0:00:01 - Betsy Jordyn
What if the key to unlocking your next step of success and impact isn't pushing forward but stepping back? Welcome to the Consulting Matters podcast. This is the show for purpose-driven consultants and coaches who are ready to own the power of what they do and position themselves for the impact, the income and the clients that they're absolutely ready for. So, as you may know, I'm just coming back from sabbatical, after being on sabbatical for, let's say, I think, seven months by now, and I have to say it's been the single best growth and clarity accelerator I have ever invested in. But getting my sabbatical started and figuring out what in the world do I do on sabbatical and getting into the groove well, that was a whole lot of trial and error. So I found some books and articles on sabbatical and getting into the groove Well, that was a whole lot of trial and error. So I found some books and articles on sabbatical for pastors and for people in academics, but not a lot for high achieving professionals like us, not for business owners, you know, who are going to be stepping away from revenue and our momentum and so many other things. And then I found the book that I wish I had. So I did a lot of trial and error.
I'm getting ready to come back from sabbatical and voila, there's the book the Art of the Sabbatical by Cady North. I went to her website and realized like she is the perfect person, the ideal resource that I wish I had, because she is not just somebody who has been on sabbatical herself. She is a wealth manager and she has a book that's all about the mindset and the money issues all the things that we really want to understand before we want to go on to a sabbatical. So I decided I have to have Cady come on our show, or come on my show, not our show Well, it's our show together but I wanted you to hear from her so that you could avoid expensive trial and error, like I did, and get some practical advice. If the sabbatical is something that you're interested in, I would love for you to get to know somebody who has the background and the guidance. She is the resource I wish I had and one that I cannot wait for you to meet. So, without further ado, welcome to the show, Cady.
0:02:08 - Cady North
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
0:02:11 - Betsy Jordyn
So I'm dying to hear a lot more about your experience with sabbatical. I know you're an author of an amazing book about sabbaticals, but I want to back up and just make sure everybody who's listening knows a little bit about who you are, what you do and how did you become this? It seems like you didn't start off becoming an expert in sabbaticals, so how did you become this? Like accidental expert, expert in sabbaticals, yeah.
0:02:36 - Cady North
Well, I have to say that my sabbatical about 10 years ago was one of the most transformative times of my life and I didn't know it then that it was going to be that, and I probably didn't know it for a few more years after the sabbatical how just how transformative and how pivotal it would be in my life. At that time, before my sabbatical, I was working a corporate job, of course, burning the candle at both ends, of course, completely just like running ragged Right and no one who's listening can understand what you're talking about.
0:03:07 - Betsy Jordyn
They're going to be like oh wow, I'll just feel bad for you from afar. Continue, Right.
0:03:11 - Cady North
And so, you know, I felt like at that time I just had to stop the spinning. And what that looked like for me is I just had to take a break. I literally left my job without a plan. I made the decision to leave my job on a whim, I didn't put a lot of thought into it, I just know. I just knew I couldn't continue in the way that I was going down right and this the path that I was on.
So my plan was to just take a break, and it was in May of 2015. And so I knew that the summer was coming and I knew that I had some time to think through you know what potentially my next steps would be. And at that time I was somewhat, you know, kind of entertaining the idea of starting my own business and also somewhat keeping irons in the fire in terms of, you know, just finding another job. But I do want to make a very clear distinction. Like, had I at that moment, um, gone and just job hunted, I wouldn't have been able to have the break that I had. And so I knew I needed to take take a break from everything and just have, like, quiet time.
0:04:08 - Betsy Jordyn
And so, with that ultimately were you? Were you thinking that when you decided, like I need to get a break, were you thinking sabbatical? Or are you just thinking I just need a break and I don't have a name for it?
0:04:18 - Cady North
I didn't have a name for it initially, but pretty soon I started adopting the name sabbatical because I felt, honestly, it was like a label that I felt comfortable with. You know it's, it's a respected thing in academic circles and I just started telling people. You know what I'm on sabbatical. And it's kind of funny because it was rare at that time for people to take work breaks and I did have somebody kind of quit back at me and say is that what you're calling it? And so you know there is a lot of this still.
0:04:46 - Betsy Jordyn
I mean back then there was a lot of a lot of this concern.
0:04:48 - Cady North
right Of like, when you're not doing something, something really must be wrong. But today, even though it's becoming a little bit more common to take work breaks, you know that's the number one thing you're going to have to contend with when you decide to take a break is what are people going to think of me and how do I deal with this? You know, yes.
0:05:05 - Betsy Jordyn
Well, and also they, they have a lot of different perceptions. Like, oh my God, it sounds like so much fun. I'm like, oh no, it's sabbatical is not about going out and having fun, so it sounds like for you. Then it was like I'm at, it's a corporate job, I'm burning the candle at both ends. It's like I just got to do something, I'm going to take a work break, and then you decided to put more intention around it and you know, is putting intention to the work break what makes it a sabbatical.
0:05:30 - Cady North
I think yes and no. I mean, I think the intention of a work break or a sabbatical should really be to figure out who you are when you're not working, and that's going to look so different for everyone. And I mean, if you need to create an intention because this is part of you know who you are and you need to have something you're working toward, that should be the intention. Right Is simply just to figure out who you are when you're not working, and so that's kind of the approach I took. You know, I had to wrestle with my own demons of how I basically made sure in my life that busyness equated to my self-worth at all times of the day, every day, and so if I wasn't busy, I didn't feel like I was worth anything, and so I had to examine that immediately.
And I can recall a time, one morning I woke up and I had nothing on the agenda by design and I was sitting on my floor just sort of stretching, doing a little bit of yoga pose, and I noticed a scratch on the floor, on my wooden floors, and I thought, oh my gosh, I've got to do something about this wooden floor. We've got cracks everywhere, we've got things going on. I've got to figure out how to sand this down and fix it, and it's like my brain went 5,000 miles an hour to try to solve this little problem. That had no bearing on my day at all or my week or my month. But in that moment my second thought was wow, your brain is really on fire here, like you've got to do something to calm this down, and so I let it go. Right, I was able to let it go, but it's a learning moment, and and and. These things will start happening when you take your work break, you know.
0:06:58 - Betsy Jordyn
I like, when you're talking about a work break is like this is a break from work to figure out who I am apart from work, and I think, like when I took sabbatical, I don't know if it was like who am I apart from work, but it was more like I need to take some intentional time off. I think this is where I use the word intentional versus like the time before. Like I just did my second cross country move in two years and after the first cross country move, I knew I needed some time off, but I didn't treat it as like this sacred special time off where it's time for me to you know, recover, build my energy, get my clarity, figure out who I am apart from work.
