Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Augustine, Colenso, Creative Development, Creativity, New Zealand, Planners, Planning, Reputation, Respect, Strategy
The Colenso strat team are kinda like busses.
None leave for years, and then 2 leave within a month.
Add then Lizzie goes off on maternity leave soon … so that makes 3.
Christ almighty … that’s more than the total number of strategists who have left in the 4 years I’ve been here.
But like Martin before her, Augustine is going for all the right reasons. In fact, I had told her in her last review that if she didn’t leave this year – I’d fire her.
And before anyone thinks that’s a toxic thing to say, I need you to know I adore Augustine … utterly, bloody love her … and the threat of firing her was an act of love rather than an act of bastard evil.
You see Augustine is a pretty rare talent …
She joined us during COVID without the faintest fucking idea what advertising was, let alone strategy. And yet despite that, in just 4 years, she has built a portfolio of work that could put much more experienced strategists to shame.
She’s helped Colenso win major new clients across NZ, Australia and America. She’s led our cultural studies, reports and books – from Dream Small and Dream Bigger in NZ to X-Ray in Australia. She’s authored award-winning Effie’s, Spikes and (hopefully, at time of writing) APG papers. She’s presented to the CEO’s and CMO’s of some of the biggest companies in Asia-Pac and – most importantly of all – she’s helped create some of Colenso’s most loved work of the last few years; from the FFI collab with Rick & Morty through to the pioneering Killabyte gaming festival idea.
And if that wasn’t enough to make people hate her with jealousy, she’s done it while being compassionate, collaborative and bloody good human to boot.
What an asshole!
But for all the talent she has, her potential can only stand a chance of being fully realized if it’s fully tested – and that’s why she’s not just leaving Colenso, but New Zealand.
Obviously, I’m sad to see her go – pretty devastated in fact – but I also am thrilled, proud and excited for her.
She’s been talking about this for a long time.
We’ve spent the last few years preparing her for this moment.
And while she still has things to learn – don’t we all?! – her talent and portfolio of work means she has a fantastic foundation to really go and embrace what’s out there.
To test herself.
To prove herself.
To grow herself.
Of course, moving overseas is a big thing. And the market is arguably more challenging than ever before. But even with those challenges, I wouldn’t ever bet against her in terms of achieving something she can feel proud of.
I’m not saying it will be easy, but in addition to her talent and her body of work, she has 4 things that give her an edge.
Her work ethic.
Her hunger to learn.
Her desire to keep getting better.
Her ability to survive working with me – and trust me, I’ve put her through heaps.
Last point aside, those first 3 attributes are things our industry doesn’t talk enough about.
Worse, we often classify them as ‘toxic traits’.
But the reality is, if you want to get better, it’s more than just turning up – you have to want it, work for it and keep practicing it.
That’s true in all aspects of life but what I love about Augustine is that her drive isn’t because she has a blind ambition to move further and faster up the career ladder, it’s because she gains real satisfaction from simply knowing she is continually getting better at what she does.
Not because she wants to ‘optimize’ her approach, but because she wants to develop and express the full force of her own strategic voice.
It’s one of the main reasons why I wanted her to leave us – because the more she is exposed to different challenges, different people and different creative approaches, the more she will discover who she is and who she can become.
That’s really important to me because – as I’ve written many times – I’ve always believed a bosses role is to help their people recognise their talent, nurture it and prove it so when they leave [as we all do at some point] they’re in a position to seize or explore opportunities that they either felt were not available to them or didn’t even know existed.
But this move is far more than just about career growth, but life … as demonstrated by the fact she is moving to Paris rather than one of the ‘usual suspect’ markets.
This is not because she is being ‘un-strategic’ but because she wants to connect more deeply to her French heritage.
Don’t get me wrong, Augustine is most definitely a Kiwi … however she has French family and feels a real affinity for the French culture and wants to embrace, immerse and explore all of it.
That doesn’t mean she will be there forever – could be, but who knows – but it does means this is more than an ‘overseas adventure’ but the beginning of a whole new chapter of life and if that isn’t worth celebrating and championing, I don’t know what is.
However, my loss is Europe’s gain because Augustine is going to be available for freelance, because while she will be based in France, her brain can work for any timezone, category or culture.
