Composure, Consistency, & Competition
I started the title off with three “C words”. Composure, Consistency, & Competition. Let’s talk about how to stay consistent in today’s highly competitive and spam-culture world.
We can say a lot about the type of society we live in when it comes to social media. There are both, negative and positive influences in the media today. Rather that’s social media, the news, or the negative assholes that you might stumble into on a day-to-day basis. The media is all around us; filled with opinions and vibes, that may or may not throw your vibe off from time to time. One could try to argue that social media is avoidable. Isn’t the solution as simple as turning off your notifications or logging out of the app? However, as young business owners and creatives, we look at these media platforms as tools to showcase, promote, and sell our services, products, and skills.
This is why Composure is the first C of them all. Maintaining your composure is key to all things in life. You have to remain in control of yourself and your thoughts. Don’t let outside influences distract you from completing your set goals. Remember to keep your headstrong and don’t allow comparisons, and lack of patience to derail you from your route. Composure first starts in YOUR head. I know as creatives, we enjoy viewing other people’s work, and if you’re human, you’ll start to compare your work to others. Drown this out. Focus on YOUR craft when things seem to become overwhelming. Take a break from the editing screens and the phone screens to give your mind a break. Read a book, write some plans out, drink some tea, hit the gym, or go take a nap. Maintaining your composure is a process that takes time, but when you’ve mastered it, you’ll know. Benefits of maintaining your composure include higher productivity, better focus, and an overall healthy mental that is key to longevity in your work life.
Once you’ve gotten a firm grasp on your mental and you’re ready to continue on, the next step is to obtain a habit of consistency. Being consistent is important when starting your business, or marketing your services. As I stated earlier, we live in a spam culture. Usually, when you see one promoting something, they’re spamming these promotions all day and night to gain attention. This works. However, it definitely becomes tiring over time. This is why companies have marketing teams. Marketing is a high-demand career within itself. When it comes to consistency, you need to be able to perform consistent marketing, contacting, analyzing, and researching. This is all before you receive consistent clients. No need to spam all day and night, but set a goal to post something related to what you’re selling at least once every two-three days. In between this time, take what you posted and format it into different things so that you can utilize it on other types of posts like your “story”, “reels”, “portfolio”, etc. You can take one photo or video and do so many things to it for different platforms, just get creative. Contacting potential clients and people you feel can help benefit your brand also requires some consistency in the beginning. You have to inform the public about who you are and what you have to offer. Informing the public could include making a post, word of mouth, emailing a group of people, organizations, or businesses, posting up flyers, making a commercial, etc. All of which I’ve done. This is honestly the easier part of consistency because there are so many ways for you to contact others. It could be a challenge though for those who are introverted. You have to learn that being introverted in this industry will not allow you to last long. You can be an introverted person, but when it comes to your business and your brand BE VOCAL. I mentioned analyzing as being a consistent action that you must do as well. As anyone who is trying to make progress, you must constantly analyze the future, present, and sometimes the past of your brand or business. The future is self-explanatory, we must always look forwards. The present needs vital analyzing because this is where you make your mistakes. Mistakes are made in the present and we face consequences in the future. Analyze what you’re currently doing as far as your marketing strategy, your money management, your website, your clients, etc. This will keep things running smoothly. The future should always be analyzed and glued in your head. You should know what your long-term goals are and put in work every day to achieve them. Researching is the last mention of what you should keep consistent. We’re usually never as smart as we think we are. I’ve been using YouTube for years to answer a lot of my editing and gear questions. Not only that, but YouTube has also taught me how to structure my business, manage clients, build my website, price myself, and understand the money side of things. Research whatever you have questions about constantly. The entire world wide web is right in front of your face.
Competition is the last C because although you shouldn’t pay any mind to it in the beginning, it is always going to be there, even when you’ve become a professional. There will always be others out there that are doing what you do or something very similar to it. They’re called competition. You shouldn’t pay too much mind to your competition. But when it comes to improving your business, it may call for that. Allow people on different levels to influence you. But stay true to yourself. Remember, we’re creatives. Competition just calls for a little more creativity. Be yourself, this is what makes you stand out from the rest. Incorporate your own taste into what you do. There’s no one out there that’s a complete duplicate of you. With that being said, if you stick to what you feel is right, you’ll never go wrong with your creativity. Many people tend to do what others are doing, don’t be limited to what’s around you, there is no limit!