Your First _____ May Not Be Great. Do It Anyway.

Why getting the first draft out of the way is crucial.

There are few things more intimidating than the figurative blank piece of paper. The priority is to start.

The first draft of the first chapter of the book I wrote was not great. The second draft was better. And before long, the entire book was complete and is a body of work I am incredibly proud of.

The first digital paid media campaign I ran fell flat. The audience didn't respond and the metrics were far below benchmark. But each subsequent campaign improved as I learned more about the space. Each time my creative got better, my testing plan got better, and the metrics moved in the right direction.

The first website I built from scratch was sloppy. The design was sub-par, the navigation wasn't clean, and the UX, as demonstrated by traffic data, left a lot to be desired. Websites I've built since then have been significantly better.

The first time you work on something new, it probably won't be as great as you would hope. The important thing is to do it anyway, and get the first one out of the way. That makes getting to the second one easier (and the second one will be better than the first).

Thanks for spending time with me in my workshop,

Eric