advergirl

How you know when you’ve lost the meeting

I was reading my mousepad today. Yeah, weird, I know. But somehow I never noticed the tiny little print all around the outside of the circle. It's ringed with a list of clever uses for the somewhat-dated disk. My favorite: "signal flag when stranded in sinking client meeting."

We’ve all been in THAT meeting. The one that has gone completely, irrevocably off track. The minds are closed. The conversation is over. And, there’s nothing to do but try to wrap it up with a little grace and courage.

Here are my 10 signs that the meeting is over already – whether you’re finished or not:

1. The funny voice: The frustrated client reads a headline, a PowerPoint slide, a clever piece of web copy back to you with an em-pha-SIS on a very different sy-lla-BLE  than you ever intended. The exaggerated reading, often in  cartoonish voice, suddenly makes what you've earnestly written sound either plainly dumb or - in the worst cases - overtly sexual. *ew*


2. The “V” Word: When the references to you and your firm change from partner, consultant or agency to VENDOR, things are not going well. You're about to marginalized.


3.  The big flip: This move often starts with "wait a minute" and always includes "not on the same page." Somehow you've gone from chugging comfortably along to rethinking the entire project in 30 seconds flat. Bonus pain points if this happens during the one cell phone / bio / coffee break your boss takes during the entire four-hour meeting.


4. The Blackberry daisy chain: Let me assure you: this really happened. It is not the stuff of folklore. I heard it from the stranded facilitator herself. First, one Blackberry buzzes away on the conference table. It's picked up to a smirk. And then before you know it, they're all buzzing away. An underground meeting taking over your meeting! And a comically themed one no less.


5.  The grocery list: Walking behind your favorite client, you inadvertently look casually down at her notebook. Unless you've got the Dairy Council in, the last word you want to see is: milk. Or, remember the dry cleaning. Or what looks like a draft Netflix queue. Any decisions made that day will not stick. 


6. The sigh heard ‘round the office: Is it disappointment? Boredom? Frustration with the process? Who knows, but when that long, deep, loud-as-the-sound-of-the-tornado-coming-in-that-weird-Helen-Hunt-movie sigh rushes out, it's time to wrap it up!


7. The summary: It's a painfully abrupt conclusion. It starts with "Look, what we’re saying here is." And, importantly, it's rarely what we're actually saying here. 


8. The slow drain of people: This derailing is most likely to happen on a Friday afternoon or during those first few weeks of back-to-school before the parents get back on the right carpool / handoff / soccer schedule. Someone announces that they have to leave 15 minutes early. Someone else gets an urgent cell phone call and trucks off to the lobby (and eventually the parking lot). Another "realizes' that the meeting runs 30 minutes longer than her calendar noted. Before you know it, you're presenting to the leftover pastries and the two enthusiastic interns.


9. The flip to the back of the book: Why, why, why do we continue to put the budget on the last page? They know to look there. And if you get that number wrong enough, all the other pages are for naught.
   


10. The therapy session: Phrases to listen for: "you know why we can't do that?" and "I'll tell you why that wouldn't work here." They're harbingers of the moment when a meeting goes from idea generating to therapy seeking. Lots of organizations are broken. And, sometimes it feels better to talk about why. And just how badly. Agenda be damned.

What about Duke?

Happy St. Patrick's Day, readers. And, Merry March Madness.

Back when I worked as a full-fledged suit at a retail shop, I worried a lot about small talk. CMOs want to talk about the big weekend game; CEOs want to predict the winner of the next one.

Me? I don't have an ounce of sports fan in me. I'm lucky if I know for sure what sports season it is, let alone what playoff is approaching and who is expected to dominate it. I keep the local sports teams calendars on my wall as little more than a traffic advisory.

When you work in a Big Ten town, this is not an ideal situation. So, I was always looking for the headline, the soundbite, anything to get the sports small talk rolling so smoothly that I could happily just nod my agreement.

(As one of the resident wonks at my current shop clients expect me to be bookish and pop culture averse :)  No one cares that I don't wear red (scarlet) on Fridays or quote scores over lunch.)

Still, I love the soundbites. The little nuggets that incite fans to passion.

Neil - the cool partner at that retail shop - used to give me a few good ones every now and again.

His universal:

What about Duke?

