Meet the crew: Jon Crowley
As the Salmon Crew community grows, it’s hard for everyone to know who everyone else is. What they sound like. Their body language. Their overall vibe. So I started doing a short video interview series called “Meet the crew”.
First up, meet Jon Crowley. You can learn more about him on LinkedIn. But as a taster, here are a few notes I took from our 30-minute conversation:
It’s quite rebellious to brand yourself a “true believer” in advertising despite the fact that the industry has a terrible reputation and indeed a quite scrappy track record. Pushing down is easy. Push forward instead.
It’s possible to be both cynical and optimistic about the state of things. Cynical enough to realise you need to acknowledge things as they are today. But optimistic enough to know the upsides are possible too.
The industry’s current instability is actually an opportunity, because great change only happens when existing models are proven ineffective. And for better and for worse, we need to see that ineffectiveness in action a few times before we take it seriously. See also: climate crisis.
The fact urgency is a driving force for change is a way for us to look at advertising, communications and creativity-shaped problems in a way that feels actionable versus abstract. Survival’s a hell of a motivator.
Advertising is the opposite of the venture capital or pharmaceutical models, in that we can’t afford to be wrong 90% of the time hoping the remaining 10% makes up for it. Realising this brings market orientation back to the front and centre, because that’s how we improve our odds.
Most people over-estimate their capabilities until they actually face their own version of a challenge. Consider parenting. We all think we’d be great decision-makers, except we’re comparing a perfect hypothetical with the reality that you’ll be sleep deprived and over-caffeinated.
For this reason it’s useful to think of ourselves, and the systems we live with, as best defined by points of failure, not points of success. “What would you do on your worst day?” is a far more useful question than “what would you do on your best day?”. This is the core of resilience.
Turns out mixing wasabi with soy sauce is a big no-no. Now we know.
To watch the full video interview and connect with Jon on our WhatsApp group, consider joining the Salmon Crew. You can find out more below.
