Hi, and welcome to the Awfully Quiet Podcast. Thank you for tuning in today. I am really excited about this conversation. The fact that you're tuning in today already tells me that there's something that you want to do in your career that's different to what you have done before. You want to make a change, a pivot.

You want to do some things differently and you want to do it in an introvert friendly way. You know, career talk is my favorite kind of conversation and I love to have it with you. So, so glad you're tuning in.before we start, I want to give you a little bit of an idea of, what's happened this week.

I have literally just come back from Poland. I was on a work trip that extended into the weekend. It's a Sunday morning. I took the first flight. Back home today, had a really early start, but I could not be more energized. I had the best week. It's been so much fun and I want to talk about this a little bit because a lot about this episode comes back to what I'm doing today and how that makes me really happy.

So this week. As you know, I am a brand manager, I work for a CPG company and for one of the most, to me, one of the most iconic brands out there. And this week I got to attend a, an advertising shoot. In Poland, in Warsaw, and it's something that we don't, we don't tend to do, so often. it's about once a year and this was my second shoot that I got to attend in person.

And it was the biggest one for me to date. I, I'm not going to be, I'm not going to try to be cool. I was really excited. I was like a small kid. It was like a dream come true for me to be on what felt like a film set, to attend a shoot like that, as a client, to be working with Honestly, Worldstar agencies, killer directors, so many professional, really, really cool people.

It's, it's been an experience out of this world. So I feel so energized from this and I feel like I'm exactly at the right place at the right time. I've made it to a point in my career where I truly. enjoy what I do most of the time and where I get to do something so exciting as this. And so, yeah, I was out there and there was one moment that really stood out to me.

And I want to, I want to share this moment with you.you know, if you are, if you are a client for one of these shoots, you are on set, you obviously are part of the process. You're part of the creation beforehand and part of the approvals, et cetera, et cetera. And then on the day. You sort of get to sign off on what's being shot on, making sure everything is according to what you had envisioned, but you're removed from the actual set from where the actual shoot takes place.

You are somewhere in a room with the agency looking at a monitor. And just kind of seeing everything through a lens and through that monitor. And then you give feedback and then you can obviously weigh in with your opinion and you can ask for things to be done differently, et cetera, et cetera. But you're not actually on set.

And I always felt like this kind of little tickle of like, Oh, I'd really love to go there. I'd really love to be closer to, to where the magic happens. And there was this one point where there was a little more direction needed from our side. And I got to go up there and I got to be, on the actual set and kind of sit next to the director and look at the big, big monitor, see what's happening.

And just as. Envision this. It's like this whole hustle and bustle of a film set and you're shooting for something and there is this director that you're just in awe of because of the various different projects that they've shot before and the work they've done before and all of a sudden you sit there and they ask for your opinion on something and whether you like it the way it's currently being done and what they should potentially be doing differently and honestly in that moment I was The happiest kid on earth.

it just felt like, just kind of sink, sinks in now that it felt like, wow, this is what I always wanted. This feels like one of these moments in life that you can't really believe they're happening. You can't really grasp it. It might sound so random for somebody else, but to me, it's like a career dream come true.

And I really, really love the energy there. I love the professionalism with, with, with what everything was being done and just so in awe of how everything works together, and how well everyone does their job. I feel like personally, whenever I'm in an environment where I'm, where I truly respect, the great job that people do, and I feel like just being in the room makes you grow two inches because.

Yeah, it's just that, it's just that great energy and people want to really do a good job and you can learn so much, there's so much to pick up. So that was, it was a crucial moment for me and I really wanted to share it. It leads us into today's conversation and it's just kind of building a bridge into how I got here in my career because I did not always do marketing.

I did not always work in brand management and I certainly didn't always attend advertising shoots like that. So what I want to do today is I want to talk you through some of the story of how I pivoted from HR to sales. And then to marketing, and I'm going to share with you 10 learnings along the way that have really helped me enable this growth and enable this journey.

Some of the things you may have heard before, but what I really want to make sure is that you listen to it with. I almost want to say fresh eyes, but from like a fresh perspective of like, how can you apply some of this to your career? What's useful for you? What are some of the things that you know deep down, but haven't really actioned yet or haven't really done yet?

