Why to Channel Creative Aspirations in Advertising and Design Career - Doug Jaeger

In Chapter 5 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer Doug Jaeger shares his aspiration to create a legacy of creation across the products, experiences, and campaigns he develops as an advertising and design professional. Jaeger constantly looks for ways to create and share things in faster and faster cycles. He finds support using mechanical and technical tools. Over time, Jaeger finds fulfillment not only in creating things but also in creating things that last and have a timeless element. Jaeger is a partner at design firm JaegerSloan - http://jaegersloan.com/ - and is also president of the Art Director's Club - http://www.adcglobal.org/ . Previously he founded thehappycorp and has served in creative director leadership roles at TBWA/Chiat/Day and JWT. Jaeger holds a BFA in Computer Graphics and Art Media Studies from Syracuse University.

What Writing a Comic Strip Teaches About Brand Storytelling - Doug Jaeger

In Chapter 3 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer Doug Jaeger shares what writing a college comic strip taught him about brand storytelling. As a designer, Jaeger is motivated by finding solutions. From an early age, as a college student, he sees the relationship between creating art, putting it in a media format, and impacting culture. Through the process he learns compromise, multitasking and prioritization. Jaeger is a partner at design firm JaegerSloan - http://jaegersloan.com/ - and is also president of the Art Director's Club - http://www.adcglobal.org/ . Previously he founded thehappycorp and has served in creative director leadership roles at TBWA/Chiat/Day and JWT. Jaeger holds a BFA in Computer Graphics and Art Media Studies from Syracuse University.

Why Study Computer Graphics at Syracuse University - Doug Jaeger

In Chapter 2 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer Doug Jaeger shares the decision inputs that informed his choice to study computer graphics at Syracuse University. He highlights influences across his friends, family, and personal interests. Ultimately Jaeger chooses Syracuse a strong balance between academics - science, history, English - and arts and design. Jaeger is a partner at design firm JaegerSloan - http://jaegersloan.com/ - and is also president of the Art Director's Club - http://www.adcglobal.org/ . Previously he founded thehappycorp and has served in creative director leadership roles at TBWA/Chiat/Day and JWT. Jaeger holds a BFA in Computer Graphics and Art Media Studies from Syracuse University.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen: When you were at Syracuse University, what propelled you to focus on computer graphics?

Doug Jaeger:  That's an interesting question. I went to Syracuse because I growing up had a friend, his name was Pete Berthold, and his father was an engineer at BellCorp. BellCorp was the company that defined all the business operating systems for the phone systems, and had the latest Macintosh computer at his house  all the time. In the basement, never being used. It was like the home computer that dad would use when we weren't around as kids, you know, we got home from school, dad wasn't there, we'd play with the computer. I learned about HyperCard and all these computer software way before schools had them, and uh, my friend Pete, my friend Sean, all these guys I was growing up with, were all playing with basic and basicA and all these crazy, geeky things.

Pete was one year older than me. And he was the year ahead of me doing research  he lived, you know, right down the block and he was doing research on what schools to go to, and he built this list of schools, and one was RISD, another one was, University of Arts in Philadelphia had a computer program, there was RIT, Syracuse was one of them - there were very few number of schools on the east coast I was limited because my parents didn't want me to go too far away. And, there was this idea Pete was just like, I'm going to Syracuse. 

And he came back during his break and told me all about you know the technology, and they had this really great SGI lab they were doing 3D modeling in, and he in a sense convinced me that this was a great place to go. Because Pete was a friend of mine, I trusted him.

We were doing a lot of the same things, we were both artists and we were making videos and we were using the computer and so he went there, and then as a result, I went there. And, I wanted to go to RISD because I thought it had greater, you know, creative output  in general it is a more creative school, but my parents felt really strongly, they wanted me to have a basis in academics. You know they wanted me to have science and history classes and English, they thought it was just really important. And so, although RISD has Brown as a sidepiece, they thought I would not do that. And so they felt that it's a school that could control me, put me in this little box where I would do all those things. And so, the city was not an option for me my parents grew up in the city, and they just didn't want me to go there and to learn there, they just thought it would be too corrupting and forced.

And so they wanted me to go somewhere protected, and so Syracuse was that place. And the program was computer graphics, which was half computer science and half art. And the art portion was photography, you know, studio photography, filmmaking, non-linear editing, 3D modeling and interaction design. And I also tried to take classes in conventional design  I had lots of peers that were in design courses as well. And so I was really able to kind of, you know, get experience very early on, on the full palate of what media is and its potential.

