Name: Group Coaching Session - Week 6 (Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp)
Uploaded: 2026-04-23T19:15:56.519Z
Duration: 1 h 15 min 56 s
Description: Group Coaching Session - Week 6 (Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp)

Transcript for "Group Coaching Session - Week 6 (Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp)": Hi, everybody. Welcome. Welcome. Motion boot camp week six, Thursday group coaching. How's everybody doing? If you haven't already, go ahead and introduce yourself in the chat. Say hello. Let us know where you're calling in from. Orlando, I see. We have a few people from Orlando. Alabama. What's up? San Diego. Yay. That's not Los Angeles. What's up? Oh my gosh. Love it. Okay. Well, today, we are going to be talking about how to set yourself up for success in a new creative strategy role. We got a lot of people asking about this. Obviously, this is probably the main goal of this boot camp is to help you guys get a job in this industry, or transition into this role at your current job. So we have Darcy and Blaze walking us through today. Darcy, why don't you give us a little hello and intro to yourself? Hi, everyone. Really excited to be talking to you guys today. I'm Darcy. I'm calling in from London, which it seems like no one else is, which is disappointing turnout from The UK. But, I've just started a new role at a company called Heights. So I'm about a month in, so I feel, like, very well placed to speak to you guys about setting yourselves up for success in a creative strategy role. Previously, I was at a company called Flow, and before that, I was at a company called Huel. So I have had a few, like, fresh starts at different companies in this role. So, yeah, hopefully, something insightful for you guys today about kind of where to store and how to kind of get making your first ads from that first week. Love it. Blaze, give us a little background on you. Hey, everyone. I'm Blaise. I am a creative strategist currently at Metrix Media. I've been there for three weeks. So, again, like Darcy, very new to this role, and, yeah, excited to share some gems on how to adjust and survive at a agency where I am now. But I've also worked in house, so I have some experience there. But excited to chat and get to know you all. Also, I think I didn't introduce myself. If you don't know me, I'm Melissa. I work at Motion. I run our events here, filling in for Alicia today while she's traveling. I have been behind the scenes mostly, and I'm super excited to be on stage with you guys today. So like we just mentioned, today we're gonna be covering how to set yourself up at a new job working in house at a brand and also how to set yourself up working in an agency. We will also be talking about how to land a job. Obviously, both these guys have great experience new experience getting new jobs. So I think this is a big one that'll come up. Put your questions in the q and a tab specifically. I'll be keeping my eye on the chat, but if you put it in the q and a tab, that'll keep everything organized. They're gonna start us off with some slides today, but once we're done with that foundation, I'll go back to q and a, and we'll we're gonna budget a lot of time for q and a today. So definitely get all your questions in there, and we will get to them shortly. That said, you're gonna want their slides. I know you are. They're very good. I've seen them. We're gonna send them to everybody after the show. You'll get them, I promise, Slack or email. You will get all the resources from today. Now let's get right into it. Darcy, you wanna kick us off and tell us about Absolutely. I will share my screen. experience? So I, for a bit of context, have tried to keep this, like, really top line. In my experience, like, depending on what kind of company you start at, how big it is, like, how set up the team is, things, like, work very differently, obviously. So you might join a place where it's all super established and you kind of fit into an existing workflow, or you might join someone where they've never made an ad before and you need to set the whole thing up. So there's a lot of stuff that will be, like, missing from this. I just wanna say, like, if you have specific questions about, like, your new role or, like, anything more specific to what I cover here, like, please do just, like, tag on the Slack, and I'll try and get back to people. Because I know, like, a lot of the stuff is super contextual, and it's hard for me to answer without the context of, like, where you're starting. Like, when I started at Flow, it was a company of 500 people. It's, like, a huge difference to where I am now where I'm the only strategist and they're, like, been advertising for a while, but haven't had anyone in that role before. So I've tried to make this as helpful as possible to everyone, like, depending like, doesn't matter where you're joining. So I just wanna talk a bit firstly about, like, your first week. So I'll take you from here until kind of, like, see you through making your first ads, reviewing your first ads, and then, like, pass on to Blaise who, by the way, has much more engaging slides than I do. So there's more exciting stuff to come. So first week. This, for me, like, is a huge opportunity. I think that it's really easy when you join. That it's very quick that people forget that you're new, so you really need to capitalize on your first week, two weeks of, like, this is your time to ask, like, a million questions, which goes for any role in any company. But some key things that I've highlighted here I would really, like, lean into. So the first one I'm gonna start on the side is, like, meeting key players. So once you kind of get there, you understand, like, who you're gonna be working with on a day to day. Like, face to face time is gonna be your, like, best thing ever. So sit down, book in those one to ones, just talk through everything. I think on more of, like, a personal scale as well. Depending on where you're starting, like, what whatever they've been doing before, you really wanna come at it from a position of, like, I'm trying to understand what you've done so far and, like, how I can build on it. I don't think that anyone ever needs to be, like, I'm coming in and I'm gonna change everything and, like, I'm gonna do all this stuff that I think is right. Like, really appreciate what people have done already and, like, take the time to kind of integrate that into what you're gonna do. But, like, you know, they've been doing certain things for a reason. Right? And the only way you're gonna learn that is by speaking to people. So that's my first thing. It's, like, meet the key players. And that by that, I mean, like, your immediate team. So whether you have designers in the team, whether you work with freelancers, it's important to catch up with them even if they're not in your, like, direct company, obviously your manager. And then the second point to that is, like, meeting wider teams. So I think aside from meeting the people you work with, like, day to day, increasingly, I find with Meta and also with TikTok, like, they really want what your advertising and, like, what your ads look like to be integrated with kind of what your organic looks like. It's, like, a good move for your brand. It's a good move for you. And I think, like, this is a side note to what I'm talking about today, but that's really where we're heading. It's, like, organic content and paid content will largely be very similar. We don't really have, like we have a very different structure of advertising today and how it works. So really getting in integrated with your organic team, your brand team, like any influencer team that you might have because I think, like, as you go forward and don't focus on this in your first week, you really, really wanna work closely with them. Like, I, for example, work on the briefs with the influencer team to make sure that the content that they get works well for us as well. Even with the organic team, like, basically, you wanna be working super closely together. So setting up those relationships, like, really early on will be really important. And also for your benefit, like, what can you repurpose from them? They might have a huge bank of b roll that you wanna use, and you need to know about that. It will make your life, like, a huge amount easier. The next thing is understanding the product. So I'll actually go on to these three in a minute, and I'll just touch on the team structure. So this goes back to what I was saying before, but, like, really understanding kind of how the team has worked so far. And more than anything, like, also super useful for you to identify, like, what's changed. I think if you've never had a creative strategy role before, you're not gonna come in with, like, predisposed ideas of what the team structure should look like. But, you know, you might have learned a lot on this course. You definitely have. Like, I've seen a lot of the stuff that people have been talking about, and everyone seems like, you know, they really learn a huge amount. And so, like, yeah, basically understanding what your structure is and, like, you might have learned on this course where you can benefit from, like, other teams and learn how they've set things up, and you might have some ideas. And so being able to kind of understand what's going on and then, like, suggesting how you might change it. And then tools. So, obviously, you wanna make sure that they have motion, and if they don't, I would recommend setting it up. It will be tricky to execute any of the things I'm gonna talk about in a moment without it. And I