No that’s not a brand of beer. When we refer to “Draft Number 10,” we’re talking about Word docs.
 
Oh. 
 
Which begs the question: Why embrace that? Just by its moniker, “Number 10,” it’s daunting and annoying. Who in their right mind would ever enjoy, let alone embrace, the tenth draft of anything? Wouldn’t you be automatically burned out? 
 
Let’s answer that “in their right mind” question first. 
 
This is business, not art
 
If you’re a painter or a poet, up in your garret, you can dream and wile away the hours, finessing your grand opus—“a hundred visions and revisions,” in the words of T.S. Eliot—and you’ve only yourself (and perhaps your muse) to answer to. 
 
But we’re not talking about art here, despite our decades of experience (not to mention lots of awards) in creative services. 
 
We’re talking about business. Money. Deadlines. ROI. 
 
Where, then, does a Draft Number 10 even come from?
 
Quick oh-now-you’ll-get-it answer: A client who’s a perfectionist. 
 
Aha. 
 
Now everything should make sense for you. We have a client—we’ve actually had lots of clients like this—who’s a perfectionist. Who will revise and revise and revise a draft until it’s almost perfect… and then decide that it’s anything but, and then trash it, and start over, and then revise and revise and revise again, taking us along for the ride. 
 
As a creative resource, you could fight this. But you know that that would get you in trouble, and perhaps fired. 
 
You could just go with the flow: “Oh, this is the way they like to work. I’ll just… endure it, without complaining.” 
 
It’s possible that you could coast along like this indefinitely. 
 
But neither of the above approaches benefits anybody. 
 
Thus our advice to you in these situations: Embrace it. Heck, enjoy it. See it for the invaluable paid education that it is: 
 
Our fastidious client in this story—like most of the clients we’re lucky to work with, whether they’re fastidious or not—is quite brilliant. We would pay to learn their thought processes. To try and osmose just a tiny bit of that genius. Why do they toss Draft 5 and do a wholesale rework for Draft 6? 
 
Incidentally, the method behind the madness reveals—if you pay attention—that overall, these drafts get better as they go. It’s not a simple straight slope, were you to graph it. But the trend would be positive. Put it this way: Wouldn’t you love to see Einstein’s notes en route to e = mc2? 
 
We get paid for our services. It’s incumbent on us to remain profitable. So we don’t lose money on assignments like this—while, at the same time, we don’t take advantage of our clients’ generosity. And while we get paid in dollars, often the greater reward is the knowledge. The insight. And, frankly, the ability to help other clients like this in similar situations. 
 
As we’d said, we’re not along simply for the ride. We dive right in, on every single draft, seeing what’s changed and doing our best to make it better throughout. That’s why our clients entrust us on this journey. 
 
Need help with a client, or project, that feels unending? Contact us. We’d be happy—truly happy—to help. 

​This article was originally going to be about developing a production process for video scripts. But because of the way things turned out at our client, this one is taking a decidedly more valuable turn. For you. 
 
We’re going to talk about something that you can create, for your clients, as a gift, which will win you follow-on business. We can’t say “guaranteed,” but pretty darned close. 
 
What’s this have to do with video scripting? 
 
From production to presents
 
A client of ours—incidentally, we typically get our best education and insights from our clients, as they’re a pretty ingenious lot—had tasked us with making a series of videos. 
 
Here’s the genesis: Our client does a lot of similar projects for its clients. And when it completes each one, it ends up with some raw screen-capture video footage, documenting the project. 
 
The job they handed to us: Turn that boring screen-capture footage into a compelling video that sells. We’d anonymize these, and our client would post them on their YouTube channel, since they’re great little sales vehicles which show off exactly what they do, in about two minutes each. 
 
So far, so straightforward. Right? 
 
But here’s the stroke of genius: This same client of ours decided to create a customized version of the same video for their client. Granted, we need to over-simplify here, but think of it this way: Upon completing the project, our client (a consultancy) produced and delivered—without charging an extra dime for it—a custom video for their client, showcasing the work they just completed. As a gift.
 
With our services folded in, the finished video was very “Hollywood”: slick voiceover, music, effects, etc. The V.O. goes something like this: “Working with Consultancy [our client], ABC Business [their client] has been able to do something amazing, which you’ll see, firsthand, in this video.”  
 
And then it would effectively go into the demo. 
 
Private viewing
 
Whereas videos made for YouTube are intentionally created to reach the largest audience possible (BTW, we worked on one which, as of this writing, has attracted 61 million views), this video was for an audience of, oh, about five people. 
 
Yep. That’s it. A slick, high-quality, seemingly big-budget video to be seen by: The CEO. The CFO. The project sponsor. And a couple others. That’s it. 
 
This video was a gift of our client’s, to their client. It said “Thank you for letting us work with you. You may not have been in the trenches for this one, like the Project Sponsor was, but we’d like the Executive Leadership Team to see just what we did for you, and how great it came out.” 
 
Can you guess what happened next? 
 
Roll out the red carpet
 
The Executive Leadership Team audience, you likely won’t be surprised to learn, was positively delighted by this little video. 
 
Do you think they kept it to themselves? 
 
Au contraire. They demanded that it be posted, enterprise-wide, on the company intranet. Sent out to all the zillions of leaders and team members. 
 
And therein lies the gift that keeps on giving. 
 
The Executive Leadership Team felt great. They got a rush from this video… to the point where they wanted more. 
 
Want another video? Sure! Book another project.
 
And what about all those other leaders in the company who now got to see the video? They want their own projects, too! 
 
Some of them, incidentally, ended up leaving the company and going elsewhere. Guess which vendor stuck in their heads as especially helpful when they landed their new gigs? 
 
You can, too
 
This is a shockingly easy deliverable to create. Our purposely anonymized story above should inspire you: You can make these, too. And you should. They’re an absolute killer when it comes to burnishing your brand… and helping you win follow-on work. 
 
Of course, videos like this do require creative scripting and creative ways to make them look like a million bucks, while costing next to nothing. 
 
That’s where we come in. Contact us and let’s talk.