Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter

2 Quick Notes before we get started.

Doug's been writing and auditing camp lead sequences this spring. Put together a doc on what most camps could update with these. Free, check it out: 7 Camp Lead Sequence Fixes to Make Right Now
This week, we wrote about (yup) lead sequences, this summer selling next summer, content calendars, and more on Write From Camp on Substack

All right, on to the show.

It’s the week before staff arrives, so right now my job is keeping my head screwed on straight while mostly finding things that have wandered off.

Like spending time last week looking for a bunch of lost mops. There’s a new pickleball court going in.

The best decision I made this year was hiring a local caterer to be our consulting chef. Mike has been a savior when we lost so many hands a couple weeks ago. Lesson: find incredible local people. Find your Mikes.

If you run a camp or work at a camp, you know this week. Every fire is small, and there are 100 of them, and the whole job is dousing each one before it becomes something you really need to worry about.

My instinct right now is to point everything inward. Camp is about to start. Nothing matters as much as the kids walking through the gate, and we’re going to put 99% of our focus there. The second buses show up I’m all the way in.

But I put 99% instead of 100% for one specific reason. The way I’m thinking about it, I need to do some next-summer work on purpose, even this week, even when slammed. Because a great summer that doesn’t refill the camp is a great summer you only get to run once.

The part about being busy in July

In the camp world, it’s so easy to go dark right now. All of my camp-friend group chats are operating at like 5% of what they are in the year. Because everyone is slammed. The same goes for parent-facing (let’s call it “sales”) stuff too.

We pour everything into the live product, which is right, but the enrollment engine slows down in the process. Then, snap your fingers, and September shows up. Now it feels like starting all over again.

So the thing I’m trying this year is to keep a thin thread running through the summer instead. The bar is low. A couple of small things that mostly run themselves.

The first is a video a day. Camera in hand, two minutes, “here’s what happened at camp today,” standing wherever I happen to be.

Camp pros who do this say parents love it (Hey Erec! Hey Iain!) and it costs nothing but time. It’s an attempt to stay all the way engaged with parents who are very much used to seeing updates coming from wherever their kids are.

The second is the camp sales sequence we’re building right now, in June, that starts firing on its own in July. Visiting day, what you get when you enroll, most of it planned out, written and scheduled before everyone is too underwater to write a sentence.

Turning my brain on for this right now isn’t easy. I was ordering next year's camp gear yesterday when set up crews were all over camp. That didn’t feel amazing.

But I’m hoping the work now means being present all summer while knowing next summer is already starting.

Talking all summer

The other half of this is staying in this conversation (right here, this one, with all you awesome camp people) through the summer, even while camp is slammed.

This newsletter will still go up every Thursday. And, because I might be legit insane, our Talk From Camp podcast (Spotify & YouTube) will post every Thursday (or Friday).

Partly it keeps me thinking. Mostly, I just like talking to camp people, and summer is when we all go quiet right when we’ve got the most worth saying.

So this is me waving to all of you from the middle of the chaos. Go find your mops. Be all the way at camp when it counts.

And keep one small thread alive for next June while you’re at it. Next summer will be here before you know it.

You got this,

Jack

PS - How's everyone feeling as summer kicks off? Let me know. We're in this together!

PPS - Here's where I'm posting