think, I mean, in my experience, there's really not anything like it, and it makes your life a huge amount easier. So motion, but also, like, what kind of briefing structure are they using? Like, how are they sending the briefs? Any internal stuff? Like, what platforms they're using to just organize, like, general workflows? And, like, my key thing here is don't be embarrassed if you haven't used something. I think it's really easy to be like, oh, yeah. Of course. Like, I know who that how that works, and you don't. And then you're basically at this like, disadvantaged. So really, like, lean in. As I said at the beginning, like, this is your first week. It's your chance to ask questions. Ask someone for a demo. Better yet, like, ask whoever the account manager is, like, on the platform side. For example, like, if you've never used Motion before, ask one of the Motion team to run you through the platform, not just your own colleagues because they'll give you, like, maybe a bit of leverage and, like, something that your colleagues might not have known. Super important one there. And then I'd say, like, another note on tools is, like, always be open to new things. I think it can be really easy to, like, get tons of messages. I definitely get, like, a 100 messages every week of, like, oh, I've built this new platform. I've built this new this, and it's really easy to ignore things because you just think it's annoying. But actually, like, take the time to read those emails because sometimes someone is genuinely trying to sell you something useful. So as you go through the role, like, you can make your life easier. People are building, like, really incredible things and, like, lean into that. Then the other thing that I'll just say about kind of the wider company is you really need to take some time in your first week to understand, like, a, the wider company goals. Like, what are they trying to do? What's, like, the point? Like, what you know, wherever stage you join in the year, like, what are the key goals for the rest of the year? And then also, like, your own KPIs. So I think it's really easy as a creative strategist especially because people often don't understand what the role is. And so sometimes you just get asked to do a ton of things, and you're not really sure, like, what you're supposed to be doing and how you're supposed to get to that promotion. So I would say, like, really push to understand what your specific goals are. So is it, you know, you need to get x amount of winners in your account every month? You know, is it to increase the spend? Is it to whatever? So make sure you have a really clear understanding of what that is before you kind of go off and start making stuff because it will really influence kind of your strategy and just generally what you do on your day to day. It might seem obvious, but I think it's really easy to skip to kind of run away with, like, I'm just gonna start doing loads of stuff. And then they're like, actually, we really don't wanna lean into that product, for example, or we really wanna test that new persona. And why have you gone and started making all the ads targeted towards men when it's supposed to be women or whatnot. And then the other three things, and these, I'd say, like, are the most important in terms of, like, your next steps, which will be building your first ad. So understanding the product, obviously, very much depends on what the product is. But regardless of what it is, use it, take it, try it, just, like, really start, like, getting into it. Obviously, in an ideal world, you work at a company where you really rate the product, but even if you don't, like, write down why that is. You know? You really need to understand, like, what the pain points might be, why people are gonna use it, and, like, the best way to do that, I think, is basically just to try it. Then from that, you'll start understanding the audience. Having said that, if you work at a company where you are not the target audience, it's a much bigger challenge, I would say. But, for example, when I worked at Hue, the audience at the time was very much men. So I'm I'm not a man and, like, was not in the kind of dem demographic group of that, like, you know, athletic kind of guy. How do you get yourself into mind of that the mind of that user then if you're not that person? Like, I mean, you can do this in many different ways. And I think just generally, like, AI is amazing and lean on it, but there's nothing better than just sitting and, like, reading through a Reddit thread and really, like, getting you'll subconsciously absorb, like, the language and what people are talking about and, like, what they care about. Like, I used to go on my boyfriend's phone and scroll through his Instagram to see, like, what he's seeing. And I think, like, I don't know if anyone's ever done that. It's a pretty eye opening experience to, like, how different tools might be to theirs. And I think it's really easy to be like, oh, we all see the same things on social media. We all see the same trends. Like, you definitely don't. Especially if, like, you know, you're in your twenties, thirties, you're trying to target people in their sixties, seventies, like, really understanding, like, what they're doing. You can even do some exercises and, like, just thinking through, like, okay. They wake up in the morning. Like, what do they do now? You know? So stuff like that to just really understand who you're talking to. You know, if you're talking to moms, like, tools like Mumsnet, which you don't know if that's an American thing. But in The UK, Mumsnet is, like, huge platform for moms. Like, spend time on that. Don't just lean on, like, using Claude to get a summary of what they're talking about on there. And then the last point is the account review. So this has obviously become a lot easier in the past years. I think, like, back five years ago, you're sitting watching 200 ads and trying to work out, like, the links between them. But now you can do this a lot easier. So I would say, like, first port of call. Back to what I was saying about AI, like, you still need to watch these ads, which kind of sounds obvious, but just to, like, hammer home that point, like, spend two hours, three hours just watching through. I mean, if you have no ads in the account, you obviously don't need to do this, but, like, a lot of accounts will have, like, thousands of ads when you join. And that doesn't just mean, like, this year, spend some time watching the ads from last year and the year before that, and, like, try and speak to people within the company to understand, like, okay. I see that two years ago, you know, you were really focused on sleep ads, and now you're really focused on energy. Like, what changed? Why is that? Because there might be some context there that you're gonna miss. Like, you know, maybe your compliance changed or your product changed or something like that. So definitely do that, but then you can also I've put the prompt in here so when you guys get the slides, you can use this. But if I'm being honest, like, it's pretty basic. And all you wanna do is, like I like to frame it as, like, telling it kind of telling Reneff, like, who you are. So, like, I've started working at heights. I wanna get up to speed on the account and then basically go through, like, exactly what you want from it. So, like, what you wanted to pull out, top creative vehicles, messaging angles, personas, visual formats, and then also the same for, like, what's not working. And, basically, it's gonna give you, like, a super comprehensive view of the account and, like, really put you but, like, basically ahead of everyone. You'd be surprised at how many people also, like, don't know this exists, especially, you know, as you join a new company. Nine times out of time, they're never gonna have heard of this tool in motion. So you basically come with, like, really strong understanding of what happened, and then you can back that up with speaking to people. So you can go to them and say, I've seen in the account this. Like, why is that? And then I've got a follow-up prompt here, which is, like, from there, you've understood kind of what's working. You've got a really top line view. Where do you go next? So, basically, just put another small prompt here, and you can get get it to kind of compare your account as well to to competitor ads and just get it to identify kind of, like, where the gaps are. So you should still lean in obviously to what's working, especially as you're, like, early days in a job. If your, like, goal is basically to get lots of new creative hits or, like, to increase the diversity, like, you obviously wanna try new stuff, but you also wanna, like, keep yourself safe. Right? And, like, make sure that you're still leaning into what's working. So once you've done that, basically, I haven't now added anything, as I said earlier, about, like, building out your, like, creative strategy or deciding, like, what you're gonna focus on because I think a lot of that comes from kind of what company you're at and, like, what their goals are. But I've put an example for you here of, like, making your first new concept. So you've done the account review. And one of the insights I've pulled out from there is, like, white listed content was doing really well but, like, needs a direct response adaptation. So, like, it's getting good engagement, but, like, no one's really converting. So that we need to basically, like, make more oh, hang on. I've actually just realized that's not the insight I meant to put here. Anyway, we'll move on. Company focus is, like, unlocking new