Contentment…
Greeting dear friends & fellow navigators, welcome to my world this weekend. Apologies for missing last week, we were in Blenheim watching our local Mako team win another game.
Hence my inspiration for the week. You can control exactly one thing: & this is you show up. Every day. This is about it. Showing up is not a silver bullet, not an easy win, not a lifehack, nor a shortcut. But it is the only way to build anything.
The truth is ~ we are too focused on instant wins. Instant gratification. We are too focused on breaking out. We expect every single piece of content we make to spread like wildfire, & we get discouraged when this does not happen. But it is such a nonsensical way to think about what we do. We cannot be chasing flash in the pan, overnight success.
This is the kind of short term approach & it never pays off. There is no way to predict success, & anyone who thinks they can reach for it in any kind of repeatable format is going to be wrong. There is no algorithm to predict it.
In my experience I have learned one thing. You cannot count on much more than the power of consistency. You cannot count on much more than just showing the hell up, day after day, & organically, faithfully building an audience. Showing up gives you a chance to actually grow.
Stagnation happens to the best of us, it happens to the worst of us & it happens to everyone in between. Stagnation means your audience are going to get bored of you, get bored of how you create, & start to lose interest in your pursuit of mundanity.
And when all you are doing is trying to push for instant success, there is just no way can one be able to avoid this stagnation. Because you are not listening to your audience. You are not listening to their passions & their needs. You are just watching the numbers. Watching them rise & fall, & sacrificing any creative spark you ever had to the data.
If you build a slow, long term, dedicated relationship with the people who actively give a shit about what you do ~ this is something else. This is where you create a career of worth & a body of work which matters.
The way to do this? Showing up. Showing up with your whole self, showing up with your values & beliefs, showing up with what makes you unique, but above all ~ showing up with consistency. Consistency lets people understand what you are all about.
The first time someone interacts with you, they do not know who the hell you are. The first time someone consumes a piece of content you have made, they do not know what you are about. You cannot communicate this in one piece of work, no matter how good it is. It cannot sum up the texture & the unique approach of how you make what you make.
By consistently working on creating regular content, you can provide context to your audience taking them on a journey. Does this sound like bullshit? It is the truth. Your role as a storyteller is to create a journey, & allows someone to forge an emotional link to your message, your ideas & your creative brand. There is no way to do this if you cannot maintain a steady output of work.
When I look at my career, the act of showing up regularly is what has always made the difference. If I had not done this, if I had been laser focused on trying to break through instead of build, there is no way I could be where I am today. The key to building an audience is showing up.
Showing up will give you the foundation you need to have a career & a craft. Anything else is a distraction. Well done yesterday my Mako boys, I continue looking forward to the rest of the year.
Just few observations again dear friends, & provide an opinion in my world. Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate your being here. If my journey encourages you also, all is well with my soul. Looking forward to being back next week; this is Kenn Butler in Paradise, Nelson with best wishes.
kenn@kennbutler.com
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