I wake up every day thinking about how to get one more kid to camp.
It’s what I think about when I get out of bed. It’s what I’m thinking about when I go to bed. It’s what I’m thinking about in most of the between-bed minutes too.
Because I want camp and camps to win. And I think now, more than ever, kids need camp.
Just about everything in my life is tied to the business success of camp. So getting more kids to camp is good for the world, good for kids, and good for me. I see that as a win win win.
And it’s not just K&E (my camp). I’m focused on getting more kids to camps across the country. Talking with camp friends (hey Erec! hey Sam! hey you if we have talked in the last two years!), running staff trainings, speaking at conferences, consulting with camps out there doing the work.
Here’s what all of it keeps teaching me: filling camp takes time. Real time. The time it takes a family to go from “never heard of ya” to “we’re coming this summer, can’t wait!” is measured in months and years, not weeks.
We call it filling camp slowly. More on that in a minute.
The problem is the hours between Rise and Shine and Good Night fill up fast. I don’t have enough of them in a day to stay on top of all the best ways to fill camp.
Which is why Doug and I have partnered together.
The Offseason Is A Different Job
Camps run on small teams of people who absolutely crush the summer. Unbelievably awesome with kids. Limitless energy to run around for months in the hot sun making sure every kid goes home smiling, because that means the parents are smiling too.
But what makes us great in the summer doesn’t always translate 1:1 to the work happening September through May.
That work is completely different. Planning. Marketing (more on this word in a second). Parent phone calls. Budgets. Enrollment emails. Or, like I was doing this week, moving a million picnic tables from one side of camp to the other. You know, the important stuff.
Marketing and sales are words a lot of camp people hate. I get it. They’re vague, they’re not always actionable, and they mean different things depending on who’s talking.
They’re also arguably the most important words for any camp, because they’re what move parents from “never heard of ya” to “we’re coming this summer.”
K&E is up 140% year to date and a huge part of that is because of Doug. The work he has done has let me focus on actually running camp and direct sales.
That work is why The Summer Camp Society is changing.
Where Doug Comes In
I honestly believe this: the camp world is lucky Doug found it, or came back to it, or started thinking about it again. Whatever the thing that happened here.
We’ve known each other a decade or so. Started working together consistently two years ago, and I can honestly say he’s one of the reasons I was able to buy a camp.
There was a lot that went into it, but getting me to publish consistently during that time was one of the main trust pieces established with camp people and camp families.
He used to run a camp. He gets camp. But he’s spent the last many years running his own online business, writing constantly, and figuring out what actually drives people making big decisions.
He works with clients all over the spectrum. Consultants, creators, business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and yeah, camps too. That’s the part that matters.
He’s not bringing camp the same ideas that already went around camp. He’s bringing camp what works everywhere else.
If you’re the kind of person reading a weekly summer camp newsletter, you’re probably the kind of person already thinking about this stuff.
So Here’s The Deal
Going forward, The Summer Camp Society is Jack Schott + Doug Norrie.
I’ll be the Chief Camp Officer. Doug will be the Chief Executive Officer. Buster (my dog) will be the Chief Chewing Officer. Yes, that makes two CCOs. Buster refused to negotiate.
We’re going to keep working to get more kids to K&E. Newsletters, funnels, sales, sequences, social media, referrals.
And we’re working with camps too. It’s already happening at a number of camps out there, and we’re expanding to more. Building a small community of camps committed to filling camp slowly.
Here’s what that looks like:
- Webinars. First free one is September 21st: 5 Messages Every Camp Should Send This Fall.
- Substack. We’re working on Write From Camp every week. Doug does a lot of the writing, but it all comes from conversations we’re having and work that’s actually working, here and at other camps.
- Write For Camp 3.0. Next cohort starts in a few weeks. This one covers the four levers every camp can pull to fill camp slowly, and the systems and messages behind each. If you did Write For Camp already, this is an extension. All new. More on this soon.
- Working with us directly. Everything Doug and I have been doing to fill K&E, done for your camp. Newsletters. Funnels. Sequences. Follow-up. A small team on your side handling the offseason work that never fits into your day, so you’re not doing it alone at 11 PM. This one is premium, high value, and limited to a small number of camps a year, because it’s a year-long commitment on both sides. You’ve still got to do sales and you’ve got to invest. If you want that, we’re on your team. If you don’t, that’s completely okay.
That last one is new. It was never an option before, mostly because I was busy running camp.
Tomorrow morning I’ll wake up thinking about the same thing I always do. One more kid at camp.
Now there are two of us on it. Three if you count Buster.
You got this,
Jack
PS - you can email Doug at doug@thesummercampsociety.com if you want to say "Hey!"
And if working 1-on-1 sounds like something to discuss, just reply to this email with another "Hey, Jack, let's talk!"
