335 Five Unconventional Strategies to Attract New Clients This Summer
Feeling the summer slowdown or looking to shake up your marketing strategy
These tips will help you attract new clients
In this episode, I'll explore Five Unexpected Ways to Generate New Clients this Summer (& anytime!)
We talk about things like:
Leveraging the 20% rule to foster creativity,
Creating content in engaging environments,
Hosting in-person events to strengthen community ties,
Following fresh energy by developing new projects,
And the importance of getting outside your usual workspace to make real-world connections.
Whether you're feeling the summer slowdown or looking to shake up your marketing strategy, these tips are designed to help you find fresh, authentic ways to attract new clients. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into these unexpected avenues for business growth!
Episode Time Stamps:
[05:05] Leverage separation season to outperform competitors.
[07:14] Summer energy, need help setting up course.
[13:44] Engaging content showcases your life for clients.
[16:58] Create in-person events to accelerate customer acquisition.
[21:37] Connect with entrepreneurs, declare, create, refresh.
[24:45] Audit marketing plan, focus on high energy. Join co-working space, attend networking events.
[26:16] Engage with others to grow your business.
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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I'm so happy that you're here. I had some tech issues this morning. We. Well, we. I say we. Me and my six year old son decided to come downstairs. And as I walked into my office in the basement, I actually tripped over my podcast mic, which is over here. And as I tripped over it, I actually broke one of the inputs.
So I was all prepared to record this podcast. And then I realized that the cord is not connecting into my MacBook anymore. And I thought, okay, well, I'm just not gonna record it. And then I thought, nope, I'm motivated. What am I gonna do? I'm either gonna go fix and go to Best Buy and get some help on this, or perhaps I am going to just record it through my MacBook speakers, which probably wouldn't be the best audio quality. And then after some quick troubleshooting in my head, I'm like, oh, my God, how did I used to record podcasts before I got these fancy mics? And I thought, it's this tascam. If you're watching this on YouTube, you'll see that I used to use this really simple mic. I would travel around, I went up to Bracebridge, I went to Prince Edward County, I drove around Ontario, and I would simply set up this microphone with two people.
And the sound quality isn't necessarily the best. So if you're listening to this, you're probably hearing a little bit of difference from my usual shows. But at the end of the day, I realized that doesn't matter. Like, we do not have to do everything perfectly. As entrepreneurs, sometimes we just need to keep on moving. Don't let these silly tech issues halt you from putting out your content when you're feeling fired up. And honestly, just roll with the punches. Okay? You can get back to regularly scheduled programming with amazing microphone input at another point.
But right now, just find the alternative. Don't be afraid to be decisive. Move forward. Don't let things plague you, because time is so limited when you're a business owner, especially if you're a mama or you have other hobbies or other passions. So that's just my little anecdote to kick off today's show. So, in today's show, what I want to share is five unexpected to J. Okay, let me try that again. Five unexpected ways to generate new clients.
And if I fumble over my words, I'm just going to keep moving, because that's the. The nature of this podcast is just roll with what you got and don't get bogged down in perfectionism. So again, five unexpected ways to generate new clients. And I'm so fired up to actually share on this topic because at the time of recording this, it is July. July is inherently a slow or quieter time for a lot of entrepreneurs. And inside of our wave mastermind, where we have 21 female business owners who show up every single Wednesday, we're hearing kind of across the board, especially with our Ontario business owners, that business has just slowed down ever so slightly, even though nothing has changed on the back end, even though the entrepreneur has not shifted anything or done any radical changes with their marketing plan generally just July. August is summer months. People go into summer mode and they're consuming.
Consumer spending patterns and buying behaviors are different. Your clients are going on vacation right now. Your clients have kids in daycare. But the daycare shut down in July and August. People are canceling and wanting to reschedule. Or they're sifting through their finances and saying, we would rather go on a summer beach vacation than pay a reoccurring subscription fee. Or their motivation to complete a really strict diet is less so in the summer. Orlando perhaps they're just off their routine, right? So it doesn't make sense for them to be committing to your program or your one on one coaching because they're not in the right mindset.
