Amplify Recap: Amplify AE-Me
Posted by [email protected] on Nov. 1, 2022 / Subscribe 0
Not only was this the first year of the newly branded Amplify AEC (previously Build Business) conference, but it was the first time this conference has been in person since the pandemic and also my first time attending this conference!
While there are a lot of definitions of the word “amplify” depending on its use – to make louder, greater, stronger, more marked, intense, larger, etc. – the one that resonates the most to is “to strengthen.”
This pandemic has been hard on all of us, professionally and personally. Forgive me as I need to give you a bit of backstory on my pandemic experience in order to provide context to the session I’d love to share with you all.
I was in the early group of folks that got COVID, in June of 2020. My symptoms were severe for three months, and as a result I developed a dangerous esophageal infection. I did not take a single sick day off of work except for a handful of hours to catch up on sleep after spending three separate nights in the ER. Even though I was not sleeping, eating, or hydrating (due to aspiration), and could not breathe, I continued on working because I felt a personal responsibility to my firm and my staff to carry on and to put my wellbeing aside to get us all through this difficult time. After eight or nine months of acute symptoms, I finally saw some light at the end of the tunnel, as my family doctor and I stumbled upon a treatment that helped provide some relief to my symptoms.
That said, I still identify as a long hauler, even now. I still struggle with residual effects that have changed my body and my mind. I am not sure I will ever be 100%. It is difficult for me to feel like these things are out of my control; however, I’ve learned that how I treat myself IS within my control.
One of the sessions I was most excited to attend at Amplify was “Motivating and Influencing for High Performance.” A lot of comments and questions I heard at Amplify were related to the view & treatment of our marketing departments & staff, “How do we prove our value?” and “How do we deal with being treated as less than because we are non-billable?” These are the internal battles that our marketing staff struggle with every day. Forget how challenging the work is and the constant deadlines we face; we are struggling with our worth, confidence, value, and feeling appreciated & respected. Which begs the question, how do we, as managers, motivate our marketing staff to love their jobs, and on top of that, to be high performers, when this is what they are up against? It is a tall challenge; one that I am still working on as a manager.
First off, the speaker for this session, Ms. Denise Thomas, is truly one of the most phenomenal orators & personalities I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. The first half of her session was focused not on external motivation & influencing efforts but on internal, looking within at how we treat & view ourselves. She reiterated that motivation and influence start by motivating & valuing ourselves first and building our own confidence. A lot of women in our marketing departments suffer from Imposter Syndrome, and we doubt our own abilities, which holds us back in our careers. We tend to seek validation and permission, when we already have it. But where does this come from? As Denise explained, we grow up believing that we have to be demure, quiet, calm, people-pleasing, and nurturing as women; this is what we are taught. These are by no means bad qualities to possess, quite the contrary they are qualities that allow us to shine as women, but there are other qualities that we possess that we need to tap into in order for us to step into our power as confident marketing leaders.
Denise broke down what Imposter Syndrome teaches us – that there is the small amount of “What I Know” versus the combined amount of “What Others Know,” which feels like an overwhelming battle to be up against, and where the doubt in ourselves often creeps in. The reality she reiterated is – “What I Know, Others Should Know.” We have valuable information that we should feel confident and excited to share with our staff and teams. We are, and should be, sources of marketing knowledge and strategy.
We also have to take care of our mental, emotional, physical, and professional wellbeing, before we can be the motivation & influence for our staff. Take those opportunities we have to take care of ourselves when we are sick, struggling with mental health, resting when we have put in extra hours to deliver a proposal, destressing when we have taken on too many tasks, and requesting the training & education courses to invest in our careers. We can do all of this, and not feel guilty! I should never have convinced myself it was a good idea to put my physical, mental, and emotional health aside during the pandemic just to perform at work. Now I realize that doing that actually risked myself, my staff, and my firm even more. Going forward, I’m going to focus on taking care of myself so that my staff learn that it’s okay to do the same thing for themselves, empowering myself in my position, and embracing all of the qualities that I possess that make me a good Marketer and a good Manager!
Here are a few other questions that we can ask to find our path to positivity and lead with confidence:
- Ask yourself, what do I need to unlearn?
- Ask your coworkers, what do you need from me to thrive?
- Ask your team and leadership, how do we manage challenges collectively?
A few other take-aways from Denise’s session include:
- Stop expecting yourself from others. Don’t judge someone on how you would do something, as this creates constant disappointment.
- Remember, all ideas are valid!
- Don’t let GREAT be the enemy of GOOD. This is for every Marketer that identifies as a perfectionist (I am guilty, so this one hit hard!).
- Be transparent and vulnerable with your team. Show them it is okay to fail gracefully. It is also okay to admit if you’re having a rough day, but let your team know we’re going to get through it together.
- Be a sponge; be open to learning from others at every level of your firm.
Finally, I have a few take-aways from Denise’s session that were specific to diversity that I would like to call out separately as I think they are critically important:
- Stop identifying characteristics in staff as weaknesses. A weakness is simply a difference, and our differences are what create DIVERSITY. If we truly want diverse firms, we need to embrace each other’s differences and find ways to celebrate them and incorporate them into our businesses.
- Our natural tendency is to gravitate towards being around people like us and as such, we also tend to hire people like us. Build a diverse network! The best way to embrace our differences, build diversity in our firms, and also (as managers) to stop expecting ourselves from our staff is to surround ourselves with people who are not like us.
- Start using a collaborative, inclusive narrative when we are writing and speaking to people. This looks like less “I,” “me,” “you,” “them,” “they,” and more “we,” “us,” and “our.” Afterall, we all work on teams of some kind every single day.
This session alone was worth attending Amplify, but truly there were so many great sessions on culture & diversity, marketing, business development, finance, and leadership. I can honestly say I am returning from Amplify ready to tackle all of the challenges ahead of me and feeling a renewed sense of confidence in myself, my abilities, and my vision of where I want to go. I am incredibly thankful to SMPS-St. Louis for the opportunity to attend this year’s conference and to “amplify” my skills and Marketing role.
Loren Boyd
Marketing Manager
Faith Group, LLC
2021-22 St. Louis Chapter - Education Director
MEMBER PERK: Want to attend the SMPS Amplify A|E|C conference for free? SMPS St. Louis offers a conference scholarship to Amplify A|E|C and other SMPS conferences. Learn more here.
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