Hello, and welcome to another exciting blog post inspired by our latest episode on the “Own Your Awesome” podcast. In this episode titled “Own Your Summer Strategy – Part 1,” our host, Miranda Von Frickin, delves deep into creating an effective summer strategy that keeps the momentum going. With over 15 years of experience in the corporate environment and as a full-time entrepreneur, Miranda shares expert insights on how to leverage the summer to further your personal and professional goals. Let’s break down her advice into actionable steps to make your summer not just productive, but epic.

The Upper Limit Problem and Self-Sabotage

Miranda begins the discussion by addressing an all-too-common issue: the upper limit problem. This phenomenon occurs when individuals subconsciously sabotage themselves just as they are about to achieve significant success. Whether it manifests as laziness, lack of discipline, or other forms of self-sabotage, Miranda keeps it real by sharing her experiences and how she’s learned to manage them.

Key Takeaway: Recognize the signs of self-sabotage early. If you’ve been experiencing sudden roadblocks just when you’re on the brink of a breakthrough, it might be time to look inward and make adjustments.

Building a Summer Strategy: Why It’s Essential

A pivotal theme in the podcast episode is the importance of having a well-laid-out summer strategy. Miranda explains that while most people tend to relax and take a step back during the summer, this can be a prime time to get ahead of the competition.

Key Takeaway: Your strategy should be to do what others aren’t. This perspective not only sets you apart but can also put you miles ahead when everyone else is ramping up their efforts come fall.

Step 1: Revisiting Your Goals

The first step Miranda outlines is revisiting your January goals. According to her, the first day of summer is an ideal time to sit down with yourself and evaluate where you stand relative to the goals you set at the beginning of the year. This could be anything from business revenue targets to personal milestones.

Actionable Tip: Take a notebook or a digital planner and revisit each goal you set for yourself in January. Compare where you are now to where you aimed to be and take note of any disparities.

Step 2: Make Necessary Adjustments

After evaluating your goals, it’s crucial to make the necessary adjustments. This is not just about tweaking your action plan but also about assessing whether the goal still resonates with you. Sometimes, a shift in perspective or circumstances might mean that certain goals need to be reevaluated.

Actionable Tip: Modify your plan to realign it with your current needs and circumstances. This could involve changing your approach, seeking external help, or reallocating resources to different areas.

Step 3: Call in the Big Guns

No excellent strategy would be complete without accountability and expert input. Miranda recommends calling in “the big guns” — getting a coach or a mentor to guide you. She shares her experience of having multiple coaches who help her in different areas, ensuring that she stays on track with her goals.

Key Takeaway: Even coaches have coaches. The objective, unbiased perspective that a coach offers can be invaluable in helping you realize your potential and hold you accountable.

Finding the Right Coach

Choosing the right coach can make all the difference. Miranda advises looking for three main qualities: a mix of both strategy and mindset expertise, availability, and someone who is just far enough ahead of you to guide you effectively but not so far that they forget what it’s like to be in your shoes.

Actionable Tip: When searching for a coach, ensure they align with your goals and are available to provide the support you need. Check their background, testimonials, and if possible, have a preliminary discussion to see if they are the right fit.

Balancing Play and Progress

Finally, Miranda emphasizes the importance of balance. Summer doesn’t mean you have to be all work and no play. The aim is to enjoy the season while making steady progress towards your goals.

Key Takeaway: Allocate specific times for work and play. This could mean working in the early mornings or late evenings to free up afternoons for leisure activities.

Conclusion

Summertime offers a unique opportunity to push through barriers and position yourself ahead of the competition. By revisiting your goals, making necessary adjustments, and seeking accountability, you can harness the full potential of these sunny months. Stay tuned for the next part of this series where Miranda will delve into the remaining two strategies that keep her focused and productive every summer.

Thank you for joining us on this journey to own your awesome. Remember to catch more insights on Miranda’s podcast and continue thriving through every season!

Transcript:

Miranda [00:00:00]:
Hello. Hello. And welcome to another episode of the own your awesome podcast. I’m your host, Miranda Von Frickin. I am so pumped for this episode because it is the first of 3, technically 4, if you listened to my previous episode. I talked a little bit about the upper limit problem that I had been experiencing, but also the fact that we’re starting summer. We’re 2 weeks in technically right now, as of tomorrow. And I like to set up my summer a little differently than everyone else.

