The holidays are upon us. And I have been good this year. Very good. (My wife may disagree yet she still went along with it.) So I decided to cross an item off my bucket list and purchase a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster. My Speedster is a replica as the real deal is a bit pricey. I have been driving my Speedster for a few months and I love it. It's pure fun. I take it out whenever possible as it’s the perfect little car for SoCal weather, 72 and sunny. The car was supposed to be a toy; something to shield me from my impending mid-life crisis, and also reduce the stress of agency deadlines and new business pitches. My Speedster was supposed to be my “Calgon, take me away!” vehicle that would literally and figuratively remove me from work. What I found was something much different. My Speedster did the exact opposite. It brought me closer to my work and taught me a valuable lesson, one that applies to my creative career in advertising. Now, isn't that ironic.

We live in the digital space, consistently developing ideas and initiatives for our clients. If you walk around our agency, you will probably hear the following comments emanating from our brainstorm rooms, "Can we do this?" and then, of course, "How do we do it?" Surrounded by digital experts, it's not surprising that I learn something new every day. Literally. From mobile app development to location based search, from backend web development to fMRI research (fMRI? Look that one up and you can learn something new today, too.), we are always pushing to innovate and striving to learn about the next big digital thing. We spend endless hours crafting and refining to make our clients happy and be successful.

Yet it took my little black Speedster to bring me back to my New York advertising roots and teach me a valuable lesson. And it's a simple one.

Every time I take my Speedster out for a spin, I inevitably find myself engaging with people. They usually start with a smile, a nod or a thumbs up, and then progress with a few comments:  I love your car! What year is it? Beautiful! I am so jealous. I want one. Where did you get it? How long have you had it? Black on black. Gorgeous.

The simple lesson is that my Speedster moves people. It makes a distinct impression. People take time to look at it. Comment on it. Ask about it. Even touch it. And it's always a positive experience for them. Last week, an older woman approached me after I parked my Speedster on a busy street in Venice. She had a huge smile and gently ran her hand over the lines of the car. She glowed as she asked about the car. Our conversation was short and polite. The car may have reminded her of an early time or an important person in her life. Either way, I know the mere experience of my Speedster moved her. It made her walk up and strike up a conversation with a perfect stranger. It motivated her to glide her hand over the hood. It engaged her completely and I think gave her joy and happiness in that brief moment.  

That experience taught me a simple lesson and made me focus on my goal as a creative director. The advertising executions that we create every day must move people. They have to evoke an emotion. They must hold people, if just for a moment. We all strive to create great ideas, yet we must do more than that. Our goal needs to be more focused, and we need to strive to create moments in time for our consumers. These moments can be small, short or seemingly insignificant in the course of a day. They must be unique and positive. Engaging and compelling. Thoughtful and memorable. They must move the consumer to think, act, laugh, even cry.

Moving people is now more important than ever. The average person is bombarded with over 3000+ advertising messages per day.

Think about that for a second. Three. Thousand. Ads. Per. Day. That's a lot of competition vying for a person's attention.

Thinking about my Speedster and the affect it has on people helps me focus on the consumer. And specifically, to figure out what it's going to take to get them to pay attention. To remember. To move them.

The answer, of course, is not so simple. It could be the big idea or a clever execution. It could be a video that is just hilarious. It could be a digital experience that strikes a chord. It could be an campaign that hits on a human truth. Or it could be an app that is simple and useful.

It could be anything. Anything.

I believe the word “anything” is what got me into the creativity business in the first place. Everyday, I have the opportunity to look at a blank piece of paper and come up with anything. Now, I know what you're thinking - “What about the brief, the tiny budget, the tight schedule and the 12 clients?” That stuff is a given and I believe that “anything” still applies. “Anything” is the daily motivation that drives creative people to do what we do: to create something that never existed before.

In my process, I continually think about my Speedster, the woman in Venice and the countless others who were moved by it. It helps me look at every advertising execution with a renewed focus. I ask myself, will this execution move someone?

If it won't, I rev up my Speedster and go for a drive. It usually moves me to think of a new idea or a new execution.

Anything will do.

My Brand New World

As a Creative Director in the world of advertising, I'm a fan of big ideas. They are the existential magic of our very careers. Ideas motivate us to go above and beyond. They taunt us through the rhythmic blinking of the cursor hovering on our blank screen. They are the focus of entertaining conversation over late night pizza deliveries. Ideas blow away clients and win important pitches. They move consumers to laugh, share, engage, click and buy. And big ideas make other creatives wonder, "Why didn't I think of that idea, yesterday?!"

I don't have a go-to formula for developing big ideas. I don't have an internal GPS to finding them. And to my knowledge, there still is no app for it. Although I'm sure Apple is working on it.