So this last time where my four month sabbatical turned into like a seven month sabbatical because I wasn't done with the process of figuring out who am I apart from work and who am I within my work process of figuring out who am I apart from work and who am I within my work Like that was the other part of it is, as I figured out who I was apart from work, I also figured out who I actually want to be within my work at the same time, so I expanded it.
But but the key of my pause I would call it is it's not like, oh, somebody just gets laid off. It's like, okay, if you get laid off, then make it a sabbatical. Like, just treat it with some sacredness of time.
0:08:07 - Cady North
Yeah.
0:08:07 - Betsy Jordyn
I don't know. So it sounds like we're on the same page around that one yes yes.
So in my research, I wish I would have found your book when I first started, which is why I'm so excited to have you on the show now after my sabbatical, because when I was first going on sabbatical, I found a lot of books and resources for people who are in ministry taking a sabbatical. I found articles on academics starting a sabbatical. I don't have a lot for, like high achieving professionals just needing a real break, especially for entrepreneurs. So how do you think a sabbatical? Why is there so little written about this? And how is a sabbatical for people like there so little written about this? And you know? And how is a sabbatical for people like us, different than you know people? Just, you know, overwhelmed with people, demands or wanting to take a break to write a book or do some research.
0:08:53 - Cady North
Yeah, I mean, I think you know it's the time of our lives has sort of changed in a way. Like, if you think about a generation before us or two generations before us, the notion that you would have the funds or the capital to even take a break from work, the notion that you would even job hop, the notion that you might completely shift careers, was not even on the table Right. And so in the United States we've created wealth for ourselves, We've created opportunities and options for ourselves with our wealth, and this just simply wasn't an option in years prior.
And it generally takes a few decades right to get new ideas out there into the world, and so this is we're kind of at the cusp of this where people have the time and space and perhaps you know, monetary security in a way that they could entertain something like this. And we also have this notion now that you, now that we are living a lot longer and our quality of life is a lot better than it has been in previous generations, and so we actually have the time to reinvent ourselves through educational resources and what have you, multiple times in our careers, and so there's an opportunity to take intentional breaks when we make these pivots and changes. There's an opportunity to use those breaks even to be a jumping off point for some of these pivots and changes in our lives. So I think there's just a number of cultural things that are kind of coming together to create more of an opportunity for sabbaticals, and we'll start to see it a lot more now going forward.
0:10:24 - Betsy Jordyn
Okay, so the three factors that I heard you say is one that we have more wealth or funding that we're able to do. Second, we're living longer, so that there's actually more time in our lives in order to do that. And what was the third one? Again, that makes sabbatical something that we could be focusing on now?
0:10:44 - Cady North
Not just that we're living longer, but that we reinvent ourselves and we can have this opportunity to kind of do career changes throughout our careers.
0:10:52 - Betsy Jordyn
So that really brings me to another question I have around, like who should take a sabbatical? You know, when I like, after going through this life-changing thing, I would say it was the best, best personal professional development thing I've ever invested in and I have been in business for myself for 15 years, I've invested a lot, I've done a lot of therapy. I have done, I've done. I'm a, I'm a growth person. This by far was the best investment you know. So you could say well, somebody won, like me, who was burned out to a crisp, you know where. You know it was just, it was like either take sabbatical or just like not function. You know, but what are other people like? Why is this so powerful? And who should take a sabbatical?
0:11:32 - Cady North
Yeah, I mean, there's so many reasons why you might want to. I mean, we've we've touched on some of it, like the whole culture of burnout and, you know, needing to take a rest and a reset. But you know, I've met so many people, talk to so many people who've used it as a way to finish a dissertation or write a book, um, to focus on a volunteer project, to just really switch gears and and give our time, give ourselves time and space to really discover something new. Um, you know, I've also seen it used as a way to practice quote unquote retirement or have a mini retirement to get a taste for what that might look like eventually. And it's just, it's just something that, like I said, our parents' generation, our grandparents' generation, just never would have thought about. Retirement, what's that? I'm going to retire when I get my pension? We don't have pensions nowadays. We don't have this like stop point forever and ever. We can, we can kind of create whatever we want, well, into however long we want to work Right.
0:12:30 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah. So it's like people who are definitely burnt out and it seems like people who are just sort of like in the crossroads, you know, like on crossroads kind of thing, like they don't know which way to go, go some space. Some of it is people might just have like a burning desire to create something like a volunteer project or a book or some kind. So the reasons are are very personal to you, but it seems like whatever you do, it's a stepping away from your day to day and your normal responsibilities. To almost go into that, like in the hero's journey. It's like going into the unknown world just to see what's there.
0:12:58 - Cady North
For sure, and for some people, travel is a big component of this. Like, travel is an opportunity to see the world, see the way other cultures live, learn a lot of new things about culture, language, food, whatever, and so that tends to be a way that people can explore. And when better would you have the time and space to travel than on a work break? Right, we don't give ourselves. You know, americans don't even take enough vacation. I mean, honestly, two week vacation. Half the people don't even take all that Right.
0:13:29 - Betsy Jordyn
So I was really tempted to do a lot of the things that you were talking about and you know, do the travel thing, you know, and I started booking travel, I started working on a course that I've abandoned because I'm like I am not like recovering myself, like I'm not finding who myself, cause I just replaced like work with other work and people with other people. You know. So, for me, I had to like step away from all of that and then almost like have empty calendars of nothingness which, um, you know for like that's what, like what I needed. And what really kicked me off was like taking like a week of like total silence just to kind of learn some. What do I do in the nothingness, kind of thing you know where I built in things like working, what working habits?
That? That that's funny, that I would. That was a misnomer, you know, or accidental thing. I didn't come up with working habits. It came up with walking, walking my neighborhood, not working habits, you know. Like that's what I chose to do. Like what do other people do on sabbatical? Like what do you recommend, or is it like you just discover it along the way? Like what? Like when somebody wants to go to sabbatical, that's going to be the first question. Like what the heck do you do?
0:14:34 - Cady North
Yeah, I mean, I think nobody's sabbatical plan, when met with reality, is exactly what they think. And I would give you that exact cautionary tale that you mentioned is like what I have seen people do is busy themselves through a work break, and that doesn't allow you the time or space to do any of this self-discovery, to write to journal, to consider other ways of being, being in our bodies, being in ourselves, right, and so that is the big cautionary tale is just wrestle with that and realize what you're feeling when you have this urge to kind of busy your way and checklist your way through a sabbatical, because that's not the really the path that's going to lead to creativity and, you know, discovery. And so, yeah, I mean, I think it's important to just hold your plans loosely is how I would put it. Hold your plans loosely because they're likely going to change and your ideas and thoughts are going to change.
