“Big ideas come from the unconscious. 

This is true in art, in science, and in advertising. 

But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. 

Stuff your conscious mind with information; 

then unhook your rational thought process.”

—David Ogilvy^[1]

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: A plan, and not quite enough time.”

—Leonard Bernstein

First, a Story…

Sweden was about to undertake the biggest logistical project in its history.

At precisely 5 a.m. on September 3, 1967, every single car within its borders would forever change from driving on the left side of the road to the right side. That day would be known as Dagen-H, or H-Day (shortened from the Swedish word Högertrafikomläggningen).

There were the logistics of the infrastructure itself, as each locality was responsible for making sure that roads would be repainted, that bus stops, bike lanes and traffic lights would be moved, and that intersections and even one-way streets would be redesigned. They had to change a total of 360,000 traffic signs throughout the country—and that replacement would have to be done the night before the change would take place.^[2]

There’s a PR angle as well.

There were 7.8 million people living in Sweden who needed to know about the change. This was a case where an 80% success rate would be a disaster. Do the math, and there’s a substantial difference between 95% or 99% and 100% of the population knowing about the change.

The change was unpopular as well: In a nationwide referendum less than a decade before the project, 83% of Swedes voted to keep driving on the left.

So, the task force responsible for the change—the Swedish Commission for the Introduction of Right-Hand Driving—started a four-year initiative to raise awareness. It developed its own logo. It used TV, newspapers, and radio to get out the word. They had talks in schools regarding the change; they put ads on buses. Milk cartons had slogans like, “Smile a little in right-hand traffic. We are all beginners.”^[3] The commission even held a nationwide contest to create a theme song for Dagen-H, and the winner rose to #5 on their pop chart. Public-service TV stations—basically the equivalent of PBS—featured global celebrities on their most popular shows.

The morning of the change, nonessential traffic was banned for several hours in various parts of the country. At 4:50 a.m., 10 minutes before the change, all traffic came to a complete stop, and then changed sides at 5 a.m., facilitated by a live countdown on the radio.

Planning for Dagen-H was a success by nearly every measure. The traffic accidents that day were all minor, and wound up being below the daily average.^[4] Sweden’s approach provided a nice template for its neighbor as well. Iceland made the exact change the following year. For more, check out this 7-minute video.

The Takeaway

Not many Awareness Campaigns are truly a matter of life and death, but Dagen-H was.

The level of coordination required for the campaign to succeed was immense, in terms of timing and logistics, as well as the planning and strategic roll-out of a range of PR, marketing, and advertising tactics.

It was also a perfect example of when goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics align.

Process: From Proposal to Campaign

A good PR proposal is a balance between art and science—a blend of strategy and creativity.

There are four basic steps in the process: Study, Plan, Act, and Report (SPAR).^[5] You’ll first Study the client’s situation, following the guidelines of a situation analysis and researching the client, industry and audience. From there, you’ll develop and eventually present a Plan, which is the proposal itself. You’ll then Act, which moves things from words on a piece of paper to actual actions on behalf of the client. You’ll execute the campaign through the steps outlined in the proposal. Finally, you’ll Report back to the client. More accurately, you’ll “Report results and revise recommendations.” In other words, you’ll maintain contact with the client throughout the process, compare the results with expectations, and possibly revise your recommendations as you move forward in the relationship with the client.

Components of a Proposal

A PR proposal is a well-researched description of where a client is at, coupled with a vision of where the client could be by implementing a specific PR campaign.^[6]

Each situation is different, and there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of components that belong in a proposal, but a reasonably comprehensive checklist for a formal PR proposal^[7] includes:

• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Situation Analysis
• Goal / Objectives
• Audience
• Strategy
• Tactics
• Calendar/Timetable
• Budget
• Evaluation
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendix

The amount of work required to complete each component varies substantially.

As a general rule, the writing should be concise, the style should be professional, and the tone should be confident.

The remainder of this chapter explains how to construct each of these components.

Title Page

Give the proposal a title of some kind. It’s normal to have it based around a theme or key message of the campaign. It should be short and snappy, similar to a headline or tagline. A subtitle is optional, and typically includes the word “proposal.”^[8]

From there, include the name(s) of the author(s) as well as the date. The name of the agency is included, and some student groups have chosen to create a name for their group as well. One advantage in doing so is that first- and second-person writing is to be avoided in PR proposals, and adopting an agency name can make third-person writing have a more natural feel.