Or they just need a break too, similar to how you might feel at this stage in business, like you're trying to recoup or generate the amount of revenue that you did in January or April. But what you really need to do is maybe just take a break, recalibrate and get some seeds planted for September. So whatever your personal motivation is, I still think this episode is going to be relevant at any point that you're listening to it. But if you are listening, as you're going into your version of the summer months, where your clients are just on a different schedule, I hope that this is helpful. And you know what? If you're in that mode where you just need to chill, I have a lot of clients who are taking July and August to just reset, to cast some personal goals, to actually just focus on a few things that they don't usually have time for in the year. So there's very different perspectives. I know. For me, I very much resonate with the concept that Ed Milet teaches called separation season.
And what he says is that there are certain months or certain weeks of the year where everyone's like, oh, it's just Christmas, you don't have to work over Christmas. Or oh, it's the summer. Take your foot off the gas. There's no, no clients going to sign on in the summer. But what Ed Milette is saying is that in separation season, this is a really good time to go for it. Because while everybody else is taking their foot off the gas and relaxing and just coasting, there's still a demand for what you do. So if you're the person who decides to go for it, who decides to actually increase the level of output or be more strategic about how you're showing up or where you're connecting, you may actually be able to rise above all of your competitors because you're the one that's showing up, that's visible, that's building awareness while everybody else is retreating. So it is really important to gauge what are your energy levels like, what do you feel like the next 60 days will be best served by right to share a couple personal anecdotes? Like, your energy level may not match all of your clients.
So even though you have this zest, for example, I'm, like, fired up about recording the next season of my podcast right now. And so I put out a few feelers. I reached out to some really inspiring women on Instagram, and I said, hey, will you come on the podcast? And I got denied. And then I realized, like, oh, shit, maybe summer is not a great time to reach out to mamas who are entrepreneurs. Like, they're so protective of their time already, let alone in the summer months when we just want to spend time outdoors in this beautiful 30 degree weather. So, yes, you need to have that motivation, but check in with what's your client's motivation right now? The other thing that I will say, just as a personal anecdote, is that it's not like business completely dries up in the summer. Yes, that might be an overarching trend, but I can even think back seven years ago to when I hired my very first business coach, and that was July 26, that I reached out to her because I was feeling scattered. I was feeling flustered.
I had all this summer energy. I had all this motivation with the longer days, but I felt like I needed help. And I remember just kind of spinning my tires, not knowing how to get my whole online course set up, not knowing what I was doing wrong, and wanting someone to come in and analyze my metrics with me. So I know that people are still hiring practitioners or spending their money with businesses because I am that person, too. In fact, I just invested in another online course. So again, July might be a great month for some of you. I had been following a sales consultant online for the last five or six years, and she sells this course all about how to do market research when you're starting a business and what questions to ask. And I just purchased it on om the other day and I thought, what better time than when I'm feeling so motivated to purchase her course and to go through it? So all that to say, if you are somebody who is keen to generate clients in unexpected ways, or if you feel like what you're currently doing is working, like you're in a good cycle with posting on Instagram, writing your weekly email newsletter, maybe you have a website and a blog, but you're like, things have slowed down.
I think I need to look outside of my traditional strategies. I think I need to go a bit above and beyond. Then in this episode, I'm going to share with you some unexpected ways to find clients. So these are not necessarily traditional methods, but I feel like they're going to work for you if you try even just one of them. So let's get into today's content. So the first unexpected way to find clients is to take a concept called the 20% rule. Now, of course, everybody has heard of Google. If you work for Google, it is said that apparently they have this unique approach for fostering innovation and creativity among their employees.
And that is to allow Google employees to spend 20% of their work hours or one full day a week working on projects of their choice unrelated to their regular job responsibilities, which I think is so badass. So strategy number one for generating unexpected clients is to actually gift yourself one of these 20% days every single week. Do something you love, learn to study a new language, train for a marathon, go sit at a coffee shop one day a week, learn how to build a bike from scratch. Because how is this going to tie into clients? When you're doing things that are unrelated to business, you're learning new skills, your brain is literally forming new synapses. You're out of your traditional environment, which fosters a spot to problem solve in new ways to dream about your business, maybe beyond what you're able to do in your traditional environment. So there's so many breakthroughs that can happen when we give ourselves time, space, energy, and permission to focus on other things, other creative endeavors. So I love leaning into this 20% and actually gifting myself permission because by nature I'm a workhorse. I feel like I just need to sit at my laptop nine to five, five days a week.
