The ONLY? REALLY? No. Not Really.

I am a marketer, through and through.  Been in marketing for over two decades, and it has always felt right for me... Even though I've explored other career paths, I always came back to marketing in some way, shape or form, because it just fits who I am.  Or, I end up mentoring small biz owners in my "free" time... or I end up volunteering to "just help set up a website"... or I end up being the marketer in my non-marketing related role, because, core values anyone?

It took me a long time to understand that though.  Because messaging is really important to me.  And marketing, advertising, and sales have a BAD RAP.  But here's the crux: it's got to be AUTHENTIC messaging.  None of this corporate hype BS.  But real, true, HUMANS, connecting with other humans, on common ground, with aligned values.  Understanding that we don't sell just simply to sell, but to solve a genuine need, a real problem... and dammit, if we don't make lives better by doing it, then what the hell is the point???

Bit out there for a statement on a tech company blog, yeah?  Stay with me here.

I'm a marketing team of one in a small tech company that has some really massive clients, and even bigger partners.  Fantastic clients that do great things, and great partners that are literally changing the ways the world connects.  We are a tech company with a solid, welcoming, authentic culture, that, BEFORE ANYONE ELSE IN OUR NICHE in Australia, saw the importance of embracing the act of including change management as part of our tech deployment projects. I mean, we had already been doing Forever Training for our Managed Services clients for YEARS, so helping to change manage the tech adoption process JUST. MAKES. SENSE.  SO MUCH SO, that we were willing to white label that change management process for our industry, because we believe in it that much. (Spoiler: that hasn't happened, because we're too damn busy with our own clients, natch.)

And then earlier this week, one of our awesome engineers showed me a page on one of our competitors' sites.  I read through it, it was a solid page... BUT... There was a statement on that page that was a LIE.  They stated they were the only integrator that was equipped for end to end deployment of the Surface Hub 2, including AV and change management and training.

An outright lie.  Because they're not.  They NEVER were.  We were the FIRST.  And those bigger partners?  They are with us, a small company, because we INNOVATE.  We saw a NEED, and we are striving to fill that need, and now others are doing what we do.

Why do marketers do this?  I am so angered that a fellow marketer in my niche would be that blatant and say something that, IF THEY WERE DOING THEIR JOB RIGHT, they would know is a lie.  (Because to do their job right, they need to have their finger on the pulse of what others in our niche are doing.... so they would know, really KNOW, that that statement was wrong.)

Then, not knowing that I discovered this lie on this website, one of our sales team posted a joke video about marketers doing strategy sessions and singing kumbaya and debating about different shades of white for branding.... and I laughed.... but then.... some punk LIED on their website, and we wonder why the world distrusts marketing, and advertising, and sales????

I know I'm ranting, because I can't make other marketers operate with a conscience.  I can't make them be genuine, and real, and actually care about the solution they're providing, and the lives they should be making better, the connections they should be striving to make.

But I can damn well use my voice to tell the world that not all marketers are liars.

/end rant.