College is Overrated

That's right...I said it.

I got my BA with a double major in Speech Communications (being able to speak) and English (my native tongue)...then compounded that madness with a Master's degree in Speech Communications (screenwriting).  I only have one question:

Why didn't anyone stop me?

While college was the best six years of my life, I'm not sure I came out any smarter than people who didn't go into college.

Here's what college is good for:
*  Learning how to play nicely with others
*  Playing and watching sports
*  Discovering subjects you didn't know existed
*  Building confidence
*  Time management
*  Dormitory pranks
*  Drinking
*  Meeting girls (or boys)
*  Getting a low-wage job after college

Here's what college is NOT good for:
*  Getting a low wage job out of high school
*  Understanding how the real world works
*  Getting into trouble due to not having enough to do
*  Learning what to do with all your free time


Don't get me wrong, I feel that getting a degree (or two) is crucial to succeeding.  Unless you work with your hands and have a truly useful skill (auto repair, construction, plumber or electrician), you definitely need a degree.  HR directors look at you like you have two heads if you don't have a degree.

But is your degree in something useful?  Did you spend four years just getting better at something you already knew how to do...like speak English.

Why didn't my parents insist that I take a course in business or accounting?  Why did they let me (a strong-willed 17 year-old) insist on majoring in broadcasting?  I could have learned how to operate a studio camera, be a floor manager or create cue cards as a business major.

I graduated as the outstanding senior in the speech department of Bowling Green State University that year.
Know what I knew how to do?  Be a disk jockey, push a studio camera, write copy and direct bad studio dramas and fake newscasts.

Could a trained chimp learn how to do this?

No matter where you choose to go, college has never been more expensive.  For my daughter's education,  I'm paying 25 times than what my parents paid for me to go to a college, but what can you do? 

Half the people who have worked for me were NOT majors in broadcasting.  I had an art director who was a music major.

The bottom line is that college is great to learn something you will love, but not necessarily something you already know how to do.  Psychology, English and speech are a waste (unless you're going to teach).  Computer science, math, chemistry, medicine, law and business.  Now, these are useful majors.

So, kids, don't go to college to fart around.  You'll have plenty of dates, drink plenty of beer and go to plenty of football or basketball games, no matter what your major.

Get some guidance from an adult who has made some mistakes, and learn something you don't already know.

You can learn a lot from a former floor manager (a job which doesn't exist anymore)...or a trained monkey.

--Rich Brase
rich@richideas.net

Somebody is Stealing Your Work

One's Milli; the other, Vanilli.  Or is it the other way around?

You came up with the concept.  You wrote the copy.  You supervised the shoot.  You oversaw the post.  You even QC'd all 20 versions.

Suddenly, your great spot is on the reel of someone who sat in that first meeting.  It's also in the portfolio of the person who recommended that great designer.  Even that colleague who suggested the v/o has a link to it.

Then, you're checking out other creatives' work, and your spot appears on the reel of someone that you never met.  Aaawwwk-waaard!  For them!  Without a doubt, they're all stealing your work.

My Sweet Lord vs He's So Fine

Presenting creative in a collaborative business such as ours is a dicey proposition, at best.  Truth is, nobody does everything and every spot/ad/track/design is handled by many people.  But there's a difference between touching a project (collaboration), putting one's thumbprint all over it (co-optation), and watching from the sidelines (fabrication).

It's a gray area for creatives, and perfectly acceptable when one's role is accurately presented.  Selecting and reading voice talent can make or break a spot, for instance.  But selecting and reading voice talent, then claiming authorship of the entire spot, is over the line.

With these factors in mind, following are three guidelines to determine whether that work should be reel-eligible:

Even The Oprah fell for James Frey.

1. If other people who worked on the project were in the room, would you still claim it as yours?  If your answer involves a little hemming and a lot of hawing, that's kind of a clue.

2. Can you explain your involvement without having to think long and hard?  You know what you did and didn't do.  If rationalizing is at the top of your list, again, that's kind of a clue.

