GO DO THE THING

I spent part of last week in New York City to attend some of the events of Creative Week, put on by The One Club for Creativity. As someone who might be described as a little “Swanson-esque,” it wasn’t a little thing for me to go. See, I can be a bit of a reluctant joiner. The thought of networking and engaging in conference sessions—much less speaking at one—has always fallen somewhere on the eagerness scale between renewing my driver’s license and watching amateur pickleball. But I’m trying to grow; isn’t that why we’re here? There are valuable things to learn, connections to be made, and opportunities to chase. So I velcroed up my money belt and got on the plane.

And you know what happened?

It was awesome.

From the minute I walked into the One Club offices to attend the Executive Creative Summit, my reticence disappeared. I found people at breakfast discussing the exact issues we’d been facing at Drake Cooper over the last few months. I felt myself nodding at speakers throughout the day and shaking cramps out of my hand between bouts of furious note-taking. I asked questions. I (gasp) engaged. For two days, I soaked up everything I could, like a sponge, eager to get back to Boise and wring it all out into practice.

I’d also agreed to give a short talk on the Morning Buzz webcast that The One Club hosts. The topic was up to me, and I chose to speak about the importance of an agency not just doing good work, but also doing work for good. I practiced my presentation and ran through my slides more times than probably any creative presentation I’d ever given, all the while sure that I’d be looking out into the indifferent eyes of an audience just waiting for me to finish. But as I was speaking I noticed that they were actually listening. There were even questions. There was…applause??

Maybe it was the same thing in the New York water that makes the bagels great that made me feel like I belonged in this environment, sharing what I know and engaging (there’s that word again) in the forward momentum of our industry. Whatever it was, I’ll definitely be back for more. And I’d encourage you to do it, too. Go find the event that looks interesting to you. Go join the club, speak on the panel, watch the webisode—it doesn’t matter what it is, just don’t sit around combing your mustache. Go do the thing. And maybe bring me back an everything bagel with veggie cream cheese.