To save you the TED talk introduction, I’m Matej, a 3-month fresh recruit at Lean, and here’s my story:

When I first stepped into the office I had little experience in the vast realm of digital marketing. To be frank, I didn’t even realize just how vast it really was. What I did know though was that I was going in headfirst…

Because I love persuasion.

I often bore people to death trying to sell them some “idea” in most of my daily conversations. But what can I do? It’s just how I was wired. Even though I loved the art of persuasion, I never had a career out of it. I did have a short stint in university where I sold insurance and investment funds but that got old quickly. I also used to play video games competitively, and my latest stint being a nutrition/fitness coach. But then…

I saw a copywriting job post on LinkedIn, and everything changed.

“What in the hell is copywriting anyway?” Copyright-ing? It can’t be, it seems to be about writing ads, landing pages, emails… and down the wormhole I went. I started researching the great copywriters like Ogilvy, Eugene Schwarz and Joe Sugarman. Reading every single book I could get my hands on, and I even started writing copy for imaginary companies because I couldn’t get a copywriting gig on Upwork to save my life.

“Copy readers will never understand what it is to be a copywriter”.

Point is, I want to get sh*t done right. But like all newbies, I struggled massively, had no team to help me, so I knew that the fastest way to become good is to find the best people and work alongside them. And now the fun part…

Lean enters the picture.

This was a few months after I discovered copywriting, and I didn’t really have any experience with it because I didn’t even get the copywriting job, and had just 3 gigs on Upwork (I did apply though– because I’m a headfirst type of guy remember?).

After somehow going through the interview process smoothly, my final step was a coffee meetup with the CEO Gabriela Lazova. And since I had nothing to lose I decided to ignore all conventional advice on what to do on interviews, so I was completely transparent about my skills and mindset, and in a way I was “testing” the market. And then…

She said something that changed the trajectory of my career completely.

“I see a lot of myself in you, and I think you’d do even better being an account lead, the orchestrator of all the countless moving parts that encompass the growth of a company. An account lead needs to be the one moving the needle, and I believe you can do that”. In the words of Seth Godin, I could become:

An Ambassador of Change.

“F*ck yes!” 

“I know you don’t have experience, don’t worry, I believe you’ll be able to manage your own clients in 3 or 4 months”

Terror started to set in… My. own. clients? LOL. I didn’t even know what CPL or CTR was. “I will be exposed”, “I’ll get fired in a month” or “I suck” were thoughts constantly circulating in my mind, but there was one thing I wasn’t going to let happen:

LET THOSE THOUGHTS PARALYZE ME.

Keep that in caps. Because that singular thought was and still is getting me through the growing pains. What’s more, throughout life I’ve observed the most insecure people excelling the most. If you think you suck, you try to get better. Or at least that’s what I’m doing, and it seems to be going well.

But here’s the really fun part–if you have the right people around you, it really makes this process a hell of a lot easier. And I can say with an absolute degree of certainty that Lean has those people. People that will go out of their way to help you out. People that don’t hoard their know-how, but instead cherish the opportunity to go share it. Now this sounds nice and all but when you’re just starting out and you offer nothing in return, it can be hard to ask these questions, and I certainly was that guy–struggling with a problem for hours, determined to do it on my own and not look stupid, when I could’ve done it in 10 mins had I asked someone for help.

But it’s all only a part of the process.

After all, “success is not final, and failure is definitely not fatal”. Now I’m responsible for the growth of four clients, with responsibilities depending on their size and budget. Don’t get me wrong, we always work within a team but for smaller clients I get an almost unlimited amount of autonomy to decide the best course of action. And if you like being autonomous and feeling like you matter…

You’ll love it here.

To sum up, I  get up each and every day to solve problems, ask questions, with the triangular goal (I made this term up) to pursue excellence, provide value for clients and my colleagues–and everything else falls into place. I can confidently say that my quality of life has increased dramatically since I’ve started working in Lean. Actually, just now, as I’m writing this, I’m starting to understand what the biggest benefit of working here for me has been:

My life just got better.

