Ethnic Inspiration

I have 2 weeks until I leave The Brand. 2 weeks to finish up my analyses, 2 weeks to tidy up my projects and make some stuff happen. 2 weeks until I'm off for 2 weeks, and then I'll be in school FULL TIME. I haven't quite grasped all the possibilities I'll have while in school, but I am so damned excited. I met with the Assistant Dean last week to discuss my internship and he was 100% on board. In that same conversation he mentioned that I could co-author a case or academic journal article with one of the professors based on research I'll be doing with Company X's non-profit. I have always wanted to write and as we all know, I have slipped off the writer train in a mammoth way over the last 2 years. I know it had to happen in order for me to gain the knowledge and experience I needed to truly figure out who and where I want to be.

I remember many years ago when I was contemplating the whole move from social work to the corporate world and I, like many mid-20sters wanted to "change it from the inside out" and make Company X into a great place, a responsible corporate citizen, and a beacon of hope for everyone around the world. I joined the marketing team in 2005 and since then have seen and done amazing things. However, I got to a point where I needed more. I needed to be able to touch people and their lives and make more than pretty shiny stuff fly off the shelves. I started to become angry and offended when we spoke about our consumer as if we were happy that they spent a disproportionate amount of their income on our product. I think it was at that point where my disillusionment came into full technicolor view.

Since then, I have had a few conversations with other people working in the organization that feel the same way. So I, like any good marketeer with community organizing experience decided it was time to create a unified front. I decided to keep it ethnic and female in nature, because I feel like we as women of color in a male-dominated field have a voice which we all have tried to use, but it has often been futile. Now we are going to set up monthly meetings in which 5 of us beautiful ladies are going to get together to start a frickin' revolution. We have a love and passion for our consumer and the men at the top don't care about how they approach them, they just want to get in and get out. Unfortunately, if we continue to operate in that manner we will continue to lose market share as we have seen. It'll be good for me to step outside the world of Brand Marketing for a minute to get a clear perspective and take a break from the hustle.

I'm looking forward to a new chapter in my life, and some leveraging power. I'm actually starting to feel a little bit of respect and clout in my field after two years and I gotta tell ya...it feels damned good.

-TT