Are you guilty of that?

We’re all guilty of creative masturbation at times, but some people manage to take it to the extreme and do it almost consistently in every activity.

Uh. Okay. Lets back up a bit and explain what I mean by this. I am not talking about an activity you would get arrested for if you were to do it in public (though you should). Creative masturbation is when you show off your skill at something, simply to show it off, whilst someone else is paying the ticket for you.

It is the 20 minute drum or guitar solo on a 64 minute music CD. Even worse it is the 59 minutes of “experimental” tracks bolstered by just one 5 minute hit single that was used to entice someone to buy the CD in the first place.

It is six continuous pages of text in a novel describing in minute detail the inner workings of a particular, and usually completely mythical, world or process.

It is the company brochure that shows how clever you are at designing brochures when you make simple, non-descript widgets for the public restroom industry.

It is you worrying if enough flames are lighting up the logo on your company website whilst customer calls go unanswered.

Take a step back from your current task or project and ask yourself this “Is someone masturbating over this?” because if they are, you’re wasting money, and more importantly, your time, pleasuring someone’s creative spot rather than getting your product out the door or your service in front of people.

And this is the only reason when I will ever tell you to stop masturbating.

And now I recommend you get back to doing what pleases you.

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I found myself zipping down the freeway yesterday morning en route to meet with a client, thinking about an upcoming house move, when I pulled in behind a huge house moving van.

Nothing unusual about that. But this moving van happened to catch my eye because the rear, roll up door and one entire side was covered in multiple layers of graffiti indicating that it had been tagged by someone several times on different occasions.

Beneath the graffiti was to be found the company contact information, listing the services that the moving company provides and extolling their virtues, specifically how much care they will take when moving you.

Mixed message?

No matter what you say, or how good your service may be, as a potential customer all I can see is that the proprietor isn’t taking care of the details by cleaning off the graffiti.

If a company cannot take the time or care to make its own public face presentable, in this case the moving vehicles, there is no way I would believe you could ever take the time and care to treat my own treasured possessions with respect.

Want to send a strong, positive message to potential customers that you are professional and capable? Present your best public face with the message you want people to hear. Let someone else dictate the message you send, in this case, the graffiti artist, and no matter how good the service or product you provide actually is, people will stop listening.

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