228: Holly Worton ~ How to Be Consistent in Marketing Your Business (And Why It's So Important)

Today’s Guest

Table of Contents

I’m back again, with another solo episode! This week, I talk about why consistency is so important in marketing your business. More importantly, I talk about how to be consistent, which is the thing I think most people find challenging.

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What You’ll Learn

How to be consistent in marketing your business (and why it’s so important)
Why it’s so important to show up on a consistent basis
Why consistency builds know/like/trust
How consistency keeps you at the top of people’s minds when they’re looking to work with someone or recommend someone
Why consistency is not just about showing up, but it’s also about visual consistency
How to get the mindset you need to be consistent with your marketing

Things I Discussed

Connect With Holly

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Transcript

The transcript for this episode can also be downloaded here (no opt-in required).

Holly: Hello and welcome to the Business Mindset Podcast, episode 224. This is your host Holly Worton and I am back with another solo episode. Today, I am talking about consistency, how to be consistent in marketing your business and why that is so, so important. We will talk about: how to be consistent in marketing your business, because I know that’s not always easy; we will talk about why it is so important to show up consistently; why the look and feel of your business needs to be consistent; why this is so important and how to do it.

Before I get into today’s episode I wanted to share a quick review from the US iTunes, from J Barsha, the review says:

Awesome show, highly recommend, Holly and her guests share actionable and inspiring lessons on how to become a better leader and, more importantly, a better overall person. She is friendly as can be and knows how to expertly extract those bits of gold that listeners are looking for. Highly recommend listening and subscribing to the Business Mindset Podcast, if you want the knowledge and mindsets to reach those big dreams and achieve your overall business goal as a result.

So, thank you J Barsha! I really, really, really, am grateful for that, and if you feel so inclined, you who are listening, I would love for you to pop over to iTunes and do a quick review, it just takes a couple of minutes, you can do it from your mobile, you can do it from your computer. It is really fast and easy, and I would very much appreciate that.

So, let’s get into the show, today’s episode was inspired by a video that Jenny Shih shared on Facebook. And, this is a video that dates back to, I think it was August, but I just saw it she shared it again, I think it was last week. And it is talking about her trip through, I think it was South Dakota or North Dakota, it was a road trip that she had done. And they kept seeing these billboard signs for Wall Drug, every couple of miles or I don’t know how often it was, but they were all over the place. And then somehow Wall Drug came up in conversation with someone, and they went: oh my God I have been seeing signs for this place, and the other person said: it is amazing you have to go there, and so they went there, and it was amazing. And the point of this story is the power of seeing that message over and over and over again and then when someone brought it up it wasn’t just: oh, another drugstore, it was: oh my god Wall Drug, I have been seeing this everywhere, what’s the deal with Wall Drug? And then going there – and they probably wouldn’t have gone there if it hadn’t been for this incredibly consistent messaging and marketing – because they didn’t need to go to the drugstore, it was just that they wanted to see what is the fuss about this place?

And, as I was listening to this video it reminded me of Andersen’s pea soup. So, if you have driven through I guess the central coast, definitely Highway 101, I don’t know where else the signs are, Highway 1 maybe, I don’t know. But central Southern California there were a ton of signs, or there used to be back in the 90s, I don’t know maybe I am stuck in the past, for Andersen’s pea soup. Which I think is this place in Buellton. And I have never actually been there, but I have probably seen those signs, I don’t know, I went to university in San Luis Obispo I remember seeing those signs in the area the entire four years that I went there, constant Andersen pea soup signs. Now, I am not a massive fan of pea soup, I don’t really know that many people that are, but these billboards all over the place, made it sound like this place had the most unbelievable amazing pea soup. And I actually talked to someone once and they were like, it really wasn’t that big of a deal, and I think they felt like it had kind of been over-hyped, but the point is when I think pea soup, I think Andersen’s pea soup, even though I have never been there, because I remember this brand, because I saw those billboards all over the highway for years. It stuck in my head, so in the same way that Wall Drug stuck in Jenny Shih’s head when she was driving through one of the Dakotas, Andersen’s pea soup has stuck in my head years later. Now, I graduated in 1991, so I went to college in 1991, so that was probably the first time I saw the Andersen’s pea soup sign. Now I haven’t lived in California since the 1990s, I was kind of in and out from mid to late 90s, and then left in ’99, but I still remember Andersens’ pea soup. And I am going to guess, if you have ever driven through that part of California you know exactly what I am talking about, because the signs were so consistent, they were everywhere, and they probably still are, because I think that place has been around forever. So, whether it is Wall Drug, or Andersens’ pea soup, or your business, it is really important to show up and be consistent. Why? That’s what we are going to talk about.

