Resignation

I've resigned twice in my career. I didn't have anything lined up prior to leaving in either occasion. That may be a sign of my lack of forethought, but I promise that both times it was a very rational decision that I had considered for quite some time prior to pulling the trigger.

Most recently, I resigned from a prestigious marketing and public relations agency specializing in foodservice clients. I had been an account executive for just over a year and was promoted to senior account executive just prior to giving my notice.

This was a decision that I deliberated over with my husband. Finally, one morning Sam asked me to walk our dog with him. We went for a long walk, during which Sam said , "I stayed up watching The Pursuit of Happiness and I would live in a BART station bathroom with you." There was a lot more said, but that line was the highlight and the gist was that I was obviously not happy in my current job for a variety of reasons and it was time to figure out what I really wanted to pursue.

That was one of the most intense conversations of my life. Sam and I set out from our apartment with me dead opposed to the thought of leaving my job, and by the time we had arrived back at our gate, I was ready to try something completely new.

And I resigned yesterday.

It was well-received by my supervisor and our agency principal, so I decided to be professional and offer to stay and train my replacement if need be. They seemed very eager to take me up on that, so only time will tell when I'm really out of there.

Promoted

I received a promotion, officially announced at this evening's office happy hour. Effective immediately I am now a senior account executive, which pretty much means that I'm responsible for all the things I was already doing and I'm expected to begin doing all of the things in the position above my current one.

Pretty standard corporate protocol.

While this should be overall good news, I'm not entirely sure I'm happy about it. Work has been pretty all-encompassing and I've been feeling stressed and more overwhelmed than usual. My anxiety has been so high that it's been coming out in my nervous jittery legs which more than one person has noticed in recent weeks.

While I'm honored to be given more responsibility and accountability, I'm also wary because there are so many personal things I'd like to accomplish this year and I worry this professional life is holding me back.

Well-Timed Feedback Blog

I really think Seth Godin's blog posts are eerily timed to events and situations in my own life.

Over the last week or so, I started feeling like I'm not cut out for agency life - the pace is incredibly fast, the deadlines can be very tight, and there isn't a whole lot of hand holding.  In fact, a lot of the feedback I have been getting is good, but there always seems to be room for improvement.

Well, a couple of days ago I woke up to find this post by Seth:

The feedback you've been waiting for

"You did a great job. This is exactly what I was hoping for. I wouldn't change a thing. You completely nailed it, it's fabulous."

Of course, that's not feedback, really. It's applause.

Applause is great. We all need more of it.

But if you want to improve, you should actively seek feedback. And that feedback, if it's more than just carping, will be constructive. It will clearly and generously lay out ways you can more effectively delight your customers and create a remarkable experience that leads to ever more customers.

If you're afraid of that feedback, it's probably not going to arrive as often as you'd like it to. On the other hand, if you embrace it as the gift it can be, you may decide to go looking for it.

Empty criticism and snark does no one any good. But genuine, useful, insightful feedback is a priceless gift.

Applause is good too.

 Yes, feedback is a good thing and I need to remember that!  If people are taking the time to critique you, they feel like it's worth their time to help you improve and that's great!

Past My Bedtime

My apologies if this post seems disjointed or disorganized- it is, as the title suggests, far past my bedtime and my brain is finally starting to slow down a bit.  I have consistently sold myself short in my dedication to hard work- which is funny because one does not become a First Team All-American water polo player without serious dedication and hard work.  But in my professional life, it was only in the last two years that I realized I was passionate about marketing and wanted to devote significant portions of my free time to learning and improving myself.  Lately, it seems that my hard work and dedication are paying off: I have interesting opportunities popping up all around me.

A girl I went through UCI's Marketing Certificate Extensions Program with reached out to me last week about doing Integrated Marketing Consulting for the company she works for.  Cue me writing my first-ever proposal for consulting services.  We'll see where that goes.  I have been more and more interested in consulting as I get to be more acquainted with self-employed professionals, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to take the leap and go to full-time consulting.  Sam and I are considering that when we start a family, but it's not something I want to explore just yet.

Another networking connection has a very interesting business opportunity that we discussed today.  I would love to be a part of his team and create content and integrated marketing plans for clients on a 12-24 month contract basis.

I am on fire today- completely reenergized and motivated to achieve all that I can.  It was one of those days where I logged nine and a half hours at the office and didn't take a single break.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I did use the restroom once and I had to get a class of water in the afternoon to ward off a dehydration/starvation headache.  I was so consumed by the projects I was working on that I completely blew off my lunch- postponing it to the point that it was ridiculous to even try to take a break to eat.  Ooops.  No biggie, I told myself, I will just leave early.  Next thing I knew, it was 4:15, and then 4:55.

I headed to the gym and met up with Sam for a short workout before we came home and walked Hunter.  By the time we had showered and eaten it was nearly 8:30 and I started work on my other projects.  I edited my consulting proposal with Dad, returned the favor and recommended a dear friend and mentor on LinkedIn and did some other work.

