I’m writing from HubSpot’s INBOUND 2013 marketing conference in Boston, where I had the pleasure of hearing Arianna Huffington, president and editor in chief of the Huffington Post, deliver a brilliantly inspiring (and – at many points – hilarious!) keynote address this morning. Hearing from her was one of the things I was most looking forward to about this conference, and she did not disappoint.
Like many of the other guest speakers and session leaders at this conference, Ms. Huffington did not focus on “marketing” in the usual sense of the word. Instead, she talked about humanity – the importance of powering down and being present in your day-to-day life; listening to and connecting with others in a genuine way; and how we gauge success.
Ms. Huffington asked, what aspects of a person’s life do we read about in his or her obituary? Is it net worth? No. Typically, an obituary contains biographical information, involvements, hobbies, family connections and references to things the person cared deeply about. It tells a story. It humanizes the person.
Just this week, my father-in-law sent an interesting Huffington Post piece to my husband and me. It was an obituary, but not just any obituary. It was a self-written obituary by Seattle-based author and editor Jane Catherine Lotter, who died of endometrial cancer on July 18 at the age of 60. And though the renowned author had many career accomplishments, including a novel and a weekly humor column, she calls her loved ones the greatest success story of her life. One of the “few advantages” of dying of cancer, Lotter wrote with characteristic wit in the Seattle Times, “is that you have time to write your own obituary.” It went viral on Twitter shortly after it was published and I urge you to read it if you haven’t already.
“[When people think about] what others will talk about when they die and incorporate that into how they live, they can change the world,” Ms. Huffington said to us this morning at INBOUND. And she's right.
Along with this, she talked about how “well-being” should be part of the metrics by which we measure our success. We are always on overdrive; it has become part of our culture as business people. But how effective are we really if we are running on empty?
She believes this so much that the Huffington Post has actually launched an app called GPS for the Soul, which is based on two truths – that we all have within us a centered place of harmony and balance, and that we all veer away from that place again and again. The app provides guides that help you course-correct, de-stress and reconnect with yourself.
“You cannot be constantly inventing and reinventing if you’re operating from burnout,” Ms. Huffington said to her audience of 5,400 marketers this morning. “Leaders need to find a place of wisdom, strength and real connection and lead from that place; it is through this place that we can change the world.”
I came to this conference expecting to learn more than I ever wanted to about inbound marketing, and on day two I have already learned more than I ever expected to about humanity. Thank you, Darlington, for investing in my professional development. I look forward to returning to campus next week refreshed and inspired.
Click here to watch a video of Arianna Huffington's full keynote at INBOUND.
