Human matter

We have made marketing a commodity. We have made it about scale, repetition, numbers, algorithms. We have made it a matter of point-to-point measurement and one-way funnel.

And now we worry that a machine can take our job?

AI will replace you if you think that marketing is a “if this then that” statement, if you look at a blog post only in terms of keyword density, if you consider an ICP something to bend at your own need.

For all the others, we still very much need you.

It’s not the rise of the robots that frightens me.

It’s the rise of all those corporatists who have forgotten that humans matter.

George Tannenbaum, Rising. Falling. Choosing.

Sides

There are multiple angles to the same story. And there are no sides to take.

Life happens in the middle, that’s where you need to learn to navigate.

FOMO

I think there might be an opportunity there.

That’s a sentence that destroys focus, motivation, productivity. Because it is true, there probably is an opportunity here, there, and everywhere in between. And that’s not a good reason to pause and go pursue it.

Not fit for the role

Everyone who is about to get promoted to a higher role that requires them to manage people, should sit in a meeting and demonstrate that they can:

  • Shut up.
  • Facilitate the discussion.
  • Follow up to whatever gets decided.

If they talk too much, if they interrupt others, if they ignore the person who is silent, if they don’t ask open questions and listen, if they go back to the same topics every other meeting.

They are not fit for the role.

Defending boundaries

Others will always ask, demand even, that you change your mind, do something, behave in a given way. And of course, it is your responsibility to accept what you feel comfortable with and push back against what is not for you. What does not help your own goal. What does not stand for you own values. What takes you farther from your purpose.

You set the boundaries and you are the one defending them.