Because a lot of the things are all too obvious. And there's something that deep down we already know. So what I'm hoping to achieve with this episode is I'm going to pull on some of these triggers. I'm going to say some of the things that you already know, but I'm just hoping to say them in a way that it lands with you, triggers you, starts a little bit of a fire inside of you to take that first step and to start going in the right direction.

So where it all started, this is almost 10 years ago, if I'm being honest, a little less so, but, when I first started out in my career, I was all set on doing marketing. I studied marketing. I did a bachelor's in communication and then a master's in marketing and communication. And I was really, really set on doing some sort of trainee.

program with a big CPG FMCG company that would, sort of like build a first step in my, marketing career.I've done at that point in time, I had done internships in marketing and, yeah, I was, I was really sad and really keen to do this. But I was finishing up my master's degree and worked at a personnel agency on the side as sort of like a working student and had clients at the time that I supported from a recruitment point of view.

So, I would look for candidates, I would help them fill positions, et cetera, and one of the clients. Actually was a big CPG comp and I worked really well with them. I worked a lot with their HR department and at one point in time they asked me whether I would consider joining them as an HR business partner.

So as, , as somebody who works in hr, I didn. I didn't really know too much about it at the time. but my first reaction was no, not a chance. I'm not going to join a company in human resources when all I am geared to do is marketing. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to, you know, join a company and then sort of get that stamp of like, Oh, you're an HR person.

Then I'm never going to make it into marketing. I slept, no, right, right off the bat, but then luckily I stayed with that thought for a while and a few weeks go by and, just sort of like got a feeling for, well, maybe I should consider this after all. And maybe I should, get in touch with them to at least explore and to at least find out more about the position, about the opportunities internally and yeah, fast forward.

I got that position, I went into through an interview process. I had a couple of conversations and I learned that this company was actually quite open to move people around and to, you know, for for for associates to pivot.and so I understood that while I was joining in the human resources department.

There were going to be opportunities for me to move into marketing, at some point. So that's sort of like the first learning that I want to share with you is that embrace something that is not part of your initial plan. I had never set out to be an HR business partner. I never planned on doing this.

In hindsight, that position was one of the best ones I had to date. It was one that I was completely unprepared for, even though I had worked in recruitment. I've never been with an organization of that size. I was never responsible for so many things I had no idea of, honestly, like from day one, I had people, you know, reach out to me with questions.

I had, managers come up to me asking about, you know, recruitments, how to fill positions in their team, how to develop people in their team. There were lots and lots of questions that would come at me from day one because. Clearly, everybody assumes that if you work in HR, you somehow know, and honestly, I always did know.

I always did have an answer. I was never, I was never too puzzled. I was never too lost. And a lot of it was common sense. So it was something that I picked up really, really quickly and I thrived in that position. I really came to life and I learned that for me, it's really, really important to have that.

Stretch to have to, you know, to be thrown in cold water and to start to swim and to learn on the fly and as you go. And that was. A really cool environment. There were a lot of expectations, but as soon as I just kind of had the feeling that I met those expectations and then I got good feedback from my boss at the time who had taken quite a big leap of faith in me, in recruiting me for this position.

I was, yeah, I mean on paper I was not suited for it, but I had the potential and so yeah, she took me on. and you know, once that. The first couple of the first bits of good feedback come back, you start to become really, really confident. So I ended up enjoying that position so much and, been also able to grow in that position.

So learning number 2 for me is to share your ambition early. And seek the right mentorship. So what I did going into this role, into this human resources role, right off the bat, I told everyone who wanted, you know, who asked about my career ambition, what I wanted to do in the future. I told everyone that I was really keen on doing marketing in the future.

That was happy about, the opportunity I was given in human resources that I'm enjoying myself, but then trying. To move closer to a position in the demand side of the business that would then later enable a marketing position. And that was absolutely fine for me to say. And what that did was it managed expectations with my boss at the time it kind of, told people, you know, what I was set out to do and.

I did work a lot with the marketing and sales organization. I was responsible for them from, from a personnel, from an HR perspective. So I got to be in a lot of meetings. I got to be in a lot of rooms where marketing strategy was discussed, where sales was discussed. It was part of workshops and I actively sought out opportunities to learn and grow.

I remember a couple of times that I've asked. Sales representatives to come with them on a field trip and to go and store and just expand my horizon of like what the whole demand side is about and how sales works in the CPG company. So that broadened my horizon, gave me the right learnings.the rooms I was in the marketing and sales managers I worked with, all gave me little nuggets of.

