Maven Marketing with Brandon Welch

Why August is So Slow

• Frank & Maven

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When the Market Feels Like It’s on Summer Vacation

It’s August. The sun’s hot, the kids are back in school, and your customers… well, they’re acting like they’ve all disappeared to the lake.

Every year, we get the same call from a business owner: “The phones are quiet. Sales feel slow. Is something wrong with my marketing?”

In this episode, we pull back the curtain on why August (and other weirdly slow months) happen—and why a quiet calendar isn’t always a bad thing.

Here’s what we dig into:

  • The hard data behind seasonal slowdowns—and why August is the repeat offender
  • How vacations, cashflow cycles, and even the weather affect buying behavior
  • The “mature marketer” mindset that keeps you from making panic moves
  • Smart ways to use slow months to plant seeds, refine your message, and set up your next big push

If your August feels like tumbleweeds rolling through your sales pipeline, this conversation will give you perspective, a plan, and maybe even a reason to enjoy the lull.

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Host: Brandon Welch
Co-Host: Caleb Agee
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy

Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!

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Brandon Welch:

welcome to the maven marketing podcast. Today is maven monday. I'm your host, brandon welch, and I'm joined by Caleb, give us a win, Agee. ooh, win, um.

Caleb Agee:

You know I school is coming back and actually count that as a win in my house. But we've got activities changing and there's a shift happening and I love it. I think actually kids, my kids thrive better in some structure and a little bit of organization.

Brandon Welch:

I don't know about your kids, but summer is fun but it also I wouldn't know, because I never participate in- such things.

Caleb Agee:

Well, there you go. Yeah, you don't do fun.

Brandon Welch:

No, I don't do. Structure, structure, yeah, summer just lends itself to a little more chaos.

Caleb Agee:

School's coming back and school's coming back. I'm excited about it.

Brandon Welch:

So this is why we make good podcast hosts together. Yeah, because opposites attract and I actually get legit depressed. I haven't been to school in 20 years and just the back-to-school mode just is a lead balloon for me emotionally. But I get over it pretty quick.

Caleb Agee:

I love it. I actually talked my wife into taking our kids back-to-school shopping because it's such a core memory for me, really Going to Walmart with mom.

Brandon Welch:

Oh, and buying erasers.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, picking what color folder. You know 10 cent folder you're buying. I don't know why, but that mentally I was like you know what?

Brandon Welch:

We're going to Walmart, we're not ordering all this online that can make a guy feel good.

Caleb Agee:

It makes me feel good.

Brandon Welch:

Well, I'm happy for you and your back to school blues, because no says I no. Okay, hey, speaking of back to school, that was actually a really good transition.

Caleb Agee:

We are going to talk today about why is august so slow, except for it's not about just august, yeah, yeah, and I think we're, you know, part way through august, couple weeks in now, and, uh, we get this call every year from somebody from somebody. I don't know who it's going to be. This year, by the time this episode drops, they may have already called. I don't really know. Yeah, but somebody's going to say hey schedule's looking a little light next week.

Caleb Agee:

People aren't picking up. I feel like we're having to fight really hard to get sales. It sounds like a lot of things, but it's mostly is August is down.

Brandon Welch:

Especially marketers who are earlier in their tenure at FrankenMaven Like, especially if you're building something like maybe you're in years three through five and you just you've got a lot of this momentum and you've got a lot of, maybe, money out, you've got a lot invested in your marketing plan and you know, on the whole you're like, yeah, it's good. But then when you have these little you know three or four week dips, you're like, ooh, what's wrong? Right, what's wrong. And so we've been wanting to do this episode for like way before the podcast. We're like you know, we're going to record this because for well over a decade we've been doing call notes. Every time we have a call with somebody, we document that.

Brandon Welch:

And there was this thing that happened four or five years ago where I was like you know what, go, pull, go, pull up last year's notes and I think it was August, it was the same and go pull up the August before. And so it's not that August is slow for everybody, but this is a metaphor for trends in your business and I think mature business owners understand it, they get it. They're not even remotely concerned about it. But if you are building something at speed and cashflow is cashflow as a, you know, as a fluid thing for you, and it's like, especially if you're investing in in really strong tomorrow marketing campaigns. Those are expensive, right, and so we just want to talk to everybody who may be feeling a little off right now, yeah, or if not today, it's going to be yeah.

Caleb Agee:

It's life has seasons. Sometimes it's summertime, sometimes you're going back to school, you know, and sometimes you enjoy that and sometimes you don't.

Brandon Welch:

And some people are hearing this going well, no, duh, I don't need to listen to this, but we have, we do have some. We have some actual, we have some real data that actually points to Scientifical stuff.

