5 Must-Read Books for Owners of Ad Agencies
As an ad agency owner, you’ve most likely read libraries of leadership guides, books on art direction and copywriting and all of the industry classics, including:
Bill Bernbach's Book: A History of Advertising That Changed the History of Advertising;
And Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan.
Among these classics lie hidden gems that can transform your leadership abilities and your ad agency.
Here are five that can start making a difference today.
Creative Mischief by Dave Trott
Dave Trott is a legendary adman whose agency, GGT, was voted Agency of The Year by Campaign magazine and Most Creative Agency in the World by AdAge. If you haven’t heard of him, check out his blog immediately (after reading this post, of course). Every article is a master class in advertising
Even better, get his book Creative Mischief. Filled with stories, humor and spot-on advice, Trott’s book shows every agency owner what he or she should – and shouldn’t – do.
Reading the book is like sitting in a pub and listening to the world’s most interesting storyteller.
Following are just a few of Trott’s words of wisdom, favorite quotes and best stories.
Words of Wisdom
Rules are meant to be a springboard, not a straightjacket. The floor, not the ceiling.
Always believe you’re the underdog.
Judge work not by “I like it” or “I don’t like it,” but with, “This works because.”
You can make a choice: Be right, but dull or be wrong but interesting. I say go for interesting every time. A woman doesn’t want Mr. Right. She wants Mr. Interesting. In the pub, who do you want to listen to? The bloke who’s always right or the bloke who’s always interesting?
Favorite Quotes
How do you beat someone who’s better than you? That’s creative thinking. As Maurice Saatchi used to say, “I don’t have to win. I just have to make you lose.”
”Act. Don’t react.”
— Buddha
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.”
— Democritus:
Best Stories
Two Zen monks were walking alongside a river. A woman is standing there crying. The older monk asks what the problem is. She says, “I need to cross the river, but, if I do, I’ll ruin my kimono.” The older monk says, “Hop on my back.” And he carriers her across, and puts her down. The younger monk is furious, and for hours the two monks walk on in silence. All day he rages inwardly, until at sunset he can’t stand it anymore. He turns to the older monk and says, “You broke the rules that says we aren’t supposed to have anything to do with women.” The older monk says, “I left her at the river. “You’re still carrying her.”
Suppose you are a doctor. A man comes to see you and he’s limping, you examine him and you say you’ve got a broken leg. He says, “I don’t want a broken leg.” You say you understand but you still have a broken leg. He says he’s the patient and I don’t think I’ve got a broken leg. I think I’ve got a sprained ankle. You say well I’m the doctor. I’ve seen lots of these, and you’ve got a broken leg. He says, you may be the doctor but it’s my body and I think I know it better than you. So when I say I’ve got a sprained ankle, that’s what I’ve got. He says, I’ve told you the problem I want fixed. Now you can either fix it for me or I can go down the road to another doctor and him to fix my sprained ankle. What do you do? If you’re in advertising, you treat him for a sprained ankle and take the money.
What Great Brands Do by Denise Lee Yohn
Denise Lee Yohn served as lead strategist at advertising agencies for Burger King, Land Rover and Unilever before becoming the head of Sony Electronic Inc.’s first brand office. Now, in addition to being a bestselling author, Denise is a brand leadership expert and business keynote speaker.
In What Great Brands Do, Denise identifies the seven key principles behind the world’s top brands. More importantly, she clearly demonstrates how business can repeat these principles to achieve success. This book is a must-read if your agency works with your clients on branding or re-branding.
Key Takeaways
Simply put, your brand is what your company does and how you do it. Your brand is not what you say you are. It’s what you do.
Selling emotion triumphs over selling products.
We make our purchase decisions based on how products promise to make us feel.
You want your brand to be tattoo worthy. Or you want to ask yourself why it isn’t.
The customer is not always right. Onlythe right customers are always right.
If you stand for something, some people will love you and some will hate you, but the ones that love you will buy your brand and be willing to pay a premium for it.
Brand building trumps branding.
If you don’t develop greatness among your employees, your employees are unlikely to deliver greatness to your customers.
What Great Brands Do
Great brands put culture first.
Great brands avoid selling products.
Great brands know that if you try to be all things to all people, you’ll never connect deeply with anyone.
Great brands ignore trends. The goal is to understand the role of your brand in people’s lives and in broader culture and then anticipate how that role can, will or should change.
Great brands actually connect their internal brand culture to larger cultural movements to establish authentic relevance and deeper emotional connections. For example, Zappos mission is to “wow” customers. Southwest “make flying fun.” Chipotle “sustainable food.”
Great brands are purposeful in everything they do.
Great brands seek out opportunities for brand expression in even the finest details of execution.
And something every business owner needs to remember: Great brands don't become great brands overnight.
The Like Switch by Jack Schafer
Written by a former FBI Special Agent, The Like Switch delivers proven strategies to help you turn strangers into friends – perfect tactics for pitching new clients. The author, Dr. Jack Schafer, shows you how to spot lies, master nonverbal cues and make great first impressions.
