If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got

So today I attended my regular Toastmasters meeting where one of the members gave a speech on learning from experience. He touched on a couple of points around failure which led me to some conclusions:

1. Learn to fail


2. Fail early, fail often


3. Learn from failures
   

This got me thinking...As a card carrying member of Generation Y (albeit on the cusp), I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged me at every turn. Fortunately, as a child I did well at most of what I attempted. Unfortunately, what I didn't get early on was failure experience. We're often told failure is not an option, and I'm not saying it's something to aim for, but lets look at ways to frame failure as something to learn from.

Learning to fail involves trying something in the first place. As a Canadian living in Australia, I'm very aware of cultural differences, especially the ones engrained attitude of 'Having a go' which revolves around giving something the 'old college try' without fear of failure, which may well happen. So far, I've been reasonably successful at playing it safe, but if I want to move forward, it's time to take some action, and not treat failure as a personality characteristic.

Failing early has to do with the way we learn. Everyone knows we learn through experience and making mistakes. In theory, we should be able to increase the pace of learning by increasing the rate at which we try, right? More than likely, this will also increase the rate at which we make mistakes, and by that I mean different mistakes - new mistakes. But failing in your twenties is probably a lot better than failing when you've got a spouse, kids, and a mortgage or two. There is so much more time for recovery.

Learning from failure is probably the key element to take away from all of this. That means doing things differently. They say one definition of insanity was doing things over and over and expecting a different result. If you're not getting results from your current sales pitch, change it up. If you're not increasing traffic to your blog, try something new. If you've tried sending your resume to a hundred agencies and cold calling organisations to no avail, why not try tapping your network or running a personal campaign for a change?

Learn from failures by:

• Identifying the mistake
• Examining why it happened
• Take steps to prevent the same mistake again
• Move on!

In the end, if you learn something, it's not a complete failure is it? Failure is not a person, it's a thing, so go on, set some goals and have a go!

How do you learn from your failures?

Reverse Engineering and You: Breaking your career steps down in to manageable chunks

A new organization can use reverse engineering look at its competitors' activities, failures and experience and use observation, research and development to identify the path to success.

Why shouldn't this process also be applicable to career advancement? If you're aiming to become a Marketing Director for a large consumer goods organisation, why not buddy up with someone already in that position (how are those face-to-face networking skills coming along?) and de-construct their career?

Maybe find a job description for your dream job or career nirvana (for now or forever) and assess the criteria -- which are already true for you? Where are the gaps? What do you need to do to make the required skills and experience part of your set? You could freelance on your own, building up a network and reputation as you go along, or you could do some short-term contracting.

Hey, if you convince a few people to mentor you, you can probably be privvy to the good, the bad, and the ugly of their career path, and you might get a little insight as to how you can evaluate your next project or career opportunity and avoid losing your footing.


Either way, each journey begins with a single step

A Short Commute and other Career Must-Haves

Today I had conversation numero uno with my new mentor. We've decided to make a regular fortnightly call part of my career advancement strategy. I suppose it was the 'getting-to-know-you' aspect of the relationship, which it will continue to be for the next few conversations at least.

Ms Mentor suggested, among other things, that I lay out a laundry list that I can use to identify or dismiss opportunities as part of my marketing career advancement strategy. It should be said at this stage that things have been stagnating for the past 6-9 months, but I had to sit tight until getting closer to finishing some post-graduate work. That said, it's official: the hunt is on.

But what is it I'm actually looking for? So many of us don't know, which is really silly after twenty years if schooling in one form or another. And how can you know when you've found that awesome career step if you haven't identified the things you want ahead of time? You won't know it for what is, will you?

So here's my laundry list. Yours may look a little different, but I think Ms Mentor's advice is sound: you can't recognise a good thing (career, apartment, house, husband) until you know what you're looking for.

1) Location, location, location - for me, living in the beautiful city of Sydney is great. I love the look and feel of the city, I love the vibrance. Why would I want to drive or ride a train/bus for an hour and a half to two hours each day? I'm at the stage where I'm ready, willing and able to put in the hours and the effort to move forward. If this means I'm getting home at eleven pm, fine. just don't make me go far to go home. I currently have a 40 minute round trip. I'd like my commute to stay that way or shrink.

2) Give me an organization I can believe in - I mentioned before being willing to put in the hard yards to move forward. In return, I want an organization I can get excited about and be proud of. I want the company I work for to have a reputation for doing great work, having talented people and at least giving the impression of caring about them. Is that so much to ask? I want their products to be relevant to me. That way, I can give a hundred percent and take some pride in it.

