What the Producer Said..."This One Goes Up to 11."

Hollywood is filled with stories of moguls who started out in the mailrooms of some the most important studios in the industry.  Icons such as David Geffen, Michael Ovitz, Barry Diller and Bernie Brillstein, all started as very well-dressed grunts in the basement of the William-Morris Agency.

When I started in the advertising industry, the Madison Avenue equivalent of the mailroom was the Traffic department.  That has since changed to the entry-level Account position.

Just as there are major advantages to starting in the mailroom at WMA, there are just as many “perquisites” to being a junior account manager.  The idea is to use your vantage to your advantage.

So, here’s what.  If you are a junior account person, here are some tipuisites on how to "take advantage of the vantage." (that's in quotes so that you memorize it!)

Find a mentor (Whether she knows it or not).

Every agency has that golden girl who seems to be getting the choice assignments.  Your first instinct is going to be to hate on them.  But I implore you to do like the fictional character Sammy Glick and find a way figure out why they are the chosen ones.  I guarantee you, it won’t be the obvious answer.

It’s okay to be ambitious.

I guarantee there are two sentences you will hear over and over again. 1. “I can’t believe this is what I went to college for.”  And 2. “My friend who works in finance makes five times what I am making.”  These are the words of the non-ambitious and uninspired.  In this business you are only rewarded if you stand out from the crowd.  Nothing is owed to you. And you don’t actually MAKE anything.  So, the only way to excel is if you find a way to make YOURSELF valuable. 

Plan your next move based on your boss’s next move.

Barry Diller, the famous wunderkind of Paramount Studios and many other ventures, famously took a job as the assistant to a Hollywood TV agent.  A week or so after he started the job, his boss became the head of the agency. So, now he was the assistant to the guy running the show.  The point here is simple. If your boss is on the fast track then you follow her. If she is talking about bagging it all and opening a bakery, make sure you start lobbying for a new account to work on. 

Pick up the check the day before payday.

My mother used to work for the phone company.  This is back in the day when there was only one “phone company.”  She told me that one thing she used to do was either go shopping or take her coworkers out to lunch the day before payday.  She did this so that the people she worked with knew that she wasn’t just working for a paycheck.  Take a few minutes and think about how baller that was.   

It makes people wonder who you are. And that my friends, is what this business is all about.  You want them to wonder who the **** you are!

And…fade to black.

(Dedicated to Patricia Y. Prince)