Summer Business Strategy: What I’m Actually Doing (Refine and Recline Series)

Last week I closed my laptop at 3:30 in the afternoon, walked outside, and gave myself permission to stop. Not because everything was falling apart. Because something felt off, and I finally stopped long enough to figure out what.

In this solo episode, I'm kicking off the Refine and Recline summer series, six episodes about doing the right kind of work this summer without losing the season to do it. Today I'm pulling back the curtain on the six things I'm actually working on in my business right now, and why none of them required me to push harder or produce more.

You'll learn: 

• Why fun is a legitimate business strategy, and what I built this summer that reminded me of that 
• How I used my own diagnostic tool on my own offers, and what it honestly told me 
• Why I finally hired a copywriter (and what being too close to your own work actually costs you) 
• What experimenting and practicing look like when there's no pressure to perform 
• Why intentionally designing rest into your business year-round beats waiting for a "slow season" that never comes

Is your offer magnetic or muted by the noise? 

Find out with The Offer Pulse Check. In this free, 15-question quiz, we will measure your offer's foundation against the 5 vital signs of a strong offer. Get a pulse reading in each area, what it means for your offer, a picture of a strong offer pulse and a nudge toward which vital sign to strengthen first.

Link to free quiz:  https://www.onamissionbrands.com/offer-pulse-check 

Get a deep diagnostic of your offers using The Offer X-Ray - assess your offers across the 6 pillars of the entire offer lifecycle. Receive a personalized report that highlights your offer's strengths, weaknesses and action steps to optimize your offers for more sales. 

Link to The Offer X-Ray: https://www.onamissionbrands.com/offer-x-ray

To learn more about how I can support your growth, visit www.onamissionbrands.com.

Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onamissionbrands
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/offer_magician/

Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

Do you struggle to take everything you know, everything you've built, and turn it into an offer ecosystem that people actually understand and want to buy? You have the expertise, you have the ideas, but getting all of that out of your head and into offers that connect, speak to the right people, sell with ease, and actually grow your business, that's a whole different skill set. And that's exactly what this show is about. Welcome to the Offer Mojo Show. I'm Lori Young, offer strategist and creator of the Offer Mojo framework. I help coaches and expert-led business owners package their expertise into offers you love and buyers actually crave. Because when your offers finally click, everything else gets easier. Let's get into it. Burnout was creeping in, my content felt disconnected, and I slammed. 30 in the afternoon. Best decision I made all spring. In this first episode of the Refine and Recline Summer Series, I'm pulling back the curtain on the six things I'm actually doing in my business right now. Having fun, learning, refining, experimenting, practicing, and organizing. None of it requires grinding. All of it is moving me forward. Okay, so today I'm doing something a little different. And honestly, it's something that might just shape how I do future episodes because I think I really like the idea of these mini-themed series. I'm kicking off a short summer series that I'm calling Refine and Recline. Six episodes running through the end of August. I'm not gonna ask you to Grind your way through July and August. Go enjoy the long days and the warm weather. Be with your kids while they're home because they're not gonna be little forever. Soak up the summer that you've got. And if you're listening from somewhere in the world where it's absolutely not summer right now, you are still welcome here. The permission I'm offering doesn't require sunshine. It just requires a willingness to slow down a little. And do the right kind of work. But somewhere in there, between the pool and the popsicles, I want us to do a little sharpening together, not a full renovation, just some smart, low pressure work on your offers, your positioning, and the way your business is built. While everyone else out there is either burning out or checking out completely. Because here's what I know fall comes back. Fast. And the people who did a little quiet sharpening over the summer are the ones who walk into September ready. While everyone else is scrambling to remember what they even sell. So that's the deal with Refine and Recline. Rest where it counts, sharpen where it matters, and let's get you ready for fall without losing your summer to do it. This is episode one. And today I'm gonna tell you exactly what I'm actually doing in my own business this summer. Not the curated version, the real version. So I wanna start with a story because I think it explains how this series like even came to exist. Last week, I sat down to record this podcast episode. I had a whole list of topics planned. They were solid topics, the kind I would normally feel pretty good about. And I opened up my spreadsheet, I looked at every single one of them, and I felt nothing. Not tired exactly, more like disconnected. Like someone else had written those topics for a version of me that wasn't quite here right now. They were missing the fun. They were missing the creativity that I needed. And they didn't reflect. the direction I actually wanted to move in. I sat there for a minute, staring at that list. 30 in the afternoon. I went outside, I took a walk, I did my workout, and I gave myself permission to just breathe and actually think about what was going on. What was energetically holding me back? Because I knew something was and I hadn't stopped long enough. To figure out what. And here's what I figured out on that walk. I wasn't burned out. I was bored and a little disconnected from where my business was actually heading. Those topics made sense three months ago. They just didn't make sense anymore. Closing that laptop and walking away wasn't me giving up. It was just me finally listening to something I'd been ignoring for a while. Because what came out of that walk and the reflection that followed was this series and the six things that I'm going to share with you today. Now, before I get into those six things, I want to say something out loud because I know some of you might be feeling a little twinge of guilt just listening to this. You might be looking around and seeing other business owners producing and pushing while you're craving some downtime. And I want to offer you a different perspective. Two things can be true at once. You can refine and you can recline. Both are okay. It's not about picking one and abandoning the other. It's about being able to move between the two with ease, without the guilt and without doubting yourself. It's about being okay with baby steps and trusting that doing the right refinements creates. Big strides. All movement is movement as long as it's in line with what you're actually trying to accomplish. And no goal, personal or professional, is wrong. It's just a matter of priorities. So with that in mind, here's what intentional summer refinement actually looks like in my business right now. The first is having fun. I know that that might sound almost like too simple. But for me, burnout was starting to creep in. Not the crash and burn kind, but the kind where you're just still doing everything, but feeling like you're just going through the motions. And this time, I caught it. I noticed it faster than I used to. And instead of pushing through and hoping it would pass, I made a conscious decision to address it directly. Part of that was building something that genuinely excited me. In June, I created a new free tool called the Offer Pulse Check. And I have to tell you, building it was so much fun. It's interactive, it's visual, and it measures the foundation of your offer across five vital signs in about 10 minutes. The whole thing lit me up in a way that I hadn't felt in a while. I'm also walking. Working right now on another interactive tool called the Mojo Microscope, which I plan to use as a giveaway for collaborations and possibly sell if it proves to be popular. It's still in progress, but I'm enjoying building it. And then there's this series. I planned Refine and Recline specifically because I needed to love recording again, not because my audience demanded it, because I needed it. And sometimes that's the most valid reason that there is. When you choose the work that makes you want to show up, the quality of everything you create goes up with it. The second thing I'm doing is learning and reflecting. This summer I bought a couple of offers from people that I really respect. One helped me refine in an area where I knew I was weak, but had been avoiding. And another one helped me expand into a direction that I genuinely want to grow. And I'm being intentional about binging the podcasts that keep me inspired and thinking clearly. This is what investing in yourself looks like when it's