0:00:13 – Tamara Littleton
This is the Genuine Humans podcast brought to you by Social Element. I’m Tamara Littleton.
0:00:18 – Wendy Christie
And I’m Wendy Christie.
0:00:23 – Tamara Littleton
In our podcast, we’ll discover the stories of the leaders behind the brands and the trailblazers who are making a real difference in our industry. We’ll delve into how they got to where they are today.
0:00:34 – Wendy Christie
And we’ll hear about the genuine humans who supported and influenced them along the way.
0:00:45 – Tamara Littleton
Welcome back to Genuine Humans podcast. I’m here with my co-host, who’s been on a rather fabulous holiday. Wendy, it’s lovely to see you.
0:00:57 – Wendy Christie
Lovely to see you too. This is the first time we’ve seen each other since I got back from my delayed honeymoon in the Maldives, which was just wonderful.
0:01:00 – Tamara Littleton
I’m so pleased, and you’re looking very brown and relaxed. I’m also so happy that we’ve got a bit of a special guest on today, actually. So we have Abby Dixon joining us. Abby is the founder of Labyrinth Marketing and also the founder of the Whole Marketer, which incorporates a brilliant podcast that I’m a huge fan of, a book, and a whole program for marketing leaders and teams. So welcome to the podcast, Abby.
0:01:26 – Abby Dixon
Thank you very much for having me.
0:01:27 – Tamara Littleton
You just did one with Ellie Norman, actually, and it was some amazing number. What number are you up to now with your podcast?
0:01:34 – Abby Dixon
0:01:36 – Wendy Christie
Wow.
0:01:37 – Tamara Littleton
That’s just incredible. You’re such a pioneer in this space. I love it.
0:01:41 – Abby Dixon
Thank you, thank you.
0:01:43 – Tamara Littleton
So, Abby, do you want to actually just share more about The Whole Marketer, about what you’re doing with that program? But also, can we do that classic of can you go backwards and tell us more about your early career, how you got to where you are now?
0:01:59 – Abby Dixon
Definitely so; before the whole marketer, before Labyrinth, I was a client-side marketer, so spent 15, 16 years in client-side roles, brand management roles from the government to consumer durables, at Bosch to FMCG, at the likes of Britvic, and working on brands like Pepsi, headed up the marketing function for the UK and Ireland for Burger King and was also a marketing controller for lots of different brands at Premier Foods so lots and lots of household brands and got to a point in my career where I thought I don’t know if I can keep going with the strat planning.
I love helping others do the strat planning, but not necessarily going through that cycle again and thought, also combined with the crossroads of becoming a mum, I thought actually time for a change.
So I started doing consultancy, first in-house at Britvic and then I went on to set up my own consultancy called Labyrinth Marketing, which, after a period of reflection, you know, feeling at a crossroads, realising that I was starting to lose fulfilment, I went and sought the support of a coach and that not only was one of the things that sparked me to then go on and train to become a coach myself but also that crossroads allowed me to really reflect on the things that are important to me, the things that I value, the things that I’m really great at, which is around writing long term strategy but also noticing a big “do different” that needs to happen with consultancies. Which is not just writing the strategy, and everyone gets a line and goes, yeah, we agree, yeah, yeah but actually staying and helping everyone deliver it.
So, whether that was additional resource, whether that was building brand propositions, innovation pipelines, appointing agency partners, you know, whatever was needed in order to make that strategy start to come to life.
So labyrinth, you know it’s still going, but I very much have had a bit of a Jerry McGuire moment, which is where The Whole Marketer was born.
So probably about year five, I would say, into Labyrinth I was on holiday and in the capacity of Labyrinth, I was working with marketers and still am working with marketers a whole different um setup. So whether I was mentoring or coaching them, whether I was training them because I’ve been a trainer now for coming up to 17, 18 years, originally on the CIM professional qualifications, which I used to do when I was client side, but now more recently working with them direct in-house as a trainer and other, lots of other bodies like AIA and AAR etc. And so, whether it’s training capacity, coach capacity, consultancy capacity, I just got this overwhelming feeling of lack of fulfilment happening in the profession, and I was sitting on a sun lounger in Cyprus, my boys were in the pool, and I was reflecting on those two weeks gone by, and I thought it doesn’t matter who I speak to, the seniority, the industry sector those feelings of lack of fulfilment and lack of clarity and overwhelm were apparent across the board. And so, with that Joe Maguire moment, I thought we can’t have this. As someone who is passionate about the marketing profession, who does so much work in making marketers successful at what they do, in training, but also now, having become a coach, how can I impart some of that personal understanding that you need to have in order to become more fulfilled in what they do?
