Helen Lawler is a diverse marketing and product management executive with more than 25 years of industry experience in the financial services space. Regarded as an industry expert, Helen often speaks to groups, as well as contributes to industry publications such as CUinsight and ABA’s Bank Marketing Journal. After many years of business success, Helen saw an opportunity to provide the industry strategic marketing services that go deeper than a traditional agency relationship. She formed FINspiration to help clients navigate the industry’s unique complexity to: drive growth, understand data analytics, navigate marketing challenges, and make an impact in overall strategy.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
None Specific
When business started difficulties overcame:
“the challenge which I was ready for is the time it takes to build process. I am not always patient in that regard. So particularly the financial industry is a little slower to, to come to decisions than other businesses so I had to be bad for that… It took me some time to properly build out my team and strategic alliances who are vital to helping get the clients to where they need to be. But I consider that an important time investment and it’s starting to pay off”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
The Change Maker’s Playbook: How to Seek, Seed and Scale Innovation in Any Company Book by Amy J. RadinFavourite Quote:
- ” If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” Steve Jobs
- “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Walt Disney
Recommended Online Resources:
- LinkedIn – is a business and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Founded on December 28, 2002, and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs.
- SSI
- The Financial Brand – Ideas and Insights for Financial Marketers – The Financial Brand is the 1 site in the world for senior level executives in the banking industry — strategic insights, practical ideas and actionable intelligence
- BAI empowers financial services leaders to make smart business decisions that drive positive change and move the industry forward.
- American Marketing Association – The American Marketing Association is a professional association for marketing professionals with 30,000 members as of 2012. It has 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States.
- Blogs
- Whitepapers
- Company websites
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“there is three things to consider as an entrepreneur, eliminate the fear, find your true self and get out of your comfort zone. Fear holds people back to getting to great things. You maybe in a situation that comfortable, good income, friends at the office whatever but if it leaves you wanting more and you can’t figure why then you are not living your full potential and you are leaving something on the table. The fear of change or calculated risk or doing something new that you don’t completely understand will hold you back from your dreams. So in the end is that thing that we feared that really actually probably not as bad as we imagined it to be”…[Listen for More]
More About Helen Lawler:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” Alan Turing, The Imitation Game
Other Quotes From the Chat with Helen Lawler:
- “flesh out your idea and plan. No doubt the most important thing you can do. Talk to people and see if it makes sense and then really look at the potential market. You need to make sure that somebody is going to buy from you, you have to give them something that they need and you need to make sure that there are enough of them to support your plan. Know everything you can about them, find data, write what is known as a buyer persona which is like an in-depth personality profile about your customer, determine how much they would pay for the offering and then create your business plan”
- “once you start working with someone you really begin to understand how you click and if they view things the same way”
- “Being tenacious is probably the biggest one. You have got to continue no matter what happens, you have to figure something out, look at something from a different perspective if it’s not working and you have got to be tireless when you are doing it”
- “failing is learning experience and the fastest way to know what not to do is to fail. Obviously, you don’t want to try to fail however each failure as part of practice, and practice makes perfect”
- “I like to go at lightning speed and make things happen fast”
- “this is not a sprint it’s a marathon and a building process and that I must be patient while recognising and appreciating all the wins along the way while I work towards my big goals”
- “no matter if the test is small or large, overwhelming or simple you just need to get going”
- “I don’t want to be stagnant or fall behind”
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