Lessons from a MadMan

Last night I had the chance to see Matthew Weiner, creator and lead writer for MadMen, speak in Fort Worth. While I disclose that I'm a huge fan of the show, anyone would have both enjoyed and greatly benefited from listening to his story.

He was one of the most engaging and eloquent people I've had the pleasure of listening to. Eccentric...yes. All over the map...no question. But just when you'd think he was wandering off to a completely irrelevant point, he'd tie it back to his overall message.

The theme of his story was about the creative process as it related to the show. He showed several different clips and touched on the inspiration for each. All were classic moments any MadMen fan would recognize:

•Don asking Roger "what women want" in his office
•Don asking one of his mistresses "what women want" and getting an inspiring answer
•Don on the phone with another mistress who says "I like being bad and going home and being good"
•Betty shooting at the birds in the backyard
•Don's presentation of the Kodak Carousel campaign

As brilliant of a writer as Weiner obviously is, where I think his true genius lies in his innate sense of always being open to outside inspiration. His curiosity factor is off the charts. He engages in conversation at the drop of a hat. He's personable. He wants to hear stories. He's thirsty for interaction.

The results spoke for themselves, as each of the above scenes was based on an observation or interaction Weiner had with someone else. The mistress' quote was from a lady he sat next to in an airplane. The "nostalgia" element of Don's Carousel pitch was from a class lecture during high school. Betty shooting the birds came from a personal story by someone on his writing staff.

Weiner's creativity (and, by extension, livelihood) literally depends on how well he's observing what's going on around him and collaborating with others. It was, in my opinion, a humble admission. Not one you'd expect from an A-List Hollywood writer.

Our business sometimes propagates a crap assumption that all account people have blinders on...oblivious to anything other than what their client tells them. And I understand stereotypes become stereotypes for a reason. No doubt, we need to know our client's business better than they do. But any diligent account person can do that.

The best account people I've known were amongst the most externally observant people in the business. Thirsty for knowledge, eager to learn, always on the lookout. Knowing they would improve if they would take time, listen and infuse their work with the contributions of others. Instead of clients having to ask for new ideas or different thinking, it came their way from these account people in a steady stream of observations, unexpected presentations and inspiring recommendations.

Those are the account leaders who didn't lose clients, but instead grew their business. We need more of those.

It also wouldn't hurt if a few of us could channel our inner Don Draper for presentation purposes...dude can sell ice to Eskimos.