So, there are so many reasons why it is important to be consistent, one of them is that you build that ‘know, like, trust’ through the constant repetition. So, you see one sign for Andersens’ soup and you think: oh, that’s disgusting I don’t like pea soup, or I don’t like soup, or who is going to eat soup in the middle of summer, or whatever. But then, after you have seen it every few miles you start to think: well, maybe there is something about this pea soup. The same goes for your business, even if people aren’t ready to buy from you now, today, the first time they see your blog post, listen to your podcast, watch your video, see your Facebook live, whatever, even if they are not ready to buy from you today, if they keep hearing from you, or if they keep seeing you, over and over, and over again, they are going to get to know you. Even if they don’t always read the whole blog post, or read it all, or listen to the whole podcast episode, or watch the whole video – they are going to see you popping up in their Facebook newsfeed, their Twitter feed, their podcast app, whatever, they are going to see you showing up over and over and over consistently. They are going to get to like you and they are going to get to trust you, because you have been there showing up, day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month; and you are going to be the Andersens’ pea soup of whatever it is that you do.

And when they are ready for the thing that you offer they are going to think of you, because they know you, they like you, they trust you, and more importantly you are at the forefront of their mind, because you have been showing up so consistently. And if they are still not ready to work with you, but they have a friend who needs that thing that you offer, you are going to be at the forefront of their mind to recommend. So, you can’t wrong with consistency, because people get to know you, like you, trust you and they will have you in the forefront of their mind, because they need someone like you, or a friend needs someone like you, or they see someone else talking about it on Facebook, and you say: I haven’t worked with this woman, but I see her all over the place and she looks really interesting, check her out. Consistency builds ‘know, like and trust. Along those lines consistency also builds relationships. I have been doing this podcast for 228 episodes now, that’s about 4 and a half years, and whether you have listened to all the episodes, or just some of them, I have been consistently coming out every week, week after week, for 228 weeks. I have been super-consistent with this podcast and if you have been listening to it, even for just a handful of episodes, you have kind of gotten to the point where you have kind of built a relationship with me, because you have heard me so many times; and you have the opportunity to hear me 228 times in total – which is a lot!

So, that kind of builds a relationship, and if you have joined my Facebook group and you have actually engaged with me there, that kind of strengthens the relationship because then we are going back and forth, we have conversations, I get to know who you are, and we get to know each other better. If you watch my videos on YouTube, that can build the relationship even more. If you read my blog posts or subscribe to my newsletter…these are all ways for you to get to know me, and then hopefully connect with me, in a place where we can actually have a conversation, or you could sign up for a discovery call and we could talk about how you could work with me, which would be even better because then we could have a conversation. Or you could sign up for a virtual cup of tea or coffee with me, and we could just have a chat. All of those are available from my website. And that would be even better because again, we could have a conversation, and then that builds the relationship. So, these are ways of building the relationship from showing up consistently.

