7 Things I Wish I Knew About Consistency | 163

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Hey! I'm Clee, the founder/CVO of Build Your Vision LLC, a media & coaching company that trains busy, growth-minded visionaries in self-leadership and personal growth.

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Transcript

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Here are seven things I wish I knew about consistency after over 1, 000 social media posts, 50 consecutive live presentations, and over 150 podcast episodes. Number one. There There is not a better way. You just have to get way better. What do I mean by this? I see so often, myself included, I wish I understood this because I have gone through so many softwares, platforms, methodologies, trying to get as a means to an end To just realize down the line that there is not a better way. And I was suffering from a chronic case of the grass is greener syndrome. Let me ask you this. Have you ever opted out of one thing that you were doing because it was not working for you and then you get enlightened on another vehicle or method that you think will work better for you? Then you adopt that and you pay for that or you subscribe to that and yet you find yourself, if not in the same place, just a little different than what you were before. And it's because there is not a better way. You just have to get way better. There is no magic bullet for your social media. There is no magic bullet for your podcast. There is no magic bullet for your business. there is no magic bullet for your book. There is no magic bullet for your conference. There's no magic bullet. For it, the only magic bullet, which really isn't magic, is long obedience in the same direction. Long obedience in the same direction. I know I would be so much farther along if I just stuck with what I had and realized there was not a better way to do things. I just had to get way better at what I was doing. I had to stop making excuses for why I was not getting where I wanted to go and take responsibility and accountability for just getting better with where I was. Stewarding what I had already possessed. What can this look like for you? Pick your lane. to you. And what do I mean by authentic? Authentic. the one that comes to you most naturally for me. That's a podcast because I am a speaker. I am a teacher and I have a background in audio engineering and sound design. So this was the most authentic medium for me. And we're not just talking about content creation or content distribution in this. It could be for anything. If you love doing live conferences, if you love doing one on ones instead of group coaching, whatever it is, pick your lane. It's And just leverage the heck out of it. Pick the one that's the most authentic you and go to work there. Maximize that because there's not a better way. You just have to get way better. Stop blaming the vehicle when you are just not the best driver yet. And I'm going to get to this, that analogy again. But first let's move on to number two. Your productivity doesn't matter as much as your priorities. I know one of the biggest complaints for me from people I work with, from clients, from colleagues, is that we just don't have enough time. There's not enough time in the day to get everything I gotta get done. Cause look, especially for most of us who are just starting these businesses, you are a solopreneur act. You are doing the content creation. You are doing the coaching. You are doing The consulting, you are doing the onboarding, you are doing the admin, you are doing the fulfillment, you were doing all of it. And it feels like a lot because it is a lot. So therefore time is of the essence. And lots of times we feel overwhelmed because there's just not enough. And we look for ways so that we could be more productive, whether that's a productivity system or a productivity method or framework. And here's the thing that I've realized over this period of time of doing this. It is not so much a productivity thing as much as it is a priority thing. Here's the cold hard truth. You, me, we have enough time. We are all given the same 24. But, your productivity will always hit the ceiling of your priorities. You choose where you put your time now, of course We've got to make room for the things that are staples in your day that require your time Like if you have a job, you need to go to that job. That is going to take some of your time But what are you doing with the rest of your day? You still have 16 more hours or at least 10 more hours of the day To do what you have to do. Now, of course you have things like children and family that also require your time, but you are in control of how you prioritize that time. If you haven't already been through my program and vision for newer school, which is my free community and classroom for aspiring visionary podcasters, uh, get in there if you're not in there, but there's a course that we go through where we talk about establishing your value ladder. Your value ladder is basically your list of priorities. And I say, you don't go more than 10 deep with this because at that point it's just a list and it's no longer any type of prioritization there. So. It's developing this thing in order of what is the most important to me, what brings me the most fulfillment and joy in life, in my life, and then assessing whether you are actually living in alignment