personal branding

Is There Life After Advertising?

Peter · December 22, 2015 · 2 Comments

Is There Life After Advertising? Yes.

FYI: This was originally written in 2015. As of July 2016, I now live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This is one of North America’s coolest towns and I can still run my ad agency consultation business c/o the sweet waves of Wi-Fi.

December 22, 2015. Sayulita, Mexico.

This is a personal story.

I’ve been asked about life after advertising by many of my clients. And, why not. Advertising owners (my case) wonder if and how they can sell their agency and then wonder ‘what’s next?’

Ad workers see that they will probably age out of the industry by their late forties (a fucking huge problem for our industry’s brain drain that is exacerbated by the absurd notion that it’s a young person’s industry. However the BIG fact is that the margins are so slim that agencies can’t afford to pay their older employees decent salaries and associated benefits).

In other cases, people just get fried crisp or get fired and want out.

In the interest of speed, here are my two lives after advertising. If you have a few more minutes, check out my It’s Me page to read a bit more about my global and local advertising and client side Internet experience.

Life After One – From Saatchi to Internet

1995 – 2001. I left Saatchi in 1995 to work for Advance Internet, a division of The Newhouse’s Advance Publications. I was an early CEO in the reinvention of online news. I then went on to found and run ActiveBuddy. You might have played with our SmarterChild natural language bot / app.

Life After Two – From Owning Citrus to Peter Levitan & Co.

2001 – today. After SmarterChild (a long story) and 9/11 (I was fairly close to ground zero), my wife and I decided that we’d move to Oregon (Bend and Portland) after I bought the ad agency Citrus. I ran that for 8 years. I enjoyed selling it. The experience reminded e of selling my sailboat. The two best days were the day I bought it and the day I sold it.

I started this advertising agency business consultancy after I sold my agency and was asked by a couple of friends to help them craft a new business program. Citrus had done quite well. I’ve been applying my Saatchi and Citrus knowledge to help dozens of agencies build growth strategies during the past four years.

OK. What’s The Point?

I took my skills and founded a consultancy. I’m not unique. But, people love it when I tell that I can work from any part of the world (thank you WIFI and Skype). I kinda lucked into this new career, but I recommend that you do some planning because… you will have a life after advertising.

Here are some links that might deliver food for thought and guidance.

Smart Passive Income: Check out the guru on the idea of earning passive income. Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income is a simply brilliant how to start a live-anywhere make real-money business. He made $108,000 last month! Online! In his jammies! Ok, not that easy but… read him.

Grow Supply: Ali Mese tells you how to succeed and if you go right here you can get links to many many free tools and websites that will help you build your new business.

How To Sell Your Ad Agency: A link to my blog posts on selling your agency.

The Bottom Line?

Take my Corleone Offer and call me up. It’s an offer you should not refuse and a faster path to —– how to make the cash to get to What’s Next.

Sell Your Advertising Agency or Just Leave

Peter · November 3, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Leave Advertising

I just got off the phone with an account director at a humongous WPP agency that was telling me about his six years in the advertising business and his current ‘woe is me story’ (I love this definition: “ironical or humorous exclamation of sorrow or distress.”) My advice? Hey, many architects, dentists, dry cleaners and, yes, even lawyers get very antsy at the six-year mark, so consider taking a year off and go to SE Asia. He’s 30 and single so just do it.

Exit Strategies

The conversation got me thinking about exit strategies. We are well past the days when people hung in there to get a gold watch for 50 years of dedicated work and people age out of advertising at 43 these days (high salaries? don’t know how to market to millennials? haven’t figured out that Periscope is so much more effective than Tv advertising?) So, if you want… go to the greener pastures. They are out there and some come with great food… see the video below.

If you are a fed up owner or partner – sell out. Believe me, there is life after agency ownership. And, really, one of the smarter worst case scenarios is to know NOW that you want to sell SOMEDAY and that you should start to position your agency TODAY for an eventual sale. Have you started to do this? Like: Start to imagine that you are a potential buyer. Would you be interested in your agency? I’ve written about the art of selling on this blog and on LinkedIn. By the way, some owners just walk away. Selling a service business – especially a full-service agency – with fickle clients isn’t that easy.
Unhappy in your first few years? Quit your job and travel. OK, a tough call. But, if you are young, you are going to have at least ten jobs anyway. So, why not make one of those ‘jobs’ be a year playing in Thailand? If that sounds too radical, make sure that your personal brand and story is in order. Your brand will lead you to your next gig.

Need some help getting to Thailand? Like spice? Watch this crazy video.

4 Hour Workweek On Whisky Or Whiskey

Peter · October 13, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Yo, AdMan: Do You Know How To Spell Whiskey Or Whisky?

I didn’t until I listened to what I think is one of the most entertaining and informative podcasts from Tim Ferris and his 4-Hour Workweek podcast:

The Tattooed Heretic of Wine and Whiskey, Richard Betts.

By the way, its whiskey in countries with an “e” in their name like the U.S.A. And in Japan and Scotland it’s Whisky. If this isn’t important to you, I suggest you bail on the rest of this blog post. Go ahead, drink more vodka.

The Whiskey Deal Via A Great Podcast

You work in advertising which means that according to recent research you are 67% more likely to drink more wine and whiskey than the average U.S. consumer. What’s more… there is a need to know things about booze because you drink it with friends and the occasional client. Hopefully, an AOR client.

The super entertaining interview is… C/O Tim Ferris… (You’ve read his books, right?) [Read more…] about 4 Hour Workweek On Whisky Or Whiskey

Hillary Clinton & Her Campaign Logo

Peter · August 18, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Kimmel On The Hillary Clinton Campaign Logo.

I missed this video. You shouldn’t… cause her campaign needs a bit of (understatement coming) humor… as do we.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGPFLY7Zm80

An August YouTube Quickie

Peter · August 17, 2015 · Leave a Comment

A YouTube Quickie? No, This Isn’t That Sexy. But…

And, yes, this post is kinda random. I’m just hanging out at my desk wondering if I want to work today. We are day something like 60 for mostly rain-free Portland Oregon. Crazy summer out here! It helps that we are America’s beer capital.

A friend turned me on to this video from YouTube Advertisers: Go Behind The Scenes with David Droga and Emily Anderson. Nice idea to get us thinking about how YouTube advertising isn’t same old same old TV. But, you know that so it’s unfortunate that this video tidbit doesn’t deliver any decent info or inspiration (sorry, David but TV pre-YouTube wasn’t a cul-de-sac for real creative folks. My late 80’s Saatchi teams won sweet awards for two broadcast clients that went way beyond your reference to Formula 1. Pleaaaase… the good old days were actually good and demanded the type of thinking you do today. Thinking big not start in 2005 when YouTube was born.)

But, the video did introduce me to Ogilvy’s Emily Anderson, which makes it all worth while. Watch the video and then read on.

Emily Anderson

Droga we know. Anderson? So, I dug in a bit and found a Creative Director who could have a super dream job of creating high-budget long-form content. And, the work and energy is damn good. Check out her CV website below.

After the work and personal energy, the thing I most dug is her URL: www.littleenglishgenius.com/ The English are much more cheeky than we are. They are also not afraid to promote themselves. If you are a genius, tell your clients. Droga and Anderson do that. Trump does that. Just like the American electorate, clients are a bit short of time and need to have YOU tell them that you are a genius. Just tell them that – they want to hear it. Yes, I am a genius too.

Last thought:

It’s summer so go visit Emily’s Montauk. Note, you won’t have to screw around with combat L.I.E. traffic to get there.