Blog Author Mellissah Smith - Page 17

When you are a successful woman, you are expected to be a whole heap of things, even if some of them you are 'faking it until you make it'.

I know first hand how much I have to perform. I have to hold a room in a meeting, and ensure that I am articulate, on point and relevant. In the office, I have to look like a leader and inspire my team to be high performers. At lunch with clients, I am on a stage. I have to entertain, say things worthwhile, make them laugh and show them that there is a real person under this business persona. At a staff Christmas party, I have to show my team that I am one of them, but I can't drink too much (not that I want to), and I am completely responsible for every persons behaviour and safety.

A huge wake up call happened to many people I know last night, and it was a shocking reality. When someone needs you, they need you. They may not come outwardly in saying what is the exact problem or what they are going through, and that is something we all need to be reminded of.

A first world problem for sure, but it is one I see regularly as an entrepreneur and one who travels widely around the world.

We all work hard. I don't have children, but I see a lot. I have opinions, just like most, but there is some substance in my opinions because I have been around for a long time.

Parents work hard to build their businesses and wealth. They do so because mostly, they didn't grow up with the wealth that they would have liked, or perhaps they just want to live a better life. 

They accumulate wealth, with that comes big houses, flash cars, holidays in the South of France and skiing in Aspen, and so on. 

I don't know about you, but if you have been a marketer in the same company or maybe only with one or two companies, for the past 5 years, you may just be thinking "what's next?"

Having a career in marketing is exciting. It is something that I have chosen for the past 25 years, and every day I love going to work. It's my passion. I am completely in love with the people who work for me. They are rockstars and every day they get better and better. Right now, we have a team of people who are winners. They have the right self-starting attitude and are competent. We are not second guessing anything they do, and their relationships with clients are second to none.

It is my belief that every business should have some sort of exit strategy. That may mean selling your business in the future, or it may mean handing it over to the next generation. The reality of business, is no-one lives forever and it's always good to go into business with a plan in mind, and that includes covering such things as ill health, death, a sale of the business, or passing it on to the next generation. Perhaps you want to list your company on the stock exchange or expand it overseas and sell off areas that don't make sense long term.

I've long realised that I can fill in the questions for any psyche profiling to obtain the answers I want them to finish with - although this is counter productive in every way.

If you run a marketing team, you will realise a few things; firstly that no marketing team can be all the same, and secondly, a mixture of personalities and skills is required for optimum performance. When choosing a team, it's best to steer away from selecting people just like you, or like another person who you rate as being a good marketer on your team. The reason is simple; a strong, competent, successful marketing team has to have a mixture of personalities that collaborate, support, encourage, nurture and push each other to reach their full potential both individually and as a team.

While this may seem idealistic, it's a reality for any competent marketing manager who has the 'balls' to think outside the box when they are putting together a team of people to take a company to the next level.

I'm a marketer. It's been my choice of career for almost 25 years. I am the first to put up my hand and say that I know very little about anything other than marketing - and even with that, it's a daily challenge to keep up to the many changes in dynamics, technology, and human behaviours that affect our ability as marketers to do a job well.

Over a year, I speak with hundreds of marketers and potentially, more than a thousand entrepreneurs. More recently, interviewing people for roles with our fast-growth company has meant that I have been having conversations with quite a few marketers, many of whom have tried their hand at being entrepreneurs. In fact, more than 30 percent of the marketers in the latest bunch have started a company, and during the job interviewing phase, have said that the company was successful, but either exists no more or is put to the wayside.

High expectations of themselves

We spend a lot of time thinking about why a competitor is out-performing one of our clients, who may be smaller, but we never use that as an excuse, in the market.

It a challenge as a small business to grow exponentially, providing quality products and services, and building that brand that everyone resonates with.