Is the Summer Slow Down Inevitable?

Jaclyn Mellone

Welcome to  Go To Gal episode number 177. As always, I’m your host, Jaclyn Mellone. And today, it’s just us. Well, today, how do I weirdly say this? I don’t know how to be cute about it. So today’s episode, dare I call it a replay. But it is technically mostly an episode from two years ago. I’m like, okay, 2019. Yes. That was two years ago. I can do math and I was relistening to it recently.   I recorded this episode originally at the beginning before summer started in 2019. Reflecting on my previous summers in business. And at that point, I had always experienced a summer slump.

Always. Like spoiler alert even this summer of 2018. I’ll go into more detail about that in this episode. Now, the whole episode is about the mindset around the summer slump and how we can be thinking about it differently. And the funny thing looking back is that, and I honestly don’t remember. I probably should have looked.

I probably should’ve looked and seen how I did in the summer of 2019. I really don’t remember right now. I will have to update you at a different time on that. I’m sorry. We don’t have a lot of time. I’m squeezing this in. Eleanor is about to come off the bus and T minus 10 minutes, so I’m not going to go look right now. But I can tell you that the summer of 2020 was my best summer ever, which does not mean much knowing that the other summers were as slummed, but by the standards of the rest of the year of my business, it was really a standout summer. 

My best month up until that point of 2020 was over the summer. And that’s really powerful because when you’re spending the first six months of the year, the first five months of the year. Bringing in certain amounts per month to be able to have that increase over the summer is really powerful.

And I wrote about this actually. If you’re on my newsletter, you may have even seen an email last summer talking about this. The month of July came just short of hitting $50K, which would have been my first $50K month. And I was maybe a little bit like “Ah if I would have realized I could have pushed for it.”But I was also just really so grateful to be having my best month ever at the time, and having that be in the year 2020, and the summer in all of these things. All of these limiting beliefs, just getting shattered all at once through that was really powerful. I thought it was when I was coming across this episode, which I should probably tell you because this is such fun. I don’t know if it’s fun.

It’s fun for me. I don’t know if other people would consider this fun. It’s such a cool thing that I’ve been doing, which is also very subjective and probably not cool in a lot of circles. But, what I’ve been doing is my team has been helping me put together a certain collection of past podcast episodes. But then also some of my older programs that we’re not running right now, but that had content that is relevant to what we’re talking about and working towards now in the business.

We put them together on private podcasts, so I can easily listen to them on my phone. I’ve been consuming my content, which I don’t typically do. I know some people that listen to all their podcast episodes and self-critique or overanalyze or whatever it is. And maybe it’s positive.

Maybe it’s negative for them, for me. I never do that. And it’s been cool to go back and listen to some of my pieces of training for courses that I haven’t been actively working on, right? As well as some of these older podcast episodes, too. Yes. Just revisit my content. And this one stood out because I know how relevant it is.

And when I was listening back, especially knowing that last summer was my best summer ever. It was kind of a cool moment going into summer now and hearing so many people already start to talk about the summer slump. I wanted to be sharing this with you with that little bit of an update. Maybe you listened to it a couple of years ago.

Maybe you didn’t, maybe you’re a newer listener. But either way, if this is a mindset that you hold, then this episode is for you. And if you heard it two years ago, maybe it’s time to relisten and refresh through new eyes. Through new ears, right after we have experienced hearing the same content, we can actually hear it differently and pick up things.

Maybe we didn’t hear the first time. And if this is your first time, then I’m glad that we’re able to just present this to you and you don’t have to go dig it up from a couple of years ago. So that is what today’s episode is about. I am launching something coming up in a few weeks. And I wanted you to be the first to know. I haven’t talked about this anywhere else yet, but I wanted to give you a little bit of a sneak peek.

If going into this summer, if going into Q3, you are really ready to up-level and have your best quarter ever in Q3 that I would love to support you with that. Details are not out yet, but you can apply for this three-month intimate experience at jaclynmellone.com forward slash BQE for “Best Quarter Ever”. 