I’m not just saying that, I’ve seen it and experienced it – mainly because I forced her to live it – but the bonus is everyone out there now has the opportunity to work with someone they’ll not only adore as a strategist, but as a human.
I love building teams.
I love the debates, the conversations and the creativity.
In many ways they always teach me more than I ever teach them.
Which is why I think the payoff for that is that – at some point – they all break my heart by buggering off.
Except the pain is soothed by the pride of what they do and what they create, which is why I want to sign off this post to Augustine with this.
Augustine:
Thank you for all you did for us and gave to us. [Except Covid]
Thank you for your smarts, patience, bants and reluctance to report me to HR.
Believe in your smarts.
Believe in your words.
Be humble with your talent, but go burn the fucking house down in all you do.
Au revoir.
Rx
You can reach her here.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Community, Context, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Happiness, Harmony, Humanity, Inclusion, Japan, Love, Perspective, Resonance, Respect
Over the years, my wife has told me all she wants me to do is listen to her when she faces challenges, rather than try and fix them for her.
I suspect she is not the only woman who has had this conversation with a man.
And while she knows the reason we do it is out of love, she finds it annoying-as-fuck.
Fortunately we’ve been together so long that its finally got in my thick skull, hence I now listen rather than automatically run to ‘fix’ mode.
The point of this is that I think a lot of advertising needs to adopt this trait.
Too often we think we can solve everything.
Marketing.
Politics.
Poverty.
World hunger.
You name it, our ego believes it can solve it.
But there’s something quite magical in embracing problems rather than trying to solve – or go around them.
Sure, we’re paid to help clients move forward … but that doesn’t always have to be from tackling issues head-on … sometimes, it comes from realizing some problems don’t – or can’t – be solved.
Recently I read something that embodies this perfectly.
A ‘solution’ that doesn’t fix the issue, but deals with it with dignity and grace.
It’s not unique, I’ve seen things like this before and have written about some in the past … but where they tended to be addressing issues in a private environment – such as care homes and parks in the Netherlands – this is something where the public are actively encouraged to be part of the solution.
Except it’s more than that.
Because they benefit as well.
In connection. In understanding and – at a time where there seems to be less of it about – in humanity.
It’s not just magical and beautiful, it’s important. For everyone.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Exams, Health, School
I have always hated practicing.
Doesn’t matter whether I’m talking about when I had to revise for my school exams … prepare for my next guitar lesson or try to learn Mandarin, I have always and utterly hated it.
Of course there’s reasons for it.
One is that formal ‘study’ has never really worked for me.
The other is I always felt paralyzed with fear at the moment of judgement.
And last but not least … I’ve always found other things that captured my attention when I needed to focus.
Now of course that last point probably has more to do with the first two points than a curiosity that simply refuses to be tamed … but the reality is I have always found practicing hard because – deep down – I’ve always questioned my ability to be good at anything.
That doesn’t mean I feel I am bad at things, I’m just never as good as I hoped I would be or could be.
It’s probably part of the reason I found it so hard to lose weight.
The desire was there. The commitment wasn’t. A belief that there was little point because at the end of the day, I knew kebab and chips or pasta and cheese could always … would always … win out.
But over the years I learned a lesson that – in many ways – changed my life.
Practice doesn’t make you perfect, but it does makes you more consistent.
Now I get that may sound pretty uninspiring, but for someone like me – it was a revelation.
Suddenly I wasn’t overwhelmed with the pressure of trying to achieve perfection through practice, I was able to see it as simply helping me be ‘less crap’.
Yes, I appreciate some will say that’s 2 sides of the same coin – and it is, kinda – but what it meant for me was that rather than judge my ‘progress’ in terms of how far I was from achieving perfection, I was able to see it as how far I was from failure.
In essence, every tiny improvement was a success rather than – how I had previously seen it – every tiny improvement being a reinforcement of failure.
It fundamentally liberated me.
Suddenly I was able to enjoy the practice rather than be intimidated by it.
Feel encouraged by it not judged.
And while I am in no doubt this will sound silly – or obvious – to many, I bet there’s others out there who have felt, or still feel, the same way as me.
