Things My Parents Said that Prepared Me to Be a Marketer

“This is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me.” - Marketing is all about changing the behavior of a target audience. Sometimes I have to be radical and creative to get their attention!

“Life's not fair.” - My best effort may not always produce the best result. The key is to keep moving, creating and adapting.

“Don’t get smart with me!” - Whatever I create as a marketer can never cross the line of making my audience look or feel stupid.

“Smarten up!” - I need to create marketing programs that demonstrate I paid attention to the needs of my audience.

"Put on a sweater, I'm cold." - I need to take care of the people I work for even when it makes no sense to me. Marketing at firms can be like that a lot.

"If your friend jumped off a cliff, would you?" - I don't have to follow the herd of marketers all doing the same thing over and over again. It is O.K. for my marketing programs to be completely different from my competitors.

"I gotta go talk to a man about a horse." - In marketing a little misdirection is useful.

“It takes a good driver to hit all the bumps.” - All of my marketing missteps DO have a silver lining. Knowledge.

“Don't make me count to 3!” - Every marketing effort I create should be succinct and efficient. My target audience AND the partners in my firm want me to get to the benefit/result as fast as possible.

“Don't make me have to repeat myself.” - If I have taken the time to ask clients what they what then I'd better deliver on what they stated.

“Because I said so.” - Well, actually I can't think of a lesson for this one. It made me mad back when I heard it and it still makes me mad!