Illustrator: Bailey Bremmers (Design Apprentice)

I love to compare my life to chapters in a book. I am a strong believer that we have the power to change, invent, write, and rewrite the stories of our lives as we move precariously through them. Each decision you make, or page you flip, can change the way your story reads.

Last year, I opened and closed a very big chapter of my life. One with many stories, some short and sweet, some drawn out with words scribbled in the margins, and some with sentences left unfinished. I thought of each country I traveled to in my six months of backpacking through Africa and Asia as stories within the chapters, within my life. Once I returned home, I had to start a new chapter.

Chapter 23: Start A Career

I spent a few weeks after returning home trying to adjust to everyday life. I woke up one morning and realized that I had been reluctantly looking for a job without a clear idea of what path I wanted to take. I found that when people asked me those typically daunting questions like “What do you want to do with your life?”, “What’s your passion?”, and the worst: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”, the only word that came to mind was travel. But of course, this was the answer! I had just backpacked through beaches and jungles, seen the Serengeti and Victoria Falls. I jumped out of an airplane over the desert in Namibia and climbed an active volcano in Indonesia. I had accomplished all these terrifying and exhilarating things, but stood among the rest of my generation perplexed by the idea of what was on the horizon.

I was at a loss for defining my ‘dream job’, struggling to translate my enthusiasm for travel and creativity into a respectable career and feeling discouraged by my fashion major, which no longer felt like my passion. I turned to a trusted confidante who has always been able to unscramble the complexities of my mind and the answer was there all along: my minor in marketing could help me jumpstart my career in advertising, an industry laced with creativity and inspiration from the outside world. I was no longer confused, but driven to start the rest of my life. When building my portfolio, I realized that I was able to use my experiences to show my strengths. I am able to pull design concepts from the memories of fresh fruits and handmade crafts spotted along my travels, face a new client with confidence as a result of the array of personalities I have encountered, and react quickly under pressure when things don’t go as planned. My experience and knowledge of photography and film set me apart. Grip was ready for me. With a combination of networking and persistence, I landed a spot as the Social Content Apprentice!

Now I realize that the experiences I had are mine to draw upon for inspiration in work and everyday life. I believe that travel opens your eyes and changes the way you look at every situation. I now dive freely into everything I do. I have fears, but they don’t hold me back. I thrive on adventure and exploring the unknown. I can easily adapt to people and places around me. I paint my experiences in the brightest light I can, no matter how dark they might seem. I have developed an eye for detail, and when everyone is looking right, I am looking left, and photographing it while I’m at it. My experiences are meant to drive my creativity; my story is filled with colourful moments.

It is essential for me to have those experiences being reflected in everything I do. I strongly believe the greatest education comes from travel. So I challenge you to strengthen your skills by treating every day as an adventure. Rediscover the beautiful city we live in, get lost and find yourself in a new adventure, keep your eyes wide and uncover the small beauties in the most unexpected places. You never know where inspiration lives. This is the start of a new chapter for me, and I am thrilled to have Grip be my first destination.

Illustrator: Ihar Turtsou

When it comes to advertising, I’d like to think of myself as a two-year-old, because I have only been in this industry for two years. Each year of my advertising life has changed my perception of this industry in some way and each year will continue to teach me new aspects. This is good, because I don’t think anyone would want to hire a two-year-old Account Service person.

My perception is that it is very hard to get in, easy to get out, and that students have never worked this hard for anything in their lives. Coming from a well-known advertising program at Seneca College, I have realized how many of my peers have told me that they have never worked so hard in their lives just to have someone reject their ideas. Advertising is not just one skill that a person is born with, and it cannot be fully taught in a two-year program. It is hard to get in and harder to stay in the industry, yet it is so easy to just give up and walk away. It is the brave ones who work insanely hard, even when they see their work with that stamp of rejection, who can make it. Because there are those days when that note of approval shows up and it will make all of the hard work, all of the late nights, and all of the little fights feel like they were worth it. It is those good moments that we all work for, when it all seems worth it, because someone out there approved your idea.

The common person believes advertising is a corporate influence trying to create a consumer-based society. Yet we are all still consumers that will identify ourselves through the brands we choose to interact with. Advertising has become a part of our society and culture. I have come to the understanding that advertising is more of a way for brands to put themselves out there and hope that they appeal to the right audience, but regardless of the advertising, if someone dislikes the product, they won’t buy it. All in all, advertising is storytelling with a splash of creativity, to appeal to the target audience.

