My head was spinning and my frustration level was rising when a tech issue kept my program videos from resizing on mobile devices. I had uploaded two videos to a little-known video hosting platform. When I copied the embed code for those videos into my course hosting platform, the right half of the video was not visible on mobile devices.
“What the what?” I thought.
For almost an hour, I tried to resolve the issue. I started by recopying the same embed code and getting the same results. Then I foolishly copied it a third time, because… well… one can hope, right? Third time’s a charm, right?
Wrong.
I changed tactics.
Was the problem with the video or course hosting platform? To determine this, I copied the embed code from a YouTube video into the course lesson. It resized fine. That meant my course hosting platform was not the issue.
Without boring you with even more tech details, let me just say that as my frustration rose, my computer decided to jump on the tech issue bandwagon. It got laggy. I sat drumming my fingers on the keypad waiting for letters to show up on the monitor. Then, of course, I had to backspace them all away when they appeared in one long string of asdfghjkl nonsense.
I shut down all my open browser tabs (I can’t be sure, but 15 tabs may have had something to do with the slowdown). I rebooted the computer. The result? Still slow.
Le sigh…
Taking a break seemed like a good idea, but I didn’t want to forget (as if I could) that I had a problem with the video displaying on mobile devices. In the lessons showing these videos, I added a note that read “For best viewing on mobile devices, be sure to hold your device in landscape/widescreen orientation.”
It was a clunky, imperfect fix, but it was good enough until I could find a better solution.
After turning the computer off, I crawled onto my bed and lost myself in a game of phone Woodoku. As I played the game, my mind pondered the question, “Can I be proud of my program if I can’t get the videos to resize for mobile devices?”
I never did fully answer that question. I thought it would be okay, but also wasn’t confident my brain would be able to let this imperfection go.
When I turned my attention back to the problem, it took less than five minutes to discover the problem. I corrected the issue, copied the new embed code into my course lesson, and verified on my phone that the problem was fixed. YAY!
I removed the “For best viewing…” instruction and continued working more course-creation magic.
In about an hour’s time, I added an audio recording of the lessons, transcripts, and pdfs of the lesson slide decks.
The transcripts were computer-generated. Rather than spend time editing each transcript, I included the following caveat:
“Note: This is a computer-generated transcript. That means it’s pretty good, but not perfect. If you read something weird or confusing, first laugh, then use the time stamp to hop into the video to find out what I REALLY said.”
The slide decks were missing copyright and website information. Rather than spend time redoing them, I decided the missing information was not such a big deal to expend the time and energy to rework them.
When I shut down my computer for the day, I felt a great sense of accomplishment. These new lessons, while not perfect, were pretty darn good!
With a grateful heart, I realized that at some point along my journey, my focus had changed from perfectionism to excellence. I realize now that while perfectionism can disguise itself as excellence, it is flawed. Perfectionism used to keep me from putting my ideas and insights out into the world. Perfectionism is about judgment. It assumes there is a right and wrong way. And while that may be true, is it as critical as my brain wants me to believe? Will my world be destroyed because of a grammatical error or typo? Sure, some people will judge me as lazy, sloppy, or stupid (as I used to judge others), but does that matter? Are those the people I feel called to serve? Nope.
Excellence, on the other hand, is serving in a way that meets the needs of others in a way that… well… meets their needs.
I believe many coaches and course creators miss the mark in this area.
Over the past five years, I have taken many online training courses about creating online programs. Most, if not all, recommend the same delivery format. Videos.
That’s it.
Okay, some suggest creating pdf worksheets, tip lists, and other supplemental materials, but the primary content is delivered via video. This makes sense because most people apparently prefer video delivery.
These teachers strongly emphasize that we shouldn’t get bogged down in trying to create perfect videos and that the goal is to get them out there to serve our audience. Even so, I feel like these teachers are missing the mark of excellence.
For me… excellence is creating a program that serves the needs of verbal, visual, and auditory learners. Excellence is building in convenient ways to revisit lesson materials that may be different from the original video version.
Here’s the thing… while I don’t mind videos, I prefer written material. I find it takes more time and energy to find the answer to a question when I have to rewatch one or more 10-20-minute videos. It’s much faster to scan written information.
Listening to course lessons while out walking or driving would be ideal, but buffering of the data-demanding video format causes frequent disruption to the flow of information. The relatively simple process of stripping the audio from the video would provide an additional way for people to access the material. It requires a few extra steps to make the audio available separately to students or clients, but many will appreciate the choice.
Yes, it took me a bit more time to create content in multiple formats. However, my clients will have options to suit their needs rather than being limited to the most popular option: video.
I have found that focusing on excellence instead of perfection stimulates creativity and energetic flow. Excellence is an ideal that does not need to be perfectly executed. Excellence invites me to be more inclusive and generous in meeting the needs of all who seek what I have to share. Excellence is a value that invites you to ditch your perfectionist-based excuses so you can move forward by taking excellence-focused action instead.