And I don’t know why but I feel the need to say this, speaking of the Skype tea or coffee, I really push them a lot in the Facebook group, because I like having conversations with people. I like talking to people, I like getting to know people, because I don’t like it just being me blabbing on about things to you, I want to have a conversation. So, I keep pushing these in my Facebook group, and a lot of times when people sign up for them have said: oh, I have been thinking about doing this for a while, but I didn’t want to take up your time. And I am like: but I keep mentioning these! And that’s the thing I have mentioned them so many times that people finally sign up for them, even though for some reason they don’t want to waste my time, even though I am saying my time is here for you to chat with me. And I love the Skype tea or coffee because it is totally a non-business conversation. It can be about business, but it can be about whatever, we can talk about cats, we can talk about I don’t know, my walks, my books, your latest hobby, your new musical instrument that you are playing, I don’t know… I am just throwing stuff out there. We can just have a conversation about whatever stuff comes up. It is a half an hour, it is super easy, and it is a great way to build a relationship. But people often don’t sign up for that until they have seen me mention it several times. So, again, that’s consistency.

Now in the same way that it’s important to be consistent in terms of showing up consistently, day after day, week after week, year after year; it is also important to be consistent in the look and feel. So, your brand, your graphics, and this obviously can change. And if you have been following me for any amount of time you have noticed that my branding has changed; so, this year it went from teal to green, and that was a big, big shift because I started working with my heart-centred energy work and that’s green energy. But it’s consistent, so when you see the podcast graphics it has got that same kind of green, bubbly, energetic background that my blog graphics have, that my YouTube thumbnails have, my images, my photographs of myself – I use two of them consistently across profiles. So, the look and feel of my brand is the same wherever you go, in terms of my face and the colours that I use for graphics and stuff. Now, again, that can change, that can evolve, but I am not doing a red on Mondays, orange on Tuesdays, green on Wednesdays, purple on Thursdays and turquoise on a Fridays. If rainbow was your brand, yeah that’s great, but stay consistent with the colours that you have chosen for your brand with the graphics, with the photographs, so that people recognise you; because again, seeing the same kind of visual cues over and over and over again, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, unless you evolve year after year, that creates a visual method of establishing know, like and trust, because people will recognise you. Our news feeds are so busy, there is stuff going through there all the time, stuff is moving really fast, so if you can create that kind of standardised consistent look and feel for your brand, that’s going to help people to recognise you when they are scrolling through their feed; which is going to help with know, like and trust and building a relationship and you being top of mind and all that good stuff. So, do you see how this all builds upon itself, like everything builds upon the different aspects, so it is not just showing up consistently, it is being consistent from a graphics perspective, and that’s really easy to do, it is actually a lot easier to be consistent with your graphic than it is just to be all over the place and do different stuff all the time. And I use Canva for this, the free version of Canva, I don’t even use the paid version, I just create graphics, I have a graphic for my YouTube thumbnail, I have a graphic for my podcast, a graphic for my blogposts and I just change the wording every time, that’s it. It makes it so much easier when you have these templates that you can use for your business, rather than changing the stuff all the time. So, that’s really important.

So, the question remains, how can you be consistent? I just talked a little bit about how to be consistent from a graphics perspective, and by all means get help with the stuff from a professional, if you can’t afford that then use something like Canva that makes it easy to create attractive graphics. But, I think the hardest part of consistency isn’t doing the graphics stuff, because like I said it is easier to be consistent with that stuff than it is to be all over the board. What’s challenging oftentimes, is being consistent in terms of content, because with an online business you can’t really just put billboards all over the highway, and leave them there for decades on end. That would be really expensive, and it probably wouldn’t be the best way to market your business. So, what do we do instead? We create content and from there we get contacts; we do podcast episodes, we do videos, we do blogposts, we do Facebook lives, we do all that stuff — and it can be really, really overwhelming and that’s why a lot of people fall off the content bandwagon.