Or as we joke internally on my team, Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Sometimes acronyms have multiple meetings. But jaclynmellone.com forward slash BQE and you can get a little bit more information about Best Quarter Ever and put your name in. When it is available, when we have more information for you, you will be the first to get it.

All right. That said, let’s dive into our guests. Let’s go back in time to Jaclyn in 2019, dropping some mindset bombs. I don’t know. Diving into the whole concept of the summer slump, sharing stories of my journey and what you can do about it, to start thinking about how you can have your best summer ever.

All right, here it is.

I feel like this episode is my public service announcement. For some reason, I don’t know where this belief comes from. I have some hunches, but there is this widespread belief that this summer slump exists. I feel like this episode is my mission is to debunk this myth of the summer slump.

The funny thing is, don’t know if the expression “Winter is coming.” is, I feel like it’s from the Game of Thrones. I did not watch Game of Thrones. Past tense. I have not watched it. It was way too gory for me. I’m too much of a wuss, but my husband loves it or loved it. I guess he still loves it present tense. And I’m not sure if this saying originated from the Game of Thrones or if it was just popularized by the Game of Thrones, but the expression “Winter is coming.” comes to mind and it’s just funny for me because this is totally out of context of the Game of Thrones. 

If you are a Game of Thrones fan and there’s some other meaning to it, I’m not getting it. We’re just going to ignore that. But I feel like in general, how I’ve heard people use this expression in other areas is it’s like “Winter is coming.” like “Doom’s day” kind of like “This slump is coming.” or this economic crisis or whatever it is that people are kind of like doom’s day hanging, right.

Is this winter is coming? And it’s funny to me because Summer, which is such a season of growth and blooming and abundance. It is not the season that is metaphorically like everything dying, right? For some reason, we’ve projected this summer slump or this scarcity. Or, I don’t know, there’s like a slowdown that happens in the summer that we’ve projected on to this season.

I know that you have ideas of why this is, and I have my own suspicions as well. But I’m here to tell you today that summer is coming and that does not mean that it has to be a slow season or a slump for your business. Okay, you can just stop listening now. That’s the message. See you later. Go back to your regularly scheduled work and carry on now.

I know it’s not that simple. And I want to share with you my experience with this because I will be the first to raise my hand and say, “This was something that I believe wholeheartedly for a period of time in my business. And because of that, this was the reality of my business for several years.”

Let’s talk about, I guess, where I first kind of started believing this whole idea of the summer slump and why I don’t believe that anymore. And what I want one, I have some ideas for you to challenge your own beliefs around this, and also a challenge for you.

So here’s my story, I will say in previous jobs that I had, there was this belief that was a part of the culture in previous jobs of like “Oh, the summer is slower.”

That was something that I feel has just been ingrained in me throughout several different jobs and industries. For some reason, wherever I was working, that always seemed to be part of the culture of like “Oh, things are slower in the summer.” And it’s funny because I carried that into my business with me and I feel like he might be doing the same things. For me, and I’m sure this is not the same for you, although if it is the same for you, that’s really cool. But I doubt we’re in the same situation. But for me, it’s funny. So I started my business in 2015. I’m going to use the word “business”, very loosely.

I guess the starting part was accurate. The business part is up for interpretation. But I started my online business back in the summer of 2015. And I use the word “business” very liberally here because not only was I not making money in my business, I was not trying to make money. I literally did not have an offer.

There was nothing that was being sold or offered or potentially offered, not until the fall of 2015. But this was a period of time where I was growing a community, doing market research, getting things in place to launch a podcast, launch a business, all of that. Summer 2015, all of this is going down, but I don’t count that summer because I was still working full time while getting all of this off the ground.

And of course, it was slow. I didn’t have anything to sell. Like I wasn’t, you know. We’re just going to scratch that year, right. However, the following summer, so it will call my first summer in business was intentionally slow. And it was intentionally slow because my little guy was born on June 20th of 2016. Yeah, you are listening to this in June, so it was going to be three so soon.