quiet and deliberate. Not a course you bought in a panic because a launch email scared you, not a mastermind that you joined because everyone else seemed to be in one, just a targeted choice. To fill specific gaps and build toward where you're actually going. Reflection is the part that people skip because it doesn't look like productivity, but it's often where the real strategy gets built. When you slow down enough to absorb what you're learning and apply it to where you are right now, things start to connect in ways they don't when you just when you're just moving fast. Learning is refinement. And it counts even when nobody can see you doing it. The third thing I'm doing is refining my messaging. Now, this one came directly out of something I did for my own business. I ran every single one of my offers through my brand new offer x-ray, which is my own diagnostic tool, because I wanted to see what it was like to be on the receiving end of it. And what came back was really validating in some areas. My positioning, strong, my offer ecosystem, strong, my structure consistently strong. Those pillars of the offer life cycle were holding. But something kept coming up across multiple offers, fractures in my messaging and my sales materials over and over again. So I finally admitted something that I'd been avoiding for a while. My messaging needed a professional copywriter. Not because I'm not a good writer, because I'm too close to my own work. I know too much. I fill in the blanks automatically in ways that my potential potential clients simply can't. So I hired one. And honestly, the relief I felt was immediate. I am so looking forward to having someone else apply. Their zone of genius to something that has been slowly draining my energy. Here's what I know after years of doing this work. The hardest thing to see clearly is always the thing that you're most inside of. Bringing in another set of eyes isn't admitting defeat. It's just smart. The fourth thing is experimenting with Substack. And I want to be really clear about how I'm approaching this because it's probably not what you'd expect from someone who thinks strategically about platforms for a living. I am not on Substack because I needed another platform to manage. I'm there because I needed a creative playground, a place to write differently, to think out loud in a format that doesn't have to perform or convert or hit a content calendar deadline. I'm writing. when I feel like it. I'm doing a different kind of writing than what I normally do here or on social. I'm reading more because reading, good writing, makes you a better writer and a better thinker. And I'm paying attention to the kind of community that I'm drawn to over there. What conversations feel alive, what voices I keep coming back to. I'm not taking it seriously as a strategy. Not yet. Maybe not ever. And I'm completely okay with that. Experimenting means you don't need a plan. You just need to be curious for a while. And right now, giving myself that permission is doing more for me than I expected. The fifth thing I'm doing is practicing with Instagram stories. Okay, I'm going to be really honest here. This is a big stretch for me. I love watching other people's stories. I really do. But when it comes to doing them myself, I have historically not been good at all. Like at all. I overthink it, I restart it, I decide it's bad, delete it. I don't know. Maybe you know the cycle. So I'm challenging myself to get better, to yap naturally on stories, because we all know what this whole yap challenge is about. To stop producing them and start. Just actually being on them. I'm finding ways to let my audience see a different side of me. Less planned, more in the moment. The verdict is truly still out. Some of them have been great, some of them have been actually a little rough, but that's what practicing looks like. You don't practice the things you're already good at. You practice the things that feel a little uncomfortable because that's where the growth is. And being willing to be seen imperfectly, I think it's its own kind of refinement. And the last thing I'm doing is organizing my collaborations inside ClickUp. Now, this one is less glamorous, I'll admit, but it matters. And I'm including it here because I think a lot of you have a version of this same thing sitting in your business right now. My collaboration tracking is a mess. It's Just not set up in a way that lets me fully maximize this marketing strategy. And I knew something had to change when I overbooked myself. That was my cue. Good intentions only get you so far when the system underneath isn't working. So this summer I'm building something that actually works for how I operate. Something that means I can say yes to the right collaborations, track what I've committed to, and follow through. Without anything falling through the cracks. Organizing is a refinement. It doesn't feel exciting. It's not the thing you tell people about at a networking event, but the clarity it creates and the capacity it frees up is absolutely worth the unsexy afternoon it takes to build it. So those are the six things. Having fun, learning and reflecting, refining my messaging, experimenting, practicing. And organizing. None of this requires me to be everywhere at once. None of it requires more offers, more launches, or more content than I already have. Every single one of them is real movement because I chose each one deliberately, and each one is pointed in the direction of where I'm actually trying to go. That's what refine and recline looks like. Showing up for your business in a way. That doesn't cost you your whole summer. Now, I want to leave you with something to sit with before we close. On your next walk or your next quiet afternoon, ask yourself a Q a few questions. Where are you feeling the disconnection right now? What would the energizing version of your summer look like if you designed it on purpose instead of defaulting to whatever's already on the calendar? What's one thing you could release a little grip on? And what's one thing you could pick up just because it sounds like it might be a good fit for you right now? You don't have to do the six things that I'm doing, but you do deserve a version of summer that includes both rest and refinement on your own terms. And if you want a really good place to start on the refinement size, I'd love for you to take the offer pulse check. I built it this summer, it's completely free, and it takes about 10 minutes. It measures the foundation of your offer across five vital signs and gives you a clear picture of where you're strong and where something might need a little attention. That kind of clarity can make you your fall feel very, very different from your last one. You'll find the link in the show notes. It only takes 10 minutes and it's actually kind of fun. All right, my friend, if you know anyone in your business communities that would love this Refine and Recline series, please pass these episodes on to your friends. We all need permission to slow down and sharpen at the same time. I'll see you in the next episode.