- Well friends.
It is my last two days of sabbatical.
I'm very sad.
I really suit this life of leisure that I've been living
for the past month, but it is now Thursday.
And my last week off, before I go back to work
and I am going to make the most of these last two days.
Right now, it is 11:30 and it's already 30
degrees outside.
And I'm trying to get like errands finished before
it gets overwhelmingly hot.
Although maybe I'm already too late.
Anyway, right now we're gonna go order some hamburger buns
for the weekend
and also get a cold brew and some coffee beans.
(upbeat electronic music)
Home, errands all finished.
We're gonna have Mark's parents come
up this weekend and we're gonna make burgers.
So I just went to get, whoops
all of the necessary stuff for that, as well as like
in new canister for our soda stream, important things.
Now we're going out to lunch today
shortly in like half an hour.
But in the meantime, I'm trying to get prepped
for the first episode that I'll be recording
of the next season
of Inside Marketing Design, progress has been
I guess it's not been slow.
I guess I've been making inroads
in all the different companies that I wanna feature
on the next season.
It always feels slow going though this process
of booking guests, 'cuz you've gotta like
get in touch with the right person at the company.
And then there's like some back and forth to
convince them that it's gonna be great to come on the show.
I'm not scary.
You're gonna be fine.
You've got lots of valuable stuff to share.
Then it's like learning about their work
so that I can form the like questions for the interview.
Send them over in advance,
book the interview time, things like that.
And because the seasons have like 12 episodes to them
I'm doing that like 12 times over
with 12 different companies and
like more than 12 different people.
'Cause usually I'm connected
to a few within the company, but yeah
we're making progress just not as fast as I would like.
So I'm gonna send over the questions today
and get this first episode recording date
hopefully booked in and then maybe I'll feel
like I'm making more progress on this.
I'm really excited about this upcoming season though.
I think I talked about it in the last vlog
but it's gonna be focused on the ways that companies iterate
and improve on marketing assets.
Like a website, like ads, like pitch decks.
I don't know.
'Cause that's like the focus of my book.
So I am sneakily learning more
from different companies to like inform what
I'm writing in my book as well
and be able to include quotes and things as well
as making hopefully a very useful podcast season.
(upbeat electronic music continues)
Well, I neglected to take any B roll footage
of us going to lunch, but it was very lovely.
Now I'm just getting ready to stream.
I've been streaming the design and build of my website.
Why is my camera not working?
There we go.
And I'm excited to go live for another stream.
The power just went out
like right as I was scheduled to start.
And so yeah, I'm going to start a little bit late.
Okay, hello friends.
Wow, that was a bit of drama.
- [Sponge Bob] Three hours later.
- Oh my gosh.
That was a super long stream session.
But check it out.
This is what we've got done on my homepage.
Yeah, looking like a real thing so far this yeah.
Here's where you could see I lost steam and just
started shoving things in the page to be styled later.
'Cuz it all needs to look like this eventually, but yeah
really happy with how that went.
It was a very long stream, like three hours long.
So I am pretty tired.
I'm gonna call it here for the day.
I think I'm gonna go make a cocktail
read a book or maybe play cat cafe manager on my switch.
The cats hung out with me during the stream.
Deb, sorry, sorry for waking you.
Sorry, not sorry.
You're very cute.
Then Norano over here.
Yeah.
I'm just very glad the power came back on
in time for me to stream.
I also, while I was
on the stream had a couple more emails come in
of people for the outreach that I was doing this morning.
So that feels really good to have things like moving
along with that, you know, but yeah, I'm gonna
sign off here for today and I'll see you again tomorrow.
(upbeat music)
Good morning.
It's Friday.
And I decided that for the last weekday of my sabbatical
I had to come for one last weekday beach trip.
I can definitely tell it's less busy than the weekend, even
though it's a Friday because there was just a space to drop
off the Valen BC, the like city bikes.
That I used to get here.
It's really hot.
So I don't know how long I'm gonna last here, but yeah
I decided that today needs to be a fairly chill day.
I'm not gonna stay anymore on my website today.
Just cause I want use this last day to wrap a few things up
for myself, you know, including hopefully finishing
the novel that I'm currently reading.
(upbeat music continues)
One of the most refreshing drinks in the world is
Horchata
This is horchata flavored gelato.
Let's try it.
If I can do this one handed
that's damn good.
(upbeat music continues)
Well, I've just been sat
at my computer for the past a couple of hours.
I had a call with a guest for Inside Marketing Design.
That's the second person like confirmed, booked in.
So I'm really excited
about that for things for moving along.
And I think I have like a full roster now.
If all of the outreach
that I've been doing and like people are being connected
to all pan out and it all works.
Then I have everything I need for the season.
So that is exciting 'cuz this is the like big job.
And the part that takes the longest for me honestly
is this admin side of things.
Maybe it doesn't take the longest
but it's like the most overwhelming part.
We'll say that I also have a company signed
on to edit the season, which is exciting
and they're gonna be editing the episodes
and also making like two clips per episode as well.
