Succeed in the Creative Economy - Verhaal Brand Design

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You Think it’s a Mistake but it’s Actually Perfect

At the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey perfection was my goal.

I wanted to create perfect logos and websites. Upload perfect videos. Publish perfect blog posts. Send perfect emails.

But it was paralyzing.

And because of that, nothing was getting done.

Five years ago this month, when my finger was finally hovering over the “send” button for the very first issue of this newsletter, I was sweating.

What if I made some grammatical error? What if one of the links goes to the wrong page?

What if something is inaccurate and makes someone, somewhere, somehow irritated at me?

But it turns out I had it wrong all.

Since the 16th century, the Japanese have practiced an aesthetic concept that they call “Wabi-sabi”. It celebrates the slightly flawed, the not-quite symmetrical, the unrefined.

It can be seen in pottery with rough uneven edges or intentional chips, in architecture with off-center roofs, in the patchwork robes worn by Buddhist monks.

It embraces the idea is that imperfections are where the beauty lies.

That the true value resides in the flaws.

We should all remember Wabi-sabi when we go about our marketing work, design work, project work, our conversations with clients.

Because perfection isn’t the goal, it’s the enemy.

It’s the imperfections that make us relatable, interesting and authentic.

And they also help us get things done.

Shedding Some Light

There’s a star at the very tip of the handle of The Little Dipper.

Its astronomical name is Polaris. But, we call it The North Star.

The North Star sheds a lot of light. In fact, it’s 4000 times brighter than our sun.

The really cool thing is that when you look at it, the light you are seeing was actually generated in 1587.

Its light has traveled for 434 years to reach us.

To fill us with wonder and to help travelers navigate.

When I was reading about the North Star I was reminded of a video I did 4 years ago called “9 Things Your Brand Design Must Have”.

When I shared that video on YouTube I didn’t really know what would happen.

I just posted it and hoped it would help someone.

Time passed...

Then someone watched it. Then another and another.

Now, 4 years later it has 382,000 views. And it still gets about 7,000 views a month.

That video sheds light on a topic that has helped a lot of people navigate brand design.

As marketers and creatives we do this stuff all the time.

We produce creative work, content, media, share valuable information. Then we post it out there in cyberspace.

We don’t know who it’s going to help. Or when it will reach them.

But we have to remember that providing value takes time.

And that it will continue to shed light for years to come.

So You Want To Go Viral?

When I was in college I worked on an archeological dig on an island off the coast of Crete, drawing the ruins of Minoan buildings built in 1450 B.C.

It sounds very exciting and exotic when you talk about it back in the States at a cocktail party.

But the thing I learned about archeology is that what sounds exciting and exotic is actually a shit-ton of monotonous work.

Hours spent in 105 degree heat dripping sweat/mud onto your drawings because you’re downwind from the dirt sifting guys.

Days hunched over a table sorting through buckets of gravel with a tiny paintbrush looking for 3500 year-old mouse turds and fish bones.

People just think of archeology as the spectacular tiled floors we discovered. The frescos. The bowls adorned with octopuses. The drawings in the Library of Congress.

The same thing happens when clients want to be YouTubers, podcasters and bloggers.

People only see the end product and think how profitable creating content can be.

All the site traffic they’ll get when their stuff goes viral.

What they don’t see are the days that must be spent brainstorming ideas, writing, revising, shooting, recording, editing, documenting, promoting and analyzing data.

So if your clients want to publish content, have an impact on social media, get thousands of subscribers. Just make sure they are prepared to go the distance.

Because it’s not all exciting and exotic.

And they’re going to have to sift through a shit-ton of mouse turds to get there.

The Sunny Side

What Do You Need?

I used to work near Union Square in San Francisco.

Within a couple blocks of the square are a half dozen large tourist hotels. The Marriott, The Westin, The Grand Hyatt. On my way into the office, I used to watch the tourists emerge from their hotels in shorts and t-shirts looking forward to the warm weather they expect in California.

The only problem is that half the year San Francisco is freezing. The fog rolls in and let’s just say it’s not shorts and t-shirt weather.

So the first thing thousands of tourists do is desperately search for where they can buy a sweatshirt.

They don’t have to look very far.