Caleb Agee:

August is down economically in America. According to the NFIB small business optimism index, august fell two and a half points. They do it on a percentage of a hundred, down to 91% in 2024. In 2023, it dropped again same thing, and they haven't come up with this month's numbers yet, but I'm going to guess the pattern will remain.

Brandon Welch:

It's the craziest thing All the people decide to drive home from work at the same time and all the kids decide to go back to school at the same time of year, Unless you're weird like Caleb and I.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, and you do homeschool, homeschool. But yeah, you could start it whenever you want.

Brandon Welch:

There's just a couple common sense reasons. There's just a couple like common sense reasons. Just step back before you start blaming your marketing plan, especially if you've got the principles that we talk about here on the Maven Marketing Podcast a good tomorrow marketing, a good today marketing, a good yesterday marketing plan. If those things are in place, like two or three weeks can't knock that off of its course, right, Probably even a month or two can't knock that off of its course, and I think everybody understands their seasonal business. But just look at what humanity is doing.

Caleb Agee:

What is?

Brandon Welch:

your customer doing Like go go, creep 10 of their Facebook pages. They were probably on vacation in the last couple of weeks, which probably means they're not rushing to Probably meant they spent a lot of cash on that vacation.

Caleb Agee:

all of their excess money for this year or for maybe for a season, they just spent Okay. So if you're a large purchase item, I'm going to guess, unless they have lots of liquid cash laying around, they're going to hold off for a little bit longer, or even if they just feel like they should wait.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah, also, I don't have any data on this, but I think that hot temperatures just make people tired and they make them less. You know, 20, 30 minutes less than a day where they're thinking like freely and in comfort could make a huge difference, right, yeah.

Caleb Agee:

We ran actually ahead of a couple more data points. I had Productivity. According to ACUDA, they did this productivity report In August workers' productivity is down 20%, attendance is down 19% and distractions are up 45%. Isn't that crazy? So not just what your customers are feeling, but what your employees, your team, is feeling, you have to pay attention. These are internal and external factors. Yes, is feeling. You have to pay attention. These are internal and external factors. Yes, a little bonus one For the last decade, 10 years, the S&P 500 has had an annual average of minus 0.78%. So almost down 1% every August for 10 years.

Brandon Welch:

The key is like- don't stop, it's not like we're going.

Brandon Welch:

oh well, it's you know what's the point in even trying. It's just going be one that's able to ride the trends. Maybe a mature? I would not, I would not probably adjust my budget with this, but I would say a mature marketing plan and a mature like just growth plan. I would be thinking ahead. Okay, August is going to be a little slow. Maybe that's the time I paint my store, or maybe that's the time I get my service trucks ready, or maybe that's the time I do this improvement project, because things are going to be down a little bit and it's just like prepare for it, Know what's coming so it doesn't surprise you, and then get yourself a really good promotion in your back pocket.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

Like we're running some really good promotions for some service companies that we're working with right now, and it's a good time to do that.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

We did an episode on this earlier in the year about like there's a time to push, or actually it was for election cycle last year it was like how to get people to buy during election season.

Brandon Welch:

Make it the best time to buy, right. Yeah, during election season, make it the best time to buy, right. Yep. And so it might be smart for you to do things more than just the seasonal, like cultural back-to-school shopping type thing. Yeah, and whatever season you might be thriving, in August Maybe you are the one selling pencils and erasers and computers and all that. But it's going to come for you in January, right yeah?

Caleb Agee:

Everybody has that season and I think where this, where the rubber really hits the road is, you're basing your opinion of August being down usually against what you've been used to or what you enjoyed in the last few months. That's the feeling it's. August is down. And when you call anybody over here, we're going to say, compared to what? That is the first question we're going to say. Compared to what? Yeah, that is the first question we're going to ask. And if you say, well, I don't know, it just feels down, I feel like the calendar's light or whatever the symptom is, we're going to say, okay, well, get in your CRM, get in your data, look at your reports, let's go back. We're not going to compare August to July.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah, we're not going to compare August and July to the beginning of the summer, we're going to compare year over year. I think it was Edward Deming that said without data, you're just another opinion.

Caleb Agee:

You have to track this data. If you don't have good data, you're going to base all of your decisions off of feelings, and feelings will only get you so far, and so we want to take August this year, we're going to look specifically at August last year and then, by comparison, we're going to take July this year and compare it to July last year.

Brandon Welch:

You back out and you have 90 days over 90 days. That's a trend you can start acting on.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

So, um, I would say, with that, ask why look for the outliers? With that, look for the outliers. Yeah. So if last year was an election cycle or there's some really goofy stuff going on and it was down to like, don't, maybe don't take as good a credit for your year over year being up, yeah, like cause that that can happen. Yeah, we have this tool that we have that's like literally four years of trending and what percentages of growth happen in which months. That's a really good thing to do, just like you know, gross revenue, expenses, net profit and like, looking at that over a four-year trend is even better.

