Ep 68 - Summer Reset Series 3 - The Summer CEO Date: Productivity during school holidays in just 60 Minutes

Episode Show Notes

 Summer can feel like an uphill climb when you're running a business and juggling school holidays, family trips, and the general unpredictability that comes with kids at home. But what if staying on top of your business didn’t require a full workweek, elaborate strategies, or any extra hustle?

Enter: the Summer CEO Date — a simple yet powerful 60-minute weekly ritual that helps health professionals stay productive during the holidays, maintain visibility, and keep their business ticking over with calm and clarity.

Whether you’re a dietitian, nutritionist, or any clinician running their own business, this planning ritual is designed to meet you where you are — in your PJs, with coffee in hand, maybe half-listening for the “Mum!” from the next room. Let’s break it down.

Step 1: Ground Yourself (5–10 minutes)

Before you even think about your to-do list, pause.

Light a candle. Brew a herbal tea. Open a window. This isn’t fluff — it’s about creating a calm, safe space where strategic thinking becomes easier.

Now open your Summer Reset Planner (or a blank notebook) and answer:

• How do I feel in my business right now?
• What do I need this week — emotionally, practically, energetically?

This helps you tune into your inner barometer. Are you in visibility mode, or do you need to conserve energy and simplify? There’s no right answer — just awareness.

Step 2: Set Your Weekly Focus (10–15 minutes)

This is where you anchor your energy.

Pick one priority for the week. Maybe it’s preparing for a launch on October, growing your audience, or just nurturing your email list. Then ask:

• What project or task will move me closer to that?
• What’s realistic with the time, energy and bandwidth I have?

Remember: plan for the current version of you — not the fantasy version with a clear schedule and endless childcare. Less is more. Choose a single goal and actually finish something.

Step 3: Reactivate Your Audience (10–15 minutes)

Summer can cause a dip in engagement, especially when you have less time than usual, but this is your moment to stay visible without creating loads of new content.

Ask:

• What do I want my audience to think or feel this week?
• Where do I want to show up (choose 1–2 platforms)?

Then pick one or two light-touch actions. You might:

• Repost a snippet from a blog or podcast episode that aligns with your weekly focus.
• Send a heartfelt email to your list with a quick tip or reflection.
• Share something on social like a behind-the-scenes snapshot of what you're up to this summer or a past client win.

Your audience just needs a gentle reminder that you’re still here — and still the health professional they can trust.

Step 4: Map Your Touch Points (10–15 minutes)

Now, break your weekly focus priority into 3–5 small, doable actions.

Let’s say your focus is nurturing your audience before a September offer. Your week might look like:

• Monday: Ask an Instagram story poll about their summer goals.
• Wednesday: Email a short story + a link to your lead magnet.
• Friday: Reshare a past blog to your audience with a new teaser.

This keeps your business aligned, visible, and strategic — without having to work full-time.

Step 5: Write Your Permission Slip (5 minutes)

Close your CEO Date with a dose of self-kindness.

Write this line in your planner:

• This week I give myself permission to...

Some examples:

• ...do less, but do it well.
• ...be visible without being everywhere.
• ...choose rest without guilt.

These small mindset shifts are what make space for ease, clarity, and momentum.

Final Thoughts

The Summer CEO Date isn’t about squeezing more into your already-full week. It’s about being intentional, staying gently visible, and keeping one foot in the game while you enjoy your summer.

You don’t need to burn out to build a business. One calm hour a week can help you lead with clarity, connect with your audience, and keep moving forward — even with a toddler on your hip!

Ready to try it? Download the Summer Reset Planner to get the full guide, journaling prompts, and CEO Date framework. It’s your new weekly ritual for calm clarity and sustainable growth.

The Master Plan:

Helping you build the business of your dreams. Get your 22 point step-by step workbook here: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/master-plan

Connect with me:

Website: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/

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Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/beyondtheclinicbusiness

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondTheClinicPodcast

Episode transcription:

Hello, hello, and welcome back to Beyond the Clinic and to episode three of the Summer Reset series, an easy, practical way to keep your business ticking over this summer without the pressure to work harder or do more than you need to. Now, before we begin, if you haven't already downloaded your Summer Reset plan, now's the perfect time. It includes the exact worksheet we're going to be walking through today, a 60-minute planning ritual that you can repeat every week of summer to stay clear, calm and quietly strategic. You'll find the link in the show notes.

Now each week for the six weeks of summer, we are focusing on different areas to clear the fog, to regain our focus and to step into your next level when September comes. And I want you to do this with ease. And if you missed the last episode or the one before, we dove deep into the Keep Kill Evolve framework, a clarity tool for working out what stays, what goes, and what gets a makeover in your business in order to make your business feel lighter and easier. So actually, if you've been feeling a bit scattered or unsure on what to focus on, then that is a must-one to listen to after this.

