Brittany Harshbarger, Media Planner

When I was interviewed for an account internship just weeks after I graduated college, I didn’t even know that digital media was a “thing.” Yes, I knew digital, and I knew that media encompassed TV, radio, billboards, and all of those other classic media outlets that come to mind. Then I was asked if I would rather intern for the media team because the account interns were a dime a dozen. I took a chance and decided that I was going to learn the art of placing ads online.

It was not easy at first- I had to solve for X, learn which sites day traders use to check stock quotes, and learn so many 3-letter acronyms that I was like, “WTF did I sign up for?” It was a challenge. I quickly decided that I had to either commit to this fully or go do something less brain intensive- like start my own bakery.

I committed to my job as Assistant Media Planner and took every opportunity to learn. My supervisors and Director saw something in me that I hadn’t yet seen. In the wise words of Rebecca Weiser, “you don’t even know what you don’t know.” I commuted to and from Connecticut and had many late nights at the office and long rides home with plenty of time to think. I wasn’t sure if I was cut out for this job, which needed me to think strategically, mathematically, practically, and creatively all at once. I decided that my 2014 resolution was to shed my college girl persona, buckle down and get damn good at this job that I felt lucky to have been given.

Now, 9 months into my time at Proove, I shed my college girl persona as well as the “assistant” in my job title. I could not be more thankful for those late nights. I was lucky enough to be trained in how to take a media plan, traffic ads, pull reports, create dashboards, report to the client, make optimizations to said media plan, and then start planning for the next quarter. The training I received and still receive every day is invaluable.

Andy Bly, Art Director at DiMassimo Goldstein

Even though I was raised in a small town hidden in Northwestern Pennsylvania, I was fortunate enough to visit New York City a few times early in my life. My dad would come out once a year for the International Toy Fair and from the very first time he brought our entire family out for a long weekend, I knew this was the place for me. There’s no grey area with New York and I think you figure out fairly early whether you can handle it or not. It would take another two decades of living to make that a reality.

Early last June I had planned a trip to the city from Cleveland to see a few friends, one of them being Cait DeAngelis, who I first met in 2002 while attending architecture school at Kent State. (And yes it took us almost 12 years of friendship to realize our initials are ABCD). Within hours of being in New York and only minutes after meeting Cait at her office here at DiMassimo Goldstein, I was filling out a W-9 and signing up for a freelance gig that started in 10 days. So, after years of struggling to find my place in northeastern Ohio, I had a job and apartment in the best city in the world after only a few minutes. It’s never that easy. Luckily, a few people took a chance on a bearded guy moving from Cleveland with no direct advertising experience. It’s been almost a year and I am comfortably freaked out on a daily basis in my role as junior art director. It’s never that easy, but when it is, I’ve learned to make the most of it.

In his research, Jim Collins finds that companies achieving lasting greatness have many things in common. For one thing, they have a “stop doing” list that rivals the to-do version. Here are a few things we stopped doing at DiMassimo Goldstein that seem to have made all the difference:

TIMESHEETS. That’s right, at DiMassimo Goldstein exactly zero creative energy is spent on useless timesheets. This exercise, once thought to be absolutely essential–and which is almost universally a billable time-consuming farce that occasionally leads to criminal penalties–has no place in our routine. We just don’t do them. Instead, we put time and energy into growing our client’s brands and businesses.

But what if a client insists on timesheets? Every organization must choose its priorities. To those who can’t appreciate the benefits of a team 100% focused on their business rather than our own, we just say “No thanks.”

BILLING BY THE HOUR. DiMassimo Goldstein is not a temp agency that lends employees to clients, who then must manage them. We take care of the integration of the team and take full responsibility for the results. That’s why we never charge by the hour. Each client pays a monthly retainer. If we put in more hours, the fee remains the same. If we need more staff, the fee remains the same. If a relationship is unprofitable for more than a few months, we sit down with the client and reprioritize or expand the scope of the work–always going forward, never backward.

Some say, “It’s unsustainable!” All we can say is that we’ve been doing it this way for more than a decade—over ten years of satisfied clients and consistent agency growth and profitability.

So how do we manage and know what people are doing with their time? We can, by asking the team every day – what are you working on? What are your challenges? How can we help? These questions not only take bureaucracy off everyone’s plates, but they fuel integrity. Along with trust, it forms the core of all successful relationships.

What’s on your Stop Doing List? Let me know at mark@digobrands.com.

We were recently interviewed for an article in Investor’s Business Daily about employing different tactics in this digital marketing age. It’s extremely difficult to be a marketer right now. The effectiveness of traditional marketing tactics are declining at a rate faster than executives can figure out how to best leverage all of the new media opportunities out there. There’s no end to the amount of reading you can do to bone up on “best practices” and “new paradigms”. If you just practice them more religiously and adopt them more quickly, you would no doubt outpace the competition.

Missing in this conversation is the ultimate killer advantage: do you love what you’re selling? 

Your job is not to be the sanest, most balanced and detached individual in the world. You should be on fire, whatever moves you. Bring all the experience you have to the party, but leave your cynicism at the door–it is a failed attempt to prevent disappointment and only prevents the joy of surprise.

In Seth Godin’s book, The Dip, he describes how a new endeavor– whether it’s a job or learning how to rollerblade–starts with enthusiasm and excitement. But between the beginning and the end of the process, when you’ve achieved your goal, is a dip to power through.

“Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point—really hard, and not much fun at all.

And then you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. Maybe you’re in a Dip—a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it’s really a cul-de-sac, which will never get better, no matter how hard you try.”

Loving what you’re selling is the super fuel that impels you through the dip. People who adore what they do will pore over the most tedious spreadsheets, attend snore-worthy meetings, listen to stomach-turning feedback, and keep on barreling through. Godin continues:

“Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt—until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you’ll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip—they get to the moment of truth and then give up—or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.”

To do marketing @speed, you must eliminate the fear of failure and new ideas, and the fear of an iterative process. Remember, love is the inverse of fear.

It’s so much easier to follow our simple advice, “do something”, when you’re passionate about your work. There’s no dread, fear of failure, or procrastination of difficult tasks.

We love what we do at our agency – and more importantly, we love people who love what they do. So why not “do something” right now. If you’re passionate about your job, company or career, email Mark DiMassimo and tell him all about it.

Today, I got my last DailyCandy. There it was in my e-mail inbox, and today for the first time in I don’t know how long, I opened it.

Titled “The Short Goodbye,” it was exactly that- the last of a legendary series that had admittedly gotten pretty weak of late.

Back in 2000, the founder, Dany Levy, created something unique and valuable for the e-mail channel. Focused, witty, stylish, it delivered what it promised. Her list grew and grew from word-of-mouth and pass-along, and the site became enormously popular. She sold a controlling stake to a partner for $3 million after which they sold the whole thing to Comcast for more than $125 million. Comcast subsequently merged with NBCUniversal.

By 2011, Dany Levy was completely out. The big company didn’t know what to do with the 10-carat diamond that was DailyCandy. It was a precious, small gem that by jewel standards was a real diamond. But by giant conglomerate standards, it was a small stone that just didn’t fit the setting.

As a result, they mismanaged it. They confused following with innovating, launching spin-off fashion and daily-sale type businesses. Both failed.

Then, they closed it down.

Levy says, “It had a good life.” It was a sweet life indeed. DailyCandy, you changed things. You inspired. You showed us that great content can rise to the top, even in the context of the lowly e-mail inbox. You proved that small, focused, and different can still change the world.

And in the end, you reminded us that independence can be a priceless and irreplaceable jewel as well.

R.I.P.