Episode 607: 5 Ways to be More Consistent in Your Business (Mindset & Self-Care)

EBT607 – 5 Ways to be More Consistent in Your Business

Intro  00:01

Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

Sponsor (Kristina Cadelina)  00:36

Are you wanting stunning visuals that make your food creations come to life, or you have so much on your plate that photography is the last thing you want to think about. I’m Christina from when Salty and Sweet Unite, and I’m a passionate food photographer, ready to transform your business by providing spectacular images for your delicious recipes. I have an eye for detail, composition and food styling. Also, I’m a food blogger myself, so I understand the need for good process shots and heroes to help promote your recipe. So if you’re ready to take this next step, let’s connect. Reach out to me at [email protected]. And let’s schedule a consultation. So we can start to create your vision.

Megan Porta  01:33

Hello food bloggers. How are you today? I hope you’re having a wonderful week. Welcome to this mindset and self care episode of Eat Blog Talk. In this episode, we’re going to talk about five ways to be more consistent in your business. Before we dig in today, I have to give a shout out to Mathea Ford. She’s the blogger at Renal Diet HQ. She’s also one of my awesome current mastermind members, and she offered up this topic. So thank you. Matthea, this happens to be something I absolutely love talking about, so it’s a perfect fit when I think back over my long journey as an entrepreneur, one of the things I have done that has served me, because I’ve done a lot of things that have not served me, is consistency when I start a business or a project, so my food blog, my second food blog, a podcast, any project that falls under any of those things, I go in knowing that I’m going to be consistent, because consistency over time equals success, as long as you keep learning and growing along the way, obviously being consistent with the wrong things. I’ve definitely done this too many times, will not serve you. So consistency, yes, while working on the right things, yes, and if you’re not working on the right things, being willing to adapt and adjust accordingly, especially as an entrepreneur who works for yourself and does not have a boss checking in on the work you produce. It is imperative that we learn how to be consistent in our businesses. In order to achieve the successes we want to achieve, we need to explore projects and ventures and opportunities and ways of doing things until we learn what is going to move the needle forward closer to our goals, and then keep doing those things over and over and over again and again and again. We hear this all the time. If you want to gain traction on Instagram, Facebook, Google, Pinterest, literally fill in the blank with any platform. Consistency is key. I do a lot of planning calls with food bloggers where we get on a zoom call, one on one, and talk through their business, what’s going right, what needs to be improved, and together we come up with a solid plan for the coming year. One of the things I’ve noticed from doing almost 100 of these calls is that the food bloggers who have consistency as a strength are the ones who achieve their goals and who are generally so much happier about where their business is at. The people who struggle with consistency struggle all across the board. They have a hard time staying motivated, knowing what to work on, seeing results, and are just overall not as happy about their place in the entrepreneurial space, consistency is hugely important as an entrepreneur, my journey is the perfect example that you can do a lot of other things wrong, but staying consistent with the right things can get you the success you’re looking for. The good news is that if you feel like you’re not consistent in your business, you can teach yourself to be more consistent. Over the years, I have become a more consistent entrepreneur by focusing on the things that we’ll talk about in this episode, and you can too. Let’s talk through five ways to be more consistent in your business. 

Megan Porta  04:55

Number one, get crystal clear on your why I just got done recording an interview with my cute husband, Dan. If you haven’t listened to episode number 600 yet, go listen. It was so much fun to record. One of the questions he asked me in the interview was, how have you stayed so consistent over the years? It was such an easy question to answer. I’ve stayed consistent with everything I’ve set out to do because I’ve always known where I’ve wanted to go. When I first started food blogging, I yearned for time freedom. At that time, it looked like getting the heck out of the corporate world, and once I was out of the corporate world, I wanted freedom over my schedule so I could be the boss of my calendar and my time. Now that looks like picking my boys up from school, hanging out with them in the mornings, going on fun vacations with my family, having the freedom to take a Friday off work if I want to, to do absolutely nothing, having massive flexibility in the summers, etc, having schedule and time freedom in order to spend quality time with my people is my why. It fuels me every day when I don’t feel like sitting down for a day packed with podcast interviews, I think of the schedule freedom that being consistent has allowed me, and I sit down and I record the interviews anyway. So let me ask you, do you know what your why is?

