Oklahoma boy makes good.
Last week I had the opportunity to return to Oklahoma City and give a keynote address to the Oklahoma City Ad Club as they hosted their annual Career Day.
This was a particularly exciting chance for me because not only did it give me a chance to potentially see some old friends and catch up, but it was a way for me to give back to the advertising community that gave me my start.
This was also a particularly touchy experience because that same community left me with a little bit of what one of my presentation slides calls “career freezer-burn” (thanks to Brian Brooker for that term).
Career freezer-burn is when you stay at an agency too long and it starts to turn the taste you have for your job a little sour. It’s different from burning out because you still love your career but just maybe not what you’re doing or where you are. The problem with career freezer-burn though is once you do finally decide to find a new job you still have that bad taste lingering and it taints the attitude you have and the work you do for a while.
My career freezer-burn came in the form of the type of advertising that I worked in during my tenure in Oklahoma City. Local car ads (no matter how creative they may be) only get you so far before you just can’t stand to do another. Given that fact, I wanted to be sensitive about not coming off as too bitter (I’m still ridding myself of the last vestiges of freezer burn almost 3 years later) yet I still wanted to honestly address the issue without being specific. I think I tackled the issue pretty well although there were a couple of people in the audience that knew exactly what I meant.
I digress. Didn’t mean to get into the freezer-burn thing that deeply. See what I mean… it sticks with you.
I spent quite a bit of time talking about future trends in advertising and advertising technology. Like any other “crystal ball” discussion, the slides in my deck are just my opinion and I’m sure an interesting conversation could get started revolving around others’ thoughts about what should have been in that section of the presentation.
I had a great time answering questions and talking with the college students in the audience. It always makes me feel good to give back to college students because since I was completely self-taught while I was completing my Philosophy degree I feel like I missed out on a lot of opportunities that I’m glad that these students are taking advantage of.
I’ve embedded the slideshare version of the presentation deck below. I also embedded the introductory video since I really want you to see that. It was quite the hit with the crowd and I’ve had a lot of comments from colleagues at work about it, so I’m thinking it’s pretty good.