So, how do you get consistent with this stuff? It is actually really not that hard. The trick is this, and I used to teach this all the time when I had my social media business, the trick is narrowing it down. Don’t try to be on all the social networks, pick one that you like and do it well and then if there is another one that you decide you like and you want to play around with, do that one. But, don’t start out thinking you have to be everywhere. Maybe if you are not a huge fan of social media, but you think you need to be there, try them all, see what you think of them all, and then go from there, but don’t feel like you consistently have to be on every single platform all the time, because you don’t. So, try out the different social networks, see which ones you prefer and focus on that. And the same goes for types of content, I have been really consistent with this podcast for the last 228 weeks, for a couple of reasons: #1 I love it, and I never thought that I would have loved it as much as I do, and I have support with it. So, from the very beginning I knew that I didn’t want to figure out how to edit audio, and do all the editing crap, so I have someone who does it for me, and does a great job with it, and has been doing a great job with it for the last 228 weeks. So, I get support with the stuff that I don’t like, and probably wouldn’t be very good at, and that allows me to do the thing which I love, which is podcasting. Whether it is a solo episode, whether it is an interview, whether it is my co-hosted shows with Jo, I love this podcast. And thank you for listening to it because if you didn’t listen to it I wouldn’t be doing it, because I don’t want to talk to the clouds – I don’t know who the clouds are, but I don’t want to just blab on – so thank you for listening to this. So, podcast, I love it and I do it, I do it consistently.

Videos, I mean I don’t mind videos, but I don’t love them, so I don’t them consistently, but every once in a while, I get bitten by the video bug and I batch a bunch of videos and they go out on YouTube, and that’s great, people watch them. Not consistent with them though, but they are there, they are kind of an extra. Blog posts, I have been blogging in one form or another, on one blog or another, since 2006. I started out with a personal blog and then that changed over the years, and then eventually in 2011 I started the blog that is now my business website today. Not super consistent with that, so I can’t say that I have an amazing blog following, my blog is kind of catchall place for my podcasts and my videos and whenever I decide to write a blog post, there it goes, but not consistent at all.

So, let’s talk about how to be consistent, I think it is useful to share my examples because you can see what does or doesn’t work for me. Facebook lives, never got into doing those on a regular or consistent basis, because I just also don’t love them. So, I think it is really, really, important to find a format that you love and that you can be consistent with naturally; so that you are not forcing yourself to do daily Facebook lives. If you are doing daily Facebook lives you should be loving it, because they are also going to be more effective if you love them, because it is going to come out, people are going to be able to tell, they are going to recommend them to other people because they are going to be so good, because they come out so naturaly, because you love them. So, again, you don’t need to do all the things.

If you are not creating any type of content then play with all the things, try doing audio recordings before you commit to a podcast, try doing some videos, try doing Facebook lives, try writing some blog posts. Find what writes – don’t find what writes! writing may not be your thing – find what works for you; and that’s really funny that I made that mistake because one of the things that when I had my social media business, one of the things people used to say to me all the time was: I hate writing, but I have to blog. No, you don’t, you can have a podcast, you can do videos, you can do whatever you want, you don’t have to have a blog or do videos. Find what works for you and do that because that will make it so much easier for you to be consistent. That’s kind of the first half of how to be consistent, pick the stuff that you love, that you can do naturally and be willing to step outside your comfort zone and be willing to do the mindset work that you need to do to release any fears, blocks, or limiting beliefs so that you can try this stuff, which maybe outside of your comfort zone, and be willing to try stuff that you maybe never thought you would enjoy. I am not a big talker, I am kind of a quiet person, so it is really baffling to me sometimes that I have been doing this podcast for 228 weeks, because I am not a big talker, but yet I love it and here you are listening to it. So, I guess it works.

So, anyway, that’s one side, the other side is actually getting the stuff done. So, as you may have noticed if you have been listening to this podcast, I have one interview a month; I have one co-hosted episode with Jo, a month; and I have two solo episodes a month, and that’s assuming a four-week month. If we have got five Mondays in a month, then the fifth one will usually be an interview. So, that’s that. How do I get this stuff done? Well because interviews are a bit trickier because they involve other people, I try to do those at least eight weeks out. So, I get in touch with the people, I invite the people I want to be on the show, I ask them to be a guest. I get all their stuff and get the interview done hopefully about eight weeks before it actually goes live and then it is done and dusted, and it is my calendar it is all ready to go, super easy. I have a print out of all the weeks in the year, all the episodes and I can see how far in advance I need to be working; with the episodes with Jo that’s really easy, it is just once a month, so a couple of times a month we will get together and do an episode and then get those done well in advance, as well. Those are pretty easy.

