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The First 10 Percent

Building brand into a product at the beginning of a project is something that’s frequently taught in marketing. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it’s the idea that you have to be thinking about the presentation of what you’re creating at its genesis, not its completion.

Presentation isn’t the most important thing, but it is the first thing. Because it’s the first thing that people see.

Unfortunately, presentation is what we generally put off until the very end. We get so busy with the details of getting the work done that we leave presentation to the last 10% of what we do. But then it usually doesn’t get done well.

The problem is that it’s the last 10% of what you do that becomes the first 10% of what people see. And it obscures the 90% that you worked on so diligently.

Presentation shouldn’t be the last 10% of our work. It should be the first 10%. When starting a project, you should begin with the end in mind: the presentation. This applies to food. Meetings. An Excel sheet. A worship experience. Everything.

This isn’t about looking good. Presentation matters for the sake of the message.

A poorly presented steak can ruin your experience of it before you ever taste it.
A poorly presented report can divert you from the content it contains.
A poorly presented worship experience can distract people from the presence of God.
And a poorly presented gospel can obscure the most important message in the world.

If those last two rub you wrong, go read the Old Testament and God’s instructions for building the Tabernacle, the Temple, and everything that went in them. Presentation matters to God because it’s a representation of Himself.

Don’t let your great work or message be lost in a mediocre presentation. If you’re going to do the hard work of creating something quality, you might as well put in the hard work to present it well.

Spend your first 10% planning how you’re going to highlight your excellence instead of hiding it.
And it will be the first 10% that everyone sees.