Wendy McCallum (00:39)
Hey, coach, welcome back to the coaching edge and happy summer. is officially started here. So it takes a little while longer for us to get into the summer season here in Canada. But summer is here. And today I really want to talk about what I like to call a smart summer, which is something that I have been incorporating in my business model now for over a decade.
That is really where I try to take advantage of that quiet stretch in July and August when client loads might dip a little bit, inboxes might slow down and the online space gets a little sleepy. During the summer, almost all coaches experience a bit of a dip or a lull in their business. And, you know, it's a really great time to do two things. First of all, if you're using the time to rest, unplug or travel, that's amazing.
I am all for that as a burnout coach. It's really important to take care of yourself. You don't need to make up for that with productivity. But if you're someone who has a little extra space and you want to use it to get ahead without burning out, then this episode's for you. So I do a combination of those things. I always plan for a lighter summer. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I tend to stop recording podcasts in the summertime. I get them recorded in advance.
so that I've got everything all laid out and ready and scheduled for the summer already. I get my newsletter content and everything done before the summer so that I can take some good time off. also consolidate client days so that I'm seeing clients even less days a week and often try to take like a big chunk of time off at a time, which can be up to a month. So I'm all for that, but I'm also going to take advantage of the fact that I just have a little more space in my schedule to get ahead on a lot of things and to set myself up.
for a really great fourth quarter. You know, there's nothing worse than hitting September and feeling like you're already behind. And I definitely had that feeling in the first few years of trying to build this coaching business. And I have figured out that the key for me and for many of you to avoiding that feeling is to actually take advantage of the summer and do a few things in the summer.
you know, confined yourself at the beginning of September, taking a look at the calendar and thinking, my God, I've only got like three months, four months left in the year. How did this whole year go by? And I'm still winging it. I haven't hit any of those goals that I set for myself. I've been there. And what I've learned, like I said, is that the summer is one of the best times to gently, and I mean gently, set yourself up for a smoother, stronger fall.
So I'm gonna talk about what that looks like in my business and then I'm gonna give you some sort of lower commitment, creative ideas, a little bit of a list that you can take away and choose from when you find yourself with a little downtime in the summer, you can make a plan to do some or all of the little activities that I'm going to list for you that are the types of things that can be really helpful and that I'm gonna be recommending throughout the summer that my BBB coaches are working on.
So the things that I do intentionally every summer, and this is not in any particular order, but these are the types of things I do every summer in my little lull or dip. Now my practice is at a place where I have worked really hard to create sustainable streams of revenue so that I can still rely on good income during the months of July and August, but I tend to spend a whole lot less time doing clinical active client hours.
And that's my goal for all the coaches that I support that you eventually get there. So you can take a break in the summer and still make revenue, which is like a really great place to be. And I'm very appreciative of that. But I often in the summertime will be mapping out new course program content and recording it. So if I've got a new course or an idea of a program that I want to be launching in the fall, I'll get the content recorded in the summer. For those of you who have created courses, you know that the content recording part is the most time consuming.
And it is much more efficiently done when you have like blocks of time where you can sit in your quiet recording space, whatever that is, and knock off a bunch of videos, for example, in a row. And I find that the summer is a really great time to do that. So I can work uninterrupted for long periods of time in the summer. Obviously, you may need to do some things to ensure that you have that time to yourself, let your family know, or maybe even...
go and rent a space or work in a space outside of your normal working space in order to ensure that you have that. But the summer's a great time to be doing content creation for programs or new courses. I'm not juggling as many calls. The emails aren't coming in. I'm not as distracted. I'm not having to go and leave a recording session for a group coach call that I'm running or something like that. It's just much easier for me to get content done.
