In this episode of the Superabound Podcast, Erin shares what has unfolded in a year-long commitment she made to herself. During this self-guided emotional sabbatical: she has not stepped back from her business, but she has released the pressure to constantly generate.
If your work depends on your presence, creativity, and ability to hear what matters, this episode offers ideas to protect your inner flame while still serving your clients, your Vision, and the business you are building.
You’ll hear:
Follow the Scotland adventure and see some fab photos at Erin's Instagram here.
The Coaching Mixer podcasts about emotional sabbaticals here (part 1) and here (part 2).
Superabound supports visionary entrepreneurs and founders who refuse to sacrifice their lives to build their business, blending grounded strategy with unconventional tools that help you think clearly and decide well.
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Full transcript:
Welcome to the SuperAbound podcast, where vision-led entrepreneurs learn to build a generous business without sacrificing what matters most. You are listening to episode 359, the power of an emotional sabbatical. Hello and welcome. I am very happy to be here today, to be back. Um, I just came home from a 10-day adventure in Scotland with my family, with Steve and my kids. Um, and it was just so much fun. We had a really great time. I am slowly sharing some of my favorite parts about the trip in case you ever go to Scotland. Um, I was really overwhelmed landing this trip because there was just so many things to do. I got so many different recommendations and we were there for 10 days. We traveled around to a few different locations, missed so many things, I'm sure, but um just a beautiful space with amazing people. And um I just feel like I want to pay it forward a little bit by sharing the recommendations that I have because it was a tricky adventure to plan with there just being so many things to do. Um, and you know, for people with sometimes different interests, uh, we all like different things. So, uh, if you're interested or you're planning a trip to Scotland, I am sharing, um, a lot of stories and I'm sharing in my highlights some of my favorite places for food, for um, some shopping, some shops like bookstore that I loved and a knitting store that I loved, hikes that we did, and um, even a couple places that we stayed, which I don't normally do. I'm not a travel influencer person, but I think that when you find something amazing or when, you know, a a place that you're staying does an incredible job, I think we're living in a world where that deserves to be celebrated because I only ever really hear about the complaints and the bad things from other people unless I ask for, you know, favorites. So, I'll be sharing that in case you're curious or just want to see. Um, my my kids took a million pictures of themselves. Well, we took the pictures, but they were like, "We're going to jump." So, I have them jumping on mountains and different things. And so, you can check out They had a great time and uh so did we. So that is over at besuperabound.com uh or sorry it's on Instagram @besuperabound and I'll be sharing some of the things I loved. I still have a little bit of jet lag as you may maybe you can tell. I'm drinking some coffee. I've been getting up at uh like 4 a.m. totally awake since we got back. So we're going to do our best today. Uh, but I think it's a topic that is suited to how I'm feeling and hopefully will be very helpful to all of you. So, we're talking today about this idea that I had kind of at the beginning of the year. And if you listen to the podcast that I share with Elena called the coaching mixer, I talked a little bit about this idea, but it's something I think I mean I have found it immensely beneficial as a business owner, but I think every person in a leadership role could also benefit from this. It's this idea of taking an emotional sbatical. And I was very inspired this year because I had several of my clients across different industries decide to give themselves sbaticals. Um some were as short as three months, some were as long as a full year. And so I've been coaching a lot of people around the idea of stepping out of their pretty hectic workflow and taking deeper rest doing sometimes more um focused, meaningful, visionary type work. And uh just the question the maybe the spiritual question of identity when we take away some of our more recognizable categories when we are not uh being seen through the eyes of our work. We are not being interacted with as our job title or as our accolades or any of that. That can be very jarring for many people. I think probably for everyone. Even though the idea of a sabbatical is really lovely. You know, I've known people who've taken sabbaticals and they have moved to another country that with a language they don't speak and they have written a book or they have just had a vacation. They've