with those priorities. After you have established what those priorities are for you, you need to make note of the needle movers. This is what I call the things that actually push you forward to that life destination. Lots of our time can be filled with things that keep us busy, but are not effective toward getting us where we actually want to go in life. Yes, this might be urgent, but is it important? And lots of our time gets Bought up and spent on these yes, urgent, but unimportant things, or yes, easy, but things that actually pull us backward. So here's an example for myself that I established that you can, you know, use an example for you. I know right off hand, the first top three priorities of my value ladder is my faith, my family, and my growth and development. Those things are huge priorities to me. Now, also I have things on here like relationships with my friends, but that falls all the way down to number seven. So yes, if my friends are getting in the way of my growth and development, my relationship with my family, or my relationship with. God, they have to bounce. They have to go. I would never give them more time than I'm giving those things, even within the top three, if my growth and development or what's perceived as my growth and development is getting in the way of my time with the Lord. That is not okay. I have to prioritize my time in a way that actually aligns with my values. This is way more effective than a productivity system, because this is about becoming a person that actually follows through with what your priorities are, rather than blaming your efficiency or lack thereof on a productivity system. And then I've established needle movers for those areas. So am I spending time hearing, studying, reading, and fellowshipping over the word of God every day? Like, that is something that I actually check off in what I call my LOPs, life operating procedures, so that I know I'm hitting the marks for these needle movers, because that is a priority. I make sure. Time for it. Same thing with family. Same thing with growth and development. Investing in myself. Same thing for what follows after that. And number four is my impact and influence. Making podcasts like these, going into my community, serving them, making courses and classrooms for the people that I serve. That is a priority of mine and I allocate my time accordingly to that. Now, I have not gotten this perfect. I'm not speaking from a place of I got this down pat, but I've realized that it's not so much about, oh, I need a time management system. No, you just need to actually spend the time on the things that you say profess with your mouth matter to you. And if you actually did that, you will have enough time, but we don't. We spend that time watching Netflix. We spend that time on social media. We spend that time talking to friends and there's nothing wrong with those things, but it's something wrong with it. If it does not align with your value ladder, because you're living in a state of constant misalignment and that breeds aggravation, frustration, discontent, and it's not a productivity thing. It's a priority thing. All right. Number three. You don't have a consistency issue. You have a commitment issue. One day while I was at work, I remember this day like it was yesterday. I was actually at work and I was simultaneously. I told you, uh, growth and development is number three on my priority list. I was making time for it. I was watching a leadership course by Donald Miller and he said something so profound, so profound to me that I almost had to call out. Out for the rest of the day because it just messed me up that much. It was so good. And he said this, stop choosing confusion. Stop choosing to be confused. And I'm like, what does he mean by that? And he said, there are more leaders who choose confusion than there are those who are actually confused. So what does choosing confusion mean? Choosing confusion means you are choosing to be in a state of indecision,, back and forth, fickleness, not because you don't know what to do, but because you are operating in a state of fear, trepidation, Insecurity and quite honestly, is more comfortable to stay confused because it requires less accountability than being someone that commits. See, when you are in a state of confusion and oh, I don't know how to get this answer about this, or I'm not sure how to do that, or I'm looking for feedback on this, or I'm asking someone else about their experience doing that, you get an excuse. You can give yourself a pass. You can pass by people who said, didn't you say that you were going to. But if you can say, Oh, I'm confused. I haven't quite figured it out. It relieves yourself of accountability rather than saying, This is what I'm doing. This is the goal. This is the inputs I'm going to make. This is what I'm going to accomplish during this period of time. That makes you accountable. And it's easier to stay in a state of confusion. That it is to be committed. So therefore we choose not to make a decision, or we choose to be in a constant state of confusion rather than us making a decisive move and how committed you are directly determines your level of consistency. If you are half committed, you are going to be half consistent. If you are partially committed, you're going to be partially consistent, but if you are complete. Completely committed, you will be consistent. It has to