How to Take a Mini Retirement Whenever You Want (a.k.a Building a Lifestyle Business)
Hey and welcome to episode 10 of the Free and Fearless Podcast. Learn what a lifestyle business is and how it can allow you to take a mini retirement whenever you want (+ the exact details of my latest mini retirement during the pandemic and while my business had one of its best months ever, even though I took time off).
Tune into the episode below:
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Show Notes:
- [1:03] The details about my latest mini retirement and how much my biz earned without me
- [3:48] Why my mini retirement to Thailand 4 years ago wasn’t as good
- [6:25] The first reason why I’m so free in my business and can travel any time
- [8:54] The role passive income plays in a lifestyle business
- [10:12] How to take a mini retirement without worrying about money
- [11:47] Recession-proofing your business for even more freedom
- [13:59] How to make your active income streams take as little time as possible
How to Take Mini Retirements Thanks to Your Lifestyle Business
I haven’t published an episode in a while and there’s a good reason for that. I took a sabbatical. Out of nowhere, without any plans or preparations. I escaped lockdown in the Netherlands by getting a one way ticket to Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, which is the place to be in Europe during the pandemic if you want to be at the beach, see palm trees, feel the amazing Spanish culture, be around people, and explore the beauty of the island.
I brought my laptop and mic, ready to record course lectures and podcast episodes, answer any email coming my way, and do work during the week, even though I didn’t have to.
I didn’t do almost any of that. There are nearly 200 emails waiting to be answered, module 3 of my new course Fearless Content is ready to be recorded and shared with the students currently enjoying early bird access, and my people expect to hear from me weekly with fresh content and an email.
Instead, I spent all my time at the beach, doing trips to the volcano, on catamarans and to a nearby island, making friends with locals and digital nomads living there for a few months, being outside as often as possible, and taking pictures of every palm tree I saw, literally, because I love them so much and because that was the first time I’m traveling to such a beautiful place since being an iPhone owner.
And yet, my business is still here. No one is requiring anything from me. I earned $6K in February, which makes it a better month than others in terms of income. I got new features, connected with new people online, generated business growth ideas, saw things from another perspective, and let all the knowledge from courses, books and podcasts from the last few months of hard work and self-education sink in.
I stopped working and reading and learning, but I was living, socializing and literally resetting my mind more than I did in the whole last year.
I know many of you crave the same sort of freedom. Because owning a business or being self-employed doesn’t necessarily mean you can do this kind of travel, take such spontaneous decisions or time off your business, without worrying your income will drop.
So in this article, I want to share why that happened.
Obviously, I’ve hustled for a long, long time before any of this was possible. But there are a few elements of my current business model that allow me to take such a mini retirement any time I want, and come back happier, with more clarity and ready to do twice the work and tackle new projects and bigger goals.
This is what a lifestyle business is all about. It means creating the exact business model you want, which will give you the type of freedom you desire, and will bring in the income necessary to sustain that lifestyle.
What’s a mini retirement?
For those of you who don’t know, a mini retirement is a term lifestyle designers invented – those building their dream life thanks to their online business.
I first heard it from Tim Ferriss nearly 10 years ago, when it was still an extraordinary thing and something I could never imagine doing. But here we are now, in a world of remote workers and self-employed people doing what they love.
A mini retirement means taking a vacation whenever you want, for as long as you want, without having to worry about finances, responsibilities or your business not surviving without you.
And let me tell you this – being self-employed doesn’t mean being able to take a mini retirement. I was self-employed 4 years ago when I went to Thailand for 6 weeks. But because I was freelancing and earning only half of my income from my blog, almost none of it passively, my work was affected.
I was distracted and couldn’t work (obviously, that’s my style of mini retirement). I stopped doing freelance work and the income dropped. I had to use all my savings, which I didn’t have much of at the time, and when I was back, I was so frustrated. I was even afraid I won’t be able to pay my rent and sustain my lifestyle in Amsterdam, where I had just relocated.
I was so stressed on a daily basis, my mom was feeling sad for me, and with that mindset, it’s so hard to do freelance work.
I still had to keep finding clients as I didn’t really have regular or high-paying ones. I had to cut all extra expenses, to show up for my clients daily and find the motivation to do the work even when I didn’t feel like. And to work on growing my blog at the same time.
It wasn’t a pretty picture. But that’s what motivated me to never be in that situation again. To replace my freelance income with my blog income, to have passive income streams, to take care of my finances, to never be left without savings again, and to never have to worry if I won’t make it next month.
So, without further ado, let’s get to the juicy stuff. I wanna share what’s different now about my business than 4 years ago. These are the things that make it possible for me to rent a nice studio from AirBnb in a central place in a top destination in Europe. To not worry about extra expenses, to live well there, to not even have to worry about my return ticket, to not have to answer to anyone.
Because you and anyone else can do the same thanks to building a lifestyle business.
Let’s dive in.
No freelance/client work
The first reason why I’m so free in my business is that there are no actual clients, which means no meetings, weekly video calls, anyone to show up for 1:1, etc.
I know many of you are coaches or want to start a coaching business and that requires clients, of course. But you can still build a lifestyle business around it by having passive income streams and only opening spots a few times a year, knowing that the rest of the time you’re free to travel without having to be behind the laptop.
If you’re freelancing though, mini retirements might be a challenge. Freelancers exchange time for money, they have to answer clients’ expectations, to look for more work, to negotiate their prices.
That’s active income – which means it’s directly related to the working hours you put in.
If that’s the case, congrats for making money online. But if you want more freedom and the ability to travel any time you want without having to worry about your income dropping, you might want to consider another busi