Every adventure requires a first step. This one has been decades in the making.

YOLO

Life is short.

Your kids are only young once.

If I have to drive in this !&$#!! traffic one more day…I’m going to poke my eyes out.

While these may all be clichés (OK most of them), I started giving these clichés more credence with each passing day, particularly since I spent hours in the car each day commuting.

Three and a half years prior, I had left my role at a creative agency to lead marketing and communications for a nonprofit research organization focused on type 1 diabetes. It was the role of a lifetime – I got to be at the helm of an innovative, mission-based organization. Plus, I felt like I was one in a million for my role. I had spent two decades in marketing including over a decade specifically in healthcare marketing; and I had personal experience with type 1 diabetes after my son developed it at the age of six.

If you want to learn more about the convergence of my professional life with my personal life, you can read about it here.

Looking back on great learning experiences

During my time at T1D Exchange, I soaked up an incredible amount of learning—about being part of an organization’s leadership team setting five-year strategic plans and driving annual plans; designing and implementing the organization’s communications and marketing strategies; and developing and implementing programs and campaigns that supported the organization’s key objectives. I have many successes I am incredibly proud of, and a few things I wish I had finished...but that's the nature of working for a small organization with the goals of quite literally changing the world for millions and millions of people.

My T1D Exchange experience followed 15 years at a creative agency leading content strategy and development for some of our agency’s key pharmaceutical and healthcare clients’ programs.

Putting a lens on professional and personal goals

But here I was, nearly 3.5 years into my role at T1D Exchange and the commute was getting to me. Or perhaps the hours of time in the car made me realize what I was missing. My three boys are range from tween to gasp! teen. And while everyone tells you when your children are young that they will need you more when they are older, it’s laughable. You are knee-deep in diapers trying to keep toddlers from constant near-death experiences. Yet fast-forward several years and here I was, feeling like the joke was on me.

As I was working late or stuck in traffic, my boys were at home, needing me…to chauffeur, to help them excel(ish) at school, to keep them from near-death experiences and to see their sports games or even play in the yard with them after school. I had the role of a lifetime, but I started to feel like I was missing out on life.

Looking forward to the next adventure

I left T1D Exchange at the end February and did something I had considered for some time. I started my own marketing consulting business, with help from cheerleaders who told me I could do it.

To those cheerleaders, I thank you. Most importantly thanks go to my husband Matt who has time and again let me upend our worlds to pursue new dreams. I couldn’t do it without you! And thank you to my sister who assures my daily that I can make this work. My sister turned her high heels in for Allbirds several years ago and is taking over the world even faster from her home office than she did when she was a globe-trotting VP in a Fortune 500 company.

There are so many colleagues and friends who have been there for me as well. You know who you are, and I thank you greatly.

And with that, Midfield Marketing was born – a small marketing services organization that offers communications experts “who crave getting a little dirty to get the job done.” Learn about us at www.midfield-marketing.com.

What's next

If you are looking for an experienced marketer to help you dig out, get ahead or simply get to those projects you simply do not have time to complete, give me a call. I can help with strategy and planning, I can help with content strategy and development, and I’m still at my core a writer. I work with a small but very experienced network of experts that I can bring in to support any initiative.

I’m ready to help you build marketing programs efficiently to drive results, move your organization forward, and keep you and your team focused on the big picture.

UPDATE on Midfield Marketing

This post was originally scheduled to hit March 1st, my first day as Principle of my own company. Fortunately, the work of marketing my new business took a backseat so I could focus on helping new clients meet marketing goals and deadlines.

I’d love to help you, so give me a ring. I will bring all my experience and enthusiasm to the table, but I won’t be wearing heels.

Let me know what you think!

Drop me an email: jill@midfield-marketing.com.