The pattern no one wants to hear about
Still saying the same thing five years later...
After working with over 1,000 people in every industries and niche imaginable, I’ve noticed that the same patterns repeat themselves when people first start showing up online and trying to be seen.
I’m not just speaking about Instagram either, this is relevant to any digital space where you choose to visible and cannot control the environment.
Deciding to have a presence online means surrendering some control.
The first pattern I notice is everyone goes looking for hacks.
A hack for growing an audience, a hack for getting more impressions, a hack for making it easier to create or write. Anything to shortcut the process.
But the honest truth, the thing that has me shaking my head often, because most people aren’t ready to hear it is that this work demands consistency, not cleverness.
The hacks don’t compound, the habits do.
This work is repetitive, constant, and sometimes challenging. It demands patience - the kind that allows you to keep showing up even when most of what you put out won’t have extraordinary reach or immediate return.
It’s not that those moments never happen either. The absolutely do, but they’re just far rarer than we’d like to believe or what we’re told.
I was reminded of this again today while talking with Heston Roberts and Meg Harriman on The Social Media Roundtable. Five years into my business, and the truth hasn’t changed. The fundamentals still work.
The difference now? Fewer people have the patience to see them through.
