"If your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."

For a Living

I sat down in front of Ted after concepting my first Christmas promotion for Ray-Ban Sunglasses, and instead of reading him my headlines, I started talking,

“You know how hard it is to get just the right gift for everyone on your list? And you know how there are some things that everyone loves no matter how young/old, rich/poor, trendy/understated they are?”

“Stop right there, David,” he said. “If your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt. And it damn well better speak for itself. Are you going to stand next to everyone at the Macy’s checkout counter and explain why your point-of-purchase display is so clever? Read me the damn headlines.”

For years I thought his advice was about how to best present my work to creative directors and clients. I tried to not over explain creative and just present it. But I learned to appreciate and internalize the real point of Ted’s advice. I had to make sure my work was good enough to stand on its own in the first place.

For a Life

It’s probably even more important for our “work” to speak for itself outside the conference room. Instead of trying to tell my kids what our family stands for, I should consistently demonstrate it. Instead of telling people what they mean to me, I should be making sure they never question it.”

Here are some more pearls I’ve heard through the years

"Losers See Black and White. Winners See All the Gray."

For a Living

My new client said they had $5,000 budgeted for their ad creative. Period. Our team told me it would cost $12,000 for the brilliant concept they developed. I freaked out and told the owner I was being put in an impossible situation. He smiled and said, “If you see this as black and white you lose. If you see all the gray you win.” He sent me back to my client with the team’s ad and this simple pitch, “We could give you an ad for your budget no problem, but you could do this, what you really need, for about twice that.” Sold in two seconds.

This was about a young account executive focusing on numbers instead of what great work could do for our client and me learning that everyone gets what they deserve by not seeing things as all or nothing.

 For a Life

 I would bet that every guru, every self-help book, and every psychotherapist’s advice could be summed up with “see the gray.” When Heraclites said, “Nothing is Permanent.” When Tony Robbins said “Awaken the giant within.” When my therapist said, “You’re obviously getting something from making yourself anxious.” They were all saying, “It isn’t this OR that. It’s this AND that.”

"Writing Copy is Empathy"

For a Living

I was young and full of 20-something angst when I asked my first boss whether writing copy all day wasn’t sort of a vapid career … no matter how much fun it was. He smiled at me and said, “I spend my whole day inside of other people’s heads. Interested in what moves them. Caring about where they hurt. Imagining what makes them smile. All so I can offer them things they may or may not even know they need. What’s more empathic?”

For a Life

Now I know that putting words to anything should come from a place of empathy. Trying to understand what truly matters to the recipients of everything we say, email or tweet is the best way to use our words to connect with other human beings and not just scream our desires into a canyon.

“Don't put your work on a bus”

For a Living

At my third agency job, I told my boss I was going to email the client the ad we had just created. He said, “We were once doing a campaign for a firm in Buffalo and decided to let Greyhound deliver the work. Even though the work was brilliant, it fell flat without us there to show how it was also totally in line with the creative brief. We lost the account.”

I learned two things that day:

1. There was a time when Greyhound delivered packages.

2. Being creative is only part of our job. We also have to be human.

For a Life

Being clever, but also being present, and approachable is key. Whether talking to a neighbor, emailing a friend or on yet another family Zoom call, we should stand boldly behind our ideas and not pretend they just dropped out of the sky.

“Some create in public. I go into my closet and pray.”

For a Living

Everywhere I’ve ever worked thought ad-hoc brainstorms were the best way to generate long, fruitful lists of bold ideas. One creative director, who valued personal creative time, fine tuned the process to consistently make brainstorms work.

His brainstorms weren’t a pop quiz. We were always told the assignment and given a deadline to show up to a meeting with ideas. Some, like him, used the time to lock themselves in a room. Some, like me, met in small groups to bounce ideas off each other. Some freaks of nature knew they’d come up with their best ideas on the spot. All that mattered was it worked.

For a Life

Anyone who knows if they’re an ENTJ or an INFP knows we all have preferred ways of interacting and making decisions. I’ve never trusted the “science” of Myers-Briggs or any other system enough to formally classify myself or others, but I do like being reminded that not everyone sees the world exactly like I do.

Everyone deserves their own own space to think. But we all need to come back to the table when we’re done. The best ideas feed on each other.

“Selling starts at the agency”

For a Living

When I moved from the creative to the account side of advertising, I thought my job was just to get input from the client, share it with the creative team and present their work back to the client. How hard could this be? 

I went to my boss because I couldn’t figure out why the creative department was giving so much push back and attitude when I briefed them on assignments. He said, “Selling starts at the agency. Don’t assume everyone is on your side. Your client also expects you to represent him, inspire people to do great work for him, and not come back to him until you have it.”

Having been a copywriter already for years, it was suddenly easy to remember the times I was invited to be part of something awesome and not just asked to do my job.

For a Life

Running a board meeting. Hosting a couple’s weekend. Leading a family discussion. It’s way better to to sell the benefits of a achieving something awesome than to merely expect agreement.

“Achieve an Intensity of Meaning with an Economy of Words”

For a Living

This was the first advice I received as a junior copywriter. I already knew that Kurt Vonnegut said you could make anything you’re working on better by throwing out the first three pages of you clearing your throat, but I didn’t realize how essential brevity and clarity were in advertising. You have to get to your point and make people feel it. They only give you so much time to learn about your amazing new widget. How you’re going to help them has to jump off the page. They have to feel it as much as they need to understand it.

For a Life

Correcting a child’s behavior. Asking for a friend’s forgiveness. Expressing your love. What’s more effective than one sincere sentence?