Almost every store around Union Square has warm apparel for sale. CVS has a whole hoodie section right by the front door. So does Walgreens. Even Starbucks has sweatshirts.

Why? It’s because they know it’s good business to give people what they really need - right now. You can make good money selling hoodies even if that’s not what you usually sell.

Maybe you design logos. Maybe you’re a videographer or a 3D animator. And maybe business is a little thin right now because of CoVid-19.

So, ask yourself two questions: What do people really need to help their businesses - right now? And...Can I provide it to them?

Do they need a Facebook ad campaign? Some new blog posts to boost their SEO? A fresh email template for outreach to prospects?

Because you can make good money selling this things. Even if it’s not what you usually sell.

A New Playlist for You

The corona virus has everyone stressed out. Now, in week 4 of the lockdown everyone is getting a little stir crazy.

Everyone except our dogs that is.

That’s mainly because they’ve been jammin’ to a new Pandora playlist.

Let me explain.

Before the corona virus when we left the house we used to put on classical music for the dogs to keep them company.

That’s because we’d read that past studies showed dogs were more relaxed when they listened to classical music.

But the folks at the Scottish ASPCA observed by day 7 their stressed shelter dogs got habituated to classical and returned to restlessness. Just like us, they get bored.

So they did their own study. They wanted to know what genre of music dogs actually like best. So they used a playlist featuring 5 genres of music including classical, Motown, soft rock, pop and reggae.

Then they recorded the dogs heart rates, cortisol levels and behaviors that measure stress levels, like barking, panting, yawning or lying down.

It turns out dogs like...reggae. Bob Marley in particular.

When you have been operating under the same assumptions for a while. Serving up the same products, the same strategies and processes - talking about them in the same way. Your message might be falling on deaf ears.

You might want to switch things up. Try a new message, a new look.

Try jammin’ with a new marketing playlist.

This Might Get Loud

In 1883, Earth made a noise. It wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill Earth noise like an earthquake or a tornado. This one was loud. Really, really loud.

In fact, scientists have discovered that when the island of Krakatoa, near Sumatra exploded in a massive eruption, it created a noise that was the loudest noise in recorded human history.

The explosion was heard 3000 miles away in Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The sound took 4 hours to get there. Then it circled the earth. Four times.

The rocks that spewed out of the volcano were traveling at 1,600 miles per hour. That’s more than twice the speed of sound. They calculated that Krakatoa actually shot rocks into outer space. At that velocity, the rocks just keep going and have by now left our solar system.

As creative communicators it is our goal to amplify messages. Amplifying our clients messages using design, imagery and copy. Amplifying our own messages by publishing content, through social media, and interacting in professional communities.

Usually we try to do this tactfully, with a certain amount of finesse, so hopefully it will fall on receptive ears.

But sometimes to be heard over the din of the internet brand-o-sphere, you just have to be loud.

Really, really loud.

Shiny Objects

A little girl in Seattle named Gabi Mann has a collection of beautiful trinkets. A shiny earring, a green glass bead, a silver charm with the word “best” engraved on it. But, Gabi didn’t collect these treasures herself. They were given to her.

She didn’t get them from her friends. Gabi was given them as gifts…by crows.

It seems Gabi was in the habit of feeding the crows in her neighborhood. Every day for years she put out peanuts, seeds, tasty crow-appropriate treats in a metal bowl in her back yard. But then a funny thing happened. The crows started leaving her presents. A sparkly paper clip, a bright red piece of plastic. “Quid pro crow” as it were.

When you give to your community with no expectation of return something wonderful happens. I like to call it “subliminal reciprocity”. You help people and over time they just naturally want to help you, too.

That’s how content marketing works. You give people value, something that will inspire them, provides them with knowledge that helps them succeed, that will nourish their business. Before you know it, they will want to return the favor. Entertain a request you make. Maybe even refer some new clients to you.

You know, in a quid pro crow kind of way.

Lead Magnets That Deliver: A Quick Guide To Growing Your Email List With Content

Email marketing is an undeniably powerful marketing tool. Studies show that “email is the third most influential source of information for B2B audiences, behind only colleague recommendations and industry-specific thought leaders,” according to Wordstream.com. In the B2C world, ”Consumers who purchase products through email spend 138% more than those that don’t receive email offers.” Wordstream reports that 77% of people prefer to get permission-based promotional messages via email (versus direct mail, text, phone, or social media). Connecting with your audience through email is preferable and effective. You cannot deny it.

