When I feel like a failure...

Marketing Powerups #66: April Dunford shares the 3 elements of how she got to where she's at in her career.

Hello, and welcome to Marketing Powerups! 👋🏽

Today's powerups include:

• How to create content that inspires people.

• The psychology behind highly effective landing pages.

• The 3 elements behind April Dunford’s successful career.

Ready? Let's go! ⭐️

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🎖 A fundraiser for a beloved marketing leader

Devin Bramhall

, who was on Marketing Powerups episode 36, is battling a rare form of cancer.

She’s a fantastic marketing leader and an amazing human being. When I recorded the episode with Devin, she made me feel like a close best friend, even though we only officially met that day!

The amazing Jay Acunzo is hosting a star-studded virtual fundraiser next Monday, December 18, where top marketers like

Sarah Stockdale

,

Brendan Hufford

,

Margaret Kelsey

, and more share a marketing framework that’s helped them in their career.

All donations go towards supporting Devin Bramhall’s fight against cancer.

→ Save your spot for 15-minute frameworks and support one of our own.

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⭐️ The 3 elements behind April’s successful career

April Dunford

shared a LinkedIn post two weeks ago that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately:

If it’s too long and you don’t want to read it (I think you should!), it’s about a product marketing consultant that April is helping. This person feels like a failure because her consulting business doesn’t look like April’s.

April tells the person that there’s no such thing as an overnight success. Case in point: she has worked in-house for 25 years as a marketing leader and has done over 250 workshops. It took many years and reps to get her where she is now, including speaking at a conference that wouldn’t have had her if she was only starting her business.

This hit hard.

Somedays, I scroll through my LinkedIn and

Substack

feeds and can’t help but compare myself to the success of others.

It may be another LinkedIn post from Neal O’Grady getting thousands of likes and comments. Or it could be Wes Kao getting over 22K subscribers after only a few months on Substack. Maybe it’s seeing Elen Verna and Wes Bush invited to speak at a conference in Sweden.

I think to myself, “Why am I not where they’re at?”

April’s response to this question resonates with me so much. She says there are three elements behind her success so far:

1. Reps — The more you do something, the more likely you’ll get better at it. April has done over 250 workshops! That means more people getting to know her work.

2. Consistency — Those reps need to be focused on getting good at one or two things. For April, that’s doing those 250 workshops on nailing product positioning and crafting sales pitches.

3. Time — Success is like baking a cake. If you pull it out too soon, you’ll get a soggy, undercooked cake (eww!) April has built her career over many years. She jokes that she’s “OLD - like seriously, really frikkin old,” meaning she has a ton more experience than where most are at.

April’s final advice is never to compare the beginning of our journey to the end of someone else's. I take that to heart. Just trust and enjoy the process; you’ll eventually get to where you want to be.

Free powerups Notion template 🔖

One thing I’ve been doing more lately is to journal one thing I’m thankful for that day. It’s often easy to forget your accomplishments, wins, and successes. Sometimes, you need to remember how much you’ve achieved to keep going.

I’ve created a gratitude journal Notion template. It has 21 prompts to help you build a habit around it.

→ Download and make a copy of it here (a direct link with no email required).

Download the gratitude journal Notion template.

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✨ Mini powerups

Fun-sized tools, links, and blurbs to boost your marketing.

📝 Turn messy thoughts into actionable notes (tool):

Maybe you’re like me—I talk faster than I write. So, I create a voice memo when I need to jot down an idea quickly. When I ran across Talknotes in ProductHunt, I had to try it. It turns hours of note-taking into minutes. Just speak, and let the AI transcribe, clean up, and structure your voice.

🧠 The psychology behind highly effective landing pages (article):

I see many startup websites and landing pages with UX challenges, such as cluttered text and too many call-to-action buttons. Your web design might hinder people's understanding of your product and why they need it. Comb through your website with these tips to ensure it’s serving the intended purpose.

🏆 Create content that inspires your team and audience (LinkedIn post):

Most execs and marketing leaders *do not* like the content their teams produce. Why? John Bonini (founder of Some Good Content) said, “Many companies are still trying to implement the HubSpot content playbook of 2012.” These dated practices don’t work anymore. John shares a better way to create content that inspires people and your team.

🎙️ How to master Marketing Power-Ups (podcast):

I was on the Alt Marketing School Podcast, where I shared two tips that helped me with creativity and content creation. One of them is to block times of peak creativity. For me, mornings are when I am most creative. So, I’ve blocked that off in my calendar to prevent people from scheduling meetings with me.

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That’s all for now, friends!

Have a powered-up day,

Ramli John

Let's connect on LinkedIn (let me know it's through this newsletter)

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