In this episode Paul and I cover the one subject we avoided in our previous chat: writing books.

Maybe you want to write a book. Maybe you’ve written half of one and you’re not sure whether to finish it. Maybe you’ve finished one and don’t know what to do next.

Maybe you just want to hear me and Paul having a chat.

All of the above are great reasons to have a listen.

We discuss…

Why we wrote our books in the first place (holidays and frustration were involved).

The fact that you can write WHATEVER YOU WANT! Including the word ‘FUCK’!

How lonely it can be.

Agent-finding fun.

The importance of persistence.

Other people’s opinions.

Literary vs commercial fiction.

Getting research right.

The money side of things.

If the money side of things is so shit, why do it?

The publishing industry vs the advertising industry.

Reverse sexism?

How to sell your book.

Contractual bollocks/not giving up your day job.

If, for some inexplicable reason, our chat is not enough for you, try this interview with Cheryl Strayed (author of Wild, amongst others), where she covers similar things from a much more successful point of view.

Paul’s books are available here (along with all the other great things he does). Mine is available here.

Here’s the chat, the Soundcloud link and the iTunes link. And I didn’t have to split the episode in half! Hooray!

If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

ITIAPTWC Episode 17 - Paul Burke On Books

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00:00 / 1:03:15

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The merry-go-round of the podcast comes to a stop on one of my very favourite people:

I had the pleasure of freelancing with Adam Tucker for about a year, which took in some very enjoyable stints at Saatchi and Saatchi, Dentsu and JWT, culminating in a trip to Nigeria to ‘immerse ourselves in its drinking culture’ in order that we might be able to answer a Guinness brief. That was fun.

I always thought it was quite a privilege to sit across the desk from Adam; after all, he’s won about a million more awards than I have. But he’s also a wealth of info about how to create great work at great agencies.

Some of the stuff we cover…

He is another one who benefitted from a D&AD workshop (incredibly, with Frank Budgen).

Why SMI is called ‘SMI SMI’.

And what happens when your agency has an exclamation mark at the end of its name.

Why ambient was so much better before everyone used it as a vehicle for scam.

What it’s like getting ‘the call’ from BMP DDB.

A small discussion of TV for the unemployed.

Which juries are toughest.

How do you do fuckloads of great Harvey Nichols ads?

Why he and Justin stopped working together.

Why you shouldn’t answer the phone in your pants.

‘…for McDonalds’.

Creatives working direct to client.

The pros and cons of freelancing.

Enjoy our chat; I know I did:

Here’s the Soundcloud link, and the iTunes link. Here are the chats:

(Also, I would normally stick up all his ads here, but Adam’s just created a spanky new website that has all his brilliant work in stunning technicolor, so check that out instead.)

Here’s the part 2 link again for reasons best known to WordPress:

If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

ITIAPTWC Episode 16 – Adam Tucker

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Kate Stanners is an incredibly creative person.

From her time at GGT under Dave Trott, via Bates Dorland, to the genesis of St Luke’s, her own start-up and then to her current position as Global CCO of Saatchi and Saatchi, Kate has taken career decisions that were unusual and, at the time, risky.

And yet they worked.

There are very few people in advertising you can say that about, and very, very few of them are women.

So Kate is a great example to anyone out there who wants to make it.

Don’t necessarily take the career path that looks most likely to make sense and create an obvious path to success. Instead, take the road less travelled and end up even more successful.

In our chat you can hear all about those decisions, along with…

How helpful it is/isn’t to have a CD for a dad.

How this Flake ad came about:

Why GGT under Dave Trott was like doing 20 years’ work in 5 years.

How the big personalities of Tim Mellors and Graham Fink worked out.

Why GGT was Dave’s attempt to beat John Webster

Why International + Andrew Cracknell meant a move to Bates Dorland

How St Luke’s began.

Why they didn’t enter awards.

What happened when they made ‘chronic’ business decisions.

…but were one of the forerunners of producing ‘content’.

The strange similarity between GGT and St Luke’s.

How it works with four creative directors and no creatives.

What it’s like when you turn up for a pitch and discover you’ve forgotten the work.

How and why you might split up with your partner of 14 years.

Whether you should start up an agency with your husband at the same time as you have your first child.

How GGT led to HHCL, which led to St Luke’s, which led to Mother.

Why Saatchi and Saatchi was and wasn’t the right thing at the right time.

How the best process can be no process.

Why playing to your position is a great skill to learn.

Why it’s never too late to champion women in advertising.

And how great it is to keep learning, particularly from the younger people in your agency.

Here’s much of the best work she’s CD-ed.

As you’ll here in the intro and the interview, it was a very enjoyable chat. Here’s the Soundcloud link, the iTunes feed and the easy old thing you can click on right here (no idea why there are two of them; unlike the last couple of weeks, it all fits in one episode).

If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

ITIABTWC Episode 14 - Kate Stanners

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