3. Did you add something that changed the inherent nature of the project?  If you did, that's a beautiful thing, my friend.  If not, and it was "just enough to put it in the brochure," then yep, that's a very big clue.

In short, this is kind of a Golden Rule for creatives.  We should respect each other's work and all that, but here's the other thing:  If one project is identified as being stolen, everything else on the reel is under a cloud of suspicion.  Credibility is shot and virtually impossible to recoup.  

So beware, somebody may be stealing your work.  Just don't return the favor.

-Ed Roth
edrothshow@gmail.com

6 Steps to Becoming the Next Rick Steves

Growing up, I used to travel up and down the east coast with my family in a 1961 Chevy wagon, driving my parents and two brothers crazy.   As an adult, I've lived in 13 different cities and traveled the world.  Now, I drive my wife and daughter crazy.  How could I possibly make money from that? 

In the past few years, I've been contracted to help create two video series--one for the state of Oregon (including Crater Lake on the left) and one for the city of Portland--two places with which I am infinitely in love.

Beautiful Oregon PSA

Today, I've got six tips on how to make money while traveling, writing and shooting video, which is even easier than when I started doing it eight years ago thanks to the web and the fact that every cat who plays with a banana has a Facebook page and website.

The bottom line is that there is hidden and not-so-hidden money that companies have for great storytellers who love to travel and can shoot video.  You can do this?   Let's get started.

1.  Discover what your city, state or region is doing right now to promote themselves.
     Are they shooting video or are they just posting articles?  It's all about the video, so get out your palmcorder with a halfway decent mic?  My little Samsung cost $69.  Start shooting and get local people to  tell their stories.

2.  Create your own web page, blog or YouTube page.
     Interview the most interesting people in your city, state or neighborhood and edit them together into a story.  Never done this?  There are thousands of examples on-line.  It's all about the storytelling.  If you can't shoot the video, at least write about it in your blog.  Need some inspiration?  Check out CBS' Steve Hartman (a fellow Bowling Green State University grad) "On the Road" for CBS News.  He's the best working in the business right now.

3.  Create a few pilot webisodes for your local or state tourism board to use.
     If you're a Mac user, they make it easy to edit your stuff.  Just follow the tutorials and you'll be editing like a pro in no time.  If you're a PC person, you could look into an editing class at your local community college.

4.  Hook up with your local television station and tourism bureau.
     Grant McOmie has been shooting and writing travel stories around Oregon for twenty years, for two different stations.  For newscasts, he files a weekly story, which is then re-run with other stories on a weekly half-hour that runs on Saturdays.   These stories are then re-purposed by the state's travel site, traveloregon.org.  He's "triple-dipping" each story.  Despite Grant's aggravating voice, his story-telling is great and he is frequently a one-man band.


Grant's Getaways video


5.   Get to know the folks in the tourism board and chamber of commerce.
      There is always money there to promote and market the area, and someone who knows all about the area, can get some of that money.  A video piece on a fun or interesting place is worth 10,000 words.  Check out whether or not grants are available, too, if you get a television partner.

6.  Have a point of view.  
    Rick Steves targets the budget traveler (which is most certainly is), Anthony Bourdain targets the foodies

Look how much fun Rick is having drinking in Zagreb.  This could be you!

and Travel Channel has dozens of other great storytellers.  Each one has a specific point of view.  Develop one that's a little different.

Ecotourism video


Many of us love to travel, and love to shoot video.  Time to take your great idea and the pieces you create and put them up on your site.  If they're as great as you think they are, someone will take notice and hire you.

Just make sure they're interesting, because there are a lot of people with cameras out there.  Time to make some money off of something you like to do.

Rich Brase
--rich@richideas.net

 

The 3 Best Things a Freelancer Can Do - Today

Nobody could have predicted this...

Admit it, as a freelancer, you have a love/hate relationship with hustling.  Mostly hate, I assume.  When things are going great, it's easier to just not think about the day the music dies.  And when work does end, it's almost always a surprise.  Logic is one thing, acceptance quite another.

