Confessions of a Journalism Major Who Used to Be Inept at Marketing

If you walked into a high-end hotel ballroom in Metro Manila twenty-five years ago, you’d likely find me loading up my plate at the lunch buffet. I was sitting through intensive sales and marketing seminars paid for by an employer to whom I had happily traded a few years of corporate loyalty.

Those glamorous training sessions weren’t just a corporate perk—they were a lifeline.

My college degree wasn't in business; it was in Journalism. I could write a mean essay and feature articles perfect for a lifestyle magazine, but I was completely inept at marketing. Those corporate-sponsored seminars were the bricks and mortar used to rebuild my career from scratch.

Fast forward to today. I have spent 30 years in the sales and marketing trenches. I'm now standing at the front of a university classroom, teaching the next generation using Philip Kotler’s legendary textbooks as our reference.

Yet, looking at marketing as both a practitioner and a professor, I’ve come to a realization: Those seminars and trainings I attended in the past have not come full circle. And they never will.

The Illusion of a "Complete" Education

When we are young in our careers, we treat training as a destination. We crave that "full-circle" moment where everything we need to know is safely mastered.

But marketing is a living, breathing discipline. The Kotler principles I teach today are timeless structural anchors, but the execution changes by the hour. The tech stacks, consumer psychology, and media channels we use now didn't even exist when I was sitting in those hotel ballrooms.

If my education had ever come "full circle," it would mean my learning had stopped. In this industry, the moment you stop learning is the exact moment you become obsolete.

The Real Essence: Always Be Learning

The true value of those early hotel seminars wasn't the specific tactics scribbled on my notepad. It was that they taught a journalism major how to think strategically.

The entire essence of a career in marketing boils down to a simple, unyielding rule: Always be learning.

Your degree doesn't define your ceiling, and a single corporate training session doesn't seal your expertise. True marketing mastery is an infinite loop, not a closed circle.

The LEADGR Insight: Expertise is a moving target. Whether you transitioned from another field or you are a student reading Kotler for the first time, do not hunt for a finish line. The hotel venues will change, but your hunger for new knowledge must remain constant. Never let your circle close.

Are you relying on yesterday’s playbook to solve today’s business challenges? Let’s connect and inject some fresh, strategic discipline into your brand.

#MarketingStrategy #AlwaysBeLearning #KotlerMarketing #ContinuousLearning #30YearsExperience #FractionalCMO #LEADGR #MarketingEducation #CareerTransition #StrategicDiscipline

Image by Ирина Шутько from Pixabay

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