Opinions And Ramblings By Adam Kmiec On All Things Media

In the 13 years I’ve been working in the marketing, advertising, and interactive I’ve had 16 direct managers.  By name they were Chris, Laura, Jonathan, Paul, Chris, Doug, Tom, Jeff, Willie, Michael, Jonathan, Kevin, Patty, David, Christine, and Michele.  Some were good.  Some were horrible.  All of them taught me something.  Over the years, I’ve kept a running list of the most valuable words of wisdom.  They’ve guided me on some level to become the person I am today.  Here’s the best of the best:

• We’re selling hope here, not details.
• Be mindful of what you have.
• The last thing on my list is paying the bills.
• The line at the door for my business is long.
• Manage effectively and add value.
• Please and thank you go a long way.
• Manage the time you get with your boss aggressively; make it your time.
• Never talk in hypotheticals.
• Make legal and IT your friends.
• Legal doesn’t make decisions; they provide counsel.
• There is no substitute for face time.
• Always have an agenda for your meeting. If you don’t, don’t schedule it.
• Say it, sell it, and pray it can happen.
• Your credit card is not a substitute for a real relationship with your client.
• Never work on a brand that you can’t support and won’t buy.
• Always fly in the day before a presentation.
• Don’t present it as an option if you can’t live with it, if it were picked.
• Knowledge doesn’t come from books, it comes from experience.
• Take ownership of your career, don’t expect someone else to do it for you.
• Hire slowly, fire quickly.
• Put people in a position to succeed, but playing to their strengths.
• Never let the job description define you.
• Understand the situation, before you accept it.
• Never use light gray font on a white background in PowerPoint.
• If you want to be a leader…LEAD.
• Take calculated chances.

I’d like to take this opportunity to share 3 of my own:

1. Never be afraid to test and try.
2. Admit when you’re wrong and learn from your mistake
3. Never send an email out of frustration.  You can write it, just don’t send it.

I hope that you’ve gotten something out of this post.  I’d love for you to share any wisdom and advice you’ve received.

The question, “what do you want to be when you grow up” has been asked of children for decades. Often that question is met with responses including baseball players, astronauts, fire fighters, teachers, and writers. It seems we ask children this question and not adults, because when you’re a child anything is possible. There’s no sense of practicality involved when giving the answer. You want to be a horse when you grow up? Ok, go for it kiddo!

For as far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a lawyer. That dream died the day Georgetown told me, we’d love to have you attend, but we’re unable to offer you a scholarship…so if you’re willing to spend roughly $35,000 a year welcome aboard.

The day I received that information, was the only day I ever thought about playing the “race” card and seeking admittance because of the color of my skin and not the content of my character. The admissions counselor even recommended I take that approach. I remember with great distinction being told, if you just indicate your hispanic heritage, you’re almost guaranteed to receive a lot of cash. No thanks. I’ll pass on the hand out.

My friends said, just pick a different school, you can still be a lawyer. But, to me if I couldn’t attend Georgetown, I didn’t want to be a lawyer. I look back on that experience with a slight disbelief. It was so very easy for me to give up my dream of being lawyer. Why? Maybe I never really wanted to be a lawyer. Perhaps being a lawyer was just one of those things that sounds good when you’re 12. More likely, this was just another case of me being obstinate. If I couldn’t have my dream my way and on my terms, I didn’t want it at all. Simply put, it was easier to change what I wanted than it was to change me.

So I decided that the next closest thing to being a lawyer was to be in marketing and advertising. As a lawyer we’re trying to convince someone to buy into our POV. That someone could the judge, the jury, the client, or even another lawyer. We do the same thing in the marketing and advertising world. The industries are quite similar. Both bill by the hour. Both offer a retainer based model. Both site history and examples as a persuasion mechanism. Both are judged on wins. Both are highly competitive industries. Both require you to change firms often in order to be promoted and recognized. Granted, the marketing and advertising world does let us maintain a much cooler wardrobe.

