Final Post

Well, I return. But just for one last post...I guess I want to come full circle with this blog.

As you may have figured out, by knowing me or reading this blog, things weren't quite going my way and I felt that I needed to make some very serious changes.

For one, you read about my transition into a house as a short-term alternative for staying in the craptastic place they called an apartment complex that was my nightmare of broken air conditioners, no hot water, incompetent office staff, and asshole neighbors. Am I exaggerating? I don't really think so.

Update on the housing situation is that I lived at the house for about 6 weeks and was able to move into a very lovely apartment that I was hesitant to get attached to at first, but now I call home. I truly love my new apartment and I'm just so glad that I don't have to worry about my living situation on a daily basis anymore.

You may have guessed that this living transition came with much, much more - and you'd be right, a new job. Though I learned a lot of the basics of research and supporting my Planning team, I quickly outgrew that position because Planning is much more about strategy than it is about research. When I asked my manager for more responsibility, I was essentially denied and that's not the kind of environment that I want to be in.

In advertising, networking is everything. And a dear friend Christie that first mentored me at my very first job was able to help me out once again with an important career move. I am now settled into a great agency where I can really use my brain and my talents to move forward. I dropped the crappy Junior title that does nothing but make you feel beneath others and have moved on to kicking some ass! ;)

My new position is a great position for growing and learning about creating strategies for clients. I have already tackled so many interesting challenges and I look forward to more.

So with this huge change is an absolute life change. A second chance at living in Dallas...

Now the only problem is that I'm not a huge fan of Dallas. More than that, I'm really starting to hate it. But what that means for me now is that I will enjoy my apartment and enjoy my job until these things run their course. After that, it is adios Dallas.

I believe I know where my next move will take me, at least city-wise, but it is something that I will take my remaining time in Dallas to look forward to, prepare for, and hopefully ultimately achieve.

Thank you for reading my blog. I highly recommend my recap of the '08 Planning Conference for any of you who have landed here wanting to know more about Account Planning.

I may have another blog floating out there somewhere about my next adventure...

So long!

Not In A Long While

Wow, how I have let the time pass. For good reason though...I've been thinking about a lot, making a lot of decisions, taking a lot of time to take care of myself.

There are a lot of things that I want to add to this blog very quickly so I want to do a posting of highlights of exciting Plannerly things that I have been able to do in the past few (how long has it been since I last posted?)...months.

For one, I have moderated!! I am a master at the back-end of research - all the setting up, recruiting, and running of groups. And now I have finally conducted the research myself. My first group moderated was for new business for our Seattle office - awesome! I really didn't have time to get nervous about the actual group because I was handling all of the recruiting, coordinating, and setting up on my own. The day of the group I was a little nervous but decided to have fun with it, and I totally did! I also did three interviews that day. Afterwards I felt confident that moderating was something I could do and have a lot of fun with.

And I did! Just last week I moderated my second group. This time with college students which was a lot of fun. This was for my account...

That's right, my account. I have been very active on an account in our agency to the extent that I am really the Planner on it. Now there are a few things about it: 1) it's one of the smallest accounts in the agency, 2) it's led by me because the other planners don't want it or don't have time for it, and 3) it has not always been easy to work on this account. But I am growing and learning and I'm just trying to look at the whole thing as a great educational opportunity for me. I'm working with teams of AS and creative people, I'm talking directly to the client and have presented a few things to them (over the phone and in person), and I have to deal with conflicts and obstacles as they come up. The great thing is that I really feel like I'm getting to a place where I'm more comfortable with my team and that they're coming to me for my advice and direction because I have tried to always be there for them and prove myself.

Oh, so much going on!

And on to life outside of the office...I am finally moving out of my hell hole apartment!! Woohoooo!!! It is long past time to leave this place behind and I move out next week.

Unfortunately, things aren't completely certain right now. I have decided to move into a friend's house as she is trying to sell it and I am trying to save a little money. *I'm 90% sure right now that I will be moving into this house.* I'll help her out and she'll help me out by doing this. But this will be a short-term solution as eventually the house will sell and I will have to be on my way. But this is giving me the opportunity to really get out of a shitty situation while I look for something better.

So as you can see there are a few things on my mind. I have been working a TON and trying to coordinate everything for the move and it has not been easy. Yep, I'm stressing! But I wanted to get back to blogging to see if letting some of it out here would help.

I surely hope to have more good news about work as I just continue to learn and grow!

Hooray for posting after a really long ass time. :)

Heebie Jeebies

Got this kind of gross feeling today at work...let's just say it involved cockroaches - ewww. Oh, and I mean for work purposes. Yeah.

