The “Ship It” Framework to Stop Wasting Time on the Wrong Things (Efficient Friday)

Not long ago, I caught myself spending way too much time tweaking a single sentence on my LinkedIn. Should I say, “helping advisors create remarkable client experience” or “helping advisors use systems and processes rooted in client experience”? I went back and forth, tested different versions, overanalyzed the phrasing... and then realized something.

This was not the best use of my time.

Would changing one word suddenly bring in a flood of new business? Nope.

Would anyone other than me even notice the difference? Probably not.

But I had fallen into a trap I see financial advisors get stuck in all the time—obsessing over small details instead of focusing on what actually moves the needle.

The Perfection Trap: When Small Tweaks Become Big Time Wasters

Advisors are constantly told to level things up—your website, your online presence, your processes. And while some optimization is good, here’s the problem:

Most of the time, we’re optimizing for the wrong things.

We tweak a client service calendar for months instead of actually implementing it. We spend hours fine-tuning a newsletter that could have been sent out weeks ago. We wait until something is perfect before launching it—only to realize later that “good enough” would have been just as effective.

The “Ship It” Framework

I use a simple framework now to help me decide whether something is worth fine-tuning or if it’s time to ship it and move on.

Next time you catch yourself obsessing over a small detail, ask yourself:

1️⃣ Will this change significantly impact my business? (Not theoretically—but in real, measurable ways.)
2️⃣ What’s the opportunity cost? (If I spend time on this, what am I not doing instead?)
3️⃣ Could this be good enough right now? (If yes, move on.)

Here’s what this looks like in action:

• Not Worth It: Spending hours rewriting a client email that already gets decent engagement.
• Consider Carefully: Reworking your review meeting structure to improve revenue per hour.
• Definitely Worth It: Refining your onboarding experience to increase client referrals.

Where Advisors Should Actually Focus Their Time

Instead of obsessing over perfection, shift your focus to high-impact areas like:

✅ Refining a process so that you can automate, delegate, delete or streamline it
✅ Building that recommendations template that will save you oodles of time over and over again
✅ Learning how to use AI in your business to improve efficiency

Because at the end of the day, small tweaks don’t grow your business—action does.

Your Challenge This Week

Look at your to-do list and find one thing you’ve been overanalyzing that could be done today.

✅ Send the email.
✅ Publish the update.
✅ Launch the new service.

Because the advisors who grow the fastest aren’t the ones who make everything perfect. They’re the ones who take action and improve along the way. 

You’ve heard me say it before, do it messy and make it fancy later!