Account Executives

The moment I saw this artwork online – I couldn’t help but laugh. Allow me to dissect each photo and explain my take on it.

First shot – people think it’s all glamorous. It’s not. I can enumerate a lot of times where I would run in heels from the sound booth to the backstage and then back to the client. Packing items in the middle of the event, setting up and printing press releases 20 mins before media arrives. But hey, after we pulled through an event or any implementation – we like getting that pat on the back. We feel like a star.

Second Photo. The reason why I voluntarily took a Communication Course in college because I wanted to deal with less numbers as much as possible. I was thinking the whole time – I won’t need to deal with them in the future anyway. WRONG. When I started out in this company, I never really bothered changing the costing before sending to client. Now, I’ve come to realize if you put in value to what you do and especially the man-hours of your co-workers – I can call the shots on the cost – with the help of my supervisors and directors of course.

Shot number three: Like a boss. WHUT? No. Not exactly a boss, more of the gatekeepers. We are not simply order takers. I still have to give inputs in whatever deck we present and we still gather all info from the support teams – filter or add stuff. We’re supposedly the leaders for our respective projects.

If client thinks we go overtime like crazy. Go ahead. It’s true. We go overtime because we want to give them their money’s worth and shower them awesome presentations/ideas. Enough said.

As for the last shot - It’s true we’re always doing PowerPoint presentations for a client – for our industry since we’re in PR, another 50% of our time we’re in front of Microsoft excel. It got me thinking – is that how people around us really see us? I think it’s only because it’s the program always open in our laptops anyway.
I asked one of the directors – how did you last doing client servicing? There must be a secret to it. And his reply? You just need to have the passion of meeting people.

On March 7, it will be my 5th year in this industry. I think we all know why already.

Good days, bad days… in the end – it’s all worth it. I love my job. :)

Linsanity

You know it’s Linsanity, when people who never even cared about the NBA would stay up till the wee hours of the morning watching youtube videos and reading articles about Jeremy Lin.

I’m sure a lot of people already wrote a gazillion articles about him – his winning streak, graduating from an Ivy League school and his enormous faith on God. I am a fan because I just love the whole idea that this ordinary dude came out of nowhere and the opportunity just presented itself and he grabbed it. No – he didn’t just grab it - he made the most out of it. (And he still is!)

I’m sure a lot of people were shocked and disappointed about the loss of Knicks over the Hornets last Saturday but hey – that’s the way life goes. You win some, you lose some. While watching Lin during the press conference, he took the blame and pointed out his shortcomings. Not a lot of people have this characteristic – to admit their own fault, to be humble when defeat strikes you.

I thought to myself after watching that press conference – babawi yan.
I woke up this morning and the first thing I looked up was the Dallas-Knicks game. Vindicated.

Of course – I’m gonna try to squeeze in myself to the picture. Haha! It has been a rough couple of weeks at work, my presentation got shut down and it sucks big time especially when you’ve been getting praises for the past couple of weeks from your previous decks.

I’ve always been a big fan of ‘second chances’. I guess this is a way to get my feet back on the ground and head on the clouds. I thought to myself – I know I’m going to kick-ass on my next presentation. I just have to focus and go through the ropes again.

I mean if the Knicks/Jeremy Lin won the game last Saturday then I think the victory today would have lost its essence or there would be no added market value. Let’s face it. We all look for the drama. There has got to be a conflict or else no lesson will be learned. That’s why there are challenges because they will push us to become better. (Well we all saw that his TOs lessened in today’s game, right?)

I don’t want to sound like a poser proclaiming to everyone that I’m a huge basketball fan because obviously I’m not. I’m just really happy that there’s someone out there who is actually a good example in a very competitive sport. There are still God-fearing and talented men in the globe.

Before I end this entry, I’d like to share a quote I read in one of his interviews. If everyone had this mindset, I believe that anyone can excel in whatever field they’re in.

“There is so much temptation to hold on to my career even more now,” Lin said. “To try to micromanage and dictate every little aspect. But that’s not how I want to do things anymore. I’m thinking about how can I trust God more. How can I surrender more? How can I bring him more glory? It’s a fight. But it’s one I’m going to keep fighting.”

I may be part of the whole Lin-sanity bandwagon but it’s only because he’s definitely a
Lin-spiration.