5 Lessons I Wish Someone Told Me About Startup Life As a Marketer🤯

Welcome to The Growth Spurt, a fortnightly newsletter with curated insights that will challenge your thinking as an aspiring creator, marketer or tech-enthusiast.

Read time: 6-7 mins

Today at a Glance:

• Last Wednesday, I sat across the table - absolutely jaded. The world seemed like a crazy place... I saw talented folks I love - get laid off multiple times. I witnessed great businesses collapse and close down. It gave an opportunity to look on the lessons I have learnt this year.

• 5 painful lessons I learnt the last 10 months: (1) You are either growing or dyin’. (2) To be anti-fragile, collect skills like Pokémon cards (3) Diversify your happiness like finances. (4) Don’t let the whispers of imposter syndrome drown you. (5) Double down into the way you are wired.

Time to confess: What was the turning point in your life?

Was it a painful breakup?

Or was it the time when you lost the job- that formed a core part of your identity?

Well, we all have lessons to learn- so let us dig into the good, bad and ugly.

5 Lessons I Wish Someone Told Me About Start-up Life As a Marketer🤯 

Last Wednesday, I sat across the table - absolutely jaded.

I saw talented folks I love - get laid off multiple times. I witnessed great businesses collapse and close down in a week.

Personally faced a couple of ‘professional earthquakes’ that really shook me.

Since I had many of you reach out to me about my experience in working in fast-paced scale-ups- I decided to weave this TOP 5 reflections post.

1. You are either growing or dyin’ 🌱

We are all surviving in a rapidly changing world. And the rate of exponential change is only going to go up. and up

5 years ago, talking to your boss in the comforts of your pjs didn’t exist.

5 years ago, people didn’t give a f*ck about ChatGPT.

5 years ago, people thought climate-tech and sustainability is a fringe movement.

Do you seek validation or the truth?

As an early graduate, you look into the the real world and immediately feel that your textbook knowledge is way outdated

In my previous life, I was a student Optometrist at UNSW Optometry Clinic, taking eye prescriptions.

One day, I had this feeling that this job is not going to be around for the next 50 years.

I felt my growth was capped at the ceiling.

Hence gathering my skillset in health experience, content marketing experience, tutoring experience - I participated in 3 accelerator programmes before scoring my first role in a Series D ed-tech scaleup [Crimson Education]

Evolving from a drop kick optometrist to a start-up girl 💪 

I started working in start-ups and I realised how rigid my mindset was- to new things!

Founders and operators around me were so ‘nimble’ and resourceful. No mistakes phased them.

They were not seeking to validate their skills. They were simply seeking the truth. 

Even now, I struggle with the level of nimbleness which I am trying to grow, as a skillset.

Ok cool, I think you have a point. What should I do then? 👀

Invest in experiential learning.

Don't fall into the trapping of falsely structured environments like corporates and large entities that make us believe that our skills will always be in-demand, when the evidence is quite contrary.

Want to be a future founder?

Work in a fast paced start-up rather an old government body and understand what it takes to build real-time skills.

Want to understand what it feels like to work as a growth marketer or a product manager? 

Talk to 10 marketers/PMs and live through their experiences and go to hackathons, rather than reading articles and courses on this.

2. To be anti-fragile, collect skills like pokemon cards 💪

As a generalist in start-ups- who was trying to find my way to fit into the machine - one day I decided, I didn’t want to fit into the machine.

I wanted to be dangerously good at everything- by knowing everything as little and enough as possible.

So I started collecting skills- operations, app-marketing, email marketing, SEO, CRM management, data analytics, clinical health experience, copywriting- across diverse industries like fintech, health-tech and ed-tech.

Some of the skills I loved exploring. Others- not so much.

Btu this subset of skills helped me SURVIVE the bad tech layoff times. 

Question: What are your Pokémon Skill cards? 🃏

3.Diversify your happiness, like finances ❤️

I fell into this trap so badly- it was a double edged sword.

As someone who loved my career- my career is a HUGE part of my fulfilment.

However, when things were not going well at work - I was unhappy.

I realised - while I am a good friend and daughter who is also a matcha oat drinking wannabe-hippie, my main source of fulfilment is career.

That is a dangerous place to be in.

It made me FRAGILE.

If I ask you to put your entire net worth into crypto, would you?

So why just put your whole life- energy into career?

Diversify your sources of fulfilment.

Never rely on a job or a person for your happiness- you never know when it is going to slip from you.

4.Don’t let the whispers of imposter syndrome drown you 💦

When you try hard things that challenge you - it is inevitable that mistakes happen. I can’t tell you how many embarrassing mistakes I have made in my previous work roles.

But people don’t care or remember. They have their own imposter syndromes to deal with. Also Spotlight effect is an actual phenomenon.

 👏REPEAT AFTER ME👏

5.Double down into the way you are wired 🧠

Remember lesson 2- where I ask you to collect skills like Pokémon Cards. Look at your skill cards and see what OBSESSES you?

For me, I am OBSESSED with consumer psychology.

Understanding what makes someone tick, what makes them engage and retain in a specific product fascinate me.

Hence I doubled down on my niche accordingly: Consumer Psychology x D2C Marketing x Start-up

I know life as an early career professional can be overwhelming at such a turbulent time - but remember it is a marathon and not a sprint :)

TLDR: TOP 5 learnings for early professionals🔥

1. You are either growing or dyin’.

2. To be anti-fragile, collect skills like Pokémon cards

3. Diversify your happiness, like finances.

4. Don’t let the whispers of imposter syndrome drown you.

5. Double down into the way you are wired.

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