Turning on the Bright Lights and Living Colorfully
Advice for success in the work place
I know when we were in school, the teacher always said "there's no such thing as a stupid question"... as in don't be shy, curiosity is a beautiful thing, it's lovely to wonder, and questioning what you hear is all part of the learning process. But lately I've noticed that some people like to take this phrase to mean something more ...
Instability can be synonymous with agency life. You have days where you hop a flight to attend a fancy trade show, your client approves everything you put in front of them, or you kill it at a pitch you've been preparing for weeks, maybe win a brand new piece of business, and expense a glamorous dinner afterward. ...
I was on a conference call today that lasted an hour and 45 minutes. It was chaotic, unorganized and really unproductive. This was mostly due to the fact that we had a coworker who couldn't stop YELLING. I was pretty taken aback because I hadn't worked with this person much prior to this meeting... Heard some ...
You guys... one of my pet peeves is when I see people's names spelled wrong in an email. Not just my own name, but anyone's name. I know it may not seem like a big deal, but I think it's just plain rude and careless. Especially when the email is coming from an Outlook account at ...
Happy Monday! I’ve been waiting patiently for new episodes of The Mindy Project. Do you guys watch The Mindy Project? If not, I highly suggest you start this addiction on Hulu ASAP. Mindy Lahiri, played by Mindy Kaling, is one of my favorite television characters of all time. I love that she’s great at her job, has kickass style and a color bomb of a wardrobe, and eats drumstick ice cream cones while waiting for the elevator.
I want every single piece of clothing she’s ever worn on the show.
I want to live in her apartment (her own apartment, not the man pad she shares with Danny).
And I want to work in her beautiful fertility clinic office.
But what I love most about TV career girl Mindy Lahiri, is her glittery sense of humor. Every now and then, when I’m not feeling so great at work… whether it’s just being in a blah mood OR when I sense a fit of fiery rage coming on (yes, happens more often than I’d like to admit), I know it’s time to channel my inner Mindy.
Meaning… put on an awesome outfit, spruce up my workspace, take a moment to recognize my fabulousness, eat a donut and laugh off whatever it is that’s keeping me from doing what I need to do. It’s just so much more productive being positive. And confident.
Just a little thought to get you through your Monday. So remember, before you go ballistic over that eighteenth round of headlines that’s just not right from your copywriter, or flip your desk over that complete change in direction from the client minutes before a gigantic print run, or get ready to throw your coffee at that newbie production artist who didn’t fix half the changes you marked up… channel your inner Mindy. #mindymotivation
Even if you're on the account team and don't work on the actual creative files, it's important to understand what the main programs are and what they're intended for- basically know your graphic design tools. I've noticed that it's not uncommon, especially when working with a small creative department, to come across an inexperienced artist (sometimes even ...
Hope everyone got some much needed time off for the holidays. Mine was filled with endless food - from tamales to eggs benedict to knishes to chow mein to pie and sprinkles. I think I spent all of Sunday "recovering" with naps and lounging with Netflix. And if you're lucky like me, you were back to ...
AdobeMAX 2014
Did anyone attend AdobeMAX this year? AdobeMax is an annual conference that brings together creativity and technology. This is an excellent resource for agency creatives to learn, from the experts, what’s new in design. If you didn’t get to go, don’t worry. Our girl Rae Hamilton from Design Sellout has got us covered.
5 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR TEAM COHESIVE
I’m so excited because half my team members are flying into Southern California today for a quarterly business review with our clients. It’s common in agency life for your team to be spread out all over the country, and sometimes even overseas. My current program management team consists of 5 people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and 3 people (including myself) in Irvine, California. On top of that, a couple of us work from home offices, and us California folks are hardly ever in one place since our week is usually littered with offsite client meetings. Yet, we all work on the same account, with the same group of clients. With that said, keeping cohesion within the team isn’t always easy. It takes constant effort to keep apprised of each other’s projects so we don’t get disconnected from each other and, more importantly, so our work doesn’t end up getting disconnected to the client. Here are a few things my team does to create and maintain cohesion:
Getting a new job is so exhilarating, fulfilling... and sometimes such a relief! It's a huge accomplishment and you deserve to celebrate. So after you indulge in mimosas, steak and cake, let's get you ready to take on that new position. These are the 5 things you should keep in mind your first week at a ...