personas. So, basically, you wanna try new personas. This is something that I got from, like, speaking to people at the company. So, like, what do they want to focus on? It's like, we know that, basically, all the males work for us, but we know that there's, like, some good insights from all reviews that, like, all the females also work for us as well. But we haven't really tested it in ads, so that's, like, the priority. So you've chosen the audience based on that. I've chosen a problem, which is, like, basically, I'm really tired. I'm retired all the time, and I think it's just a normal part of getting older. But, actually, heights, can solve that from my point of view with, like, basically increasing your energy. And so the specific thing that we're focusing on here is, like, the morning is really, really hard. You wake up at 3AM. You're super tired. Like, that's the pain point. It's like I wake up and I feel awful, and it shouldn't be that way. So I put an example here from Brenna that I've pulled. I think this is such a good ad. It's super easy to, like, understand. It makes you feel like you're gonna, like, achieve your goal. And so we've done a different, like, adaptation, but I think it still works well for heights. So, like, mornings with your kids are hard. You can see, like, you're all over the place. Your energy is dipping. And then with vitals, basically, you can see all the points along the bottom. So you sleep better, you have better energy in the morning, and your energy levels are, like, generally more consistent. So, like, that's kind of an end to end flow of how you then build that ad, and I will replace the, account insight to the right one when you guys get the slides. So you've done that. That's your new concept. Iterations. So from what I was saying earlier, you basically really wanna lean on this because this is where you're gonna, like, basically get the most likely wins. Right? Like, if you're testing a new audience, you're testing new creative vehicles that don't work, like, a lot of those aren't gonna win, whereas this stuff is a lot more likely to win. So I won't play all of these. Don't worry. But, basically, you can see one of our top performing ads here. I went home. I took them. And within two days, I slept all the way through the night. I felt amazing in the day. So you've got, basically, our founder talking to one of our ambassadors about how he feels. It's a great script. CPA is good. Purchases are high. Like, CTR and thumb stop are good, like, by our account standards. How do you iterate on that? So with the new, like, meta andromeda update, you can just change the hook, but I think a much more valuable iteration is gonna be, like, what I would call a bigger swing iteration. So what are you taking from that ad that you think is really working? Often with these, like, podcast ads, it's what they're saying that is, like, really driving the engagement because at the end of the day, they're just talking. Found this example, which is just like someone with a pen pointing along, someone's reading basically off a piece of paper. My friends ask me how I always know what to say in heart. AI voice. So what did we make? We basically took the script from this and actually used AI to this is our founder here to basically make his voice and make the script a little bit more concise and just change a few But I went home and took them and within two days things. Same thing, different format. Basically, this has only been tested in the past few days. So you can see that, like, the purchases are still quite low, but really promising CPA. ROAS is higher. CTR is still good, and the thumb stop is still good. So, like, super successful iteration there. And from that, I can then be like, cool. Great format. Let's take all the rest of the top performing ads. Do the same, do similar, how can I adapt it? You might have this instead of being written. You'd have it on an iPad or you'd have it on, like, some other you know, you'd actually write out the words in your handwriting. Loads of different stuff you can do. But I think a really good example of kind of how you can take those, like, easy wins. Then what do you do with your results? So you've tested your new concepts. You've tested your iterations. Basically, I've also put a prompt here of, like, how we set ours up as we have, like, a promising report. So stuff that's, like, picked up spend, I think, actually, someone else this on the chat the other day, but how do you know how much spend to give something? So, generally, we, like, use a guideline of three times your CPA target. And once it's spent that amount, you kind of have an indication of, like, okay. Is it worth keeping live or turning off? So all the ads that we then keep live and end up spending, you know, over 500, 1,000, whatever pounds that start showing promise, we can review. And, basically, then I've done I'm I appreciate this is, like, tiny, but I just wanted to show you guys what then I would take and do, like, with that information. So for us, every sprint we'd focus on, like, as well as our BAU production, this is a separate stream, and we focus on, like, one specific persona that we wanna focus on in that two week sprint. So for this one, I've put all the sprint information here, and then you can see I've put here all of the, like, promising and top performing ads. So we spend some time reviewing those, reviewing the blockers, reviewing, like, any kind of, like, process stuff as well, just to, like, get a sense of how everyone's doing. Was it too much work? Like, what would the blockers? How can we, like, make things faster? E g, someone spending ages finding footage, how can we speed up that process? And then we do our brainstorm. So based on your learnings, which a lot of which will be top line, e g, what I showed you with, like, that kind of pencil thing works really well. How can we iterate on that with this persona, for example? Then we go through, and what I find really useful and I would recommend is, like, these stickies here are like barriers, desires, purchases, solutions. And so we will put our ideas in a board, and then essentially, you go through and you pull your idea and you put your barrier and your desire, your solution, your CTA. So you build, like, a mini little concept. And on that, like, brainstorming note, I think it's really easy to devalue brainstorming these days. Like, AI can build such great briefs for you that you don't really need. It feels sometimes like, why am I sitting down in a room with people in this manual way? Aside from, like, just a really great team exercise, I think some of the best ideas come out of these things when you then will go through and kind of build on these. And basically then, like, we're bouncing off each other. You've had an idea. Someone else has actually remembered they'd seen something three days ago on their Instagram, and, like, you kind of build on things together there. So I personally would really recommend it, especially if you're, like, a small team. Like, you just have a few designers or there's only a couple of you. But to bring in, like, what you'd call, like, a guest speaker. Right? So someone else from the wider team or the wider company that might come in and shed some light or, like, some new insights or ideas. So that's how you then come up with all your new concepts, and then you test them again. And then the other things I'll just say on that is make sure that you're sharing what you're doing. I think it's very easy to be shy and not wanna do that. And even if things are going badly, then suddenly you don't wanna have to send the Slack update that says, oh, actually, nothing's doing well and it's all terrible. But your learnings are super useful for other people in the company. So what's, like, showing promise in ads is a really good indication of, like, where other people should focus their time. So, for example, then you know which landing pages maybe are worth building out, and the influencer team know, you know, five good hooks that maybe you've seen work really well, and they can brief those to creators and vice versa. Like, you wanna be knowledge sharing with everyone in the company so that they might have ideas. And we do, like, a biweekly meeting where, like, lots of people from different parts of the company come and they share their learnings, which is really valuable of, like, oh, we've noticed we did a landing page test and we tried three headlines and this one did the best. And then I might say, great. We're gonna use that as an ad headline and see how that does. Okay. And then this is my last slide. Sorry. I feel like I've been speaking a huge amount. So I've just put this in. I think it's kind of useful. I just got back to the brainstorm thing for you guys to take away because you can basically use this as a structure. Right? So, like, what do you do in the creative review? What won? What lost your patterns and your blockers? And then, basically, I put the same stuff I've spoken about with the persona, and I've put some stuff about product. So, like, basically, what historical creative have you got that might be relevant to this if you're focusing on a new persona, for example. And with MotionNow, obviously, like, especially even if your naming convention isn't quite up to scratch, like, you can pull this stuff quite easily with the like, it already pulls the personas for you with the AI, tags. Customer reviews, competitor ads, and then basically your inspiration and then, like, how you build out the concept. So I've put here, like, the inspiration. You put a data point. This is something I really, really have been leaning into