And so, The Whole Marketer was born into my iPad. I typed furiously about all the things and just kind of must get it out, you know, much to the annoyance of my husband, but I had to get it out. And when I returned, I was like, right, what can I do?
So it started as a podcast, which you just mentioned, which was very much as part of the research for my book, and it started as a way in which for me to get other people’s thoughts and opinions on what is happening in the marketing profession, the skills that marketers need today to grow the brands and business of tomorrow. Yet here we are, 123 episodes later, and it just has taken off, I think.
Well, not I think; I know it resonates with many marketers that want and need to have the clarity on the skills that they need today to grow the brands and businesses of tomorrow, acknowledging the fact that marketing has shifted massively from a support function to one leading the long-term commercial agenda.
But as a result of that, as has the way or the how in which we do things, so the way in which we lead, the way in which we bring plans to life and connect on a deep-rooted emotional connection with our consumers and customers, you know the way in which we have to gain buy-in across the whole organisation as we are leading.
But, last but by no means least, also the personal understanding. So how do I build that personal understanding in others so that they can actually address the fulfilment side of things? So getting closer to what their strengths are and what they bring to the world, owning that, having the confidence behind that, being able to really understand their values and their purpose and things that really sit in the deep centre of their soul, so that they can make more conscious decisions around what it is that they need to bring into their life, but into their career, but, as well as facing, into the things that are going to hold us back. So those limiting beliefs, the imposter syndrome, the resilience we’re going to need and, most recently, the work that I’m doing around helping marketers overcome burnout.
0:07:24 – Tamara Littleton
Has that been happening a lot more? Have you seen that sort of the burnout bit that people are asking more about that then?
0:07:33 – Abby Dixon
Definitely. I think for me it’s the role of The Whole Marketer is to think about the holistic development – the person behind the brand and business, and I think the cases of burnout has had a light shine on it, but how we address that hasn’t and that’s the bit that I’m trying to really help a bit of a movement behind.
So, yeah, you know, it’s great that we’re shining a light, but we need to do things to address it and how can we prevent it?
How can you build that personal understanding in order to put the right things in place for you, your things that you need to put boundaries around, things that you know that fill your cup up, but also making sure that those fundamental things that are causing a lot of cases of burnout around lack of clarity, lack of prioritisation, lack of pushback, saying no to things that get kind of cascaded to us from senior management how we put those things in place so that we can prevent and make sure that we don’t have reoccurring cases.
So it’s become a podcast, but also, a lot more of my focus now is actually getting in front of marketing teams and helping them develop holistically. So, whether that’s training, coaching, mentoring, keynote speaking, you know, whatever it takes, in order to create a movement and a philosophy being embedded in an organisation, for them to really think about developing marketers holistically, so they can be great at what they do, but more importantly, fulfilled.
0:08:54 – Tamara Littleton
Thank you, I love that Loving your work. Thank you.
0:08:57 – Wendy Christie
Thank you, thank you for sharing that, Abby. If you don’t mind, I’d be really interested in going even further back, even before your career journey, to what you were like as a child. So what were you like as a child?
0:09:11 – Abby Dixon
It’s funny that when I knew that this question was coming, I actually went and had a phone call with my mother. I said what was I like as a child? And she laughed out loud down the phone to me
Tamara: always a good sign.
So these are the following things that I can report that she commented on, and then I’ll also add how I felt as a child as well. So she said I was strong-minded, wanted to do it. Even if I was told not to do something, I was going to do it anyways. A people person always going up to others and talking to them.
And my mum, being quite introverted herself, was almost like the way that I actually made friendships for her. I’d kind of just go to random people in the park and start talking to them and she kind of came along for the ride, always very helpful. She said I was always the one helping at school, helping others getting stuck in. I love school, never had to push me, I was always pushing myself and teachers all loved me. She said I was very caring, always looking after others, especially little ones, and that I had no fear, so I’d always just go for it or just do it, which apparently also got me in a lot of trouble. So she recalled a story of I wanted to go and see the penguins when we were at the zoo, and I just got in with the penguins.
Wendy: You got in with the penguins?,
Abby Dixon
and she had to chase me, got in with the penguins and apparently, it was like a three-foot drop that my mum had to climb in to try and get in amongst the penguins and get me back out.
