Marketing’s Addiction to ‘More’: Do We Need a Reset?

This week, I have been thinking a lot about careers. Partly because we are in the middle of performance reviews, and partly because I have spent most of the week battlefield walking in France. That has given me plenty of time to mull over some of life’s more important questions, such as, “What do I want to do with the rest of my career?” and “If I pick up that 109-year-old grenade I just found in a field, will it blow up?”

There is one section of a performance review that has always unnerved me - the bit that is titled ‘Personal Development’ or some such HR catchphrase. This is the part where you must conjure up fanciful visions of your future self and announce to the world (well, your boss at least) that you want to go for that VP role, or you want the ‘opportunity’ to lead a bigger team, or work on some meaningless cross-functional project that will go nowhere but you will learn how to sit on Zoom calls until 8pm each night - all in the name of career development. Or you are going to sit fifteen exams so you can be the world’s leading authority on technical SEO techniques for mid-market SaaS organisations, or you are going to start a podcast, or do a TED talk, or…

You get the point. Somewhere along the way, ‘more’ became the default setting for career ambition in marketing. These days, the expectation is clear: there has to be a next, there has to be ‘more’. Simply saying “At the moment, I am OK doing what I am doing, thanks” will probably result in your name being discussed at board meetings along with words such as ‘commitment’, ‘attitude’, and ‘ambition’. And not in a good way.

In many ways marketing has always been about growth: bigger reach, more pipeline, higher conversions, yadda, yadda, yadda. So I guess it's no surprise that the industry itself fosters a culture of ‘more’, and the rise of digital marketing at the turn of the century merely added fuel to the fire. More platforms to manage, more data to analyse, more metrics to track, and more content to create…

Then came the era of personal branding. Suddenly, being a good marketer wasn't enough; you had to be a thought leader. LinkedIn posts, Twitter / X threads, podcast appearances, YouTube channels, Substack newsletters… If you weren’t constantly building your own brand, were you even relevant? And all this on top of the day job.

But here’s the thing: ‘more’ isn’t always better. More campaigns mean more pressure. A bigger team means more management headaches. A high-profile role often translates to being in back-to-back meetings rather than doing the creative work you once loved. From the conversations I have with other marketers, burnout is widespread and stress levels are through the roof. The pressure to keep up with trends, constantly prove ROI, and be ‘always on’ is taking its toll. Yet we rarely stop to ask: Is this really what we want?

The case for ‘enough’

What if we started celebrating ‘enough’ in marketing? What if, instead of feeling guilty for not wanting to become a CMO, we took pride in being great at our current roles? What if "I’m good where I am" wasn’t seen as stagnation, but as mastery?

Maybe success in marketing isn’t about constantly chasing ‘more’. Maybe it’s about knowing when you have enough and having the confidence to say so. Not because you’re afraid of growth, but because you understand that growth, just for the sake of it, isn’t always the answer.

So, at your next performance review, when your boss asks about your personal development desires, if you are not ready to take on more, just try saying, "Honestly? I really like where I am."

You might just start a revolution.