I ended up in marketing accidentally. In college, the customer service & data entry job I had to help pay the bills started asking me to do marketing work here and there. I helped with catalog layout, copywriting for products, working on the website, creating ads, and coordinating the direct mailing of hundreds of thousands of catalogs. And over time, I found that I actually REALLY enjoyed marketing, once I realized what it really was: Solving puzzles. Now, as senior leadership in marketing, I solve puzzles like...-Who is the key audience here & what are their needs/wants/goals?-Why is this campaign resonating and this one's not?-What is this new platform, and how can I use it to my organization's advantage?-How do we grow market share, increase revenue, and improve customer satisfaction?-What is the best way to position this brand/product/concept/issue?-Why is the website down again?Well, maybe that last one is less a puzzle and more of an ongoing frustration, but you get the gist. All of these are in service of two complimentary things. 1) How can I best use the tools at my disposal (data, creativity, storytelling, technology, PR, advertising, digital, social media, logic, and passion) to grow the organizations I'm part of? And 2)How can I make sure the customer on the other end is being served by my organization?Because I view marketing as puzzles to be solved in service of both the organization and the customer, I've not tied myself to one industry. That's part of the fun! From the beginning of my career, I've been able to rapidly shift from one industry, one topic, one audience to another because I know how to analyze the landscape, research the players/competitors/audiences, and use my strategic skills to create cross-functional plans that get results. The tools and tactics might be different in nonprofit marketing vs. publishing vs. SaaS vs. luxury goods vs. software vs. academics, but the way of looking for the puzzles remains the same. Today, my biggest career highs come when I solve a new problem using content marketing, brand marketing, digital marketing, integrated marketing, whatever the situation calls for that creates real impact, like:-Boosting user retention by 20%-Increasing donations by 614% over 5 years-Building multi-channel campaigns with 400% ROIWhen the work is this interesting and the puzzles this compelling and the results this fulfilling... I can't imagine doing anything else. Even if I got started in marketing accidentally, now I'm here intentionally.