In Deb Morrison's Creative Strategist class, we've teamed up to create a content specialization project on some aspect of advertising. Alex Stoltze, Nick Pothetes and myself decided to look deep into the power of the "other" in work and more specifically landing a job. This is nothing mind blowing. We all know agency life doesn't exist in a vacuum. But it's become increasingly apparent that the "other" in people's lives are more important than any display of work or experience in getting started.
Haley Goggin at Wieden+Kennedy is a producer on the Target account. She got there by being a ski bum for several months and keeping that side with her as a professional.
Dustin Ballard has an impressive portfolio at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. But he got his foot in the door in 2003 because he played the violin, and the agency needed a fiddle player for a Battle of the Ad Bands.
Those are just two impressive stories. There are really too many to count. But it obviously gets me thinking: what's my other? I feel I have a few things in my life that I do purely for enjoyment, purely to balance my life, purely because it completes me as a person.
Running | That Aasics commercial where all the stressors that cover the runner's body just melt off is a great visualization of what running does for me. But it also gives me the chance to explore and absorb the world around me as I sail through it. When I see something new that catches my eye, there is nothing stopping me from running towards it and observing more. Whether I'm on country roads, or through the heart of a city, or across suburban sprawl, I use running as a chance to witness and understand the lifestyles that are not my own.
Playing Susie Home Maker | I cook. I decorate. I clean. I get a lot of ridicule from it all, but it's me building my nest. My home is my Zen palace, away from the fast pace and chaos of my life. I love to entertain and share my latest gastronomic creation with others. It also has opened my eyes up to artists and cultures I would have never sought spontaneously. If my home is an extension of myself, it would appear I'm worldly, organized, and a little bit flamboyant for a straight man. I literally drool over the design of this chair.
Music | Actually who doesn't associate music with their being? We are a musical species, after all. I love to create music. I've played trumpet for fifteen years. I write and arrange tunes for pop and funk groups. Music making has taken me to dozens of states and five foreign countries. It's allowed me to be both a single essential cog in a well oiled machine, as well as design the pieces to fit together in synchronicity and melody and harmony. It's opened my eyes to genres I didn't care for originally and why others love them. It's allowed me to step outside my own world and feel the worlds of others, past and present.
Running and my home life have kept me grounded, but I've let music making slip away from me. I chose to take a break to focus on taking my career into the next stage. Look what I found in the meantime: my other is as (if not more) important than the jobs and projects I pick up. Something is missing without playing an instrument and composing. I miss my other. It's time to pick it back up.
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