NORTHERN PLANNER

The Account Planning Group has done a fascinating survey on how planners are feeling right now. 

It's really worth a look to make up your own mind, but what struck me was the fact that nearly one 1 in 3 are less than sure they want to continue as a planner post-pandemic. 

I couldn't tell you if this is higher than this time last year, or if they want to remain a strategy type, just not in agencies, however this is still worrying. 

There will be many reasons why, we re-appraise everything in big turning points – we're living in the mother of turning points right now. 

Naturally, intelligent, curious people will wonder what else it out there at times like these. 

They'll also get some fresh perspective to decide, is it really worth it? The uncertainty that comes with your agency always being three phone calls away from oblivion. Avoiding burnout from the long hours the job sometimes demands. Keeping going when planners often don't feel valued and need to constantly justify their very existence in a way creatives, suits and others do not.

Agencies have always had open bars (phrase stolen from the survey) for planners to a certain degree.

Wearing what you like, being around colourful people, work that is genuinely interesting and varied. That felt more than worth it when most other jobs meant wearing suits, conforming to corporate rules and generally 'working for the man'. Agencies felt like a rare place where curious, thoughtful people who loved solving puzzles, yet also really enjoyed being creative could flourish. 

The trade off between the interestingness and the downsides will seem less attractive to many these days. 

The immediate context is that when you enjoy sparking off a team and being part of a great culture (although this isn't all agencies anyway, many with the grooviest clothes and best designed offices are the most conservative and, in many cases, more intimidating than the Devil Wears Prada), it's worth it. 

You don't get that from endless Zoom meetings. 

There are longer term issues at play here too though. 

In recent years, corporate life has become, well, less corporate and more progressive. More relaxed clothes, more relaxed culture, better work life balance, much better at mental health – better than agencies I'd wager. 

It has also remained relatively secure while agency life has felt more tenuous. After talking to a few planners who work in house, they also seem to feel more appreciated and able to do purer work, because they don't have to then sell it in, or post rationalise something a creative has had in there drawer for few years. 

No wonder there is a slow creep of client companies taking planning in house, no wonder planners are wondering, is all there is?

I loved Drive by Daniel Pink.

The clear theme is that modern employees want autonomy (sense of freedom in their role), mastery (the chance to get better at their discipline) and belonging (part of something bigger than them that they believe in).

If you run an agency, or a planning department, read the survey and ask yourself, do your people really get this?

Do they really feel valued or are they required to conform to that necessary evil cliche?

Do they get the freedom to push things, or are they trapped by proprietary process, constricted by micromanaging suits or even cowered by a rampant creative department?

Most importantly, do they feel they belong? Can they believe in your agency and the work it does? Does your culture really feel that good or is just a corporate sweatshop with better coffee and a few beanbags? 

Even more importantly, ask yourself do you care? These are curious people who want to feel stimulated and valued. If you don't value your planning team, it's increasingly likely they'll escape the open cage to somewhere that will – and it may be your clients. 

Planning is a fantastic job, done by fantastic people, I think its one of the best jobs in the world and more interesting than ever right now- I hope agencies try and hold on to the people that do it before it's too late. 

Right now, many companies known for performance marketing are betting on brand, there's the conflict between long and short term, the demand for creativity for way more than creative work. Every rule in the book is up for grabs now that COVID has shattered any semblance of the status quo, while for years before the pandemic, media was fragmenting, culture was getting faster and more porous and nothing seemed certain.

There has never been a better time for planners to add value, but first you have to value them.

 

 

When I used to race at swimming, we were always neurotic about managing form, peaking for the big races, not overtraining, the usual.

What astounded me was the effect of holidays. Just a two weeks off and when you got back into the pool you were just rubbish.

It would take at least the time off to get back to where you were. 

It's why I have a love hate relationship with swimming now. I never want to lose the feeling of doing something well, being able to do something most can't, but it's just not possible to feel how it did when I was training 5 hours a day. 

