One of the hardest phases of business I’ve been through is what I call feast and famine. That is where you know your business works, to an extent, but income is completely unpredictable. It often feels like a game of chance. Not knowing when the next client or sale will come and just hoping it comes soon.

It was during that time that I often felt like there was some secret other business owners knew about that I had yet to discover. It’s in this space that I see so many business owners fall prey to manipulative strategies that promise to let you in on the secret that will magically bring about 10K months.

If you’re on my list there’s a good chance you’ve already called bullshit on those promises, or like many of the people I work with, perhaps you’ve spent thousands only to figure it out the hard way.

So here’s the thing. There is no secret or magic bullet, but there is what I call your “X”.

That is the lever you pull or the strategy you implement that does bring about more business.

I remember many years ago realising that I’d figured out that when I do more of my X, I get more clients.

My X might not look the same as your X, but they will have one thing in common: connection.

Because here’s the thing that I think on some level we understand but also often overlook.

Revenue follows connection.

Take a moment to let that sink in and feel into what that might mean for you.

For me, things finally started to fall into place in my business when I got consistent with two things: authentic outreach, keeping in touch with my network and having meaningful conversations, and writing long-form content, sharing my ideas and point of view on a regular basis in my newsletter and on my blog. Connection.

But here’s the part most people don’t talk about: there is a lag between connection and revenue.

As you’ll no doubt know, it’s not like we publish a post on Instagram and immediately get a client. It might take months of posting before we start getting any traction at all.

I remember committing to posting weekly blogs and it took nearly a year before people started applying for my coaching and telling me they had found me on Google.

And this lag creates two really common patterns.

1. People give up on or switch connection activities when they don’t see immediate results.

Or

2. They do it long enough to get results, sign a client or two, and then get so focused on delivery that they stop connecting altogether.

Income isn’t random. It follows behaviour. It follows how consistently we connect, how visible we are, how often we reach out.

Because there’s a lag, it’s very easy to misinterpret what’s happening. We stop connecting and nothing changes immediately, so we assume it’s fine. Or we start connecting and nothing changes immediately, so we assume it’s not working. But both of those interpretations are usually wrong.

Stability isn’t built in the week you feel motivated. It’s built in the months you keep going when nothing obvious seems to be happening yet. That doesn’t mean pushing beyond your capacity. It means choosing a rhythm you can realistically hold.

And that’s the part that’s hard. But it’s also the part that changes everything.

If your income has felt unpredictable lately, it might be worth looking back three months instead of three days. Where did connection slow down? Where did it stop entirely?

Because revenue follows connection. It just doesn’t do it instantly.