do with your commitment. You think you like have a consistency problem. No, you have a problem. You have not fully committed to what you said. I know this. Like, there's certain things, like, let's just say, uh, for example, for myself, because I'm speaking from seven things I wish I knew, uh, YouTube. YouTube was a space and is presently still a space because I've not built out a team in order to do it at the level that I know it needs to be done. Is a space where I have not fully committed. But there was a point where I was tricking myself about this because, um, I saw the opportunity that was on YouTube even though it wasn't my lane because, you know, I, there's, there's no better way. You just gotta get way better. Remember point one. But I was partially consistent with YouTube because I was partially committed to YouTube because it was not my full focus at the time. It's not my full focus because I was doing an audio first podcast, not a video first podcast. And lots of times I would say, Oh, well I'm partially consistent cause I don't know how to edit that well and blah, blah, blah. And this is just like, no, if you decided to fully commit, you would figure it out, bro. No, you're just, you don't have a consistency problem. You have a commitment problem. You're not fully committed to this. If you want to improve your consistency, you must improve the quality of your commitments. And lots of times this looks like you committing to less. It's hard to be fully committed in multiple areas. That's challenging. Something's going to have to give. So that's point number three. You don't have a consistency issue. You have a commitment issue. Number four. Clarity is the key to consistency. This was my first ebook that I ever wrote, uh, called The Key to Consistency. Cause it is. Clarity cures a multitude of sins is what I always say. the quality of your life is directly determined by the clarity of your vision. Your clarity is the key that unlocks consistency for you. Let me ask you this, have you ever been riding or driving behind someone and you can point out relatively quickly That this person is probably lost. I mean, they're going slow. They're breaking and gassing. They're putting on their blinkers and turn signals and turning them back off. You like what this person is clearly lost. They don't know where they're going. They're inconsistent in their driving maneuvers. They are not consistently headed in a determined, definite direction. Okay. It's clear that they are not clear about where they're going. And I'm tying this back into number three. If you are not clear about what you're committing to, you won't even know when the commitment is broken. When you are clear about where you're driving, you don't even realize how many laws you're breaking. People are honking at you, looking at you like you're crazy. You have to have some level of clarity. Now, I don't mean 100 percent clarity if you have not listened to, uh, episode, one 37 with Dr. Darius Daniels, where we talk about calling and clarity, listen to that because it's not that you have to be 100 percent clear. You'll never be 100 percent clear that at that point you'll be God, but you have to have enough, enough clarity to make a decision and move forward and commit. But if you don't even know if you're not clear what you're committed to you won't even realize that you've broken the commitment And what we do most often as as coaches consultants educational content creators this lack of clarity of commitment we call it or label as oh i'm making some pivots a series of pivots no You just aren't clear about what you're committed to i'll tell you what a pivot is A pivot is you've made a decision to go in a certain direction. You've committed to but there needs to be a change, a slight, literally pivot on a point of axis to not change the goal or the destination, but rather change the, approach of how you're going to do that. Not changing what you're even committed to in the first place. Pivots are okay, because you have determined that you're going in a certain direction, and you have to make certain adjustments on the way to that destination in order to get there in the most effective manner. But a lack of commitment or clarity about commitment, you are just all over the place. You say that you're going to do a podcast at one point, and then you're saying you're going to do YouTube, and then you're doing Reels, and you're just all over the place. this was definitely me because I kept thinking there was a better way, not realizing that I just need to get way better. But I wasn't clear about what my commitments were. Let me make it make sense in this way. Let's say that you were in a romantic relationship. would you ever, ever tell your significant other that you're in a committed relationship with? Hey, you know, um, I think that I'm actually going to start dating this person right now. We're, we're still cool. I'm going to start dating this person. I'm making a pivot in the relationship. Would you ever say you were making a pivot in a relationship, in a commitment like that? No, you would not. you're crazy at that point. What are you doing? You just don't need to be with anybody. No, when you make a commitment, you either decide to stop that commitment, make adjustments and tweaks in that commitment, but you do not make a pivot in that commitment. Stop labeling a lack of clarity on your commitments