Tomorrow is it. The day I've been training for since I made a New Year's Resolution that I will finally keep. Tomorrow, I run my first 5K.
Now for many people this does not sound like a hard challenge, but let me just point out that I have always hated running. So while this was a physical challenge, for me it has been more about the mental. And when I am faced with a mental challenge, I usually go into planning mode.
So...before I hit the course tomorrow and try to finish this sucker, I thought I'd share how I approached my plan - and maybe you can take some lessons from this to apply to your work in the wonderful world of marketing.
1. Commit to a Goal. Everything starts with writing down a goal. I cannot tell you the amount of times I have talked to marketers who can't clearly articulate their goals, but wonder why they aren't seeing the success or getting as much value out of their marketing investments as they had hoped to. If you don't know where you are trying to go, how can you make a plan to get there? I started with saying "On March 8, 2014, I am going to run the Shamrock Shuffle 5K in West Chester, Ohio, and my goal is simply to finish." Note that this goal was specific, specific, specific! There is no way I could NOT know, on March 8, 2014, if I had accomplished it. (I will let you know after tomorrow if I do, in fact, accomplish it.)
2. Chart a Path from Point A to B. Once you know your goal, you've got to dig in and figure out how to get there. When working with Eloqua customers over the past two years, I have heard a lot of folks say things like "I'm going to do Lead Scoring" or "I want to implement Progressive Profiling" as their proposed path to meeting their goals. While fair tactics to consider, stopping here is where I saw many of them fail. The problem is, just naming an initiative like lead scoring is not specific enough. For my training, I knew I was going to have to get off my butt and run at least 3-4 times a week, but more than that, I needed a specific plan. A focused plan. Which days of the week would I run? At what time of day? How far or how long? How fast? How many walk breaks? At what point in the run? I had to get as specific as possible, and commit to following the plan.
3. Ask for Support. I've also seen too many marketers fall into the trap of thinking they have to do everything themselves. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. I am not an expert in training for races. I am not an expert in anything about running, actually. So I decided, from the get go, that I needed to enlist the support of someone who has been there. I asked my colleague and friend here at Oracle, Kimberly Peters, a seasoned runner, to help me along my journey. I committed to checking in with her after every run. She committed to keeping on me if she hadn't yet heard a check in on a scheduled run day. I committed to asking her questions whenever something seemed strange or unfamiliar. She committed to answer them without making me feel like an idiot newbie runner. Not only has it been great to be held accountable, but she offered me expertise along the way that I could never have found on my own. As marketers, why spin our wheels when we can seek out support from experts that are faster, better, more skilled at something than we are?
4. Always Be Measuring. I cannot tell you how much I learned about my running throughout the past 3 months from recording my pace, distance, how I was feeling, the weather, what I was wearing, etc. after every run. I was able to spot trends that I could use to improve my next run. Example - I didn't even know the right things to wear when running in winter cold at first, but after a few runs where I over-layered and was burning up even in 30 degree weather, I learned my lesson! When I got tired halfway through one of my runs where I started out at a pretty fast pace, I was able to look back and see that the runs I felt great doing were ones where I started slow and ended fast. The point is, you can't learn, or see progress, or make adjustments along the way unless you are constantly taking measure of your results. Not just at the end of a campaign - but before, during, and after! Benchmark, compare, analyze, adjust, and repeat.
5. Fake It Till You Make It. Trust me, there were points in this process where I wanted to quit and go back to my easy, non-runner life where I didn't have to make decisions around my run schedule. But, I promised myself, even when I didn't want to run, I was going to pretend I did. I was going to put on my new fancy running shoes and at least LOOK like I was a pro at this. When I passed other runners on the trail I smiled and waved and acted as if I didn't want to fall over and die. Soon enough, I found myself cruising along and forgetting I didn't want to do it in the first place. In marketing, we face new challenges every day. We have to fake it sometimes - to appear confident even though we're not sure this new trick or new solution or new idea is actually going to work. But eventually, if we can keep on the brave face and just keep going, success will come. And then, you don't have to fake it anymore. Tomorrow, I stop being a faker and start making it!
Now I am off to hydrate, carb load (even though Kimberly probably would tell me that's not a good idea), and relax before the big race. Wish me luck...but I'm sure I'll be ok. I worked a pretty good plan to get here.