Don’t expect to be 100% happy with your own work.

You’ll always find another word to change. At some point, done is better than perfect.

What it costs you

You are not your audience.

You will look at your own marketing more than anyone else ever will.

You’ll read your email forty times. Your customer will read it once. If you’re lucky.

You’ll notice the logo is two pixels off center. Your customer will notice whether you can help them.

They are not grading your font. They are not comparing your shade of blue to your competitor’s.

They are asking one question: “Can this person help me?”

If your marketing answers that clearly, it’s good enough to send.

A real example

The flyer that never got printed

A woman opens a small taco shop near an office park. Hundreds of people, five days a week, all looking for lunch.

So she makes a flyer. The first version is fine.

But the photo could be better. Then the prices change. Then she isn’t sure about the colors. Then her nephew says the font looks old.

Three weeks later, she’s on version eleven. Still not printed.

Across the street, the sandwich shop prints one sheet on the office printer: the menu, the phone number, “Show this flyer for a free drink.” They hand out 300 at 11:30 and go back to making sandwiches.

The sandwich flyer wasn’t better. It was finished.

Still changing it11versions, and zero flyers in anybody’s hand.

Done and handed out300flyers, and a lunch rush that week.

That week, a lot of people tried a new place for lunch. It wasn’t the taco shop.

Why it happens

Why you’re never quite happy

“The photo could be better.”It always could.

“I’m not sure about the colors.”Nobody else is thinking about your colors.

“My nephew says the font looks old.”Your nephew isn’t the customer.

“Let me ask AI for one more version.”Version #38 isn’t better. It’s just later.

The only marketing that can never get better is the marketing you never send.

Do this instead

Run the Good Enough Test.

Not perfect. Ready. Ask yourself five questions. Five yeses? Send it. Print it. Post it. Today.

Check	Ask yourself
What you do	Can someone tell what you do in five seconds?
Who it’s for	Is it obvious who it’s for?
Why now	Is there one clear reason to act right now?
How to reach you	Is your phone number, website or QR code easy to find?
Spelling	Is everything spelled right, including your phone number?

Notice what isn’t on that list: the perfect photo, the perfect font, the perfect color, your nephew’s opinion. Those can get better later. If you use AI, use it once, like a second set of eyes: ask for the three most important things to fix. Only three. Fix them. Then send it.

Do this today

Cost: $0Time: 15 minutes

1
Find the one that’s been sitting there. The email in drafts. The flyer that’s “almost ready.” The post you never posted.
2
Run it through the Good Enough Test.
3
Fix only what fails the test.
4
Send it, print it or post it before you go to bed tonight.

It won’t be perfect. It doesn’t have to be. It just has to be out there.

Stolen from the masters · Reid Hoffman

Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, is known for one line every business owner should tape to their monitor. He was talking about software, but it works for a flyer, a website, a postcard or an Instagram account:

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

That little bit of embarrassment when you hit send doesn’t mean you did it wrong. It usually means you did it on time. Feel a little embarrassed. Send it anyway.

From the book