Experience of insights that were really, really important. And then another thing I did is I just kind of looked at the capabilities that were going to be needed in a marketing or in a demand position and try to acquire them prior to even applying for a role. One of these was financial acumen, learning about how a P and L works.

Profit and loss, calculations, how, you know, what's the bottom line, how does all of this work? What are the different, KPIs and abbreviations within the company that you just got to be aware of that you just got to know in order to assess a brand, a product from a financial point of view. And so I did all that during my time in HR, and then when it came to a point where I was looking for.

A pivot into the demand side of the business, I really started to see that it wasn't all too easy. I had managed expectations. I had let people know, but then what I realized was it was going to be really hard for me to stay on the same job level and pivot into a role that would almost be equivalent to what I had done in human resources.

And what I realized was that the stakeholders. I worked with on a day to day basis at that moment in time, weren't the same stakeholders that were going to give me that marketing job. I was literally looking at a completely different part of the business and nobody knew me there. Nobody knew that I came on with very little experience and that I thrived a few weeks and months into the role.

And then I was already, that I had already proven that I have this capability of learning really, really fast. So that was something that they didn't know. So I had this whole new set of stakeholders that I had to convince and needed to prove myself. And it leads me to learning number three. And something that.

I did at the time in order to then make the step into the demand side of the business is be willing to take the step down to go up and make compromises. That's exactly what I did when I realized I would need to acquire some really basic and fundamental skills and capabilities in order to even be considered for a marketing role further down the line.

I made that decision. I said to myself, you know what, I'm going to do it. It's, it's marketing is something that I want to do. I want to go get into brand management. I wanted to acquire the skills that are needed. So I'm going to accept that fact. I'm going to take a little bit of a hit, not from a salary perspective, but from a job level perspective.

And that always hits the ego in a different way. it's, it's not the most comfortable thing in the world, honestly. But I never regretted it. In hindsight, I'm really glad I made that move because it allowed me to build skills and capabilities that I would really need later on. So, yeah, I accepted a lower job level.

I made all sorts of compromises if I'm honest. So, a lower job level, I moved across the country to a whole new place. away from my boyfriend and partner at the time, well, not at the time, still my, isn't my now fiance, so it worked out, but, it was like a long distance relationship for quite a while there, that I had to accept for, you know, in order to make this career move and in order to set myself up for success.

But that, enabled me to go into a position that was. It's sort of like at the intersection between sales, marketing, and category management. It was a digital commerce position at the time I worked with online customers. I worked on e content on how products show up, in e commerce shops. And I Yeah, how we can amplify the experience, the digital experience.

And so that was a really interesting job for me, a high learning curve right at the beginning, because as I said, I came from a completely different world. I obviously had marketing experience from, from my internships and from, from my studies. But I didn't have the hands on skills that you needed in order to succeed.

So, I'm talking about very simple stuff in terms of like, you know, the item codes for, for the product portfolio, working in Excel, doing a VLOOKUP, analyzing data.working with customers, all the way up to negotiating and the ways of working within an organization and outside of an organization, all this stuff.

So lots of things I learned from scratch. And like I said, I had a high learning curve to begin with, but then what I felt at some point is that the learning curve. Drops off and that once I had all the fundamentals down to a T and I felt like I was adding value and I was doing really well, I was almost looking for more and more and more.

I feel like what's really important for me in my career is always that I feel like I'm learning. I'm growing. I have challenging tasks that help me. So at one point I felt like that wasn't happening anymore. And I talked about this in one of the earlier episodes. This will be episode three, if you ever want to go back to that time, my career where I really struggled and I go deeper into how this made me feel and what I did at the time to work through this.

So if you haven't listened to episode three yet. Please go back. I feel like this is one of my most vulnerable career stories, but one that is worth listening to if you are ever in a similar position. Now, what I did at the time, what I started to become really, really aware of. Was this element of who I am surrounded by and how does that make me feel?

So I said the learning curve was dropping off was one element. The other element was I just sort of felt like I wasn't in the kind of environment that sparked, inspiration that sparked growth for me. So learning number four is surround yourself with people that inspire you.

And this is not always easy in a. Work context in a workplace environment, because you have very little control over who you work and interact with on any given day. You obviously have a team that you're very close to. You have your kind of key projects and stakeholders and very little control over. no hiring decisions, obviously.