Enter The Mad Scramble.  It begins with your hitting up the usual suspects, and is followed by hours online, scrolling frantically through indeed, mandy, craigslist and LinkedIn looking for a last-minute reprieve.

This is wrong on so many levels. 

Fortunately, there's a way around this; more specifically, three ways.  Each of them has the D'oh! factor and can be done five times a week, whether you're working or not.

1. Call three people.
This can be a colleague you haven't seen in a while, a client/employer you worked for last year, even that person you sent your resume to last month.  Re-establish your presence.  Reduce your isolation.  Remind others of your availability.  (See?  I told you these have the D'oh! factor.) 

2. Write letters to five people.
Not an email, a real-live personal letter in a no. 10 envelope with a stamp and everything.  It can be a customized form letter, but it should be brief, typed and signed.  This is much more personal and about 26,700% more likely to be read than an email (source: The Promo Code). 

3. Identify three executives at companies in an alternative market.
If you couldn't work in your end of the biz, what would you do?  It will likely be something related - you know, same but different.  Start building that list.

Then, in a few weeks/months, when you start running out of people from Steps 1 and 2, you can begin contacting new people from Step 3.  And so on.

If you're serious about freelancing, you understand that sales is just part of the gig.  You've got the talent part down.  Just accept the fact that the sales end is a numbers game and you have to be on other people's radar..

These are the 3 best things you can do today.  At the very least, they're right up there.

-Ed Roth
edrothshow@gmail.com

Never be Afraid to Strike Out

Babe Ruth was arguably the most feared hitter in baseball history.  He hit 714 home runs...but also struck out 1,330 times.  Legend has it that he never cared about the strikeouts, because he was fearless...daring pitchers to throw the pitch past him.

Then, even though there was only one Sultan of Swat, why does the word "no" strike so much fear in us?

Could it be because we are our work...and what we do is a personal reflection of who we are?  Perhaps.

I've always worked on the creative side--writing, producing, pitching my ideas and then defending them when my bosses, co-workers or clients didn't "get it."  Time to head back to square one or defend my idea within an inch of its life?  Time to puff out my chest or build a gallows in the back yard?

Fortunately, there are a few things to help keep you in the game when someone hates your big idea or tells you that you're waaaay off base:

1.  It's not personal!
It's the idea they don't like, not you.  If you find your ideas constantly being shot down, it's time to change your creative, not your personality.  Lick your wounds privately and make sure you don't complain out loud to managers or co-workers about being hated.  This will get back to the decision-makers quickly.

2. Get them to clarify 
Why do they reject the idea?  No doesn’t always mean no. Instead, it’s often just an easier answer than, “I’m not sure, ” “I don’t know,” or “I just don't like it..” Is there something they have in mind? What is it they really don't like?  Get some constructive feedback, learn from it, change things up, and get back out there.

3. Sharpen your pitch 
After being rejected a few times, it should become evident that you are doing something wrong. The challenge then is to zero in on what that thing is.  Your pitch may be off, or too long, or not detailed enough or maybe your work is too ironic or offers no compelling call to action.

An effective way to determine this is to share what you are doing with a trusted colleague. This will give you a fresh perspective and pull you out of the approach that isn't working. 

Or, you could just ask the decision-maker why he or she said no.

4. Make it better.
I've never written a piece of perfect copy or created a perfect promo.  I thought I did at the time, but some of my best, most-awarded stuff all have one thing in common...I could have made them better.  Take the feedback from the previous steps and sharpen your creative focus.  Remember, creative is best when it contains one killer idea, not a half-dozen half-baked ones.

5. Shake it off.  Develop a thick shell so that every time you hear a no, those yeses will have more impact.   You have lots of ideas.  Sometimes you take the no and move on...but keep that great, but rejected idea, in your back pocket.  You never know, it may resurface as a good idea six months later.

