Hey all, I have what I think is a unique crossroads and would love some advice.About 4.5 years ago I took what was a side hobby in teaching myself graphic design on an accidental path to a career. What started out as attempting to create a portfolio turned into a passion and small to moderate amounts of success. I barely knew enough to hobble together deliverables at the start and now I’m currently considered a mash of many things but a Creative Director with my own clients and a senior art director at agencies. It’s been a wild ride and have admirable projects and even more importantly great client relationships where 2 clients have grown with me (and even helped make my career).I have been living the life as a freelancer sorta under the radar, yet I feel my best when I’m challenging myself and growing/learning and even leading. While working at an agency last year I met some older experienced advertising senior VP creative directors who have recently started their own and I happily joined to freelance for them when I can with other designers/talent. We are currently working on a project for one of my clients together and it’s a tricky path (project for a restaurant group client with 5+ brick and mortars in downtown area of a large city) I have less experience than the two owners in advertising but I have more experience handling clients directly and have pretty solid instincts. They want to use my portfolio, my leads, and my general know how to help get clients but I’m having trouble feeling heard. They initially thought that if I were to bring in business it would exist on a bonus structure (lol, no) but are starting to warm up to the idea of a net profit share. FWIW I’m 33 (female) and I would guess they’re somewhere in their late 50’s (men) and the agency is about 2-3 months old.Current observations: there are a lot of struggles with them thinking outside the average agency “box,” struggles with thinking about the client perspective and experience, difficulty with taking in (possibly just my) feedback, and sometimes a lack of emotional IQ (jumping to shut down ideas instead of nurturing or even asking for reactions).So there’s several questions here. A) Is there a way to help bridge the gap, whether it be age, experience, etc that allows my (or other younger talent they are also not listing to, I.e. a recent female college grad’s views on social media) feedback to be better heard? B) Is it worth trying to continue this path? I am capable of creating my own but it seems smarter to partner with people who have oppositional talents (one is a writer, both have lots more experience, etc). They have expressed a want to have me run the business in time and I’m here for that opportunity assuming it’s a success. C) What would be a fair ask as far as compensation for leads I would be the lead creative on, brought in with my strategies, my leads, etc ? D) Some of observed possible issues are based off of entrepreneur naïveté, is it possible they will grow more willing with time to hear other perspectives?I know this is long but any perspective and reactions are helpful! see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
0 comments:
Post a Comment