
If you look under the goals, thefirst goal that you can set up
(06:41):
is greet people.
You can do a instant reply.
Maybe you want to reply with agreeting when someone messages
you for the first time likehello.
Thank you for checking outSunkiss Virtual Assistant.
Here are my top links.
Here are my top podcastepisodes you might want to check
out how can I help youSomething to make sure they feel
acknowledged.
Or you can also set up whetheryou're online or away.
(07:05):
You can also set this based onyour business hours so you can
have an automatic away message.
So, whenever Facebook picks uphey, we know that she said that
she's not going to be availableon Saturday and Sunday this is
the message that they'll share.
The next goal is shareinformation.
So you're frequently askedquestions.
So when someone asks a question, you can already have some
(07:25):
canned information like where ismy order or when will it ship,
something like that and you canremind them of your turnaround
time.
Also, you can redirect them tolog into their account so they
can see the fulfillment statusin their order.
Next is location.
So if you have a storefront,you can plug in some data here
on where they can find yourbusiness.
Next, contact information.
(07:46):
Maybe if they're wanting toknow more about how they can get
a hold of you or email you fora custom order, that'd be a
great automation.
To use Hours, that'sself-explanatory.
Now, these two I really want tobring your attention to.
There are custom keywords orcomment to a message.
How you can use this is.
(08:08):
So we know that Facebookcurrently does not like links at
all.
They want you to stay on theplatform, right?
So you can set up customkeyword where you tell them to
message you a certain word andyou'll either send them back a
discount code, or maybe you'llsend them a link to a tea party,
or maybe information on how tohost their own tea party,
something like that and that'sgoing to do it automatically.
(08:31):
All they have to do is justsend you that word tea party
could be an example and then youcan send them an automated
message based on the custom wordthat they send.
Currently, it looks like thatyou can only do this with up to
five keyword or phrases, so keepthat in mind.
Maybe you want to have a staplefive or maybe two items that
are.
Maybe you only want to have twowords that are consistent year
(08:55):
round, maybe like email, so youcan send them information on how
to sign up for your email list,and then maybe use the three
other words that are rotating,promotions and drops and things
like that.
You can use this automation onboth Messenger and Instagram, so
if you get a comment on yourpage that has a specific hashtag
(09:15):
, you can send them a responsebased on that, so you can say
comment, hashtag, tea Party toget more information direct to
your inbox.
This currently only works forMessenger, but it is a very cool
tool to use.
Now let's get more intospecifics on setting that away
message.
So whenever you're craftingyour away message, you want to
(09:42):
first make sure you acknowledgetheir message and you appreciate
that they have sent you amessage like hey, thank you for
reaching out.
Or like hey, I'm glad to seeyou made it to my inbox,
something like that.
Make sure you're using your ownbrand voice too, so when they
read the message, they start toget a feel for the owner behind
the message.
You can also provide somehelpful information like I'll
get back to you within 24 hours,or my response time is between
(10:04):
Mondays and Fridays, somethinglike that.
I also recommend you includesome kind of link, maybe like a
link to your FAQs or yourwebsite, so you can say like
well, while you're waiting forme to get back to you, in the
meantime you can check out allof my new releases here and keep
that collection to new releases, because you're constantly,
maybe, updating your new releasecollection, so no matter when
(10:27):
they check it, it's always goingto be the most current products
you have released and thenencourage them to engage, so say
feel free to browse, or you canfollow us on Instagram for
updates too Something like that.
That'd be a great structure tocreate an away message.
Now, while you're also doingthat, I do want to draw your
attention back to your activehours so you can adjust your
(10:50):
schedule to specify when theaway message will be sent, so
like outside of business hours,weekends or vacations.
Away message will be sent, solike outside of business hours,
weekends or vacations, and it'sreally important that you are
transparent on when yourcustomers can expect a reply.
Again, setting up and managingthose expectations is really
important.
So what I want you to do,before you just assume it's all
(11:14):
working, is we need to test itout.
Make sure that, whateverautomation you've set up, that
it actually works and sendscorrectly.
You can ask a spouse or a kidor a friend to test this out for
you and make sure it works.
Also, I want you to read thismessage out loud.
Make sure it sounds invitingand warm and helpful, right?
We don't want to make sure itdoesn't come off rude, and
(11:34):
that's why getting a friend tohelp you out can probably help
make sure that this is accurateand then, as you get feedback or
maybe you're starting to seewhich customers take action you
can continuously update thesemessages and tweak it based on
customer feedback.
