Friday Fury: Data hoarding control freak

This is something quite hard to admit, but I actually was once a data hoarding control freak.
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Many years ago, I used to collect as much information as I could from the client for
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the project and put them in my task manager, in my CRM, in my project management tool,
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Apple Notes, create dashboards to know exactly what was going on and where.
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But after a while, I realized I wasn't actually using any of that information.
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We collect data because we think we need it, but in reality, we just don't.
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And over the years, as I said, I just stopped collecting pretty much any data that is just
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not necessary. You need data as in client name, project details, client details, and that's
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pretty much about it. All the dashboards and all the information, other information that you collect
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is just stuff for control freaks because you think that you might need it and you might be able to
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control certain aspects of your business. Now, bear in mind, I work on my own and I work with
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small businesses and helping them to simplify stuff. And I realized that collecting as much
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information as you can. Again, this isn't a privacy issue. This is a business running thing.
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You just don't need it. What you need to know is how much value are you bringing to that client?
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How much work are you doing for that client? How much money is in the bank? What your profit is?
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And that's it. You don't need any other information other than the data that you
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need for those two things. Everything else is just pompous stupidity. I mean, it's just not
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necessary. There are people with CRMs that, and in fact, I used to do this, put down dog's names,
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clients, kids names, where they went on holiday, what kind of cheese they liked, what kind.
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There are people that do it to that level. Now, if you're doing it to that level,
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two things are happening. One, you're a control freak. And second, you're just going to sound
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like a robot when you talk to the client because you're not being natural when you're talking to
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a client. If you're doing sales, for instance. So having all that information just isn't worth
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the time collecting. Now, some people do it via automation like Zapier, but okay, that's fine.
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You've saved time gathering that information, but are you actually going to be using that
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information afterwards? I've been through this, I don't know, year in, year out in,
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I've stopped doing it now completely because I use Basecamp for my CRM.
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I've been through different CRMs, collecting all this information and all this data. And at the end
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of the day, I realized, wait, I'm spending all this time, even if it's Zapier automation or doing
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it manually, you're collecting all this information, but at the end of the day, you're just
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not using it. You're just using the information in your bank account and the information, i.e. the
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client reviews that you're getting. They're the only two pieces of information you need to have a
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nice thriving business. Everything else is just fucking pants. Stop collecting and hoarding
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information that you just don't need. Anyway, I'll leave you with that. Enjoy your weekend.
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I might make a video over the weekend. I'm not sure, trying to figure out whether I should do
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weekends as well, but I'll see you in the next video. As always, keep it simple. Keep it simple.
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Ciao. Bye.
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