“I can have a creative conversation, but if you ask me to draw something I’ll cry”

Tuesday morning, 10:30 am. Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Glenn Cole greets all of us as we sit in the beautiful conference room that overlooks the Brooklyn Bridge.

72 is one company with 5 doors, located all over the world. The name “72 and sunny” promotes optimism and outward thinking – two very important qualities in the ad industry. Their mission is to expand and diversify the creative class.

Going into this trip I had a lot of uncertainties about being a strategist. So many people I talked to said that strategists are “the smartest in the room.” I started to question myself. Am I the smartest in the room? Definitely not.

I talked to Neha Bhatia who is a strategist on the Axe account. I asked her about this whole “smartest in the room” thing. I told her how that made me nervous, and I felt that Strategy maybe wasn’t for me.

She said that smart doesn’t have to do with intelligence. When they say smart, they mean curious, interested and hungry to learn more. Hungry to understand people. To understand behaviors. To be empathetic.

This conversation made me feel SO much better about being a strategist. So thank you, Neha.

-kristen friis

5/8/2018