Maybe it’s the holidays but life has just been moving too fast for me to keep up lately! Especially after traveling for work last week, my head has been a whirlwind.
Oh! let me know if I lose you, walking through the grocery store where I lose service sometimes.
James and I weren’t able to come home for the holidays this year but last week while I was in Boston I got to see both of our moms which was so nice. I went to the ICA with Dianne and then got Tasty Burger with my mom. Finding parking near Fenway is atrocious. $40 for ONE HOUR?! No thanks I’ll buy a barrel of cheeseballs and use the Shaw’s parking lot thank you very much.
Spending time with both mine and James’ mom, I didn’t realize how much I needed a mom hug. I mean, I really needed it.
My mom went to drop me off at Val’s (where I stayed the last 2 nights of my trip), I hug my mom goodbye, and I just started sobbing… uncontrollably.
I was like a faucet, no, a fire hose! Water flushing through my face at a million miles per hour as I hugged her tighter to hold my balance.
I really didn’t want to let go.
Once I fought through the snot, I look up to see a wobbly version of my mom through my tears smiling back at me, the way she always does to let me know everything will be okay.
“We can do hard things.”
She reminds me. I take a few deep breaths, give her one more hug and then watched her drive off as I made my way towards my friend’s porch.
Now picture this: My mom drops me off at Val’s house with my barrel of cheeseballs while they’re hosting a 30th birthday party with the entire extended family. Think aunts, uncles, cousins, babies, finger foods the whole shebang.
I think “Okay Meg, just sneak into your room or bathroom to collect yourself.”
Of course as if on a 90s sitcom, I slowly, quietly, open the door and instantly realize I’m interrupting the birthday speech.
The entire room looks at me, mascara pouring down my face, holding a barrel of cheese balls like it’s my first born child. As if this living nightmare couldn’t get worse, what felt like slow-motion, Val’s future-mother-in-law PAUSES THE SPEECH to introduce me to the room of 12 people all staring with worried half-smiles on their faces.
Absolutely mortified, I say a quick “Nice to meet you”, apologize, and laugh awkwardly as I shuffled to the office turned bedroom where my suitcase was to shame spiral.
At this point I knew I had two options:
Hide under my friend’s desk for the next 4 hours until everyone left
Embrace my vulnerability and put myself back out into the world
After I stuffed my shame into the deepest cabinet of my brain (to be unpacked at a more reasonable time — like when I’m trying to fall asleep) I made my way out to the family party.
To my surprise, everyone just wanted to know where the cheeseballs were. As soon as I opened myself up to connection, even in my most vulnerable red-puffy-eyed-state, people wanted to let me in. Which made me realize…
Vulnerability is the fast-track to connection and resonance.
Now I’m not recommending you join every party ugly crying but I will say the cheeseballs were the hit of the Yankee Swap.
Other than what will now be referenced to as “the cheeseballs incident”, my trip to Boston was awesome but exhausting. I spent most of it in in-person meetings for work which went well. I had my yearly performance review and it was fine but as I’m trying to carve out my own career path I had an eye opening moment where I realized I don't actually know what anyone on my team is striving for in their personal lives, or careers (aspirations, not compensation). Even announcing a promotion has this weird secrecy about it that I’ve yet to understand.
After marinating on that for a bit I realized the lack of knowledge isn’t because I’m a selfish asshole (hopefully), but because saying you want something is scary, and embarrassing if you don't get it, but it shouldn't be that way. Really it should be the opposite of scary, it should be exciting!
Vulnerability is needed for growth yet incredibly difficult to do, especially in a professional working environment. But when people are vulnerable you build trust and trust leads to influence.
Think about your closest or most influential relationships, they all have had a shared sense of vulnerability.
Building a sense of community that embraces vulnerability would help people support each other in their advancement and surface opportunities for growth. But instead we keep our dreams, our tries and our failures to ourselves in order to be perceived as “perfect” or at least “enough”.
Fuck that.
Community-led learning is the only way businesses, teams and individuals will grow. You ever hear that quote
“Growth and comfort cannot coexist”.
It’s so true. Those who isolate and silo themselves into what’s comfortable are just putting horse blinders on. Limiting their world view, unaware of what could be possible which is only stunting their true potential.
Companies need to invest in building a sense of community around learning. You need an environment to grow personally and professionally, not just tools to track box checking.
Failure is an option, why don’t we talk about that?
More broadly, your brand is a relationship you have with each person who interacts with it, employees included. If they don’t feel like they can be vulnerable and be their true selves, are you really providing them an career growth opportunity or just a paycheck?
Another instance where businesses need vulnerability is in cross-team goal setting. The #1 question I get asked recently in regards to marketing is how to get leadership to buy-in to marketing and this is what I tell people.
Here’s how marketing teams get buy-in from leadership:
Make sure you’re speaking the same language
Combine the sales and marketing funnel so the entire team has shared language and understanding at what we are all trying to achieve. Without this each team is working in a silo running at separate goals, diluting their impact on the primary objective for the company. Shared language is 🔑
Attribute ROI however/wherever possible
Get creative, and be specific. There's no 1 magic product or way to do so. Jay Acunzo had a great quote on this "Is there a best practice, or just a best approach for you". I believe the latter but here are some examples:
Map brand marketing touchpoints like podcast listens, website visits, product triggers or content consumption to the prospect journey. Show that you understand where your marketing tools (content, website conversion, email marketing) are most impactful FOR THE USER. That’s right, this isn’t about what’s most convenient for you or what’s easiest to scale. Taking out even the right tool at the
wrong timecan cost you more customers than it acquires. Not to mention leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.If you’re not sure where to start, ask your engaged users how they found out about your brand. Try a pop up on your most viewed blog post or landing page.
Oh…my…HA!Sorry.
YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS🤣
This might be the largest can I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean, it’s larger than my hand. Maybe even my head?! I have to send you this pic.
Wow. How many jalapeños do you think are in that thing?! Impressive the amount of tacos that can could contribute to. What a hero 😂 Idk why very large or extremely small things bring me such joy. There’s something about unexpected delight that fills my cup like nothing else. Life needs more of those stupid silly moments. That reminds me! You still need to come on my podcast, Fill My Cup is just waiting for it’s next superstar guest. I know, I know, you said you’d think about it. Promise it would be fun though…anyways… oh yeah!
To get buy in from leadership:
Balance expectations with stakeholders and align on the long game vision continuously
Proving the ROI of brand is a long game but people’s expectations are short sighted. Be sure that you’re aligned on both the short term and long term goals.
Be vulnerable, patient and don’t get defensive
When we're vulnerable our intentions are clear which makes aligning perspectives more achievable.
A communication tactic my mentor and previous manager shared with me: When phased with a misunderstanding or feeling like you're climbing an uphill battle of communication… pause… take a breath and start the conversation over with the highest level of understanding you both share and work down from there. If you have to start with agreeing the sky and blue, then the grass and green and work down from there it's still working (hence being patient).
TL;DR: Companies that embrace vulnerability and provide value with clear intentions will achieve an authentic brand that not only resonates but will scale sustainably from the inside out
Word of mouth is the best way to grow any brand. Start with making sure your employees are champions.
Be intentional and curated with your offer, sustainability of a brand comes from clear value add.
Oo I should write a LinkedIn post about this. Something like:
“Brand Marketing - Vulnerability, Intent, Value.
Infinitely scalable strategy for B2B business growth”
Meh, who the fuck wants to read that.
Oop! Gotta go, getting in line at the checkout. Chat soon!
Networking with Cheeseballs | Sorry I Missed You (3)