14: The Business Rhythm Nobody Talks About: Why Summer Slowdowns Aren't a Problem
Every entrepreneur hits it eventually — that stretch where the calendar goes quiet, replies slow down, and momentum seems to stall. In this episode, Marie and Anne-Marie pull back the curtain on the natural summer rhythm inside their own business, why they made the call to cancel their next Collaboration Room, and how understanding seasonal business cycles (instead of fighting them) can save entrepreneurs from a lot of unnecessary frustration. From layered Google Calendars to the right way to approach partners at the start of the year, this conversation is a permission slip to plan around your own rhythm instead of pushing through it.
What You'll Learn
Why summer — and the stretch from mid-December to mid-January — tends to be a natural downtime for online businesses, and how to plan around it instead of resenting it
The corporate-style business-planning framework Marie and Anne-Marie use with clients: start the process in summer, ramp it up in September, finalize by October
Why “layering” calendars — marketing, partnerships, personal time off, and national holidays — prevents last-minute scheduling disasters
How to track the rhythms of your top partners' recurring launches so you're never asking for support two weeks before their big event
Why reaching out to partners at the beginning of the year, rather than a few weeks before a launch, builds stronger and longer-term partnerships
Episode Highlights
Marie and Anne-Marie introduce the idea of seasonal business rhythms and explain why summer is consistently a slow season for partnership-building, not just at Pop but across the online business world.
Anne-Marie breaks down the corporate business-planning model she brings into her client work: starting the planning process in summer, ramping it up in September, and having a finalized plan — marketing, partnerships, sponsorships, everything — by October.
Marie shares a real example of a partner who reached out just two weeks before asking for promotional support, and the two discuss why tracking partners' recurring launch dates in advance prevents that kind of last-minute scramble.
Anne-Marie lays out the etiquette for reaching out to top partners at the start of the year — sharing a rough calendar of launches and asking who wants to support — instead of waiting until a few weeks before an event.
"We can't adjust a plan we don't have." — Marie
Links Mentioned
Partnerships on Purpose Collaboration Room — reach out to Marie and Anne-Marie to request an application
Work with Marie & Anne-Marie — powerfulonlinepartnerships.com
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