From Reads to Leads is a newsletter for writers who want more. It's about marketing. Strategy. Positioning. Operations. Results. And yes, it talks about writing too. But through a marketing lens. If this was sent to you, subscribe here so you don't miss the next email.
In today's newsletter:
Last week, I saw a post on Linkedin by Lenny Rachitsky.
Isn't it interesting? Only 15% of founders experience high burnout.
It got me thinking.
Years ago, when I was employed at a software development company, it was common for people who were quitting to take a 3- to 6-month break before starting something new. It was their way of dealing with stress and burnout.
I always found that practice kind of funny. I couldn’t imagine doing the same.
In fact, I never have.
Not even when Taras was born. I only took a week off while I was in the hospital and was back to work Saturday, a day after we came home with a newborn and my exhausted husband, who had spent nights sleeping on a chair beside me.
The reason why I never felt the need for a long break is that I love what I do.
That said, I do get tired…like right now. I can't wait for a vacation. But even then, a week or two is usually all I need to recharge and get back in.
They dread Mondays.
They count the hours until 5 PM.
They stretch out lunch breaks and take too many coffee runs.
They live for the weekend.
I hope this is not the case for you. But let me ask:
Do you really do what you love? Or are you doing it for the money and prestige?
How do you achieve it? Climb into leadership. This is what I'm seeing around me.
Many capable marketing specialists want to be promoted to the role of a CMO. Only to find out they actually hate this job.
Let’s start with influence.
CMOs don’t have it. They don't control product, pricing, or sales, which cripples their ability to achieve results. When things go right, credit goes to the product. When things go wrong, that’s all marketing's fault.
Marketing is always treated as an expense, which is why a CMO is non-essential when a company is having economic difficulties. No wonder the average tenure of a CMO is the shortest in the C-suite.
Now let’s talk about money.
CMO makes more money than any marketing employee below the CMO. But if you’re a rockstar marketer, you’ll make much more money as a solo entrepreneur, not as an employee.
And you'll be more valuable as a solo.
I agree with Anthony Pierri.
I once worked with a company that had six managers and zero writers. No one built anything. They just “managed” things. And felt good about the titles on their résumés. But none of it mattered. Nothing impactful was being done.
I think people choose a job as a CMO because of the title.
But if you still think your CMO job is great, I get that.
It shapes your beliefs about what you should enjoy. It tricks you into working on what you’d like to like, not what you truly love. Some creative people I know chose to take a leading marketing role because the title looked good. Because it felt prestigious.
How do I know they weren’t following their passion?
They procrastinate. And they're constantly stressed, dreaming about a long break from work. That's how I know.
If you want to get ambitious people to waste their potential, bait the hook with prestige. That’s how you end up with talented creatives burning out as heads of marketing departments.
But remember, prestige is the opinion of the rest of the world. Not yours.
If the thing you actually enjoy doesn’t feel prestigious… do it anyway. Do it well, and you’ll make it prestigious.
But many people simply don't know what kind of work they like.
If you can't choose a job you like, this is typically because you don't know what different kinds of work are really like or how well you could do them.
I’m facing this with someone on my team right now.
Her title is "strategist," but her day-to-day is more about making content briefs. I’m trying to help her grow into the real strategist role.
She says she enjoys creative work. But she’s unsure if strategy is the right path. Because she hasn’t experienced enough of it to decide.
And that’s the point:
Try doing the work. Not just the idea of doing it.
For example, I’d love to be on vacation in Hawaii. But planning the trip? Researching hotels? Coordinating flights? Not for me. So, no. I wouldn’t love being a travel agent.
Doing what you love means enjoying the process, not just the outcome.
Paul Graham says: Always produce.
If you subject yourself to that [Always produce] constraint, it will automatically push you away from things you think you're supposed to work on, toward things you actually like.
On the flip side, avoid work that bores you. That’s what productivity experts end up doing: building systems to tolerate something they don’t actually enjoy.
If you need constant hacks to get through your day, you're probably doing the wrong thing.
People pay you for doing what they want, not what you want.
As a manager, I want my strategist to be a strategist. Not just in title, but in practice. It would be ideal if she wanted that too. Alignment makes everything easier.
The real magic happens when what you want to do lines up with what the world wants to pay you for.
You know who’s the luckiest? People with strange tastes. People who love doing things that are both valuable and unpopular. Like my sister. In the world of product design, she likes to be the janitor. She builds design systems. The behind-the-scenes kind of work that most designers avoid.
But companies love that work. They pay well for it. And she enjoys doing it. That’s the sweet spot.
A lack of calls to action in blog posts is one of the reasons why readers don't continue their journey on your website and don't convert into leads. The good news is, it's easy to fix. Check out the best examples of calls to action to add to your blog.
Open a fresh Google Doc and flex those typing fingers. In this blog post, I'm going to break down how to write high-converting landing page content and show lots of examples to inspire you. Let's get started.
Subscribe to From Reads to Leads for real-life stories, marketing wisdom, and career advice delivered to your inbox every Friday.
