There’s something magical about C-words.
I just love 'em.
From curiosity to creativity, & collaboration to community – I reckon there’s nothing more magical than building blocks of business that begin with the third letter of the alphabet.
Considering the year we’ve all had as a global cohort (2020, WHEW WHAT A RIDE!), there’s no better time now than to do a deep-dive into what keeps us all – & all of our businesses – growing & thriving during times of high stress & uncertainty: consistency.
As the old adage goes, we are all what we do again & again & again... ad infinitum.
Which means that if we’re rolling through life & marketing & work & relationships, then we’re merely sprinting from place to place without stopping to take note of our habits or routines. This makes us more like a feather on the wind than the captain of our own damn ship.
I dunno about you, but more often than not, I like steering my proverbial ship.
So let’s talk about consistency.
You know what consistency is. You know it in your heart, gut, soul, & body clock. It’s the ebb & flow & comfort inherent in knowing & doing things that you’re comfortable with. It’s breakfast in the morning & dinner in the evening. It’s please & thank you. It’s diving in & swimming. Consistency, boiled down to it’s simplest iteration & definition is made up of the stuff we do over & over & over & over & over again.
It’s the lifeblood of routine.
It’s the foundation of reputation.
It’s comfort in understanding where we all fit in macro & micro societal narratives.
It’s an Elton John song you’ve sun along with a million times.
It’s an ambrosial nectar of both calm & tempest that we drink daily when we tell our friends “I am a creature of habit.”
We’re told a lot of things consistency as we grow & move through the world & navigate our adulthood successes, failures, hobbies, relationships, & becomings.
Things like:
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” – Dwyane ‘The Rock’ Johnson
“Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose and of action over a long period of time.” – Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen
“A skeptic, I would ask for consistency first of all.” – Sylvia ‘The F*cking Legend’ Plath
Consistency, it seems, is what makes us who we are.
The moment we become anything sporadic or unreadable, we become misunderstood.
So, when it comes to work & life & brands & thinking through how all marketing, advertising, data, or relationship plays out in both the long & short term – it’s consistency that makes or breaks us all.
When we’re consistent, we’re understood. We’re trusted. We’re seen. Well, kinda. Let’s be real – virality & individual nuance of creative execution all rely on being consistently able to try, change, adapt, & repeat. So even the state of being consistently inconsistent is a form of consistency. Wild, right?
Let’s talk about how applying consistency to brand strategy, employee engagement, community growth, advertising, or marketing helps to make or break a business or personal brand.
Consistency itself is the antithesis of standing still.
And, it is a harbinger for growth, evolution & innovation.
Evolution is constant.
Growth (whether we like it or not) is constant.
Motion is constant (even while we stand still, the world still turns). So, if we look at consistency as being made up of equal parts (or vacillating parts) of motion, habits & routines, then surely we can all agree consistency sets the scene for how our work & communications show up in the world as marketing/advertising/creative professionals.
When we’re not seen, we’re not known.
When we’re not heard, we’re not understood.
When we’re not evolving, we’re not trusted.
So that leads be to values. Without being overtly pithy or flexing into my inner hippie-child, what we value & how we practice our trade ethically as individuals & as businesses is what we’ll always be known for. Take all of the customer polls, the surveys, the verbatim vox pops – use them, but remember to account for irrationality & gut feel, too.
By knowing our values & practicing them daily we’re able to create a momentum that you simply cannot buy through tech & frequency ads or even via hashtags shared by macro, micro, or celebrity influencers as a whole. Imbuing every single piece of creative at every juncture or on each platform, we imbue in our essence a consistent worthiness of time, attention, & dosh. Sure, consistently buying, refining, & optimising ads is in itself a form of business-driven consistency. But, every brand with an ad budget is doing the same thing.
In this sense, consistent mediocrity will be the death knell of our current generation of marketers who still believe that the click is the highest form of conversion & that conversations are the least of their worries.
With consistency, you build value.
With value, you create trusting relationships. With trust, you create customers for life.
You also build your reputation by embracing consistency in the long term.
When you’re consistently open to new ideas your colleagues, clients, & customers will know that you’re inherently willing to listen, evolve, & embrace modernity. Your brand is only as good as the culture & context in which it operates, so staying still & becoming stagnant in the eyes of the people you’re looking to woo most is the absolute worst thing any person or brand can do. Sure, stay consistent with things like your logo, your brand colours, your witty personality, & your brand tonality – but, by god – be consistently open to change.
I can remember a time man moons ago when I was the only person in a large corporation working in digital marketing & social media. More than once I was pulled into my boss’s office & told “This social media thing will never last, so you need to earn every cent of your wage every day you’re here.” Let’s just say, this fellow was not someone who was consistently open to change. He’s also not in marketing anymore.
Go figure.
As I’ve aged & grown into my own values I’ve found that consistency is powerful beyond strategy.
Simply being a “happy tickle” in someone’s day by committing to sharing content that is full of kindness has put my own personal brand into an area not only of being trusted, but of that which survives on friendship, connections, individuality, & nuance. If I can do it – & do it often/well – then you can too.
Wrapping up my love letter to another beautiful C-Word, I think it’s good to come back full-circle to remember that where you spend the most of your time is what you become. Recently I’ve been spending a lot of my time really digging deep into the discomfort of trying new things. Namely, I’ve been learning to play the guitar. After long days full to the gills of marketing, brand strategies, & content sessions my evenings are now given over to strumming the only 5 chords I know in hopes of someday being able to sing Kumbaya around a campfire with my nearest & dearest.
While I know I will never be an Anika Moa or Brandy Clark, I’m safe in knowing that – with consistent practice & tuition from those more skilled than I am – then I’ll at least be able to be the hero of a s’mores sing-a-long one time in my life somewhere down the line.
Yee haw! A girl can dream. And practice. And muck up. And learn. Ad infinitum.
My hope for you (& for all of us) is this: Be consistent in everything that matters to your brand, your business, & yourself. I promise you’ll find great joy in both the journey & the destination when you start living them.
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