So clear themes of just getting involved, going ahead and doing it anyways. But what I remember as a child is loving to read, like the library was my favourite place to be. I’m probably not the same as a lot of children growing up that would prefer the summer holidays. I used to be a bit disappointed in the summer holidays and so used to go to the library to get my fix. Absolutely love books, and I also have a lot of memories. So I have very young, had very young parents and always kind of the lone child in amongst kind of parties or social gatherings, and a story that always got retold was how I usually stand on the table and sing Shout by Tears for Fears for everyone, and everyone would clap along, and I used to absolutely love it
0:11:29 – Wendy Christie
some clear themes coming.
Tamara
I’ve seen that side of you you have,
Abby Dixon
you have indeed,
Wendy
there’s some really clear themes coming out there that you can really see have carried forward to your adulthood um sort of supporting people and your entrepreneurial spirit, even, and hard work, um all of that. How important would you say your environment was that you grew up in?
0:11:53 – Abby Dixon
To be honest, I grew up in quite an unusual environment. So, I was actually a forces child. My mother is Maltese, my father is English, and we traveled all over, so I was the new girl in school. I’ve lost track of time 11 times, maybe 12 times. That’s tough.
Um, during my childhood, which was really really tough, really really tough, and although I sit here and think, oh, I haven’t got that childhood home that I grew up in, you know, that place that I returned to time and time again, what it has taught me is, you know, the ability to connect with people really quickly. You know, particularly as a child, social settings are key to survive on the playground. So, you know, breaking into friendship groups that are already established. We also travelled quite a lot around the world. So not only living between two cultures growing up, we also lived in many different cultures, and a lot of the work that my father did growing up was a cultural attache role or lots of logistics.
So you know, I was surrounded by different cultures and different families, from those from Latin America to living in America to living in Germany. So, understanding other people’s cultures, appreciating not everybody’s the same, really trying to build an understanding of others and what’s important to them was something that was just part of growing up for me and potentially being in situations that most young children wouldn’t be in. So you know, I remember quite a lot being at formal functions, for example, and having to kind of go and shake grown-ups hands and explain what, what happens in Britain and why what our culture is all about, you know, to other people from different nations. You know, quite a young age. So a real sense of appreciation of other cultures and not everyone’s the same, and I think that’s really carried through as a theme for me of not judging, you know, staying in unconditional, positive regard, trying to appreciate what it’s like for somebody else to walk in their shoes not what it’s like for me to walk in their shoes has definitely something that has held stead for me.
0:14:08 – Wendy Christie
I love that. I’ve never thought of it like that before what it’s like for that person to walk in their shoes, not for me to walk in their shoes. I’m going to give that some thought. Um, were there particular people that you looked up to?
0:14:20 – Abby Dixon
I don’t think there were particular people I looked up to, but thinking about this question, there was a key theme of people that I really respected, and one of my values is helping others and I think to all the people that stood out were all people that helped others, so, one of them being my Auntie Doris. She would help anyone. She still does to this day, still helps out at charities and works in soup kitchens or the equivalent of that in Malta, but also people that helped me out. So my dad was offered away a lot in his role in the forces. So the person that helped me fix my bike when they appreciated that you know my dad wasn’t around to do that. Or the person that helped me learn to dive once for the same situation. Or the people that actually ask how can I help you? And whether that’s in work or life, those people really stand out to me, and my father passed away the end of September last year.
Oh, I’m so sorry, and I found that time really reflective, and what I realised is that my desire to help others and, as one good friend said to me, you will often jump into situations others that are uncomfortable and will avoid them because they don’t know what to say and they don’t want to do, you know you’ll jump in and sit alongside that person.
That actually was something that my dad used to do, so I can think of many situations where, for example, he was driving me to a sleepover as a teenager, and there’d been a car accident, and my dad pulled the car over and said, look this way and don’t look back until I tell you to. And he jumped on in there and helped the people in the car accident and got the ambulance and, you know, held their head until someone arrived and whatever else he did. That I don’t know because I had to turn my head away, but he was very much that person, and it made me reflective of that’s actually how I am, and it made me reflective of that’s actually how I am, and I didn’t realise there is any other way, because when you’ve grown up watching that as normal behaviour, it just becomes ingrained in who you are.
0:16:24 – Wendy Christie
And when you were little did you have any sense of what you wanted to be when you grew up?