0:15:26 - Betsy Jordyn
So okay, so you're going to hold your plans loosely. It sounds like we need to have some sort of plan though going into sabbatical, you know. So a lot of questions people might have around getting ready for a sabbatical, you know, might be partially what am I going to do in sabbatical? But also like, how am I going to fund it? How long am I going to go on sabbatical? How do I tell everybody about it? You know, like, what's my communication plan? So when you work with your clients and your I know you have a book at which I want to, I want to dive into and we'll get to the end and you do coaching, one-on-one with people around planning for their sabbatical. Like what do you, what do you actually plan with them?
0:16:02 - Cady North
Yeah, so I you know I'm a financial advisor. My day to day is in managing people's money Right, and I would say over 50% of my clients now have taken a work break, which is amazing and it's good to be able to know that, like there's, there is this movement and change with people's mindset on this on this front. But the financial aspect is a really important part of this. It's not the only part of this, because I have to say I've worked with clients for six months, eight months, two years even, to come up with a financial plan that supports their sabbatical. And even despite that, they're still holding on to some of these other questions you mentioned, like what am I going to tell my friends? What am I going to do when I get done with my sabbatical? I might have a plan for the sabbatical, but what do I do when I get done with it and what happens if I don't have something on the other side? You know these are really scary things, and so in these sabbatical sessions when I'm working with clients, you know we're exploring the fears and we're taking them one by one, of what is real and what is made up and what can we do when we're faced with some of these things.
But on the financial planning piece of it, anyone can really come up with a plan to save for a sabbatical, and if you think about it like saving a percentage of your income versus some sort of dollar amount out there, it can be really a nice way to think about it.
For example, if you can save 5% of your take-home pay, you can fund a three-month sabbatical in five years of saving. And so just there's something about having a timeline and some certainty around it that it feels like, oh, you know, I can maybe do that Like, what's 5% of my take-home pay? Is it really that much, right? And then if you ratchet up your savings 10%, 15% right, if you've got enough income coming in that you can ratchet up your savings 10%, 15%. If you've got enough income coming in that you can ratchet up your savings, you can take that timeline and shrink it significantly. If you're saving 10% of your take-home pay, you could fund a six-month sabbatical in five years instead of just the three months. So there's a lot of options and opportunities when we start thinking about giving our dollars a job instead of just blindly reacting to day-to-day things that may come our way.
0:18:12 - Betsy Jordyn
So I find it interesting, whenever I talk about sabbatical, people are like I get a lot of interesting reactions around the money front and I have like super wealthy friends who are immediately before we even talked about sabbatical. I just say I'm on sabbatical. They're like I could never do it. I got two kids in college, you know. But meanwhile they're going on like these nonstop trips around the world. I'm like okay, well, if you can do this, you might.
You know, there's other resistance, because I think that there's one side of the resistance is the financial, and I'm not going to lie.
It was super expensive Because when and the way I think about and why I'm like I got to do make changes, why I went on that silent retreat and like I got this, is very expensive because it's not just like I had money from my house sale that I was living off of, it was all the revenue that I wasn't making and all of the like, my stats and my momentum, like I put them in a standstill. So it was super risky from that standpoint, you know. So there is like this financial package, but I don't think it's a pure dollar thing. I think that to go on sabbatical it's really more like well, what if I go and I found out I'm nothing but who I am at work? What if I get in there and I find out nothing interesting, like it's a huge space that you know? Have you ever seen somebody go on sabbatical, like you know, and really not come out with greater clarity, more rest, like recovery? Have you ever seen anybody you know like really do the sabbatical and not come out with that kind of return?
0:19:34 - Cady North
I mean, they've all, they've all had some transformation in their lives, and sometimes the transformation is I'm gonna need to take another sabbatical at some point. Yeah, right, but yeah, it's, it's interesting. You know, you can always, you can guarantee that there will be changes that come, but it's hard to say what direction they will take. You know, and it is really interesting thinking about you know how comparing yourself right you mentioned like wealthy friends who think, oh, I mean, this is not possible, right that, right, that comparing ourselves thing is really dangerous in our work lives. But it's hard to compare yourself to someone else who's on sabbatical. One, you may not know anybody else, right, but two, it's like your unique experience is going to be so different from anyone else's. So it's a really unique time in that we get to just compare ourselves to ourselves, and even that is a huge gift Would you recommend in light of now?
0:20:31 - Betsy Jordyn
what year did you take your sabbatical?
0:20:33 - Cady North
I took my sabbatical 10 years ago. It was in 2015.
0:20:37 - Betsy Jordyn
So I wonder too, like one of my clients her name is Michelle Natalia Moore. For those who are listening, you might have seen some of her stuff on my website and some of the things I talk about with her, but she's called herself a digital wellbeing strategist and she's a very big advocate of device free time and I find like making intentional choices to be away from my device Like, sometimes I go walk with you know, listening to a podcast, Sometimes I go and listen to music, but I have intentional times to get rid of my device and not having devices at all during that silent retreat was probably the container that I needed. What is it about devices that is affecting our workplaces and what role of taking breaks from your devices or having a different kind of relationship with your devices? What role does that play on sabbatical?
0:21:22 - Cady North
Yeah, I mean, I think devices just consistently reinforce that there's something always going on that deserves our attention and there's something to do, there's something to respond to, there's something to engage with. Right, and something that a sabbatical teaches us is that recharge time is a part of our job.
It's vital to our job because, we're not going to be able to give of ourselves to others, to help people to make progress, if we're not in a good place ourselves. And so a sabbatical for me, that was a huge lesson that I had to learn, or maybe it was something I had to unlearn. Right, that recharge time felt like extra, it felt like a waste, laziness, right, there's all these things that you can label it with. But actually recharge time is valuable and for me now I actually measure it as a part of my metrics. I turn those concepts of metrics that are just like boiling around in our brains all the time and I try to put beneficial metrics in there, like time off and recharge time, because if you measure it, it actually gets done. And I try to put beneficial metrics in there, like time off and recharge time, because if you measure it, it actually gets done and we can take these natural human tendencies and kind of create a virtuous cycle with it.
0:22:35 - Betsy Jordyn
Well, when we first met to talk about getting ready for this podcast, it was like I have a hard stop because I got pottery class and it was like like to me that's part of the, the lessons of sabbatical is like. You treated that class with the same level as like I have a really, really important client meeting. You treated it like that, yeah.