If you want to create the big idea, then obviously, you need to be a better creative. And in order to do that, I have an idea for you.

Become a client. Yes, a client.

I did it, and believe me, it has greatly influenced my career as a creative.

In 2007, I was on a run with my best friend, Eric Barnes. We were chatting about careers, life and families as we always do. Around mile 3, Eric exclaimed, 'Hey, I have an idea!' I chuckled and threw him a wry smile as I took over the pace. Eric is a successful entrepreneur and the very definition of forward-thinking. Eric painted his vision for a new product that he wanted to create. In between hill climbs, he passionately explained how it was actually more of a movement than a product. By the end of his pitch, I was sold. It was a big idea. It was smart. It was cool. It could be a game-changer.

At our local Starbucks, Eric literally sketched out the concept on a napkin. (I am not making this up). The conversation became alive with thought starters, "What if...just think...and imagine this." I felt right at home. I'm a creative, an idea guy. I've been doing this for 18 years. This stuff is easy. It's right in my wheelhouse. I soon realized that Eric wasn't looking for me to help do the creative part of advertising. He was looking for me to be the client part of advertising. He wanted me to be the brand manager – just like the clients I work with everyday.

 Oh, man.

 About 18 months later, we launched KOR Water, a personal hydration company with a simple mission – to celebrate and preserve water.  We saw an opportunity to create a brand that lived at the core of premium industrial design, environmental sustainability and personal health.

 Simply described, our first product, the KOR ONE, is a water bottle. Our goal was to do more than launch a new product – we wanted to redefine the entire water category. We believed we could achieve this by combining innovative design and materials with a sustainability message that would resonate with consumers.

Now in its fourth year, KOR Water has four unique bottle designs with international distribution. Each product launch has garnered positive reviews, won design awards and the KOR ONE was featured in the movie, Iron Man 2. With this brand credibility, KOR continually speaks to our mission – giving a voice to sustainability practices and personal health topics.

My experience as the KOR client has transformed my learning curve to a near vertical line, and given me a new appreciation for the clients that I work with at Ignited. I remember thinking, "I'd love to be the client. It's a piece of cake. Sit in a meeting, watch a creative team tap dance through a presentation, and make the decision. Easy-peasy. Done. Let's start picking directors."

Well, be careful what you wish for, because being a client is a very challenging balancing act. Everyday your brand is being introduced to people all over the globe and its up to you, the client, to make sure that it makes a good first impression. And we all know that you there is no second chance at that. 

In thinking about my experience as both a Creative Director and a Client, I have learned a number of valuable lessons. I have also had the good fortune to live my greatest lesson:

If you want to be a better creative, become a client.

Here are 7 Tips to channel your inner client to become a better creative:

#1 - Live in a Brand New World

Flip off your flippity flops and pull on a nice, shiny pair of conservative wing tips or a classic pair of black pumps (I'll let you choose.) Take a walk around the block and break them in. Then request a meeting with your client. Buy them a cup of coffee and ask them a thousand good questions about their job as a client, as a Brand Manager. And I'm not talking high-level, big picture advertising questions. I'm talking day-to-day, in the trenches, how does the-Japanese-Tsunami-disaster affect-the-manufacturing-sector-and-product-availability-thus-impacting-your-entire-new product-launch-in-Brazil– kind of questions. You just may decide to keep those wing tips.

#2 - Listen between the lines

Listen better, listen more intently and listen to everyone's point of view. When you're listening, put your iPhone away, (unless of course it's your client is calling). Keep the MacBook in your backpack and the iPad out of your lap. Just sit there and listen. Take some notes the old fashioned way, using paper and a pen. Believe me, writing it all down helps you create connections and ideas from a wide variety of perspectives. It may help you write an article for ihaveanidea.org.

#3 - How to Succeed in Business, While Trying.

Being a client has taught me that we all need business acumen. How do you get it? Dedicate time each and every day. Participate in the entire strategic planning sessions with the planners, even watch the focus groups with Aunt Shirley in Kansas City. Spend quality time with a media manager and dive into the weeds of their media plan flowchart without commenting on the art direction. Learn what MSA, SOW, CPM, and LOE stand for and forget about CYA. As you collaborate with experts across your agency, you will realize advertising is a business that needs everyone working together. You will also be one step closer to being a better creative. When you think about it, the creative ideation process hasn't really changed in the last 50 years. Yet the advertising business is changing faster than ever. And next time you have the opportunity to present the best campaign that you have ever developed, you will have the expertise you need to sell it. That's more than just creative talent, that's business.

#4 - Meet My Friend, Ted, and His Friend, Simon.

