#66 – How to consistently show up online

You’re listening to the Deals on Heels Podcast by business mentor Lotje Euser Episode number 66

Welcome to a new episode! I love that you’re listening today! My name is Lotje Euser, I’m a business mentor for entrepreneurs who want to fall in love with sales and create customers for life. I coach entrepreneurs on finding a way of doing sales that feels easy and effortless, and attract their ideal customers without using fear based marketing or any pursuasive tricks.

Today I’m going to talk about how to stay consistent in showing up online. This is one of the biggest challenges of entrepreneurs nowadays. Maybe you recognize it yourself: you know you as an entrepreneur need to show up online, but you just can’t seem to make a habbit of it.

I know consistency is a big topic for a lot of entrepreneurs. And no matter where you are in your business right now, consistency is super important. I’ve talked with a lot of people last year and coached a lot of people and consistency in general is a big challenge that keeps coming up during coaching calls.

Often people build up their motivation in the beginning and seem to have no problems with staying consistent, but what I see is that they’re able to hold this vibe only for a very limited period. I think we can all relate to this right?

I read this book it’s called Atomic Habits from James Clear. I absolutely loved it. It helped me to work out super regularly and in this episode, I will use some of his advice as well. So if you want to dive deeper into adopting new habits in your life, I would definitely recommend this book.

So why is consistency to hard? Why does it seem easy in the beginning, while remaining consistent actually is so much harder?

It’s like feeling motivated to lose a few pounds, and you sign up for your gym membership. In the first week, you use that motivation to go really often to thje gym. But after a few weeks, you start to notice that your motivation drops, the newness begins to wear off, and before you know it: you have come up with your first excuse not to go. So you tell yourself: well, I will go tomorrow. And then the next day arrives, and you’re still not going because you got distracted. And then tomorrow will be another tomorrow and before you know it: you’re not going at all anymore. And by not going, you’re not taking the action to become super fit, so the result you’re getting is not different from how it was before you started with your gym ambitions.

And this happens in business as well. People start with selling a program but have problems staying consistent in selling it. I feel this is because consistency is really underestimated and not really thought about enough. And this is why:

Often we see these people online, creating amazing results in their businesses and in their lives. And we tend to believe that the results people are getting are like happening in an instant. And I’m talking about results like getting a lot of new customers in, making thousands of euros, having sold-out programs – all these kind of things.

But these results don’t happen in an instant. They don’t happen overnight. It’s not possible to be instantly successful. But we are made to believe they do. Why? Because we only see some tiny bits of what is actually going on. We only see the good stuff. The content in front of us on our screens. We see the celebrations, and the results shared on social media. And we tend to forget that most of the work is actually done behind the scenes. Because most of the work is done, we don’t often get to see that part of the process. We only see somebody’s launching, posting about it on social media, and BOOM there you have it: sold-out programs and making lots of money.

But the real magic, the real things that contribute to these successes don’t happen in front of us. They’re happening behind the scenes. And that’s where the consistency is at. The consistency makes the magic happen.

And this relates to any area in our lives. Not only limited to creating business results but also when we’re trying to lose weight, when we want to adopt a healthy lifestyle, when we want to grow and develop ourselves and read books – the magic is really in the ability to stay consistent.

One time of going to the gym doesn’t make a difference, but when you learn how to go on a consistent basis like going every other day it does. 

One healthy meal doesn’t make a lot of a difference, but eating healthy throughout the year does.

So in this episode, I’m going to share my secrets with you on how to stay very consistent in showing up online – because if you want to build the business of your dreams and make lots of money, there is literally no other way to pursue this. So the advice I’m going to give you will be aimed at showing up online, but you can literally replace this goal with any other goal in your life.

So the first step to staying consistent is motivation. And finding that motivation in yourself, in your own identity. Why is it important to you to be consistent in showing up online? What results do you want to get from showing up online? And what do these results mean to you? Why do they matter? And what would happen if you don’t show up online on a consistent basis?

This is really important because if you’re why is a bit wobbly, there’s no way you will pull yourself through the difficult times to stay consistent online.

Often where people go wrong is that they choose the wrong motivation. They choose to find motivation in external things. Like “I want to stay consistent because I see someone else doing it and it seems to work for her”. Or “I want to stay consistent because my coach told me to.” Nope that’s not going to help you. This is looking for external reasons, and the risk is that when that external factor disappears, so will your motivations. So instead of doing this I want you to dive into yourself. And find the motivation within you.

