"Self-advocacy begins the moment you stop waiting for permission to be seen. It starts with self-love, unconditional and without shame or guilt. When we truly love ourselves, we break the patterns that keep us accepting crumbs. We stop shrinking. We know our value, we name it, and we own it, not because we need the room to affirm it, but because we already do."

Courtenay "Coco" Rogers, Veteran & Founder, CoRo Consulting

It never did

Self-advocacy isn't self-promotion. It's the discipline of ensuring your work, life and worth, don't get lost in the noise. And for experienced professionals and humans in general, the stakes have never been higher.

According to the 2025 SHRM State of the Workplace report, 34 percent of U.S. workers say their contributions go unrecognized. One in three. Meanwhile, Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report found that only 20 percent of employees worldwide are engaged at work, meaning 80 percent are either coasting or actively checked out. The invisibility epidemic isn't just a morale problem. It's a structural career risk. It's also robbing us of simple joy in the rest of our lives. 

A Resume Now survey reported by Nasdaq found that 58 percent of workers over 50 earn less than their younger peers doing comparable work. Nearly a quarter have been passed over for challenging assignments, and 15 percent have watched promotions go to less experienced colleagues. The explanation isn't a mystery. As Keith Spencer, a career expert at Resume Now, told Nasdaq: some companies "intentionally limit the salary growth of older employees, banking on the stereotype that they're more loyal or have fewer external opportunities."

Read that again. They're not paying you less because you're worth less. They're paying you less because they assume you won't leave.

That assumption only holds if you let it. And the single most powerful tool for disrupting it, at work, in your community, and in your own kitchen, is self-advocacy.

"Your work doesn't speak for itself. It never did. You just had enough runway that it didn't matter yet."

We got burned by a myth

If you came up professionally in the 1980s or 1990s, you absorbed a particular operating system: put your head down, overdeliver, and trust that the right people will notice. It's a comforting belief. It's also wrong, and it was wrong then, too. The people who advanced fastest in those decades were not exclusively the best performers. They were the best-positioned performers, the ones whose managers knew what they were doing, why it mattered, and where it was headed. Even today, in-office employees are preferred over those who work remotely or hybrid. Not because of their work's quality. It's their position to self-advocate.

The difference between self-promotion and self-advocacy is the difference between a billboard and a business case. Self-promotion says, "Look at me." Self-advocacy says, "Here's how what I'm doing connects to what we're all trying to achieve." One is vanity. The other is strategy.

For the professional over 50 navigating a transition—whether re-entering the workforce, pivoting industries, or building something of your own—this distinction isn't academic. It's a game changer and important for your future. Nobody is going to reconstruct your value narrative from scattered LinkedIn endorsements and a two-page résumé. That's your job. And treating it like a job is the first step toward doing it well.

Build your own evidence file. 

Memory is a lousy archivist. Three months after you streamline a vendor relationship that saves your department $40,000 a year, you'll remember it vaguely. Six months later, you'll understate it. A year later, you might forget to mention it entirely.

An evidence file is a private, running document where you record professional wins as they happen. Create the entries using impact language, not task language. The shift sounds small but it isn't. "Managed the weekly newsletter" becomes "Redesigned the editorial workflow for the weekly newsletter, cutting production time by six hours and reducing error rates." "Handled client escalation" becomes "De-escalated a breach-of-contract dispute with a $2.1M account, preserving the relationship and securing a two-year renewal." You don't want to BS yourself, or others, however, you do want to make the appropriate case for your contributions. 

What belongs in the file?

Revenue generated or protected, costs eliminated, processes improved, problems you spotted and solved before anyone else saw them coming, and direct praise from clients, colleagues, or leadership. The 2025 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report found that career progress is the number-one motivation for employees to learn and grow. Your evidence file ensures that progress is visible, allowing you to access it when advocacy is needed. 

58%of workers over 50 report earning less than younger colleagues in comparable roles. Source: Resume Now / Nasdaq, November 2025

Context Is everything: Connecting your wins to organizational goals

A disconnected win is just a story. A connected win is a strategic argument.

Leadership doesn't think in tasks. It thinks in objectives, quarterly targets, competitive positioning, and risk mitigation. When you frame your work inside that architecture, you stop being someone who "does a lot" and start being someone who "drives outcomes." This is the difference between being busy and being essential.

