blog

Really? Did I just say that? Yeah, I did. Now, I’m a super competitive person but for some reason when it comes to our softball team here at Barefoot, I don’t mind the occasional (or in our case, oh-so-occasional) loss. We’ve been playing for three seasons, and have but one glorious win under our belt. I’m not going to mention that this win (in our first season) was probably the result of the other team not having enough players; the fact that the league stat sheet says “win,” well, that’s enough for me.

The reason my ultra competitive, do-what-it-takes-to-be-the-best personality is okay with this not-winning-one-single-game-this-season fact is because every Monday night a bunch of us from Barefoot meet at a softball field, and for an hour or so, hang out, cheer each other on, make fun of each other, laugh and have a few drinks. It’s great. It gives us all a chance to be ourselves outside of work and get to know each other on a whole different level.

One of the things that I’ve always loved about Barefoot is the people here. People who work hard and who genuinely like each other. I’ve always believed that this is one of the biggest reasons we all come in here every day, work our asses off and still love (and enjoy) what we do.

While we may not win many (or even barely any) on the softball field, we certainly have a lot of wins here at Barefoot. So as long as none of us quit our day jobs, I think being 0-11 is a perfectly happy place to be.

Go Barefoot!
See you next season.

I have seen a lot of people come through the doors at Barefoot. Not just full time “Toes,” but bright-eyed, hopeful candidates and students looking to better understand agency life and I get asked this question a lot, “What’s the most important thing to be successful in this business?” My answer used to be simple: passion (and I still believe that is incredibly important). But I’ve also met a lot of “passionate” people who did not possess what I now view as the most important thing to be successful.

So, now my answer goes a little something like this: “Be a sponge. Be open, listen and learn as much as you can every day. Understand that as good as you think you might be, there is always someone better, smarter, faster, more talented. And once you can understand that and truly believe it, half the battle is won. The rest is up to you. Become a student for life and never believe that you are “there,” that you have arrived.

I can’t imagine that day will ever come for me, because the day that happens is the day I am no longer growing. Regardless of the promotions, pats on the back or awards I win, I continue to believe I am only as good as the last thing I have done. And that keeps me pushing myself, growing and I believe it helps me to be a more valuable contributor to the creative team and to Barefoot everyday.

So, I guess what I am saying is that be patient, listen a lot and enjoy the ride. Don’t be in a rush to get to the top and make the most money. Enjoy the journey, because that’s exactly what it is. Yes, passion is great to have, but in my opinion, being a sponge is even better.

I’ve been at Barefoot for almost 12 years. I worked my way up from a Designer to an Art Director to a Associate Creative Director to a Creative Director. And now I’m a Partner. Seven years ago when I was promoted to an ACD, I made the transition from peer to boss. (Not the end-all-be-all boss, mind you, but a boss nonetheless). It was strange. One week I was brainstorming concepts and presenting my designs along side my co-workers, and the next I was evaluating their ideas and deciding whether they were good or not. I had to make a mental transition, as did everyone around me. I have to say, the first 6 months I questioned every decision I made and more often than not found myself at home questioning my decisions all over again. I mean it was just one person’s opinion, right? My opinion. Gulp.

I found myself constantly looking to Doug to help me figure out what to do, what were the best decisions and how I would know. And why was it that he always seemed to have the right solutions for things and I didn’t? I so desperately wanted to be that person who knew the right thing to do and make the right decisions all the time. The fact is: what I didn’t realize then, was that I was thinking about things the wrong way. I was never going to have all of the right answers, all of the time, and that was something I had to learn to be okay with. While it’s still my goal, I also understand that it may not be an entirely realistic goal. Don’t get me wrong, I still strive for perfection, but there are still plenty of times that I still find myself going to Doug for advice and guidance on things.

Through the years and with the help of a lot of smart people around me, I finally realized that being wrong and needing someone’s help are not bad things. And once I could truly realize that… BOOM my confidence was better, my decisions were smarter and I found myself able to grow even stronger.

Could it of really been that simple? In hindsight, everything seems simpler and clearer, right? For me it was about growing up—and more importantly, being open to growing up, which is a powerful thing that doesn’t happen overnight (at least not for me) in fact, I’m still working on it everyday.

Every year for the past 8 years Barefoot has been a big part of a local organization called Happen, which inspires creativity in kids and their families. It was founded by Tommy Rueff back in 1998. What makes that so special is that Tommy was one of the original partners of Barefoot. I worked with him here when there were only 3 employees. So, I have a personal connection not only with Happen but with Tommy and all the good that he does for so many people, especially the kids. He’s a true inspiration to me.