Miranda [00:00:34]:
Part of it part of what I’ve been going through with this upper limit problem, and I think I’ve cracked it, so woo hoo to me. Part of it is because the momentum has been going and going and going, and it’s been absolutely amazing, and I don’t want it to end. There are definitely some signs of self sabotage. There are definitely some signs of laziness and being a little undisciplined. I’m not gonna lie. I keep it real with y’all even when it comes to me. I am a coach who can help you fix these things, but I happen to be somebody who also has them for herself. And listen.

Miranda [00:01:13]:
There is a concept called coaching yourself. It was actually like one of the first books I’ve ever read, personal development books was about coaching yourself to success. And I think there’s something to be said about that. I clearly am obsessed with all things self leadership. I have a master’s in it. Well, technically, my master’s is in motivation, but this the focus is in self leadership. So I know that we can coach ourselves. However, I know it’s easier and better when we do it with someone else.

Miranda [00:01:46]:
So I thought it would be a phenomenal opportunity for me to not only share a little bit about what I was going through, and that was in the last episode, so scroll back if you haven’t listened to it already. Pause this one. Go back if you’d like because it is essentially, an episode that was building up to this 3 part series that I’ve created based on my summer strategy. And this upper limit problem thing came to a complete halt the minute I laid out my summer strategy. I’ve been doing it for clients for years. I’ve been doubling down on LinkedIn and networking and reaching out to clients and potential clients and getting myself on their calendars, whether it’s now or in September in the fall when people are coming back, and I know it works. So I have this sign on my desk that says, do what they’re not doing. I actually had a whole episode about it.

Miranda [00:02:44]:
I will reference it in the show notes for you to go back and listen to. It’s one of my biggest strategies to success in business is to do what they, quote, unquote, they, whoever they are, your competition, people who do what you do in your industry, job seekers that are also competing for your jobs, Do what they’re not doing, and you will stand out. And so I talked about this a lot with my buddy, Nancy, on our sales gone wild show on LinkedIn. We’re taking a summer hiatus because we are doubling down on our own strategies for ourselves, and we’ll be back in the fall. Don’t get sad. And the reason I’m so obsessed with this concept of doing what they’re not doing, essentially, it’s in the summer when people wanna chill and relax and kind of hold back a little bit on their business. Instead of going hard, they’re kind of falling back a little bit and either continuing to do what they’ve always done and they’re not, like, kicking it up a notch. They’re just kind of, I don’t wanna say resting on their laurels because that’s not really the case, assuming they were successful the 1st 6 months of the year.

Miranda [00:03:54]:
They’re just kind of, like, easing in the center of the year to give themselves a break, and then the consensus is typically they’ll go hard in the fall and and finish strong hopefully in the winter. I don’t like that. I don’t like it at all, and I put a poll out on LinkedIn last week and actually it was about 5050. It was it was technically 44% in alignment with what I’m saying, and 56% said they were just gonna kinda chill and enjoy the summer or continue just doing what they’re doing. So I want to really explain what I mean by summer strategy and why it’s been so successful for myself and my other clients. I wanna share with you essentially my top three things that have kept me focused and moving forward every single summer. So when people are scrambling to go hard and either book themselves on stages or achieve their goals or find the jobs in September, they’re they’re competing with everybody else. I’m not.

Miranda [00:04:54]:
I’m not because I’ve already booked the stages. I’ve already got a full calendar. I’m already preparing to take December completely off. So this is how I do it and I wanna share it with you. I do 3 things. This episode is gonna be all about the first thing, which is creating a strategy or sometimes I’d like to call devising the plan. Okay. I don’t do an evil laugh very well because there’s, like, no evil in me.

Miranda [00:05:22]:
So creating the strategy, devising the plan, that is literally step 1 to ensuring that we have the most productive, focused, and forward momentum in our summer. And there’s 2 other ones, of course, but stay tuned to the next two episodes, and I’ll dive all into them individually. Each each thing that I do that ensures my success over the summer, but also allows me to enjoy it because I’m not I’m not a monster. I’m just not just gonna go hard while everybody’s laying out in the sun catching some rays and and enjoying their life. No. I also am doing those things too. I’m just not giving up on my goals. I’m I’m not putting them to the side or putting a pin in them.

