My original goal in 2020, taken from my 2019 goal, was just to read a book a month. No theme. No rush. But somewhere between reading Michelle Obama in early 2020, and then the uprising of Black Lives Matter, had me wanting to read the life experiences of those with different backgrounds than mine. It was also my 30th birthday this year, so all of this combined to form this goal: to read 30 memoirs by a diverse group of influential women, to inspire my 30s. I want to explore the themes of womanhood, motherhood, careers, partnerships, trauma, mental health…

I’m Sara, and I’m a self-help, self-improvement enthusiast. I know and live the power of self-awareness, building your strengths, and improving your weaknesses. Here are 10 books that changed my perspective, sense of self, and improved my life in some way —

P.S. The first 9 of 10 authors here also have TED Talks, if you want to hear a bit about their work before you dive into a book!

For being happier at work: The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor

Shawn is a positive psychology researcher who teaches Harvard’s famed happiness course. He also happens to be one of my favourite TED talkers of all time. …

Those who know me on social (sara.nrtn on instagram) know I am open about:

• losing my mom slowly and painfully to terminal breast cancer 3 years ago;
• managing anxiety and depression for 10+ years;
• being an avid reader of ‘self help’ types of books

So I’m rounding up 12 of my favourite books + 1 podcast here, for folk going through hard times from dealing with life-altering grief to every day anxiety.

5 BOOKS ON GRIEF + DEATH

Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom

A true story, Morrie was Mitch’s college professor, and now he’s dying of a degenerative disease, so Mitch sits down with him each week to document his wisdom…

About nine months ago I wrote about my experience working through the “Creative Leadership” certificate with IDEOU. From that article I’m going to copy and share my “why IDEOU” before going into why I wanted to learn Design Thinking, how the course was different, what I got out of it, and who I’d recommend it to!

Why IDEOU?

How did I come upon IDEOU when there are approximately 286183736718 other professional development courses out there? Well, first, I knew I wanted online only. While I fully believe an in-person learning experience is better for most people including me, online just suits my…

… And it’s a really easy mistake to make. Because our CRMs aren’t perfect.

Beware of accidentally double, triple, quadruple enrolling contacts in multiple workflows.

It’s a quick way to create an awkward embarrassing moment for your brand and ruin the customer journey experience.

How does it happen and how do we prevent it?

Managing Duplicate Contacts

I was astounded by the mass numbers of duplicate contacts the company I work for had. Thousands. Continually. People who filled out multiple forms, sometimes with the same email (a true duplication) and some with the same name but an alternative email (lets keep in mind some people will have multiple email addresses syncing…

Because I’m so tired of hearing about disruption, AI, AR/VR, automation, apps, podcasts, etc etc etc. Because the reality is, most industries aren’t really THERE and won’t be for a while or just aren’t suited to these types of trends.

So, my fellow marketers, if you want to expand your skills and experiences in a realistic, relevant and timely areas in 2020 to advance your marketing career, here’s what I think you should try to learn on the job this year, based on what the latest marketing job descriptions are looking for:

• “LIFECYCLE” MARKETING: To know your customer personas like…

There are dozens of marketing predictions for 2020 by industry experts, but the one I was drawn to the most were these 10 trends identified by 99designs as I found parts of the list unique compared to all the other trends lists out there. Here are my thoughts as a start up marketer who cares a lot about new trends in our industry —

1. Shoppable posts

Technically I really like this trend in terms of (a) price transparency and (b) reduction in customer friction, BUT to me this trend is only relevant to retail marketers selling goods under $100 so, pretty niche.

2. Direct messaging

…

Context I used 15Five for just over a year (and mostly loved it) but ultimately the company I work for did decide to discontinue using it. You’ll see why after I discuss my thoughts on the primary features of the program and then into the cons and missing pieces.

Why use an engagement app?

I hope I don’t need to sell this too hard? Employee engagement is hard work (80% of employees report being disengaged), management is hard work, as are communication and conflict resolution, and an engagement app takes half the work off of you AND makes engagement initiatives ongoing. When they’re ongoing they’re…