The four summer moves are easy to nod at and easy to skip. Two weeks in, the leaders who will feel this in October have already run the one almost everyone forgets.
What the room actually saw on July 14.
When Nour walked consulting and search principals through the slow-season play, the surprise wasn't the four moves. Deepen the key few. Prep the fall conferences. Reach back to alumni. Reactivate the dormant. Most people in the room had heard some version before. The surprise was how few of them had a system for the fourth one, the reactivation, and how much of their real pipeline was sitting inside it.
Here's the pattern that came up again and again. Leaders track the relationships they're actively working. They have almost no visibility into the ones going quietly cold. Not lost. Not burned. Just drifting, one unanswered thread at a time, until the person who would have taken your call in March needs a warm intro to remember why.
Your coldest pipeline isn't a list you haven't bought. It's the warm relationships you already earned and stopped tending.
The one move most firms forget to run.
Reactivation loses every week to whatever pays this quarter. It never feels urgent, because a dormant relationship makes no noise. That's exactly why it's the move that separates the summer that pays from the summer that just passes.
Think about who it actually is. The former client who moved firms and would still vouch for you. The colleague from two roles ago who now sits where the decisions get made. The partner you clicked with at last year's conference and never followed up. None of them need a pitch. They need a reason to remember you were worth knowing. In July, with the calendars open and the inboxes quiet, that reason lands. In September, it reads as a favor you need.
The firms that win the fall aren't reaching more people this month. They're reaching back to the right ones before the door quietly closes.
How to run it this week.
You don't need a campaign or a tool to start. You need thirty focused minutes and the discipline to make it specific.
01. Find the five who went quiet. Not the coldest names in your database. The warm ones you genuinely valued and lost the thread with. The gap between "we should catch up" and actually doing it is the whole game.
02. Lead with the person, not the ask. One honest note. A reason you thought of them, a thing they'd care about, no agenda attached. If your first message has a calendar link in it, you've already turned a relationship back into a transaction.
03. Make the next step small. A short call, a coffee if you're in the same city for a fall event, an intro you can offer them. Reactivation compounds when the first yes is easy.
04. Write down who owns each one. The reason these slip is that nobody's accountable for them. Put a name next to each relationship, even if the name is yours, and the summer play stops depending on memory.
Do this for five relationships and you'll feel it before Labor Day. Do it for the right five and you'll feel it in Q4.
Sit With This
Open your calendar to the second week of August, before fall swallows it. Block one hour. Label it "reactivate five." Then, today, write the first name and the first note. Not the whole list. One name, one message, sent before you close this page. The system is just that move, run on purpose, five times.
Missed the July session? Read the recap.
The full session replay is here: the four moves and why the quiet weeks decide your fall. Worth ten minutes before you run your own play.
Coming in August
Not all relationships are equal. Some create disproportionate impact, accelerate trust, and bend the revenue curve without adding headcount. On August 11, Nour helps you identify the three to five connections that actually change everything, and stop diluting your effort across the ones just keeping you busy.
Save Your Seat: The 5 Relationships That Change Everything →
Save the Date: Relationship Economics® Summit 2026
October 12–14, 2026 · Pursell Farms, AL · 5th Anniversary
Five years in, RES is still the room where the most intentional leaders choose to spend their time. The centerpiece this year is Lead NXT, an immersive leadership journey for the high-potential people your firm is getting ready to promote. Reactivating a dormant relationship this summer is a great start. Bringing them into this room is how it compounds.
Register or Nominate → · Become a Sponsor → · Explore RES →
The C-Suite Series
The live series with Nour for the people who sell to and influence the C-suite is wrapping its summer run. If you want the room where advisors become confidants, this is the last window to join before the fall cohort.
A great fall is just five warm relationships, tended in July.
The leaders who feel October coming aren't working harder than you this month. They're being deliberate about a handful of relationships while everyone else waits for the calendar to force it.
Pick the five. Send the first note today. And bring your sharpest question to August 11, where we get honest about which relationships actually change everything.
— Nour + the AVNIR Team
See your network. Win your market.