So, that's something that I realized at the time was something that, that drained my energy a lot. I felt like I was not really around people who had, who were in the same space and mindset of like, wanting to grow their careers. And that's all okay. they're, you know, obviously we, we can't all be super high achievers and we're not all at the same place in our career where we really want to make things happen, learn, grow, almost climb the ladder.

but that's just how it is. And so this is something that I took away and this is when I realized, oh, for, for my next move or the next move I want to make, I really need to make sure that it's going to put me in a space of people that I really want to be around day in and day out, that I want to spend a lot of time with, that I'm going to be inspired by and that, I can look up to, I can, you know, I respect and I can learn from and, Yeah.

Almost be in that energy to me. It's, it's really, really important to be in that good energy of like, like minded people wanting to get things done, working on something together and trying to make a difference. So yeah, that's the learning. number 4, and I can reference another episode. Episode 9 is actually when I talked about how you can surround yourself with people that inspire you when you can't change your current situation right away.

So, how can you surround yourself with, the right type of energy. in the short term, so episode nine, if you haven't listened to that one, another thing I want to say is when you ever feel stuck in a situation like I did at the time, when times get tough, look for the learning you have yet to make. I was desperate to move into a different role at the time.

I was desperate to get out of that situation. I wanted to, yeah, I wanted to just get on with it. I felt like I wasn't growing anymore. On to the next thing. But clearly, there was a learning I had yet to make. I wasn't done there yet. I felt like leaving would be quitting without the, you know, the job being done, not the job in terms of what I was actually doing, but of like the inner growth and this kind of sentiment of growing your career and improving and learning and developing.

It's not always just about climbing that next step on the ladder, that next rank on the ladder. It's about the inner growth too. It's about the learnings that you draw from an experience. And so I was clearly not done yet. What I did at the time is I reflected back to learnings number one and two.

So first. Embrace something that is not part of your plan and second, share your ambition and seek mentorship. And that's exactly what I did at the time. I tried to embrace the situation as much as I could. I tried to look into what are the learnings that I can still make? What am I enjoying right now?

What can I get out of this?and then at the same time, how can I. surround myself with the right people, how can I seek mentorship, who can I reach out to could potentially help me move into the right direction and have career conversations with people that are really, really liked and people that inspired me that were role models for me in the business.

And that meant a lot of conversations with people in marketing, people in positions that I aspire to. And eventually that helped me unlock my next role and eventually helped me pivot into marketing and into where I really, really wanted to be. Now, that is learning number five is go for the challenge.

Something that scares you and stretches you now, at the time, marketing was always the thing that I really, really wanted. And if I'm honest, I wasn't all too scared of it because it just felt like I was, I was meant for it. I had done the work. I have laid the foundations throughout my studies, the internships, and then the on the job experience.

Through that, role in DECOM. And so it felt like I was well set up to go into a marketing role, but then the role I really wanted to go into was, was not an entry level marketing position either, it was part of the regional team. So it was not just in the market, but it was with regional experience over Europe.

It was a role in innovation management, and it was something that I had never done before. Literally, it was almost like that HR experience of stepping into something that. Was, you know, I, I would start from zero and again, I had to prove myself in front of people who had no idea whether I was any good at all and what really helped me was positive word of mouth.

Was my manager at the time really advocating for me and really, putting his word on the line and saying, I have worked with this lady for the last one, two years, and I can vouch for her doing really, really well and learning really, really fast, picking things up quickly. And so that ultimately helped me make that move into marketing.

But what I will say here is that. It's also about the kind of mindset of wanting to learn and grow. And that's exactly the kind of vice that I put out there and every conversation I had with the hiring manager and, any stakeholder in that environment and the position that they had. On offer at the time was one where they said, it's quite challenging.

It needs a lot of resilience. There are a lot of projects, that nobody had really cracked before that were really, really hard apparently. And yeah, they were looking for someone who, you know, really was ready to roll out their sleeves and get in there. And that's exactly what I did. And that's the learning I.

I want to leave you with is to be really open and willing to accept the challenge. And to do something that scares you a little and to do something that others may have failed to do. It doesn't mean that you can't do them. And I feel like it's always a great opportunity to prove yourself. When a position is like that, you are likely going to prove yourself within the first couple of weeks and then you're there and then you're building that confidence step by step, day by day.