The other thing I do is I always pre-write newsletters for September and October, just like four to six. I love to have those ready and already scheduled when I start September. Now that does require for me because I have a very specific plan every year, which I encourage you also to develop for your business where I know what is launching, in what months, what I'm gonna be doing marketing pushes for and that kind of thing. I have to take that into account when I'm drafting that newsletter content for September.
getting that done feels really good to me, knowing that that's all already in the can, ready to go. The other thing that I do is I create and schedule some reels and social posts so that I'm not having to be as creative during that rush that is September. September is generally speaking a very busy time in my practice and it probably is for you as well. There's that back to school, back into the routine mindset that happens and oftentimes that.
correlates with people looking for support and coaching. So September's always a busy month for me personally, but also professionally. So getting some content pre-created is really great. I recommend like whenever you're out anywhere with your phone, just take a look around. Is there something here that I could video? I do some background real content right now? Am I at the beach? Am I in the park? Am I walking my dog? Am I looking at the garden? Just start creating like.
a folder on your phone of short form video content that you can use for reels. Now, if that's you talking even better, but it can also just be the background that you would then go and put captions over. But creating reels and social posts and getting them organized in advance is a really great thing. And I do that every summer. I also do a mid-year audit. So it's like mid to, I guess, two thirds of the way into the year for me at this point.
And I always take a look at my plan for the year and I look at what went well in the first part of the year and where I've fallen behind, what surprised me, what is worth like doubling down on, because it worked very well. So I just do a bit of an audit on how the first part of the year has gone. Obviously that requires me to go and look at my financial targets as well for the year, which I have really clearly mapped out. And if there are areas where I am not meeting targets, then I will plan to make up the difference in the fall.
This often happens, I will often come to June and I'll think, okay, I'm a little bit behind with the goals that I'd set for myself, which are oftentimes a little bit aggressive and challenging. And I do that on purpose because that is what has allowed me over the last 10 years or so to make more revenue every single year. Really, I make a little bit more every year. Not trying to make millions of dollars in my business. And I know most of you are not either. And you're in the right place. I'm just looking to create just a little bit more
of a cushion and some comfort for me and also put away a little extra money for retirement to be honest right now. doing that review of my fall goals is really helpful, my, sorry, of my annual goals is really helpful. And then what I will often do in July, June, July is I'll plan for an additional launch or an additional push on a product or a new program. And I will get down to the business of creating that or setting up the
the copy for the marketing push on that so that I can actually achieve my goals. This is, know, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, I don't have really specific goals for this year, that's okay. A lot of coaches don't do that. That is something I'm really passionate about teaching coaches to do and do it annually. And that's the reason why I did the two times your profit masterclass, which I hosted in December of, I think it was December or January.
this year, so December 2024 or January 2025. That is now an evergreen masterclass. It's free. You can go and download it and it comes with a little workbook that you can work through to actually set some goals. So the summer's a great time to do that, frankly, if you haven't already done it. Take a couple of hours one morning and watch the masterclass and then start working through that plan and you can set goals for the next 12 months. It doesn't matter that it's July. Set goals from this July till next July 1st.
So I go back and I look at that plan and adjust accordingly. And I also always try to bank a few podcast episodes for the fall. So if I am finding myself with a little bit of extra time or an idea strikes me for an episode, I will draft up an outline for it and just get it recorded so that I can have many, I always try to be at least a month ahead on the podcast episodes. I'm usually a couple months ahead. So that is another thing that I do.
All right, so none of this stuff is urgent for me. It doesn't need to be done, but it is very strategic. And the future version of me, the one that's juggling the launches and the clients and trying to get my kids back to university and all of the other things that happen in the fall is always grateful for the fact that I have done this in the summer. Now,
Maybe you're not launching anything this fall. Maybe content creation just feels like way too much right now. I get that. If you're not at a stage where these things feel doable and easy to you, or you're just trying to get your one-on-one practice off the ground, that's cool. I've got 10 creative low pressure ways that you can still use your summer wisely, even if you're more in like a maintenance mode or, you know, kind of a chill mode than you are a growth mode this summer.
So here's the first one, take a look at your client onboarding process. So these are all things I teach in the BBB. So if you're listening to this and you happen to be a member of the BBB and you haven't done these things yet, this is a good time to go and do these things, but hopefully you have most of these things in place by now. But these are great little sort of practice management things to take a look at, your onboarding process. That is really like the process by which you bring a new client on.
