#1: The Ginger Professor Origin Story

TLDR

The Ginger Professor is a passion project brought to you from the office of a curious 30 something Redhead from Toronto Canada who likes to write. 

This series of articles and content will focus on topics related to Product Marketing, Money, Careers and Corporate Histories. These are all topics I’m passionate about and feel I have an interesting POV to share. 

I hope you find these musings fun and interesting. I have a lot of fun writing them. 

The Whole Lesson

About Me (The Abridged Version)

If you knew younger me, you would have never thought I’d start something like this. 

My elementary school teachers thought I’d never get through high school, let alone go on to do some of the things I’ve somehow managed to do thus far. 

I was diagnosed with a learning disability when I was young and couldn’t put a sentence together until I was in my mid to late twenties. I’m now in my early thirties, married and working in Product Marketing at a B2B SaaS company. 

To give you a sense of how useless I used to be, my Dad had to read the Harry Potter books to me so I could understand them, I was forced to use a computer vs taking handwritten notes starting in Grade 7 and I was perpetually in the “extra help” group because my teachers thought it would help me keep up with my classmates. 

It didn’t, in case you were wondering. 

Oh, I also have a really smart twin sister who back then, was much better at school than I was and was in the popular group. I, on the other hand, had braces, bushy red hair and was trying to break out of an awkward phase. It’s no wonder none of her friends would go on a date with me.

Remember this guy? 

That’s who I was being compared to.

Once I graduated Grade Eight, I spent the next four years playing music, going to dive bars and dreaming about becoming a fighter pilot. I still couldn’t get a date though. 

As you can probably see, being in the business world or having an interest in teaching (as the title describes) was never on my radar early on. It wasn’t until my pilot dream died and I graduated from business school five years to that date where who I am today started to take shape. 

To date, I’ve earned an MBA from the Sauder School of Business in British Columbia, worked in Sales, Management Consulting, Investment Banking, Equity Research, Corporate Strategy, Technology Strategy, Product Strategy, HR, Organizational Design, Freelance Financial Writing, Content Marketing and now, Product Marketing.

I’ve also written for one of Canada’s national newspapers, The Globe and Mail and some well read personal finance and investing publications including Money Under 30, Investor Junkie, Grit Capital and Greedyrates.ca. 

Looking back, the moves you make in your life and career often make sense but along the way, it will feel like fucking chaos. 

That bit of background is important because it lays the context of where I’m coming from. 

I’m a serial career changer who got into the business world by accident (maybe not by choice) and has tried a lot of random things. 

This seemingly never ending pursuit of the right path and a wanting to share what I’ve learned that’s pushed me to start this up. 

Why You Should Follow

If you’ve read this far (thank you!), you are probably saying, “great… another newsletter from a random person.” 

I get it. 

There are likely hundreds of thousands of newsletters out there across Substack, Beehiive, LinkedIn and WordPress. That’s not including all of the email marketing the average person receives. 

I don’t see what I’m doing as a newsletter. It’s more of a means to write about stuff that I’m interested in consistently and it make it available for others who have similar interests. That’s it. 

Hopefully I can win you over with quality stuff so that you’ll want to follow but if not and this is the only thing you read of mine, that’s ok too. 

Anyhow, that’s a bit about me and why I started The Ginger Professor. 

Let me know what you think.

I also appreciate direct, strongly worded feedback (even though my wife might not agree).

Until next time,

Ginger P.

The Ginger Professor explicitly represents the personal thoughts and views of the author only. It does not reflect the thoughts or views of any current or former employer or client of the author. All information referenced and contained in the article enclosed is for informational purposes only and does not represent advice of any kind.