But like I said, today we are planning, but not only stuffy goal setting, driest toast looking at the data kind of way. What we're doing here is ring-fencing one intentional hour, a 60 minute ritual that I call the summer CEO date. And it's designed to help you create a doable, focused action plan for the week ahead. Even if you're running around after children, it will also help you reactivate your audience with intention so that by the time September comes along, they're primed and they're ready for you. And we're also going to be looking at moving one meaningful project forward, even if you've only two hours in a day.

And of course, the reason why we're doing this is I want you to be able to walk into Monday mornings or whichever day of the week is your first working day, feeling calm, feeling clear and in total control of what you're doing in your business. So this is one of the core tools that I use inside my Accelerate program. And it's actually how I plan my own weeks when I need to get back in the driver's seat of my business, but without spinning into overwhelm and you know, massive long to do lists. So let's get into it. Brew yourself a cuppa, grab your summer reset planner and let's build you a really focused week.

So I'm going to tell you about a live launch that I once did for my Happy Healthy Eaters Club. It's a membership and I nearly messed it up. It was June. I had planned a big launch for August, which is one of the best times of the year for my audience to buy. And I knew that I needed to be laying the groundwork now. So if you've ever hosted a big sales campaign, you know you want about eight to 12 weeks to prepare your audience so that they're ready to buy when the time comes.

But instead of focus prep, I was faffing about with my email templates. I was reorganizing my Asana project board. I was recording a mini bonus course on raising vegan children that actually nobody had even asked for. And every day I'd open my laptop and I'd be really busy. But at the end of the day, I actually felt like I hadn't done anything to move forward towards this launch.

So I sat down, did a bit of a brain dump, and I mapped out plan, one that looked at my goal, my launch, and the marketing touch points that I needed to ensure that it was going to be a successful one. I also looked at what my audience needed to hear from me that week in order to prepare them for the launch, and also one core project that I on to start moving forwards.

So by the end of that week, I had planned out all my pre-launch nurture emails and I'd written the first two weeks by hand. This is way before the days of ChatGPT. I had also created an outline for a blog and I had an idea for three more key pieces that I want to have done to support the launch. And I'd also booked a coffee chat with somebody on my wait list so I could do some one-to-one market research and make sure I was getting everything right.

Now I managed to do all of that after just one hour of planning. And the secret was, is it got me to refocus. And it was that that led to a successful and highly profitable launch.

So what I want you to know is that summer doesn't have to be a write-off. So you might be juggling childcare, trying to take some time off. You might even find that summer is a bit quieter for your niche. So you're working with fewer clients, but that doesn't mean that your business has to be on pause. In fact, if you do pause things, you might find it very difficult to re-engage your audience come September. What it does mean is that your business activities need to be focused.

They need to be relaxed and they need to be strategically aligned with your long game. And so that's exactly what the summer CEO date gives you. It gives you space to think strategically in less time and with a sense of calm. Okay. So how do you have a summer CEO date? What do you actually do? Well, let's break this down. Again, it's all mapped out in your summer reset planner, but I'll talk you through it in detail here too.

So think of this like your weekly check-in with the boss, except you're the boss. And the meeting happens on your terms, whether you're at your desk or still in your pyjamas or squeezing it in while your dinner's in the oven. It all still counts.

So the very first thing that I do, step one here, it's just five minutes, 10 at the most at the very start is ground yourself. So this is your starting point. So I think of it like arriving at quiet spot before opening your book, you're just setting the tone. You're making the environment feel warm and inviting before you begin. So it's all about approaching this CEO date with a sense of calm.

So here's what I suggest you do, you know, make your favourite drink. It could be a herbal tea, it could be a coffee, it could be a green smoothie, it could be a cocktail, there is no judgment here. Turn your phone on to do not disturb and ask someone to listen out for the children if you've got them. Put on some calming music in the background, light a scented candle if that's your thing, open a window, whatever helps you feel relaxed.

Then open your summer reset planner or blank page in your notebook and answer these two simple questions. How do I feel in my business right now? And what do I need this week emotionally, practically, and energetically? So what this does is it just helps you clock in as you, not just the content creator or the client scheduler. It's your business barometer. It'll tell you whether the week ahead is a week for visibility or actually a week for rest. Is it for big moves or actually is it just maintenance mode? So that's step one.

