Every step taken this year counts!

In the summary of 2023, the author of this article reflects on the "stability" of personal feelings and the changes in the overall environment. It also reflects the way people adapt to and accept the bad environment. The article shares new perspectives and ideas from the aspects of marketing industry, belief in doing things and energy management.

When I started writing the summary of 2023, I suddenly felt that the rhythm of this year seemed to be more "stable" than in previous years: so stable that it was difficult for me to recall what exciting or unforgettable moments happened to me; so stable that I couldn't even remember what major events happened in society that changed the world pattern or affected human life.

However, after browsing my friends circle, I found that I still went to many places, met many people, learned a lot of knowledge, and did a lot of things this year. The "stability" in my personal subjective feelings is, on the one hand, that as my own experience and knowledge grow, the threshold requirements for "excitement points" are getting higher and higher.

For example, being invited to serve as a judge or give a speech at major advertising festivals, when it becomes a common thing in daily life, it is difficult to maintain the excitement of previous years; and in the past, when I went out to travel and posted on WeChat Moments, I wanted to show off and attract likes from friends, but now I want to record my life more; this change in mentality allows people to focus more on the things they are doing, and for the time being, I will understand it as a manifestation of mental maturity.

Another reason should be that after adapting to and accepting the terrible environment in the past few years, everyone has found a way to live a good life during the economic downturn, and is no longer anxious and complaining. We have seen many unemployed people find the motivation to live again by doing self-media, starting a business, etc.; we have also seen many companies facing a survival crisis, starting to work hard to transform and find new directions and growth points, and gradually get out of the predicament. Shi Tiesheng once said this to inspire countless people: "When my legs just couldn't walk, I sat in a wheelchair and missed running and playing basketball every day. Every day was very painful. A few years later, I got bedsores in a wheelchair and felt uncomfortable every day. At that time, I missed the time when I didn't itch or hurt anything, and sat quietly in a wheelchair every day. A few years later, I got uremia and always had to go for dialysis. At that time, I missed the time when I was in a wheelchair when I just had bedsores."

So treat every day well, live in the present, and when you look back at yourself two years later, it will be the best day of your life.

After finishing a long paragraph of chicken soup-like text, I still want to talk about some new viewpoints and ideas this year, mostly from the dimensions of marketing industry, belief in doing things and energy management; perhaps these viewpoints are not enlightened truths, but they are things that I have distilled in real life and that ordinary people can also obtain and practice.

1. Operation > Marketing > Advertising

When I just graduated and entered the advertising industry, I had the lofty ambition of "If I can't be the president, I will be an advertiser". I believed that the quality of advertising determines the success or failure of a company; after all, there have been so many popular classic slogans in society, and many brands have become household names because of their good advertising.

However, the model of relying on one trick to conquer the world through advertising has become ineffective as the media gradually decentralizes: first, brands need to play different roles and use different communication methods to communicate with consumers on different media, and the content of communication needs to become more personalized and customized; second, traffic and authority are no longer controlled by a few media, and the previous simple and crude advertising method has become very inefficient if you want to implant the brand's mind into the minds of consumers.

So we began to broaden our focus from "focusing on advertising" to "the whole picture of marketing", and gradually realized that marketing is not about making a sensational advertisement, but about carefully doing every link in the marketing chain. For example, think about what kind of products consumers really need? What kind of pricing can stand out from the fiercely competitive red ocean while ensuring profits? Which channels can most accurately reach the core consumer groups and make it more convenient for consumers to buy products? In addition to the exposure of voice in publicity, how to design a complete consumer marketing closed loop can help the business achieve growth, etc.

Compared with the previous focus on doing a good job in advertising, marketing operations face a larger and more complex system, and also require marketers to stand in the front-line market and fight fiercely with the enemy. I have heard Zheng Daming, a teacher of Shockwave Marketing (the operator of the case of "France wins the championship, Vatti refunds the full amount"), talk about the relationship between advertising and marketing, which makes sense: the muscles trained by advertising are more like the bodybuilding muscles in the gym, which are very gorgeous and beautiful; while the muscles trained by front-line marketing are the practical muscles that can kill people with one punch. After experiencing several projects from 0-1, I realized that if advertising and marketing are put in front of business operations, they seem to be no longer so important. Many problems are unsolvable from the perspective of marketing, but from the perspective of business operations, the problems are easily solved. Because business operations have to face a more complex system, including talent recruitment, business management, financial management, supply chain management, etc., and marketing is actually only a part of business operations.

For example, how can Pang Donglai do very well without relying on marketing? Countless supermarket owners across the country have learned from Pang Donglai, but Pang Donglai's waiters can voluntarily kneel on the ground to clean the floor. Can you let your waiters clean the floor when you go back? There is no doubt that most people can't learn it, because Pang Donglai's boss has distributed 90% of his shares to employees, which is one of the important factors for Pang Donglai's business success. We have many ways to make a company bigger, but not necessarily through marketing.

2. Actively embrace and explore AI

The aggressive advent of AI has brought unprecedented shock to everyone. It can be said that all industries in the future are worth doing again with AI; content creation is the most important daily work of marketers, and it has also become one of the most mature areas of AI application.

Facts have also proved that AI can already assist us in completing many specific marketing tasks, such as collecting information, conducting market research and data analysis, managing advertising, generating advertising content and creativity, and interacting with customers intelligently; using AI tools can greatly improve the work efficiency of marketers.

