Before all, truth

Tuesday may have been St. Patrick’s Day, but I felt even more lucky at yesterday’s Digital Advertising Summit.

I’ve been attending Marquette’s Insight Summit Series for three years now, and I really thought I’d taken all I could from a day-long marathon of speakers. Truth to be told, the summits were typically a steady mix of 30 percent inspiration and 70 percent anxiety for me.

These people are all so accomplished. They’re way smarter than I am. They’ve had amazing careers. I’ll never get there. I just don’t have what it takes.

All typical thoughts going through my head at these things. And, if I’m being honest, they went through my head a bit yesterday, too. As a soon-to-be-graduate, I feel like I’m even more insecure about my path and personal goals these days.

However [warning: I’m about to be a tad dramatic here], something changed yesterday. I heard someone say things that I had been thinking in my head for a long time now.

Her name is Molly Currey, and I’m now her biggest fan.

After graduating from Marquette, Molly worked at GolinHarris for 14 years.

She graduated, she got a job in the area she studied, she worked hard, she excelled. She did what she was “supposed to do.”

And then, she didn’t.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, Molly examined her life, as any true Marquette grad would, and realized she wasn’t proud of what she was doing. She wasn’t being authentic to herself and she wasn’t telling authentic stories.

So, she quit. And got a new job. Where she believes whole-heartedly in what she’s doing and the brands she’s doing it for.

For years, I’ve sat uncomfortable in classrooms trying to get myself psyched up for the real-world and the doing of what I’m supposed to be doing. In my first PR class, we talked about compromising truth for the sake of clients, we talked about how far we would go. That’s not why I’m in communications. I’m in it for truth. I’m in it for stories that inspire. I’m in it because I believe in the power of humans behind brands, and that now more than ever, we need brands to be human.

Molly didn’t give specific nuggets of tactical wisdom or mind-blowing insights into the digital sphere. She was a human talking about how hard, and how important, it is to be human. It sounds simple, but it’s a key step that so many brands miss these days.

So moving forward, I’m going to be human and I’m going to bring humanity to my work. I’m not going to compromise truth or passion for a big name or big paycheck. I’m going to bravely use the digital space to tell stories because that’s what communicators are called to do.