Happy Anniversary

Today marks my one year anniversary at my job...can't believe a whole year has already gone by.

Fairly uneventful day but a milestone nonetheless.

Another First :)

Yesterday I did one more thing that I can put in my bag of experience - in-home one-on-one interview...moderated by ME. Yes, all by myself. :)

I've done a lot of observing, mainly focus groups, and tried to pick up on some of the things that my fellow planners do to make people feel at ease, get them to elaborate, and get them to tell more than just the typical top-of-mind stuff.

The interview went pretty well. Unfortunately the guy wasn't very talkative so I felt I really had to work for it to get this experience! ;) But overall it was just a great feeling to get to do everything for the research, from set-up to the upcoming video. So I talked about the project with my AS team, developed the screener, handled the recruit with one of our recruiting partners, set-up the interview with the participant, interviewed him, captured what B-roll footage we wanted for the rest of the video with the help of one of our broadcast production people, and will soon be pulling clips and putting the video together. Awesome! Usually that all-important middle area of the actual interview is where I only observe or don't even go, but this time the whole enchilada was mine.

This is a really good feeling. I'm hoping that more will come my way as from here on out it's all about the experience - practice makes perfect and other such sayings.

Here's to completing a full project on my own. :D

Feeling Out Of Place

*Fidget*...*squirm*...*shrug and sigh*...

I've been thinking too much, over thinking, every little thing that is going on.

Dallas doesn't fit me, my apartment doesn't fit me, my time doesn't fit me, my sleeping schedule doesn't fit me, and sometimes I don't feel like I fit the very nice people that I have met in Dallas - both on the job and my other circles of friends.

Do I just belong outside of the circle?

I'm coming up on my one year anniversary at my first job. I soon want to write a post on the last year - one year out of school (which I already passed in May), one year out in the real world, and one year at my job (coming up this Wednesday). Sometimes it's like, "Wow, already a year!" and sometimes it's like "Whoa, it has been only a year."

Lots of ups and downs - quite evenly split, really. I feel like every other day is an up and down, probably also within a day, definitely within a week, and then months have already gone by.

It's hard to plant my feet firmly when life insists on tossing me up into the wind...the hurricane, maybe.

Just feeling kinda weird this weekend...those ups and downs.

In-Homes

Another notch on the research belt - I attended some in-home groups!

So far I have done focus groups (lots), one-on-one interviews, in-store interviews, and man on the street. At most of the research I was an observer or did a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff (checking people in, videotaping, taking notes, etc), but several times I actually did the interviewing. My next step is to moderate a group...I think I'm okay with one person but group dynamics throw in a whole new challenge.

In-homes, however, I had not up until now been able to observe. I served as camera person for the day but it allowed me to observe quite a lot of the groups without having to worry about asking the right questions, etc.

What I can say about in-homes is that the information is so much richer. People are more relaxed, the other people in the group are their friends, they are in their own home or a place familiar to them, and they are just gabbing about something they're interested in. What's great about in-homes is that people get comfortable more quickly, they say a lot more, and they are able to call each other out/keep each other honest. It's very interesting how much they're willing to tell you and it's just a lot better experience than being in a facility.

Facilities tend to be less warm and welcoming, you're surrounded by people you don't know and the people viewing you are all behind this mysterious glass. With an in-home, it's very transparent. The person videotaping you is reacting to what you say, someone taking notes and just observing can actually look you in the eye, and people involved (from the agency-side) actually have to be involved. Too many times, behind the glass you can separate yourself - not pay attention, get bored, not really listen. But when you are sitting in someone's home and listening and perhaps even participating, it will have a lot more impact on you.

I think I would rather do in-homes than a facility focus group any day. But there are other ways...it could even be in a coffee shop, a bar, anywhere that is familiar to the person you're talking to. I think that environment and atmosphere is contextually very important to a person. How are they supposed to talk with ease when they're busy feeling out the new situation they've been put into with new people.

And forget it if you're trying to get through to a shy person - they won't even make it through the door because they'll be screened out well in advance!

It was just a great little view into what more I can look forward to. I feel like for now I'm a bit on the outside looking in - I see all of these things that I can do to help my brands, to engage the consumer, to learn more, but I'm not quite to the point of getting to do these things on my own. I want to approach a problem and decide what to do with it. I want to engage people in a different way and find out something amazing about them. I want to bring this information back to the agency and excite people with what I learned and what we can do with it.

