Marketing and Perfectionism

Perfectionism issues abound for self-employed women. I have a client who is paralyzed at doing her e-newsletter. She knows she needs to put herself out there more. And she has a lot to offer people with her particular expertise. She is even a fabulous writer who often writes on other people’s behalf. But when it comes to herself, she just can’t do it. When she thinks about putting her name on it, the bar goes up. It must simply be perfect. If it is less than perfect, what will people think? Will it hurt her reputation? So now her assignment is this: create and write an imperfect newsletter. Yes, that is correct. An imperfect newsletter. Oh, she’ll create a perfect newsletter someday. That’s the project for 2008.

Another client is stopped in her tracks with her website. And while she came up with many reasons as to why it isn’t finished, some of which sound very reasonable, she openly admits that perfectionism is playing a pretty big role. She is a professional! Her site must look perfect! (She laments.) What will people think if something is worded wrong, or something doesn’t work correctly? So her new mission is this: she is going to create an imperfect website. She’ll create the perfect website in 2008. For now, she is busy creating an imperfect site.

Get the idea? What imperfect creation is on your list?