My Philosophy
1
You have to
love the work
We as marketers are not here to reign-in ideas before a review. Know your presentation audience and be able to help shape and sell ideas and strategy - yes. Kill or neuter them for being too bold - no. Respect the craft. Love it and be a meaningful part of it. There are plenty of business-oriented jobs that don't require a love of creativity (many which pay quite a bit more). Brand marketing is not one of them. Truly love the work and immerse yourself in it so you can be motivational and additive to the process.
2
Never sell beyond the close
I heard this initially from my very first Chief Creative Officer and it's been burned into my brain ever since. When the person or team you're pitching to says yes, stop. More pitching brings more risk of unraveling the idea and making concessions. We often soften the idea even in the initial presentation through over-explanation. It's ok to sit in silence. It means people are thinking. Thinking is good.
3
Learn to thrive in ambiguity
We are here to figure it out when things aren't clear, which is often. This goes for everyone in an advertising agency and ideally everyone in brand marketing. The landscape is changing constantly and businesses sometimes don't know what they need and that's ok, sometimes even better. The days of a few tentpole marketing periods a year are over. Having a seat at the table and a more open brief to shape with a partner is always better than being purely executional and often leads to the best work.
4
Read the room
The room can be a literal meeting room, a marketing function, an entire business and a full industry. We as brand marketers uniquely have the most access to the full lifecycle of a project. We need to capitalize on that by truly understanding stakeholders' motivation. Intuition is so key. Understand what they want, what they don't know they need, what's blocking them and how to partner with them. Read into the dynamics, know when to jump in and when to be silent.
5
Always look around corners
The best marketing leaders are those who are constantly thinking about what's coming next and the effect what we do today will have down the road. Completing the task at hand is the simple part. See the forest for the trees. Consider how an idea will travel through an organization. Pre-sell. Recognize where your own team could be falling short, or what perceptions might be growing within a client organization. Be paranoid but in a good way and stay calm while your brain is churning.