as pivots. That's a cop out. You must be clear about the commitment you're making. What's the why behind that commitment? And what are your inputs going to be? What are you going to consistently show up and do? Don't worry about the outcomes. Don't worry about how many followers you get. Don't worry about how many likes, how many views. Don't worry about how many clients. Don't worry about how much money yet. Just be consistent with I'm going to come to the table with this because I'm clear about what I am committed to and why I'm doing it and why it matters. And this is going to be my input. If you do that, God will honor the rest. You got to be clear. All right, number five. Your consistency is your brand. Your consistency is your brand. So I have a friend named Devin and Devin is a type of person I would call eccentric. Lots of personality, lots of style, lots of swag. And there was a point that we were in high school together and Devin out of nowhere. I mean, he's from, he's, he's not a country person. He's from the city, decided to start wearing cowboy boots to school. And at first everybody was like, bro, what are you doing? There's like no one in our school. Cowboy boots. It was very, very strange, but it was not that strange for a person like Devin. He, he made his own style and he was confident in it and he kept wearing the boots day in and day out. And eventually everyone got used to it. In fact, the crazier Devin's outfits got, The more normal it was because he was consistent with how he liked to experiment with his wardrobe. See, the key to his brand of being an eccentric, stylish fashionista of a person came with his consistency. Imagine if Devin wore cowboy boots one day and then didn't wear them again for another 3, 4, 5 weeks. And then tried to wear them again, except with a cowboy hat this time. Everyone would look at him like, Dude, what are you wearing? But the fact that he was consistent with how he carried himself, consistent with how he presented himself, it became his brand. Whatever you show up as the most, becomes your reputation. Your reputation, your reputation. Your brand and your reputation is all you have. That's it. If that goes, you're dead in the water. You're done. So bro, your reputation is your brand and your reputation is what you consistently Show up as I am in a season where I want to become. This is one of the greatest pieces of advice I've ever heard become a person that people say yes to before they know what the offer is become a person who people say yes to before they know what the request is. Because your brand yields a yes. Showing up and being the person you say you're going to be. Being the person that you said you are consistently. Day in and day out. That is so important. I wish I understood the importance of this earlier. Whatever you show up as the most, that is your brand. If you're not showing up, that's your brand. You are invisible. You have to choose what your brand is. You could be a one on, you could not, social media might not be your thing. You could be a one on one personal, person. That's your brand. That's what you show up as the most consistently as. Whatever it is, if you constantly don't show up, if you constantly are late, if you constantly, uh, say you're going to do something and then don't do it. If you're constantly flopping or being a no show, whatever it is. Underperforming, letting your reputation exceed you. Not even precede you, exceed you. Then that's your brand. Because that's what you're showing up as consistently. This is so key. I wish I knew the importance and the weight 6. We're drawing this to a close. Now, I'm being a little tongue in cheek here, but I'm, I'm serious. But I just want to get your attention with the strong language I'm about to use here. Here it is. Consistency is the smartest way to win if you're not dumb. Consistency is the smartest way to win if you aren't dumb. Now let me explain myself y'all. Stop doing the same thing that doesn't work and expect to be rewarded because you are sticking with it. Stop expecting some consolation prize because oh, I'm doing it over and over again So therefore I should get some type of reward for it because I keep showing up. No, you just consistently suck. No rewards No constellation prizes. No 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th place trophies. You have to get better. It's not a better way. You just have to get way better. I'm talking to myself when I say this. I wish I understood this earlier. Okay, maybe the strong language is pushing you in the wrong direction. I hope you're not offended. I really want you to hear me on this. Look at this analogy. Look at this metaphor that I'm about to use here. Imagine your consistency in the area is like a high performing car, a Porsche, a Mustang GT, a McLaren, whatever it is for you, whatever your high performing car of choice is. But you don't know how to drive a high performance vehicle. You just don't. You've only driven a Prius before. No offense to anybody that drives a Prius. Priuses are great cars. I have nothing against Toyota or Priuses. But it's much different than a high performing vehicle. It's probably the opposite. Okay. So you, you, you have no, you don't have experience or skill in driving this high performance vehicle. And because you don't know how to drive the vehicle, the vehicle is not performing the way it is supposed to, because you