This is why Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours theory is only half the story. It may take that long to get to expert status, however, if you don't keep practising, your hard won superiority will disappear quite quickly. 

Not just the body, the mind. 

London taxi drivers have been found to have the part of their brain responsible for spacial awareness and navigation much bigger than average. When they retire though, it rapidly goes back to average. 

Just as a swimmer might lose big shoulders, their brains will forget how to swim without thinking and they lose their feel for the water. After just two weeks aways you feel like a balloon. 

Naturally, this means that strategy folks can't afford to sit back and relax once they become a director or whatever.

As soon as you don't write many briefs, you're once tight, inspiration pieces will become bloated and dull – or at least it will take you twice as long to get where you used to.

Looking at lots of information, cutting through the clutter and saying 'it's just about this' will become more of a headache and you'll be more likely to get lost down a rabbit hole of information overload. The complicated will remain complicated. 

Of course, you could decide to be a leader who just guides without getting their hands dirty, but the more you go stale, the less you'll move forward and you'll just be replaced. When so much talk around the job is the craft (maybe too much) those who are not craftspeople will get jettisoned. 

Its great to be modest and let others shine, but eventually you'll be outshone.

You should think about your clients this way. Brands are really habits people have adopted to make life simple. As soon as you switch off marketing, without that continuous presence in hearts and minds, the habit becomes weaker and eventually they'll buy something else that's easier or more exciting.

People need to buy to keep buying and you need to keep reminding them why. 

In other words, no matter if you're an athlete, a planner/strategist or brand, you can never afford not doing your reps. 

"In my experience there's no such thing as luck". Obi Wan Kenobi.

I'm no Jedi Master, but while I only agree with Obi Wan's statement up to a point (the fact I haven't won the lottery proves there are exceptions to his rule), his approach has something going for it. 

Take sport. The point is NOT knowing who will win, but you always know who has the biggest chance. 

I can tell you that when I used to compete at swimming, while there were many variables affecting who won on the day, like how I slept the night before, a bad start, cocking up a tumble turn,  and my confidence that day, luck had little to do with the result.

The same people tend to win more often. 

It came down to talent, naturally, but then the overriding factor was how much you had prepared. How much training had gone in, the quality and specifics of that training and how much you had timed to peak for that race. 

Luck, to be honest, was a minor player.

Of course, you'll be saying, what about sports with more variables?

It's less likely a golfer will win a tournament or a cyclist will win every race. Nevertheless, while the variables may have gone up for both sports, the pattern is the same. Some competitors tend to win, or at least place higher that others more often.

Ask Tiger Woods (about golf, not driving or relationships) or Chris Froome.

Allow for the variables and, once again, the real secret of success is talent and the right kind of training – the amount and specificity. 

One more variable in both kinds of sports though, is innovation and tech. The competitors and teams that continually try new approaches and new equipment, win even more often. 

When Team Sky first came on the cycling scene, everyone laughed at their fancy pants ideas, now everyone copies them. 

Swimmers smashed world records when they wore body suits, some were way ahead of the curve on this. 

So yes, hard work, specific preparation and willingness to innovate ahead of the curve. 

Put another way, great players make their own luck. 

 

So does a great business. 

 

Firstly, for a bet to pay off, you have to actually make it.This is where the innovation bit comes in. 

If you've read Why Most Things Fail (and you should) you'll see on the face of it, that most companies eventually fail, even titan FTSE 100 companies or whatever. Simply because economies are far too complex to predict, there are too many variables.

Because of bloody people.

Despite what many economists would like you to think, all markets are based on the the decisions of people and if there is one thing we know about humans, in the real world, not the theories and pen portraits, they don't decide on logic, they're horribly unpredictable and irrational.

Turns out the only chance you have is to constantly invest in staying ahead of the curve.

Trying stuff, creating behaviour rather than trying to predict it. 

Companies that constantly innovate survive longer. Not because all their bets pay off, but because some bets pay off big. 