So it'll be good to have that.
I am now about to get on a call
with Fem we're gonna record an episode of design life
'cuz it's been a while since we did that
we sort of took a break from recording that show
during my sabbatical as well then it'll be time to sign off.
I'm afraid this hasn't been a very interesting day
for you to see vlog wise
'cuz I basically spent a lot of time at the beach
in the morning and now I'm just spending a lot
of time on my computer in the afternoon.
But Hey, that's how this day is gone.
Well friends it's Monday
which means my sabbatical is officially over
and I wanted to end this vlog just
by sharing a few thoughts, I guess
on what it's felt like to have a month off work.
And I'm filming this on my phone.
This is a bit impromptu.
I just stopped in the river bed
on my way back from getting a blood test.
Sorry if that was gross for anyone.
I am honestly quite surprised
at how little excitement I feel to go back to work.
I don't know if that sounds weird
but like I genuinely do enjoy my work.
I love my job.
I love what I do.
I love my team and I thought by the end of the sabbatical
I'd be like itching to get back
into projects and excited about that.
But because I have spent this month
off doing things for myself and working on projects
I feel like I've had that creative itch scratched.
I've had those challenges and quite honestly
I wish I could just keep doing working
on more of them for myself.
I don't know.
I'm a pretty ambitious and motivated person.
And I know once I sign on to Slack
for the day and start seeing what the team
is up to and what people are working on,
I will enjoy my work
'cuz I do genuinely enjoy my work, but I'm also
quite honestly still tired even after this month off.
I think it's been, it's been quite a few years.
It's been the stresses
of the world in the pandemic situation.
And I don't know everything else that has happened
in the past few years that have made me feel
like a little more pessimistic
about the world than I usually do.
I'm usually a very optimistic person, but like
as I sit here right now, outside in a heat wave, you know
there's just a lot going on.
Then there's been the stresses of work during a pandemic.
Like not only like continuing to maintain productivity
even though ConvertKit have been wonderful
throughout the pandemic and given us lots of accommodations
and more time off if we needed it and things like that
it's still been a lot to work through
especially to become a manager during a pandemic
and like be responsible for a team and like be there
for everyone else as well as being there for myself
and like learn how to be a manager during a pandemic.
It's been a lot.
So it makes sense why I'm tired
and why even after a month off
I still feel like I need more, more time, more months off.
Very, very, very grateful to have had this benefit
and to have like a fully paid month off.
One of my favorite things about the sabbatical
has been the way that I approached each day
in that having very little plans
just doing whatever the heck I felt like on the day
whatever I felt inspired to do.
And that's something that I wanna try
and take through into my work life now that I am, you know
back at work and back in a routine
of mostly working in the afternoons, I've decided
that I'm gonna make my mornings, whatever the heck
I feel like time.
So basically like mini sabbaticals every day for like
you know, a few hours in the morning to go to the beach
if I want to, come read in this park, if I want to,
stream if I want to, maybe we'll try some morning streams.
I don't know how that will go if anyone be around for them.
But yeah, I just like the idea of taking that
on and bringing some of that freedom that I have so loved
with me into the work week.
'Cause I think that's what we've gotta do.
You know, like the point of work life balance
is not to optimize for your work and to make
you the most productive as possible.
It's like honestly optimizing for your life and
ensuring that work is a part of it, but not the whole of it.
Right?
And I think that's what I have been guilty
of doing a lot of the times in the past.
And I didn't realize how much I was doing that
until I had this month off with no work and saw
what it felt like to not be stressed and to not
be thinking about work all the time.
Definitely another thing from this that I will value
from now on is taking extended breaks from work.
I think that having just a week off
at a time isn't enough and I'm gonna try to
find ways to use my leave in bigger chunks.
Maybe like combining with holidays, things like that.
If you have not taken a solid break
since the pandemic started
then I want this vlog right here to be your reminder
to book something in for yourself.
Even if, actually, especially
if you're just gonna stay home.
I don't think I would've gotten what I have
from the sabbatical.
If I had spent it traveling, I think I would be more tired
for one and that I wouldn't have had the like
proper break that I needed to fully de-stress
and to see what life can really be like here at home.
If I make a few changes
to my routine and the way I approach things, you know
so please book in a break for yourself, do it for yourself.
You owe it to yourself.
And quite honestly you deserve it.
If you've been working through a pandemic, all right
I'm gonna end this vlog here from the park
and I'm actually gonna start a new one where
I'm gonna vlog my first day back.
So you'll get to see how it does feel when I switch
on my computer, see how many Slack notifications I have
how many emails I have.
And yeah, I'll bring you through the day with me
and be quite honest about how I'm feeling by the end of it.
I hope I'll have some of the excitement back.
So we'll see,
see you in the next vlog.
Thanks for hanging out with me on streams during sabbatical.
Thanks for hanging out in the sabbaticals vlogs
and I'll see you in the next one.
(upbeat music)