Then my solo episodes are the ones that I kind of often leave until the last minute, because I like to be talking about things that are really timely for me, because it feels more natural than doing something, recording something, and then eight weeks later releasing it. So, what I do is I have time blocked out in my calendar; so, Monday’s I don’t do calls with other people, I might sign up to be interviewed on someone else’s show on a Monday, but I don’t normally do calls on a Monday. So, I have every other week blocked out on a Monday an hour to record a solo podcast episode. And that really, really, works for me because I can get stuff done, and I know the time is blocked out on a regular, consistent, repeating activity in my google calendar, there it is, it’s there, I do it. And what I try to do is, I try to pay attention to stuff that is interesting to me so that I can know what to talk about, otherwise I am kind of lost for topics. Like today’s topic when I saw Jenny Shih’s video on Wall Drug, I thought: I need to talk about this, because this is something that is really, really, important. So, pay attention to stuff you are reading, stuff other people are talking about, that’s what you are getting your topics from, and then block out the time in your calendar to make it actually happen.

And if you want to be consistent, block out recurring slots in your calendar to get this stuff done. I know I have been talking a lot lately with Amber De La Garza, whose been a guest on this show, she was episode 222 and we talked about productivity, I have been a guest on her show twice – if you have issues with productivity check out her podcast, it is really, really, good, she gives really good, practical easy to follow tips, so check her out, she will be in the Show Notes, so you can check her out. So, time blocking is really, really, useful if you want to be consistent; so again, you might want to play around with this until you find your thing, your way you are going to consistently show up. Your Andersen’s pea soup billboard, your version of it, but I hope that I have demonstrated to you over the course of the last half hour why it is so important to be consistent with your business marketing, and how to actually do it. And I think a lot of it comes down to: finding what’s right for you; doing it in the way that you want to do it; in the way that you love doing it; how you want to do it; how often you want to do it; and blocking out time in your calendar to make it happen, it is as easy as that.

But, again, you need to do this your way. You need to find what works for you. Don’t look at what other people are doing, don’t look at me doing this podcast every week and say: oh, I guess I should just do a weekly podcast. Don’t. Do your thing. And that may take some experimentation, that may take some trial and error, play with it, play with different things, see what works for you and be willing to step outside your comfort zone.

So, the last thing that I need to talk about here is: how to get the mindset you need in order to be consistent with your marketing.

First of all: look at what your current mindset is around consistency; do you believe that you can be a consistent action taker, do you believe that you can consistently stick with something, over and over on a regular basis, long enough for it to be useful and effective in terms of business marketing? Do you believe that you are good at sticking to things? Do you have fears about starting something like a podcast, or a video channel and then giving up? Do you have any blocks around creating consistent content? Do you have any blocks around creating videos consistently, or podcast episodes consistently, or blog posts consistently? Do you believe that you are worthy of taking up space on other people’s timelines when you share your content? Because of course the important part of creating content is not just creating the stuff, you have got to spread the word, you have got to share the episodes, you have got to make sure that people know what you are doing. Every Monday I spend a half an hour promoting each podcast episode on all my different social network profiles, because, if I didn’t, people wouldn’t know the new episode came out unless, of course, they are subscribed. But, I am subscribed to a bunch of podcasts and I don’t always listen to them all. By promoting each piece of content, even if it is something that people subscribe to, it piques their interest because they say: oh, that topic is something I have been thinking about, I am really curious about, and so they listen to it, or watch it, or read it.

