Here, Lindene Cleary, chief marketing officer of Tourism Tasmania explains why marketers should consider applying for The Marketing Academy’s 2025 Scholarship program. As an alumni of the program herself, Cleary believes that it was transformative for her career—and her life.
If you’re considering applying for the 2025 Marketing Academy scholarship, you might understandably ask, ‘why would I plunge myself into a group of 29 complete strangers for nine months, not knowing what I was in for?’
My short response is ‘why wouldn’t you?’. But as I’m on the cusp of graduating from the 2024 program it’s a good time for a little self-reflection on what I wanted to get out of all this, and how I’m tracking. Here goes.
I wanted to get out my bubble:
I’ve done this in spades. I’ve had chats with CMOs and senior leaders from Telstra, Google, TikTok, L’Oreal and more, along with leaders who’ve forged an inspiringly different path from the corporate ladder norm.
I’ve learned more from these conversations than I ever could have hoped to from only reading articles or listening to podcasts—these people are not just highly experienced, they’re also willing to generously share their experience for the greater good.
I’ve also worked with a super smart coach and met 29 beautiful humans from across Australia and New Zealand who I can call on at any point in the future, knowing they will respond with open arms.
Not to mention the hundreds of TMA alumni from the past ten years, who will do the same because they just ‘get it’.
I wanted to become a better coach and leader for my team and for my kids:
I’ll never stop learning how to do this.
But, working with my lovely coach across the year, I’ve been focusing on remembering that being kind is better than being nice, and that in any tricky situation, authentic me will always get a better result than inauthentic me.
It’s been hugely helpful to be regularly reminded that my job as a leader is to grow other leaders by giving them the confidence to reach solutions for themselves.
My job is to listen, ask the right questions, and be a champion for my team.
All these lessons are just as relevant to parenting, and when I take the time to apply them, the difference in outcomes is often astounding.
We parents are growing future leaders, and while we do get it wrong – a lot – the times we get it right are worth more than our little people will ever know.
I wanted to push myself, and in some ways, get over myself:
Another lifelong lesson but I’ve come a long way in a speedy fashion.
Public speaking, media interviews, saying ‘yes’ to things I otherwise would have shied away from because I was ‘too busy’ or ‘not good enough’.
The breaking news on that one? We’re all too busy and we’re all not good enough.
It’s the people who have a crack that make a difference.
I wanted to learn how to gain control of my bonkers calendar, so that I could become the fully present, goal-kicking, best possible leader, parent, friend, everything-to-everyone that ever lived:
I haven’t done that. But I have picked up hundreds of tips and tricks across the year that have definitely helped, bit by bit.
And that’s the biggest tip of all: nothing is achieved in a big ‘ta da’ moment. Everything is achieved in the small actions that eventually lead to bigger habits.
And the situation is the same whether you look at it positively or negatively: ‘the conditions are always perfect’.
Just quietly, I also wanted to recruit a few more visitors to Tasmania. Because it’s the best place on the planet and I want more lovely people to experience what I’m lucky to call ‘everyday life’. Boot camp in Tassie, Sherilyn?
