Struggle With Consistency? This One Is For You

“Consistency is the true foundation of trust. Either keep your promises or do not make them.”

~ Roy T. Bennett

I’m pretty sure that you’ve already heard (several times probably) just how important consistency is in your business. Just how necessary it is to show up in people’s inboxes and news feeds on a regular and consistent basis. You may even be convinced of the arguments for consistency, but try as you might, you still struggle to achieve a consistent level of output in your work. I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone. This is the number one thing I see most business owners struggling with.

The majority of small businesses owners fail to show up consistently in their business whether that’s taking consistent actions aligned with the achievement of business goals or producing content on a regular basis (choosing instead to show up whenever they feel a flash of inspiration). This is all every well for a hobby but if you want to create a successful business that works and provides you with consistent income, you have to become consistent in how you show up for your business. In my experience there is a clear link between the consistency of your output and the consistency of your income.

In this article, I want to share five ways I’ve learned to get more consistent in business.

But before we get to that, let’s just look at why consistency is so important. People buy from people they know, like and trust. When we operate with consistency, whether that’s in our content creation or our outreach efforts, it allows more people to know us and it allows the people who do know us to like and trust us more.

Put another way, when it comes to your audience, consistency equates to trustworthiness (doing what you said you would do) and reliability (allowing people to rely on you). If we consider the other side of this, when we show up inconsistently, our audience is much more likely to wonder if we are for real. If we can be trusted and if we are reliable enough to invest in.

Understand your resistance to consistency

This is a big one. As a Business Coach, I’ve seen first hand just how much resistance comes up when I bring up the topic of consistency to business owners and I get it. Being consistent requires a greater commitment, more courage and a dedication to our work that we perhaps haven’t managed to muster previously.

Understanding why you feel resistance is crucial and might require that you reframe what being consistent means to you.

For example, perhaps currently you see it as something that threatens your creativity. If I force myself to write on a schedule, my words don’t flow and my work suffers. What if instead you saw consistent content creation as a way to master your craft and improve your work and your ability to focus (with the added benefit of deepening the relationship you have with your audience)?

Perhaps you worry about bothering your people, I hear this a lot. People fear that they are adding to the noise but what if you considered the fact that by staying silent, you’re allowing other perhaps less ethical business owners to dominate your market. What if you considered the fact that what the world desperately needs is more conscious business owners leading and sharing their wisdom on a regular basis?

Is there another way to look at consistency that doesn’t leave you feeling resistant?

Pick one thing to be super consistent with

Where many people fail here is trying to be consistent across the board in their business. They have a list of things that they are trying to be consistent in all at the same time. Newsletter writing, publishing blog posts, writing daily social media posts (across multiple channels!), recording weekly videos and, and, and…you get the idea!

My suggestion here, is that you take one thing, work at getting consistent at that one thing and once you have a pretty well established habit, move onto the next thing. The key is to focus. Pick one thing and work on getting consistent with that until it becomes part of your daily or weekly routine. Only then consider what else you might throw into the mix.

Publicly state your commitment

I use this strategy often in my business and that is to publicly share my goals and commitments with colleagues, peers, clients and audience members, so that when I sit down at my desk and the resistance to do what I said I would do inevitably arises, I remember just how many people I’ve shared my goal with and it encourages me to get over my niggly self doubts and get the job done.

This is why I love running free challenges and why for the second year running I’m hosting a content creation challenge this month. The accountability that comes from sharing publicly a goal I’m trying to achieve works wonders for me.

Put it on your calendar

One of my key priorities for 2021 is content creation, which has recurring slots on my weekly calendar. Every Monday morning, I have several hours blocked off for content creation and also on Friday afternoons.

I recognised several years ago that if I wanted to take my business to the next level, I needed to get far more consistent at creating and publishing high value content and that’s why it has a prominent, recurring slot on my calendar. I’d like you consider what the most important thing for you to get consistent at in your business is? Then ask yourself if that is adequately reflected in your calendar.

Don’t break the chain

Jerry Seinfeld, one of the most prolific comedy writers of our time, attributes his global success to the fact that he would write every day using a technique that has become known as the Don’t Break The Chain technique.

At the beginning of each year Seinfeld would hang a large year-at-a-glance calendar above his desk and for every day that he successfully sat down and wrote, he would mark that day on the calendar with a big red X. Before long he would have a chain of Xs and the goal would become to not break break the chain. The longer we stick to our commitment, the harder it becomes to break the chain.

And there you have it 5 ways to get more consistent in your business. The truth is that consistency requires practice and patience. You need time for a habit to become so ingrained that it no longer requires so much effort from you. But I swear it gets easier.

So how about you, where in your business would it serve you and your clients/audience is you showed up more consistently?

It doesn’t have to be content creation (although I would argue this should be a priority), it might be consistently reaching out to people, or consistently working on your business.

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