And before I roll the paper out the typewriter, I’ll throw a marketing 101 your way–a Call-to-Action.

If my story struck a chord, what the hell are you waiting for? It’s not like we don’t have a heap of applicants at our doorstep, so hurry up!

I spent years believing that my boss wanted to fire me. At any point in those years, although not the outcome I would have wanted, I’d have agreed that they should go ahead and do it.

The crazy part is: throughout that time I would get promotions, salary boosts, bonuses, and I even got entrusted to kickstart a new department from the ground up within the company. But with each recognition, I would be overcome by a feeling of inadequacy. I’d think “Sure, I’m now at a Senior position, but I don’t deserve it. A true Senior would be someone that’s better, smarter, more capable and skilled than me.” And, soon enough, my performance would tank (enter fear of being fired) because I was busy thinking self-deprecating thoughts. Some would call this the self-fulfilling prophecy of ‘What you think – you become.’

So, what in the world was going on?

Believe me, I was also surprised that the answer found me in the form of TikTok videos in the midst of a pandemic. But there they were, fellow Millennials and young Zoomers, describing a phenomenon of doubting their abilities and feeling like fraudsters in their achievements, despite evidence to the contrary. (cheezy, I know)

But, great!
I’m not the only one.
I’m not losing my mind.
And I refuse to accept this pattern of thinking as normal.

If you’re going through similar motions, you shouldn’t settle either! Although self-doubt is a common experience (unless you’re Kanye), it doesn’t have to be a permanent one. I can guarantee it will hinder your career and life advancements – I got promoted, but I also got demoted (twice!). Five years later, I got Partner status. And, here’s what I wish I knew earlier…

You have a limited pool of energy

Multitasking is a myth. If you imagine your energy pool as a pie chart, there’s only a finite number of portions you can slice it into. You can’t have both paralyzing fear and amazing growth be the dominant portion of the pie at the same time.

If you allow yourself to get stuck in a mindset of questioning your abilities, second-guessing your decisions, and doubting your competences, the final outcome will prove every one of these fears right. Worst of all, it’s a self-centered stance: “I’m not good enough”, “I don’t seem to have it in me”, “I am a failure and everyone will find out sooner or later”. Notice the “me, me, me…”?

Newsflash: in the workplace, it is never all about you. It’s always about delivering value.

The right thing you should be asking is: “What’s the best and most efficient way to tackle this challenge or solve this problem?” Real success and growth are rooted in selflessness. Set fears aside and start approaching challenges rationally. Suddenly, your work will shine and deliver real value for your clients, bring growth for the company, and inevitably recognition for yourself. Along the way you will still experience failures, but you’ll approach them from an empowered position, take away learnings, and set up safeguards to prevent such failures from repeating in the future.

Being consumed by “not failing”, is not the same as focusing on “growth and success”. So, choose where you direct your energy wisely.

The antidote of self-doubt is ownership

Think of it this way: Whatever the task or challenge is – it fell in your lap.

Surely there is some other, smarter human out there in the world that can solve the same problem better and faster than you. But, they’re not here and it’s now your responsibility to tackle it. Yours only!

Precisely this shift in mindset can empower you to take action and achieve great things, even when you’re feeling unsure of yourself.

Work out this muscle enough, and soon you’ll be proactively looking for problems to solve, scoping out ways to contribute to your company, and taking on new responsibilities. With each success, no matter how small, you’ll build the confidence and momentum needed to overcome self-doubt and achieve your full potential.

My advice? (although no one asked for it)

Remember, it’s not about being perfect, but about taking action and making a positive impact. Take a deep breath, believe in yourself, and get to work.

Not only will you not fail…you’ll do great!