The world's greatest sales people have developed killer pitches that keep money flowing and clients happy.  Like The Babe, they may not like striking out, but they know that there is always another opportunity coming to hit it out of the park.


--Rich Brase
rich@richideas.net

The 5 Biggest Mistakes Freelancers Make

Freelancing can be a real bear.  Other times, the polar opposite.

You have a great body of work.  You're well respected in the industry.  Everybody loves working with you.  And yet, your freelancing gigs are getting spottier, like jumping from one ice floe to another.  

If it gets any more sparse, you just might fall in and we don't want that now, do we?

Even though you think you're doing everything right, here are five mistakes that are common to freelancers, but are fixable once you recognize them.

1. Resting on your reputation 
You've been there, done that at least a gazillion times.  People should be beating a path to your door, begging you to develop their next campaign.  Well, kimosabe, it may have been like that at one point, but now there's too much competition for the same gigs.  

Your reputation may get you in the door, but what you're doing today is much more important than what you did yesterday.  A good reputation?  Necessary, but not sufficient.

2. Not networking while you're actually working
It's like this: Your client roster is like a bucket full of water.  At the bottom is a tiny hole, out of which water seeps.  On the surface, it doesn't look like anything's wrong, but eventually, all the water's gone and you're left with an empty vessel.  

The moral of this fascinating analogy?  Keep looking for clients and projects while you're busy.

3. Thinking you're too good... or not good enough
Your cockiness or insecurity (two sides of the same coin) always comes through; unfortunately, neither serves you well.  The solution?  Keep focused on the project, searching for solutions, instead of being wrapped up with your and your client's capabilities (or lack thereof).  If you're freelancing in-house, get in sync with the department... yesterday.

4. Not updating your portfolio/keeping up with trends
Man, that campaign for CBS was the talk of the industry... 15 years ago!  And so was that PSA... with Mr. T!  Trouble is, if you don't look current, somebody else does.    Reality follows perception.  I know this is easier said than done, especially when you're trying to show a wide range of capabilities.  

Find a middle ground if you must (and your work dictates), but be aware - clients like to work with people who are working.  And yes, this means understanding the digital landscape.  Your portfolio/reel/website/links should reflect this.

5. Ignoring financial issues
This is a biggie.  If you take on a project with a budget that won't work, or accept a day rate that is unacceptable, chances are, complaining about it won't turn that around.  Be realistic with yourself and your client.

Also, establishing a payment schedule is imperative.  If you ask for 50% up front, for instance, stick to it.  Magical thinking followed by rumination rarely works.

The Promo Code wants you to succeed at every level.  Even when it seems like there are too many freelancers going after too few projects, you must remain engaged, connected and on top of your game, even if you don't feel like it.

And that will keep the odds in your favor; make no mistake about it.

-Ed Roth
edrothshow@gmail.com

Be Your Sales Manager's Best Friend

I'm not an account executive, but I played with them in TV.

Corny (and dated), yes, but a true statement.  I've never worked in a sales department and have never sold anything face-to-face, but I've almost always had undying respect for those co-workers who made the cold calls, took the rejection and still managed to smile through the process of insuring that I got a paycheck every week.

I didn't always feel like that.  I used to get angry.

When I got my first full-time gig as a commercial copywriter at WTOL-TV Toledo Eleven, I made 10K a year and lived above a sporting goods store in Perrysburg, Ohio, while my brother slept on my couch for a full year (although he occasionally got up and went to his job at Shoney's Big Boy).


This was my first job as a writer out of grad school and I loved pretty much every moment of almost four years there.  I wrote dozens of pieces of copy a day from Brondes Ford to Margaret Miller's House of Insurance.   I seldom, if ever, came in contact with the clients.  The AE took my copy, showed the client (who almost always changed it to say they helped write it) and cut the spot at night in between newscasts.

In my naivete, I knew that with a brand, spankin' new master's degree, I had all the talent, did all the work for long hours, yet drove a crappy car home to my crappy apartment while the AE's all drove nice cars home to their nice homes (I assumed they were nicer than mine) and were able to afford to occasionally eat out.

