Arms and the Mantra.

One of the big differences between working for an agency and working independently--that is, alone--is the lack of ballast. When you work in an agency, you usually have a partner, a neighbor, an account person, a planner, a supervisor, a supervisor's supervisor or a supervisor's supervisor's supervisor to tell you the work is good.

That's how work gets approved. Via a long-multi-presentation process.

If I were to be cynical about it, I'd say that this validation rigamarole can be something of an echo-chamber. There are very few people who will throw a monkey, a wrench or a monkey wrench in the works once something has momentum behind it.

The best places, in fact, have no such "amen corner." There's always someone, usually at the highest echelon, who can spot something that's amiss.

All that means is that by the time the work is ready to go to the client it's gone through 14 or 49 rounds of checks and quadruple checks. It's gone through the gauntlet to such an extent that you, nominally the progenitor of the work, can have some confidence in presenting it. After all, everyone and his cousin said it was good.

Now that I work alone, the loft of my client list has actually risen. I rarely present to anyone who isn't a founder, CEO or CMO. And the companies I work for, while they're not often the largest in their sector, are very often well-thought-of and prestigious. As my mother would say, "they're not schmendriks. Why did they hire you?"

And therein lies the rub.

The rub of talking to a financial firm with over one-billion-dollars in revenue, and it's just me.

I suppose no matter who you are or where you are in your career, you can find a way to feel this way. With all due respect to Allan Sillitoe, I call it "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Writer."

I'd imagine I'd feel similarly if I were a comic doing a monologue. No matter how much I had road-tested my jokes. Who knows what's going to land, and when. Likewise, the first time I presented to Hall-of-Famers, Ron Rosenfeld and Len Sirowitz, or Hall-of-Famers, Amil Gargano and Mike Tesch, I was like the Ancient Mariner, stopping one in three and looking for encouragement.

The highest hurdles for me were presenting--after working on hundreds of scripts alone--to Steve Hayden. That he was always kind and soft spoken--he was never a 'screamer,' that only made presenting to him more intimidating. Even after having worked for Steve over much of the last 25 years, I'm still not over my jitters.

It occurred to me as I was presenting this morning that regardless of nerves--an issue I've been dealing with my whole life--and will deal with the rest of my life--I have taught myself to a few tricks to get screw my courage to the sticking place.

When I was a ballplayer--a ninth-grader on a high school varsity team--I was initially over-matched by some of the better pitchers in the league. I was a young 14, and I hadn't seen that many "benders" in the course of my baseball career. I realized early-on, I was having trouble with curveballs.

I taught myself something. 

Rather than moving back in the batter's box--to give my self a split-second longer to see the pitch--I moved as far-forward as possible, as close to the pitcher's mound as I could get, obliterating with my spikes the front chalk of the batter's box. My thinking was to lash at the pitch before the ball started its break. That is, attack it. Rather than let it attack you.

With that, a bit of my mantra-izing. The things I've learned to tell myself along the way. Some times these work. Some times they work less.

1. Attack it. Rather than let it attack you. [Never dawdle. Never procrastinate.]

2. Hit the send button. [Believe in yourself enough to share your work. It won't get better the longer you wait.]

3. Your good is other people's great. [Keep your standards high. But don't expect yourself to be perfect.]

4. Keep working even after it's sold. [Don't overwork, but breathe and look at the work when you're not stressed out over it.]

5. Always give a bonus. [Once you're done with the "musts" of the assignment--allow new unasked for ideas to flower. I believe there is a difference between 'doing the assignment and doing the job.' Assignments are limited; jobs are whatever makes the work better.]

That's enough for now.