25. Why B2B marketing is not just an okay thing to devote your life and career to, but why itâs a good thing. A worthy thing.
26. Iâm trying to capture these thoughts because I figure youâre probably like me.
27. You probably got into this game through a back door somewhere.
When you were a kid, you never said, âI want to be a B2B marketer when I grow up.â
36. So when I think about the things that allow me to get meaning out of what I do, Iâm really thinking
about the things that make it worth investing my life in.
37. I mean the things beyond âmaking a livingâ and supporting my family and giving my kids
(Hannah, 18, Zoe, 15) a comfy, fun, happy, interesting childhood.(These are big things
and maybe ought to be good enough answers to the meaning question. But Iâm looking
for more here).
38. Iâm looking for the things that give me fulfilment and a sense that this work is worthwhile.
39. Things that make me feel I neednât be embarrassed about spending my days and weeks and years doing it.
40. So here are those things for me. They may not be the same for you.
But theyâre the things that make me glad to do what I do.
45. I think a business is a worthy thing for someone to create.And that it takes guts and intelligence
and determination to do it. And so helping a good business to succeed is a fulfilling thing.
46. This means itâs hugely important to choose to work with companies I admire.
Companies I really want to see succeed.
47. 2. I like helping our clients achieve success in their careers.
48. I really love it when something I did (or we as an agency did) succeeded wildly and our client
is proud of it and gets some recognition or a raise or whatever.I get a lot of pleasure out of that.
49. This means itâs hugely important that I choose to work with clients that I like and admire.
50. Because if I work for clients I donât like or admire, my soul shrivels up like a raisin.
51. 3. I love working alongside talented, engaged, positive people who also love what they do.
53. People who come to work and give their whole selves to what they do make me feel
good about giving my whole self.
54. And people who hold back and only give the minimum make me feel like an idiot
for giving any more than that.
55. This means itâs hugely important that I choose to work alongside people who are positive
and talented and smart and fun and mature enough to go ahead and dive in instead
of holding back.
57. Iâm happy if Iâm on the steep part of just about any learning curve.And Iâm miserable if Iâm just
doing what I already know how to do.
58. Thankfully, B2B marketing -- in the age of content marketing, lead nurturing, search, social
and analytics -- is one of the steepest learning curves in the entire history of business.
59. But just because thereâs a lot to learn, doesnât mean it isnât easy to coast along,
doing what youâve always done.
60. This makes it hugely important to choose work thatâs challenging and difficult and
a bit scary.Instead of work thatâs well within my comfort zone.
62. Work in which the solution to the problem is far from obvious at the outset.
Where a good solution may be the first thing that pops into my head, but a
great solution is one that takes a bit of sweat.
63. This makes it really important that I choose clients who demand great work.
Because mediocre work is stultifying.
64. 6. I like honest work that asks me to build a great case for my clients.
65. Not work that asks me to manipulate the target audience with bullshit.
(âGood mothers choose this fabric softener.â âReal men wear this watch.â)
66. This means itâs really, really important that I avoid working for any client whose business
is based on anything less than delivering real value to its customers.
67. 7. I like figuring out how the business of business actually works.
68. Call me a geek but, to me, this gigantic economy we all operate in is actually kind of fascinating.
A business is like an organism in the ecosystem of the wider economy.
And some thrive and some die and I really like trying to figure out why.
69. I love getting an inside view into different markets and âvalue chainsâ and individual companies.
70. And Iâm especially interested in the alchemy of success and the mystery of great corporate cultures.
71. To be honest, Iâm even fascinated by sad, inefficient, counter-productive dysfunctional cultures.
(I just donât want to hang out in them for too long.)
72. And all this means itâs really important to choose clients who are open about everything
and who see us as partners not just suppliers.
Because if theyâre not open, I canât indulge in my hobby.