Episode Transcript
Don Mock 0:20
Alright, Episode 100. Rob. We did it.
Rob Broadfoot 0:23
We made it.
Don Mock 0:24
We made it. There we go. There we go. That’s some excitement. I can feel it. I know I can feel the excitement. It’s party atmosphere.
Rob Broadfoot 0:29
Is palpable.
Don Mock 0:30
There’s confetti flying in the air. It’s super exciting. You know? Can you believe we’ve done 100 of these things?
Rob Broadfoot 0:37
No, it’s kind of hard to believe.
Don Mock 0:38
I don’t even remember when we started. It feels like we’ve always done this.
Rob Broadfoot 0:41
It’s old hat. It is old hat as they say.
Don Mock 0:45
Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, truth be told there’s a lot of in the hallway, chit chats that probably could have been podcasts for the last 15 years anyway, you know what I mean?
Rob Broadfoot 0:54
Yeah I think about it in terms of like, learning something new that is turned into a habit. Almost. What?
Don Mock 1:05
I see What you did there. I see What you did there. Yeah. We had joked about previous, and previous pods that are 100 would be hey, let’s catch all of our errors. But I feel like that’s too much work to go back.
Rob Broadfoot 1:17
There weren’t any. We checked and there weren’t any.
Don Mock 1:22
Yeah, well said Well played. So I think you know, it’s Yeah, today, I thought it might be fun for us to on, on a triple digit podcast, talk about maybe a little bit about it’s a little bit of everything, whatever we want, but like how we got here. And I think part of that to your point is habits. You know, What I mean? Like, how do we keep doing the same thing that we’re doing, but still be awesome and creative and for different clients? Right? Day in day out year after year, forever. you know, well, part of that is I think, you know, developing fostering and maintaining positive habits, right. Be it be it whatever those are in light. I mean, maybe even outside of work, too, you know, like
Rob Broadfoot 2:02
relationships. Yeah. Social life. Yeah.
Don Mock 2:07
Cleanliness.
Rob Broadfoot 2:09
All those good things. Good Habits, bad habits. Yeah.
Don Mock 2:11
Blue Zones, right. We’re talking about those earlier today. So I think I made a little list. Most of my stuff is about work, to be honest. So yeah, but But I think What started it was we’ve got and I know that we talked about this book before in the past, but there’s a great Rick Rubin book called the creative act, a way of being right. That’s fun little essays and fun little sort of snippets, or whatever. And he’s got a little ditty here on habits. So let’s hear it. I’m going to do a bad job of reading this, but I’m gonna give it my best. And we’re gonna go from there. All right. All right. This is well, actually, I’m gonna read it and then we’ll discuss who it’s by. Yeah, okay. All right, the first thing, here we go. The first thing I would show players at our initial day of training was how to take a little extra time putting on their shoes and socks properly. shoes and socks. The most important part of your equipment is your shoes and socks, you play on a hard floor. So you must have shoes that fit right. And you must not permit your socks to have wrinkles around the little toe, where you generally get blisters or around the heel. So it’s interesting shoes and socks. I showed my players how I want them to do it, hold up the sock, work it around the little toe area and the heel area. So there are no wrinkles. There’s a lot of information about shoes and socks. smoothen out good he says, Then hold the sock up while you put the shoe on and the shoe must be spread apart, not just pulled on the top laces. Okay? It keeps us flare, it glared at flare it out, it keeps going up, you tighten it up snugly by each eyelet, then you tie it, then you double tie it so won’t come on down. Because I don’t want us coming on tie during practice or during the game. I don’t want that to happen. Now, he says that’s just a little detail the coaches must take advantage of because it’s the little details that make the big things come about. Right. And the sentiments above are John Wooden, John Wooden, you know, the most successful basketball, you know, coach in the history of college basketball, you know, he won more consecutive games and championships than any others in history. But Rick Rubin, who I would consider a very creative individual has an interesting little little side note here that says it must have been frustrating for elite athletes who just want to get on the court and show What they want to do to arrive a practice and have this legendary coach basically tell them
Rob Broadfoot 2:48
How to tie their shoes.
