Ellie Mirman's Startup Marketing Blog

4 Reasons I'm Glad to Be an Altruistic Marketer

Posted by Ellie Mirman

Mar 24, 2011

angel devilEditorial Warning: This is a bit of a letter-style rant. This may come off crazy and/or self-promotional. I have neither intention. Read on, and consider yourself warned!

I was chatting with a fellow marketer recently and we started talking about different personalities on the marketing team and how I am a very altruistic marketer. It's not the first time I've been "called out" (in a friendly way of course) for being altruistic, sometimes to a naive degree.

I don't mind it at all.

In fact, I consider it a strength. (Not to say that all of us should be like me - our conversation actually focused on a necessary balance on the team.) Still, I have to say that HubSpot (my company) should be glad that I am an altruistic marketer. And here's why.

1. Focus on the right goal.

Call it the HubSpot brainwashing if you want (but I don't think it is - I get this way about everything I do), but I'm committed to doing my part to grow this company so it can really make a dent in the universe. You can try to give me a goal of a number of leads to generate from email marketing, but if I find an opportunity to generate fewer leads of a higher quality, I might just go for that. Because I understand the end goal and how my part plays a role in achieving that end goal. I may go rogue, but at the end of the day I'm focused on the right goal and will deliver value. In my mind, I can change the metrics I'm measured against. The metrics are really just indicators of how we're achieving a larger goal.

2. Passion.

After reading the first point, you can probably tell that I have a passion for what I'm doing. And that is an asset in and of itself. Passion means that I'm going to work harder to achieve the big hairy mission we've set out to achieve.

3. Optimism = Happiness = Productivity

Part of my altruistic nature is that I'm simply an optimistic person. Not only does this mean that I get excited about challenges, but this also means that I'm generally a happy person. And optimism and happiness is contagious. Surrounding yourself with happy people makes you more likely to be happy yourself. And for me, happiness makes me more productive. If I'm in a funk, I admit that I will not get much accomplished. Fortunately I'm an optimistic person who's frequently happy and excited to accomplish big things.

4. Encouraging the above in others.

Acting in the ways I describe above, I believe, encourages others to do the same. That means more goals achieved, more passion and commitment to the team, more happiness overall. And allowing this type of behavior shows that we care about the right things. That we care about accomplishing our big crazy goals and that we care about our team's happiness.

Go ahead, call me naive or altruistic. But know that I'm aware and act so intentionally.

</rant>

Flickr photo by kk+

Topics: work life

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