I guess you can say that with the AP Conference and this research I had a whole week of "Appreciating Account Planning." Not that I didn't appreciate it before, but it's nice to have a little reminder of how much I enjoy this career that I have landed in. I worked hard to get in and that fiery passion that got me here is alive and well today.

Alright, I'll stop drooling all over Planning now... :p

Here's What I Haven't Learned

You know, I have tried to reflect on some of the experiences I have had working as a Junior Account Planner at an ad agency. I have learned so much and as I approach my one year anniversary with the company, I am looking ahead at my goals for the future and where I stand now. Having just had my annual review, it showed me what I am doing well and what I need to work on. I appreciate the feedback because I want to learn and grow and do better.

However, I have found that there are some things from the agency that I have yet to learn that I consider essential - it's not one-sided. If I don't have the back-up of someone teaching me then it is just giving, giving, giving and all that I learn is simply what I have made of a situation. Experience has taught me so much and I think for a while that is enough. But right now I am looking for specific skills that I expect to be taught.

In school, we learned about being creative, about understanding the target, and about boiling things down into big but concise, single-minded ideas. This is a great way to learn about planning and I wouldn't expect anything less. My experience thus far in the agency has taught me the challenges of applying this learning to the work I do. As I've said before, I have worked on every client in the house at least once and by this point there are a few key accounts that I know more about.

The next step for me is taking care of an account of my own. I am currently trying to work towards that. Here's the kicker, this is where I need my agency to step in. The things that I don't know about right now are which meetings I should attend, how and when I should provide strategic feedback, and the timelines for working on projects and with teams. To me, this is information that my agency needs to be providing me, not something I will necessarily just know to do on my own.

As a junior, you are working through other planners so you are relatively removed from this process. I'm not sure how it works at most agencies, but I think the idea is to have a junior sit in with another planner in meetings to start to understand the process and understand the role of an Account Planner in those situations. This is the experience I lack.

Part of this is perhaps agency structure - do the project managers know to invite us to meetings? They set up most of the meetings with creatives. Or is it that the team needs to understand that I am working on their account and to include me - I know that one has been done. Is it that they forget to invite me and then the project is already underway? How did we get to the point where I am invited to a meeting here, a meeting there but still expected to perform? I'm sorry but I missed a few steps and you're expecting me to just know.

At this point, I am trying to push past this wall and I'm not getting the help I need. But I feel like this is such a small part of it...maybe I should be able to just figure this stuff out on my own...? A little education goes a long way and I know that if I simply knew the process from beginning to end, I would have no problem doing the work. I'm not saying I don't understand the steps and how we get from research to strategy to creative, but I'm saying I don't know when and where to show up and nobody invited me to the party.

Sure, it's all new experiences but help me out. Give me just a little nudge and I will take it further than you would expect of me. I want to do well but I need some support.

As with any challenge, find a new way to do it. If I am not given the assistance I will find a way to help myself. Onward...

A New Side of Research

Up until now, my main function in focus groups, interviews, etc. was more behind-the-scenes. That's fine, it helped me learn what all needed to be put in to make sure research ran smoothly and to get some good learning out.

Now that I've done all of the setting up, videotaping, organizing, and anything else you could imagine in the back room, those things come naturally to me and I don't have to think about them any more. No longer do I have to think so hard about using the camera...I just do it.

Today was a great example of finally getting to move beyond this technical back room stuff to focusing more on what was said in the interview. Sure I was behind the camera but I was looking through it at the people we were talking to.

Another thing that has helped me become more involved, besides just knowing the equipment, is my increased confidence in helping out, even on a small task. My input and opinion is valued and often, even if not solicited, is very much wanted. I know that to add something new, like a question the interviewer didn't think of or ask yet or to follow up with a thought on what was said, is to expand on the original thinking. One idea breeds more so that is always helpful. Also, the planner I went out with told me beforehand that I could interject with a question if I felt it was something that would add learning - he opened it up for me to be more involved. I really appreciated it and this is a new trend for me as my role continues to expand.

The next step will be to do more of the actual interviewing and running focus groups. I have of course done things on a small scale such as man on the street, one on ones with people we know to just get some quick scrappy research, and going with other planners that let me interview part of the time. It will just feel good to start running with projects on my own. More experience is what I need now.

On the scale of experience, a fellow planner who was actually conducting the focus groups talked about how good it felt to be able to shoot from the hip more. He didn't need a questionnaire written out, a cheat sheet to look at, he just needed to be listening and reacting and thinking of questions along the way. It was kind of cool to hear him talking about the next thing he learned, felt comfortable with, and was excited about being able to do as it shows the continual progression of a planner - the same assignment but different roles and different stages of development within those roles.