Start with Why. Find 18 uninterrupted minutes and watch my favorite Ted talk, Simon Sinek's How Great Leaders Inspire Action, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4.
Simon's powerful Ted talk and book, Start With Why have been instrumental in shaping my thinking on the brands, including KOR. When you figure it out why your client's brand exists, you'll have the truth you need to develop great work.

#5 - Creative Development Should Include a Developer

The digital marketing tools and platforms now at our disposal are still in their infancy. With the introduction of each new product and platform, a huge marketing opportunity is created. As a Creative or a Client, I will be the first to admit that I don't have all of the answers on how to integrate creativity and technology. That's where a Developer comes in. When adding this expertise to the creative process, your team will inevitably develop ideas that invite the question, "Can we really do that?" Now, that's a creative development.

#6 - Put Down Your Weapon, Young Skywalker.

One of my day-to-day lessons is about picking your battles. Clients have many decisions to make for their brand and most of them have nothing to with the advertising campaign you're working on. So when you're in creative development, I recommend that you accept that everything in the creative world is not a battle. In order to do this successfully, you have to know what's important. So before your next creative review, take some time and write down what is important and what isn't. Which elements are key to the idea and what can change? When you pick your battles wisely and then stand up for them, your clients will appreciate it.

#7 - Go for a Run with a Friend

You never know what'll happen.

I'd love to hear your ideas on how to be a better creative.

email:  tscarlott@ignitedusa.com

Troy Scarlott is the co-creative lead at Ignited, a full-service advertising agency for people who want to set the world on fire.

About Ignited - www.ignitedusa.com

We've all been watching the current political environment in our country affect our futures. All of our futures. Regardless of whether we are the top 1%, the the bottom 99%, or the middle 50%. With a major election still 13 months away, I am now seeing our current elected officials position themselves for re-election or election to a new office. It seems to me that we have enough issues that need to be solved now. I think the election debate can wait a bit. I also think we are all looking for solutions, not speeches.

I hate to get off on a rant here so I won't. I'm going to offer a solution. If you think it makes sense, please share. If Howard Schultz of Starbucks can start a conversation on our political election process, I figure I can too.

One simple solution for America's future: One term. Six years. Zero re-elections.

I wanted to share a very simplistic solution with you that may seem all to obvious, yet it never seems to be the focus of our political conversations. We seem to focus on the problems with our current legislative process yet we are not talking about the real issue. In my opinion, our current term limits are the real issue, the real systemic problem.

Even now, 13 months before the election, we already see politicians positioning for re-election. Instead of working on our real issues, both Democrats and Republicans are working to stay elected. They are career politicians with one goal when in office and that is to stay in office. If this assumption is true, then our elected officials will not have the courage to make the tough decisions. Instead of voting for America's future, they are focused on voting for theirs.

We need to change this perspective.

Imagine a Senator voting to pass needed legislation to fix Social Security for the long term, instead of voting based on the current polls.

Imagine the President and Congressional leaders working to build compromise in our checks and balances system instead of promoting bipartisan sound bites.

Imagine what would happen if our elected officials were motivated by building America instead of building a career.

Imagine what would happen if lawyers and farmers and small business owners left their careers to volunteer their time in DC – and restored true public service (this is what people did for the country over 200 years ago).

Imagine real problem solvers going to Washington DC to roll up their sleeves and get to work without pressure from wealthy donors or corporations. 
WIthout a lobbyist in their ear or an eye on their future.

Imagine what America could do and could be if each and every elected official had a different perspective. 

Imagine if our federal and state elected officials serve only one term of six years.

Imagine. One term. Six Years. No re-elections. 

Imagine the President, Senators and the House Reps leaving their careers in their hometowns for only one reason: to go to Washington, DC to work for America.

Imagine Americans being motivated to give up their careers (for just a short time) to help our country grow and build for our future. Imagine these confident and determined individuals going to DC with a new attitude and a new goal. 

Imagine our next President getting elected in November 2012. They take office in January 2013 and spend the better part of their first year building their administration and staff. The President then focuses the next 5 years on America's future. And none of that time on being re-elected.

Imagine the President collaborating with Senators and House Representatives with the same perspective and the same focus.

Imagine the end of the career politician.

Imagine the short term perspective of voting to be re-elected being replaced with the long term perspective of voting for America's future.

It's a simple solution. One term, 6 years. No re-elections. No career politicians. Just career Americans dedicated to true public service. 

Imagine what would happen if you shared this idea or shared one of your own.

Imagine what would happen if all commit to being part of the solution.

Imagine if we are the type of people going to Washington DC in 2013.

Imagine what we could do. Just imagine.