Apparently Coach K and his team are always somewhat provocative. It's a safe starting point if you don't know the alliances of the people in the room.

I've used that one a lot. It actually works.

So, I was thrilled to check my Facebook wall and find his this-season advice for March Madness:

Who do you like in the Big East? Apparently the powerhouse division this year.

I asked Neil that very Q. Here's an answer. If you go this deep, though, you better be able to back it up:

How can you not love Syracuse? 6 OTs against UConn. Playing against Louisville for the Championship! Go Orangemen!

Happy tournament, people. Fill out those brackets.

Plaid Nation 2008: What the cool kids are doing this summer

Back in the innocent days of 2007 -- in a time before a perfectly innocent van was wrapped, wired and wandering America -- the guy on the left and the guy on the right were talking agency self promotion ideas in a conference room in Danbury, CT.

The guy on the left joked, "we should get one of those funky Scooby Doo type vans, and just take it on the road."

Not the kind of joke to tell at Plaid, a one-of-a-kind design, branding and social shop, that makes weird ideas kind of wonderful.

Later that year, the first Plaid Nation tour came to life. And this year, its big brother - Plaid Nation 2008 - is storming the West Coast.

What is it?

It's five Plaid-ians driving through the country meeting creative, marketing, brand and internet workers, and sharing Plaid love. It's Tweetups, meetings with the creative community, introductions to inspiring dudes, and a big fat live Web experience to go with it. It's taking social on the road and using it locally and globally to continue a conversation. In short - it's a one-van mission to change people's perceptions about social media. From impractical to integrated.

Why should we care?
Sure there are some cool ideas being discussed and great connections made. But let's go a little bigger than that.

They've mobilized some of their best ideas and people in a freaking Scooby Doo van.  And it's netting out some incredible connections and enviable awareness.

The van is the power of "What if?" Of not being afraid to speak, explore and act on ideas. Even ones that, frankly, seem a little crazy. Especially ones that tear down assumptions about just how far a brand or product or experience can go.

It's about embracing the personality of your brand. And not being afraid to take smart chances.

I've got a Plaid Nation key chain hanging on my cork wall to remind me to bring a little of that Scooby Doobery to my every day.

Safe travels, guys!

Call for an Agency School

Or: Five things you will learn on the fly that you would have been better at if someone just taught you.

I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.

Maybe it's Agency Speed. That pace required to fill the gap between goals and resources. That clip that leaves teams bootstrapping relatively crazy solutions at ungodly hours of the morning. That speed that rewards the people who "get it" and bedevils those that would actually like to follow a "process."

Or maybe it's the Immigration to the Industry. Agency types are from all over. Journalists. Corporate Marketers. Work-in-their-jammies Freelancers. Artists. Photographers. Fundraisers. Developers. Economists. Cat Herders. A messy hodgepodge of talent, experience and know-how.

Whatever the reason, most of us end up learning a lot of the basic skills of the business on our own. Traveling down the same road of self education ... only to very different ends.

So this is my call to any industry vets or educators who might be reading. We need an agency school or a creative industry bootcamp that teaches these five core skills of the business:

1. Managing People. The natural path of success is from doer to manager. But the skills required for each are completely different. Hence the fumbling weeks / months / years of grabbing work back to redo ourselves, of delegating just the grunt work, of being unable to inspire a team.
   
   Teach us how to teach, mentor and manage. How to give meaningful feedback and pass on our best skills.


2. Taking Notes. We're natural stenographers. Writing down every word we can capture. Brains racing just ahead of our scribbles. Our notes are the transcript of a meeting. Until one day - far too late in our careers - when we meet someone who has actually learned the art of notetaking and we realize we've being doing it all wrong.
   
   Teach us about synthesis. And creating frameworks from the dump of data. About hierarchy and selectivity and gathering those salient quotes that bring not just the content but the tenor of the feedback. Teach us to think conceptually and write briefly even in the real-time conversation of the meeting.


3. Giving presentations. Or, even, hell, creating them. PowerPoint has shouldered us with clunky, fragmented thoughts. It's taken away our natural interaction with the room. Our ability to stir passion and set up the big idea. Click, click, click goes the noose.
   
