Many CMOs embrace the idea of scaling their marketing business but overlook something equally important: scale yourself first to strengthen your growth mindset.

If you’re an ambitious person, you’ll inevitably hit a wall. It sounds pessimistic, but it’s actually a sign you’re doing something right. At points throughout your career, you’re guaranteed to feel overwhelmed, burned out, uncertain, and defeated. You’re likely the kind of person who takes on as much as you can in any given role, so it’s not surprising people keep giving you new things to do, new problems to solve. Whether you get to move up, however, depends on what you do next. Time to scale yourself.

The key to scaling yourself is to understand yourself first. Not just your skills but also your energy! Energy management is the hidden key to getting more done. Energy management is the combination of physical, emotional (how you are feeling at a given moment), and mental energy. What drives you, how do you recharge, what are your ambitions, what do you take from your past, what is going on in your brain, and so on. Get a grip of who you are, what you want to achieve in life, and understand where your energy is coming from.

The Gingerbread Tool is a great tool I learned doing my Master’s in management at Vlerick. It will help you find your seven main attention points in life. Some guidance:

• Only drawing is allowed (no words can be written)
• Set your alarm for 5 minutes (as you have 5 minutes to accomplish it, so you don’t overthink)
• Draw the first thing that comes up your mind
• Don’t forget, have fun

Now its’s your turn.

1. Brain -> whats the one thing that pops in your head: eg work – family – getting that promotion – ..
2. Past -> whats the one thing you take with you from the past -eg prize – recognition – a memory of a loved one
3. Happiness: whats the main thing that puts a smile on you? Being surrounded by people, having a drink, working, looking after my kids
4. Hobby
5. Future – where do you see yourself when being retired? Eg a second house – living abroad. – being a teacher – good charity
6. Love Whats the main thing you love the most: your family – being happy – progress
7. Work : whats the main thing you want to achieve? Eg 9 to 5 is fine – new promotion – being an entrepreneur –becoming a scaleur

Done with the test? It is extremely helpful to know about oneself to scale as a leader. Understanding this will help you find greater motivation where you’re already primed to look for it. It also helps to understand those around you. It will allow you to be extremely effective and persuasive in conversations with others when you know which way they’re oriented.

If done right, this role will positively impact your entire (marketing) company. It’s really not just about you. When you’re running a business, it’s easy to forget how many people are counting on you to do your job well and on time. There’s no greater frustration for a motivated team then to be blocked by their CMO. If you scale yourself first, you will get more done than you thought was possible. Then it’s time to scale your marketing business.

Now you can scale your team!

Become a Successful Scaleur

I hope this blog will prove to be helpful in your endeavor. After all, Scaling is a strategy that can only be mastered by a scaleur who is an ardent learner and considers real-time business priorities.

Marketing Scaleurs is a scaling company helping entrepreneurs scale their marketing efforts. To accomplish this, we help businesses strive and succeed with growth marketing, product development and more. How do we do it? We create custom growth plans to startups, entrepreneurs and scaleurs in order to help them gain traffic, generate leads and increase their revenue. If you want traffic, leads and sales, send an email to Marketing Scaleurs today, and you will start getting results in no time