Miranda [00:06:10]:
Summertime doesn’t mean slack time. Right? So the first thing I do is create the strategy or devise the plan, And, initially, I have to revisit my January goals. So 1st day of summer, it was a Thursday, June 20th. I sat down with myself and I said, alright, girl. Like, what were your goals in January? Of course, I already know what they are, but I still sat down with them. I have this journal that I read in and on December 31st, I mapped out a plan for me to get to a $1,000,000 in my business by the end of 2025. Now that’s a 2 year plan, of course, and my psychic will say it’s not gonna actually happen until 2026, but I’m still going strong as if it is a full on 2 year plan. So in January, I made the plan.

Miranda [00:07:00]:
So I go back to that notebook and I open it up and I read everything I wrote because and this is key. Not only did I write the strategy, I wrote the emotions that come with achieving each of those line items. Sometimes I’ll even Voxer myself because I’m obsessed with Voxer. If you don’t know what it is, v as in Victor, o x e r. Look it up. I’m obsessed. If you’re one of my clients, you know what it is. We use it all the time.

Miranda [00:07:28]:
So I also Voxer myself a message when I’m making this strategy and plan because there’s emotions behind the strategy. There’s emotions that I have that I need to share and often revisit because I can get myself back in that state very quickly if I’m hearing my own voice, and I’m starting to, like, recall that feeling. So I revisit my yearly goals and the strategy I laid out for myself in January, whether it was with myself or with the coach, and I assess where I am as of today. As of me, it was June 20th. For you, it can be right after this episode you’re gonna do it, or maybe you’ve already done it because you’ve been hearing me preach about summer strategy sessions for about a month now. So where are you in comparison to your January goals? The goals you had set for yourself in the beginning of the year. Now you also know that I’m not a huge resolution fan, but I do love a threshold moment. And for me, the January the December 31st to January 1st is a threshold moment, and I sat down at, like, 10 of midnight, and I devised this plan after about 5 minutes of prayer.

Miranda [00:08:43]:
I just dove right in. I said, god, take over my pen and devise this plan. The first step in my plan was to write my book, and so, clearly, that has been done. She has gone bestseller, and I am here for it. I’m here for all the things that are happening because of it, and I’m very happy. So had I not sat down and devised that plan, maybe that never would have happened because I wasn’t being strategic enough. And we listen. I’m all about praying for it, manifesting things, but I know I’m not gonna make things happen.

Miranda [00:09:20]:
Specifically, that $1,000,000 that I have at the end of year 2 is not gonna come to me if I’m just wishing and praying for it. Like, listen. I love God. He works miracles, but he also needs me to do the work too. So the strategy is crucial. So I’ll revisit where am I in assessing my plan, where I am today based on the actual goals I had for myself. I want you to do the same. So if you happen to be listening to this at work, go you.

Miranda [00:09:49]:
And if you happen to be, like, on a lunch break or whatever, take out your pen and paper, pause this now. If you’re not near your goals where you had written them down, if you don’t have access to them, just take a minute and try to remember maybe what your maybe big one or two plans were. And where are you today in correlation to those plans you had made for yourself, those goals you had? Are you far off? Are you close? Are you midway? Like, where are you in comparison to 6 months ago? If you are in the same exact spot you were 6 months ago, don’t pause this. Completely turn it the f off and call me. We are not meant to be the same person today as we were 6 months ago. No matter how happy we are, we need to grow and elevate and expand and adjust in in any in any and all areas of our life. So assess where you are today from where you were 6 months ago. That then will give us insight, if you will, into whether we need to make adjustments.

Miranda [00:10:57]:
Do I still want this goal? Does a still rate still feel right for me to achieve this goal? Was the timing accurate? Right? Like, so January 1, I’m saying in 2 years, I wanna be a millionaire. My psychic is saying, it’s probably gonna take 3 a girl. I’m okay with that, but do I adjust my plan based on some new information? Nope. I’m actually gonna still go as if it’s 2 years. Because if I let off the gas thinking I have an extra year to do this, I will slack. And I know if I keep going hard as if it is a a true 2 year plan or for you depending on your goal, a 1 year plan, if we let off the gas now, we’re definitely not gonna hit it or we’re not gonna we’re not gonna actually hit the highest potential that was supposed to happen with that goal. So say it is $1,000,000 by the end of the year, which is ridiculous for me at least, and I let up on it, I may only hit half of that or less than half of that. However, if I don’t let up and say, nope.