For the helmsman of a marketing company, an important task is to lead employees to actively embrace AI: first, let employees realize the value and help of AI in their daily work from the conscious level, and that it is an extremely efficient assistant for daily work. Secondly, employees should be encouraged to explore AI at the action level, and even spend some money to train employees on the use of AI.

Another question that needs to be considered is "Does a marketing company need to develop its own AI tools?" This can be considered comprehensively based on the company's business type, existing capabilities and resources, and the size of the company.

For companies whose businesses are mainly digital marketing, which already have their own technical departments and have relatively large business volumes, it is imperative to develop their own AI tools, which can help manage and optimize advertising, conduct data analysis and insights, generate and optimize advertising creatives, etc., thereby reducing labor costs while improving advertising efficiency.

For advertising companies that do not have technical personnel, are small in scale, and have limited funds and resources, they do not have to blindly invest a lot of resources to develop AI tools. They can buy easy-to-use AI tools in the marketing and advertising fields on the market and use them first, and then make plans when the right opportunity arises.

In short, AI tools will not replace marketers, but they will definitely eliminate those marketers who cannot use AI. Therefore, we must learn to control AI and regard AI as the most effective assistant in our daily work, so that work efficiency can achieve a qualitative leap.

3. Always examine yourself calmly and objectively

One of the most difficult things for people to do is to know themselves, and life is also a process of continuous self-recognition. Many times, we cannot make the best decision because there is a deviation in our assessment of ourselves. This deviation may come from the excessive influence of the external environment, or from mistaking the platform's capabilities for our own capabilities, resulting in an overestimation of ourselves.

This is why many people with brilliant backgrounds and experiences are prone to acclimatization problems after they choose to start their own businesses. Because their previous success mainly came from the mature mechanism and huge resources of the platform, and individuals may play more of a screw role in it, and screws can only play a role and value when they rely on huge machines. Therefore, after achieving any achievement, you must examine yourself and see clearly which credits are given by the platform? Which can be achieved independently by relying on your own abilities? And which ones can you still control after leaving the platform? Only by keeping a calm and objective assessment of yourself at all times can you avoid losing yourself in the cheers of others and constantly improve yourself.

4. Avoid using the universal excuse of “no time”

Many people like to use being busy as an excuse, covering themselves with the cloak of "no time", thus missing out on time with family, giving up their business hobbies, missing out on gatherings with friends they haven't seen for a long time, etc.; "no time" seems to have become the most plausible reason for us to refuse certain activities without any guilt.

However, if you observe those successful entrepreneurs, you will find that no matter how busy they are, they can always find time to improve themselves, cultivate hobbies, and spend time with their families, even though they are the most qualified to say "no time" as an excuse. In fact, time is like water in a sponge. As long as you are willing to squeeze it, there will always be some. It is a rare and valuable habit to arrange time accurately. Dividing time into several small and easy-to-manage parts and making a strict schedule is the trick to make the most of time.

So, in 2023, I developed a consciousness of making precise time arrangements and plans no matter how busy or tight the time is; this allowed me to spare a lot of time to accompany my family, recharge and study, meet with friends, and even cultivate hobbies; in the past, I would usually hang up the "no time" sign and find a strong excuse for my laziness in time management strategy.

These techniques are the methods I have practiced to effectively manage time: wake up at the same time every day; ensure adequate rest time; set aside special time to handle fixed things; create a to-do list and determine the order of tasks; automate low-level tasks; divide time into several parts; think about the things I do every day and how to optimize and improve them; avoid distractions and strive to enter the flow state.

5. Vigorous energy is a powerful potential energy

Maintaining a vibrant state and having abundant energy is definitely a rare ability, and it can also allow people to develop a habit of doing things efficiently in a subtle way; an energetic state will also generate a strong potential energy, making many difficult problems easy to solve, and even affecting the work state of people around you.

There are also two methods here that I think are more effective in practicing energy management: the first is to persist in meditation. Meditation is a way to immerse yourself in your body and feelings and completely relax. The effect of meditating for 10 minutes a day may be better than sleeping for two more hours. And the role of meditation is not limited to relieving fatigue. When we can't sleep, we can quickly calm down and fall asleep through meditation; when we feel nervous and stressed, meditation will guide us to gradually release the stress and reach a state of calm; long-term meditation can even improve our memory and thinking ability, and our thinking becomes more agile while our spirit is improved.

In addition, giving yourself a sense of excitement is also an effective technique to give yourself a positive psychological hint after completing a small task. In life and work, we often like to focus on big things and achievements, thus ignoring many small and beautiful things, which invisibly raises the threshold for us to get a sense of excitement.

If you can lower the threshold of your own desires and discover the small and beautiful things in life, such as posting a very satisfying message on WeChat Moments, having a smooth commute without traffic jams, getting a very satisfying new hairstyle, taking the time to clean up the house, making a delicious dinner, etc.; in these daily little things, giving yourself positive affirmation and psychological hints will invisibly enhance your ability to acquire a sense of happiness and excitement, and you will become more energetic to do things.

In 2024, no matter facing wind, rain or sunshine, I hope every step taken by all readers counts!

Author: Lao Pao, from the official account: Lao Pao OG