You have a welcome email, do you have intake forms, you have a contract, how do you manage the scheduling? Can you simplify or automate anything? Are there pieces that right now are not automated and so they're creating some friction and some extra work every time you bring a new client on that you could actually automate? Or could you collect all of these things and put them all together in a file that's called client onboarding materials, for example, so that it's really easy for you to find these things? Does your contract need a bit of a tweak?
Have you changed things since you started practicing? This is a really good time to go back and review and refresh your client onboarding process. Another thing that's a great kind of low effort, but often like quite a big return exercise is to take a half an hour and reconnect personally and directly with past clients or with your current clients who might be taking a little break in the summer. So send a check-in email.
Offer them a tune up session. If you haven't seen them for a while, is there anything that you'd love some support on right now? What's kind of top of mind? I'm offering, you know, you could even create a little mini offer that doesn't normally run during the non-summer months. I'm, you know, right now I'm offering like a package of just two one-on-one sessions for my alumni clients who've worked with me before. Or an add-on session for my current clients, whatever it is. Those past clients are your warmest audience.
They already like No Trust You. I always say they actually usually love No Trust You at this point. And so they are just a really good place to stay connected, audience to stay connected with because if you have an offer, there's a really good chance that they're gonna be interested in it. So just checking in, staying in touch, making some contact with them is a great exercise to do in the summer. Ask them what's up.
what's going on with them, how are they doing since last that you last you connected.
Reviewing and realigning your offers and pricing is also a good exercise for the summer. Like take a look at what you have in your offer suite. There are podcast episodes where I talk about offer suites and I talk about the importance of having a lower ticket offer, a free offer, a lower ticket offer, a medium ticket offer, which is the thing most people are probably gonna purchase and then like a higher ticket sort of VIP offer.
and you may also have some self-guided programs that you sell or some group programs that you sell. Just take a look at your offer
Is it complete? Are there big gaps in it? Are you missing, for example, a low ticket offer? If so, the summer is a great time to get creative around that and create something to fill that gap. Do your prices need to be adjusted? Are they too low? Have you been at the same price for a very long time now?
If you're curious about whether your prices are too low on your one-on-one offers, I really encourage you to go and download the one-on-one pricing masterclass that I offer. I think it's $37 and people who do that little masterclass say that it changes everything for them. You will make that $37 back almost immediately because I guarantee you that at least one of your offers, you're gonna realize your pricing is not value priced and you're going to increase your prices. So the one-on-one pricing masterclass,
I'll put the link for that in the show notes as well. That's a great thing to do over the summer.
It is so important to have a high quality, valuable freebie. Something that you can offer people that they cannot say no to.
because it is exactly the thing that they've been looking for. is the solution, the very specific solution to the problem that they have. a freebie is the thing that's gonna allow you to build an email list. And you've heard me say this before on the podcast, email list is one asset that you actually own. It is very different from a social media audience that does not belong to you, that can be taken away from you at any time.
your ability to reach that audience can be taken away from you at any time with a shift in the algorithm,
your email list belongs to you. It's an asset. You have people's consent to be on that list and for you to email them directly and have emails land in their inboxes. So that is the thing that you wanna be working on building. And the best way to build that is to ask people for their email address in exchange for a valuable commodity. And that commodity is going to be free for the most part. Now you're gonna build your list through other offers that actually cost money that you sell, but the way to build your list
the quickest is to offer something very valuable that's free. If you don't have a great free offer, create one. So this is where you're in the summertime probably gonna have time to create something that feels a little bit more robust, a little bit more valuable, a little bit more thoughtful than maybe the freebie that you have. So if right now your freebie is just a little five page ebook, five things I wish I'd known then kind of thing.
People are no longer willing to exchange email addresses for that type of freebie. I think we're just onto it. We're getting asked for our email address everywhere. You really wanna be creating something that is solving a problem that your client has right now. And you want your marketing and your messaging around it to be really clear that they need this thing and that it is actually going to create a shift for them. It is going to solve that problem. It is gonna take them from feeling the way they are now to feeling the way they want to feel.