And. Yeah, for me personally, that has worked out really, really well now onto learning number six, because we're still not in the position that I would really consider my dream position. So learning number six is to stay connected and keep voicing your ambition. So when I was in innovation management, that was a position that really helped me broaden my marketing skills.

And that obviously helped me acquire Crucial Knowledge. I mean, in a CPG company, you can imagine that product development is the heart of the business. And an innovation manager really looks at product development from A to Z. You're in all the processes and the projects from the very start of where you have, you know, you ideate a product, you look at trends, you get what consumers potentially want.

All the way through feasibility with R& D, with packaging, with how can this product be made? What does it cost? What's the financial structure? All the way to launching that product. So lots of stakeholders to deal with internally and a lot to learn when it comes to marketing and how products are being made, how product management works.

So that sort of set the really, really strong foundation for me. What I had always wanted to do though, was to be a brand manager and to deal with media and comms to do advertisement and to, to build a brand, to build that brand equity. And to do all of the stuff that I had obviously learned at university, you know, what makes a brand, what are the four P's, what's the brand's identity, the compass, and how do you use all that to build the right strategies, the right goals, the right set, the right KPIs, and then.

Build great marketing plans from there. So it felt like brand management was really where I was finally going to be able to do that. And in an organization such as the one I am in, you know, there are always brands that feel Like, they're going to give you the broadest, the best, the most exquisite experience when it comes to marketing, because they are the big global brands that everybody wants to work on.

that's where the big budgets are. And that's where you get to do a lot of things from a marketing perspective. I'm just going to say it how it is. I feel like why, why be subtle about it? Right?so again, going back to the learning that I had just shared in terms of going for something that is challenging for something that is bold and for something that does scare you a little bit.

I really wanted to be a brand manager on one of the brands where things were happening. So what I did was I reached out to the People who were in those teams to the kind of people who already have these positions right now and to the managers of those positions to stakeholders of those positions touch just to kind of gauge the, you know, they are kind of perspective on whether I'm suited for that, what else I would need to work on.

What are the skills and the development opportunities that I should still build before applying? So all of this happens before there's even a position on the table. just kind of put it out there to stay connected and to keep voicing that ambition. One of the people at the time I had reached out to was a, an awesome lady in the business who I already had a conversation with.

Before I joined the innovation role, she had been working in innovation at the time she was recommended to me. She was part of the global structure. I had never heard about her, but regardless, I reached out, asked for a Coffee Connect and I had a really good conversation with her. She gave me great career, advice and I ended up going into innovation.

So it all lined up really, really well and because she had given me such good advice. I just kind of thought, you know what, I'm just going to reach out to her again. It was two years later and I was just going to follow up and say, look, I am doing the innovation role right now. I'm doing really, really well.

Now I really want to go into brand management. Do you have any tips for me? And again, I had a lovely conversation with this person and she gave me lots of good advice and it was just kind of like a really, really good. Connect. And I felt like that's exactly the type of energy I love to be around now.that's what I mean by saying, stay connected.

Keep voicing your ambition. Tell people what you want to do. Like make it obvious. I made it really obvious at the time, I want to be a brand manager. I want to move into one of these roles. These are my preferred brands that I want to work on. Now, that leads me straight into learning number seven. Do not be discouraged when people tell you it's not possible.

And control your self talk. Now, the way you talk to yourself. And what you believe is possible and not possible is really, really important. Now, I'm going to tell you something that happened to me in this regard, is that one of the brands I really wanted to work on, I reached out to the manager at the time, and I just kind of pitched the idea.

And I said, if anything ever comes up, I would love to have the, I would love to be considered for this role. I would love to apply. And that manager told me that she didn't think I was ready for that. Oh, yeah. She thought that it was, they were, you know, if the role ever opened up, they would rather be looking for somebody.

For who it's like the second brand manager role. It's not like an entry level brand manager role. It's like somebody ideally would have already done a, brand manager role on a smaller brand and then stepping into this one because it is a really, really big global brand. So she literally told me. Don't even bother.

Yeah, look for a smaller brand. This is the brand that I work on today and I love telling this story because I did go for this position just about a half year later and I got it and What is even more exciting, and I hope inspiring for you, is that the manager who then hired for this position was the lady I had reached out to and had coffee with twice, and who I had the lovely, lovely career conversations with.

