Consistency Is A Rhythm | Phil Pearlman on Reinvention, Authenticity, and Showing Up

When your life has been a series of reinventions, what does consistency even mean? On this episode of Just Press Record, I show Phil a clip with Nancy Burger and Julia Duthie, two executives who've radically reinvented themselves multiple times over. Nancy speaks about being yourself in every situation. Julia reflects on how people notice when you're inconsistent, how it catches you out in your humanity.

Phil's own reinventions - psychology student, gym guy, therapist, investor - should disqualify him from understanding consistency. He's all over the place. But instead, they're exactly why he gets it. His dissertation supervisor told him 25 years ago something he still lives by: "How long do you have to act a way before it's not a mask anymore?" The real spine here isn't about being perfect. It's about showing up as yourself, repeating it, and becoming consistent through behavior rather than intention.

The deeper (if not deepest) insight is about role modeling, not as inspiration but as gravity. The closer you are to someone, the stronger the pull. And the most powerful version isn't performing authenticity. It's being it. As Phil puts it, we "behave our way into being." You show up, you repeat it, you've become consistent. That ripples outward to everyone around you.