Myth busting the 'summer slump' in business!

Hey, new listener. Thanks so much for checking us out. And there's a good chance you have adhd, so I quickly wanted to ask you to please follow this podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whichever app you're listening to this on, don't leave it until later because you will forget. Thank you. Squirrel. Squirrel. In this episode, I'm busting the myth around this so called summer slump. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. And welcome to the Weeniecast. Squirrel. I want to bust a myth, and that myth is that the summer months are slow for your business. Now, you're probably hearing that and thinking, but Katie, like, it actually is slow for my business. Everyone's on vacation, their kids are out of school. They take longer to make decisions like, business slows down between the months of June and August. And to that I say, yeah, but is it because it naturally slows down or because you slow down? And I'm sorry if that was rude. Actually, I'm not that sorry because we actually need to have a realistic conversation about what you're doing to cause this summer slump every single year. And before we get into this, I want to acknowledge that the summer is a scheduling nightmare for a lot of people. If you're a parent, especially throughout the school year, your children are sent off to a building where other adults watch them for the majority of the day. So you have time to get your work done. And then you. You only have to deal with them in the mornings and the evenings. You know, you can tell I'm not a parent, right? I'm sure your children are lovely, but you get a lot more done when they're away, right? Whereas in the summer, you know, it's a little more sporadic. Maybe they're in summer camp. That's probably not going to be a full school day's worth of time. Maybe they're not in summer camp. Maybe they're just hanging around the house with you. Well, then you're the adult in charge. And it's not like kids are great co workers. They're not going to respect the fact that you are in a meeting. They're not gonna respect the fact that you have to get an email out. If they want a snack, they're gonna ask for the snack. Cause no one wants to be that mom that has to explain to your child's best friend's parents that, yes, you do in fact feed your child. You just didn't get them a string cheese right when they wanted it that one time. Can you tell? I have friends who have kids. In addition to that, there are a lot of vacations that happen during the summer. People get married during the summer. I mean, people get married all year round, but summer is like prime time in a lot of areas. And even if you're not going on vacation, there are people that you're working with who are going on vacation. Maybe your graphic designer is taking two weeks off and then your copywriter is taking a week off here. Like that is naturally going to slow down some of the stuff that happens in your business. And not to mention, depending on who your ideal client is, they may slow down in their decision making process. There are a lot of challenges to the summer season and if we just kind of like threw in the towel every season, like, oh, well, it's hard to get clients right now for X, Y and z reason, so let's just not even try. Well, things would not go well. They would not go well for your business, they would not go well for your finances, not go well for your relationships. Because everyone would be like, what the are you doing? You sure you want to run a business if it's always so hard? And blah, blah, blah. And then you have to go back and because you have adhd, you get bored of the job after a year and then you have to go and find another job. And then after another year you get bored and then you have to go and find another job. That's just a lot of jobs. So when we talk about the summer slump, like, there's a part of this that is absolutely realistic. There are things that just go slower in the summer for a lot of different reasons. Just because people are going to be, are more likely to be distracted during the summer does not mean they're not paying attention. One of the things that business owners drop first when things are like assumed to be going slow is marketing. They figure, oh, well, people are at the beach, they're not looking at social media. Oh, you know, it's the holidays. People are with family and cooking and wrapping presents. Have you ever been to the beach since smartphones came out? And when they're not on their phones, they're getting shown by other people what's on their phones. And have you been to a holiday with family? Like people are hiding in spare bedrooms in the bathroom, hiding from the people that they love because it's been too much and they're on their phones, they're looking for a distraction. Uncle Paul sang something racist at the dining room table. How do you avoid screaming at Uncle Paul and creating a scene. You open LinkedIn. Hopefully you're not doing that. Hopefully you are doing some anti racist work and informing Uncle Paul why his words are problematic and guiding him to a better way of communicating and having more empathy for people who are different from him. And also like sometimes you're just too tired for that. But also sometimes that just is not going to work for Uncle Paul and this is just going to be the last time you invite him to dinner for the time that he's there. LinkedIn or Instagram is going to be your godsend to keep you from turning into a rage monster. I don't actually have an Uncle Paul and my family thankfully doesn't have any racists. But for those of you who have your own variation of an Uncle Paul, my heart goes out to you. My point being is that just because people are distracted, just because they have other things going on and just because whatever goal you help your clients with may not be top of mind for them in that moment, it doesn't mean they're not seeing your One of the best times to get in front of your ideal clients. Ooh, what am I going to say next? Well, you'll have to keep listening to find out. But first Squirrel Squirrel Squirrel Squirrel. The Hyper Focus community is the inner sanctum of the Weeniecast. It's a club that's designed just for you, where you'll learn how to leverage your ADHD to grow your business. In the hyperfocused community, we are realistic about the challenges that face ADHD business owners and we don't believe in one size fits all solutions. We believe in creating strategies that fit you. On day one of signing up, you'll experience that deep sigh of relief that comes from walking into a room full of people like you who you do not need to mask your quirks in front of in order to fit in. Because they get you in the membership every single month, you'll get two group calls. One is an ADHD group coaching call and the other is a networking call with fellow ADHD business owners. We will also have coworking sessions designed for the ADHD mind. Monday Get Organized Sprint calls to keep you out of overwhelm. Access to weekly Brave Biz lab calls where I will give you practical advice to grow your business. We'll also have the occasional expert training which are absolutely ADHD vetted and of course, community support by folks like you and those who pay for the year up