An average title page is forgivable, while a great title page can establish a positive first impression.

Table of Contents

After the title page is the Table of Contents—neither of these pages is numbered.

“Table of Contents” should be centered at the top of a new page. It includes the name of each section in the proposal and a corresponding page number.

Executive Summary

An executive summary is a one- to two-page document that summarizes the proposal. It is not an introduction to the proposal. Rather, it’s a stand-alone document that summarizes the proposal, and usually includes elements of the situation analysis, audience, strategy, and tactics.^[9]

It’s the first numbered page of the proposal.

The idea is that a busy executive, who may not have time to read the full proposal, can read the executive summary to get the main idea. From there, it serves as a concise point of reference for all decision makers and participants in the process. For that reason, the executive summary may be the most important component of any report.

It’s advisable to synthesize key points, but stop short of a complete “copy and paste” from the proposal. All the content in the summary should appear in the proposal itself.

Even though it appears first in the proposal, it may make sense to save this as the final piece of writing, as that can facilitate a more accurate and complete summary.

Situation Analysis

We’ve covered this one already! If you skipped or skimmed Chapter 5—because life is busy and fun, and the title “Theory and Research” might have sounded dreadful—head back there for a full rundown.

This section includes client research, industry research, and audience research. The situation analysis is the science and logic that provides the strategic foundation for the creative side of the proposal.

No part of the situation analysis should mention any part of your plan to remedy the situation. Rather, it’s “the sum of what you already know,”^[10] and a snapshot of where the client is.

The next sections pivot to what could be.

Goal & Objectives

Some experts recommend including a statement of purpose—also a single sentence—that serves as a transition point between the situation analysis and the rest of the proposal.^[11]

It is also perfectly acceptable to conclude the situation analysis in such a way that flows naturally to the objectives section—and it’s therefore unnecessary to include a goal or statement of purpose.^[12] Should you feel a transition point is necessary, go with it. Consider this the “add salt and pepper to taste” part of our recipe.

A Goal is a fuzzy idea of what you’d like to accomplish. It’s a “positive restatement of the core problem” that was identified in the situation analysis.^[13] In other words, if the problem is lack of awareness, the goal would be to generate awareness. The goal may be described in a single sentence, or perhaps a few sentences if needed.

Objectives are “specific milestones that measure progress toward achievement of a goal. They provide specifics that include a target, and a date by which you’ll hit that target. Two or three objectives are generally preferable. More objectives bring a risk that efforts will be diffused across multiple tasks to achieve different end-goals, rather than all efforts being aligned toward a single purpose.

Objectives that link back to the client’s organizational strategy and mission tend to be more persuasive, which is particularly important to create a sense of “buy-in” for key actors: You’re speaking their language.

A well-written objective is SMART^[14]: Specific (clear and unambiguous), Measurable (quantifiable so that everyone may agree as to what “success” looks like), Attainable (realistic given the situation analysis), Relevant (in that it concerns a core problem that needs to be resolved), and Time-Bound (that includes deadlines).^[15] An objective is typically written as a single sentence, beginning with “to.”

Audience

The term Audience has been discussed at length already, but the idea here is to first define specific subsets of the general public with whom you want to connect. The so-called “target audience” typically includes a primary public and a secondary public. Define each to the best of your ability, including all relevant and available demographic, psychographic, and behavioral information.

Articulate a rationale for selecting this target audience instead of other potential audiences and specify whether it’s a “new” audience or an existing target audience.

Focus on their knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Useful information regarding the target audience includes:

• Their sources of knowledge and attitudes
• How they acquire and process information
• Whether (and how) influencers affect an audience segment
• The messages that resonate with the audience segment
• Their desires, ambitions, and higher-order motivations.^[16]

From there, some practitioners put together an audience profile—also known as an audience persona (also called a buyer persona, customer persona, target persona, and marketing persona)—that is essentially a fictional character who represents and embodies the characteristics of the target audience. That information is typically gleaned through the use of focus groups and other forms of primary research.

Relying upon surface-level observations and stereotypes isn’t just ethically problematic and lazy: It’s a wasted effort, because shallow and reductive messaging doesn’t work. It may be useful to have many voices and perspectives in this stage to ensure you move beyond the obvious and tap into something worthwhile.

