Summer is upon us, and while the sun beckons us to relax and unwind, it’s also an opportune time to push forward with our goals and stay productive. In the second part of the “Own Your Summer Strategy” series on the Own Your Awesome podcast, host Miranda VonFricken dives deep into tactics that help maintain momentum while still soaking up the summer sun. Here’s a comprehensive rundown of key strategies to harness summer for maximum visibility and growth.

1. Create a Robust Strategy

Reflect and Reassess

As you transition into summer, it’s crucial to kick things off by revisiting the goals you set at the beginning of the year. Miranda suggests doing a bit of time travel—reflecting back six months to evaluate your progress and determine if any adjustments are necessary. Are you on track? Have your goals evolved?

Simplicity in Planning

When crafting your summer strategy, simplify where possible. Identify three core actions that will keep you moving forward. Create a plan that’s straightforward but effective, allowing you to stay focused without overwhelming yourself.

2. Double Down on Visibility

Importance of Being Seen

Visibility is key to maintaining momentum during the slower summer months. Miranda emphasizes increasing your presence on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram. The goal is to keep your face and your brand at the forefront of people’s minds. Whether through creating fresh content or engaging with your network, staying visible ensures that you are top-of-mind when opportunities arise.

Creative Networking

Summer is a great time to connect with new people and strengthen existing relationships. Use this time to book coffee chats, virtual meetings, and in-person catch-ups. Miranda shares her strategy of conducting “poolside chats” as a way to mix relaxation with productivity. Inviting potential clients or collaborators for informal catch-ups can lead to new opportunities and partnerships.

3. Leverage Breaks Wisely

Strategic Mini-Breaks

Instead of taking long lunch breaks, consider breaking your day into shorter bursts of rest and work. Miranda suggests taking several 15-minute breaks throughout the day. This approach can help maintain your energy levels and keep you in the flow of your work. It’s about working smarter, not harder, and ensuring that when your competitors are slacking, you’re still making strides.

4. Embrace Networking and Connecting

Voice Messages as a Game Changer

Miranda highlights the effectiveness of sending voice memos over traditional text messages on platforms like LinkedIn. A personal voice message stands out in a sea of text, making it more likely that recipients will engage with your content and remember you. This small tweak in your communication strategy can make a big difference in your networking efforts.

Active Engagement

Actively engaging with your network during the summer can amplify your visibility. Leave meaningful comments, respond to posts, share insights, and participate in discussions. These actions not only increase your visibility but also position you as a thought leader in your field.

5. Consistent Content Creation

Originality and Fresh Ideas

While it may be tempting to repurpose old content, Miranda stresses the importance of creating fresh, original content. Consistent content creation helps keep your audience engaged and showcases your ongoing commitment to providing value. Whether through blog posts, videos, or live sessions, new content can attract new followers and keep your current audience hooked.

6. Capitalize on the Off-Season

Summer as a Springboard

Summer is often seen as a slow period for many businesses, but it doesn’t have to be. By staying active and visible, you can capitalize on the fact that others are taking a break. Your dedication during these months can set you up for a successful and busy fall season. Miranda shares that she books many speaking engagements during the summer for events happening in the fall, ensuring her calendar is packed for the rest of the year.

Promotion and Visibility Packages

To maximize the summer, consider offering special promotions or visibility packages that can attract new clients. This can be a strategic way to bring in more business during the slower months and keep momentum going.

Conclusion

Summer is not just a time for vacations—it’s a season ripe with opportunities for growth and visibility. By creating a solid strategy, doubling down on visibility, leveraging breaks wisely, engaging actively with your network, and consistently creating original content, you can harness the power of summer to propel your personal and professional goals forward.

For more insights and detailed strategies, tune in to the Own Your Awesome podcast, where Miranda shares her journey and tips to help you own your summer and beyond!

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. You are in the middle of a 3 part series called summer strategy, and I am talking all things visibility, growth, hacking the summer system, if you will, and I am loving it. I’m actually really loving the response to this too. I may have to do more series. I did one earlier, in in the episode.