I also hear about planners, and other participants in the focus group/research experience, getting really tired of the same old thing. But when you've learned what to do and hit a plateau, maybe that's a good time to improvise and try something new. If it's getting so boring, revolutionize it.

Just keep on learning.

The Giving Tree

It Has Been A While

Well, it has been quite some time since I've been able to stop, reflect, and write about my job...sharing something that I wanted to talk about, at least. I don't know if I've really been so busy (though I certainly have) or if I needed a break to get back to center.

So I started thinking back to some of the first assignments I was given as a junior and what was expected of me. I remember feeling frustrated sometimes because it wasn't always clear what was being asked of me, when I would know that I found what was needed, or even when to stop looking. Come to find out, that's all a part of the process.

Sometimes it's frustrating precisely because you are looking for answers that may not yet exist. But that actually makes you push the envelope, get to the new questions (if you can't find the answer, start asking questions), and perhaps to come up with a new way of doing the whole process.

What I'm thinking of is mainly secondary research, the staple of a Junior Account Planner's diet, but it certainly doesn't have to be boring. This ain't your grandma's research, that's for sure! It's all about getting interested in the topic, finding something new in a sea of all the same information that anyone can find, but beyond that it's interpreting what you find in an interesting way that really brings something more to the table. I don't think this is always what you are prepared to do after wading through a bunch of stuff that other people said. But it is certainly what needs to be done and those idea muscles are just as important to flex as your researchin' ones.

Bringing something new to the table usually has nothing to do with what you can find as a good Googler but how you explain what you found through the lens of your experience. Experience always trumps other things because it is the full sphere and context in which facts live. You will be surprised about what in your life will come up again either as just an interest or for your job so be interested and open to anything and everything that comes your way. Not just the fabulous trips to other countries but some of the seemingly mundane things, like talking to your coworkers about the person behind who you see for 8+ hours a day.

I had two very interesting conversations with coworkers today that were fairly short (2 minutes here, 10 minutes there), had nothing to do with work, and were pretty plain topics except they were extremely fascinating to me. I linked them to my own interests and imparted wisdom based on what I had experienced. It also just helped me connect to some coworkers on a deeper level.

I have said it and I will say it again and again - things you learn will not just affect your career but will serve you well in life also. Be open to things always and you will find new ways of thinking.

Eye-Opening Weekend

Nothing particularly amazing happened over this past holiday weekend - I went home, finally got to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom, witnessed a very quiet house without our dog Ginger and consoled a mourning Sam, spent time with friends and family, and just tried to soak up as much Austin as I could before I had to leave. I love Austin.

However, this time in Austin did make me wake up to the fact that I will need to start making some important decisions about my future and where I want life to take me (not that you have much of a say in where life takes you sometimes...I'm just saying).

I have almost been in the real world for one year and what they say is true: it's hard. I've spent time away from my family for the first time, I'm working at my first full-time job, and I'm in a new city for the first time in my life. I didn't expect it to be easy but I didn't know what to expect as far as what would be hard and how I would deal with it. Throughout the process, I've obviously started learning some things about myself:

1) I do want to spend some time away from my family. As much as I love them and I'm not saying that I can't wait to be away from them, I feel like it's a good thing to not be so accessible to them and them to me. Dallas is proving to be not far enough as it's still very easy for them to say, "oh just come home for the weekend." Eight hours of driving later, I have spent the weekend away from doing things with the new people that I have met here in Dallas, away from getting things done at my apartment, and wondering when my family will make the trek to see me instead. They've even joked that if I was somewhere more desirable they would come visit me, which really doesn't make me feel all that good.

This brings us to our second point...

2) My first job decision was very planned - where I wanted to be and what I wanted to be doing. The job part of that was not wanting some sort of hybrid planning position where I wouldn't get to be a pure planner. I accomplished this mission. The other part of that was the city. I knew I didn't want to be too far away from my family because I wasn't sure how I would handle it. That may sound defeatist but I was trying to be realistic and do what made sense for me. The urge to go far far away had not really struck me and even though some cities seemed "cool" I didn't know how living there would actually be. Both of those pieces landed me in a great job that gave me wonderful introductory learning as a planner in a city that was not too far away from home. Sounds pretty regular now.

As I near my year mark at my job, the end of my lease at my apartment, and the completion of one year out in the real world, I'm already getting the itch to look at my options.

