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Every year when November hits, the same narrative pops up in the online space: “No one’s buying right now” or “I’ll wait until January.” And honestly, that mindset is exactly why so many service providers start Q1 playing catch up. Because visibility now is what gets you remembered later. The ones who keep showing up while everyone else goes quiet are the ones who sign clients in January.
In this episode of The Real Truth About Business, Michelle breaks down how to stay visible during the holiday slowdown without burning out or living online. She explains how buyers are actually behaving during November and December, why people are in research and planning mode, and what you can do to stay top of mind while still honoring your need for rest. This is practical, strategic visibility for service-based entrepreneurs who want momentum, not burnout.
Whether you’re a coach, consultant, OBM, VA, designer, copywriter, or ADHD entrepreneur, this episode gives you a simple plan to stay consistent, nurture warm leads, and build trust that converts in Q1.
You’ll learn:
- Why people are still buying (even if they’re not checking out today)
- How to stay visible without posting nonstop or attending every event
- The easiest ways to repurpose your best content during the holidays
- How to nurture warm leads so they’re ready to say yes in January
- Why clarity on your goals makes visibility easier and far less exhausting
This is the real truth about business growth, especially for neurodivergent service providers who crave clarity, structure, and results without falling for every trend online.
Links mentioned:
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Here's your Next Steps:
- Take the "Where's the Gap in Your Business Strategy" Quiz
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About the Host:
Michelle DeNio is a business strategist and growth advisor for service-based entrepreneurs, especially neurodivergent and ADHD business owners. Creator of the Focused Visionary Accelerator and host of The Real Truth About Business podcast, she helps clients simplify, focus, and grow sustainably. With 15+ years in business operations, she’s known for turning big ideas into simple, profitable action plans.
Transcripts
By the time November hits, which it's currently November, when I'm recording this, I start hearing kind of the same thing every year.
Speaker A:Like, oh, but nobody's buying right now.
Speaker A:Or I'll just wait till January, right?
Speaker A:Like, people start checking out, you know, they're start posting less, they're networking less, they're showing up less.
Speaker A:And I. I gotta be honest, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm very much the same way.
Speaker A:Like, I close my calendar out.
Speaker A:I don't do as many coffee chats in November and December.
Speaker A:I don't go to as many networking events.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But here's what I do want to remind you of, is that the ones who stay visible now are the ones who get remembered in January or when later, right?
Speaker A:Because again, it's not about who's seeing you today.
Speaker A:It's like, who's remembering you when they are coming back, right?
Speaker A:Who's staying.
Speaker A:My top of mind, when they are ready to say yes, when they are ready to make a decision.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So if you keep kind of showing up when everyone else is quiet, one, there's less noise in the space, right?
Speaker A:And there's the.
Speaker A:You're.
Speaker A:You will be the one that they think of, right?
Speaker A:When January, when budgets open back up, energy resets, you know, and everybody's kind of in that, like, ready to buy again.
Speaker A:Okay, so let's talk today about, like, visibility fatigue.
Speaker A:We want to talk about that and, and how to, like, shift it so that you can still show up but not like, burn yourself out, right?
Speaker A:Like, so you can still take time during the holidays and take the time off that you want.
Speaker A:Okay, so that's what we're talking about today.
Speaker A:If you're ready to dive in, let's do it.
Speaker A:Okay, So I really like the Q4.
Speaker A:I don't even think it's the Q4 slump, right?
Speaker A:Like, people talk about the Q4 slump, but, like, to me, Q4 is like the busiest freaking time of year.
Speaker A:But again, I do business planning, but I do also find myself wanting to, like, retreat, right?
Speaker A:And hibernate.
Speaker A:And I love to be in business planning mode.
Speaker A:And reflection, like, reflection is so powerful to me, and I love to just sit in that reflection.
Speaker A:And really, I also, like, always create a list of December projects and things that I want to do.
Speaker A:And so I do clear my calendar right in this time of year, I really start craving space in my calendar.
Speaker A:Even today, recording this episode, I had a networking event on my calendar that I did not go to because, like, I just didn't have the energy for It I wanted to get these podcast episodes recorded.
Speaker A:And so I'm just like, you know what?
Speaker A:I'm not going to go this month.
Speaker A:I'm not going to go.
Speaker A:And so I get it, right?
Speaker A:Like, energy kind of dips.
Speaker A:We start getting into this, like, excited planning energy, and people want to take time off the things that they're going to start getting busy with the kids and the holidays and all the things, right?
