Today's Marketing Cookie - 50 Shades of Marketing

Today's fortune came from Greg Millman of Tampa FL. Greg is the President-elect for the Tampa chapter of the AMA and a senior marketing manager at AchieveGlobal, which specializes in leadership and teamwork development. You should follow Greg on Twitter: @gregmilliman

Today's Marketing Cookie is about the love affair you're having with your career. Is your love affair, like the 50 shades of marketing? LOL! ...but seriously, is it happy? Is it harmonious? Those are the questions I want to discuss today.

Let's start with happy:
What does it mean to be happy in your marketing career? When you come to the office in the morning, do you feel delighted to call yourself a marketer? When you look at the projects you've worked on, are you pleased with what you've accomplished?  When you consider the company you work for and the coworkers on your team, are you satisfied and content with your work environment? 

We traveled back to New York to visit my in-laws for Thanksgiving one year. We had not been home for a few years and my father-in-law pulled me aside and asked, "Explain to me again what you are doing to support my daughter and granddaughter." It was a fair question. At that time, I was working to design my very first corporate (text-based) Website - before the invention of visual Web browsers like Netscape or Internet Explorer. Customers had to direct-dial their modem to get connected with our site, and had to use keystrokes on their keyboard to navigate our content. Anyway, I explained it all to my father-in-law and could tell that it wasn't resonating with him... so took my seat at the "little kids table".

A few years later, this new "Internet thing" really took off and soon there were commercials on TV for Gap.com, McDonalds.com, Coke.com, and Sears.com. Website domain names where everywhere. It was a modern day gold rush! When we pulled into the driveway for Thanksgiving that year, my father-in-law greeted us at the front door, and said with a big smile, "Son!". I was so proud of my career in that moment... and I got to sit at the "big table" from then on. If you love what you do, your love affair with your career will have many happy moments like that too.

Now let's talk about harmonious:
What does it mean to have a harmonious marketing career? When you come home from work, do your family, friends, kids, and/or pets recognize you? Do you recognize yourself? Are they delighted with how much effort you are giving to it?  Having a harmonious career means finding a healthy balance between loving what you do, and loving who you are.

For a long time I was working so hard to create my career, that I neglected the most important people in my life.  When I was working three jobs at first to make ends meet, not having much time for my family was understandable. I was like a machine working every waking hour to bootstrap myself. Eventually, I had made great strides in my career and was able to enjoy a more "normal" work week. I was so highly-tuned for working, for so many years, that I just couldn't slow myself down and enjoy my life when I had the opportunity. It was this way, until I joined CommCreative.

It's true. My boss forces me to take a vacation with my family. He calls me names when I come in on a Monday morning, talking about a mobile app I built over the weekend. He'd rather hear about the tree house I'm building with the kids, than the chapter I contributed to a new marketing book. It took me almost four years to understand what he was teaching me, but finding harmony in your career, is truly an amazing feeling!

I hope you find happiness in your career and earn your seat at the "big table".  After working so hard to get there, I hope you'll achieve harmony and balance, because making time with loved ones is the only way to love life.