Date: November 2018

They are a weary bunch of people - those marketers. You find them hanging out at conferences, marketing events and sometimes the opening of an envelope. Other times, you find them sitting next to you on a flight, and that's really the one time you can find the one pearl of wisdom that will help you along your way.

Over the past few months, Marketing Eye has hosted hundreds of marketing workshops. There have been many reasons for that, but mostly, companies are keen to start 2019 off strong. To do that, they need to get all of their key people in one room (or on one call) and go through their business objectives, sales goals and marketing activities for the year ahead.

As I look around the Sydney, Marketing Eye office something really stands out. I’m one of the oldest ones here, not only am I one of the oldest members of the team, I’m in a sea of Millennials. What’s a Millennial you ask? Well it’s a term coined to represent anyone in their early twenties born in the year 2000-2010 and yes, the office is full of them. 

At 25 years of age, I started my first business, Insomnia. It was not my dream to own a business at that age, nor did I feel that I was quite ready...but when is anyone ever ready?

Imagine your sales team sitting in your office discussing the reasons why they didn't make the sales projections for the last quarter. They talk about how hard they have worked, and that they think it is either bad time of year, or something has changed in the market. Furthermore, they say to you that they think your marketing is either not effective or worse, non-existent.

I have two children aged 5 and 3, they are hilarious, cheeky and full of energy. In the last five years there are many things I’ve sacrificed for my kids; my time, my money, my energy but not my career. In fact, I think having kids has really given me some keys skills that have made me a better employee, manager and team member.

Running highly successful, productive, functioning marketing departments is a challenge at the best of times. Return on investment is always at the back of any competent marketing manager or CMO, and steering all marketing efforts to ensure that not only is the brand being promoted and gaining market share, but it shows up on the balance sheet, is a scorecard that no-one can ignore.