0:22:55 - Cady North
Yeah, and I think that's today, even though it's been quite some time since I took my work break and and since then you know, I launched a business, I became an entrepreneur, I did a lot of new things that were very new for me. I had to come full circle again of like learning how to live life more like a sabbatical as opposed to having something that I need to escape from all the time, and so that's kind of the place I find myself in, and what I am kind of learning and unlearning at this point is sort of what does that look like for me? How do I hold space and balance for my work, give it a compartment and a place to live? But how do I also have these other outreach moments of creativity, time and uniqueness that just are light and do give me recharge, do give me awe and wonder in my life in a way that just grinding your nose at a corporate job just can't offer?
0:23:46 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, so you had said that. So you took a work break because you were in this busy, crazy corporate kind of thing. You decided I need to quit my job and get some space. You turned it into a sabbatical and it sounds like within that space you discovered that you wanted to be an entrepreneur and you wanted to do more of the wealth management and you found your passion for pottery as well. Can you talk about how these ahas came during your sabbatical?
0:24:13 - Cady North
Yeah, I mean, I think one thing I had to wrestle with is my own kind of preconceived notions about entrepreneurship. My parents were both entrepreneurs and small business owners and their lives did not have any room for stress-free moments or breaks, right, they were just full to the brim, complete and total exhaustion. And so I kind of went the opposite in my early career where I was like no, I think corporate job makes more sense, because this entrepreneurship feels really scary and it feels super stress-inducing with the way I grew up around it. And I think my work break sort of taught me that there might be like an in-between or a gray area. It doesn't have to be one or the other.
In fact, you could create a workspace through entrepreneurship that actually had a lot more flexibility and freedom, as long as you take that flexibility and freedom and build it in from the beginning. And you know, I also had the benefit of having my MBA and kind of learning a little bit more about how to create a business with balance than maybe my parents did and their experience that they had. But you know, I kind of my sabbatical taught me that I could actually build what I want and design the bones of it in a different way than some of what I had experienced growing up and the fact that my parents were small business owners, I had learned a lot as a young girl. I was like the balancing the business checkbook. When I was 13 years old, I was learning about things that a lot of people aren't exposed to, and so that created a leg up as well in terms of being able to wear some of these multiple hats that you have to wear as an entrepreneur.
0:25:52 - Betsy Jordyn
So it sounds like for you is that it really taught you good entrepreneurial habits before you became a full-on entrepreneur? Like you didn't want to become like your parents, you wound up almost kind of being like your parents in a corporate job and it's almost like you still ditched that model and created your own model.
0:26:06 - Cady North
Yeah, yeah, I would say that's very true and that's I think that's the reason why I hold this experience up as being so transformational, because there's just no way I could have known that I would be able to do this 10 years in and that I would be successful at it and financially secure at it in a way that you know will continue to provide nourishment in multiple ways. You know I get to help people every day and it's amazing in multiple ways.
0:26:34 - Betsy Jordyn
You know I get to help people every day and it's amazing. So can I? Can I be your client for a second? And can you cause? I'm in a? I I'm in the process of, like, slow walking back and there's been something that I've been observing about myself that's different, that I only could have gotten on sabbatical because, you know, I started my business where my kids were little and I want to work life balance.
I've been searching for work life balance, you know, for 15 years and I was an entrepreneur and what I feel like that something had happened on my sabbatical where, like I feel like the inside of me, no matter what my external circumstances were, I had a little energizer bunny with me inside me constantly, like needing to achieve, needing to focus, and part of like my intention or what I really wanted to walk away with, is like a different kind of rhythm and flow and I really worked on that part of myself. And there's this house in my neighborhood that they were building this addition I promise this will all make sense because I do have a question on this one but I found it really fascinating Every time I'd walk. I have a million pictures of this house because I've been tracking its progress. And it started off where they had the cement machines and they were making like bricks progress. And it started off where they had the cement machines and they were making like bricks and then they had the frame went up and this I'm like, oh yeah, this is what the pace is supposed to be like. And you know, so my as I, my energizer bunny sort of leaving and it's like I'm in this pace.
But now I'm trying to get some work done and it's like, wow, I'm not as fast as I used to be, you know, like I'm really living my intention, but it's like the energizer bunny's gone and I feel like, okay, what am I going to do? Because I kind of like I'm like I'm trying to adjust to this new work pace where it's just taking me longer to do things. It's taking me, everything I do takes me longer. And then I hit like a roadblock and instead of like wanting to sit there and push it through, you know I'll go out for a walk instead. And it's like, wow, I'm, you know, and I'm like trying to process, like there's a huge part of how I interacted with work that is fundamentally shifted, that I couldn't have gotten outside of doing sabbatical because my Energizer bunny was constantly at work. Like I don't know what happened, like maybe my Energizer bunny, just you know, gave up and left the building, or I don't know where my Energizer bunny is. But do you get what I do you?
0:28:30 - Cady North
get my question Totally, and it's one of those things where you've discovered that problem solving isn't always about sitting in front of your computer and just trying to cram it out right. Problem solving often happens in the back of our minds when we least expect it, when we're kind of dozing off to dreamland, when we're taking a walk, when we're doing something completely unrelated like looking at a garden. Those are the moments that our brain can actually solve problems that are deeper than just simply getting something done on a checklist right. And so in a lot of ways our productivity can really be hastened by taking a work break or building in breaks to our days, our weeks, our months, because it does allow more white space to think through problem solving. And it's just so amazing to me all the time how, the more I try to fix the one thing I'm worried about, the less comfortable I feel with it. And then when I just give it a break, it's amazing what kind of comes out of my brain in terms of a solution.
And we have to allow time and space for that. We have to build it in intentionally, and for some people what that looks like is, instead of having a to-do list, we have a recharge list that we need to accomplish in our week or our month. Right, it might be. This is our monthly, you know, retreat day or something like that. So building it in, building in those moments of rest and reflection unstructured time is how I phrase it. It doesn't have to be anything but unstructured.
0:30:02 - Betsy Jordyn
So I wonder if I just need to like think about like, all the tasks and it's like if it used to take me a day to do it. Give myself three days. So I am like building my tasks more where I can have those rhythms in there. You know, because I, because I had that, because I don't have the desire anymore, like I don't know what happened to my Energizer Bunny, but I don't have the desire.
The other thing that's changing me too is I really can't you know I don't have swear words on my podcast, but you know it's like algorithms, like I can't care about algorithms anymore. I can't care about, you know, the likes and the vanity Like I just can't care anymore, like I don't know if this is a good idea or it's just temporary, but I put a pause on like my Uber suggest because I don't want, I don't want keywords to dictate my creativity. You know, anymore to that same extent, you know is am I just in this like temporary, like I'm just kind of out of sabbatical, or is this like, is this part of like, how we shift when we come out of sabbatical? I?
