This post originally appeared on BrandMentalist.com
Some of us wake up everyday to do something that we love -- something that we feel like we were born to do.
It feels like the elements required at work come to us naturally -- from the way we think to the way we communicate and interact with others. We enjoy it deliberately and crave the challenge because it means that we get to push ourselves forward and become better and better. Learning has never been more fun and stimulating. We just can't live it any other way.
And if you're a marketer like me, I'm sure you have recognised some of these signs in yourself from when you were little up until now.
1. You're always curious about people.
You have the natural curiosity to try to understand people's thoughts and behaviours -- why they are the way they are, why they do what they do, and what the motivations are behind their actions.
You enjoy people watching and reading about their thoughts and the psychology behind things -- life stories, success stories, life-changing moments -- anything that is about attitudes and motivation intrigues you.
You like to find out what makes people tick and how you can influence them.
As a result of this, you understand people -- or at least you're trying to. You are open-minded and believe that everyone is different and is driven by different things.
2. You have a good eye for design.
You know how important design is to the success of a brand. You can't stand ugly-looking websites and flyers, nor can you ever purchase a brand with a bad sense of style. Your eyes light up when you see beautiful typography. Ever since your childhood, you've always loved going to a cool stationery store. Your work desk is probably full of different colour pens, markers, and post-it notes.
Sometimes you feel like you waste your money on things that you don't really need in your life as you simply buy them because they look good! But then again, possessing bad-looking products or products with bad design is an insult to who you are. You believe that what you wear and hold represents you -- it doesn't need to be expensive or luxurious -- it just needs to be unique and look good -- at least to your eyes.
3. You love business. But mostly how you can sell in a strategic & artful way.
You love business. It's no doubt you enjoy reading about other entrepreneurs and businessmen/women. The first section you go to when browsing a business website is the 'Marketing' section.
You think about people -- potential customers or the target market -- before anything else -- not just how you can squeeze the most dollars out of them but how you can make them fall in love with your brand and evangelise it, and how your brand can become a part of their lifestyle.
Unlike most people, you watch advertisements on Youtube and find them entertaining as you analyse them -- how the copies touch hearts, move people, and influence actions. You search for the award-winning ads and you pass them on to friends and family - posting them on your Facebook wall as if other people are going to enjoy watching them too.
When you think about your competitor, instead of worrying about how they maximize their operational efficiency, you're stressed about their marketing strategy and how you can be in front of their customers' eyes and steal customers from them.
You don't simply just try to sell. You do your research first (a lot of research ) into the customers' mind, attitudes, behaviours, lifestyles, desires, fears, needs and wants.
You think about what you have that your competitors don't have -- what differentiates you, what is it that you offer that is uniquely valuable to your customers that your competitors don't -- and communicate that in a creative and persuasive way.
4. You can spot trends before everyone else.
As a kid, you were always the one who had the coolest toy before everybody else. You unintentionally set the trend for the people around you. But that's because what you liked always turned out to be a market hit months later.
You have an innate ability to detect what product is going to become a market hit before it reaches the masses. And when you see a product you love in its very early stage, you think about how the product can be marketed better. You even consider marketing it and becoming a distributor in your country (but nah, that's too much work. You'd better stick to what you do best which is 'marketing'!). When you buy an album, you can predict what songs are going to be the second and third popular on the charts.
When you see a new technology -- whether it be new software, a new app, a new website, or a new media -- you can instantly see how the new technology is going to affect people's lives -- how people's behaviours and attitudes are going to change, what the new consumer trends are going to be, and how the path to purchase and the consumer journey are going to change.
5. You are a natural influencer.
You enjoy being the connector and the influencer and you probably don't even realise the affect you have on your friends. Your friends rely on you for information and advice on where to go and what to do. The clothes you wore two weeks ago seem to have caught the eyes of a few who are now wearing something similar if not the same.
It is mostly unintentional but it seems that you have an influence on the people around you. Maybe it is because you have a good eye for design and you can spot the trend. Maybe you just know how to pull it off and make anything you have look fun and cool. Or maybe... you are just very passionate about what you love, what you have, and what you do that people around you become intrigued when you pass on the reviews or tell them stories with such excitement-- whether it be the new cafe you've discovered, the bar you went to over the weekend, the new album you just bought, or the book you read and how it has moved you.
You might never realise this because setting the trend is second nature to you -- you don't even realise you're doing it!
6. You have the ability to connect the dots between different things.
You are a holistic thinker with an analytical mind. You can't look at things in a linear way, but rather, in an interconnected way.
As a kid, you liked games that promoted holistic and strategic thinking (even though you didn't realise what that was at the time). You probably loved Monolopy and Lego to bits. You're also good with numbers. In fact, Math was one of your favourite subjects besides art, social studies, and psychology.
Bringing this innate ability into your career, it's no doubt you are able to see that an effective marketing communication strategy needs to be integrated across different channels that support one another with a single-minded proposition or a cohesive message at the core.
Work fills a large part of your life. I believe that the only way to be happy is to do work that aligns with your innate abilities and personality traits. When you are able to turn your passion into a career and turn your life's purpose into your mission statement, you will always find joy and fulfilment in what you do.
If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. A couple of months ago I wrote an article on How To Find Your Purpose in Life which hopefully can help guide you through the steps to discovering your life's work.
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Mo is the owner of the famous inspirational blog - BrandMentalist.com. She also runs an online store selling inspirational quote posters on BrandMentalistCollection.com
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