This morning I wrote an email to a kid I heard was in the dumps. Thought someone else out there could possibly use the same chuck-on-the-shoulder.
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Hello ____, it’s me, Luke.
I hear “through channels” that those clients have had you on the ropes for the last month or so; got you a little down.
Been there, dude. I spent THIRTY THREE years in the trenches where you are now and I think I had one client, one stinkeen client who needed no education. One client in alllll that time who just kinda got it.
In order to survive 33 years of clients who either don’t or won’t get it, I encourage you to do what my big brother Kip did.
Kip was (is) a Harvard-trained lawyer who spent all of his professional life earning 1/100th of what he could have earned being a corporate lawyer. Instead, he spent years as a $14,000-a-year kind of lawyer who represented nonprofit clients, causes that couldn’t pay a dime, organizations that were busy fighting the good fight — standing up to big power companies that were turning off the power in the homes of poor people, causes like that.
And one day I asked my brother, “Damn, how do you keep from getting mad or depressed as you fight such people?” And his answer was, “I never let myself get over-the-top mad. I just keep my anger at a very low boil. Always.”
A low boil. NO boil means you’re close to giving up. You need to keep some fight in you. But boiling over? That leads to a short bitter career; probably a short bitter life.
I’ve always remembered my big brother’s answer. In order for any artistic soul to survive in a world full of number-crunchers, politics, and marketing people who just don’t get how cool and how effective advertising can be, we need to remember, LOW BOIL. I wrote recently in these pages, “The first duty of an artist is to survive.” You must make sure that the bright light you bring to the industry is not snuffed out by the first 85 bad meetings you have, and you’re gonna have ‘em.
If something dies, in fact, when the first 85 things die, soldier on. One out of 85 things surviving? Sad to report, but that’s pretty much par for the course in this business, which is essentially one of artists presenting things to scientists.
So, my young friend, let your defeats be funerals of short duration, but your victories? Celebrate any victory, large or small, with wild bacchanalia.
Your cheerleader, Luke Sullivan
thank you.
Clients aren’t the worst ones. It’s the internal battles where I’m sure the odds of people who ‘get it’ in the agency aren’t that much better. And it’s not just an Artist vs. Scientist thing. It’s easy to be both. It’s a ‘this is what I have proven I can do, was hired to do, and believe it will solve the brief/ help the business succeed’ Vs. ‘Yeah, none of that matters.’ Hence, frustration and burnout happens. And, some of the best creative and tech talent is leaving or just circumventing the old skills-as-commodity-based agency structure everyone’s been stuck with, for models that are more hands-on, merit-based and thereby more rewarding. At least for now. Yes, there will still be clients. But without the unnecessary problematic layers put into place only to add to the agency’s billing fees.
Thanks.
I needed to hear these words today.
Thanks. This really helped a lot.
Just going through some ‘not so pleasant’ times at work. Like this ‘Low Boil’ concept. And, have to let you know, I just completed reading your book (Whipple) recently and it has been one of my best reads in a very very long time. Thank you!
thanks for the kind words. Hang in there. Don’t let ‘em win.
Good advice! And Doug is right. In my 25 years I’ve had less arguments with clients than I’ve ever had inside an agency.
And at times, even if you don’t feel like fighting, you may have to keep it at a low boil. I once decided I was just too angry all the time and decided to change my tactic to just “letting go”. “You want it blue? Sure, I’ll make it blue.” Just to see if I could relieve my own stress. I was then accused of “not caring” and “not being a team player”. I think people were madder at me for letting go than for any aggravation I may have caused them previously. LOL
So even if you don’t want to fight, fight just a little. Throw out a little huff and puff before grudgingly doing what they ask (unless of course it’s complete shit then it’s scorched Earth, baby). It makes everyone feel better.
Then as time goes by seek out smarter people to work with and learn from.
Cheers!
this is pretty good advice, dude. Pick your battles.