The worse bet you can make is hope things stay the same, because nothing does. 

There is no reason that Blockbuster shouldn't have become Netflix, except they realised too late that people would download movies online, even before the next leap that the content makers and delivery platforms could be interchangeable. Arguably, Sky in the UK is way behind Netflix and Amazon on this. 

In fact, the fleet of foot can totally obliterate the big and powerful just by exploiting their cumbersome scale, infrastructure and culture. Barnes and Noble should have stopped Amazon in it's tracks, but culturally, couldn't get their heads around selling books online. Like most things, if you don't care about what you're doing, it won't work. 

Love him or hate him, Trump became President because his opponents simply could not predict what he would do next. While they were busy trying to respond to his latest Tweet conventionally, he was on to the next hand grenade. 

Just as, I believe, Adidas couldn't (and still can't) get their heads around Nike talking about the emotional truths of sport rather than just bland performance.

There's learnings in this for marketers when it comes to short term v long term.

First, think small no matter how big you are. 

Second, stop worrying about short term and long term!!

To be basic, remove reasons not to buy, constantly refresh memory structures (we've all read the book). 

We can do better though.

Just try lots of stuff, not just creative stuff, and see what sticks. The more you do what will confuse the competition the better. 

I don't mean making it up though, there's a way to keep the others guessing while creating sure things.

The source material is easy, it's real life. For some reason, people in agencies and even marketing departments forget to be human when they do the job. Life is more interesting, complex, inspiring, scary and uplifting than anything else. The very best of our work remembers this and embraces it.

When life itself is so uncertain, up for grabs and fast, I think there's never been more opportunity to keep the competition guessing by simply losing your tin ear for what is really going on in the lives of the people who really decide the fortunes of companies: the people who buy their stuff. 

But here's the rub. Coming back to long term training and input, always be building the brand.

The harder you work on this, no matter what, the better your luck will be. Perversely, even more when life is so fragmented. 

When life is this changeable, there has never been a better time to genuinely build a big consistent brand.

Life is more complex, people have more to think about than ever, so surely it's a golden opportunity to be a brand that remembers what it's for – to help people NOT to think.

Let everyone else just chase clicks or think ONLY in weeks or quarters.

Be one of the smart cookies that can make lots of little things add up to a lot.

Create lots of little acts that add up to a bigger story while the dinosaurs spend months researching creative and cool kids focus on stunts that have little shelf life beyond a fleeting headline. 

Just make sure you're addressing an actual business issues, not doing what is cool.

In other words, where are we now, where could we be, how do we get there and how did we do? It's the planning cycle, it's not new. It's just that rather than a cumbersome oil tanker turning around, it should feel like a Catherine Wheel.

Life Moves Pretty Fast (thanks Ferris). Keep up. I'm not sure brands can 'create culture' like they used to, but when culture us so fast, multi-faceted, porous and down right interesting, why would anyone feel they need to?

So, in in a world full of surprises these days, while I hope I've convinced you to think about creating surprises of your own.

However, there has also never been a better time to invest in the one constant you can – a brand with a big idea behind it. 

The trick these days is to find a big idea that helps create lots and lots of stuff, rather than the old school version where the brand police kept everything the same for years, usually only thinking about 30 second films. 

It's not easy, but those that can crack it will be very successful indeed. 

I think Obi Wan had point. But maybe he should have said there is such a thing as luck, but mostly the same people tend to get lucky. 

Put in the long term preparation, but never stop trying to push ahead and keeping an open mind on what's possible. Keep the others guessing. 

To misquote Princess Leia, 'the more you tighten your grip, the more growth will slip through your fingers'. 

 

When out for a socially distanced walk, from a 'social distance'  you're able to observe the other atomised bubbles of people.

Their body language, facial expressions and, avoiding looking like a stalker, even a snippet of the conversation.

Naturally, you'll chance upon serious discussion about COVID. However, there will be more banter, gossip, idle chat, bickering or just shooting the breeze.

