Marketing Yourself for Success

It’s funny to me when people say that they could never get into marketing or pursue it seriously as a career. Maybe you don’t have to pursue it as your career, but you realistically use marketing every single day of your life. Even if you think you don’t- you do.?

You market yourself every time you go out in public and interact with other people. The way you look- or don't look- at someone walking down the street can be a marketing tactic. One definition of the word “marketing” is this: “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.” It may be helpful to break down this definition by key words and analyze just how prevalent these things are in our daily lives.?

The first word we’ll explore is “promoting.” When we get dressed in the morning and put on our clothes, we’re knowingly (and sometimes unknowingly) promoting a brand, message, or vision of what we stand for. We usually don’t do it to prove a point, we just dress the way we do because we like it. If you are wearing the cutest, sparkly pink heels, you might have another girly girl reach out to pay you a compliment. You may start talking and actually have a lot in common. Smiling at her could have given her the confidence to pay you that compliment because you subconsciously marketed kindness. Now, no human being thinks this deeply about smiling at a stranger, but when you analyze it deeper it’s easy to see how we’re constantly marketing ourselves to others.

In the later part of the definition, it states “distributing a product or service.” We market ourselves as the product, and our actions as the service. Our talents are unique to us, and this is what is so beautiful about having the confidence to market your individuality. Once you believe that you can market your potential to anyone, your opportunities expand beyond belief. If you want to attract knowledgeable people and make genuine connections, start with marketing kindness.