Dan Fields (@danthebeast) is a Vice President of Operations at Aarra, an interactive management firm based in New York and Chicago. Once a humble Flash developer, Dan has moved into a sales and new business role, building relationships with large agencies and small shops alike.
Our conversations discusses the need for sales and relationships in creative businesses, how Dan made the transition to new biz, and some of the challenges facing the ever-changing advertising industry.
Catch up with Dan on his personal site Danfields.com or via his podcast, Save It For The Show.
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- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, Episode 68 (MP3, 51:56, 25.1 MB)
- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, Episode 68 (OGG, 51:56, 25.3 MB)
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Show Notes & Links
- Dan is “no expert” but is a working professional with a passion project on the side. (Aren’t we all?!)
- Dan is a New Business & Strategy agent for a number of design & interactive studios
- He started as a Flash developer, gaining an understanding of the creative process
- Matt Keefe, Josh Miles, previous guests on the Podcast
- The challenge is now “How do you get potential clients into the room?”
“You have to have the work in your portfolio.”
—Dan Fields
- Dan studied advertising and journalism at University of Nevada, Reno, (where previous guest Mignon Fogarty is now a professor)
“My work ethic was high enough that I could fake being a decent designer.”
—Dan Fields
- BKWLD, a digital agency in Sacramento — Dan’s first job, and where he met Ben Borowski
- Dan’s background as not-a-traditional sales guy is “a feature, not a bug.”
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss on Amazon and on Audible
- Secrets of Closing The Sale by Zig Ziglar on Amazon and on Audible
- Save It For The Show, Dan’s podcast and creative outlet
- Ad Agencies like Goodby Silverstein, Weiden+Kennedy come up with good ideas, but Dan needs to find the folks who actually produce it.
- Old Spice
- Terry Crews (and his muscles)
- Facebook apps were everywhere, often because agencies would come up with wild ideas
- HTML5
- Getting Things Done by David Allen on Amazon and on Audible
- The pronunciation of GIF
- Emoji icons
- “Interesting” means “Not at all interesting” to Britons, especially in a business context
- How To Get Your Client’s Budget And Not Die In The Intent
“You can be on the phone all day, up to date on your email, or you can actually get things done.”
—Dan Fields
“At some point advertising forgot that it's supposed to sell something, not just win awards.”
—Dan Fields
“Advertising is weaponised media.”
—Prescott Perez-Fox
- Brands saying “Bae” (@BrandsSayingBae) on Twitter
- Eat24 – an online ordering service with a very funny persona (@Eat24)
- Oreos “You can still dunk in the dark”
- Rutheford Gold Foil Experiment aka The Geiger-Marsden Experiments, conducted between 1908–1913 at the University of Manchester; led to the Bohr Model of the atom (Nobel Prize, 1922) and Frank & Hertz’s work on electron impact (Nobel Prize, 1925)
- Volkswagen “Milky Way” spot for Cabrio, by Arnold, 1999
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nWuCZe4lSE - Volkswagen “Sunday Afternoon” spot for Golf, by Arnold, 1997
“Every time you do something creative, you're buying a lottery ticket.”
—Dan Fields
- Straight Outta Compton meme on Instagram
- Pinochle, the card game for old ladies
- Lucy Kellaway once remarked on hobbies outside of work — CEOs used to have them, now they
don’tcan’t - Kiwanis Club
- Dan Fields on Twitter
- Dan Fields on Facebook
- Dan Fields on Instagram
- Save It For The Show on Twitter
- Save It For The Show on Facebook
- Save It For The Show on SoundCloud
Tools
- Highrise, from Basecamp
- Salesforce
- Daylite
- Evernote
- Follow Up Then
- Siri
- Slack
- An actual calculator, like a TI-83
Techniques
- If you’re a creative who’s shy, you need to push yourself
- Create a side project or “fake” projects to build your portfolio
- Force yourself out of your comfort zone, especially for things like cold-calling
- BCC “2weeks@followupthen.com” on your emails to receive a reminder to your inbox
- Ask Siri to set reminders
- Keep an open internet chat for goofing off; helps build office culture
- Use video chat to supress miscommunication in email-writing shorthand
- Don’t hide your budget — don’t waste each other’s time by keeping it secrets
- Learn small talk, it’s part of relationship-building
Habits
- Find a way to remind yourself; you won’t remember
- Keep a running list of jokes or notes
- Get ideas out of your head and into some kind of system
- Drink coffee, don’t sleep (a by-product of children)
- Avoid social media; it feels productive, but it isn’t.
- Focus on email only for an hour; block off everything else.
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