Essential Tips for In-person Interactions
For you to be seen as likeable:
Flash your eyebrows
Tilt your head
Show a real smile
Mirroring creates a favorable impression in the mind of the person you are mirroring
A lip purse signals disagreement. If you see it, try to change someone’s mind before they articulate their opposition because once said out loud it’s harder to change their minds.
Give people the illusion of choice to make them feel in control. For example, do you like blue cars or red cars?
Giving to Others Makes You More Likable
Law of Reciprocity: If you give someone something, then they are predisposed to return the gesture. For example, that’s why charities give out free mailing labels when asking for a donation.
Asking people to do you a favor makes them feel good about themselves … and then they’ll like you more because they’ll associate you with the feeling of feeling good about themselves
Golden Rule of Friendship: If you make people feel good about themselves, they will like you and want to be with you to experience that same feeling again.
Empathy is one of the most effective techniques for shaping successful relationships.
If you want people to like you, make them feel good about themselves.
Relevant Quotes
People will forget what you said, forget what you did, but will never forget how you made them feel.
— Maya Angelou
Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
— Dale Carnegie
You make more friends by becoming interested in other people instead of trying to get people interested in you.
— Dale Carnegie
If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.
— Zig Ziglar
Becoming the Boss by Lindsey Pollak
Written for Gen Y readers, Becoming the Boss has relevant advice and specific actions that apply to leaders of any age. Author Lindsey Pollack draws inspiration from leaderships experts – “Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.“ (Peter Drucker) “Good is the enemy of great.” (Jim Collins) “Begin with the end in mind.” (Stephen Ivey) – but then delivers ideas for how to bring leadership into the modern world.
How to Best Use Twitter
Follow leaders in your industry, clients, potential clients, competition, reporters in your industry, follow people the above people follow.
Be a conversationalist, not a self-promoter.
Be consistent.
Tweet out articles you are reading … and add a few words of your own commentary.
React to other Tweets to show you’re listening … re-Tweet, comment (it’s about having a conversation)
Use technology, such as Bufferapp.com, to schedule Tweets
What to Say and What Not to Say
“We” is one of the most powerful words in your leadership vocabulary
When speaking, eliminate clichés and filler words like: “ums,” “like,” “kinda,” “just,” “actually,” “almost.”
Encourage excellence by telling your team, “Make it as awesome as you want.”
How to Motivate Your Team and Gain Confidence
Random, unplanned perks can be fantastically motivating
If you want to be a better motivator, continually educate your staff on your big goals and how each person is helping to accomplish them.
Lack of open, honest communication topped the list of issues that can erode staff morale.
Transparency is an essential law of management for today’s leaders.
As a leader, you are the grown up in charge.
You need to decide to be the best. You can’t just wait and hope that you rise to the top. You intentionally choose to go for it.
Decide to be great.
The trend of customization is going to grow only stronger in the future: Have to customize solutions for clients and employees.
Do Nothing by J Keith Murnigham
In Do Nothing, J Keith Murnigham describes this scenario: “Imagine you’ve just come back to work after a two-week vacation during which you actually relaxed, without calling in or checking e-mail. You discover that there are no pressing issues and that, on the contrary, your team scored a big new customer and fixed a nagging problem during your absence. No red flags or fires to put out.”
The reality for most leaders though is that they constantly oversee their businesses – even when they’re on vacation. Murnigham makes a case that a “do nothing” leadership style is not only possible, but also more effective than doing too much.
Why This Approach Works
Effective teams work like a vacuum: When chances to excel appear, people want to fill them. They may not do things the way you would do them, but they will get results you never expected.
The key insight here is simple: You will be a more effective leader if, rather than doing the work yourself, you let other people do it. In other words, stop working and start leading.
If you can let team members work on jobs that they can do, they will feel better about what they are doing, they will grow and do more and you will be able to do other things.
By not letting people do their jobs, on their own, leaders don’t let their team members feel proud of what they can do.
Teams can benefit enormously when leaders have high, positive expectations.
What Should Leaders Do?
Successful leaders must shift gears and do less of what they used to do even though they were good at it.
Your team is looking to you to think big thoughts and orchestrate the big issues. They want you to use broad brushstrokes rather than focusing on details – even if you are really good at being a detail person.
Leaders don’t do anything except think and make key decisions, help people do their jobs better and add a touch of organizational control to make sure the final recipes come out ok. Leaders who are too busy working, doing a job, can’t do these things – and their teams suffer.
If you can get yourself to do nothing, you will find that your team members will grow as a team and you will grow as a leader.
Effective leaders facilitate, orchestrate and make sure they job gets done, but they don’t impose or micromanage.
If you do nothing, what will you do:
Plan for the future
Have high expectations – expect a lot from your people
Focus you attention on your team members because these are the people you need to be successful
Effective leaders must be aware of their ultimate goals all the time and all actions every day must be designed to achieve their goals.
Great leadership is not possible without trust. Your team members won’t trust you unless you trust them. Trust more.
People want two things from a leader: support and respect.
Leaders need to be like movie directors: let everyone do their jobs; you focus on the big picture.
Ready to spend more time focusing on the big picture for your ad agency?
Let the elite copywriters at Copy Rocket help. Contact us today.
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