How Father Influences Son's Creative Career Development - Doug Jaeger

In Chapter 1 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer Doug Jaeger shares how his father's experiences and work ethic shaped his own ambition and career. Jaeger learns the value of education and hard work from his father, putting both to work shaping his passion for photography. Jaeger is a partner at design firm JaegerSloan - http://jaegersloan.com/ - and is also president of the Art Director's Club - http://www.adcglobal.org/ . Previously he founded thehappycorp and has served in creative director leadership roles at TBWA/Chiat/Day and JWT. Jaeger holds a BFA in Computer Graphics and Art Media Studies from Syracuse University.

Simon Sinek on How Glassblowing Class Teaches Teamwork

In Chapter 15 of 20 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, author and leadership expert Simon Sinek takes his team to a glassblowing class and learns about collaboration and project ownership. The exercise teaches the team the importance of shared ownership and responsibility. Simon Sinek is a trained ethnographer who applies his curiosity around why people do what they do to teach leaders and companies how to inspire people. He is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". Sinek holds a BA degree in cultural anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: What’d you learn when you took your team to the glassblowing class?

Simon Sinek: Well for one thing we learned teamwork, big time, that you cannot produce a piece of glass in a glassblowing class without somebody else. You must work with somebody else. And so we were producing these pieces – these vases and these wonderful things – and the question is who do they belong to? Is it the person who was doing the physical blowing? Is it the person who was doing the turning? Is it the person who did the dipping? Who does the piece belong to? 

Now, you could arbitrarily say, the person who dips, it’s their piece. But in reality, everything you’re producing belongs to two people, or at least two people. And that’s a pretty amazing thing. So, you know, when you’re working at work, who does your work belong to? Does it belong to you, or does it belong to the collective? And so, we learned that from our glassblowing, it was really great. Because we were divvying up the stuff it was like, well, “Who? I kind of worked on this a little more than you…” It was very hard to divvy this stuff up, because we all owned it.

Simon Sinek on Why Small Business Owners Should Study the Arts

In Chapter 14 of 20 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, author and leadership expert Simon Sinek shares why small business owners benefit by studying the arts. He finds learning different problem-solving approaches outside one's core discipline opens the mind, in particular the subconscious mind, to consider new ways of approaching a situation. Sinek offers artistic expression around line, color, form, posture, and other ways of expression beyond language that can benefit a small business owner. Simon Sinek is a trained ethnographer who applies his curiosity around why people do what they do to teach leaders and companies how to inspire people. He is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". Sinek holds a BA degree in cultural anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: Why should small business owners get involved in the arts?

Simon Sinek: I think that more businessmen should learn about the arts. I think a small business, especially, should study the arts. I remember a long time ago when I had a job, I had a small team, and I called a group meeting and they didn’t know what it was for. And they all showed up with their pencils and their notebooks and I said, “Okay, we’re going to a little offsite” and I took them to a gallery.

And the reason I think the arts are valuable, is, again it’s the way the brain works, you know? Have you ever noticed that you have all your good ideas, not when you’re sitting in a brainstorming session? Because your rational brain can only access about two feet of information around you. Where your subconscious brain can access the equivalent of ninety – something like, what is it? – 11 acres of information around you. In other words, every lesson or every experience you’ve had gets put in there. And it controls behavior and decision-making, just not language. And so that’s why we say, “this is a gut decision, it just feels right.”

Or it’s also the reason these decisions happen in bed, in the shower, when you go for a run, but not in the brainstorming session. The problems have been posed, the questions have been posed, but then your brain continues to think about them, it continues to try and solve them – accessing all this other information, just not rationally, and so [Snaps Fingers] these ideas seem to show up from nowhere. It’s like, do you ever leave the house, and you feel like you’ve forgotten something? And you’re like “what did I forget? What did I forget?” It’s not rational it’s that subconscious, and you leave the house and you’re like [snaps] my sunglasses. And it’s never wrong! When you get the feeling that you’ve forgotten something, it’s never – in other words, your subconscious knows.

And so the more you can do to fill that subconscious with information that has nothing to do with anything, apparently, the more I think it benefits you in the times when you need to actually apply that information. And I think the greatest opportunity for that is in the arts, because you’re not thinking about it, you’re not like “well I’ll read this book and it’s somewhat related to my work.”

No, go read things that have nothing to do with your work. Go watch performances, go see artists, go see the way other people solve problems in a way that have nothing to do with you. And you will not see the connection, and there is none. Or is there? There are things that you can learn outside of your own discipline that will significantly contribute to the problems you’re solving at work. You only know what you know, you don’t know what you don’t know, but more importantly, the arts seek to understand our world in a way that the rest of us don’t, you know, it accesses a language that the rest of us don’t use. You and I are communicating with English, right? This is the language we’re using. You talk to a painter or dancer, you know? They may lack the facility that you and I have right now. In other words, they’re uncomfortable speaking. But a great painter has the ability to express themselves in color, and in line or in form, that we can learn a lot about them through this new language. Or a dancer has the ability to you know, to present themselves and use their body as this, as language to share what they feel, right? And some of us have the ability to do it in language, but some of us don’t.