Happen is an award-winning non-profit arts organization, founded for children and adults to share creative experiences that strengthen today’s family structure both personally and within our community. Their vision is to every day, create a positive environment where shared creative experiences happen that participants look back on as life-changing. You should go to their site, look around www.happeninc.com and check out all of the cool things that they do.

So, every summer we participate in a program called “Lights. Camera. Learning in Action.” This is a program where every Tuesday in July, a group of kids from 8 homeless shelters across Cincinnati come together to make a movie. It’s written, filmed and produced by them, and they design, create and illustrate all of their own props. It’s really cool. At the end of the session, their movie will premiere on the big screen in a local movie theater at Cincinnati’s Union Terminal (a renovated, art-deco train station) in front of all of their parents, the volunteers and the Happen employees. It’s awesome.

I’ve been volunteering for this every year since it started, and it’s always amazing to see these kids—who are less fortunate and have experienced a life I can’t even begin to imagine—having this time to forget all that’s going on in their lives and just have fun. They’re treated like stars. They’re empowered and filled with more and more confidence every week. And you can see it on their faces.

It makes me happy and proud to see all of the people who volunteer from Barefoot hanging out and experiencing this together. I think it’s incredible that we can take time out of our busy days to give back to something so special—and help support the efforts of one of our original Barefooter’s.

Tommy doesn’t know a lot of the 60-something employees we have now, but that doesn’t stop him from taking them all in as if he had worked with each one of them personally for years. I’m thankful that I had the chance to work with him, but I’m even more thankful that I can be a part (even if it’s just a small part) of the dream Tommy left Barefoot to pursue all those years ago.

I can honestly say that I have genuinely loved coming to work everyday* for the past 11 years. (*Yes, I’ve had some crappy days too, probably more than I can count, but hey, this is real life, isn’t it?) But, by and large, I’ve mostly always loved it and that’s always seemed very normal to me. But, there was a time when I thought that maybe that was the wrong way to feel.

About 9 years ago, I went through (what I still consider today to be) the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. It all started 9 years ago when I had my girls, Zoe and Orion, who would from that point on, be the best and most important part of my life (even more than designing, which for a long time, I believed nothing would top).

One of the reasons that made this such a difficult time was not because I was sleep deprived or scared that I wasn’t going to know how to change a diaper (although that did kind of freak me out too), it was because I couldn’t reconcile the fact that I had these two amazing little babies that needed me more than anything but I still wanted to keep working. My mom didn’t work until we were older and I guess somewhere inside, I believed that I was supposed to do the same thing. Stay home and be the best mom I could possibly be. But for whatever reason, my story didn’t really end up that way.

For me, part of making the decision to come back to work was a no brainer. I had to keep working, we didn’t have enough money to live on just one income, but after doing a little math, we realized that we were making just enough money combined that even after sending our girls to daycare, we would be doing slightly better with both incomes than with just one. This also made our decision to leave our girls in someone else’s care a little easier to make (but not easier to do). We needed too.

I often wondered if we would’ve been okay on just one salary, would I of still made the decision to go back to work and would I be where I am today? I guess that’s something I’ll never know.

So, we when our girls turned 6 months old we sent them to daycare. We ate more than our fair share of Corn Flakes and Ramen noodles to be able to pay their tuition every month, but we did it and it worked.

Something I remember clearly to this day, (and probably one of the reasons I am so loyal, not only Barefoot, but to Doug) was the fact that Doug was so amazing about working with me to make coming back after my pregnancy as easy as possible. He was so incredibly flexible with my schedule, understanding of what I was going through and sensitive to what a hard time I was having leaving Zoe and Orion. (Which was amazing considering, at that time, he didn’t have any kids of his own.)

With all the pressure that I felt, either from people around me or just the good old “society” pressure, I felt like I wasn’t making the right decision by going back to work instead of being a stay at home mom. And for what it’s worth, that feeling didn’t go away for about 7 years. So, now back to the reason that this was such a difficult time for me—it came down to one thing; aside from the fact that I had to work, I also wanted to work.

Was that bad?
Was that the wrong decision?

I wondered that for a long time, but now, I can officially say, 9 years later, that going back to work was the best decision I could of made, not only for my girls, but for myself too. I worked harder than I had ever worked. I knew that if I had to be away from them, then I wanted to be at a place that was fun, a place where I was surrounded by great people, and where I was able to do great work and be happy.

Check,
Check
and
Check.

