350: Summer Is Costing You More Career Momentum Than You Think

If you have been treating summer like a season to slow down professionally, this episode may challenge everything you believe about career growth at mid-career.

Too many mid-career professionals mentally check out between Memorial Day and Labor Day. They stay busy, answer emails, attend meetings, and keep projects moving. 

But they stop showing up with intention. While everyone else waits for September to “get serious again,” the people who earn promotions, gain visibility, and create new opportunities are quietly positioning themselves right now.

In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, leadership and career coach, keynote speaker, and host, John Neral, unpacks why summer is one of the most overlooked career growth opportunities of the year and how small decisions during these months can create a massive gap between professionals who coast and professionals who advance.

I start with a Memorial Day reflection and a milestone celebration before diving into an uncomfortable but necessary question: what happens to your career when you mentally disengage for months at a time?

Drawing from stories about my first jobs at the Jersey Shore and later professional experiences where visibility truly mattered, I explain why the fundamentals still separate high performers at mid-career:

• Be present
 • Be useful
 • Be reliable
 • Be seen doing work that matters

We also explore why travel, meetings, networking opportunities, and simply getting in the room often create more influence and leadership visibility than endless busywork ever will.

If you have been consuming professional development content without seeing meaningful results, this episode will challenge you directly. Watching webinars, reading books, and collecting career advice without implementation is not growth. It is intellectual entertainment.

That is why I share a simple but powerful three-question framework to help you create a focused summer career strategy that actually moves your career forward.

If you enjoy this podcast, remember that the conversation continues in my free weekly newsletter, The Mid-Career GPS Newsletter. You can find it on my website at https://johnneral.com/resources.

Transcript

Welcome And Memorial Day Reflection

John Neral 0:03

Hello, my friends, and welcome to the Mid-Career GPS Podcast. I'm your host, John Narrill. This is the show for mid-career professionals who feel stuck, undervalued, or unsure what's next, and know that doing more isn't the answer. Here we focus on how you show up, how you make clear decisions, build influence, and take control of your career. Let's get started. Hey there, welcome back. Before we get into today's episode, I want to take a moment and importantly acknowledge that yesterday was Memorial Day. And here in the United States, it is a day when we pause, reflect, and remember the brave men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice. And I think now more than ever, it is more important that we truly honor that day for what it is. I hope you took time yesterday to remember that. And as much as Memorial Day is that unofficial kickoff to summer, we have to remember what this day is truly about. That being said, it does kick off summer. And I also want to acknowledge that this is the 350th episode of the podcast. So that's another milestone in and of itself. Could not have gotten here without you. So thank you all so very much. Thank you to those of you who continue to listen, support the show, share it with your friends, share it on social media. So very important. Thank you very, very much for that.

The Summer Check Out Trap

John Neral 1:38

And I wanted to take this episode in a little different spin because for so much of this year and throughout the course of the entire podcast, I've talked with you about what it means for us to show up. And this time of year, right now, as we head into kids being out of school and summer vacations getting planned and thinking about taking some time to rest and recharge, which is absolutely important. For a lot of mid-career professionals, this is the exact moment they quietly check out. Not physically, you're still doing your job, but checking out mentally. In fact, you might be saying to yourself, I just need a break. I'll worry about my career again in September. Let me ask you something. What was the first summer job you ever had? Or what was a summer job you particularly remember having that you learned a lot from?

First Jobs And Pride In Work

John Neral 2:46

For me, one of my first summer jobs was working at the Jersey Shore. I grew up in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. I grew up two blocks from the ocean. And I remember getting my worker's permit and being able to go get a job because that meant I was going to go do something and I was going to make money. And one of the first jobs I ever had working on the boardwalk was working in an arcade where I would make change. People would come in with a dollar, I'd give them 10 dimes or I sound so freaking old when I say this, but that was the time, right? Now you just go to Dave and Buster's and you scan a card and you swipe the card in the machine and do that. But we actually had a time, you actually had someone, and that was me, worked in a booth and actually gave change to people. And then the following year, I worked one of those stands with the wheel. You'd come up and you'd you'd put a bet down on a on a particular space on the wheel and you'd spin the wheel and you'd get a prize if you landed on that. And and I remember the the saltiness of the air and and the heat and you being able to either be inside or or be protected from the rain. And you had like a fan in the in the in the booth where the wheel was and stuff to kind of cool off. And you just met people all day long. And so customer service skills got really, really good. Okay. And what I remember about that time was that it was really easy to show up. In fact, there wasn't a whole lot of lessons to be learned other than be on time, do your job well, pay attention, be respectful to your boss, treat people right, and come back and do it all again the next day. And that was what we did. And we did it because it mattered. It gave us a place to go, it gave us something to do, and it gave us this intrinsic pride of doing a job that we cared about, even if it meant just for the paycheck. I remember every Friday when I would get my paycheck, and I would be so excited to be able to take that down to the bank and cash it and figure out what I was going to do with that money. And I think, okay, so the first week I made this much money, and eight weeks from now I'm gonna have this much money, and what am I gonna do with that? And then as we get older, something changes.