recently of, like, I think it's quite easy to just have ideas. But, actually, like, that should be something that your idea is driven in or, like, links back to of why it's a good idea. Helps you be a bit more, like, streamlined with what you're making as opposed to just, like, doing everything. And then persona info and then obviously you put your copy. So, yeah, I think that's quite, feels like a whistle stop tour of what you might be doing in your first month, but hopefully it's useful. And if there's anything that kind of I'm sure you're like, what are you talking about? Then please do reach out to me, and I can try and, shed a bit more light on things. But, yeah, I think it feels like I've been working in my current role for a month and, like, when I was going through this exercise, I was like, wow. This feels like I've done a million more things than this, and I'm sure that you'll find the same as it seems like, oh, that's easy. I can make a few ads and then I can review them. But actually, in practice, sometimes it's a lot more hectic than that. So having something to refer back to that you can, like, remember what you're supposed to be doing is quite useful. And with that, I will stop sharing. Darcy, that was amazing. I feel like you're right, though. Like, the the best use case for this is, like, when we send these slides out, if you didn't take screenshots of them, which I think a lot of people did, but we'll send the slides out themselves. I feel like when you start a new job, just have these slides open. You know? Like, this is the kind of thing that you can use. Like, it's good to have you explain it, but when it's really gonna become useful is when people are starting a new job. They're gonna be able to look at that and be like, okay. Let me do this first and then this and then this. And like we had said before in the in the green room, like, I wish I was able to have, like, picked a marketer's brain when I was first starting out. You know? And I feel like that's exactly what we got here. It's like, okay. This is how somebody experienced us the job. If this is, like, your first role in CS, you're gonna blow people away. Like, the the you can come in with all this this knowledge that Darcy gave us. I wanna ask. this one question before we move on to Blaze, because a lot of the stuff you showed was very like, oh, I would look at their motion for this. I would ask them to run it. I'm curious when you started this new job, were they already using motion? Did you have to pitch motion? All the question of, like, how do we bring motion into it. I emailed before and said, by the way, just checking that you have this, And, like, it's something that you need. I think, obviously, I so see your point. It's a lot easier, especially if you're coming into a more senior role to be like, this is what I need to do my job. Right? Obviously, if you're coming into a more junior role, especially, like, a lot of people, as I said, don't have context of how useful motion is, it can be hard to kind of, like, sell basically the platform. I would say, like, I mean, it it's one of those things where you just have to be annoying. I think I remember my first, I think early days of Motion as well when I was working at Huel that my, the other creative strategist, Audrey, who actually now works at Motion. Oh, yeah. I didn't know if I were really pushing together, and it was like, we don't need this. I don't understand that you can just use Meta Ads Manager. But I think I'd say the strongest way to communicate it is to show them and basically try and get on a call with whoever you need to convince and the motion team and just be like, look how useful this is. Like, this is gonna basically change the way that we work. Yeah. Because I agree. Like, a CEO might think that meta or ads manager or Google Analytics is gonna be better, but I think for a creative person, like, it doesn't do the job. And also, like, the capability that Motion now has in terms of, like, the AI function, you can't really get that anywhere else. So, yeah, my advice would be to show them. But, again, you just have to be annoying, I think, and really push for it. Yeah. I feel like so much of it is just, like, having a level of confidence, which is which is hard to have, but at the same time, it's like you've got this whole boot camp now sort of telling you, like, no. This is normal. It's okay. Like, keep doing it. So I think that's good just like reassurance sometimes. Like, if you start a role and you're talking about motion and you understand the analytics that motion is showing, more often than not, your boss is gonna be impressed. They're gonna be like, oh, they know something I don't. Exactly. So imposs like, fake it till you make it. You know? Yeah. Okay. Let's move on. I wanna get to Blaze, and then we'll open it up for, like, q and a for everyone. But if anybody remembers if anybody here is a millennial Nickelodeon America, watcher, probably. That's Declassified. Blaze put a little presentation for y'all following that vibe, so take it over. Alright. Let's do it. Do we have anyone in the chat who's watching as the classified? Any any fans of that show? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Of course. Let me share my screen. My god. Christina, your friend was on that show? What? Oh. Alright. So this is Blaze's Declassified Creative Strategist Survival Guide. So this picture right here was my first day as a creative strategist. If you look at the date, 03/16/2020. So I've been in the game for six years now. If you also look at the date and remember around that time period, what happened afterwards. So this was my first day in the office and also one of my last days in an office working as a creative strategist. So a lot happened in, you know, after after that. But, yeah, this is my first day. I was super excited and, you know, ready to hop in. So these are the four survival pillars that I want to share with you. So speed, accuracy, research, analytics. Sarah, that's something that you can remember. Definitely look into that. Sarah, shout out to you who's in the chat right now with this spelling. This this one is for you. So speed. Just like the great coach John Wooden said, be quick but don't hurry. The first week is gonna come at you pretty fast. And depending on, you know, what agency you're gonna be working at, you might be throwing the kitchen sink on day one, or it might be kind of a progressive thing over the week. So just make sure you're prepared for that and make sure to pick up things quickly. But that doesn't mean to rush things and make mistakes. So, again, don't wanna reiterate too much of what Darcy was saying. She did such a great job kind of setting the table. But, you know, definitely find out how the agency manage these timelines. Asana, Notion, Slack, make sure you know where everything is happening, where these conversations are happening. Ask where the templates are, where the past deck lives. Go through these decks. Make sure you kind of understand and get a sense of especially if you're working at an agency with a lot of different brands, make sure you kind of understand how these brands, how your company is communicating with these brands and how these brands communicate in their ecosystem. I think that's super important. Then identify who unblocks things as Darcy said. Make sure you know who that person is that whether that's your manager, whether that's, you know, kind of like the head of the office. Make sure you know who that person is so you can go to them and really lean on them in your first weeks. And again, like I said, shadow a project during this kickoff week will be super important. Make sure you're on all of the calls. Even if you're just a fly on the wall, make sure you're on those calls. So if your manager has a call with the client, a request to be on it. I think it's very good to be vocal about that. If you're not on it yet, make sure you're putting yourself in these places so you can understand how the system works. I think agency life can be very daunting because of how many brands there are. So just make sure you kind of understand the lay of the land as you get into it. And I didn't mention this before, but I built a, clawed kind of deck for you guys to go through. It's an HTML, so please refer to it. We'll be sending it afterwards. It'll have these tips, not just week one, but for your first four weeks. So basically your first month at an agency and with different tips and things like that and questions to ask as you progress in your creative strategy career. So my survival tip number one, go outside. I think it's very important to make sure that we're taking breaks and proper breaks that we deserve to have. I think first we, again, we feel so overwhelmed and we feel like we have to be on call at all times. Make sure that Slack is on with notifications. Make sure your email is on with those notifications that are popping up on your Google Chrome. But it's so important to go outside, take a break, take a step back, reassess how things are going, breathe, and then come back into it. So getting into accuracy, get it right, not just done. Details are the most important thing for creative strategy. I think, and especially when you're working with other people other brands' IP, you have to make sure things are correct. You'll be working with brands sometimes where you have to go through legal. So wording has to be correct. Claims that you're making have to be accurate. So just make sure that you're listening carefully and you're taking notes in every meeting and making sure you're understanding these processes and how to speak to your