Perceptions of advertising will be forever be changing; just like everything else in the world, they won’t stay the same. How these perceptions become better or worse will be up to the advertiser and how they communicate their brands.

With the next batch of advertisers graduating from school, we all seem to have a positive view on our up-coming careers. And hopefully, someone will hire us at the tender age of two.

The whale’s stomach was completely empty except for Elton John, my ex-wife Cheryl and I. The three of us were locked in a sentimental slow dance. You see, Cheryl had just revealed that I was the father of all eight of her numerically named children, and I, the classy pushover I was, had found it in my heart to forgive her almost instantly. Elton was there to soften the news, and his presence was a great comfort. But what was I to do next? Snap out of my woozy delirium and accuse Cheryl of manipulating me? Confess a secret of my own? Make a move on Elton? Thankfully the lights went down before I had to commit, allowing us to gracefully slip off stage. The first scene of our grad show was in the books, and we managed to get some big laughs. Phew.

The moment my friend mentioned that she was taking an improv class at Second City, I knew I was going to do it. As a lifelong comedy nerd and Whose Line Is It Anyway? fan, I almost felt obligated. Plus, as clichéd as it sounds, being an advertising creative it just made sense. Today, I’m on the other side of my 10-month-long journey through the Improvisation Program at Second City, and the career-relevant lessons were richer than I could have ever possibly imagined. The following sums up why anyone in advertising should consider taking improv.

You challenge the order of the universe.
From a young age, we are trained to say no to things – things that are unlikely, unexpected or completely absurd. While this skill helps us navigate the world more efficiently, it’s not so good for creative advertising, which requires limitless thinking. In improv, you learn to say Yes, and then stand back and look in awe at all the doors that open up.

You learn the power of “Yes, and..”
Improv is like traveling through life backwards – you only see the things you’ve already passed. “Yes, and” is the acceptance of these things and the promise to build on them. It’s easy to get annoyed when a scene diverges from your own internal plan, but it’s counter-productive. Similar to group brainstorming, you rely on the open minds of your partners, and they rely on yours. Which brings up the next point.

You learn about teamwork.
In improv you’re all walking a tightrope together. It takes some exploring to find the hook of the scene, and it’s never developed by one player alone. Creative brainstorming is much the same. It starts with a nugget of a thought, which may or may not have a golden idea buried somewhere within it. The only way to find it is to have everyone commit to digging together while setting egos aside.

You learn how to tell a story.
Improv is all about storytelling, and by the end of the program the basics had become instinctual. In advertising, our job is to find the drama in a product and tell its story in an engaging way. No matter what the medium, the idea is only as good as the story you’re telling, which makes this an invaluable skill in any ad person’s repertoire.

You discover the power of emotion.
To humans, emotion is compelling – our empathetic minds are magnets for it. For an emotionally neutral person like myself, all it took was an enraged diatribe about slippers for me to feel its awesome power. In advertising we are always looking for emotional hooks, and I’d argue that exploring the extremes of my own emotional reserves has made me better equipped to elicit emotion in others.

You learn the power of characters.
We open on two people doing laundry. Would you rather watch two ambivalent drones or a down-on-her-luck diva and her subservient handler? A strong character informs where your thoughts go, and in writing, this is a very valuable tool. The next time you need to find a brand voice, create a character and go method with it.

You learn the value of authenticity.
In my experience, the scenes that got the best response weren’t necessarily funny – they simply felt real. Nothing sucks the credibility out of a scene quite like stretching for a punch line or bending the narrative for a joke. I think the same is true in advertising. You could write the smartest headline in the world, but if it doesn’t feel authentic to the brand, it won’t get the response you were hoping for.

We’re always looking to try new things. Have you taken a great course in the past? What do you want to take next? Let us know in the comments.

What is the Orange Juicer? An annual student competition in which teams from across North America go head to head to win a campaign pitch in front of a real GRIP client.

Today marks day one of those presentations, and we couldn’t be more excited to watch the following teams impress our judges (including our amazing Expedia clients):

Grip Juicer 2014 from Grip Limited on Vimeo.

