Leave it to the professionals

Have you ever found yourself wasting hours and hours trying to make something work when you, quite frankly, just don't have the skills?

That happened to me today. I love marketing. I love words. I can write absolutely anything B2B-related. Ask me how to conceptualise content marketing strategy or figure out why a certain approach might not be working, and I'll give you an answer. Ask for help in building a new approach, reaching a new target audience, or deeply understanding your stakeholders and why they're responding the way they do, and I'm your gal.

But do not ask me to do graphics.

Please.

Just don't.

That's why I employ professionals (hat tip to the fabulous designer, Elle J. Tull, of Hey Magpie).

But, occasionally, you have to fix things because you simply can't get the professional's help at the exact moment when you need it.

It's a recipe for disaster.

Today, in desperation, I asked for support from Verballistics' Chief Supporter, Advocate, Graphic Designer and Guru (my husband). It took him an hour to fix a mess I had made with my website, 15 minutes to understand why I'd created graphics in such a stupid way in the first place (*NOT* Elle's fault, she wasn't involved in these ones), and another 30 minutes to re-do the images I'd designed badly all that time ago.

It wasn't fun for either of us, but he stepped in, and stepped up. (In case you're wondering, he's also a member of my Secret Army - we all need those!)

But it made me remember a few fundamentals.

1. Life is too short to mess about with things we can easily and effectively pay someone else to do.
2. If they're good at it, can take instruction, are affordable, and are good to work with - we honestly should just let them do it.
3. Sometimes it takes time to get things right in the first place.
4. It almost always takes longer to get someone to fix the mess you make when you try to do something you just aren't good at doing.
5. It's important to remember that we can't be experts at everything.
6. Sometimes you just need to leave it to the professionals.

Fortunately, I am a professional speaker, writer and content strategist. I don't have to be a graphic designer, too.

So, if you're in a position when the words just aren't flowing, you need some marketing counselling on how to unlock the story you want to be telling, or you just need a speech writer to get your CEO's message out of his or her head and onto a deck, let me know.

I can guarantee that asking for a professional's help is always cheaper in the long run than trying, re-trying, messing it up and then asking it when you're desperate.

And it's a lot less painful.