caught up on quality time with people they haven't connected with. They have started projects or hobbies that they've always really wanted to dive into but never had the time or space for. So that's kind of a traditional sbatical. It is a a break from the routine, the work routine in some way. It doesn't mean that um you check out of the world completely, but for some people it can mean like a deeper retreat into a different area of life. What I started to do at the beginning of this year, beginning of 2026, was explore the idea of what it would mean to take an emotional sabbatical. meaning I would continue doing my work in the world. I would continue um showing up for things like this podcast, for the book that I'm writing, um for various, you know, going through the the the work in the calendar every week. But emotionally, I was taking a break from being intensely focused on any particular outcome in my business. Meaning not worrying about the revenue for a full year. This is my my sobatical is is a year. um not worrying about pushing for brand new initiatives, not really worrying about innovating, basically taking an emotional break from being the generator of all things in my business. And as I've talked about before, this has kind of happened in conjunction with Steve taking on a bigger role with one of the companies that he was coaching and consulting for. um he's almost totally full-time in that other business. And of course, he's still involved as a co-founder of Superabound. He still does a lot of the the work that I am not a genius at. He still, you know, takes care of a lot of the things within Superabound. But really having him step into another chapter in his involvement with Superabound and his work in general. It gave me a moment to think, I suddenly don't have to do things the way I've always done them. I suddenly don't have to co-create
my next step towards the big vision of what Steve and I both really believe in and want to see happen in the world. But I don't really have to do that with his consideration as much anymore. Um, not that that was ever bad. I still I really actually really lean on Steve for a lot of the things that I create and he is very much my coach within the company. But suddenly not having that other person, that other core person. And this might be similar to you if you have had a maybe you've always worked with the same COO or you've had a core team member in your business that has moved on to other things where suddenly you have to come back and say, "I was probably doing things to please other people. Um, not that that's a bad thing, but I was probably doing making decisions that I knew my team could be on board with. And suddenly when it is me and some contractors or me and someone else who's kind of um consulting more or coaching more in my company and doesn't have to be, you know, on board and rah rah with everything I do, there is a different kind of opportunity that arrives for you. And this is what happens on a more traditional sabbatical. Suddenly, you're not expected to answer all of the emails from all of the colleagues. You're not expected to produce um or achieve certain lanterns, light certain lanterns that maybe the company you work for really cares about, but it's not like the passion in your heart. So I was kind of having this moment where I thought okay I can go in two directions. I can spiral. I can say oh no I am doing this all mostly alone again. This is going to be very hard. Uh I don't even know what I want or who I am. You know I could have had a whole crisis about it. And I think there was probably times where I did, but then there was this other piece of me that said, Steve is still very involved. He is still my business partner and my husband. He's not going anywhere. As far as I know, the the thing I want to do is still very true for me. I care very deeply about making sure business owners, leaders um are not chasing some external measure of success at the expense of their own well-being and their own joy. And as I was thinking this through, I started writing my next book that's all about return on joy. But it really occurred to me that I could create tools around this. I could talk about experiences I've had coaching clients about this, but it would probably be more authentic and more in integrity for me to actually pursue a return on joy in my own life as my full-time job. Like that's the best way to write about something is to give yourself over to that experience. And what that took was deciding I'm going to take an emotional sobatical for a year. It doesn't mean I don't care about the outcomes of the experiments I run or how my programs do. Doesn't matter mean I don't look at my bank account for the business. all of that. It means that I made sure that I had enough money in the bank to only do the things in my business that I felt really strongly compelled to do.
And there's a reason because I've watched a lot of people.
