Why Consistency is Only Half the Game
And what you need to do to play full out...
Howdy from Vegas! 🥳
It’s so hot here you could fry an egg on the pavement! 🥵
Before I start a raft of posts about all the amazing things we’re seeing and doing here, I wanted to write the post I alluded to in last Wednesdays article, when I talked about my Make It Happen Monday YouTube series and how even though I was consistent, it never really took off.
(If you didn’t see the post and you missed me abseiling down Sheffield City Hall in a sexy hard-hat, go back, I’ll wait…)
So here’s what happened.
Every Monday, for just over 2 years, I recorded an episode of Make It Happen Monday. 109 videos, rain or shine (mainly shine as I was in Phuket), motivated or knackered, I turned up and published a video.
But my account nor the series ever took off. (I think the most views I ever got was a couple of thousand on a video about becoming comfy on camera.)
Which is awkward, because I, along with all the internet ‘gooroos’ pedal the notion that consistency is the secret.
Just keep showing up. The algorithm rewards consistency. Winners never quit.
Even one of the other videos I shared with you in the same post revealed that the No 1 secret to success was Consistent, Focused, Action!
So, If It’s Not Consistency, What Is It?
Consistency gets talked about so much because it’s the one thing fully in your control.
You can’t control whether people subscribe, or even engage, but you can control whether you hit publish every Monday. You can control whether to show up, how to show up and how often.
And to be fair, the advice isn’t wrong. Most people quit far too early, and no amount of brilliance survives giving up at episode four.
Consistency is the price of entry.
As Robert Louis Stevenson (allegedly) says:
"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
The trouble is, it’s only the entry fee.
If we’re not careful we hide behind consistency, which is exactly what I did.
Ticking the box every Monday felt like progress, so I stopped asking the harder questions.
Was the show improving?
Did anyone want the information?
What were people searching for?
Was episode 100 was any different from episode 10?
(It wasn’t, by the way. Same format, same delivery, same me, just 2 years older.)
The 3 Missing Ingredients
Looking back at my efforts, 3 crucial things were missing:
1. Iteration
Doing the same thing 109 times is only practice if you improve something each time. Otherwise it’s just repetition.
There’s an old line about the difference between ten years of experience and one year of experience repeated ten times, and Make It Happen Monday was the second one.
What I’d do differently:
Pick one thing to improve every week. Not ten things. Just one. The opening hook, the thumbnail, the headline, the call to action, the way you start your videos. Get conscious about what you’re trying to make better, work on it for a week, and then pick the next thing.
Track what’s working. Open rates, watch time, comments, shares. Whatever your platform gives you. You can’t improve what you’re not measuring. A simple weekly observation of this post worked because of X, this one bombed because of Y is enough to get started.
Steal shamelessly from people doing it better than you. Find three creators in your space whose work you admire. Study them. What’s their opening line? Their structure? Their cadence? Take what works, make it yours, and move on.
2. Distribution
I made the show, then waited for the world to find it. The world, it turns out, was busy.
Build it and they will come works beautifully in films about baseball and almost nowhere else. Nobody knew the show existed, and consistency in an empty room is just you, talking to yourself on a schedule.
What I’d do differently:
Spend as much time promoting each piece as you spent making it. If a post took two hours to write, spend two hours getting it in front of people. Post it on Notes, email a friend, share it in relevant communities, mention it on socials. The work doesn’t end at publish.
Build relationships with other creators. Restack their work. Reply thoughtfully to their notes. Send the genuine I loved this email. Suggest collaborations. Most of the fastest-growing creators on any platform grew through partnerships, not solo brilliance.
Repurpose every piece into at least three formats. A long post becomes a Note, a podcast clip, a video, a thread, an Instagram carousel. One piece of work, multiple surfaces. Distribution isn’t one thing, it’s a hundred small things.
3. Feedback
I never asked the few viewers I did have what they wanted more of. I made the show I fancied making and assumed that was enough.
What I’d do differently:
Just ask. Send the email. Run the poll. Put the question in your next post. What’s been most useful? What would you love more of? What’s missing? Most readers love being asked, and the answers will surprise you.
Watch what they actually engage with, not what they say they want. Comments, shares, time on page, replies. Behaviour beats opinion. The posts that get the most engagement are telling you something the polls won’t.
Build a small inner circle and ask them properly. Ten engaged readers willing to give you honest feedback is worth more than a thousand passive subscribers. Find them. Talk to them. Let them shape what comes next.
Playing the Full Game
So here’s what I’m doing now.
I’m publishing regularly on Substack and notes are going out daily, so the consistency box is well and truly ticked.
But this time I’m studying open rates, testing headlines, watching which posts get comments and which get politely ignored, and adjusting as I go.
I’m also asking my readers what they want more of and building relationships with other creators on the platform.
Plus I’m starting to distribute my work across platforms. Notes, pins, videos, podcasts, social posts.
Think of it like this:
Consistency is the car, iteration is the steering, and distribution is the engine.
For two years with Make It Happen Monday I had my foot flat to the floor while parked.
So if you’ve been showing up faithfully with your newsletter, your podcast, your website, your videos, or your Etsy shop, and nothing’s flying, take heart.
You’re not failing or ‘no good’, you’ve just been playing half the game.
Keep showing up, absolutely. But:
Improve one thing each week,
Tell more people it exists,
And ask your audience what they want.
That’s the bit that people don’t add to the motivational posters, because “consistency plus distribution plus feedback and iteration” doesn’t rhyme with anything.
Right, talking about playing the game, I’m off to watch the footie. Come on England! 🏴
📍 Las Vegas, Nevada
Hi, Jo, Sent you email on something I thought would be very beneficial to you. I did a reply on one of the newsletters (like this one). Wanted to make sure you received it. Sharon