0:30:59 - Cady North
think, in some ways, it's a lot of how we shift right Cause we focus for me. I. I now I want to focus on things that bring me energy and bring me joy, and I find a lot of those marketing tasks some of the things you're talking about to be energy drainers and energy time sinks, and if I feel drained, I can't do the real work, which is the direct one-on-one client work, Right, and so I find that I need to protect my energy more and I'm appreciating that and leaning into it, as opposed to the guilt that we feel like, oh shoot, I didn't get that newsletter out, oh shoot, I forgot to do my post this week, right, that is a huge guilt, like energy sink, and it just really sucks the life out. So focus on things that that you do enjoy.
About marketing, you know, maybe there's another aspect of this, like when you go on your walks, maybe there's a phone call you can make to somebody to catch up with them, or maybe you can like build in some time to do in-person stuff, or somebody to catch up with them, or maybe you can like build in some time to do in-person stuff, or or what have you Right? So figure out what does recharge you in terms of those aspects of marketing or things that tend to be a like an energy sink for you and explore it Right, and you never know or do you pod, do podcasts with someone that you found their book and you're like oh my God, I want to talk to you, like, like for like.
0:32:18 - Betsy Jordyn
For me it's like I feel like I'm still like in the zone of things that I like, but I just find it fascinating. It's like wow, this is taking me a lot longer. Like I have a guest speaking opportunity that I'm doing next week and normally I could like bang out a presentation in a day. This is like taking me a week to do the one thing you know like trying to figure out like my podcast back from sabbatical.
Normally I could just like whip that out Like this took me a week, it took me a day and a half to redo my podcast trailer for 30 seconds. It used to take me like I was like a one, you know, one take person Like why is this so fricking hard? But I but it's like because my Energizer Bunny isn't there and I'm, I feel much more connected to my words and I feel much more connected to what I'm doing. So I feel like it's just everything's taking longer, but it's an adjustment, you know, it's like it's an adjustment of new work, Betsy and how she's showing up, and I just I think that's the most interesting thing for me coming out of sabbatical is I'm not the same. I don't feel the same. I don't feel the same. I'm not the same person. My business is completely it's not completely different, but it's like my, my how I'm talking about it is different.
But how I feel about myself, like I'm standing while I'm doing this podcast because I'm standing a lot more like I'm in my body, like everything goes, you know, like my value proposition isn't on my head or my heart, it kind of comes from my feet, and that, to me, is like part of the value of sabbatical, which is the next big question is the value. I guess we're kind of moving to the value part. This is the biggest question that people are asking me a lot outside of the economics, and how do you prepare? Oh, the other question is is how do you return from a sabbatical and what's the value of taking a sabbatical? So maybe we can hit the return first and then you can kind of like bring it home with the value of the sabbatical. How do you go back into the world?
0:33:54 - Cady North
yeah, well, you know. Another thing that I've noticed and observed with folks is that typically a sabbatical ends up taking weeks or months longer than you expect in. In my average that I've been keeping track of, it's about three months longer than you initially plan for, and so it is definitely worth planning ahead of time for this, what I'm calling a transitionary period, the time after you've sort of completed your sabbatical but you're on to figuring out what is the next phase really look like. And some people that's a job hunt, some people that's changing your entire business or, you know, trying to get a new client roster right. There's. This can look different ways for different folks, and so allowing time and space that's not rushed for this transition period is really key and really important, and it's just not going to unfold the way you think.
Things aren't going to come just as easy as they have in the past, because you have changed, right. You've still, you've shoved off this notion that was honed during the industrial age of metrics and do, do, do and the checklist here and there and everywhere. Right. We're moving into a phase. We are in the knowledge-based economy. Creativity takes time, preparing for things takes time, and we have to allow ourselves for that to unfold, and so, as a result, it's going to take time. This going back to work will take time and, exactly as you're feeling, you're still almost in this evolutionary part. You're experimenting every day with what works for you and that's going to happen for everyone when they emerge from sabbatical, figuring out what the new normal is. And I can tell you one thing you're going to be far less interested in putting up with something that's not a good fit and that's a benefit, not a problem, right? You're going to be so much more successful in what you do decide to do and how you do decide to put it forward than from before.
0:35:43 - Betsy Jordyn
I wonder if it goes back to the return from sabbatical and the return on investment from sabbatical. Something that you just said you said a couple minutes ago is like it's really protecting your energy, but it's like protecting your joy. Protecting it is like, maybe in the space of sabbatical, when you get rid of all the should twos, ought twos and all the noise of what people are telling you what you should be, and you're getting, you're getting rid of all the rhythms of things that didn't work and you're getting clear on this is what it feels like to feel in spaces. Yeah, and this is what it feels like to be in flow and I don't want anything to disrupt it. Like it's almost like I. Like I look at it as the pearl of great price. You know where you gave up all your money to go get this pearl and now it's like I'm not going to do anything to mess with it. That's the that might be. Does that make?
0:36:29 - Cady North
sense it totally does. And I think you know some people would say it the way they would say it is like I know myself more and I know what I can and can't like, what I can and can't give my attention to and what I do and don't want to give my attention to, and so that shifts because it is you know, you kind of appear in the world in a very different way than what you did before, and that there can be a grief process associated with that too, because it's it's a little scary when we change our identities in some ways.
0:36:59 - Betsy Jordyn
Well, it's almost like you're, but you like knowing who you are it is. It's almost like I'm so confident in it. I know when it's not who I am. I know when I'm stepping outside of that particular zone. I also feel like, from a clarity standpoint, like, especially like a lot of my clients I work with people who are at mid-career, who were like you, where they, you know, did all the corporate stuff and now they want to get into entrepreneurship. I feel like that that is the right time, because you had said in our previous conversation is, if you didn't take sabbatical, you would have just gone out and got a job. Oh yeah, and you know like it's like you didn't recreate. Maybe it's like sabbatical keeps you from recreating the situation that led to the need for a sabbatical in the first place.
0:37:41 - Cady North
It does, it certainly does and it you know, we learn something through the leaving and we learn something through the break about that, about ourselves and sort of what we're willing to do. And whatever we do next, we're coming back to it in our most refreshed state. We're giving more of ourselves, in a way, because we have more to give. We have more rest and reflection time, you know.
0:38:05 - Betsy Jordyn
So put your wealth management hat on for a second and speak to my SAGE clients who like security, who like financial stability. What would you tell them if they are in that place where it's like maybe I should take a sabbatical, but they're not sure about the ROI From your perspective? You are a wealth management expert, you're a finance expert. What would you?
