Key Takeaways (TLDR):
Topic: How perfectionism shows up in content creation, marketing, and business collaborations, and six practical ways to turn it down just 1% at a time.
What you’ll learn: Perfectionism has some genuine upsides: high standards, attention to detail, a drive to do things well… But, it also has a shadow side that stops us from publishing, sharing, collaborating, and growing. This post defines three distinct types of perfectionism (self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed), explores the difference between covert and overt perfectionism, examines how each shows up specifically in content creation and business relationships, and offers practical, low-pressure ways to start loosening its grip without abandoning your standards entirely.
Who this is for: Entrepreneurs, coaches, service providers, and small business owners who recognize perfectionism in themselves and want an honest, actionable perspective on how it’s affecting their content, their collaborations, and their ability to show up consistently in their business.
Written by: Emily Aborn, Small Business Copywriter and Podcast Host of Small Business Casual.
Step Aside, Perfectionism! We've got action to take...
Maybe you’ve convinced yourself that perfectionism is a good trait. I can definitely see that side of the coin too, trust me…
It means you have high standards, attention to detail, care about quality, have a strong appreciation doing things “right”. It might reflect your goal-oriented, task-focused, reliable, forward-thinking, innovative side as you constantly look to make things BETTER.
And perfectionism can have some unwanted side effects: Procrastination, stopping you in the first place, causing you to question, doubt, overthink, second-guess, never share, never feel ready, never feel smart enough, good enough. It can strain relationships, take up a lot of energy, and can even lead to burnout.
What would happen if we turn down the noise of perfectionism just 1%?
"Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right. It has nothing to do with fixing things. It has nothing to do with standards. Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead... It causes you to get stuck in the details of what you're writing, painting, or making and to lose sight of the whole."
3 Types of Perfectionism:
Not all perfectionism looks the same. Understanding which type tends to show up most for you is the first step toward working with it more intentionally.
Self-Oriented Perfectionism is the most familiar flavor: setting extremely high standards for yourself and demanding that you meet them. This is the voice that says the blog isn’t ready, the email needs one more pass, the podcast intro could be tighter. It’s internal, relentless, and often invisible to everyone but you.
Other-Oriented Perfectionism turns those high standards outward. This is holding your team members, collaborators, clients, or colleagues to unrealistic expectations and being critical when they don’t measure up. It creates friction in working relationships and can make collaboration feel more like a burden than a gift.
Socially Prescribed Perfectionism is perhaps the most exhausting of the three because the pressure isn’t even coming from you directly. It’s the belief that others expect perfection from you and the constant anxiety of trying to meet standards that may not even exist outside your own imagination.
Covert vs. Overt Perfectionism
Perfectionism isn’t always on display or let out loud and proud.
Covert perfectionism may never be openly expressed, but can slowly eat at you from the inside out. Overt perfectionism is outwardly showing frustration or letting it get in your way.
What does it look like in the wild?
Overt perfectionism is visible: the frustration when something isn’t right, the need to redo what someone else has done, the inability to move on until a thing is finished to a specific standard.
Covert perfectionism is quieter (and in some ways more insidious). It doesn’t make much of an external appearance, but internally, you may be obsessing over details, sitting with private dissatisfaction. Berating your work even when others think it’s great. Covert perfectionism is the spiral of self-criticism that often no one else sees.
Both are worth paying attention to because both get in the way of ACTUALLY showing up and doing your best.
Perfectionism in Marketing, Collaboration & Business:
CONTENT CREATION
This is where perfectionism does some of its most significant damage for small business owners. Content creation (as you may have learned by now) requires showing up consistently, and perfectionism is fundamentally at odds with consistency. It might express itself as:
- Reluctance to publish content until it feels absolutely perfect which can cause delays and lead to missed opportunities.
- Over-editing things
- Criticizing team members’ or collaborators, leading to a tense working environment, reduced team morale, and being unwilling to ask for help
- Constantly worrying about audience feedback and fearing negative criticism, leading to anxiety and potential creative block.
- Internally obsessing over details and feeling dissatisfied with one’s work, even if not vocalized
- Difficulty trusting others, asking for help, feeling the need to micromanage all the things
It’s exhausting. It can lead to decreased productivity, stop you entirely before you even do the thing, and lead to burnout.