If your company is pushing a digital transformation initiative and you've been quietly upskilling in data analytics, don't wait for someone to connect those dots. Connect them yourself. "I completed the advanced analytics certification last quarter and applied it to our customer churn data. The model I built identified $180,000 in at-risk renewals, and we've already recovered 60 percent of them." That sentence doesn't brag. It reports. And it reports in the language leadership already thinks in.

When my Brand Ambassador teams across the country sell bottles at samplings with higher conversion rates than other promo firms, I share and archive those numbers. I also transfer how to build on this self-advocacy with my team members. It is important for the industry to know that they are superior performers.  

For experienced professionals, this framing carries an additional advantage: it counters the unspoken bias that workers over 50 are "maintaining" rather than building. You're not just doing the work. You're demonstrating that you understand why the work matters. This level of strategic awareness only comes with seasoning.

Visibility is not a one-time event

The worst possible time to advocate for yourself is during a performance review or, worse, a layoff conversation. By then, you're negotiating from behind. Visibility should be a continuous, low-frequency signal, like a lighthouse, not a flare gun.

The 2026 Robert Half Salary Guide emphasized that professionals who can demonstrate meeting goals, collaborating effectively, and contributing to team culture are the ones who negotiate from strength—whether they're asking for flexibility, compensation, or expanded responsibility. The data supports what most of us already sense: consistency of visibility beats volume of visibility every time. Demonstrating equals self-advocacy.

Use your one-on-one meetings with intentionality. Don't show up with a task list. Show up with one key win, one challenge you learned from, and one forward-looking question. "The team exceeded our delivery target by two days on Project X. I restructured the data pipeline to make that possible. I'd like your input on how we scale that approach for Q3." That's thirty seconds. It covers performance, initiative, and strategic thinking. No bragging required.

If you are in the trades, this often translates to customer satisfaction and your documentation of it. I have a favorite appliance repair guy. I'm hopeful that he is keeping his own evidence file. My work will always go to him, regardless of where he works. He's that good. 

Make it collaborative. "We knocked it out of the park" is always better positioning than "I knocked it out of the park," even when the critical contribution was yours. Giving credit generously while making your role clear is not modesty. It's sophistication. 

"Visibility is a discipline, not a personality trait. You don't need to be loud. You need to be consistent."

The ask is where most careers and relationships stall

Everything above builds toward a moment that most experienced professionals avoid for too long: asking directly for what you want.

This data is good. Pew Research found that among workers 50 to 64, 34 percent didn't negotiate their last salary offer because they were uncomfortable asking. And yet, salary negotiation research consistently shows that roughly two-thirds of employees who do negotiate get the compensation they request. The gap isn't skill. It's initiation.

If you've maintained your evidence file, connected your contributions to organizational priorities, and built visibility over time, you've already assembled the business case. The ask is the closing argument. Don't make it about what you deserve based on tenure. Make it about what you will deliver in expanded capacity. "Based on the pipeline I built in Q1 and Q2, I'd like to discuss leading the full revenue operations function. Here's what I see as the ninety-day plan." That's not a request for a favor. That's a proposal from a professional who has already done the work to justify it.

For professionals in transition, iHire's guidance on negotiation after 50 offers a practical reminder: anticipate the assumptions a hiring manager may carry about your salary expectations and timeline. Have prepared, data-backed responses that demonstrate strategic thinking and adaptability, not just experience.

Beyond the office: Self-Advocacy as a life discipline

Here's where most career advice stops, and where real life keeps going.

Self-advocacy is not a workplace skill. It's a life posture. And for professionals over 50, its applications outside the office are just as consequential, sometimes more so.

Start with healthcare. The over-50 demographic faces a rapidly expanding landscape of screenings, specialist referrals, insurance negotiations, and treatment decisions. Passivity in that environment is costly. Asking the second question in a doctor's office is important. "What are the alternatives?" or "What does the data say about outcomes for someone my age?" This is not difficult behavior. It's informed behavior. And it is correlated with better health outcomes, better adherence to treatment, and lower rates of unnecessary intervention. The difference between a patient and a patient advocate is the same as the difference between a worker and a professional: one participates, the other steers.

Then there's financial advocacy. If you're in a career transition at 50-plus, you're likely making decisions about retirement contributions, insurance gaps, severance negotiations, or the financial architecture of a new venture. Each of those conversations involves a counterparty, an insurer, a financial advisor, or a former employer's HR department, whose default recommendation may not be calibrated to your best interest. Asking, "Is this the best available option, or is this the standard option?" is a one-sentence act of self-advocacy that can shift thousands of dollars over a decade.