0:38:33 - Cady North
tell them. So it's very easy to get caught up in an ROI as a monetary thing, as a monetary measurement, but I would say probably more of the ROI is going to come from a very different place. That may not be monetary, but it also could be a combination of monetary success as well as sort of mental freedom and a mental state of evolution, really, and so to begin looking for a whole person like your whole person, and how that might change and be reflected in a work break, is really how you're going to totally measure your ultimate ROI. In a way, it's not always going to be fully monetary. However, I will tell you from experience that most people, when they return from sabbatical, have this mindset that they think they're going to have to go to something lower paying, doing less, getting less compensation for what it is they do and the complete opposite typically happens. Because we know ourself more, we can find the right niche, we can approach it with new energy and purpose, and that typically creates monetary success that follows.
0:39:44 - Betsy Jordyn
I agree, and I think a lot of times, like when you make the shift from like corporate to starting your own business, it's like, well, sometimes the salary that you made in corporate came with a price tag that you weren't really recognizing, and, and to me there's like the whole wealth is not just the pure like what's the revenue. I think about, like when I was super busy as a consultant, I made more than maybe I do in this business model, but I didn't net more because I had to spend more on, you know, mindfulness, retreats and vacations and all the other things to keep that energy going. And so I think that there's an interesting look at a total wealth package, if you will, that it's not just pure what's my income, what's my revenue. There's other factors that could lead into what the ROI could look like there. Really, are.
0:40:28 - Cady North
And also a lot of times when you think about that, like I need to match my previous salary, well, you're not looking at it like on a per hour approach and an energy approach, right, like I guarantee you, your corporate salary per hour looked a lot worse than it does today. I'm certain of it. Right, and so we may. We do get caught up in that ego aspect when we become entrepreneurs, like, well, you know, I could have been making this or I could have been doing this at my corporate job. But I always go back to that aspect. It's like, well, per hour, I'm compensated more fully than I was at my corporate job and also I have so much more. The total package is so much more than I ever could have dreamed of if I had stayed in the corporate world. And that is so valuable to me, you know, having that, those options and the flexibility and the balance Right.
0:41:16 - Betsy Jordyn
And you wouldn't have written the book that you wrote if you were in the corporate. You know, like you have the freedom to do your business however you want. It might be like, well, why are you writing about sabbaticals when you're a wealth manager? So let's talk about your book. So you have a book. You have two books, one's on resilience and one is on the art of the sabbatical book. You have two books, one's on resilience and one is on the art of the sabbatical. So I I know I want to talk about the art of the sabbatical, but it seems like the art of the sabbatical comes out of the resilience effect.
0:41:41 - Cady North
Yes, yes. So my COVID project. I'd always wanted to write a book, and so my COVID project became like this creative outlet of writing and I decided to package it all together in a book called the Resiliency Effect. And it was a great, it was a cathartic experience. Actually. You could almost kind of call that another sabbatical in a way, because everybody was already kind of on sabbatical during COVID.
0:42:02 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah.
0:42:03 - Cady North
But the writing was so transformative for me and healing in a lot of ways, and so I was doing a lot of self-discovery and really like writing down on paper things that I had processed years and years prior.
But sort of getting it together in a package was really great for me.
And one of the chapters of that book was about how to take a sabbatical, and when the book was published and launched, I started getting random strangers reaching out to me saying that they decided to take a sabbatical after reading the book, and that was like the big nugget that had come out of reading the book and I thought well, you know, since I wrote this book, I've really come across it a ton of times and, like I said, most of my clients at this point are taking work breaks, and so I had a lot of case studies to offer and I decided really to package it all into a bigger project called the Art of the Sabbatical, which I published last year, so four years after the first book, and so it was cool to kind of.
The first book was a wide discussion of a lot of different things and it was almost like each chapter was its own little vignette and the Art of the Sabbatical became a deeper dive into the one area to look at the both the money and the mindset aspects of what people wrestle with and the successes that they experience taking work breaks.
0:43:18 - Betsy Jordyn
So tell me what readers can expect. So it sounds like you have some real world perspective on money, the money and the mindset that relates to sabbatical. It sounds like there's like real world case studies that people can draw from. Is there other things that people can expect when they get the book?
0:43:34 - Cady North
Yeah, so there's some really great chapters about, even if you can't afford a sabbatical right now, how you can get a taste of it and how you can design your life to be a little bit more like every day is a sabbatical, which I love that chapter because I find that like if really the finances are a stumbling block for you, this doesn't have to.
You don't have to live your life the way everybody lives it, right, you can. You can actually create these moments of rest and recharge throughout your days and weeks, and so that's a really great chapter. There's all sorts of ways to like get in the weeds and do tax planning, because there's a huge tax savings, to having a lower income year. There's ways that you can think about, you know, supercharging some of your retirement savings while on a work break. So it gets in the weeds on a lot of financial concepts, but a lot of the book is really about these case studies and what people wrestle with and how they overcame it and what they ended up doing afterwards, and so it's a cool way to give you some energy around figuring out what your sabbatical might look like as you try to design it.
0:44:34 - Betsy Jordyn
Okay, I'm just sitting here listening, like why did I not find your book before I went on sabbatical? Because that sounds like exactly what I would have needed you know back then, especially around Thursday, the financial side and what to expect. But I also I also really love, like how it was packaged initially around this whole idea of resilience as well. So I love that you're providing that guidance. You said something, too, about like just doing many sabbaticals and I just want to touch on that. And then I want to get into your coaching.
I just I found it interesting because sabbaticals like connected to the word Sabbath. You know that a lot of people who are Bible followers would say, well, the Sabbath is is something that they do. And I find it interesting that, you know, when I was doing my research in the sabbatical was a lot of it was from the ministry perspective, and they'll go right in and say it's like one of the 10 commandments. Like you know, we want to like post the 10 commandments everywhere. I'm like don't murder and you know don't. You know don't cheat on people.
But we're not looking at the commandment for rest as a commandment. We just blow that one off. It just seems like a simple way to get a mini sabbatical is simply taking a day and the day of rest that we're supposed to do, you know. Or if you're of that belief system, you know that's recommended. But it's not just the Judeo-Christian tradition that recommends time off. I just find that interesting. I don't know if you found that interesting. I found it interesting Like, hey, wait a minute, this is a command, why are we?