Caleb Agee:

So much better yeah.

Brandon Welch:

And most of your accounting softwares will do that for you. And then, with that say with those outliers, also ask what right now could be an external factor that is going to release at some point. Yeah, and there's economic headwind. Back in 21, 22, when everybody was having 40% growth years, our advice even then was like put it in the bank, put it in the ground. This is artificial growth. You are stealing sales from the future and so you just want to have this gentle like.

Brandon Welch:

If you think about the Frankenmaven logo, it's this up and down thing. That is the journey of a business owner. They ride the ups and downs and we're like you know what? It would be a lot better, your life would be so much better if you just stayed in the middle. And so that's the key, and financially you've got to set yourself up for that. It's not that cash doesn't matter, but hopefully you are able to ride those disruptions and if you're doing that, if you are the mature competitor in your space, that can afford to be good news today, good news tomorrow, good news when you need us. We're going to keep being the same people we're being in our ads, in the brightness of our voice, in the certainty of our salespeople. If we can keep doing that while everybody else is sucking wind, you automatically pick up market share.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

Because you're telling good news while the rest of the world is being reactive. What you want to do is be the committed steady provider so that you get committed steady customers.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, and I think what we want to, what we assume or what we want to make sure is true or not true when we make a claim like this month is down or this month is up. Even if you're talking about good news, you need to compare, you need to take a wider look. Kyle last week I don't know where he got it he said when in doubt, zoom out.

Brandon Welch:

I love that.

Caleb Agee:

That's a good catchphrase.

Brandon Welch:

Kyle DeVries.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, I don't know if he stole it from somebody, but I'm giving him credit right now.

Caleb Agee:

So, zoom out, look further, figure out. Brandon mentioned outliers. I also want to say, for the good, look at outliers. Did you get a monster sale last month? Or, if you did see the dip last year, did you get a monster sale in one of those months that causes it to look like it fell a lot harder than it should have? So pay attention to that. Look at all those little outliers, pay attention to it and then make consistent, make decisions based on the plan you set forth that you're looking at one year, three years, five years. You're not making plans that react to soft months. You have a plan, you have a cash flow in place, you have a budget in place to account for all of these ups and downs and you're not changing your, your um, how you handle your profit. You're not changing your investments. You're not changing your lifestyle necessarily based on a good month or a short good season, because you're a steady steward of this. And then when you do that, um, the quote I love is times of poverty always follow times of misplaced abundance.

Brandon Welch:

Yes, they do.

Caleb Agee:

And so if you misplace let's say you're having a great August If you misplace this abundance right now, I am sorry to say, but times of poverty will follow very shortly. If you are riding high on that wave and you're spending all that extra cash and you're living like you're going to make that much money forever, I'd love to say that you're going to keep going up and up. But the reality of look at the stock market, if they could keep it going up and up, they would. They would Like, right? I mean, that's the reality. If we could keep all these things continuously pointing up always, we would do that.

Brandon Welch:

But we can't. Gravity, yeah, gravity is not just a good idea, it's the law. Yeah, what goes up has to come down right. So what is the maven marketing response to all this? We've kind of said it, but let's just lay it down, like if you're going, ah, things are soft, maybe you're even 20%, 30% down month over month, hopefully you've done the one three and five-year planning. Hopefully you are thinking quarter to quarter, not week to week or month to month or even year to year. Our best and most profitable clients, I promise you are thinking year to year. We check in monthly, we measure monthly, we adjust quarterly, but we plan annually right, yeah.

Brandon Welch:

But if you're in this position, you're like okay, it's August, it's slow One, use it to rest and plan Like this could be a gift for you. I will say, if you're an owner, operator and things just get a little quiet, that is your signal to be like okay, it's time to put seeds in the ground and it's time to let my soil rest and it's time to maybe not totally reevaluate, but just take a breather and that's okay, that will pay dividends. The second thing maybe refine your messaging.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, I would say, if you need to, if it's down a tremendous amount, you've got people sitting around, they're not busy. You need to shake some things loose. You may consider limited time offers. You may consider some sort of way to make it the best time to buy right now. You may consider some sort of way to make it the best time to buy right now, and that always comes with a caveat of the more you do that, the worse it will work.

Brandon Welch:

Yes, the less it will work, the less it will work in the future and, frankly, you're just stealing sales from the future. Yes, you are, so be careful with that.

Caleb Agee:

For your own comfortability really. Yeah, be careful with that.

