Date: August 2014

'Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that noone could find a fault with it.' Cardinal Newman

The pursuit of perfection has been a struggle for me personally my entire life. What started out as a 'Virgo' trait, has led to a constant battle with striving for flawlessness and setting excessively high performance expectations of both myself and others. Going deeper then just a focus on personal life, my business has constantly been hindered by my inherent need for perfection, and I am not alone. There are many others out there that are exactly the same.

Entrepreneurs are renowned for certain types of behaviours including obsessive compulsive disorders, perfectionism, neuroticism - all often being the key reasons why things somethings don't go in the direction that they would have hoped. I call it self-sabotage, because noone is perfect and 80 percent is ok - yet trying telling that to my brain when it is on overload.

I learned earlier on in my business career that 80 percent had to do and by micro managing, nothing would ever get done, nor would the business grow. If only I could do everything myself, there would simply be no need for employees. Letting go and learning to adapt differently was singularly the best thing I could ever have done, and the only reason I have been able to grow an international business.

But from time to time, I fall prey to seeing things that are not done quite right, and having my little 'freak out' moment. 

When it comes to business, I desire the perfect marketing campaign, the perfect employee, and the perfect business - yet, that is impossible to achieve and you cannot place that kind of pressure and expectation on those around you - or you are bound to fail.

Let me preface this post by explaining that I’m Australian. Yet even though I’m Sydney born and bred, when it comes to business I gravitate towards American companies because I believe that Americans do it best.

By now, the majority of the Western world has seen that video of Anna Wintour being doused in a bucket of iced water. But this was not the handiwork of an anti-fur campaigner.  Wintour’s water attack is part of the viral campaign that netted a charity over $50 million.

For a long time Marketing Eye has been toying with hiring an Inside Sales Executive, similar to a format that exists in the US. What has held us back in Australia is that we have not been fully equipped to train an Inside Sales Executive and therefore have been sitting on our hands when a decision has had to be made.

With an office move in Melbourne to a larger space, finally, the time had come and an opportune meeting with an American Inside Sales Specialist ensured that Marketing Eye Melbourne had their very first person in this position on board.

In my first week at Marketing Eye, Mellissah Smith ignited a fire.

In June, my boss went viral with her blog ‘Why married women are more successful’, which has received over 72,000 views to date.

I watched on as Mellissah was bombarded with virtual high fives, phone calls and business opportunities that grew from that seemingly simple piece.

The world has become crystal clear to me of recent and I could not be more happy.

We all make choices every single day of our life, and often we don't think enough about the impact of those choices and what they mean to future opportunities that may lie ahead.

I've been back in Melbourne for a week and it has been an eye-opener for so many reasons and this journey continues to help me better understand who I am and what I want to be in the future.

It only took a video camera, a chicken suit and an office back room to engineer one of the most successful viral marketing campaigns at that point in time. 

In 2004, Burger King launched ‘Subservient Chicken’; a man in a gaudy chicken suit that would perform “any” task dictated by the customers via a web cam.  The Subservient Chicken did The Worm, jumping jacks, and perfected his golf swing as millions of Burger King fans eagerly watched on.  It wasn’t exactly highbrow marketing material, but it did the job; the Burger King website clocked over 1 billion hits.

Being a business owner has a multitude of perks; you can make sh*t happen, run your own schedule, feel empowered to do anything you set your mind to, fulfil dreams, make millions (if you work hard and are successful) and in general, you have an ability to change lives, that of your own and others. It's a pretty amazing role if I may say so myself.

The drawbacks, well, there are a number but one of them has never been that I didn't want to get out of bed and turn up to work. Instead, I wake up early and make my way to the office as fast and efficiently as possible. 

What I find challenging is the same things most small to medium-sized business owners find; people management, enough hours in the day to do all the things that you want to do and find the right talent. The latter being the single biggest issue I think most agencies find today.

Sometimes in marketing, you have to go in guns blazing.

In my experience, graphic designers can be a marketing company’s biggest weapon, with their ability to create collateral that packs a visual punch.  Cohesive graphic design communicates key messages within seconds, solving problems through the carefully selected combination of type, space and image.  It’s more than an art form; it’s a powerful tool.

If your market isn’t blown away within seconds of viewing your design, you’re doing it wrong.

What does Eva Mendes, dairy consumption and nudity all have in common?