Wednesday, June 9, 2010

it's time to talk Sean.

There was a time when going for an interview for a job was something I absolutely hated. When I went for jobs it was like buying a lotto ticket, thinking about all the things I would buy with the money I'd eventually make, and then on the night the results came out the dream would remain even though the reality was different... I grew accustomed to accepting this reality, embracing that my name is Sean Ashby and these kind of amazing things just don't happen to me...

A good example is when I was young I played a team sport and at the award presentation night at the end of the season I sat and watched all the medals being handed out and to my surprise I was awarded the 'Best & Fairest'.

I knew this was not true even as excited as I was to just win the award. In the end, my instincts were right, as after being presented with the award everyone around told me they must have made a mistake. How good did I feel? Now... In no way am I looking for pity as I have come to realize that in life, it is those kinds of events that stick in the memory and go on to shape a person like myself... Other people's doubts and criticism just make me want the success even more to prove people wrong, where in the same situation, another person would just give up...

This leads me into my current reality, which I have kinda been avoiding... The 'speaking circuit'....

For me, it is hard as I am absolutely passionate about what I am doing but at the same time, at the back of my mind is... 'I hope they don't discover what a silly idea it was to have me talk about what I think.'

What I find the most frustrating is that I believe I have something positive I can contribute, and if only I was able to nail the correct way to present it I could feel a great sense of that was relevant for both parties...

I do realize, however, being such a passionate person and yes having a slight chip on my shoulder from my humble beginnings I can only pray my energy and enthusiasm in sharing my thrust does not have everyone putting ear plugs in their ears (what a brilliant cross reference to my last post hehehe).

In the context of 2010 dominated by two major topics (social media and mobile/global social media) I have to speak about at these separate events. For 'Creative Sydney' I think it's more about 'social media in Australia,' and for a major marketing conference it's more about the 'global social media situation, as well as its' evolving relationship with traditional media which in the current climate is changing everyday...

And finally for another convention is the story of how I became an Aussie Bum. All interesting in their own way & what I am most excited about is that; for many, they will not know that I actually have a pretty solid background in marketing... Before aussieBum, I held various positions like National Marketing Manager for Warner Music. Sales and Marketing Director for a major publishing company. I even produced children's T.V shows.

The strange part for me now is all this experience is nothing really but life experience that I kind of have to let go of, and the tools I learned along the way amounted to nothing more than tools for then (i.e traditional marketing). There is no formula for success, because what has worked once, won't necessarily work again...

... and so... today, like before I find myself having to redefine my skills-set and role, and sometimes it seems that fact the remains - people half my age have the ability to do successfully what I can do. Like Bill Gates' said when asked which competitors he was most worried about, and he replied the kids sitting in a garage working on an insightful product that revolutionizes the internet, something like 6 months later Google went public...

hmmmm..... the winds of change are a blowing....

Sean.

No comments:

Post a Comment