Miranda [00:11:59]:
It’s it’s 2 years straight or 1 year straight for my goal. Say you wanted to lose £50 in a year and you were like, well, you know, I have only lost 10 and it’s month 6. Right? And I’ve been doing all the things and I’m only I’ve only lost £10. What are the odds of me losing £40 in the next 6 months? Well, you’ll never know if you don’t keep going or make an adjustment because this is actually the step. After you figure out and revisit the goals and assess where you are from the 6 month duration, you need to make adjustments, whether, a, this goal is still for you or not. Because sometimes, 6 months later, we don’t even want that goal anymore. Maybe you’re like, yeah. So much stuff has happened in 6 months.

Miranda [00:12:40]:
I’m not even I don’t even feel aligned to that goal anymore. I don’t I don’t feel called to achieve that goal. So you scratch it off. See you later. Maybe it’ll come back later. Maybe not. If this goal is still for you, still on your mind, still on your heart, that means it’s for you to achieve. All you need to do is maybe make some adjustments.

Miranda [00:12:56]:
So using the 50 pound strategy, if you will, if you’ve only lost 10 in 6 months, we need to figure out what we did in those 6 months. Is that normal for your body? Perhaps it is. Have you consulted physicians, nutritionists? Have you worked with a coach? Like, there are some things we need. What did we do to get to where we are from 6 months ago to now, and what do I need to adjust from now for the next 6 months? So adjustment. After assessing, it’s adjusting if necessary. And then the third thing I do when creating the strategy is to call on the big guns. What do I mean by the big guns? Well, for me, it’s my coach. Every coach has 1.

Miranda [00:13:40]:
I have 3. And the big guns is my girl, Jess, you hear me often talk about. I’m currently in her mastermind, so I’m already I already have access to her, but say I was not in a program or a container with a coach yet, I’d have to go find one to help me do all the things I can no longer do on my own, or I’m not making progress in. So coaches obviously help with the action plan, because we can already do the revising and the adjusting, but they’re never gonna be as good as when you get another set of eyes on them. I’ve learned that the hard way. Listen. I coach I’ve coached thousands of people since god. I can’t even tell you.

Miranda [00:14:27]:
It’s probably since I was 5, but getting paid for it getting paid for it probably, like, 15 years. I’ve coached peep thousands of people, and my plan, they always say, is better than theirs. However, it’s not that it’s better. It’s that it’s unbiased, first of all. I’m coming from a different angle without their limiting beliefs, and that’s the biggest key. Right? I don’t have the beliefs I don’t I don’t limit my beliefs in you. You probably limit your belief in yourself. So when I, for example, because I’ll always use me as an example, when I’m working with my coach and I’m like, dude, I made this $1,000,000 goal blah blah blah.

Miranda [00:15:08]:
It’s probably not gonna happen. I’m 6 months in. And, yes, I technically have, like, a year and a half left to go, but I don’t see it happening. So when I do strategy sessions with my coach, she does a couple things. We obviously adjust where need be. What are we doing? What’s working? What’s not working? You know, that whole conversation. And then we dive into accountability. Right? Like, alright.

Miranda [00:15:33]:
We make the new plan. Here’s some new action plans based on what I see, what I hear, and here’s what we’re gonna do. And then she’ll say, okay. Here’s what I’m hearing. You’re holding yourself back. Here’s what I’m hearing. You’re playing small. Cut the shit.

Miranda [00:15:47]:
Here’s what I’m hearing. You’re being frigging lazy. You watched the new Netflix series? Absolutely not. That has nothing to do with that that took away 14 hours. 14 hours. What could you have done in 14 hours? Oh, shit. Probably made a lot of frigging money or made a lot of frigging connections that would eventually lead to clients and money. So listen, I’d I have a hard time calling myself out and I know you do too.

Miranda [00:16:12]:
Or we could call ourselves out, but we don’t take the steps needed to rectify. So this is why calling in the big guns, bringing in a coach, if you can’t invest in a long term coach, it’s okay. Strategy sessions. Most coaches have a one off session or maybe a 3 part series kinda thing. Right? I have a summer strategy session. I’ve expanded my 60 minute time to 90 minutes and I didn’t increase the cost. So it’s the same cost for a one time strategy session, but it’s now a half hour longer because it’s summertime. So this is a thing because I know it’s so important.

