📈 Consistency is the wrong goal

Read time: 5 minutes

"My content performance is really inconsistent. What do I do?”

I got this message from a reader this week and it made me smile.

Why?

Because my content performance is also really inconsistent.

But most creators have this completely backwards.

They hear you need to be "consistent" and panic when their results are inconsistent.

But they're confusing two different types of consistency.

You need to post consistently but your results will definitely not be consistent.

In the Q2 algorithm report, we found that the median creator gets 93% of their impressions from their top 20% of posts!

Take two of my posts from last week for example:

• Successful people who started over → 558,890 views

• Real friends don’t ask for a friends discount → 11,373 views

49x difference.

This is a game of home runs. Especially in the early days.

Content Is a Game of Outliers

The people who win at content don't have consistent performance - they just have more outliers.

Think about it like this:

If you post 10 times and get one viral hit, your "inconsistent" performance just drove more results than someone with "consistent" mediocre performance.

The maths is simple: 1 post with 50,000 views > 10 posts with 1,000 views each.

The Outlier Framework

Here's how I think about content performance now:

Baseline Performance + Outlier Frequency = Long-term Success

Your baseline performance (your "normal" posts) will naturally increase as you have more outliers.

Why? Because outliers bring new followers who engage with your future content.

There is a compounding effect that most creators never stick around long enough to see.

Three Real Examples

Let me show you what I mean with actual data from Saywhat users:

1. My “10 Things NOT To Say In An Interview” Post (>20 Million views)

This single outlier brought me >18,000 followers and my baseline engagement went up after this.

2. David Brier’s “Most Ads Sell Products” Post (>5.7 Million views)

David's a branding expert with solid engagement, but this single post absolutely exploded.

When this worked, he doubled down on this format which drove more hits for him.

3. Harvey Lee’s “Employee Retention Isn’t About Perks Post” (>3.5 Million views)

Harvey’s “employee retention” post was a hit and brought him 4,000+ new relevant followers.

How to Create More Outliers

Here's your step-by-step playbook:

1. Track what actually works Log every post's performance. Look for patterns in your top 10% performing posts.

2. Double down ruthlessly on proven formats If "harsh truths" posts work for you, write more of them. Stop trying to be "well-rounded."

3. Test more unhinged variations of your winners Take your best post and make the hook 50% more controversial. Most creators play it too safe.

4. Focus on volume over perfection The only way to increase outlier frequency is to create more content. I'd rather see you post imperfect content daily than perfect content weekly.

Accept that 80% of your content will underperform.

This is the hardest part - but outliers are called outliers for a reason. They're rare. Especially when you’re starting out.

Try this approach for the next 30 days and track your results.

And if you want to dive deeper into how the algorithm really works, join my free webinar on Thursday:

As always, let me know how it goes.

See you next time,

Will

Will McTighe

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