But when I actually schedule in the 20% time, I say, okay, I'm actually going to take every Friday off in the summer and I'm going to go mountain biking, or I'm going to take a break from my desk for 2 hours and I'm going to go feed my sourdough starter, bake some muffins, and I'm going to like tinker with my mountain bike or something like that. These are things that are unrelated to work, but I'll often have a podcast in or I'll just think about the clients that I'm supporting and I'll come up with these incredible ideas. And I have a notepad or a note going on my iPhone where I'm constantly just dumping things from my brain. And it's amazing how many ideas, how many breakthroughs, how many problems I solve when I'm not at my desk. So take that 20% concept from Google and utilize it to your advantage. So that is idea number one for generating new clients. Now, I know what you're saying, Kels. That's not really a strategy.
You want me to go do something fun and somehow it's going to lead to a new client? Honestly, yes. I don't really know how to give you a guarantee that this is going to turn into money in your bank account, but I can almost say that the people who are thriving in other areas outside of work, it gives them the confidence, the ego boost. It just completely mitigates imposter syndrome because you're winning in another area. So even if these summer months bring slowdowns to your business, start doing something else. Like for me, it's training and competing on the mountain bike, where you're just winning all the time. Like, if I go on a ride and I climb a hill that I've never been able to get before, I'm like, hell yeah, I'm winning. If I go do a race and I competed well and I get on the podium, I am winning. And so for me, sports is that thing.
For me, for you, it may be something completely different, which is so, so, so cool. So really think about what that 20% time is for you. Now, here is way number two to generate unexpected clients, or an unexpected way to generate new clients while you are doing your 20% time film content. Okay, so this is kind of a piggyback on number one. So you're going to spend 20% of your working hours doing things unrelated to your tasks at hand. While you're doing that 20%, I actually want you to go back into the 80%. Because if you have followed Gary Vaynerchuk for a while and even if you watch a lot of people's content on TikTok or on YouTube, they're vlogging, they're creating Instagram Stories. You'll notice that oftentimes the content creators who have the most engaging content are actually filming themselves while they're doing something different.
What I mean by that, if you're watching a YouTube video and somebody's just, like, sitting in their office, like I am doing right now, and filming themselves, and there's not really much else going on, it's way less engaging. You're kind of like, okay, this is all right. When somebody's, like, folding laundry or they're filming themselves while they're on a run, or they're baking sourdough, or they're chopping vegetables for a soup and they're sharing content, the viewer is way more likely to stay engaged. So the idea here for generating unexpected clients is to showcase your life in the 20%. So if you're on a hike with your dog on the top of a beautiful mountain in BC, I want you to whip out your phone. You can pre record some content and just, like, talk about some concepts as it relates to your offer, but do it in a way that is so engaging so that we can see that you're lit up so that your voice is going to be more emphatic. You are in this, like, passionate place because you're doing your 20%, but you're also creating content, explaining some need to know things before people buy your products. So if you are a life coach, for example, and you work with moms who feel stuck and stagnant, maybe you take your day, you're hiking on that mountain with your dog, and you whip out your phone, and you start talking about the fact that, like, being on a mountain makes you realize that getting to the top is really hard.
But once you're there, the view is breathtaking, and it's worth it. And maybe you relate this back to an analogy of, like, quitting your job and managing all the priorities that you have as a working mama, it's hard. But once you get to the top, there's freedom, there's fresh air. There's this beautiful view where you can finally sit back and feel like you have all your ducks in a row. So that's unexpected. Way number two to find clients is to create content in that 20% state. All right. Way number three, to generate new clients is to host an event.
I know, I know. You're like, Kels, I just want to live in the online world. I just want to create more content. I just want to sit behind my computer and find clients magically. Guys, we are living in this day and age where it is increasingly difficult to trust people in the online world. And unless there's a community endorsement coming your way, so somebody who knows you is referring your name, it's getting more and more challenging to generate clients. And so the way to stand out, and I was listening to the marketing school podcast with Neil Patel and Eric Hsu, and they reiterated this today in the episode, that it is so unique to be the leader, the host, the person who puts together events and brings rooms of people together. And they essentially are reiterating.