Speaker A:But there's so much power in staying visible during this time of year.
Speaker A:And you can stay visible without being on all the time, right?
Speaker A:You can stay visible while also still having a completely clear calendar, right?
Speaker A:And like, that's what I want to talk today about is because it's like, it's not that people are.
Speaker A:Are not buying, right?
Speaker A:People are absolutely still buying.
Speaker A:Their priorities are just slightly shifted right now.
Speaker A:But they're also, like, they're doing their research, they're making their list, they're getting ready.
Speaker A:Like, think about it.
Speaker A:How many things are you kind of, like, putting on your, like, wish list?
Speaker A:Or I'm thinking about this, or I want to have this conversation or like, I'm doing some research right now.
Speaker A:I just reached out to somebody who had some offers at the end of the year, and I was like, hey, send them to me.
Speaker A:Like, I'm not ready to make a decision right now, but I want to see them.
Speaker A:I want collecting information, right?
Speaker A:So there's a lot of people in this, like, collecting information stage of, like, I want to see and I want to budget and I want to plan.
Speaker A:People are starting to look at their numbers and all of the things, and so they're kind of starting to create these plans of, like, what are the things I want to invest in in next year and what do I need to do to plan for it?
Speaker A:And the only way they can know to put you on the list is to continue showing up and to continue to stay visible and to continue to share what you are offering, right?
Speaker A:And how people can work with you.
Speaker A:And so that is what I really want to stress right now is that you don't have to do this by burning out, but you do want to stay visible.
Speaker A:And visible looks different for everybody, right?
Speaker A:Like, maybe that means you only want to show up to networking events because maybe it means that you only want to stay visible with your current audience.
Speaker A:Like, it's much easier to sell to your current audience than to draw a new audience, right?
Speaker A:So maybe you're not getting visible and trying to attract a new audience, but you're staying visible by nurturing the audience that you currently have.
Speaker A:It could be that you're staying visible by pre scheduling out your content.
Speaker A:And you don't have to create new content around this, right?
Speaker A:Like you have 10 months of content at this point, right?
Speaker A:You have at least 10 months of content, probably more.
Speaker A:You probably have years of content.
Speaker A:Reuse it, right?
Speaker A:Like go back and just reuse the content that you posted last year and use that to stay visible, right?
Speaker A:Stay visible.
Speaker A:Because visibility now is what creates the trust and creates the, what am I trying to say here?
Speaker A:The intrigue I guess is the word, right?
Speaker A:It's going to create that intrigue to create for the Q1 conversations, right?
Speaker A:So you just need to have like this consistent presence.
Speaker A:And it doesn't mean you have to show up three times a day.
Speaker A:It doesn't mean, like I said, it could be just nurturing the current clients that you already have.
Speaker A:It could be nurturing your current community.
Speaker A:It could be nurturing old clients.
Speaker A:It could be your email, like just maintaining consistency within your email marketing.
Speaker A:If you have a newsletter, right?
Speaker A:Like don't stop sending your newsletter just because it's busy holiday season.
Speaker A:Just continue sending your newsletter, right?
Speaker A:Like quality and this like repetition, right?
Speaker A:So put out some quality content.
Speaker A:Repeat it over and over.
Speaker A:It's going to outperform volume.
Speaker A:Now is not the time where you need to be putting out a ton of new content, new ideas, constantly.
Speaker A:Now is the time to create repetition.
Speaker A:It's like talking about the same thing, sharing about the same thing, sharing about your offers over and over and over again.
Speaker A:End.
Speaker A:So again, as people are collecting information as they're making buying decisions for either the end of the year or the new year, your.
Speaker A:Your information is top of mind for them.
Speaker A:Your information is there and it's easily accessible for them.
Speaker A:That's what you want to make sure that you're really trying to do in this.
Speaker A:Like when you want to not be as visible, okay?
Speaker A:And again like that could be showing up less on social media.
Speaker A:That's fine, right?
Speaker A:But can you pre schedule out some content so that your name is still staying top of mind?
Speaker A:Can you show up once a week instead of three times a week?
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like what does that really look like?
Speaker A:But then also really looking at it from a place of like what is most important to you?
Speaker A:Do you.
Speaker A:Are you running year end specials, right?
Speaker A:Like what does your visibility strategy need to be in this season?
Speaker A:Are you closing out your books?
Speaker A:Are you closing out like I am not.
