Why It’s More Than Consistency That Gets You Recognised

Consistency in your work is important but it can’t become your shield. It’s how you improve over time that really counts. 

Being consistent means you show up when you promise and people can see you and your work. However, there has to be an outcome where you become better at what you do. Consistency shouldn’t just be about the repetition, promises and being seen, there has to be something much more impactful for you and others.

I am giving 100% credit to this article to what Jay Acunzo recently published called The Problem with Consistent Creation and how it can sometimes become the comfort blanket to fall back on. It struck a chord with me. Let me follow up on my experience and why consistency can’t be something we always rely upon to validate what we do.

Steady progress by being constant means you get a little better with each attempt. Just because a podcast, a newsletter, or blog is made live on a particular day and time, is each time you publish helping you move forward? Not just in terms of audience growth, but improving your whole efforts and even mindset? A more accomplished presenter, a stronger writer, a more confident version of yourself?

Whatever you put your effort into, if you are committed, there has to be progress over time. 

2022 is becoming a year where all the work that has gone into You Are The Media is becoming slightly more strategic and planning for the future. Not everything has to be driven around a calendar pledge. As Jay says, ‘consistency can become a form of hiding.’

The ability to create, for me, is to continually push the button and for the most part, put myself in uncomfortable situations, but to highlight to people what can be achieved. 

You Are The Media is my way to prove to people that you can build your own space or platform that isn’t always indebted to an algorithm. You can nurture an audience that matters without a heavy dependence on LinkedIn, but use social platforms as a means for distribution, not reliance. 

Most of YATM activity is away from social and in a place where people congregate, from the YATM Online sessions, the weekly newsletter, the Creator Lab and the Game Nite we’ve just started. 

A lot of what YATM is about is showing you the way to build that is not on someone else’s platform, but spending the time and effort to grow your own foundations and people to come to your party. I realise, it’s not just about consistency as your driver but being able to deliver and put your neck on the line and do something relevant, if not different. 

This area of doing something different but relevant is where the series of YATM Online Offline events takes a lot out of me. The build-up and delivery to a live in-person audience and also online is exhausting. You are catering and delivering to two audiences at the same time.

The more we have delivered (the consistency), the more I have become used to this format. This hasn’t been without its own knock-on effects. The start of January 2022 and the rise in Covid cases meant that we postponed the live event to April 21st.

The event before that in December 2021 had taken a bigger toll on me. The power cut 30 minutes before the show at a theatre and then finding a pub to deliver from, only for the WiFi to become intermittent had knocked my own confidence. The start to 2022 has been my own way of trying to pick myself up and dealing with my own insecurities.

The reason I wanted to share this with you is that the body of work delivered over the past two years has to lead to something more defined which I am working on at the moment. The alternative is to just keep going as that is what you do, without the ability to stop and refine.

Sticking with YATM and riding these waves (good and bad) is so much more than finding consistency and turning up and delivering, it’s about:

🏆 Having the proof to show others. If I just shared anecdotal evidence with you and case studies from others, the chances are, that others have already covered it. If I can live in this continual live lab and show you the efforts from how things work and also invite you to be a part and see for yourself, it changes the whole dynamic. The validation of what you do and what you genuinely believe in is the result of being consistent. 

🏆 The opportunity for growth. When you stick with something, it helps others make an association with you. When others can see for themselves the enthusiasm and willingness, they are more willing to tell others. New possibilities you may never have even considered are the result of being consistent.

🏆 Being specific and then fine-tuning. When you start you might not be so sure on who your true audience is. Who you think your audience is, might be different from what people actually want from you. In a way, practice makes perfect. Over time you start to become confident in what you do and the role you serve others and find a space that isn’t dominated. Being clear on what you deliver and how it can benefit others is the result of being consistent.

🏆 Knowing that if you want to improve, you keep going. When you have the small wins, it helps build momentum. It could be new subscribers, it could be encouraging feedback from others, it could be someone reaching out and saying ‘thanks.’ Making a commitment means you are accountable and it also helps you focus. Pushing forward and uncovering more horizons is the result of being consistent.

Having deadlines makes you responsible, but it can also just mean you have a date to put something and anything out into the world. If consistency is not backed up by future change and evolving what you do, it just becomes a tick in a calendar.

Consistency has to lead to something it can’t just become a promise that doesn’t have an outcome or deliver what you wanted.

A worthy breakthrough to make is when you deliver work, where you can see the change that improves what you do and others know that it’s right for them.