The reason it is so effective is because people have given you permission to market to them, which is unheard of in any other marketing channel. Most marketing comes to you in the form of advertising; online, television, print or outdoor advertising, and you have no control over when or where the ads are served. The media channels choose that.

Email marketing is different because people have signed up to hear from you. They have entrusted you with their email address which is one of the highest forms of trust today. Sharing an email address says, “I trust you to give me information I need, and that you won’t pester me by contacting me too often or with news I don’t care about.”

The best thing about email marketing (or permission-based marketing) is that the customer is in control of the relationship. The customer can decide when to stop receiving your emails - they can break up with you if you don’t serve them well. They are in the driver’s seat, but they are also qualified, highly interested in what you are doing and very likely to listen to what you are saying. Think about how your business would dramatically change if you had 5,000 or more subscribers attentively listening to your every word. You’d be unstoppable.

But what if you don’t have a large email list or what if your list is not chock-full of engaged, ready-to-buy subscribers? How do you get people to sign up?

You ask people to “trade.” The item you trade for an email address is a bit of content called a lead magnet or an opt-in magnet, which can take many forms. It’s usually a digital file; it can be an ebook, checklist, guide, report, resource list, or even access to a quick video training course.

When a prospect clicks to download the lead magnet, they have to enter in an email address in exchange. It's a reciprocal agreement; they're getting something of value and you're getting something of value. So this even trade kicks off a relationship based on mutual trust.

One of the most common forms of lead magnets is an ebook. Ebooks are inexpensive to create because there is no physical production involved. All it takes is some time, energy and a bit of brain power to pull one together.

Ebooks don't have to be a monumental project. They could be a mini-ebook, a two or three-page pamphlet. As long as it is valuable to your viewers and visitors, it will make a great lead magnet.

If your ebook is not based on current news or events it will have a longer shelf life so it is best to focus on content that is “evergreen”. You can offer a single ebook for an extended period or create variety by rotating through multiple ebooks as you continue to develop more. Before you know it, you will have a valuable library of evergreen email list-growing content.

You don't necessarily have to produce original content specifically for your opt-in magnet. Think about how you can repurpose other content of yours and deliver it in a way that is helpful for your potential customers. If you have videos or podcasts piling up, transcribe them into written form and offer that as an opt-in magnet (rev.com is a terrific transcription service, as are descript.com and temi.com. YouTube offers a free transcription service for videos on its site). Even if the viewer has seen the video or heard the podcast you’ve transcribed, offering it up in a different form may be of true value to them.

If you write blog posts or articles you can offer those in a different format, expand on them, or bundle them together as an ebook for your lead magnet. Prospects may not have come across your writing where you originally posted it, so offering it in another format will expose them to that information and provide value that they wouldn't have otherwise received.

You can also include additional promotional information about your products or services in your lead magnets. An incentive to buy sooner, offering add-on services, or free shipping offers can be very effective in a lead magnet.

Key Elements of a Lead Magnet

Title Tells All

The title must be really enticing, motivating viewers to have to know more. Spend some time researching which titles tend to be successful in your industry and try to create something that will draw people's attention.

Present Your Best

After you’ve piqued their curiosity, you have to deliver the goods. Make sure that you're not disappointing your readers. Remember, they are giving you their email address, so you want to make sure you're delivering top-notch information to them.

To ensure you are delivering the best, make sure that your piece has:

●       A design that reflects your brand

●       High technical quality

●       High factual quality

●       Good structure, flow and is well-written, in your brand voice

●       A call-to-action, it can be subtle, but it should be in there

Hire a copywriter to help you write or refine your piece, or if you can’t afford that, enlist an editor to make sure your work is free of grammatical and spelling errors. At a minimum, run it through free grammar and spelling checking software like Grammarly or Hemmingway.

Be A Trusted Resource

Deliver value early in the piece and you will get the attention you deserve. Starting with a strong assertion makes people take notice. Don't spend 5 or 10 pages leading up to the “big idea.” Give them value early.

