We’re officially one week into the Olympics, and as I continue watching various sports, athletes' interviews and commercials, I thought of how it’s similar to owning a business.

The way I see it is nothing about this happened overnight. Not one of the athletes, organizers, or coaches woke up on February 5 and said, "Tomorrow, I’m going to the Olympics, and they will be happening in Italy."

Every athlete, every person involved in the Olympics, has trained and has been planning and wishing for this for years. MANY early mornings. Many falls, disappointments and doubts, but yet, here they are, competing on the world stage against the best of the best.

Social media and business growth works the exact same way.

You don’t post once and win a gold medal.

Social media isn’t really a place where you show up for a week and just ‘make it.’ Most of the work online happens when no one is paying attention. There are late nights, deleted posts, blog posts no one clicks on, it’s a bit of a slog to get noticed.

Posting once and waiting for instant results just leaves you frustrated and questioning whether it’s even worth it.

Growth comes from consistency

I’ve been saying this a lot lately but it’s worth repeating. Growth comes from showing up consistently. It comes from paying attention to what resonates with your audience and giving yourself time to learn and adjust what you’re doing based on what’s working.

It doesn’t come from comparing yourself to other people all the time.

Like the olympics, we’re just seeing the highlights of peoples lives when we spend too much time online looking at other people’s feeds. We see the posts that are already doing well.

But we don’t see the years of work that went into it. (Which is too bad because just like the olympics, I would totally watch that show too.)

Here’s some ideas you can post inspired by the olympics:

Post your personal journey

If the Olympics is the highlight reel, then I want to see more of the journey leading up to the successes. Consider sharing your journey so people can see how hard you’ve been working.

Post a highlight reel of failures

Hear me out. Every failure paves the way to success, so maybe instead of posting what’s worked year after year, you should post about what didn’t work. The times you stumbled might connect with just the right person at the right time.

Celebrate a win

If you’ve had a win that feels big to you but you haven’t shared because it wouldn’t feel big to other people, share it anyway! A recently won contract, an award you forgot to post about, an article you were featured in. Invite your audience to celebrate with you!

Your industry podium

Everyone loves seeing the podiums where the gold winner invites the others to step up with them. You can do the same thing! Post about your favourite competitors who are doing incredible work in your industry. Just make sure you put your business on the podium next to them.

Remember it’s not just about the highlight reel

If you get one thing from the olympics, it’s that there is a journey from brand new athlete to Olympic gold. So focus on one thoughtful post at a time.

Consistency builds trust and trust builds relationships. Relationships build business. Your marketing is a long game and you should try to find the joy in the process where you can.

If you schedule a post inspired by the olympics, share a link below so we can all cheer you on!

Social media is not a sprint, it's an Olympic marathon