Consistency Beats Perfection: The Patagonia Lesson on Marketing

In this episode, I share a serendipitous moment sparked by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s book, highlighting the power of authenticity in marketing. Too often, business owners struggle with marketing because they’re trying to craft a “perfect” or “unique” voice, rather than simply being themselves. Drawing from real client conversations, I explain how the most effective content comes from genuine experiences and actual pain points — not from forced formulas.

Key topics covered:
- The importance of authenticity over perfection in marketing
- Why trying to be someone you’re not makes marketing harder
- Using real client challenges as the foundation for valuable content
- The value of consistency in building authority
- An invitation to join my one-to-one coaching programme, designed to help you market with confidence and authenticity

Listen in to discover why showing up as your true self is the key to sustainable, effective marketing.

Curious about one-to-one coaching? Submit an application here and we can chat about your business.

If you’re ready for more personalised support, I currently have space for five new one-to-one coaching clients.

It’s 11 hours of tailored coaching for £2,500, designed to help you build a marketing system that feels like you — no formulas, no pretending.

If you want to apply for one of these spots before we open it up more widely, you can do that here:

https://airtable.com/app28MNir9SrqMbbK/pagGT2MCWXEbrEUVH/form

Transcript

0:27

Hey, welcome to the Kaffeen Authority Builder podcast. Today I wanna share a little story that happened completely by accident this morning. I was getting the Patagonia founder's book off my shelf to lend to my sister-in-law, and it just fell open on the section about marketing. And what I read made me stop because it was so relevant to what I see with my clients. The book said, the paragraphs specifically that I opened said, our branding efforts are simple to tell people who we are. We don't have to create a fictional character. Writing fiction is so much more difficult than non-fiction. Fiction requires creativity and imagination. Nonfiction deals with simple truths. And then a little later run in the passage it said, without a formula, the only way to sustain an image is to live up to it. Our image is a direct reflection of who we are and what we believe. And that really hit me because fine, that's about Patagonia and they're a very purpose-driven company and, and lots of people will recognize them as such. But it really hit me because so many business owners that I come across find marketing really difficult. They put it off the resistor, and one of the big reasons is that they're trying to find the perfect voice or a unique voice. In other words, they're trying to be something that they're not. And when you do that, of course it feels hard. It's going to feel unnatural. You're going to resist it. Even if you manage to craft something, it will feel icky and you won't want to put it out there. But if you're just being yourself, it's so much easier. This happens to me all the time. For example, I get off a coaching call or a sales call and a client will have shared something they're struggling with pain point, an objection, a challenge that they've run into, and I recognize it straight away because I've heard it a hundred times before, more often than not. And that's my sign that it's not just their issue, it's something a lot of people are struggling with. And because it's fresh in my mind, I can often just repeat back what I said to them in a way that helps others too. And I often do this using voice notes. I shared an email yesterday that was exactly this. I'd just come off a sales call with somebody who ended up signing on for one-to-one coaching. We had talked about a particular challenge, and I thought, I've heard this a lot of times. So while it was all fresh in mind, I just jotted it down. Well, in my case, a voice. And yes, my friends despair sometimes when they get extended voice notes on WhatsApp, but I really love them. They let me do a brain dump right away, and it's not polished, but it's genuine. And it's my voice, literally my voice. And then later if I want, and if they think it's worthy enough, I can refine it into a podcast episode or an email a bit like I'm doing right now. And the reason it works is because it's based on something real. It's not crafted out of thin air, it's grounded in an actual conversation, an actual pain point. That means it's gonna be valuable to more than just that one client. which brings me back to the Patagonia quote. Because so much of the image relies on authenticity, a formula would destroy it, and that's exactly what I encourage my clients to do with authority building. If you understand who you are, who you help, and who really values your support. If you are in business and you have clients who come back who live working with you, then you're already solving people's problems, and that's your marketing content, their objections, their pain points, your responses. That's the goal that other people, it's gonna be meaningful to other people as. So I encourage you to think about this for yourself. Are you avoiding marketing?'cause you're trying to create a voice that isn't you? Are you chasing a level of perfection? That means nothing ever gets finished. Are you trying to be someone you're not? And if so, no matter how much support you get with it, marketing is always going to feel hard. You'll start, then you'll stop. You'll find it difficult to be consistent, but if you show up as yourself. The self that people already pay for, then, you know, it's genuine. You know, it's valuable to more than just one client. And, uh, because it feels natural, you're gonna actually do it consistently. And that's the big takeaway because we know that consistency is way, way more important than perfection when it comes to building authority. You don't need to be a perfectly imagined version of a business owner. you just need to be the real version. Of yourself, the one that your clients already love, which is also why I wanted to mention something timely. I currently have limited space to take on five new one-to-one coaching clients. We're about to start advertising this more widely in the coming days. So if you're listening right now, you're getting first access is the package of 11 hours of coaching. For 2,500 pounds. And the beauty of this is that we can tailor it to your exact needs. It's designed to give you a clear, personalized system for your marketing and authority building. No more chasing formulas, no more trying to be someone you're not. So if you'd like to secure one of those spots, you can do that right now at the link below in the show notes. See you next time.