My own motivation for staying consistent In showing up online? It’s that I see social media as an important part of growing my business. I see it as an important part of being an entrepreneur who keeps growing. It’s part of my identity. And this is what James Clear also describes in his book: real changes come from changing your identity, changing who you are.

When I wanted to work out more, I took on this new identity: I’m a woman who works out daily. My why was: that I wanted to fuel my energy, I wanted to feel more energised because I know I can create better results in business and life when I do.

So think for yourself: why is it important for you to show up online consistently?

Then the second step is to make a plan. Sounds so dull when I say this, but you need a plan. Motivation enough is not enough. Because there will come this time when you will not feel your motivation, when you don’t feel good, when you’re busy – and if you don’t have a plan to overcome this – you will not be able to stay consistent in showing up online.

So make a plan to stay consistent and that will help you to move through challenging times. So moving back to my work out goal I had, I wanted to be someone who works out frequently. That’s my motivation. Coming from my identity. I shifted my identity from: someone who doesn’t work out to someone who works out on a frequent basis. 

So what would my plan then be? I decided to choose a time frame during the day to get to the gym and work out. I choose the easiest timeframe, that would feel really good to me. For me, this is between 5-6 pm. This is perfect for me. And I blocked my agenda to make room to go work out every day during the week. So I would never be too busy to work out, and use this as an excuse not to go.

Do the same with how you will show up online. Make a plan. When will you show up? How often will you show up? How will you have time to create content? What if you don’t have time during the week for example? Can you schedule your content if you don’t have a lot of time in between? 

The plan is the key to really getting in action and giving yourself the best chance of making this goal of consistency a success.

And also think ahead: what will you do when you don’t have inspiration? Can you make jar filled with ideas you can use when you need to show up, but you don’t have any ideas on what to talk about? I keep personal notes on my phone which are filled with content ideas and things my ideal customers talk about, so I can always pull from those.

And the third is: decide for yourself: I’m going to make this work. The intention here is super important. Be very clear about: I’m going to do this. Not “I’m going to give it a try”. That leaves too much room for doubt and failure. I don’t believe myself when I say I’m going to give it a try. Doesn’t really sound convincing right? So I love to use affirmations here like: “I’m super committed to making this work,” “I’m doing this.” And “I’m an entrepreneur who shows up daily.” Which also connects to your identity.

And what also will help you is to remind yourself by setting little reminders in your agenda, or sticking post-its on your mirror, putting it on the background of your phone or laptop. I have this widget on my iPhone which contains texts about the most important things that help me to remind myself. I noticed seeing that every time I unlock my screen, works super well. It really imprints it into your subconscious.

The final thing I want to add is: don’t be too focused on short-term results. Don’t expect that consistency will help in an instant. Don’t expect that consistency will give you immediate results. Everything takes time. Don’t make consistency conditional like “I’m only going to stay consistent in showing up online if… it gives me more customers – or something like that. Nope. Consistency is your role, consistency Is part of your identity. Your identity is unconditional, so is your goal to stay consistent in showing up online. 

I will tell you: if you stay consistent you will create better results. It’s just like: if you go to the gym on a daily basis, you will get fitter. There’s like no room here for any doubt right? Don’t leave any room for your own doubts. 

Focus on the identity you’re taking on. Focus on being the person that shows up online on a frequent basis. Because from now on: you are her or him. You are that person. You take action as that person. And you will keep taking action as that person from now on. 

I hope you loved listening to this episode about showing up online and I hope it will help you to be very consistent in showing up. 

This topic is one of the things I help my own clients with in my 1-1 coaching program. Because I’ve seen how amazing consistency is for my own business, but also what it means for the results my own clients have created by showing up consistently. If they showed up super consistently, they were able to create consistent results. And that is just soooo beautiful to see. I currently have this coaching program 10k for 10k. In this program I will help you to sell high-level 5-figure offers with ease and feel really good about it. It’s aimed at really focussing on your ideal client, setting up a clear product hierarchy and creating a sales strategy that feels super good, matches perfectly with who you are and which will give you actual sales results. The promise for this program is: You invest 10K and I’m going to help you to get your 10K back. If you want to know more if you’re the perfect person for this program, then don’t hesitate to jump into my DM on Instagram or LinkedIn, then we can have a chat.

I want to thank you for listening, if you have any thoughts on this episode, feel free to share them with me through DM and I wish you a very good week filled with fun & new customers.