Confessions of a Club Communicator: What Mistakes Taught Me About Success
If you work in club communications, mistakes are as inevitable as member complaints about the air conditioning. Typos sneak past seven rounds of edits. Someone posts the wrong dinner menu to the website. An event gets promoted with last year’s date. You accidentally hit "Send" on a newsletter meant for next week.
If you haven’t had a minor communications disaster yet, congratulations, your day is coming. (It’s like your initiation into the club within the club.) Mistakes teach us something incredibly important: they are never just about the surface-level error. They're flashing neon signs that point to something bigger underneath.
Mistakes Are Clues, Not Condemnations
When we make an error, the temptation is to beat ourselves up, over-apologize, or sweep it under the rug.
But here’s the better move: treat the mistake like a mystery to solve.
Ask yourself:
- What really caused the slip? (Not just what happened, but why.)
- Was it a lack of a checklist?
- Was it a rushed timeline?
- Was there unclear delegation?
- Was it fatigue or burnout?
- Was it a technology hiccup that no one thought to double-check?
Finding the root cause is where the gold lives. Because that’s where you can make real, lasting changes.
Turning “Oops” into “Operational Excellence”
Once you pinpoint the real issue behind the mistake, you can fix it. Not just this time, but for good.
Here’s how you can turn mistakes into momentum:
- Build simple processes - If you’re sending an email or a newsletter, have a checklist. A real one. ("Is the date correct?" "Is the RSVP link live?" "Is the subject line spelled correctly?") Future you will thank past you.
- Bake in buffer time - Mistakes love a rushed deadline. Try building “review days” into your timeline whenever possible. Even one extra day between writing and sending can catch things your brain glossed over.
- Set up double-checks - Even the best writers miss their own typos. Have someone else look at critical communications before they go out.
- Create a “Post-Oops” routine - When a mistake happens, take 10 minutes afterward to log it: what happened, why, and what you’ll do differently next time. It’s like an internal debrief, minus the shame spiral.
- Listen (even when it’s uncomfortable) - If a member or a colleague flags an error, resist the urge to get defensive. Assume good intent. They’re helping you spot a blind spot you can fix.
We live in a world of instant communication, high member expectations, and 11th-hour event changes, being perfect isn’t realistic. Being resilient and proactive is. Mistakes are simply proof that you’re doing real work, putting yourself out there, and, let’s be honest, juggling more plates than a Vegas acrobat. The goal isn’t to never mess up again. (Impossible.) The goal is to get better at building systems that catch you before you fall.