The better your insights, the better your chances are of understanding and connecting with the audience in a meaningful way through strategies and tactics.

Strategy

A strategy is a clear statement of how you’ll achieve the objectives. In describing the strategy, use action verbs such as “develop,” “create,” “promote,” and “target.” It’s what you’ll do and why you’ll do it.

It is common to suggest multiple strategies, as long as those strategies are in alignment with one another. For example, Niagara Conservation, in its award-winning #WhatTheFlush campaign that promoted a new toilet, adopted a four-prong strategy:

1. Leverage celebrities and influencers as brand ambassadors to create the kind of endorsements that could reach millions of consumers.
2. Drive purchase intent by creating disruptive and memorable advertising or digital content that fosters an emotional connection with consumers.
3. Secure earned media awareness of Niagara’s Stealth Toilet to keep its benefits at the top of consumers’ minds
4. Use social media to expand campaign reach by recruiting more consumers to connect with Niagara online.^[17]

Each strategy should then include a description of the approach, as well as an explanation about why you selected the approach. The length varies based on the complexity of the strategy and the level of persuasion required, so it might range from a couple of well-constructed paragraphs to a couple of pages.

The strategy section often includes a key message that guides the strategic approach to the campaign.^[18] A key message is what you want the target audience to understand and accept. It’s what you hope they remember after encountering your content. The key message should be clear, interesting, relevant, and include a call to action.

One of the most common errors is to start thinking about tactics before deciding on a strategy.

A strategy establishes why something is suggested, and why it will achieve the objectives, but tactics are what get the job done. Put another way, “a strategy is an approach, and a tactic is a task.”^[20]

Tactics

Tactics (often referred to as “deliverables,” “collateral,” and “mock-ups”) are the means by which a strategy is executed. Simply put, “Everything that costs money besides research and measurement is a tactic.”^[21] A proposal typically includes sample tactics, and the term deliverables is functionally the same thing: Items the client could put to immediate use.

If part of a strategy is to create awareness through mainstream media publications, sample tactics might include drafting news releases and pitching stories to various outlets.

In a proposal, the tactics section is dedicated to describing why specific choices were made. In a news release, that might include how elements of a story are characterized, the story angle itself, why certain points were emphasized, or why a particular writing voice and tone were deployed. The sample tactic—the actual news release—is placed at the end of the proposal in the appendix. This is done to minimize the disruption to the flow of the proposal, and to provide each tactic with its own space.

Calendar / Timetable

Call it a calendar or call it a timetable: It’s up to you. But it needs to be included in the proposal.

We’ve reached the point where a proposed course of action has been laid out, and this section provides details about when and how to implement the plan.

A campaign might last less than three months, or it might take more than a year. Timing can be crucial, as some subjects may be seasonal. This section includes a list of major actions, milestones, and deadlines so that all parties have a shared understanding of what will happen when.

There’s a saying that “timing is everything” in life, and the same is said of sequencing tactics for a campaign. It’s typical to “concentrate the most effort at the beginning of a campaign, when a number of tactics are implemented. The launch phase of a campaign, much like that of a rocket, requires a burst of activity just to break the awareness barrier. After the campaign has achieved orbit, however, less energy and fewer activities are required to maintain momentum.”^[22]

It’s usually helpful to “plan backward” from an important date, and understand required lead times for planning, production and publication. But be sure to double-check big dates—are there any conflicts or regularly scheduled events that may pose an issue or an opportunity?^[24] Plan around those.

There are an infinite number of ways to create a calendar or timetable. Below is an example of what one might look like.^[25] Explanations of each category are below the table.

“Delivery Date” is when the finished product is due—when the Tactic will be distributed, or delivered.

“Tactic,” “Objective,” and “Audience” are reasonably clear: List the tactic being referenced, the objective connected to that tactic, and the target audience.

“Communicator” is used to designate which individual or team is responsible for the tactic. “Method” is how that message will be delivered, as it might range from face-to-face or a specific social platform. Finally, “Review Date” is an internal deadline prior to the Delivery Date where the team assesses progress and can recalibrate if needed.

Again, there isn’t one commonly agreed-upon way to create a Timetable, but these are common considerations for most Proposals.

