My Why?

Marketing is in my blood. I live, breathe, and eat marketing.

But it wasn’t always this way…

It ebbed and flowed, there were highs, there were lows.

On Monday, marketing was cool. The psychology of consumer behavior, strategic positioning, brand building, campaign execution… I thrived in the trenches making those decisions and building dope shit.

On Tuesday, marketing sucked. The infamous 4 P’s (where my marketing majors at?), theory over fact, judgment over data, corporate title over expertise.

This was how my week would go, every single week, for 7 years.

So what’s my why?…

Before I get into MY WHY, let me give you a little background on myself.

I grew up in an entrepreneurial house.

My dad was a small business owner, a business my grandpa started and my dad took over.

My mom was a college professor, ultra-passionate about helping underprivileged students with learning disabilities.

They’re my role models and I was destined to follow in their footsteps.

How would I get there?

By following the plan laid out by the great American institutional system (college, job, grad school, corporate ladder…)

But then, some challenges arose.

I went to college (Sko Buffs!), studied business, and got a corporate marketing job.

The pandemic hit and I got bored, so I decided, well, why not more institutional education? Yup, grad school. I went back to business school (go Cuse!)

From there, I bounced to a marketing role at a start-up.

But I don’t know, after all that school, those 7 years in corporate and start-up marketing roles, I still wasn’t fulfilled.

That’s because my insecurities became apparent to me.

As a marketer, I always felt my job wasn’t good enough. I looked down on marketers for some crazy reason. Meaning, I looked down on myself.

I wasn’t proud to tell people I was a marketer. When I did, I would tell people I worked in financial services or financial media (because I did, I’ve worked in the finance industry for 7 years, but within marketing organizations.)

“I’m better than a marketer,” I thought. “So I’ll lead with finance and people will think higher of me.” (What a lunatic, right?)

I didn’t think marketing was as cool as a finance job, a sales job, a tech job.

I felt there was a bad stereotype in corporate American culture that marketers make less money because their roles aren’t valuable.

At the start-up, that was exactly the case. Marketing wasn’t considered valuable. That’s it, end of discussion.

This point of view only enhanced my insecurities about being a marketer in the finance industry.

The lack of appreciation from executives, the lack of opportunity, and the lack of career growth have taken a toll on me.

I was stuck in marketing lah lah land and couldn’t get out. So what was I gonna do?

Here we go, it’s time for a major change.

Leverage your talent to take charge of your life!

This leads to my why…

My Why(s).

Number 1

I want to build the life of my dreams, on my terms, with the freedom to do whatever the hell I want.

I can no longer sit here and pretend that everything is okay.

I must do something about my situation.

And I must follow my talent because I’m confident in where it can lead me.

Number 2

I’m recently married (woohoo!) and my amazing wife and I have high aspirations for ourselves.

We want to have an impact so large on others (like you) we change the world for the better. And we want to build generational wealth to fund the life of our dreams.

Number 3

I want to have total control over my time, my schedule, and my decisions.

The world is becoming more and more fucked up and expensive, and the only way out I see is taking total control of your time, your money, and your life.

BTW…

Don’t stress if you’re feeling the same pains I described above. It’s (unfortunately) normal these days.

Luckily, all I want to do is serve you and help you make some major changes in your life, just like I did.

What to expect from The Mark From Marketing Letter.

You can expect to hear from me every Sunday.

I love marketing. I love entrepreneurship. And I’m confident that with the right knowledge, guidance, and mindset, YOU can leverage marketing skills to build the life of YOUR dreams.

I’ll share with you:

1. Lessons I’ve learned or am currently learning (I love to study the marketing and business masters that came before us)

2. Marketing and business skills to level up your knowledge, and guidance on how to implement it into your life

3. Some mindset jujitsu (Oh ya, did I mention I’m a sucker for mindset content? It helps me tremendously, and can do the same for you)

As always, I’d love to chat with you guys! Reply to this email or DM me on X (@markfrommktg).

Thanks for being here.

Talk soon,

Mark