And finally, community. The experienced professional who volunteers for a nonprofit board, mentors a younger colleague, or steps into a civic role is already advocating—for an organization, a cause, a person. Applying that same energy inward, advocating for your own seat at the table, your own compensation, your own recognition, is not selfish. It's the operational prerequisite for continuing to show up for everything else.

The Self-Advocacy Operating System

Document — Maintain an evidence file. Record wins in impact language, not task language. Update it weekly.
Connect — Frame every contribution inside the organization's strategic priorities. Speak leadership's language.
Signal — Build continuous visibility through structured one-on-ones. One key win, one lesson, one forward question.
Ask — Make the direct request. Use your evidence. Frame it around future value, not past loyalty.
Expand — Apply advocacy to healthcare, finances, and community roles. The muscle is the same everywhere.

The real cost of silence

Gallup estimates that disengaged employees cost the global economy $438 billion in lost productivity annually. But there's a quieter cost that doesn't show up in macroeconomic reports: the cumulative toll on experienced professionals who do excellent work, say nothing about it, and watch the recognition—and the opportunities—flow to people who were simply more visible.

That cost compounds. An unasked-for raise at 52 is not just $15,000 lost that year. It's $15,000 lost every year after, plus the retirement contribution differential, plus the negotiating baseline for the next role. Over a decade, a single act of self-advocacy, or its absence, can represent a six-figure swing.

You have spent decades building expertise, judgment, and the ability to see around corners that no algorithm can replicate. That is the asset. Self-advocacy ensures that the market and key stakeholders know your work exists.

Nobody will ever make the case for your value as well as you can. The only question is whether you're going to make it or wait for someone else to notice.

If you need assistance or want to discuss anything listed above, schedule a call.

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I’ve been looking forward to featuring Elliott Cunningham. I have had the good fortune of working with Elliott on a couple of projects. Even his most thoughtful and thorough answers can’t fully capture the value he brings to companies and those around him. He is the inspiration for my Blue Ocean Strategy studies and ultimately my trip to Insead for Certification. I’m proud to call Elliott and friend and mentor.

Q1. Marketing has a youth problem. The conventional script says by your mid-50s you're either running the org chart or quietly being managed out of it. You've been running your own fractional consultancy for over two decades and mentoring others into the same model. If a seasoned marketer walked into your office convinced their best years are behind them, what are they failing to see that you see immediately?

A. So marketing may have a youth problem. There's a lot of perception that says, you know, you're looking for young marketers. Most of those are in application implementation, direct reports, people on the line doing social media, content, posting, things like that. Those are functions within the marketing discipline, certainly within the promotional discipline. But you know, a marketer, a senior marketer, should be at a strategic level where they've learned strategically how to think across lines relative to all the functions of the business, whether it's operations, accounting, finance, sales, products, packaging, delivery, 3 PL distribution. It doesn't matter.

They need to be thinking about all those core disciplines and how the work that they're doing, even if they're not in proximity to it now, how the work they're doing is going to affect the outcomes of those areas on the business, because that's where you're going to see opportunities to excel and grow and go beyond where you are today. If you find yourself at 50 years old and you haven't found that place yet, then you need to start looking. You need to start investing. You need to start reading. Read books like The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt, which is a fantastic read on the theory of constraints. There are lots of books out there that you can guide. Be careful about what you ingest.

I prefer books that are older, books that have stood test of time, not just the trendy stuff that's out now. I don't really follow much of that. I'll tell you an excellent book to read right now. If you want to know who you are and where you are in Cycles is the Fourth Turning pioneer. Those two guys wrote a phenomenal book about the seasonalization of cycles in our business and in our lives and in our generation. And it will help you kind of get a feel for where you are in the mix of the generational cycle. And that could give you some insights into where you're going to go in the future and what you need to be prepared for. I think any marketer always needs to be prepared for what's next
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Q2. "Uncontested market space" runs through your work. There is often pure Blue Ocean thinking applied to your clients. But you've effectively run the same playbook on your own career: turning a marketing practice into licensable courseware, building a fractional model, lecturing at universities like, Vanderbilt, Belmont and Penn State while consulting. How might an over-50 professional apply a strategy canvas to themselves? What are they competing on, and where might they find Blue Ocean?