Coasting Versus Positioning

John Neral 5:33

We get more experience, and in some ways we get a little less intentional. We almost kind of go on autopilot, and I want to offer you that as we head into the summer, summer doesn't slow careers down. People do. There are two types of mid-career professionals, and and just professionals in general, that there are the ones who are coasting and the ones who are positioning, and the gap between them is what gets created right now. Now I want to be clear, it doesn't mean you shouldn't take a vacation, it doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of yourself. Obviously, those are paramount. You need to do those things. But when it comes to how you're showing up and it comes to your visibility, your intention, your strategy, this is not the time to let the foot off of the gas. Here's why. If I were to ask you what you're building or working toward to Labor Day about your career, about your professional growth, could you answer that question for me in one sentence?

Practice Time Builds Real Skill

John Neral 7:07

When I got into high school, I worked as a church organist. And admittedly, I was really good at it. So oftentimes on the weekends, I would do, I would play the organ at a nine o'clock funeral, eleven o'clock funeral, one o'clock wedding, three o'clock wedding, 5:30 p.m. Mass, maybe a mass or two on Sunday. And I was making more money than a lot of kids my age. I had a very specific talent and I was in demand. And it was a great job to have. So when I would walk out my house, if I walked two blocks west, I got to the church. If I walked two blocks east, I got to the beach. And so working as a church organist, the thing about that during the summer was that that was the time I had more time to practice. I wasn't in school. I didn't have all the demands of school. And so taking an extra hour or two on a given day to practice helped me hone my skill set. It got me better. It made me a better musician. It made me eventually a better choir director. It made me a better leader because of my role or my presence as a church organist.

Visibility Compounds When Others Coast

John Neral 8:49

So this is where I want you to think about where do you get to be more visible? Because this is where most people completely miss it. They think, well, summer is slow. I'll just keep my head down, do the bare minimum. And then when the end of August or beginning of September comes around, I'll just ramp it up because that'll be toward the end of the year and I'll be good for my performance review. Summer is when visibility compounds the fastest. Because admittedly, fewer people are trying. If people around you are checking out, why would you not want to be checking in? Let me give you an example here. Before I opened my coaching practice full-time, I worked for an educational nonprofit where the majority of our clients were state departments of education. And we would write test items for students across the country. And a big part of our summer was traveling to these states and facilitating item review meetings, bias and sensitivity meetings, where we would meet with teacher committees and we would review these items and we would make any edits we needed to before they went into the item bank for next year's test. And so during the summer, you wanted to be at those meetings. You wanted to be in the room at those meetings because that's when things happened. That was like having a front row seat to the work that you were doing. You got to hear directly from teachers. You were visible with the State Department personnel. And then you went back in the office and you just incorporated all of that feedback. And I remember during my time there that, you know, one week we'd be in Utah, the next week we'd be in Florida, and next week we'd be back in Utah for something. You just wanted to travel to get to those meetings. The more visible you were, the more valuable you were to the company. But more importantly, you were more valuable because you got more knowledge and expertise about what was going on. Look, if you travel a lot for work, I get it. It is not glamorous. It is not fun. There are only so many restaurants you can go out to and eat. There are only so many hotel rooms you can stay in. But if it's part of your job, you make the most of it. You do what you need to do, and you get the miles and the points and the perks and all those kinds of things, right? But it was about being visible. And for me, in my particular role, because I was not directly assigned to a project, I was a senior leader in the sense that I could be thrown into multiple projects and multiple meetings and run those meetings, or even lead the entire team or support the project manager in leading the team because I was that senior person that was there at the meeting. And so that versatility gave me that kind of visibility. What does that look like for you? What does this summer actually mean for you in terms of your growth and development?