Promoting your Lead Magnet

One of the best ways to promote your lead magnet is on social media. Include links and teasers in your Twitter and Facebook and Instagram posts. Use Bitly or TinyURL to create a nondescript link to your downloadable content. It’s a great idea to put links in your email signature and rotate the magnet you’re offering, so virtually every person that you send an email to gets access to a piece of valuable content.

You can also promote your lead magnet through a pop-up on your website. Everyone hates pop-ups, (I hate pop-ups too) but they work really, really well. About 75% of my email sign-ups come through the pop-up on my website. You really can’t argue with that kind of efficacy.  

Lastly, ask people to help you promote your opt-in. Ask people to share the link to your content - you’ll find that people want to help and if they do, you should do the same for them. Use this opportunity to create a great network of content-sharing professionals.

Once you get started with leveraging lead magnets, you‘ll see how easy it is to attract qualified, interested leads to your email list. You’ll be delivering great value to your audience, which is a solid start to the relationship. As long as you respect their time and attention, you are fostering a mutually beneficial partnership that will build your business and cultivate a tribe of brand devotees.

The Gumball Rally

There’s a movie from the ’70s called The Gumball Rally where a wacky cast of characters participate in an automobile race from from the East coast to the West coast.

One character enlists the help of a professional Italian racer to drive his car. The first thing the Italian does when he gets in the car is to reach up and rip off the rear-view mirror and toss it aside. Shocked, the owner asks, “Why’d you do that?”

The Italian answers “When you are in a race, it doesn’t matter what’s behind you. What matters is what’s ahead.”

Last week one of my coaching clients was upset. His competition was copying him. They were stealing his ideas! What should he do?

I told him that it’s impossible to keep people from knocking you off. Consider it a compliment. You are the leader and they are on your heels. The only thing you can do is to keep coming up with great work. Better work. Innovate and push forward.

There will always be people who are trying to catch up to you. You can’t waste your time looking in the rear-view mirror.

What matters is what’s ahead.

Creating a Customer Journey: 10 Steps to Web Copy That Converts

Is your website under-performing? Did you create your site thinking that customers would flock to it to buy your goods and then…crickets. The phone isn’t ringing. The order confirmations aren’t flooding your inbox. You wonder, “Why aren’t people engaging on my website? Why aren’t people calling me, emailing me, or downloading my freebie when they visit?”

The answer: It’s because you haven’t told them what you want them to do.

You need a customer journey.

Simply put, a customer journey is a path of movement and action for the visitors on your site; from the first headline they read, to the last click of the mouse. This path, laid out by you, tells the visitor where you want them to go and what do you want them to do when they get there.

A successful customer journey gives your site visitors a focused and seamless interaction with your brand — something every website owner aspires to.

Done correctly, the customer journey motivates your visitors to interact with you.

It shows them that you understand their problem and that you have the exact solution they need. It instills a feeling of trust and credibility toward your brand and products. It also helps the customer to feel empowered, engaged and in control of their decision, rather than being bombarded with Buy This NOW! messages.

The famous saying goes, “We buy from people we know, like, and trust.” A customer journey allows your audience to get to know you a little, like you (or at least like what you are saying) and trust that you have some expertise. However, it is not necessary to talk excessively about yourself, your company or your products to have people know, like and trust you. In fact, the biggest mistake most businesses make is talking too much about themselves. Keep the focus on reflecting the customer’s point of view, because that is what’s critical to creating more sales. Design consumer-centric communication and your customers will respond positively.

To begin, you need to know about your customer.

My video on how to develop a customer avatar will help you get started. Understand your customer, specifically:

• What motivates them? What are their values?

• What is their goal for visiting your site?

• What problem are they looking to solve? What pain points do they have?

• What other solutions might they be looking at? Where are they getting their information?

• What reasons might they have not to buy?

Next, you can start laying out the customer journey.

Ask yourself:

• How do you want people to engage on your site?

• Which pages do you want them to visit?

• In what order do you want them to visit those pages?

• What do you want them to do on those pages?

You need to take charge of the way visitors consume the information on your site. Don’t just trust or take for granted that they will arrive at the right page or see the right button at the right time. People rarely do — don’t leave it to chance. You need to lead the visitor through a thought process. It needs to be logical, simple and always come from their perspective.

