Heading Out This Summer? How to Keep Your Influencer Butler Running While You're Gone

🏖️ A lot of you are taking trips this summer, especially July 4th week, so here is exactly how I keep my Butler running the whole time I am away. Plus the one piece of gear that saved me after I learned this the hard way.

Real talk: last year my power went out on day 2 of a 14-day trip. My computer shut off, my Butler stopped, and I did not find out until I got home. I lost almost two full weeks of running. Brutal.

Now I run this same setup every single time I leave. It takes about twenty minutes to put in place, and then you can actually relax.

Prefer not to rely on your home computer at all? There is another way: run your Butler on an always-on computer in the cloud, so a power outage or a sleeping laptop can never stop it (exactly the thing that cost me two weeks). It is a separate setup and genuinely free to start: see Run Influencer Butler on a free cloud PC. If you would rather use the computer you already own, keep reading.

Step 1: Set up remote access so you can check in from your phone

The idea is simple: leave a computer plugged in and awake at home, then remote into it from your phone whenever you want to peek at it.

1. On the home computer, go to remotedesktop.google.com/access, click the download arrow, install it, and set a 6-digit PIN.
2. Set the computer to never sleep. On Windows: Settings, then Power, then Screen and Sleep, set both to Never. On Mac: System Settings, then Lock Screen, set displays and sleep to Never.
3. On your phone, download the Chrome Remote Desktop app, sign in with the same Google account, tap your computer, and enter your PIN.
4. That is it. You are now looking at your full desktop, Butler and all, right from your phone, anywhere you have signal.

Now you can check in from a beach chair without wondering whether everything is still humming along at home.

Step 2: Safeguard it with a UPS battery backup

This is the part I skipped and regretted.

A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) is a battery backup that sits between your wall outlet and your computer. It has its own cord that plugs into the wall, and then it has standard three-prong outlets on it that your computer and monitor plug into, just like plugging into the wall.

When the power flickers or briefly cuts out, which is what most outages actually are, the battery kicks in instantly and keeps your computer running so your Butler never misses a beat. Bonus: it also protects your equipment from the power surge that hits when electricity comes back on, and that spike is what fries computers.

Quick heads up: the gear links below are affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.

The one I use and recommend is the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD (1500VA / 1000W). It has pure sine wave output (safe for modern PCs), 12 three-prong outlets, an LCD screen that shows your battery and load, and it keeps a desktop plus monitor running about 10 to 20 minutes during an outage. Best bang for your buck.

Important so you plug into the right spots: half the outlets are battery backup plus surge protected, and half are surge only. They are labeled on the unit. Put your computer and monitor in the battery backup outlets. The USB ports on the front are just a bonus for charging your phone.

Want a step up? The APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500MS2 is the premium version, same idea with pure sine wave output.

Step 3: The pro tip that actually saves your trip

A battery bridges short outages. For longer ones, you need one more setting.

Hop into your computer's BIOS and turn on "Restore on AC Power Loss," sometimes called "AC Power Recovery." Every brand words it a little differently. With that on, when power returns after a longer outage, your computer powers itself back on automatically. And because you already disabled sleep in Step 1, your Butler picks right back up without you touching a thing.

Battery plus auto-restart means you are covered whether the outage is 2 minutes or 2 hours.

Set it up before you leave, then actually unplug

That is the whole system: remote access so you can check in, a UPS so brief outages never stop you, and auto-restart so longer ones recover on their own. Twenty minutes of setup buys you two weeks of peace of mind.

If your goal this summer is to let the repetitive work run itself, that is the whole point of putting the right systems in place. Get this dialed in before you leave, and go enjoy your trip. Your Butler has it from here. 🍹