How do you hire “good” talent? 3 mindsets I look for in marketers.

A VP of marketing recently asked me, “How do we build a team of good marketers?”

It’s an interesting question. You see, he wasn’t asking about skills a marketer already has. He wasn’t asking about experiences.

While it was a difficult question to word, by good, this VP meant mindsets, or qualities, a person possesses:

• How they continually learn
• How they push themselves to achieve more than what they already had
• How they embrace inevitable change
• How they influence teammates
• How they see five moves ahead while executing toward that vision in the here and now

These are more so inherent mindsets rather than skills. By mindset, I mean how a person thinks through challenges. Skill is what you learn by doing. Mindset drives how you learn that skill.

When I hire marketers (or when I join a new team), I look for team members who embrace their work experiences with passion, ambition, and optimism.

Individuality should be celebrated

I enjoy working with people who are passionate about what they do, determined to do their best, and positive throughout their experiences.

That said, every marketer offers their own unique strengths which make them indispensable.

Individual uniqueness should not be tolerated in the workplace. Toleration is a terrible mindset to have for any manager. That one-of-a-kind uniqueness should be celebrated.

At the end of the day, every one of your team members has one life to live. It’s theirs and theirs alone. There is no work life balance. There is no personal life balance. It’s just one life. And — as a manager — you, your company, and your team are just one part of that crazy, ever-changing life.

As a manager, you can seek to understand and empower. You can have empathy while challenging individuals to thrive.

That said, I have seen exceptional marketers thrive when they embraced the following key mindsets.

1. Passion for the craft

When marketers enjoy what they do, they do amazing work. They’re 13% more productive, and they generate more results.

Dictionary.com defines passion as:

any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.
strong amorous feeling or desire; love; affection.
a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything:
a passion for music.

It might seem cheesy, but being happy is extremely important for our mental and physical wellbeing. And again, we spend more time at work than we do outside of it.

Strong marketers have an extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, and desire to market. They like it. They have fun. They enjoy it.

Strong writers love to write. Strong designers love to create art. Strong videographers love to produce visual and auditory stories.

If you have a marketer who doesn’t enjoy the work they do, you’ll see it in the outcomes they produce.

2. Positivity toward change, iteration, progress, and teammates

Humans are naturally adverse to change.

Psychology tells us we like the comfort of status quo because we know what to expect. We avoid uncertainty because it’s uncomfortable.

Marketing is an ever-changing industry. Keeping current is vital to long-term success. There will always be a new channel, a new tactic, a new competitor, a new technology, and so many more new things.

Part of the positivity mindset also involves optimism and its influence on teammates. Energy is contagious.

Positivity has a domino effect that creates a happy work environment for the team. The opposite is true, too. Negative mindsets spread negativity like a disease.

Strong relationships are fundamental for human fulfillment. To put it bluntly: We want to be around people who are enthusiastic about their work and team; people we trust; people who are grateful; people who make us happy and feel good about what we do, how we do it, and with whom we do it.

3. Ambition to succeed

This mindset is the most important — ambitious marketers likely are passionate about what they do and approach new challenges with optimism.

Here’s Dictionary.com’s definition of ambition:

an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment: Too much ambition caused him to be disliked by his colleagues.

The irony of that example isn’t lost on me (i.e. “disliked by his colleagues”). So hear me out.

Good marketers have:

• Drive: They push what they believe forward.
• Grit: They persevere, no matter the circumstances.
• Determination: They get the job done — no matter what.

Ambitious people are naturally curious. They continue learning and stay up-to-date with trends. They do this of their own accord without being asked or told.

Ambitious marketers excel.

Again with Dictionary.com — here’s how they define excel:

to surpass others or be superior in some respect or area; do extremely well:
to excel in math.

I can see how definitions like ambition and excel could rub some coworkers the wrong way. But I’d rather work with marketers that possess a strong work ethic, continually teach me new things, and push the team to succeed compared to marketers who simply show up, do what’s asked of them, and get by.

Those are the three mindsets I look for when I hire marketers.