In this edition of the How 2B Fearless series, we sat down with Adele Miller, who is a Marketing Automation Manager at IFS. She is also a Marketo Champion Alumni and London MUG Co-Leader. Adele shares what being a fearless marketer means for her and what it has meant for her career.
What does fearless marketing mean to you?
Fearless marketing to me means having courage and confidence in your convictions and experience, whilst pushing to ensure you are always progressing as a company and as an individual. Technology never stands still so you shouldn’t either!
Being a fearless marketer is about making tough decisions or participating in the odd office battle to ensure you push to achieve what’s best to help your company succeed.
It’s also about the ability to not be afraid to make mistakes – not everything is going to go right the first time regardless of how much research and due diligence you pay, but it is about taking the chance to make the change and how you recover from the mistake if it arises.
Who is a fearless marketer you look up to and why?
Working within Marketing Automation provides the opportunity to join such an encouraging and intelligent community of like-minded people that it makes it really difficult to choose just one fearless marketer to look up to.
Michelle Tang is someone who stands out for me though as she was the first Marketo Admin I ever worked with. She joined the first company I was part of after we had Marketo for a little while and just took it into the next realm, showing true confidence in her amazing knowledge and taking on the disbelievers proving them all wrong!
She really encouraged me to try new things, grow my knowledge and believe in myself for which I will be forever grateful.
How did your career start out in marketing?
Completely by mistake to be honest! My University degree had me spend my third year working in industry, and the only open positions were for Marketing Assistant roles. I was fortunate enough to land a great one at Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency and knew straight away it was what I wanted to do.
I finished University and started a role in Marketing at which point I discovered a slight obsession with Salesforce and Emailing Marketing through an agency. Another year passed and a new VP at the time, Dave Burton, decided to switch to Marketo in 2010 and as they say…the rest is history.
How did you get to the point you are at in your career today? (Pointing out specific fearless moments)
Not being afraid of learning new things or meeting new people.
When Marketo came into my life all those years ago I really wanted to know everything there was to know – and with the initial help of the amazing Patricia Dowling during our implementation sessions I certainly started off on the right track. Pushing myself to study the Community in my own time, try new things, and work with Support, I constantly learned new skills until I became an Admin level user.
After starting out as a Marketing Assistant with no idea of where I wanted to head, finding MarTech and not being shy in showing off my love for systems really helped me grow and progress through 3 different companies to where I am today.
The most important thing for my career has been all of the great people I have met through my work with Marketo – whether at Events, Internal Meetings, User Groups & the Champion classes I have been very lucky to grow a strong network of colleagues, friends and someone who even turned out to be my hiring manager!
I stumbled across my fantastic former Manager, Maria Karlsson, at the London User Group during a drinks reception and went on to spend 5 amazing years at Dynatrace constantly learning new systems and growing the stack.
What have you learned from other members of the Fearless 50?
To not be afraid to be myself. Every Fearless 50 member I’ve met is friendly and open to sharing their experiences, actively encouraging people to succeed and provide support when needed. As the old adage goes: no one is an island, and everyone in the Fearless 50 class is so open to the idea of a community.
From Joe Reitz’s amazing online content, Jenn DiMaria’s blogs & presentations to seeing Julz James, Emily Poulton, and Jessica Kao fearlessly taking to the main stage at Summit 2018 to share their experiences, the other members of the Fearless 50 classes this year and last year really do give you a lot to look up to.
What are three pieces of advice you would give to the next generation of fearless marketers?
1. Never be afraid to be yourself
The world would be a very boring place if everyone was the same! Don’t hide who you are or try to change to fit in – we spend a lot of time at work, so you need to be happy and comfortable to produce your best work.
Looking back if I hadn’t of spoken up about my newly found passion for Marketing Technology whilst working as a Marketing Assistant, my Managers at the time wouldn’t have been able to support me to grow my knowledge and role in the same way as they kindly did.
If you’re a Marketing Automation fanatic or a Campaign Wizard then let people know, collaboration is the best way to achieve project goals and it will make you happier.
2. Don’t be shy!
‘If you don’t ask you don’t get’ couldn’t be more relevant to the space we work in. There are a lot of things we will not know straight away so ask people who do know, attend User Groups, and post on the Community. There is nothing wrong with asking for some help and if you are lucky like I have been you might end up making some great friends in the Community as well as getting your answers
3. Be generous to others
Following on from my point above, be generous with your time and knowledge to others. Whether that is to new Marketo users in your Company or new connections in the wider community, everyone needs to start somewhere, just like you did, so pass it on. I have had the opportunity throughout my career to train hundreds of new Marketo users, many to Admin level, which is not only rewarding to me but has helped them add a new skill to their CV.
About Adele Miller
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/adele-miller-77a89528
Community Profile: Adele Miller
7 Comments
.png)