Before I get into why you should trade perfection for ‘goodish’ or even define what it is, I feel I must provide a wee bit of context.
Perhaps you’ve witnessed the TikToks about being the first-born oldest daughter. Or, maybe you’ve suffered from the curse of the millennials, with every financial setback delaying each milestone, if not postponing indefinitely. Maybe you’re even familiar with Geraldine Hickey’s take on why every friend group needs a Nicole.
I am all of the above.
If you or members of your marketing team have any — or all of the above — descriptions (and chances are you got at least one; we Nicoles are destined to be marketers), this blog is for you.
What to know about your Nicoles
Though I can’t speak for all of them, as an oldest-elder-Nicole, I suffer from a myriad of afflictions I certainly blame on my oldest daughter syndrome. And, my elder (don’t you dare call me a geriatric) millennial-ness means I want control of every situation. I like order and rules and process. Like Geraldine’s explanation of Nicoles, I will happily take charge of any project or task — mostly because I hate waiting for other people to do it, and do it well — and I am impatient. I suffer from people-pleasing, and my love language is words of affirmation, go figure.
Now, there are some good attributes associated with my particularly challenging lot of first-daughter isms. I’m wildly creative and resilient. I get things done. I can improvise (even if I don’t want to). And though I do want a “good job” for my efforts, I’m not afraid to try something that might not work out.
That last one, though, took me a minute to learn: the failure bit. It’s hard to let go of the pursuit of perfection. But working as a marketer in a landscape where everything is constantly changing, you have to be flexible and try new things without knowing if they will be successful.
So what the heck is goodish?
I didn’t always know I wanted to be a marketer. Back when I was still entertaining the dream of becoming an artist, I took an independent study in printmaking with my best friend, Alex. It was during this time that I learned how vastly different two people can attempt to achieve the same goal. It was also the summer we coined the term ‘goodish.’
My friend and I created a series of prints for our seminar. Mine were three-color screenprints, I made by blowing up Polaroid portraits (via copy machine) and turning them into a simple, high-contrast stencil. I would then overlay two repeating patterns to mimic halftone and add texture. My process was simplified and standardized, and I printed more than 75 unique portraits.
My friend, however, did very complicated etchings and woodcuts. Her artworks were multi-layered, and her approach was very different from mine. So different, that I completed my prints with eons of time to sit around the print shop and help out my bestie. While I had streamlined my production (all papers cut the same size, certain screens I could reuse for each piece, guides for alignment, etc.), Alex had a tiny margin for error and many opportunities for mistakes. One day, late into the night, as our deadline loomed and after ruining a few sheets of very expensive paper, we had to adjust her expectations. Perfect alignment for a four- or five-color separation was nearly impossible and we were running out of time, so we had to settle for goodish — the best we could do with what we had.
Goodish. adv., The best you can do given your time, resources, or ability to keep things moving so you can accomplish your task.
And her prints turned out great.
How a goodish philosophy translates to marketing
Thank you for humoring me on my long-winded trip down memory lane. Like many a former fine arts major, I am now a marketer. To get to where I am (a decade later than I feel like it should be, thanks millennial curse), I have had the opportunity to peek under a few different company hoods. As far as pursuing goodish instead of perfection? It’s always worked for me, regardless of industry, organization size, or even the title I had at the time.
Why goodish works for small, non-profit/early-stage startup teams
For small teams where marketing is either one person or every person, whether or not marketing is in their job description, goodish is your best bet. You have limited resources. You generally need to do more things than you have time to finish them. Chances are, there isn’t a way set in stone for how you are supposed to do it.
When your organization is small, your deliverables don’t have to be perfect; they never will be perfect. They just need to exist in the first place. Here, you can tap into your intuition without worrying about breaking any unwritten rules. And you know what? Usually the stuff you produce does the job, helps communicate your mission, and gets you where you need to be.
Why the pursuit of perfection kills mid-size marketing teams
When you consider a mid-size marketing team, you likely have a handful of talented marketing folks — all with their own opinions, experiences, and specific roles. Achieving results should be easy, right? Wrong.