I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. And he’s still very much my baby, but he’s three, I am not ready. That said, when I found out in the fall that I was pregnant with him, I viewed his due date, as a freaking deadline. And you might’ve heard me talk about this before? ‘Cause I feel like it is a big part of my story.

I was hustling so hard before he was born. I wanted to get this business off the ground. And I knew that after he was born that I was going to take some time to slow things down. In the months before he was born, I was doing coaching consulting. I had a membership, I launched a group coaching program.

I was doing “Done for you” work. And I launched a course way under a year, in like, nine months. Basically, from the time that I found out I was pregnant until I had him and I didn’t even go full term. I had him at 37 weeks and I ended up on bed rest at the end of this. I jam-packed a lot of things into that season of my business and life, I suppose. It’s definitely not something I am proud of or recommend. I was on bed rest, literally the day of my scheduled C-section. And I scheduled. I was on bed rest, and I knew that we were going to have him that day. And my husband’s trying to pack up the car. I’m like “I just had to finish uploading this course module.”

I had just taken on away too much. But as much as I had overloaded before he was born, I had wrapped everything up by then, maybe at the last minute. But it was wrapped up then because, after that, I was just having my membership, so it was nice that I was able to have recurring revenue over the summer. It was obviously a lot lower than I was used to with offering all these other offerings and taking that off the table. But to be able to have thousands of dollars in recurring revenue and to run a membership from one hand on my cell phone just felt really amazing at that part of life.

I can be home with my baby. I can be having this business. Maybe I wasn’t setting the world on fire, but it was bringing money in and I was loving it and I felt like I was making an impact and I was still able to be home with Marshall full time, which was awesome. 

That said, that first summer was slower, I spent my time doing coursework and consuming content. I wasn’t really at a point where I felt like I was getting enough sleep or had my head on straight to be creating content, but I was consuming content. I was doing that over watching a lot of Netflix, so I felt like I was learning and just investing in myself in that way. You know, just took that slower season with a lot of grace and didn’t judge me a lot for it. 

But I think because of that, I might have subconsciously set this tone that this summer is slower. Right now. I’m sure a lot of this carried over from previous jobs as I said. But my first summer in business, it was intentionally slumped, but it’s funny to think back.

Now summer of 2017, my business looked very different. I had shut down that membership after two years in April of 2017. And actually, this is so funny. May and June of 2017 were actually really like, May, I remember was my best month ever at that time. I don’t remember what June was, but June was huge for me because I did a big affiliate launch for a 90-day year.

I just had all this momentum going. And it’s funny because when I look back, this summer, it was “Okay. Well, I had one-on-one clients and I was running a program as a bonus for doing the affiliate launch.” But I don’t think I signed on any more clients over that summer. And it definitely likes my momentum slowed and my income at the very least plateaued. But I think it might’ve dipped a little bit because I wasn’t doing other promotions and whatnot. I’m not looking at actual numbers right now. 

So just go with the flow here of me recalling things. But it did, it slowed down a little bit. And it’s funny because if I look at the year before, it was literally the exact synchronicity of the year before, like Marshall was born on June 20th, and then things slowed down because I wanted them to. Well, the following year, I didn’t want them to, but they did. And I believed that they would. Now, this might be the part where you’re expecting me to be like. And then 2018 was my best summer ever. Well, I guess it was my best summer.

I really teed this up very well. It’s funny. If you look year over year, I was doing dramatically better every summer. However, if you look at this summer in comparison to the rest of the year, it was a summer slump. And I would love to tell you that last year I was like “Oh, I have figured this out.”

“My summers are slow because my mindset’s out of whack.”  And that I went into the summer bulldozing and the summer was my highest months. And that would be a big lie because that’s not the case at all. I, conscious to it or not, was still subscribing to this whole summer slump myth last summer. It’s like holding the egg that then fell through the cracks, but no growth.

