travel

What’s After Advertising?

Peter · June 19, 2018 · Leave a Comment

After Advertising

I am often asked by advertising agency people… what do people do after they leave advertising (or at least, a stay-put advertising job)? Well, to be more specific, what have I done after advertising as in, since I sold my Portland agency six years ago?

I live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (built a house/60% cost of living/travel all over/work from anywhere)

I work with advertising agencies around the world on helping them build lead generating business development programs

I am on a global quest to photograph the world’s people (starting here with this 210 portrait series)

Some days I just hang out and I constantly try to satisfy my curious mind.

One way I satisfy my curiosity is to stay in long-distance touch (usually by newsletter) with Faris Yakob…. brand strategist (I guess that is one description) who I interviewed for my book on pitching. Here is the interview. By the way, buy the book and win more business so you can get out of your office.

Genius Steals

Faris can show you a way out of the cube, open office or if you’ve been lucky, an office with a couch.

To get going, I suggest that you sign up for Faris and his wife Rosie’s newsletter and visit their website. Why?

They are very smart and you will learn stuff that should make you a better marketer. From the sign-up page… “Put together by husband and wife creative duo Faris and Rosie Yakob, this weekly email is a source of interesting and fun links from around the web on a variety of topics. The content is expertly curated, and if you can’t find something inspiring in each edition, it will at least make you a more interesting dinner date.”

But, but, there’s more. Faris and Rosie live a nomadic lifestyle. As they say…

“We used to live and work in NYC where we had fancy titles and bars in our offices. It was rad. Mostly. Except there were so. many. meetings. When Faris sold his share in a digital agency he started, he proposed that we quit our jobs and travel the world for 6 months, to take a break, to explore. We both really loved traveling, and the stars aligned, and so we’ve been traveling ever since.”

Read more about them here at Technomadix. Start to plan on how to… get out of advertising. The time will come.

My Best Business Travel Resources

Peter · June 12, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Must Have Business Travel Resources

Traveling for ad agency business can suck these days (um, duh). Beyond the obvious: getting to the airport at rush hour; waiting in the TSA line; getting through TSA; gate hassling (“boarding group 9”); carry on stuffing and anxiety; being scrunched in a no-legroom seat; your late booked middle seat; slow exiting… Then there is the cost. Especially if your client tells you they won’t pay for $6,500 for 13 hours of business class to Tokyo. All of this calls for personal resourcefulness. Or, having a bunch of business travel resources at your disposal.

Here’s a list of some great travel resources that can make your business trip (and personal trips) easier and more efficient. I bet that many of you know about some of these. But, I recently mentioned SeatGuru to a couple of friends and they just blankly stared back. So, here is a short list of direct links to a bunch of business travel resources. (LOL, Google kinda still likes it if I keep repeating the keywords.)

Note, I’ll be adding these to my Big Advertising Agency Resource List. Have you seen this?

OK, go.

I am going to start with Plane Finder just because it is insane…

Plane Finder. Plane Finder is a geeky web-based and mobile app that lets you watch live air traffic from anywhere in the world. Did I say geeky? Try this one out. It’s kinda crazy.

Business Traveller. 12 regional editions to keep you up on the latest business travel news.

Momondo. These days I dig the travel metasearch engine Momondo. I simply like the interface and the information provided. Also the way they divide the flights into cheapest, shortest and best. Check out their travel information blog.

Southwest. Southwest does not provide data to flight aggregators. You need to go directly to their website.

Skyscanner. My second favorite flight, hotel, and car finder.

SeatGuru. This is simply the best website to figure out airplane configurations. You do want to know what is the best seat on that 777 to Tokyo, right?

Hotel Tonight. I use Hotel Tonight to find last minute deals. Often in the coolest hotels.

Trivago. A sweet way to compare the best hotel options. Plus, they do advertising…. So support them.

Airbnb. I use Airbnb when I have to book multiple bedrooms for the family or if I am going to have to hang in a city for 7+ nights. They are also gearing up their experiential listings for local advisors to help you do things like a mezcal tasting romp in Mexico City. Here is an interesting interview with … the CEO of Airbnb. Just a good watch from Recode.