Megan Porta  06:18

Some of the food bloggers I speak to don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They might have a general idea, like, I want to make more money or I want more freedom, but that’s as far as they get. I always encourage people to keep asking themselves, why, until they start getting emotional, and that is usually the true thing they yearn for. Here’s a quick example. I want to make more money. Why? Because I don’t want to work as much? Why because I want more time with my family? Why? Because I don’t get much time with them? Why? Because my husband and I both work so hard, we split the time taking care of the kids, and it feels like we’re hardly ever together. Why? Because we’re always working. We deserve to spend more quality time together as a family so we can reconnect and do the things we love together. That is a good why worth being consistent. For once you get clear on your why write it down everywhere, create vision boards of the places you want to go and the things you want to do with your family and the things you want to experience together. Your WHY might not have anything to do with your family. This is just an example I’m using, but remind yourself every single day how important your why is to you. I like to change my desktop pattern on my laptop at least once a year, sometimes more, I put pictures of the places I want to go with my family and the things I want to do with them, as well as things we’ve done in the past that have been fulfilling and fun. I look at my laptop multiple times a day, so this is a great reminder of what my why is. If you can tap into the true emotion of why you want what you want, you will be much more likely to be consistent with the projects you work on. 

Megan Porta  08:00

Number two, time tracking. Feeling like you never have enough time to be consistent with work projects can be a huge hindrance when trying to get things done. After you get closely in touch with your why commit to time tracking for one solid week. Please don’t see this step as a speed bump. Instead, see it as an enlightening answer to all of your time problems. I’m not joking. This is an extremely powerful exercise. Track everything you do for one solid week. Toggl is a great free app that you can use to do this. It’s spelled T, O, G, G, l, I use it all the time. Ideally, you track everything, including non work stuff, because sometimes life tasks can infringe on your work tasks, and you won’t be enlightened unless you see it on paper. At first, it might seem like a huge nuisance to track your time, since it’s not something you likely do regularly. It requires a bit of brain training. When I first started time tracking years ago, there would be stretches where I’d forget that I was supposed to be tracking my time, and that’s okay. That will happen to you as well, if you’re just getting started with it. When you do remember, backtrack and write down everything you remember. After the week is up, it’s time to analyze, learn and tweak. Most likely there will be a handful of things that jump out at you right away that can be changed immediately. I did a huge stint of time tracking last winter because I was feeling drained all the time. Before I started time tracking, I wondered if maybe I was working more than I thought I was, or something, my time log each week revealed that I was working less than I thought. So why was I feeling so drained? This prompted me to explore where my energy was going. I never would have known to look at what was draining my energy. If I hadn’t done time tracking, I would have just kept going on telling everyone how much I worked every week. Maybe after you do a week’s worth of time tracking, you’ll notice that you’re spending, I don’t know, two hours a day in email, and that you’re jumping. All over the place, with projects working on five different things in a single day, steps you might take after finding this, hiring someone to help manage your email, and taking the time to schedule out work tasks or maybe even planning batching days before each week begins, these couple of things alone will free up space for you to be more consistent in your business. Time Tracking is a super revealing and powerful exercise. Please promise that you’ll try it even if you’ve done it before. It never hurts to do it again. I recommend doing it at least quarterly, to constantly refine how you spend your time, what your systems look like, and open up space for more consistency. 

Megan Porta  10:40

Which leads to number three: systems. For greater business consistency, you need to have good systems in place. Without them, it’s so easy to fall into the trap of chaos, hopping all over the place without any structure. Systems can act as guardrails for your time, helping you stay on track and making sure the important things get done. What are systems? By systems? We’re talking about routines, workflows, processes, things that help you automate, simplify and streamline your business and your daily tasks. Some examples are using a content calendar to organize your blog posts, or using a social media scheduling tool to plan and schedule your content in advance. When you create predictable patterns in your daily operations, you free up so much mental space to focus on the creative, high value parts of your business that actually light you up. For example, let’s say you’re struggling to keep up with your inbox. This is a common problem of mine. I’m always working on this. If you don’t have a system in place to manage your email, you can so easily get overwhelmed, which can easily steal your time and energy. But if you set aside a limited block of time each day dedicated solely to taking care of combing through your email, you’ve suddenly freed up mental space, allowing you to stay consistent without constantly feeling like you’re behind. I always like to find the bottlenecks my business. Ask yourself, what things are creating mental clutter for me this week, or which tasks do I dread doing to the point of stalling and not doing anything that is always a really good place to start with. Creating a system in your business. There are so many great automation tools out there to support entrepreneurs such as Zapier and there are built in automations for so many other tools as well. Take advantage of these. If you feel like your business is needing systems and automation, you could commit to building one system and setting up one automation per week until you feel more systematized. The more structure you build into your business through systems, the more consistent you’re going to be, and the more freedom you’re going to create for yourself down the road. 

