After a career I banking that she “fell into”, and the significant life change that divorce often heralds, Carolyn stepped away from the corporate world and started her own marketing business. She quickly became well regarded in the small business marketing world, publishing “Small Business Marketing for Dummies” and “Small Business, Big Brand”, running workshops and consulting to a wide range of businesses.
But after 9 years of this pursuit, she fell out of love with her profession.
“I really felt that the business of marketing was broken, and I couldn’t be involved anymore”. Carolyn closed her business, sold her house and moved to Provence with her 12-year-old son in 2010 where she began to ask the big questions – what am I here, what’s meaningful to me, what’s my future contribution going to be?
As she listened to her heart and gut and added courage and commitment into the mix, her Purpose Project began to emerge, with several chapters opening up to move through.
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Show Notes
- Look for the work that competes, rather than depletes you.
- We often have “Multiple Possibility Disorder”, likely discovered through abandoned projects. Challenges are here to test our resolve, as we dance between persevering and letting go.
- The “how will I possibly do this” often kills an idea – focus on your why instead
- Understand that purpose has seasons, that will change and ebb an flow as you do
- Remember that perfection is the enemy of progress – consider everything you do an experiment, a test, a prototype and reframe success as simply taking action
- Consider your work in a series of steps – for example, with Carolyn’s book writing, she considers it to be three projects – to write, to publish and to promote the book
- It can get lonely as a business personal so seek support, collaboration, support and advice from like-minded people on the same journey, but be aware it can also be a distraction, especially if you are an over giver.
About the speaker
Carolyn Tate & Co. is an education and publishing company dedicated to unearthing a higher purpose in people and organisations. Carolyn believes that the purpose of business is to serve the greater good and that profit should be the by-product, not the single-minded goal.
Carolyn is a marketer with a passion for purpose-digging, writing, speaking, teaching and community building. As a brand and marketing specialist with a 20-year history at Westpac, Merrill Lynch and in her own business, she is uniquely placed to help any company dedicated to building a “profit-for-purpose” entity.
Carolyn is the author of five books; Small Business Big Brand, Marketing Your Small Business for Dummies, Unstuck in Provence (a personal memoir), Conscious Marketing and The Purpose Project.
She is the founder of The Slow School of Business (Slow School), Talk on Purpose and The Purpose Project programs. All her learning programs are highly experiential and transformative for every participant.
Underpinning all her work is a commitment to being courageous, growing in consciousness, operating with compassion and connecting authentically with others in the spirit of collaboration.
The company is a Certified B Corporation and Carolyn is a founding member of Conscious Capitalism Australia.
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