Speaker A:I had those four on four coffee chats I am revamping them a little bit and I want to create a new strategy around it for the new year.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So I still have my list of people that wanted to do it, but I did cancel them.
Speaker A:I canceled the ones that I had scheduled.
Speaker A:I sent them an email and I was like, hey, listen, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm closing this out for the year, but I'm going to keep you posted because I'm making some changes, I'm making some updates and I will definitely keep you top of of the list for January or like December when I open it back up, or January.
Speaker A:And like, again, like I just want you to think about too is like everybody's kind of feeling the same way, right?
Speaker A:Like everybody's going to start craving space in their calendar and everybody's going to start wanting to just kind of slow it down, end out their gear.
Speaker A:Last year we saw like a really slow January too.
Speaker A:Like people kind of easing into January a little bit.
Speaker A:But again, the people, like January was my best month.
Speaker A:January and February were two of my absolute best months because I consistently showed up in December just.
Speaker A:And it wasn't even that I was on all the time.
Speaker A:I just was talking about that my, the Focus Visionary accelerator over and over and over again.
Speaker A:And I was reaching out to the people that had attended my three day biz planning program.
Speaker A:I was having conversations with them.
Speaker A:That's what I mean by staying visible, right?
Speaker A:It was like, that's visibility too, is like reaching out to the people that attended your master classes.
Speaker A:Reaching out to the people that you know, are maybe interested.
Speaker A:I reached out to somebody the other day and I was like, hey, you told me to put you on my whiteboard as a potential lead.
Speaker A: like, do you want, is that a: Speaker A: She was like, it's a: Speaker A:I was like, okay, no problem.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And so I'm still engaging with her, I'm still having conversations with her, but like, there's no point in continuing to follow up.
Speaker A: t blank told me, like, it's a: Speaker A:I'm still very much top of mind, right?
Speaker A:And so that's what I'm saying about like, don't just stop posting all the time.
Speaker A:Don't.
Speaker A: People are: Speaker A:They may not be buying this minute, but they are making buying decisions right now.
Speaker A:I talked about this last week on the episode around like doing research, right?
Speaker A:Like people are doing research.
Speaker A:They're looking into what Communities.
Speaker A:Do I want to join?
Speaker A:What programs do I want to join?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:People are in that phase, in that mode of like, I know something new is coming, but they may not be ready to say yes right now, especially with the holidays and with people wanting to take a little bit slower of like a November, December, depending on everybody's personal preference.
Speaker A:But a lot of people are saying, you know, they're collecting the information now and then they're going to be ready to make a decision in January.
Speaker A:The whether or not they make the decision with you or somebody else is going to, you know, depends on how well you nurture, how well you show up, how well you know, you're making it like a no brainer for them to say yes.
Speaker A:Are you making it easy?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So don't give up all of your visibility.
Speaker A:That's all I want to say in this, like this little episode.
Speaker A:I'm going to keep them short because it is the holiday season.
Speaker A:People are not listening as much because they're busy.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:But like just keep showing up.
Speaker A:But again, showing up doesn't mean you have to be living on social media.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And repurpose your best content.
Speaker A:Repurpose your best content.
Speaker A:Repurpose your content from last year.
Speaker A:Like literally use the same content.
Speaker A:If you do have get very clear on what your goal is.
Speaker A:Are you trying to get people in for a January sign up?
Speaker A:Are you trying to secure some clients in December for a January startup?
Speaker A:Are you trying to raising your prices?
Speaker A: e a reduced rate from or like: Speaker A:Right, like get clear so that your visibility strategy looks easier too.
Speaker A:I think a lot of people get into this visibility fatigue because they don't have a strategy.
Speaker A:They don't know what they're promoting, they don't know what their end goal is.
Speaker A:They don't even know like, you know, what they're trying to drive people to.
Speaker A:They're just showing up and doing all of these things.
Speaker A:So like get very clear on what it is that you want to drive traffic to.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like what are you getting visible about and how can you make sure that you're creating that and then how are you tracking it?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I look at, I always look at who's clicking on links in my email.
Speaker A:I watch very intently for people saying like, oh, I've been wanting to look at her content or I've been wanting to check her out or you know, I've been meaning to look into this, that type of thing.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like you can still maintain a lot of conversations count as visibility, right?
Speaker A:So like if you don't want to attend all the networking events that are you typically attend in these next two months, like that's fine if you've attended from, you know, eight months prior, like who are the people that you met?
