Tag: melbourne - Page 7

Yesterday was the last day of an internship for a young man who had chosen Marketing Eye Melbourne as the place he was going to learn and work out where he wants to be after he graduates.

Last days are always hard. Firstly, if you have finished everything that you were working on, you tend to just do task that have to be done, rather than projects that may benefit your internship and future employment prospects. Secondly, it's a day of reflection. What did you get out of your internship? Was it worthwhile? Are your colleagues friends of the future? Do you want to work at the company that you did your internship at? Have you chosen the right career path? Are you more confused than ever?

This morning, I decided to have breakfast at my favourite cafe, Hobba Prahran before heading to the office. I sat at Hobba with a big smile on my face. I have spent the past month with my teams in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Atlanta and it has been amazing.

The energy in each office, stand up meetings, pride in their work, on-boarding of clients and in general, their 'nice-ness' is beyond anything you would ever expect in an office environment.

I had a particularly stressful period of time. Hackers had attacked our business and we were leaking cash like no tomorrow. I handled it great for the first three days, then I fell apart. I felt like it was all too much. My life is full and to add that type of stress to my life, I felt overwhelmed. It was certainly challenging.

My team could see that I was stressed, and on my last day in the Melbourne office prior to heading to the US, the team wanted to celebrate my birthday. I asked them if they would mind if we didn't celebrate my birthday and celebrated just Christina's instead.

What makes our agency special? It's a question that I am asked frequently, and it always makes me think "what is it that is our secret sauce?". What makes us different from the marketing company down the road?

After relaying my 'two days from hell' to a confidante, who had an interesting reply, I realised the reality of my world. 

To put it in context, I replied to a text message with: "Life has to have challenges and your feelings have to be hurt to be alive. I wouldn't change a thing."

For anyone interested in becoming a fashion designer, there is one thing you need to know, and that is "the numbers". 

Being a marketing consultant is truly insane. Trying to explain what you do on a daily basis, is like talking another language to most people that are not in the industry - and for reason. We all work at different levels and few of us really talk to each other about marketing because everyone wants to be the top marketing expert that clients go to for advice.

Marketing Eye has always accepted internships ever since we were first approached by an overseas University. The reason being that many Universities around the world require internships abroad and they struggle to find one's that they are able to get into, as it isn't always common place in Australia.

Our interns have been amazing. They work on client accounts predominantly depending on capabilities on market research, databases, strategies, inside sales platforms, content development, social media and idea generation.

I am so caught up in everything to do with technology, I have to be constantly reminded as to why the technology exists - and that is to better serve the people around us. From customers and prospects, to employees and suppliers, our ability to engage, interact and create conversation is imperative to our ability to be more successful.

Jack Ma's speech at the World Economic Forum struck a raw and real note with me. He is more successful than I would ever be even if that was my pursuit in life, but we do have some similarities and that is based on a view of the world we live in and our roles in making it a better place.

Talking to my sister-in-law today, we discussed how I could sell up my home in Melbourne and move to the Fraser Coast and live on the beach in a brand new house, designed by me, for less than $800,000. Imagine that? When you live in the city, you soon realise that $800,000 buys you very little, but in some of the most beautiful places in the world, it brings you a lot. Imagine what I could do with the leftovers. Retire? Do more for the community and causes in which I support? Change people's lives and outcomes? It really is endless. I was born with a brain and it works just as well outside the constraints of business. What if I used it more on a fulltime basis to improve our world? 

I have never been more busy in my life. I remember 2 years ago feeling completely overwhelmed by having so much on my plate, and feeling as though I was floundering.

I kept on taking on more 'stuff' and it wasn't a case of not being able to say no. I simply wanted to do all the things I was doing and they were important to me. I hired two personal assistants and that worked wonders, except I decided that they were too good to be personal assistants and moved them promptly into other roles.