audience. Definitely ask for clarification. There's gonna be a lot of new words coming at you even, you know, as someone like me who's been a creative strategist for six years. I'm now at Metrix Media where I'm giving new acronyms for all these different terms and, you know, processes that they already use there. So just getting acclimated with these new words, it's like learning a new language. So don't be afraid to ask, you know, your your teammate, your boss, anyone. They'll be very helpful if, you know, obviously, if they're a good company, they'll be very helpful in in guiding you in the right direction. And last one is read the last brief the agency wrote for the client before you start writing things yourself. So, again, it's just about understanding the the verbiage, understanding how you're going to be speaking to these particular audiences that you read that, you know, that you have to direct these ads to and kind of get a sense how they're communicating with the brand. Again, as I said, it's crucial that you can keep this relationship going. I think when you're working in house, you don't necessarily have that same pressure. So when you're working with the agency, you kinda have to, you know, button up your shirt and and make sure that you are presenting yourself as best as possible for these brands. Survival tip number two, take your lunch break away from your desk. I think it's very easy to just be, you know, like I said, be really focused and and, well, my boss is gonna be looking for me if I'm gone for thirty minutes, but I think especially in your first week, take your break, go away from your desk. You're gonna have a lot more. The work isn't gonna be there afterwards. I think the first week through your third year, definitely try to take your breaks away from your desk. When I started working in in media, I was working at Hearts and Science in Burbank. We were on the Warner Brothers account. And one of my coworkers would always tell me, and it's obviously a thing that everyone says, but, you know, we're not rocket scientists. This isn't rocket science. It's it's not that serious. Obviously, it's people's businesses, but at the end of the day, your health is so much more important. So please take your breaks. It it's not the easiest. Research. Just like Darcy mentioned, research is gonna be so important. You have to really dig deep and understand your brand inside out. When I was at so my last position as creative strategist prior to being at Metrix Media was at Power Digital Marketing. I was probably on about eight to 10 brands at a time. So having to understand all of these brands was kind of just it's a daunting task for sure. But you kind of just have to take it day by day and and, you know, if it means spending a day really going through all of these things as as Darcy mentioned, going through Reddit, googling things, asking Chat GbT, asking Claude. How do you find out as much as you can about these brands? You know, in the as quick as possible. Obviously, you know, this is still your first week. You're still setting that foundation, but as the weeks come along, you're gonna be asked for to, you know, to make decisions. And it's it's your responsibility to do that type of research. So ask what your company your agency has a subscription. So if they're using GWI, Mintel, Brandwatch, Fastmos, these are all platforms that you can use to do research on your audience on the marketplace on these verticals to get you a better to get you better acclimated. Find out if there's a SERIP research folder. So that's the thing. Sometimes we we want to do all these this research from scratch, but they're you know, especially if there's creative strategist who are already working there, they have a database of all the research that they've done, all the data that they've pulled, all the motion boards that they've used before. So definitely look into that, see how performance has been going throughout the past few months, past few weeks, past a year. It'll be helpful along the way. Ask us to sit in on a research brief. So and debrief. See if it yeah. Message your manager. See how they research. Really get a sense. I have a call about this today at work about, you know, seeing if we can sit in on our research, process just to understand how our managers are doing it so that we can kind of cut the fan and we're not really wasting time looking up stuff that we shouldn't be looking up or just kind of elaborating on things where we could do it more efficiently. So I think your manager wouldn't mind, you know, having you in there, with them kind of, you know, fly on the wall, just seeing how they how their day goes, especially when they're researching, a brand for the week or, you know, kind of just to set the foundation. And, again, don't start any research until you know which tools are available. I think it'd be really helpful to just have that as a ground level and to see, you know, kind of as a start to where you're going to be, you know, doing your research, especially with platforms like this and then platforms like motion. Alright. Analytics. Tell stories of numbers. So, obviously, you guys have been to a lot of these classes with motion. Numbers are, you know, it's the name of the game and understanding these numbers is is very important. But also understanding what these numbers mean to the brands is also super important. So different brands might look at numbers differently. You know, I saw one of the comments in the chat like, oh, this, you know, the the ROAS is low, but, you know, I think that depends on obviously, you know, I forgot who, replied, but, you know, whether it's subscriptions, like, the the ROAS numbers will fluctuate. It's important to understand how your brand sees the data and, you know, what's most important to that. Because, you know, there are some companies and some agencies and brands who see spend as the most important KPI. You know, if this is spending the most, that means Facebook is the algorithm is giving it the most money for a reason. It's really, you know, resonating with these audiences. So this means that you know, this is a winning ad. And even if the the CPA is low, I think it's good to know that because that will only help you in the end as you're making iterations further down the line. So I think in your first week, just make sure you understand these KPIs, understanding which analytics platforms you're gonna be using. Google Analytics, Meta Business Suite, definitely try to use Motion because it's the best system out there. And yeah. As I as I mentioned, every agency frames good results certainly. So just make sure you're clear on that and you don't get that mixed up moving forward. Alright. So this is my last survival tip. Stay the course. And I love this gift of Spongebob on the flying with the flying Dutchman trying to park this boat, and everything's popping up and going crazy. This is, this is a long game. I wanna be really candid with you all about my journey and how I got here. So, James messaged me 12/03/2025. And that was the time I was transitioning out of my position from Power Digital Marketing. I didn't receive a job offer until April 5 or sorry, April 3. So a full four months before I received a job offer. You really have to save the course and you really have to be confident in who you are and your skills and your ability because I can't and I can't lie and say that I didn't have a bit of imposter syndrome and this, you know, being a motion coach. Like, I'm a coach and I'm I'm here with you guys trying to get a job. You know? But, again, you just have to stay confident and, you know, be sure of who you are and and all the work that you put in to get to this point. And the ties will change, and, you know, you'll be where you wanna be. So that's my that's my soapbox speech. And, yeah, that's my presentation. I love that so so much. I think the reality of job searching is so much worse than it even seems, and it seems bad. And so it's like, yeah. Thank god we have this community. We have the boot camp. Like, I think a lot of it is just sharing experiences and being like, oh my god. I haven't heard back from this company. It's been so many months. Hearing from somebody else. Like, fortunately, that's normal. Like, I've been there too. It can help a lot. I definitely wanna get into some of these questions about job seeking. Let me start with this one from Bridget. She talked about how, like, most people want somebody with experience. Right? And this is sort of, like, the funny thing about this sort of these sort of creative social digital media roles in general is a lot of times they're asking for people with experience, and it's like this like, social media was only invented how many years ago. You know? Like, they want AI native people, and it's like AI has only been around for, like, a year. Like, you know, how do I have, like, ten years of experience doing that? So I think this question really resonated with me, and I'm curious to hear from both of you. Like, if you're new to this role and, you know, you maybe have a background that's in design or, you know, maybe you've done some some content creation, like, how do you leverage that into showing, like, I could be a good creative strategist? Did you guys do you guys have portfolios? What are in those portfolios? What does your resume look like? I'd love to hear from both of you what that looks like. Blaze, maybe we can start with you. Yeah. So funny, though. I know this was also one of the questions later, but when I was in between positions so I've worked at quite a few companies from my start working at Pangea, started working on Lumen and