Mailbag: New to the Biz, What Now?

As if moving to New York weren't stressful enough, add starting a new job, oh, and in a new industry. *Gulp* Now that you've found somewhere to live, have figured out your morning commute and three or more people at work know your name -- what next?

I want to share this exchange* with all of the folks who just moved, are about to move or who are looking to do more and meet more people in advertising.

Q: I recently left working in the music industry to start in media and I would love to pick your brain about how to go about creating and cultivating the relationships.

A: Welcome to the biz! 

The biggest tip I can give you is to network and get involved. Well, those are two tips, but they are kind of intertwined.

Here's what works for me:

1. Networking online - 

* Beef up your LinkedIn profile and connections. Advertising is very much and who knows who business, so it helps to quickly and easily show your professional associations online. (Remember to only connect with people you know and send a note with your request if there's even a 30% chance they may not remember you.)

* Join LinkedIn groups. There are so many for advertising, media, NY media and just about anything you can think of. Join a group or two, follow the conversations, see what events are posted and go to those.

* Utilise your social networks. Personally, I try to keep Facebook for friends only, but that's up to you. Be sure to like agencies' pages so you can see what's going on with them. and who you follow on Twitter. Twitter is a quick, non-invasive and less threatening environment to start conversations with strangers and people you may not usually have access to.

Oh, and follow, like and add agency pages on Twitter, Facebook - this will help you find out about events and such.

2. Networking offline - 

* RSVP and get out there. When it comes to advertising people in NY, there is always some social event going on. There are agencies and ad organistations that often host presentations, panels, workshops, mixers, screenings and plain ole parties.

* Invite an industry friend or coworker. Don't invite your best friend because you two will spend more time talking to each other and not meeting new people. If you take someone who you have a looser connection with, you'll be able to get to know them better, meet people who they know, and have someone to talk to so you don't look like a loser in the corner.

* Challenge yourself to meet 3 new people every time you go out. Don't go on an introduction spree or business-card-collecting rampage. Focus on quality not quantity. Find a few people and get to know them better. Chances are you'll see them out at another event, and chances are, if they liked you from your initial conversation they'll introduce you to more people - and invite you to more events.

3. Get involved - 

* Volunteer. Find an event organiser or organisation leader tell them you're interested - something like "Hey, let me know if I can help with anything. The next event or whatever you need. I'd really like to get more involved with XYZ." I'm 99.55% sure they won't say "No thanks, we don't ever need help with anything. Get lost."

Check with your agency and see what internal and external things they're involved with and help out however you can.

* Become a member. Join an organisation or two and get on their email lists, etc. I promise you'll meet more people and become more invested in the industry on a whole.

* Ask people out. Let them know you'd love to keep in touch, email to feel out the post-event connection, then ask them out for coffee/drinks. If you're still not sure it's time for a one-on-one session, invite them to an event you're going to. (See the 2b above)

4. Be nice. 

This is pretty self-explanatory. Just don't be an asshole.



It's not a science or anything, do what works best for you, your personality and your lifestyle.
For outside of work stuff, Here is TimeOut's list of 50 ways to make friend in NY 

*I slightly edited the email to get to the meat of it. And to protect the innocent, of course. 

It Aint Easy Being Creative

People think advertising is easy until they actually have to do it.

It looks fun, but there is some science - and art - to it.

Recently, after going through several rounds of feedback and revisions -- about two minutes before I'd start pulling out my hair - I had the clients sit with me and said "Let's figure this out together."

I wanted get better feedback so I could properly solve their problems. And more importantly, I wanted them to see my frustrations.

Within the first ten minutes, they were both frustrated. One even said "It's like we're stuck in a box."

I wanted to hug her. WELCOME TO MY LIFE!

Eventually, we found a hole and were able to get out of that box and while it was only a small part of a big project, we all kind of wanted to throw confetti.

I can't always trap the client in a room until we figure something out, of course. Sometimes you just have to try and fail. Then try and fail. Then try and fail again.

But when you do get it (If you get it) it feels like bathing in champagne waterfall at the end of a double rainbow.

Here's a snippet from Art & Copy talking about how the teams came up with "Just Do It"

It wasn't easy. But they did it. And it was (still is) brilliant. 

Back2Work: Accepting Feedback

You're not perfect.
You don't know everything.
You're not nearly as smart as you think.
Your idea is not good and off mark.

Now we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about another valuable skill every creative needs to have: flexibility.






Last week I talked about Presentation 101, and here comes the follow up to that - you've presented your work and now people are giving you feedback. What now?

Flexibility includes being open to changing your idea, being willing to do things you may not necessarily understand or agree with, being unemotional when someone tears your work apart and bouncing back to edit and create something new.

It's not easy.

You put so much time and thought into your work, when people don't like it or don't get it, it's hard not to take it personally.

Here's the thing though, you're at work and - wait for it - your feelings don't matter. You have a professional responsibility to do the work asked of you and to serve the client. So suck it up Buster.

Sometimes the feedback will make sense and totally add to your idea and make it exponentially better. Sometimes the feedback is about something small and unrelated to the overall idea, which is great, but no one can seem to see it because they're so stuck on this one little thing. Sometimes the feedback sucks the charm out of your idea and turns it into something lifeless and boring.

Tough tits.

Everybody's a critic. So expect to get feedback (which is Latin for "dream crushing") from every direction and at even step in the process. Your partner, your planner, your CD, his CD, the account team, the client, the janitor...

And you've got to figure out how to suck it up, take it in and shake it off, go back and start over. 

I'm still learning. It's definitely a process. I smile on the outside while inside I'm throwing a Minnesota-sized tantrum or crying like you ate my last Kit Kat.

In the meantime, here are a few things I've learned to do when receiving feedback:

* Nod.

* Respond with affirmatives to show you're listening. Ok. Hmm. Interesting thought.

* Ask questions. What do you think we could do to fix that? Is the idea wrong or the execution?

* Present any immediate thoughts you have to fix the situation. What if we changed the blue parts to green? Do you think it needs more cowbell?

* Take notes. It'll help you remember later on when you go reconcept and it also makes you look interested and engaged.

* Promise to take  it all into consideration for the next round. Now that you know what not to do, it's easier to get on the right path

* Thank them. They could've easily smiled in your face and let you go on working on your foolish idea, meanwhile talking about you behind your back and swearing to never work with you again. (I've seen it happen.)

* Suck it up. I've said it a lot because I want you to remember it. No one has a vendetta against you. No one cares how hard you worked on it. No one gives a fried twinkie that your feelings are hurt. This isn't personal. This is work. The Nasdaq doesn't shut down because you had a bad day. So go take a walk and come back and start from square one. Or square two. Or maybe triangle B. Just get back in there and get back to work.

 

Every bit of feedback, welcomed or off mark, can help you grow. I'm not saying that every bit of criticism is helpful or will make your idea better. But you just have to learn to accept feedback and deal with hearing that you're not perfect, you don't know everything and your idea is not good. 

Do what you need to do to make yourself feel like the best there ever was before or after work, but when you step into that office, turn off your ego, put your feelings in your back pocket and be ready deal with people putting in their two cents on everything from the way you say rinse to the typeface you used in that layout to everything about all seven campaigns you spend four sleepless nights coming up with.