All I know is that I see things differently. I have my whole life, but I've finally learned how to share my perspective without pleading my case.
Sitting in my office scrolling LinkedIn this week feels... stupid. I'm browsing opportunities, checking to see what's floating around right now. And at the same time, I know full-well none of it's reliable—people world-wide are unplugged for the holidays (rightfully so). A bunch of the listings I'm seeing are likely out of date. And if they're not, any applications or messages I'd send are sure to land in a black hole.
I'll tell you what, though; there's a lottt of Marketing Director roles open right now, and I'm really torn on how to feel about it.
About a year ago, my team was laid off. Every time I log onto LinkedIn I see more of the same story cropping up... people like me—marketing leaders—sharing stories of teams discarded by companies betting big on tech optimization and headcount reduction. So I'm sitting here looking at the many open roles and I'm wincing. I should be ecstatic. After all, I'm apparently in high-demand again, all of a sudden, since the market made an "oopsie." But I'm not, I'm worried.
All the marketing director/leadership opportunities I'm seeing appear to be the result of similar scenarios: companies walking back their AI initiatives because people aren't using them. Here's what kills me, though... these roles all sort of say some version of the same thing: right the ship of a pivoting department while increasing views online as fast as possible.
Fuck's sake.
At this point, I had to stop scrolling and just sit back. I thought about every boss who's asked me for that because their boss asked them for it. My stomach turns thinking about it, because I just seem to fundamentally disagree with how it can be accomplished. Like, on a behavioral level.
After 15+ years, I've found no better way to build trust than to let people connect their own dots.
Show them how, sure—but let them do it themselves and they'll stick around for quite a while. This is why I like revealing concepts to people, even though the market tends to favor shoveling stuff at everyone instead. I purposefully leave room for interpretation so people can come to their own conclusions, and that's something that takes time... but it definitely builds trust.
So, with my laptop still open in front of me, my differences from the marketing mold only feel louder. Polished headshots, unsolicited advice, profiles designed to display status... it's just not me. Never has been. If there's one thing from this year I'm grateful for (there are many), it's that I stopped trying to be something I'm not.
I know I’m not always relatable, that's why I construct scenes to let people experience my experiences, but as themselves. I'm just the facilitator.
It works, just how I like it.
If you could use the nudge... consider this your permission slip to stop being something you're not.
onward.
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