don't know how to drive it correctly. And because you don't know how to drive it correctly, things are starting to go wrong because you're not. Driving it and maintaining it and having it do the things it's supposed to do in order to perform well. So, you know, the check engine light has come on now and the car is running a little hot in the vehicles making noise that it definitely should not be making. And remember the initial point here. Consistency is the smartest way to win if you are not dumb. What does it look like in this analogy? You keep on driving. A failing vehicle. Hoping and praying, somehow, miraculously, it just gets better because you keep on driving it. The vehicle is sputtering, and spatting, and leaking, and underperforming, and a dumb thought process is, if I just keep driving, it will get better. No! It won't! Let's bring this full circle. If I just keep boasting, it will get better. If I just keep promoting it, it will get better. If I just keep showing up, it will get better. No, sweetie, it won't. It won't get better. You just consistently underperform because you have not learned how to drive this high performing vehicle and the car is being destroyed. Consistency is the smartest way to win. It is if you are intentionally and consistently improving. I was driving in so many cases. I've done this. I mean, I did this with podcasting. It's like, oh, I'm not getting more listeners. Oh, it must be the platform. No, bro. You just got to get better. When you get better, when you get granular with how you are improving this thing, this, this path that you have chosen that's most authentic to you, and you consistently show up and consistently decide to intentionally improve. That's when things get better. And what we do is we often say, Ah, this car doesn't work. I'm not going to drive this Porsche. I'm going to get a McLaren. Dah, this McLaren isn't working either. I'm going to go get a Mustang. Ah, this Mustang isn't working either. I'm going to get a Camaro. Whatever it is. It's not the vehicle. It's just a sucky driver. I'm speaking from experience here. I'm not talking down to you. I'm talking to you from a place of empathy. A place of experience. What I wish I knew. Consistency only works if you consistently improve. What does this look like? Finding a mentor. That's doing what you want to do, taking a class, taking a course, getting a lesson, joining a community that is full of other people who are testing and experimenting the same type of things you are getting Envisionpreneur School, a link in the description, uh, researching top performers, all key key here. Don't don't don't tap out yet. All. While doing the thing consistently. See what we like to do as rabid learners is we love to just gorge on information. Study all the books, study all the courses, study all the people who are doing at the top on YouTube, study all the people who are making all these podcasts and you listen to all them, all the audio books that you're digesting, all these things while doing nothing and just getting fat and obese on information. That is not. How you are consistent. That is just the opposite of consistency because you're not actually taking any action. And or the other thing is you were just doing the thing hoping because you were sticking with it because you were being consistent that things would just get better without the intentionality and the consistency of little granular improvements over time. Somehow expecting a different result when you keep doing the same inputs. No, you have to get better guessed. No, you have to get better at your intros. No, you have to get better at speaking with sticky statements. No, you have to get better at marketing your things. No, you have to get better at talking about what you do. No, you have to get better at your writing. Stop blaming The vehicle. Stop thinking that just because you are consistent with doing the thing, means that you automatically get better at the thing. No. It does not work like that. You have to be intentional about improving. It might work to a certain degree. It might get to the point where you are able to do what you are doing without much thought. Yeah, because before you had to think a lot to do what you're doing now. Before you had to think a lot just to suck. Now you don't have to think at all to suck. But you still suck. I'm saying this to myself, bro. I still suck. I still suck as so many, and hopefully you're not offended by the word suck. If you, if you are just decision show the show for you, you can unsubscribe. Um, like I still suck at so many things. I'm getting better at so many different things. And I know that there's so much I can improve on. I'm taking it one day at a time, one improvement, one little thing at a time, building mastery on top of mastery. But stop thinking that I was just going to, I'm just going to keep doing it. Episode 100, doing the same thing. Why am I not getting more of listeners? Because you consistently are not good. I wish I knew this. Okay, so, I'm going to recap these first, these first six, and then I'm going to wrap it up with number seven. I want to leave you on a high note, an encouraging positive note, because I know this one might have been stomping on your toes a little bit. So number one, there is not a better way. You just need to get way better. Stop thinking that the grass is greener. Stop suffering from chronic grass is