Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / The Consistency Advantage with Jennifer Ann Johnson
Transcript
- 0:38Jennifer Johnson: We are diving into what I believe is the most undervalued and underestimated superpower in both business and life, and that's consistency.
- 0:47Jennifer Johnson: I want to start with a story that completely changed how I think about success.
- 0:52Jennifer Johnson: A few years ago, I was struggling with my content marketing.
- 0:55Jennifer Johnson: I'd write blog posts sporadically, sometimes three in a week.
- 0:59Jennifer Johnson: I was feeling uninspired.
- 1:00Jennifer Johnson: Then I do nothing for a month.
- 1:02Jennifer Johnson: Life got busy.
- 1:03Jennifer Johnson: I'd post on social media, then I'd disappear for weeks, and I kept waiting for that viral moment, but nothing happened.
- 1:11Jennifer Johnson: Meanwhile, I watched a competitor who seemed to produce content that was good, but it wasn't awesome.
- 1:17Jennifer Johnson: But their audience was growing, their engagement was consistent, and they always seemed to land bigger opportunities than I was.
- 1:23Jennifer Johnson: What was their secret?
- 1:25Jennifer Johnson: Well, it wasn't brilliance, it wasn't luck or some special strategy that I didn't know about.
- 1:30Jennifer Johnson: It was something much simpler and much more powerful.
- 1:33Jennifer Johnson: They showed up, and they showed up every single day, not with perfect content and not with groundbreaking insights, but consistent, valuable content that was consistent.
- 1:44Jennifer Johnson: And that's when I realized I'd been chasing the wrong thing.
- 1:46Jennifer Johnson: I was looking for a magic moment, that magic bullet, that magic pill, that perfect strategy.
- 1:53Jennifer Johnson: Today I want to talk about consistency and why it matters and why it's the ultimate competitive advantage and how to build that consistency mindset that serves you in every single area of your life and how to maintain that.
- 2:08Jennifer Johnson: Our culture celebrates intensity and dramatic transformations and overnight successes.
- 2:13Jennifer Johnson: We love stories about people who worked a hundred hours a week to build their empire and suddenly they had a breakthrough that changed everything.
- 2:21Jennifer Johnson: The truth?
- 2:23Jennifer Johnson: Sustainable success is almost always built on consistency instead of intensity.
- 2:29Jennifer Johnson: Consistency works because of the compound effect.
- 2:32Jennifer Johnson: Small actions repeated over time creates the results.
- 2:36Jennifer Johnson: Just like compound interest in investing.
- 2:40Jennifer Johnson: Writing one blog post is not going to change your business, but writing one blog post every week for two years is going to establish you as a thought leader in your industry.
- 2:50Jennifer Johnson: Whether we're talking about customers, employees, partners, or even ourselves, consistency builds trust in ways that sporadic brilliance can't.
- 3:01Jennifer Johnson: When people know what to expect from you, when they can rely on you to show up and deliver quality work regularly, that becomes valuable.
- 3:10Jennifer Johnson: Momentum is one of the most powerful forces in business and in life, but it can only be treated through consistent action.
- 3:17Jennifer Johnson: When you do something regularly, each action builds on the previous ones, creating that forward momentum that makes future progress easy, easier, I should say, and more likely.
- 3:29Jennifer Johnson: The 10,000-hour rule gets a lot of attention, but the real insight isn't about the number of hours, it's about the consistency of practice.
- 3:37Jennifer Johnson: Mastery comes from regular, deliberate practice over periods of time.
- 3:42Jennifer Johnson: You can't cram mastery into intensive births.
- 3:46Jennifer Johnson: It requires consistent engagement over time.
- 3:49Jennifer Johnson: Our brains are wired to seek immediate rewards, but consistency requires delayed gratification.
- 3:57Jennifer Johnson: When you're being consistent, the individual action often feels really small.
- 4:02Jennifer Johnson: And the results are usually not immediately visible to you, which creates that psychological challenge because you're doing the work and you're not getting that immediate reward.
- 4:13Jennifer Johnson: One of the biggest challenges to consistency is what I call a plateau problem.
- 4:18Jennifer Johnson: You start something new, you see rapid progress, which is the motivating part, but then you hit a plateau.
- 4:24Jennifer Johnson: Progress slows, becomes less visible, and then it's tempting to quit.
- 4:29Jennifer Johnson: And a lot of people struggle because they're waiting for perfect things, the perfect condition, the perfect storm to get started or to take action.
- 4:39Jennifer Johnson: And then they see other people succeed or different approaches that disrupt your consistency because you're asking your questions, going, Am I doing this right?
