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.