Miranda [00:00:33]:
Well, I did one earlier in our podcast. It was a 2 part series, but this happens to be a 3 part series with an episode episode number 39. Episode 39 no. I’m lying. Episode 38. Episode 38 is really what I talked to you about, why I’m doing this summer series. And episode 39, if you haven’t listened to it yet, you don’t have to per se listen to them in order. I’m really just diving into 3 things that help me stay focused and moving forward while still enjoying my summer.

Miranda [00:01:13]:
Because if you know me, I’m doing the things that they are not doing, and they pretty much means my competition or anybody that I need to get in front of because I like to win. So last week, I talked about and, actually, it was it wasn’t a full week ago, but last episode, I talked about my number one thing. I’m it’s in no particular order, of course. I talked about 3 things that I really lean into and not only my own strategy for the summer, but with my clients as well. And the first thing was about creating the actual strategy. We had to do a little investigation. Right? We had to go back 6 months, all time travel action. You know, I love me some time travel.

Miranda [00:01:56]:
We had to figure out what the goals were that we set, where we are today with those goals, and do we need to make some adjustments. Then I talked a little bit about breaking out the big guns. Right? And those that’s hiring a coach. And, yes, I am one of those big guns. I want you to hire me. Let’s do a strategy session. Let’s do a summer strategy session before it gets too far into summer and you’re like, what’s the point? Right? So there there’s always a point because it is it ever really late? Because even if it’s a last day of summer and you’re like, I want in on your summer strategy sessions because they there there are this is a promotion. Let’s be honest.

Miranda [00:02:33]:
This this this pricing does not happen all year round. It’s summertime only because I want you to get into the mindset that we can enjoy our summer while still progressing our goals forward. We can find a job in the summer. We can get promoted in the summer. We can write a book in the summer. We can book stages in the summer. We can do all the things we wanna do in the summer. We don’t have to take summer off.

Miranda [00:03:02]:
We are not in elementary school. Like, we don’t get kicked out of business or a brand or of goals, June 26th. Right? We just don’t. We still get to build momentum in our business even if our buyers and our customers are not in the zone of buying and strategizing. Like, listen, I don’t book a lot of stages over the summer. I’m lying. I book stages. I don’t actually physically get on stages a lot over the summer because their their events are in the fall.

Miranda [00:03:37]:
Right? Wait till September. Kids go back to school, and then end of September, October, November, I am, like, booked like crazy for trainings, LinkedIn trainings, personal branding trainings for HR teams, and for sales people, real estate groups. Like, I am super super packed. When do you think I booked those? You think I just booked them like the week before? No. I booked them in the summer because I’m going hard. I’m going hard because I’ve I’m going places and I’ve got goals and I’m not letting off the gas just because the sun is shining, but I’m still gonna enjoy the sun. So this week, if you couldn’t tell, I wanna talk about my second strategy. That’s a huge part of what I do in the summer to stay laser focused and still building momentum while not getting caught up in the I don’t have a sale.

Miranda [00:04:27]:
Right? So I, of course, I sell things over the summer. I’m usually booking these strategy sessions 90 minutes. A phenomenal opportunity. I do sometimes to a freaking day. Like, it’s amazing. And, of course, I’ve got my LinkedIn clients, my done for you in a day LinkedIn stuff, and so I’m still busy in the summer, but it’s a little slower. Right? It’s a little slower because people are chilling, but I try not to stress too much about not bringing in the same amount or having the same results I may have had in the spring, or the winter even, because it’s summer. But you know what I can do? Switch up the metrics a little bit.

Miranda [00:05:04]:
Right? So over the summer, of course I still have a monetary goal that I like to hit, but actually what I like to do is grow my LinkedIn, grow my Instagram, connect to more people, have fabulous coffee chats, meet new people, get my face out there more, get people talking. That is my biggest visibility strategy for summer is to get people talking. Talking about me, talking about LinkedIn, talking about my strategy, talking about you need to work with her. Now no matter what your goal is, you want people talking about you in order to help you achieve it. So let’s say your goal is maybe it’s not business. Right? Let I mean, I know I got a lot of business owners here, but let’s assume you’re a job seeker because I also know I’ve got a huge network that wants to that are employees and want to climb that corporate ladder even in the summer. Here’s what I would do. I would, a, do what the person next to you isn’t doing.