So, think about the mindset you need in order to create consistent and regular content and put that stuff out there, so that you are consistently marketing your business. What fears do you have around showing up, what fears do you have around being visible? What fears do you have around being good enough? Do you believe that you are not good enough to have a podcast? Your voice is funny, or you have a weird accent, or maybe you think you are not good enough to do videos because your hair is having a weird day today or your teeth aren’t quite perfect? Or maybe you believe you are not good enough to write a blog post, because you are a bad writer because your high school teacher said that you were crap, or gave you a bad grade or something.

What is it about consistently marketing your business, that you are not doing because you believe you are not good enough? What aspects of consistently marketing your business are you procrastinating on, are you putting off, are you avoiding? And why? Is it fears of visibility? Is it fears of not being good enough? Is it not wanting to take up space? What’s going on for you mindset-wise, that might be keeping you from consistently showing up and marketing your business? What are the fears? What are the blocks? What are the limiting beliefs that are not serving you? Write this stuff down. If you can, pause this podcast episode, write this down, if you are driving please don’t, if you are running on a treadmill please keep going, but if you can stop, pause this, write down anything that pops up into your mind, or just go back and listen to this part of the episode again. Dig up this stuff, bring it to the surface, you need to bring to the surface all the fears, the blocks, the limiting beliefs, all the mind crap that is keeping you stuck and keeping you from consistently marketing your business.

So, take a look at that and then take a look at: what do you need to believe instead? What do you need to believe about yourself in order to consistently show up and market your business, and take up space in other people’s timelines? Do you need to believe that your voice is important, that your story is important? You are good enough, just as you are, right now today. You do not need to take another course, you don’t need to get your teeth fixed, you don’t need to, I don’t know, whatever. You are good enough right now. Do you need to believe that, do you believe that? It is a really important thing to believe. Do you need to believe that you are capable of being consistent, that you are capable of picking something and sticking out it, that you are capable of taking consistent and regular action to make this happen? What do you need to believe and who do you need to be, in order to make this happen?

So, really get clear on those two sides of your mindset: the shadow side that is not serving you, and the light side, the stuff that you need, and then work on this, work on it with yourself if you do a technique, or find someone to help you with this stuff, but work on the mindset stuff so that you can get the mindset you need in order to be consistent with your marketing. You can find your Andersen’s pea soup billboard for your business, and you can put it out there, consistently and regularly so that you can create that: know, like and trust; so that people remember you, so you are top of their mind when they are recommending someone, or looking for someone to work with, so that you are building those relationships, to get the clients that you want, that you are here to help. Consistency is super, super important.

And that is all I have to say on the topic, so I hope you find this interesting and useful, please drop me a line, let me know what you thought about this week’s episode, you can email me at: [email protected]; or can you find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and get in touch. I would love to give you a shout out on the show if you send me some feedback and I would also love for you to join me in my private Facebook group: business mindset alchemists, so that we can continue the conversations there. Business Mindset Alchemists is a group dedicated to exploring business mindset, and how we can get the mindset we need to build our business and achieve our goals. So, I would love to see you in there, just go to: https://www.hollyworton.com/group and you will be redirected to the Facebook group; I would love to see you in there, please if you have time or whatever for another Facebook group I would love to connect in there so head over.

Finally whether you have been listening to this show for a while or if you have just heard your first episode, if you are drawn to learning more about mindset work and you would like to know more about how you can work with me, please get in touch, head over to https://www.hollyworton.com/call and you can book in a call with me and learn more, that’s the discovery call I mentioned earlier. I have also got the cup of tea or coffee on Skype and you can sign up to that in my website as well, just go to https://www.hollyworton.com/tea and we can have a cup of tea on Skype. And thank you so much for listening and if you enjoy this episode please leave a quick review on iTunes it would mean the world to me and I will give you a shout out on the show. And remember to visit hollyworton.com/228 for the show notes on this episode. And tune in next week with co-hosted episode with Jo Casey on integrity, and how integrity plays a role in business and how to build your business from a place of integrity. So, thank you so much and I will see you next week, bye!

228: Holly Worton ~ How to Be Consistent in Marketing Your Business (And Why It’s So Important)