I could talk about freebies for a long time and I actually think there's an episode in the future coming on freebies, specifically creating really great valuable free offers and ideas around that. But have a think about that. Do you need a freebie or could your freebie use a bit of a polish? Another thing you could do is revisit your niche and your messaging. So this is something that is like a constant conversation inside the BBB and office hours. We are always talking about
people's niches and what they're learning about who they want to serve, the problem that they want to help people solve and how they help people do it. And that really is your niche. Now, your niche, probably when you started coaching, was quite broad. People go one of two ways. They either make it really, really broad or they make it really, really narrow. And it will almost always shift in my experience. My own niche has changed and evolved over the last 15 years. Quite considerably, I started
working mostly around food and wellness. I moved into more kind of stress management and burnout type stuff. Then I got certified around life coaching. And then I moved into helping people specifically deal with some unhealthy coping mechanisms, including alcohol. So it just evolved over the years. For a long time, I was working mostly with women. Now I also work with men. And of course, I now have...
this whole other part of my practice that has been growing over the last four or five years, which is supporting coaches in the building of their own businesses. So niches change. What I would love for you to have a think about is, is my niche still the same or has it shifted? And if it shifted, does my messaging on my website and my bio on Instagram and my content that I'm putting out there, social media or newsletters or in maybe in a podcast, does it reflect that or does that messaging need to be tweaked and changed?
That's a really great thing to think about. And then here are a few more ideas that are maybe a little outside the box that might help to inspire some focus for you in a different way in the summer or with your business.
Read a book that has something to do with coaching or the business of coaching. One of my favorite books to recommend to people is a book called The Heart of Laser Focused Coaching by Marianne Franklin.
Marian Franklin is a master coach who is trained in the life coaching model that I'm trained in through the Coactive Training Institute. It's a really, I think, remarkable coaching approach.
book is really designed to help coaches get better, refine their skills as coaches. So it's such a great book to read. I recommend all my BBB members read it. And if you haven't read it yet, pick it up. It's called The Heart of Laser Focused Coaching by Marian Franklin.
There are lots of other books out there that are great. The Prosperous Coach or The Soul of Money is another one of my favorites by Lynn Twist. Pick up a book that is going to be helpful for you. I read a book a while ago and actually did podcast episode on it. It was probably about a year and a half ago or two years ago now called The Dip. And I loved that book. So there are lots of different books out there that you can read that are gonna just give you a little.
jolt of inspiration and just a bit of motivation around your business and maybe a new lens or perspective or way to see things. So think about a business beach read instead of just the regular beach read, although please read the regular beach reads too. I love a good beach read. Practice coaching with a peer. So if your schedule is light this summer with paying clients, set up with one of your fellow coaches a regular slot, you know, once every couple of weeks where you meet and practice coach each other, for example.
just to keep your skills polished and pick up maybe like one new tool or coaching technique and really work on building that skill in that swap session with a colleague. This is a really great low pressure way to build confidence. Another thing that you could do this summer is you could create a mini video library of tips. So, 10 short videos
where you answer FAQs. I did this many years ago in relation to women and drinking, women and alcohol. I asked my newsletter following what questions they had. And I promised them that I would answer the first, I think I said first five questions or something that came in. I ended up getting so many that I answered, I think 10 or 13 questions. And I just did really short videos where I just off the cuff kind of answered their questions, but I recorded myself answering their questions and then I created a landing page.
where those FAQs sit. And that became a really great freebie that I used to build my newsletter list. So I created it for the people who were already in my audience, but then later was able to offer access to that page as a freebie in exchange for new followers' email addresses. So you can use it that way, or you can also use it as a little sort of mini bonus program that you provide to your one-on-one clients so they get access to that when they work.
with you or to group clients that you have, or you can use those videos on social media as great social media content.
mini video library of tips is great. You can think about tools that you regularly use with your clients or tactics that you teach. You can think about frequently asked questions that you get and answering those. You can record little pep talks. I've done this as well. And these live in a library that my one-on-one clients and group program clients get, just little pep talks for when things aren't going well. Like here's a little...
