“Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.”
– Bruce Springsteen
Ask yourself:
- Where are you being inconsistent in your business?
- What can you do to become 100% reliable where it matters?
- What can your audience, above all else, depend on you for?
Getting lift off for your business requires building an audience. In particular, an audience that has the problem you’re solving, and hopefully to get traction with them, they have the problem REALLY BAD. Because to try out a new idea, people need to feel the pain of the problem more than the pain of the risk of trusting you.
That’s where consistency comes into play. Consistency builds trust. When people know you’ll really be there, the risk factor starts to fall. And people WILL test out whether you’ll be there. That’s why they don’t commit right away – not until that risk of your newness drops just a little.
Think about it. If there’s a new store in town, usually it’s not popular until it proves itself. And you’re not going to buy stuff from it if you think it might close its doors in a week or so because someone gave up.
And that’s the crux of the issue – are you someone your audience can believe in? And they can depend on you being there in the future? Because they’re building a relationship with you through your product or service and they do not want the hassle of having to look for someone else to get that from.
The upside is that as soon as their comfort level in your commitment is reached, they’re all in. And that’s when what you’re doing matters to your audience and they’ll start showing up for you.
