The following is the third in series of articles written by Josh Copeland for people with careers in account service. This feature will appear every Thursday.

Recently, sitting in a quiet corner of a coffee shop just off the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, I had a chance to sit down with Laura Luckman Kelber at Euro RSCG. Laura is VP and Group Account Director there, and last year she was assigned to run Sprint, a responsibility that includes guiding 30 staffers.

Our topic of the day concerned the science and art of service. Here’s what she had to say.

Depending upon who you ask, some believe that account service is an art, others a science. Which is it to you?
I think it’s both. I think that you have to have that creative mind to uncover things, to push for better questions of your clients and your team, but also an analytical mind to be able to process not only numerical data but also any kind of secondary research. That said, I believe that most of the true innovations of our time have not been around focus groups – but about observing, anticipating and aggregating all of that information to make the right leap forward. And as I try to train my account team, I remind them that there’s both kinds of thinking and try to figure out how to best teach each.

How do you bring that out in your staff?
By putting it into practice. I try to seed people that do the creative work well with those who don’t know how to see it yet. It’s not an easy thing to do, but I think the future of our business is about that combination of art & science. At its core, it’s about being curious. And I really believe the words of Dorothy Parker, “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”

You’ve mentioned that one of your favorite books is “All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum. Why?
I think it brings you back to the basics of interacting with human beings. I think that people have recently put these “soft skills” by the way side. But if you don’t have those basics, if you don’t set that level with everyone you work with, you don’t build up enough trust to move anything forward. I believe you need to have a foundation to move big ideas forward because people need to trust you. And you build that trust by human courtesy and kindness.

What about mentors? Who else have you learned from?
One of my most critical mentors was a creative director. Not only did he make me a much much better account person and critical thinker, but he made me have more confidence in myself and better presence for client presentations. Then there’s another mentor of mine that wasn’t a boss, but was a person in our business who built a whole department on his own and was a visionary in his own right – blazing trails in integrated marketing before the term was really used.

How did you find them?
I didn’t seek them out specifically, but I do seek out people who are creative thinkers and are kind. I network all the time and that has enabled me to meet some fabulous, interesting and wise people that have taught me things. I think you have to embrace being taught by everything around you. I also gave respect to folks (clients, subordinates, cross-functional colleagues) that deserved it and they gave me respect back… in a more grassroots approach than ‘playing up’ to management.

When it comes to what’s truly important about the work, what gets a bigger emphasis: the creative product or business management?
It’s not an either/or. You can’t have good creative if you don’t have a good business relationship. It’s all interconnected. And it’s not an easy black-and-white-linear relationship. If you don’t execute flawlessly, you’re not going to build up that trust that’s needed to do anything big. Clients put their necks on the line for whatever we’re presenting so whether it’s a creative execution or a content strategy or some research thinking you’re doing, you’re continuously having to build on that trust.
You also have to have a lot of tenacity and patience to get to that big idea. Some people are lucky. But I’m not lucky. I enjoy the process and the process sometimes includes trudging through a really good conference report. How it’s presented, how it’s written. It’s one of my critical account service basics.

And if some of your staff don’t have those basics?
It takes hard work. Patience. Sometimes late nights. Reviewing their writing. Editing. Sitting down with them and explaining. It’s not easy but we’re creating something out of nothing. It may start out messy, but I think embracing that messiness is part of our job and helps us get better.

What do you do with the rest of your time?
Make a lot of decisions. And fast. There’s never enough information, but I’m on the phone or in meetings all day long, and I use what I’ve learned to make the best decisions I can. I see myself as a cheerleader, facilitator, problem-solver, navigator, referee. There’s a lot of energy in inspiring a team to keep working at a very high level and trying to solve problems for them so that they can keep doing their job.

Last question: have you ever seen an account service person bring a portfolio with them to an interview?
Yes, and I used to have one myself.

Why?
Many reasons. It shows initiative.. helps you stand out…. shows you have a passion for what you do. And it organizes your dialogue in the meeting to help you tell a story about what you’ve done.

Any other pointers?
I recommend checking out Linda Kaplan Thaler’s “The Power of Nice.” A lot of the things we’ve talked about today are themes in her book.

___________

Josh Copeland is a 10-year digital account service veteran with experience managing Whirlpool Corporation, ExxonMobil, Frito-Lay and the Clorox Company. Josh has worked for Tribal DDB, Arc Worldwide and Elevate Studios, and his campaigns have been featured in AdAge, Adweek, OMMA, ad:tech and Creativity Magazine.

What To Do Right After Losing Your Job – By Jeanne Schad

Note from Erik: The following is the third in series of career coaching articles written by Jeanne Schad. This feature will appear every Monday.