Because even in these times that suck your soul like a Harry Potter Dementor, the people living them are managing to find little ways to lift each other's spirits. In real life, everywhere we're trying to be cheerful where we can.

Yet in brand land, you can't move for serious minded brand purpose.

Forgetting that much of the popular culture around it is decidedly cheerful.

Advertising is becoming relentlessly serious and 'purpose', rather than good.

And don't get going on 'precision' rather than charm, surprise and delight, that's for another day.

It's been like this for a while. Brands deciding they want to save the world or stand up for human rights, even though their job is to fill you up at breakfast, or hoover the floor. 

Obviously, brands that reflect real culture sell more, but the operative word is real culture.

Nike can serious, do equality, be that race, gender or anything, because those issues are in sport. This IS the culture. Also, they have spent years building an authentic voice built on 'if you have a body, you're an athlete'. 

Axe can do stuff on male identity because the whole point of deodorant is confidence. Then again, look at what happens when Old Spice decides to have fun.

Just as Brewdog finds it easy to build traction just by NOT pretending to be the saviour of all men.

Still, I have a sneaky suspicion that the funny, well crafted beer campaigns of old would piss all over modern stuff. Partly because they were built on product truths and partly, they were all full of light hearted banter – the real culture of what beer is supposed to be about. I wonder if the people in beer marketing have ever actually been to a pub sometimes (current times excepted). 

In fact I know beer ads of old would work, Bud Light is essentially beer ads of old. 

So yes, peanut butter can now be source of strength to get you through a tough life because it's got protein in, when really it's wonderful comfort food (and a source of friction between crunchy and smooth camps). It can even be a way to save the planet if it's sustainably sourced. Apparently. 

Of course, well sustained food should be important, and many buyers choose this way. Not all though. 

And when every brand is has traceable ingredients, how will they be different then?

PG Tips tea bags can save the world because they're 100% recyclable. But I doubt it will shift as many units as Yorkshire Tea doing more ads with Sean Bean about properness, where you feel good about EVERYTHING they do, especially the taste.

I'm sure there is a house cleaning brand somewhere sponsoring giving ex-cons a second chance by wiping the bloody slate clean.

All because people take research at face value, or listen to the lies respondents tell because they think it's what they should say (or they lie to themselves, just we all believe this January really will be a fresh start, or we bought that sports car because of the turbo engine rather than the status we think it gives us). 

People do care about the environment more, thankfully all sorts of issues on equality, race, fairness and health are becoming important to more people. It's fair to say many like to know companies are playing their part in this.

But it's not WHY they buy all the time.

It can be for many kinds of people and many kinds of categories. But even with cars, yes, thank god, eco friendly machines are popular, but let's be honest, an electric powered Porsche is still a penis extension. An MPV is still a mess of sweet wrappers and squabbling kids. 

P&G could do the 'sponsor of Mums campaign' because, while vaguely sexist, loads of their products were used by global Mums – beauty, cleaning and babies (I over simplify but don't let fact ruin a well made point). 

Dove can do The Campaign for Real Beauty because it's grounded in real truths ABOUT the category.

I hope I'm making my point about reflecting the culture around what your selling, rather than pretending to be something you're not.

I think there's a bigger cultural point though. It's become fashionable to try and cut-through by tapping into issues and getting serious about real life. 

Which shows a tin ear for real culture to be honest. Because even in serious lockdown times, so much popular culture is an escape. In fact, Brainjuicer found people getting pissed off with 'we're all in this together' ads bringing reality crashing into moments when people were trying for forget about life for a while.

Great entertainment tends to resonate with what we feel and care about without talking about it direct.

Bond is a confused and man struggling with his place in the world these days, because that makes him relatable to 'nowadays'. He stills shags lots of women and drives ridiculous cars, even if he shows his bruises more.

Look at the mostly tanking DC superhero universe v the soaring Marvel world. DC is relentlessly dark, brooding and heavy. Marvel really makes you feel something, yet manages to be really funny, light and even laugh at itself.

