During college, I worked for Lehman Brothers in NYC as an event marketing intern for two summers. They were a fabulous company to work for. I enjoyed what I was doing, and I’d planned to apply there after graduating. After the fall 2008 bankruptcy (the start of my senior year) though, I was a bit lost on which direction to take since I didn’t really have a backup plan. Fortunately, I ended up taking some course-changing classes my senior year in college, which I’ll explain in a moment.

Because I’d found a niche in advertising that made me curious and hungry for more, I focused my job hunt in those areas and landed at CB&S Advertising, a small Portland shop that, at the time, did advertising for Kroger grocery stores. It was an entry level position and, for about four months, I did digital trafficking and reporting—mostly working in Excel pivot tables and digital tools I’d never even heard named in college. Even though it wasn’t my dream job, I still rely on skills that I learned during those four short months. I think back on that time as the digital boot camp I needed in order to get hired at Wieden.

I went to Oregon to be in the Honors College. They required a thesis paper to graduate, and I loved the idea of focusing deeply on a topic and being “published.” I liked the idea of leaving college with experience that resulted in a tangible achievement.

I’ve always loved advertising and how each campaign is like a mini-story capable of telling so much in such a short window of time. So I decided to major in advertising in order to focus my thesis paper on a subject that I truly loved.

What’s funny is that I never actually believed that I’d start a career in advertising until my senior year after my first media-focused class. Our term project was to create a media plan for a new Old Spice product in market. This project was unique and special from typical term projects because two ladies from the actual W+K Old Spice team came to our class to introduce the project and also to judge our work at the end of the term. We were given a target, budget and creative guidelines, as well as goals and objectives we needed to achieve with our media plan. Then we set off on our own.

When you’re working on projects that play to your strengths, time flies. It was my absolute favorite college project, and I found myself wanting to spend all of my time working on this one presentation. I loved that I could use both my creative and analytical sides. I like that it dealt in intangibles, like strategy, ideas and behavioral insights, as well as tangibles like research, execution and results. I left that class craving more and am so grateful because my current supervisor was one of the W+K ladies who visited my class. Crazy! 

The college media class was a great start to help ignite and focus my interest in the subject; however, I always say that I learned more in my first year at Wieden than in all of my journalism classes combined—times 1,000. College helps teach you how to approach new subjects analytically, but for me, I learned the most by actually doing the work.

There was a huge learning curve my first year, but I was lucky enough to have a patient, helpful team. They always made time to teach and answer my many, many questions. I also learned how incredibly important it is to be resourceful and that you can learn the most by rolling up your sleeves and diving in. That said, the media landscape is constantly evolving and I’m learning new things every day. For example, mobile wasn’t even a space for advertisers to play just three years ago. For me, that challenge keeps my job dynamic and interesting.

W+K is a special place because of the emphasis they put in creating and executing provocative ideas. Ideas are the prized currency here and I love that. It’s the largest, independently owned agency in the world and attracts some amazing, talented people. They’re coming here to do the best work of their lives, and it’s truly inspiring to be a part of the process that brings those ideas to life.

It’s also special because, although the work comes first, W+K shows us in a million ways that they value the people that are working here. There’s a gym and half basketball court in the agency where they offer yoga and boot camp classes. It’s not uncommon to see people having a meeting on the roof deck with a beer or two—while swinging in the hammock. The holiday, Founder’s Day and even Halloween parties are legendary. There are at least 30 dogs in the office at all times making meetings much more fun. 

There are 600+ people who work in our Portland offices (it’s bigger than my high school), but you still feel a sense of camaraderie and loyalty to this amazing place.

First and foremost, having outside interests helps foster creativity and is very encouraged at W+K. It’s also very important to stay connected to trends and innovations. It’s even more important to not just passively digest the information, but to critically think about innovations so you walk away with a POV or at least a sense of curiosity and drive to learn more.

It can be too easy in this industry to just follow a trend out a window by doing something for the sake of being cool and current. At the same time, you don’t want to stay stagnate in such a constantly evolving space. It’s wild to think mobile wasn’t really even a thing even four years ago when I got my start.

There are several ways I try to stay current. 

First, I consume media like the guys we’re trying to target. I love the challenge of stepping into someone else’s shoes and had to get “guy savvy” pretty quickly. For example, I started this job with little to zero knowledge of the NFL. For the first NFL campaign that I had to plan, I tackled the subject like it was a part-time job. I did my homework on divisions, rivalries, players, teams, scoring, top-rated moments in the season, etc. I asked every fan I knew about a million questions. I played in my work Fantasy league and won the championship! 

I also use the research tools that do the fact finding for us. There are some great resources out there, like Comscore and MRI. Being able to read this data and find actionable insights is really critical.

Third, I stay current with the trades and blogs. There are some awesome media/advertising focused sites out there. I also love reading award show entries to learn more about creative, idea-driven work that’s happened around the globe.

But the number #1 thing for me is staying curious. W+K has a mantra about “walking in dumb every day”—in other words, don’t think that you know everything, because you just don’t and you can always learn from the people, opportunities and resources around you.

Every Old Spice campaign is so unique, and we customize success metrics to each execution. These are some general questions we ask when judging success or even setting out campaign objectives: Does it entertain? Is it share-worthy? Did it drive engagement? Does it have PR power or drive “earned” media? Did we come away with actionable learnings? Did we innovate?

And ultimately, are people buying more Old Spice? I’m fiercely loyal to the brand after these four years and have even found myself talking to strangers in the deodorant aisle, encouraging them to buy the new body spray or telling them that Bearglove is my favorite scent. Bizarre, I know.

I love Old Spice to death and am insanely loyal to my brand, like I said. I think it would be really fun and challenging to work on a brand more geared towards women one day. I’m spoiled though, so would want to work on a brand that produces content, not just ads. 

We work in a really collaborative, relaxed environment, so it’s easy to balance. I have an awesome team that brings a lot of “smarts,” passion and motivation. I do have to reign myself in at times and make sure that I’m not being too prescriptive about projects or tasks, since you can learn so much from other people’s unique perspectives and approaches to a task.

I also come from a long line of teachers and inherently love the process of sharing what I’ve learned and being asked questions. I’ve been told that “you really have a grasp on a subject once you can teach it,” and I think this rings true in my field. 

W+K has another saying that I love: Fail harder. I think it’s important to be willing to try new things without the fear of failure, because that fear can be crippling. I realize that’s so much easier said than done and I still struggle with my own fears, but I believe that challenges and even failures really shape people and give them character to tackle more than they even knew they were capable of taking on.

If you find yourself in a spot where you’re counting hours in your day, make a change! There are so many places out there that could use your talent, expertise and passion.

I still wake up excited about my job. I still get a rush presenting recommendations to clients. I still feel energized after hearing a new, never-been-done idea from the creative team that requires a new never-been-done media plan to really amplify and bring the idea to life.

I feel very lucky to be in that position right now and working on such an innovative and inspiring brand. Who knew selling men’s deodorant, body wash and spray could be so much fun?