Pretty Doesn’t Mean It Works

Episode Summary:

Have you ever experienced something that looked amazing… but didn’t actually work?

I have and today I am sharing a little behind the scenes of my trip to coast that sparked a bigger conversation about something I see all to often in business... Good ideas with good intentions, but poor execution.

I'm sharing everything from the beautiful design details,  incredible cookies, and sketchy bathroom that made it very clear that “pretty” isn’t enough. 

I will be chatting about intention and execution, and why choosing excellence (even when it’s harder) is what actually sets you apart from every other business out there! 

What I hope you take away from today's episode... 

• If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter how good it looks.
• Good intentions don’t equal good delivery.
• “Good enough” might be quietly costing you more than you realize.
• Excellence doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from doing the right things well.
• People remember how your work made their life easier... or harder.

Links to connect with me... 

Book a Consult HERE! (https://caffeinecreative.io/consult/)

Email me HERE! theperfectblendcaffeinecreative.io

Show Transcripts

Extra little touches to make things feel special

Two of the extra touches that I personally love the most was, first of all, they had great big giant fluffy towels. Now, when we do our travel, a lot of times staying in the chain hotels and stuff, the towels there are fine. They're very functional and often a little bit scratchy. These towels were nice, big, fluffy, and so comforting.

You just enjoy using this towel when you stepped out of the shower. So that was touch number one that I really truly appreciated. The second touch that they did was every day I got these fabulous homemade cookies delivered to our room. So one cookie for each of us and their red velvet cookies, my God.

They are some of the best cookies I've ever had in my life. In fact, I can't wait to try and make some red velvet cookies myself. And I hope that I can get even close to what they created because they were phenomenal. So this kind of sets the scene for this sweet, quaint little lodge that we stayed in. These added touches, this level of excellence that you don't always get when you go with things that are good enough. 

My little hidden gem wasn't actually lacking a bit... 

When finding this lodge, I felt like I had found this beautiful little hidden gem and was really pretty excited about it, especially when I saw the little extra touches they added in. But I soon realized that while they did these extra things really good, pretty doesn't make functional.

And there was a lot of things lacking in the space that kind of diminished the quality of our stay. So the first thing is there was no place for us to unpack really. Even when I'm on a two day trip, I am an unpacker, I am that girl. But there was no place to put my stuff for the most part.

There was also no place to lay out the suitcase so that we could get access to it. Anytime we needed to get into the suitcase, we had to lay it out on our bed, and get what we needed and then put everything back in and put it away. And it was kind of a big ordeal. We couldn't just grab what we needed.

And there also was no mirror in the place. There was a small one over the sink, but really it only framed your face. So you could, you know, I could put on my moisturizer, but I couldn't see how my clothes looked when I got dressed. And so that was a little bit of an issue for me as well.

The BIG issue with functionality... 

And finally, there was one big issue that we had a lot of problems with, and that was the bathroom. So the bathroom it was beautiful. There was concrete floors, that was really pretty concrete floors.

The shower itself was made with stones. But functionality of this bathroom was seriously lacking. For one, you couldn't open the shower door without pushing that bath mat out of the way, which meant you had to step into this concrete floor, which was slippery when you just stepped out of the shower.

That beautiful rock shower was really kind of uncomfortable to stand on. And it was so tiny, I could not wash my feet in the shower, and not like bend over and wash my feet and my feet got really sandy from walking on the beach. And there was no room to prop my foot up on the wall to wash my feet. Like there was just no way it was happening. Finally, the towel rack, the little hanger for my towel was a good three feet away from the shower. So not only did I have to step out onto this concrete floor without a rug for safety, but then I had to walk across the slippery floor to get to the towel.

Pretty doesn't mean functional...  

So pretty wasn't functional. Now, I don't want to totally rip on this hotel. Again, there was a fabulous staff, there were fabulous things, and I know that they had really good intentions, especially because they took the time to put in those special little touches. But good intentions don't mean good delivery.

Even though we enjoyed our stay, very much so, there was enough lacking in the functionality and the comfort in this little lodge that we will think twice before we go back again.

I know my interior design clients and friends right now are probably planning on how they would fix this space. And I don't think you would be wrong. I definitely had some ideas myself on how I would make things a little bit better.

But that's not really the point that I want to make with today's episode. The point that I want to make is that this cute little lodge had really good ideas, really good intentions, and mediocre execution.

Things looked good, they looked pretty, they just didn't work.

And I don't know about you, but I see this a lot in the world that we live in, in all areas of business. I see people that have really good ideas and good intentions, but put little effort and thought into the execution of those ideas. And yet they still want people to pay top dollar for what they're providing.

I realize that there are a lot of people out there who think good enough in what they deliver is just fine, and maybe it is. I realize that. I have high standards and I know that. Maybe good enough is just fine in some things, although I'm having a hard time thinking of an example where good enough is acceptable in my world.

In my mind, good enough is equivalent to mediocrity. 

And mediocrity is not something that I personally ever strive for or that I really am honestly willing to pay for. In my opinion, mediocrity is one of the things that is hurting the world we live in today. Mediocrity leads to a lack of innovation. It stops us from seeing what we can actually truly create when we settle for good enough. And it diminishes our motivation. When good enough or mediocre results is all that we ever strive for, we don't get to see what we truly can accomplish.

