Doing something I love
As I still can’t believe people pay me to do this.
Twenty-five years ago, there was no email, no Internet – just snail mail and the occasional fax. Computers weren’t used for graphic design: Print ads and brochures were laid out on physical boards, sometimes with hand-drawn illustrations, and type was added in waxed strips by hand. Nothing was digital, everything was archived in huge flat files. TV spots were shot on 2-inch video or film, which had to be developed and color-corrected in Dallas.
Things have certainly changed, but one thing hasn’t: It’s still about the people. Since 1989, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazingly talented people. I used to say, “I work with these people to do marketing.” Now I say, “I do marketing to work with these people.”
We started as Williams Public Relations, and our clients hired us to do the same thing they hire us to do today: think strategically about opportunities and problems and help them achieve their goals.
Along the way, we added advertising, graphic design, video, online/digital/website and social media capabilities, and became Williams Creative Group.
Tabasco asked us to help work with chefs and restaurants, to create more use of Tabasco on the table and on the menu. The Louisiana Office of Tourism, a 20-year client, asked us to help recruit visitors to Louisiana. The Strand Theatre has been a client for almost 20 years, as has CHRISTUS. I even had the pleasure of working with the legendary Orson Welles for a client!
If it’s not the right fit for us for any reason, we turn the business down.
That’s one of the advantages of owning your own business – we can say “no” to anything that doesn’t match our ethics or passion.
What’s changed the most?
Probably the way we engage with people. In the “Mad Men” Don Draper day, it was all about persuading someone. Today it’s about engaging people, connecting with them where they are and with what they want. How can we learn from people, how do we listen to what people want and communicate in a meaningful way? How do we help our clients succeed, not just by selling more of their product or service but by listening and responding to what customers and clients want?
Along the way, there are some things I wish I’d known before I started.
• Talent is no substitute for passion.
Passion will take you a great deal farther than a lot of talent but no drive. You don’t have to be naturally great at what you do, you just have to care more and you’ll do a great job.
• Money isn’t everything.
Take clients/work you feel passionate about. If you’re in it just for the money, find something else to do. This is your life. Make it matter.
• Ethics first.
Nothing is more important. If there are ethics concerns in what you do, run the other way. Resign the client. Don’t do the work. This one is worth starving to death for. You’ll never be sorry you took the high road.
• Do it because it’s right. Period.
• Employees aren’t forever.
Enjoy working with them while they’re there, help them to achieve their goals, let go of the ones who aren’t working.
• Control less, let it happen more.
We perfectionists think we can do everything better. It’s not true. Let people make mistakes. Do it their way. Just be the safety net under people so no one falls too hard.
We love our clients, who they are and what they do, so it’s a pleasure and an honor to represent them.
• It’s OK to want a life.
Most people do. Work hard, spend the hours it takes to get it done, then drop it at the door when you go home.
• The interruptions are important.
• Recognize why problem people are in your life.
They’re here to teach you, and you them. When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
• Make your work meaningful.
Everything you do can be meaningful, spiritual, a gift to the world or to others around you. Focus on it, make it important, give it all your attention.
• Savor the good times, ride out the bad.
Everything is a cycle. You’ll be up, and you’ll be down. Don’t attach your identity to either one.
•Persevere.
If you fail, you just fail. You don’t die. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, keep going.
•Give away what you want.
It will come back to you. Maybe not immediately or in that form, but it will.
• Have fun!
• Make a difference in the world. Right where you are.
I’m the luckiest person in the world to have worked for 25 years with the most amazing people: my husband Michael, my business partner Francesca Benten Moreland, and with the talented Ron Viskozki, Kelly Simpson, Heather Delia, Aaron Martin, Pat Viser and Elizabeth Kerry, and so many others who’ve graced my path and blessed my life.
You’ve all taught me that 25 years is just the blink of an eye, that the best is always yet to come, that each day is a gift.
Judy Williams is the president of Williams Creative Group, a marketing/public relations general counseling firm in Northwest Louisiana.
