Welcome to Uncomplicating Business. I am Sara. I am happy to see you and hear you. Not that I'm seeing you. You're just listening. I don't know. So, what I want to talk about today is August. I know it's August. It's August here for me and for you, and as a former teacher, what I know about August is it is the lead up to September. It is the back to school shopping and the getting started in the new routines and all the things that are the start of the school year. And personally, in my world, I think that years run from late August, early September, you know, around the calendar that way.

 I'm not a big calendar year girl, so one of the things a client asked me recently was, you know, what do I do in August to set up fall, and it was a really good question, right? It was like, oh, okay, you know what? This feels like a worthy conversation because often we use the end of the summer, the start of the fall as a reset. 

Like you just did a mid-year review and reset, maybe, maybe you could go back and do that if you haven't yet. And this is a good time of year to look around and be like, "All right, let me check in. Let me see where I am at. Let me, let me do some things to sort of be ready to roll in the fall. Because often I think September, October, November are like the time that I make the most progress, and then in December everything the wheels come off. Right when all of the holiday things start, so there are a couple of ideas that I think are really handy to take into the fall. I think I have four. The first one is to just give yourself a couple of minutes with your calendar, with your social profiles, with your email, and think about 10 people. Maybe not even 10. Maybe five people that you've connected with so far this year that you would just love to talk to again, right? Like I can think of three off the top of my head that I think like we'll be friends forever.

 I would like to talk to them again, right? People you met earlier in the year, maybe January, February, March, and you're like, oh man, she was great. Reach out, right? Make a short list of conversations you want to continue. This is really about like, hi human. I'm a human. I really enjoyed you. Let's keep talking, right? Maybe it's because there's business collaboration. Maybe it's because you just really liked them and you both really had a good vibe together. Maybe it's something else, but follow your instinct here. Go back to Nadine's intuitive prioritization from a couple episodes ago, and think like, who would I love? Trust that, and reach out and say, "Hey, how are you? Right. That's good enough. Then the next one is to sort of do a quick like, hey, what am I up to this fall? Right, like a quick pre-plan. 

So like, I know when I get to the end of August, my wheels start to turn. You've had this happen, maybe, and I think like, okay, I'd like to do this kind of thing in September. I'd like to run a challenge in October. I'd like to do this kind of workshop in November. I kind of get a feel for my calendar, and I look around.

 Now is the time to sort of make those decisions. Now is the time to look at the things you're offering and say, okay, what do I want to focus on in the fall? Is it a smaller offer that's leading to a bigger thing? Is it just the bigger thing? I just had a conversation with a member of the lab who has been selling this one-off session that leads into her larger coaching practice, and she said, you know what? Maybe I should just be selling the larger coaching package? Yes, agreed. Right? Let's sell the bigger thing because that's actually what people want and need. So that is one way to think about this. It's like, what do you want it to feel like? What are you talking about that you love? 

How are you connecting the events that you want to do, the workshops, the challenges, or or the things you're attending, the trips you're taking, to the actual offers? Because it's great to run a workshop, but if it doesn't lead anywhere, it didn't help your business. And I love. Excuse me, I keep getting the cups. I love you, and that's true. Okay, so that's the second thing. 

Like, look around, look at your offers, check in, give yourself just like a little sketchy outline of the things you'd love to do this fall. The third one: Are there two or three-I don't know. Like, let's think of them as seeds that you'd like to plant for 2027. Is there somebody in your network you'd love to know a little better because you're pretty sure you could collaborate in some way, and you just want to sort of begin it? Is there something you want to do in 2027, a bigger project, a newer offer, a thing you want to teach or share in a larger way-is there something that you need to start to like lay the groundwork for? And what is it? Right? Can you think about how you begin to plant the seeds of 2027 here in the fall, right? And I know that feels like a big idea, but often somebody will say to me, "Well, next year I want to do this thing, and I'm not sure. Like I have a client right now who's got a bigger group offer she's going to do in the new year, right? It's not time yet. 

She's she's working through a large contract that she's working on with someone else, and she's got this group thing that sort of is coming. But right now, what she's doing is, you know, thinking about the way she's gonna bring people to it. She is starting to ask people like their thoughts about what they would want from that container. She knows, but she's just checking in with a couple of people she really trusts. She is starting to sort of sketch the framework of it. 

So when it's time to build the pages and do the marketing. She kind of has the idea, right? It is that kind of lead that will let it be successful in the new year. And then, I think the last thing on this list is I don't know about you, and every single month, but each one is crazier than the last, right? Where you're like, next month it's going to settle down. That's cute. It is. I know it's cute here too. I had that thought today. I was like, okay, we'll get to the end of August and things will settle down. No, they won't. What am I on, right? Like I am speaking at three events in six weeks in September and October. I am taking two trips. I am what? There's five baseball tournaments and at least three climbing weekends for my daughter. What? And two birthdays. Good lord, no. So you know, and everybody's going back to school. Dear Lord, do I continue to make this list? You probably don't need it, so I'm going to stop. 

But one of the things to do here is like okay, there all are there are all of these things you want to sort of start do be connect to reach out to all of those things. Now look at that whole list and take something off of it, or and I would say and not or. Give yourself one thing that you've been doing all along that you could stop right now. For example, I was just in the lab; we were just in co-working, and one of the newer lab members was talking about the dread that social media posts create for her, because in a prior coaching container she was in, they taught her to, and I understand why.

 Go spend a half hour reading all her posts from last week, looking at the performances of them, sort of calling out the patterns, looking at what's good, looking at what's not, and trying to sort of recreate the wins. Here's the thing: all of that is lovely if you are made of time and you have lots of time to do that. However, for her, it was becoming a barrier to doing any posting at all, and the actual showing up matters more than the data. 

So what we did today in co-working is I said, okay, set, create a set of expectations for yourself for the next month about social media posting and what you will and won't do, and what she's not going to do is look at any of the data, and that's not wrong, right? There's nothing wrong with her just showing up, writing the post, and moving on.

 The one thing she is going to do is set a timer so that she doesn't fall into the black hole of making it perfect, right? You can do the same. So she's going to put the data down for a while because it's not helping her. It's making her crazy. These are the things we identify in the lab. We identified it in four minutes and co. And I, why we saved her an hour of work a week for the rest of the year. She's gonna put it down.

 Amazing! It's done. It's that simple sometimes to have somebody go. But why are you doing that? And change it. So if you're not sure what thing you could give up, call me, and we'll figure it out. For you, this might be a good time to do any one of these things. You don't have to do all four of them. You don't have to do any of them. Pick the one that suits you.

 Pick that one and move on. Even if it's like, here's the one thing I'm not going to do this month. Great. You can do some reconnection. You can do a little bit of like, how do I want to approach the next couple of months' planning? You can begin scoping out 2027 and getting ready for it, or you can just be like, "I'm going to roll through this month and the chaos, and I will do that in October, and that's fine too. However, if that is the way you're doing every month, it's time to settle in and get accountable, right? Because that we can't push it to the next month every month.

 I understand sometimes we need to, right? In life, that happens. And if you're constantly pushing it to the next month, accountability is what you need. And so, come into the lab, come ask for coaching, come do something, but get what you need so that you're not mad at the end of this year that you haven't done the things you promised yourself. And from there, I'll see you in two weeks. Let me know how this all goes for you. Reach out on LinkedIn or on email or wherever, and we'll figure it out from there. All right, friends, enjoy.