She became the manager of that brand. role. She became that brand director about a couple months later. I didn't know. I couldn't know. so I never had this intention when I reached out to her for the Coffee Connects, but she became that manager. And then a few months later, that role became vacant. And I applied for the position and I got the role and I'm so, so excited because, it's just something that I want you to take away is that there will be people will tell you, you know, it's too early or you're not ready yet, or you don't have the right experience.

Don't be discouraged by that. Sometimes, you know, there is good reason for doing another round and, you know, accepting a little bit of a step down in order to grow and, taking the learning, making the experience before you do apply for a role. But most of the time, I want you to stay the course. If you feel ready for something.

Believe yourself, do not start talking to yourself in a way that discourages you. If somebody else tells you it's not possible, you tell yourself, watch me. I'm going to make this possible. Now, when I applied for this role, it wasn't because I didn't get the job because I had coffee with the hiring manager twice.

It was a very competitive, interview process. Internally, as you can imagine, and as I told you before, this is a really desirable brand. Everybody wants to work on this brand. So when the brand manager role becomes vacant, there's lots of applications. And so I was one of them again. I wasn't going to get discouraged.

I was going to go for it. So I applied. I had, I did hesitate, but I applied and then somebody told me, oh, there's 150 people who apply to this internally and externally. There's so many applicants and then. You're just kind of leading up to the interview. You hear other people talk about who else applied internally and then people saying, Oh, yeah, the person is really good.

I know they applied that other person. Oh, yeah. I really don't know. It's really, really competitive. And yeah, and that's difficult. And the learning really is don't be discouraged. Do not be discouraged. If somebody tells you it's too early, do not be discouraged. If You know, the, the A plus candidate or the, the Uber talent in the organization applies for the same role.

You stay the course, you go for it. And it's not over until it's over. And from today's perspective, I can say this with confidence because I did end up getting that job. But I also had experiences where I didn't get the job and. It's never about getting the job. It's never about the result. It's always about the journey there.

And it's always about the ability to keep up the constructive and, and positive self talk is the way you talk to yourself, the way you feel, the way you think it does a lot. It influences a lot of the outcome of an interview process. Learning number 8 is trust your gut, learn to spot the right feeling is, you know, if you, if you ever think about, you know, is this the right opportunity for me, am I going to go for this or not really learn to trust your gut because that's what I did.

That's what I did whenever I was in a situation where. I felt unsure of my next move or I felt unsure of whether or not I should be leaning into something or not. I feel like throughout your career and throughout your life, you learn to, you learn to read the clues and to learn, and you learn to kind of spot the right feeling.

And to me, it's always at that intersection of feeling slightly terrified. and excited at the same time. Whenever I have that kind of feeling of something that makes me just a little bit scared, but deep down I know it's the right thing to do, I have to go for it. And I gotta tell you, I'm At this, I have this very feeling right now with something else in my life that's potentially going to mean a big change.

I'm terrified. I'm also excited and I feel deep down. It's probably something that I should consider, but yeah, more about that in the, in the upcoming month, potentially. Now, going into learning number nine, and this kind of brings me back to this, this journey that I just outlined for you, this pivot from HR to sales to marketing learning.

Number nine is your CV doesn't have to be a straight line. Now, I was always worried. About how this is going to look like on my CV, you know, I'm not somebody with a marketing track record. I'm not somebody who started in marketing and has been in marketing for the last 10 years. I've been in HR, then I've been in sales, and now this is only my second position in marketing.

And I often get jealous when some of my other colleagues introduce themselves and they say, Oh, I've been in marketing for the last 10 years. But I really started to appreciate that my journey is different. And the reason why is because I have a different experience to my colleagues. I have a whole different skill set in terms of that HR capability of how things work.

I am so, so. Appreciative of this time in human resources, because now I know all these things about recruitment processes and career development and talent management within an organization that allows me to help others grow. And, yeah, be that, almost like that mentor of advice to others and, help people develop and grow and talk about this on Instagram.

So that opened that whole, opportunity for me. And then pivoting into various different parts of the organization has obviously extended my network. And it has also shown time and time again, that I am able to learn on the fly, that I'm able to adapt, that I am resilient and that I have proven myself over and over again.

And at the end of the day, what I'm doing today in as a marketer. Is entirely different to what a marketer will have done five years ago. We there obviously, and as my university professor always says, the fundamentals don't change, like the brand identity, the strategies, the KPIs, the, you know, the attention on the consumer.