Miranda [00:06:06]:
So if they’re taking a long walk on their lunch break, I take a smaller walk, when other people are doing things. And then on the lunch break, I’d be working through them because I’ve already taken a small break, and I’ll take a second small break later. It it does depend on your office and if there’s different rules of what you can and can’t do. I I never liked leaving for an hour in the middle of the day, because it would take me out of my flow. Right? So I never I never did that. When my office mates in HR were going for a walk or running errands or just, quote, unquote, getting out of the office, I would do that, but I would do that at, like, 10:30 or 11 for like 15 minutes. I’d go for a quick lap around the building or I’d walk to my car and be like, oh, I need 5 minutes. I forgot, you know, something in my car.

Miranda [00:06:55]:
I go outside. Nobody’s in the parking lot. Nobody’s out walking. Right? It’s just me. I get some fresh air, get a little boost because I it’s almost like eating small meals versus eating one big meal. I need the little small boost of energy to keep me sustained throughout the day. So I if I was still an employee, thank Jesus that I’m not, if I was still an employee, I would take a, like, a 15 minute break, maybe 2 to 3 times a day, and then, of course, I would eat food. I I definitely eat food.

Miranda [00:07:25]:
Mama needs her lunch, but it wouldn’t be a huge sit

Miranda [00:07:28]:
down meal, escape from my work. I don’t like to break the flow.

Miranda [00:07:29]:
Like, that’s too much for me. Escape from my work. I don’t like to break the flow. Like,

Miranda [00:07:33]:
that’s too much for me. I like little breaks. So no matter what

Miranda [00:07:33]:
your goals are, say you are trying to climb the corporate ladder, by not taking this long lunch break when everybody else does, you can answer emails. You can reply to things. You can boost a project. You could whatever your job is, crunch some numbers. So when your boss and your boss’s boss get back from lunch, the first email they see is yours with results. Oh my god. Can you imagine? Like, I had a team working for me and say I I get back from lunch and I’m like, oh, I’m feeling kinda tired. Lunch, blah, or I’m feeling refreshed, whatever my feeling is, And I come back, I sit on my desk, and I open up the email, to start doing something and I boom.

Miranda [00:08:15]:
I see an email from one of my team members, and it says results from x, y, and z. Oh, I like results. Boom. Let me click on that. Oh, Sarah spent the last half hour diving into something I asked her to do this morning, when I asked 4 people to do it and Sarah’s the only one that gave me results during the lunchtime when every all those other girls went out and got lunch, Sarah gave me the results I needed. I was like, wow. Like, I remember it like it was yesterday, and it is clearly, it’s a true story. But, like, I remember thinking, like, good for her or good for me.

Miranda [00:08:50]:
Good for me, actually, because I had what I needed for my meeting that was later in the day. And if I didn’t get an email yet with some results in about an hour or so when they got back from lunch, I would have to remind them, hey. Don’t forget I need x, y, and z. I’ve got my meeting at 2. I need to be prepared for it. Whatever. And they would be like, oh, yeah. I’m working on it.

Miranda [00:09:10]:
You’ll have it by, you know, 1:30. Nope. I already had it. Sarah gave it to me. Thank you. So guess who I’m gonna look at when it comes time for promotion time?

Miranda [00:09:18]:
Mhmm.

Miranda [00:09:18]:
It’s gonna be Sarah. Right? Not because she skipped lunch, because I don’t want her skipping lunch, but it’s it’s the timing. Right? It’s adjusting the timing to do the work when nobody else is. Now you could be thinking, while you’re on that 15 minute break, Kelly could have been submitting the things. Yeah. Sure. Maybe. Absolutely.

