It’s deadline day. The 100-page design-build proposal you’ve been working on is in its final stages. Reflecting on the last several weeks, you see missed opportunities that might have helped secure a top spot on the shortlist. 

Why is that pinnacle so challenging to reach? It’s not for lack of effort and hundreds of hours of teamwork. Often, it’s the idiosyncrasies and personalities on the pursuit team. For example, the “Novelist” who spends too much time writing too much content, too late in the process. Or the “Redline Baron” whose illegible hand-scribbled markups create hours of extra work for marketing. 

No one is perfect, and under a deadline it’s been shown that our everyday competencies can turn into overdone strengths. These unchecked “wildcard” personalities can derail the pursuit process and lead to marketer burnout. 

In this interactive session, Wendy Simmons will guide attendees through 12 distracting personalities and share tips for curbing these counterproductive tendencies. An interactive exercise will help attendees identify their own overdone strengths and what they need to be successful, especially on a deadline. 

Delivered with honesty, empathy, and plenty of humor, this session will leave attendees with shared language about an overlooked topic that results in millions of dollars of lost revenue.

Learning Objectives:

3: Marketing and pursuit teams will learn actionable strategies for addressing counterproductive personality traits within their team. The accompanying reference sheet includes proactive tactics that can be used for general coaching as well as tips for “in the moment” feedback.

About the Speaker:

Wendy Simmons | Founder and Principal | Middle of Six

Wendy Simmons is the founder and principal marketing strategist at Middle of Six, a marketing consultancy 100% dedicated to the A/E/C industry. Starting off as a solopreneur in 2017, she’s since turned her company and team into a resource (dare we say “haven”) for marketers who were tired of doing things the same old way. Having worked with over 100 clients on countless proposals and interviews, Wendy is excited to share her experience coaching “wildcard” personalities to curb their bad habits and re-focus that energy on the win! Wendy has been a member of SMPS’s Seattle Chapter since 2008 and is the host of The Shortlist, a podcast about all things A/E/C marketing which received an SMPS Marketing Communications Award (MCA) Award of Excellence in 2022. Middle of Six’s Wildcards campaign was awarded an SMPS Marketing Communications Award (MCA) Award of Excellence and Best of Show award at Amplify 2024.

Event Details: Wednesday, March 11, 2026 | 1 PM to 2:30 PM

The comfort of your home, office or mobile device.

Virtual Sponsor: 1 Available

This program is eligible for 1.0 SMPS CEU credits in Domain 6 (Management).

Register by Tuesday, March 10, 2026 12 PM EST. Registrants will receive an access link in the bottom section of their registration confirmation email and via email the morning of the program.