front. Get a surprise bonus visit weenicast.com hyperfocused and stop procrastinating the things that will grow your business. That's weeniecast.com hyperfocus or click the link in the episode description. One of the best times to get in front of your ideal clients is when everyone else is writing off that they're not paying attention. Whatever it is that you help them with, do not stop marketing because just because they're not in a buying mentality at this very moment and just want to own. That could totally be a story that you're telling yourself. You could totally be making up that they're not in a buying mode and therefore not inviting them to become your client. That could be a totally made up thing by you and you'll never know unless you continue to market yourself. But even if they aren't in that buying mode, it doesn't mean that they're not paying attention. It doesn't mean that they're not seeing your content. It doesn't mean that they're not planning what they want to sign up for in the future. They're not going to forget that you exist. And remember, remembering that you exist is the only way that they're going to end up giving you money. And I do want to encourage you to, to dial back some of your work during the summer, especially if you, if you love this season and you have fun things to do and you have loved ones visiting and your kids are off of school and you know, you enjoy doing the outdoors things that you can't do during the rest of the year. You only live once. And we don't start businesses so that we can just be a slave to our business and suffer through until we hit a certain amount of money and then, and then give up. We start businesses so that the business can support us living the life we want now. So, yeah, take a day off in the middle of the week during the summer, go to the beach, go wakeboarding, do whatever it is that makes you happy and dial back in ways that allow you to have more free time. But do not dial back on your marketing. In the last episode, episode 89, I actually talked about goals and how you can set them for yourself in a realistic way and how you set your goals for different seasons. You know, you need to follow the same advice. You need to be realistic about what you can get done in a day, in a week, and in a month. So just like you have an SOP for the rest of the year, the things that you need to do every single day, in every single week and every single month, you get to augment that for the summer. Remember, you're the boss. You own this company. I mean, unless you have a very bossy dog. But Luna doesn't know what I do for work, so she can't tell me what to do specifically in my business. The most important thing for you to remember throughout the summer is you need to stay top of mind. Because if someone's ready to buy, they're gonna buy. And if they're not seeing you online and they're not being reminded about how you help people, they're going to hire someone else who isn't taking the summer off. So whether it's like, water sports, maybe like, going kayaking, you can post a picture of that. You know, maybe you're going to Hawaii or somewhere tropical. You can absolutely share a picture from your vacation. You know, maybe you just want to sit in your backyard and read trashy fantasy romance novels. That would be kind of a fun thing for you to post once a week. You know, here's what I'm reading right now. It's a little spicy. Maybe don't read it like with your book club that involves your mom. Remember, people like to buy from other people who they feel connected to, who they feel like they have something in common with. I could absolutely share all the trashy fantasy romance novels that I'm reading this summer. Once a week, I could showcase. This is what I'm in the middle of. Don't listen to the audible version in the car with the kids. And someone may be a reader and think, oh, great, yes, I want to read that now. Or they could be not a reader and think, oh, that's so funny that, you know, this is Katie's hobby. But either way, they know something more about me. And. And knowing something like that about someone is kind of like the stuff that you would know about someone if they were a friend. And people buy from friends. Think about it. You're not friends with anyone that you don't trust. When we allow people to become our friends on the interwebs, what we're essentially letting them do is build trust with us. And people buy from people they trust, and they buy from people who they know exist. Even if you have some ADHD side quests that you'd rather ditch your work for. And to prove my point, I'm going to share with you my top five reads that I recommend to you if you're into the fantasy romance genre. Okay, so we're gonna start off with A Clockwork Angel. This is a trilogy. It's. It's technically young adult, but it Has a real like slow burn on the romance side and it's a little sci fi but it's, it's, there's a lot of action and there's a lot of like, what's gonna happen next? Okay, so don't start this late at night. I cannot talk romance fantasy without giving Acotar A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas a shout out. Now this is the first of a five book series. There is a six coming out. It is very entertaining, great storytelling, lots of, well, not so much spice in this book. Lots of spice in the fifth book. Holy sh. T. Fourth wing. Holy. There's only two of these out. It has dragons, it has magic, it has deception and sex and all the things really, really good. But if you are reading the second one, don't be surprised if people are like, ooh, prepare yourself because the last few pages, like will. Will stab you in the heart. Okay. The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. This is also a five part series. I'm actually not done with the series. It got intense and I needed a breather after the third book. It is a very, very slow burn, but like just the world building in. This is absolutely insane. Can't recommend it enough. And then for those of you who just like light like young adult, I have to tell you, like this series, I'm going to show you them all because they're just really short. By Tamora Pierce. This was like my first intro to romance fantasy. Alana. The first adventure. It's about a girl who swaps places with her twin brother and goes to become a knight while he goes to the convent to become a sorcerer where she was supposed to be sent to become a lady. It's four parts and it's actually in a series that has like God like 17 books. So you can really go into the tortol world and get fully immersed. But honestly, like if you want to do like a little reading group and you have daughters who are like they're preteens into teenager, this would actually be a really cool thing to, to read and like talk about healthy relationships and girl power and all that. So that is my, my reading list for you this summer. Enjoy. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. If you're enjoying this episode, would you do me a small favor? Will you please leave me a review? Don't worry, it's super easy to do and it only takes a few minutes. You can leave your comments in Apple Podcasts, Castbox, SP, Spotify and Podchaser. Just go to weeniecast.com reviews and scroll till you find the chosen app. That's weeniecast.com reviews.