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00:00:01
Jess's Tips for Tackling Big Projects with Confidence
200 Plays19 days ago
We've all had that project that made us both excited and terrified.
Maybe it was the first time your manager asked you to tackle something you'd never tackled before.
Maybe it was a stretch goal to prove you were ready for that promotion.
In any case, when you're named the lead on a high-effort, high-impact, high-visibility project, what can you do to give yourself the highest odds of success without totally burning yourself out?
In this episode, Jess walks you through what she does to pull off big projects with confidence.
- Controlling what you can control so you can deal with what you can't
- The power of documentation and socialization
- Getting comfortable moving forward without permission and 100% of the necessary information
- How to seek support when you're stuck, and why you shouldn't be afraid to “raise the red flag.”
Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
But in sitting at that blank page and staring at that blank page, I really started to doubt myself. And I will never forget this. It still rings true to this day. My manager by the name of Aaron Cavanaugh, an incredible content marketer and really, really great person as well.
00:00:20
Speaker
came to me you know in our one-on-one and I was telling her, I'm really nervous about this. I'm not really sure what to do next. I felt a little bit stuck. And she said to me, control the shit out of what you can control. And I love that so much because there are certain things that you can control in these big big kind of projects and there are certain things you absolutely cannot
00:00:49
Speaker
Hey, everyone, and welcome back to Beth's Marketing Baby. So glad to have you back. It's just me this week, Jess Cook. Susan is out this week. If you don't know, she owns and runs a really amazing candle business called Cantles.
00:01:08
Speaker
for when you just can't. They have all these great fragrances and really clever names. Anyway, she is on the road this week doing some shows and selling her candles and just being generally amazing. so I thought I would come to you this week with a story and some lessons behind that story. And the story starts a few years ago, my first big content marketing role at Fastly. It's 2019. None of us have ever even heard the word COVID yet. Imagine that.
00:01:43
Speaker
And I have been tasked with programming Fastly's major annual customer event. And I was terrified. It's a big, big job. I was given a set of parameters, meaning I knew who needed to be there. I knew what the goal of the event was, which was cross-sell and up-sell.
00:02:11
Speaker
And I knew that in order to do that, I needed to get a handful of customers, maybe more than a handful of customers, to come and talk about how they were using Fastly so that other customers could see all of the different ways that they were not yet using Fastly and start using Fastly in that way, right?
00:02:32
Speaker
So here I am sitting at my computer looking at this blank spreadsheet from which I was going to start programming. I knew that I had, I believe it was a you know four hour block of time. It was going to be a virtual event and that I was going to need to fill it with different types of talks and that I was going to get to decide the theme of the entire event, the format of these talks,
00:03:01
Speaker
I was gonna get to talk to the customers and figure out what they were gonna be talking about in their talks. I was gonna have to fill in those blank cells with all kinds of content.
00:03:14
Speaker
And it left me terrified. I was really, really nervous. This was a big project. ah Susan and I did an episode about this actually not too long ago about the kind of high effort, high impact projects that are worth your time. And events are one of them. If you are at a point, you know if your company is at a point in its life cycle where you have enough customers and you cannot bring them all together and they can all learn from each other,
00:03:41
Speaker
It is a huge undertaking. It is incredibly impactful. and Along with that high effort and high impact comes high visibility. So you're working with a ton of people in the company to try and pull this off. For example, this event in particular, I was working with customer success to try and figure out which customers had a story, were happy with us, could tell their tale in front of other customers. I was working with the sales reps to really understand what are the goals? What types of customers do we want to show up to this?
00:04:16
Speaker
that would help me understand the type of programming I would need to have. I was working with other marketers, growth marketers and the events team and really trying to figure out what their needs were and what I needed to feed them to get eyeballs on this content to get people to register. So it's a huge effort and it can be really, really nerve wracking because on one hand, again, it's very visible And if it goes well, it can be really good for your career. A lot of people know your name is attached to this project. A lot of people have worked with you along the way and know that you are leading it. And it can look really, really good. And on the other hand, if it doesn't go so well, they know your name is attached to this project. And obviously, the hope is always that it's going to go well. But in sitting at that blank page and staring at that blank page,
00:05:08
Speaker
I really started to doubt myself and I will never forget this. It still rings true to this day. My manager by the name of Aaron Cavanaugh, an incredible content marketer and really, really great person as well. And a friend of mine now came to me, you know, in our one-on-one and I was telling her, I'm really nervous about this. I'm not really sure what to do next. I felt a little bit stuck. And she said to me, control the shit out of what you can control.