Don Mock 2:51
Yeah, tell exactly. Not only that, but like, Here’s how to put on your sock, you know, But I think and this is What spurred I think today’s thought right? The point wooden was making was that creating effective habits down to the smallest detail is What makes the difference between winning and losing games. Right? So I mean, of course you have to hit the shot. Of course you have to pass and dribble and write rules. You have to know the understanding of the arena that you ran in things like that, but we are talking about the wrinkles or lack thereof of your socks in your shoes. Right. And it’s hard to argue with success. Yeah, exactly. So again, I can keep you And this is interesting about about habits and whatever, but but I think the point is, you know, good, you know, good habits create good art, right? Good habits can create good strategy, right? I mean, in a strange way, we allow me to speak out of both sides of my mouth for a minute, like, nothing we do is step and repeat, right? Every client has a different need. Every client sells something different a product or a service or whatever, right? I mean, there’s everything we do is custom for everyone that we work with, right? There’s no like, oh, I designed this logo for this guy over here. Let me sell it 1000 more times, you know, like, that’s not how it works, right? So there’s something interesting about every single thing we do is custom. But the habits and maybe the methodology, this strategically, right, of how we get to those, you know, custom solutions, kind of is a little bit of a step and repeat, right? I mean, we have the dance that we do of how we take clients through certain projects or through the experiences, I guess, right? Yep. To get to the end result. Right. So I don’t know, thoughts. What do you say? I just read a whole bunch of Yeah,
Rob Broadfoot 6:06
no, I was just I was thinking I mean, it makes great sense. And it’s also to with regards to that specific example. If your socks are on properly, and your shoes fit properly, you don’t ever have to worry about it. Yeah. And the last thing that you want to be worried about when you’re in the NBA and playing is, oh, my foot hurts or whatever else. Focus. So so I like that. And I do I agree. I think that and habits can be small like that. But impactful at the same time. I was thinking through some of my habits, right. And they kind of start with from a work perspective, the work day, my morning. The routine, the ritual, the ritual. Yeah, yeah. And it’s and it seems simple, but the habit is, wake up. Make a cup of coffee. Right. Get ready say to the kids
Don Mock 6:58
Now, just to play devil’s side that didn’t used to be we talked about it didn’t used to be part of the habit, right, which is interesting. So habits are that we were allowed to change.
Rob Broadfoot 7:05
We’re allowed to pick up new habits. Get the coffee going. Yeah, talk to the kids hang out, you know, prep everybody for the day pump everybody up. Kiss my lovely wife, throw the dog in the car and head out. Yeah. And then when I get here in the office habits the same. Yeah. Get the lights, go and get coffee machine going make my second cup of coffee for the morning. Sit down. And I like to almost decompress for a few minutes, even though I’m not really decompressing from anything but my drive in. But sit there have a cup of coffee, kind of read the news for a minute and write down my list of notes of things I needed to do for the day and and then start to start to make my way through the lesson I’ve learned over time, too. And we’ve talked about this and I’m kind of going off on a tangent, I’m in the habit of trying to focus on the creative, the more creative part of our jobs in the morning. Yeah, because I’m fresh The coffee’s going. I don’t eat a big breakfast. So I’m not in like a food coma situation and then kind of save whatever busy work towards the latter part of the day. Those are my basic I think habits. Yeah. Well,
Don Mock 7:06
what’s on your list is at the absolute top of my list, which is make lists which boils down to organization. Yeah, right. Is Hey, what’s on top for today? Like, obviously, we leave and you accomplish whatever you accomplish at, you know, during any given workday, or don’t, right, right. Not everything happens, right. And you kind of leave here knowing What might be looming for tomorrow. Yeah. But I still think Hey, make the list organize the list and whatever like that. Because then the phone’s ringing emails are happening. You don’t I mean, like, again, it all changes, you know, during needs throughout the day, for various reasons.
Rob Broadfoot 8:59
Yeah. I mean, that’s a good point. A lot of times the day starts off with What you’ve how you think it’s going to go and invariably it takes Yeah, yeah, sideways twists and turns and ends up being nothing like you thought it bight be.