- 4:49Jennifer Johnson: Should I be doing this differently?
- 4:51Jennifer Johnson: And it challenges us, especially because we're seeing this in the social media that we're all consuming.
- 5:01Jennifer Johnson: And then another mistake that we make when we're trying to build consistency is to start too big.
- 5:06Jennifer Johnson: I see this all the time.
- 5:08Jennifer Johnson: You commit to writing a blog post every single day.
- 5:12Jennifer Johnson: Let's say it's exercising for an hour every morning.
- 5:15Jennifer Johnson: And then when you miss a day, you feel like you failed.
- 5:18Jennifer Johnson: You've abandoned your habit.
- 5:20Jennifer Johnson: Instead, start with small, almost really, really, really inconsequential things that's really hard to skip.
- 5:28Jennifer Johnson: Write one paragraph every day.
- 5:30Jennifer Johnson: Exercise for 10 minutes.
- 5:32Jennifer Johnson: Go small.
- 5:33Jennifer Johnson: The goal is to establish that pattern so that you can start seeing immediate results.
- 5:39Jennifer Johnson: Consistency becomes easier when you focus on controlling what you can control, like your actions and processes, rather than what you can't, which is those immediate in uh immediate outcomes and results.
- 5:51Jennifer Johnson: Your environment should make consistency easier and not harder.
- 5:54Jennifer Johnson: This means setting up your workspace the night before, keeping healthy snacks available.
- 5:59Jennifer Johnson: I have done this so many times and went, oh my gosh, I am so hungry.
- 6:04Jennifer Johnson: And then I go and I reach for the chocolate.
- 6:07Jennifer Johnson: If I would have had things prepared, it wouldn't have happened that way.
- 6:11Jennifer Johnson: So instead of focusing on what you want to achieve, focus on what you want to become.
- 6:15Jennifer Johnson: I'm the type of person who writes every day is more powerful than I want to write a book.
- 8:48Jennifer Johnson: See where I'm going with that.
- 8:50Jennifer Johnson: One of the most valuable forms of consistency in business is creating reliable customer experiences.
- 8:57Jennifer Johnson: When customers know what to expect from your business, like in terms of quality and service, they're more likely to become repeat customers.
- 9:06Jennifer Johnson: Consistent marketing and building your brand recognition doesn't mean saying the same thing repeatedly, but it does mean maintaining consistent messaging.
- 9:21Jennifer Johnson: Establishing and maintaining consistent operational standards like how you handle orders or respond to inquiries.
- 9:31Jennifer Johnson: Create a reliable consistent financial practices like regular bookkeeping, monthly reviews, consistent pricing, and disciplined spending create stability and enable better decision making.
- 9:46Jennifer Johnson: Make learning a consistent habit rather than something you do only when you have time or you feel motivated.
- 9:52Jennifer Johnson: This might mean reading for 30 minutes every morning or listening to podcasts during commutes, whatever that looks like.
- 9:59Jennifer Johnson: Block time for skill development.
- 10:02Jennifer Johnson: And then regularly reflect on your learning and your planning.
- 10:06Jennifer Johnson: Whether you do it weekly or monthly, it helps you stay aligned with your goals.
- 10:11Jennifer Johnson: Maintaining consistent habits around exercising, nutrition, and sleep are also very important.
- 10:17Jennifer Johnson: It's consistent self-care as well as consistent relationship investment.
- 10:22Jennifer Johnson: Make sure that you're out there building relationships with people and doing that network with your mentors and your peers because that's very important.
- 10:33Jennifer Johnson: And one of the biggest myths about consistency is that it requires constant motivation.
- 10:38Jennifer Johnson: The truth is that motivation fluctuates naturally, and wanting and then waiting for more motivation to take action guarantees inconsistency.
- 10:49Jennifer Johnson: Life will inevitably present disruptions like illness and emergencies.
- 10:54Jennifer Johnson: And of course, there's always going to be that business crisis.
- 10:58Jennifer Johnson: But the key is to having contingency plans that you allow to maintain some level of consistency during those disruptions because they're going to happen.
- 11:09Jennifer Johnson: Then you bring in the good old perfectionism that's the enemy of consistency because it creates the all-or-nothing mentality.
- 11:16Jennifer Johnson: When you miss a day or you perform below standards, then you've said to yourself, Oh my gosh, I failed.
- 11:24Jennifer Johnson: And that's not the case.
- 11:27Jennifer Johnson: Consistency doesn't mean to be always intense as well.
