From The Windy City to Sin City: This LIAison Believes Creativity Has Always Been a Gamble
I felt something that remains all too familiar in this industry while at the LIA’s five day development programme, the Creative LIAisons: imposter syndrome.
But, there’s a few things I learned during the programme that indicate this is a canon event for any creative.
No one really knows what they’re doing most of the time.
We spent a week hearing from extremely vetted industry experts, CCOs, VPs, and agency founders, and you begin to realise something crazy: the truth is we’ve all been winging it. Honestly, that’s the beauty of this life we carve out for ourselves as creatives. What makes something ‘good’ in this industry is so subjective, with it being such a creative-forward space and all, that you don’t even know if the thing you’re trying to do will work. You just do it with both feet planted and somehow it clicks. So, after getting past the weight of someone’s title, you start to realise that they just had an endless pursuit of creativity, even when they were unsure, even when they could have been completely wrong, and that’s what led to a winning idea.
Always ask ‘why?’
As a young creative, when you’re first starting out, you typically get in these rooms and creative briefings and kind of just do what you’re told. There’s a fear of pushing back, or asking why when given a brief. There’s almost an unspoken notion of just putting your head down and working. But I believe in a similar philosophy of Tyler the Creator’s ‘create like a child and edit like a scientist’ mindset. You should always remain curious, because enough ‘whys’ can lead to a great idea. I think the best creatives have strategy in mind at all times, and I think the best strategists also have the creative in mind at all times. Think like an intern.
If you have imposter syndrome, that means you’re in the right room.
These wise words from Plot Twist Creativity’s Christopher Smith definitely carried me throughout LIA. I’m hearing bios and stats get read about the panelists and I’m like, ‘these folks are like The Avengers of the ad game’. Then I started meeting all of my peers in my cohort and we’re all sharing our great work and ideas, and you see people start to smile, encourage you to speak more and think harder, and you start to realise exactly why your agency sent you to this programme in the first place. If you’re at the table it’s because you earned a seat there with your name on it.
Never forget why you started
I think a lot of LIAisons would agree that we left LIA with a spark and a lit flame to go produce some crazy work. As I watched these panels, and witnessed someone who’s been doing this for 30-plus years still light up with the same amount of joy and imagination they had when they were 25, I can’t help but feel inspired. It helps remind me of why I wanted to create ads in the first place: because I hated the way brands targeted consumers that looked like me but would never include us in the conversation/creative. So I left LIA with a call to action and a reminder of why this thing we do called advertising matters so much.
Do it with fear, but do it regardless
This was a banger of a quote from Weber Shandwick’s Daniela Varela. The truth is, advertising is scary. As a creative, you pour your heart into an idea, and sometimes it doesn’t fly. Sometimes you go against the grain and propose something a brand has never done before, and it’s not only scary for you, but can be for your clients as well. I like to think about all the scary what ifs in the world. What if Michael Jordan was too scared to keep playing basketball after getting cut from the team in high school? What if Keith Haring was afraid to paint on subways in NYC? What if the Wright Brothers were too scared to make humans fly? I’m sure that all of these things were probably terrifying and difficult during the time, but they did it nonetheless. And it’s OK to be scared about doing something, but it’s not OK to let it stop you from trying.
