Sometimes, when you ask someone close to you (like your husband or your wife), what they think about your website or blog, they tell you, “oh, that looks good sweetie, great job.”
Only, it really isn’t.
Your blog sucks. And they know it. (Or they don’t). But they’re too nice to tell you otherwise.
That’s the problem with being nice… It isn’t very helpful.
Instead, sometimes, the feedback you really need to hear is downright mean. But at least it’s helpful. After all, you can’t keep telling someone they’re doing good work when they really aren’t.
We all need good, honest feedback. Sure it might sound mean, and sometimes, that feedback might be wrong, but at least it’s helpful.
Agreed, however, feedback needs to come from groups closer to your audience. Say you are a Real Estate Agent, and another RE agent says your blog looks great, that’s fine, but unless clients are saying your blog is great, you need to work on something
Agreed! And really, that’s where this post stemmed from. In a conversation between myself and two other people in which a comment was made, “No, I like it. It’s great, just keep doing what your doing.” Only, I saw lots of things wrong with it and various areas for improvement.
And that’s sorta the point of it all. You have to be able to give people honest feedback. It might now sound nice, but at least it’s honest and it’s helpful. You can’t keep doing what you’re doing if what you’re doing isn’t working. Ya know?
I’m always afraid of this.
On one level, I run the posts from the Writer Tank Journal by my girlfriend before posting them in case there’s something she’ll notice that I don’t. This isn’t something that’s going to be reliably honest, and keeping that in mind is important.
On the other hand though I have a similar fear when I give projects over to clients. They often seem completely satisfied and say it’s great. They pay, give testimonials, refer new clients, and even place more orders. Even so I’m always concerned they’re just being nice. I feel like that’s less helpful.
It’s habitual though. I’m always afraid that everyone’s just being nice, including clients, and that my writing is actually terrible. It’s unlikely to be true, but I often can’t shake the feeling.
I don’t see anything wrong with either of those two examples. Having someone edit your work is a good idea – heck, it’s something I think I should do more often.
As for clients, I kinda want to say that if you’re getting good feedback, then that’s great. Truly! They’ll tell you if they’re unhappy with something or they want you to redo it.
Maybe, what you’re feeling is just that moment of self-consciousness. Where you doubt, for a moment, whether “this” is good enough. I feel that way sometimes, I think we all do.