Budget

Cost is a fundamental concern for most clients and employers.

Many times, you’ll be given a budget and asked to formulate a proposal with that constraint in place.^[26],^[27]

A budget requires a spreadsheet or at least a table. This may be supplemented by a brief discussion of any figures that require an explanation. If the question “where did this number come from?” appears reasonable, it’s worth a quick mention.

The formatting of the spreadsheet or table varies based on the complexity of the solutions being suggested and the preferences of the decision makers. In any case, it’s recommended to “organize budgets in a way that makes sense to the people funding it, and to make sure that you carefully think through the categories so you don’t leave out any major expenses.”^[28] For example, if you’re attending an event as a vendor, there may be fees related to transportation, parking, and registration, as well as procuring pop-up canopies, tables, and banners. Be thorough.

All budgets should include room for unanticipated expenses, as well as a grand total. It’s considered best practice to allocate 10% of the budget for contingencies, in case unexpected expenses arise. It’s prudent to provide an upfront allowance baked into the total cost, rather than having to return and beg for more money.^[29],^[30],^[31] And then, after that 10% has been added to the subtotal, provide a “bottom line” number with the total cost clearly identified.^[32]

A basic two-column budget includes both staff time, and out-of-pocket expenses. The out-of-pocket expenses are typically more obvious, but staff and administrative time will often command more than two-thirds of the budget.^[33]

A detailed breakdown involves more work, but offers a more strategic view of expenses. One way involves the creation of 10 columns:

1. Public
2. Strategy
3. Tactic
4. Detail (brief description of tactic)
5. Staff expense
6. Quantity needed
7. Cost per unit
8. Total projected cost for budget item
9. Sponsored credit (donations from partners)
10. Actual projected cost (number of units times per-item cost, minus sponsored credit)^[35]

Each tactic gets its own line and then you can include subtotals for both the public and the strategy.

This may be more detailed than needed, and some columns might not have expenses associated with them, but there are a few advantages to this approach. First, the “sponsored credit” simply means that certain items or services are being donated through a partnership–and being able to document those defrayed costs can become a compelling selling point. Second, because these expenses are grouped by the public, strategy, and tactic—with subtotals—it allows everyone to see precisely what chunk of the budget is going toward a particular target audience. That can then lead to consideration of how efficiently and effectively money is spent—and result in better, more creative solutions.

Evaluation

The evaluation component links back to the initial objectives, and describes the process for reporting progress and results. It’s also an opportunity to make the case for a bigger budget or future budget requests.

Objectives, of course, need to be measurable. Here, each objective should be restated and followed with a description of how it will be measured and evaluated. Just as we crafted SMART objectives, evaluation criteria should be “realistic, credible, and specific.”^[36]

When monitoring the initial results, remember the “R” in SPAR isn’t just “report,” but “Report results and revise recommendations.” If things aren’t going according to plan, change the plan. This may be as simple as tweaking a single tactic or a full reconsideration of how to approach a particular public. It helps to be up front about the possibility of future changes based on feedback and results, rather than appear that you’re scrambling or taken off-guard after the campaign goes live.

After the campaign has launched, it’s common to check in three times. The first is an implementation report that objectively documents how tactics were rolled out, the progress that’s been made, issues that have arisen, and work that is left. The second is a progress report, where practitioners will typically assess the effectiveness of the campaign to date while there’s still time to make adjustments. The third is a final (or summative) report that provides an overall summary and assesses whether the campaign strategies and tactics achieved the objectives.^[37]

Conclusion

This section is optional.

If you nailed the dismount in the evaluation section, take the win.

Otherwise, include a very brief concluding paragraph or two here. The content is essentially a condensed iteration of the key parts of the executive summary—a quick mention of the core problem, the recommended set of actions, why the plan will work, and what success looks like. It’s also appropriate to mention future steps or how you’ll get started.^[38]

References

Include a references page that follows APA Style.

The use of footnotes or endnotes is generally acceptable in lieu of in-text citations, as they serve the same purpose but are less distracting for the reader.

Appendix

After the references page, start the appendix on a new sheet of paper. Here you’ll include sample tactics, as well as charts, tables, and anything else in the proposal that is either disruptive to the overall flow or deserving of its own space. Just be sure to indicate in each section when certain content is located in the appendix.

