Every list of books for marketers has the same titles on it (and they're great!). But my POV: the best inspiration comes from outside the field, from surprising sources. After all, curiosity is linked to exploration of the unknown. Favorite unexpected marketing reads, below.
Read MoreA founder I worked for was a big fan of the “rule of three” — the idea that naming principles, concepts, objectives, what have you, in a quantity of three makes them easier to remember because human brains cling to patterns. So I got in the habit of building frameworks in threes. Three JTBDs (jobs to be done) for the year, three insights extracted from a campaign analysis, three proof points of a consumer tension at the heart of creative work. (See what I did there.)
And when it comes to leadership, I find clarity and consistency are of paramount importance. Clear is kind, as they say, and consistency builds trust and credibility. So all the more reason to establish precisely three principles that represent my leadership style.
Importantly, these are principles I both a) commit to those I manage and who manage me, as well as b) expect from my team — expectations I have of them towards me, but more importantly to each other. They’re three tenets that describe how I operate in the workplace. They represent how I build a team and how I act as a corporate citizen.
Read MoreThere’s nothing like having a baby in the middle of a global pandemic to make you examine the big picture of your life and career. I’m an introspective person and have those “What does it all mean?” reflections not infrequently, but the profundity of becoming a parent during a cataclysmic public health crisis and worldwide socioeconomic upheaval is on another level.
Working in marketing in the digital age — a time of constant connectivity, blurred boundaries, and near-daily industry innovation — is paradoxical. Brands can reach consumers more directly and more personally than at any time in history, but 30 years into the existence of the internet we’re experiencing a backlash to all of that direct and personal communication. “We” meaning both marketers and consumers — because, as marketing teams too easily forget, marketers ARE consumers. First and foremost. Making a living selling things to people, however noble the things or the selling methods, cannot preclude the fact that much of that paycheck earned is then spent consuming different (and sometimes the same) things from other people making a living selling things.
Read MoreI never meant to be a marketer.
I studied English and art history. My teenage dream was to be a magazine editor. I used to study mastheads like recipe ingredient lists and read each glossy collection of pages like a book, using the small subscription insert card like a bookmark.
Having graduated into the post-2008 recession, amidst the fumes of the detonated publishing industry, it became clear that it would be wise to keep my options open. I was, and always had been, interested in a wide variety of things — I took a bunch of pre-med classes my first two years of college, I’d been involved in performing arts since age 3, I liked volunteering, I had some teaching experience — so this seemed OK. My concern was more how to bushwhack my way to a clear career path. I cared less what the end goal was, more that there was one at all — preferably with a linear route, even if it was long.
The first year after college, balancing a couple of retail and restaurant jobs and freelance work while I flung resumes out into the corporate world like frisbees, I fretted about how I should have stuck with the pre-med track, or pursued law school, or participated in On-Campus Recruitment to vie for a consulting job (I would have hated all of those things).
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