For one, my next job choice will be based on the job and a city that I want to live in. And I will want to live in this city because of its personality, not due to the proximity to my family. Let's face it, Dallas doesn't inspire me. I know that any city I live in will have to hold its weight against Austin and I consider that to be a tall order. How can I be inspiring at work if my surroundings don't inspire me to interact with it more? And part of me knows that this is not entirely Dallas' fault...I know that I could have made more of an effort to do things and I'm sure that part of me just didn't want to like Dallas in the first place. I was certainly told by many that Dallas sucked and even though in the beginning I tried not to pay attention to that, I fed into that sentiment quickly.

Another thing is, I am starting to feel that call to move somewhere completely different. Part of me just wants to plunge into the deep end to just do it. A lot of it would be the experience, but part of me knows that I need to make a more measured decision than that. It's still obviously about the job opportunities I can find, but I just need the city to be a part of it. If I'm going to be away from all of my family and friends, then I need something else to hold on to.

3) I do love Austin. That's not going to change because it's my hometown, I grew up there, plus I went to college there and had a wide range of experiences as well as meeting some of the greatest people I know. No one can take that away from me.

I've always thought that I would go away for a while and then circle back around to be closer to my family. I feel like someday I will move back to Austin. But how do I know that Austin is the best place for me? How do I know that I won't love some other place equally or for different kinds of reasons that would make me want to settle there, start a family, or pursue other career options?

I guess it's as grandiose as saying there's a whole wide world out there that I want to see and experience, but sometimes I'm afraid. I don't want to feel like I'll fail...I guess that brings me to my next point.

4) I feel like I have experienced failure here...and I feel like that is a really good thing for me personally. I know that sounds strange. And they're not big failures by any means. It's also not that I don't think I've experienced little failures like this before. But I guess I feel that it's different now in that this time the failures are really only getting dealt with by me. Do I ask my friends, coworkers, and family for advice? Of course. But I'm starting to realize that the decisions made on these things are more than ever mine and mine alone. I take other's opinions and weigh them carefully, but my decisions have either made me succeed or have made me stumble a bit. It's fairly cliche to say that this has made me a stronger person, but I will say that and add to it that I am understanding how I function a little better. I still think I have a lot to learn about myself, actually I don't think the learning will ever stop, but I'm so glad that it's happening.

These failures are harder to deal with for me in that they aren't just a poor grade or a conflict with a classmate that I really never had to resolve because the project was over. The real world makes everything interconnected and makes those little failures matter a lot more. If I have a hard day at work, it affects my home life. If things seem unorganized and frazzled at home, that translates to my job. It's no longer the division of school and summer, or even of school and the real world. Now it's just continuous - the real world and nothing comes after that. There is no definite timeline or boundaries. It just is what it is.

So I've learned that these failures, and being scared, and crying, and having to push myself in new ways to master things that I already thought I had mastered are all just ways of getting to know myself better and clearly defining the person that I am and who I want to be.

5) Real life stinks sometimes. ;) Why is it challenging me so and why do I have to fail in order to learn? And the answer that keeps coming back to me from everyone is...

If it wasn't hard it wouldn't be worth it.

I feel late in developing this, my full person, but I'm glad that I'm getting here, even if I have to go through an obstacle course like this.


There are many many more things that I have learned about myself through this experience but I want to keep it simple.

There's a lot to think about and some decisions need to be made about my future. I'm kind of looking forward to the challenge.

2 Weeks Of Greatness

Wow, I haven't updated in quite a bit...but for good reason.

I feel a shift at work and I'm pushing for it. More responsibility - check, new role - getting there, redefining how I get work - it's all kind of moving around.

I've wanted this for a while on my own account but I didn't think much about getting in to this role simply by helping one of the other planners out. So there was too much work on one of our clients going down all at once - it's called '09 Planning - and I was in the right place, asking for the right things, at the right time.

Before I knew it, an entire brand was handed over to me, research on another brand was conducted, and I was full-on planner in an instant. I reviewed client direction, did some searching on the target, and wrote a brief. That in itself was wonderful and I was appreciative of the experience. My brief was received very well as written, and only minor adjustments were made before I got to brief creatives.

Okay, so my first brief writing experiences weren't great. I was very disappointed but what could I do? The time was over and had left the building. But all of the sudden I got to redeem my "first" experiences by doing a creative briefing all on my own. Now that was a first that went very well and renewed my faith in my abilities as a planner. I had a great first briefing experience! Woo!

So I got to write a whole brief, do a briefing - wow, thank you! Wait, there's more??

Planning for the next year is like a sped-up version of what we do all year long. It goes from client briefing, to research on the target and creative brief, then the briefing, creative development and internal review, and a final presentation deck. But they're big, broad overarching communications platforms that will direct the work done for next year. Oh, did I mention this all occurs within about a 2-week period? Yeah, crazy!