A: I have had a very diversified career. I've worked across multiple product categories, multiple businesses, and multiple disciplines. For me, the functions of marketing and the concept of strategy is applicable, much like the accounting principles. I used to tutor accounting in college. I did very well in accounting. I just found it a little boring. So I chose not to get into accounting or real estate in marketing. But the fundamentals of marketing really should work across businesses because every business has an opportunity to expand, embrace, and improve in some form of its operations, whether it's internally within the company and the culture that it's working on, or externally with its customer base and its products.

You know, learning the disciplines of being very focused on what your culture is, how it works, what your product is, what your product category is, who your customer is and how your customer functions and hold dear to Those, those are promises that are being made to the customers in the marketplace, and they're going to hold you to them, and you need to make sure you're holding yourself and the company to them. So there's a real opportunity for you to assess what you're doing and where you're going. And in taking a look at that, you can then figure out ways to apply it, and oftentimes, try to apply it to areas or disciplines that are outside your specific realm, maybe areas you haven't gone to before. Guess what? There are similarities.
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Q3. You've sold athletic socks, Hispanic-market Pepsi promotions, AI software, mainframe financial software, sausage casings, indie records, and a primary care research project. Across that range, what part of the experience actually transfers cleanly into the next industry and what part has to be relearned every single time?

A. There are a lot of similarities, surprisingly, in the distribution of beverage products and the distribution of retail products like athletic sport athletic socks. So, you know, the fundamentals are the same, the principles are the same, and many times people get bogged down in a single discipline, a single business category, a single business strength, and they become, you know, baked in there or they have a base of contacts. And that's what you're going to leverage. Well, it can become very limiting, especially if you find transitions in a market, transitions in the business sector, and you find yourself on the outs. And then where are you going to go? Well, guess what? You've got talent, you've got experience. You should have an approach that you've developed over the years that could be used in a lot of different ways, in businesses.

And so, looking and thinking outside the box on where you can take that and where you can go with that, to bring your expertise and your experience to a new opportunity that you would never have done previously, can be phenomenally rewarding. It's rewarding for the company that brings you in, and it can be very rewarding for you because you're going to grow. Are you going to have to learn some new things? But you know what? You're going to know the core of it. If you've been pursuing a career in marketing for any period of time, that will bring expertise and bring insight and bring strategy, perhaps, that they never would have considered before.
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Q4. You won CMO of the Year from the Nashville Business Journal in 2015 and you were already deep into the decade when most marketing orgs are trying to put you on a lateral track. What do you know operationally at the time you won that recognition that you didn't know or appreciate when you started years ago.?

A. When I first started, I was in the advertising business, and I figured if we did good promotions, if we did good ads, if we did good creative, then we would be successful and our customers would be successful and everybody would be happy. And what I realized was that that just wasn't the case because I would work with companies, we would put together big campaigns, run, you know, huge promotions. I was doing statewide promotions for Pepsi Cola, and I was doing regional promotions for retail outlets. And you know, I remember one time we were doing a big retail weekend and we had TV ads, we had newspaper ads, we had radio ads running, we had point of purchase materials, featured inventory, everything distributed to the stores.

And I went out over this; it was a three-day sale. I went over to visit some of the stores. I visited like five of the stores in the system, and every one of them had a few failing in some aspect or another. Many of them had multiple failings in the context that they didn't know we were running ads, the company hadn't told them, and they didn't have the featured product featured in store. Some of them didn't even have the featured product available in inventory. They didn't put up the point of purchase materials, and they weren't staffed correctly to handle the influx of traffic. And I was in these stores, they were immensely busy. There were many, many customers milling around the stores, looking at everything.

And then I got a call from the president of the company on Monday, and he said, " Hey man, we ran that big campaign, and it wasn't very successful. We didn't really see a big increase in sales.” And I said, “Well, you know, I happen to be out in your stores, and this is what I experienced…” And he kind of had egg on his face and said, oh, I realize that. And it was that process that took me down to realize, you know what, you have to be a holistic marketer. You have to understand every step, every aspect of a business and the impact that needs to happen. Because marketing is through the channel, you know, until that product is delivered, transferred, whether it's a service, a product, an experience, it does not matter.

You have to meet at all conditions. And that was a major turning point for me. That caused me to sell my ad agency and move into the early days of turnaround consulting, which then took me down a path where I am today with fractional marketing. I did reinvent myself about five or ten years ago when I realized, you know, I need to make a change, and kind of adopted the fractional mentality. Because consultancy over the years has oftentimes meant you're out of work. Well, I was never out of work. I've always been self-employed. I've always, even when I was working for Swiftwick, I was a contractor, maintained a client base and, you know, had other relationships going on.