Meridian. Those were the first accounts I was working on. So where I am now. After I worked at, Pangea, I worked at Freebird. From my time in Freebird to afterwards, I had to figure out how to get another job. And I didn't have a great portfolio because I didn't save the ads that I made. Sometimes it's, you know, you're not able to save them, but do what you can for yourself at the end of the day. If you need to pull these ads by screen recording them, do that. That's another pro tip. But I wanna show, like, this kind of, like, junior portfolio that did help me land a job at the time. I will share my screen again. Okay. So super basic portfolio that I whipped up in Canva, but it just had a few of the the UGC ad that I was able to find, thankfully. I put, you know, kind of what my role in this in these creations were. So whether that was script writing, the creative strategy, the direction, I added that there. And then, like, literally, these are the only two, like, projects that I was able to find from my time at Pangea. I pulled this one from YouTube, this one here. And then this was another one that was on YouTube as well. So and that was it. It's it's not much, but, you know, kind of just like you have to just make sure you have enough stuff that you own, that you've made so that you can show that work. So whether that's design work, whether that is, you know, UGC content creation, use this use that stuff. But then also, you know, take some time to break it down to to show your thought process in creating it and why you made these decisions. And I think that can help elevate your portfolio even more. That's great. I love seeing that too. Yeah. Darcy, go ahead. I so agree with what you said about saving your ads every single time I've left a role, then you're like, oh, don't have anything, And gone forever. you have to go back into the ads library and, like, search through, especially, like, when you're. unemployed and you don't have access to motion and you're, like, trying to find everything. Right. And you have to pray that it it's still running. Exactly. But, yeah, I agree. I also think, like, it's worth noting in my experience, like, every role that I've applied for, I've had to do a task. And I think, especially for someone with no experience, like, basically, you can use all of the stuff you've learned here to do that task to, like, the best of your ability. And a few things, like, you'd be surprised at how little people like, for example, if you're applying to work at a brand, find their brand deck. It's very easy to find the colors online and, like, format your slides so that it looks like you already work at the brand. Like, small things like that will really make you stand out, like, when you're going through the task. So don't just, you know, pull it together and send it. Like, think about how you're being perceived. And, like, when you get into that room and you end up presenting your task, you can say, like, you know, I pulled your logo. I found the colors. Like, I've done this. I've made sure to use, like, up to date brand stuff. I've gone on to the website and, like, basically, I think this is the tricky thing. It's, like, everyone wants a creative strategist with loads of experience, and you might not have it. But the way that you can make yourself stand out is just, like, really being, like, going above and beyond, basically, and showing that you, like, are really small and you can adapt to what the company needs. Because, yeah, I think you'd be surprised at how few people actually do that. And, yeah, save your ads when you make some. And also save the metrics, I think, is another thing. It's like, obviously, as you have access to kind of every time that you have an ad that you think is, like, a huge winner, just screenshot it, save it in some drive somewhere so that one day when you need it, you have it. You don't know how many times I've been you know, I have to apply a role and they're they ask me like, oh, like, how did it perform? It's like, it's there. like six years That's great. Actually, there's another question I saw in here. where somebody asked the same thing. She was like so she's done a lot of work as, like, a UGC creator. And so she's hoping to transition into creative strategy, but she's like, as a creator who's hired out, they're not giving me the data points. So it's really so, like, how have like, what has your response been to that in the past in interviews and stuff if they're like, oh, we'll have this ad due. How do you respond to that if you don't actually have the Think like I mean, it's hard, isn't it? You can't really say anything. data? As in you can say from, like, the top of your head, I think, is one that I'd always go for, and it sounds super vague. But, like, oh, off the top of my head, I seem to remember. And, like, the other thing is, like, going back to what we were saying before about different goals for different companies. Like, you might have I've worked in a company where the CPA target was £30, dollars, whatever, and then a company where it's a 150. So, like, basically, just sharing that, like, you think it got a good spend or you can, like, remember of how long it stayed at the top of the account. Like, you can give some more broad stuff as opposed to, like, a really specific number. But, That's okay. mean, it's a hard question. There's not really a lot else you can do. I just wanted to add going back to someone who's a UGC creator. I think you're in, like, such a strong position because you have such a good understanding of what makes a good piece of content. I think it's really unfair if brands don't give you the metrics back. Like, we would always send back to a creator, maybe not the spend because I think that's where and this is what I would say is if you're finding pushback from a brand, just clarify, like, I don't need to know how much it's spent. I just wanna know, like, the thumb stop, the CTR, like, the softer metrics that give less away because people don't want to say, oh, it spent, you know, $50,000, and then you can go, oh, well, I want a percentage of that. So, yeah, go for soft metrics, and, hopefully, you'll get something back that at least you can save. That's such a good tip. I feel like that's huge. We have a lot of UGC creators who have taken this course. I feel like that's a really, really good tip. Try to go back with just softer metric asks. Definitely. I wanna ask this one for you too because I know just being a a marketing girl, like, agency versus in house is a big topic. Like, everybody, I think, even entry level when I was entry level, you know, four hundred years ago, like, starting at an agency was sort of, like, the way in. You it was terrible. You got paid nothing, but you learned a lot, and it ended up being, like, the way into an industry. But I'm curious now because, like, especially in creative strategy, agencies are known as, like, a really great place that sort of houses all these like like, it's a good thing to have awareness of all these different brands. And so I think there's a real benefit for people working in agencies to be able to, like, not just get their feet wet, but become experts in the industry. Right? But since we've done a lot of good sort of, like, you know, Blaze's, like, touch grass, like, what are sort of and you've worked at both. Like, what are the pros and cons as just an individual working at these places? What have you found? What would you recommend to others? Agency versus in house. Blaze, we'll start with you. Yeah. I think pros of working in house is that you do have a bit more creative freedom because the person who is, you know, ultimately making the decision is sometimes the CEO of the company. So you don't have to go through this hierarchy of people that you have to kind of get things approved when you're like, that's what happens when you're working in an agency. Like, it has to be approved by your manager and then, you know, approved by the manager from the brand. So just like these different steps that you have to take. Another pro about being in house, it's just I think the the environment is is a lot more focused. Obviously, I think when you're building out term personas or when different SKUs come up from, you know, from the brand that you're working on, I think that does allow you to kind of, you know, really lock in and hone in on, you know, who you're trying to target. And you don't necessarily have that type of experience at an agency. I will say what helps being at an agency though is, like, the the flexibility. Like, you learn to be flexible. You learn to Yeah. understand different verticals depending on, you know, what type of agency that you're in. At Power Digital Marketing, I was on the lifestyle account. So I had brands from Gibson Guitars to SmileSet, which is like the SmileDirectClub. It's been also like, guitars and aligners. They're way different, but you get to really practice how to speak to other audiences that are completely different from each other. And it also helps, like, later on if, you know, you're you are interviewing for a new position and they just so happen to need, let's say, you know, they want somebody that has supplement experience. Like, you might have had that your time working at an agency because you're working with so many different brands. That's true. Yeah. It's almost like the people asking about about, like, portfolio stuff. It's like even if you can do a few months at an agency, you'll probably have a full portfolio to show by the end. of it. And I would say the cons for working at agency is, like, sometimes you get you have eight to 10 brands at a time, and you're