What I've found is that when you host an in person event, the journey from somebody finding out about you to actually becoming a customer is accelerated by like 100%. So if you feel like you're just posting and posting and wasting hours and hours on social media, you're just sitting behind an email list, but nobody's actually engaging. What if you took all of that time that you usually spend in a month creating content and hosted a meetup, hosted a yemenite coffee connection with all the others in your industry? What if you gathered. Excuse me, what if you gathered a bunch of dream clients and just, like, did something cool together? Hosted a guest speaker, hosted an in person summit, hosted a park watermelon picnic type thing. You are an entrepreneur for a reason, because you are a leader. We need you to lead. We need you to get out from behind your screen. We need you to create the event that you wish the world would offer.
Create a workshop. Host an in person event where you bring in a cold plunge and you have a guest speaker, and you're the guest speaker. Be the one to facilitate real connections. Host a cocktail party of people who are in similar veins as you network with other professionals. Like, literally host a meetup in your local town of five entrepreneurs or of ten entrepreneurs. If you have followed me on Instagram, you might see that my colleague and I, Emily and Elliot, Emily Elliott and I, we do meetups about every two to three months in this beautiful lakeside town called Puss Lynch Lake. We keep it really, really simple. It's 2 hours on a Friday morning.
We invite 15 female entrepreneurs. And the whole goal is connection, problem solving, expanding your network, getting out from your place of work to meet new women. We sponsor the treats. So there's these, like, amazing, healthy, organic Twix bars at this market. It's like this lakeside market in Puss Lynch Lake. This is where Justin Bieber has a home and then they buy their own coffees. And we literally just sit in a circle. Emily and I stand up, we explain the event that, you know, as entrepreneurs, it can be a very lonely journey.
What makes that easier is having a legitimate crew of people, especially within your geographical radius. And honestly, there's not too much expectation on us, because then we just do a roundtable. Everyone introduces themselves, talks a little bit about their business, and it's really, really organic. It lasts for 2 hours. Then we kick everyone out. And right then and there, we've positioned ourselves as facilitators, as people who are community builders, which is a true passion, but something that you get better at by doing. If you're an entrepreneur, like, you have to be building community everywhere you go. Otherwise, I don't know how you get business.
And then, you know, the side effect of that is that people get to know us on that deeper level. They're not just watching us through an Instagram screen, they're actually hearing from us. They are able to really feel what it's like to be part of our communities. And then if they so choose, they can join our mastermind for a discount. This is way more effective than penetrating people with Facebook ads or just sending emails that don't get read. I saw this quote the other day that says the from line of your email inbox is now more important than the subject line. Like, for the last ten years, it was like, oh, you gotta have a catchy subject line. Those days are gone, you guys.
We've maxed out. There's AI to generate catchy subject, but they're clickbait, and people know that. Now we look at who the email's from. So if you don't have good relationships, if you don't have a trust factor, if you don't have a true community of people who care about what you have to say, and that starts on the ground in your local community, you probably don't have a thriving business. So that's like just the realest, real talk. So start where you are. Start where? Wherever you live. I want you to meet five or ten entrepreneurs within a 30 minutes drive of you.
I guarantee you can find them. And if you can't, you gotta look harder. This is something that I have to force myself to do, literally booking the event with Emily saying, okay, we're hosting one on July 19 and then being responsible for filling it. If you don't publicly declare what you're doing that you want to connect with other entrepreneurs, you probably are looking around going, I barely have any other friends who are doing what I do, or I don't have that leadership foundation that is required to attract clients on repeat. So that is unexpected way number three, okay? Unexpected way number four, to generate clients is to work on something new. Now, the reason being because in the summer, if we're seeing slower times in business, if we have more just like, chill vibes, right, you're sitting by a pool, you're having a cocktail. In that case, you may have this spark of an idea, like, oh, my God, I want to teach my course, but I want to do the summer school version of it, something more fun. I want to refresh the branding and do like a whole new campaign around this where I'm eating ice cream and building my business.
