Why Consistency is so Important in Your Business
“Be consistent” they say.
“It’ll pay off” they say.
But when you’re putting in the effort and not seeing results in a short amount of time, it can be discouraging and easy to give in and quit.
As part of my marketing efforts I’ve committed to writing a blog post a week. I have a list of ideas based on my research, but given the fact that my efforts haven’t yielded the results that I want in the short time that I’ve been doing this - I’m feeling discouraged and have been procrastinating and putting off writing this week's blog post.
So I decided to write about being consistent - because I’m smack in the middle of a struggle around it.
My business coach - Samantha Siffring has a saying “let the popcorn pop”. It takes time and consistent heat to pop a bag of popcorn. If you keep pausing the microwave and opening the door, the microwave just isn’t going to pop.
That’s what I remind myself every time I want to give up and say “don’t bother with the blog, you can skip a week”. I need to keep applying heat and not open the door.
Your brain will get in the way
Consistent efforts can be difficult because our brains can sometimes get in the way, they love to offer up thoughts like:
“You’ll put all this effort in for 6 months and nothing will happen”.
Uh, no. Stop listening to your brain. It can be a total jerk sometimes.
It’s true that I don’t know what the end result will be and that’s a risk, but I know that I need to stick with it long enough to truly know if it’s a good strategy or not.
“Maybe it’s time to change plans. You should do ______ instead”.
NO. Simply NO.
I’ve fallen for this one before and ran around making changes and done lots of things that kept me busy. But just that - busy. My brain chases the feeling of being busy because it feels good, it’s a nice feeling to check a task off your list - even if that task isn’t exactly particularly useful towards your goal.
Once you have a plan, stick with it for at least 6 months to get enough data to decide what works and what doesn’t work. Changing directions quickly based on the results of a couple of weeks won’t allow you to really know what’s going on and will keep you stuck in a pattern of making changes constantly.
I’ve only been blogging for 2 months, so I need to stick with it for at least 4 more months to start seeing results and get enough data to analyze and make a decision based on facts instead of my thoughts.
This diagram is from the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear and it shows the importance of consistency:
I’m stuck in the ‘valley of disappointment’ right now - what my brain thinks should happen isn’t what’s actually happening, which is why I’m feeling discouraged and feeling like maybe I should be doing something else.
I just need more time, effort and patience to stick it out and hopefully what I’m envisioning might actually happen if I’m consistent.
“Your last blog post had zero likes (pins, clicks), so you should stop”
This has happened and my brain loves telling me that it means ALL my posts will have the same result. It loves going to an all or nothing type of thinking.
The reality is that I don’t know which post is the one that might trigger a larger reaction from my audience.
And if I stop now, I’ll never know. What if it’s my next one? Or this one? I won’t know what people will connect to if I stop and give up.
The mindset I need to try and maintain while I blog is simply to be of service to others. I know how to do certain things in my online business: Dubsado setups, build websites and funnels - and what I need to focus on is to help others who might be struggling in these tasks as they build their business, and provide them with resources to help them get more clarity.
Know that it’s completely normal to think all of these thoughts and that most entrepreneurs have them as well.
The important thing is to realize that they’re just that - thoughts.
They’re not facts.
Recognizing that is a first step and then learning to replace those thoughts with new thoughts to develop a stronger belief in your ability to create your results is the next step.
This is where my coach Samantha Siffring has been instrumental. Doing the work to help me build my belief in myself has had a huge impact in my business and my life. If you’re interested in learning about her coaching program click here.
Find a strategy that works for you
One important thing to maintain consistency is to find a strategy that works for you in case things get hard.
Knowing that I have a deadline to write a blog post that is creeping up on me every single week is stressful, so I’ve learned that a great approach to help me stay consistent is to batch content.
When I first started blogging, I wrote several posts in a couple of days and knowing that I had content available for several weeks without having to write a post every single week was a great feeling.
What I do in between batching content is to write down blog post ideas on a notepad in my phone. Once I sit down to write, I use those ideas and elaborate on them.
Take action without expecting perfection
Another important thing is to take action without expecting it to be perfect. In other words: Just do it.
As a perfectionist I recognize that this isn’t easy for me. I want things to be as good as they possibly can, but I’m starting to recognize that there is a point at which putting in more effort into a task will not result in a better outcome.
Once I start to see that I’m at that point, I try to stop, step back, look at what I’ve written and do my best to see if I should stop altogether or put in a little more effort to finish it.
The best part of taking action without it needing to be perfect is that by doing it and staying consistent - you’ll start to get better at whatever it is you’re doing.
In the few weeks that I’ve been writing blog posts, I find that with each passing week the content flows more easily and faster than the previous week.
Is it perfect? Nope! But I’m getting it done.
And… done!
I wrote my blog post! 🎉
I challenged myself to just do it - got the main points out in about 20 minutes, came back a few days later and wrapped it up.
I was able to maintain my consistency in this effort, and if I can do it, anyone can do it.
Do I know if this particular strategy will be effective? No. But I’ll only figure it out if I keep at it.
Maybe in 4+ months, I’ll take a look at the data and realize “Nope, this didn’t work” and I can decide to go in a different direction, make some changes to my strategy or something else all together.
I have NO idea.
But until then, I’ll do my best to stay curious and keep at it.
Update 2025
It’s been a few years since I wrote this post, and I’m grateful to say it’s still bringing in readers - so it felt like the right time for an update.
When I first wrote this in early 2022, I was just a few months into blogging. I was committed to showing up regularly and sharing content I knew would be helpful for the people I wanted to help. That consistency has since paid off.
A few months after this blog post, a resource I created was shared more widely than I expected, and my audience grew quickly. Thanks to the foundation I had already built with my regular blog posts, I was ready to keep showing up - not just with blog posts, but with content that deepened the connection with the people finding me.
Over time, more and more people discovered my content, and it started to show up in places I hadn’t even imagined - including search results and AI recommendations. It’s a big part of how the right clients continue to find me and reach out to work together.
The biggest takeaway? Consistency works. Even when you don’t see the results immediately, staying visible and providing value creates momentum that builds over time.