I came back not only with the mindset that I was going to do everything in my power to make everyday I was away from my girls better, but I also came back with more drive and ambition than I had ever had before. It wasn’t just about me anymore. I needed to work not only for myself now, but I also had this great little family that was counting on me. And what better incentive to be the best I could be, than those two little babies?

So that’s what I did, I worked harder, I worked more efficiently, I tried to work better everyday. All so that at the end of the day (which was 4:58 and counting”¦) I could go home and be with Zoe and Orion. Over the years I had plenty of late nights riddled with guilt because I wasn’t home on time. At one point, I even made the decision to leave Barefoot to spend more time with my girls for a while. But ultimately (6 months later) I came back. Not only because I missed it, but because I was a better mom when I worked. I would spend more time with them. Quality time. From the moment I walked in the door they were my only priority. Every second with them counted more, maybe that was guilt driving that, but I was okay with that because I was spending more time with them and they were benefiting from that. So, for years this was how things went. Things were busy. At times they were really hard. Especially when they were old enough to participate in sports. How does a working mom pick up her kids from pre-school (30 minutes from work), change them and get them to soccer practice by 5:30? That one I never quite figured out. So, we were the 5:45ers. That was about the best I could do some days, other days we were the 6:00ers and I was okay with that too. That’s how I was able to make it work. I did the best I could, as often as I could, and tried not to beat myself up over any shortcomings I had that left me just shy of being crowned super mom of the year. I did my best. And that may have been one of the first and most valuable lessons my girls learned from me.

Since then they’ve learned that hard work pays off, being passionate and dedicated is important and that doing something you love to do is probably one of the best gifts you can give yourself.

Our girls are smart, funny, kind, independent and strong.
(Says me, the ever-objective mom, right?)

But that’s how I see them and I believe that is who they are. So, how do I know I made the right decision all those years ago? Well, now when I call home to let the girls know that I’m going to be a little late, they tell me it’s okay, not to worry and just do a good job. When I get home, they ask me if my day was good (and more often than not it is) but when it’s not, they tell me that they can’t all be good days and that tomorrow will be better. I don’t think that kind of perspective and wisdom can come from 9 year olds if they grew up feeling neglected or abandoned. So now, all these years later, I can sit back, smile and say that I’ve done the right thing, no matter how hard it was for me to believe all those years ago. I believe that being a good mom isn’t just about spending time with your kids, but it’s also about being happy. Happy with your life. Happy with your choices. And happy with allowing yourself to be unsure and to let things work themselves out. And for all of that, I can honestly say that I’m happy.

Happiness as described in the dictionary is “the quality or state of being happy, good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.” So when asked to describe the happiness icon I chose for my business card, it turned out to be harder than I thought. See, my icon is jeans, I chose jeans for several reasons. The first reason was that we each had to pick our own personal icon to represent happiness (and our kids were off limits), this wasn’t because Barefoot is anti-kids (take it from me, a working mom, nothing could be further from the truth), but we realized that if everyone who had kids here chose their kids that would make for a very cute but not necessarily accurate letterhead design for our new positioning. And being charged with figuring out how to bring the new position of Barefoot to life visually, I thought we ought not risk looking like we were the best kid photographers ever.

So, that being the case, we were asked to pick one other thing that we rocket for, something that we’re passionate about and after much thought and a happy cleaning accident, mine ended up being jeans. I knew I loved jeans and had always been (and still continue to be) in search of the perfect pair. My quest for the holy grail of denim had begun when I was fairly young. Can you imagine how happy I was when I grew up and realized that being a creative in the advertising world meant that I could wear jeans (all the time!!)? How great is that? Talk about happiness…not only was I passionate about designing and advertising since I was little, I realized that the industry that I so wanted to be a part of not only embraced the divine denim but also embraced wearing them to work. Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

Anyway…as for the second reason I chose jeans for my icon, I was cleaning out my closet one day and trying to decide what clothes I should keep and what clothes I should donate. Apparently, jeans had been the hardest for me to part with over the years, I made the discovery that I owned over 50 pairs of jeans. I had no idea I had that many. As I was sitting on my closet floor, I came to the realization that every time I’m at a store, I head for the jeans first (whether I needed a new pair or not), in most cases I didn’t. I went in for socks, I left with jeans, I went in for a coat, shirt, undies…I always left with jeans. I’ve even found myself paying more on jeans than I would on anything else for myself (the exact amount I’ll keep between me and every sales person that I’ve ever purchased jeans from). So, after my closet was cleaned and my donation box was full (of everything but jeans I might add), I came to the realization that what I trade up for is jeans. I love them, I wear them almost everyday and apparently I have enough that I can go to work everyday for over two months and wear a different pair each time.