Losing

Back to Pickleball.

Every Friday in my community we play what is called a "Ladder". Imagine 12 players. The top 4 players play in a match, the next four best players play in a match, and the three worst players play in a match. Three games to fifteen, win by one. You play with each of the players in your group. Sum total point at the end of three games. Top score is the winner, and they move up to the next group. Low score is the loser, and that person moves down one group.

We play about sixteen ladders each winter season. The system is really good at determining good players, separating them from everybody else.

I've finished last three out of four weeks, and was tied for last the other week. My play is woeful during this stretch. Eventually your confidence takes a hit - you become passive, afraid to make a mistake, and passive play leads to a lot of winners for the opposition, which is just as bad as making mistakes.

Losing confidence. That's a big deal in marketing, isn't it? You keep paying Google for names, you keep paying Facebook for names, and when you try something different it "doesn't work" and eventually you think very few tactics actually work and next thing you know you don't have any confidence whatsoever. The analytics people put the chains around your wrists, handcuffing you from doing anything interesting. Your game becomes stale.

In Pickleball we have to reinvent ourselves every six months or so, and if we don't do that our games become stale and we lose our competitive advantage.

Might the same thing be happening to some of you, when it comes to marketing in 2022?