   Teach us what it means to present an idea. Give us the power to run a room. Go all the way back to the setup. Where it should be, who should be there, what should be in the room. And through the meeting itself - how we build the right foundation for an idea, unveil creative, inspire the client. Teach us how to get the room back with stodgy-mc-stodgerson declares the work crap, when the Big Boss nods off in the corner, when our creative partner embarks on a startling  monologue about  the sensuality of the font.


4. Tracking time. We bill by the hour. Well, some of the hours anyway. Maybe the right ones. As well as we can remember. In an office of 100 people, how many bill for the time it takes to get to the meeting? How many cross off a .5 for the what-did-you-do-this-weekend tangent at the end of the kickoff? How many really log the weekend hours we donated? What aboutthe time to get a new staff member up to speed? No?
   
   We're not number crunchers by nature. Not suits with rulebooks. Give us some guidelines, some help with the details. Teach us what that "we bill by the hour" phrase really means.


5. Managing our own schedules. Oh, the lucky few with a traffic coordinator. Someone to prioritize, negotiate and balance. The rest of us are either racing to catch up or boldly scratching off one meeting to slide in another. Listening to a conference call while typing up a new strategy. Stacking commitments three deep in hopes that nothing is lost in the balance.
   
   Teach us how to mange it all. When to say when. How to see the big disasters coming. And plan time not just for the deliverable, but for its iterations.

AgencyU? Ad Camp? I'm in.

The best advice no one ever gave you

 

Remember Daniel Pink's book The Whole New Mind? It was something of a treatise on the power of right-brained thinking in our changing economy. Serious stuff.

Enter his newest book: The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. A little comic-primer set to do no less than unseat that loopy-doopy The Places You'll Go Suess-ian tome from the top of the go-to grad gift list.

Bunko is a career guide. Featuring a genie. And a cube dweller. And the super sage piece of advice above.

Here's my spin:

The #1 mistake I see advertising newbies make at work is falling into the Supportive Parents Trap.

They grew up with moms who applauded their every successfully in-toilet poo. Dad's who only put down their video cameras long enough to lead a standing ovation at their school plays. Grandmas and grandpas who bragged their poems and art projects and sundry creativity.

You know, a good family.

One that sought out the good things their kids did. And, happily rewarded them for the effort.

Those well-adjusted newbies land at work full of big ideas and sharp skills. Full of that fabulous fodder: potential.

But, when the boss doesn't notice. Doesn't seek them out. Promote them. Reward them.

Well, what then?

The complaining begins. The gripey circles of discontent form. The dissatisfaction blooms. They feel worse and are more siloed and unnoticed than ever.

And why?

Because we were expecting to be discovered. Our whole lives people have recognized us for the gems we are. Why not here?

The inevitable answer is that work - ESPECIALLY agency work - just isn't built that way.

It rewards initiative over talent. Persistence over patience. Relevance over potential.

You get noticed by channeling that ambition into action. By coming to the table with ideas and inspiration. By pitching your boss on new directions. By volunteering for the tireless work of new business. By becoming an indispensable subject matter expert. By building an incredible relationship with a client. By coming to your boss as a peer and not just a squeaky wheel.

The best piece of advice no one ever gave you is no one ever got anywhere by waiting for someone to notice them. The plucky newbie gets the raise.

Buy the book for you or your favorite kid with huge potential and a chip on their shoulder. (It's even on sale!)

Challenge to Columbus: Feed the Mid-Ohio Foodbank

Mid-Ohio FoodBank keeps the food shelves stocked for a network of more than 530 emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, senior dining centers, day care and after-school enrichment programs.

In this challenging economic year, people who gave last year are receiving this year. Which makes the annual Operation Feed more important than ever.

For 27 years Operation Feed has provided food for needy families in central Ohio.  Every year, local businesses, government agencies, school children, and civic groups team up to donate critically needed food items and dollars during this community-wide food drive.

Ologie, the Columbus Dispatch, Resource Interactive and others are already collecting cans and checks (Ologie's Givologie campaign poster is above).

So this is my challenge to the rest of Creative Columbus - get involved. Start a food drive at your agency and collect what you can to take care of our community.

