18: Event Professionals are Athletes: 6 Steps for Post Event Recovery

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Kayla breaks down why post-event recovery is not a luxury, it’s part of the strategy. From adrenaline crashes and cortisol overload to post-event blues and practical recovery planning, she shares how event professionals can protect their energy, reset faster, and lead sustainably.

Because if athletes and performers plan recovery, event professionals should too.

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Follow Kayla Worthy 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthyeventscoach/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaylaworthy/ 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome to the Feel Worthy Podcast. I am your host, Kayla Worthy. I'm an event coach, CMP, and I also still work in corporate events. If this is your first episode with me, welcome. I'm so excited you're here. If this is your second or third or fourth or 17th episode, I am also really happy you're here and that you're a longtime listener. This podcast is a place where we put the event professionals first. Oftentimes, as event pros, we are putting the event first. We're taking care of everyone else. We are constantly worried and considerate of all the details in the room to make sure that the attendees have exactly what they need. The stakeholders are excited and enthused and happy about the delivery of our work. But as event pros, we sometimes put ourselves in the back burner because, again, everything else has to come first and we have to keep showing up and thriving. But I want this to be a place where event pros can let their hair down, feel understood, feel seen, and then get whatever they need out of these episodes so that they can go on and thrive and be the best person, mom, wife, sister, friend, son to their loved ones, but also give back to the events that they love so much too. So off my soapbox about what this podcast is about. If you've been enjoying this podcast, I would love if you would take a moment to rate the show on Apple or Spotify because it just helps grow this community and ensure that other event professionals are joining us, having these conversations, and finding this podcast. Okay, so speaking of event pros and community, by the time this podcast airs, I'll be en route. I'll be already in a place I've never been to before for my first ever business retreat. My coach is hosting a retreat for event professionals right outside of London. It'll be my first time in London, and I am just so excited for the retreat for meeting these amazing women that are going to be in the same room talking about business and AI and trying to grow themselves and be in a city I've never been to before and a country I've never been to before. I'm just so excited. So if you are interested in hearing all about my trip to London and what the business retreat entailed, I obviously won't give away any of the confidential details that she shared with us during the retreat because it's all of her IP and I want to respect that. But if you're curious about what it's like going on a business retreat, I really want to share that with you. So if you're interested in an episode about that, let me know. You know, send me a note. Um, you can leave a voicemail or a text message, and I'd love to share more about that once it's all over. Okay. Today's episode is all about the post-event recovery, which is something that I hope people have heard about, but it's also conversations that I don't think a lot of us are having, which is why I think this is so prevalent, especially for those that are in corporate events coming out of a busy season, those that are preparing for a busy season going into the rest of this year. I think this will land wherever you are. So I was speaking to a coaching client about their event schedule, and she was explaining to me her entire calendar year. And the first half was crazy. There was multiple large-scale events, and it was not only in just Q1, but happening in Q2. And then summer is finally when she felt like she could rest. So the first half basically seemed like a shitstorm of events. The second half was recovery, feeling herself again, starting to plan for the next year. And it honestly just sounded like a cycle. So it's something she goes through every year. So when we unpacked was she loved events, and the cycle was the frustrating part. Like it felt like it was it wasn't until summer where she can get a break or reprieve. And then she's like, I have to go right back into it again. And why is it summer? My only time that I can get this opportunity to feel like myself again, to be recharged, to be with friends, to be real family, to like feel nourished. I took a moment to validate that for her because it's true. It's exactly how most of us feel or have felt. And if that sounds familiar to you, I want you to know that your feelings are valid. It is very real and it's stressful and it's all-consuming. So feel free to send me a note if that ever sounds familiar to you, if you've ever experienced that, or if this is landing with you so far. You spend weeks, you spend months planning every single detail. So you show up constantly, you're leading, you solve every single problem and detail, you're holding it all together, and then it ends, and you're left with the kind of the remains of yourself, and then the cleanup and the post-event mortem