Eater. Have your client take you out for dinner. LOL. Eater delivers fresh food news and dining guides from across the country.

Travel + Leisure. Need more stuff? Here is a list from T+L on the 50 best travel apps.

Google Maps and Translation. Do I have to say more?

Ad Agency People: Get The Hell Out Of Town

Peter · May 17, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Can Ad Agency People Get The Hell Out Of Town?

I’ve been thinking about living and working in a foreign country. I am not alone. It might be a life stage for me (I sold my ad agency a couple of years ago and do not have to live in any specific locale — although I do live in Portland, America’s coolest city.) I also run a ‘nomad’ consulting business and was able to base my work out of three continents in the past couple of years.

Sell Your Ad Agency & Get Out

A few times a year I talk with ad agency owners that want to get the hell out. They want to do this for various reasons: They’ve had enough; they are 61; they want to try something else; their agency is not performing well; agency margins suck; there are too many competitors; they don’t like dealing with HR issues and paying for everyone’s medical insurance. And, on and on.

Move To Mexico Or Chaing Mai

My wife and I started to scout out Mexico last year. We spent some time in Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende and Ajijic. San Miguel was the winner… Here is Huffington Post’s take on San Miguel: “10 Reasons Why People Fall in Love With San Miguel de Allende.” We’ll do more scouting this winter when we vacation in Sayulita and Puerto Vallarta. We’ve selected Mexico for a bunch of reasons. It is Mexico and if you dig Mexico like we do then it is a no-brainer. Mexico is also: close to friends and family via many non-stops; has a sweet cost of living; is in our time zones (which works for my American agency clients); has a very rich and diverse culture; has mountains and beaches and big cosmopolitan cities; has great food; has warmth (on many levels); has a rich art scene and is community oriented. However, it has spotty Internet service which I realized when I was working out of an AirBNB rental in San Miguel de Allende. I got over this issue quickly via evening shots of tequila and mezcal. Two other big reasons to dig Mexico.

Nomad List

I was surfing the Internet this morning in my never ending quest to learn about places where I can live and work and came across Nomad List. Nomad List is an information website and community for nomads. Nomads like 30, 40, 50 and 60-year-olds that might not want to work anymore on Madison Avenue or in SOMA or Austin.

The site lets you put in your criteria as in COL, weather, air quality, activities and Internet speeds. Check it out and realize that you can actually work from anywhere in the world. Nomad List also points you to co-working spaces. Most ad people have portable skills…. why not move them overseas.

Need a start? I punched in some personal criteria and Chaing Mai, Thailand came out on top. It has been on my move-to list for years. Play with Nomad and find out why.

So, get out.

Need more push? Check out this article… “Succeeding from Anywhere: 5 Trailblazing Communities for Digital Nomads”

Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Sweden — Not The USA

Peter · November 27, 2012 · 1 Comment

In “The lottery of life. Where to be born in 2013”, The Economist tells us what are the best countries to born in today. Switzerland is #1 and Australia is #2. USA is only #16. You will have to take a look at the criteria to find out why. But, I’ll go with any countries in the top 10. But, moving down the Economist list would you rather live in the UAE than in France or Italy? Yikes.

My primary take away is that, at least according to The Economist*, the USA isn’t the place to start out any more.

* The independent variables in the estimating equation for 2006 include: material wellbeing as measured by GDP per head (in $, at 2006 constant PPPS); life expectancy at birth; the quality of family life, based primarily on divorce rates; the state of political freedoms; job security (measured by the unemployment rate); climate (measured by two variables: the average deviation of minimum and maximum monthly temperatures from 14 degrees Celsius; and the number of months in the year with less than 30mm rainfall); personal physical security ratings (based primarily on recorded homicide rates and ratings for risk from crime and terrorism); quality of community life (based on membership in social organisations); governance (measured by ratings for corruption); gender equality (measured by the share of seats in parliament held by women).