I love pickleball. I play with my husband regularly and sometimes I even win a game!
But, when I wanted to win more games against my lovely hubby, I decided to get a couple of lessons with an actual pickleball instructor.
After watching me hit a few wayward shots, my instructor pulled me aside and told me I was gripping the paddle way too hard.
I was trying so hard to not make a mistake that my hand and arm were all rigid when I made contact with the ball.
And, this was why I was missing so many shots.
My instructor told me that I needed to relax and loosen up my grip. “ Don’t forget to have fun”, he said.
Suddenly, after making this small tweak, my game improved hugely. I was getting way more shots in than I was before and the whole thing just became more… fun.
I even beat my husband on my very next game. Yay!
This lesson in pickleball got me thinking… gripping tightly seems like the right thing to do, but it isn’t. And, maybe we are gripping too hard in other areas as well?
For example, perhaps some of you are gripping your marketing just a bit too tightly.
I see this so often on the socials and, in particular, in email newsletters, just trying too hard.
People are trying so hard to create a connection that they’re coming across as… try-hards (go figure!).
So, why do businesses do this with their marketing?
They’re scared
Sometimes when people are scared of rejection they adopt a defensive posture.
When I think of this, I picture an awkward teenage boy trying to seem really cool and confident in front of a group of girls when really inside he is so awkward that he wants the ground to swallow him up.
Instead of going up to them and authentically being himself he adopts a new persona, and comes across to the girls as a bit of a try-hard.
He’s so worried about how he comes across that he can’t relax and be himself, which is precisely the thing that is holding him back.
People have an incredible ability to detect confidence and fakeness in others.
Few things are less attractive than fakeness and awkwardness. We’ve all been approached by someone who meets that criteria. Cringe.
I see the same thing in marketing all the time. Don’t be a try-hard, just relax.
They’re forgetting to have fun
Also when I see marketing, I often think “where’s the fun?”
Just like my pickleball grip, businesses are often too rigid and so desperate to win that they forget to have fun with it.
When something is fun to do, it makes you want to do it much more. Which makes you get better at whatever it is you love doing. This is the whole 10,000 hours thing by Malcolm Gladwell, right?
Having fun with it will also make you seem more appealing to your potential clients.
They try to do it alone
The other thing that is probably pretty important to note here is that I’d probably still be gripping my pickleball paddle too tight if I hadn’t got a pro to help me.
My instructor’s experience allowed him to spot improvements quicker than I could have. He’d probably seen the same mistake in plenty of other of his clients.
That’s the benefit of having a fresh pair of eyes looking at the same old problem.
So my advice here is know when to get professional advice. And, that often it is the sooner the better.
If you want to improve your pickleball game, I highly recommend a pickleball instructor.
But if you want a Crisp approach to your marketing game, get in touch with me here.