and the post-mortem of the event and all those reconciling of the bills, and you feel relieved, but then you also feel exhausted. You're foggy, you're tired, you're emotionally drained, and maybe even feel a little empty. So all of that is true, but I want to challenge us to reframe it from just a cycle or just this busy season where we feel like we have no control and it's happening just to us instead of perhaps for us, or being in a position where it just feels like it's a burden on us. So let's take that perspective and change it to event professionals are athletes, and we're getting ready for our Super Bowl or us performing at Coachella. And some of you are saying, Kayla, I am not an athlete. I don't run, I don't believe in organized sports, I I don't even sing if I take the performer route. And trust me, I don't either. Well, I do, but it's not well. So I completely understand that point of view, but think of it as if you are like you're embodying the persona of an athlete. Because the point of this episode is that post-sevent recovery is part of the event planning process. It's part of your strategy. It's not an afterthought for the athletes. So why is it for you? You deserve to feel worthy before, during, and after the event. If you're planning these enterprise mega events, large-scale productions, managing conferences, trade shows, charities, going after these customer brand experiences, these moments are not just for the attendees. They are for you too. They are your Super Bowl. They are your World Cup, your Coachella, your Madison Square Garden record-breaking opening performance. Some of you may have literally been at these venues or watched these athletes perform or athletes or artists perform. But in this situation, if you take yourself and not just think about the event, but you're thinking about yourself as planning the event, these events, you are the athlete. You're the musical artist, you're the LeBron James, the Tom Brady. And if sports aren't your thing, then you're the Beyoncé, the Justin Bieber at Coachello, the Sabrina Carpenter, and it's time to start acting like it. Let's unpack and kind of take a step back about what post-event really feels like. Post-event versions of ourselves, especially after you come off of a huge event, some of the small ones, or even like a roadshow of events, could feel like this too. Where you finally sit down and the event is over, attendees are leaving and departing from the venue, and your body is just crashing. You get home, or you're just even at the hotel room or the airport, and you feel so disconnected from your body. Like, you can't even make simple decisions. Someone's like, What do you want to eat? You look through the Uber E tab and you're like, none of this. Figuring out just even like when to shower, where to even get water, feels so hard. You feel like emotional or irritable, and you're just off, and you replay everything, like all the things that went right, but then all the things that went wrong and how you'll do better next time. Just no, this is not a weakness. This is your nervous system coming down from high adrenaline, constant problem solving, and just being on for days. Your body releases cortisol during high stress periods. Cortisol is your stress hormone, and if you're in the events industry, I'm sure you've heard that before. And it helps you stay in normal situations, alert, focused, and ready to act quickly. It's really helpful when you need it, right? It's what helps you handle the speaker who missed rehearsal, the A-B issue five minutes before the doors open, the attendee problem no one else can solve, the BEOs that are wrong that you have to quickly pivot in and fix and work with the banquet staff to adjust. But cortisol is not meant to stay elevated forever. When you've been running on it for days, your body gets used to surviving in go mode. And it's like driving a car 100 miles per hour, and all of a sudden you're like, oh, gotta get off the exit. Then suddenly you're expected to be driving 30 miles an hour. Your body doesn't know how to slow down that quickly. And it doesn't know how to just be and just enjoy the country road. If you don't intentionally recover, you carry that depletion into everything that comes next. Your next event, your next meeting, your home life, your next conversation. Or you start to withdraw and you're not yourself. Here's what I see all the time, especially with the clients that I've been talking to about this. We plan every single detail down to the minute. And you just don't plan for the recovery part. So instead, we jump straight back into work. You say yes to everything immediately. We're trying to catch up on life overnight, or even neglect life because we have to plan for the next event. And then we're ignoring what our body is asking us for. According to the American Psychological Association, people often experience fatigue or even getting sick. I'm sure a number of you have felt that, right? Getting that sick or a cold right after an event happened. And it's because after this prolonged stress ends, the body is finally coming down from that heightened state. And this is what they call the stress letdown effect. So you're not lazy, you're not unmotivated. Your body is literally trying to regulate itself. Here's the truth: you cannot lead well if you're constantly depleted. And I'm sure you've heard this like putting your oxygen mask on first when you're on the