How to reset your marketing career goals mid-year (+ a mini-case study)
If 2025 hasn’t gone as planned, you’re not alone.
Scroll through LinkedIn and you’ll find a series of celebratory posts of achievements during the first half of this year. Yet, amidst all this are stories of struggles, disappointments, fatigue, and setbacks from marketers doing their best in a chaotic industry like ours.
Source: LinkedIn
What if you could hit the pause button, reset your career and steer it in the direction you want? That was the focus of our community-driven office hour at the Hub.
The 90-minute career reset session led by Etashe, our Community Lead, had four parts:
A one-phrase check-in exercise where participants freely summed up their impression of their career for the year: the good, the bad, and the “God-abeg” moments
A segment for participants to reflect on their top three career goals for the year and score their progress out of 100
A practical walkthrough of a 3-step system designed to help marketers navigate career resets
If you missed the office hour, I’ll share some interesting takeaways that you can apply to recharge and reset your career. We’ll also introduce a tool that’ll take the stress out of planning, setting, and tracking your goal before the year runs out.
One phrase that best describes your marketing career this year?...
Smarketers are resilient people, and if you ask why, their responses tell it all.
Responses from the office hour participants
As a participant myself, I found this year to be wild and exhilarating with lots of twists and turns, always anticipating when or where the next challenge will appear from.
Etashe shared that her career felt "revelatory," as she discovered new interests in marketing. For Cynthia, “God Abeg” perfectly captured the highs and lows of her year. Rihanat used "progressing," noting it was slower than anticipated but still moving. And Murewa found his to be a process of "learning" by "trial and error," with a focus on self-improvement and better work methods.
A 3-step framework to help you navigate career reset
Stuck in a rut? Or maybe you feel anxious because the year’s rapidly running out and you don’t have much to show for it. Etashe shares a 3-step method for resetting career direction— reflecting, resetting, and restarting.
Consider practical ways to use this framework. Note that the examples below are real and based on Cynthia’s experience, a community member and participant.
Step 1: Reflecting
This phase requires a deep self-reflection or "truth finding". By reflecting, you’re able to compare current results with your initial goals. When doing this, remember to start with your wins rather than focusing solely on the roadblocks.
Trust me, it’s great for your self-esteem, as Jeremiah Ajayi’s post shows.
Source: LinkedIn
How to do this:
For Cynthia, her goal was to start a personal newsletter and reach 1k subscribers. She launched it on LinkedIn and within four months, gained 320 subscribers. Cynthia’s reflection would look like this:
Success:
Starting a personal newsletter
320 subscribers in four months
Challenge:
Procrastination
Lack of consistency
Bouts of imposter syndrome
Final verdict: Though Cynthia’s goal wasn't 100% aligned in the first half of the year, she still had a great start.
Step 2: Resetting
In this stage, you’d need to identify what your primary focus is for the rest of the year and break it into actionable chunks.
How to do this:
Let’s go back to Cynthia. One of her single biggest goals for the rest of the year is to launch a YouTube channel focused on her journey as an open-source contributor.
In a specific order, her action points would be to:
1. Become familiar with open-source tools like Git
2. Set up a GitHub repository for resources
3. Record her first video script
Step 3: Restarting
This phase focuses on taking action. It ties back to the “resetting phase” that highlights why you should outline micro-actions before deep diving into major steps.
How to do this:
At this point, Cynthia would want to focus on daily and weekly actions to achieve her goal, rather than just large-scale plans.
Micro-level steps for her YouTube channel would include:
Week 1— designing channel covers
Week 2 — researching and documenting open-source communities and projects
Week 3 — developing the script for the first video
Subsequent weeks — shooting and editing the first video, brainstorming for the second, and consistently working on content
Possible (mental) roadblocks may include:
Fear of public criticism
Procrastination
Strategies and recommendations that could help:
Rather than focusing on public criticism, Cynthia should think instead about the "why" behind her creative endeavor, particularly the personal and selfish reasons for creation. Then, redirect her thoughts to the intrinsic value for herself.
Seek collaboration with someone also looking to start a YouTube channel. Working together with someone who shares her goal could alleviate the burden and provide mutual encouragement.
Set timelines to include a launch date for the YouTube channel and work backwards to outline every single action step. Using tools like Notion or Google Sheets could help her organize her workflow and avoid daily overwhelm.
💡 Pro tip: A planner that helps you reflect, reset, and restart
Can you relate to Cynthia’s story?
Oftentimes, the challenge with setting goals and reaching them isn’t because we lack ambition. It’s more about juggling too much and struggling to stay on track, especially when life gets in the way.
During the office hour, we realized many of us were asking similar questions like:
What’s the best way to reflect on my progress so far and adjust when things aren’t working?
Are my current career goals still aligned with my values or long-term aspirations?
How do I clarify my career goals and turn them into actionable, step-by-step plans?
Figuring out how to help marketers navigate their career, set goals that matter and reach them is what inspired the creation of the Smarketers Hub Career Planner.
Emmanuel Onam, Content Writer and Strategist for Web2 and Web3 brands shared:
“I first heard about the Career Planner from a friend earlier this year while we were setting our goals. It helped me structure my plans better and gain clarity on the career path I wanted to pursue—content marketing.
I used the templates and goal-setting guide to create a solid plan for the year. The best part? I’ve actually been able to stick with it and even got an opportunity out of it—so I know I’m still on track.
Honestly, the Planner is a must-have for anyone who’s ready to stop leaving things to chance and start taking control of who they want to become.”
For Social Media Lead, Murewa Olubela, the Smarketers Hub Career Planner is “a simple, useful tool for anyone looking to take their career more seriously.”
“I really liked how it breaks down big career goals into small, doable weekly tasks; it makes everything feel less overwhelming. If you’re switching paths or just trying to stay on track this year, you should try it out.”
But when mid-year fatigue sets in and the pressure to catch up kicks in, we all need a moment to pause, reflect, and decide how to reset and restart.
So if the framework we explored resonates with you, the Career Planner can help you get back on track.
Here’s how it supports each phase of your reset:
Reflect — with guided worksheets that prompt you to assess your progress, revisit your wins, and identify what’s holding you back.
Reset — using structured goal-setting templates that help you define your focus areas for the rest of the year and break them into clear, manageable action points.
Restart — with easy-to-use weekly trackers and planning tools that turn big-picture goals like launching a YouTube channel or pivoting to a new role into consistent micro-steps you can stick to.
Whether you’re navigating a pivot, eyeing a promotion, or just trying to make sense of your current role, the Planner can help you to finish the rest of the year strongly.
You’ll find templates and trackers for goal setting, networking, skill-building, job applications, and personal brand development.
Features:
Available in Notion pages + a downloadable PDF file
A simple goal-setting guide to help you define your goals
Skill-building hacks with recommended skills for different career stages
Practical guides for building professional relationships and your personal brand
A practical job search guide and tracker for success
Worksheets for jotting down your goals and reflections
Curated educational resources, from learning platforms to marketing tools
Bonus templates + trackers:
Quarterly reflection template to celebrate achievements and identify areas for growth
A job search tracker for managing a job search
Skill-building tracker for documenting completed certifications, courses, or hands-on projects
Networking activity tracker to help you manage your relationships
Pricing:
₦ 5,500 per copy