Brio – St. Clair College

Team Members: David Nolet, Emily Gignac, Lindsay Renaud, Maria Maggio, Paul Morgan, Sarah Fraser

Smoked Poutine – McGill

Team Members: Charlotte Plamondon, Lydia Park, Michelle Yu, Peter Maccario

Echo – Sheridan

Team Members: Margaret Jakubowski, Ishita Luther, Lindsay Kerr, Nicole Mendonca, Mikhail Panov, Vincent Orsini

Screwdriver – Seneca College

Team Members: Belinda Papa, Jerome Braddy, Joey Alcaro, Patricia Cilcus, Steve Ierullo, Noel Mata

Neo – Seneca York

Team Members: Andrew Schuler, Candice Dehond, Hayley Steinman, Hemal Dhanjee, Meaghan Zabinsky, Melissa Cohen

Velcro Bench – Durham College

Team Members: Abbie Keeler, Jim Wright, Tara Burt, Taylor Hreljac

Little Black Dress – Humber College

Team Members: Adam Mawer, Jenny Lee, Kelvin Mak, Samantha Ramsay

Suitcase – Humber College

Team Members: Alex Davies, Angela Miller, David Greisman, Michelle Brown, Mason Powell, Zachary Radford

The Six – Humber College

Team Members: Carly Ouellette, Don Affleck, Haley Kriksic, Jenni Hallihan, Kael Cruz, Sophia Lucken

Beak – Mohawk College

Team Members: Alisa Sera Garcia, Andrea Pohlmann, Dave Knox, Erik Thorkildsen, Leonardo Gonzalez, Rebecca Hayward

Zest – Centennial College

Team Members: William Peckham, Mukhtar Kamal, Dasha Kassenkova, Nicole Kenny, Guillermo Zinny, Edzenia Olivo

Picture this: You’re in a meeting room with five colleagues, all from different departments. The leader of the meeting reads out the agenda, and at the end squawks like a parrot. The woman across the table speaks and she, too, ends with a squawk. The same with the next person. Finally, you speak. To your surprise, at the end of your thought, you squawk as well.

Crazy, right?

Now picture this: You’re in a meeting room with five colleagues, all from different departments. The leader of the meeting reads out the agenda and uses the phrase, ‘reach out’. The woman across the table speaks and she, too, uses the phrase ‘reach out’. So does the next person. Finally, you speak. To your surprise, at the end of your thought, you say, ‘reach out’ as well.

Crazy, right?

In the ten years I’ve been in this industry, I have noticed an ever-increasing tendency to use words that sound good, but have no real meaning. The term ‘reach out’ is one of the most current examples. When you say you’re going to ‘reach out’ to someone, what does it really mean? Merriam-Webster doesn’t recognize the term in their online dictionary. The ever-popular thefreedictionary.com defines it in part as an ‘attempt to communicate’, but I think urbandictionary.com hits closest to the mark: ‘This has become the new cliché for yuppie types or any pseudo-intellectual types or just idiots that think it sounds special. It is simply just another way of saying: contact, call, speak to, notify, etc.’

Last week, in an effort to combat the Mid-Winter Blues, I decided to entertain myself by counting the number of times ‘reach out’ was used in a single meeting. 60 minutes. Five people. 24 uses of ‘reach out’. All of which could have been replaced with ‘call’ or ‘email’.

Shocking.

Even more shocking, though, was my realization that a new, equally useless word was emerging as a contender for the ‘reach out of 2014’ title.

Now, as an aside, like most people, I don’t always pay a lot of attention during meetings. I get the important bits, but sometimes, I’m hungry and I think about food. Other times, I’m tired and I think about having a nap. You get the idea – I’m not always 100% focused. But this exercise forced me to focus on the meeting and on the group.

Of INDIVIDUALS.

Yes, right alongside ‘reach out’, we had rampant and gratuitous use of ‘individual’. There was talk of groups (of individuals). There was talk of this individual. That individual. The other individual. Person, people, Lana, David, He and Her have all become individuals that need to be reached out to.

And since that meeting, I’ve started to notice it everywhere. Not just in conversation, but in print as well. Pick up a copy of a local paper (doesn’t matter which one, since none of them are properly edited any more) and you will see articles littered with the word. Try it. Bonus points if you can also find ‘myriad’ used incorrectly.

Here is what I propose:

The next time you’re in a meeting, say what you mean in as few words possible. If you need to call the client, don’t say, ‘I’m going to reach out to that individual.’ Say, ‘I’m going to call Shane.’ It’s bold. It’s declarative. It gets to the point and you’ll stand out from the crowd.

We spend so much of our time working on our clients’ brands to make their communications as clear and concise as possible, we should also consider what our communication style says about our personal brands.