0:16:30 – Abby Dixon
Well, there were three things. First, I wanted to be a policewoman. So they came into my school and showed how to do CPR and the other things that they did, and I was really inspired. Then, as time went on, I thought, “I want to help young children”, so I wanted to be a paediatrician. And then I realised I don’t like blood, so that’s not going to work out well. And somewhere along the line, I realised that I wanted to work in business. But I was fascinated by people. So, you know, I studied psychology A-level and absolutely loved it, and so that’s where the love of marketing came from because that is the crossover into marketing, you know, understanding people and their behaviour, and that’s where the desire for marketing came from. But yes, policewoman, paediatrician, come marketer
0:17:18 – Wendy Christie
Coming back up to date or thinking through your journey again. Were there people over the years who influenced your career or your life in general?
0:17:32 – Abby Dixon
I think there’s definitely people that have influenced my career, and I would say probably more so on the client side, and I said influence probably the people that gave me a chance. You know, the person that gave me a chance to come and work in consumer durables when I didn’t have consumer durables experience. Or the person that gave me the role at FMCG when I didn’t have FMCG experience. You know, the people that could see that my passion and my skills were transferable and want that level of energy in their team and not necessarily that classic cookie cutter that had come before me. So I think that’s definitely those of influence.
But as far as life, as life in general, I mean friends are so important to me. Friends are, you know, my family. Yes, I have a family, but they are the people I surround myself with, and those are the people that have the biggest influence on me, those people that hold me true, hold me real, encourage me, support me. Whether that’s people I’ve worked with, whether that’s people I’ve known for a long time, whether it’s people I’ve not known for a long time, it doesn’t matter to me, and I always say reason, season, lifetime. People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime, and that acceptance of different people are coming into your life at different times for a reason, almost like the universe has put them there for you to support them or for them to support you. I live by that principle, and you know I have a great network around me of wonderful human beings and also put a lot of energy into being there for a lot of wonderful human beings as well.
0:19:04 – Tamara Littleton
I’m going to pull you back to something you said before about one of your drivers being supporting people, and I was just going to ask, actually, what is your main motivation for doing what you do now?
0:19:16 – Abby Dixon
It’s fulfillment.
There is something about living your best life, and I’ve got a sign behind me that says do what makes your soul happy, and I do live to that principle.
If I take the classic definition of what a purpose is, which is you know what are your talents, the things that you’re born with, your skills that you’ve learned, the values that you carry and the things that you’re passionate about, you know I’m passionate about the marketing profession, my values around helping others, being honest, my skills around putting people at ease. You know thinking strategically, really driving people’s change agendas and within their organisation for their brands, and a talent around potentially a naturally born confidence because of the way I was brought up that we’ve just discussed. Those things combined are why I do what I do. I think once you’ve learned what your values are and you know what your purpose is and you’ll live in a purpose-driven life is no longer work. So I’m getting up every day to make sure marketers are more fulfilled and more successful in what they do, and it doesn’t matter in what shape or form that that comes.
That’s what I’m here to do, so that is why I do what I do
0:20:42 – Tamara Littleton
And do you think that marketing and, you know, leadership as a whole is changing for the better? I’m going to ask you like a big question now so what trends are you seeing you work with so many different people? What are the trends? Is it changing for the better? Any advice that you can give?
0:20:52 – Abby Dixon
I think it’s changing for the better in the sense that marketing is being seen now and potentially for a lot of organisations. During COVID, almost they pivoted to marketing and going so what do we do? And that left the door open a little bit of ajar to go. We know what to do. Let’s just kick that door right open and show them what we can do and to become that growth engine of change, and for a lot of organisations that’s been the way for a while. So it’s great that we’re seeing the increased understanding of what marketing brings and can drive as an engine of growth to businesses. I think the downside to that is that the breadth of role is massively increased, yeah, and so a lot of marketers.