It’s the middle of September — AKA, the end of Q3. Layoffs are coming. You can be sure of it.

If you should be one of the unfortunate many, there are some things to do right away. And one of them is not updating your resume. It’s not time yet to look for another job.  Seriously.

If you’re like most people who get that special surprise one Friday afternoon, you’re feeling rejected, angry, betrayed and scared.  I certainly felt that way when I got laid off six years ago from an ad agency.  This is not a good time to be marketing yourself.  Best do that when you feel whole, capable and confident again.

Here’s a loose timeline you can follow to help get yourself there:

Day 1:  Take care of business. Review your (hopefully sizable) severance package and put any due dates on your calendar (with a reminder).  Take a quick look at the unemployment rules in your state and mark when you have to apply.  Just spending a couple hours to make sure you don’t miss important deadlines will allow you to better do the next step.

Days 2 – 15:  Unplug completely for a couple weeks.  When celebs go into rehab, it’s always in a beautiful natural surrounding.  Being in nature brings us closer to the ways humans have lived for centuries and allows us to experience life without distractions.  Psychologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote about the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.  According to Kubler-Ross, people must experience each stage in order to heal and skipping a stage doesn’t work; it only gets delayed.  So take time in a beautiful setting to experience your loss.  Then you can look at moving on to feeling better.  Ask around, post a note on your Facebook; likely somebody has a place in the middle of nowhere they can lend you for cheap or free. (Craig’s list offers house swap postings).  Bring a journal or sketch pad and spend a little time on yourself.  When I was laid off, I hopped in the car with two friends who had also been let go and drove to my parents’ cabin on a lake in Iowa.  We spent two weeks fishing, cooking, sleeping, eating, chilling and most importantly, healing.  It was a fantastic retreat.

Day 16:  Make your announcement. Update your LinkedIn and Plaxo profiles to indicate that you’re in transition and what you’re looking for.  Put something in your FB status.  Send an email to everybody in your contact list.  If you walked out with a company directory from your last job, fantastic. If you didn’t, see if a friend on the inside can snag one for you.  Names and email addresses of colleagues will slip quickly without daily reinforcement.  Do the same for client contacts for each account you were on.

Day 17 – 30:  Weave your web.  Spiders catch their prey by spinning webs much larger than where they can move immediately.  With the job search, your network acts as your web, expanding contact you alone can make.  For the rest of this month, simply weave your web of connections and capture them in a way you can be in quick communication.  Whatever your system (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, email), get back in touch and connected with anybody from your last job who you think had a favorable impression of you and your work.  Be sure to include support staff; their job is to know resources and can be great networkers.

This gives you one full month to heal, prep, connect, lick your wounds and get yourself ready to look for a job.   Now, what exactly are you looking for?  If you’re clear on that, fantastic and best of luck.  If you could use some pointers, check out part 2 of this blog, to be posted next week.

———-
Jeanne Schad is owner of Internal Relations Professional Coaching Resource.  This former agency account service suit now works with companies to coach their people to have more fulfilling careers.  You can join Jeanne for a webinar each Wednesday for out of work ad agency professionals on topics like: defining your own success; designing a job search action plan and staying accountable; finding fulfillment and a paycheck.  Jeanne can be reached at jschad@internalrelations.com or (310) 823-8607, @jeanneschad, or http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannescha

Smell that?  It’s Panama Jack dissipating off the skin of America’s workforce.

Summers are always a tough time to get hired. And recession summers make it all but impossible. But recession or not, the days right after Labor Day bring with them that new-three-ring-binder smell of optimism. Creative directors are back from their lake houses. HR managers are back at their desks. And if you’re smart, you’re back to the hustle.

Just like January 1, Labor Day should be a time of renewed commitment, complete with resolutions. What would you like to change about your (un)employed self? What would you give up? What would you like to improve? What new things would you like to try? Here are a few Employment New Year’s Resolutions to get you started as hiring managers return to their natural state of pale:

