Look at the bright side Bruno!

Do you like eggs on your pizza?

What about olive oil in your coffee?

What about a 1 year primary teaching stint in your decade long Marketing resume?

Uhum, I didn’t think so.

Last week was my final week as a primary school teacher and on the last days of handing over the iPad, clearing out my cupboards and sending long emotional goodbye emails, I started reflecting on the last four years.

I was dealing with these voices in my head,

Did I just waste 1 year of my life?

Will this hurt my marketing career?

Did I make the wrong choice by leaving the school?

Am I a selfish mom by wanting to have a career away from my children?

.

.

Did I learn anything as a teacher that I can use in marketing career?

I had a small Eureka moment right there.

The more I thought about it, the more parallels I saw and the happier I became as I didn’t want to feel that these four years were a complete waste.

After much thought, I can safely say that I found 5 parellels, which I would like to share with you.

Learning through play

Learning through play is not a new concept, Infact in the early 1900, Maria Montessori introduced the idea to sick children at hospitals to cheer them up, but the concept only started gaining more momentum in 2000 until it became the norm in this day and age.

Does it work? It’s so effective that primary kids are learning better and faster by up to 60 percent, according to research.

They also find going to school more fun than their past peers ever did.

Over the years, I have seen many children who do not want to go home when their parents arrive at the door. It’s a dream come true scenario for every parent and its happening because of learning through play.

Brands who take a cue from this approach have a wider reach, bigger audience and more engagement.

They are also seen as more real brands, especially among younger millennials and Gen Z’s/

I’m not saying that brands should be all fun and games, however some industries, like the Oil and Gas industry are missing out on all the fun and why should they?

When in doubt, always tell a compelling story!

We be bold ladies know that stories are very powerful; so powerful that we all know the famous story of the trojan horse which launched a thousand ships.

Similarly with children, if you want to initiate new behaviors or dispel bad ones, verbal and visual stories are the most powerful tools you can use.

How do you think concepts like diversity and inclusion is being taught amongst children? Stories, stories and more stories.

Consumers are the same –we connect deeply with brands that have stories and tell stories.

I mean, let’s think about our favourite brands for a moment .. brands like Apple, Nike, Amazon …… we all know their stories and we love them more for it, don’t we?

Connect first then sell second

I found that establishing a connection first with a child made him or her more responsive when I spoke or gave an instruction.

How does that apply to marketing?

Well, the analogy here is pretty simple is if you want to sell something to your audience establish a connection first, then sell second.

That almost always guarantees that your audience will listen and respond better.

Know your audience

Every child is different, and so is every customer.

To give you an example, I have children kids, Lea and Malek.

Lea is an excellent learner in the evening while Malek is more of a daytime learner.

That means that if I was ever to send an email campaign to my children, I would send it to Lea in the PM and Malek in the AM.

What Im saying here is a personalized approach is 100 times more effective that a general one.

The Fifth parallel — the ROI is not always measurable

With young children, it’s not always easy to see the return on teaching.

Even after a full term of daily math input its hard to say how much the childs maths knowldege has increased by — percentage wise.

Similarly in Marketing when conducting a brand campaign to increase awareness, its not easy to get measurable results post campaign

that’s okay because in both cases intangibility does not undermine impact.

Every positive experience in life is a reason to celebrate; it’s also a reason for immense gratitude and this is how I feel about my experience as a primary teacher.

Careers don’t have to be linear to be successful.

What matters is how two stories connect together or in this case, two careers.

Also that is where agility and adaptability comes in, and if you haven’t heard these traits are hot in 2021.

Finally, I would like to conclude by quoting Robert Frost’s famous poem,

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.