Dan Martin’s Post

Thank you all so much for the love on the launch of Helios Marketing LLC! Nobody could wipe this ear-to-ear grin off of my face if they tried. As promised, I wanted to share a few more details with you on why I decided to start my own business. Marketing and communications are wonderful professions. In my experience, there are few others that offer such an interesting combination of art and science, that teach us how to balance the necessity of creativity with the rigor of process, and that push us every day to be bold, to experiment, to try something new. It's also true that it's alarmingly easy to get bogged down as a marketing and communications professional inside of organizations. The slow creep of bureaucracy, the bland (or just plain sour) taste of recipes created by a surfeit of cooks, the absurdity of the internal credit-taking hierarchy, the push for more and more and more tactics before we have any idea if that last one got us any traction, the devaluing of creative work in favor of corner-cutting measures. The weight on our shoulders can become so great that I've talked to truly great marketers who are thinking about leaving the profession altogether. After one such conversation, I took some time to think about why I fell in love with marketing in the first place. After peeling everything else away, for me, it's about helping people. Sure, we're not curing insidious diseases or racing to support disaster victims. But great marketing is, at its core, about helping organizations thrive. Taking that product that's going to make someone's life better, and shining a light on it so they can see it in a way they couldn't before. Every time I've been a part of making that happen, it has reminded me why I chose marketing as a career. And over the past 5 years, I've watched a lot of marketing drift further and further away from what I believe it's meant to do. There's so much noise, so much bad advice, so much complexity, and it's making us forget the fundamentals. I founded Helios Marketing to help organizations cut through the clutter and put their efforts toward what really matters to their current and future customers: articulating who they are, what they do (in the context of why a customer needs their solution), and what makes them different. At the end of your engagement with Helios, you'll have a refined and improved brand story, a differentiated strategic narrative that will both simplify and strengthen all marketing and communications, and the foundational elements of brand and messaging that will allow you to stand out and win in even the most crowded marketplaces. I could not be more excited to go on this journey with you. I have slots available for August for various services (I've included the link to my website in the comments - a huge thank you to Kristin Kunz for making it look so sleek) - if you're interested, DM me or fill out a form on the site. #marketing #marketingconsulting #strategicnarrative #communications

A lot of marketers are overwhelmed right now. Not "really busy," not "close to or at capacity," not "grinding it out." Truly and completely overwhelmed. And that's bad news for employers, as marketing often employs some of the best strategic thinkers within an organization. When these people are overwhelmed and they don't have the time to think about the big picture or to do real deep work, they're headed toward burnout (and probably the exit door). Even if they aren't, their work product might suffer, and more importantly, they won't be bringing the forward-looking ideas they're capable of while they're scrambling to get out of the organizational quicksand. I wanted to share what I do when I feel myself slipping beneath the waves, but before I do, let's not pretend like this isn't primarily an organizational issue. There are a lot of ways for employees to "mitigate burnout," but that's like BP trying to tell us that our individual carbon footprint is the reason for climate change (spoiler alert: it isn't). Organizations need to cut projects back to the bone (focusing only on what's needed right now), reduce needless and time-consuming meetings, and find ways to help their employees get to the work that only they can do. But since turning that aircraft carrier takes a ton of time (and sometimes doesn't happen), what I tend to do in these situations is to envision myself as the only marketer in the organization on my first day. There's nothing in place, so I'm starting completely from scratch. No other members of the team, no budget, no legacy projects or pet projects from the executive team, no baggage. Just me, my skill set, and my remit to help the organization sustainably grow. I've found that stripping everything else away helps me get to ruthless prioritization a lot faster, especially when it comes to the shiny new things that are always hitting marketers' plates. Sometimes, it makes sense to jump on those. A lot of the time, if you don't have the basics in place, they become a tremendous time suck with little to no reward. Sure, when you're back in reality, you have to deal with all of the limitations within your organization, your team, your budget. If, through this exercise, you can identify areas of the true marketing basics that need improvement, you'll be able to cut through the noise and know you're working on something that will be impactful over the long-term. If you're feeling overwhelmed, try this out and let me know if it works for you too! #deepwork #prioritization #marketing #marketingstrategy

Love this reminder. Thank you, Daniel J. Murphy. I've had the honor and pleasure of working with some truly amazing people throughout my career, and I hope that they are always recognized as the awesome contributors they are.

This is a great primer on the differences between fractional and consulting work (and to some, extent, freelancing). Thank you for sharing, Canopy Advisory Group!