Miranda [00:09:37]:
Maybe she could’ve. More than likely it’s not gonna happen. Right? Because you know what’s happening in your office. So when I say do what they’re not doing, you need to assess what they are doing and where the little nuggets and pockets of opportunity are for you to take advantage to shine a light on you. Alright? So mine was just an example, but even in my business, over the summer, I network twice as hard on LinkedIn. I’m doing coffee chats, poolside chats, like call it what you will. I’m putting out content like crazy. I’m doing live videos.

Miranda [00:10:09]:
I’m interviewing people on my live show. Like there’s so many things that I’m doing that my competition isn’t. They’re rinsing and repeating. They’re, repurposing their content. Nope. All my shit’s original. I’m going hard with new ideas, looking amazing. So when it comes when they come back with a vengeance, I already have the clients.

Miranda [00:10:29]:
Like, I already got them. And think about it too. Let’s use a different example. You’re looking to lose a little bit of weight. Right? I use this because I feel like it’s an easy example. And over the summer, you’re slacking off a little. Nope. This is you’re drinking a little more, Coronas and they’re not the corona lights.

Miranda [00:10:49]:
Anyway, you know you know what I’m getting at here. I’m not gonna go on a tangent. I promise. So do what they’re not doing is the hugest piece of my strategy, and what I’m doing in the 2nd biggest piece of my strategy is increasing visibility. It’s networking, connecting, putting my face out there, being seen, letting people know what my goals are. Of course, I’m not slowing down. We talked about that last episode, but really this is increasing the visibility. This is the biggest piece I want to really, like, hammer in today is get on LinkedIn if you’re not already.

Miranda [00:11:26]:
Oh, please, friend. I have a strategy session for LinkedIn too. Super easy. We could do a 2 for 1 if you want, like a LinkedIn strategy with a whatever else strategy you wanna do. Connect with people. See what they’re doing out there. Leave DMs. Leave voice memos.

Miranda [00:11:42]:
Oh my god. My claim to fame is voice memos, people. That’s how I got so many followers. I give them my voice. Can you imagine getting there’s 2 people on LinkedIn. 1 sends you a random, like, book with all these words and you’re like, no, thank you, and there’s one little voice memo that’s 45 seconds and it’s a blue line and you’re like, oh, who’s that? What’s she got to say? And it’s, hey, thanks for connecting on LinkedIn. I’m Miranda. Blah blah blah blah blah.

Miranda [00:12:06]:
You’ll listen to that whole 45 seconds and everything I have to say and maybe be uplifted a little bit and be like, is she I’m cute. That’s curious. Let me see who this Miranda person is. Let me click on her LinkedIn. Oh, it says she’s doing she just wrote a book? Let me check out her book. Let me buy her book. This looks amazing. So visibility people.

Miranda [00:12:24]:
I can’t stress it enough, and I don’t need to extend this any longer. I think you get it. Double down on your networking, your connecting, and your visibility. Get out there. And if you need a strategy for visibility, this is what my summer strategy sessions are all about. They’re helping you to be seen, to shine a light on your awesomeness, and achieve the goals you have for yourself. Let’s sit down. Let’s figure out a strategy.

Miranda [00:12:49]:
We can do it while having a cocktail by your pool, if you want, just invite me over. So so far, you’ve got 2 of my secrets to my summer strategy awesomeness, how I progress forward, how I stay focused, and continue to build momentum even in the summer while enjoying the beautiful weather. I create the strategy, call on the big guns if I have to, and number 2 is I network and connect more than ever. I double down on visibility. So when people do pop on LinkedIn or do pop on Instagram, they’re gonna see my face. And when it’s time for them to take action, they’re gonna think of me, and I hope that you do as well. So, friends, thank you so much for listening to another episode of the own your awesome podcast. Viewer in the middle of a 3 part series.

Miranda [00:13:38]:
It starts on episode 38, 39, 40, and 41’s coming. So if you’re loving all of this, if you’re interested in the strategy session, find me on Instagram at Miranda dot von Frickin, and, of course, I’m on LinkedIn. Find me at Miranda von Frickin. DM me strategy. I’ll know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ll send you a calendar link. It’ll be amazing. I can’t wait to hear from you and to help you crush your summer goals.

Miranda [00:14:07]:
Alright, friends. Until next week, continue to be awesome.