Experts Talk Back:

Three Questions with David Guth, Associate Professor Emeritus at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas.

Guth earned a Peabody Award as a journalist, and has decades of experience as a PR practitioner and professor. He is co-author of the textbook Strategic Writing: Multimedia Writing for Public Relations, Advertising and More, and is author of multiple works of fiction, including his latest: In the Moment: Journey of the Class of ‘70.^[39]

Well, my first reaction to Bernays is “Gee, it would have been great if you’d actually followed that!” I actually used to refer to him as “Fast Eddy.” But he was a great man, so let’s give him his due.

The one thing that Professor [Charles] Marsh and I latched onto fairly early is nowhere in there does it explicitly say “values.”

Bernays is on the periphery of that, and if you wanted to be generous, you could say that he understood that. And the other thing he didn’t mention there—and this was more of an Ivy Lee thing—but there’s a social responsibility aspect which, again, closely aligns with values.

The overall thrust of the quote you just mentioned is spot-on. It’s just the omissions—those two particular omissions. And it’s not because I think that we’re more moral today than we were in the 1920s.

The thing is, we’re being held more accountable because there has been a power or a paradigm shift in the last couple of decades where the people have access to far more information, and more importantly, they also have access to their own media than they did before. It might be the Rodney King moment, when the LAPD was caught on camera—and there may be earlier examples than that, but that’s the one that first comes to mind for me. That’s kind of a major shift in time where suddenly there’s a shift of some power to the people to hold power and authority and companies and corporations accountable. I’ll just sum up—

In short—which, by the way, is probably too late because it’s a long answer—I agree with the overall thrust of what he said, but again, it’s the major omissions of values, corporate social responsibility, and the public’s ability to keep you more accountable.

The Red Cross, first of all, has the best reputation of any organization in the world. Their brand is the greatest and there’s a good reason for it.

One, they communicate with all their audiences. Ninety-three percent of the Red Cross’ workforce is volunteers, so they do a great job of communicating with and recognizing volunteers.

They also do a great job of training. Even I—with my background, I still had to go through Red Cross training. And I’m glad I did. One, it reaffirmed some of the things I already knew, plus I had a better understanding of the Red Cross functions and things like that. They have a terrific training organization. So they pay good attention to all their stakeholders; they communicate well with them; they give appropriate recognition.

Plus, I’ve got their message book over here—and I can’t share it because it’s proprietary. But for example, in terms of things we should say, we have Blue Sky Rules and we have Grey Sky Rules. Blue Sky Rules are when nothing bad is going on, and we can do fundraising and things like that. In Grey Sky Rules, we don’t raise money on specific disasters.

Because if you recall—and it wasn’t totally their fault, but—with 9/11, they collected so much blood and money, people were saying “well, why didn’t it go back directly to the people on 9/11?” and it was because they were using their funds they had raised earlier for 9/11, and it just keeps cascading back. So we have to do a better job of how that works. And so you’ll notice during an emergency, we don’t say “If you want to help the victims of hurricane such-and-such,” they’ll say “If you want to help, here’s a phone number you can call”—and they’re very careful about that…

So the messaging book is really helpful. When I’m writing news releases, or even doing feature stories, it’s a great resource for me to go back and say, “here’s some stats and things I can use that helps keep a very solid, clear, unambiguous message on behalf of The Red Cross.”

If you look at my background, I have been like a utility infielder: I played a lot of positions. And that has served me well through my career because careers exist today that did not exist when I graduated from college 50 years ago! Literally. It’s been 50 years this December. I’m sure it’ll be a great celebration: The post office will put out a stamp, and all that.

What I would say is, we go into college with certain ideas of where we’re going to go and how we’re going to get there. But keep your eyes and ears open, and try a number of different things.

Some people will say, for example, “I had an unsuccessful internship—I didn’t like it at all.”

Actually, you may not have liked it, but you learned that maybe you were doing something that you don’t want to do.

And it’s much better to find that out early than to get yourself on a path.

If I had better counselors, and if I had more personal direction, and was a little bit smarter myself, I can easily see myself having a career in emergency management, and having been very happy with it. I also could have seen myself having a career in play-by-play, but I did not have the opportunity, and frankly, if I knew then what I know now, I would have done things differently.