This industry has been good to me. I’ve learned from some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I’ve been challenged consistently. I’ve seen things and worked on accounts that people would drool over; no seriously, they’ve told me. Yet, despite all of that, I’m not satisfied. If anything I’m fidgety. I’m the guy in fantasy baseball that’s always looking to make a trade…the guy that’s never quite comfortable with his team.

As I consider the hopes and dreams I have for my children, it’s made me pause and reflect on my own body of work and where I want to go. I’ve been pondering the question, “what do I want to be when I grow up?” The funny thing I’m realizing is that despite being in this industry for 12 years, I still haven’t figured out the answer.

I’ve always had a plan. So far I’ve stuck to the script and things have worked out as intended. But, hell, that script was written nearly 20 years ago on a typewriter. There has to be a reason we “work.” That reason can’t just be, “to pay the rent.” What I want is meaning. I want to know that what I do matters. I want to know that every day I wake up I’m on a mission to make something count. I’m too young to be realizing my own mortality. So why the hell I’ve been asking myself “what I want to be when I grow up” makes no sense.

Perhaps more importantly, why I still haven’t come up with an answer makes even less sense. Maybe I’ll just become a lawyer; I wonder if Georgetown would take me?

We all have an agenda.  It’s true.  There’s always an angle, a plan, or a certain desired outcome.  I’ve never believed a person who claimed they didn’t have an agenda.  Its in our human spirit and DNA to have one.  But, getting that agenda sold through is often quite challenging, even when the agenda is a fantastic idea that benefits the masses.  How often have we seen even the president of the United States stymied in getting his agenda sold through Congress?  Frankly, too often.

People who are able to sell their agenda go places.  It’s that simple.  If you can’t sell your point of view you’re going to have a difficult time moving upward and onward.  Often times the problem with getting your agenda sold through is that we focus on getting 100% buy-in.  We want people to be fully bought in.  We want 100% consensus.  That’s a really difficult mountain to climb.  There are days, when I don’t even have 100% buy-in from myself on what to wear.  Getting 100% buy-in is often times impossible.  Should we really be surprised by that though? No 2 people are 100% alike, so why would we expect them to think 100% alike?

I tried to fight all the battles with all the people for years.  I wanted people to buy my idea 100%.  As you’d imagine, I had a really difficult time making that happen.  Finally, a good friend of mine suggested I try out a model he called “PSD.”  Yes, PSD, is a Photoshop Document file.  However, that’s not what he was talking about  The PSD model is an acronym for Promote, Support, and Defend.

• Promote: Can they promote your recommendation/position?  Do they understand the key talking points well enough to deliver the short elevator speech?  These people evangelize and proactively sell your position.  Their role is to seek out people to convert.  You’ll generally find that it’s the young, the idealist, and the ones who want change that will become the promoters.
• Support: Maybe they don’t agree with you 100%.  Maybe they don’t completely buy-in to your agenda.  Honestly, they may not even care about the issue, the situation, or your POV.  That’s ok.  All you need you to do is ensure they support the idea at a high level.  Simply put, do they see value in the idea?  If they do, you can convince them to support the idea.  Much like politics, they might not be able to agree with everything the candidate says, but often they can support the spirit of the platform?  You’ll find that the majority of people fall into this category.  It’s a low involvement category.  They don’t even need to know the details, they just need to be able to answer “yes” when asked, “do you think this is a good idea.”
• Defend: Can they defend your recommendation/position?  Do they understand your position well enough that they can essentially be an extension of you? These people are probably the most important of the 3 groups.  They will fight your battles for you.  You can stop being the mouthpiece.  By letting them defend your position you can free yourself from having to convince the majority of people and instead focus your time on the most influential/critical people.  The key point to remember with this group is they are not proactively selling your position.  They aren’t looking to evangelize.  They are looking to squash dissension though.

The goal should be to challenge each person that can influence your ability to sell to Promote, Support, or Defend your agenda.  This negates the need for 100% buy-in and shifts the conversation to something that’s much more achievable: consensus.  The next time, you’re trying to get your agenda sold through give the Promote, Support, Defend model a try.  You just might like the results.