“Speed is greater than perfection,” is better said than done. Marketers are constantly faced with an impossible task: to quickly produce high-quality items free of error. So how do we ease up on ourselves and relieve this enormous burden placed on us? Leslie Bloom, VP of Marketing at Dozuki, had some ideas during her episode of the Real Marketers podcast.
Blame Social Media
Here’s a secret about marketers - we love control. Blame it on our Type A personalities or our fear of being scrutinized on social, but we as marketers have an innate desire to control everything. I’ll tell you from experience, nothing makes a marketer more furious than seeing an outdated PowerPoint during a presentation or using the wrong font in a deliverable. But here’s the thing: life goes on.
While many of us do hold ourselves to incredibly high standards, we have social media to blame for these unrealistic depictions of what marketing should be. Social media is a highlight reel. We don’t post our failures or challenges on Instagram or LinkedIn. We like to maintain a certain image on social media, therefore we only post about our successes. This is fine but we have to remember social media isn’t an accurate representation. You’re not perfect and neither are the millions of marketers posting about their triumphs on social media.
Sometimes ‘Done’ Is Better Than Being Perfect
Now that we’ve established nobody is perfect, it’s time for us to get to the hard part - letting go. Marketing is an extremely public job. The work we’re doing will be scrutinized in every way possible; the tiniest mistake can feel like it will cause detrimental repercussions. But that’s just not the case. Unless you completely miss the mark on something, having a typo or using the wrong font is okay. Say that last sentence to yourself one more time to let it sink in.
We can make a thousand edits to our creative endeavors, but there’s something to be said about deadlines. There’s a delicate balance between creativity and speed-to-market. There needs to be enough time for you and your team to brainstorm, but you also need to make sure you’re getting your idea out to market as soon as possible. Leslie said it best, “Sometimes a done is better than being perfect.”
More Human, Less Robotic
If there’s one lesson we learned in the past year, it’s that marketers need to be more authentic with their messaging. Because we’re all working from our homes for the foreseeable future, the stiff messaging of the past no longer resonates with consumers. The same goes for your work-life.
The next time you’re in a one-on-one meeting with your manager, let your walls down a bit. I’m not saying you should treat your manager like a therapist, but if you’re struggling with something at work, let them know. What do you gain if you put on a facade that you’re at 100 percent 24/7? And newsflash, it’s okay to tell your manager you’re at capacity. You don’t have to take on every task imaginable.
Shifting your mindset isn’t going to happen overnight. But hopefully, as we become more transparent in our day-to-day lives, we can get there quicker. Listen to Leslie’s full Real Marketers episode here to hear more stories from a recovering perfectionist.
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