This is not meant to be a criticism, but it might sound like one, so I just apologize ahead of time. I've watched a lot of people,
solo entrepreneurs have a really interesting idea about the niche they want to create, the people they want to serve. Um, and they think, "Ooh, I I believe I am meant to work with women who are retiring and want to make their retirement amazing." or I want to work with people who are interested in going from, I don't know, a a corporate job into becoming a tech founder. And they will think, okay, this is what I meant to do. This is my calling. And then they'll put all of their marketing and they'll tell their story in a way that's all about them. They'll talk about how they felt inspired to work with these particular people. They'll talk about how this is their big calling. And sometimes I read, you know, I read the copy that people write because I am, you know, I teach relationshipbased marketing. So, I'm always interested in like how we do this. And I think it's a really tricky thing to tell your story in a way that is relevant to your clients, to your ideal customers, but not make them a character in your story. Not say like, "You're helping me fulfill my dreams by becoming my client." because no one cares and they don't want to do that. Um, people, especially I'll talk about coaching specifically here because I think coaches are probably the most guilty of of people who do this. Nobody wants to be your client so that you can live your dreams. I want to hear how you're living your dreams if you are a coach because to me it means that you have the type of mindset that is so expansive that you have stepped out of the flow of what society expected and you've created something that is wholeheartedly you. I want to see that because your mindset and your tools are going to be the thing you use to coach me. But I don't want to be a cog in your marketing wheel. I don't want to be um I don't want to feel like I'm doing you a favor by paying you to coach me. And so I didn't talk about my emotional sobatical because I really wanted to avoid um it sounding like that and because honestly I was not sure that it would work as a business move because I think sometimes when people take their focus away from those external markers like revenue um like resigning client ients or repeat customers or new customers. I think sometimes when we take our focus away from the metrics and say, "Oh, it doesn't really matter, you know, if I build it, they will come." That is from a movie about ghosts playing baseball. That is not a business strategy. And so I've been really I've tried to be really thoughtful about how I share about the emotional sbatical because I and I'm I'm you know I'm talking about it a lot right now because I don't want people to think that the emotional sobatical is a growth strategy. Your emotional sobatical is something that you might choose to do for yourself. I'm not even suggesting you choose to do it, but it's something I chose to do for myself because it's really important for me to be writing about getting a return on joy from my business while I'm experiencing a return on joy that my business has helped me catalyzed. So the very first thing that I did was make sure that I really did not need to make a penny this year because the only way for me to take an emotional sbatical is to not feel like there's scarcity in the business. And this is why I'm saying I'm not suggesting everyone try this. I'm not like let's hear about your let's you should just do this next month. No, I don't think so because I know that many businesses cannot actually afford to do that. This I was doing as an experiment or as a you know my own personal exploration and I want to share a couple of the things that I've learned so far because we're into the summer. I have more time left um to do this and really drop in. But I will say that the first couple of months of trying not to step into my regular, okay, what are we creating? What is new? What is the next thing? How are we, you know, making revenue metrics, markers, blah blah blah. That was really hard. And I think it probably took me, if I'm really honest, it probably took me five months before I was really catching myself going down that road and saying, "Oh, but this is actually kind of like a year off where you are going to serve your clients. You're going to, you know, share what you want to share as marketing. You're going to do your podcast as you feel like doing it." um and really not have an emotional attachment to outcomes. It took a long time. It took a lot of coaching. I worked with my own coach who um is actually also taking is taking a real sbatical like not real a traditional I guess mine is real too. It's just different. a traditional sbatical right now and taking several months off of work completely, pausing her her um her business and letting her team look after most of it. Um, but it was hard to uncouple from that because of how much identity and is wrapped up I think in what we create. It feels very good to have someone come into your business, read your book, uh listen to your podcast, feel a connection with you to such a degree that they are trusting you with their time, their money, their mind, their heart, their business. the the intimate things of their life for you to be their coach
