Break Week Roundup: Q1 2023

It’s Break Week!

All this week, I am not working, and neither is the team. By the time you read this, I will be on my first-ever solo retreat! This is way outside my comfort zone, and I can’t wait to share the experience with you—after I get back, of course!

If you’re unfamiliar with Break Week: At the end of every quarter, our team takes a week off to disconnect, refuel, and rest before a new quarter begins. Doing so allows us to truly unplug, holds us accountable to actually taking time off, and helps us come back feeling recharged and refreshed as a team. You can read more about how Break Week started here!

Something else we do at the end of every quarter is take time to reflect on our biggest wins, challenges, and lessons learned. We share those with you in each Break Week Roundup in the hope that it will inspire you to take some time of your own to pause and reflect.

Without further ado . . . The Break Week Roundup!

Kristen & the KH Team

Biggest wins of the quarter

Staying on top of internal deadlines for our book proposal and finding more clarity in our writing as we continue to revise it and make it stronger
Hiring an external team to help us work on the evolution of our brand now that we are a couple years beyond the Student Maid transition
Adding the question, “What are you most proud of this week?” to our weekly team meetings (we share personal wins and work achievements and it’s awesome!)
Launched our pay-what-you-can model for our Human Leadership Program! We also launched a new signup process for the program which is a lot more efficient for our attendees and our team. Win win!
And speaking of our pay-what-you-can model, we launched our new model in just over a week, highlighting our agility as a small team
We had almost 500 people sign up for our March Human Leadership Program! (And if you want to get a ticket to our next one in May, sign up here!)
Rachel, our Chief of Content, joined me for a keynote presentation in Louisville and hung with me for a few days at my home in Michigan. Seeing the behind-the-scenes and all that goes into an event led to a decision on the team’s part to travel with me more. Our team split up the dates and cities where I’ll be traveling for events in the future to ensure I always have support on the road. Best team ever! (And the best part is we will get to have more regular one-on-one time!)
We had some other team travel this quarter! Cheyenne (our Chief of Operations) and Monique (our Chief of Growth) joined me for a weekend at my hometown on the beach (we missed you, Rachel!). Monique also visited me in Michigan for a spontaneous trip for my birthday!
7 people that I coach came to Houston for an in-person meeting. For some of us, it was our first time meeting in-person ever and it was so special!
I took a week off to celebrate my dad’s 75th birthday with my family. I’ve been really committed to taking time away to be present with my parents and create memories!
After not having a nanny for most of the quarter, Monique finally found one! (More on that in the next section)
I had 8 in-person sessions and 29 virtual events . . . It was a busy and impactful quarter!

Biggest challenges of the quarter

Monique’s nanny very unexpectedly quit. The working-mom struggle is real, and she went months without any help. We applaud her for her patience and her mindset during that time, and we’re grateful we have a culture that could offer Monique flexibility!
Winter weather caused major travel complications on two occasions, one of which included a day where the team had to find a car service that could drive me 7 hours in the middle of the night so that I could make it to my event on time! (And I did!)
And speaking of challenging weather, the winter storm in Dallas caused one of my in-person events to move to virtual. We made the best of it, and we are planning an in-person visit in April!
We are still working on the proposal for the second book, which we’ve been working on since August 2021. With each rewrite, we feel that the content and message get stronger and clearer, but it is frustrating to still be in this phase. We know it will be worth it when we start writing, but dang, it can feel hard sometimes!
Making the decision to hire a team to help us with the evolution of our brand was a big decision and a big investment. It felt like a big risk, and there was a time when we questioned whether we should keep interviewing other companies or pause and wait. We ultimately decided to move forward with the company we hired because we recognized that no matter what, we will learn a ton in the process!
Now that we are a content business, we are still learning to come together as a team on content. It’s our biggest focus for the year, which means learning new systems and new ways of collaborating. We set the intention as a team that it would get messy before it gets clear, and we are fully embracing the chaos as we learn together!
At one point this quarter, I began to feel frustrated about the way we had been tracking certain metrics in our business. It felt inefficient, and at times, demotivating. I had a different idea of how to track them and brought that idea to the team. We quickly agreed that we had outgrown our previous tracking method, so we created a phase two that feels much better. A reminder to always speak up when something is weighing on you!
We made the tough decision to end two of our intimate mastermind groups. These small groups were born in the pandemic as a way to create community, but with the book and in-person travel picking back up, I no longer have the bandwidth to run them. We are so grateful for how understanding our members were when we had to make that difficult choice! (If you are reading this, we love you!) But this isn’t the end of our coaching journey. I'm very happy to still be hosting a group that is open to anyone and everyone. You can sign up here!

Biggest lessons of the quarter

When you have a small team, sometimes you need to outsource things
Not making a decision is still a decision
It’s important to restructure our meetings around what we need in the moment instead of holding onto old agendas that don’t serve us anymore
Create more buffer time between meetings so it doesn’t feel like you’re constantly going from one thing to the next
Be proactive in seeking out additional options when weather may affect travel
Speak up when something feels off. Recognize that you can change the way things are done in ways that meet both the individual motivations of the team and the business’s goals
Creating more margin in my own calendar (using weekly calendar audits) helps me preserve my energy
Follow your heart and purpose. This is why the pay-what-you-can model for the Human Leadership Program was the easiest decision ever!

Favorite reads of the quarter