plane. But it's true. You really have to because then you can't help or save anyone else. Recovery isn't something you earn after burnout. It's something that you can design and that you can plan for ahead of time. It's not something that you are rewarded for or gifted. You are just deserving of it. Okay. There's one more layer that people don't often address or talk about. Sometimes after an event, you're the exhaustion is happening, but you can also feel empty, maybe even a little sad. You were surrounded by people all the time. You were constantly answering your phone, talking to people, engaging with all of the details that are happening at the event, and then suddenly when it's over, it's quiet. That emotional dip, it's normal. After the Olympics, so think of your Simone Bios, think of your uh Jordan Stolz, I believe is his name. Um, I hope I didn't punch that. So many athletes talk about the post-Olympic blues. So it's a moment that they're training for for years, and then suddenly the structure, the companionship with their teenmates, the conversations with their coaches, the spotlight, the dressing up, all of it is gone. The adrenaline drops, the dopamine from achievement and recognition disappears, your body and brain are sitting there like, what the hell is going on? That's exactly what happens after events. You've been operating at your peak, then everything is quiet. And it doesn't mean something is wrong. It just means you came out of something that required a lot of you. This is why the post-event recovery plan matters. And I'm sure you're like, okay, I've heard it already. I'm convinced I need one. What what do I do? Okay, so let's make this actionable. And I have six things that you're going to do. Okay? The first thing is you're going to plan for it. Okay. We're starting it off with the first to do is you're going to plan for this. So you know your event is on May 15th. Great. What are you doing May 16th? Okay. That is immediately what I want you to think of. When you think of the full timeline, you're thinking of how do you start at the event and then where do you go at the end, the departure date for the attendees? What's your departure day? And somewhere in between that, you're planning for your recovery. So you're considering things like you're bookmarking your day off already. You're saying is my event is May 15th, May 16th, I'm going to take off. And I'm going to not talk to anyone. Here is your contact number if you need someone at this point. But I am totally off. You're going to plan for the day or days, depending on how long you are out. I would consider taking multiple days, but at least a day so that you are starting to fill your cup back up and you have no obligations, you're not talking to anyone. And even consider delaying your flight. So if your event ends at noon on Wednesday, maybe don't leave until noon or 5 p.m. the following day. So you get a day of just actual rest and sleeping in your hotel room uninterrupted. Okay. So the first thing is you're going to plan for it. The second thing is you're going to protect this like it's your job. Like you're guarding a tiger at the zoo, you're protecting it. You're not going to go from 100 to zero back to 100. You're going to slowly start the decrease from all of the adrenaline, the letdown, and you're going to stop expecting yourself to run really quickly. Okay? Keep your schedule light for that those two couple days. So not only the day off that you're having, but also the next couple days. Instead of running back into all of these meetings, ease back into a normal routine. And maybe you're not working eight to five. Maybe you're working like nine to three. So consider where you can make that achievable for you because everyone's schedule looks differently. I completely get that. But where can you move a meeting a couple days later that it's not urgent for you to take? Where can you manage your workload so you have a bit more white space to kind of decompress and think about all the details of the previous events instead of just running straight into planning for the next one? So avoid stacking meetings. Give yourself space to transition this of think of this as a soft landing, not a crash into rest. Okay. Okay, number three. And especially for moms, for parents in the industry, and if your partner's not in the industry or doesn't understand what this kind of schedule is like, I need you to set expectations with them. It's really important that you have that conversation and start explaining to them what it could feel like for you after the event, just so that they know and that you're contributing in this way because it's the best way you can at this moment, right? It's just having a moment of saying, hey, after the event, I'm gonna be really tired. And I know I was gone for a week, but here's what I can and I can't do, right? Especially for working moms. We carry this guilt of working and being away from our families on site, and I'm sure working dads do too, but I'll speak from a mom perspective. I want to go back and rush to be with my family and be with my son and have so much fun and be the cool mom again, but I am depleted after seven to twelve days on site and traveling in between. And I want to come back home and dive right back into everything as normal, but I'm gonna need a little bit of rest. So I have started to even suggest, hey, I can do school drop-off, but I cannot do pickup. Like once I come back, I