Doing Beats Consuming For Growth

John Neral 12:36

Because now I want to break down for you the difference between thinking about it and doing about it. Because here's the truth signing up for another free webinar that you see on social media this summer is not going to change your career. It's not. Reading another book and just simply reading it is not going to do anything. When you were younger, you learned by doing, not consuming. When I was running one of those amusement stands on the boardwalk, the only way I got good at that job was by doing it. That meant that I had there was a there was a guy named Larry. And gosh, Larry was so good at this. He would stand in between two of the amusement stands and he would coach us and support us and mentor us. And he'd be like, here's what I want you to say, here's what I want you to do. And I remember him telling me one time, he said, John, the only way you're going to get better at this is by doing it. And by doing it when you do it well, and by doing it when you mess up. You will never get good at this if you just think about doing it. This summer, what can you do? Because professional development without application is just intellectual entertainment. Let me say that again. Professional development without application is just intellectual entertainment. That's it. That's it. So this summer, you have an opportunity to do what is it you want to do or work on or focus on? Your summer strategy comes down to three things. And I want to offer you right now, as you're listening to this, it is the time to start building it. And for what it's worth, if you're listening to this after the summer, take the next three months and just apply this to that time frame. Question one, what are you working toward? Question two, what do you need to do to be more visible? Question three, what skill actually moves the needle? What are you working toward? Where do you need to be more visible? What skill actually moves the needle? It's those three things. Do not overload yourself with some kind of infinite to-do list that you think once you get all those things done, you're gonna be better. Because you're never gonna clear that list. Let's stay hyper focused this summer to think about what's the end game? What's the goal? Where do you want to be by Labor Day? What do you need to do to be more visible? Who do you have to talk to? What's the conversation you need to be having? What skill actually moves the needle? That's it.

Three Question Summer Strategy

John Neral 16:02

This summer, you are not going to fall behind because you took a vacation. You will fall behind because you got disengaged someway. That's all. And you're gonna kid yourself and think by the time I get serious again in September, the people who didn't check out this summer, they're gonna pass you. They're gonna be more strategically positioned for that next project, that next promotion, that next title. Because they're already doing it. Remember, this isn't about working harder. This is about being more intentional in how you are showing up to advance your career and your leadership. That's it. So if you're thinking, I don't want to waste this summer again, then don't do this alone. Because in the past, when you've been left to your own devices, you probably already know what happens. You got distracted, you got disengaged, something happened. So I want to give you something. I want to encourage you something right now that is simple, it is easy, it is a few minutes every week, and it's gonna take one action. If you enjoy this podcast, I want you to know that's only half the conversation. The other half goes on in my free weekly newsletter. It is called the Mid Career GPS newsletter. You can find it on my website at johnnarrell.com forward slash resources. Go to the resources tab right there on the main menu. When you click on that, it's going to be in the top row of that page or check the show notes. But come on in, join the newsletter, and let's get you the other half of this conversation to help you build your career. Because this summer, what I want for us is I want us to keep the foot on the gas, to work more intentionally, to be more strategic, to get you the support that you need. And by the time September rolls around, where if you have kids, they've gone back to school or they're going back to school, and you're looking at the last third of the year to make that big push, how incredible would it feel to know that you've done the work this summer to be ready for anything and everything that can happen simply because of how you showed up.

Newsletter Invite And Closing

John Neral 18:51

All right, my friends, don't forget about the free newsletter, johnnarrell.com forward slash resources. And remember this you will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time. And how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of the day, and make it a great rest of the summer. Bye for now. If you enjoyed this episode, don't keep it to yourself. Kindly share it with someone who needs it. And if you're tired of feeling stuck, overlooked, or underutilized in your career, go to my website, johnnerrell.com to get started. There you'll find free resources, ways to work with me, and details about the Show Up Leadership Lab, my signature membership for mid-career professionals who want to lead better, get noticed, and elevate their career. All the links are in the show notes. You can grab what you need right there. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. And if you're getting value from the show, take 30 seconds to leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Remember, how you show up matters, and I'll see you next time.