1. Stop Whining: Lost your job? Join the club. There aren’t a lot of sympathizers anymore. The best thing to do is figure out how to compost this lop of shit into some sweet fertilizer. As Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
2. Get Trained: They say a recession is the best time to go back to school. Maybe you don’t have the unlimited resources to get your MBA, but there are some skills you can learn to become more marketable.  Places like Lynda.com offer great, cheap (sometimes free) tutorials that you can take on your own time.
3. Make Things Perfect (but don’t let perfection inhibit action): Remember all the instances in your career when you thought, “I wouldn’t have done it that way?” Well, now’s the time to do things according to your own vision. Redo everything in your portfolio. Organize an event to your own exacting standards. Start a social media campaign to raise money for your favorite cause. Who’s going to stop you? There’s one caveat…don’t let the idea of making it perfect prevent you from getting started. Reality is, the standards you set are your own. As long as you aren’t cutting the corners you’ve established for yourself, what makes for perfection is yours to decide.
4. Help Others: Karma is real. It just is. No matter how much I do for others, it always comes back manyfold. But here’s the rub — you can’t really do something kind for the sake of getting something kind in return. Whatever you do for someone else, it has to be for its own sake. I don’t know if there’s a Karma playbook anywhere, but I have to think this would be rule #1.
5. Start Your Own Thing: A quick parable: Right after I lost my job, I met with the owner of a small suburban agency outside of Boston. He had six employees, a gorgeous converted firehouse as an office, and a nice roster of clients. We went to lunch, and as he described how he came to start his company, all I could think was, what’s the difference between him and me?  I mean, he was intelligent, but so am I. He was creative, but so am I. The only discernible difference between us was that he decided to be an entrepreneur. While I was putting all this energy into finding my next job, people like him are out writing business plans and hustling for clients. There’s no magic to starting a company. But there are balls. And they need to be sizable.

So, imagine that this is the first week of the employment new year. Then ask yourself, what can I do differently? I’d love to hear what you come up with. -Erik

What To Do With Account Service Downtime – By Josh Copeland

Note from Erik: The following is the first in series of articles written by Josh Copeland for people with careers in account service. This feature will appear every Thursday.

Some view our job as sales. A few consider us consultants. Others say we’re micromanaging pencil-pushing yes-men. Ultimately, I believe that my role as an account service person is to be part chameleon, part sherpa, part listening booth.  The skills we gain over the course of our early careers drive our ability to know clients’ business better than the clients themselves.

But if your agency eliminates your position, what do you do in the meantime? As an account person with some extra downtime lately, I might have done one or two of the following things recently:

1. Served dinner for friends, arranging every detail down to seat assignment and conversation topics
2. Followed up with a dinner “report” to those who attended, outlining key next steps for future gatherings and opportunities for improvement on menu items
3. Created elaborate excel docs comparing and contrasting the various criteria for a friend’s new HDTV
4. Provided critiques of street art on the finer nuances of primary messaging, calls-to-action, etc
5. Oversaw (project managed) reorganization of closet, junk drawer, attic, and garage with timelines detailing key milestones & stakeholders using MS Project

All kidding aside, when an account service person is suddenly thrust into the world of the funemployed, there are even better uses for free time while considering the next job option.  I’ve run across a few worth sharing:

Pro bono
The Taproot Foundation enables people with the drive & desire to help others connect with non-profit organizations that need assistance with medium-to-large scale projects. Account service professionals will likely gravitate to volunteer roles like Account Director, Marketing Manager and Brand Strategist.  The projects occur across the US and provide an opportunity for continued growth & development. Not to mention, volunteer work feels good.

Freelance
elance, odesk and guru are three well-known freelancing job websites that connect a variety of businesses with professionals who have the skills to complete projects online with relative speed & ease.  Account professionals (digital & traditional) should look at the “Marketing & Communications” and “Business Consulting” sections of the site for opportunities closest to their skill set.  But I’d caution against relying too much on these sites as much of the work appears to be extremely limited.  Still, worth a look.

In addition, you can reach out to companies like Creative Circle that have standing relationships with agencies to fill temporary positions.  And before you make the mistake (I did) of pricing your hourly rate ludicrously high or low, here are some suggestions from About.com.

Free-to-be-paid
agencynil is quickly becoming well-known for breaking the traditional agency model by charging clients only what they believe the work is worth. They’re already busy with project work and they’re seeking extraordinary candidates for freelance assignments. The revenue stream may not be steady but the work will likely be very interesting. No harm in trying.

Networking
Get out of the house.  Bypass the coffee shop once in a while.  We adfolk are a socializing bunch. Ad leagues and interactive marketing associations may be expensive, and most “networking” recommendations don’t provide much detail.  I suggest getting to know at least a few of the 2.2 million people on Twitter that have registered at WeFollow.com as a good start. Then, consider attending a Tweetup. They happen regularly across the country and don’t have an $80 cover charge.

AgencyScoop is another social net for ad professionals. There’s a forum that doesn’t seem to have a thread dedicated to account service, so there’s ripe opportunity to start one.

And finally, check out Meetup to find a local advertising or online marketing group in your region. Meetups also happen regularly (monthly in many cases) and enable true connections with other account guys & gals. And if you don’t see one you like, start one. It’s the single best way to establish yourself as an authority.

