Blame it on being an only child, but I talk to myself.
In fact, I’m quite comfortable carrying out complete conversations in the four walls of the Cranium Club. Politics, sports, Golden Globe snubs. It can be quite the donnybrook.
About a year ago, those voices called an intervention of sorts. I got called on the carpet. “Why aren’t you doing the kind of work you’re capable of?” “Are you just running out the clock?” “Who left the lid off the mustard?” (OK, that voice might have been Mrs. Robertson).
So back in September I decided to leave the supportive environment that had been my agency home the past 6 1/2 years and start my own thing. (“Thing” is what you call your Ad Agency when you don’t want to call it an Ad Agency.) No, this isn’t the first time I’ve been part of a start-up, but that wasn’t the right time and not the right partner.
What’s different this time? Well, now I’m in the right place. My adopted hometown of Pittsburgh is filthy with talented individuals — strategists, photographers, designers. The area also seems to be generating new companies and opportunities by the day. What isn’t in abundance are the smart, nimble agencies that should be connecting the two. They’re here, but they’re few.
I also feel that the business has worked through a particularly disruptive era of internet marketing. The old rules got blown away. Things will continue to be flux, but now I feel marketers are taking the long view and not just chasing the new shiny digital object.
Yes, I still hear voices. But now they are excited voices, anxious to try new things, take chances, make some noise. What makes the advertising business exciting is being excited about advertising. And that’s what I am once again.