I was asked a simple question. An open goal of self-congratulation. But I fluffed it wide into banality. Bugger. It’s not the first time. I’ve done it. Ducking the chance of bigging myself up, because it just felt wrong. I’m not a careerist just inquisitive about tomorrow. Often forgetting about the need to nurture today. Clearly not American in approach it is indeed rather English.
Context. I had been approached to appear on a podcast I really respected. Mark Pollard is a super bright strategist who runs the Sweathead community for creative thinkers in the advertising industry. Across various platforms, events and his podcast he comments on the world of advertising from a planner’s viewpoint. It’s career pitfalls and learning’s from around the world. Mark asked me on his show to talk about my experience. Previously at his prompting I had shared a brief summary of my past online. The key things I had learnt from what appeared to others, at least, a tad unusual. To me less so, as it seemed normal at the time.
But the interview didn’t go as planned. We went down a bit of a dark hole. What worries me is on 3 or 4 questions I gave pretty rubbish answers that won’t help anyone. I did have experiences that include great life lessons for others in the industry. I just didn’t explain them very well.
So in a classic case of the use of advertising to rewrite history for the sake of a better brand image. I will go again.
Mentors.
I was asked how in the early years of my career I had got jobs that I didn’t have the experience or qualifications for. On true reflection the answer is I was taken on by people who could see a bigger picture of potential. Andy Blackford was a Creative Director building an integrated team at Saatchi & Saatchi he didn’t worry that my portfolio was full of student industrial design projects or that my professional career so far included a short lived stint at Smash Hits magazine clearly as a result of a blag. What he saw was passion for new ideas. Andy went on to run multi award winning creative departments across London for the likes of: Arc, FCB, Grey etc. always with the same hiring philosophy. Odd balls will win out. I have been lucky to work with Andy at various points in my career. He started and mentally maintained me in this business. I owe him a lot. As I do others who believed in me enough to humour my wilder excesses and keep me in paid employment. The very strong lesson learnt was the power of finding and nurturing relationships with mentors.
