Happy Friday! Welcome back to Jimi Filipovski’s weekly newsletter where I give you high-quality insights and reflect on learnings building a creative business.
Now let’s dive into this week’s post.
My First Real Job
My first real job right after college was an internship to full-time program at a large advertising agency in Chicago. At the time there were over 550 employees on a single floor. An absolutely massive company. I was so excited. They had big client names, the office was bright with pops of orange, green, and blue. We had free beer on tap and coffee. These things are excellent when you’re broke.
Somewhere down the line, I learned quickly that while we were a large agency, we weren’t the largest (by far) and this meant that having a client like Samsung didn’t mean we were making Super Bowl commercials all my friends would see on TV. Nope, we were making banner ads for an obscure new product for IMDB.com that would show up the night of the Oscars (for 1 day only).
I figured that was a one-off situation but each new account I worked got my hopes up for something fun, yet again and again and again the same thing. It reminds me of a scene in Mad Men where Pete Campbell is talking about winning General Motors as a client and sorrowfully says “You just end up with a bunch of little pieces.” His feelings emulate mine here.
As someone who likes the high-level vision and to see how things connect, I found it difficult to do good work in this way. How could a business compartmentalize things? Large companies have multiple offices, multiple products, and even multiple ad agencies doing any number of things for them. Where’s the cohesion? Who’s responsible for aligning everyone? When you’re that big, is that even possible? I don’t think it’s a surprise that a few years later I’d be working as a freelancer for a startup redoing their logo, website, and Kickstarter campaign with their team.
Second City Improv
There’s a very special moment that always sticks out to me at my first job. That was the day we spent with Second City taking an improv class. Second City Chicago has bred some of the top comedic talent we have from Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Amy Polehr, Harold Ramis, and on and on and on. This was slated to be an exciting albeit embarrassing day.
Throughout the day we ran through a variety of exercises to help us think quickly on our feet and let the bad (but creative) ideas flow out of us. There’s a popular phrase in the creative industry which is “Yes, and…” in which you take what someone before you did and you build onto it and see where it takes you. This comes directly from the improv world and we acted out a version of this.
Reflecting on that day I kept wondering why they asked us to take the class. It was fun but how did it translate to our work? The senior managers always joked about bullshitting their way through client presentations or presenting a deck they didn’t look at before presenting. Was this meant to teach us to do the same? Think on our feet and bullshit our way out of trouble? While I know that wasn’t the intention it was a tool and much like a kitchen knife it can be used for both good and evil.
“You need to be ok with making a fool of yourself.”
No, now that 10 years have passed since that day I believe I’ve internalized what that day meant to me. Entrepreneurs are like actors. You need to be ok with making a fool of yourself. Take a chance on yourself. Try new things that feel uncomfortable and see where they take you. The transition will feel weird but it’s completely normal. It’s ok to feel weird. People may laugh or applaud you. Keep doing this enough times and you’ll get good at it.
Improv helps silence your fear and inner critic and get things out there that someone may potentially build upon (yes, and). You give yourself permission to play the role. You fake confidence, not competence. This is highly empowering.
Have you ever taken an improv class? What was your experience like and what did you get out of it? Did it help you with any creative roadblocks? Hit reply and let me know your experience.
👋 Want to work together?
Are you looking for a brand or website for your new idea? Shirakaba Studio partners with other ambitious brands to make magical things happen. Learn more about our studio here and reach out to book a call.
Have a great weekend,
-Jimi