Don Mock 9:10
As crazy as it sounds, and it’s not crazy is organization make list, that’s probably the best habit you can have for being in an agency because you are kind of pulled in a lot of different a lot of different directions, right? And then I think for me, at least habit wise I don’t know if this is a habit or just more best practice is, you know, prioritization, based on need. And as you eloquently said, I’ll call it a creative clock. Right, right. Here’s a list of 10 things I need to do today. But I also have to maximize my creative potential during one of my most creative right, so whatever that creative clock is, and it’s ticking, and you only got so much time during the day, right? It’s Hey, I know I need to get these three things done by today. I know I need to get these six things done, but you kind of have to do that just by doing that. I know that’s kind of a cop out answer, but the answer is different for everybody here in the office. Right, right. We all have one, our sizzle factor going a little bit differently. I think. So yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 10:07
And then I think also too. And those lists, too, are prioritized not only by when we’re the most creative, but also balancing that with deadlines and client needs and things and when stuff has to go out the door and whatever else. And then also, too We, as I’m sure most agencies, do we status with the team. Yeah, that everybody knows What everybody’s doing. Yes. So we become more organized. Yeah. And that seems to be a pretty efficient way to do things. What is your morning routine? I’m curious. morning habits. What is yours?
Don Mock 10:39
Well usually fly in pretty hot as you know. Yeah. Meaning like in the car. I don’t drink a sip of coffee until I’m here at the office which I know is weird. Yep. Yep. I don’t drink the coffee in the car.
Rob Broadfoot 10:52
Are you scared of spilling
Don Mock 10:56
Yeah, there might be part of that. Also, I’m very fortunate in Atlanta, I do not have a long commute. Right. So I’m biased in that respect. Shout out to city of Atlanta. But no, I mean, I usually get in the office. And as you know, I head straight to the office turn on my office light, but I do not office. I don’t open the building. Yeah. Like it is still a darkened cavern in here until somebody else comes in and turn on lights and whatnot. Right? So I generally get in obviously, before Office Hours sort of start. So I don’t want to open the whole building, you know, like that type of thing. But I usually get in, and it’s a survey of emails, because I also, don’t check email outside of the building, for the most part, you know, so it’s a survey of emails. And then I go to the list and prioritization, sometimes I’ll poke around and hit the news. You know What I mean, if I start when I start drinking coffee, but for the most part, I like to get out the immediate needs the elect to rule out the get, you know, attack the low hanging fruit first.
Rob Broadfoot 11:55
Crossing stuff off the list feel good, and productive, getting things done.
Don Mock 11:59
Yeah, and call me crazy. I will even write things down just to cross them off. You know What I mean? Because it’s, Hey, I’ve, you know, it’s a reminder that I’ve done this, I gotta send it later, or whatever. The case may be. Right. So and then. Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s pretty much it, I guess, in terms of, like, daily sort of process and or habit, right. You know, I think, you know, agnostic of time, in terms of when I get in, I think another good habit, right? For anybody in this industry. And it’s all under the stay organized. Umbrella, right? Because we’re talking about making sure and prioritizing, you know, things is, is server organization. As you know, I am the server Nazi, I mean, I’d say the word Nazi, but like it’s all about, everything’s got to be in the right place where it needs to be. And it needs to be named exactly What it needs to be named. That way. From a habit perspective, I think that the more everybody in the organization marches in the same direction, the easier it is to find everything. And then also like, oh, four years from now, when you need to find that one file, we’re like, oh, I remember that, you know, it’s exactly where it should be. So in terms of like, the habits, I think, you know, having a consistent workflow and sort of operational flow in terms of server architecture, and an advertising and creative industry, I think I think that is mission critical. That is That is my John Wooden tie your shoes properly. You know, it almost doesn’t matter if the output is good or bad, or whatever. It needs to be named, What it needs to be named and needs to be put where it needs to be put so that when clients say, Hey, do you still have that old brochure Oh, Got it right here. You know What I mean?