That all stays the same, but the tactics and the way we do that, the how behind changes massively. And so I feel like same as my colleagues who have a track record in marketing. I am learning at the same time. They are not light years ahead of me when it comes to these things. And that's when I started to appreciate my CV is not a straight line.

It's, it's unique. And it gives me, a very differentiated perspective and being different is always good. It helps you stand out. So I want you to appreciate that. Don't worry about the gaps, the detours, or even the choices you regret. And then learning number 10. This is one that I almost put there to remind myself.

And I needed it this morning because I had a thought on the flight and all the last couple of days that just kind of stuck with me. And so the learning is. Dare to let your imagination run wild and stay with it. Now something happened to me this week. When I was at that shoot and when I was the brand marketer, I always envisioned when I was in that position and I kind of came to life.

I so much enjoyed this. And I really, really loved it. And honestly, that was my wildest imagination a couple of years ago. That was what I really dreamed of and I probably thought it was possible, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure I was ever going to get there. So this feels wild to me. And it just kind of reminds myself that daring to dream big.

And daring to imagine these things happen is so, so important. I had this moment this week where I was on set and right next to the director and I felt this whole energy of, of the situation and the vibe that came across and the, and the people doing their jobs and I'm like, so in awe of what they did and I was like, oh my gosh, I love this.

Could I be a film director and obviously it hits you and it's like, obviously not, you can't, there's so much that you need to know and, it's a whole different industry and you have to learn all these things and there's so much that you don't know and you have no idea what they're doing and it's just kind of what you, you know, what your, what your mind instantly does when you have an idea like that, when you're like, Oh my God, This is great.

I feel like I could do this and that, right? At the same time, obviously you can't do this, but what I want you to know, and what I want myself to remember. Is that sometimes when you have an idea like that, and when you feel like this is great, just stay with it, just entertain the thought, just envision yourself a couple of years from now, because at the end of the day, every fucking thing is possible and the difference between making it there and achieving the thing or not is whether you believe it is possible or not.

The self talk, the mindset is everything. It's what sets the entire course for what the next couple of weeks, months and years look like. So don't shake that crazy thought off because you feel like it's unachievable. Let's have some crazy thoughts, crazy imaginations, and have them fuel our thinking and where we end up heading into in our careers.

All right. Those were the 10 learnings. Let me recap them really, really quickly for you. Learning number one, embrace something that's not part of your plan. Learning number two, share your ambition and seek mentorship, saying what you want to achieve. Saying it out loud, saying it to the right people, let them know what it is that you want.

Learning number three, be willing to take a step down to go up and make compromises. It's not the end of the world and sometimes it's really necessary to grow. Learning number four. Surround yourself with people that inspire you. If you want to learn more, go to episode 9. We go a lot deeper into this in this episode.

Learning number 5. Go for the challenge and something that scares you and stretches you. Always seek something that is slightly terrifying.learning number six, stay connected and keep voicing your ambition. Have the coffee connects. I know they can sometimes feel awkward at first, but they'll always end up, you know, being really, really good conversations, really, really good opportunities.

and yeah, something that you should absolutely do more of in your career. Learning number seven, don't be discouraged and control your self talk. Don't let them tell you what you can and can't do. You know this. yourself and so much better. Learning number eight, trust your gut, spot the right feeling.

Learning number nine is your CV doesn't have to be a straight line. Embrace the detours and the gaps. And then learning number 10, dare to let your imagination run wild. Stay with the thought that feels unachievable and. Slightly scares you. All right, well, yeah, I feel really good about this because it's almost like, like I said, a reminder for myself and This week, it's just kind of been like this full circle moment, and I'm not stressing that here to brag or to make anyone feel bad.

I'm really hoping this inspires you and this triggers the right thinking and If you take one thing away from any of these learnings that inspires growth for you, that leads you to do something slightly differently to what you would have normally done and take a step into the right direction when it comes to the pivot you want to make, the job you want to go for.

Or that wild career dream that you have that you didn't quite dare to think of yet. If you just take that one step, do that one thing differently, I will consider my job done. And yeah, we're all in this together and we're all ever evolving. And yeah, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Like I said, it's my favorite kind of career talk and I'll be back next week.

I look forward to seeing you then. Bye bye.