And, because I have this handy soapbox, I specifically challenge these Creative Columbus leaders to start Operation Feed drives at their own agencies:

John Randle at Mlicki
Gary Moneysmith at Paul Werth (ACCEPTED THE CHALLENGE! THANK YOU!)
Lara Kretler at Fahlgren (ACCEPTED THE CHALLENGE! THANK YOU!)
Becky Ziegler at SBC Advertising
Billy Fischer at B&A (ACCEPTED THE CHALLENGE! THANK YOU!)
Patti Cullen at engauge

Diagnosing the Boys Club

More on the Get Interactive series later this week, but - true to my distracted nature - I'm going to wander off on another tangent right in the middle of it. And a fiery tangent at that. Let's kickoff this week by talking about gender.

Listening to Hillary Clinton's concession speech this weekend, I was glad to hear her finally speak frankly about the barriers that her candidacy had the opportunity break down. In perhaps her most memorable remark she talked about blazing a path for the women who will follow her:

Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.

It's interesting in a time when gender inequality is still such a prevalent experience, how little it's actually spoken about. Particularly in our industry. We are at once liberal and progressive. Yet, still, on average, paying women less than men for the same jobs. Giving them less access to true leadership. Packing new business teams with guys in suits. Shorting maternity leave. Etc. But, to talk about it ... no, it's unmentionable.

I have a theory on why.

Discrimination - and, I'm sorry, it's a tough word that lots of people have warned me against using, but it is what we're talking about - has become increasingly benign. So subconscious and blandly everyday that it's nearly impossible to work up the fervor to rally against.

The intent is simply not there. It's so built into our cultures that it goes un-talked about. Passed from one supervisor to the next. Insidious harm affably wrapped.

So what do you say we strip it down?

My girlfriends and I have worked at all kinds of agencies and companies. And for all kinds of bosses. Personally, I worked on the smoking floor of a converted factory for a 600-pound man deep in the Midwest AND in a gorgeous custom-designed loft space for one of the second city's leading lady power brokers. Our careers have taken us across the country and back. And, in them, we've found four key ways that men create "boys clubs."

Boys Club defined: Group of men whose routine and systematic actions - intended or circumstantial - limit the daily success and career potential of their female peers. These 'clubs' are not always culture-wide. They can exist in smaller teams or departments.

Four Ways to Diagnose a Possible Boys Club:

1. Access: Agencies tend to be social places. Ones where long lunches are had, golf is played, after-work drinks are enjoyed, etc. The challenge comes when those social outings are both open to men only AND are occasions when business is done.
   
   When everything from department structures to project plans are routinely being discussed in forums women don't have access to, it creates discrimination.
   
   Many women would go farther and say that just the fact of the social outings - business or no - is access-based discrimination because men have the opportunity to build personal relationships and different kinds of respect with agency leaders than women do. It's a fair argument in a business that is based so much on gut instinct and the belief that who you know = who you can trust.
   
   The key concepts here are routinely and systematically. It's not one guy taking two other guys out to lunch. It's a leader routinely socializing exclusively with the men on his team and systematically excluding women in the same / similar positions.


2. Stacking: One of my least favorite things to see is an "About our leaders" section of an agency Web site populated with 15 guys all wearing the same suit.
   
   It's common when talking about gender in an agency to mention what percentage of women work there - as in, women make up 45% of our staff. The trick is in asking - which 45%? Discrimination by stacking happens when the women on the team (routinely and systematically) hold only the lowest-ranking, lowest-paying spots. They're interns, assistants, entry levels. And the men (routinely and systematically) are the managers, supervisors and leaders. That's not equal hiring. At best, it's tokenism. At worst, it's evidence of a belief that women are less capable and have less value.


3. Communication: A woman we recently interviewed for our strategy group had previously worked at a very well-known regional school for girls. We asked her to make the elevator argument for single-gender education and one of the points she made was that women answer questions differently in class. Men tend to put their hands up right away and shoot from the hip. Women tend to think about it for ~12 seconds. They think conceptually, consider lots of different angles. Come to a conclusion.
   
   I loved that illustration because I've always thought that cultures that communicate by yelling, fighting and jocking for position are discriminatory, but I couldn't quite explain why. It's a more masculine way of communicating. One that rewards one gender-specific style over another one.
   
   This is a discrimination that is worse for the doer. You miss out on a lot of great ideas and insights by steamrolling over your peers. And on a lot of good partnerships by screaming at them.


