Turns Out I Don't Know Everything

Caitlin Shares Her Humiliation:
So we had our very first focus group last night for these products we are working on and boy was it scary. I mean really scary. Imagine showing something you created to a group of strangers and having them say about one of the designs I HATE THAT ONE. That was a painful but productive comment because frankly we want to hear the truth before we sink in money. It got me thinking a little bit about how honest criticism and feedback is essential if you want to grow, get better and succeed at anything. It's tough in the moment but if you take your ego out of it (not always easy) you can learn something about yourself. Yesterday, the design I loved the best was the one everyone flatly despised. OK. So, maybe I don't know everything about marketing. I can live with that, might have stung a bit at the time but I'm over it. This morning we received a comment from a reader telling us that she objected to our using the word Girl in our materials. I wrote her back some thoughts because, while I didn't agree with her, she was invested enough in what we are trying to do and the community we are building to share her thoughts. And wow, that is amazing. I have learned at this point that it is actually a gift when people tell you the truth. You might not agree, or may have another point of view but sometimes they are absolutely 100% right. And when it comes down to it, when someone offers you feedback, good, bad and ugly at the very least it’s giving you another point of view to consider.