Reset to Zero.

Today’s Marketing Cookie is about the relentless pursuit of excellence and finding joy in the journey, not just in the final results.

We had done it. We had generated more leads in a single month for a term life insurance company than any other month in their 100-year history. In the final days of the month, the VP of Marketing took us out for a celebration dinner, we received a gushing email from the SVP of Sales, and we got a nice call from the President of the company. We were heroes!

Then, the first day of the next month arrived. That rush of adrenaline from our success only two days prior was replaced by a stark realization that in the world of marketing, victories are fleeting. Our dashboard was reset to zero, and we had to do it all over again.

We were super confident in our strategy. The ads were great, so we decided to replicate everything we had been doing to this point. It seemed like a no-brainer. However, as the days passed and the leads trickled in, it became clear that we weren't going to break any records this time. The leads were good, the pipeline was healthy, but the numbers were fading, and I knew something was off.

I was watching a Sox game that weekend, and then I saw it. The competitor’s new ad came on after the third inning, and it was basically saying the exact same thing as ours. We had made a splash with the new campaign, we had been gaining traction every month, and at some point, the competition had pivoted into our lane. It didn’t matter that it was our great messaging or that we were saying it first. They were outspending us and being louder than us with our message. They had followed our zig, so it was time for us to zag.

Our creative team got to work right away on some fresh ideas, determined to outsmart the competition and reclaim our lead. By the end of the month, we had refreshed our creative and hit the market with some new bold messaging. We quickly saw a nice surge in leads. In fact, we came tantalizingly close to our previous record but missed it by a hair. We had posted the second-best month in the company’s history, but this time, no one celebrated.

I’ve come to realize that while the thrill of setting records and toasting to our success is exhilarating, it’s the pressure of constant reinvention that gets me up in the morning. Yes, the numbers always reset to zero on the first day of the month, and along with it goes any mention or feeling of prior successes. Unless you look forward to the demands of a clean slate and find joy in the work itself, it will be as today’s fortune says, “The pleasure of what we enjoy is lost by wanting more.”