The Yoga of Marketing: Part One
Posted by ablack on Oct. 27, 2015 / Subscribe 0
“I quit.” After nearly twenty years in the A/E/C industry as a professional marketer and business developer, these were the words I uttered to my boss just before my son, Daniel, was born in 2006. I was Fried…with a capital F. I walked away from two decades of industry relationships, professional success, a number of industry friends and a mountain of stress.
I pondered my next life chapter carefully. My plan was simple: I would trade-in my Type-A, overachieving, sales-minded, creative business life and become a nurturing stay-at-home mom. I would be the best mother in the world. I would be an attentive, present and loving caregiver…the type of mom who always puts her baby’s needs before her own. I would grow whole foods in an organic, edible garden in my suburban-yet-oasis-like backyard and puree fruits and vegetables for Daniel’s snacks. I would shuttle him to and from play dates in an eco-friendly Prius and love every moment. Better yet…we would walk. I would create soft, simple play clothes from organic cotton and hemp.
My goals seemed so true and good and right. They were wholesome, pure, idyllic…all the things that I always wanted for my family but could never find the time to work into my insane marketer’s schedule. And with work out of the way, I could finally get down to it. It was perfect…and my life would BE perfect! Of course, as anyone who knows me well will attest, pretty much everything on my list turned out to be completely and utterly unrealistic.
After six-months of sleepless nights, breast-feeding, chicken pox, projectile vomit and pureeing whole oat groats for my sweet baby boy, I did what any new “Marketing Mom” would do for balance; I made myself a huge margarita, hired a full-time nanny and started my own PR firm.
Within three months, I was burning the midnight oil…again. But not for my actual baby; this time, I was foregoing sleep for my “PR baby.” My PR-firm grew like wild fire and took on a mind of its own. Before I knew it, I had clients onOprah, in the New York Times and a variety of other prominent media outlets around the globe. It was fun, exciting, challenging, and I was loving every minute of it. The only problem was that I was having sleepless nights because of the wrong baby. I had shifted all of my time, attention and energy from Daniel to my PR project. And I knew that once again - like my 20-year run in the A/E/C industry - I had allowed myself to become completely focused on work…not that I had time to do anything about it…
Then in 2010, my mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and was sent home to die. As fate would have it, this was around the same time that I was media-coaching a high-profile client who had run for Congress (and lost) and who wanted advice on how to reinvigorate her national image. So in the last 48 hours of my Mom’s life, I spent my time sitting with her for a while to provide solace, then jumping on the phone for a “quick” client conference call and then running back as fast as I could to be by my mother’s side.
After the funeral, when I returned home to Arizona, I reflected on how I had “balanced” my priorities during this key moment in my life. Instead of being fully present with my Mom during her last precious hours on this earth, I had allowed myself to become distracted by work. That was my “a-ha” defining moment. That’s when I knew that I had to re-write my life script. No longer would I allow work to syphon my energy away from the good stuff in life: family, friends, relationships, presence, awareness, consciousness, mindful behavior…my version of God. I had to get my life and my priorities “in balance” once and for all. But how?
In Buddhism, this is what is referred to as “The Middle Path,” and I knew I needed some of that in my life. I just wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to achieve it…besides reading Eat, Pray, Love again. So after much contemplation, I signed up for a Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga teacher certification program at the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California. After 500-hours of chanting, downward-facing dogging and back bends (also known as Urdhva Dhanurasana in Sanskrit or Upward Bow/Wheel pose in yogi speak), I became a Certified Yoga Instructor. The experience transformed me. All of the stress that I had built up in my nervous system over the years – all the neglect to my body and my mind – had finally dissipated. And for the first time in a long time, I felt peaceful, calm andbalanced. That was five years ago.
That very same year, I decided to return to the A/E/C industry…but with a new perspective. I decided that I would find a way to remain peaceful in this deadline-driven, stress-filled, high pressure environment (the typical habitat for professionals in our industry). After five years of “balancing” yoga-ing, market-ing and parent-ing, life and work, work and life, and integrating the yum and yuck (or the yin and yang) of work, life, family and friends, I am finally on my way to sustained balance. I am calling my journey to personal peace The Yoga of Marketing.
SMPS Arizona has marketed this phenomenon as a revolution of sorts, but I think “re-invention” is a better descriptor. As our industry embarks on the chapters ahead, ask yourself how far you are willing to go to re-inventyourself. What distance are you prepared to travel to achieve transformation? In the words of poet Mary Oliver, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” I hope that together we can come up with some inspiring ideas and practical tools to help us all better manage work and life. Our ultimate goal? To cherish ourselves ashuman beings, not just “human doings.” To achieve “The Middle Path.”
With this in mind, I’ve included my all-time top three pieces of advice for all the high-strung, energetic, overachieving, think-we-can-do-it-all, insanely intense marketers…like myself.
- Be Present. When you are in a meeting, on a conference call, on a teleseminar, in a podcast or webinar, in a virtually-simulated environment, on an iPhone or iPad, iTouch or behind a pair of Google Glasses…show up! Be present and accounted for. In the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn, be fully present with whatever it is that you are doing. No texting while in the presence of a real, live human being. If you must intercept a call or text while in the presence of others, be courteous. Excuse yourself. Be respectful. Be mindful. If you’re behind the wheel, just drive! It’s really about creating boundaries for yourself and sticking with them. Do one thing at a time, and do it to the very best of your ability. Multi-tasking is NOT where it’s at. Being fully engaged in whatever you find yourself involved with is a far better choice.
- Get Real. Make nourishing choices for yourself. Saying “yes” to projects and proposals that are resounding “no’s” means that you’ll have to say “no” to your real priorities. If an interview presentation seems unrealistic, then speak up. If it’s humanly impossible to meet a Client’s timeline, then ask for help. Be truthful, authentic and real. Saying “yes” to an extra proposal, presentation or project when you really mean “no” is not healthy or helpful. Focus on what you know is the right thing to do for yourself and your company. “More, better, faster” may be the current way of the world, but as strategic thinkers and creative marketers, we must be the voice that says “Stop…this is crazy. Is there some other way we can exceed our goals without pushing our teams over the edge?”
- Own Your Truth. If you’re sick and exhausted, then leave the office. If you’re unable to meet a deadline, then ask for help. If you can’t juggle another project, then say so. And if you have to excuse yourself to go for a run (or go to yoga or Reiki or whatever) or make a quick trip down to Whole Foods for a double cold-pressed Green Goddess, then do that! Ask for forgiveness and not permission, especially when it comes to taking good care of yourself. Pushing through when you are depleted, over-worked and discouraged isn’t good for anyone; not for you, not for your boss, not even for the Client. At the end of the day, any respectable employer would rather have a happy, productive and inspired Marketer than a dead one. Hey, I realize that bottom line is the bottom line, but at what cost? Small acts of self-care go a long way in restoring chi and ultimately making for a better outcome all around.
So what about you? Do you have a few pearls of wisdom that you’d like to offer those of us that have too much to do and not enough time to do it all in? Or do it all well? Share your thoughts and share in the journey of personal transformation and re-invention and we collectively learn to balance and thrive in a modern world. OM and Namaste.
About the Blogger: An inspired marketing, business development and public relations consultant, Jeanna Zelin delves into the heart and soul of the marketer’s hero’s journey. As a 25-year veteran of the A/E/C industry, a mother and a wanna-be yogini, she explores topics of balance, well-being, inspiration and personal transformation.
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