Criticize (constructively)
Think critically about brands and share your point of view with them. Look on the bright side- it’s not like anyone can fire you for having an opinion now. Enjoy it.

With all these opportunities, you’ll either retain your passion for this business or quickly find you’re ready for a change. And the enormous upside to all this downtime is that it’s completely up to you.

——-

Josh Copeland is a 10-year digital account service veteran with experience managing Whirlpool Corporation, ExxonMobil, Frito-Lay and the Clorox Company.  Josh has worked for Tribal DDB, Arc Worldwide and Elevate Studios, and his campaigns have been featured in AdAge, Adweek, OMMA, ad:tech and Creativity Magazine.

Have any stories you want to tell? Got questions about the beta site? Lemonade? Swing by at 2:00 PM EST. We won’t bite.

With less than the three years of experience and barely two years of financial comfort under my belt, I was laid off in May.  Like a lot of folks here on PFTA, the time off allowed me to have some fun this summer.  But unlike a few of the contributers, I want back in.

I still want to work on something big, win some awards, and learn more.  I want to contribute to my 401k and buy a bunch of expensive things. I’m young, and I’m not over it yet.

As I scour for freelance, I have noticed an overabundance of web design, developer, programming, and flash gigs.  Even most art director jobs these days require interactive experience with a knowledge of flash and html.  To boot, the great interactive agencies are few, and in the long term I want to work on campaigns, not just websites.

The few site and banner designs I have done are below my own standards, so they don’t go in my book. Is it time to find a place for it on my website? Is this the part where I sell out?  Are conceptual art directors still going to get hired?  Are non-html/flash thinkers obsolete?

I have strategic, well thought out, way out there ideas, and I don’t want to make banners that animate just because they can.  I can make things look cool.  I have a ton of energy and I am hilarious.  I was the social queen of my last office.

When New York’s summer ends, there won’t be as many fun things to distract me from the reality of unemployment.  And when the industry kicks back in, I need to be ready. So do I change?  In the future, will creatives be replaced by robots? When this industry bounces back, will I still fit in?

___________

Cristin Burton is a New York based Art Director.  You can view her work at http://www.cristinburton.com

We are mere days (hours?) away from launching the beta for the new site.  In the short term, http://pleasefeedtheanimals.com will still point you to the blog. But anyone who is currently active on this site will be asked to register onto the beta (which will probably be something like beta.pleasefeedtheanimals.com) to start uploading their bios, resumes, etc. (One side note: The portfolio section will not be ready for beta. But that should launch not far down the road at all. Weeks, not months.)

Likewise, employers will be asked to start registering their companies and get the job board populated.

This has taken Gandhi-like patience on the parts of everyone involved, not the least of which is Skookum, the best web developers in the world. They continue to impress, even though we have missed every deadline they set for us.

As I have said before, if you have finished design and need kick-ass web developers, do not consider anyone but Skookum. They’ve been amazing.

Stay tuned.

Carrie (l) and Jennifer (r) at our very first story session at Picture Park

When my husband (then boyfriend) and I moved to Boston, I freelanced for a year pretty consistently. But I always had my sights set on a certain Boston agency whose work I’d admired since I was an undergrad. Long story short, I got hired at that agency. Longer story short, I was let go after a year.

After another less consistent year of freelance, I got hired again at a talented post production boutique as its executive producer. The first year was good; then the economy kicked in (or out). A week after I got back from my honeymoon, I got sacked for the second time in two years.

The revolving agency door was new to me. In Los Angeles I’d stayed at my first job for seven years, working on iconic brands with iconic people. But in Boston I was bouncing around like a ping pong ball, sometimes having to cross state lines to work. It wasn’t what I had in mind; I felt more alone than I had since high school. I started to think of other ideas: a hot dog stand, a martini truck. But I’m not a business person, I’m a producer. I love creativity and film, and I can barely run my own household, let alone a new business venture.

Soon after my second shitcanning I heard about Please Feed The Animals, and went to a meet-n-greet in March. A few months later Erik called me about the documentary. I’m still not sure where he got my name, since within ten minutes of (re)meeting me he asked, “Who ARE you?”

Lemonade was exactly the project I needed to work on, since it involved using my powers for good over evil. At first, Erik couldn’t have made it sound less appealing. Initially he wanted to pile into a van and drive all over the country, shooting people’s stories on a decent 24p camera. There wasn’t enough Febreeze in the world.

Instead we found a production company willing to back us in Picture Park, we have one of the best editors in the country on deck, Soundtrack offered up their services, we got freaking amazing DPs, and moreover, I got a fantastic co-producing partner and a new friend in Jennifer McKenzie. (The two-producer solution is better than the two-state solution.)