and for me to say I am not actively in pursuit of new clients, more clients. Um, I'll share when I have a spot opening. I'll share opportunities to work with me in ways that feel very good, that don't feel pressurefueled. You know, I don't ever want someone to come into my business feeling like I need them as a client. I don't want to feel like that and I never want to give someone the impression that like I desperately need this person to be my client. Um, there are people who I've met who I'm I'm would be very excited to work with and I've told them that like I think I could really do some incredible things with you. Um, and I would love to work with you, but I always want that to come from a generous place where they feel ready. They want that that kind of support of coaching and thinking partnership. And it doesn't feel like um me, you know, working for them to pull them into my world, but instead is something where I'm going to help them and step into their world and be a piece of the puzzle that maybe was missing. I always wanted to feel like that. And I will say the power of the mo emotional sabbatical is the people I've met where that has happened very organically. um have been very fun people to work with. And I realized that I probably could have been creating more of these relationships with my relationship- based marketing tools that you know as that I teach all the time coming from this different energy. The next piece of the power of an emotional sbatical for myself actually really surprised me. Um, and I've heard this experience from other people who've done sbaticals, more traditional sbaticals. um is very unexpected things have moved into the space where the overthinking, overwork, worry, stress, overwhelm, confusion used to live. So when you take a year or whatever amount of time to say, I'm giving myself this gift. I've had a business for many, many years. This is the year I'm giving myself the gift of not intentionally not trying to turn the wheel to do business in the same way I've been doing it. It creates a lot of space and that space for many people does not sit empty for long. In my case, I was taking this time and I had seen a a neighbor of mine is an artist and was sharing some pictures of from this pastel class that she took. and I reached out to her and she encouraged me to sign up for it and I started doing pastels once a week for a couple of hours, going to a class in person, um, learning from a really cool teacher, having a lot of fun in this room with people who were very serious artists. you know, I feel like they probably shouldn't have let me in, but they were all really supportive, really neat, and some of them were very stressed out about how good their work was. I mean, I was just happy to be there and probably happy for my growth mindset. Um, because I was just having such a blast creating. I don't know what we would call it art at first, but I was having so much fun exploring this new medium and these tools that I had no idea existed. Um, and some of them were like very frustrated with their work that I would say was quite beautiful. Um, but over a really short period of time, this idea that had been nudging at me for a number of years started to come in where I've always wanted to create an oracle deck. And if you're not familiar with what that is, it's like tarot cards, but instead of following the classical tarot um formula, it is totally based on the artist's intuitive or contacted work. And these images kept coming to me and I was like, I don't think I can draw all of these things. But I can make a go of it with with this beautiful tool that I've just started to to learn. And I have created now the deck is complete. I spent many work days quote unquote uh creating cards. I have a unique way that I'm going to be offering the guide book uh so that people can really interact with the cards not just for readings but also for their own deeper coaching um or journaling practice you know whatever floats your boat. these cards are being made and that was a totally unexpected side effect from the emotional sbatical because I wanted something that was going to create a return on joy which meant I was suddenly open to experimenting with things that I have never thought to try. I was open to expanding my mind around what I thought was possible for myself. And it has been one of the most surprising, very fun things I've ever done. And now I'm going to finally have an oracle deck to share with people, to do readings with uh for my coaching clients. It feels really, really good. But knowing that that didn't come from sitting down at the beginning of the year and saying, "Okay, in Q3 and four, I have to release a new product. I must think of something really interesting that's going to grab people's attention." Like there was none of that. It was just kind of like one day I said to Steve, I think I'm creating an oracle deck. Like I have a couple of these images that are straight out of the Superabound book. I was also working on my next book and some images came up and I was like, "This finally helps me articulate a concept and a tool that I've been using for a few years, but I just couldn't get to I couldn't really get the language around that until I drew this image and the image explained the whole thing to me. So, it's been a very uh it's been a wild spiritual adventure. I have had nights where I've woken up in the middle of the night with this image and a very clear message like this is the card for this particular tool. Um, I have started drawing something where I thought, "Oh, this is going to be a, you know, a drop, a stone in the pond, like a ripple effect, and we're going to talk about ripple results." And it became something that honestly looks to most of us like a hurricane in the middle of the ocean. So, I am learning in this very collaborative process that I'm in with the universe right now. um all about the power of taking kind of a scary step into giving myself a lot of emotional space. And I honestly here's the thing I will say that you know you might want to consider especially if you are in a difficult period of time in your business right now. It might not make sense for you to take a full year of a full emotional sobatical where you just say, "I'm not going to care about outcomes. I'm going to just focus on what brings me joy." Um, that is kind of more like that's all about us. If we do that as business owners, it's because our our revenue does dictate how people are receiving it, how people are receiving our work in the world. Um, but in a really difficult time, you might notice yourself working in your mind when you're not at your desk. And I'm not going to pretend that this is easy what I'm about to say. But you might decide at 5:00 I'm giving myself an 8 hour, 10 hour, 12hour, 14hour ideally emotional sabbatical.