Although we’ve moved from a support function to one leading the commercial agenda, that means that we’re being brought into a lot more commercial conversations, whether enjoyable or not enjoyable for lots of people, and that could be, you know, reviewing the cost price of something as well as, you know, managing the profit and loss, and all these things are really important, but it’s moved away from what a lot of marketers enjoy, which is the ability to build communications, you know, activate, bring things into the market, and so it’s a real mix of those two things. So there is potentially a little bit of review happening amongst marketers of going this isn’t what I came into marketing for. Do I still enjoy it? I think there’s also the time pressure that all of those things have have brought, and so, if I think about some of the themes that I’m seeing around, potentially the lack of clarity a lot of marketeers have the lack of clarity on the long-term vision or strategy of the business and the goals and what it is that, as a marketing function, they’re trying to do, what it is that they individually need to contribute, you know all of those things laddering into each other it’s not happening as well as it used to, and I think a lot of it’s to do with time Time for the marketing leader to be able to take a step back and really think about all of those things, but also the time to be spent with the individuals that they’re allocating those tasks to, to understand the context and the reason why, and those two things are creating lots of levels of kind of demotivation, as well as the work being produced or the work being briefed out not having that context and making it more difficult for everyone that’s involved in those processes.
So I think time, obviously, we’ve talked about the increase in burnout, we talked about the lack of fulfilment, but for me, it’s really about do leaders use their own personal understanding enough to really think about their role as leaders? And I believe we lead at all levels, whether that’s leading a campaign or leading a whole organisation or leading a function. We’re all leading. But are they putting as much energy into defining that style of leadership that is authentic to them and bringing that to life and the initiatives and the work streams that they need to in order for the marketers in their care to feel motivated? No, and so there are some that are doing it well, and there are some that are on the start of the journey and some that haven’t even realised, and I was talking to someone the other day is that what I do is needed, but not always they’re not always aware that they need it yet, yeah and it’s a real journey, and I find that the people that have come for help with the whole marketer are those that have been on a journey themselves.
So, whether that is they’ve been on a journey of personal understanding, or they’ve led in an organisation that didn’t work for them, or they’ve had other people in their care, whatever that may be, something has happened where they’ve had to realise the importance of all of those things, and they’re the people that I work with the most.
I think you know to your point, patterns; I would like to see more people in leadership positions really slowing down, taking the time to really build that clarity, communicate that clarity, not just once, but repeatedly, checking the marketers in their care have the context and are motivated to deliver. It’s like we’re constantly asking marketers to run marathons but we’re not telling them why they’re running it, how long the marathon is, what success looks like, what time they need to run it in, what the cause is behind the marathon, what those key milestones are on the journey, what support they’re going to get on that road. We’re not; we’re just telling them to run.
So it’s no wonder a lot of marketers aren’t feeling as motivated as they could be, are starting to feel burnout if we slow down, get more clear on the races that we want to run, the races that we need to run, and also for those in that position of leadership to push back. You know, those side requests that come in. “Can you just?” Can you just?” Push back more! Because every “Can you just?” is taking a little bit of coin, a little bit of motivation away from the person that’s doing it, particularly when they don’t understand why and what the motivation is in it for them or the organisation.
0:25:59 – Tamara Littleton
That’s such a good message to take away from this, and just making sure that you’re practising what you preach, as it were. What, what does this year look like for you? Have you got some good balance? Have you, are you feeling optimistic about the year? What? What does it look like?
0:26:05 – Abby Dixon
So, I’m going to carry on doing a lot more on the burnout profession, so watch this space as far as new episodes coming out.
I’m going to do a little mini-series for burnout with two professionals and then two marketers as well one client-side, one agency-side. What I will say is that it’s not just client-side, agency-side, it’s any marketer at any level or any human being, to be frank, that can, that can be affected by burnout, and so there’s a lot more that I want to do there lots more articles, a lot more speaking, a lot more kind of training in businesses, as well as those programs I mentioned in the whole marketers, a lot more programs around marketing, leadership, you know, developing your authentic style, and a lot more workshop allowing people to really face into some of those things that are not going right in their organisations. So resilience, limiting beliefs, potentially holding back the team, helping leaders to find clarity, whether that’s capability or strategy, whatever is required in order for marketers to be successful and fulfilled in what they do. And then to your point on balance, yeah, I’ve got some goals I want to achieve this year personally, so I’d like to learn how to play the drums.
0:27:17 – Tamara Littleton
Oh! I played when I was 14, 15, 16. It’s the most wonderful thing. I sometimes go back to it, honestly, when you get a drum kit. I’m just inviting myself around now. Sorry, I’ve gone way too far ahead.
0:27:27 – Abby Dixon
Come on over tomorrow.
0:27:30 – Tamara Littleton
I got a bit overexcited. Let’s start a band.