Megan Porta  12:44

Number four, accountability. Accountability is a game changer when it comes to being consistent. It’s one thing to have a plan and to set up systems, but it’s another to follow through with those things consistently. This is where having someone or a group of someone holding you accountable can make a massive difference when you work for yourself, there’s no one checking in to make sure you’re hitting your goals or staying on track from week to week. It’s super easy to push deadlines to get sidetracked or to allow distractions to take over your day or your life. Accountability partners or business coaches or mastermind groups, or even family members can provide that extra layer of support to keep you on track. I see the power of accountability firsthand inside my mastermind groups, having people to check in with regularly and share progress and wins and expect updates from others creates this really powerful sense of responsibility. Having someone else who’s invested in your success can be super motivating. You’re not just accountable to yourself, you’re accountable to others. Having that external pressure can push you in the best way through any doubt, overwhelm and procrastination that you’re feeling. So find someone who can hold you accountable. It might be a fellow blogger, a friend, or join a group like the Eat Blog Talk Accountability group so you can share your goals, check in with others regularly, and just watch how much more consistent you become in your business. 

Megan Porta  14:14

Number five, celebrate your wins. When consistency is a goal, it’s easy to get caught up in the big picture and forget about the progress that you make over time. Celebrating your wins, both big and small, is a powerful way to keep your motivation up and reinforce the behaviors that lead to success. How does celebrating your wins impact consistency? Because it creates a positive feedback loop when you recognize and celebrate even the tiniest of accomplishments. So hitting publish on a blog post or sticking to your content schedule for a week, that reinforces the idea that your efforts are paying off, and this can motivate you to keep going. This is what I love about consistency. It’s not about making huge strides every single day. Today, it’s about showing up and making small, steady progress over time. Small wins accumulate into massive accomplishments over time, but it’s important that you take the time to acknowledge them along the way, plus it’s just more fun to celebrate along the way, rather than waiting for one big, final achievement to make you feel like you’ve accomplished something. Make it a habit to celebrate those small wins regularly. Start by doing it every day. Just to get into the habit of it, we start every single mastermind call taking turns sharing wins. I love how this kind of forces each member to acknowledge the good things that have happened in their businesses that week and the things that they’re doing right in our current time, where it feels a bit like a lot of us are doing everything wrong, this is especially important. I also try to express gratitude daily for those small, wonderful things that happen throughout the day. My husband and I like to sit down and do this regularly too. We’ll talk about our family, individual business and couple wins for the week or the month. Consider treating yourself to self rewards on a regular basis. If this really motivates you, it could be taking an afternoon or a day off of work, or treating yourself to a coffee or lunch, or splurging on, I don’t know, a shirt or shoes or something that you’ve had your eyes on. Just promise me that you’ll take the time to acknowledge your wins, both big and small. Rewarding yourself for showing up and for being consistent and for pushing through those challenges is positive reinforcement that will help to keep you motivated and stay on track with your goals. 

Megan Porta  16:35

That is all I have for you. In this episode, we explored five powerful ways to become more consistent in your business, get clear on your why, track your time, implement systems, stay accountable and celebrate those small wins and your big wins. Consistency is the key to success, and with the right mindset and strategies, it’s something you can cultivate and strengthen over time. Remember that small steps taken consistently lead to massive results. That is one of my all time favorite concepts, and if you adopt it for your own business, it will serve you in a really powerful way. Stay committed, stay focused, and don’t forget to celebrate your progress along the way. You’ve got this we can all learn to be a little bit more consistent.

Megan Porta  17:18

Thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next week. 

Outro 17:22

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.