4. Entertainment. Apparently it still has to be said. Emailing pornography. Making lists of the hottest women in the office. Talking about your peer's breasts or ass or propensity for, well, you know. Yeah, that's all wrong. It creates attitudes of disrespect and otherness in cultures that by-and-large already have enough problems.

I mention these things for a couple of reasons.

First, because - in general - I really don't believe the men who are part of these boys club cultures mean any harm. Meaning: If made aware of their behaviors, they may be predisposed to stop.

And, second, because while I've self-selected out of cultures like these, not everyone has or can - so, it's important to talk about. To keep challenging what's right and fair. Better than it used to be isn't enough.

Sizing up Agencies: Check out the chic clothes

After yesterday's heady post on Ad guys and their socks, Shana challenged me to take on Ad women and their shoes. I'm definitely up for a dare, but...

I have a new hypothesis:  A woman's shoes say more about her agency than about her personal style

Part of an agency's culture is how it looks. From super casual to buttoned-up, from flip flops to stilettos, women take cues from their co-workers about how to dress and just what exactly will be seen as cool and compliment-able. The agency uniform may have different colors and styles, but it's still part of what defines the place...

Allow me to illustrate with these cases:

The look: Stilettos and crisp jeans
Type of agency you're likely in: These women wear their effortless style like their easy brand leadership. They're from a big name agency. Maybe the biggest one in town. They walk by a bulging awards case on the way to a white table cloth lunch on a patio. They're the agency people come to town talking about.

The look: Casual skirts, eclectic prints and modern flats
Type of agency you're likely in: These women are from an agency of specialists. Likely small and choosy. A little green, a little quirky. They eat their yogurt and soy on the patio behind their office. Clients who work with them swear by them. Most everyone else says - wait, who?

The look: Pencil skirts and pumps
Type of agency you're likely in: First up, they probably changed their shoes. These women are from a hip, urban agency. They're practical - probably came to work in walking shoes, probably have a process that "works every time."  They grab something for lunch on the run. Always have a granola bar and a slightly overripe piece of fruit on their desks, right beside three projects only half done. Clients trust their brand, but aren't always inspired by their work.

The look: Hoodies and pumas
Type of agency you're likely in: Well, first up, you're in the Midwest. This is the only place they even sell hoodies. Beyond that - you're probably at an agency that grew fast, that uses lots of young (read: cheap) talent and believes they work and play hard. Although, really, they probably scrape by on deadlines and have had quite enough of each other by the end of the day (thank you). They might split a pizza or divvy up meeting leftovers for lunch. They have a small front team and a big back office. They have lots of legends.

The look: Church clothes and practical shoes
Type of agency you're likely in: Market research. Enough said.

The look: Flowing pants and strappy sandals or knee-high boots (depending on the season)
Type of agency you're likely in: These women have a lot of corporate clients. They work in a big shop with lots of little practices. They spend a lot of time in front of people who they need to impress, but they also just spend a lot of time - long days, big commitments. They microwave calorie-controlled choices for lunch and sneak handfuls of mini reeses cups in the afternoon. They might be in a suburb and likely specialize in PR or niche advertising. People know them by their client roster.

The look: Corduroys and uggs or crocs 
Type of agency you're likely in: The local college assigned "open your own agency" as a class project. Or the freelancers are loose in the conference room.

Sizing up Ad Guys: Check out the socks

Say you're at a networking event or, worse, crammed in a packed house waiting for the local Addys to light up the night. You're likely being glad handed and checked out by any number of agency types ... from the ones you'd love to work for to the ... well, ones you'd rather avoid.

Quickly sorting out who to talk to and who to nudge out of the way to reach the buffet used to be a lot easier. Men flaunted their personality in ties, pocket squares, glasses, briefcases ... but, now that the ties have long let loose to open collars and Lasik has left most faces rimless, well... what's left?

The last vestige of male gives: the socks.

How to know what kind of Ad guy you're talking to by his socks:

• Basic black: Chances are you're talking to the new biz guy. Used to spending his day traveling from one cliche corporate headquarters to another, he's mastered the skill of the chameleon - blending in to his environs as if he had been there all along. Save the snazzy socks for those arty guys.
  