Not only do you have your crew of Nicoles getting in each other’s way, but you’re probably also dealing with a leadership team constantly changing course. Does this sound familiar? Overall, you might be experiencing one or both of these two things:
- A lack of clarity. As shared by Marketing Week, this leads to poor output, poor results and investment being incorrectly allocated, causing frustration and conflict.
- Too many cooks in the kitchen. According to HBR, often the process of engaging so many people actually slows things down instead of speeds them up for mid-size businesses.
If anyone needs to adopt a goodish philosophy, it’s our mid-size marketing friends. Yes, there are basics you need in place:
- A solid messaging framework that internal and external channels follow as best they can. You need to know what you offer and everyone in your organization needs to talk about it in a cohesive way.
- Alignment, process, and time. Everyone knows the goals, they follow the requisite steps, and they have enough — but not too much — time to accomplish the thing. Adhering to this, you have enough guardrails in place to try things, but the freedom to just execute instead of over-examining every detail and never getting to hit publish on your whitepaper, report, or other data-rich, time-sensitive project. And then once it’s over, you can analyze and adjust for the next time.
- The opportunity to experiment. Innovation is birthed out of trying new things. Social media posts go viral when you let your social teams use their deep expertise to connect with your audience. All the magical things happen when you make room, and if you have your frameworks and guidelines in place, it can still be on brand and align with the greater goals.
Though it might be hard for CMOs or other leadership employees to loosen the reins, shifting from a goal of perfection to goodish could make all the difference.
The secret of a successful enterprise? Aiming for goodish
I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t experienced it myself in a previous role as a marketing writer at a global consulting firm. From the in-person interview where the hiring manager explained that sometimes things just needed to be good enough, to witnessing goodish in action, I am convinced that more big company marketing teams should subscribe to this philosophy.
So why — and how — did goodish work so well at an enterprise-level company? First and foremost, there was a process. Goals and timelines were set, details were shared, and docs were always stored exactly how and where they were supposed to be. The process worked. Also, there were dedicated style guides and other resources that spelled out the brand necessities. Second, there was a lot of trust. Everyone was trying their best, and no one needed to be babysat or micromanaged. Sure, there were senior employees overseeing the junior ones, but we didn’t waste time because one felt they needed to justify every thought or double-check each minor detail.
I was on a high-performing creative team, so my experience might be isolated. It’s also not to say that there weren’t those projects that got extended foooorrrrrevvvvverrrr (and probably had too many high-level decision-makers weighing in). But we created a lot of amazing marketing materials for the sales, partner, and events teams.
Why being goodish is my superpower as a senior copywriter
I didn’t study the English language or literature in school; I tried to be a painter. Well, a handbound bookmaker, but there wasn’t a dedicated program for that. Either way, I started out trying to be a storyteller before I had words to explain what I wanted to be. Fast-forward to now, I am a goodish copywriter, and I believe it’s what actually gives me an edge as a marketer.
I’m a Nicole, so I’ll always love processes and guidelines. And being the group leader. But, thanks to my millennial predisposition, I am willing to take what I have and try to make something beautiful out of it. In my day job, this can translate to taking a transcript and turning it into a case study that not only highlights all the great things about a company or solution, but connects to a reader on an emotional level. With the nature of my work, I’m usually on the hook for the first draft. This means often transforming an abstract idea or a sentence of instruction into something concrete. It also means knowing that the next person in line might not have pictured it that way, so being comfortable with a little bit of risk. (And at the same time, it means I need to understand my audience so that my output is inline with what is expected).
Being goodish isn’t about being lazy. Rather, it’s about doing the best you can do to accomplish your task. It’s following the rules that are set to help you be efficient, consistent, and successful. Goodish is also a method to deploy creative thinking and problem-solving. It lets me be resourceful, act quickly, and make marketing materials that resonate with real humans.
Add goodish to your marketing bench
I get it: giving up perfection is tough (I’m a millennial eldest-daughter Nicole, after all). But by peeling back that expectation, we can achieve so much still-entirely-brand-and-results-aligned more. If you want to see what happens to your marketing when expertise meets organization — that just so happens to encourage creativity — we’d love to connect. After all, every group needs a Nicole.