Brandon Welch:

But it is a mechanism you can do to have some short-term games, there are cashflow stabilization.

Caleb Agee:

I mean, the rule of life is that anything that comes quickly and easily can go just as fast, and so if you're able to get it that quickly, there's probably a downside to it.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah, um, with that, refined your messaging on the today side, definitely add your, add your um, your promotions, your today marketing offers. You want to save them time, speed or hassle, but the biggest part of the Maven marketing plan. We suggest at least a 60-40 balance, if not a 70-30 balance, 60 being tomorrow marketing. And so get in step with fall. Use this to call your script writing team together or write your next messaging that's talking about things that are going to be relevant coming up in one month. Like football will be in full swing. You won't need to say the words back to school, but you can speak to people like isn't routine, nice, like you can start speaking to people as if you're in their living room with them, you can start hinting towards end of year stuff.

Brandon Welch:

Isn't it going to be nice? The cold snap's about to happen for most people in the Midwest, east and South. Right yeah, wouldn't it be nice to have that XYZ thing done before the end of the year, or before you know it, it's going to be November, and that thing you wanted to have done by August is going to be looking at March. So I'm talking to my estate planners, I'm talking about any and all of my service folks, big ticket items like now there's going to be an abundance of cash. I say abundance, but more than there's going to be in November, and November is begging for it in 100 different ways, and that's just a horrible time to suddenly be relevant.

Caleb Agee:

So start refining that message and then the bottom line is really stay the course, stay connected, be be a steady steward of what you have right now, the marketing you are doing. Um, if it was working a few months ago, uh, I this is a very broad statement, so it was kind of dangerous to make. I'm going to assume it will continue working and that you should go look at your data and you should compare and prove to yourself. Maybe August is down and I shouldn't make crazy dramatic changes. I'm not going to cancel everything. I'm not going to stop everything. That's that's the risk. Or or completely pick it up and put in a different media, a different channel, a different program.

Brandon Welch:

That is the last thing you want to do, unless you're selling cheeseburger or toilet papers or pencil erasers. Your customer journey is always a process. Yes, it is always. I'm kind of sort of thinking about buying it. I'm going to kind of sort of think a little bit more tomorrow about buying it, and then there's going to be this grand, you know, four to 12 week span where it's going to be the right time and all you can really hope for is to pull them into that a little sooner. And then really the only advantage there is that you might get them before your competitor got them.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, any any great therapist will tell you to never make large life decisions in times of crisis. And business owners, you have a danger about you that if you're in a time of crisis, cash is low, if leads are low, things are slow. You're going to want to change everything. Don't do it. Great pilots.

Brandon Welch:

Great pilots. Do you know any of those? Oh, I met one one time.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, I'll let you know when.

Brandon Welch:

I find it Slow it down. We pull back the throttles, right, yeah, turbulent air. So, um, hey, this was all a long way to say stay the course, do what you're doing well. And if you need a little more guidance, a little more uh, help, or just would find it fun to bounce these ideas off of people, we have the perfect opportunity for you. It's called the Maven Marketing Mastermind. I did it, you got it. The Maven Marketing Mastermind. We get together every other week with business owners just like you, very smart people, very passionate people about what they do, and they're trying to make their thing work, just like you. But oftentimes you just seeing somebody else put their promotion together or make their media plan or make their hiring or sales decision. You're just like, huh, I'm going to learn from that and I'll either never make that mistake or that's going to help me apply it to this situation. And then, on top of that, you got Caleb and I.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, we're here to answer those real questions and everybody literally turns in things for review questions. They have. We answer them live and we're literally seeing results. We're seeing sales happen, new business, new clients added, and then people are also getting materials out that they have been sitting on for forever. I think that's the other-.

Brandon Welch:

Get them across the finish line faster.

Caleb Agee:

There's an accountability element to it, that you kind of have your homework to do, you have things to finish and you want to be able to say on the next call I did it. And this really helps, I think, a lot of marketers and small business owners to get that going.

Brandon Welch:

The Maven Marketing Mastermind. You want to get to that at mavenmethodtrainingcom. It's a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what it costs to work with our team directly, and it's just a ton of fun.

Caleb Agee:

You do it in this room.

Brandon Welch:

You get to send your questions in, and there's also some cool freebies in that, if you sign up, you get a one-on-one call with Caleb and I. We're going to work on your business.

Caleb Agee:

It's a good time.

Brandon Welch:

Work it out. Mavenmethodtrainingcom Is that it? That's it. Keep the course. We're going to stay the course. We'll be back here every Monday answering your real life marketing questions, because we want your business to grow. We want you to do it with a little more peace, a little more certainty and a little more fun and, as we like to say, because marketers who can't teach you why are just a fancy lie. Have a great week.