0:27:32 – Abby Dixon
Well, you sing, I’ll play the drums. I mean, all I’ve done so far is buy a drumming pad and some drum sticks, so let’s you know, give me a little bit of a give, a little bit of starter. But yes, I do want to play the drums, and it’s something that I kept saying that I was going to do in retirement, and life experiences have taught me you can’t wait for retirement,
Tamara
no, bring all the fun stuff forward
Abby Dixon
Bring all the fun stuff forward. So drumming, although I’ve not started, is on the list. I want to go to Es Vedrà, which I am actually going to at the end of next week. I’ve heard it’s a very spiritual, magnetic pools. I’ve become quite spiritual in my older age, which is kind of interlinked to my love of Cornwall, so I’m going to Es Vedrà and a few other trips throughout the year that I’m really looking forward to.
0:28:20 – Wendy Christie
Fantastic. On that note, we’re going to move on to the part of the podcast where we get a little bit more personal. So let’s start with your idea of a perfect weekend, and maybe you’ve got one coming up.
0:28:32 – Abby Dixon
Well, a perfect weekend is spent in Cornwall. For those that know me well know it’s my spiritual home. So a weekend for me, a perfect weekend for me would involve lots of beach walks, potentially getting in the ocean, letting the power of the North Cornish waves beat me. It’s almost like something like I feel like the ocean is a woman, so it’s like, come on, bring it on like it’s just this energy, and I give things back to the ocean. She gives me more energy, like yes to the ocean, spending time in the ocean, whether that’s paddle boarding in the sea, cold water swimming.
I would have a pina colada. There is a place that has the best pina coladas in Cornwall, the Colonial, for anyone who is going soon to Tolcarne beach. So I’d have one, if not two, of those. I would take a stroll to the harbour. The harbour is full, obviously, with the catch that’s coming from the day, but just loads of different street food eateries that you can order across all of them, and they get delivered to your table. So I would have a massive food fest, everything from crab to Mexican to, you know, seafood, whatever it is, and wait till sunset, wait till low tide and walk back. That would be my perfect day.
0:29:48 – Wendy Christie
That sounds heavenly if you were walking on stage and there’s an intro track blaring out what is it?
0:29:56 – Abby Dixon
Now this question, which I knew was going to be coming up, caused me a lot of pondering and thought because, as Tamara knows, I love my music, so I took this question very seriously, and there is music and songs that I listen to before I, personally, go on stage. I’ve never thought about what plays out when I’m on stage. So a couple of songs I listen to really pump me up, No Limit, by 2 Unlimited. One of my favourite songs is Dream by the Cranberries for Reflective Mode.
0:30:27 – Wendy Christie
Oh, I love that.
0:30:28 – Abby Dixon
Yeah, and Dreamer by Supertramp. I mean, tell me a better song to gee you up. But as a Bruce Springsteen fan, it had to be a Bruce Springsteen track. So I’ve gone with Dancing in the Dark.
0:30:42 – Wendy Christie
Oh, excellent choices. I’m with you all the way on all of those.
0:30:46 – Tamara Littleton
I’m still thinking about the Colonial because I’ve had the crab sandwiches there and they were amazing, so next time I go back there. Sorry, I was still stuck in food. I was listening, I promise, but I was a little bit like, oh, crab sandwiches.
0:30:59 – Abby Dixon
They do do amazing crab sandwiches.
0:31:01 – Tamara Littleton
They really do. They’re a bit more random. Now, Abby, do you have a favourite dinosaur?
0:31:11 – Abby Dixon
No, but I did some research, and there is a dinosaur that is in the water called a plesiosaurus. I’m probably not saying it right.
That would have been me if I was a dinosaur
0:31:28 – Tamara Littleton
there you go, there you go, and what are you doing when you feel most alive?
0:31:26 – Abby Dixon
Music, dancing full blast, has to be vinyl in the living room. Slash, as I described earlier. Standing in the sea with the waves crashing me, like if it knocks me over a little bit like that’s when I feel most alive. It’s like, come on, I get up, and I take another one. That’s when I feel most alive
0:31:46 – Tamara Littleton
Okay and is it possible that you could combine dancing and the sea?
0:31:51 – Abby Dixon
I’m just thinking about the fact that, apparently, there are some silent discos happening at some local beaches, so I’m going to try to combine the two.
I don’t know if you can get in the sea with the headphones, but I’ll definitely give it a go.
0:32:10 – Tamara Littleton
Yeah, I feel like this is the next evolution of the whole marketer as well, like the whole marketer retreats involving dancing and silent discos.
Wendy
How would your friends describe you?
