No she-devil perfectionists allowed here!

Ladies Who Launch Live! rocked. Kate and I had so much fun. Our day started out a bit rocky because the show floor opened at 9 a.m. for 300 eager lady shoppers and we didn’t even pull up outside the doors until 9:15. This left us in a frenzy to set up the last few touches on our booth while people were already swarming around us, asking questions, looking at our work samples and signing up for our raffle. (We’re giving away 18 kick ass prizes to people who signed for my soon-to-be-launched Manifesto E-Zine.) By the way, you can subscribe here. Let me know if you have any problems or get confused by the subscription process. It’s still a work in progress.

I’m usually chronically 15 or 30 minutes early for everything. But my partner, Kate, is a kind-of-late-arriver by nature and she was my ride so I had to let it go and get there when she was ready to get me there. After the initial chaos we found our groove and had a very successful day together. Since Monday, both of our phones have been ringing off the hook and emails are pouring in so all is right in the world of Creative Urge right now.

This week I’m in the middle of finalizing our post-show mailings and email follow-ups… and trying to find space in my November and December calendar for the 15 two-hour initial consultations that have been requested so far by women from the LWL Live Event! Now there’s a luxury problem!

Since I’ve found myself a bit mired in details the last few weeks getting the beta version of creativeurge.com up live and doing all of the prep and follow-up for the show, I’ve been practicing letting go of my inner perfectionist. You know her… that nagging, obsessive-compulsive, she-devil who lives inside your head and constantly tells you, “WAIT. STOP. It’s not good enough yet.” What a buzz kill!

I sent a woman I managed at my last "real job" to a time management seminar as part of her career development plan. When she came back, I asked her, “What was the most important thing you learned?” Her answer: Perfectionists never get anything done.

This is so true. If we spend all of our time and energy trying to make things perfect before we move forward with X or Y or Z… things just never happen for us. Because the truth is whenever you’re working on something marketing-related (or elsewhere in business or life) there is always something you could change. There’s the headline or tagline you could spend another twenty minutes brainstorming. The fifth round of proofreading you could do. That damn shade of green you could keep tweaking in your logo to make it a little more “limey.” Or the marketing plan you could keep planning on until the cows come home. The thing is… at some point you just have to say, “Cut and Print,” and call that thing done so you can take action on the next great thing you want to tackle.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe details are important. They’re very important, but not more important than the big picture. And the simple, God’s honest truth is perfection isn’t necessary for success. This is a secret most people don't know. The truth is, your customers will forgive a typo or two if they really enjoy reading that email you send them. And adding a bit more yellow to the green in your logo isn’t going to make or break a sale.

What really matters in the grander scheme of things is your intention behind what you’re doing, not whether it is executed perfectly. If you intend to put a new business or creative project out in the world to be of service to the constituency you cater to, that’s what’s really important. If you intend to manifest more abundance for yourself and others through your effort, that’s what people will take away from their experience with you. And do you know what they’ll remember? The feeling you gave them… not what your “perfect,” clever headline said.

So in celebration of today’s get-it-done spirit, I happily hit “publish” on this post without editing it for errors. Feel free to pick it apart for grammar, spelling or usage problems if you want to. I even encourage you to email me corrections. I may even take time to log in and fix the problems you point out. But during the editing process, don’t forget to take home the message in this post.