So my last two weeks have been packed solid with meetings, brainstorms, conference calls, researching, idea formation, strategic feedback, and deck writing. I have not stopped since 3 Friday's ago when I was sitting in a fellow planner's office talking about wanting more responsibility and more opportunities to do plannerly work.

And here I am on the other side just so thankful that I got the opportunity to work on such a cool project. I learned so much about what I should do at certain times in the process as a planner, but also got to put that learning to the test as I was at that instant also supposed to do what I was learning.

The other great thing about this whole experience was that I was working for a team that LOVES having a planner. And they were extra excited because they got the help of TWO planners during this process. They wanted me to be involved, they invited me to every meeting, they valued my feedback and considered it a very important part of what we were doing. I was asked questions, people looked to me for the important solutions, and I became a planner.

I know I talk a lot about not quite feeling like a planner, having moments where I kinda feel like a planner, and I've been told that I am a planner, but I needed to see it to believe it and I also needed to be able to live it. And I was. :) So it's official - I'm a planner.

Going forward, I will be this same planner. My tasks will change but I should come at it with that same confidence every time. That's part of what I was lacking.

I will stress the importance of becoming more involved and I intend on that happening.

It's a new day, the emergence of a new role, and I'm very excited about the possibilities.

Briefing

I meant to blog so much more tonight, but that's how it goes - I just wanted to make sure to touch on a few things.

So I got sick last week after a difficult week at work. Some nasty bug has been floating around our office and I picked it up big time. I was out for three days which is very uncommon of me and I still seem to be carrying something around in the back of my throat - yuck. Not only did it make me miss out on some focus groups one day, but it messed up a trip to Austin that was planned for more research. I really wanted to go because I haven't seen in-homes done up close and personal, and that's what I missed out on. Besides, it's my hometown so I had set up to see several friends and stay the weekend to see my family. I was so excited and that all just fell apart when I got sick. :(

The hard week at work was due to a lot of things, and it's hard to elaborate. It's more on the personal side of things and so is hard to talk about. I don't think I always paint the most honest picture of work here in my blog because I try to talk about specific things I did and usually it's something I was really excited to be able to do. But there are a lot of things at work I do that aren't as glamorous - not a surprise - and I just don't have a lot to write about. Or if it's something really hard or upsetting, I don't feel like taking more time to dwell over it and just bitch. Then there are things at work that are bad but I haven't figured out that balance of writing about my life, writing about work, and sharing things for all to see. It's still my job and I may affect people that I work with in my writing so I want to be sensitive to that. Just because it's a frustration of mine doesn't mean I should hurt others by being brutally honest. It's just something to keep in mind - the work is certainly not always fresh, new, and exciting.

I will say that the difficult week was ended on a particularly bad note when a bit of miscommunication made things crazy with my team again. It was somewhat similar to my frustrations from my first brief writing, and I felt it was adding on a layer of not good to what I had experienced before. Though I got my supervisor involved, she really doesn't know the whole story and so it ended up not being that helpful. Let's just say that absolute clear communication is needed from everyone so that responsibilities, limitations, and deadlines are all put on the table. A lot of the time I feel like I am reaching out enough and it ends up that there are questions I didn't ask which really would have helped. Then again, I can't anticipate every waking need or desire - I need to be met in the middle.

Grueling week, week of sickness...when I did get back to work, I needed to catch up with everyone and ended talking my voice down to a grating scraggle. It still has a hint of that which is frustrating. Frustrating - that's the word that pretty much sums up a lot of my feelings about several things going on right now and for the past several weeks.

What was a refreshing spot in all of this was last weekend (in between the hard week and the being sick week) - I had one lovely day before I fell to my sick bed. I started with a little Mary Kay action with friends from work, went to the Dallas zoo, went out with friends to a great Mexican food place Chuy's (a place I know from Austin, and apparently there's just one in Dallas), relaxed, and capped off the day with meeting my cousin at a movie. That was great times and definitely something I needed. Unfortunately, my throat had hurt since the morning and decided to turn into full blown blah by the next day.

Okay, well I guess I'm gonna go ahead and write everything out though it's late. Another frustration - not feeling like I'm getting enough done in my evenings and staying up too late.