0:32:10 – Abby Dixon
Once again reached out, knowing this question was coming. They described me as open, authentic, driven, nurturing, caring, generous, supportive, funny, and I would say it’s not funny, I would say it’s witty. And the reason I say that is I think I’d be really good on Gogglebox.
0:32:37 – Tamara Littleton
I love that hat’s our benchmark now!
0:32:41 – Abby Dixon
I’m not like, let’s stand up or crack a joke or deliver a joke, but I’m definitely in the space of those witty remarks that happen when you’re watching or seeing something.
So, yes, if Gogglebox needs someone new, I’m down, I’m down, absolutely down for that
0:33:05 – Tamara Littleton
and what was your favorite trip that you’ve ever taken, and it could be work or holiday
0:33:10 – Abby Dixon
The most favorite trip I ever took was probably the one that pushed me the most out of my comfort zone.
In fact, I was at a friend’s house the weekend before last, and I was reliving this to them, and I went to the Outback in Australia, and I slept out amongst the stars, and even one night out on a camper where there were coyotes around, and apparently I was to wake up if the tin cans shook yeah, so, needless to say, I didn’t really sleep well that night. Apparently, I was to wake up if the tin cans shook, yeah, so, needless to say, I didn’t really sleep well that night. But it was so hot Like words cannot describe how hot it was. Went to go and see Uru or Ayers Rock in the outback, and even one morning, we got up at silly o’clock and did a hike. So for people that know me well, I don’t run anywhere unless I’m in danger. The most I do is walk my dog. I was hiking up this massive hill, and somebody said to me this is called heart attack hill.
That’s marketing for you, isn’t it?
But you know they were all things that pushed me outside my comfort zone but also made me really dig deep. You know, kind of that digging deep and finding the inner strength to cope with the heat, to cope with the lack of sleep, to cope with getting up at four o’clock in the morning, but also the reward that comes with that, you know, seeing the most clear sky I’ve ever seen, jumping into a pool of water once I got over the other side of heart attack hill and I met some absolutely incredible people on that trip. But also, you know, the camaraderie amongst that. The night of the coyotes. I remember there was a young, young woman on the trip, and she was really fearful so I slept with her that night to make sure that we kind of faced the coyotes together. I don’t know how power in numbers would have helped us out there, but there was something around that kind of like acknowledging how she was feeling knowledge, acknowledging how I was feeling we’ve got this together, so a sense of empowerment also.
0:34:53 – Tamara Littleton
I love that, and it’s kind of going back to what you were saying about how you sort of pick on up up on other people and want to help as well. Um, you know, I’m going to ask you this one what’s your karaoke go-to song?
0:35:05 – Abby Dixon
I want to Dance with Somebody.
0:35:06 – Tamara Littleton
Whitney Houston! So ambitious, I love it. I love it.
0:35:10 – Abby Dixon
Raise that bar raised it high, I mean recently. I think it was in covid times and when we were about to leave, when we were allowed to leave the house, whatever point that was. I do remember though, it wasn’t Whitney Houston I blasted; it was Adele Rolling in the Deep as I drove around. I won’t sing it out loud now because I’ll deafen everybody who’s listening along to this podcast, but I still remember the day I wound the windows down in my Volvo, and I say in my Volvo because it’s the most unsexy car going, but I just felt free singing that at full pelt going down the country lane. So, yeah, maybe that might appear on my karaoke list at some point.
0:35:50 – Tamara Littleton
Fabulous. I’m all about the karaoke at the moment, having just been in Ibiza with my pop choir, and we were singing a whole sort of rave set in three-part harmony, well, four-part harmony actually, and we were booked to sing at a hotel before their karaoke. But because there were like 50 of us, we then took over the karaoke. So, um yeah, just the best night ever.
I love karaoke, as you know we need to do it again we do, we do so I think that’s a good place to stop, but before I do end it there, I want to say thank you so much for coming on this podcast because it’s been such an honour to have you here, and is there anything that you wanted us to ask that we haven’t asked, or do you have any closing thoughts? I’m going to hand the platform to you
0:36:38 – Abby Dixon
just to say thank you because I always think it’s never in the learning; it’s in the reflection of the learning and coming on; today’s podcast has made me really think back to my early years and the pattern of how that’s brought forward and there’s quite clearly some reflections not only of who I was as a child that also plays through as an adult but also the importance and influence that others have in your life to shape you to be the human that you are you to be the human that you are.
0:37:16 – Wendy Christie
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