Miranda [00:16:51]:
I’ve given it to my clients. We’ve done them in the past. They’re ridiculously amazing and effective and because I know it’s so important, I’ve extended the time Because sometimes we gotta do a little life coaching in there too. It’s a little more than just strategy. So calling in the big guns, I highly recommend you bring in someone. Now if you’re like, listen, I don’t even have a dollar. I can’t even afford a stick of gum. Then you gotta get an accountability partner.

Miranda [00:17:18]:
You gotta get a buddy, somebody else who’s trying to move in the same direction as you, so you can hold each other accountable. So when you bring in the big guns, here’s what happens. The action plans get better. They get more aligned, more strategic, and more laser focused. We can create our own strategy all day. However, bring that strategy to somebody who’s been doing it for years. Mine happens to be an intuitive coach, so she also taps into me and my intuition and my beliefs in myself and how I already have the answers. And so I kinda do that a little bit for my clients, but I’m very, very focused on you and the belief you have in yourself, your ability to tap into your highest self, and to draw her out, to be able to utilize all that she’s learned to be able to create a better strategy, a more focused and aligned and, like, laser focused strategy to move you forward, and then, of course, the accountability.

Miranda [00:18:23]:
Having a coach is so much more important than just the strategy they give you. It’s the accountability piece. If you don’t have somebody to hold you accountable to check-in with you weekly or do these Voxer calls or to call you out when you’re being blah or to honestly hear you, listen to you when when things aren’t going right and to to share the emotional side of what it’s like to achieve or not achieve our goals. Having I that’s why I call them the big guns. Like, I could talk all day about having a coach because I’ve got 3, of course, and they each do something different for me, but each one of them hold me accountable to the goals I say I have for myself and actually make me expand them a little bigger than I even imagined. So how do you find the right coach? Because if we’re really there to call on the big guns, there’s a couple things I want you to look for when looking for a coach or even if you’re like, I just wanna hire you. Cool. You could do that, but let’s let’s look at these three things and make sure that they’re right for you because I may not be right for you.

Miranda [00:19:26]:
My message may be awesome and you love my podcast, but I may not be the right coach for you. I may know someone who is if it’s not me, but either way, this is the thing you gotta look for. One, that they have a good mix of both strategy and mindset expertise. So my intuitive coach has the mindset in a more spiritual intuitive type way, which is exactly what I needed. Years ago, I worked with very high masculine, high achieving women coaches, but they were all about strategy. There was, like, 2 very specific ones I’ve worked with super about strategy, and I needed it at the time, and it was amazing, and we achieved our goals. Then I worked with 1 who actually, before that, I worked with 1 who was all spiritual, like energy, and and she was amazing, but I I didn’t get a lot done. I felt amazing, but I didn’t get a lot accomplished.

Miranda [00:20:17]:
So then I went to the strategy ones, and I got a lot accomplished, but I didn’t feel connected to the work or connected to the results. So I was like, damn. I really need somebody with a mix of both, and then I found my girl. And then the coolest part is I knew what I was missing, so I was able I mean, my husband literally calls me 5050, because I am I can argue both sides of everything. I am straight down the middle of masculine and feminine, and I tap into both on command. So I have a really nice way of bringing the strategy and the mindset and the emotion that we need to achieve our goals. I needed that in a coach too, and I and I would highly suspect that you will too. So find somebody with a mix of both because you’re gonna need it, because summertime is short, and when we’re doing short summer strategies, you don’t have time for long, played out strategy.

Miranda [00:21:11]:
You need it to be laser focused, get in and get out, do the work, make some movement. The second thing is to make sure they’re available and available to go in the same direction you are. So what I mean by that is not only their schedule’s available. Right? It’s summertime. Make sure they’re also doing what you’re doing. Like, if they’re like, I’m going hard, cool. You are too. Let’s go.

