Latest / The Marketing Career Podcast with Fexingo: Marketing Jobs, Skills, and Career Growth / How Marketing Managers Use the Side Project to Get Promoted
Transcript
- Lucas: So let's say you're a mid-career marketer, you've been at the same company for three or four years, you're hitting your numbers, your manager says you're doing fine — but the promotion just isn't coming. Luna: And you're starting to wonder if 'doing fine' is actually the problem. Lucas: Exactly. Because in most large organizations, meeting expectations is the baseline. It doesn't move the needle. So what does? I want to talk about one specific lever that I've seen work repeatedly: the side project. Luna: Not your hobby — you mean a professional side project that you build outside your day job and then use to make the case for a promotion. Lucas: Right. And I have a concrete example. There's a brand manager at Nestlé — let's call her Sarah — who was stuck at the brand manager level for almost three years. She worked on one of their mainstream pet food brands. Solid performer, but the senior brand manager role kept going to people who seemed to have more visibility or a bigger network inside the company. Luna: So what did she do? Lucas: She started a newsletter. Called it 'The Pet Food Insider.' Every week she'd write about ingredient trends, packaging changes, regulatory shifts — nothing proprietary, just public information synthesized well. She ran it on Substack. After eight months she had twelve thousand subscribers. Luna: And that got her the promotion? Lucas: It didn't hurt. When a senior brand director role opened up on a different brand in the portfolio, she applied. In the interview she showed the newsletter as proof of her category expertise, her ability to spot trends, and her willingness to go beyond her assigned responsibilities. The hiring manager told her later that the newsletter was what convinced him she was ready. Luna: That's a great story. But I think a lot of marketers hear 'side project' and think, I barely have time to finish my actual work. How do you fit that in? Lucas: It's a valid concern. But Sarah didn't spend twenty hours a week on it. She spent about three hours — one Sunday morning writing and scheduling posts. And she repurposed content she was already reading for work. The key is to choose a project that has a high return on effort relative to your career goals. Luna: So how do you decide which side project is worth the time? Lucas: I think there are three criteria. First, visibility — does the project put you in front of people who make promotion decisions? Sarah's newsletter was read by other Nestlé employees, including people two levels above her. Second, skill gap — does it help you build a capability that's missing from your current role? In her case, it was thought leadership and public communication. Third, network effect — does it expand your internal or external network in a way your day job doesn't? Luna: I like that framework. And I have some data to back this up. LinkedIn published a survey in 2024 — I think it was their Workforce Confidence Index — and they found that 43 percent of marketers who landed an internal promotion had a professional passion project they talked about in their interview or on their profile. That's not a small number. Lucas: Forty-three percent is huge. It suggests that side projects aren't just a nice to have; they're becoming a common signal that hiring managers look for internally. Because your performance review captures what you did within your job description. A side project captures what you do when no one's assigning you work. Luna: And that's exactly the initiative that promotion committees want to see. But I think there's a risk too — if your side project is too disconnected from your current role, it might look like a distraction. Sarah's newsletter was directly about pet food, which was her category. That made it easy to connect the dots. Lucas: That's the right caution. You don't want to build a side project that makes your manager think you're checked out. Ideally, the project is adjacent to your current work — maybe in a related category, or a different channel, or a new skill like data analysis or video production. Something that complements your role rather than competes with it. Luna: So how do you actually bring it up in a promotion conversation without looking like you're bragging or admitting you had spare time? Lucas: Great question. I've seen people frame it as a learning experiment. Something like: 'I started this newsletter to deepen my understanding of the category, and what I found is that X trend is emerging faster than we anticipated. Here's how I think we could apply that to our brand.' That positions the side project as a way to bring value back to the company, not as a hobby. Luna: And you can also put it on your internal resume or LinkedIn profile. But be careful with the language — don't say 'side hustle,' say 'independent research project' or 'professional initiative.' Lucas: Exactly. The framing matters a lot. You want it to sound like an extension of your professional curiosity, not a second job. And honestly, that's usually the truth — most marketers I know who do side projects do them because they genuinely want to learn something their day job isn't teaching them. Luna: And if today's conversation sparked something you've actually thought about trying — like starting a newsletter or a small research project — then this is exactly the kind of episode where listener support makes a real difference. Lucas: Yeah, absolutely. These conversations stay ad-free because of people who find them useful and decide to chip in. If that's you, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small thing that keeps us going. Luna: And we really appreciate it. Okay, so back to the side project strategy — let's talk about how to choose the right format. Lucas: Sure. A newsletter is one option, but it's not the only one. I've seen marketers use a podcast — short interviews with internal stakeholders, which builds relationships. Or a data dashboard — pulling together public data on competitors and sharing insights with your team. Or even a weekly internal email digest of industry news. The format should match the skill you want to build. Luna: And the audience. If you want visibility with senior leaders, a written format might work better because they can skim it. If you want to build your public speaking, a recorded video or presentation might be better. Lucas: Right. And one more thing — don't wait until you're ready to ask for a promotion to start the project. Start it now, while you're still building the case. By the time the promotion conversation comes, you'll have six or eight months of evidence. Luna: That's the real takeaway. The promotion isn't won in the interview. It's won in the months before, when you're quietly building proof that you're already operating at the next level. Lucas: Sarah's story is a good reminder of that. She didn't start the newsletter because she wanted a promotion. She started it because she was curious about the category. The promotion was a side effect. Luna: And that authenticity probably came through in the writing too. People can tell when you're genuinely interested versus just checking a box. Lucas: Exactly. So if you're at a career plateau, don't just wait for your manager to notice you. Build something that makes you undeniable.