I went to Theater school to be a director. If you want to direct the actions of a coworker, you need to speak their language and understand their motivations. You want to know what they see as successful work. So I hung lights, designed and built sets, sewed costumes, played parts, all so I could understand what their process was like. I wanted to know how they got work done, and what they tended to think was cool or exciting about their portfolio. It makes it easier for everyone to work towards the same goal and be happy doing it.
During my college job I sold porn. I worked at a collectibles store and the owner would sell nearly anything he thought he could make a profit on. Beanie Babies, baseball cards, and dirty movies. In that college town there were only two adult bookstores. Both were on main streets and the parking lot for each was facing the main road. My boss figured that people might not want to be seen walking into a porn shop, but they had no problem shopping at his place. It was one of my first lessons in understanding the consumer, their pain points, and how to solve their problem at the right time in order to make a sale.
I got a Masters in English. I learned to build better arguments. I learned that you can tailor your narratives to be as clear as possible, and the goal of technical writing was to avoid misunderstanding, not to be boring or clinical.
I taught English at a University. I taught Business Communication to Seniors who were about to graduate. It was all about understanding how to communicate appropriately, how to discern what “appropriate” meant in a given situation, and how to ruthlessly edit your sentence structure for bias and clarity. I also helped them prep for job searching, and it became clear that in an sea of qualified people (or products) you had to make it as easy as possible for someone to choose you.
I started a photography business 15 years ago. Sure, I learned a ton about photography and video production. But more importantly I learned that regardless of what you want to do creatively, at the end of the day the bills had to be paid and the accounting had to work out in your favor. I learned that the clients didn’t always need the most creative or innovative solution, they needed the thing that satisfied the bottom line. I learned that there is no shame in paying a bill. I creatively pitched for every dollar I’ve made since 2005. Almost everything that earned me business came from positioning my company as one that would do they things that competitors weren’t willing to do.
Along the way I had two kids. I had to learn more patience. I had to learn how to support someone completely even if you don’t think what they want is the best course of action. And I learned that the buck stops with Dad, if there is something that needs to be done you might as well do it now.
I freelanced as a Brand Strategist. I figured out how to make my small business profitable and compelling, and then I helped other entrepreneurs do the same. I taught platform classes at national conventions and workshops. I helped owners take what was working, discard the fluff and craft a specific niche within their market. I analyzed the profit and loss, the sales and expenses, and helped define tangible metrics for business success and helped track performance over several months. I kept many businesses from shutting their doors and helped many
I went to Miami Ad School’s Strategic Planning program. I’d been doing strategy work from my own experience and research but I wanted to learn exactly how advertising professionals approached a problem and brainstormed solutions. Got to learn what made for a strong insight and how to speak a creative’s language. Considered client briefs, crunched research, working with creatives and pitched on a weekly basis.