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If you work in content, marketing or creative you’ve probably been in situations where it seems that everyone has an opinion about your specialty. In other words another person thinks they’re an expert.
At the best that can make things better when feedback is actually helpful. And at the worst it can can really slow things to a halt and prevent performance because nothing ever gets done.
How to deal with those situations is a topic I discussed with Joshua Womack, author of “I’m not a copywriter, but…” on an episode of the Business Storytelling Podcast
Several strategies to combat the syndrome when everyone thinks they’re an expert that can be used include:
- being very clear about the scope of the project
- defining roles and who has approval over what areas
- understanding how to pick a good team to work with
Of course these are easier to say than do but we have to start somewhere.
The scope
A good marketing brief gives us a good start to understand what we’re trying to accomplish. We can refer back to it as we move forward with our project. And can use it when there are discrepancies in opinions on what should be done.
When it comes to working with clients, here you can be specific about the deliverables and how many rounds of edits there are.
The roles
It’s good to outline what each person is responsible for. For example, the subject matter expert doesn’t need to be editing for grammar or search engine optimization. But they certainly should look at the content with an eye for subject accuracy.
Picking the right team
Sometimes we make the wrong decision on what team to join or what client to take on. But there often warning signs and who is easy to work with and who is difficult. So don’t mistake red flags for opportunities.