And so I would always maintain this multiple focus of my abilities, and I never let anybody put me into a single box. So as a result of that, I had a very diversified career. But it was immensely beneficial. I've worked across many, many disciplines, software, technology, entertainment and the fundamentals. Always a. But being diversified is something I learned early and then made the transition of that into the fractional concept of moving away from consultancy. Because I don't really do consultancy. I am not here to give advice and come in and take your temperature, you know, say here's some stuff, go do this, I'll see you around. Or maybe never. I actually take operating positions within the entities I'm working with. I provide hands-on guidance and implementation.

I was very fortunate that a senior consultant I worked with years ago told me, " Unless you're helping them implement a plan, they'll never do it; it'll always be a failed plan. And I found that to be true. So I've always done that over the course of my career and found it to be exceptional advice.
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Q5. You're described as a mentor to many. That word has been emptied out by LinkedIn. When you think of mentorship, what are three key characteristics a marketing or business mentor should possess?  

A. The mentor thing has definitely been kind of bantered around, and everybody wants to be a mentor, and everybody wants to be, you know, it has some connotation of role and stuff. However, you're a mentor in your job today with the people you're working with. If you are not developing them, challenging them, growing them, then you know, you're not doing them or you or the company any benefit.

And to be a mentor, I believe, first and foremost, comes from a position of tech. What is it you can do that's going to give them the hand up that maybe you never even got? Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to be that altruistic? Because if not, and you're in say, well, what's in it for me on the mentoring side? Well, that's the wrong motivation for mentoring because then it's always going to be couched in the context of, you know, what are you going to get out of it, and what's the benefit for you, and where you're going to go with it. And that's going to underserve anybody. Some people are looking for mentors, and they want formal mentor relationships. Most people are looking for proximity and mentorship.

They want good friends, they want good relationships, they want good connections that they can work with. But then those become transactional, and they have no depth. So it's a combination of weighing the time you're going to invest in someone, making that commitment to them, and asking them to make the commitment as well. And I think if you do that, then you can be successful with mentoring. But you know, it needs to be for the right motivations. And I'm not sure that's always the case. Where I see people, quote, unquote, leaving money on the table is if they're not using their expertise and expanding their horizons.
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Q6. You took your social media methodology and turned it into university courseware taught at Belmont, James Madison, and Penn State and co-authored it with an academic and also launched a pro version for businesses and individuals. That's a move most senior professionals haven't metabolized: your career isn't just a sequence of jobs, it's the raw material for IP that outlives any employer. What mindset or inspiration led to that process? The entire story and how you made it all happen are too extensive for this feature.  Where do you see senior pros most consistently leaving money and influence on the table?

A. If you find yourself at a job and that's all you've got, then that's all you're going to have, and that's going to be a bad thing for you. And I think if you're in that kind of job today, then what you need to be doing is saying, okay, what can I do to stretch myself, grow myself? Now, some people go back to school, but, you know, in today's environment, you don't have to go back to school. You can go learn something new, and you can learn it online, you can learn it through whatever application, or there are lots of outlets that you can go and say, I'm going to start growing in an area that I'm taking an interest in.

It could be an industry area, it could be a product area, it could be a discipline. It doesn't matter. But you need to be growing. I'm 70 years old now. I'm always growing. Now I'm learning how to use AI, and I'm enjoying it. I love AI because I'm learning how to use AI to work with my ideas, to help me communicate better on my concepts and ideation with my companies that I work with. And it's working out absolutely fantastic, particularly an application I use for my meetings. But, you know, I've always been on the technical side. I've always been looking forward. For example, we were doing MP3 distribution and running 24.7 radio stations in the late 90s with our entertainment company.
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Q7. You opened Stout Advertising in 1982. Forty-plus years later, AI is rewriting creative briefs, drafting social copy, and quietly absorbing junior-level media planning. What do you tell the 55-year-old marketing director whose role is being "restructured" because AI handles that now? And if you were rebuilding Westgate Marketing from zero in 2026, is there any part of the practice you would refuse to build? Any part would you build differently?

