The Gap Year that Almost Became a Career Gap
Manage episode 509971315 series 3484829
Marketing professionals aren't immune to making classic business mistakes, especially when personal projects cloud professional judgment. Our guest Katie Tucker, a Customer Insight Strategist, and Author of Do Penguins Eat Peaches, shares how her family gap year adventure led her to create a course without proper market validation, only to be unexpectedly saved by the COVID pandemic's timely intervention.
- World tour with family generated Instagram following and many questions about how to plan family gap years
- Created a comprehensive course teaching practical and psychological preparation for family travel
- Secured impressive media coverage in The Times money section
- Failed to properly validate the business idea beyond supportive friends and family
- COVID pandemic intervened before full launch, preventing potential business failure
- Working in market research didn't prevent making the same mistakes she warns clients about
- Personal connection to the project made objective assessment more difficult
- Sometimes you need to make mistakes to learn valuable business lessons
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Chapters
1. Introduction to Marketing Mistakes (00:00:00)
2. Family Gap Year Journey (00:01:07)
3. The Course Creation Mistake (00:01:43)
4. How COVID Became a Blessing (00:02:35)
5. Learning from Failure (00:03:42)
116 episodes