Rob Broadfoot 13:33
Or more often than not. Not more often than not, but Oh, Mr. C is working on a project that’s due today at four Well, Mr. C’s out sick or something happens, and Oh, somebody’s got to jump in. Yeah, pick up the file and make sure that it gets where it’s going. And no one needs to be hunting around for things. Efficiency. And that’s a good system. The system works. But I think also too, it’s if you think about habits, habits, form consistency, right? And consistency just leads to better outcomes. Yeah. And I think that’s true physically, if I consistently work out, I’m going to be in better shape. If you consistently run my cardio is going to be better. Yeah. By consistently practice. Pickleball pickleball game is going to be better or guitar or golf. Yeah.
Don Mock 14:22
What do they say? They say 21 days makes a habit is that I think where does that come from? By the way? I mean, I have no idea. It’s just kind of something.
Rob Broadfoot 14:30
I made that up
Don Mock 14:31
whoever they are the air quote, they, you know, 21 days makes a habit. It’s in a book somewhere,
Rob Broadfoot 14:35
But it’s true mentally as well. Right? So it’s true physically, but also mentally when you when you’re consistently doing things you get It’s better. It’s better outcome. Yeah, right. It’s just It just is. Another habit that I have too, which is for again, this is just a personal one, but I tend to at the end of the day, my decompression is I get home and I go, I have a dog that needs to run. So I go through a frisbee and we’ve mentioned this before, but that’s the time where I either if something’s lingering like a project that I need to work on, I’ll think on it, then. But I also if there’s nothing pressing creative need, or whatever it is, I’ll also then think about my day tomorrow. Yeah. Okay, Here’s What I got done today. Just kind of recap, mentally figure that out. And then it’s Alright, Here’s What I’m going after tomorrow. Yeah, whatever that is.
Don Mock 15:31
I think that keeps everybody efficient with time, you know? So there’s nothing worse than sitting down and hey, What am I don’t what’s that, like, you know, like, fumbling through to try to figure out What is going on? You know, you don’t want that to occur. Right. So it’s interesting, though, I would say on my list, even though you’re saying, Hey, you kind of noodle around, I guess. I’m a big fan habit wise of turning the brain off and getting away from it for a while. Because I do think that if you just think about a problem constantly, you know, 12 hours a day, 16 hours, day after day after day, like you’re just gonna kind of burn yourself out. So I think it is important to, you know, even though this is a podcast about work and advertising, you gotta get away from your stuff.
Rob Broadfoot 16:17
Yeah, absolutely.
Don Mock 16:18
And recharge the batteries. You know, I think that’s important. So, I don’t know if that’s a habit or really more of a best practice, you know. But, yeah, I mean, I’m sure like, in terms of quirks and, you know, John Wooden shoes, for example, you know, we always put our, you know, this sock on first and that sock on it. I don’t know if that has anything to do with creative, but I think maybe habits for me is kind of just more best practices in terms of how you attack you know, creative needs for clients, right?
Rob Broadfoot 16:49
Yeah. And also to we were mentioning, like, superstitions, right, because that, to me, that kind of can fall under the category of habits.Think about baseball players and some of their quirky habits that they may have
Don Mock 17:06
Nomar Garciaparra was the ultimate in terms of. I will call that OCD. With his batting gloves and all the weird.
Rob Broadfoot 17:17
I mean, obviously, that’s unique to every individual. But like, that just, I think just compels mental focus.
Don Mock 17:27
I remember Jason Terry with the Hawks had to have the same pregame meal, every single game. Yeah. Right. And it was, hey, my body knows that this is going in. My body knows I’m going to go play this, you know, so 82 times a year was like, Here’s the exact same thing. Every single time now. I don’t know to What varying degree of success, but repetition.
Rob Broadfoot 17:49
It’s true in every sport. I mean, you think about golfers? I mean, there’s a very, I’m stepping up to the ball. I’m going to take two practice swings. I’m going to bounce my feet twice. Yeah, I’m going to sit in my stance and then I’m gonna take Yeah, kind of do do the thing. And I mean, yeah, basketball. I’m at the free throw line. Yeah, I dribble four times. Yeah. And then I shoot or What you know, and
Don Mock 18:09
honestly, those guys probably don’t even count or it’s just, it’s just, it’s a habit or habit. Yeah. Where are you just trying to do your thing? So do you have any interesting superstitions or little ticks or anything like that? Yeah, it’s kind of it’s kind of a weird oddball question.
Rob Broadfoot 18:26
I mean, I don’t know.