  But, there's a chance, too, that you're dealing with the most treacherous kind of ad guy: the irrelevant middle manager who doesn't yet know he's irrelevant. This guy had a good year. An incredible year. A year that has made the agency loyal to him. Sadly, that year was over a decade ago. And since then, things have been ... well, slow and sometimes, frankly, embarrassing. But, like the aging athlete who once won the big game in high school, this guy still believes he's in the glory years. Align with him and take on all his gossipy baggage as your very own.
  
  To tell the difference between these basic blacks, check the shoes. The new biz guy's will be plain and shiny. The irrelevant middle manager, genuinely bad. Possibly even striking a jarring and unpleasant contrast to his pants.


• Striped - horizontal: Ah, this guy. If basic black is the real sales guy, striped horizontal sees himself as the closer. He's the free-wheeling relationship guy. Probably a creative, maybe a strategist. The one who asks about your kids, knows the baseball score and is forgiven for otherwise meeting-inappropriate behavior by the mere fact that everyone loves him. Maybe a former fraternity president or the son of a preacher man, this guy has been center stage his whole life. And, he loves it. He'll be someone you want to meet, but probably won't have a chance to because he'll be busy working his contacts around the room. Hey, Tom, I haven't seen you since [insert event you totally wanted to go to]


• Striped - vertical: Mr. Orderly. Probably has a heavily marked up to-do list in his pocket. Unless he's under 40 - then, it's probably all tucked away in a well-appointed iPhone. Unless he's wearing a tie - then it's definitely a Blackberry. Mr Orderly likely has one of two jobs - account director or information architect. Either way, he's got it together and can probably help you network your way into his agency castle ... IF You can answer the exacting questions he's chef-ed up to weed out candidates who wouldn't positively reflect on his reputation


• Colors - bright: Media department.


• Colors - dull: Oh, the practical creative. The guy who gets the work done. This guy is a little cynical. He's talented, but probably only really shines in one best-at niche. He's got a lot of opinions and big ideas... although, the big ideas are usually about something other than his own job, clients, life. He's great to grouse and drink with... and, could probably help you get your foot in the door, but make no mistake - he's a worker bee (who just might try to convince you he's the one "really" running the show.)
  


• Argyle: Ah, prep school. These simple socks will often be paired with grungy jeans and a freshly dry-cleaned white button up. Yeah, he's a suit. A contemporary one. Who summers with his extended family in a great place on a blue lake that his dad rents out for the whole month of August. He drives an amazing car that he treats like shit. He goes about his gig with malaise. Stressed? Nah. He's the one guy who can get through the agency ringer unscathed by urgency. And, importantly, he KNOWS EVERYONE. Well, everyone worth knowing.


• White: Who invited the production department?


• None: Web guy! He'll still be talking about the days of playing foosball with Don Norman over beers in the main conference room on a Monday afternoon. A refugee of dot-com, he's trying to make it work in an integrated agency, but is totally jonesing for the days when geeks could be geeks and make a huge fat wad of cash doing it. Better throw in some talk of the newest grand theft auto or feed app to get the chatter flowing.

Seducing the Boys Club: Nina DiSesa, SheSays

I'm excited to end this 'Advice for Newbies' week with a post for young women featuring an interview with Nina DiSesa, Chairman of McCann Erickson New York and Ale Lariu, "mother superior" of SheSays.

Last month, Ale, Associate Creative Director at AKQA NY (in addition to the whole mother superior bit), reached out to me about an event sponsored by SheSays in New York.

Ale explains the big idea behind SheSays this way: "The world is pretty much half men, half women. So why are there hardly any women in the creative department of most digital ad agencies? We decided to stop chatting about it and do something - like hold events where top women in the industry share their thoughts and help people to either get started or work their way up."

Last month, the event was keynoted by the enviable Nina DiSeso, a hands-on creative leader who worked her way up to the very top of "Madison Avenue" and just published a great book called Seducing the Boys Club.

The book is at once mentorship (on success and management) and the story of life lived in an ad agency. Nina has taken what she's learned from male behavior and her own missteps to create a guidebook for getting ahead. If you're just getting started, it's truly a sneak peek into every interaction you'll have for the next 40 years.

Talking with Nina:

Q: Even at this stage in my career, I've been in plenty of meetings where I'm the only woman in the room. I've been thanked for the refreshments and complimented on my shoes, but, generally still end up with the respect and the attention of the room by the end. Do you have any tips for people just starting out on how to win respect / attention in tough environments?

