• 4 min read

🔥 My 10 biggest F-ups

Ever look back at your career and cringe at some of the decisions you made? Of course you do, you're here because you're just as obsessive and anxious as I am about our work.

A comic where the brain asks a sleeping woman: Hey are you going to sleep? She says "yes, shut up" the brain replies: Remember when you sent that mass email without a subject line?

I am thrilled to announce that instead of dying inside when I think about my biggest marketing career mistakes, I've decided to turn them into lessons learned so you can make your very own new embarrassing mistakes instead of these.

  1. Expecting people to see things how I do

I call these the "why can't you justs." I put together a presentation, why can't you just get it? Why can't you just understand what I'm pitching? Why can't you just see it my way? Learning that everyone has different ways of absorbing and understanding information has made me a better communicator, and I now love pitching ideas in ways that gets people excited instead of confused.

  1. Over-engineering professionalism

Being an actual human at work did not come naturally to me. I felt like I had to have an alter persona at work that masked my humanity and it was exhausting. Professionalism does not mean fake, it means controlling your emotions, taking care of yourself to show up as your best, and being diligent in your work ethics.

  1. Using hope as a strategy

I'm an eternal optimist. I believe the best things will happen, and I'm here to tell you that ain't a strategy. Believe me, hope for the best but create an ACTION PLAN to get there. Man can not succeed off vibes alone.

  1. Assuming things would be straightforward

Expect at least 3 things to go wrong with everything, even if you've done it before. Literally nothing ever works the way it should. Creating margin for life to happen will save you from so much anxiety and scrambling.

  1. Doing way more than was required

I suffer from a disease that makes me feel like my way is the best way. This has led to creating way more work for myself that no one asked for, didn't create enough value to move the needle, and created distance in shared understanding with me and my clients. Learning to embrace that there are many ways to accomplish something and that testing is better than perfection has allowed me to collaborate more with people and be insanely more efficient.

  1. Focusing on tactic KPIs more than business impact

Look, I love a good CPM as much as the next gal. But the moment a client at my first agency asked me how these metrics were helping them toward their business goal, and I didn't have an answer...😳. I learned quickly to understand the why of a project and how it was being measured and then backing strategy out of those numbers. Get this right, clients will love you.

  1. Being afraid of feedback

Listening to clients and listening to their customers, oof. It's hard stuff. Wouldn't life be easier if everyone just "got" our work, we didn't have to explain it, and didn't have to adjust anything? Getting over myself and actually learning to create with and for people has changed my work.

  1. Not considering real world application

This is as tangible as "will our logomark work in signage?" and as qualitative as "does this product serve actual problems in the market?." Ideas are only as good as how functional they are. Thinking 3 steps ahead = key.

  1. Relying on slides

If you're fully immersed in what you're pitching, you could have your entire deck crash and still be able to improvise. Going into any meeting whether a sales pitch or a strategy presentation: know what you're selling, and be excited about it!

  1. Getting to "brand-y" in messaging

We get so obsessed with creating emotional marketing that sometimes "TVs 50% off" is the best message you can create. Don't get so overly branded you don't tell your customers what you're offering.

What to know this week

📈 It's Q4 but it's not too late to hit your revenue goals. Revisit your strategy from Q1 and see where you missed, where you won, and where you can pivot! Need help? We got you.

🎙️ Do you have clearly defined requirements to understand how your brand has to perform? Learn more how we do it in my episode of The Marketing Millennials.

🥱 Turns out, marketing isn't as sexy as we thought it would be. It's data, testing, and baseline tactics. Agree or disagree?

🏆 My key to success? Keep moving. Don't bank on the sale closing. Don't assume you got the job. Keep pitching. Keep applying. The more seeds you plant, the more options you have.

💃 Did you get your free month of Skillshare? Link here to sign up for unlimited course access for 30 days.

Hot Jobs

Did someone forward you this email and want your own? Subscribe here.

Find me here: LinkedIn TikTok