Speaker A:Because 90% of the time they're going to be there, they're still showing up, right?
Speaker A:Like you've already built those relationships.
Speaker A:So visibility could look like just deepening those relationships, just opening up those conversations again.
Speaker A:Instead of having to put an hour on your calendar, you could spend 5 minutes sending just quick dms or an email or just reconnecting with people that you already networked with, right?
Speaker A:Like I think there's so many things that we do that are just an absolute waste of time and that's why we get fatigued, that's why we want to give, you know, like we want, we crave this like rest and relaxation at the end of the year, plus there's hibernation season and all the things, right?
Speaker A:But like a lot of times it's because we're getting to that place of burnout because we're doing so many things.
Speaker A:But like why right?
Speaker A:So track, track it and see like what's actually working and where do I want to spend my time and what does that look like?
Speaker A:But really get clear for yourself, right?
Speaker A:What does that look like?
Speaker A:Do you want to say?
Speaker A:Like I'm, I'm closing out and I'm only going to be showing up on my email.
Speaker A:I've seen that work really, really well where people are like, listen, I'm, I'm, I'm tuning out.
Speaker A:I'm going off socials for all of December and, but I'm still going to be hanging out in my email.
Speaker A:I've got some special offers going out to my email list.
Speaker A:I've got price, you know, price reduction, like if you're raising the prices, like an opportunity to jump in on those specials, you can sell off of Google Docs right now.
Speaker A:Like that's working really well.
Speaker A:That always works really well.
Speaker A:So if you've got some year end specials, you could just say like, hey, I've got these offers.
Speaker A:You could be doing some like behind the scenes conversations.
Speaker A:Like there's so many things that you can do to still maintain visibility to amp up so that when January hits you've got this warm leads list and you've got these people that are kind of primed, prepped and ready because again like there are certain people, but there's Also, people that are like, needing the write off this year, so keep that in mind too.
Speaker A:Like, do you have that.
Speaker A:Do you need a revenue boost?
Speaker A:Looking at your own from that perspective of like, do you not need a revenue boost because you already owe in taxes and so you'd rather have the revenue in January?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:If that's the case, then maybe your visibility is just getting people to join your email list or getting them to listen to your podcast or getting them to sign up for your, you know, follow you on social media.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like, what does it look like?
Speaker A:But I think it's it.
Speaker A:It really comes down to, like, making sure you have a very clear goal and then putting a plan around it.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:But still show up in whatever way that works for you.
Speaker A:But still show up.
Speaker A:Because people may not be like hitting check out right this minute on the credit, you know, on those sales pages, but trust me, they're collecting information.
Speaker A:I'm very much that person right now that's collecting information and deciding where and how I want to spend my money in the new year.
Speaker A:But I'm not making any decisions.
Speaker A:And I've been honest about that.
Speaker A:I've been very clear and honest and telling people, like, I'm just not making any decisions right now because the decisions that I'm making are big decisions, right?
Speaker A:So I want to take the time.
Speaker A:And I also just haven't done my reflection yet.
Speaker A:I have not sat down and done a lot of my own, like, business planning.
Speaker A:I'm going to do that in December like I always do with you guys.
Speaker A:Like, that's why I encourage you to do it.
Speaker A:But still continuing to show up.
Speaker A:Up.
Speaker A:Keep showing up because people are still watching and even.
Speaker A:And when less people are showing up because a lot of people do take the holidays off.
Speaker A:Like, that just is less noise, right?
Speaker A:That's just less noise in the space, which means maybe you'll get less engagement.
Speaker A:But trust me, people are still scrolling.
Speaker A:They're still scrolling.
Speaker A:You're still going to be top of mind.
Speaker A:So the more you can create that visibility.
Speaker A:They're still checking their emails.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Some people take complete two weeks off.
Speaker A:I envy those people.
Speaker A:Like, I'm not that person because a, I don't like coming back to an email that's got 300 emails in it.
Speaker A:Like, I'd rather just check it every couple days and clear it up.
Speaker A:But yeah.
Speaker A:So honor the season for what it is.
Speaker A:Honor the slowdown, honor the reflection, honor that introspective season.
Speaker A:But also look at what can I do to continue to stay visible so that people know where I am and how they can, you know, get a hold of me and how they can do business with me when they are ready.
Speaker A:It's still a really prime season to do that.
Speaker A:And I just want you to remember that.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:I love you.
Speaker A:I believe in you.
Speaker A:I'll talk to you soon.
