Marketing and self improvement
How does marketing and self improvement work together?
I would have completely dismissed marketing and self improvement working together many years ago. You see in your 20’s, post university and rallying for a place in your career; your eye is fixed to the prize; the next promotion; pay rise; maybe the extra benefits; and ultimately the bigger the better.
That’s great if you want that. However if you are or were only going for that because you thought you had to, then this might be why you’re here reading one of my blog posts.
I’d easily say marketing as a strategic business function, planning tool and as communication is in my blood; simply who I am. I know it, I get it and it just makes sense. I love the challenges businesses and brands face and how and what and why and who and finally when. It’s about getting the whole and holistic picture of a business and being totally OK with reviewing all elements, before setting off on creating objectives which really will steer and drive the direction of sales or leads from a campaign.
“There’s a transparency and honesty in marketing when approached authentically.”
There’s a passion in marketing for integration of lots of tools to create a desired message and action. Whatever the product or industry the same planning, review, techniques and measurement applies; and the connection – to individuals.
I’d easily say people, optimism, positive communication and happiness are in my blood; it’s simply who I am. I used to have a welcome message that came up on my mobile – (you know in the days we switched them off at night and on in the morning!) It read: Happy Days! Some years later I was asked what got me out of bed in the morning and I replied with no hesitation; “to be happy and healthy.” I could go back to playground days and I still recall thoughts of just wanting to be happy. There from my very early days I chased happiness, deciding it was something I didn’t have, however wanted.
Did I do anything to get it, to own it? NO! I had no plan, I had not reviewed my values and beliefs towards happiness, I had no vision or plan to integrate happiness in to my world.
“Instead I opted for wanting it and complaining I hadn’t got it.”
As you can imagine without a plan I got a little lost. In fact amongst a great start to my marketing career, underneath the professional perfectionist was a very frustrated and ill lady. My mind sharp and focused on each day consciously being and doing my job, however unconsciously lost in a void and creating emptiness. Over some months I lost my way, racing so fast in the car each day to… maybe today I could let go of the wheel? Wide awake and conscious mind kicked in – well it did on that day and that’s why I’m still here. My mind, body and spirit were all disconnected. Thankfully I had support during a time when depression, anxiety and stress where seriously damaging to your career. I got better, slowly and learned to get ‘Emma’ back.
Some years later I made some bold decisions and one being to move to Cyprus where since a visit when I was 15 years old I had wanted to live: call it intuition – it felt like ‘home.’ I left everything to be ‘Emma.’ This worked for a short time; a short term vision, because I hadn’t really any plan. Soon enough, I was lured to ‘safety’ like bread and butter and found myself living in paradise working 12 hour days in marketing. I would spend endless evenings and weekends daydreaming of what else could I be doing? I was resisting all of my life and yet made no action whatsoever to change it. So in effect I was behaving as though I’d just go with it; it was safe; I was unhappy but I was safe.
BOOM! There your go, if you don’t listen first time sure enough you’ll get another wake up call. (I did and that’s where belifehappy was later born.)
My self improvement/ personal development journey started; I was on a personal mission to create positive change in my life. I knew this is who I am; a friend had said “your were always the optimistic one.” While learning and training for the NLP Practitioner course in 2009 the lightbulb flashed brightly and buzzed head to toe.
“All of a sudden all my knowing, learning, education and career fell into one place.”
You see there is absolutely no difference between creating success for you individually and a business or brand. It’s about alignment of the inner essence and values and setting strong foundations to lead you or a business through to long term successes and growth. Simply know what you want; whether you believe you can be, do and have it; and being OK to learn or seek additional skills and resources to get you there.
Being flexible and the ability to look within without fear, and let others look in too. Being open, transparent and creating a journey. Whether it’s your next life chapter or a customer journey.
So where did the unhappiness go? I left it behind – it was never mine anyway! I must have picked it up on the way. No seriously, you can easily pick up other’s opinions and make them your own without realising it. Make sure you check in with your own story and the words you use and the eyes you are seeing with, and most importantly the feeling only you can have about where you are going and how that checks in with your vision.
Look at your business and look at your life, see the similarities, learn from the successes you have in business and how you can apply them to your life and vice versa.
I now work with business owners to help offer a guiding hand with their marketing (which in turn often benefits their life!)
Written by Emma Lannigan, Author of belifehappy, coach and marketing specialist