Existential reflections on 20 years at the same ad agency.
Today marks my 20th anniversary at RPA, with a career spanning from digital to traditional to social. It’s a day of reflection, to remind myself of what got me here, and provide tips toward a long lasting and fulfilling agency life for others starting out.
Find value in everything
I started as a copy assistant, typing other people’s work. When assignments came in that creatives didn’t want, I stepped in. Eventually, I was getting my own work because I did the mundane stuff with such enthusiasm. To do this, I had to clear any sense of entitlement from my head. I needed to not just do it and hate it, but do it and love it. I needed to find value, and learn from even the most vacuous pieces of work. Let’s face it, even today not every assignment is meaty, but it’s still important to attack it like it is. You will quickly earn the respect of others, and of yourself.
If you write, you’re already a writer
I was a writer my whole life. And yes, I mean my whole life. At least that’s how I thought of myself. Later in my career, people I knew would ask for writing jobs. But they didn’t have a book, or even writing samples. For them, writing was this amorphous title, a position that lived in the ether. Words were not on paper, but rather in their heads. My advice was always “I am not the one making you a writer or not, you are. You don’t need the title to do the task.” Whether it’s art direction or copy, It’s important to be the person you want to be.
If it doesn’t exist, make it
When I started in digital, there were no books on how to write for the medium. So I read traditional advertising books, and applied those principles to what I was doing. If I was going to attack it, I needed to understand it. So I learned print, and applied it to digital stills. I learned collateral and applied it to display. I mixed and mashed everything and did what my gut told me. These days, social is that same open frontier. And that affords the same ability for younger creatives to take the reigns, and learn the nuanced landscape better than anyone else.
Never stop learning
There are people who learn their craft, do it well, settle into the track, and try to make everything fit into their ways of doing things. But they can’t see that the agency landscape is changing, and they need to change as well. The first wave came with digital. Some adopted and some couldn’t. Wave two is social, with content creation and how that is efficiently captured. I never wanted to be that person, so I continually learned, experimented and hacked. I didn’t want to play catch up to the changes, but rather help initiate them. Happily, my agency gave me the latitude to roll up my sleeves and take some risks.
Surround yourself with people who care, and you care about
RPA is an agency unlike any other. Great work and nice people aren’t mutually exclusive here. They know to create, you have to live. RPA is like a family, and that extends to our clients as well. It’s not all sunshine and pizza parties, but we work through problems and always respect each other. And when there is struggle, it’s about the work, and how to make it better. Challenging work in a respectful way is our secret sauce, and you should make it yours too. If you don’t respect the people on your left and right, find a place where you do.
Be a utility player
Between assignments, I was learning other things, not necessarily in my job description. I studied photography and Photoshop. I learned video editing, and even created a few new business videos. Recently, I shot and directed a behind-the-scenes video for a 360 project I worked on. There is a weird mashup of needs these days, and if you can write and shoot and edit, you are much more valuable than someone who can’t. Understanding the editorial process helps you make more informed choices in the edit bay too. Most of the people I hire must be multi-dimensional, and not just know how to do their job, but how to do others as well.
Sleep on things
Emotions can make or break relationships, even a career. It’s important to separate your emotions from the task at hand. Not everyone will do that, but hold yourself accountable to a higher standard. Be direct, but never personal. And if things feel bottled up, find a healthy way to let them out. I have written many scathing (yet intoxicatingly cathartic) emails over the years that were never sent. When I revisit those drafts the next day, I’m relieved of that fact.
Find what you need to succeed everyday
For me, it’s about feeling creatively challenged, everyday. Mainly that is through the work, but also through my own personal writing, weird ideas and general ways to be efficient with the changing agency landscape. That’s why social is so powerful. The continual shifts may make others crazy, but I see it as a new opportunity. Every day, for the past 20 years, I have looked for ways to take on any challenge. And lucky for me, it all happened under the same roof.
Like I said, 20 years at one agency is like a lifetime. And I am proud to have done it at RPA.
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