Passion + Personality + Learning = Success
Written By: Dimitra Simtikidis
The Digital Media Marketing Post-Graduate Program at George Brown College has been a life changing experience. It has taught me the necessary knowledge I need to know for my future career, along with endless opportunities and experiences that will help me excel. One of the courses that has helped me connect and meet many successful people in the marketing business is the Marketing Seminar Series course lead by Felicia Robinson Joly. This course began in our second semester at George Brown College and during this short time, we have had the opportunity to meet, learn from, connect with, and network with multiple business professionals in the marketing scene. These individuals presented to our class every week, whether we were all in the physical classroom or all logged in to our online class. Each week we had the opportunity to connect with a new person and learn a new lesson, whether it was personal, business related, or both. All lessons we have learned have given us motivation and enthusiasm to continue on to our next step in life: finding a career.
All of the speakers we had were amazing and taught me a lot about marketing. However, the three individuals that really stood out to me are: Julian Franklin, Rian Tara Johnson, and Kareem Perez. In the following paragraphs I will share the different, important things I learned from these three individuals, why they inspired me, and what tips I will take with me into my future career.
Julian explained to us that the thing that makes him different than other professionals in this market is his passion for creating campaigns that create legacies for customers and the surrounding communities. He emphasized the importance of the emotional aspect of marketing that really connects with the consumer on a different level and helps to push them through the consumer decision making model. This is what he feels gives him purpose and motivation in the marketing profession. This is something that really stood out to me. Many people can be good at something, but it is one’s passion that enables them to get to the next level. Therefore, I will continue to practice my passion for marketing in order to excel in my future career.
Rian emphasized the importance of being yourself. She shared a personal story with the class that really stood out to me and made me see the significance of being myself, even in the workforce. This is something I am going to take with me on my career path. We must find different ways to channel our personalities in the way we express ourselves, whether it be verbally, written, or the way we look. Our personalities are what makes us unique and special. As long as we are being professional, meeting deadlines, and successfully executing our tasks, we should not let what people say to us about our personalities negatively impact our personal and professional lives.
Kareem shared the idea that failure is not the end, but rather an opportunity to learn valuable lessons, like how to efficiently spend your time to work towards your goals. An important idea Kareem discussed in his presentation is “lifelong learning”. After listening to him discuss this idea, I will definitely make sure to always be willing to learn every chance and opportunity that comes my way.
I really want to thank Felicia for reaching out to all these amazing individuals to come speak to us. Because of this class I have been able to grow my network of professionals on LinkedIn. All the speakers, including Felicia, have let us know that if we ever need anything in the future, we are more than welcomed to message them, which is something very comforting to know and I am really appreciative of that. LinkedIn has been a really big part of this course. I have connected with all the speakers that have visited our class on LinkedIn and I have shared the published articles I have written about Julian, Rian, and Kareem on LinkedIn to my friends. Every post I have made about the articles I have tagged Felicia and the individual speakers, which has generated a lot of positive feedback and has opened doors for even more relevant connections. They have all commented that they loved my article which was very exciting for me. Kareem even shared the article I wrote about him on his page, which was a great honour for me! People that he is connected with on LinkedIn have liked my article through his sharing of it, which is really nice to see. You never know who may stumble upon your LinkedIn page because of someone liking, commenting, or sharing your article! Therefore, I want to thank Kareem for doing so. People always message me with opportunities on LinkedIn and I always make sure to reply as I try my best to have an open mind for different opportunities, as well as be considerate since they took the time to message me in the first place. Also, I accept all connections on LinkedIn, even if I do not know them; you never know what opportunities are out there for you so you must make yourself available!