This post was written by Pete Wailes of Searchlight Digital, who's grateful to Rand for buying him dinner two weeks ago. Rand, consider this a small token of thanks. I owe you one.

A Letter of Love, from One Marketer to Another

Dear Reader,

I've been in this industry a fair while. Long enough to have been a consultant, and work for an agency, and run my own company.

Fair to say, I've been around the block. Consider this then a few words of wisdom from someone who hopes you, whoever you may be, dear reader,  may have a measure of success too.

Lesson One: Stop Reading Blogs

Now, this may seem a bit odd and somewhat back-handed, as I'm posting this on the blog of a man I consider a friend, and given that I run a blog myself.

However, as has been said before, what you need to succeed is 20% information and 80% experience. It's far better to spend time doing, and learn through the process of trial and error, than to learn by reading something. If you read, you're gaining passive knowledge. That kind of knowledge is easily lost and forgotten, and only half-effective anyway. It teaches you the theory of the thing.

Knowledge from experience, however, is burned into your brain. It's far harder to forget, and is active. It's something you've learned as a result of actively working on it.

So if you want to become a better marketer, go do some marketing.

Lesson 2: Find a Mentor

This ties in with lesson one. A blog is not a mentor. Someone you can learn from by asking them questions and having them respond is a mentor. Someone who's done whatever you want and been successful is a mentor. 

So why's this important? Because while you're doing, instead of reading, you're going to hit snags. That's a part of life. Accept it. You're not going to be perfect straight off the bat. However, you'll become so over time through the advice and wisdom of your mentor. So pick them well.

Lesson 3: Meet Your Clients

This, as far as I'm concerned, is the most important thing of all. I don't care whether you're a new person in a company, or someone who's just gotten into the industry, or if you're the MD of the company. Meet the people you work for. Because here's the thing:

There's no such thing as a client.

What there are, though, are people who run or are part of businesses. People who've invested time and sweat and tears in their companies to make them successful. For that reason, it's vitally important that you meet the people you work for. Without having met them, you won't truly care for them, and that's an important thing. If you don't care, you won't do as good a job as you could.

Always remember, you don't do business with businesses, people do business with other people. That's an important distinction.

Lesson 4: Pride, Joy and Love

Finally, take pride in your work. Enjoy it. And love the industry you're in. This is a fantastic arena to work in, with some amazing people. Do good work, because you want the best for the people you work for, and you want to build the reputation of the company you work for. Enjoy what you do, because if you don't, you'll only resent it more as you give more of your life to it. And love it, because the more you love it, the more you'll put into your work, and the more it'll give back to you.

I hope you take this to heart, and that it helps you.

With warm regards,

Pete W