Anyone who has worked for me has probably tired of — among other things — hearing me say “never let the perfect become the enemy of the good.”
In the world of PR and communications, many of us (myself included) strive for perfection.
As owners, this can manifest itself in many unproductive ways.
We need to exercise restraint ourselves and encourage our teams to strike the right balance to ensure that they provide excellent results without adding time and expense that doesn’t provide commensurate additional value.
I’ll explore this more a bit later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s take a look at the resources that Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Upcoming Events
- Webinar: How to accelerate your agency’s growth in the year ahead (October 9)
- Roundtable: Agency website reviews (October 23)
Latest podcasts from SAGA
- Onboarding agency clients the right way (Agency Leadership Podcast)
- Content, consistency, and conversions for agency biz dev (featuring Lee McKnight Jr.) (Chats with Chip)
Weekly Roundup
Below are some articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that we came across during the past week or so that provide useful perspective and information for PR and marketing agency owners. While we don’t necessarily endorse all of the views expressed in these links, we think they are worth your time.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Articles & Blog Posts
- Prospect Ghosting You? Use this ghosting schedule to follow up. (RSW/US)
- What We Can Learn From the WordPress Drama (Bureau of Digital)
- Please. Ignore all this Founder Mode B.S. (Anchor Advisors)
- Ready to get off the agency “roller coaster”? (Sakas and Company)
- Cold Outreach Can Be A Great Research Tool (Punctuation)
- Quickly Turn Your Media Pitch Into a Podcast Success (Spin Sucks)
- Four Ways to Make Your New Business Presentations Better (The Sutter Company)
Podcast Episodes
- Why Media Literacy is Crucial in an Age of Untruths (That Solo Life)
- The Art and Science of Press Release Distribution, with Mickie Kennedy (The Innovative Agency)
- Evolving the PESO Model© With Academia and Research (Spin Sucks)
- Hire Slow & Fire Fast: Investing Time in Building Your Agency Team with Bryant Walker (Smart Agency Master Class)
- Marcel Petitpas on Strategies for Improving Delivery Margin and Agency Profitability (The Digital Agency Growth Podcast)
- Using Client Stories to Increase Retention, with Ian Garlic (The Agency Profit Podcast)
Videos
- An Endorphin Boost (Agency Management Institute)
AI in Focus
- Influencers, Memes, and AI Boost Marketing Transparency Mandate (For Immediate Release)
- Networking Strategies & AI Applications for Small Business, with Cheryl Laidlaw (The Personal Brand Business Show)
Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good
Agency owners and their teams tend to have at least a streak of perfectionism, with many being full-on perfectionists.
I know because it is something that I have struggled with over the years, not just in agency life but in other things.
What got me thinking about this was some recent work I was doing to retouch some portraits I had taken (my nights & weekends hobby job is as a sports and portrait photographer). It is so easy to want to do “just one more tweak.” And the longer I look at a portrait, the more things I can think of to adjust ever-so-slightly.
Of course, if I didn’t impose a limit on myself, I would never deliver the final image.
Similarly, we need to figure out where to draw the line with the work that we do as agency owners — and encourage that same restraint from our teams.
It’s not an easy balance to strike. Clearly, we want to deliver great results for our clients.
But the reality is that we notice far more than our clients ever will.
So we need to ask ourselves if we have reached the point of “good enough” — and then hit the brakes if we have.
That doesn’t mean we should be sloppy or recklessly cut corners.
But it does mean that we need to avoid over-editing the work that our teams do. We need to suppress the urge to micromanage a project to ensure that it gets done exactly the way that we would do it ourselves.
We need to judge our work and that of our teams based on the results being produced. The truth is that one more pass on an op-ed or yet another iteration of a design or our personal feedback on the details of an event is unlikely to make a material difference.
We need to trust our teams to do a good job. We need to trust our own abilities and not second-guess our own work constantly.
If we let the perfect become the enemy of the good, our work will take longer to deliver (and cost us more) without seeing a big enough difference in the outcome to justify it.
Webinar: How to accelerate your agency’s growth in the year ahead
As agency leaders start to think about annual planning, most will be looking toward accelerating their growth rates – especially if the past 12 months haven’t been as robust as hoped.
In this webinar, Chip Griffin will provide attendees with simple steps to take to get started on mapping out a plan that maximizes the chances for faster growth in the year ahead.
He will identify approaches that he has seen work well – in addition to potential pitfalls – based on his own experience as an owner coupled with many years of advising agencies of all sizes.
To register for the webinar at 1 PM ET on Wednesday, October 9, click here.
