Last weekend, a friend of mine and I attempted to bike from Minneapolis to Duluth. It’s a distance of 163 miles and the longest bike ride I had done previously was a 20-miler, and that was four years prior. Read last week’s post for some fun details, but this week, we’ll cover what I learned from said experience.

#1 – Be prepared. It’s good to be optimistic and even a bit spontaneous, but it’s better to know what the hell you’re getting yourself into.
#2 – Sometimes, you have to muscle your …

I went on a little bike ride this weekend with a friend of mine named Reuben. The plan was to bike from Minneapolis to North Branch, which is about 50 miles away. The next morning, we’d trek another 113 miles and make it to Duluth by nightfall where his wife, who was already there visiting family, would pick us up and drive us home. The furthest I’d ever biked before this was 20 miles and that was one time four years ago. But I wasn’t scared. Why? Because we had …

A big, well known brand recently produced a couple spots spoofing, or leveraging their competitors work for their own concept. In essence going after the big dog in the category. Even if done well, I think this strategy can have more negative than positive effects.
Many years ago I did a body building contest on a dare. Before going out on stage for the side by side part of the competition an experienced friend told me, “People will come pose next to you to show how they stack up to you. …

In my short time in advertising this is what I’ve learned:

Always be positive
Offer up ideas on stuff you’re not assigned to, you never know what might happen
Don’t drink too much at the office party and get into an argument with a
co-worker especially if you’re an intern
If you don’t know someone’s name, just smile, don’t just look down in passing
Participate in office activities, even if you …

As I was waiting for the bus and checking updates on Twitter and Facebook, I noticed almost everyone else at the bus were on some sort of smart phone, I’m guessing doing the same. I started to think, what the hell did we do before all of this?
Did people actually talk to people at the bus stop? How did they pass the time when they missed a bus? They didn’t have Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram, email access or even multiple new sources to check. Did they strike up conversation? …

I’ve been riding a skateboard for about half of my life so far. I’ve never really progressed beyond the talent of a casual skater, but it’s been a hobby I enjoy and I don’t mind (too much) that the 12-year-olds are doing tricks now that I won’t even dream about. Despite my unimpressive skills, I’m still glad I never slipped into the role of crybaby hardcore skater. If you’ve hung out with skate crews, you know who I’m talking about – the guy who throws a tantrum when he can’t …

“The difference between Bach and his forgotten peers isn’t necessarily that he had a better ratio of hits to misses.  The difference is that the mediocre might have a dozen ideas, while Bach, in his lifetime, created more than a thousand full-fledged musical compositions.  A genius is a genius, Simonton maintains, because he can put together such a staggering number of insights, ideas, theories, random observations, and unexpected connections that he almost inevitably ends up with something great.  ‘Quality,’ Simonton writes, is ‘a probabilistic function of quantity.’”
-“Creation Myth” by Malcom …

I apologize in advance that this post may come off as a bit critical or nagging, but something needs to be said.
(Fictitious scenario based on years of actual events) The routine is quite familiar. This Art Director and I are assigned to come up with some amazing concepts for a difficult brand. No biggie – the task isn’t daunting because, after all, we’re brilliant! When its time to get to work, we find a quiet room in the agency or take a walk to the park if the weather’s not …

My first agency was a small-ish interactive shop in Salt Lake City (that merged with a design shop in town a few months after my arrival, making it an interactive/design shop) called StruckAxiom. Steve Driggs, on of my ECDs there, taught me several very valuable lessons while I was working with him. I think the most important was something I’ve heard from many instructors in the past, as well as other luminaries and doers in the annals of history. (He, he – he said “annals.”)
The genius message: Make it happen.
Everyone …

I’m 23 years old and a year out of college this May. I work a full-time job in New York City in the exact field I majored in, advertising, doing the exact job that I went into college to get, copywriting. I graduated on time in four wonderful years from a public university and didn’t take any time off to travel or “find myself” post-graduation. In almost every way, I did exactly what everyone has always told me I was supposed to do. However, I, like …