need to just lay in bed, or I'm gonna order, we're gonna order food out for the first two days I'm back because I can't even think about cooking or suggest to you what I want to eat, and I'm not gonna take over cooking because I just am burned out right now. Like I need a bit of recovery time. So you're not failing your family, you're setting this expectation so that they know what version of you is going to come back, they know how to work with you. And if you come back super energized and you're like, I can do all of the things, even better. But at least if you're like, hey, I may feel like this, I may feel a little bit more sluggish than usual, then at least they know, and then you guys can plan accordingly. It's all part of planning ahead because you're planning for worst-case scenario. Just like your contingency planning for what's happening on site, if a uh plane is delayed or if a speaker is delayed, you're planning for all of that, you're going to be doing the same thing with your life. All right, so number four, you're going to hydrate like it's your job. Grab your water bottle, fill it up with ice and water, and throw an electrolyte packet in there and put it by your bedside. Because you have been working and talking, and especially if you were in like a Denver or Vegas or another country, you're going to need water. You have not been hydrating, and I know you haven't. Even if you said there was a water bubbler, you haven't. You were probably also not eating consistently either. So when you are thinking about the hydration part, it is helping with your fatigue, it is helping regulate your energy and supporting your immune system. Again, the stress letdown effect, the sickness, water is going to help with that and electrolytes. So hydrate like it's your job and do it before the coffee. Keep a bottle within reach on your nightstand just so that you're ready to go. Okay. Number five, rest. And this is gonna be the hardest one to do. And rest is gonna look a little different for everyone, right? You don't need to just lay there and just sleep. You might need to, honestly, you might want to do that, and that is 100% how you should rest. But if you can't, take naps. Find ways to just like get into comfy clothes and like lay in bed and watch a TV show. Rest can look different for everyone, but it is imperative for this recovery process. You don't need to catch up on every detail or every email or every part of whatever is happening next in life. You don't have to immediately clean the house. Rest can just look like taking off the aura ring and the Apple Watch. I don't even have mine on. Taking it off and just not looking at the stats for a minute because you don't need to know that you're in a sleep deficit or that you are like a sleep score of 50 or a readiness score of 45. You just need to be, okay? Choose your player, choose your starter, however that works for you, but just be. Whether it's laying in bed, whether it's laying on the couch, or just going for soft walks, whatever rest looks like for you, that's what you're going to do. And then number six, once you've done all of the above, steps one through five, number six is you're gonna start doing things that fill your cup back up. This can be a workout, this can be a phone call with a friend, reading a book that you've been trying to catch up on, watching the Netflix show that you've been like, oh, I wanted to binge in during the event, but I couldn't. Now's the time. You're gonna start doing things that fill you up, whatever that looks like to you. I have a joy list of things like I always plan a massage right after my event because I know it's gonna start making my body feel a little bit more normal. And it is my number one non-negotiable, plus making sure that I get some rest before I get on that plane. So whatever starts to fill your cup back up, you need to start implementing that and plan for it, right? Schedule the phone call with your friend, who I'm sure is also super busy, making sure that you take yourself to lunch and it's quiet and it's a place you haven't been to in a while. You filling your cup up will start to make you feel whole again so that you can start planning with strategy and clarity that you didn't have when you were depleted. If you take nothing else from this episode, take this. Recovery is a part of your event strategy. Athletes plan it, performers plan it, and now you do too. If you want to continue leading at a high level, you need to plan for it too. This podcast is about feeling worthy every single day. And I know that's hard and it's not always possible to grab for that. But part of it is knowing when to push and when to recover. And if it's something you struggle with, you're not alone. That's a part of the work I do with event pros. And I'm happy to help you with it too. Drop me a line, let me know. I'm happy to support you through this. And if any part of this episode resonated with you, send it to another event pro who just came out of a big event or is going into their event so that they can start planning for this too. We all need a reminder. Okay. I am so excited to tell you more about this retreat I go on. I hope you guys are having an amazing week. And You can feel worthy today and every day. And I will talk to you guys very, very soon. I have a lot of exciting things coming up and they might be coming up sooner than you think. Okay. All right. I'll leave you on the cliffhanger. Bye.