Feels like you wrote this just for me. This week has been one eye opener after another. A low boil is such a simple concept. So simple I can see why I missed it
Thanks,
Thanks for the pep talk Luke. I’ll start planning an obscure Greek festival, and then I’ll get buzzed on sharpie fumes. Yep. That’s what I’ll do.
Good timing! Thanks for the letter mr Sullivan.
One client who “got it” in 33 years. At Fallon and GSD&M, no less. Pity the poor fools (like me) who have never had the good fortune of working for a top shop.
Very well put, Mr. Sullivan. Your eloquence is exceeded only by your compassion.
But what would you say to someone who has worked in this business for more years than he would care to either remember or admit and has literally nothing to show for it? Not one ad, not one commercial, not one website, not even so much as a matchbook cover worth putting in a portfolio.
I’ve expended massive amounts of time, energy and effort trying to do good work but each time the end result hasn’t been worth it. I won’t bother you with the reasons why; they are too complex and too boring to go into here.
Suffice it to say that my so-called career has hit a brick wall and the outlook is bleak. I can’t do good work until I get into a good agency — but I can’t get into a good agency until I do good work. Not that there are many opportunities out there for writers, good or bad, these days.
I sincerely hope your letter provides the young creative in question with the illumination, inspiration and encouragement to keep going. But for me, the only thing that lies ahead is darkness.
There are folks with your same problem out there, unfortunately. A vicious circle. Well, if you have it in you, get out of those agencies where you’ve been producing bad work and get into a good one, even if that means a cut in pay. Start over at some place where you can get some forward traction. Easy for me to say, I’m sure. I don’t have another answer, just that one.
Thank you for taking the time to respond, Mr. Sullivan. While I didn’t expect you — or anyone else, for that matter — to have an answer, I appreciate the thought. For the record, I did leave one agency in hopes of finding a better opportunity elsewhere. Unfortunately, after a very, very, very, very long and fruitless search, I wound up at an agency that was no better than the one I left. I think my career is pretty much a lost cause at this point. I hope things turn out better for the “low boil” creative. Thanks again.
Hopeless Cause,
Ive been in the same position. I didnt go to “ad school”. Ive seen the good projects go to the Jr superstars. Ive been at good agencies too, and the work has sucked. Its what YOU make of it. Good ideas getting shot down? Comp em together. Find a bakery or someone that needs some ads. Do them. Push the envelope within your creative team, the client doesnt want BAD work. Nobody wants BAD work. Reinvent your work, and your personal brand. Will you encounter self doubt and self hate? Yep. But naming yourself “Hopeless Cause” isnt gonna get you anywhere but down. If you’re a hopeless cause at a crappy shop, you’re not gonna do much better at a place with high standards. So stay positive. And something positive will happen, eventually.
Hi Luke,
An excellent article, as always. But, scientists-in-disguise clients aside, what do you do about those jerks within the agency who just don’t want to push the standards of work a wee bit higher?
Once I’d written this first draft of an ad that my boss liked, but when the account servicing guys saw it, they said “This is nice but can you please make it idiot-proof?”
Now I understand servicing knows the client well, but why not let him decide about the copy? He’d accepted good work once or twice earlier so when I asked why not this time, servicing goes, “Oh, it’s just a friggin half page ad.”
But what got my blood really boiling, a few days later, was when servicing wrote another ad’s copy themselves, just to meet the deadline. Even my boss was like, “Screw it dude, it’s not worth it.”
So, do you think I should have stood my ground or let it go?
Luke, I was having the most horrid day today. A “”This career is going nowhere, my ideas always die, scratch out my eyes and shoot me in the knee cap” sort of day….
And then I read this, Thanks man.
Dude, you are precisely the person I wrote that piece for. Thanks. Hang in there, man.
I’m not an artist. Just a person trying to do work and live a life that has some kind of meaning to it and I get what you’re saying. No matter what you do…no boil means nothing to look forward to and no reason to get up in the morning.