50: How do you stay happy at work and balance home life?

HUGE thank you to all of our awesome guests.

In celebration of our 50th episode, we're rounding up all the answers to the most important question we asked every single one of our guests: what advice do they have on how they've managed to balance everything life throws at them and how they stay happy and sane at work.

This is our 50th episode. Most of our episodes were actually just the two of us, jamming on a topic. Sometimes we went deep in a technical topic like email deliverability or lifecycle. Sometimes we talked about the people skills, working in tech, working remote.

15 of our 50 episodes had guest interviews. We showcased martech folks from different roles and seniority levels.

But for each of our guests, we finished by asking the same question:

What advice do you have on how to balance everything life throws at you and how do you stay happy and sane at work?

Our guests share their answers back to back, time stamps below:

02:00 - Lauren Sanborn (05: Happiness at the intersection of sales & marketing)
"Happiness is all about your perspective, 25% your situation and 75% how you look at it."

05:22 - Brian Leonard (07: Be friends with engineering with open source Martech)
"The secret of autonomy and purpose is to work on something that is important. Find a way to write your own job description so that it lines up with your purpose and mastery."

06:16 - Nick Donaldson (10: Curiosity, learning & success in your MOPs career)
"Prioritize your family and your friends. Turn off notifications outside work hours and dedicate time to doing things you enjoy."

07:40 - Jonathan Simon (11: Do you still need a degree to have success in marketing?)
"It’s hard. Exercise and mental health is incredibly important. Pick up hobbies, do what makes you happy, find time for yourself."

11:02 - Julie Beynon (17: Making marketing analytics not intimidating)
"You have to be proactive. You’re the only person that owns your happiness. If you’re not happy, you need to fix it, not someone else."

13:10 - Steffen Hedebrandt (19: Reaching B2B attribution nirvana)
"Having a kid makes you become really good at prioritizing. I ask myself, does this make me happy or does this correlate with more revenue yes or no?"

14:40 - Naomi Liu (25: How to ace your first marketing job)
"Tech is my love language, and I get a lot of satisfaction using it to solve other peoples problems both in my personal life and business."

15:08 - Melissa Ledesma (26: Melissa Ledesma: Women of Martech)
"I encourage you to step away and talk to your friends about your job. They will not understand a word of what you’re saying, and let them show you their own excitement and absorb that. There’s so much more for us to be invigorated by if we take a moment to remember what we’re actually doing."

16:45 - Erin Blaskie (27: Startup marketing, in-house vs freelance)
"Ditch everyone else’s definition of success. Nobody cares that you drive a BMW and it likely won’t amount to additional happiness. Focus on what would make you feel successful as a person and don’t be afraid of having a non linear path."

19:11 - Shannon McCluskey (37: Searching for remote martech pros)
"Ever since I’ve become a mom I’ve been learning by necessity and actively keeping my working hours 9-5. Remote work is always around the corner but it’s important to get that distance to make sure you connect with family."

20:37 - Pierce Ujjainwalla (39: Creativity in marketing is under attack)
"I never work past 5. I never work on the weekends. I attribute happiness to pleasure and challenges. Pleasure is golfing and skiing and I find a lot of challenge in my work but also some hobbies. Lawn care gives me a mental break. Digging out weeds is very relaxing."

22:33 - Manuela Barcenas (41: From first marketer to team manager)
"To stay balanced and happy, find activities that make you feel good, block time in your calendar for specific tasks and get into journaling."

24:38 - Roxanne Pepin (44: Startups and the ability to learn RevOps)
"Having a separate space in your house for where you work. Being able to “leave” and not have to bring your work with you in other places of your house. Oh and take Slack off your phone!"

26:54 - Danica Bateman (46: A day in the life of a Marketing Automation Manager)
"Surround yourself with positive people. People that are invested in your success and want to see you grow and thrive."

27:48 - Vladlena Mitskaniouk (47: Grow your marketing career one data mystery at a time)
"Acknowledge that things came in waves. When the clam is there, really embrace those moments. Don’t always try and push yourself through every moment. Book vacation well ahead of time and check out. Book time for your lunch, book time for your workouts, book time in the morning to do a checkin with yourself. No one else is going to save that time for you. "

✌️

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Intro music by Wowa via Unminus
Cover art created with help via Undraw