Start with a hypothesis.

Build from an idea or a structure of a journey that you think will work. Later you will be checking your Google Analytics to get a sense of how people are actually interacting with your site. Take note of which pages they’re going to and how long they’re spending on those pages. Start to iterate, change and evolve the site over time using customer feedback, data, and quantifiable results.

Here are my 10 steps for creating a customer journey that converts:

Step 1: State the problem

Demonstrate to the customer that you understand their problem by writing a solid headline. Get their attention by showing them you know what they’re looking to solve. You’ve got about 3 seconds to prove you understand them, so the headline is very important. But don’t worry, you can change it if it’s not working or not working as well as you like. Keep testing this important piece of copy because it’s worth getting right.

To really show you understand the reader, use examples of the kinds of thoughts they may have or the other solutions they may have tried. In the body copy, use tangible examples in a storytelling format so your audience can really identify with it.

Step 2: Identify with the problem

Next, you need to show that you understand the problem and more importantly, have empathy for them as they wrestle with all the ordeals they have in experiencing the problem. Spend a line or two letting them know that solving their problem matters to you.

Step 3: State the solution

What is the solution to their problem? Describe the solution in general terms. Don’t mention your particular product or service just yet. State the solution in a sentence or two at the most.

Step 4: Describe the solution

Give the reader an introduction to your products and services. This is the “what” of what you offer. You can begin to talk about yourself a little in this section. A few sentences that help the reader understand what you do is ideal.

Step 5: Why you?

Let the reader know how your products/service solve the problem. Let them know what your specific solution is, and how it can help them. Be sure not to be long winded or braggy. What will you do for them? How will you do it? Be careful to steer clear of features here. Avoid talking about the all-leather soles of the boots you are selling, but instead, focus on how comfortable your customer will feel in those boots.

Step 6: Why you’re unique

Now that the reader knows you understand them and you understand that their problem is frustrating, they are likely to begin to feel like you understand them. This is the perfect time to let the reader know how your products and services are different. Demonstrate, through examples if you can, why your solution is different from the other people in your industry who do what you do.

Step 7: Get slightly braggy

This is your opportunity to lead them to understand that you’re the one they should choose. Talk about your products and services and how they’re better. For example, if you sell lip balm, let the reader know your product will heal and moisturize their dry, cracked lips (Step 6). Telling them about the healing properties of vitamin E and the moisturizing properties of avocado oil that you use, and how it’s helped hundreds of other people (Step 7) will help them understand why they should choose you.

Step 8: Results for them

Turn the spotlight back on them. Describe the result of using your product and remember to stay focused on benefits. Explain the emotional benefit as well as the functional benefit from engaging with you and buying or using your products or services. How are they going to feel? Remember, people buy results, not products.

Step 9: Barriers to purchase

Barriers to purchase are the thoughts that are going on in the customer’s mind that dissuade them from buying. Thoughts like, “No, I’m going to wait,” or “I’m not going to buy it because x,” If you can understand what x is (it’s often something like, “It’s too expensive,” or “It takes too much time,”) you can be preemptive about describing why they can feel confident in buying your product or service. Address any barriers to purchase by mirroring their inner voice exactly.

Step 10: Call to Action

Lastly, you need to tell them where to go and what to do.

Examples are:

• Follow this link

• Click this button

• Fill out this contact form

• Schedule time with me

• Download this thing

• Take this course

Be very explicit about telling them what to do next. After all, you’ve led them through this customer journey and now they believe you can solve their problem. Take the last step and tell them what they need to do to set your solution in motion.

Your customer journey may start out very simple and over time become more nuanced and detailed.

If you remember to keep the focus on your visitor’s goals and motivations for coming to your site, your customers will respond. Be willing to get in their shoes and think about their problem; what motivates them to change or take action?

If you do that along every step of the way, you will create copy that converts.

Philip VanDusen is a creative thought leader and principal of Verhaal Brand Design, an agency that specializes in leveraging brand strategy and design to build brand affinity and equity for companies and entrepreneurs. Get more from Philip in his newsletter brand•muse, join his 160k subscribers on his YouTube channel or connect with Verhaal Brand Design on Facebook.