So, again, this is reallyhelpful because it'll save you
time, so it could alleviate youfrom having to answer repetitive
(11:58):
questions, and also sets thoseclear expectations and maybe
keeps those customers aroundversus just leaving your store.
So it's time to take action.
This all sounds great, butknowledge without action is
meaningless.
So we're going to take actiontoday.
So what I want you to do?
(12:19):
Head to your Facebook businesssuite.
I want you to draft yourmessage using the steps we
discussed.
Test it, tweak it, take ascreenshot of your new away
message, share it in yourstories and please tag me so I
can cheer you on.
If you're in the product droporganizer club, make sure you go
find the corresponding post tothis challenge, screenshot your
completion so I can get youadded in and give you credit for
(12:41):
completing the challenge.
So you might be thinking, okay,great, that is cool to know,
amy, but I still don't know howI'm going to write this.
Okay, if you need help craftingthis away message, check out
the show notes.
Wherever you're watching thisvideo, you can head to my
website, sunkissvacom 31.
(13:02):
This is episode 31.
You can go grab an away messagethat I have crafted for you to
help give you an idea.
Okay, cool, you ready to takeaction?
All right, so go knock out thischallenge and then meet me back
here next Monday because we aregoing to tackle the next
challenge, which is also in theautomation category.
We are working throughchallenges that are all related
(13:24):
to automation, and next weekwe're going to automate another
message and I'll walk youthrough it.
So, step by step, taking thesetiny actions will help move the
needle forward in your business.
Thank you for tuning in.
Don't forget to subscribe andrate and share my podcast if you
found this episode valuable.
Thank you.
Welcome to the Turn Down the Hustle challenges.
So this is a new series I'mgoing to start hosting weekly
inside of my podcast.
We're going to focus on small,actionable tasks to help you
move the needle forward in yourt-shirt business without burning
yourself out.
Now these weekly challenges areall about simplifying,
(00:26):
strategizing and making progressone manageable step at a time,
and I'm going to break all thatdown for you Now.
Each challenge is pulleddirectly from my product drop
organizer.
It's a powerful tool I designed.
This is the fourth year I'vereleased it.
It's to help you stay ahead ofyour planning, your product
drops and promotions with easein your handmade business.
(00:49):
So if you're ready tostreamline your business and let
me handle the heavy lifting,check it out at
wwwsunkissedvacom.
Now let's dive in today in ourfirst challenge and take the
first step towards building athriving, sustainable business
that works for you.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You're listening to Turn Down the Hustle, the
podcast dedicated totransforming how you run your
creative online t-shirt businessby working smarter, not harder,
so you can spend more time withyour why, people and passions
that matter most in your life.
So throw on your favoritegraphic tee and turn up the heat
.
Press, because it's time toturn down the hustle.
Here's your host digitalmarketer.
(01:32):
Cold brew lover, t-shirt maker,freckled hype girl and owner of
Sunkist Virtual Assistant, amy.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
How many times have you scrambled to respond to a
customer at 11 pm, or even maybewhile you were trying to record
a kid's soccer game?
You kept getting notificationsor messages and you didn't want
that customer to feel ignored,so you quickly responded and
left the current moment that youwere in.
(02:02):
This today's Turn Down, theHustle Challenge, is going to
fix that.
We are going to set up an awaymessage on Facebook Messenger,
and it can even translate overto your Instagram messages too.
Why should we set up an awaymessage?
First things first, customerexpectations.
We are in the age of instantgratification.
(02:25):
People expect a quick response.
They expect that you are abusiness owner 24-7, which I
guess you are, but we're notworking 24-7.
However, our customers want tofeel valued and they want to
feel attended to.
In a way, message shows youthat you are attentive, even if
(02:47):
you're not available at thatexact moment.
You can keep your customersinformed without adding pressure
on yourself to replyimmediately.
Also, when you set up an awaymessage, this sets boundaries
for yourself.
Running your business can bleedinto every aspect of your life.
That's kind of the double-edgedsword of being an online
(03:08):
business owner.
It's not as simple as oh.
Walking into the boutique,turning the lights on and then
turning them off at the end ofthe night.
We run our business from ourmobile device, which we have on
us all the time, so setting upan away message can help you
protect your personal time.