If you feel lit up by a new project right now, something fresh, then I want you to leverage it because that energy is palpable. Okay? Have you ever watched someone's instagram before and you're like, wow, they're very flat today. And you just go, next, next. Have you ever seen someone launch a course and like, clearly the entire launch campaign is AI generated? I keep getting these emails and I'm like, oh, my God, I can tell Chat GPT wrote that that's not fresh energy. That is like the stalest of stale bread energy. We do not want to do that. So what are you feeling lit up by right now? Is there a fresh project you could activate? Do you want to create like a summer menu guide? I know in listening to the whole story of that clean life by Abigail Kiso. She is the founder of it and it recently sold to practice better for, I think, eight figures.
She was creating these digital meal plans for her nursing colleagues. And going into the summer, she literally had like a beach body meal plan, seven day meal plan. It was obviously something that she felt inspired by, that was relevant, that was something that was in demand in that current season. So is there something that you've been yearning to create? Maybe it's a podcast, maybe it's a YouTube channel. Like, get going on it. This fresh energy in the summer is a great time to not just like build a whole bunch of new products and then not be able to sell them because you need a marketing funnel, but to, like, look at what you've got going on and just say, okay, I have less bandwidth right now. Maybe I'm not going to go full tilt on my marketing plan, but I am feeling so freaking excited about hosting a pop up shop at the local hockey arena, or I'm feeling so excited about hosting this meetup of entrepreneurs follow the energy. Marketing is energy.
And if there's no energy behind your marketing, if you really have been feeling flat with something that you're doing, my guess is that it's not performing either. So I want you to look at all the different things you're doing in your marketing plan. Audit on a scale of one to ten where the energy is, and honestly, just follow where the ten out of ten is and then say, is there a fresh thing that I could create within this? Okay, so that would be marketing tip number four and marketing tip number five to generate unexpected clients, places that you could show up or things that you could do to get yourself a little uptick of new people is to get outside of your house. Now you don't have to host an event. So this is a bit of a different strategy. I want you to join a co working space. I know that's going to take investment, but it's probably a better investment than paid ads. I want you to go to a couple events.
Maybe it's Park Yoga in your backyard. Maybe it's a meetup that I am hosting on July 19 in Puss Lynch Lake. If you can make it, dm me on Instagram. Maybe it's sitting in a random cafe. I know here where I live, we have a healthy cafe where I have met people who have come to my events, who have become private clients. Getting out and about is invaluable. You get inspired, you get to interact with the real world, you get to meet people. And when you meet people, do not be shy about just letting them know who you are, being so kind and humble and just genuine.
Get to know them. Be interested. Don't be interesting. But this is like me preaching ad nauseam and honestly reminding myself that business doesn't come to you just by sitting back in your chair, twirling your thumbs. Business is going to come when you get out, when you expand your network, when you put yourself in uncomfortable environments, when you join a mastermind like wave, the amount of synergies that are happening in there. Like just the other day I was chatting with a client and she's like, oh, my God, I'm going to meet up with this client or I'm talking to someone else and they're like, oh my God, we're launching a collaborative program together. This all happens inside of wave because you're in a room with other entrepreneurs who are on similar journeys. So if you're listening to this and you're like, I don't want to get out, okay, fine.
But you do have to at least get into a digital room so you can head to kelseyridel.com mastermind, if that is of interest to you. So there you have it. Five unexpected ways to generate new clients this summer. Of course, this is just my personal perspective, so if some of these don't resonate with you, you don't have to do them. But I do know that when we shake up the strategy a little bit, when we just veer off course from what we're doing currently, there is so much magic. There are so many people who need your services, who are yearning for help, and maybe it's just going to take a little pivot in the messaging, a little pivot in how you're promoting and starting to come through the back door. Honestly, guys, we are so bored by typical marketing. We are so bored by chat GBT captions.
We are so overdeveloped. The clickbait, the I don't know. For me, like the short form content, it's not doing it. The last time I spent $15,000 on an offer, it was because a friend of a friend texted me, said, hey, I'm starting this really high level group. Would you like to join it? And it was an exchange of texts. It was me getting on a one on one call with this person who I already trusted. And that's where the sale came. We can no longer trust the online world.
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