Rest Is Part Of Your Business Strategy

I share how a planned week away from my dad’s business turned into a warning sign that I was heading towards burnout. A cognitive therapist helps me reframe guilt, choose real rest, and rebuild a simple plan that makes life and work feel manageable again. 
• carrying responsibility across my dad’s business, my own launch and estate admin 
• noticing exhaustion shut down my usual drive to work 
• choosing rest instead of forcing productivity 
• joining a Zoom session and hearing a cognitive therapist’s perspective 
• understanding guilt as a sign my brain cannot process what I have done 
• taking a full week to sleep, slow down and reset 
• making a personal strategy list for health checks and appointments 
• reducing morning friction with small practical changes 
• using time blocking while keeping plans realistic 
• questions to help you spot when you are overdue a break 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hello everyone, it's Victoria here. Welcome back to another episode of Business Built with Strategy. So this week I am going to be talking about how important and why it is important

Welcome And The Case For Breaks

SPEAKER_00 0:32

that you take time away from your business if you can. Also, I'm talking about how I nearly fell into burnout, very nearly, and also what happened when I spoke to a cognitive therapist. Okay, so let's let's start, let's dive straight into this ep. So back in January, I had decided, right, okay, in July, I'm gonna take a week away from my dad's business. As many of you know, at the moment, I am showing up in my

Planning Time Off While Carrying Everything

SPEAKER_00 1:10

dad's business as well as working on my own launch with uh an array of other different responsibilities that have fallen in my lap since my dad passed away. So I was really looking forward to this week because I knew that I had a lot of work to do in regards to my launch on the 11th of January next year. So I was raring to go, and you know, people had said to me, Oh, what are you gonna do on your week off? I was like, Well, I'm working, um, but I'm working towards my launch, so I'm quite enjoying I mean I'm enjoying doing that, and I'm looking forward to just focusing on that really. Anyway, drove home from my dad's office on Friday, all good intentions, and I was also gonna work on Saturday and Sunday, so this is last week, so this is a week ago. I didn't do no work on that weekend, and I felt a little a little peed off. I've got to be honest, that I hadn't worked because I was like, God, I could have got loads of stuff done, but

Exhaustion Hits And Work Stops

SPEAKER_00 2:22

all of a sudden I felt completely exhausted. So I was like, you know what? Okay, it doesn't matter, I've got the whole week, it doesn't matter. So on a Monday, I spend Mondays doing uh effectively all of my dad's estate. That's what I do on a Monday, um, and we're you know, I'm still doing things on that. So Mondays at the moment are just for that. So it got to Monday, and I was like, I had a full day ahead of me, couldn't do it. Just I couldn't do it. So I spoke to my mum because she was supposed to be coming over, and I was like, Look, I'm pushing it to Thursday, I can't do it, I'm exhausted. And you know, mum being mum, she turned around and said, Well, don't worry, that's okay. Look, listen, you've got the whole week, you need a break, and so I did. I I took a break on that Monday, and on Tuesday, and on the Tuesday, I knew that I had a Zoom at one o'clock for Matt Hall's AI Mastery that I'm doing,

Joining A Zoom Instead Of Pushing

SPEAKER_00 3:34

and that I was I was actually looking forward to doing. Truthfully, though, part of me was like, Oh, shall I or should I just watch the replay? And something just I'm quite good at showing up, and then I thought, no, no, come on, no, you're at home, you know, you can chill out, stick on the zoom, you don't have to have your camera on, just listen and and and learn like that. And I do learn a lot that way, and this particular zoom on this call was with a cognitive therapist. Wow, I

Cognitive Therapy On Sleep And Guilt

SPEAKER_00 4:17

am so glad that I joined that call that day. I really, really am. So, first of all, I had my camera off. Obviously, I was muted, and I was just listening to everyone else's questions. And then I remember Matt saying, Okay, if anyone's got any questions, just stick a one in the chat. And I I was not gonna ask a question, like there was literally a zero percent chance that I was gonna ask any questions. I was just listening, and then all of a sudden, something came over me. I was like, Yeah, you need to ask this question, and I knew what it was, and so I put my camera on, I put a one in the chat box, and it came to me, and I said, I I just spoke from the heart, and I said, you know what? I'm in a situation at the moment. I said that my dad passed away on my birthday, 31st of January in 25, and I had to walk away from my business, the female entrepreneur box, so that I could concentrate on being in his business and also concentrate on his estate because that fell with me. I said on top of that, I'm a business strategist anyway, and I also did Lisa Johnson's strategy course. Um, and I'm on a weight loss journey, and I was naming all the things that I was doing. I said that you know, I've I've also got uh a foundation launch for my dad in 2027, um, that I'm actually performing at um being a singer, um, which you know is obviously my background, as a lot of you know, and I said I'm exhausted. I said everything for me gets squeezed out. I said, because I just I haven't got time, and honestly, I I cannot express to you how grateful I am that well to myself actually showing up, but also to uh Natalie, the cognitive therapist, and she's she listened and she just said you you need sleep. I said, and I also said I felt guilty that I wasn't doing enough, and she'd said to me, That is your brain not catching up, so you can't process what you've already done, and I was like, Wow, that that just makes complete sense, but it's it's one of those things, you know, until someone says, Well, actually, that is that, and of course, Natalie knew exactly what she was on about, um, because you know that that's what she does, and I just listened intently to what she said, and she said, You need sleep, you need rest, and I literally took what she said and run with it, and for the rest of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday today, which is the day that I'm recording this, I've rested. I've watched Netflix, I've I've I went to dinner with my mum, which was lovely, but I've just rested. I've had like a lie-in in the morning, which is completely