Don Mock 18:27
So we’ve been watching, you know, HBO Max, rebranded to max or whatever, and it’s got all the discovery stuff on there and for fun when we’ve got nothing to watch as a family we’ll put on Deadliest Catch, right? Like a crab fisherman up the Sea, right. And dude, those guys are as superstitious as they come They tap tap tap like they like everybody on the boat has to tap this certain way and knock a certain way and they do you know, and it is, and they’re all very self effacing about hey, I’m a superstitious weirdo.
Rob Broadfoot 19:00
In general the one universal superstition you do not bring a banana on a boat.
Don Mock 19:06
Yeah, I do know that. What is the history?
Rob Broadfoot 19:08
I don’t know. It would be interesting to look I don’t know What the history is. But yeah, do not bring a banana on a boat.
Don Mock 19:13
and that’s when you want to skunk the other fishermen. Youhide a banana on their boat right and then when they find it they freak out and throw it overboard and whatever I have seen that a lot
Rob Broadfoot 19:24
Yeah, I don’t know where that came from.
Don Mock 19:25
Yeah, and boats are always named after ladies you know, there’s a lot of boat and nautical sort of sort of interesting superstition. So but, but I mean at least superstitions in work I guess, I mean, I don’t really have any superstitions in work you know, I think I have a specific flow like when we get an identity project, for example, I kind of always attack at the same way even though the projects are custom for those clients. You know, there is a methodology in terms of sketching, typography, you know, things like that, right. And there is a specific methodology and flow that I use the, you know, that I use the computer for in terms of doing that. I sound like a grandpa saying that out loud, but
Rob Broadfoot 20:07
no, I don’t think so.
Don Mock 20:09
Well, technology doesn’t create the idea the ideas will come. It’s just a tool to execute against whatever the case is. Right? So but there is a very specific not dissimilar to the crab fisherman tapping on the railing or whatever, praying to the crab gods, you know, there is a methodology and a consistency and an approach
Rob Broadfoot 20:29
Mine would be if there’s a creative project, whatever it is, we’ll pick on ads for a second. I go grab a stack of paper, the environmentalists out there are gonna hate me.
Don Mock 20:40
It’s recycled paper. It’s recycled paper,
Rob Broadfoot 20:42
It’s recycled paper, backside, whatever. But I take Yeah, it’s to your point. Get the computer out of the way. Yeah, go straight pencil to paper. And draw as you’ve seen it, horrible stick figures,
Don Mock 20:53
I love them. I love the stick figures.
Rob Broadfoot 20:55
And write all my headlines out in pencil, like, I have to have to do it that way. I don’t go to the computer.
Don Mock 21:02
even though we can type faster than we can write, you prefer to write everything out? Do you ever find yourself caught?
Rob Broadfoot 21:08
And I think that’s because it’s more difficult it forces you to slow down and it forces you to be more purposeful in the sentence that you are writing. If it’s a headline, let’s say Oh, yeah. I can type out the same headline. Written 10 different ways much quicker than I can write it out with a pencil. But I’d rather write it out with the pencil because I’m probably going to get to a better place almost faster by doing it that way. Because the time is spent in my head. It’s not spent typing.
Don Mock 21:40
Yeah. Do you find that in the middle of executing and middle of writing? Whatever, there’s another idea that’s backlogged waiting to come out?
Rob Broadfoot 21:49
Oh 100%.
Don Mock 21:49
Yeah. I feel the same way where I’m like working on one thing. And it’s like, Oh, but wait a minute.
Rob Broadfoot 21:56
I gotta go to this next.
Don Mock 21:57
Yeah. Why is that? That’s so bizarre, right?
Rob Broadfoot 22:01
I think the way that the brain works, and I think it’s a combination of even down to serotonin in your brain that once you get, I think, its momentum, and once you have an idea that you like, good or bad, you just happen to like it. Once you get that there’s this sort of okay, great, then you’re on a roll. the Snowball is going and then you’re going Oh, yeah. Oh, but wait, but What about that? What if we did this? What if we did that? What if we did this?
Don Mock 22:31
I love that. So it’s even the same for writers as it is for Illustrators. You know, I love that.
