Issue 5 - Quick wins and feedback

Hey friends. It's the last day of May here in the US, so technically, this still counts as the May issue. Things have been hectic on the personal side, but I still had a couple of thoughts around content creation and leveling up your skills that I wanted to share this month. I also didn't want to skip an issue because, as you'll read in this issue, consistency is essential to success.

As always, thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy this issue.

The Quick Win isn't that quick

People are looking for a quick win. A shortcut to success. People shell out money to influencers so they can learn to be as successful as that influencer. Companies look at other successful companies and try to copy their approaches.

When I worked at DigitalOcean, folks at other companies kept asking me the same question:

"You're so successful with your content. How can we do what you do with content?"

I never had an answer that made people happy because the only answer I had was "put in years of hard, dedicated work to create an extensive library of content aimed at the readers, and eventually, you'll build up an audience."

Companies, and people, want a playbook to follow. But there really aren't "quick wins." There's a lot of work, failure, and luck along the way that nobody ever wants to talk about.

Think about that one thing you're really good at. How long did it take you to get to the level you're at now? It took years of deliberate practice to get where you are. You didn't get good overnight. You put in the work and built skill through consistency.

If you look at the histories of many successful people or companies, you'll find a few common themes:

• They've been working at things longer than you think they have.

• They failed a lot and learned from those failures.

• They worked consistently to build a reputation.

• The circumstances were right for them.

Those overnight successes you hear about? They've spent years in the background honing their skills, trying different tactics, doing solid work, and slowly building a reputation over time.

They also had some luck. You've probably heard this saying before:

Luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparedness.

This is such an important thing to keep in mind. If opportunities arise and you're not ready, you'll miss them.

You can't predict when opportunities will show up, and there are no shortcuts to being prepared, so all you can do is maximize your chances of success through deliberate practice, feedback, experience, and consistency, so you're ready when opportunities come along. Some folks call this "increasing your luck surface area." I like this saying because it encourages you to think about what you can control. You might not have inherited money or been able to get that latest VC round, but you can control other aspects, like where you spend your time and what you optimize for.

Unfortunately, even when you're prepared, the opportunity might not present itself for reasons out of your control. That doesn't necessarily mean you should throw in the towel; it might mean you're a little off the mark with your goals or you need to change your definition of success.

After working for three years on a book only to have it sell a thousand copies, I wasn't sure if teaching through writing was a good fit for me, but my publisher said something I'll never forget:

A thousand people have new skills because of what you wrote.

That was crucial for me to re-evaluate what success meant to me. It became less about volume and more about impact. And slowly, over time, I've been able to reach more people and have a more considerable impact.

So keep learning, growing, and practicing. Build trust through consistent quality work. And the more people you help, the more chance you have for the right opportunity to show up.

And one of the best ways to grow is through feedback.

Handling feedback on your work

If you want to get better at something, you have to incorporate feedback into your process. Giving feedback is a skill, but receiving it is a skill you need to master as well, or you'll miss out on meaningful growth opportunities.

As an editor, I've had to coach content creators on handling feedback. I'll share some advice here, with the caveat that this advice is meant for feedback on your creations that you've requested and received as part of a review process. I'm not talking about how to handle real-time feedback, unsolicited feedback, or feedback that attacks you personally. I'll cover those in a future newsletter.

With that out of the way, let's get specific. You've created some content you think is in good shape, and you've requested feedback. You got feedback from a few people, and it's more than you were expecting.

Not everyone knows how to provide effective feedback, so you'll have to do the work to digest, interpret, and incorporate the feedback you get. But here's what I recommend.

First, recognize your emotions and address them. How are you feeling about the feedback? Does it make you angry? Sad? Anxious? Identify those thoughts first because the last thing you want to do is let your emotions drive how you handle the feedback. It's natural to be defensive, but do what you can to avoid acting on that impulse as much as possible.

I recommend that you set all the feedback aside for a bit. Don't respond to any of it, and don't fix any of it. Just let it sit. Let your brain work on it for a while. This way, you can sort out your emotions and approach the feedback again more rationally.

Once you've let things sit, sort the feedback. It'll usually fall into one of these categories:

1. Feedback related to grammar, spelling, punctuation, and language semantics.

2. Stuff that's technically wrong that you didn't know about

3. Parts that the reader struggles to understand.

4. Things that are a matter of opinion.

You can ignore the proofreading feedback for now. It's easy feedback for a person to give, but it doesn't dive into what matters, which is the content itself. In fact, I try to discourage people from doing copy-edit feedback until I feel the content is solid and won't change.

When it comes to feedback about technical issues or inaccuracies, look for patterns and get additional input. Did multiple people give you feedback on the same thing? Prioritize fixing those issues because your reviewers are probably right. Approach those folks if you can and ask them to help you improve it. The additional details and context you're likely to get in these situations will absolutely make the piece better.

For feedback where the reader struggles to understand what you're saying, look for patterns here as well. Did multiple people call this out, or was it just one person? If several reviewers asked for more clarification, rewrite the sentence or paragraph and try again with a different approach. If only one reviewer struggled, but they struggled to understand an important concept, consider giving that area a touch-up anyway, because it may be a situation where others glossed over it and focused on technical things or language mechanics instead of the explanations.

Finally, sometimes the feedback will be a matter of opinion. The person providing the feedback may suggest you take a different approach than the one you're taking, or they may suggest you add additional content they feel is necessary. What you have may be technically correct, but they may be offering a different method.

This is where it's essential to consider the source of the feedback. Who gave the feedback, what is their experience with the subject, and how is that experience relevant to what you're creating? What is their motivation for their input? Seek to understand these things as you think about their comments.

For example, if you're creating content for a beginner, but you've had experts give you feedback, they may see your content as too simplistic. You may be nudged to cover more edge cases, or advanced situations that you feel are out of scope for the audience. Again, look for patterns, and ask your other reviewers for their thoughts. Do they all agree that you're off the mark? If so, consider making some changes.

But also consider that these people are not necessarily the readers of your content. Stay true to your vision for your audience and the level of your content. Stand your ground on the things that matter to you. It's your content, and your name will be on it.

Sometimes feedback comes to you from someone you don't like to work with. Don't immediately discount this person's feedback because of your history with them. Sift through the comments you received and look for items that ultimately improve the end result. There may be a nugget there.

Those are the techniques I use and recommend for handling feedback, but I also recommend setting boundaries when requesting feedback. Let people know what you're looking to improve and what you're looking to ignore. Maybe even provide them with some prompts or questions to answer as part of the review.

And when you get feedback, be curious and open. Ask questions, ask for clarification, and engage. Feedback is a gift. Treat it with value and careful consideration. The more you do this, the more likely you are to get even more helpful feedback in the future. Your reviewers will see that you involved them in the process, even if you didn't accept every one of their suggestions.

Parting Thoughts

Before moving on to the next message in your inbox, stop and think about these questions:

1. How do you define success in your career? What does it look like today compared to what it looked like a few years ago? What changed?

2. What emotions do you feel when receiving feedback on your work? How do you respond?

3. Which tactics for handling feedback can you use when you get feedback in a real-time setting, like in a performance review?

That's it for this issue. Take care of yourselves and one another!

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