The manifesto of a marketing nerd

I love …

Marketing – from my very first marketing class, I was hooked
Branding – because branding = marketing and only those that understand branding are capable of building truly amazing businesses
Communication – because life is all about connections – marketing too!
Creativity – because creativity means growth, fulfilment and joy – and fun
Fun – because life is better that way
Colors – because black and white just doesn’t cut it
Learning – because … hmmmm … seriously, if I need to explain that to you then you should not be reading this!
Finding creative solutions – because I can’t stand people that always just see the obstacles and only know how to say no
Challenges – because that’s how you grow, that’s how you learn, that’s where the fire burns
Organization, systems and processes – because when they are used right they help everything
Bravery – because that’s how you get more of whatever it is you want in life

I believe …

That you should have fun whenever you can – there are naturally things in life that aren’t fun, so whenever we can influence things, we should make them fun
Work should be fun whenever we can make it so – and that is more often than not
Life should be fun whenever we can make it so – and that is more often than not
If you stop learning, you die
If you stop wanting to be better, you die
In doing my best in everything I do
Done is better than perfect – good enough is really fff-ing good
That if you light one candle you can light them all – so don’t put out other people’s candle! Ever.
We should all be allowed to live up to our potential in life
That the strategies, tools and tactics of marketing should be used for good and not evil
In bravery
In being myself – because everyone else is taken (and, well, I’m pretty awesome, just like you!)

I am committed to…

Doing my best in everything I do
Having fun
Being creative
Keep learning until I’m 6 feet under
Seeking out and overcoming challenges – always!
Doing my best
Lighting other people’s candles
Living up to my potential
Using marketing for good
Being brave
Being myself
Updating and amending this manifesto as needed because just like life, it is work in progress. ;)

9 Ways to Be Selective with Your Time and Energy for Focus and Optimum Productivity

focus and optimum productivity

At one of my mastermind meetings, we had a really great discussion about being selective with our time and energy to be able to focus and get really really productive. Quite a few of us had been wanting to de-clutter our time, so to speak, and some of us had made some great progress in that area. All of us knew that we could improve even further.

We thought it would be useful to put our heads together with any tips and tricks that we had that could help others in the group in this department. Towards the end of the session we had quite a number of great suggestions and I figured these tips would be useful to so many others. It made sense to make a blog post out of it – so here it is, courtesy of Nick Haines, Monique Blokzyl, Liz Foster, and yours truly.

9 ways to be selective with your time and energy for focus and optimum productivity!

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Here’s My Blog Post for this Week

Show up and be there! #Notthere

Today I want to share something a little bit out of the ordinary for me. See, I just got back from beautiful Boston where I attended the most awesome conference ever, #Inbound15, hosted by HubSpot. It was in one word MINDBLOWING! It is a conference about inbound marketing (aka content marketing) and has a host of fabulous speakers on all kinds of things marketing related, as well as some inspiring and motivational keynotes. Anyway, I want to share something with you from Inbound:

So, marketing related blog posts are not out of the ordinary for me, but this one isn’t strictly speaking marketing related. However, it is important, not just for us as people, but for us as marketers and business people. At Inbound, one of the keynotes was given by someone I pretty much only remember as the daughter in the White House when I was younger. Not being in the US, I must admit I didn’t really know what an amazing and inspiring woman Chelse Clinton has grown up to be, and the fantastic work she is doing. In her keynote she drew attention to worldwide data on women’s rights and her work with women and children. As an Icelandic woman, I belong to a country at the forefront of gender equality today – and yet, we still have a long way to go. So does the US, the UK, mainland Europe and the rest of the world. We must do better. We must get there! #notthere

This is not just a question of women’s rights being human rights, as Hillary Clinton said in Bejing 20 years ago, this is also a question of economics. The fact is that a world with equal rights and women’s participation in all aspects of our world is also a better world economically and a better world for business – a better world all around.

I pulled out a few things from the talk and the interview afterwards into images that can be shared on social, and I hope you do. There is a lot more to be said, and I want to encourage you to visit noceilings.org for more about the state of affairs for women in the world and what we can do. The video of the whole keynote and interview can also be seen below. [Read more…]