5 Ways Agency Leaders Can Get Back Their Creative Mojo

Remember when you started in advertising, marketing, PR, or production? It was all about being creative. The creative ideas, the ads, the TV commercials, the videos, the campaigns, and the events.

You were going to change the world with your ideas, weren’t you?

And if you’ve been tenacious and lucky enough over the years, then you probably have, to some extent.

But at some point you got bumped to a managerial role. Now you had to split your focus between being creative (the very reason you got into all this) and making sure the people working under you were being creative, productive, on time, and happy.

You spent as much time helping your team solve their problems as your own and more time debating over the value or non-value of an idea as you did with your boss, the accounts team, and the client.

You found yourself in a two-front war, and history dictates that a two-front war is very hard to win — at least not without earning some battle scars.

You got a bit jaded. Just a little.

So maybe at some point you started out on your own so nobody could tell you what to do anymore. You were going to be the boss and not have to make changes for anyone anymore — except the client.

You took a few clients with you. Then, more clients signed on. They required more of your time, so you added people. These new hires took over all the responsibilities you used to do, including the creative.

You focused on the big picture things like power lunches, overseeing the vision of the company, weekly meetings, and client acquisition You “looked over” everything as it went out, but you didn’t fight the little things anymore. You had hired new versions of you to do that.

You were the general in the tent, behind the front lines, making sure everything ran smoothly.

But who are we kidding? Nothing runs smoothly. Ever. Clients are needy, as they should be, and they needed you to fulfill those needs. So you spent your time putting out fires, starting new ones, hiring new employees, firing crappy ones, settling conflicts, keeping an eye on new trends, and reviewing expenses, payables, receivables, and all the other fun things that make a business profitable.

You started to wonder if the work was good enough. The clients seemed happy, as far as clients go. We both know they’ll never tell you they’re really happy for fear you won’t work as hard.

But even though the clients were happy and your team seemed happy, there seemed to be something missing. The ideas going out weren’t your’s anymore. You had people for that, and that’s the way it had to be. You spent more time worrying about positioning, the bottom line, and outflanking the competition. And the more you worried about these things, the less focused you became.

Your agency grew, the clients kept coming, but maybe you were becoming like everyone else. What made your agency stand out anymore?

There was something missing. You were missing.

You lost your mojo, got too caught up in the game, flew too close to the sun, and even though it felt really good at the time, you developed a sense of impending free fall, and as the wax melted, you knew you would come crashing to Earth.

Now you have to be creative in a new way. The old you and the new you have to work together. You’ve learned that having a creative vision for your agency is different than creating creative ideas for an online video campaign.

So, can you run an agency and be creative? Yes.

Is it easy? No.

1. Change Your Attitude

Get your swagger back. Remember what it was that got you started. Remember what it felt like to have strong opinions, not jaded by years of experience. Refuse to see barriers in front of you, or walk right through them.

Advertising should be fun, and marketing should be fun, and PR should be fun, and production should be fun, and working with clients should be fun. If you’re walking around all stressed out, that’s the attitude that will trickle down and out.

You’re in a fun industry. Take advantage of that. Most people don’t like what they do. Remind yourself that you do like what you do.

2. Be Fearless

Look at the competition. Don’t be afraid that something they’ve done might be better than what you’ve done. Look at their websites and social media channels. Look at their client list. Do they have a better website? More followers? Better clients?

Crush them.

Turn that fear and avoidance into anger and bitterness, like you did back when you started. Use it to your advantage, rally the troops or “once more into the breach lads,” and all that.

If not fearful, your creativity becomes complacent inside of you. It gives in too easily. It does what clients want your team to do without pushing back. It’s easier that way.

Except, except, your clients hired you and your agency to do something they don’t know how to do which is get attention, and sometimes that means taking chances, pushing limits, and having no fear.

3. Get Organized

Learn to divide your time, focus, and responsibilities. Develop the ability to switch the different parts of your creativity on and off, and rather than juggle them, prioritize them. Take them on one at a time. That’s how each effort will receive 100% of your attention.

A juggler does one thing well. He juggles. You have to do more than that.

4. Trust Your Team

You hired them for a reason. Let them do their jobs, but remember you’re still the captain of the ship. If the ship blows off course or runs aground, you walk the plank, not them.

(OK, I’m not completely sure that they make the captains of ships that run aground walk the plank. And if they did, they’d land in the sand or in shallow water, because the ship ran aground, but they still could get eaten by sharks, unless they fixed the ship first and put out to sea and waited until they were at an acceptable depth for plank walking.)

No metaphor there. Just working out the logistics.

5. Listen to New Music and Read More

Have you ever seen an elderly person walk around humming songs from the '40s? It’s because that’s when they stopped listening to new music. They have the same mix tapes spinning around in their heads year after year.

That’s what’s happening to your creativity.

Expose yourself to new styles, not just new music that sounds like the old music.

You don’t have to like every new style that comes along, but listen to it, understand it, know where it comes from, and what it means to the generations that love it. These songs will be their classics, and if they don't read this article, 80 years from now, they’ll be stumbling around humming Miley Cyrus.

Read more. See what’s going on out there. Things are moving fast, and even though you have a “team on it,” you need to know about as well.

Subscribe to as many advertising and marketing blogs as your inbox can handle, along with a healthy dose of pop culture.

And every once in a while, think back on where you came from, and where you are, and smile. Even if you don’t feel like it.