Redefining Marketing: And 5 minute snacks

I haven’t always been good at marketing myself. In fact, I’ve been downright horrible.

The whole idea of marketing felt gross. In my mind, it was an effort to create flashy ads to manipulate people out of their money. But the people I worked with weren’t manipulative, and the businesses I worked with were genuinely good, trying to make an honest buck. Heck, I make videos for marketing. I haven’t yet figured out why I felt that way or why there’s still a sleazy man in a suit in the corner of my mind, but I do know what completely changed my perspective.

It was when I read the quote, “Marketing is the generous act of helping others become who they seek to become.” - Seth Godin.

That completely blew my mind open! I thought to myself, “I’m a documentary filmmaker; this is what I’m always striving to do!” As a filmmaker, my primary goal is to create stories that increase our capacity for empathy and to connect more deeply.

Bridging the Gap

Once I internalized this concept, the gap between what I do for money (making videos for marketing) and my soul’s passion (making documentaries) closed quite a bit. In fact, it makes me proud of what I do. And that little man in the shadowy corner of my mind is allowed to live there, so I don’t get complacent.

I’ll never hold the official job title of “marketer.” I’m a filmmaker, filmmaker first. My goal is to tell the right stories to help solve my clients’ problems. But in 2023, I decided that I needed to dramatically increase my knowledge of marketing and the tactics that are implemented.

Introducing "Marketing Snacks"

I also believe that if you hoard or hide knowledge, it will sour and corrupt you. So, I’ve decided to organize some of the things I’ve learned into bite-sized blogs that I’m calling “Marketing Snacks.”

The goal is to create posts that you can read in five minutes or less and take away something useful. While each post may contain several tips, each one can be implemented in under 15 minutes. All of these tips are things I’ve implemented myself or my clients have, and they’ve been effective.

What to Expect

These posts are by no means deep dives into any particular area of marketing. However, if a tip works, you may want to invest more time or resources into that tactic. If it doesn’t work at all, your time investment was relatively low.

Below is an ongoing list of all the blog posts in this series. Stay tuned for more insights and practical tips!