Flexible Consistency: Letting Yourself Be Human in Business
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I’ve recently developed an intimate relationship with contradiction.
It appears as though most of us have a tenuous relationship with it because it can be so uncomfortable. But I’ve learned that when we lean into this discomfort, contradiction actually has some incredible lessons for us. It asks us to look at things that are traditionally deemed incompatible and instead of choosing one or the other, it encourages us to see what’s possible when we put them together.
I’ve come to see contradiction as the indicator that growth is near because it calls for a refusal of choosing either/or and instead encourages a direct embracing of the both/and. When we choose the both/and, we're opening ourselves up to a third way that acknowledges the fact that creativity and growth are not linear and often not logical. We can use contradiction as a thought experiment to try on other options that might feel more radically aligned with where our soul is asking us to go.
Consider a challenge point or contradiction that’s present in your life. What might be possible for you if you make room for both?
Nearly three months ago, I received some health news that required me to re-evaluate how I was spending my time in order to focus on my healing. With a reduced mental, emotional, and physical capacity to show up and do the work like I normally do, some things took a hit. Namely, my own brand-building and marketing activities—like writing these monthly blog posts. I had steadily found myself in a supportive and creative rhythm with creating content, and then I had to put that on pause in order to acknowledge what I could truthfully accomplish in any given day.
As I write this first blog post after this hiatus, I’m exercising a muscle that has atrophied slightly, and as I do, I keep coming around to the contradictory feelings I have about consistency.
If you haven’t already heard this from any number of business or marketing experts, then a quick Google search will tell you that a notable best practice for any marketing strategy and/or brand-building activity is consistency. Brands are expected to maintain a steady visual aesthetic, a cohesive brand voice, and a set cadence for delivering content. Doing so creates the perception that you are dependable, or so they say. They also say that consistency is a foundational building block that leads to trust between the brand and the customer.
And at face value, I agree. As a consumer on the receiving end, there is comfort in consistency. When my expectations are continually met, I feel satiated. When a brand continually follows through with what it says it will do, it most certainly breeds a sense of trust, which then makes me more inclined to engage and interact with that brand in the future.
From the brand’s standpoint, all of these are positive things.
And then I have to consider the flip side as a business owner and a human being.
When I was faced with the decision to disrupt the consistent communications for my own business in order to honor my health, would I lose the trust of those who follow my work? Would I be forgotten in taking a few months off? Would I have to work even harder when I do come back online to build up that trust again?
Faced with these heavy inquiries that began to plant seeds of insecurity, I did what I often do, and I paused to inquire further. From the very early days of my business, I used to share that one of the core tenets of Owning Your Why was to find your consistent. It’s not that I had necessarily forgotten about that, but it came roaring back into my consciousness with such a ferocity that I really settled back into the permission inherent in that principle.
What I like about this notion of finding your consistent is that it transfers power back to you. Otherwise, if we are impetuously following a consistent schedule, I have to ask: Who is that consistency for? We gather so much information about what is the best practice for creating content that we rarely question it further. We assume that we have to post to social every day, plus have weekly blog posts and newsletters. Oh, and not only are you publishing content but you also must actively engage to build your community. And don’t forget that video is where it’s at right now, so ensure that you’re doing TikTok and cross-post to IGTV. And have you explored Clubhouse yet?
All of this efforting sounds overwhelming enough even without considering the time it takes to actually do your actual work. And for folx that I predominantly work with, they are the main content creators in their businesses, so this type of schedule is untenable. And yet, I regularly see folx trying to keep up with this cadence and feeling overly stretched and completely burned out in the process.
It. is. so. exhausting.
This type of adherence to consistency at all costs in the name of developing trust with your community can quickly devolve into a reductionist, and quite frankly dehumanizing, form of marketing if we aren’t careful.
Reactively producing at a level deemed appropriate by anyone other than ourselves takes on aspects of oppressive capitalism.
It reduces our creative process to habituation rather than honoring the more fluid nature of inspiration. Creativity cannot flourish on a conveyor belt.
When we are bound to the rigors of a strict schedule, we tend to overvalue the end result of simply producing something rather than really questioning the value and intent of what we share. Sometimes our creative practice needs an infusion of silence, solitude, and observation.
This unquestioning dedication to consistency does not allow room for the unplanned, for curveballs, and quite frankly, for life to take place. Like my recent health news, life simply doesn’t allow for robotic production.
Taking all of that into consideration, I cannot shake this notion that consistency seems to directly oppose creativity and growth, which are the lifeblood of our businesses!
That’s why I feel so strongly that flexible consistency (a contradiction in itself) is the path forward for high-conscious entrepreneurs where intention and inquiry is a natural component of the practice.
When we can implement a flexibly consistent mindset to our marketing activities, then we can allow the natural cycle of growth to flourish. We can embrace and make room for those periods of disruption, questioning, recalibration, patience, expansion, and equilibrium. And we can allow them to take the time they need to come to fruition.
Flexibility allows true creativity and growth to flourish.
And at the end of the day, if what we seek is to establish trust with our community through how we’re showing up and sharing our gifts, then perhaps we can create that sense of trust by instead allowing our audience to see our humanity and its contradictions.
What happens if we allow ourselves to be consistently human in all our honesty, imperfection, and sometimes inconsistency?
I encourage you to embrace those contradictions. Lean into them, and stay open to what new possibilities they may present to you!
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Photo credit: Creating Light Studio