The Hot Duck: A Tale of Brand Differentiation

The ducks in Central Park in New York City have a cushy gig. They paddle around, they look cute, they create a picturesque tableau in the pond. The females are speckled brown, the males have handsome green heads. People like them, they bring their kids to see them, they feed them breadcrumbs. The situation worked for everybody.

But then he showed up. He being a Mandarin Duck who just dropped in one day and threw the whole operation into a tizzy. New Yorkers, habitual nicknamers, started calling him the “Hot Duck”.

Why hot? Mandarin Ducks are an explosion of spectacular colors and swooping patterns of feathers formed into a shape of a duck. They’re breathtaking.

Suddenly, there were crowds of people at the duck pond. Throngs of tourists with huge zoom lenses. Suddenly all that people could see or talk about was: That. One. Duck.

On display at the duck pond was the perfect embodiment of Rule #1 in branding: Stand out from your competition. Like Tesla, Virgin, Uber, you have rise above the sea of sameness and make a bold statement. Ruffle feathers. Redefine how people see your category.

You have to be the Hot Duck.

Putting in the Reps

I had the pleasure of talking with Antonio Centeno last week in London. Antonio is the creator behind the “Real Men Real Style” YouTube channel. His most popular video, “How to Keep Your Shirt Tucked In ALL DAY” has 12 million views.

When Antonio started out with YouTube he was filming in his basement which had a dirt floor. He always wore a jacket and tie, but he didn’t wear dress shoes. He didn’t want to get them dirty. And because his early videos were shot from the waist up, a lot of the time he wasn’t even wearing pants.

Antonio filmed late at night, after work and after his young kids had gone to bed, so he could concentrate. He posted over 150 videos before he broke 10,000 subscribers. He compares that time period to lifting weights at the gym. He calls it “putting in the reps”.

With any type of content marketing, it can take a while to see results. But if you put in the reps, the results will come. Today, Real Men Real Style is a seven figure business with corporate sponsorship, a podcast, live conference events and over 2.1 million subscribers.

Because Antonio put in the reps.

Set It On Fire

It was 1967 and there were a hell of a lot of great guitar players in London. John Lennon, Jeff Beck, Brian Jones, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, were all playing the clubs. If you were a guitar player too, it was hard to get noticed.

But there was this one skinny guy named Jimi Hendrix from America. He was a good guitarist. Better than most. He dressed weird, but everyone was dressing weird. He used a lot of distortion, but everyone did that, too. One typical night, his band The Experience was playing the London Astoria. At the end of their 45 minute set Jimi kneeled, laid his guitar down on the stage and…set it on fire.

The audience loved it. The music press couldn’t stop writing about it. They started calling him “The Black Elvis”. Soon it was standing room only. He was that guy who torched his guitar.

Unless you live on a tiny atoll in the Pacific, chances are there are a lot of competitors around who do what you do. You may do it better. Better than most. But how can you be really different? What can you do to set it on fire?

Looking for a Greener Pasture?

A landscaping company in Idaho had a problem last week. They offer a service that clears unwanted brush and growth from your property - with a twist. They don’t use mowers, blowers and trimmers. They use goats.

We Rent Goats trucked in their workers, a herd of 118 eating machines to help a client who needed to clean up around a pond. Let’s just say that the crew didn’t really like the “flavor” of the work. Instead of clearing the pond grounds they decided to tramp over to the adjoining suburban neighborhood and snack on the much tastier flowers, scrubs and gardens of it’s residents.

It’s a classic example of “If you don’t give them what they want, they will go someplace else to get it.”

I often work with clients who have designed businesses, products and services who have taken the “If I build it, they will come.” approach. And often they wake to find that what they are offering is not what people really want. 

An early investment in consumer research and the competitive landscape will tell you what you need to build. Because not even a bottomless marketing budget can keep your customers from tramping over to the competition if what they offer is tastier. 

