When I feel like a failure...
Marketing Powerups #66: April Dunford shares the 3 elements of how she got to where she's at in her career.
If it’s too long and you don’t want to read it (I think you should!), it’s about a product marketing consultant that April is helping. This person feels like a failure because her consulting business doesn’t look like April’s.
April tells the person that there’s no such thing as an overnight success. Case in point: she has worked in-house for 25 years as a marketing leader and has done over 250 workshops. It took many years and reps to get her where she is now, including speaking at a conference that wouldn’t have had her if she was only starting her business.
This hit hard.
Somedays, I scroll through my LinkedIn and
feeds and can’t help but compare myself to the success of others.It may be another LinkedIn post from Neal O’Grady getting thousands of likes and comments. Or it could be Wes Kao getting over 22K subscribers after only a few months on Substack. Maybe it’s seeing Elen Verna and Wes Bush invited to speak at a conference in Sweden.
I think to myself, “Why am I not where they’re at?”
April’s response to this question resonates with me so much. She says there are three elements behind her success so far:
Reps — The more you do something, the more likely you’ll get better at it. April has done over 250 workshops! That means more people getting to know her work.
Consistency — Those reps need to be focused on getting good at one or two things. For April, that’s doing those 250 workshops on nailing product positioning and crafting sales pitches.
Time — Success is like baking a cake. If you pull it out too soon, you’ll get a soggy, undercooked cake (eww!) April has built her career over many years. She jokes that she’s “OLD - like seriously, really frikkin old,” meaning she has a ton more experience than where most are at.
April’s final advice is never to compare the beginning of our journey to the end of someone else's. I take that to heart. Just trust and enjoy the process; you’ll eventually get to where you want to be.
Free powerups Notion template 🔖
One thing I’ve been doing more lately is to journal one thing I’m thankful for that day. It’s often easy to forget your accomplishments, wins, and successes. Sometimes, you need to remember how much you’ve achieved to keep going.
I’ve created a gratitude journal Notion template. It has 21 prompts to help you build a habit around it.
→ Download and make a copy of it here (a direct link with no email required).
That’s all for now, friends!
Have a powered-up day,
Ramli John
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Hey thanks so much for the mention! Omg you are doing so great! I had done nothing when I was your age - by the time you are as old as me, you're going to be twice as successful as I am!!