It has strong female characters, LGBT heroes, Thor has obesity issues and drink issues. It's of it's time. 

But it remembers to have craft. They actually bother to create tight stories, great dialogue and develop characters with the relatable conflicts. In other words, it feels like real life even though it obviously isn't. 

It reflects our lives back at us, while helping us forget it. 

Now, cut back to so many of the clunky campaigns out there lazily getting into 'issues' because they think they're doing 'culture' and believe people when they say they buy good deeds more than good products.

They don't half as much as they say, or Amazon would be out of business. 

So few bother to understand the real world around what they're selling, and then the real culture they're interrupting.

I'm saying there is massive commercial power in going back to actually selling products (or at least emotional benefits) rather than just values. 

Or, to be fashioned. Say something about the product in a way that cannot be missed.

Put another way, in when marketers are all going a bit DC, it's time to be more Marvel

There's a certain global FMCG powerhouse 'house of brands' company I've never worked for.

I used to share a flat with someone I did though and used to hang with him and his work colleagues a lot.

It was amazing how alike they were.

I don't mean the usual diversity stuff. They were a broad mix of ethnicity, nationality, gender and everything.

Yet when they go together it was a bit like a cult.

This was a good thing of course, it fostered a shared sense of belonging, there was a clear feeling of shared identity and being part of something.

Yet, somehow they were part of a hive mind that all worked and thought the same way. I sensed they would rarely be exposed to, certainly wouldn't welcome, fresh approaches or ideas that didn't fit some kind of format.

I experienced this at another global company, where you would only survive in meetings if you understood their particular brand of marketing speak. 

It held back a certain hair company that only liked to work with fashionista types. 

Don't think agencies are exempt from this. I've walked into many of the most lauded, creatively 'hot' organisations and experienced lots of people dressing and talking the same way.

It's the problem with company values.

In the wrong hands, companies can have a progressive hiring policy yet they flatten out the mental diversity.  

It's the mix of different ways of thinking and frames of reference that can be so potent for great work. 

Professor Daniel Levin of Rutgers Business School asked more than two hundred executives to reactivate contacts who were relatively dormant.

Some were then asked to to get two contacts to give advice on an ongoing project, while others were asked to get advice from more active contacts.

Overall, they found the most valuable, productive advice came from the dormant contacts.

Why? Because these are the people less likely to share our worldview or think and work like us.

It's so easy to give into the comfort of folks who agree with you, who are easy to work with.

But easy rarely leads to great. 

We need exposure to those likely to surprise us with a fresh approach our jolt our minds out of their comfort zones. 

That shows the power of a mentally diverse workforce, where people who think different are allowed to be themselves.

And encouraged to mix. 

It also shows the danger of hiring for diversity, but then losing out on all the potential from the positive friction, because you then  ask everyone to fit in, work in the same way and behave the same way. 

Cool agencies should look for uncool new hires, then try not to change them. 

Experienced agencies should look for people who don't know what they're doing, they'll offer a brilliantly fresh perspective. 

I love the myth that Weiden and Kennedy, arguably todays most successful independent network started out as a place for people who couldn't get a job anywhere else and worked in Oregon, as far away from the advertising hive mind as possible. 

Strategy and creative types should meet as many people unlike them as they can. Even find a partner that's hard to work with. 

Be careful of only following the profiles of the same industry people.

Read as many different blogs as you can, avoid strategy blogs like this one!!

This is why I like Ted for example, the sheer variety of talks will always teach you something new.

It's also why I avoid industry conferences.

Talking to yourselves is the first sign of madness. 

In other words, the more throw people together who have little in common, the more successful you're likely to be. 

 

I love the fact that Corona beer sales have gone up during the pandemic. I'm not sure there has been anything better to prove that much of what we do is about getting a brand front of mind – and it's really efficient to get there by aligning with what's happening in real life. 