I am going to redirect my mind intentionally and lovingly every time I catch myself in kind of the spin out or in the static around what should I do to solve this problem.
Focusing sometimes really hard on a problem doesn't often bring us like the most creative solutions. And you can test this for yourself. I'm not going to tell you how it is for you, but you maybe you've ever noticed that you're grappling with something, you fall asleep, and then you wake up in the morning, and the solution is there. It's not because
the solution just magically appeared. It's usually because I think it happens this way because you're finally relaxed enough to hear yourself to hear yourself think to your body is not in this gripping position where nothing can get through. You're finally physically, emotionally, and spiritually a little more open. And you know, a lot of people tell me that they have these moments either when they're right before they fall asleep or right before they wake up in the morning. It's this kind of liinal space is where we get a lot of answers. And I've played around with meditations in that liinal time for many years. It's where some of my best ideas come from. Or, you know, could be on a massage table and kind of like in that half sleepy state and suddenly the next thing to do comes in very clearly. It's possible to do that without being on an emotional sabbatical, but some of us, myself included, need a break from being the constant generator in ways that are not as organic as kind of just letting it unfold. So, I realize I'm kind of sharing maybe a more spiritual approach. I'm not saying this is the path to growth for your business. I'm saying actually kind of the opposite but interestingly
my business is doing very well. So I think there is when you are trading your time and your energy as it's your time or your energy is the product that you are selling taking impeccable care of that time and energy and being somebody a little different than most people are used to. I think that helps you stand out. I think it's good for marketing. people are following along with my pictures from Scotland more than most other things I post. It could be that my kids are really cute and they're jumping in the air and they're all soaking wet. That could be it. Um, but I think it shows that here's a coach who's putting their money where their mouth is. I'm not working every day in the summer. I am going on adventures. I and my adventures at this point in my life do not need to be laying comos on a beach. I don't need that kind of a recharge because my life is surrounded with self-investment. I'm self-investing every single day. Before I recorded this podcast, I have done my workout. I've done my meditation. I've done my card reading. Um I haven't done that yet actually. I'm going to do that after this. But my whole day is scheduled around these types of supportive things so that I don't have to make myself the center of the universe in my business. I can actually focus completely on my clients and what they need and I can hear them more deeply and they can get what they need from the container I'm creating for them. And that is really unique and that is something special that the emotional sobatical has maybe taught me on a deeper level that you can't fake having present energy. You can't really fake presence. And if you need presence to do your work, this could be something to play with maybe for eight hours at the end of the day. Don't let yourself fall into the worry and the spinning. Use the HEAL static technique from my book, SuperAbound. Live the life the universe is dreaming for you. It's right right behind me. Um Steve has a whole meditation for this process when you get the book bonuses.
It's important. And I think that if more people played with their version of this, not as a growth strategy, but as self-investment. Um, it could be a new way of working and being for you. And I would love to hear what you think. Does this sound wild to you? Does it sound insane? I want to hear about it. Um, and if you're thinking about doing an emotional sbatical, I can share a little more specifically about how I set it up, what my sort of boundaries and uh, guidelines have been. Um, you can also listen to the episode of the coaching mixer where Elena and I talk about it a little bit from the context of being a coach. And I'm really happy to hear what questions you have. You can reach out to me at hello@besuperabound.com
and I will talk to you again soon. Take care