So the point of that is, don’t be so certain that when you come into college that “this is what I’m going to do, and this is the path I’m going to go.” Be willing to test and experiment and look at different things and try different things. And don’t expect that the first job out of college is going to get you six-figures. You’re going to have to work your way up. But it is a lot easier earlier in your career to make adjustments based on what you find are your likes and dislikes, and the opportunities that are presented to you. Then, when you have a house and a kid and a dog, and all sorts of responsibilities that limit your ability to move and do things.

There are a lot of people who—the Kevin Harlan’s of the world—who said “I want to be a play-by-play announcer,” and by God, he became a great play-by-play announcer. But there are a lot of people who—now here’s an interesting one that has nothing to do with public relations—and you’re probably a little young for the series, but have you ever seen The Dukes of Hazzard?

So, the guy who played Boss Hogg: remember this guy? What a buffoon, right?

He graduated from Columbia at 19. He spoke six languages. He got a master’s from Yale. In the Korean War, he interrogated Russian, Chinese, and Korean soldiers. The guy was brilliant. He never talked about that stuff. He obviously had a ticket to anywhere, and then he found that he liked acting. And I’m sure that he was very happy with it.

So keep your eyes open.

I would always tell our students, “Don’t expect that the first job you get is going to be the one that gives you the gold watch at the end.”

Presenting the Proposal

You’ll likely pitch your ideas face-to-face or in the same virtual room as the executive team and decision makers. Remember they are the ones who got the organization in this situation, so be diplomatic in offering criticisms of the current approach.

The presentation should follow the same general order as the proposal. There is a strategic rationale behind assembling the proposal in a particular way, and that method of organization applies here as well. You’re identifying the issue, suggesting a path forward, and going into detail regarding that solution. End with sample tactics, because that’s what almost everyone cares the most about, and it transforms the pitch from an abstract idea to something concrete and actionable.

A presentation is a visual medium, so it contains far less prose, and relies on a few keywords, big ideas, and memorable phrases while leaning more heavily on images. Consider the general principles of public speaking, pitching, and visual communication. Time the presentation. Practice it. And when it comes time to present, remember that all the hard work has already been done—all that remains is a little show and tell of that hard work. It helps to be upbeat and confident without being overbearing and presumptuous. In academic terms, be the source of good, calm vibes.

A question-and-answer session commonly follows. As we learned in “Beyond the Spokesperson Tips” section in Chapter 4, responses should be accurate. Do your homework and be ready to explain your ideas. Responses should also be clear, so respond with an answer that’s precise and makes sense. You should, of course, also be honest, so if you don’t know or aren’t certain of something, or need to get back to them—say so. Don’t guess. Own it. Finally, it never hurts to “always be a little kinder than necessary.”^[41]

Summary: Putting it All Together

There is no singular way to craft a PR proposal. Some may be shorter and more casual. The outline in this chapter is one way to organize a traditional PR proposal that a seasoned veteran would recognize as “proper.” Some practitioners may place the “audience” section prior to “objectives,” or call a component by a slightly different name—but the substantive core is the same.

If we return back to the overall process—study, plan, act, and report results and revise recommendations—there’s a blend of strategy and creativity throughout.

Begin with science and end with art. Start with an objective analysis of the situation, build a strategy to resolve the issue(s), and then shift to a creative solution. If it’s too heavy on the science side, the mundane solution may lack the dynamism to break through. If it’s too heavy on the art side, the splashy solution may not be tethered to an overarching strategy capable of moving the needle in a meaningful way. A proposal that balances both and excels at each is more likely to win favor.

Finally, in sports, it’s often said that a team can play to “not lose” rather than to play “to win,” and there’s a difference. It’s easy to fall into that trap in crafting a proposal, and suggest a boring, middle-of-the-road campaign because it’s considered a safe, by-the-book solution. Along those lines, the advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy (whose client roster includes Nike, Coca-Cola, Old Spice and Airbnb) has a wall with 100,000 thumbtacks and a simple phrase: Fail Harder. They applied the thumbtacks to the negative space, as the easier solution would have been to use them for the text. The message isn’t to try, or even try harder—it’s to swing for the creative fences. That’s what separates a practitioner who is good from a practitioner who is great. So, don’t just try harder—Fail Harder.