Funday’s Post

Summer is here... get your Zombod in shape! Great working with Sandbox VR on a wicked campaign. Funday https://lnkd.in/gg9g7iEV

Like many executives in leadership positions I have always kept busy. But it wasn’t until the last 4 months or so, since I joined independent (and awesome) agency Funday that I realized how much time I spent in my past jobs being busy, but not actually being productive.  It wasn’t for lack of effort, enthusiasm, or focus. It was for a reason that I really couldn’t put my finger on until now.  You see, when you’re in the thick of it in large companies (and publicly traded ones), you don’t realize how much of your time and energy is spent rationalizing… everything! So many hours spent meeting about meetings because “so and so is coming to town and we need to be prepared for what might happen…" or "we have to review process X because it’s important to person Y, who is important to client Z…” or “we’re not optimizing our teams, so let’s review everyone’s utilization levels to ensure we’re being efficient…" sheesh. All of these discussions, decks, decisions, were important in the moment and made sense at the time, but in retrospect, a lot of it was just NOISE. Loud, distracting, and (at times) politically motivated noise. My focus group of 1 would suggest the job I am doing today – my actual function – is the exact same as it has been for over a decade leading agencies. But suddenly I have more time to be productive on my hands. Why? Because as I have learned, in a remote, entrepreneurial environment there is no time, room, or desire for that corporate noise.  Don’t get me wrong, we still have meetings. But the meetings are for a purpose, and when that purpose is achieved, we move on. We don’t need to sit around and rationalize why we’re there, or make sure everyone says something to justify their attendance. There are meetings where I literally come on camera say hi, and am there to listen for 10 minutes and move forward on the actual task.  It is amazing how much more time and space you can have to do your actual job when you remove the noise.  My job at Funday is to help develop the business. In other words, lead and grow the agency. That clarity is a gift. A much less noisy gift where the focus is on our clients, team, and the work product. So, as I reflect on the last few months, and look out the window at another beautiful morning, I wish you all a noiseless summer... full of real focus, fun, and good fortune. 👊

Guess what!? We're hiring, we've got a senior strategist role available. Reach out if you're interested or have any questions!

Apparently we're not supposed to post more than once a day. Well, we're challenging the status quo here at Funday! But don't take our word for it, ask LBBonline - Little Black Book. Thx to all the Funatics, clients, friends, supporters and fellow Indies out there, trying to make a dent in the universe.

We've been busy! Kudos to the Funday team and our amazing new client partners. And thx LBBonline - Little Black Book for the shoutout. https://lnkd.in/g9fJgt3s

Full-service branding and advertising agency Funday today announces a slew of new business.

A principle isn’t a principle until it costs the principals. We recently had to let a client go. Never want to do that again – not fun.  Especially because it’s on us. After all, why should we expect any organization to adapt the way they work for us. If anything, we should adapt to our clients… and to a point, we do. But ultimately our clients choose us for us, and we choose them for them. Warts and all. Experience tells us that most partnership challenges can be solved, but not when it comes to issues around culture. Culture can be a nebulous concept – it’s a feeling, based on the alchemy of a company’s values, principles and beliefs. At Funday we believe in partnership not vendorship, in our passion bearing fruit, in performance actually mattering, and of course in the value of play and (wait for it) fun! That alchemy bears itself out in the way we support each other, support the work, support our clients, and like most things in our world it ladders up to the concept of being “on-brand”.  We know that great brands deliver a specific experience for their users/audience/customers across every interaction. Being on-brand is tied into that consistent feeling, the takeaway someone has with the company. The same holds true for an agency brand like ours. We give a lot of thought to the specific experience we want our clients to have and how we want them to feel about us. Saying goodbye to that client was inevitable, the remit was just off-brand for us. It happens. People change, expectations change, divorces occur. Both parties will be better for it. In the short term, this choice definitely hurts our bottom line. But being off-brand would mean we’re acting as professional hypocrites, not practicing what we preach, and that will end up costing us so much more in the long run. 👊