Blog Page * Melody Alexander

Finding what drives you

January 5, 2017

One of my big passions in life is good health, so I’m thrilled when I’m given the opportunity to use my professional capabilities to help people live better. So a couple of years ago, when I was put in contact with Pleasant Valley Hospital in West Virginia, whose Marketing Director needed a writer to help complete numerous projects, I knew I would love working with them.

I just didn’t know how much I would love it.

I’ve had the opportunity to write articles for the local newspaper about everything from cancer prevention to heart health to laparoscopic surgery to autism.

I’ve written a speech about an Employee of the Year, whose supervisor was nearly in tears as she talked about why this woman deserved this recognition.

I’ve interviewed then told the story of a man who is lucky to be alive after an accident and who was grateful for the staff at the hospital for keeping him calm and for their professionalism.

I’ve begun to build a voice for their capital campaign, which will provide the community with a state of the art diagnostic center for the region.

The stories I get to write have been uplifting. The doctors, staff, and patients know the Marketing Director by name. They’re happy to drop everything to talk to me. They go on and on about how wonderful the hospital is and how much they love the community and the fact that the hospital can offer a town of its size all it does. And it makes me feel incredible to be able to share their stories so that others in that area can know what they have in their town.

My point with all of this is to say that I do believe it’s important to partner with people you believe in and in the work that they do. I’m thrilled to be working with Pleasant Valley Hospital as they work to meet their mission.

In other words, find what drives you, then make sure your partners know how much you appreciate them.

Lady leaders

October 25, 2016

I attended the Made in the Middle Conference this weekend — a day full of great Midwestern creative work from the talented Tad Carpenter and company — and found myself inspired by a number of the speakers and the work they showed. If you’re in any type of creative field, I highly recommend visiting Kansas City the next time they throw this conference.

But one of the speakers in particular said something that stuck with me. Jennifer Daniel is a designer and journalist who has worked for Bloomberg Businessweek, New York Times, and Google. In her experience, she has never had a female boss.

When I look at my professional experience, I realize how fortunate I have been as a woman in the advertising/media/publishing world to have worked with strong, inspiring women.

My first job out of college was working for a female newspaper publisher. I’m not sure I realized how lucky I was at the time to be a 20-something in a small town who had an incredible woman to look up to. To this day, I remember how she handled conflict in our office in such a professional, no-nonsense way and I strive to emulate her in my own career.

My second job was short-lived, but I had two female bosses in my department. One was incredibly kind while the other was no-nonsense and smart as a whip. Together, they led a team of women who respected them immensely. Looking back, I wish I had spent more time working with them and had soaked up their knowledge when I had the chance.

My first agency job came next, though. And my boss was a women who was an inspiration to everyone she met. She had big ideas. Her clients trusted her. She took care of her staff. She was passionate, creative, intelligent, and I grew by leaps and bounds working with her.

Those were the early days in my career. And I know now I am lucky. There is not a day that goes by where I take this fact for granted. I hope a day will come where there are more women in creative leadership roles, that it’s simply the norm — and that some day, young women can take it for granted that they have a lady as a leader.

Are you a woman in a creative field? If so, have you had to combat the lack of female leadership in your life? How can we, as women, make sure our voices are heard? What can we empower a different type of leadership?

When great ideas die

October 21, 2016

True heartbreak in the life of a creative looks a little like this:

You’re in front of a client, bursting with excitement to show them what you know will be award winning work. The concept is solid. You’ve found a smart solution to their problem that will be memorable. You just need them to fall in love with it.

You present the concept. You’re selling it — after all, it’s your baby and you so badly want to bring the idea to life the way you’ve envisioned it. Their feedback? A quick and painful, “No.” And just-like-that, your concept is dead.

I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. I’ve been told, “No, start over,” enough times that I’m pretty sure my skin is just leather now.

I had a client at a previous agency that was interested in creating some digital spots to run on social media. For years, we had worked closely with a photo studio in St. Louis that was wanting to move into video, so they offered to help.

We created mood boards to sell the idea. The studio was so excited that they offered to write off the production of the spots. All we had to do was pay for the talent.

The client had built an app that helped customers find items in a store. They were wanting to offer giveaways for consumers who used the app. In other words: shop, use the app, win stuff. I was that simple. So our concept was built around that idea. When a person found what they needed, a giant, angry leprechaun was there to taunt the lucky shopper.

aisle411-2 We had even found the perfect guy to play the part of the Leprechaun. He was an actor from Los Angeles. We just needed to fly him to St. Louis for a couple of days. In total, it would have cost the company agency costs plus talent costs (so, flight, hotel, food, that kind of thing). We thought it was going to happen.

But it didn’t. In the end, too much uncertainty and fear — whether an investment for a small startup would be worth it in an unexplored digital space — led to pulling the plug. It was never produced.

I was heartbroken. As a writer who loves to tell stories, producing videos is one of my favorite things on the planet. So when I get this close to producing a video and it’s killed, a little piece of me dies.

Of course, there are always things to take away from situations like this, too. Often, being told to start over means you’ll come back with even more great ideas. It’s a great way to test the limits of your brain and to keep pushing yourself to do better.

And, if nothing else, you can always use concept work as a way to talk about the way your brain works. Great ideas are still great ideas, even if they don’t make it all the way to a final execution.

How do you bounce back when an idea is killed?

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