Ellie Mirman's Startup Marketing Blog

I used to like shopping. Each trip would be a big event, getting together with friends to walk around the mall and look at sweaters and electronics. Now I'll avoid the mall at all costs. I just have no tolerance for annoying salespeople anymore.

I've just started reading Chip & Dan Heath's Made to Stick and already I'm loving it. Wish I had read it months ago (when I first received it from Amazon). The book is all about what makes ideas "sticky" or, in other words, "why some ideas survive and others die" (taken right from the cover...). The book exemplifies exactly why I ever got into marketing, namely, the coming together of psychology and language to explain how the very way you communicate something can have a dramatic effect on how a given idea or statement is received. But beyond that, I'm also really learning from this book. You may think, as a marketing professional with a degree in the humanities, I certainly must be able to communicate effectively already. Well, I am not so bold as to say that I could not use some improvement.

I would have thought that my late night cramming days were behind me. That I wouldn't be typing typing away in the beautiful silence that only comes with a completely sound asleep household - er - apartment building. But here I am, just finishing a presentation I'll deliver in 10 hours to a few thousand people. And now cutting into my precious beauty sleep to reminisce about my college days.

I figure it's about time for me to throw a BOSup blog post in the mix in order to share my great time and, of course, photos too. At this point, if you're reading my blog, you're likely a marketing geek like myself (or a marketing geek in denial... or a family member) so this post will not shock or confuse you.

I am shamefully returning to my loyal dozen or so readers who I know have been anxiously awaiting my next blog post. My absence is definitely a good sign I'd say - I've been busy traveling and working and doing all sorts of fun and exciting things. But I am committed to making a return. I've wondered what exactly I would blog about here, since really most of my blogging efforts are focused on the HubSpot blog and the Inbound Marketing Summit blog and, of course, all my microblogging on twitter.

I'm not one of the people who was outraged by Facebook's redesign, but I can't help but love this video.

It's been a busy couple of months for me, in preparation for tomorrow's Inbound Marketing Summit. My friends and family are looking forward to seeing me again (only partially serious...) and everyone at work and all the registrants I've spoken with are very much excited for the event.

Today I took some time to mentally prepare myself, get psyched and put some final things in place.

Some things I'm looking forward to:

• Meeting marketing gurus like Seth Godin and all the other speakers and sponsors I've communicated with over email and phone for the last 6 months
• Seeing some social media friends and customers who I haven't seen in a few months
• Getting (literally) the whole HubSpot team involved and excited in this event (by so graciously staffing parts of it)
• And, of course, sleeping when it's all over

Remember the good ol' days of birthdays at mini golf, Roller Kingdom, or the local bowl-a-drome? Well, those good ol' days aren't over quite yet.