Also, this can help aid inpreventing burnout, giving
(03:28):
yourself permission to unplugwithout even showing a sense of
any unprofessionalism oranything like that, which, on
that note, setting an awaymessage also builds trust and
professionalism.
That auto response the momentyour customer hits send shows
that their inquiry has beenacknowledged, and it also helps
(03:51):
you build credibility byproviding instant clarity and
answers.
So maybe they don't even reallyneed you to respond.
Your away message can take careof that for them.
Lastly, why you should set upan away message is it could help
you avoid missed sales or evenfrustrated customers.
Without that timely response,customers may decide to shop
(04:12):
elsewhere.
Maybe they're wanting to askhow to shop or where to find
this item.
Your away message can help them.
You can also redirect them toresources like your website or
your FAQs to keep them engagedwhile they wait for a personal
reply.
Most likely they might beasking a question that you have
already answered, or maybe youhave published this information
(04:34):
on your website and you canredirect them.
Now let's talk about whathappens if you don't take this
step.
So this is going to be a themein our Turn Down the Hustle
challenges.
I'm going to give you the why,what happens if you don't, and
then I'm going to walk youthrough how to complete the
challenge.
If you don't take the step,customers may assume that you're
unresponsive, which isn'tnecessarily the case.
(04:56):
You just might be living a lifeat 8 pm on a Tuesday night, or
it could be unprofessional intheir eyes again in the
customer's eyes leading to lostsales.
Then, turning it inward, thestress of those constant
notifications can take a toll onyour mental health and
productivity.
We are not here for the shortgame.
(05:16):
We are in here for the longhaul.
So we need to set up systemsthat are going to allow you to
stay in business and not burnout.
Also, it could be a missedopportunity to set expectations
for response time to yourcustomers.
This could alleviate anypossible chance of any
unnecessary frustration for bothyou and your customers.
(05:37):
Right, we're managingexpectations.
Okay, now what I want you to dois hit pause on this episode if
you need to, or if you'reconsuming this content on
YouTube, pause the video, openup another tab and I'm going to
walk you through the steps onhow to create this away message.
The first thing you're going todo is access Facebook Business
(05:58):
Suite.
So go to your Facebook page, goto your Facebook Business Suite
, and then I want you to go tothe inbox tab.
It should look like a littlechat bubble.
From there you're going toselect.
It's actually like an icon.
It has like crossing.
It kind of looks like a StarWars, kind of look to me like a
world or something like that.
(06:19):
Click that.
That's going to be theautomations button.
Okay, so once you're there, youcan select create automations
in the top right, and it's goingto give you quite a bit of
different options.
You can either start fromscratch or you can use some of
the templates they have alreadyprovided.
If you look under the goals, thefirst goal that you can set up
(06:41):
is greet people.
You can do a instant reply.
Maybe you want to reply with agreeting when someone messages
you for the first time likehello.
Thank you for checking outSunkiss Virtual Assistant.
Here are my top links.
Here are my top podcastepisodes you might want to check
out how can I help youSomething to make sure they feel
acknowledged.
Or you can also set up whetheryou're online or away.
(07:05):
You can also set this based onyour business hours so you can
have an automatic away message.
So, whenever Facebook picks uphey, we know that she said that
she's not going to be availableon Saturday and Sunday this is
the message that they'll share.
The next goal is shareinformation.
So you're frequently askedquestions.
So when someone asks a question, you can already have some
(07:25):
canned information like where ismy order or when will it ship,
something like that and you canremind them of your turnaround
time.
Also, you can redirect them tolog into their account so they
can see the fulfillment statusin their order.
Next is location.
So if you have a storefront,you can plug in some data here
on where they can find yourbusiness.
Next, contact information.
(07:46):
Maybe if they're wanting toknow more about how they can get
a hold of you or email you fora custom order, that'd be a
great automation.
To use Hours, that'sself-explanatory.
Now, these two I really want tobring your attention to.
There are custom keywords orcomment to a message.
How you can use this is.
(08:08):
So we know that Facebookcurrently does not like links at
all.
They want you to stay on theplatform, right?
So you can set up customkeyword where you tell them to
message you a certain word andyou'll either send them back a
discount code, or maybe you'llsend them a link to a tea party,
or maybe information on how tohost their own tea party,
something like that and that'sgoing to do it automatically.
(08:31):
All they have to do is justsend you that word tea party
could be an example and then youcan send them an automated
message based on the custom wordthat they send.