A. I've always enjoyed being at the forefront of technology. So question seven, really, AI is. AI has just kind of become a catch. All right? It's going to take over your job, it's going to do this. It's going to replace everybody. There will be people who will be replaced. You know, just like there were people replaced when cars came out, and there were fewer horsemen, or when the locomotives came out, or when jets came out, or whatever. Anytime there's technology, there's displacement. There's also a massive opportunity. And many times, if you look at the forward aspects of the opportunity, that's where you are. That's where you really grow. Most companies, talk AI, but they don't know how to.

They don't know where to apply it. And as a result of that, they either stick their head in the sand or they're not going to get into it. Or they pursue the shiny object. And I'm a big one on this, too. I don't believe in pursuing shiny objects. I think many times marketers get off into the latest, greatest, whatever the trend is, and they start following certain paths, and then they go down all these rabbit trails, and they become so fragmented and so discombobulated that they just have a bunch of pieces and parts. That's not strategy, that's tactics. And it becomes a dead end for them, and they don't realize where they're going with it. And really, at the end of the day, it doesn't make any progress. AI can be that trap.

If you're not careful, it could lure you into all sorts of derivatives and things. Now, there are some great applications for AI. I'd say find applications that work for you, be open to how AI can function, and how AI can be utilized both in your career and with the companies that you work with. Would I build differently today than I did then? I don't know, because I had to do it back then. We didn't have AI. Now we have AI. I would say I'm more cautious in my development when it comes to tools and resources because I don't take them at face value.

Going back to the stout advertising days, copy and paste was something you did with, letter set and type and we had to actually, copy and paste it. It was physically cutting something out and pasting it down. Now when I do copy and paste, I have an orientation that goes back to kind of the origin. Well, many of you who are in your 50s and so are going to have that same thing, rely on that experience. That's invaluable experience, that's maturity. And you know, you can either let it be a trap that says, oh, you haven't been able to let it date me and age me, or it can be a compounding part of your career development that you build upon.

Q8. You are currently involved in a great project. What can you share with us about it and your role there?

A. BizGift is a fun project. It is a bespoke software development. I don't get to do a lot of those anymore. The original ideation or elevator pitch was you can hand out a gift card with a customized message. That project has gone and grown and iterated into a unique offering that is now a gift card. You can hand out gift cards with a value, and you don't pay for it until it gets activated. We actually have a patent pending on that process, and we'll see if we end up prevailing with that because the technology, software, and development to make that happen was quite unique in what is a very, very mature space and highly competitive.

It's a fun and rewarding project to work on because it is kind of a new horizon. But I am able to leverage a lot of my previous experience in working with retail products, consumer goods, brands, and things like that to bring together those experiences into maximizing what BizGift could be. Because it was just an idea. And actually taking it from an idea into an architectural aspect, into a development aspect, into an actually delivered running product was a lot of fun, and it was very rewarding. But I've done that with a lot of products in my categories over the years. Some are more in-depth and more involved, and there's more of an opportunity to do that.

But I always evaluate where I'm going to go and what I'm going to do. I always try to look at it from the standpoint of can I make a contribution, can I make a difference, can I make an impact? And is there something redeeming about the business that I really like? I like that and I enjoy that. And in Bizgift's case, the ability to help business owners, realtors, financial planners, and service companies maximize their relationships. Growing relationships within their business is very difficult to do today and that remains a very interesting and alluring part of the BizGift proposition.

I've tried to do that in everything I've ever done and find that the Blue Ocean process helps, so I would encourage you to once again go back and do it. Do a strategy canvas on your own career. There are a lot of tools, and you can find online information about the strategy canvas and how it works. Be honest in your assessments of yourself, your industry understanding, and where you're at. And guess what? You're going to identify and find some new opportunities. Opportunities. And those new opportunities can be immensely rewarding with whatever it is. I'm always looking forward to my next adventure, and I don't know what that is going to be now, but I have several different things.

I'm always in process, in evaluating and considering, and I look forward to seeing what tomorrow will bring.

Q9. What is the best way for our readers to connect with and follow you?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliottcunningham/

Summary & Notes

Marketers must evolve into strategic thinkers: Understanding business functions beyond promotion is crucial for growth and success.

Future trends are important for preparation: Anticipate changes 6 months to 5 years ahead by understanding generational cycles.

Self-assessment tools are crucial for career positioning: Using frameworks like Blue Ocean Strategy helps identify strengths and growth areas.

Effective mentorship focuses on genuine development: Support should prioritize mentees' growth rather than personal gain.