00:05:39
Speaker
And I love that so much because there are certain things that you can control in these big big kind of projects and there are certain things you absolutely cannot. And so in this big project and in controlling the things that I could control to get this project to be a success, I learned a ton. And I wanted to share all of that with you today. What did I learn on, what have I learned on some of my biggest, most visible, most high effort, most high impact projects?
00:06:09
Speaker
that you can come back to maybe someday when you are in charge of a big high effort, high impact project and it's starting to get overwhelming. And so I wanted to share a few of those things with you today, all of which ladder back to this idea of just controlling what you can control and how can you tackle a big project like this.
00:06:28
Speaker
And how can you break it up a little bit, make it easier on yourself when it starts to get a little bit overwhelming? So first thing first, I think a big part of a large project and controlling the things about that project that you are able to control is documentation and socialization. And what do I mean by that?
00:06:47
Speaker
I mean, get everything down on paper. Just start writing out your ideas, right? Okay, this event, this project, this research report, whatever it is, this campaign, here's the situation. Here's why it's important. Here's the purpose. Here's who we're going to be talking to. Here are all the channels we might be able to use for this.
00:07:09
Speaker
Here are all the people that are gonna I'm going to need to get involved. right Once you start writing all of these things down, you'll start to realize maybe the questions you still need to ask or the people you still need to pull in and the things that are going to help you move to that next step. So now you have this document.
00:07:26
Speaker
And you can start to bring it around to your leaders, so maybe your CMO or your direct manager. You can bring it around to whoever else is going to need to get involved, whether that's sales or other people in marketing in different departments, people in customer success, people in product sometimes.
00:07:45
Speaker
So you can start to bring this document around and socialize it with those teams, get their buy-in, get their feedback. That's another thing that's great that you can't control, but you can take it in and do what you need to with it is other people's feedback. So there have been times where I've had a document like this, and I've brought it around to the teams that I needed to socialize it with.
00:08:06
Speaker
and they have shared with me like, it's not quite right, it's missing something about this, or I think the angle that we're really looking for is X, and I've been able to take that back and incorporate it into this document. Get that document back in front of them and have them go, yes, now we can move.
00:08:22
Speaker
So again, just kind of taking what you know in your head, you have in your mind, get it down on paper, get it in front of the people that need to see it who are going to help you shape the idea so you can move forward and not feel so stuck and overwhelmed. So that is a big one for me. Document and socialize. When I feel like I'm not really sure what to do, when I feel like I know I have questions, but I'm not sure where to go with them. When in doubt, document and socialize. Great first step.
00:08:49
Speaker
Second one is if you can, shed your dependencies. So what I mean by this is sometimes you'll have a piece of content or an idea and you think that for that piece of content or that idea to be just right, you might need a customer quote or you might need this beautifully designed diagram. And those couple of things might make your piece an A plus, right?
00:09:18
Speaker
But if you didn't have it, what grade would you give it? A B? Could you add it later? Could you go live with this thing and get it out there and learn how people respond to it while you get that next piece to get your 2.0 version of this out there into the world? So that's what I mean by shed your dependencies. If you can move forward with a piece of content or an idea without customer involvement, because that's really hard to get,
00:09:45
Speaker
Do it. If you can move forward without that beautifully designed diagram and you just kind of have like a rudimentary table instead to start, do it. I like to call this an MVC, minimum viable content. It's also known as a V1, right? Get your very first version of that thing, of that idea, of that piece of content out into the world so you can start learning and getting feedback from it.