Currently, it looks like thatyou can only do this with up to
five keyword or phrases, so keepthat in mind.
Maybe you want to have a staplefive or maybe two items that
are.
Maybe you only want to have twowords that are consistent year
(08:55):
round, maybe like email, so youcan send them information on how
to sign up for your email list,and then maybe use the three
other words that are rotating,promotions and drops and things
like that.
You can use this automation onboth Messenger and Instagram, so
if you get a comment on yourpage that has a specific hashtag
(09:15):
, you can send them a responsebased on that, so you can say
comment, hashtag, tea Party toget more information direct to
your inbox.
This currently only works forMessenger, but it is a very cool
tool to use.
Now let's get more intospecifics on setting that away
message.
So whenever you're craftingyour away message, you want to
(09:42):
first make sure you acknowledgetheir message and you appreciate
that they have sent you amessage like hey, thank you for
reaching out.
Or like hey, I'm glad to seeyou made it to my inbox,
something like that.
Make sure you're using your ownbrand voice too, so when they
read the message, they start toget a feel for the owner behind
the message.
You can also provide somehelpful information like I'll
get back to you within 24 hours,or my response time is between
(10:04):
Mondays and Fridays, somethinglike that.
I also recommend you includesome kind of link, maybe like a
link to your FAQs or yourwebsite, so you can say like
well, while you're waiting forme to get back to you, in the
meantime you can check out allof my new releases here and keep
that collection to new releases, because you're constantly,
maybe, updating your new releasecollection, so no matter when
(10:27):
they check it, it's always goingto be the most current products
you have released and thenencourage them to engage, so say
feel free to browse, or you canfollow us on Instagram for
updates too Something like that.
That'd be a great structure tocreate an away message.
Now, while you're also doingthat, I do want to draw your
attention back to your activehours so you can adjust your
(10:50):
schedule to specify when theaway message will be sent, so
like outside of business hours,weekends or vacations.
Away message will be sent, solike outside of business hours,
weekends or vacations, and it'sreally important that you are
transparent on when yourcustomers can expect a reply.
Again, setting up and managingthose expectations is really
important.
So what I want you to do,before you just assume it's all
(11:14):
working, is we need to test itout.
Make sure that, whateverautomation you've set up, that
it actually works and sendscorrectly.
You can ask a spouse or a kidor a friend to test this out for
you and make sure it works.
Also, I want you to read thismessage out loud.
Make sure it sounds invitingand warm and helpful, right?
We don't want to make sure itdoesn't come off rude, and
(11:34):
that's why getting a friend tohelp you out can probably help
make sure that this is accurateand then, as you get feedback or
maybe you're starting to seewhich customers take action you
can continuously update thesemessages and tweak it based on
customer feedback.
So, again, this is reallyhelpful because it'll save you
time, so it could alleviate youfrom having to answer repetitive
(11:58):
questions, and also sets thoseclear expectations and maybe
keeps those customers aroundversus just leaving your store.
So it's time to take action.
This all sounds great, butknowledge without action is
meaningless.
So we're going to take actiontoday.
So what I want you to do?
(12:19):
Head to your Facebook businesssuite.
I want you to draft yourmessage using the steps we
discussed.
Test it, tweak it, take ascreenshot of your new away
message, share it in yourstories and please tag me so I
can cheer you on.
If you're in the product droporganizer club, make sure you go
find the corresponding post tothis challenge, screenshot your
completion so I can get youadded in and give you credit for
(12:41):
completing the challenge.
So you might be thinking, okay,great, that is cool to know,
amy, but I still don't know howI'm going to write this.
Okay, if you need help craftingthis away message, check out
the show notes.
Wherever you're watching thisvideo, you can head to my
website, sunkissvacom 31.
(13:02):
This is episode 31.
You can go grab an away messagethat I have crafted for you to
help give you an idea.
Okay, cool, you ready to takeaction?
All right, so go knock out thischallenge and then meet me back
here next Monday because we aregoing to tackle the next
challenge, which is also in theautomation category.
We are working throughchallenges that are all related
(13:24):
to automation, and next weekwe're going to automate another
message and I'll walk youthrough it.
So, step by step, taking thesetiny actions will help move the
needle forward in your business.
Thank you for tuning in.
Don't forget to subscribe andrate and share my podcast if you
found this episode valuable.
Thank you.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.