Adriene Mishler posted her first yoga video on a Wednesday in 2012.
It was short, unpretentious and charming. Adriene introduced herself as an experienced yoga teacher who would offer free high-quality yoga regularly on her new YouTube channel.
She pledged that every Wednesday she would post a new video.
And she has. Except for a couple of weeks of ill health, she has put up a new video every week for almost eight years. Now there are 700 videos on Yoga with Adriene and close to eight million subscribers.
It’s quite the success story yet like everything, it took time. Time and consistency.
At first, the videos were a side project for Adriene who worked as an actor, high school drama teacher and yoga instructor. Finding time for a weekly shoot was hard. But having made a commitment, she was determined to stick to it.
No one actually watched in the early days, but we stayed consistent. ‘Yoga with Adriene’, USA Today
Being consistent for a sustained period has enabled Adriene to build a body of work that has contributed to her success.
We know that consistency is key to building an audience and sustainable business.
But being prolific yields more than that. Working to consistently produce and publish gives us an apprenticeship that hones our voice, builds our skills and helps us to refine what works and what doesn’t.
In her first video, Adriene also pledged to write a weekly article and for a few years, she did. But eventually, she realised that squeezing herself into a template designed for others was not working.
I was 100 per cent sure that the information that I was sharing via the newsletter was information that you could hop on over to the next website and find almost verbatim even though I was speaking from my heart. So, I ditched the newsletter and decided to start writing whatever I want. ‘Giving to receive’ Me Convention Talks
Now Adriene writes what she calls a weekly love letter to her subscribers. There’s no template – just an intention to share love and encouragement, which seems to be Adriene’s way.
My advice is, just let it be raw… Each time, just make one thing better… and then your community is going to grow with you. Just let us look at you. Let us see you. Don’t worry about it being messy. It’s fine to see the humanity behind the teacher. ‘Yoga with Adriene’, USA Today
Thanks to Niklas Kickl for his photo via Unsplash
