Why am I here?
The truth behind why I run a creative agency
It was recently said to me by a man I have come to know, enjoy, and happily receive mentoring from — a man mind you of a respectable age, and the experience and relative anecdotes that come with it — that, “going into business is like a road trip. You start driving and everything is exciting, the scenery, the bumps, the pit-stops, the crappy food, the peaks, and the valleys. Then at some point you look up and wonder, why the hell did we do this again, and where in the HELL are we going?”
That immediately got a rise out of me, because I knew all of it all too well. I started my road trip in January of 2001. And if you ask me, it took longer then most to start asking all those “why” questions. But once I started with the “to what end”, there was no stopping it. I either had to answer the questions for myself, or accept the special brand of mediocrity that comes from being aimless. Needless to say my road-trip has been nothing short of colorful, and with it’s share of bumps, and crashes. But thankfully as a result, I have a clear picture of what I want, and why I want it in the first place.
The clarity began with a very simple knowledge of what I wanted out of our work, our team members, and our clients. Once I made these distinctions, the journey lost the sense of meandering, and took on a sense of adventure.
Here is an honest glimpse at how I answered some of those “whys”:
1. Get paid —
Yes, we do pro-bono work, we reduce our rates to take on what is creatively fulfilling, and I, both personally and in business, believe in being giving, and gracious.
That said, we value our time, and we value what we offer the companies we work for. We believe we offer something unique, and we believe that point of distinction and subsequent offering is a great benefit to the end-user, and ultimately the companies that hire us.
Thus, allow me to be honest, and though it is not a popular point, (which baffles me) I must start with the most bottom-lined point of all; we work so we can live. Yes we also work to be fulfilled, and leave a mark (and I’ll get to that) but allow me to start with the basics: We work so we can enjoy the other parts of our lives, so we can provide for our families, and so we can partake in the luxuries of life, at least every now and again. I personally am a father of 4 young boys, and husband to a beautiful woman I also happen to be best friends with. For me It is one of life’s great offerings to be able to travel, and spend time with that lot as often as I can. And each of my team member’s have their own personal values, and often these things we value need financing of some kind.
So #1, get paid.
2. Leave our fingerprint —
We are creative people. And by nature creative people have an innate desire, almost a need, to leave their fingerprint on something. We want to produce work we are proud of, we want other people to appreciate it, and know we did it. At BKWLD it is important to me that we provide a culture and process that allows the individual team-member, wherever they sit on the proverbial totem pole, to leave their mark as well.
3. Find the right clients —
To me, identifying the wrong client is just as important as attracting the right one. As a service-based company our inventory is our creative & strategic thinking, and we (not being omniscient and all) can only have so much to sell. So I choose to be selective of those to whom we will sell it to. This is not a snobbery thing, though it certainly sounds like it — it is an honest thing, and it is a choice. After over a decade of digital creative and development, we’ve learned to spot a red flag or two, and we’ve learned to spot who we will get along with, and who we will not.
The question to answer then is; who are the right clients? To me it is all about shared values. We say it over and over, within our own walls and inside of others; we are after ideas that value the user first. There is what we as creative people want to say, what the companies who hire us want to say, and then there is what the user wants to know. Not always do these align. We value the work where we are able to sift through and put aside the first two, to get to what we think should come first, the user. Sharing this as a value, is where we have to start.
4. Enjoy our day —
On average, we at BKWLD, spend about 33% of our week, or 46% of our work-day together, mind you that includes the hours we are asleep. So with this in mind it is incredibly important to me that we enjoy the time we are spending together. Don’t get me wrong — I am not a culture- weirdo trying to harken the days of the ‘dot-com’, what with indoor sand volleyball tournaments at lunch, and hired DJs spinning our staff’s requests, and what not. I am talking about what actually matters, something far more honest, I am talking about the small things. Here are a few;
a. We do not employ assholes — You know who I am talking about. Pretentious, accolade-thirsty, idea-territorial, needing to come up with the never-been-done-before idea without regard to the client or their customer’s needs. We simply don’t, and as long as I am in charge of the company, we simply won’t.
b. We respect each other — This inherently happens when you do not employ assholes. We do not try to respect each other, we just genuinely do.
c. We respect balance — Yes we work weekends, over holiday breaks, and through the night. We are not sissies. But we do not expect this all the time. We balance it with uncapped paid time off, working from home at-will, coming in late when you don’t have meetings, and always respecting the little one’s dance recital, baseball game, or veterinary appointment (not all little ones are humans you know).
d. Choose the right work — It all comes down to this in the end. We look for the work that allows us to honor all of these distinctions I have explained above.
So there it is. It is simple, and it is honest. We do not value the virtuous biggest client name, or golden this award or that award. These seem to be major drivers for a lot of agencies, and to me they lack clarity and integrity. The biggest client is not always the best client, and awards, though we do appreciate them and become giddy when we win, should only be the fruit of providing value to the user.