In other words, surfing the wave of actual culture is commercial rocket fuel. That's what many PR and social media specialists will tell you. 

But I think that approach alone, is just another example of short term thinking. 

Of course, brands that talk to some sort of tension in real life do well. Life is more interesting than brands, people buy holes, not drills etc. 

However, if all you have is a collection of tactics that don't add up to something bigger, the effect of each one wears off really quick. 

It's no different to constant reliance on promotions. Both are addictive, both feel good in the short-term, both harm you in the longer term, because the biggest profit comes from building brand preference over a longer period.

Which means every single piece of activity needs to be building towards the same direction. Call it story, call is vision or even an ecosystem if you like. 

That's the trick with how things are these days. Life moves faster, you need to react to that and sometimes even provoke.

If you spend months naval gazing, you miss your moment. The nimble and fleet of foot can tie the big boys in knots by keeping everyone guessing.

It just all needs to add up to something.

Think about the great pieces of popular culture out there, what we're really up against.

You know what kind of telly to expect from HBO, there is a 'HBOness' to HBO output. It's the same for Channel 4 in the UK or any media brand. 

I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. 10 seasons in, it's still the story of a man with no filter. It started out dealing with what happens when someone doesn't have a purpose in life. Every season has dealt another theme, including political correctness and even racial tension. Endlessly surprising and inventive, but about one thing.

That's no different to when Paddy Power only did PR stunts. On the face of it inconsistent, but actually, the story of what happens when you give a voice what sports fans are really feeling.

Just as, arguably, Nike always tacks between different expressions of the point of view that 'if you have a body you're an athlete'. Or that nothing should come between people and the benefits of sport. They wrote the most amazing ads about equality in the 80s, they challenged snobbery in tennis and so on. 

When you resolve the tension between acting now and thinking long, you're onto something. 

The dance between consistency and surprise. 

It's not easy, but then again, things that are worth it rarely are.  

I was told a good story about what happened when British planners first went to work in the US. I hope it's true.

Apparently, loads of TV ads suddenly had dogs in them, because the cunning expats knew it was a great way to smuggle creative through research. Show Americans creative with dogs in it and they'll love it. 

It says a lot about creative development research of course, but it also says something about what happens when everyone has the same starting point. 

When everyone uses dogs as their starting point to get work through, all the work has dogs in it, so all the work looks the same. 

That's the problem with doing research the same way as everyone else, or reading the same stuff. Even following the same process. 

All the work ends up in the same place. 

You can see it in the glut of activity out there which is all about a brand doing good in the world, because all the data seems to say people want to know they can trust a brand to be more transparent and share their values.

Not only is this very questionable. I don't see tax dodging, not a nice place to work Amazon losing market share right now. 

When everyone is at it, it loses its potency. 

I don't mean the few who have 'doing good' built into their DNA, I mean those who use it for marketing and nothing else.

Back when we really hated banks for causing the crash and you couldn't move for banking brands looking to build trust and be nice, Halifax saw that people might SAY they want banks to be good, but what really drove them was not wanting money to be a pain in the arse.

The do, not just the say. 

Perhaps, what life was really like, not what journalists wanted it to be like. 

It led to things like guides to asking friends for money back you've loaned them. A moment full of awkwardness and creative potency. It was fresh and human in a market of forced loveliness. 

All it took was dipping into what banking looks like in real life, rather than the news.

Sure, the 'doing good stuff' would have generated PR, but would it have sold? 

It's dead easy to look at the surface, to look a a 'trend'. The real gold tends to be in real life.

The more you live it, the more potent your work will be. 

 

There is immense pressure for people to be 'more' these days.

The vogue for side hustles, self-improvement, wellbeing as a project.

You saw it in subtle ways we felt we have to use the last lockdown productively.

It's bloody exhausting. 

You know what I did? I used lots and lots of little hacks and stuff to help myself and the people I care about retain a sense of normality.

