Hey Reader,

Welcome to The Middle, your midweek rundown of the most interesting things we've read this week.

I’m up in Burlington, VT — no, I’m not hiking or skiing up here. Dave Gerhardt has gathered 200+ marketers in Vermont for a b2b marketing conference.

I don’t think I would’ve come to Burlington if not for this conference. This place is beautiful. Let's hope I packed enough sweaters.

Let’s dive into The Middle.

Jeff

SaaS isn't all doom and gloom

ChartMogul is always sharing great insights via their anonymized customer data. They released their 2024 Retention Report recently.​

Two things stood out:

1. Companies are growing right now through expansion more than ever before

2. Even with the downturn in software businesses, companies are still reaching 100% NRR so things can’t be ALL that bad.

How's your decision-making?

George shares some learnings from a webinar he watched with HubSpot’s Kieran Flanagan.

The headline stopper from Kieran:

Businesses are going to have get better at making educated guesses and inferring the results.

Data has always had flaws, but people have used the data as a crutch (almost like “buying IBM won’t get you fired”).

Now, leaders will have to figure out how to build a picture from incomplete data, make a decision (any decision), and validate whether it's working over time.

Better start flexing your decision-making skills as we lose access to data (especially in marketing).

Are you delegating?

Kate suggests that upwards of 60% of your work should be delegated.

She references 8 reasons why you aren’t delgating today:

1. busy mindset

2. fear of conflict

3. problem-solver mindset

4. perfectionism

5. hero complex

6. mistrust in team capability

7. self-enhancement bias

8. reputation concern

At times I can struggle with delegation - it comes in the form of “problem-solver mindset” and “hero complex”.

I had a former boss tell me to ask myself a question out-loud and answer when I’m about to start a task: Is this something that you are uniquely qualified to do?

If the answer is yes, then do it. If the answer is no, then figure out who.