I literally looked up at the clock and realized it was 11:40.  Hunter was laying on the guest bed behind me, Sam had turned off the TV and gone to bed without telling me and my 10:30 bedtime had long since passed.  So I took Hunter out to go potty, piled all of Sam's dirty dishes in the sink for him to tackle tomorrow and sat down to write this post and finish my VERY productive day.  It's funny, at once point this afternoon the song that plays in the movie Rudy during his senior year when he is getting beat to shit during the practicing montage popped into my head.  It's really a very motivating soundtrack if you're looking for something to keep you going... I ended up listening to it all afternoon and evening.

Alas, it's now time to crawl into bed between my freshly washed sheets (yes I even did a load of laundry today!) next to my wonderfully supportive boyfriend and snuggle with our adorable dog.

Integrity is All You Have

This morning I read It's Thomas Midgeley day, a blog post by Seth Godin that had my head spinning.  He wrote in honor of what would have been Thomas Midgeley's 124th birthday, and what the consequences can be, "when short-term profit-taking meets marketing."  Read Seth's full post here.

Midgeley worked in the gasoline industry and he helped his company delude the public and government into believing that leaded gasoline was not a threat to health and well being despite knowing otherwise.  It is a horrific and inhumane thing to put other people's lives at risk without giving them full disclosure about the possible side effects, consequences, or outcome.  I was appalled.

I have always said that I will not perform a job or participate as a part of an organization that compromises either my personal or professional integrity.  I firmly believe integrity is the only thing that we have that cannot be taken away.  People can't steal your integrity.  You choose to sell it, give it up, compromise it, etc.

That said, it's very interesting that I've chosen to make a career in marketing.  Although I don't enjoy admitting it, marketing doesn't have a great record with integrity.  Here's a quick list of offending industries off the top of my head:

• Cigarette Industry (Joe the Camel; The Marlboro Man)
• Oil Industry
• Fast Food Industry
• Politics 

The wikipedia definition of Marketing Ethics provides compelling reasoning behind the shifty choices made by marketing professionals and their superiors.  Reading it almost seems like the backstory of a TV show or dramatic movie instead of a description of the real world of business marketing.

Still, I hope that the information age makes hiding the unwanted side effects of products or the truth about recipes or the motives behind military strikes will become less and less possible.  Today, we have very little ability to mask information.  We leave a digital trail almost every time we access the internet, travel, make a purchase and so forth.

I hope that my generation of marketing professionals will leave the unethical marketing behind and maintain our integrity.  At the end of our lives, I believe it's the only thing we take with us.

Ryan, DDS

Sophomore year in Isla Vista 

Tomorrow I get to take the day off of work and attend a very special graduation ceremony for Sam's college roommate, Ryan, as he becomes the first DDS (and I think doctor of any kind) in his family.  

Ryan and I became really close during undergrad because he and Sam shared a room Junior and Senior year, and because Ryan and I have very similar families.  From the get-go we meshed really well and I always loved making dinner as a house, hearing how his parents and sisters were doing, and spending free time down at the beach.  As you can see from these photos of us, there was also quite a bit of drinking... but I will say this, I only had to take him to urgent care once (that I remember) for injuries sustained while drunk.  

Junior year in Isla Vista

Ryan is one of those guys who is actually a wonderful person.  It's hard to come by guys like that these days, although I am certainly blessed to know quite a few upstanding dudes.  Ryan was always a great moral compass without judging too much.  He had good advice for me and sought out advice about his life from me.  I would say Ryan is someone I absolutely consider to be a brother from another mother!

Anyway, poor Sam is stuck at work tomorrow, oh the joys of residency and especially 2nd year of residency.  So I will be attending Ryan's graduation solo (and meeting up with lots of the old UCSB crew.  We bought him a gift to commemorate the occasion, something he will be able to have a long time and enjoy.  Or so we hope.

Ryan is definitely one of those friends that I know Sam and I will be close to for the rest of our lives.  Just like some of my parents' friends who they've been tight with since high school and college.  Despite the distance we'll face as Ryan moves back to Northern California to start his career in dentistry, I am sure we'll still keep in touch and visit each other as often as we can.  That's just the kind of guy Ryan is.  Thoughtful, kind, someone who makes the effort to spend your birthday with you- even if it means driving out of his way and changing his plans.

Senior year at the Del Playa house in Isla Vista

Will This Ever Get Old?

I wanted to share some cool news articles published from the press release I set out on the wire Tuesday morning.  It's still so cool to see my name listed as the release contact!  I wonder when (if ever) that will get old?  Probably eventually.  I especially love that we get picked up by all my "hometown" newspapers from the San Francisco Bay Area.  And most interesting of all, I made it into the Contra Costa Times, my hometown county paper, for something other than water polo.  Wow, I feel so grown up!

(Disclaimer: all of these are pretty much the same article, don't feel the need to read them ALL unless you want to!)

Contra Costa Times

SF Gate (Chronicle Website) 

Sacramento Bee

LA Daily News

OC Register (This little blurb was written by an Acalanes grad who I have gotten to know fairly well- networking plus!)

Career Milestones

This morning I submitted my first-ever press release to a wire service for mass distribution.  Wow. 

Not only did we get picked up by a few online news channels- yes, we actually did get published- my contact information was listed as the person to direct questions to.  Wow. 

I feel like a big girl with a big girl job today.  Sometimes I really amaze myself.

Also, Sam received word that he officially is licensed by the state of California to practice medicine (or at least write prescriptions) yesterday.  I am very proud of both of us today... dare I say our careers are on the right track?