I blink and I’m nearly 30. (Wednesday)

I blink again and my son is nearly 3. (Friday)

Let me get my cliche on here.

Children will make time go by faster than you knew possible. Sure, there are really long days/nights/weeks/moments that can crawl by. But then sometimes things just get in a groove and you work and weekend and laugh and cry and let the days fly by and suddenly your kid is talking in full sentences and using the toilet and taking Spanish and French lessons at school (um, what?).

As these upcoming birthdays approach I find myself trying to reflect more. When I do find a few moments to do so all I can do is be grateful. I won’t go on to list all my blessings here but dang, I am lucky. I’m not saying my life is shiny and perfect, but it’s the perfect one for me.

OK, mushy post over.

As I feel I say so often lately… life is busy. The days pass by in a blur of work, mom-life, tv on the couch with hubby, cleaning, working more, trying to find a few moments of peace at yoga… repeat, repeat, repeat.

I spent a few days last week in beautiful San Fran with some awesome co-workers and tons of fellow marketing automation nerds. It was more than I could have hoped for…

I spent the weekend trying desperately to recover from a crazy week, long night of red-eye action and a mountain of laundry. Catching up with lots of Miles hugs was in order as well. Annnnd we found time for a little BV Bonfire action and had an awesome night with friends new and old. Thanks Alana & Dean-o!

Besides being absent most of last week I’ve still been hitting the yoga mat as much as possible and a few runs here and there. Now that the temps are staying steady at not freezing I’m craving my running sneakers a little more often than never so that’s a start.

And after today’s horrible tragedy at the Boston Marathon I can’t pull together many words besides that it is an unthinkable tragedy and I am sending so many thoughts to everyone affected. Another reminder to truly take a moment and be thankful for the good things in our lives.

Let’s all try to go out and do something kind for others tomorrow.

So glad so many of you enjoyed The Life of a Marketing Automation Specialist. Things are so much better explained with animated gifs, don’t you agree?

When I finish building a program with 10 emails and 4 smart campaigns:

When a prospect sends a nasty email reply saying the never opted in to our messages and that they hate us… and I can send them a nice email with a screen shot of the exact day, time and form they completed opting in:

When I blow someone’s mind with Event Partner integration and progression statuses:

When a program you forward for review has absolutely zero changes:

How you feel when anything goes wrong with any email, data, campaign, landing page or form:

When you get an urgent email request at 4:45 p.m.

When someone sends you a list for import not in the import template and you send it back telling them they have to put it in the import template.

When your unsubscribe rate goes down after launching a preference center.

When you clean up 282 different lead sources to 12.

What you irrationally think when your lead’s activity history doesn’t tell the story it should.

When creating .ics files with tokens becomes available.

When you have CRM integration.

How you feel after building a lead scoring program.

How I feel when others out there enjoy this.

Play on marketing automation playas.

I spend a whole chunk of my time every day reading blogs and books. Google reader and my kindle app are my best friends. If I have 3+ spare minutes I’m trying to get some reading in. Now, I certainly read my fair share of items for entertainment… US Weekly, fashion/lifestyle/running blogs, etc. but I also read a lot of really great thought leadership blogs and books. So across the board here are some things I’m reading lately that I love!

Good Self, Bad Self by Judy Smith

Judy is the real life inspo for the the gladiator in a suit, Olivia Pope. I’ve recently binged on Scandal and am a tad obsessed. I just started this book and am so excited to find a little more free time to devour it.

J’s Everyday Fashion

My favorite fashion blog as of late. Daily outfits that I can afford and see myself wearing. I get some great ideas from her!

Marketo’s B2B Marketing and Sales Blog

It’s no secret I love all things Marketo, but this blog is LEGIT you guys. Every post is worth my time and I share 90% of them too.

Twenty Six & Then Some

I love reading about Page’s IRONMAN training, seeing pictures of her cute dog and her occasional baking of carbs.

Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog

I just started following Patty’s blogs and tweets and have her book, RISE, on my to-read list.

What’s good on your reading list lately?

Many of my readers may not get this post, but this is my blog and I’ll blog what I want to.

The life of a marketing automation specialist is a fun one. Most people don’t know what I do, and that’s OK. That’s the point. I do a lot of cool things that make other things happen. A facilitator of sorts. And also, a total baller.

And if you work with me and get offended by this, please don’t. It’s all meant in good fun.

Without further ado… the life of a marketing automation specialist as explained through GIFs.

When someone wants to change the email/landing page you spent 10 hours finalizing.

When a typo goes unnoticed on an email send.

When your PURL list will only export without the PURLs.

When someone from sales is looking for help to ‘send out a quick email’.

When your 25 step campaign flow works on the first try.

When you run a new segmentation.

When you’re told the campaign you’ve worked on all week is cancelled.

When someone says that your job is ‘email marketing’.

When your idea gets put on the product roadmap.

When someone messes up your data.

When you try to explain why it’s not OK to send someone 5 emails a week.

When someone understands why it’s not OK to send someone 5 emails a week.

When anyone out there finds this as entertaining as I do.

Check out part II!