And in my mind, what is the point for just striving for good enough?

When we strive for mediocrity... 

I also think that when we strive for just good enough or mediocre results, as I would call them, that we have a lot of unfulfilled potential. There is so much inside each and every one of us that we can use to create something incredible, that we can use to make our corner of the world just a little bit of a better place. And yet too many of us think that good enough is fine and let mediocrity guide the way.

When we do that, our real potential is never going to be seen. It's never gonna be fulfilled and we won't know what we're capable of, which means that we are missing out on some really incredible opportunities.

Missed opportunities

Opportunities to learn, to grow, to see what we actually can accomplish. Opportunities to attract people and abundance into our life that makes our lives richer. Personally, that is just not okay for me.

I also think that when we accept good enough, when we accept mediocrity, and that is what we deliver as a business owner, we hurt the people who have trusted us enough to invest their money in us.

I don't know about you, but when I purchase something, I don't want it to just be okay. I want it to be good. I want it to be great. I want to get my money's worth, and honestly, I'm always hoping for incredible.

So when I get something that is less than good, something that is lacking, my trust in that company, that business is diminished greatly to the point that I may never invest time or money in them again. Which is why in my own business and my own life I strive for excellence in everything that I do. I strive for excellence.

I think there's already more than enough just good enough and mediocrity in our world. 

And I personally want something better. Now, I will admit that it isn't always easy to be that person who insists on more, who pushes for more, who strives for more, who wants to have more in everything that they do.

Striving for excellence isn't always easy or acceptable... 

In fact, honestly, it's created some animosity with people that I've interacted with in my life. In fact, years ago, I actually had a boss pull me aside in a performance review and coach me to be less than what I was. She wanted me to try less, to accomplish less, and to do less on a daily basis, okay?

The reason behind this is that when I tried hard and exceeded expectations or even just met expectations, I was making some of my other coworkers feel bad about themselves.

Now, personally, I don't know how my accomplishments were a reflection of their talents or their abilities. And personally, I didn't see an issue with most of my coworkers. They were great people and I really appreciated what they contributed to the whole. So I didn't understand what this person, what this boss was encouraging me to do to be less. I still doesn't make any sense to me. And it's one of the reasons why I left that job behind. Because to me, hat standard of mediocrity is just not good enough.

If you want to stand out as a business owner... 

And I would say, especially as a business owner, especially as a solo business owner, I don't think we can afford to accept just good enough in our lives and in our world. I think we have to strive for more.

And as Henry Ford said,

Mediocrity is the worst enemy of prosperity.  - Henry Ford

So, for just a moment, I want you to think about your own delivery and how you show up. Are you showing up with excellence? Or are you striving for good enough? 

Now, there have definitely been times in my life when I have strived for good enough because I was trying to do too much at once. So maybe we need to do less, maybe we need to specialize, maybe we need to slow down and just make sure what we do is done with excellence. Because this, my friends, this is how we stand out in business.

This is how we build a solid brand reputation.

This is how we get referrals from our happy clients and how we grow our business into that profitable business that supports us and supports us for years to come. I would also say that when you are looking at hiring somebody, are you looking for excellence? Are you looking for the miracle? I recently signed up for a course at the end of the last year and I was looking for something of excellence and that's not what I got.

This course had a lot of, how do I want to say it? She didn't practice what she preached. She taught a method that she didn't even use. So how do we know that it's good and that it's proven? And she actually taught something that was very difficult for the target audience she is speaking to, to keep up with. Like,

In a perfect world when we have nothing but time and no distractions within our day, we could keep up with the momentum that she was demanding we do to build our business. But that's not our world.

Hire for excellence...

And so again, when we're looking at hiring a business coach, a web designer, an interior designer, whatever it is we're looking to hire, are you looking for somebody who delivers excellence? Or are you okay with just good enough? If you are, that's okay.

I'm not gonna diminish anybody for that. Again, for some people that is just fine and I don't think there's a problem with that. But I do think that the more we accept mediocrity in our lives, the more that we say good enough is the best we can hope for, the less amazing that we see, the less excellence will we see in our world, the less incredible will we see.

That's when we start to lose the magic of entrepreneurship. That's when we stop creating something amazing and we just fill the world with more noise.

So with that, I think I'm going to hop off of my soapbox for today, but I'm going to leave you with this thought.

Being excellent It is a choice that we all have an opportunity to make. 

And sure, there are some times when it's not necessary, but if you really want to stand out, if you really want to create something that makes your corner of the world a better place, I personally don't think that you can strive for anything less.

I hope that today's episode has inspired you and I hope that it hasn't made you feel less than. That is never my goal. I see the amazing inside of you. I see how incredible you can be and I see the potential in every single person I meet. And one of my greatest sadnesses in the world is to meet somebody who doesn't see their own potential.

So if you need help seeing your own potential, seeing what you actually can accomplish, seeing how amazing you can be, hop on my calendar. Let's have a conversation because I know you have something amazing to put into this world and I personally would love to see it. Thanks so much for tuning in this week and I look forward to connecting with you all again very soon in the near future.

Thanks for tuning in to the Solo Grind. 

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And if you'd like to continue that conversation off the podcast app, please head on over to my website at caffeinecreative.io where you can book a 20 minute chat with me or email me at theperfectblend @ caffeinecreative.io. I would love to hear from you.