I felt that being a creative person should put me at the top of the broadcast pyramid, not the bottom.  The guy in the mailroom was driving a much better car than I was, so what's up with that?  Never mind that I was 22 and hadn't paid any dues yet.

Even years later, I still remember the names of all the AE's at the station.  A great bunch of sales people, and easy to work with.  Unfortunately, I lived with this resentment until I grew up and became a manager a few years later.  All it took was one of them taking me on a sales call to a particularly difficult client for the light to go on over my head..

How hard could it be?  Show up, talk about how great the station is and get the order.  Know what I found out? What these guys do is hard!  I NEVER want to do this job!

Since then, I've made it a personal mission to give every ounce of cooperation, love and my creative energies to help every account executive who walks into my office.  In fact, I want every AE to know that (short of surrendering my inventory to them), I'll do everything in my power to help land an account, write and produce their spot and help them succeed.

Every person on the creative side should do that, because it's the biggest way we can lend our talents to the common good.  It's also a great way to cement your position inside your company as the ultimate leader and team player, dedicated to improving the bottom line.

Since a large percentage of general managers still come from sales, if your sales manager likes you, your GM will love you.

But, no matter how creative a sales person may be, their brains are usually focused on the best strategy to move  a client's money from his bank account to yours.  As a creative leader, you're always thinking of new and fun ways to do things they never considered.

Pure and simple, you're a great resource.  If you focus on being a great resource to your friendly, neighborhood AE, everybody wins.  They gain a trusted ally and you gain another outlet for your creativity, while helping a client thrive.  It's usually cool creating commercials.

Plus, in a career that will hopefully be long, you'll be seen as an incomparable partner in what has become a fight to the finish.

There's nothing more humbling than representing a good station or company and making dozens of calls to potential clients, only to come up empty.   Even the best AE feels the boot on their butt a lot.

So, don't forget to be a pal.

If nothing else, respect the job's difficulty and embrace the professionals working to keep gas in the tank of your 1971 Plymouth Duster.

I'm sorry, but did that reference date me? 

--Rich Brase
rich@richideas.net

The Path to a Successful Career

Promo isn't exactly your garden-variety career.  Then again, maybe it is.  Let me explain...

A few years back, we were building a garden in the backyard.  Nothing fancy, but more than sod and a few bushes.  Our landscaper was doing the actual work, but we were involved with the planning, or so we thought.

The shrubbery went in, as did the trees, hardscape, watering system and flowers.  Then it came time to place the stepping stones. (I believe they were boquet canyon stones, but I digress.)

It seemed obvious where they should be placed, but the landscaper disagreed.  Instead, he said that in many Japanese gardens, they wait six months to see how the natural path evolves, then they place the stones.  This way, the garden grows into itself based on real-life experience, not what is mandated.

Very cool, I said, just like a Zen Garden, trying to show off the very little I thought I knew of this subject.  No, a Zen Garden is something else, he replied.   I just added it to the list of dumb things I've said. 

Which leads me to today's blog...  Isn't a career in entertainment advertising, or any career for that matter, built the same way?   We choose a direction, but there's no way to know how it's going to play out until real life enters the picture.

More often than not, we end up in areas that we didn't even know about when we set out on our journey, Grasshopper.

So, if there's so much unknown, how does one know if this is the right path?  As far as I can tell, as long as you feel at home with the ideas and the people of a given profession, it's the right one.

Personally, I love the rapport and camaraderie with fellow Promo Sapiens.  I love the concepting, strategizing, writing and producing.  I love when people across the country are familiar with something that was just an idea in my head a week ago.

Sometimes you're creating campaigns while leading a staff at a production company, the next moment freelancing for a network, then off on a multi-platform venture that just may revolutionize the industry,

And sometimes you've left the entertainment industry, but are still using your promo skills as a marcom director for a hospital, a consultant for your favorite non-profit, or even a website writer for your brother's tool-and-die company. 

