So much to do, so little time. How do you get ahead in the world of marketing, when you are so busy just keeping your head above water?

I have tried all sorts of planners, organization tactics, and attempted to set boundaries with every organization I have worked with. But the flow of work and the fast pace of our profession always overcomes any of my attempts of prioritization and optimization of my work product.

I have worked for toxic cultures who I blamed for my inability to navigate the workload and truly shine. I have found niche positions with the false illusion it would enable me to focus and grow rather than rapidly pivoting my mindset throughout the day. I even found the rare corporate cultures that encourage creative thoughts and professional growth. Yet as you deliver high-quality strategic deliverables, they begin to add more and more projects and initiatives to reap the benefits of what they have seen. Unfortunately, as the workload grows, so does your lack of bandwidth and mental sharpness, ultimately diminishing the quality of work.

Each day, I felt my passion for marketing fading away and a daily desperation to mentally reset so I could try to get it back. Finding things to celebrate so I could feel like I still had my edge and could help the organizations I worked for gain market-share, brand awareness, and revenue growth. Such a weird thing to feel pride behind, but I do and I know this is what motivates so many of us.

I had to find a way to get back that passion and gain control of my days. It is no secret that I am a control freak. I am not quiet a type A personality (which I believe most of the marketing world embodies), but a big thinker who strives to be a type A. With that being said… what did I do? I started to develop grand ideas on how I can choose what “falls through the cracks,” what I spend my time and attention on and what doesn’t deserve my full attention, and better yet, how I can get everyone onboard with my new way of thinking.

At the end of the day, what I learned was it isn’t about the company you work for, the demanding boss, or the difficult internal clients. It is the importance of YOU. Your mindset and how you choose to approach each day can change everything. How you organize your tasks, how you interact with your boss, how you engage with your internal clients. All of this can completely change your whole world.

So, I did say I am a big thinker. Yes, yes I did. Here I am, thinking big and launching a new business that we all can benefit from. I have created a planning system specifically for marketing professionals, the OCTO planner.

This planning system is highly flexible, as I know we all wear different hats and work on varying projects. You have a core planner that will allow you to capture your day-to-day planning needs complete with meeting optimization pages and bullet journaling pages.

In addition, I have created eight (8) add-in optimizers for core specialties within marketing.

1. Sales Enablement
2. Marketing Strategy
3. Creative Design
4. Digital Marketing
5. MarTech Project Management
6. Communications
7. Brand
8. Event Management

I continue to have big ideas I want to share with every marketer and am excited to hear what you would like to see, so I can add it to my list. What am I working on?

Creating ready-to-use templates in Microsoft format for sales focused storytelling, campaign building, and SEO strategies.

Writing a book: Underwater, that tells many crazy stories of my journey and how I flipped the script with my leaders and internal clients.

Developing a digital course: Elevate Your Impact, that will take you step-by-step in building your own roadmap, custom to your organization and internal clients to bring them in alignment with your new way of thinking.

So I invite you to join me in my journey to help empower marketers in every industry, to rediscover their passion and breathe life back into your every day.