just juggling the whole time and, like, I had a great time at Power Digital Marketing. I had way too many meetings. I was on meetings. all day because they're just, like because it's especially if it's such a big marketing agency, you're on calls with, you know, the full roster of marketing. You're with the SEO person. You're with the life cycle. You're you're with paid team. Like, everyone's on these calls and you have to be on all the calls. So, that's another downside to be working at an agency. Sometimes you get locked in on all these calls. Yeah. I think, like, to add to that, also just wanna flag with some really great insights in the comments. Like, I have never worked at an agency, so I don't have another reference point. I've always been in a brand, but I think, yeah, agree with a lot of the stuff that's kind of going on in the comments. Like, in terms of outside of the day to day creative strategist role, being in a brand, I think, is a really good learning for, like, how to build out a workflow, like, how to manage a team, and that kind of stuff that I think maybe when you're an agency, you don't get so much exposure to because you do have a lot more control in house, especially if you're, like, the only creative strategist or on a smaller team. Like, you're a lot more flexible. You can move a lot quicker. And I think, like, one thing from my side is I just hate approvals. Like, having to go back and forth with the client of, like, oh, we've done this, and then they don't like it. But I think coming from the brand side, the reason is always, like, you no one knows your product as well as you do if you work in the brand side. And so, like, I've always found when working with agencies, which is just the nature of working with an agency. Like, they're not a 100% dedicated to your product. They're not speaking about it, taking it every single day. And so you basically are a lot more invested is what I would say. Especially working in a small brand, I've, like, really enjoyed because as much as lots of people are commenting, like, it's more fun to work in an agency. And I think there's definitely like a truth to that in some senses. But I also think, like, if you're on a brand with really great people, like the sense of camaraderie of you're all together and you're like all working towards one goal can be really nice. And when you hit those wins and, like, you hit those goals, it's super satisfying, and you feel like it's, like, yours as opposed to hitting those goals for someone else. But, yeah, I think back to some what some people are saying, having that agency experience is, like, invaluable. And I think, especially when hiring, if you see that someone's worked in an agency, you know that they're able to kind of work across lots of different things, and they might understand lots of different industries and products. So I think either way that you do it, there's no right or wrong, but there's, like, definitely pros and cons to both. I think it can also just really depend on who you are as a person and what you kind of value in your career, I guess. Yeah. I think I'm gonna go to this one because it's also like I feel like so much of my career, and I honestly feel like you guys can probably relate to this and everyone can relate to this, is like, you also just sort of get what you get. Like, if if you apply for a 100 jobs and the one that gets back is an agency, you're gonna work at an agency. Like, sometimes the the universe decides it for you. And either way, it it's the right path for you. You know, you end up going through it and learning from it. I did wanna ask this one from Julie, like, because, yeah, Blaise was saying, like, it's it's hard to get something new, even when you have experience, even when you've you've been in the field. Do you guys have any advice for, like, making connections, getting into to an agency or a brand? I feel like it's just it's so hard nowadays. Like, it no matter how good you are, if you're just submitting your resume to a portal, it feels like it goes into a black hole. Any advice? Yeah. I mean, it absolutely does feel like that. And I think that's what happens actually. But when I first started got my start, in creative strategy, I reached out. I saw this company that had a position open as a digital marketing manager. I was doing paid social strategy at heart science. I saw this role open for digital digital marketing manager. I was not qualified for this role at all, but I saw someone who went to my high school. We had, like, two connections. I reached out to him on LinkedIn or sorry. I reached out to the connection that I knew who then reached out to him, who then set me up with an interview at this, startup at the time. So I that's I think the best way is to go through LinkedIn, see if you have a connection, a mutual connection, reach out. And, you know, the worst thing that happened is, like, they say no. But even the best thing like, one of the best things that can happen is, like, yeah, I don't really know them, but I'll still reach out for you. And even then, that gives you a leg up on all the competition, really. Like, if you get a recommendation or a referral from someone that they personally know, this their hiring manager personally knows, you're you're more in there than that. And it's not going to a black hole, it's going to someone direct that. you know. Yeah. I so agree with that. I think, like also people wanna hire good people. And more often than not, in my experience, like, the first port of call is does anyone know anyone? Because it's easier to have someone that you feel is trusted and that you don't have to go hiring is, like, a a a nightmare. So talking to people, I get a lot of people connecting with me on LinkedIn being like, oh, can we just chat? And so then, you know, you have that connection with someone you've spoken face to face once. The other thing I would say on standing out when you do your applications is, like, don't forget how many people are literally just doing easy apply on LinkedIn. And if you're doing that, do not be one of those people. No one, like, to be completely honest, is gonna look at your CV or your resume if you just click easy apply and send it. You have to stand out and whether that's, like, writing a cover letter, make it super visual. It's a creative role. Even I like my favorite applications are always the ones where someone's designed a creative specifically or, like, put together a storyboard or even sent a concept for, like, you know, I love your brand. I really think this would be an amazing concept for you. Just to show that you've, like, put a bit of thought into it and that you haven't just, like, sent off your resume and kind of hoping for the best because most people are just doing that and clicking through. But, yeah, I think that would be my advice if you don't have a referral. And I think the other thing is, especially on the brand side, is, like, show some passion for the brand. Like, if you really like the company, make that known. It's not embarrassing to be like, I love your product. I use it all the time. And, like, you you can even send a video a video of you talking about it. Just something that, like, shows your personality, I think, a bit more than, like, your text on a screen. Yeah, would be kind of my advice on that one. That's great. Leads to stand out. I wanna ask this one. It's the most upvoted one so far. Every interview I've had, people ask about the amount of spend I've managed. This gets thrown around a lot in, like, d to c, paid ads. Oh, what's the what's the spend? How much spend have you managed? Let's talk about that a little bit. If you're a beginner coming in, how do you respond to that? What have you, guys said? like, first things first, be honest. Don't lie. And I think, like, some people would probably tell you to do that and be like, oh, a million. Yeah. But if you haven't, like, show your value elsewhere. I think one thing that I found really useful for building out, my CV or, your resume is try and quantify everything you've done, and that might not be, oh, I've managed this amount of spend. Once you've had a role, definitely put that in there. But once you haven't, like, basically show, like, what you've done and how much in quantity you've done it. So, like, you know, if you've never been a creative strategist before as well, I will say, like, there's there's nothing you can do here. Like, if they're hiring for an entry level role, you shouldn't have to show anything to do with creative strategy because you've never done it apart from showing that you've shown up to this and you've done the boot camp. But, like, yeah. Basically, I would say, if it's an entry level role, they shouldn't be asking that anyway. And, like, as much as I don't think it's right to push back in an interview, like, you can very easily just say, look, I've never managed an account before as you know, because they should because they've read your CV. Like, this is an entry level role. I've never managed this level of spend, but I have done x x x x and come up with a bunch of other stuff that you're really good at or you've done in a previous job, which is different. But, yeah, I think it's unfair for someone to ask you that if you have never done it before. I like. that response. really no really no notes as well. And I think another thing too is, like, if you just don't remember the number, then that that also has happened, you know. Like, someone asked you, especially if you hadn't really managed an account for quite some time, you might forget that number. So, again, write it down somewhere so that you don't forget. Pro