Finding Consistency in a World of Content Chaos
You know when you learn something and then suddenly you’re seeing evidence of it everywhere? It’s an illusion called the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon (the more you know) and it has been coming at me from so many angles this past week. It seems like everyone I talk to has been reevaluating the meaning of consistency.
Last week, a friend of mine and I were discussing what it looks like for us to show up consistently in our business. While I was venting to her about my ever-present struggle with marketing and posting on social media, she mentioned that she is starting to look at it all a bit differently lately. On one day, showing up might look like a creative sprint where everything is flying onto the page and every task is getting done. The next day, it might look like answering just one email. She then sent me this visual by @jimkwik:
For my entire life, I have viewed consistency as giving 100% every. single. day. The ‘all or nothing’ mentality. If I missed a day of giving it my all that meant that day was wasted and I would never be able to make up for it. As I’m getting older, however, I’m seeing just how limiting that mindset can be. It makes any goal or idea feel super daunting to follow through on and it’s a great way to burn out incredibly fast.
How we show up on social media (Instagram in particular) is a perfect example. We are told by every successful content creator that to gain a following, you need to be consistently posting. When you then go to their pages, you see consistency for them means posting a variety of content at least every other day, if not every day. Then you see how many followers they have and it’s in the tens (if not hundreds) of thousands. And we’ve been conditioned to think that the more followers one has on social media, the more successful they are, right? Well, as I’ve said in the past, that all depends on how you define success.
An influencer I follow (@myboyrudder) recently did a Q&A about growing your platform and she made a very interesting point that has stuck with me. To paraphrase, she explained that while growth can mean more money, clients, brand deals, etc., it can also mean that you no longer have a manageable community of people to connect with. The constant DMs and comments become overwhelming and you lose those you used to engage with most in the kerfuffle.
The mental battle I’ve gone through with social media takes up way too much space in my brain. It can sometimes feel like it’s the only way to prove I’m consistently showing up. But one thing I’ve come to realize, especially in this past week, is that I would love to have a small community I can cultivate and really connect with.
Earlier this week my friend Theresa from Little Flame Creative sent out an email the other day talking about, you guessed it, consistency.
“…what if “consistency” is instead about demonstrating your steady presence in your biz? Showing your appreciation for your community year-round? Building organic, supportive relationships for relationships' sake?…I’m starting to see "consistency'" as a way to live out our presence + integrity.”
Mind. Blown. 🤯 (I mean, she is a killer copywriter so that tracks, but still!) That is exactly how I want to show up. I want to help others in my community and I want to build relationships that add value to my everyday. I don’t want to pump out content because a machine told me to but I also don’t want to give up on putting myself out there. For me, I’m starting to see that consistency is this happy medium between creating for and engaging with like-minded people online in a way that feels natural, not forced. Algorithm be damned.