One Creative Moment is a daily email for founders, owners, and creators. You'll get insights, irreverence, and inspiration to help you build a better business & live a more creative life.
Best practices are a trap
Looked at one way, best practices (for anything) are a safe bet.
As a saying I’ve heard tossed around the old business campfire over the years goes: no one ever gets fired for hiring IBM.
Now, I question the full truth of that (I bet someone has), but nevertheless, it contains the lesson that doing what “everyone else is doing” will save you from having to explain yourself later. You followed best practices; what more could anyone ask?
Even if your project flops, if you hired IBM (or did whatever “best practices” dictate in your particular situation/industry/market), it wasn’t your fault.
And it’s quite cozy to think and act like that.
I can certainly think of multiple clients who relied on me to know “as the expert” what best practices are - for email, design, personalization, subject lines, webinars, etc.
But the thing that doesn’t work here, in my mind, is that an “expert” shouldn’t be who you look to for “best practices.” The two terms aren’t even compatible. Best practices (at least when it comes to creative endeavours like business-shaping and marketing) are a trap.
I submit that a true expert knows what “best principles” are and then finds creative ways to apply them to your business, your offer, your customers, and your goals.
Because all “best practices” will ever bring you is a copy of something someone else already has - and you don’t need an expert for that.
Mind the trap,
James
One Creative Moment
One Creative Moment is a daily email for founders, owners, and creators. You'll get insights, irreverence, and inspiration to help you build a better business & live a more creative life.
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