I suspect I'm not alone. I can only imagine the piles of books unread, the Netflix lists not watched yet. The aborted Sourdough Starter kits. 

For years there's been pressure on planners to be interesting. In many cases, you won't get your first job unless you can show you've put something interesting out into the world. 

I liked some stuff ThinkBox did on how different people in marketing are to the people they are paid to influence and I suspect it's a real problem for strategy types.

Naturally curious, usually quite clever, but also under constant pressure to say and share interesting stuff. 

I understand there's a role get stimulus into the creative process, to help clients be part of culture rather than interrupt it etc. 

And yet. 

In my experience, the best creatives, or whoever executes don't need much stimulus for 'cool stuff'. What they need is a greater sense of what real life looks like for the people they're targeting.

Some of the very best (in the trade press at least) agencies I've worked with seemed to have a tin ear for what really moved people.

Look at soap operas. There is a reason the good ones last for years and years, they relate to all of use and how we're feeling. 

Planners were invented to bring the real lives of real people into the process. I think we've lost that. 

It's a commercial problem, because the data consistently shows that firing emotions build business effectiveness.

Don't be fooled by 'Fame' Of course, getting the brand famous matters, but famous for what?

Famous like Donald Trump? 

Its a work life balance problem too, because constantly having to be interesting is knackering.

I'm saying that we need more people who want to start with the fabric of everyday life.

Being normal is enough.

You are enough. 

 

Before I was old enough to do swim races, I was dragged along most weekends to watch my older sisters do it. Whole Saturdays sat by a pool, sometimes Sunday's too. 

I became professional at packing a bag to keep myself occupied. Books, Star Wars comics, pad and pencils for endless drawings. I was a quiet little boy, happy with his own company when forced. Sometimes I would just sit and daydream. 

Nevertheless, I still got bored. Not just on these endless weekends. 

The younger ones among you may not believe this, but once upon a time there was no internet, only 3 television channels, no mobile phones. 

Even with all the playing, the endless Star Wars role-plays, the books devoured, the cavalier risks taken on building sites on our BMX bikes, all the tennis, myself and my friends were bored.

I can remember impatiently waiting for the A-Team to come on every Friday. For the Sunday reveal of who was number one in the music charts.

Even in my twenties, we still got bored. Train journeys without mobiles or laptops meant lots of reading, it also entailed staring out the window. 

We don't get bored these days. We rarely have to deal with the discomfort of not being stimulated. 

When was the last time you were alone without your phone? 

I think this matters. Don't get me wrong, the past was not better. Shops closed on a Wednesday afternoon, popular culture was a bit racist and a lot sexist, the food was a lot worse, Margaret Thatcher ran the country. 

But being bored is a lost art, especially if you want to survive in an agency as a planning type. 

Because it's about confidence. 

Not the bollocks charisma and pretending to be someone you're not.

Having the foundations to withstand the knockbacks, the 'difficult characters', the stress, the uncertainty. 

Being able to put your best work in front of others and have it torn to shreds. 

It's also the secret to being good in meetings and presenting. 

Being yourself, not putting on a show, simply creating belief in others because you belief in yourself and what you're doing. 

The confidence to not be a dick, to be wrong sometimes, to listen to others. To not have to fucking win all the time.

Strategy people don't have to be right, they don't have to be the cleverest (don't forget, no one likes a smart-arse). 

They need to liberate the best in others. It takes self-confidence to sacrifice yourself to make others look good. 

The sure way to improve your confidence is to know who are and be happy with it. 

You need to be able to like yourself, your positives and your very real flaws. 

You need to spend time with yourself to get to this point. 

You have to get bored. 

So you can hear your mind, so you can truly know who you are. 

How you do it is up to you.

Running, gardening, knitting, baking or just sitting down for 20 minutes a day doing nothing. 

Spending time on your own, without distraction is the key.

I can also say that, in tough years like this (and mine has certainly be less than straightforward).

The more solid your foundations, the less likely the storm will blow you away.