Why I Joined Mattie James’ Consistency Challenge
So, if you’ve become a regular reader on my little corner of the internet, you may have noticed how frequently I create new posts. If by chance you haven’t noticed, it’s every weekday, Monday through Friday. At least, that’s what’s been for the month of July. I have been regularly showing up just about everyday to provide you with some sort of value and some sort of content. Why, you ask? Well I’ll tell you why. Because I decided to participate in Mattie James’ consistency challenge for the month, which has been blogging everyday for the month of July.
For those who don’t know, Mattie James is a lifestyle influencer who teaches other lifestyle influencers to clarify their brand and not leave money on the table when it comes to pitches and brand collaborations. I’m not an influencer, well I don’t plan to be, but I resonate with her voice and way of guidance. I find her relatable, which is actually her leverage to brands, being able to reach millennial black women.
I participated in the last consistency challenge she posed back in May which was to post to instagram everyday of the month. I succeeded at that, my stats got a little wonky and I didn’t get the results I thought I would but I did it. We cooled down in June and this challenge sprang up a week into July and I hopped on board. But if I didn't get the results I thought I would with the instagram challenge, why would I spend time on this daily blogging challenge? Well, here’s why:
6 Reasons to Do
a Consistency Challenge
1. Accountability.
I work better with outside accountability. According to The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, I’m an obliger. That means I’m more likely to accomplish the goal or task at hand when someone else is depending on me to finish. So with this challenge, at the sign up, I felt like Mattie was depending on me to get through this challenge that she created. That my work in turn affected the results of hers. She also has a Facebook group with others who joined the challenge, so there was a camaraderie aspect where we would all work hard and cross the finish line together. I couldn’t be the one to let the team down.
Being aware of the settings you thrive in is important and I know that I thrive more for others than myself. Yes, that’s sometimes an issue, I know it, I see it, but in this case, it just helped me produce the work that I more than likely would have never done.
2. Videos to Blog.
For a couple months I’ve been “planning” to move my YouTube channel content over to my website. I wanted my website to house my videos so my website would show that I’m active on the net and that I’m consistently creating content. It would also serve as a portfolio of the work I’ve done within the past few years. Well planning doesn’t get you anywhere, action does and I wasn’t taking any action to make that happen. This challenge was a great jumping off point for that. Originally, my 20 posts were all previously recorded video content, so the challenge was going to be a smash, but I branched off and tried other content as well. The videos that made it on the site though the challenge are:
There are more to come and they’ll trickle down in the weeks to come but if you want to see everything that’s available, you can head on over to my YouTube channel.
3. Test.
I’ve been blogging off and on since 2014 but never stuck with anything long enough to gain any traction. Part of the reasons were self doubt, imposter syndrome, perfectionism and feeling like my words didn’t have value, but another part was I didn’t know what my content could be. I didn’t know what kind of posts to share that would show “credibility” in my industry, or rather that I had enough expertise to share that knowledge myself.
This challenge was a great way for me to test my newly defined platform focus of fashion design, style and self and to see if I could create content that I can be proud of and maintain its creation consistently. Now, I’m going to be honest, posting everyday became too much and exhausting but working on this muscle did give me the confidence and awareness that this is something I can do regularly. Once or twice a week regularly but it’s still possible.
4. Site Traffic.
One thing I’ve learned about operating online is that we don’t own instagram, we don’t own facebook, we don’t own any of it, so we don’t have control over what happens there. If instagram shut down tomorrow, there’s nothing you can do about it. Everything will just be gone. BUT if people can find your website, which you own, and get on your newsletter list, which you also own, you’re golden. In adding more posts to my blog, I can give IG viewers more value as I send them over to my website while an increased number of posts and keyword usage give me better odds in showing up on internet search results.
5. Long Form Content.
When you focus on quick moving platforms, you have to create content quickly. When instagram was my focus, I struggled with creating valuable content, at least twice a day regularly. It felt like I was always spinning my wheels on what to talk about next and I never had enough of them. The beauty of long form content is that you have one large idea and you can break it down into smaller snippets or high-light reels. I started doing this with YouTube when filming my projects. Sewing my design and that process became the long form video but I could easily chop the video up into 3 or 4 posts a week so the struggle to dig up content stopped. As for blogging, I can easily take quotes from the amazing inspirational words that I say but I can also take a point from a post and elaborate more on it within a caption. It’s easier to create a lot of little things when you have something large to pull from.
6. Imposter Syndrome.
Like I said earlier, I’ve been off and on blogging since 2014 and before the challenge started, my blog and I were in the off part of the cycle. It had been a year since I posted anything to it, so the challenge came at a perfect time and was the appropriate push I needed. Doing the posts so quickly didn’t give me time to think if something was valuable or if I had the right to say something about something. I just had to do it. The challenge gave me the opportunity to find focus, find my format and find my voice through this medium. It confirmed that blogging was something I could do consistently and gave me clarity on how I’d like to continue with it moving forward that feels appropriate for me.
As I finish writing my second to last post of this challenge 15 minutes before midnight, I am so proud of myself and what I’ve accomplished this month. This challenge was such an eye opener and I’m ready for the next one!
Have you challenged yourself recently to accomplish something you’ve been putting off? How did you do it? Share in comments.
Click #MJConsistencyChallenge to see all 20 posts
that were created during this challenge.