pre-recorded pep talk from your coach if you're feeling like you messed up, right? So there are lots of different things that you can include in that. And then another little thing that is a really, like such a satisfying thing to do in the summer is to clean up the backend, like really get into the administration of your business and clean up your systems. Organize your Canva folders, for example, delete the stuff that is not in alignment with your brand that you're never gonna use again.
update your website bios, know, think about looking at all your client files. I love doing this every once in a while. have like the way I organize my client files is I have a discovery call file. So when I have a first call with people, I take notes, it's all electronic and electronic notepad and those notes from that very first call before they sign on as clients go into one file that's called discovery calls. I then have an active clients file.
and folders for each client in there. When a client signs on as an active client, that discovery call folder file gets moved over into the active clients section. And then I continue taking notes as long as they're active. And then once a client wraps up, I move their file into the archived clients. check your...
file system for clients. Do you need to clean it up? Do you have clients that are in the active area that are no longer active? And that can be, you could do that in conjunction with sending out personalized emails to people, go back through your old clients in the archived clients area and send them all a message and check in with them and see how they're doing. It's kind of boring, but it's also really satisfying. Cleaning out your email box, those types of things. Really, really satisfying.
I also think this summer is a great time to take a continuing education or continuing sort of business course of some sort. So if there's an area of your business where you feel like you could really use some more training, look for a great course on it. This is a really great time of year to join the BBB. I always encourage people to join in June or July because it is a time where you're gonna have probably more hours to spend going back and.
looking at, for example, the massive bank of master classes that are available to all new BBB members. And we've got master classes on so many awesome topics that you can go and watch. It's really motivating, really inspirational. You're gonna pick up all kinds of tips for your business and find yourself feeling really energized and starting to do some new things in your business that you hadn't thought of before. It's also a great time to like go through, for example, if you're a new coach to get through the launch checklist and make sure you have all the pieces in place that need to be there before you start.
charging clients for your services. Just a really good time to take any kind of course and plow through it and then actually implement the things that you're learning in that course. So think about taking a course. And lastly, think about a business retreat day. This is one of my favorite things to do in the summer. I'll take a day and I'll go to a cottage or I'll kick everybody out of my house.
And I'll sit, usually I sit in a different space, because there's something about being in a different space that I find really energizing and really helps with my creativity. And I will, you know, might even be outside, for example, and get like a clean notebook. And I'll just start like brainstorming and planning and just kind of like thinking about how I want the next year to go and just do some sort of freeform creative thinking. I'm having a whole day set aside just
do that, map things out, maybe map out a new course is just really awesome. So go somewhere new, even if it's your backyard, bring a notebook and spend some time dreaming and planning and reconnecting with your vision. Okay, so there are so many ideas in there guys, and you I'm sure are thinking of other things that you could be doing in your business this summer. Remember, you don't have to do all of this, you don't even have to do most of it, but...
If you just pick up one or two things and work on them gently in July and August, you'll feel miles ahead when fall rolls in. And that sense of calm momentum is going to be totally worth it. So whether you're in recharge mode or content batching mode, consider this your permission slip to make this summer smarter, not harder. Rest when you need to, build when you want to. This is the season for that.
If you're planning a smart summer project, if you've been thinking about this, I'd love to hear what it is. Come and say hi on Instagram at Wendy McCallum Coach or shoot me a message. You can always email me at wendy at wendymcallum.com. I'd love to hear what you're up to. I'd love to hear your ideas for future Coaching Edge episodes. And if you're looking for support mapping out your content or refining your offers, that's exactly what we do in my programs. And...
The BBB is always open for registration. Like I said, the summer is a fabulous time to join. So send me a note if that's, if you're thinking, yeah, that's my thing for the balance of this year is to actually get some support and get some of these big ideas that I have actually actioned and happening. Send me a note. And if you're looking for support developing, specifically developing online courses, there will be another iteration of the CCC happening this fall. I always run it twice a year.
You can start looking for early registration on that at the end of August, beginning of September. Or send me a note and I'll put you on the pre-registration list for that. Check the links in the show notes. Let me know if you've got any questions and until next time, take good care and have a fabulous July.