People who have ended up never feeling good about who they are or what they can do, because they’ve been taught ‘progress’ is evaluated in terms of perfection rather than simply getting better.
But let me tell you, this shift was the foundation for me to achieve things I never even thought I could. And yes, that includes losing 47kg and – so far – keeping it off.
It’s why I loved something Roger Federer recently said about the foundation of his success.
How good is that?
But it’s more than that, it’s important.
Because where so many talk about only valuing those who get to the top, the real opportunity to create positive change is to reframe practice as simply the most effective way to get further away from the bottom.
Or said another way, practice helps you fail, forwards.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Age, Attitude & Aptitude, Curiosity, Distinction, Insight, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Pretentious Rubbish, Relevance, Resonance
One of the things I hate about planning is the quest for intellectual superiority.
Of course, not everyone is like that … but there’s a hell of a lot who are.
Wielding their smarts like a sword, without realizing that it is rarely as sharp or dangerous as they think. Or hope.
It’s why I also find those who bang on about planning being all about ‘curiosity’ laughable. To imply that’s a trait solely owned by those of the strategic community is egotism at its best.
Sure, there are some truly brilliant thinkers in our industry, but more often than not, we’re surrounded by a bunch of loud duplicators.
And there would be nothing wrong with that if these people admitted their declarations came from – or were influenced by – others. But in a world where everyone wants to position themselves as the brightest, sharpest mind – more often than not, we hear history being restated with just a more modern, confident voice.
Of course we all do it to a certain extent – I know I will have – but the realty is I find the most interesting perspectives coming from people outside of adland rather than in. That does not mean there are not good things being said within our industry, it’s just they all tend to follow whatever theme is cool at the time, so – for me at least – it all gets a bit boring.
Which is all my way of saying how much I enjoy hearing or reading the ‘insights’ of people form outside our bubble. Sure, some can be utterly farcical. And some may be doing the same repackaging as I’ve just complained about. But occasionally you come across something so sharp that you find yourself asking ‘when was the last time you read something so brilliantly stated from your peers’.
That happened to me recently with this before/after photo of Mickey Rourke.
No, I don’t mean the photo.
Nor do I mean the judgmental question being asked of the images.
I mean the comment underneath it all.
“When we’re born, we look like our parents. When we die, we look like our decisions.”
Fuck me, that’s good.
So good that it’s changed the way I look at people and aging.
Hell, it’s even given me a fresh way to talk to my clients about their past choices and decisions.
I rarely get that from the observations, declarations or ‘insights’ from my industry.
Of course there are some who are phenomenal, but sadly too many planners aspire to be seen as ‘smart’, without realizing the real value is when you are clever.
Just ask Lucille Ball.
I know, I know … the pic above does sound awfully like the announcement of a terrible TV show. Think Jerry Springer meets Fear Factor.
But no … even FOX News aren’t stupid enough to green light that.
What it is my attempt to invite any planner or senior planner in NZ to have a coffee. With me.
Now I appreciate that just a few days ago, I wrote a post about ‘prioritizing my priorities’ and so this may sound contradictory – but as I wrote at the time – it’s not a case of me not wanting to talk to people – in fact that is very important to me – it’s just that I am going to arrange it within certain times so I can ensure my family aren’t the ones who always end up being asked to make way. [Which was always my issue, not theirs or anyone who wanted to chat]
Now I get it … even with that condition, sticking your head in a crocs mouth probably sounds more tempting, but I hope there’s someone out there who is up for it.
We can talk about your career, your fears or your favourite flavor of jelly for all I care … I just want to meet more of the people in my proverbial backyard.
Now I must admit, I announced this on Linkedin a few weeks ago and was pretty overwhelmed with the response.
However, in a classic twist, it’s not the creatives who ‘didn’t read the brief’, it was the planners because 95% of those who responded were not based in the NZ.
So while I spoke to a couple of them over the past few weeks, I might do a mass ‘virtual coffee’ zoom for anyone interested in meeting up – maybe two, to help the timezone nightmare that is NZ – which is why whether you’re in NZ or outside of it, if you fancy a Coffee with Campbell™ … start by clicking here and putting your name down by simply noting your location.
[I won’t be selling your data to buy the coffee, promise]