Little and often is key, whether you’re watering plants or improving your profile. Keep it consistent, no matter how small, and the results will come
KIM ARNOLD
I’m the grim reaper when it comes to plants. I only have to look at a perfectly healthy palm for its leaves to ominously wither and fall off. I’ve even killed cacti, for goodness sake.
So, when recently I was given a stunning bonsai tree, I knew it was doomed in my hands of death. I decided instead to give it to my daughter to see if she’d fare any better with this exotic creature.
She patiently read the instructions. “Little and often is key,” she announced.
She set an alarm on her phone every day for when she comes back from school. And at 5pm she waters it, sprays its leaves and gives it a little prune. It takes just two minutes, but she does it religiously, day in, day out.
And boy, does the little bonsai show its appreciation for her tender loving care, with its shiny green leaves and brand new shoots!
But little and often isn’t just for plants. It’s just the thing when it comes to marketing and personal branding too.
We often mistakenly think we need a grand gesture to make a difference to our profile, like starting a podcast, hosting an event or speaking in front of a huge crowd.
But when it comes round to actually doing these big activities, we choke. They just feel too big. Too scary. Too time-consuming.
We end up feeling overwhelmed and then…do nothing at all. And we watch from the sidelines as other coaches or colleagues get the clients, the promotions and the pay rises. Grrr.
It’s time to ditch the ‘all or nothing’ mantra and think smaller.
If you’re serious about being more visible, the little and often approach always wins in the long run. Getting yourself ‘out there’ consistently in small but regular bursts generally works better than big, uneven flurries of activity with long periods of radio silence in between.
Consistency creates trust with your audience.
But…I get it, it’s not easy. It’s hard to stay consistent if you can’t see immediate results (‘It’s just not working!’). But hold your nerve.
Writer, Alexandra Franzen uses a wonderful analogy of standing in a room made of ice that you’re trying to thaw.
Every day you adjust the thermostat a fraction, bringing the temperature up a degree.
For a long time, nothing happens. You keep turning up the temperature little by little, but it’s still frozen.
You want to give up (and most people do at this point). But you keep going, day after day – the room gets warmer and warmer. And suddenly – whoosh!
Once you rise above zero degree Celsius, the ice suddenly melts into water. Franzen writes: “Suddenly, you see motion all around. Thawing. Pouring. Flowing. Things are happening. Finally – a big change that you can see and feel.”
Over this last pandemic year, I’ve encouraged my clients to keep plugging away at their profile-raising, no matter how slow the progress. However tiny the activity.
They’ve told me it’s been reassuring to hear that something is always better than nothing.
Just one email a week to a prospect.
A comment on someone’s LinkedIn post.
A virtual coffee or two.
Small steps are still steps.
So whether you’re an in-house coaching sponsor or a coach trying to build your business: Be more bonsai.
- Kim Arnold helps individuals and companies stand out, connect with their audience and make their messages stick. She works with coaches, entrepreneurs and scale ups, as well as global organisations including Accenture, UBS Asset Management and JP Morgan. She is author of a new book, Email Attraction – Get What You Want Every Time You Hit Send (2021).
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