Step two is the next sort of 10 to 15 minutes or so. It's about resetting your focus or setting your focus. So now that you've checked in with yourself, it's time to just really get focused. So I'm not going to think about finally finishing my website and batch six months of content type of focus. It's something a bit more realistic and it's something actually meaningful. So the question I want you to ask yourself here is what is your one core focus for this week? So it might be growing your email list because you know you've got a launch coming up in a couple of months time. It might be re-engaging your social media audience. It might be even planning for a big sales campaign.

The next question is what project or task will move me closer to that? So it might just be writing the outline for a webinar. Maybe it's recording a client win testimonial. Maybe it's finally sharing about that offer that you've been sitting on for three months.

Next question is what is actually realistic for me this week? Now, if you've got kids at home or if you're going on holiday on Thursday or simply your bandwidth is low, be honest here. And this is where a lot of us trip up because we plan like we are our future well-rested selves with childcare and five solid nine to five working days available to us. And actually often our self-worth is tied to our accomplishments, but that's a fast track to burnout. So be realistic with what you can manage. You are 100 % allowed to slow down and be gentle with yourself. So write your answers down, commit to less and actually finish something. Honestly, it feels magical.

Okay, step three is all about reactivating your audience. And this is about 10 to 15 minutes of planning time. So think of this like waving to the people in your audience from across the street or tapping them gently on your shoulder and saying, Hey, I'm still here and I've got something that might help you. So it is just about staying visible, but without posting every day or lip syncing on reels, unless you want to, course, but your visibility efforts can be soft. They can be human.

And it can be very effective. So start by asking yourself, what do I my people to feel and think this week? And then where do I want to show up for them? I would highly, highly suggest picking just one or two max and then pick one or two light touch actions that you can take this week.

So it might be writing a reflective Instagram caption. It might be sending voice notes to people who contacted you before in your DMs. It might be sharing a 90 second video clip of the story where you got your client great results. It might even just be a couple of reshares of something that you've shared before that went down really well. Just refresh it if you have time, but actually if you don't, just repost it. That is also fine. So what to remember is reactivating your audience doesn't mean reinventing the wheel. It means just reminding people that you're still there and that you can help them. And it's really important that we don't forget this during the time off we all take in the summer because it's really hard to reengage an audience that's gone cold.

Okay, step four, another 10 to 15 minutes And this is all mapping the touch points. So here's where we're gonna get intentional about how you connect and how you'll move the needle. It's where we're gonna start to map out the actual action steps that bring the priorities that you've identified to life.

So remember that one project or that focus that you committed to? This step is about deciding how to break that down into three to five tiny sparks, little actions that can help you build momentum around that specific priority. So really common touch points might include things like emailing your list with a tip, a story or a new piece of content that links to that core goal.

It could be posting a behind the scenes photo of the project that you're working on and inviting questions. It could be sharing a screenshot of a kind client message that relates to your offer. It might be answering really common FAQs that help build awareness around your upcoming launch that you might have.

So if your focus was to engage and to nurture your audience, your touch points might be Monday you do an Instagram story poll about what kind of content they want this summer. Wednesday it might be send an email sharing a personal reflection with a link to your lead magnet to provide value. And on Friday, you might be resharing a relevant blog or a podcast episode that supports this week's theme.

If your focus is on audience touch points might include creating and posting three reels because reels get a wider reach in front of non-followers. It might be asking your business besties to share something of yours with their email list. It might be pitching to be a guest on a colleague's Instagram Live. Keep it simple, keep it connected to the goal and make sure that every action that you take actually supports that priority that you've decided upon in step two.

And then step five, we're going to wrap things up with encouragement. So I want you to end your CEO hour. And this is just five minutes by reminding yourself that you're not behind. You're building something with care. So write this line. This week I give myself permission to, and then fill in the end of that sentence.

So here's a few favourites. This week I give myself permission to trust that consistency doesn't mean constantly. This week I give myself permission to do less but better. This week I give myself permission to be the boss of my week, not the other way around. So whatever it is, stick it on your fridge or your planner or your forehead. Just kidding. But the biggest shifts often come from giving yourself the space to breathe and with this little permission slip, you get to choose the route.

So summer doesn't have to be slow and it certainly doesn't have to be stressful trying to cram your normal work into fewer hours. With just one intentional hour a week, you can stay connected with your vision. You can show up with clarity on what your intentions are and of course be consistent and make space for real rest.

Now I encourage you to do this CEO date at the beginning of every week or whenever you feel the need to reset. I always do mine on a Sunday so I can hit the ground running on Mondays. Don't forget to download your summer reset planner. The CEO date worksheet is in there just waiting for you along with those journaling prompts to use all summer long. And next week we're diving into the episode I know that you're going to love. It's what I would do if I had to start over.

I'm going to be sharing the three things that I'd focus on immediately and also what I'd avoid entirely. But until then, block out your hour and show up for yourself and your business. See you soon.