When you’re running a race, one of the worst things you can do is look left or look right.

The second you take your eyes off your own lane, you lose focus on what really matters—putting one foot in front of the other and running your own race.

For entrepreneurs and business owners in the online space, building a brand can feel like a high-pressure competition. We all want to show up consistently… everywhere… all the time.

After all, the other racers are hustling, aren’t they?

The problem is… entrepreneurship is not a race. It’s your life. The second you start worrying about keeping up with the person next to you, you forget that you’re on completely different paths.

Your lane might dip when theirs curves. You might need to take a rest when they’re in an all–out sprint.

That’s why, for entrepreneurs, if you want to show up consistently, you have to figure out what authentically works for you.

What does authentic consistency look like?

Even if you aren’t trying to win any races, consistency is important because it builds trust with your audience.

But it can and should vary from person to person.

For most of us, we imagine that consistency means showing up on all the platforms, every single day,  and hustling with no break in sight.

But that kind of consistency can easily turn into feeling as though you’re on a hamster wheel, working on a never-ending to-do list, creating content 24/7/365.

It’s taken me some time to figure out exactly what consistency means for my brand. But across the board, consistency should look like showing up for your audience at your best, providing value, and you get to decide how often and when.

So without further ado, here are five tips to serve your audience and be true to yourself in the online space… consistently.

1. Pick just one 

When you are new to building your brand, start by researching where your audience already hangs out. You don’t want to spend all your time creating content for Facebook if your audience is hanging out on LinkedIn.

Figuring out what platform your clients are on will help you to focus your energy in the right places. Put all of your energy and focus into one platform in order to get your momentum going. Remember, a big part of consistency is representing your brand well. So pick one, and do it really really well.

Once you feel comfortable managing one platform, or when you have the bandwidth, you can add another platform.

2. Determine what season of life are you currently navigating. 

Remember, those toddlers will soon become teens, and school lets out for the summer. Your road is going to dip and curve and throw you a detour every once in a while.

What does your season of life look like right now? How much time can you spend on your business without feeling overwhelmed and exhausted?

When I started my business, I was juggling homeschooling as a mom of three. Facebook was the primary platform for entrepreneurs, and Instagram had started to emerge. I had no idea what I was doing on either platform; I didn’t have a strategy. But I often heard that I needed to be consistent.

So I took the advice and tried sharing content every single day not considering the season of life I was in. I found out pretty quickly that there was no way that I could maintain consistency that looked like being online every single day.

As I coach clients now, I want them to always consider what season of life they are in and make their best decision when it comes to how often they would like to show up on their social media platform of choice and where their clients are hanging out. You can have a successful content strategy plan that works best for the season of life you’re navigating and the bandwidth available for your business.

3. Set YOUR standard for consistently showing up. 

So decide for yourself…

If you are in a busy season of life, juggling multiple things, ask yourself what consistency looks like for you. What can you maintain on a weekly basis? Can you consistently show up 2 days a week? 3 days a week? You get to set the standard for when and how often you show up.

If you’re currently only sharing one post a week now, don’t commit to five days because you might not be able to maintain that schedule going from one to five. Go back to step number one and choose what will work best. Start with two days; do that consistently for a week, and then increase that number.

4. Be flexible and give yourself grace. 

Your audience wants to see that you’re a human because they are humans too.

Let’s say you’ve decided that consistency, for you, looks like 3 days a week of posting. Maybe you have a week where you’re not feeling well or you have a family emergency, i.e. legitimate excuses. Just give yourself some grace to pick back up and get back to your schedule the next week.

And recognize that it’s okay to push pause on social media. It is absolutely okay if you want to take a vacation to be away for a week or two. Just let your audience know that you’re going to be on vacation and that they’ll see you when you get back.

Remember, when you show that you’re a human, you give your audience permission to take time and pauses too. We get enough pressure everywhere else. Be the one place that allows humans to be humans.

5. Outsource, eliminate, and delegate. 

Our to-do list can be a mile long, but if building your brand’s online presence is important, take a look at your to-do list to see what you can outsource, eliminate and delegate.

These three things will help you to be able to maintain your brand’s consistency, even if you’re only focusing on posting 3 days a week.

Again, your lane looks different than my lane. There’s no shame in passing off tasks that you don’t have to do yourself. While you’re focusing on social media, you might want to take a look at other aspects of your business too. What tasks don’t need your personal touch? What tasks would be more cost-effective if a virtual assistant performed them for you? Think like a CEO.

BONUS TIP!   Plan.

Put together a reasonable content strategy that will help you to maintain the consistency that you want to achieve.

Your content strategy should consist of the main content pillars for your brand. Plan your daily posts around those content pillars. For example, you could cover Mindset on Mondays, Tips on Tuesdays, Inspiring Women on Wednesdays, Thankfulness on Thursdays, Fashion on Fridays, and Sell on Saturdays.

However, you choose to layout your week, be sure to nail down your content strategy plan in advance, and then choose one day of each week that you will write captions, gather photos, videos or graphics, and plan your content for the week.

Have fun! 

I encourage you to consider what consistency looks like for you for this season of life. Give yourself grace, be flexible to make changes and to take pauses. Remember that this is your brand and your business. If you’re dreading any part of running your business, you can give yourself permission to take a step back and fix it so that you enjoy it again.

Most of all, don’t forget to have fun.

For more free content to help you grow your brand and a community of entrepreneurs who really get what you’re going through, join us in the Ignite Your Brand Facebook group right here!