0:45:57 - Cady North
not doing this? Yeah, and you know, it's one of those things. I think it goes back to culture, right? It's like in America, we're all about work. We design our life and our identity from a very young age. You know we're teaching five-year-olds what do you want to be when you grow up and then when you're in college, what is your major and what are you doing and what do you?
you know, and then at parties what do you do for work? And it's like that's the only way we know how to interact with each other as humans is by what we do for a living. I don't get it Right and I hate asking that question at parties, but it's. It's taught from us at a very young age that this is somehow your worth and where you are valuable, and the sabbatical is sort of the antithesis of that. It's like no, there are other things about me and I'm a whole person and I'm going to connect with that and that's that's actually who I am, and so it's a cultural thing and we're working through it. But I do have a lot of hope that this will be a much more standard offering and I'm seeing a lot more corporate employers offering it as a benefit as well.
0:47:01 - Betsy Jordyn
Well, and a lot of people that are going to be listening to our conversation. You're entrepreneurs. Yeah, we choose. You know like we choose to do our time. You know, and I remember like one summer after another move it seems like moves kind of wear me out after another move, when my kids were little, I did take the summer off, but I didn't do it in an intentional sort of way. Just like I forget it, I'm just going to stop marketing you know, and that didn't work out well because I had no, no planning.
but we have the choice. It just seems like just put a little, just a little thought, a little extra thought and attention, and this could be a really rejuvenating time.
0:47:37 - Cady North
Absolutely. And I mean, as entrepreneurs, we do have the flexibility to just tell our clients look, I'm not going to be around for a couple of weeks. You know, if something is really urgent, you could follow these steps or whatever. Lay it out, but I guarantee you most people will be like cheering you on yes, go for it, do it, love that for you, right. And we do have a unique opportunity as entrepreneurs to embrace that, and I think just finding ways to measure that and build more of that into our daily lives is going to be the real game changer.
0:48:06 - Betsy Jordyn
But I think it's important that, if you have your own business, is that you let people know, like you just said, like you tell your clients like versus just ghosting, like I could have just stopped marketing like I did in 2015. And like I just stopped marketing for the summer, you know. And then it's like okay, what does that mean? Like versus, like hey, everyone, I'm exhausted, I'm taking time off, like I'm being respectful, like nobody likes to feel ghosted. And I think that we have to also understand, like when we're trying to create an online following and then all of a sudden, we just ghost them like that's just not cool, you know. Like we just need to be engaged.
I don't want to leave our conversation without talking about your coaching, because I think that is a very unique thing. So not only do you have a book, but you also have a special offer where I think I saw like you have more than one, but you have different offers of kind of support you can provide somebody who's going into sabbatical which, if I would have known about you beforehand, I would have definitely taken you up on that one. But tell me a little bit about what you offer and what that experience is like.
0:49:01 - Cady North
Yeah, yeah. So I offer like a one-time sabbatical coaching session where we can talk about, like building the financial plan and building the sort of social construct plan for being able to take a sabbatical at a later date. But also we could take that one time discussion and actually, if you're already in sabbatical, start to help you think about creating some of these virtuous cycles that we've been talking about and also easing the transition back to work, because that can be a huge fear problem for folks.
And so my option is to do one or either of those sessions right a one-time thing, or you could buy a package of a couple of sessions so that we could talk about things over time and let it all unfold.
0:49:45 - Betsy Jordyn
What did you say? Virtuous circles, virtuous cycle. That must be a chapter in your book because I really like that one. Tell me about that.
0:49:52 - Cady North
Yeah, a virtuous cycle, yeah, of you know creating some of these habits, that we don't need to create a ton of habits while we're in sabbatical, but as we ease back into the workforce, you know what are some of our boundaries and what are some of the habits they're going to create a virtuous cycle so that we don't fall into the burnout trap again.
0:50:11 - Betsy Jordyn
That's brilliant. I love the way. Did you just did you come up with that?
0:50:15 - Cady North
Like I love that concept, like I don't think I came up with it, I um, but you know, I certainly will claim it today.
0:50:23 - Betsy Jordyn
So I really like kind of like the way that you're talking about like when to have coaching and I like that you don't have too much coaching, you know is that you have the coaching in the beginning, maybe in the middle and then maybe on the return, but it's not like you're holding their hand through the sabbatical. And I'll tell you why. I feel like that is is a big part of what I had learned on sabbatical is like to kind of cut off all the advisors. You know I have a ton of coaches and counseling kind of people consultants this is who I serve. I have a lot of people with a lot of advice, and really learning how to cut off like other people's voices and to hear my own was a huge part of my whole sabbatical experience. So I love that. It's like it feels like you're just kind of like putting a little hand on the back when you need it as somebody's walking through, but you're not like just showing them everything they need to do on sabbatical. You're letting them kind of figure it out Absolutely.
0:51:15 - Cady North
I mean, you definitely can't busy your way through this time, and also, everyone's sabbatical is going to be completely different, and that's the beauty of it is learning what that's going to look like for you. And so I would rather hear about what it's looked like for you than prescribe it, because I don't think that I could even imagine what your best life would look like.
0:51:35 - Betsy Jordyn
So we talked a lot about a lot of different things about sabbatical. So, out of everything that we talked about or maybe something we didn't talk about what is one thing that you want every listener, every consultant, coach, business owner who's listening to this episode to know about sabbaticals? I would say the number one thing is business owner who's listening to this episode to know about sabbaticals.
0:51:52 - Cady North
I would say, the number one thing is, you know, reflection. So we have to take moments during our work break that allow us to absorb and process what we've been learning. And for me, I love writing. Writing is a wonderful outlet. Not everyone loves that, but I think there needs to be some reflection time built into our sabbatical. And for some people this might be an art project. It might be the walking that you do. For me, talk writing became a thing. I loved speaking into a transcription and just talking and then using that to develop maybe a form of writing or something along those lines.
0:52:32 - Betsy Jordyn
But that reflection like talk writing while you're. You're in a chair, like chair or walking.
0:52:38 - Cady North
Yeah, um, and so there's so many different outlets for how you could do this, but this, this kind of processing and active, kind of an active process of taking stock of where we are and what we've learned is so valuable, and maybe you just do it at the very end. It's not even something that goes on in between, it's just sort of at the end you want to take a moment. I think that's going to pay huge dividends and give you a lot of energy and purpose.
0:53:06 - Betsy Jordyn
With regards to reflection, I deal with a lot of head people because you know I'm a head person. I think you're a head person. We are in our heads. I've always been a journaler, a reflection person from that standpoint, but I found it different from journaling in a chair versus walking it out and talking it, that there's a different kind of energy. I feel like I get out of my head and get more like it feels like just things clear up in a faster way with that kind of energy and I feel like I get out of my head and get more like it feels like just things like clear up in a faster way with that kind of process. Why is that? Why does that work?
