It was a 6AM on a chilly fall morning years ago, when I sat outside of the old Young Isaac office on 4th St, waiting for Artie Isaac to arrive.
The evening before, I had decided it was time to jump ship from my current gig doing business development in a retail marketing agency, and move in a different direction.
Reading things like Wired Magazine, Ad Age Digital and chrisbrogan.com, had sparked a curiosity about making a career out of working with the web. Couple that with a frenzied obsession with LinkedIn and a new concept called Facebook, and you could say I was in a time of Renaissance.
As good mentors do, Artie was kind enough to offer me a cup of tea and his council on my situation.
Our chat went something like this (now halfway through the cup of tea):
Artie: So what do you think you want to do now?
Me: I really want to make the jump into internet marketing for an agency.
Artie: [chuckling] Why on earth would you want to do something like that?
Me: [silent bewildered stare...]
Artie: Agency life is tough, Nate. There’s a lot of ups and downs, lots of long hours and trudging along in the trenches.
Don’t be Scared
If you’re a marketing or communications student, aspiring to make your way in the agency world, the story, and this post, isn’t meant to scare you away. But take it to heart anyway.
I have absolutely no regrets from agency life. In fact, being in multiple agencies – from small brand shops like Young Isaac, to fast paced and sales driven organizations like People To My Site – has given me the tools and experience to be able to make my own game. I’ve learned a lot on this path.
But don’t be fooled. Just about every bright red cap feather comes with painful bruises. But now things are different for marketing. Now it’s all about the interwebz and search and looking for the ever elusive ROI, that not many people understand how to find (except for Christopher S. Penn, that is).
Getting Stuck
This week, John McCollum announced that Element, his Columbus design firm would be closing it’s doors. Even if you’re not a marketer, you’ve probably seen some their stuff in your neighbor supermarket, or maybe down in the Brewery District at Columbus Brewing Company. I don’t know anyone from Element personally, but these guys did some good work. Bryan Huber thought so too.
But the truth is, if your doing marketing, design or building websites, and you want the glorious life of the agency world, be prepared.
Agencies often get stuck being “just another vendor” to clients, no matter how hard or long that you work. Agencies get stuck educating clients on how to buy their services. It’s not really the client’s fault. How are they supposed to know how much your creative ideas, strategies and snazzy web designs are worth?
Your agency might get stuck producing work for the same price they did last year, except that it’s not last year now, and by bringing you on, their costs just increased. Your agency might get stuck with an old business model that trades dollars for hours. That’s find up until there’s not enough clients with money to fill everyone’s hours.
When that happens, sometimes agencies, while full of good people who have the best intentions, get stuck letting you go.
Artie was right. Agency life can be tough, so if you’re heading this direction, here’s the best advice I can give you:
Love this work! Be passionate as all hell and you will survive.
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