And I think to engage with the arts, to understand a new way of expression or understanding the world significantly enhances your ability to solve problems back at work. I’m a firm believer that all small business, you know, all the owners – if not everybody – should go take classes. Go take a glass blowing class, go take a ceramics class, go take a ballet class, go take a piano lesson, go take a painting class, it doesn’t matter. Drawing … whatever tickles your fancy. Because you will learn things in those classes that will significantly contribute to your understanding of how you present to the world. I took a ballet class with a couple of friends of mine, and I learned about presence and posture, and I can tell you, as a speaker, guess where I found that? Not from a speakers’ bureau, you know?

Simon Sinek on Why Greatness Starts and Ends With Passion

In Chapter 13 of 20 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, author and leadership expert Simon Sinek shares what performing artists have taught him about preparation, process, and passion. Sinek finds passion matters on the bookends. It starts things. It is the process, or preparation, where people differentiate, develop, and ascend as individuals and as work - or art - creators. This process is where individuals accept and embrace technical capacity and open themselves to failure and the willingness to learn from and iterate upon it. Simon Sinek is a trained ethnographer who applies his curiosity around why people do what they do to teach leaders and companies how to inspire people. He is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". Sinek holds a BA degree in cultural anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: What has your passion for the performing arts taught you about the power of preparation?

Simon Sinek: There is something magical about somebody, an artist, who is willing to put himself out there, to share with am audience, to share with the world, something that they have created. And there is the very high possibility of failure, that it won’t be good. And if any component doesn’t work it can affect the thing as a whole. Um, preparation is interesting. I’m a great believer in process, to a degree. 

Which is – you have to be good at what you’re doing, and you have to understand your own discipline and have a technical grounding, but that’s not where it ends. I think where passion matters is on the bookends. You know, people start things because they’re passionate, you know? “I was passionate about this so I decided to start my own business,” or, “I was passionate about this so I started to take classes.” Passion’s what gets things started. 

And then it’s that process, it’s that preparation that you become understanding of, where it becomes intellectualized, that thing that you like, and that’s where I think most people fall down. “Oh my goodness there’s a lot of work here,” you know? So that usually ends that “passion” pretty quickly, or they get stuck in there, where it becomes only learning and only thinking. And really, there’s a point at which you have to say, “okay, you know what? I know how to do this; I’m good at this. I have to trust that I’m good at this, I have to trust the training and now I’m gonna go back to that passion again.” 

And those are the few who are able to truly catapult themselves, or their work, to this new level where we say it’s great, not just good. Because they’ve allowed themselves to now accept the technical capacity and leave themselves open to the potential for making mistakes again. Children have passion and they’re beautiful to watch, and they make a total mess. And these few here, they kind of have a childish way about them, they kind of act like children in some way, where it’s a little bit reckless abandon but for the fact that they have training and grounding and preparation. And I think those – that’s a beautiful thing to pursue. It’s a hard thing to do, because now that you’re technically based and you have an understanding, are you willing to fail? Yes here, because you don’t know anything [taps table] and yes here if you can be great.

How Heidegger Philosophy Influences Professional Ambition - Alan McNab

In Chapter 9 of 17 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, customer advocacy marketing executive Alan McNab reflects on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and his 1928 work "Being and Time." McNab learns to apply Heidegger's perspective on existence - I am therefore I think - to the context of service-oriented business. McNab holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University and an MBA from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He has worked in various technology marketing roles at Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Motorola, and is now Vice President, Customer Advocacy at NCR based in Dublin.

How Speech Act Philosophy Impacts Customer Service Strategy - Alan McNab

In Chapter 7 of 17 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, customer advocacy marketing executive Alan McNab details how Speech Act language philosophy impacts customer service strategy. He highlights how coaching teams to engage, listen and make a promise to customers enables a customer service strategy. The Speech Act commitment philosophy empowers the customer as much as it does the line staff - the service technicians - working to deliver value on the ground. McNab holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University and an MBA from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He has worked in various technology marketing roles at Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Motorola, and is now Vice President, Customer Advocacy at NCR based in Dublin.