0:53:37 - Cady North
Yeah, I mean there's a real magic in bilateral stimulation and you know people do it through all kinds of modalities, like there's a concept called tapping, where you tap sides of your body as you're thinking through and processing things. Just the simple walking motion of right, left, right, left, that can be very stimulating for the brain and also calming for the nervous system. So I think there's that aspect of it is if we can get our nervous system calm, where we can listen to ourselves, that's going to be important to the reflection process.
0:54:06 - Betsy Jordyn
Because it feels like reflection, like sometimes, like we treat reflection like I'm a problem to be solved, like you were talking about problem. We treat reflection like I'm a problem to be solved, like you were talking about problem solving earlier, like I'm a problem to be solved. I feel like the biggest lesson I learned from sabbatical is like no, I'm not a problem to be served, solved. I'm a person yes, you know to be cared for. And I feel like I caught myself out of that problem solving mode, like I'm not, I'm not this fix it project. You know, like when I look at my growth and how do I cultivate growth in my life is what you said about that caring for your energy?
But it's like it's caring for myself. It's like really paying attention to what nurtures me and what doesn't, rather than solving it. And I think that that's sometimes like when you're talking about reflections, like don't get all analytical, like don't get all like. I got to figure this out what's going on in my life, what do I want to do? It's like reflective, like, like, reflect, like look backwards, you know, just, you know and get it into a different kind of mode rather than in the you know.
0:55:00 - Cady North
I got to figure it out. Yes, absolutely, and I think you know a really cool tool that I've seen people love is the morning pages. There's a book called morning pages. There's a book called Morning Pages that you can use little prompts that they offer to dive into your more creative side of things, which lends itself to the kind of reflection that you're talking about versus the fix it kind of reflection.
0:55:22 - Betsy Jordyn
Is that the Julia Cameron? Is that part of the artist?
0:55:24 - Cady North
Yeah, the artist's way.
0:55:25 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, why did I not know you before my sabbatical? I would have really liked those morning pages. Well, I guess it's meant to be sort of on the edge of my sabbatical. So is there anything else you want to share with me about you, what you do sabbaticals, and I'm just not asking you the right question.
0:55:46 - Cady North
No, I can't think of. We've covered everything about kind of the overview that I typically talk about. Um, you know my website, katynorthcom, and my name is spelled kind of funny so I have to spell it out C-A-D-Y-N-O-R-T-Hcom has a lot of good resources on there and sort of places. You can find me in a way um links to the book et cetera. The books are available on.
0:56:11 - Betsy Jordyn
Amazon and everywhere books are sold, and for my women listeners, who might need help with their wealth management do you work across the country or do you?
0:56:19 - Cady North
are you local? I do yeah.
0:56:25 - Betsy Jordyn
I work virtually with clients all over the country, from all the way from Alaska to Maine, so what would you?
0:56:30 - Cady North
what kind of thing, what kind of services from the wealth management side. So we do full, comprehensive financial planning taking a look at retirement, your investments, insurance, um, money coming in, money going out, finding the right place to put your, your, your revenues, basically, um, for business owners too, I do a lot of discussion around like charging what you're worth and making sure you have your expenses under control and doing projections going forward to create another virtuous cycle so that your business is serving you and you're not just constantly trying to serve your business.
0:57:02 - Betsy Jordyn
So it's something you're a little bit of like a fractional CFO and a wealth manager wrapped together.
0:57:07 - Cady North
Yes, but specifically for solo business owners that are, you know, consultants.
0:57:11 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, oh, my gosh, that's another great thing. We could have a whole conversation around that, because there's very few like there's fractional CFOs who are connected to accounting and that's kind of it, but there isn't necessarily fractional CFOs that's connected to your wealth strategy, right, okay, why did I not know you years ago? That's all I want to know. My wrap up is is I needed to know Cady a long, long time ago? This has been an amazing conversation.
I highly, highly highly recommend the kind of support that she's offering. I wish I would have had it. I kind of stumbled upon it in my own way, but I can only imagine, like how much more confidence I would have had going in and I would have known that I have like some sort of like proven path that I wasn't like just finding, you know, like creating my own. That would have been amazing. So I highly highly recommend everybody to get her book, join her coaching and definitely be thinking about using her from a wealth management slash fractional CFO. We all need that. So do you have accountants who work with you too?
0:58:16 - Cady North
I do work with accountants. Those are tough to find these days, so I do have a list of accountants that do good work with business owners.
0:58:22 - Betsy Jordyn
yes, oh, so one-stop shop for your financial support of your business. So that's amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. This has been amazing and powerful and validating for me, and thank you for letting me be your you know your coach for a minute.
0:58:41 - Cady North
Yeah, it's awesome. Great to meet you, Betsy. Thank you.
0:58:46 - Betsy Jordyn
So here's my take. You know, in my one-on-one brand positioning work with my clients who are all of these inflection points in their business, you know they are ready for what's next. You know, maybe they are starting their own business after a long corporate career, or they want to get their own thing created after getting by with referrals and subcontracting, or they're pivoting from working with individuals to organizations or vice versa, or elevating their strategic positioning. Oh my gosh, they're all at crossroads and the number one issue that everyone faces is clarity. They are needing clarity and what they do, who they serve, what's next, and more. So I know that sabbaticals really are this ultimate go slow to go fast solution to figuring out what you really want, you know and how to create a business that supports who you authentically are and what you truly want to create in your career and your life. So if you're at this type of crossroads, treat this time that you're in as a sabbatical, this in-between time, instead of going for the rush for results, take a breather and really use the time, as Cady suggested, for intentional reflection to really dial into what it is that you are wanting to create and who you are, separate from work.
So this sabbatical experience has driven a lot of why I've changed a lot of my brand positioning and messaging services. There's a lot of information of how I've changed my services. You can find all about it on my website at www.BetsyJordyn.com/services. You could also get a sneak peek at how my website's changing. But what I've really chosen to do with my brand messaging and positioning is take more things off your plate where it's less of a coaching program and more of a partnership, so that you have the space to reflect, so you can figure out what you want your business to be all about, and then I will take more of the heavy lifting to figure out well, how do you convey that.
So that's what I'm going to be doing and I'm offering some specials for my new clients back from sabbatical. Be sure to request a discovery meeting with me. Subscribe and follow Consulting Matters today so you never miss an episode and be sure to share this episode with your friends and colleagues. And episode. And be sure to share this episode with your friends and colleagues and together let's elevate the role and purpose of consultants and coaches. One conversation at a time and until next time. Thanks for listening.
