I’m not a runner, but I run.

-Sarah-

The first race I signed up for was the Disney Prince Half Marathon at Walt Disney World. I will be the first to admit that 13.1 miles honestly didn’t seem like that long of a distance, and all I could think about was being in Florida in February and leaving the frozen tundra of Boston for a few days. I began training and quickly realized that 13.1 miles is an awfully long distance to run when you have never trained or run any race. I originally was very grandiose and thought I could do a ten minute pace and finish quickly, but over the course of my training I mostly focused on just finishing the dang thing.

An unexpected side effect came from training for the half, I entered a new world -- the running world. The running world has some very serious people, and I realized that running wasn’t just putting one foot in front of the other, there were things you needed to do, things to buy, lingo to learn. It was a whole new world that I was not expecting to be thrust into. Boston is a running-centric city. The moment you would mention that you were running a race, questions would come rapid fire -- “what’s your pace?” “what training program are you using?” “have you tried (insert here more things than I believed was possible for putting one foot in front of the other)”. “Uh…” was my answer to most of the questions.

‘I’m not a runner, but I run’ became my mantra. I don’t have the fancy newest thing, but I run. I don’t have a training program, but I run. I run when I have time, sometimes I take months off, sometimes I run five days a week. I am not a runner, but I run.

Since the first half, which I did complete, I have run five more races. And each time I get excited, I start out with a plan, goals, and by the end I just want to complete the dang thing. I am not a runner, but I run.

Are there things in your life, your business that you can say “I am not a -----, but I ------”? You make the plans, you get excited about a new way to help grow your business, and then realize that it is more than putting one foot in front of the other. By the end you just want to complete the dang thing. Is marketing one of these things?

Do you say:

“I am not a marketing person, but I do social media”

“I am not a marketing person, but I email my clients.”

“I am not a marketing person, but I try to do partnerships with other businesses.”

“I am not a marketing person, but I update my website.”

On the surface running can be easy, you put one foot in front of the other. But the longer the distance, the more miles you clock you realize there is so much more happening below the surface, running is more than running. Marketing is more than posting on social media, sending random emails to clients, there is much more happening below the surface. There is purpose and strategy to marketing efforts to move past wanting to complete the dang thing.

Cardinal Fern provides that purpose. We do marketing. We are marketing people. We want to do your marketing, we enjoy it and look forward to the efforts.

Drop us a line if you need help in providing purpose and organizing your efforts into results.