How to Learn From Failure - Jason Anello

In Chapter 14 of 15 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, entrepreneur, creative director, and experience marketer Jason Anello shares learning from failures is more meaningful than learning from successes. He highlights that it is much more powerful to learn from the process of making failures and not failure as a result. Over time, understanding this and then being able to recognize a failure while it is happening is a great way to find long term success. Anello is the co-founder of non-traditional marketing agency Manifold Partners - www.wearemanifold.com . He is the co-founder of Brooklyn-based supper club Forking Tasty - www.forkingtasty.com . Previously he held creative leadership positions as an Ideologist at Yahoo's Buzz Marketing team and as an associate creative director at Ogilvy & Mather - www.ogilvy.com . Anello is an alumnus of the University at Albany - www.albany.edu .

How to Pitch an Experiential Marketing Concept or Campaign - Jason Anello

In Chapter 5 of 15 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, creative director and experience marketer Jason Anello shares how context helps pitch an experiential marketing concept or campaign. Whereas clients understand context and measurement metrics of traditional media - print, outdoor, television, radio, and interactive, experiential marketing is more vague. Establishing a contextual framework allows Anello to close the gap between what his client knows about what exists and what it can expect from something new and untested. It also empowers clients to sell the concept or campaign internally, as well. Anello is the co-founder of non-traditional marketing agency Manifold Partners - www.wearemanifold.com . He is the co-founder of Brooklyn-based supper club Forking Tasty - www.forkingtasty.com . Previously he held creative leadership positions as an Ideologist at Yahoo's Buzz Marketing team and as an associate creative director at Ogilvy & Mather - www.ogilvy.com . Anello is an alumnus of the University at Albany - www.albany.edu .

What Creates Influencer Culture Clusters - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 5 of 12 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, media and publishing entrepreneur Phil McKenzie shares why he sees influencer culture by clustering together arts, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and technology communities. He finds intersections across these individual groups, in effect a multi-dimensional map of how influencer or tastemaker culture develops. Influencer culture cannot be defined without understanding how it connects the dots. Marketing and brand professionals develop models to plug into and influence culture. McKenzie shares how influencer culture is different than mass market culture and, as a result, requires a different marketing approach. He highlights a 180 degree marketing plan speaks better to influencer clusters than does a traditional 360 degree mass market brand marketing campaign. Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.  Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.

What Defines a Tastemaker - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 4 of 12 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, media and publishing entrepreneur Phil McKenzie shares what separates tastemakers, trendsetters, and influencers from an average consumer or business. McKenzie notes how tastemakers, trendsetters, and influencers aspire to get in front of trends and apply passion and expertise to generate thought leadership. Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.

How Video In-Game Advertisting Sales Teaches Creative Selling - Geoff Hamm

In Chapter 16 of 16 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, online media sales executive Geoff Hamm learns to sell more creatively working at Electronic Arts and selling in-game advertising (IGA) to marketers and agencies. Hamm supports client goals by balancing between creating new ways to support brand marketing initiatives and applying his experience working in data-focused online advertising. Hamm graduated from the University of Illinois - http://illinois.edu/ - and is now SVP of Sales at at Scribd http://www.scribd.com/ in Silicon Valley. Previously he held online sales management positions at Electronic Arts, Yahoo!, Orbitz, IAC, and Excite.

Learning Management Skills Singing in A Cappella Group - Gabrielle Lamourelle

In Chapter 4 of 21 in her 2010 interview with Erik Michielsen, global health consultant Gabrielle Lamourelle learns leadership and business management participating in an a cappella group. She learns dedication only goes so far, finding group leadership and motivation necessary to build consensus. As a business manager, Lamourelle teams with a music manager to lead the group. She applies this planning and problem solving experience in her public health career as a global health consultant. Lamourelle graduated with a BS in Sociology from University of California at Berkeley and a Masters in Public Health (MPH) in Sociomedical Sciences from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Why Rock Climbing Appeals to Scientists and Engineers - Clara Soh

In Chapter 10 of 10 in her 2010 interview with Capture Your Flag host Erik Michielsen, health economist and comparative effectiveness researcher Clara Soh Williams details why rock climbing appeals to analytical thinkers, including scientists and engineers. With rock climbing, the rock is constant and climbers apply changes. It is an application of the scientific method that allows for incremental advancement and measurable progress.  Soh holds an MPA in Public Health Finance from New York University and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. 

Learning Motivation by Training Pro Tennis Players - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 3 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis develops motivational tools by teaching professional tennis players. De Franciscis finds mental fitness, not physical skill, separates good from great in tennis' top 200 players. He motivates his students by identifying gaps and then marking progressive improvements over time as the players pursue respective goals. De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

How Design Skill Applies in Product Management Career - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 12 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor shares how his father's design background shaped his own expressive and creative interests in music, language, and communications. Ultimately, this results in Pryor applying his creative process to evolve the ways thinks look and behave in Internet product management.  Pryor earned an MBA at the University of Navarra IESE Business School in Barcelona,  Spain an a BA in Economics and Spanish from Northwestern University.