Playing Big (Tara Mohr)
Not particularly marketing related, but absolutely career related, Tara 
Mohr has written a book about the all too common problem for women in the workplace – ‘playing small’.
Tara, now a career coach, says she noticed time and time again examples of women ‘playing small’ in all areas of their life. She created her business and this book around helping women play bigger in life.
Here’s just a few pieces of wisdom from her book:
(headings = mine, all quotes directly from the book)
Understanding we all have an inner critic
“We don’t need to have had particular life experiences to develop a harsh inner critic. We’re hardwired for it. The inner critic is an expression of the safety instinct in us—the part of us that wants to stay safe from potential emotional risk—from hurt, failure, criticism, disappointment, or rejection by the tribe.”
And learn ways to tell it to shut the hell up (nicely)
“When you create a character with a name and visual image, you help yourself remember that the critic is not the core of you, it’s one voice, with its own personality and pathology.”
OR…
“Imagine you can simply turn down the volume on the critic’s voice. See an “inner critic volume dial” in your mind’s eye and turn the volume way down.”
Get okay with self promotion
I often hear women saying things along the lines of “Self-promotion is part of the same old bullshit organizational politics stuff I don’t want to engage in.”
The solution
“Drop the idea of “self-promotion” and think about the concept of visibility instead.”
Avoid ‘designing at the whiteboard’ talk to real people instead (a great one for marketers)
“Designing at the whiteboard seems like a reasonable way to get work done, but it generally brings disaster. It’s too easy for the insiders, the people passionate about and committed to a product, to veer into fantasyland as they make their plans.”
Do you need discipline or love?
“I’ve come to know, in my own life, and in the lives of the women I work with, that where we think we need more self-discipline, we usually need more self-love—not just self-love as an attitude, but self-love manifested through the routines and rituals that we set up to enable the changes we desire to happen naturally and with ease.”
Grab the book here. (Full title: Playing Big: Find your voice, your vision and make things happen).
Happy reading,
C x
The Marketer's Bookshelf 