3) Show me the money, Honey - Let's be honest, money makes the world go round, right? Or does it? Money isn't everything to me right now or it would have been at the top of the list. That said, I don't want to move backwards in salary, either, though I know any company's going to want their pound of flesh for whatever they offer. I just want to know that I'm being paid fairly and competitively for what I do.

4) Travel - Do I get to? I got my first slight taste of corporate travel for my current role, and I still think it's glamour! So I want more, but this time I want to go to differenc countries. I want to see different places, work with different people, work through cultural differences and make a difference on a broader scale. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to get to travel back to North America to see the folks every so often either. I suppose this has an impact on the type of organization to some extent, too. They've got to have a global presence!

5) Let me see your flextime - What sort of flexible working arrangements does this organization have? Can I work from home if I need to? In my current role I can't, and I know that there are times that I'm sick enough not to get suited up to go in, but I would have no problems answering my e-mail and finishing other tasks from home, or on the road or anywhere else. Some people loathe the working from home because it makes it seem like you're never out of the office. I think a flexible approach focuses on outcomes, rather than putting in token facetime. Ultimately, results are more important, no?

6) Perk me up! - I'd love a chance to test out new products or services before they go to market, or get samples of cool promotions or a discount on whatever my beloved company offers. Maybe to entice me to work longer hours they offer a gym membership? Maybe an extra day of paid vacation? Or perhaps they give cool tech-gadgets like leading edge phones, laptops and other treats to make me feel they love me - or just keep tabs on me. Either way, bring on the perks!

7) Manage me, Mentor me! - Can I have a great manager, please? Someone who I get along with, who I can speak to, who knows what he or she is doing and is willing to develop me to move up, rather than hold me back?!? Can I have someone who has experience enough to give good guidance, who makes me want to emulate effective behaviours and go the extra mile for my beloved organization?

There you have it: My list of what I want in my next role - mentoring assignment 1 complete! Maybe I sound like a whiny child saying "I want, I want". I figure, if I put it out in the universe, maybe there's a better chance of me finding them or at the very least sticking to this list as a set of benchmarks for what I'm willing to accept. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and surely as my priorities change, so will my role requirements. I wonder if there's anything I didn't consider? I'm sure there is, and I'd love to hear comments or feedback.

Direct Marketing: Relationship-building Roadblocks

The increasing rivalry in the current business environment results in the necessity for organisations to forge strong customer relationships. These strong bonds are used to offer better products and services and gain valuable insight into keeping those customers loyal, deter them from defecting to the competition. It takes trust, commitment and communication to build and manage good customer relationships, but not all direct marketers are doing their utmost to capitalise on those oh-so-important relationships. Here are some of the more common mistakes:

1. Too much information
Some direct marketers believe that the more sales messages (mailers, catalogues, e-mails, etc) sent to their customers, the more likely those customers are to purchase goods or services. Communication is sent out willy-nilly, with no consideration for timing, frequency or the content of the message. Overloading the consumer with information has the unintended effect of alienating the consumer and lowering the probability of any purchase/response. Consumers are looking for trusted, proven relationships that save them time and effort by fulfilling promises of product, service or expertise. If direct marketers get committed to giving the consumers what they want - the "need to know" versus the "nice to know", keep in touch with valued customers, give timely, relevant accurate information on their offerings, they'll be rewarded with responsive consumers.

2. We're not all created equal
Some direct marketers treat all consumers as equals. Maybe they're sending 'cold' messages to those who have previously purchased, and acting all too familiar with potential customers whose trust they haven't yet earned. All consumers are not equal. Loyalty should be rewarded to build a relationship of the highest quality. That's why it's of the utmost importance to segment the message to engage the consumers, making them an offer they can't refuse. Keep them reading, clicking and buying by sending them focused, targeted content that they want (they've shown you that they want it from being responsive in the past; you know they might want it because you've done your demographic/behavioural research).

3. You don't make me feel special
While direct marketing has a focus of productivity, standards, volume and costs, consumers are more focused on timeliness, selection, relevance and value. When this divergence of priorities is made apparent to the consumer, there is disengagement. Customers don't care about your bottom line, they care about themselves, and they want to feel important. Make sure your content is benefit-rich, and allows the consumer to relate to your message and your offering. Make it easy for your recipient to reply to you, too. When it's difficult to engage with you, consumers get frustrated, dismiss your message, or click-away from the cool website/newsletter/mailer into which you've put so much effort (read: $$).

Keeping the above in mind when planning a campaign or evaluating direct marketing strategy might help avoid some major pitfalls and allow you to build and maintain long-standing profitable customer relationships.

I See You, Watching Me, Watching You

Marketers are always concerned about the actual reach of their campaigns. With justification required for every dime of marketing spend, outdoor media's gross audience numbers don't accurately depict the true audience of different outdoor formats and aren't easily compared to other media measurements. The bottom line? They don't fit in with multimedia planning systems.