Perfectionism Is Killing Your Career: Here’s What You Can Do About It

Perfectionism can sound like a good idea. At first glance, it makes sense; being a perfectionist must lead to perfection. But the truth is that perfectionism is greatness killer. A 2016 longitudinal study verified that perfectionism doesn’t make you better at anything, and can actually make you significantly less successful in life. Many of us know from experience that it can:

• Hamper creativity
• Decrease risk-taking
• Make the creative process unnecessarily stressful

Pushing yourself to create strictly above-average work and consistently perform at peak levels seems admirable enough. But when your standards become inflexible and unforgiving, perfectionism becomes an impediment to success; creativity diminishes, risk-taking wanes and your stress level goes sky-high.

Perfectionism is counterproductive.

Perfectionists are driven by a critical inner voice that demands flawlessness. This inner voice never self-regulates, never shuts up. It’s your job, as the person in charge of your life and your work, to regulate this voice, so your creativity and productivity can evolve.

The first step in conquering perfectionism is, like they say in 12-step programs, acceptance. Try to accept that you have some thoughts and behaviors that that are undermining your prospects for success. For example, you may be spending 90% of your time on that last 10% of the project (this is one I frequently get stuck in). Step back and look at your thoughts and behaviors from a distance. When you catch yourself in a perfectionist tangle, accept and adjust your reaction. Acceptance allows for change.

Sometimes your inner critic is so fearful of failing that it paralyzes you. I’ve had that “scared stiff” feeling. When I was in art school I used to paint on large five by six-foot canvases. That huge expanse of stark white canvas was very intimidating. Often I would get an idea of what this perfect painting would be, go to my studio…and just stare at the white canvas.

I was absolutely paralyzed by my perfectionistic preconception of the final result.

Then I realized I only needed to do one simple thing to get the creative juices flowing: make a mark. Just making a mark - taking a brush and some oil paint and just marking the canvas. It didn't matter what kind of mark it was. It broke that white surface. It broke down the imposing aspect of not starting. That mark gave me something to react to, something to react against, something to build on.

Of course, I would cover it up with other marks, which would then disappear under more marks. But that first touch of paint to the canvas was the most important brushstroke because it got the ball rolling. It broke the paralysis of perfectionism.

Renowned author Anne Lamott encouraged her writing students to make a “shitty first draft”. “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” That’s true for all creative endeavors.

When Apple made their first logo, it sucked. It was way too busy and complicated. But they got it out there. Now, their logo now is so well-known I would guess that 90% of the population could probably draw it. It's beautiful, simple and refined. So far removed from their initial identity, yet it would be impossible to evolve the logo if they didn’t take the first messy step.

When you start off, even if you’re Apple, you're gonna suck a little bit.

That's just the truth.

But it’s actually okay because sucking a little bit makes you more human.

It makes you more approachable and relatable. People don’t warm up to other people (or things for that matter) that are too perfect or too polished. They are off-putting. It’s counterintuitive but scientifically verified that being vulnerable is actually magnetic (it’s called the Pratfall effect).

Maxims are great tools to short-circuit perfectionist thoughts. A helpful saying I use is “ship it,” or “done, not perfect.” Getting something out into the world, “shipping it,” is the first step in making it better. It gives you the opportunity to react to it or against it –it’s just like making my mark on the canvas. The faster you get it out there, the faster it becomes something – rather than just an idea in your head or a project cloistered in your office or studio.

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” -Steve Jobs

Tech companies in Silicon Valley use a method called rapid prototyping. They create a minimum viable product (MVP) software or website and quickly put it on the market. The MVP is a starting point; it allows consumers to give feedback that’s used to iterate the design or the product; it begins the cycle of feedback and improvement. An MVP is a great model for conquering perfectionism. Put things out into the world that may be 90% there - accepting that it’s not perfect, but knowing you will learn from it. This will put any perfectionist out of their comfort zone, but that is where we grow, try new things, experiment, and innovate. Playing it safe never won any awards.

Pushing through self-imposed barriers opens you up to learning and improving.

Here’s an illustration:  One day my wife decided that she wanted to learn to play the viola. There is so much information about the viola out there. You can watch YouTube videos about the viola. You can attend lectures about the viola. You can read viola books, listen to viola music, but if you want to learn the viola, you have to pick up a viola and drag that bow across those strings and make a horrible sound. That’s the first step. Practice and practice until it makes a beautiful sound.  You will get better over time. That's very much what conquering perfectionism is all about.

It's about starting.

It's about making that mark.

It's about shipping it.