Alright, this week meant new beginnings. My department moved into their new offices last week and I finally followed by moving away from my first real world cube home...to my second real world cube home. ;) It has been called Strategy Island, the name I like the most thus far, because it's just two cubes together surrounded by window offices. Other cubes are further away. I think I have a temporary neighbor next door but it doesn't really look like anyone's in there. That is, until we bring on a new junior which we're in the process of doing now. So it's a bit isolated in one respect but it is right next to a kitchen area so I'm kind of in the middle of everything at the same time. The reason we moved was to be with the creatives. I think that's a great idea and I like being closer to them, so I just need to settle down into my new place...and decorate a bit more so it's not so gloomy. I liked my old cube so it will be missed.

On to this week, there has been a new light. One of the planners pulled me onto a fast-moving, multidimensional project on one of our brands. Several products are planning for 2009 so it's a renewal of everything - objectives, briefs, creative ideas. On top of that, our new agency mission is coming on strong so that needs to be incorporated into everything. (As a side note, I have a new project that is solely for our agency mission and it has just bubbled up a little but will need some attention - ohhh, tomorrow! Lots going on.) So one of the planners, being stretched fairly thin on everything, brought me on to this project in a big way. He just up and handed over a whole product and I spent time (quickly!) getting acquainted with the target, wrote a creative brief, and (tadah!!) had my first BRIEFING today!! Exciting.

I was a bit nervous, and it was in and amongst a lot of other things going on - including a fun and one-day-late Cinco de Mayo festival, but I think that I spoke in an honest, clear, and knowledgeable way about my product. Oh listen to me - MY product. But it was a proud moment and one of those gleaming moments where I felt like a planner for a minute.

Those moments - feeling like a planner - are more important than ever to me right now. I want to do much much more that leads me toward feeling like a real planner. And soon, I want to BE a real planner. This is a time in my career where I'm feeling a bit of an angsty teenage struggle to be more, do more, learn more, and not necessarily be what I have been thus far to the agency. The reason there is friction is obvious - I'm wanting and acting on moving forward and the jobs I get don't always lend to that. The more cool stuff I get to work on gets challenged by some of the more basic things that I routinely need to get done. It's a balancing act that I haven't quite figured out.

But in the meantime, I am going to latch onto my assignment and go at it with full force. If it is one of the few opportunities I will get to show what I'm made of, I really want to lay it all out there on the table. It's that whole reaching straight into my chest, removing my heart, and laying it on the table. People can definitely take advantage of that and try to smash my little heart, or they can have a little respect for the fact that I'm crazy enough to do that.

We'll see what happens. ;)

Let It Be Known

I ain't going nowhere so you can get to know me.

This Does Not Feel Good

This is what I feel like - see the people getting literally ripped to shreds...yeah, not a good feeling.



Well, I guess I could be the pissed off chick too.

Whew...

Some days are so intensely busy that 9-5 whirls right by and keeps going without you stopping for long to realize that the hours are gone.

Actually, I sometimes prefer that as slow days can seem too long. I like to stay busy, keeping the activity level up.

There's just so much I want to do...

Can I Get A "Go Team!"

I just wanted to say that now more than ever I believe that tasks completed at an agency are a huge team effort.

I just worked on a relatively small task that somehow pulled in a whole bunch of people to complete it. It began with a focus group and a survey (well, really, it began far before that to get to questioning a certain group of people, but let's not get too big picture) - this task began with answers to a simple online questionnaire. I had coded the survey and was now looking at the results.

After I pulled several key quotes, I worked with a production person and a designer to talk about what we wanted to pull together. It was a simple quote book with the quotes from the survey.

The production person and I worked out the technical things like how big, how many copies, when is it due, etc.; then we went to the designer to talk about what we wanted it to look like, for whom (the client), by whom (our target), and what it should feel like. Along goes the quotes I gathered into something presentable.

With several points of approval (creative, planning, account services), this little book got looked over by about 10 sets of eyes. It's next to last stop was printing. Talking with the studio department, the correct format and layout was determined and 5 copies were printed out. More technical things like the type of paper used for the cover was a bit thicker than the rest of the book, the printed sheets had to be cut out, the spiral binding we originally chose was being scrapped for staples because the books were so thin, and a several person manhunt for the stapler in question all brought about these spectacular little quote books.

Oh, and did they dazzle - the client was so impressed that account services and planning decided we should print 20 more! I would say a job well done.

With all of the input from so many departments, it's hard to say that one person or just a few people were responsible for the wonderful end product. I have always respected each position within the advertising agency, but it's just so great to see it all in action. As I was leading the project and making sure it got from A to B, I really heard some of the things I wouldn't normally hear about what is needed during each step. I know I talked about this before but it is a great idea to get to know what each person does to get a project out the door so you have an understanding of the timelines, pressures, needs/specifications, and sometimes limitations of what each person or role can handle.

