Yesterday I caught up with one of the founders of Kookai, Rob Crombe, to talk about a community initiative that I am working on in Charters Towers in rural Queensland.

He asked me a question about success and I paused for a moment to reflect on how I would answer a question which eluded to me being successful.

Why are some marketers more successful than others? Is it that they are smarter? Do they have a secret sauce? Are they just in the right place at the right time, surrounded by the right people?

I've seen some mind-blowing marketers in my time, and I've also seen some marketers that are just terrible and give marketing a very bad name. But there are some particular things that stand out in successful marketers that we all can learn from. They have some basic fundamentals that they live by; either intentionally or not. Their behaviours are consistent and without exception.

The challenges of running a professional services firm are many. What most of my counterparts would say is that it's people that determine whether you are successful or not - and this is correct.

June is not for the faint hearted. Not only are business owners like me trying to get last minutes sales in to boost our financial performance, we are also trying to ensure that we take advantage of any tax breaks that may come our way thanks to the Australian Taxation Department. Sadly for me, I am not part of the criteria for the asset tax break of $20,000, but I am sure there are a few other areas that our accounting department can take advantage of.

I've recently changed the narrative of my business. It's not something I took lightly. Re-defining what value you provide to the market place can be game-changing, or business destroying. 

If you look at Uber for instance, they could have failed, but yet they succeeded. Is it sustainable? Most probably. Is it worth the market value associated with the business? Not really. Did they not only change their original narrative, but create a new narrative for the entire industry - disruptive in design?

After spending some time in New York talking to hundreds of entrepreneurs from around the globe, I am rejuvenated and ready to tackle my next challenge.

18 months ago, I decided to employ my niece who was 18 at the time, to work at the Marketing Eye Sydney office.

This is not a decision I took lightly and I spent a lot of time thinking it through. I decided that given how young she is, I would have her answer the phone and do administrative duties with the hope she would show aptitude for an area of the business, and we could further train her.

Like many other people around the globe, I am a huge fan of Ghandi. His memory lives on in my everyday life, as I surround myself with his powerful, insightful quotes that he chose to share with the world.

This quote rings very true to where I am sitting right now:

It's that time of year again where marketing managers are frantically working out how to best spend their marketing budget for 2015/16. There is a lot of fine tuning to be done given the changes in marketing technologies, applications and an ever changing consumer behavioural pattern.

Just 2 years ago, who would have thought Instagram would take over the world of social media? That LinkedIn would become the most power recruitment platform taking significant marketshare from Seek, Monster and Indeed? 

To be comfortable in one's own skin is the beginning of strength. That's what they say, and to be honest, I believe it.

I became comfortable in my own skin a few years ago. I stopped trying to be what other people wanted; the outgoing, fun, ambitious Mellissah. Instead, I started being me; a shy introvert who loves business and spends time with people who really matter. 

On my own terms

It wasn't until I became comfortable in my own skin that I really started living life, on my own terms. I know that people prefer the outgoing persona that I use to present, but that is damn hard work. Do you really know how hard it is to be "likeable" and someone who everyone wants to invite to a party? I never had to have "missing out syndrome" because everyone wanted to invite me to everything. Why not? I came with interesting stories, always smiled and talked to everyone. But let me tell you something about that... I was performing. I wasn't the real me.