2023: a(n) [adjective] Mad Lib

DYJ 3.0

The [corporate title] from [partner] called, asking if we would be [verb] to cut of a [body part] in order to [action verb] adoption of their [adjective] [product]. Using AI and [tech noun] this [partner] aims to disrupt the ever-evolving [noun] ecosystem.

Did we all share this experience or was it just me?

Leading #innovation for the largest media agency in North America - OMD USA -means I get a lot of these calls, and I always answer - the first time. Historically, I framed my meeting goals with one word, "unique." I'm looking to see what unique data, inventory, access, or capability is coming through the door. This year, even that wasn't enough. I sought out new filters, I read a lot, and I listened to and trusted myself more.

In Steven Pressfield’s, The War of Art, he rattled my brain with one point in particular. “The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.” Read that again. Try not to sigh.?But if you filled in the Mad Lib above, you know that every interaction can feel important, but that's urgency in disguise.

Over the last 6 months since Cannes, I've been taking clients and OMD offices through a "walk the work," where we examine the best of the best cases at hyperspeed. This isn't an urgent meeting. Inspiration and innovation can take a back seat to urgency. I'm challenging everyone to think differently in 2024. Identify importance, then prioritize it. For the "walk the work," I've consistently started this meeting with a reminder. Storytelling, by word of mouth, text, or visual is engrained into our DNA. Great stories make us think and feel, they create connections, and they have human intention behind them. Those are foundational, important aspects of being a professional marketer.

This edition of DYJ focuses on the importance of the important.? Buckle up, Bucko, you’re in for a ride and may not love it. I didn’t love writing this one, but it was important.

I started writing a novel in 2004 and haven’t finished it. Why? Because I don’t have to finish it.? But at the same time, I know I HAVE TO FINISH IT.? It’s been asking me to write it for nearly two decades.? I’ve written a total of zero pages in the last 5 years.? I buried it away in a Google Drive folder aptly titled, “Dumb Novel.”

But here I am, writing about the writing I haven’t done.? So why haven’t I done it? It’s not my job.? It’s not even my favorite hobby.? Its torture. Instead, I’ve been reading a lot lately, and I firmly believe that good writers read, but great writers write.?

Marketers show up every day and put out figurative fires, go toe to toe with our competition, win big for our clients, and take as much pride as anyone in our craft.? We get to the best of ourselves after countless revisions, optimizations, and pivots. I realize that this sounds like a marketer marketing the toiling life of a marketer.? But ask anyone inside of this world and they’ll agree! The work is important.? We’re not saving lives (at least not directly), but we are saving livelihoods.? There are millions of us.?

Millions of us operate in a state of urgency, not a state of importance.? The work with the deadlines drives us all into a state of urgency.? But, your important work is the thing that keeps you coming back every day. ???According to the Journal of Consumer Research, we have “a tendency to pursue urgency over importance even when these normative reasons are controlled for. … people are more likely to perform unimportant tasks (i.e., tasks with objectively lower payoffs) over important tasks (i.e., tasks with objectively better payoffs).”? What does that mean?? It means that mere urgency has us choosing objectively worse options over objectively better options. ?It’s our job to stop this lunacy.? That’s f’ing crazy. Don’t do that. The movie of your life will be a neverending rerun.

Instead, start by identifying what is stopping you from prioritizing the important work.? Here’s the catch: you can’t externalize the roadblock.? Before we keep going, did you buckle up as I asked? Now would be a good time to do so because the roadblock is a you thing.? Not a them thing.? Look inward.

I’ve done this exercise.? It’s hard, anxiety-inducing at times, painful often, but well worth it.? It will be very hard to stay inward, but you must.? #yoda

If you’re a fireman, well, urgent and important may be one and the same.? If you’re a marketer, a salesperson, a publisher, or a brand manager, let’s take a beat and realize that we are the ones with control over urgency.? All of us together make the rules.? We light the fires and then complain about the heat.? We’ve created a culture of urgency, not a culture of importance.? And that is a problem.? Because DYJ is all about finding importance in your work and prioritizing your job to be done.? There is a time and a place for urgency – but that time isn’t always and the place isn’t right here.? To be clear, I’m not talking about being agile.? I’m not talking about being reactive.? I’m strictly stating that it is all our job to focus on what is important.? And that must come from within to impact those around us most effectively.

This is Imposter Syndrome 2.0.? In my journey to importance prioritization, I found myself in the Swamp of Sadness trying to pull that dumb novel out of the mud… “Artax!”?? But it is not the novel that put me on this path, it’s my work. For me, uncovering the coolest, longest-lasting work that empowers me, provides real autonomy, and gives me the right to choose my path instead of it being chosen for me, is how I define important.? I believe we all fear discovering that we are more than we think we are.? We appreciate certain decisions being made for us.? From the mundane, “what’s for dinner,” to the inspired, “what’s next,” we often rely on others to define our important choices.? I’ve managed people for a long time, and I’m in awe of how many folks don’t realize that we are better than we believe we can be.? That becomes a problem as our self-importance can rub off on those making our decisions.? Suddenly we’re not getting the gig we wanted, we’re not being rewarded for some accomplishment, we’re stagnant. ?

If our job is to define what is important, we must pass through the cloud of fear that keeps us from realizing it. I like quotes.? I like using other ideas to fuel my own.? So here are a few quotes from people smarter than me and how I have used them to break through the membrane:

1.????? “If you do not feel you’re important, knock that shit off. You are.” – Superman.? I thought the man of steel was saying the quiet part out loud.? But then I realized that for many, this is a reality.? You cannot define important unless you agree that your look inward validates you first.

2.???? “We have two lives, the second begins when we realize we only have one.” -Confucius.? If it’s not important to you, it’s not important.? It’s never too late to decide who would play you in the movie of your life. Don't let it be a rerun.? I would be played by Animal, the drums Muppet.

3.???? Inspiration is a conduit to defining what is important every day.? Faulkner once said, “I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at 9am.”? Just start with what you know, and soon enough, your list will take a new shape and you’ll have your day prioritized. In a previous DYJ I mentioned, “eat that frog,” and I still believe in that premise.? Hard things are often really important.

Last quote:

4.??? “...the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation… Both are illusions.” – Eckhart Tolle (super weird guy, but he says some good stuff).? Said another way, nothing is more important than what is real. Reality only exists in the moment.? It’s your job to find importance in the now.

See, wasn’t this so much fun?? I’m sorry, but also, I’m not sorry.? Do your job. Stop focusing on what’s urgent, start focusing on what’s important.

So, while I may not be treating the novel with the care and time that it would like, it just isn’t as important as the many jobs I’m accountable for each day.? But it is important.

[Agency Exec] decided to focus on [noun] because he knows it is [adjective].

Cheers to a challenging 2023 and a 2024 of accomplishing our important jobs. You may unbuckle now. I hope you didn’t hate the ride.

Thank you for reading, your biggest fan,

Luke

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