This week on Strivin & Thrivin, we speak with Laura Scholey, freelance marketing consultant.
Laura accidentally fell into marketing when she finished uni, when she was thankfully offered a market research job in the middle of a recession. Then, a move to Australia saw her end up in sales, where she spent a couple of years before moving back to marketing.
“I started to get involved in digital marketing and I started to champion within the team the marketing automation side of things for the sales guys and that’s what then ended up drawing me back into marketing.”
Sales just wasn’t for her, and thinks it takes a certain type of person that loves sales and resetting. But ending a month and going back to zero? Laura couldn’t stand it. It was getting back to that familiar place with marketing and speaking in a common language that made her feel comfortable. Laura actually credits sales for her understanding of communication and sales psychology. It wasn’t all bad!
Laura then went down the path of digital marketing, demand gen, lead generation, marketing automation and pretty much anything digital. Now, she’s going out on her own and doing contract work with the plan to balance it with consulting.
While some people focus on specialising, moving into different parts of marketing was great for Laura.
“I recommend to anybody, if you’ve got the opportunity to work with really smart people, then go out and do it. I think that really helped set a foundation of knowledge and probably critical thinking as well in some things I was doing in marketing.”
As for the worst piece of advice she’s received? It’s a quote you might be familiar with. “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have”. To be frank, Laura calls BS on that!
On the back of that, we loved what Laura had to say about authenticity and the importance of a personal brand.
“I think your personal brand is important. But even as we talk about branding in businesses, your brand has to be genuine. You can’t create a brand that you’re not living and breathing. So, it’s like this idea of personal brand, I think people think that they have to create something.”