Nina: It’s always best to be needed and essential for something. Not for serving coffee or doing “women’s work” but needed in an indispensable way. This can be accomplished at any level. If you read the story about Harold in chapter seven of the book you will get a good idea of what I’m talking about. There are a lot of ways to get clout in an organization, find the ones that work for you.

Q: Writing a book like this and even speaking at SheSays seems very controversial for a women exec. Particularly one at an ad agency. How did you decide to go for it?

Nina: Actually, I was hoping I’d be retired by now, but it doesn’t look likely, at least for another year or two. It wasn’t much of a risk. My mission is to reach out to women of all ages and help them get in control of their lives, their careers and their own happiness. But this also applies to anyone who finds herself or himself in an environment where they are different from the majority and are having a tough time making progress to the top. McCann Erickson has been behind this from the start and they are proud of the book and me.

Q: How have your colleagues and clients responded?

Nina: With delight. Although the clients always want to sit next to me now so they can see how I am trying to “seduce and manipulate” them.

Q: What are your #1 pieces of "do" advice and "don't" advice for young women working in agencies that could fairly be called "boys' clubs"?

Nina: Well I wrote a whole book about this but to bring it down to the simplest terms: “do” whatever it takes to win, “don’t” resent the men or anyone else who appears to be unsupportive – learn from them. And always remember the most powerful question in the English language: “What’s in it for me?” This doesn’t mean what’s in it for YOU; it means you have to find a compelling tactic for the person who you want to influence. You want something from someone – what’s in it for them to help you?

Q: In Seducing the Boys Club, you talk about "How Men Listen." I love the part of the story where the two embattled ad guys bemoan your feedback with "That's the trouble with this agency..." Have you found any great ways to create more positive environments? Or, at least quell the "this agency sux" happy hours?

Nina: I have never tried to stop the whining and complaining of the creative people. They have to vent and it’s a natural part of the creative process when someone kills their “babies.” We all do it. We get angry, we vent, we believe the person who killed our work is a hack and doesn’t know a great idea from a lousy one, then we get over it and do something so much better it even shocks us. As long as better work develops from this process I don’t mind it and they always forgive the creative director who forced them to dig deeper and get better work. Creative people complain. It’s part of our nature. Allowing us to this and having a sense of humor about it is what makes for a more positive environment, strangely enough. Also winning helps. When we sell good work and win the respect of our peers it makes us happy. It’s a fleeting happiness, but it still feels good.

Q: Can I say - you look gorgeous? The stress doesn't seem to have gotten to you. Do you have any great tips for maintaining perspective?

Nina: Thank you for the compliment. Actually, I do look younger since I handed over the New York creative director responsibilities to Joyce King Thomas and she thinks that she’s starting to look older. (She’s not.) Once on the elevator she announced that she could actually see the stress traveling down my body, slithering across the floor, then climbing up her own body until it lands on her face. Stress does age us but the good news is that when the stress lessens our muscles relax and we look better. At least that’s what I think. You happened to catch me at an unstressed moment. Up until a month ago I was very stressed out and it showed.

Q: How did you get involved with SheSays? And, do you think it's a good idea for young women to join women peer groups in the workplace?

Nina: I was introduced to the group by Alessandra Lariu, who I met at McCann (we were trying to hire her, I believe). I was so captivated by her I decided to speak to her group. I do think it’s a good idea for women of all ages to join up because we often feel so isolated and it’s good to know that we are not alone. Also, women are bright and when we relax we can also be a lot of fun. This isn’t a bad characteristic to develop.

Talking with Ale:

Q: What is your best advice for women starting out in the industry?

Ale: Always have a goal, always work towards where you want to be and above all, take risks. I like to say I'm best at what I don't know...

Q: What about women in career transition?

Ale: I'd say the same thing as above. And perhaps you might need to take a pay cut but it's all about the bigger picture, your goals and where you want to be. It might be hard in the beginning but the experience in another career will help accelerate the race.

Q: What do you wish you knew when you were a rookie?

Ale: Not to waste so much time doing one thing    

Q: What's next for SheSays?

Ale: In the UK we've started to run free presentation courses. In the US, we'll continue free monthly meetings showcasing amazing women in digital/advertising. We'll also set up our mentorship program called 'Who's your momma'.

Last words: Don't forget to order the book.