I presented an award yesterday. In preparing my remarks, I did something I hadn’t done in a long time. We used to call it “videotaping” since that was the technology of the day. These days, smartphones make it much simpler to do.

As I worked with the text, I thought, “I have an opportunity to see what this will look like, before I let others see it. Why not look, and then work on the trouble spots?”

So I did. I took video of myself speaking, and quickly found places to improve.

For instance: in the video, I looked at my notes right before reading my own name. My own name. Clearly, I was too tied to the text.

Without that quick video, I’d have had no idea there was a problem.

The thing is, there are plenty of times I have an opportunity to “preview” my own work. To share a draft before publishing. To take video of a rehearsal.

Most often, however, I just ship. I ship, and then level-up the next time.

But... as I learned in preparing for the award presentation… sometimes I can level-up before the first release. And it’s definitely worth the effort.