A Full Week Of Proper Rest

SPEAKER_00 7:59

unheard of, you know. I I used to do that in my teens, but I don't do that now. But last week I did, and so it got to Friday, and I thought I've been off the whole week, and I've not even stepped outside into the garden. Like, I've got a lovely sofa in the garden and canopy, and and I hadn't even gone out there. You know, we've got amazing weather here in the UK at the moment, you know, it's summer, and you know, as as much as the UK is not known for its weather, we we are having better summers, and I thought, God, I haven't even sat out in the garden and enjoyed the weather. So I got my coffee, put my collagen in, went outside, sat down, and then it was then that all of a sudden that motivation that I had, I'm gonna say completely practically lost. I couldn't have lost it fully, or I wouldn't have shown up for the Zoom, but I would say a lot of it had just diminished for that time, started to flood back, and I could think more clearly, and then I thought I need to make a list for myself of what I want to do for myself, and so I got Chat GPT and I started to just put this list together of everything that I wanted to do for myself, and it was everything from making sure that you know all my blood tests were up to date. Like, did I need any blood tests? Did I need a smear? You know, um, did I need this? Did I need that? And I put everything down and I booked it. I booked an eye test, I booked a dental um appointment, I did book a smear, as it happens. I booked blood tests um because I'm on a health and weight loss journey. So I thought, I need to do this. Have I booked them before and not gone? Hell yeah. Yeah, I have. But this the difference now is I can see more clearly, and that was because I took time off, and then I thought, okay, how can I make my mornings more easier due to the fact that normally I'd be working from home, but at the moment, four days a week, I'm going into my dad's office, so I thought, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna get a fridge, I'm gonna get a little fridge, put it into maybe my dressing room or my bedroom, and I'm gonna stock it with my collagen, bottles of water. Um, I've got a coffee maker upstairs, so I can make the organic nice stuff, you know. And I was just piling all of this stuff onto the list, and then I worked on the list and did everything. I ordered what I needed, I booked what I needed, and it literally did take me the whole of Friday. And I remember like my mum's, I say I remember it was only a couple of days ago, but my mum said to me when I told her, she said, How did that make you feel? And I and I actually did get emotional, and I said, um it made me feel really good because you know we have our strategies for our businesses, okay? We have launch strategies, we have social media strategies, we have a strategy for everything in our business, or we or we should have. And then we have I would, you know, I

Building A Strategy For Yourself

SPEAKER_00 11:49

have the list of what I do for everyone else, and then it comes to me, and everything was being squeezed out because I was like, no, I need to do that, and it would have been something for someone else, or it just wasn't for me, and so whatever I wanted got pushed aside. Was that the fault of any of everyone else? Of course it wasn't, it was my fault because I let it happen, and then I looked at, you know, I I'm going swimming, and I thought, okay, I can't plan the whole week for swimming, so I'm gonna scale it down and plan either day by day or a couple of days because it's easier to manage, you know. Sometimes I look at my Google diary and I'm like, oh my goodness, because I time block everything, and when you do time block everything, and I do I do recommend it. The only thing is it can make your diary look very, very full because you're probably time blocking in colours, but I 100% recommend it. So that brings me back to you, to my listeners, and I want you to ask yourself uh firstly, and this is not necessarily in order, but

Questions To Check Your Burnout Risk

SPEAKER_00 13:17

when did you last do something for yourself? Something that you want to do, and when last did you take a break, a proper break, where I don't know, you've done maybe something that you want to do, or you have I don't know, maybe it's just gone for a walk, maybe you wanted to go to the gym, or maybe go for a swim, or maybe just go moot around the shops, you don't have to buy anything, but just go and have a look. So, when did you last take a break for yourself? And if you can't answer that, I would probably hedge my bets on that you are well overdue a break. And my advice is don't get to where I did. I didn't have burnout, I was entering into burnout. I as I say, I I I've only had burnout once, and that was um I can't remember if I mentioned that now or not, but it was December 24, and I was in proper burnout, and and I think because of that I caught it this time. So definitely this week, have a look, just just just have a look and do yourself a favor and look at when you last took a break, and it doesn't have to be this massive thing that you're doing, it could be the smallest of things that you do for yourself that just makes you feel just so much more better. So today's ep, it's not the longest, but I'm hoping that it would have helped you, even if it's helped one or two or three of you. You know, even one of you, it's worth it. Okay, have a fantastic week, whatever you're doing this week. Remember to take a break, and I will be back in a couple of weeks. Take care, everyone.