00:10:12
Speaker
And then you can continue to work on it in the background. That's the beauty of the world we live in right now. Every single piece of content can be updated and optimized and made better along the way. So don't let perfect be the enemy of done.
00:10:29
Speaker
If you have something that is a piece of B or B plus work, get it out there and then continue to optimize. Add those really nice to have pieces that are just going to help that idea and that piece of content shine. All right. So shed your dependencies if you can. that's ah That's another big one. The last one I have for you, this is a short episode today. I just wanted to come and give you my thoughts.
00:10:52
Speaker
The last one I have for you is raise a flag if you are not getting the support you need. I have had times where the sales team has told me, I will give you support on this project. I will tap customers to give you the things you need. I will get my reps to do X, Y, and Z in order to help you with this this piece of content.
00:11:14
Speaker
And when the time comes, they're busy. They're involved in a really big deal. They can't get to it. Or it's been a month since I pulled them in on this project and described it to them. And they've kind of forgotten what it is because they're not marketers themselves. They've forgotten the value of it.
00:11:31
Speaker
and That is a really important point where you could do one of two things. You could, and I have done this before, sit and feel very stuck and worried and nervous and wait on them. Or you could have a bias toward action.
00:11:48
Speaker
And you could go to your manager and say listen i was promised i would get this support i was promised i would get this quote from customer success i was promised i would get that call booked with this person and whoever kind of promise that to me is not following through.
00:12:04
Speaker
And you're not tattling, you're just trying to do your job. And usually what will happen is your manager will be able to provide some air cover, will be able to go in and remove that blocker for you. Of course, if you can do this with the person directly, even better, sometimes you will try to do that multiple times and continue to hit a wall. And that's when it's best to go and raise that flag, talk to your manager, try to move things forward. and And I think it's also helpful to continuously, as you're working on these projects, remind your stakeholders, remind the people that have promised you this support, who have said that they will lend a hand, who have said that they're going to help you with distribution, or they're going to help provide their insights so that you have a really nice piece of credible content.
00:12:51
Speaker
Remind them of the business impact of the thing you are working on along the way right so if that is hey this piece is really going to help us get some earned press because it's a piece of original research and we're gonna have all of this data and reporters are gonna want to eat that up so remember when we can get this live.
00:13:11
Speaker
You know, it's not just the report, which will probably bring in some leads. It's also the awareness that's generated. It's this really beautiful kind of rising tide lifts all boats scenario. Remind people of that. Remind people of the value that you're bringing so that they see the importance of continuing to support you on your journey. So just to recap real quick.
00:13:32
Speaker
When you have a giant project and it is eating at you, it's keeping you up at night because you want it to go so well and that feeling is really getting overwhelming and the imposter syndrome is starting to creep in. Remember, control the shit out of what you can control. And to do that, my three tips for you are document and socialize, write it all down, get it in front of people, take that feedback in, sharpen the idea so you can move forward.
00:14:00
Speaker
If you can, shed your dependencies. Get rid of the things that are holding you back from pushing this piece live, if it's possible. And if it's possible, get that B plus piece of work out into the wild and learn from it and continue to optimize as you go.
00:14:16
Speaker
and third raise that flag if you are not getting the support you need content needs a ton of support and a ton of people helping you giving you insights allowing you into their team a bit so that you can get the information and the backing and the budget and the distribution that you need in order to get your content seen if that is not happening talk to those folks that have kind of weighed in and said that they will help you or go to your manager and say like I just I gotta get this blocker out of the way we're really stuck and in order to get this to move and remember here's the business impact of this thing we're trying to get to move I really need your help.
00:14:58
Speaker
I hope that has been helpful for you today. I know we are all working on projects that are big to us, that are maybe career shaping for us. And I hope that some of these tips help you as you embark on those projects. Thank you so much for listening.
00:15:13
Speaker
I don't know if you guys realize like how thankful Susan and I are for you to come back every week and listen to us rant and rave. We appreciate you. We love hearing from you. Send us your ideas. If there's a question that you want us to answer on this show, we would love to do that. So yeah, give us a shout on LinkedIn. And you know that's marketing, baby. Bye.
00:15:36
Speaker
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