Growing up, I followed along with all of the major trends of our generation. From Rainbow Loom bracelets to Duct Tape wallets, I immediately jumped on board with every trend and ran to my local craft store for supplies. 

Then, I discovered entrepreneurship. 

My family was a Shark Tank household and while watching the show I would often create my own start-up ideas and pitch them to my family, fighting mercilessly for a good deal. In that moment, I wasn’t an elementary school student struggling with math, I was a business leader in the midst of a tactful negotiation. I attribute Shark Tank for what would be the start of my long-held love of business.

I immediately started selling all of my handmade items, with an expert advertisement campaign consisting of hand-drawn posters depicting my latest promotions. 

I then advanced to lemonade stands and worked for hours with friends to create posters and flyers for the neighborhood to attract customers. Just as it sounds, the lemonade business was a serious trade full of constant adaptations. Upon discovering a customer’s need for food to complement the lemonade, we made cookies. After noticing a lack of purchases at the current price, we lowered the price and quickly witnessed more sales. When we struggled to find customers, I danced up and down the street to persuade people to try our product. 

While these stories may seem childish, there is a common string that weaves them together: marketing! I know what you’re thinking: was this really just a drawn-out way to advocate for marketing? No! Well, mostly not. 

Marketing is all around us and it is a skill that we are constantly learning. 10 year-old me did not know I was using marketing when I was taping up posters for my Rainbow Loom bracelets, but I was utilizing these innate skills. Even as I got older and started an Etsy shop, I used the same skills I had been using all along to promote my brand. 

Even if you are not interested in the realm of marketing (yet), these are skills that can be applied to almost anything. We market ourselves to the people around us on a daily basis as we are constantly developing our own personal branding. We advertise events to our friends as we try desperately to persuade them to attend certain things with us. We are truly always developing our marketing skills, whether we know it or not.