Cats out the bag! If you missed it, go watch my NOVEL of a video on Youtube announcing bebe 2. I walk you through the how, timeline, reaction, feels, navigating postpartum while being prenatal again, compare pregnancy one with round two and so much more!
I don’t believe I ever made a definitive podcast episode in my first pregnancy about how I planned maternity leave. So, I wanted to be sure and do that this time because it’s very much so the same.
Being self employed means no paid leave. And being a personal brand means that if you want to take time off from being LIVE as the face of your biz, then A LOT. And I mean A LOT of prep work has to happen before that season.
Postpartum with bebe 1 I took 10-ish weeks 80% off of work. No calls, no creation unless I wanted to.
But podcasts, emails and content was still being published because I prepped it all ahead of time.
I think I had 6-8 weeks of IG fully made, and some rough notes/outline for the rest of maternity leave.
Launches took place during that time as well. So I can straight up tell you from my 2023 year map that I launched both Pure PROgramming and Built By Annie in February and March, which was still during my maternity leave.
That’s kind of my point – it looked like business was running as usual because it was. It was simply all put into place MONTHS in advance.
Emails were scheduled by my assistant, she kept Built By Annie going, I’d terminated all 1:1 fitness, and took 12 weeks off of calls with 1:1 business clients, pre-recorded all podcasts through March 2023, and my assistant formatted and scheduled those. All I had to do was look at my schedule for content and be sure that got published on the gram.
Stories were my day to day, as usual, aside from launches. In which case I referenced my launch map for what to post on which days leading up to, and during launches. This is no different than a usual launch. Most content is created, and we leave some room for improv.
I will say that I used plain text on white space FAR more during maternity leave than face to camera video. Worked just as well as face to camera. Sometimes I actually think it’s easier to consume that way.
All of this is pretty much my same plan for bebe 2!
But I want to take you behind the scenes of HOW I prep for all of this content to live while I settle in to being a mum of two, almost under one!
The maternity timeline planning started in August. Bebe is due Dec 27 2023. Maternity leave will be after my scheduled C-Section through the end of March 2024.
A BIG NOTE TO REMEMBER is that I work ahead in business. So really, in March, I will have to begin drafting and recording podcasts, writing Youtube scripts, creating IG content etc.
Which is all in my year plan google sheet.
Working backwards is the name of the game.
For example: On Dec 1-7 Paige and I are recording 16 youtube videos that will take me through maternity leave (if you missed my youtube BTS podcast, this also provides two reels per week for me for IG content – huge win).
That means I need to draft 16 in depth, linked and formatted scripts. I can do four per week in November, or spread those out in October and Nov (this is more realistic).
I make notes for, record and edit one podcast per week. And I’ll need to have Jan – March or April ALL DONE in December. Last maternity leave I was literally recording and editing podcasts the week before I gave birth. I don’t love this for me but it might be the same scenario this time.
The current plan on my month to month map is to have October and November episodes done in September, and December and January episodes done in October.
Then November and December can be for Instagram content batching and finishing those February – March or April Podcasts. I will re-evaluate as that timeline gets closer.
… Do we see why it was wise to discontinue 1:1 biz? It’s high ticket, sure, but 13 hours of calls per month just is not conducive with life or my long term goals.
THAT is essentially how I plan for maternity leave. Its 12 weeks of content (podcast, email, youtube and IG) prepped. But knowing that it’s REAAALLLYYYY eight weeks off of creation. Because if I want to stay ahead, I have to get back into it come March. That way, April is smooth sailing. From then on, it’s back to the races!
Mind you I also have new offers I’d like to create and funnels/sales strategies I’d like to play with in 2024 which means prep NOW.
That is to say that all the preparation for my normal media and workload is happening in tandem with other projects and tasks. We can’t forget those in our planning process.
Hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes episode as much as I enjoy sharing it.
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