Podcast Summary: Strategy Hour | Episode 995

Why Seasons of Business Matter (And How to Recognize Yours)

Host: Abagail Pumphrey, Business Strategist
Release Date: October 21, 2025

Episode Overview

In this solo episode, Abagail Pumphrey explores a foundational but often overlooked concept in entrepreneurship: the cyclical “seasons” of business. Rather than always pushing for relentless growth, Pumphrey challenges listeners to recognize and honor the natural shifts between planting, growing, harvesting, and resting. By understanding your current season, you’ll make smarter, more aligned decisions for both your business and your life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. We Make Too Many Decisions Based on External Pressures

• Many business owners default to choices influenced by how others—customers, peers, or even “the Internet”—might react, rather than authentic self-alignment.

  “We often make decisions based on how we think someone else is going to feel... how the Internet will react to it, how ads will respond... We're making decisions with all of these external factors.” —Abagail Pumphrey [00:00]

2. The Four Seasons of Business

Abagail introduces a four-bucket framework for understanding business cycles, emphasizing these are both non-linear and personalized:

• Planting:
  • Laying the groundwork, testing, creating new offers, or rebuilding—can happen anytime you’re starting something new, not just as a beginner.
  • “Anytime we're bringing something new to life, you do have to have a planting season first, especially when it's big.” [05:21]
• Growing:
  • Focused on heavy marketing, visibility, demand generation, or launching; this requires lots of energy and is often wrongly assumed to be the ‘default’ state.
  • “If we're not energetically aligned with that, it's going to feel like pushing a boulder up a hill... it's going to feel impossible.” [07:05]
• Harvesting:
  • Optimizing, benefiting from prior work, capitalizing on momentum, and refining existing systems.
  • “You are getting to benefit from all the hard work you've already put in... Right.” [08:05]
• Resting:
  • Pausing, simplifying, letting go, reflecting; can feel counter-intuitive in a ‘hustle’ culture, but is crucial for sustainability.
  • “It's a season of rest where we're pausing and reflecting and we're simplifying and we're even letting things die off, which can feel really counterintuitive.” [08:21]

3. Breaking the ‘Always Be Growing’ Myth

• The constant-growth mindset leads to burnout and misalignment; slowing down or resting is not failure, but a strategic necessity.

  “If we don't wrap our heads around this, that internal pressure to always be in growth mode is just going to haunt us.” [09:08] “Slowing down doesn't have to be a negative thing. You can actually use this as a strategy.” [11:40]

4. Personal Story: When Rest Is Required

• Abagail shares a vulnerable experience of almost acquiring another business, despite being in a personal season that required rest due to health and life constraints.
  • She describes making choices that prioritized others’ expectations, leading to significant stress until she decided to step back.

  “I was crying every day. I was stressed. I didn't know how it was all going to come together. ...the relief I felt when I set that down, it was immeasurable.” [17:00] “I've heard this saying that if it's not a hell yes, it's a no. And I think sometimes in business, that needs to be something we're thinking about more often.” [20:46]

5. Nature as a Metaphor for Business

• Observing the natural world’s cycles (winter’s rest, spring growth, etc.) demonstrates that periods of quiet and recovery are necessary and healthy.

  “Rest is required. If you look at nature, I think it's such a good example of what is necessary.” [27:41]

6. How to Recognize and Honor Your Season

• Abagail encourages listeners to cultivate self-awareness about their business and energy, avoiding comparison or guilt.
• She provides reflective questions:
  • What’s currently feeling effortless?
  • What is making you feel drained?
  • Are you in creation, maintenance, or redefinition?
• The key is awareness first, then adjustment.

  “Awareness is that first act of alignment. And once we have that, that's when we can go into the fine-tuning and focus on what's going to make sense.” [38:59]

7. Actionable Steps for Each Season

Abagail outlines practical, season-aligned strategies:

• Planting: Research, R&D, testing offers, audience building, simplifying revenue streams
• Growing: Leverage systems, ramp up visibility, hire, repeatable marketing
• Harvesting: Double down on what works, automate, reduce live launches
• Resting: Audit, reflect, update SOPs, consider a rebrand

“If you're planting, some alignment things could be focusing on research and development, testing offers, focusing on list growth, audience building, simplifying your revenue streams, creating more stability. If you're growing, leveraging systems, hiring strategically, ramping up visibility...” [39:29]

Memorable Quotes with Timestamps

• “We often make decisions based on how we think someone else is going to feel...We're making decisions with all of these external factors.”
  —Abagail Pumphrey [00:00]

• “I want to help you identify the season you're in that represents the energy you have to give. It's going to help you identify how your business is feeling, how you want it to function, and how it's going to grow through this moment in time.”
  —Abagail Pumphrey [04:01]

• “If it's not a hell yes, it's a no. And I think sometimes in business, that needs to be something we're thinking about more often.”
  —Abagail Pumphrey [20:46]

• “Rest is restorative for a reason. It all comes down to choice, right?”
  —Abagail Pumphrey [28:22]

• “That rest is necessary. And it doesn't mean you won't come back. More often than not that resting season is the most productive in hindsight.”
  —Abagail Pumphrey [41:24]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00 — Introduction; external decision-making pressures
• 04:00 — Overview of business seasons and why they matter
• 05:21–08:21 — Detailed explanation of “Planting,” “Growing,” “Harvesting,” and “Resting” seasons
• 09:08 — Discussing the myth of non-stop growth
• 11:40–16:40 — Personal example of working against one’s season; the toll of misalignment
• 17:00 — Real impact of setting something down; choosing relief over burnout
• 20:46 — Importance of “hell yes” decisions
• 27:41 — Reflecting on nature’s cycles and their lesson for businesses
• 38:59–41:45 — Reflection questions and practical ways to align with your current season

Action Steps & Encouragement

• Recognize and claim your current season: Journaling, talking with peers, sharing on social (“Just say planting or growing or harvesting or resting. That will be you claiming it. You can do this. I know you can.” [44:10])
• Adjust operations accordingly, without judgment or comparison
• Share the episode/takeaways with your network and tag @AbigailSays for encouragement and support

Tone & Language

Throughout, Abagail maintains an empathetic, no-fluff, slightly vulnerable tone—balancing wisdom, strategy, and personal honesty. She invites listeners to ease up on themselves, to reframe seasons of rest as strength, and reminds them that choice and self-trust are central to sustainable success.

For more insights, resources, or to get Abagail’s frameworks in action, head to bossproject.com/podcast.