When I joined Phoenix in 2015, I had just departed from my first job out of university which left me incredibly deflated. I knew that my next job had to have purpose, so I Googled “marketing jobs in natural health”. The first one that came up was a Sales and Marketing Executive role at Phoenix Medical, so I immediately applied for the job. I received an interview offer shortly after, but I was slightly apprehensive as the location on Google Streetview depicted a row of garages. Nonetheless, it was the only job that fit my ideals, so I gave it a go. Thankfully, the office wasn’t in a garage.
At the beginning of my career at Phoenix, I answered calls, I did administration work and I started to build a marketing strategy from scratch. The best part was having interesting conversations with our incredible customers – the acupuncturists, herbalists, doctors, and physiotherapists. Some of whom became my colleagues and friends. At this time, I had started a part-time Nutritional Therapy degree, so being amongst complementary therapists fuelled my aspiration to become one of them.
Six years on, it is now the time to depart from my role as Group Marketing Manager to run my own clinic as a Nutritional Therapist.
Throughout my time at Phoenix, I had led the marketing department and our ecommerce projects, including countless website designs and redesigns for our portfolio of brands. The company has now moved from the little office/warehouse tucked away behind a newsagents in Great Baddow, to a shiny “proper office” with glass walls and big windows in Springfield business park. We are now recruiting for more and more staff to fill new roles. I have seen the company go from strength to strength, leading the TCM industry to new heights with innovative product lines, educational courses, and research projects. I am proud to have been a part of the team at Phoenix Medical and I hope that my work, in some way, has helped to make Chinese medicine more accessible to health practitioners and patients alike.
I am grateful for all the individuals who made an impact on my work – from my wonderful colleagues at Phoenix and our sister company China Purmed, to the practitioners who would share their knowledge with me. I am thankful to my teammate Anna, who has put up with my perfectionism for 3.5 years and gone above and beyond in her work. I am pleased to say Anna will be taking over as Marketing Manager. I am also thankful to George, our Founder and Managing Director, who believed in me and gave me the freedom to innovate the company’s marketing, branding and ecommerce strategies as I envisioned. If I had joined any other company, I would not have had the opportunity to learn my plethora of skills in marketing, digital marketing, ecommerce, operations, event management, public speaking, website design, graphic design, (breathe) and branding design. These skills have been invaluable to my career and they have shaped the practitioner and businessperson I am today.
These days, I prepare my own herbal medicine at home using dried herbs that I have purchased with my staff discount. I insist on using the raw unadulterated herbs because I love the diverse textures and smells of these incredible plants. Growing up, my mother would prepare Chinese herbal soups and I didn’t really pay much attention. It wasn’t until I started working for Phoenix that I developed an appreciation for the herbs and the powerful properties they hold. My spoken Mandarin Chinese would also be a lot worse, but saying that, my written Chinese is still awful. I now aspire to, in the distant future, learn herbal medicine and combine it with my nutrition practice. So, it’s not really “goodbye”, more like a “see you later”!
I wish my colleagues, and new recruits, the very best. Phoenix Medical may not be your typical company, but it is a place where your job will be purposeful and where you can learn without limit.
Laura Lam – Connect with me on LinkedIn!
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