It was just stagnant all summer. And I was definitely traveling a lot last summer. I had a lot of media opportunities last summer. So last summer, if I look at like, okay, well, what was I doing? I was. Speaking at crafting calmer is that the convert kit conference I was on TV for the first time I was getting published entrepreneur multiple times.

A lot of big opportunities and momentum going on, but I wasn’t really, and it’s funny ’cause it’s not like I can tell you like  “Oh, I was trying to launch and it bombed, or I was trying to bring on one-on-one clients. “I feel like I just stopped doing the things that, I don’t even have an excuse for. I have no words.

I have no excuse. I’m just going to tell you when you look at the numbers, the summer was slower from a revenue perspective than the rest of the year. Kind of funny how that happens. Why am I telling you all this? Well, if you’re like “Well, Jaclyn, it sounds like you’ve had a bunch of shitty summers.”

“Why are you telling us that the summer doesn’t have to be slow when every summer is slow for you? There’s a slump for you.” Well, let me tell you. This is even better. It’s even better than if I had experienced something different.

Last summer, I experienced something that completely changed the way that I look at summer. And that was, I was surrounded by clients and students who were having their best months ever all summer long. At that time, I had recently launched my Go-To Gal program and the ladies in that program were all posting how they were having their best months ever, my one-on-one clients or having their best months ever. I remember one client, it was  July was her best month ever.

And then August was like “It’s my best month ever again.” There was so much momentum behind the scenes of other people’s businesses who I was helping. Here I was just kind of kicking back thinking like “All right, let’s go.” I wasn’t bumping on it. I wholeheartedly believed that the summer was going to be slower, that I wasn’t really trying to change anything and I wasn’t even mad at it. 

It was just like “Oh, the summer is slow. I got all this other stuff going on. Fall is going to be awesome.” But here I was seeing firsthand all of these women who I was helping have amazing summers. Have the summers be their best months, not only of the year but that they’ve ever had.

It was so inspiring and enlightening to me. So a couple of things came from that. One, the program’s best month ever, that you probably heard me talk about was born from this of like “We hear all you’re having the best month ever. How is this happening?” And we took all of that and wrapped it up in a bow and called it “Best Month Ever”.

We’ll be running that again in the fall, so stay tuned. But not just a program was born from that, but also a new perspective, a new paradigm of like “Well, why have I subscribed to this?” And it’s funny because I remember thinking all of this at the end of last summer, and then I hadn’t really thought about it in a while.

A couple of months ago, my husband and I were making plans for the summer and I’m like “All right, we’ll I got to figure out camps for Eleanor and I want to make sure she’s covered for the whole summer.” And my husband who meant well, his like “Well, are you sure you want to put her on camp the whole summer?

I feel like the summer is slow for you, right?”. Oh no, he didn’t. Well, he might’ve meant well. This is the most triggering comment ever for me. I was like, “What? No! Not anymore. I may have had slow summers in the past, but that is not the case now. “And him saying that it was so jarring.

I was like “What? You’ve noticed this?”Okay now. Clearly, I must have said this to her. I don’t even know. That is not the case now, and I’ve grown past, I’ve grown past that belief. I’ve grown past that just way of doing business. We are not subscribing to this myth anymore.

And I say “we” because I am bringing you along this journey with me, like it or not. I no longer believed this. I kind of love that I no longer believe this not because of something that happened to me and some anomaly, but because I’ve seen this carried out in so many of the women who I work with, that I know it’s possible for me. I know it’s possible for you. 

A couple of things here. One, if you are subscribing to this whole summer slump, summer slowdown myth, if you’re subscribing to this myth, it’s probably for a couple of reasons. It could be a previous experience like mine. It could be past jobs. It could be, maybe you had a slow summer, whether it was by design or not.

Here’s the thing I will tell you. So many of the women I work with who’ve had a bad month or a bad season of business, really impacted them of however it affects life, right? If you have a bad month that maybe you’re really not expecting, or a bunch of clients, I’ll leave at once and it just puts you in a bad spot.

