Written on a cold, dark late January morning.
There is something about sitting at a desk before the day has properly begun, in the chill of January, that focuses the mind in a way no other month quite manages. The year is new but no longer pristine. The initial energy of a fresh start has settled into something quieter and more purposeful. The decorations are down, the diary is beginning to fill, and the people you wanted to speak to in December are finally reachable again.
This is the piece I wrote on exactly one of those mornings. I want to revisit it now and add some things that I think make it more useful than it was the day it was written.
The myth that has taken on a life of its own #
Blue Monday, if you are not familiar with the term, is the name given to the third Monday of January, designated as the most depressing day of the year. It comes complete with a formula taking into account weather, debt levels, time elapsed since Christmas, abandoned New Year’s resolutions, and declining motivation.
The formula was devised in 2005 by psychologist Cliff Arnall as part of a marketing campaign for a now-defunct UK travel company called Sky Travel. Its purpose was to encourage people to book a holiday to escape the January gloom. There are no peer-reviewed studies supporting it, no scientific basis for the date, no published data, no research protocol. It is not a psychological finding. It is a press release dressed up in the language of science.
And yet it has taken on a life entirely its own. Every January, it returns; in blogs, on social media, in office conversations, as though it were an established truth rather than a two-decade-old piece of commercial content creation. Mental health experts have repeatedly warned that for people already experiencing depression or anxiety, the constant anticipation of a designated “most depressing day” can quietly undermine their sense of control and worsen their symptoms.
I mention all of this not to be contrarian about January, but because the Blue Monday myth and the Wonderful Wednesday alternative are pointing in the same direction: the story we tell ourselves about January shapes how we experience it. And the story most worth telling is not the one that positions the month as something to survive, but the one that recognises it as something to use.
What the science of fresh starts says #
While Blue Monday is manufactured, the psychological phenomenon it accidentally captures is real and research gives it a considerably more useful name.
The fresh start effect was introduced in behavioural science by Dai, Milkman, and Riis in 2014. Their research demonstrated that we are more likely to initiate positive changes in our behaviour following temporal landmarks: the beginning of a new year, a new month, a birthday, a significant date. These moments help us mentally separate our past selves from our future potential, creating what psychologists describe as a psychological boost that can serve as a genuine catalyst for goal achievement and personal growth.
January is among the most potent of these temporal landmarks. People are more likely to join gyms, enrol in educational programmes, and begin financial savings plans at the start of the year than at any other equivalent point. They are also; and this is the part most relevant to business development, more open to reconsidering decisions, revisiting conversations that didn’t lead anywhere, and making the changes and adjustments they have been postponing.
This is not sentiment. It is documented behavioural science. And it has direct and practical implications for anyone involved in B2B sales and lead generation.
What January looks like in B2B #
The first half of January is often quiet in business-to-business sectors. Decision-makers are catching up, budgets are being confirmed, and the operational machinery of a new year is still warming up. This is not a signal to wait; it is a signal to prepare.
The second half of January is when activity really starts to kick off. The people who were unavailable or distracted in December are now back at their desks, looking ahead, planning, and; crucially, beginning to think about the changes and adjustments they want to make. The fresh start effect is doing its work on their thinking, even if they wouldn’t describe it in those terms.
Blue Monday, in the middle of all this, is now a dim and distant memory.
Wonderful Wednesday and all the other exceptional days #
This is where the original post’s central idea earns its proper weight.
Take advantage of Wonderful Wednesday and all the other exceptional days, to check in with your potential clients. Not with a sales pitch. Not with an urgent ask. With genuine curiosity about where they are and what has changed since you last spoke.
Resurrect some of the ideas you were discussing months ago. Some of the projects that were talked about but didn’t lead anywhere. You never know: they might have had a change of heart. They might have had a change of emphasis. They might have had a change of strategy. The fresh start effect that the research describes isn’t just about personal resolutions, it applies directly to business decisions. January is a month when organisations genuinely revisit things they had mentally shelved.
Even if the ideas you discussed aren’t going anywhere for now, ask if there is anything on the horizon that you might be able to help them with. The conversation itself has value. It keeps the relationship warm. It demonstrates that your interest in them is not purely transactional. It puts you in their mind at precisely the moment they are most open to reconsidering their plans.
The line that says everything #
Conversations improve conversions.
Three words that contain the entire philosophy of relationship-first business development. Not pitches, not proposals, not follow-up sequences designed to wear a prospect down. Conversations; genuine, unhurried, curious conversations, are what move B2B relationships forward.
The pipeline enrichment we’ve explored in other Hub pieces: the callback list, the rota of soft touches, the diarised follow-ups, is the infrastructure that makes those conversations possible. January is when that infrastructure earns its keep. The prospects who told you in September to call back in the New Year are sitting at their desks right now. The contacts whose contracts come up for renewal in Q1 are beginning to think about their options. The decision-makers who were too busy to talk in the run-up to Christmas have space in their diaries again.
The system tells you who to call. January gives you the psychological moment in which to call them. The fresh start effect — the real one, not the manufactured myth, is doing the preparatory work on their thinking. Your job is simply to show up in the conversation.
Keep doing the doing.
Good luck with all your endeavours.
Thank you for reading.
Author: Richard Bull-Domican, founder of New Era Financial Introductions, a B2B lead generation consultancy with over twenty years of experience. The perspectives shared here come from two decades in the field; not theory, but practice.
I create small, digestible guides on Gumroad for business owners who hate aggressive tactics and prefer relationship-led approaches. New resources are added regularly. For longer reads on lead generation and the human side of sales, follow me on Medium and join the daily conversation on LinkedIn.
Gumroad: https://richardbulldomican.gumroad.com/
Medium: https://medium.com/@richard-bulldomican
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbulldomican/
