Melanie Green

While I think there is no single thing success comes from, I think my tenacity, internal drive, and love of learning have really helped me professionally. I like to really look at things objectively and learn from them. If I say I can do something, I really can. I will also tell you if I can't but will then will probably secretly learn how to. I like to figure it out and find a way forward.

In terms of learning, I love to read and am an avid reader. I read a lot of books about business, marketing, leadership, and writing. I enjoy reading literary fiction and some romance. I used to love reading horror, but life is scary enough once you get older so I don't really read it as much now.

I also love learning foreign languages, and have some proficiency in French, Scottish Gaelic, Korean, and Spanish. I like to learn different hobbies just to challenge myself. Right now, I like crochet and diamond painting, but I've dabbled in a lot of hobbies.

The best advice I got, and this is probably cliche for writers, came from Stephen King's book 'On Writing.' One of the most visual examples that really stuck with me from that book is that he had this railroad spike on his wall, and every rejection he would get, he would just put it on this spike. Eventually, the spike was so heavy with rejection, it fell down under the weight of it. And you have to remember, this is Stephen King, one of the most prolific and commercially successful writers of our time.

If you're going to be a writer or in business, you're going to have a lot of rejection. You're going to have a lot of fails, you're going to try to do a lot of things, whether you're testing things or trying to get approval for budgets, and you're just going to face a lot of rejection. That's not about you personally, and you can grow from it. Ask why they rejected you if you can.

Sometimes, with things like RFPs, they have somebody else in mind before they even request proposals. The more that we are able to just accept that rejection is part of it the better. Otherwise, rejection can get you really down and you can't succeed that way. Especially for writing, when you're putting something of yourself out there, it's really important. Just keep going and learning, and it will work out. You just keep growing from those rejections.

I would say that she needs to really be persistent. It's really easy to give up when you're faced with challenges. Maybe you didn't get the job you wanted or you don't know how to do something. Well, you can always get a different job. Not getting a specific job isn't an indicator of your worth. But it's worth asking why you didn't get it and for feedback. If you can get it, it can be invaluable.

If you don't know how to do something, it's time to teach yourself. Find free courses online. Be creative, there's some way you can get this information.

When I first started my business, I realized that I didn't love doing cold calls or sales. I didn't know what to say. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to learn how to be a better cold caller and seller, I took a job with paid training at Ultimate Medical Academy as a Career Advisor. It was 3 weeks of paid training and several weeks of mentorship learning how to make cold calls. I got so good at this skill that scared me that I got promoted to a different team during my short time there before I quit to just focus 100% on my business again. However, those sales skills I've been able to keep and got paid to learn.

Right now, AI is having huge impacts on my field, and I've been trying to keep up with more of marketing automation through some certification programs. Things have really changed several times over the 19 years I've been doing this. SEO has always been a big thing for what I do as well, but understanding AEO and how AI is changing content (and can be used in the most beneficial ways) is important.

Most companies I've interacted with just think AI is using a chatbot. You'll ask it to write a blog and then you'll use that blog. However, it doesn't really work that way. First, there ARE great ways to use AI to further writing and marketing initiatives, even though this isn't it. Second, a lot more goes into writing than just having a draft.

I want to also caution companies that readers are becoming more savvy. They don't engage with AI in the same way they did even a few years ago. It is repetitive and they can recognize the sort of weird tonal shift it has. (It's also completely ruined em-dashes). Generative AI could be a good tool with a writer who really knows how to write because it amplifies their capacity. However, if you don't know what a good draft is, you won't know how to fix AI drafts so they're still engaging with readers.

This actually scares me for the future and why I'm so passionate about training and empowering the next generation of writers. If we don't train them and all they see is this AI slop, where will the engaging content of the future come from?

My most important values are ownership and service to others. I really want to empower the people that are up and coming the way that I've been empowered. Obviously, I can't do everything, so they need to be able to do things, and I want them to just feel successful and empowered. That's really the only way that we're going to move forward as a society, company, or as people.

My former boss at TrueSense Marketing, Chief Marketing Officer John Thompson, really empowered me to have ownership and autonomy of my tasks, and really grow with my role. He saw opportunities to really try to encourage me to grow and accomplish more. He understands how to get the highest quality work out of people, how to give feedback in a way that gets the project across the finish line, and to make people feel valued and appreciated. Honestly, he's the kind of boss you dream to work for. You'll feel included and invested in. Plus, it's easy to see he's incredibly knowledgeable and skilled. You just know to pay attention because you don't want to miss out on what you can learn. I'm incredibly grateful to have worked at TrueSense with him before he retired to start his own consulting firm and use that information to benefit other direct response fundraising companies and nonprofits.

I want to do the same for others. I have had some opportunities already to do this. I had a long-term contract recently end where I mentored two teams of writers. (I was hired to mentor and manage just one, but it quickly grew into two teams). Even though the contract ended because the function was dissolved in a merger, the feedback from the people I was able to mentor was really positive and uplifting. I actually saved it to remind myself, "this is what you're in it for." I really want to empower people that are up and coming because I want them to just feel successful and empowered.

I had the opportunity to teach teenagers how to write and publish books on Amazon. They taught me a lot about life and all the new acne products they have now that definitely didn't exist when I was a teenager. I taught them that they could do something, and gave them the skills to do it so they did. I'm very proud of them.