Miranda [00:21:32]:
Don’t hire a coach who’s taking this chill season and taking on 2 clients only because they’re really focused on living life. Yeah. Go live life, but listen. I’m moving forward, so I need someone who could live life and push me forward because they’re also going forward, and I think that’s a huge discrepancy between hiring coaches in the summer and hiring them, like, in a hard season, if you will, like, when they’re going hard in January or going hard in fall. When you hire a coach in the summer, you have to make sure that they understand the the summertime energy, right, and how to tap into it, but still move forward. So make sure they’re going in the same direction you are during this season. I mean, that kind of applies to anytime you’re hiring a coach. And the third thing, and I found this very valuable, is to make sure that they are a little bit ahead of you.

Miranda [00:22:22]:
Not a lot of bit, because I fell into that trap working with a quote unquote celebrity coach. She was amazing, but I felt the things she was saying were 15 steps beyond where I so there was, like, 15 steps between where I was and what she was having me do and I was it it just had a hard time. I had a hard time implementing the things or really sticking with it, because I wasn’t there yet. Like, if you wanted me to implement an automation system, but I’m still thinking about implementing an email list. Okay. Well, that’s like a lot of steps in between there. Right? Mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and literally setting up the tech. So make sure they’re not so far ahead of you that they forget what it’s like to be in your shoes.

Miranda [00:23:06]:
I like to hire coaches that are probably, like, 3 to 5 years ahead of me. They can still recall, you know, where I mean, this is different when it comes to life coaching. Right? Like, you wanna make sure their life’s not a mess. But if you’re talking business, branding, make sure they’re ahead of you, but not so ahead of you that they’ll lose you. Right? Or that you’re not just, like, one of these I don’t wanna say cog in the machine, but I feel like when you’re in an automatic sequence and you get thrown into a group, and the next thing you know, you’re on a individual call with them. They just don’t know you enough, because it’s like turn and burn type of coaching. So I find that when you work with someone that’s, like, 3 to 5 years up in front of you, if you will, you’ll get more from them. So keep that in mind.

Miranda [00:23:50]:
Those are the 3 things, a mix of both mindset and strategy, availability and going in the right direction, the same direction as you, and then make sure they’re they’re only ahead of you for a little bit, not too much ahead of you. That you don’t want them to be at the same level as you either. I’ve done that by accident too. You know, worked with a woman that I loved. Granted, it was different. If we’re working with somebody, say, LinkedIn. Right? I do LinkedIn. I work with with millionaires on LinkedIn, and I’m ahead of them in LinkedIn.

Miranda [00:24:19]:
Maybe not in business, but LinkedIn and finding business on LinkedIn and growing my brand on LinkedIn and getting visibility, I’m ahead of them. So that’s different. If you’re looking for a strategy and something very niche, find find the person who’s ahead of you in that niche, not in business in general. So when we’re talking summer strategy, there are 3 things that help me stay focused in moving forward while still enjoying my summer. The first thing is locking in the strategy and calling in the big guns if you find that you’re struggling to do it alone. Why waste these precious small summer hours that we have? I’m in upstate New York, so we don’t get a lot of these wonderful beautiful days. I don’t wanna spend all day quote unquote figuring it out. I wanna get to work and then get to the pool.

Miranda [00:25:13]:
Right? I want it all. I wanna do it all. I want both the beautiful summer and to enjoy this time with my friends and family, yet I also wanna continue to move my business forward and do the things my competitors, if you will, are not doing because all they’re doing is condensing their work time and increasing their playtime. I like playing, but I also want progress. So what’s your summer look like? Is it more more play or is it more progress? I’m here for both. If you are too, let’s hop on a call. Find me on Instagram, DM me, DM me strategy, and I will send you my calendar link, and we will have a conversation. And then LinkedIn too, of course, I live there.

Miranda [00:25:59]:
If you’ve got my book, because I keep getting more and more come, DMs from you saying you got my book and you’re loving it, thank you so much for supporting me. It means the world to me. Don’t forget to leave a 5 star review on Amazon because, apparently, that’s important. But, also, if you liked this episode, leave a 5 star review here as well so I can continue to reach more people. I actually just found a site that tells me I’m in the top 10%, so I thought that was pretty cool. I don’t know what it means, but it sounds cool to me. So, obviously, you guys are listening and enjoying, and I couldn’t be more happy to support you in your business, in your career, and, of course, as always in your life. Thank you again for listening to another episode of the own your awesome podcast.

Miranda [00:26:42]:
Until next time, continue to be awesome, and let’s talk summer strategy. Bye.