IN COLLABORATIONS AND BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS:
Perfectionism isn’t limited to your solo work. It follows you into every working relationship you have.
When you hold collaborators to the same impossible standards you hold yourself, people feel dismissed, undervalued, and criticized. The creative tension that makes collaboration generative starts to feel like constant judgment.
Good people may not want to work with you anymore. Not because they’re actually not good enough, but because working with you has stopped feeling good.
The questions to ask yourself are these:
- Do you want connection or perfection?
- Do you want collaboration or perfection?
- Do you want progress or perfection?
You usually can’t have both at the same time.
6 Ways to Turn Down the Voice of Perfectionism:
1% At a time.
Don’t worry, I’m not trying to convince you to eliminate your standards (or even lower them!) My aim is to help loosen perfectionism’s grip just enough to let yourself move forward.
1. Set a deadline and honor it. Give yourself a realistic timeframe to create something. When the deadline arrives, publish it! Don’t wait until it’s “perfect”.
2. Separate refinement from perfectionism. Ask yourself honestly: is this edit making the content genuinely better, or am I just delaying? If you can’t answer that clearly, it’s probably time to publish.
3. Embrace the imperfect first draft. Anne Lamott calls it the “shitty first draft” for a reason. Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. At the beginning, the goal is to create a starting point, not a masterpiece.
4. Remind yourself that done is better than perfect. It’s a cliche for a reason! An imperfect piece of content that exists and reaches people is infinitely more valuable than a perfect piece of content that lives forever in your drafts folder.
5. Practice in low-stakes environments. Use stories, casual posts, and shorter content as practice ground for publishing without over-editing. Build the muscle of shipping before you’re ready.
6. Sit with Julia Cameron’s journaling prompts. What would I do if I didn’t have to do it perfectly? What would I say if I didn’t have to say it perfectly? Anything worth doing might be worth doing imperfectly, even badly, at first.
Want more where this came from? In this episode of the podcast, we explore:
- Perfectionism defined by Julia Cameron in her book, The Artist’s Way (p.119-120 quoted)
- The upsides and downsides of being perfectionistic
- Three types of perfectionism that show up in our business
- How perfectionism can show up in marketing, collaborations, relationships, and beyond!
- Covert and overt perfectionism
- 6 Ideas to help you turn it down 1% at a time
- And more!
Journaling Prompt (from Julia Cameron’s Book The Artist’s Way)
- What would I do if I didn’t have to do it perfectly?
- What would I say if I didn’t have to say it perfectly?
Consider: Anything worth doing might be worth doing imperfectly (even badly) at first.
Resources Mentioned:
Becoming 7% Better Experiment (Emily’s Substack Article)
Content with Character Episode: How to Stop People-Pleasing in Your Marketing
FAQ: Perfectionism in Business & Content Creation
Is perfectionism always a bad thing in business?
No. High standards, attention to detail, and a genuine commitment to quality are real assets. The problem isn’t when we care about quality, it’s when the pursuit of perfection becomes a reason to never finish, never publish, never ask for help, or never let anyone else contribute. The goal isn’t to lower your standards; it’s to stop letting the fear of imperfection make decisions for you.
How does perfectionism show up specifically in content creation?
It shows up as content that never gets published, emails edited so many times they lose their voice, social media posts written and deleted before anyone sees them, and an inability to ask for help or delegate because no one else will do it right. It also shows up as anxiety around feedback and a tendency to over-invest in the details of a single piece of content at the expense of showing up consistently over time.
What are the three types of perfectionism?
- Self-oriented perfectionism means holding yourself to extremely high standards.
- Other-oriented perfectionism means holding others to those same unrealistic standards and being critical when they don’t meet them.
- Socially-prescribed perfectionism means believing that other people expect perfection from you and feeling constant pressure to meet those perceived expectations.
Most people have a primary type, though elements of all three can show up at different times and in different contexts.
How do I stop perfectionism from getting in the way of my content creation?
Start by setting deadlines and honoring them regardless of whether the content feels finished. Separate the editing that genuinely improves your work from the editing that just delays it. Practice publishing in lower-stakes formats like stories or casual posts to build the habit of shipping before you feel completely ready. And remind yourself regularly that an imperfect piece of content that reaches people is always more valuable than a perfect one that never leaves your drafts folder.
