Thursday, February 25, 2010
You may or may not remember my first “Huzzah! I was unceremoniously laid off, too!” guest post here at PFTA back in April, ‘09. No worries if you don’t; feels like thirty years ago. Which would have made zero sense, considering I would have been twelve…and, let’s be honest, why should a pre-teen have expected [...]
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Third in a series of posts inspired by Seth Godin’s Linchpin.
A woman I know was laid off in 2008 after a 14-year career in broadcast journalism. Now at the end of her financial rope, she had just a couple months of living expenses left and no real prospects of another job. She was understandably scared.
“What [...]
Sunday, February 21, 2010
First in a series of posts inspired by Seth Godin’s Linchpin.
A few years back a bunch of advertising-displaced friends reunited for a whitewater rafting trip. I came from New York. Three others came from Boston. One lived in Vegas. And we all descended on my former partner in Chattanooga, who was to be our river [...]
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Do something interesting. Do something worth talking about. Do something worth sharing.
That’s how you stay alive, vibrant, and employed (if you want to).
Thursday, February 11, 2010
At more than 3M views, it’s likely you’ve seen this already. If you haven’t — and even if you have — take 15 minutes to watch it now. Or a few less minutes to read the transcript.
And be careful to avoid “yeah, but he’s Steve Jobs so reinventing is easier” thinking. I would argue it’s [...]
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The business of big advertising is concentrated in a handful of cities. New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Boston, etc. That’s where the jobs are (or used to be). Sure, there are fantastic agencies in smaller markets (Richmond, Portland, etc.). Either way if you want a shot at the big leagues, you may have to [...]
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Every place I’ve ever worked had at least one person who refused to decorate. Walking into their space was like entering a sensory deprivation office, with nothing but white walls, a computer and a pen.
I didn’t understand these people. I was someone who needed to feel comfortable at work. Pictures of my kids (never knew [...]
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
I grew up with someone who lived by the motto, “Hope for the best, but expect the worst.” His feeling was, if you hope for the best, there’s always a chance that some day you’ll get lucky. But if you expect the worst, well, when things go sour there’s less room for disappointment.
But here’s the [...]
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
When you read George Parker’s raw blog, Adscam, it’s hard not to get angry….sometimes with George, sometimes at George. It’s written on pure emotion and f-bombs. The douchenozzles, the Poisoned Dwarf, the BDAs. He spews upwards of five posts a day, pulls no punches, and in almost all cases, says the things most of [...]
Please Feed The Animals made a new business presentation last week.
We didn’t have anybody with a British accent talking about psychographics. There weren’t teams of leaders responsible for different sections of the deck. And I couldn’t turn to a boss to bail me out of the rocky bits.
For the first time in my career, I [...]