It's costly and difficult to support an accurate sample size of respondents for even medium sized markets. A couple of years back, Eyes On identified and took the initiative of moving away from the 'Likely-to-See' measurement of audiences to an actual measure of the commercial audience.

This article in the New York Times, however, discusses taking the approach one step further by using cameras embedded in outdoor media fixtures to track gender, approximate age and in some cases, ethnicity, and then modify ads accordingly.

Of the utmost importance however, will be the ability to identify the true demographic information, campaign effectiveness and reach of ad campaigns.

Talk about engaging the consumer...

Needing Experience to Get a Job vs Needing a Job to Get Experience

I remember it clear as day, the first time I heard this, or more correctly, the first time I read it on a flyer posted in the hallowed halls of high school. It was the mid ninties posted in flourescent green on the wall (outside of the Austin caf near the drama wing if anyone knows the area). You'll need a job to get experience, but you need experience to get a job. Ay, there's the rub. How in the heck to get both? Or at least get a break so you can prove how eager you are, show off your solid work ethic and prove you have terrific communication skills?

1. Volunteer
Offer your services to an organization that needs your help! Even better if it's for a good cause, for people in need, For a friend or for your community. Offer to undertake some skills that are parallel to those you'll need to perform in that dream job.  Sometimes, if you're lucky, you'll get thrust into a leadership position or become a subject matter expert, and you'll find that helps you score points for both job and experience.  No one said a job had to be paid!

2. Network
Talk to people.  Talk to anyone and everyone.  Attend industry events, talk to friends, peers, relatives, former classmates, their spouses.  Get your story straight, figure out what you want, be it skill or industry or personal development, and ask for that.  A wise man once told me: If you don't ask, you don't get. Networking is a great way to get in front of the right people so you can talk your way into that job!

3. Create your own job
This is a popular way to go, however it's not for the faint -hearted.  There's a lot of work involved, a lot of research and a lot of the first two elements of this post.  Sometimes you end up having to work for free, again just to get experience.  Other times you'll spend networking, just so you can get your name out there.

So which is it?  Go for the job first?  Or the experience?   How can you effectively do both?  Well, often you start out in one job, in one industry, when you really need to get into your dream industry.  There's no singular right answer,   but there's no doubt you'll need to do the above if you want to make your move.

Maybe you're dreaming of health care and you can't seem to get out of telecommunications.  Maybe you're desperate for one of those big IT conglomorates, but you can't get past cleaning products.  In another post, I'll discuss how to jump from one industry to another.

Professional Services Marketing 2.0

We all know that marketers representing sexy products and services can leverage social media channels to generate buzz about their offerings. People become Facebook fans of your carbonated beverage, you tweet your latest fashion insights to your followers, right? Even Sharpie has been successful in using social media to showcase products and ultimately drive people to their website which increases profile and no doubt brand awareness.*

Success in professional services, that is, legal, accounting, architechture, engineering etc., especially in the b2b space, is more often than not driven by the management of relationships between the fee-earners and the decision-makers of their clients' firms.

These relationships, while they may be orchestrated via business development or sales teams, are mainteined through constant engagement with clients through online and offline channels. Those include events, seminars, bidding for work, newsletters, updates, surveys etc.

Hey, wait, isn't relationship-building the very fibre of social media?

But how do you leverage social media marketing in the professional services space? In 2007, the veritable jurassic period of social media marketing, a survey completed by the Professional Marketing Forum identified that marketing experts in professional services firms are unsure of how to approach Web 2.0 and social media marketing strategies.

In 2007, the key findings included:

1. 18% of firms banned Facebook on office computers as a ‘time waster’
2. 20% allowed free access anytime arguing their people should be trusted
3. Large firms were actively exploring the possibility of upgrading intranets with Web 2.0 elements including RSS, blogging and social bookmarking
4. No firms were reporting commercial success through using Web 2.0 sites

Isn't it time for marketers of these firms to get on the social media marketing train?

What if in house thought-leaders tweeted their insights and clients were able to subscribe to their feeds? What if successes and tender wins were the subjects of blog posts? What if boring firms got rid of their staid, stuffy appearance and attracted new, young, forward-thinking talent through their Facebook groups? And how about if those leading-edge video podcasts weren't held captive to the company website, but were search engine optimized and posted on Youtube? Wouldn't these serve as ways to build profile, engage influential decision-makers (or decision-makers-to-be)?

Am I way off here? What channels are the professional services marketers out there using to leap into the social media marketing fray?

*Sharpie is not actually un-sexy, especially when associated with talent like David Beckham...