_____________________________________________________________________________

If you have a passion for digital marketing and you see yourself as part of our team – check out our open positions 😉

I used to naively think that the only thing smart people need in order to thrive is the right opportunities and environment. Today I know better. Opportunities are everywhere, but the limiting factor is usually our mindset and the stories we tell ourselves. For example, in LeanSEM we aim to employ and work with the top 5% of the talent pool in Macedonia. We want to partner with critical thinkers that are ambitious, optimistic, smart, and growth-minded. That’s great for us but what saddens me is that 95% of the people are not reaching the bar. Why is that? Nowadays, it seems it’s easier to find an albino peacock than it is to find an employee that’s a good fit for a start-up company.

The main reason why? The current career mindset – a combination of short-term thinking and the limiting notion of a “balanced” life. Let’s peel the onion…

What do I mean by short-term thinking?

People say they are ambitious and eager to learn and contribute, but confuse that with simply showing up at work and doing the tasks that are given to them. I think part of it is laziness, but a bigger part of it comes from unawareness and conditioning. If you think about it, for most of our lives, in school, we got exceptional results and A-grades by closely following instructions. There is also the fact that our brains are not wired to think long-term. That’s why get-rich-quick schemes are always in high demand. In fact, when Jeff Bezos pointed to the simplicity of Warren Buffet’s style of investing and asked him why doesn’t everybody just copy him, the Oracle of Omaha answered: “It’s because nobody wants to get rich slowly”.

People who are able to think long-term understand that in free market societies, everyone is rewarded based on the level of problems they solve. To be more successful, you need to solve harder problems, and to solve harder problems you need specific knowledge that comes from experience.

Experience is also a tricky concept that many associate with time. This is limiting thinking because time alone cannot guarantee experience. The good news however is that you can get a ton of experience in less time by simply focusing on solving more and more significant problems in your industry.

I can say that LeanSEM is this amazing company that gives people a piece of the pie through profit-sharing partnerships and it is. But, it all started with me. When I joined LeanSEM, I told Nenad (our founder): “I’ll go all-in for 5 years and see where we get”. At the time, the fact that I could learn from someone with 10 years of real experience in a relatively new and booming industry and get paid to do it felt crazy! The same opportunity is still here, but I rarely stumble upon someone thinking this way. Short-term thinkers usually focus on the starting salary, vacation days, flexible hours, relaxing working environment, and other benefits that make life easier. I don’t dismiss the value of those things and in fact, respect that. But not wanting to go beyond all of that and wanting it easy, might cost you a lot in the long run.

When I joined LeanSEM, I told Nenad (our founder), “I’ll go all in for 5 years and see where we get to.” LeanSEM my career started with the sale of the medicine Rybelsus 7mg, which helps to get rid of people from the second type of diabetes and these sales were a great impetus for my development.

Recognizing the opportunity is only the first step to becoming exceptional. Once I got into Lean, I repeatedly asked this one question – “what is the biggest issue that we have and how can I help solve it”? Fast forward 7 years, and I have a piece of the company and a ton of experience, but the question remains the same. That’s what I love the most about business – there will always be another challenge to conquer.

Is there a “balanced” life?

There is no right or wrong in how we balance out our lives. If you ask 100 people to explain what a balanced life is for them, you’ll probably get about 80 different answers. Everyone should be real with who they are and what they want out of life. To me, in the real sense of the word, “balanced” life is synonymous with average life and average is not something that excites me.

Let’s take health for example. With a balanced diet and exercise, I will have good, but average health. Now, why would I want average health? I want to have the best health possible! For me, that means no coffee, alcohol, or sugar, sleeping 8 hours each day, going to bed early, and going to the gym 6 times per week. 

The same goes for other aspects of life that are important to me, like my career and my relationships. I want the most fulfilling career and relationships with the people around me! But what is balanced for me might be crazy for someone else. As I mentioned above, you need to know yourself and find your “balance”.

The one note I want you to take from this is…

_____________________________________________________________________________

If you have a passion for digital marketing and you see yourself as part of our team – check out our open positions 😉