Marketing success requires holistic management: Integrate promotion with operational execution to enhance sales and customer satisfaction.

Careful technology adoption is vital: Embrace AI strategically to avoid distractions and improve marketing effectiveness.

Marketing Career Strategy and Growth

Senior marketers must develop strategic cross-functional thinking to impact all business areas, not just promotional tasks.

Marketers need insights into operations, finance, sales, product, packaging, and delivery to identify growth opportunities.

Staying static past age 50 without strategic growth is a risk; continuous learning and investment are essential.

Recommended reading includes classic books like The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt to understand constraints and improve strategy. Good to Great by Jim Collins and What Color is Your Parachute are my recommendations.

Marketers should anticipate future trends by understanding generational and business cycles to stay ahead.

The book The Fourth Turning offers insights into generational cycles impacting business and marketing.

Marketers need to think 6 months to 5 years ahead, preparing for shifts to seize emerging opportunities.

This forward-looking approach is fundamental to marketing’s role as a discipline focused on future impact.

Self-assessment using strategic tools like the Blue Ocean Strategy canvas is vital for career and competitive positioning.

Evaluating personal strengths and market position helps identify growth areas and competitive advantages.

The fundamentals of marketing apply across various industries and disciplines, making adaptability a key asset.

Diversification across product categories and business functions strengthens career resilience and opportunity.

Mentorship should be driven by genuine desire to develop others, not personal gain to maximize impact.

Effective mentoring requires commitment and altruism to provide meaningful support and growth for mentees.

Proximity mentoring based on trust and real connection is more valuable than transactional relationships.

Developing others within current roles is a practical way to mentor continuously.

Marketing Execution and Holistic Approach

Marketing success depends on integrating promotional efforts with operational readiness and channel management to deliver business results.

Marketing must be holistic, managing every business step from promotion to product delivery to drive sales and customer satisfaction.

Staying adaptable avoids career stagnation amid market transitions.

Embracing new technology thoughtfully, especially AI, can amplify marketing effectiveness but requires caution and strategic focus.

AI is a powerful tool with risks of distraction and fragmentation if not applied strategically.

Many companies lack clarity on AI applications, leading to either avoidance or chasing trends without results.

Action items

Read and study classic marketing and business strategy books such as The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt and The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe to build foundational strategic frameworks.

Conduct a personal Blue Ocean Strategy canvas to assess career strengths, competitive positioning, and identify growth opportunities.

Explore and adopt AI tools that align strategically with personal workflow and client business needs, ensuring AI is used thoughtfully and not as a mere trend.

Maintain continuous self-education and embrace learning new disciplines or industries through available online resources without necessarily returning to formal schooling.

Pursue forward-looking, hands-on fractional marketing roles that emphasize implementation and accountability rather than advisory-only consultancy.

Apply experiences from diverse industries to innovate and develop new products or services.

What’s my mindset?: The Mindset Assessment is a quick diagnostic tool drawn from research-validated measures for people age 12 and over to use to assess their mindsets.

Businesses must lead with People, from Harvard Business Review: Leaders must engage with emotions like never before.

Self-compassion practices: – Recorded practices are designed to help you be with yourself in a healthy and supportive way.

A story of transformation - Corporate leader to change consultant

I’m 73 and sell weed now - The Catholic School Teacher Turned Cannabis Retail Pioneer

Our conversation with the iconic Steve Rustad

You’re doing $15 tasks with $150 talent.

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Things I’m creating.

We’re creating something. Weaving some intentionality around what we create is the hard part. If you’re like me, you still have things you feel you need to get done. One example for me, I don’t have enough money in the bank and I doubt my “creativity’’ a lot.

Every now and then, I remember, hey, wait a minute -- I helped grow a cool tech company to the point it’s ready to scale nationally. I still contribute to its IP every now and then. I create relationships out of nothing but an introduction via email for my national promo firm. It’s national now for that reason! I create web properties, assets, and thought leadership with the help of a team I’ve put together.

I wasn’t tagged as someone who was supposed to be able to do these things. You likely weren’t either but here you are. Doing them anyway.

And as always, if you need help with anything related to topics in the newsletter or transition over 50 years old, schedule a call.

We are proud to share Prairie Growth Solutions as a pathway to starting a business coaching practice. This is not a paid sponsorship, but instead a recommended pathway to exit corporate life. The support systems, tools, and client support is tremendous. Click here to learn more.

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