041: When Less Consistency Is Actually MORE!

Have you got all of your content lined up for today and this week or are you completely out of steam? Are you still, or have you ever, posted every day on social media, created a podcast, gone live every week, gone into your Facebook group with consistency and dedication? Or are you wishing that was you, or even happy that it's not?

Whichever way you go when it comes to being visible, today's episode is for you.

I'm Jo Ingram, this is Action Taker Tribe and if you're a new coach or course creator in the first year of creating your business, wanting to have an aligned, sustainable, inspirational heart-centered business, this is the podcast for you. Let's dive in.

I nearly didn't make this episode - let me explain. I'm going on holiday – vacation - next week. I'm not going very far; we're just going down to the Southwest coast of the UK in Cornwall. The kids are going to have a surf lesson, we're going to hang out with some good friends, but as much as I'm looking forward to that, I'm also thinking, have I got everything lined up for my business so that while I'm away things can run automatically? My social media scheduled, my podcast episodes recorded, and everything just seamless, as though I were not even on vacation? Truthfully, no, I am not ready at all. I haven't got things lined up and you know what? I'm not sure if I should worry too much about that.

When I first pivoted out of corporate and into running my own business and being a business coach, I was extraordinarily consistent when it came to building my audience and being visible on social media, particularly when it came to posting on Instagram and also into my Facebook business page. I did not miss one day in a year. I'll say that again.

I did not miss one day in a year.

I very quickly got on board with the idea of using a scheduler. My personal preference is later.com, but I believe there are several that are just as good. Every week I would sit, particularly on a Sunday night, and I would create posts to go out all week long. I'd get them all scheduled and then I could sit back and know that I was building my business and building my audience, even whilst I was doing other things throughout the week. This is often called batching and I would absolutely recommend that if it is your intention to be utterly consistent and as visible as possible, that you get into batching as soon as possible. I knew that there was no way every single day I would find the inspiration all the time to create my social media posts.

I know that that's not the case for everyone. You may be thinking, ‘I adore creating my posts spontaneously and I'd like that too’. It just wasn't something that I could fit into my everyday life. You may have heard from my previous podcasts that I hit a wall about eight or nine months in and I got to a point where I was just burned out. I was working so hard trying to do all the things simultaneously, and I just simply wasn't aligned.

I wasn't building my business with inspiration. I was building it with striving - I wasn't being, I was doing.

With that being the case, I allowed my social media consistency to drop off. It was almost like proving a point to myself - you do not have to try so hard. It is okay to break the perceived rules, the rules you've created for yourself, and you can be easier if you don't feel like sitting down on Sunday and creating a week's worth of posts - be spontaneous. See what happens now.

Interestingly, at that same time I was starting to get into reels on Instagram. As you may know, reels have been favoured by the algorithm and are a very popular way of building your account fast. So, instead of posting every day, I decided to simply lean into the inspiration and action I was taking and the enjoyment that I was getting from creating reels. Instead of posting every day, I started posting just a couple of times a week when I felt inspired to create these reels and these videos.

I actually found that for quite a period of time, not only was I sustaining the size of my following, but it was actually growing, even though I wasn't posting every day. Perhaps it was an energetic thing, perhaps it was the reels, but either way I learned an important lesson and that was that you can break the rules.

You don't have to be everything you told yourself you had to be. You don't have to try so hard that it hurts. You can go easier on yourself.

That's a massive part of what I've learned as an entrepreneur and what I help my clients to do too. It's about prioritising and it's about feeling ease as you're building your business. To that point of ease, why did I say I nearly didn't record this? Well, because I simply didn't have enough episodes batched in order for me to be able to set them live - not only this week, but next week when I'm on vacation and then the week when I get back, because I wouldn't have time to record an episode whilst I'm away.

I questioned myself, what's more important. Is it more important for you to push yourself and get three episodes batched before you go, even if the inspiration hasn't struck you? Or is it more important just to be brave enough to let the week go and not have an episode release that week?

The funniest thing happened that literally, as I was deciding whether to make that decision, the inspiration for the episode I am now recording just dropped in. I just thought to myself, why don't you just talk about consistency and the struggle about consistently being visible online, keeping up with your podcasts or whatever your commitments are? Where does it flip from being a pleasure to being a burden?

Interestingly, the minute you allow that inspiration to drop in, suddenly it becomes easy.

Here I am, not a word of a lie, standing as I always do in my daughter's closet. I've got my eyes closed so I can go within, really think about what I want to say, because I have no notes. This is just off script. This is just how I feel at this moment and how I feel in my life. As a person building a business, sometimes I do look at my peers and others. Yep, that was a mistake - comparisonitis I know - and I think, gosh, look how quickly their Instagram's building. Look how many people seem to be listening to their podcast or engaging on their posts. Sometimes I think, could I have that if I just worked harder, if I just tried more, if I was a little bit more consistent, and I think to myself, yes you could, but what would it take for you to get there and would the energy be off?

Because it's so much about energy, so much about what you put out, the intention behind it and how you're feeling. That's how it gets received by those people that are in your audience.

It is true to say that even striving, even pushing, even being utterly consistent and posting more than most, it doesn't assure you greater or faster growth than anyone else.

By the time you're listening to this, I'm probably back from my vacation. I hope I had a good time. I hope there was even a little bit of sunshine here in the UK shining just for me on my holiday. Mostly right now, I'm also hoping that you really received my intention behind this podcast today. Have a little look at what you're doing in your business and ask yourself, are you striving a little bit too hard? Is the consistency coming easily or are you swimming upstream constantly? What could you do to get a little bit more aligned and take a little bit more pleasure in what you're doing? How can you share what's in your heart, in the moment with full high vibe energy whilst also being as consistent and showing up for your business as possible?

This has been a shorter episode, but I hope it's been packed full of insight and a few nuggets for you to take away. Today I am back at my desk, starting back in September, focusing on the things that are most important for coaches and course creators who are just starting out - understanding what your purpose and mission is and how you can translate that into helping your perfect avatar. How you can help your avatar with a promise and a transformation that comes from your heart and straight to their needs. How you can create offers that are aligned and perfect and absolutely irresistible to the avatar that you identified.

If any of this is something you're working on and resonates with you drop into the show notes and book a totally free strategy session with me. Let's chat about how you can up level your business in the fall and create the best possible outcome in 2021.

Until then have an inspired action week.