Having the title “creative arsonist” certainly makes a lot of people wonder what I do on a daily basis. This role is different almost every day, but revolves around the same core things: writing, concepting, meeting and…more writing.
Here’s a glimpse into my day to give you a clearer idea of what exactly a MindFire creative arsonist makes happen for our clients:
7:55 AM: Get the computer booted up. Bonus: no one has chosen a Sonos station on the office speakers yet. Am I putting on a station that plays Taylor Swift? You bet.
8-9 AM: Catch up on any project updates that may have come through last night, review my daily creative to-do list, and start pullin’ up Word docs and getting the creative juices flowing.
9:05 AM: Take a little trip to the Keurig to create a MindFire mocha (that’s a K-cup of coffee mixed with a K-cup of hot chocolate…10/10 highly recommend.)
9:07-10 AM: Put the brakes on my organized to-do list, a hot project just came through! We need a couple good headline options for a client’s billboard ASAP. No worries, concepting under a tight deadline can sometimes lead to the best concepting, and I’m always up for a challenge.
11:30 AM: Touchbase with design on a logo and tagline project. I always love to collaborate with our design team. For this project, the taglines I generated last week are now coming to life next to designed logo options. It’s looking reeeally good.
11:45 AM: Update my timesheet. Gotta make sure my billable time is accurate.
1-2 PM: I’m feeling good about my headline options for that billboard project. I’m going to send my document through our proofreading squad and start moving down the rest of my creative to-do list. In the meantime, we need a couple content ideas for a lead generation campaign for a client. I’ve had a couple ideas rolling around for a few days, but I need to get them down on paper.
2-3 PM: Knocking out a couple of small projects, including writing an email newsletter for a client. Just checked my email inbox to correspond with a couple of our account executives and clients. Now that I’ve got all of that in a good place, I can get a head start on thinking of some ideas for the :30 TV script I have due tomorrow.
3-4 PM: Client meeting! We’re presenting a couple of really awesome brand assets today. It’s always fun to see their reaction and excitement when showing them our concepts.
4-4:45 PM: Project kickoff with one of our account executives, complete with a creative brief with all the details of our goals and audience. This project is coming down the pipeline next week, and it’s HUGE. We’re creating the overall theme for a client’s biggest tradeshow. This is a good one to kick off early so I can have a lot of time to think of concepts.
4:55-5 PM: Make sure all of my word docs and little scribbly notes from today are saved in the right spots. (Who knows, there might be the next great idea in those little scribbly notes!) Click submit on that old timesheet and hit the road.
7:58 PM: The perfect little headline for that billboard I was working on earlier just popped into my head completely out of the blue. Just jotted it down in the notes on my iPhone.
There you have it… a day in the life of a creative arsonist! Was it what you thought it would be? Was it what I thought it would be? Probably not, since it changes constantly. But that’s what keeps things interesting – new creative challenges every day!