- 11:31Jennifer Johnson: It requires managing your energy levels and avoiding that burnout by building in your appropriate rest and recovery.
- 11:39Jennifer Johnson: Consistent actions create exponential rather than linear growth.
- 11:45Jennifer Johnson: The difference between someone who is consistent and someone who isn't becomes larger over time.
- 11:51Jennifer Johnson: After a year, the gap may be really noticeable.
- 11:53Jennifer Johnson: And after five, it can be dramatic.
- 11:58Jennifer Johnson: Which also being having that increased consistency also builds that trust factor.
- 12:06Jennifer Johnson: It tells people that you're reliable and that they can actually trust you, which then enhances your reputation to not just to you, but to your brand, which then has the layered effect of adding confidence.
- 12:18Jennifer Johnson: So you can kind of see where I'm going with this.
- 12:20Jennifer Johnson: One thing leads to another, leads to another, which means that it's all layered and on top of each other.
- 12:28Jennifer Johnson: And so I have a few tips for you.
- 12:30Jennifer Johnson: The first one, uh, and that is to create consistency.
- 12:33Jennifer Johnson: The first is the two-minute rule.
- 12:34Jennifer Johnson: For any new habit that you want to build, start with a version that takes two minutes or less.
- 12:38Jennifer Johnson: It removes that barrier of, oh my gosh, I don't have time.
- 12:42Jennifer Johnson: Then you can have it stack.
- 12:44Jennifer Johnson: I'm sure you may have heard of that.
- 12:46Jennifer Johnson: And so you add behaviors to existing habitat habits.
- 12:51Jennifer Johnson: After I pour my coffee in the morning, I'll write three things.
- 12:54Jennifer Johnson: After I finish lunch, I'll make one call.
- 12:56Jennifer Johnson: You see where I'm going with that.
- 12:58Jennifer Johnson: Then accountability.
- 12:59Jennifer Johnson: Have somebody who is accountable that you're accountable to.
- 13:04Jennifer Johnson: Celebrate your progress.
- 13:06Jennifer Johnson: And then sit back and review what you've done.
- 13:09Jennifer Johnson: Because this is a marathon.
- 13:12Jennifer Johnson: It's not a sprint.
- 13:13Jennifer Johnson: It needs to become part of your life philosophy.
- 13:18Jennifer Johnson: That long-term mindset.
- 13:21Jennifer Johnson: That process of embracing consistency means that you're learning to trust the process, even when you can't see the results.
- 13:29Jennifer Johnson: Consistency builds discipline, and the discipline enables more consistency, which then creates your confidence.
- 13:38Jennifer Johnson: As we wrap up today's episode, I want to leave you with this thought.
- 13:41Jennifer Johnson: In a world that's constantly seeking the hack or the secret strategy or the breakthrough moment, consistency is the ultimate competitive advantage because so many people are willing, so few people are willing to embrace it.
- 13:55Jennifer Johnson: It's not glamorous, it doesn't make for exciting social media posts.
- 13:58Jennifer Johnson: It's not the kind of thing that gets featured in business magazines, but it's the foundation that everything else is built on.
- 14:05Jennifer Johnson: The most successful entrepreneurs I know are not necessarily the most talented or creative.
- 14:11Jennifer Johnson: They're the most consistent.
- 14:13Jennifer Johnson: They show up every single day.
- 14:14Jennifer Johnson: They keep going when other people give up.
- 14:16Jennifer Johnson: Your consistency becomes your reputation.
- 14:19Jennifer Johnson: Your reputation becomes your brand, and your brand becomes your competitive advantage.
- 14:24Jennifer Johnson: And your competitive advantage becomes the foundation for sustainable long-term success.
- 14:31Jennifer Johnson: Don't underestimate the power of showing up consistently day after day, even when it feels ordinary or unremarkable.
- 14:38Jennifer Johnson: Those ordinary days accumulate over time, which create extraordinary results.
- 14:44Jennifer Johnson: So start small.
- 14:46Jennifer Johnson: Start today.
- 14:47Jennifer Johnson: Pick one area where you want to build consistency and commit to showing up every day, even if it's just for a few minutes.
- 14:55Jennifer Johnson: Trust the process, trust the compound effect, trust the consistency more than any other factor.
- 15:02Jennifer Johnson: That will determine your long term success.
- 15:06Jennifer Johnson: The tortoise did not beat the hair because it was faster.
- 15:10Jennifer Johnson: It won because it never stopped.
- 15:13Jennifer Johnson: It never stopped moving forward.
- 15:15Jennifer Johnson: In the race of entrepreneurship in life, consistency is your greatest asset.