Rob Broadfoot 22:35
Yeah, you start going. I mean, that’s the that’s the whole thing is it’s we always joke about the hardest. And we tell our clients this all the time. The hardest thing to do is start, staring at a blank page or blank computer screen is a tough spot to be in. And again, as far as habits go, the best way to overcome that is the habit of just starting going. And then all of a sudden, you’ll lock into to the lane, right and where you need to be and you go, Okay, there’s an idea. And then yeah,
Don Mock 23:08
Yeah it’s like you know how you turn your water off in your house for various need, oh, we’re gonna do water here or whatever, you know, and then everything’s back, you turn on the faucet and it’s like, coughing, you know, like, and then then all the water’s coming in. But you get that weird, horrible noise at the beginning. You know, like, bad things are happening. That’s sometimes What I feel like the creative processes where it’s like, it’s just coughing and sputtering you know, backfiring, like an old 60s car, you know? And then it’s like, oh it’s happening. It’s working. Yeah. And then it’s like, just idea, idea, idea idea, you know, and then you come back to it and you’re like, Huh, okay, these are ones are good. These ones are but you know What I mean? But you got to start the process. You got to start that. Coughing out ideas.
Rob Broadfoot 23:53
It’s also the notion of and we’ve talked about this before, too, but it’s getting in the overall creative habit of being creative at certain times. Right. We have to you only you only learn that by doing it. Yeah. And creating that habit of I’m going to be creative from nine till 12. Every day.
Don Mock 24:14
Yeah. Good.
Rob Broadfoot 24:18
Any other, okay, bad habits.
Don Mock 24:20
I hadn’t even thought about that. I’m not like I don’t have like stereotypical chewing on nails. And you know what people would associate as bad habits. I mean, personally, I would say my worst bad habit. My kids and wife will probably fact check me on this one is late night snacking. You know, I am in love with Well, I would say a 9:30 to 9:45 crunch factor, right? So yeah, I’ll rock some Ben and Jerry’s. I mean, I’ll have some ice cream but I love chips and some type of like
Rob Broadfoot 24:59
Like a Pringles.
Don Mock 25:01
Give me I don’t care What it is. I don’t care if it’s a chip, if it’s a Cheeto, if it’s a peanut, if it’s I want something crunchy. I don’t know why but I prefer a crunchy something or other, you know, late night. And then yeah, which is horrible. That’s a terrible that I would consider that’s a bad habit that has nothing to do with work of course, you know, but And hey, we tried to be good about that. But every once in a while you got to break it. Yeah. So any initial bad habits on your site?
Rob Broadfoot 25:26
I got a slice in my golf game. It’s pretty bad habit.
Don Mock 25:30
yeah, we’ll take it. Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 25:33
I’m sure I have other bad habits.
Don Mock 25:36
Yeah well, nobody’s perfect. Right? So late night crunching, so I guess you know, call them bad habits or call them good habits call it you know, What, What you want it. It’s really kind of operational efficiency and organization. I mean, it is What? Well, it really helped develop better habits, better creative products, you know, better timing, all that good stuff. You know, it’s get away from it, but be efficient with it while you have it. Right. So right, which is interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 26:09
And we are as an agency, I would say in the habit of delivering great work
Time and time again.
Don Mock 26:20
Over and over and over again. Well, hey, we’re fortunate that once client start working with us, they love working with us. And we keep clients around for a long time, which is great. Which always just just improves the relationships. That’s right. All right. Well, hey, that’s 26 solid minutes of habits, which is interesting, starting with tying your shoes and ending with late night snacking.
Rob Broadfoot 26:39
Right. You know, another habit I have is to go check us out online.That’s right. And you know where I do that?
Don Mock 26:45
Where can they find us Rob?
Rob Broadfoot 26:47
I do that www.mocktheagency.com I’m also in the habit of going on social media and finding us there @mocktheagency
Don Mock 26:55
We have created a monster.
Rob Broadfoot 26:56
So yeah, drop us a note. What are your habits good, bad. Positive, negative, whatever, all that stuff, let us know and happy 100th podcast. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and we’ll see you on the other side of the century.
Don Mock 27:09
101 baby. Thanks.
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