What’s Going On?
By Alex Harbour
In my prep thus far I feel there’s been a running theme. Well actually, there’s a few. I don’t think there’s a single podcast where the interviewee doesn’t talk about how (often multiple times), they’ve been told to go back to the drawing board, or felt that they weren’t totally happy with their work, or even if they feel like they’ve put together something great, the client doesn’t like it or reveals some tidbit which changes the original brief. On the positive, it seems that often then what follows is of a much better standard. This has taught me several things;
- Be prolific
- Don’t be precious
- Put yourself into the work
- But free yourself to fail…
- …and grow a thick skin
Not only do I hope that I can remember these as I go into the course, but they’ve been useful mantras the past couple of weeks, as we’ve entered that time of year that every parent dreads*; the summer holidays. With two small children at home, these three points are more relevant than you might think.
Coincidentally, with it being the summer holidays, another theme from my course prep which is aligning itself with my reality is disruption. In the advertising world, this refers to doing things differently, breaking the ‘norm’, and thinking outside the box… In my world these phrases certainly apply, but more in terms of being creative with juggling logistics, work/life and keeping the kids from killing each other, and mostly, food… for example:
1a. Be prolific – with snacks
2a. Don’t be precious – about snacks
3a. Put yourself into the work – make snacks
4a. But free yourself to fail… – you’ll never have enough snacks
5a. …and grow a thick skin – because you will be told they no longer like the snacks they’ve had countless times until now
In summary:
- 100 snacks prepped
- some actually eaten
- 60 ice creams bought (at least 20 stained t shirts)
- 10 quid spent on 2 punnets of PYO strawberries
- 6 playdates – so far
- 2 picnics in the rain (where is summer??)
- 1 frazzled mum…
… and 672 hours left until school starts again
Alex Harbour
@ajharbour
