You are not your customer

You are not your customer. It's one of those statements that starts out profound but becomes a cliche over time. I heard this a lot early in my marketing career. It made sense at first, then it started to annoy me. I'm glad I heard it as much as I did, though. It has made a lasting difference on how I approach marketing. 

With practice, you get to a point where you no longer have to put on your customer hat before designing a campaign. It's already docked on your head.

All the time.

That's a different kind of irritant that makes you zero fun during Super Bowl commercials, but that's a different story for another blog post.