The secret to your success?  Gotta go with the flow, baby, go with the flow.

Truth is, it's almost impossible that you could have predicted where you are today.  At the risk of beating a dead analogy, you never know what's around the bend.  

So be careful where you place the stones.  They just may get in your way.

Oooommmmm my!
-Ed Roth
edrothshow@gmail.com

Improvement Starts with Improv

I got lucky in 1991 when I went to work in Chicago.  Since I was a college student, I had wanted to live there, so when the NBC-owned station there offered me a great position, it was a dream come true.   I was a big city kid, having grown up in New York, and had lived in the south and midwest, but was just not prepared for what I found at what I feel is the funniest city in America.

But this isn't about work.  It's about how my life changed when I attended my first improv class.

Chicago is the Mecca of improvisational theater--with The Second City and ImprovOlympic as the real hot spots for this kind of comedy.  Who knew that they offered classes to schmucks like me?

I had been going to Second City since 1975, so when I got to Chicago, one of the first things I did was to head to 1616 North Wells for their latest review, which included Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris.

Not too shabby, but those three will never amount to anything!

My training at the Players Workshop of The Second City took me and my 18 classmates from all possible levels of proficiency for one full year, and culminated with a "best of" show of our best classroom bits on a Sunday morning in front of a hundred or so of family and friends...on the Second City main stage.

If you've never been there, it's a small, non-descript black box holding 290 souls jammed together around bar tables barely large enough to hold an over-priced Old Style.

But the impact of performing on that stage, albeit only once, that once held Belushi, Carell, Colbert and dozens of other greats over the (now 50) years was too much to grasp.  That superficial delight was only the beginning of how learning improv changed my life.

(with the hilarious Karl Armbruster and Frank Payne above)

Being "in the moment" is great, but beware Tourette-like spontaneity in your job.  I was so full of confidence and amped-up at being interviewed for Electronic Media magazine, that I tried to be funny by describing a recent presentation by Warmer Bros. derisively as a "puppet show." 

I am so funny!!! (or so I thought)

Note to self:  when the whole company is behind the show, "Extra," and Warner Bros. is the main supplier of product to your parent company (the one paying your substantial salary), it's best to just say "what a great show.  Best presentation ever" than to try to be "in the moment."

The article came out in the trades with my quote and, after a gentle spanking by both the general manager and head of the division, life went on without too much drama.

But, my general manager at the time, Pat Wallace, had a word or two of advice for me..."put your mouth on a seven second delay from your brain."  Good advice that I take with me everywhere today.


I've made many local stage performances and tons of speeches before different groups, but my confidence took a quantum leap forward when I started taking classes in improv.

You can take improv classes now in any city from Jupiter to Stockton.  It may not seem as great as having four lines in a production of Our Town with the "Open Pants Players" but there's something invigorating about full-contact improv, with other strangers, who are just as nervous as you.

One of my classmates was an accountant, one a physical therapist, one delivered pizzas, one was retired military and a few were aspiring comedians.  

Learning improvisational theater teaches you how to move, support others on stage, react quickly to things and ultimately to be "in the moment" and fearless.  You'll build confidence, work better with people and, ultimately, have more fun than the law allows.  It may just improve your ability to do your job.  If you take only a few classes or a study for a whole year, learning improv will only help you get by in your work and personal life, and you'll meet some great people...especially a funny accountant.

I read a survey that said that 80% of Americans would rather have surgery than speak in front of a large group.  Well, I've had surgery and I don't know why anyone would ever say that.

I never had to be catheterized after a speech and I never had to miss a week of work after speaking in front of Rotary. 

You think Steve Carell would rather have his gall bladder out rather than talk to Letterman?

You may not want to become the next Burt Wonderstone, but it beats having to lose a gall bladder or your job.  Just try not to be too full of yourself if a national magazine wants a quote.  Your boss reads everything.

--Rich Brase
redrich24@yahoo.com
richideas.net