Blog Author Mellissah Smith - Page 68

What makes me #happy? The sun shining. My dog giving me a cuddle. Spending time with my family. Children. Winning. Getting sales. Building my company. Walking in the park. Reading a book. Being in love. 

The United Nations was onto something when they declared March 20, as the first International Day of Happiness. Aimed at encouraging countries to "better capture the importance of the pursuit of happiness and well-being in development with a view to guiding their public policies", #happyday has certainly struck a chord.

Our in-house social media expert tweeted feverishly in both Australia and US on consecutive days about #happyday with great results. People from around the globe retweeted, shared and commented. People simply want to be happy.

I asked a few people in our office what makes them happy. 

Sitting in the Los Angeles airport after being in Miami Beach for an entrepreneur’s conference, I pick up The Mail on Sunday only to discover a story written about women who meet each other through work.

It’s been five days of the best Miami has to offer coupled by discussing entrepreneurial topics, life and success (or in some cases, lack of) with some very versatile, uninhibited entrepreneurs who all seem content to share stories and experiences while enriching each other’s lives through old-fashion mateship.

Pinterest is going ahead leaps and bounds in the business space. Not only has it achieved to provide one of the easiest platforms to understand and their instructions for setting up a business on Pinterest are so easy - even I can do it - but they also have cleverly launched a free analytics tool that will allow you to track engagement. 

Forget what you have always been told about how people get ahead in the workforce. No, you don't need to sleep with your boss or your clients for that matter. No, you don't have to be "Mr Nice Guy" 24/7, and you certainly don't need to play office politics. 

There are ways to improve your chances of landing that dream job - and it's not as hard as you think.

1.  Engagement: 

Being an engaged employee means that you know a thing or two about the business. You have definitely learnt the art of listening to those at the top of the pyramid and those who are just starting in the mail room. You read every memo from management and you participate at every level in the organization without complaining that "there are too many internal memos" or that "the social club puts on crap events". You listen, learn and comprehend the value of engaging people around you and having them remember who you are.

2.  Competitive:

Contrary to popular psyche testing on how to be the best employee in the office, a little bit of competition is healthy. If you are looking to spearhead your career and take that top job or a dream job in the Executive team, then you need to have a competitive spirit to be the best. That doesn't mean stomping on the person beside you to "win" nor does it mean that you need to spruik your successes from the rooftop. What it does mean is that you need to set benchmarks for yourself and your team, and ensure that you are reaching it and you have the drive and competitiveness inside that won't stop until you reach the goal you have put in front of you. Some people fear competition and some misuse it. The trick is to compete with yourself and the benchmarks that have been set before you.

This year is my 40th. I say that with much hesitation for fear that you will view me differently. I have been practising the word over and over again for months now so that I get use to it and it doesn't come as too much of a shock when the day finally arrives.

40 isn't old anymore - not like what I thought when my very own parents arrived at the same age. My mother had five children by the time she was 31 years old and by the time she was 40, she felt like she had done it all. It was time for retirement.

Coffee shops seem to be my new thing. Today, I met with a person who I have connected with on Linkedin at Starbucks.

As we pleasantly greet each other, we walked up to the counter to order coffees. He had just read my blog, so he was half laughing when he ordered his coffee and quickly asked what it said about him.

It seems that this marketing blog is getting more mileage than I.

As he ordered, I noticed that he put his phone to a technology gadget and immediately I asked what he was doing. He was in fact paying for the coffees with his Starbucks app.

I am sure that I have heard about this before and since forgotten since I am not a huge fan of Starbucks coffee although I do love their concept and all of their marketing. I was completely amazed that one can just pay for their coffee with an app that you top up whenever you need to. How easy is that. Gosh, perhaps Marketing Eye needs an app like that. I am totally in awe of the marketing genius behind this app - easy, convenient and what I call a "no brainer".

As we sat down and started to chat, he asked all the questions, like the good sales person he is. Then he started to tell me about a tax effective option, which I wasn't quite in the market for, but nevertheless I listened.

It's already March. In fact, today is the 1/3/13. 

The  year has begun and is going too fast for my personal liking. Having reviewed the figures for the financial year from July 1, 2012, I am impressed that our sales are up 40% and even more pleased that I haven't been in the office for more than 4 months of that time which means only one thing - that the team at Marketing Eye rock! Seriously. Great work.

But on another note, the year is speeding along and I feel as though I need to stop and take a deep breath and make sure that everything is in order to continue down this path of high growth.

Does anyone else feel the same?

Interning at Marketing Eye is no easy task, but is often rewarding and highly valuable in the competitive job market - many of our superstar marketing and graphic design interns have ended up securing paid work for us.

While we've heard horror stories of other agencies taking advantage of their interns by making them fetch coffees or run personal errands, Marketing Eye invests time in our interns and arms them with requisite knowledge that will help them stand out of the crowd. 

Want to nail your own marketing internship, or feeling nervous about starting a new one? Check out our pointers below. 

Phew! Exhausted. Seriously. Whoever said that expansion was a walk in the park needs their head read.

While the first week was the most exciting time of the year to date, the second week was riddled with sleep deprevation, home-sickness and a case of missing the basic home comforts that I have come to enjoy.

On top of that, I realized that although getting new clients was relatively easy (for today) it is twice as hard to get everything else organized around that from an administrative point of view when you don't have your entire administration team at your disposal.

And... the time difference means that instead of 12 hours a day at work it was now 16 hours a day with little time to spare and if I was really lucky, I would get Sunday off, but probably not, because there is so much to do.