It's about innovating, improving and working outside of your comfort zone.

Conquering perfectionism is not always easy, but it does get you closer to more creative, fulfilling, useful work, with more perfect results (the irony!). Accept your perfectionistic thoughts and actions, and challenge them. Nudge them off the stage by doing something imperfect, no matter how small. It may be scary at first, but I guarantee you’ll feel liberated and more creative over time.

To Win Big, Think Small

“Alice in Wonderland-like” syndrome is a disorder of the brain. The symptoms are named after Lewis Carroll’s protagonist Alice, who went down a rabbit hole and found herself shrinking or expanding depending on her circumstances. People who are afflicted by it misperceive the size and distance of objects, seeing them as larger or smaller than their natural state. 

In a white paper, comScore has reported that a staggering 80% of social media viewing is done on mobile devices. How do people choose what to consume? They click on thumbnails that jump out at them. So not only are viewers encountering content at a tiny scale, they are choosing what to click from even tinier thumbnail images.

When designing artwork for social media, for Facebook, for YouTube, you have to zoom way out.  When people view your post, your thumbnail may be as small as 3/4 of an inch wide. If your designs have lots of copy, small font sizes or detailed imagery, people are going to get frustrated and scroll right past them. Opportunity lost.

But when people click your thumbnail, you get traffic. When you get traffic, you win. To win big, you have to start by thinking small.

This How You Pack a Punch

There’s a diminutive undersea powerhouse called a mantis shrimp. It does one thing really well. It packs a wicked punch. Mantis shrimp strike out with their little arms and hit their prey in three-thousandths of a second with 1,500 Newtons of force. So fast that the water actually boils and causes a tiny bubble-shock wave that kills their prey - even if they miss.

The power of being little, fast and packing a wallop reminds me of influencer marketing. Over the last few years brands discovered the value of being promoted by social media influencers. But the major stars with millions of followers are increasingly perceived by their audiences as less “authentic”. Defeating the whole reason for engaging them in the first place. 

As a result, micro-influencer marketing has emerged. Brands that have historically engaged large-follower social media personalities are increasing going directly to much smaller influencers, and more of them. This way they can pay less, diversify and regain the valuable punch of authenticity in the endorsement.

Big or small, are you making the most of your brand's scale? Do you have a marketing tool you could reconfigure? There is no excuse for not packing a wallop.

photo credit: iStock.com

You're Making Too Much Noise

At Orfield Labs in Minneapolis there is something called an anechoic chamber. Also known as the world’s quietest room. The sound level inside it is -9 decibels. There is literally less than zero ambient noise. When you are in it, the only signal you hear is the sound your own ears make (yes, they actually produce a little noise). That, and your own heart beating. 

The amount of noise that we have to filter today is ridiculous. The signal that we want to hear, that holds a meaningful message, is getting harder to discern. Unfortunately, sometimes we are responsible for creating this noise ourselves. Trying to be on too many social platforms at once, reflecting and bouncing too much content around. You can drown yourself out.

This is why I left Twitter last year (for the most part). My analytics revealed the promotions for my agency were mainly reaching the feeds of other marketers - who were all busy reverberating their own noise. Everyone was talking, but no one was really listening.

How quiet is the room you’ve chosen to be in? Is your customer there with you? They need to be able to hear the heartbeat of your message.

Your Wolf Pack

There is a behavioral phenomenon in wolves called the Beau Geste Effect. When a wolf begins to howl, his pack mates will begin to howl also. However, when they join the chorus, they don’t howl in the same tone. They pitch their howl up or down an octave - modulating the tone mid-howl. It makes the pack sound larger than it is.

During the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant wrote that judging from the nightly cacophony, "a pack of twenty wolves" had been shadowing his unit. When the pack was eventually spotted, it turned out there weren’t twenty. There were two. 

When you make yourself appear larger than you are, two things happen: 1. You stake out your territory and lay claim to its resources…and 2. You give the competition second thoughts about messing with you.

Entrepreneurs and creative professionals are leveraging social media, blogs, articles, podcasts and video to multiply their voices and appear larger than they might be in reality. 

Ruling your niche is a smart move. Being small is no excuse for not owning your neck of the woods. What more can you do to keep the competition at bay?