Everyday now... there is something new

So now, my days seem too short to fit everything in.

One of the things that I find most difficult is fitting in time to be inspired. It sounds ridiculous that one should seek out inspiration but to stretch my thinking this is what I need to do.

I read a multitude of blogs, I look at what our competitors are up to and more than anything else, I bounce ideas off those around me including my fiance Matt.

Matt is A-for-Awesome - the polar opposite of me but a waelth of creativity and fun. He inspires me by thinking in an unrestricted way. He helps me solve problems everyday and his thughts - whilst some days are way too far out for my clients, help me to create new work and solve problems in my client's briefs.

Everyday brings something new and that's what I love about my job.

Until finally... UM - the start of something new

In my first few weeks working with UM I won the opportunity to represent Australia as a Young Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. It was the most incredible experience. Not only did I get to hear thoughts from some of the world's most creative thinkers but I also got to compete in an international competition.

My partner, Tristan Burrell & I won the competition! It was the start of big things for me. After returning to Australia I was asked to be a guest speaker at a number of events, was named in the top 40 under 40 list by Australia's leading trade publication and threw myself into working on a range of clients at UM.

I will admit that my first few months with UM were difficult. I had come from a less traditional agency where the view on responding to briefs was; 'the more creative the better'. At UM I needed to learn to balance investment opportunities with creative thinking. These difficulties were also what made me love working for UM. The people around me; Henry Tajer, Nathan Brown and Chris Okeefe worked with me to help me find the best balance. They gave me opportunities to shine including leading the pitch for $11 million account Panasonic which we subsequently won.

These same people have put the same faith in me to step up to a strategic leadership role and I have recently relocated to Melbourne as Director of Communicaions & Strategy for the Melbourne office. Given my relative inexperience (8 years) compared to others in the market, this demonstrates the belief that the company has in me and also my committment to succeed and drive execllence in everything that I do.

With this move came a transition off some of my existing clients. I was pleasantly suprised to recieve a number of emails thanking me for my contribution to their business. Nothing is more flattering than being recognised for your efforts by your clients.

Creativity: Rad to the Power of Sick

I saw this showcased when we were in Cannes.

Basically a couple of creatives from Y&R decided to get creative in their description of a BMX listed on ebay. The results speak for themselves with the bike achieving 5 times its original price upon re-sale. Imagine how much the client would love you if you could drive 500% incremental growth on an existing product?!

It is a nice case study to reinforce Henry's statement last week that we need to be brave with our clients. It demonstrates that no matter how small the brief, how boring the product/topic may be, creativity rules in the end.

And because of that came my steepest learning curve since the age of 0-3....

Upon joining bellamyhayden I had no idea how much I was about to learn. I was surrounded by brilliant people, in a hardworking office and seemed to learn by osmosis.

It confirmed to me that it actually didn't matter where I worked because it was the calibre of people that I surrounded myself with that would impact the qaulity of my output.

During my time at bellamyhayden I made lifelong friends, won my first media award and was inspired to never do less than my best.

It was at this point in my life that UM approached me with an interesting job offer.

And becasue of that... iSpyLevis being VERY smart

So a group of us at bh have just had the BEST brand experience thanks to Levis.

The brand has "released hundreds of pairs of Levis on the streets of key cities across Australia & New Zealand. If you think you see someone wearing a pair ask them "Are they Levis?". If you get it right, they'll drop their pants & give them to you on the spot."

This is such a smart strategy. It taps into our voeuyeristic nature and harnesses the power of follow on twitter (literally) in a fun and rewarding way.

I have been following @iSpyLevis for the last few days and have become totally addicted. When their profile started to show some life after lunch today I was determined to find the jeans on the street.

I tweeted with the guy and an hour later he was posting pics of his location right outside our office! Chris ran downstairs to meet him and 5 minutes later is the proud owner of a pair of GUYS 568® SKINNYS IN RESIN SEALED.

This concept would work well for many products and is allowing Levis to have very rich consumer interaction as well as promote their style range.

Here's to me finding the female over the next few days!

Until one day came the learning process...

Travelling alone in Europe was the best experience of my life.

It allowed me to discover my strengths and forced me to rely solely on myself for all the answers - even if those answers were sometimes wrong - like the time I ended up in Caen rather than Cannes in France. I was inspired every single day and I kept a record of it by starting this blog.

I recognised that I loved writing and that when I was to return to 'real life' I wanted to incorporate my love for writing into my day job.

But my travels weren't over yet. I felt compelled to 'give something back' and applied for a role with AusAid to be placed as a media, PR and communications trainer in Samoa and hence started the most challenged period of my life to date.

After 12 months and many, many tears later, I returned to Australia and secured a role as a communications strategist with bellamyhayden - one of the forefathers of strategic thinking in Australia.

In the beginning...

Eight years ago I got my first job in media. At the time I was studying international communications full time at Macquarie University, sellings jeans at The Urban Store and kicking around with a lawyer-type boyfriend.

I peddled my CV around the industry and ended up with a job at Total Advertising & Communications. It was AWESOME!

Even at this early stage of my career I used to push the boundaries.

Whilst others were content with putting spots on TV, I was asking if the popularity of crime dramas was impacting an increase in social violence.... not that relevant to my day job but an energy that inspired others to ask questions too.

Thankfully - no-one around me quashed my enthusiasm and three and a half years later they were as supportive of me taking off on a European sojourn.