Has the American July 🇺🇲 become the European August 🇪🇺 ?
Meaning: is everyone in the U.S. on vacation this July? Europeans are a great role model for vacationing in August. Maybe we’re learning an important lesson about how to best live our lives.
From a business perspective, however, everything feels slow right now:
1. Email replies take a while if they come at all
2. New client work has slowed down considerably
3. Reservations have dipped at our family owned restaurant
Why could this be? Maybe …
1. People are taking longer summer vacations (a great thing!)
2. More intense heatwaves across the U.S. are tiring us out (not so great)
3. The quality of my outreach and content is lacking (feedback welcome!)
More importantly, what to do? Or not do?
Author Dorie Clark inspires me with the concept of “strategic patience.” Meaning: doing the work, day after day, without any guarantee of success. Showing up, every day, and taking action. And while you’re waiting, taking daily steps toward creating the future you want, independent of whether anyone else responds.
My July experiment of posting every day to LinkedIn is an exercise in strategic patience. I’m collecting data to see what happens when I share content daily. Some days people engage with my content. Other days, not so much.
That’s okay. Because I’m testing and learning for the future. And I’m sharing what I learn with my network. Hopefully I can help others with their own content strategy to fuel their unique goals.
Someone else who inspires me is Zoey Zheng. She is a 2023 MS grad of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Zoey recently posted a very real look at the challenges of the job search. Her post was authentic and vulnerable, addressing the anxiety, the doubt, and the toxic positivity. She also took a powerful stance in her post. She generously shared the many resources she’s found helpful during her job search. In the hopes that she can serve others.
The lesson I take away? No matter how difficult things may be for us personally, there is always something we can do to help ourselves and to help others in the process. Thank you, Zoey! And with her talent and tenacity, I can’t wait to see what lucky employer makes her an offer.
Lastly, sometimes the best action is no action. Timing really is everything. It’s best to reach people when and where they want to engage. If business is slow and if people are on vacation, those are signs. It may be time to ease up on the outreach, relax ourselves, and enjoy each moment as it comes.
What do you think about life and work in July?
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