greener syndrome. Number two, your productivity doesn't matter as much as your priorities. You don't have a time problem. You have a priority problem, and that's where we need to put our focus. Number three, you do not have a consistency issue. You have a commitment issue. Your consistency is, is completely tied to your amount and quality of your commitments. Number four, clarity is the key to consistency. If you aren't clear about what you're committing to, you won't even realize or know when the commitment's been broken. You'll be operating in a state of inconsistency almost without even knowing it And stop categorizing your lack of commitment to things as pivots in your journey. That's a mis assessment. You just aren't clear on what you're committed to. number five, your consistency is your brand. Whatever you show up as the most becomes your reputation. And your reputation is your brand. Number six, the smartest way to win is consistency. If you are not dumb. Stop doing the same thing consistently and expecting things to get better. Go to Beadaholique. com for all of your beading supply needs! No, the only way things get better with consistency is if you consistently are intentional about consistently improving. And lastly, number seven, and I'm here to encourage you with this. Consistency isn't about never messing up. It's about never giving up. Could I be farther along in my visionpreneur journey if I was more consistent? Absolutely. Yes. I should probably be on episode 500 by now, but I'm not. But 160 plus episodes still is way farther along than if I just gave up because I was not as consistent as I wanted to be. It's not about never messing up. Consistency does not look like a whole bunch of filled cups to the brim. it's water in each cup. It doesn't matter if it's full to the brim or if it's just a drop. Are you showing up? There's a rule that I learned from Matt D'Avella, a productivity and minimalist YouTuber. Where he calls it the two day rule. Cause I just, I will never go two days. Of breaking my commitments. Yes, I missed a day. I, I fell off. I ate the donut. I didn't post. Whatever it is, that's okay. I'm a human. But I won't go for a second day. I'ma come back. Because it's not about never messing up. It's about never giving up. I'm telling you, if you just stick with it. If you just consistently improve every, just a tiny little granular bit every day. And stay. You will win because you would just outlast the competition. And over that period of time of constant little tweaks and improvement, you will become a master. Stay with it. If you have fallen off, if you have gotten down on yourself about not following through, if you have started something and then have stopped and you're thinking about getting back to it, just get back to it. Consistency isn't about never messing up. We all mess up. We all wish we did things differently in hindsight, but it's about never giving up. Get back on the horse. Don't wallow in your inconsistency. Consistently get back up again. And here's the thing too guys, people aren't paying attention to you as much as you think they are. You think, Oh, they haven't seen me post and now I'm gonna try to do an event and blah blah blah. They don't even remember the last time you post. They remember that one that they liked and then they see another one they like and they don't even know that you haven't posted in six months. They don't even realize you haven't even built that type of consistency expectation from their, their palette of your content. Now, if you have gotten to that point where, you know, like you want to, here's where you want to get to. You want to get to the point of consistency where if you stopped, people would miss you. People would be asking, where'd you go? Where are you? I need what you have to offer. You are helping me. You are serving me and you've been doing consistently to the point. Now I expect it. That's what you want. And if you've gotten there, and you still fell off, come back. People will love you for it. They'll be like, thank you. I've been needing what you can give me. Please serve them in that way, by never giving up. And if you haven't gotten to that point, to be quite honest with you, to keep it a hundred, they ain't miss you anyway. So just come back. Nobody's thinking about you like that. This is the stuff I wish I knew. Like, I think I'm over here thinking the world revolves around me. It don't. Everybody's world revolves around themselves. They're not thinking about you. Just start again. Keep on going. You'll probably be better this time because you have more experience. Keep on going. Consistency is how you win. Remember, you gotta be smarter about it now. These are seven things I wish I knew about consistency. After over 1, 000 social media posts, over 50 consecutive live presentations, 150 plus podcast episodes, And I hope that some of this is valuable to you. If you have questions, Hey, feel free to, uh, text the link that is in the description, or you can just hop into vision for newer school, my school for aspiring visionary podcasters, Who wants to make impact and income with their ideas, insights, and influence. Uh, that link will be in the description. As well, we hop on a live call every week. You can ask questions there. That would be the perfect place to do it. I hope this was helpful to you. As always, keep building your vision every single day. Peace.