Blogger Stories

Blogger Stories: Mark Goren

Mark Goren learned about blogs while commuting to work by train. He created his own course on social media marketing from reading some of the best in the biz. Not only did Mark develop a passion for this new media but he found something that he had lost during his time working in the ad business .. his voice and then he began helping companies find their authentic voices too. 

Blogger Story Teller: Mark Goren, Transmission Content + Creative

I’ve probably been on a collision course with blogging for ten years, eight without even knowing it.  Let’s rewind.

I started out as a copywriter in Toronto, moved to Ottawa and then back to my hometown of Montreal. That was about five years ago. As an English copywriter working in a mostly Francophone-lead industry, my frustration slowly mounted once I returned home. For two key reasons:

1. French and English culture is very different, particularly when it comes to humour and other areas where our not-so-subtle nuances are magnified. So having to explain, defend and fight for my lines all day long for over five years can wear a guy down. The result? I started to lose my voice.

2. Coming to writing from a business background, I also thrived on the strategic side of projects, understanding where the client was coming from and pitching in to develop strategies, with a creative mindset. The more I became involved dealing with all facets of the agency’s operations, I slowly but surely stopped believing in mass advertising as a way to truly engage consumers. (Saw just how much wasted dollars are being thrown around.)

Blogger Stories: Lois Kelly

What does a marketer who is disillusioned about the profession of marketing do? For Lois Kelly it was to begin a blog focused on her frustrations. Along the way something very interesting happened. She discovered the new people talking-to-people side of marketing that awakened her enthusiasm about business communications. Then she went one step further and wrote a book, Beyond Buzz, to share her passion with her fellow marketers

Blogger Story Teller: Lois Kelly, The Foghound Bloghound

“But I have nothing to talk about,” I told my friend and mentor Kevin Clancy a few years ago when he invited me to be a keynote speaker at the American Marketing Association’s annual strategic marketing shindig. 

“You have nothing to talk about? Why not?”

“I’m so tired of the marketing hype and hoopla. If people would just listen more, get a point of view and talk like they mean it, a lot of marketing problems would go away. No big magic here,” I said.

Not willing to be turned down, Kevin convinced me to speak. Around the same time I started blogging about my frustrations in marketing and applied to graduate school at Brown University to be a teacher. A much worthier profession, I thought, than all this marketing nonsense.

But then with my blogging something kind of magical happened. Every time I blogged, I got more re-interested in marketing – particularly around communications.  In turn, with the blog posts and comments I started to meet interesting new people via the Blogosphere. People who were really smart, generous and had fresh ideas about marketing. Not the usual “hypesters.“

Blogger Stories: Sherry Heyl

Blogging came along for Sherry Heyl at a low point in her life. However, the woman who holds the title of CEO and Idealist realized blogs could offer a way to express her own creativity. She quickly realized that blogs could also translate into the business world to be used to bring back the humanity that many organizations seemed to have lost along their way.

Blogger Story Teller: Sherry Heyl, What a Concept!

I started blogging during a period of my life that can be described as the "melt down." Perhaps some people would not admit to that, but I have come to realize, no sense hiding it - everyone knows anyway. I have always felt that I was constantly being hushed, pushed aside, and never given a chance to express myself.

This finally led to what felt like was a period of time when I wanted to get in everyone's face and say LOOK AT ME, which led to the meltdown which led to the need to just surrender....and at that time I was introduced to the concept of blogging. I immediately saw blogging as a way for businesses to rediscover that it is the people that they serve and their ideas that creates our economy and innovation.

I was inspired to learn all that I can and add my experiences as a recruiter, career counselor and sales person to the mix of social media consultation. I have been inspired by how my clients have awakened to the idea of what it means to connect on a personal level as opposed to sterilized conversations and approved procedures. I am now writing a book of my observations of how social media has the potential to bring the humanity back to the corporate world.