Woodworking is quiet work. Even when machines are loud, the thinking part happens in silence—measuring, planning, visualizing the end before anything begins. Digital strategy doesn’t look like that from the outside. It looks fast. Reactive. Always-on. Dashboards refreshing. Budgets shifting. Channels multiplying.
But the best digital work I’ve ever been part of follows the same rules as good woodworking: plan obsessively, respect the process, adjust without panicking and never confuse speed with progress.
I didn’t learn that from a marketing book. I learned it in my garage.
Planning Is 90% of the Job
In woodworking, the build doesn’t start when you turn on a saw. It starts when you decide what you’re actually making. You plan the dimensions, the joinery, the order of cuts, the material, the finish—and just as important, the timeline. You think through what happens if something goes wrong, because something almost always does.
Digital strategy works the same way. The campaigns that fail usually don’t fail because someone pushed the wrong button. They fail because the goal wasn’t clear, the assumptions were optimistic or the plan didn’t account for reality—capacity, seasonality, data lag or human limits.
Planning isn’t bureaucracy. It’s respect for the work.
Overcommitting Is the Easiest Mistake to Make
When I first started taking woodworking seriously, I said yes to everything. Fruit baskets. Wall clocks. Resin nightstands. Cutting boards. So many cutting boards. Like a lot of people starting a business, I didn’t want to turn anything down. I also wasn’t paying enough attention to timelines.
Eventually, that caught up with me.
One night, I found myself in the garage at 2 a.m., trying to finish a project I’d overcommitted to. I was tired. I was behind. And I was rushing. That is never a good combination in a shop. That night was memorable for two reasons. First, a raccoon wandered into the garage (true story, with video evidence). Second, I made a mistake that any woodworker in their right mind knows not to make.
Trying to save time, I ran an end-grain butcher block cutting board through my planer. That’s a hard no in woodworking. The result was a damaged machine, flying shrapnel and a project that had to be completely scrapped.
Looking back, the lesson wasn’t “don’t make dumb mistakes.” It was this: poor planning creates pressure, and pressure leads to bad decisions. In the shop, that can be dangerous. In business, it’s expensive.
Adjust Without Abandoning the Goal
Good planning doesn’t mean nothing goes wrong. Wood moves. Boards twist. Knots appear where you didn’t expect them. You don’t throw the project away. You adjust the process to achieve the same outcome.
Digital strategy is no different.
Most of our strategies are planned quarterly. That matters because team workloads, creative timelines and budgets don’t move easily midstream. Adjustments are possible, but they aren’t free. Still, sometimes the data tells you it’s worth it.
One client with a highly seasonal business planned to run search ads through the summer. Mid-spring, we tested Meta lead ads alongside the existing plan. The test went bonkers—in a good way. We made the call to shift roughly 70% of the already planned budget and workload toward Meta lead ads.
When I recently crunched the numbers, that decision resulted in a 41% increase in tangible leads compared to 2024.
Here’s the part that makes some people uncomfortable: total site traffic decreased by 15% during that same period. That’s why reporting traffic as a success metric—without context—is flawed. Report the real numbers. Report on outcomes. But that's a subject for another post. 😉
If traffic had been our KPI, the story would look like a failure. If business impact is the KPI, it was one of the best decisions we made all year. Adjusting midstream is often necessary but the goal needs to remain steady.
Stay the Course (But Don’t Be Stubborn)
In woodworking, there’s a moment in almost every project where it looks wrong. The proportions feel off. The surface looks uneven. Panic sets in. That’s the worst time to change direction.
The same thing happens in digital strategy. Early results are noisy. Algorithms fluctuate. SEO takes time. Staying the course isn’t about blind faith—it’s about understanding where you are in the process and knowing what should feel uncomfortable before it gets better.
That said, discipline isn’t stubbornness. When new, real information comes up—you adjust. You don’t abandon the goal. You change the approach.
Tools Matter, But Mastery Matters More
A fancy table saw doesn’t make you a woodworker. I have been able to make some wonderful things using my WWII-era table saw, aka "the Destroyer." What matters is knowing when not to use it. The same goes for marketing platforms. Google, Meta, LinkedIn, AI—these are tools, not strategies. In the wrong hands, they just help you lose money and make mistakes faster.
What separates artisans from amateurs isn’t the toolset. It’s judgment.
Patience Is the Unfair Advantage
Glue needs time to cure. Finishes need layers. Rushing ruins both. Digital work compounds in the same way. Trust, authority and performance build slowly—and break quickly.
Not every dip needs a pivot. Not every idea needs immediate execution. Patience isn’t passive. It’s intentional restraint.
Why This Matters for Clients
Clients don’t need more activity. They need outcomes. A thoughtful process creates predictability. Long-term thinking creates sustainability. Pride in the work creates fewer regrets later.
This approach supports values that matter, like craftsmanship, intentionality, quality over shortcuts and human-first thinking. Good strategy, like good furniture, should hold weight, age well and still make sense long after the excitement wears off.
Anyone can move fast. The real work is knowing when not to.
If you want a digital strategy that’s built with the same level of planning, discipline and care, we’d love to talk. Contact us to start a conversation.
