“You’re pivoting again, aren’t you, Ms Queen of Pivot?”
Sage words from bestie. She’s observed a few cycles of this and knows what’s coming.
“Mayyyyyybe”.
You may have noticed (or maybe you didn’t) that there was no newsletter last week.
I was sunning myself in sunny Vietnam for the week. Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Hoi An. I’m not sorry.
With that much needed downtime came some much needed, deep reflection, introspection and insight. The kind that hard quant couldn’t provide me with this time. This was more of that soul yearning insight you crave when you know you have a fuzzy problem that needs solving, but can’t quite wrap your hands around what that problem is exactly. Something just feels a little “off” somehow.
The truth is, like I’m sure many feel at this mid-point of the year, I realised I’d fallen into a bit of a rut. Unsurprisingly, a little break is just what was needed to jolt me back into gear – and spoiler alert, it worked!
So the first step was to unpack how this “rut” settled in the first place. It’s pretty out of character for me to feel jaded by life. I’ve always been someone who is relentlessly optimistic, full of hope and ambition about the life I want to live and the things I want to achieve. For some insane reason, I’ve historically always believed I can do absolutely anything I put my mind to.
After some reflection, I realised that this wasn’t “it”. This wasn’t at the core of the problem. I still believe I can do absolutely anything I put my mind to (you can too boo, by the way).
I realised it was more that I depleting my tank somehow and often running on low to empty…
I had a great conversation with a data pal recently who reminded me of the need to be cognisant of the tasks that zap energy and those that fill us up. In reflecting on what this means in my life, in the Vietnam sunshine, I realised that the confusion arises when it’s the same tasks for me that switch between those two states. Like most things in life, it’s not so black and white. Too much of a good thing can eventually become the norm. It loses its shine. Can even become a bore.
I’ve always been someone who historically, hasn’t become jaded because I switch things up (Ms Queen Pivot, apparently), chase new experiences often, sometimes naively but always with gusto. I always prefer to fail having tried than to have played things safe.
So how did I lose my way?
In the online world it’s pretty easy to get caught up in the “hustle bro” and “content marketing” culture. Here’s how to build an audience / cut through the algorithms / this is what’s trending.
I chose a niche. Attribution and analytics. A topic I am deeply passionate about and will no doubt, continue to be for much of my career.
Though like all things in life, we evolve. I have evolved. I still love analytics and marketing accountability, though my life has become so much richer with new experiences in my role and in my day to day life that I love synthesising and sharing.
At the beginning of the year I was promoted to lead an absolutely brilliant and talented group of individuals to drive marketing analytics excellence. Supporting this team in developing go to market service offerings, translating the value of analytics, navigating tricky stakeholder conversations, build marketing literacy to unearth poignant insights, is my absolute joy and honour.
My craft has changed. I’m still in the detail of staying up to speed with the latest in analytics, software, modelling techniques, visualisation standards etc.
My craft has just also evolved to include a sizeable chunk of managing a team and practice, being a leader that crafts a vision and sets guardrails for others to follow, initiating effective change management through enterprise organisations, influencing and driving consensus among cross-functional teams, teaching and enabling others through the delivery of the work… and no doubt more that will continue to evolve as I do.
This newsletter is my 5 – 9 after my 9 – 5. I started it as a method of remaining accountable to synthesise my own learnings each week to an audience that may benefit. This evolved to writing my book in public (which I am still passionately pursuing and you can follow progress on here).
Blogging is a hobby I’ve pursued for as long as I can remember (beware the early stuff, I’m sure it’s lingering on the internet somewhere).
As an ankle biter, I gathered a group of all the neighbourhood kids to start a Secret Society Club (I was President, obviously).
One of our first missions was to craft a magazine we would write and distribute to every home in the area. It offered household tips, information into the flora and fauna across the road and even included our own handwritten ads for “$5 Mowing” that one of the boys offered as his side hustle at the ripe old age of 11.
This has always been in my bones somehow.
I love the art of curating great people to contribute great stories and I take pride in being a distribution network for them. So in the future, you’ll likely see not only my own synthesised learnings, but those from others who inspire me. Whether their own pieces or interviews I conduct with them.
Naturally too, as my day to day responsibilities evolve, the synthesis of weekly learnings and their topics will likely change too.
Analytics and marketing accountability will always remain a sizeable slice. Though part of identifying this “rut” involved understanding I simply must nurture all of the multi-passionate facets of my life including…
- Continued synthesis of marketing accountability and analytics concepts
- The latest in marketing research, marketing concepts and marketing technology
- A deeper, longer “accountable five” that includes full book reviews of works that have changed my mindset in some way, meal prep that keeps me healthy and balanced while balancing a career, friendships and marriage
- Updates on how I progress with the world of book publishing as I continue to work on Project Measured
Niching myself to one slice might be the best “content strategy” to cut through, but I blog for me first, while at the same time, hoping this hobby might offer up some mentorship that can sherpa up the next generation.
This is ultimately by 5 – 9 after my 9 – 5 and is the core hobby of choice I pursue to bring me joy and connection to those of you who feel you’re “my people” because we connect on so many things!
So, as my content evolves and if you feel we start to have less in common, no hard feelings.
If you’ve subscribed for analytics goodies alone but wish to still get this content and this content only, you can click here to update your preferences.
Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you next week where I’ll dive a little deeper into my relationship with food and exercise and how my renewed look at “self care” brings a focus to exercising compassionate discipline (because my “motivation” just ain’t so reliable).
Chat soon, internet pal.
Kate Cook
Hi I'm Kate! I'm relentlessly curious about the attribution and origin of things. Especially as it relates to being a corporate girly balancing ambition and a life filled with joy.
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