Soulful Marketing Blog

My boss is pissed. We’re in the middle of a five-day live event with over 300 attendees. He’s furious because our event production team didn’t do what he expected. I’ve assessed what happened, and it’s a minor mistake at best. Sure, something didn’t go according to plan on stage, but we still have three more days together, and there are a million moving parts to these events. I’m trying to calm him down and reason with him. We’re all exhausted, hardly getting any sleep, and the last thing we need is to blow this out of proportion. But he’s not listening, and I’ve seen him go on the warpath before.…

It’s midnight, January 1999, and I’m tucked under the covers in my hotel bed, my computer on my lap. The room is dark and quiet, except for the sound of the ocean crashing along the beach. Through the window, I can see a few stars in the night sky. I’m away at a meeting for my new publishing job, and I should probably be asleep. Instead, I’m writing another long email to my executive coach, trying to figure out what the heck I’m going to do with my life. I have a decision to make, one I’ve been putting off for months. Deep down, I know my marriage is over,…

Sometimes I… Persevere too much. I overthink and over-prepare. I just drive myself to do too much. It’s not on purpose. It’s not like I even think or am aware of it. It’s just there, like an old used overcoat that I keep putting on and forget I’m wearing. I wish it were more like a magic overcoat, one that could see into the future and ditch this behavior… Nope. It’s just this worn-out old thing that keeps me planning, making lists, refining, preparing, making decisions, remaking decisions, and then as whatever I’m preparing for gets closer, I can get kind of frenetic. Travel seems to bring this out in…

I’m 35, living in New Jersey, working as Director of International Marketing for a publishing company. I love my job, travel the world, and have worked hard to get where I am. Then I come home from a trip to Australia and find out the company is being sold. The job I’ve worked so hard to create will likely disappear in the merger. I’m pretty upset, and I have no idea what I’m going to do. My friend Rob, who’s the company’s CIO, comes into my office, sees the state I’m in, and asks: “Do you have someone who can help guide you through this transition?” I say, “Nope.” So…