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I'm a serial entrepreneur. I love coming up with new business ideas and seeing how to take them forward.
A couple of things have stuck over the years: a long career as a freelance journalist and teaching online writing courses. I also spend time editing, writing books, and coaching other freelancers. In other words, my life is extremely busy, but I get to do what I want and create my own schedule. I never want to return to my former full-time, in-office corporate writing life.
I love my work but often get burnout, so I decided to take a business retreat.
Sometimes, I have days where I just can't motivate myself to work. So much is going on all the time that I burn out easily; my brain stops coming up with story ideas, I get so exhausted that I don't get out of bed until noon, and I want to do pretty much anything else in the world except sit at my computer.
The last quarter of 2023 was particularly difficult. I couldn't focus on anything and started to hate my job — a career I usually love. I knew I needed to make some changes to re-engage, to lighten my load, and to maximize my income. But I couldn't figure out how.
I packed a weekend bag and headed to The Edgewater, a historic hotel in Madison, Wisconsin, that charmed me immediately because it shares a name with one of my favorite Chicago neighborhoods. It's also far enough away from home that I wouldn't be distracted by all the coffee shops I love to procrastinate in.
Believe me when I say that I had every intention of working. I brought my laptop, set it up when I got into the hotel room, and put my to-do list next to it.
And then I sat down on the bed to relax for a minute and just… sat there all weekend. The TV stayed off, the book I brought stayed on the nightstand, and I basically just sat there thinking and doing nothing else. Sometimes I got up to look out the window, which overlooked the hotel's ice skating rink and had a gorgeous view of Lake Michigan.
I left my room thrice: once to get a mani-pedi at the hotel spa, once for dinner at the hotel restaurant, and once to try ice skating on the rink. (I lasted 10 minutes. It is definitely not my sport.) Otherwise, I ordered room service, chilled in my room, and let my mind wander.
It may seem like it wasn't a business retreat because I didn't physically do any work. But taking the time to do nothing except think gave my mind the space to consider how to improve my current career.
I decided to cut loose a part-time employee I had because her communication style stressed me out, and I wasn't getting my money's worth. I also chose to stop working with a client who continued to change the project scope of everything I worked on. I mentally worked on my business, brainstorming ways to promote it and planning new workshops.
Once I gave my mind the silence it needed, these things just came to me as if they were the most obvious ideas in the world.
After that weekend retreat, I returned home with renewed energy and joy for my career. Both my husband and my therapist noticed it almost immediately, probably because I couldn't stop talking about all the ways I was planning to fix my work issues.
I'm happy to say that since that retreat, I'm still rejuvenated and thrilled with my job. It's back to how I used to feel when I was first starting out. I have a plan now to do a similar retreat every year. If you're a burned-out business owner, try it — the results may surprise you.