Recovering from that emotionally, mindset takes work. And if you have not done that work, that could be coming back to sabotage you. Maybe you had bad summers in the past and there’s guilt, shame, fear, all the feels that go along with that, that could be very triggering for you. You don’t want that to happen again.

Or maybe you intentionally just say “Okay, you know what? The summer’s going to be slow and I’m not going to put myself out there because I don’t want to have big expectations. Maybe it’s just affecting how you’re running your business in general because you’re taking on the wrong kinds of clients or projects. After all, you’re living in fear and scarcity of being back in that situation.

I’ve seen this happen so many times. Please don’t let one bad month, one bad season and a bad year affect how you’re operating your business now. Just got to throw in my piece there. But I’ve seen it so many times and you are human. It is like, you’re okay to have feelings and emotions around it.

We need to honor those and work through them. We don’t want that bad previous experience to be affecting all the amazingness that you’re doing now and the people that you’re helping now and the people you could be helping. If you help people for a living, which you’re listening to this podcast is probably you. You help people for a living and you’re not out there helping them like you’re not doing your job.

Like “Who needs you? Who doesn’t know about you? You need to be out there spreading that message so you can help people. Or maybe it’s just so many people talk about it and you’ve subscribed to this belief. Maybe a friend has told you it’s somewhere, it’d be a story that became a belief that you’ve just accepted or maybe it’s just an excuse.

I feel like these all kind of overlap. But somewhere in here, some experience, story, belief, and excuse has turned into “The summer has to be slow. The summer’s going to be a slump or whatever, a slow down.” And that is simply not the case.

I guess before I go into giving you the next steps, I want you to decide.

I want you to make a decision and not a decision based on fear of not being able to live up to that decision. But I want you to make a decision based on what you want. If you close your eyes and think about the summer, what do you want out of the summer? One, I personally don’t believe that having a successful summer means that all you’re doing is working and you’re not enjoying the summer.

I actually think quite the opposite. But I want you to think about what do you want from this summer? Do you have big goals? Do you want to create big momentum? How much money do you want to make? Decide that. Make the decision. If you want to take the whole summer off and not lift a finger, like “High five girlfriend! You got this! Enjoy it!”

That is why you have your own business, so you can make those kinds of decisions. If you want to be with your kids all summer, great! Do that, enjoy it. No guilt, no stress. Do it. But if you don’t, if you want to be working and you want to be making a certain amount of money and you’re just afraid that you can’t do it in the summer. Or if you’re ready to be making more than you’re making now and you feel like you have to put the pause button on that goal, that idea or that dream until the fall. Because everyone knows, you can have those best months in the summer. Stop buying into that belief. Can we please?

This is available for you, and I’ve seen it so many times that if you believe in and you put in that work, I know this is possible for you.

So one, I just want you to decide. I don’t want you to go into the summer, like, “Well, if I get clients, that’d be great. But if I don’t, then I’ll just  do this other stuff.” Then you’re taking a back seat to your life, to your business, and you’re just letting whatever happens, happen. And when you’re not setting that intention of what you want, you’re going to get what other people want. And it’s not going to be what you want. And it’s not going to be the clients you want or it’s not going to be the money you want. Or it’s not even going to be the fun that you want because you’re just letting everything else make decisions around you.

Energetically, when you stand up and you say, “This is what I want for the summer. This is how I want to design my business and my summer and what I want and how much I want to work or how much I don’t want to work,” or whatever that is for you – that type of energy attracts what you want. So make your decision.

How do you want your summer? What are your goals? Do you want to be at the pool every day and having your best months ever? That is possible. Whatever it is, I want you to figure that out. Don’t be afraid to go for it. Get your freaking hopes up and go for it. But I also permit you that if you want to pause for the summer, no one’s going to judge, but do it. Own that, that’s what you’re going to do. Make that your intention, make that your decision. Don’t just passively try to let that happen. 

That is my piece for today. Whatever your decision is, however you want the summer to go, I am cheering you on. Make that decision and go out there and make it happen.