A Single Seed: Do Your Marketing While You're Ahead

Procrastination feels great. Well, kind of. Most of the time, we procrastinate by sympathizing the fact that we haven't done something yet with the idea that we will of course do it in the near future. This calms the brain down and can even give a slight feeling of pleasure, as we feel proud of ourselves for committing to take action (just not right now, it's not the right time). But often times, we wait to do the thing until it's far too late.

We can procrastinate with doing the laundry, going to the gym, job searching, or saving money. We would no doubt be happier if any of these things were accomplished, but we wait and wait, allowing the instant gratification of not doing the thing override the long-term gratification of getting it done and reaping the rewards. And so often, we delay the start of doing what's necessary until something kickstarts us into action, making us think as though it's the perfect time to start. But in reality, the perfect time to start was long before you felt like it.

In Dave Marinaccio's book "Admen, Mad Men, and the Real World of Advertising", he lists an important principle that can be applied to many areas of life:

Do your marketing while you're ahead.

The idea behind this is simple. Especially for an up-and-coming brand, it can be easy to market heavily right up until the point where you see some success, and then have your marketing campaign fade out as you figure your early success will carry your company through any slump. However, when the going gets tough, which it inevitably will, if you weren't marketing throughout the good times as well as the bad, your customers may have already jumped ship for another brand, leaving you with a steady decline in clients and profit. Due to the procrastination of marketing until it was necessary again, the brand can easily be sunk for good if the unexpected happens, or if a competitor gains an edge.

This chain of events can be dumbed down to any small thing that we do (or put off doing). If we have a lot of clothes, we may put off doing laundry even as it starts to seriously pile up, knowing that we still have a good amount left in the closet. However, if we wait too long, we can end up with a mountain of dirty clothes and an empty closet, which was all caused by believing we were fine for the time being.

If a new job starts your salary at a generous figure, it can be easy to put off saving or investing the extra money in our pockets, telling ourselves that we'll start when the next quarter comes around, or after our new car is paid off. But if your company suddenly downsizes and your lowness on the totem pole leads to your termination, all the fancy toys or gourmet dinners will mean little when you're struggling to pay rent, knowing deep down that the situation could have been avoided if you had started when times weren't so tough.

If you're doing well in an area of your life, whether that be financially, physically, or even emotionally, think of how you can start setting yourself up for success even when things go bad. There will certainly be bumps in the road, but nothing that good preparation can't absorb.

Don't wait until you're ahead. By then it may be too late.

"A Single Seed" is my attempt to get out one idea every day that I've learned or accumulated over the years, with the hope that it may stick in someone else's memory bank as well. The idea may be related to fitness, business, life, or philosophy, but I think you'll find that many can change domains if you wish them to. With each seed planted, a new life awaits.

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