Free to Create Change: Next Creative Leaders & the Case for Creating for Good
LAUREL STARK / Founder of Next Creative Leaders
We’re a mere two months into 2020, and freelance life has me riding the waves of all things new: testing the water with new clients and collaborators, diving into new creative challenges, and floating new ways to bolster my bank account. But there is one old challenge that keeps on resurfacing for me: how do I create the space to keep creating more good? While residents of Freelance Land are typically (and understandably) preoccupied with finishing the work we’ve got or chasing the work we want, Q1 is the perfect opportunity to think a little harder about what we actually want to create with our time. Not just for our clients or for the benefit of our portfolios, but for our industry and the world at large.
Create the change you want to see in the world.
As Vicki Saunders famously said, “Everything’s broken, what a great time to be alive.” So make a dream brief out of what bothers you. Build the thing you wish you had (a little bird told me that’s how Working Not Working came to be). Be the change you’d like to see. And for the love of whatever you’re into, put some of that magical, creative juju towards a problem that has nothing to do with sales or likes. The beauty of freelance is that while you might not always have control over what you’re paid to work on or when you’re paid to work, you do have control over how you use your time, space, and talent. And who knows. That positive thing you decide to put into the world? It might just turn out to be a career-shaper. It certainly has been for me.
I am the co-founder of Next Creative Leaders. In case you’re not familiar, it’s an individual creative portfolio competition for non-male identifying creatives, run in partnership with The One Club for Creativity and the 3% Movement. And though we’ve grown to be one of the most competitive individual creative honors globally, it started with me sending a simple tweet to the One Club five years ago. I was a freelance ACD, working with the Google Brand Studio by day and running the 3% Movement’s Twitter handle by night and snack break. I was fed up with our industry’s continued failings on the diversity and inclusion front, and deeply craving a peer community and honest discussion around creative leadership.
My personal experience and freelance status gave me the POV and the freedom to work with the One Club and the 3% Movement to create what I thought our industry needed: a competition that highlighted creative womxn on the rise, was free to enter, had a diverse jury, and offered the winners the chance to be seen, heard, and recognized as leaders. Now, 51 winners in (we announced our 5th class at the 3% Conference in November), I couldn't be prouder of the community we're creating, the platform we're giving these deserving creatives, or the positive impact we're having on our industry.
“As Vicki Saunders famously said, ‘Everything’s broken, what a great time to be alive.’ So make a dream brief out of what bothers you. Build the thing you wish you had (a little bird told me that’s how Working Not Working came to be). Be the change you’d like to see.”
Giving back pays big time. Just not always with dollars.
I’ll be the first to bang the drums of “freelance doesn’t mean free!” and I absolutely appreciate the reality that as entrepreneurs, we’re solely responsible for keeping ourselves housed and fed. But if you’re one of those people who thinks being a good person doesn’t actually pay, maybe it’s time to expand your horizons about what “payment” can look like. Because sure, a passion project might not come with an immediate payout in the traditional sense, but it absolutely can come with career-boosting benefits: from press and praise to connections and opportunity—even a unique specialty that can shape your purpose (and paid opportunities!) in the future.
While it’s true my work on Next Creative Leaders doesn’t come with an official day rate, it would actually be challenging to put a price on the multitude of ways my efforts have been repaid. Not only do I get a much-needed infusion of good vibes and inspo every Fall when I start interviewing our winners (right around the time seasonal depression starts to kick in, so bonus!), but I get ten new friends who happen to be some of the most talented creatives in our business.
Next Creative Leaders has also opened the door for multiple thought leadership opportunities, like being a mentor for the Cannes See it Be it Program, a recurring speaking engagement at the 3% Conference, and article writing opportunities like this one, just to name a few. It’s provided me with the perfect excuse (selecting the Jury) to connect with brilliant senior creative leaders like Nils Leonard and Tea Uglow (*swoon*). And it’s even shaped the kind of creative leader I’ve become: Thanks in part to the diverse team I helped to build and the non-traditional, collaborative environment we fostered with our clients, my agency was awarded Google's Global Pride business in 2018. My team delivered a beautiful campaign that not only resonated deeply with the LGBTQ+ community, but earned us a nod from Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas. That special experience continues to be a North Star for the kind of change I aim to champion through my creative and my DEI work.
“All I wanted was to change the conversation around what leadership looked like—and for the people who were constantly overlooked and underappreciated to finally be recognized for their important creative contributions. But what has actually happened is so much bigger and more meaningful than I could have imagined.”
Start a ripple of positivity.
I get it. Being a freelancer almost never means having a plate that’s 100% empty. But whether you have two minutes to share your rate with a female peer who’s getting the short end of the stick, three weeks to invest in a pro-bono campaign that hits close to home, or years of nights and weekends shaping a game-changing initiative, whatever you have to give, is enough. Because even that small gesture of good will? You never know what it will inspire. Or who will take what you started—and run with it.
My sole brief with Next Creative Leaders was to shine a light on womxn who were (like me) just stepping into leadership, to hear what was inspiring or challenging them, and to give them a platform to truly be seen as leaders. All I wanted was to change the conversation around what leadership looked like—and for the people who were constantly overlooked and underappreciated to finally be recognized for their important creative contributions. But what has actually happened is so much bigger and more meaningful than I could have imagined. Next Creative Leaders hasn’t just helped change the ratio, it’s set off a ripple effect of other creative solutions that are working to make our industry more equitable. Winners have taken the platform they’ve been given in NCL, and turned around to create other brilliant ways of fighting the gender imbalance in AdLand.
Aisha Hakim, one of our 2015 winners, founded Fellow, an app-based community that connects womxn with more relatable mentors (and we just partnered on this fun project to help Fellow celebrate Galentines Day!). Mara Lecoq, one of our 2016 winners, started Where Are All The Boss Ladies, a crowd-sourced resource that helps folks find their next female boss or business partner. Maddy Kramer, one of our 2017 winners, started InVisible Creatives, the largest female creative database in the world, aimed at ensuring that more women are considered—and hired—for open creative roles. And with each of these passion projects, the impact and good will of Next Creative Leaders multiplies—becoming so much more than I could have hoped to achieve on my own. I’m so overwhelmingly proud to be in a community with such passionate, creative changemakers.
So as we round the bend into Q2, with visions of big checks and shiny award-like-objects dancing in our heads, I have one wish for you, creative to creative. And that wish is that whatever your talents, and whatever your unique POV—you find some way of using it to leave our industry or world a little kinder, a little more helpful, and a little more inclusive than you found it. Because you’ve got ten more months to make 2020 truly spectacular. And any time you set out to make a difference, you might just be the one who winds up changed for the better.
Header Illustration by WNW Member Michelle Mruk