What do you do if your mid-career brand strategy needs a skills boost?

Certainly: 1. Assess your skill set against market demands. 2. Identify gaps and areas for improvement. 3. Review job postings for insights. 4. Plan your skill enhancement strategy accordingly.

Early on, I realized the power of mentorship — both being a mentor and finding one. Sharing my experiences with younger professionals sharpened my skills, as teaching is often the best way to learn. On the flip side, seeking out mentors who had navigated similar waters provided me with invaluable insights and shortcuts to solutions I might not have considered. Mentorship is a two-way street that can illuminate your path in unexpected ways.

If you feel like your skills in Brand Strategy need a boost, first figure out exactly what you're missing. Look at the skills that are now in demand and see how yours stack up. Be honest about what you're good at and where you could get better. A helpful tip is to check out job ads for senior roles in your field to see what employers are looking for. This will help you plan how to learn and improve in the right areas.

Learning is continuous and beyond age groups. While took little time to reliase that there is no age for learning, one should start believing that learning from any age group is also reality. With the changing trends in the audience, our younger teams can teach us a lot. Its purely due to the curriculum and method of learning for youngsters is completely different how we have studied. Secondly priorities your learning goals that would help in post 3 to 5 years. This is because what you are doing now is due to the learnings you had in past. Working on a goal aligned with your learning goals would help you to accelerate faster. So keep learning..!

Constantly changing world of marketing and branding requires professionals of the field to be able to predict and adapt to the upcoming trends. Emergence of AI and value that it provides to the marketers is one that trends that shall be investigated by professional to improve performance. Moreover, I strongly recommend to brand managers and marketers to spend and hour a day to research the market: competitors, customers feedbacks, economical, social, political and technological trends in the global market as that information maybe more valuable that most of certifications. Certifications to consider are from institutions such as CIM and AMA. Important to choose course based on the current skill of the marketer.

LEARNING CAN NEVER STOP! Our industry is completely dependent on consumer behavior and consumption patters, which I must say is wild and rapidly changing. While there are a lot of ways by which we can keep up with the latest happenings, the best one in my experience is OBSERVING. Keep observing the preferences of people near you, do you see a change in the patterns? Try to understand what is changing? Why is it changing? Then try to search online if you can find such change in trends online as well? Just keep learning and you will never be what is termed as 'OUTDATED' in our industry!

Either learn continuously or stagnate and die. Literally. These are several ways to get your brain to activate your prefontal cortex for higher learning: 1????Read every day 2???? Feed your creative brain 3?? ??Play games or anything 4?? ?? Laugh 5???? Get active and go outside

Network Actively: Connect with industry leaders. Attend industry events, join online communities, and connect with other brand strategists on LinkedIn or other platforms. Build relationships with journalists: Stay updated on media trends and build relationships with journalists who cover your industry. This can lead to interview opportunities and wider recognition.

Network with peers, colleagues, and professionals in the brand strategy community to exchange ideas, share insights, and learn from others' experiences. Join professional associations, attend networking events, and participate in online forums or communities to expand your network and learn from others in the industry. Cultivate a habit of continuous learning and self-improvement by dedicating time each week to skill development and professional growth. Set aside time for reading, research, and reflection to deepen your understanding of brand strategy concepts and principles.

Embrace adaptability as a core skill in brand strategy. Be open to pivoting your approach as the market evolves. Periodically reassess strategies and integrate new technologies. Seek feedback proactively and refine techniques accordingly. Flexibility is key to staying competitive in an innovative field.