tip. Yeah. I'll I'm I'm reading through the chat as well and, like, I'm almost thinking it's interesting. Like, even in my role, I've been on more of the content side. If somebody asks me this, I'm like, oh, we had a media buyer managing that. Or, you know, like, like, there was somebody else managing that, and that could be maybe a good way to address it without, like, specifically saying, I don't have that experience. You're just like, well, at my last job, somebody else handled the money, you know, and I did the creative, and now I can, like, learn more about it. Yeah. I would say also, like, what they're trying to get at with this question is, yeah, 100%, like, saying I wasn't the media buyer. Like, I'm not in charge of the spend. Fine. But what they're trying to understand, I think, is, like, you know, basically, how much volume have you worked with? Because the amount of spend that you're putting through the account is then gonna correlate to how many ads you're making. So they're basically trying to understand how fast are you. Are you able to write, you know, 60 briefs a week, or have you been in a company where you've only written five? So I think, like, a good counter to that question is just like as going back to, like, if you've never been a creative strategist before, you might not have something here, but you can just talk about, like, oh, you know, I've been doing freelance or I've been doing this, and I'm able to generate this amount of ads or this amount of briefs or, you know, I'm used to working at scale, I think is what you wanna try and prove, as opposed to then, you know, basically having a number. Yeah. Okay. Let's maybe end on this one. I know we're a little well, over time. What is one thing and I'm sort of curious also, like, as you guys are moving up in the industry, like, you're maybe hiring people, you know, and so sometimes it's interesting to pick brains as like a a hirer, like a managing hirer. What's something that you would see if you were hiring for your team? You're maybe hiring for a new creative strategist or a junior creative strategist. What's something that would automatically make them stand out and something that would automatically make you rule them out? Stand out, I think, back to what I said before about they've put some, like, level of effort into it to make something or show something aside aside from just submitting a resume or a cover letter. Rule out I don't know. That's hard. I think, like, on an interview process, like, any kind of lying lie lying or, like, misunderstanding of metrics or just, like, basically, you know, be honest with what you've done and kind of where your experience lies. And I think it's really easy to find people who have either really heavily leaned on AI or basically generated something they don't really know. So when they're showing you or they're presenting you, often as I said, like, it will be we'd give people a task and they have to present it. If when they're going through that, it's clear that they actually don't really know what they're talking about, like, it it's not a great look. And I think, basically, just shows to me that when you get to the role, you're not really gonna know what you're doing or that you're comfortable basically doing something that you haven't really put enough time into. So, yeah, I would definitely say, like, make sure that when you're doing your presentation or you're doing your interview that you're really clued up on what you're talking about. Like, I've had friends who have said to me that, oh, can you really help me with this task, for this job? And I've been like, yeah. But if I put in a bunch of stuff that you've never done before, how are you gonna explain how you did it? So, yeah, I would say make sure and sorry. Just to go to one in the chat, yeah, yes, you definitely learn more as you're doing it, but it's more about showing what kind of person you are of, like, yes, you can learn on the job, but be upfront about that. Be like, this is what I do know about, and I can learn about this as opposed to pretending you know everything, and then you you you don't. So, yeah, I think agree with James there. Like, be be open, and it makes you seem like much more of a genuine person, I think. Especially from my experience on brand side, you're also really looking for someone who's gonna be a really great fit for the team. And, like, especially when you're working in a small team, you don't one, it's a big red flag if you think if someone comes across as, like, basically, I was about to say unfaithful. I think that was maybe a bit deep, but we know it's like they really know what they're doing and that they're really genuine kind of person. But, yeah, I don't know if Blaise, if you have anything to add to that. Yeah. I was second to this last part you said. Not the unfaithful part, but just, like, it's it's so important to to understand, like, you are now entering a potentially long term relationship with your hiring manager. You need to bring the vibes. Like, if you're not if you're not cool, you might not wanna work with this person. And that doesn't mean just, like, you have to have a good vibe, but just, like, show your passion. Reveal things about yourself that, you know, that you you know, in a small amount amount of time that you have in your interview, like, be open. Be vulnerable if you if you choose to do that. But, like, make sure that you, you know, you are showing your yourself in the best light. And just like like you're saying as well, like, don't fake it. We can sniff that out easily. And I think another thing too, it's like sometimes you might not have the best task. You know, they send out the test task that you have to do. You might not have the best answers, but how did you approach these questions and how did you approach the interview process with these particular people? So I'm not gonna say I got this last job off vibes, but, like, I know that it's definitely a big part of it. And I know that every interview I go into, I have to do that just because, you know, I know I know what what it's like to to be at a place where you just don't wanna be there. And, you know, you're working with someone that's not cool. It makes a huge difference. So Yeah. I also wanna add to this comment of, a lot of job descriptions don't necessarily expect you to be able to do everything. It's very, very true, especially in an entry level role. It's a lot of them are nice to have because you can learn it on the job. And there is actually some stat about the fact that men typically will always apply to things even when they don't think they know they can't do a 100% of the things, whereas women were much more likely to be like, oh, I can't do one out of five, so I won't apply. So really important to keep applying even if you might not be able to do a couple of the things. You know, there's Google and AI for a reason. You can learn all this stuff, you know. Just, like, be honest about your skills and then, you know, read up yourself. You can self self teach. This is why you're all here, right, a lot of this stuff. So carry on applying even if you feel like you're not a 100% confident in it. Yeah. I will also add just working this boot camp, working at Motion for the past few years. Like, this is a really beautiful community of, like, humble people who are really doing the work and interested in it. I think a lot of people come from, like, a more creative background, but then they burn out trying to be creative for a living. And since they end up in this space of creative strategy where, like, it feels sustainable, they like the work, they still get to be creative, but they can actually make a living. And so it ends up being just a group of, like, really incredible people. There was 500 people on this call today alone, and everybody is, like, just like us. Like, I feel like a lot of the boot camp has taught me that the sort of gurus and, like, d two c Twitter bros, like, a lot of the people who talk a lot about, like, how AI is cooking us all, like, those aren't the people actually getting full time jobs in this industry. Like, don't don't psych yourself out. The people working in this industry are Blaze, are Darcy. Like, they are really faithful, good people who, like, you know, we we appreciate humble, like, curious people who are always willing to learn. And I I do feel like there will be a place for everybody in this boot camp at the right job. Like, we're gonna see we're gonna see all y'all get placed at really cool jobs within the next few months, so I'm excited about it. Alright. Shall we wrap? You guys wanna end? Any any final words of wisdom? I know you said we'll definitely share slides after this. Blaise teased a little, cheat sheet as well, so we'll be sending all that over email. Anything else we want to add before we wrap? Just thank you so much, everyone, for your, like, amazing participation and questions and, like, super just good energy and good vibes. So happy and really, excited to see the rest of your questions on Slack and always reach out and add me on LinkedIn and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, happy to help whenever. And thank you so much, and thank you Melissa for hosting. Thank you. Thank you guys for joining. I know for both of you, it's like nighttime. Blaze, it's like the middle of the night by you. So thank you guys. for making time with us. vibing. No. But thank you so much everyone in the chat. Really great questions, really great energy, and, you know, appreciate the kind words as well. Stay the course. You guys can do it. Believe in yourselves and make it happen. Love y'all. Bye. Thanks, guys.