Erik had gotten a slew of stories through the PFTA site from people all over the country (I think he’s still getting solicitations), and filming them reminded me that I could use the feeling of failure as a springboard to opportunity. There was nothing to lose. Other people used the opportunity to start their own business, or make art, or just hang out with their kids more. So I started cooking for my husband. I volunteered at Fenway High, an urban magnet high school for career-driven students. I got a couple hand modeling gigs. And we were all happier for it – something you can literally feel in the trailer—it still gives me chills, and I was there.

PFTA fosters a sense of community—a community that I’m proud to be a part of. Animals aren’t victims (except for maybe of the economy). Animals pick themselves up by their paws (or claws, or whatever) and keep on keepin’ on. It’s easy to lose sight of that—but not after you see this movie.

________________________________
Carrie Jacobson is a freelance producer and co-produced Lemonade. She is also available for hand modeling. Her work can be found at www.carrie-jacobson.com

Over the last few months I’ve come to realize that to graduate from college these days is to awaken like Brendan Fraser in Encino Man – confused, scared and armed with tools that are obsolete.

So what’s the problem, and what are the some of the caveman tools we’re wielding?

Ugh – No Want Work For Someone Else
Most of us graduates don’t have experience in the industry past the internships/mentorships we’ve completed. So we need to work for somebody in order to gain experience before we go out on our own. Not to mention needing the experience to gain confidence from potential clients. But is working for someone else really the most effective way to learn how to work for yourself? Much like a 50,000-year-old caveman’s loincloth, this needs to change.

Square Wheel No Roll – Need Learn New Way
I’m not biting the hand that taught me. The teachers I had were great. I’m merely asking why traditional Universities don’t prepare students to be entrepreneurs regardless of major. This could include teaching students the basics of freelancing, marketing themselves, even prospecting clients. Career Centers focus on finding students jobs, why not clients?

Getting Burned Best Way To Make Fire
As Hernan Castillo, another recent graduate pointed out in an MSNBC Blog by Bob Sullivan “I wish I’d gone to prison instead of college. At least I would have learned a trade or two and started being independent once I got out.” It’s obvious that there are several things that we can only learn in the real world. Universities should evolve with the economy at large to accommodate that learning.

Teach Others To Walk Erect
To those of you who have successfully made a career in working for yourselves — pass on the knowledge. Thaw our Encino Man minds toward self-reliance. Take on an apprentice. Teach them the ropes while getting some cheap/free assistance. By doing this you could ensure that the next generation doesn’t stay trapped in the stone ages.

_____________

Follow Scott Rostohar on Twitter: @Srostohar

“What else you got?”

We’ve all heard it. Many of us have asked it. It’s code in our business for “the ideas you have are not fresh.” And we’ve all learned how to push ourselves to try and find fresh ideas. We know the tricks — change your patterns, force yourself into a different mode of thought, consider more perspectives. And we all know the game — the idea won’t be born until it’s ready. We’ve learned to make the uncertainty and messiness of idea generation a friend.

At least, we have when it comes to advertising.

How about the rest of our lives? How many of us fall into patterns in our lives that we never question? How many of us make a pilgrimage to Starbucks every morning? Or forget Starbucks — how many of us just drink coffee every morning? How many of us listen to the same music, or same type of music — that’s the whole idea of a playlist, right? How many of us shop at the same stores or frequent the same restaurants?

Those patterns are a prison we make for ourselves. The brain does a funny thing — it strengthens the synaptic connections around common or familiar behaviors and allows the synaptic connections around uncommon behaviors to wither. Reinforcing patterns is an old evolutionary survival trick that works for everything from food choices — familiar berry good, strange berry bad — to strengthening societal bonds — familiar people good, strange people bad. And anybody who’s ever raised a child — or a puppy, for that matter — knows how important it is to reinforce positive patterns of behavior.

But there’s a point, as we all know, where those patterns become a liability. That’s true whether we’re talking about ad concepts or, say, racial profiling. And the great thing about our brains is that they are able to recognize when a pattern has become a liability. If we are mindful about our behaviors.

So be mindful. What do you do every day reflexively, without thinking about it?

Do you go to work?

I’m not talking about your choice of a career — that should be a passion, and if it isn’t, that’s a whole different issue. I’m talking about the trappings of work. Coworkers. Lunch hangouts. Commuter routes. Work routines. A paycheck and benefits. Are you mindful about these things and the role they play in your life? Or are they habits?

If they are, do yourself a favor. Apply the same tricks as you do with your ad concepts. Look at different perspectives. Mindfully change your patterns. See where it takes you.

Find out “What else you got?”