I also just really enjoyed getting to work with that many people in the agency and seeing something so great come out at the end. So as cliche as it may seem - go team!! (Oh no, that rhymed too - haha.)

It's Funny What Can Help You Stand Out

Today I was brought in as the "technology expert" to help some stuff work during a client presentation. This actually happens to me pretty frequently, oddly enough. I don't consider myself any sort of master of technological things, but I took the time to learn at one point when I was going to be a part of running a meeting.

Our new coworker asked me soon after he started, "is there anything you don't do?" I guess not. But it all relates to my job in some way.

1. I learned the technology to run all of the equipment in the large conference rooms - invaluable in impressing clients by being able to control everything (lights, sound, ppts, and video) from my seat. And sometimes this regular gal is brought into meetings to get everything running after others have attempted and failed. It's not hard, it was just a matter of learning.

2. I'm a videographer. I know how to run two different types of video equipment and work with 3 different types of mics/audio. I can run the focus group room equipment or just a video camera. Close-up shots and film suitable for editing - I'm still mastering but I've had some good experience with it.

I also know how to finalize a DVD using our equipment, the time needed for dubbing (and no one knows this!), and what it takes to put a decent video together. I don't do the actual editing but it helps that I know the process so I am realistic with time restraints, how best to serve up the clips to be pulled, and how to patch things together so it flows and looks good.

3. I have put on the hats of different positions for a little while to get something done. I did a little competitive analysis, I've pulled images, sifted through music, used this really cool machine that turns paper into big stickers...all to get the job done.

There are more but it's just interesting how it's seen as so different that I know all of these little things. These skills actually just help to run a focus group smoothly or put together a presentation or understand what time is needed to get a video dub or edit back - everything that is indirectly related to my job and needs to get done. Why wouldn't I strive to know these things?

But what's most interesting to me is how I acquired all this knowledge. It's not some crazy extra investment in time because I was learning how to do my job. What I did was spent a little more time with each person I worked with to fully understand the process. I was being a planner! I asked lots of questions, and because I was new it was a great way to get to know people. Now it's just so that I can be sensitive to their time limitations and empathetic to what else they have going on in their role. (Our broadcast department is awesome but they are always swamped with a million editing jobs. It can't hurt that they know that I am doing what I can to alleviate the pressure on their end by giving them as much information as I can on timing, equipment needs, what a job entails, etc.)

You would be surprised by who doesn't do/know these things. Get to know your coworkers, find out about a different role, and help your work in the process.

I have always had a respect for each position in advertising and how all of those pieces fit together. Now I have respect for the people in those positions.

Firmly Stated

So I never followed up on that creative brief I was writing...and that's because it was basically taken out of my hands. Nope, not a good feeling.

That whole experience was not so great. Let's recap: 1) I took it to Account Services and they ripped it up (a bit of a blow to the ego), 2) I revised, refined, and we presented to the client - the client meeting was brutal (I got stared down for not defending some research which we didn't use in developing the brief, then the client didn't like our direction - ouch), 3) I looked back at the research to define the client's position and our position; then set up a meeting with AS to go over those changes (and waited, and waited, and waited), and 4) oh, and did I mention this was my first brief-writing experience at the agency? Blah.

After some time I knew something was fishy and found out that AS had sent some briefs (multiple, plural!!) to the client. I was really thrown off by that one - AS sent, I didn't write, more than one??

So I talked to my supervisor about it and felt hopeful that there would be a change. But I never really heard back. I didn't know if any discussion had occurred and I still didn't have the creative brief(s). Then some other small things happened with my AS team that led me to need to talk to them, and that talk was today.

I didn't want to seem angry, but I was frustrated. And I want to work well with this team moving forward which is why it was important to put my foot down a bit and ask what was up. I felt firm but still very open.

Know how those small victories can really be a big thing for you personally? Well I felt that way. I felt like a made a giant leap for me and my opportunities going forward. I feel like I am on the same page as my AS team now and will be included in much more work on a client that I should have been taking over for months now. Unfortunately, I feel like I'm at the beginning of it all but I'd rather be actually starting now than just thinking it will happen.

I kind of thought the whole thing was silly. Why am I having to take the time to convince my AS team to use me? Why am I making sure everyone knows that I'm their planner instead of my supervisor making it clearly known? Communication in a communications company - a novel concept?

Despite my tone, it really was a feeling of being settled and accepted. This experience working for a specific client consistently is crucial for me to move along into plannerdom. I enjoy immensely working for every client in the agency, but it's time for a little focus.