It’s going around. Over the course of the past year I’ve heard folks refer, when elevator pitching planners say, “They’re an academic planner.”

We’re not academic at all. We pull from all things practical. We solve for living, breathing human tensions. We work with creatives and own the pivotal creative brief, for goodness sake.

Sure, some of us have been educated in “account planning”, but that’s really to train our dragon. What I mean by that is fine-tuning our sense, gut, and ability to harness big ideas. This is the point of any and all experiences of a planner.

In fact, there’s no basis for academic anything in account planning. The best planners pull from a variety of sources. We mix, match, tug, and pull as is the course for getting to great ideas. We’re born that way. Some people, really the best planners IMO, are natural dragon tamers- we seek dragons. We thrive in the pursuit and outcome. And perhaps most importantly here is that no two dragons are ever the same.

It’s short-sighted and there are simply more descriptive, more creative ways to describe someone in the role. Let’s not call planners ‘academic’.  It’s going around and the usage is big time out of context for strategically minded creative talent. You just simply can’t be theoretical at planning. There’s no such thing.

People get married at 24. That wasn’t the path for me.

Let’s see, I was 23 when I graduated from The University of Texas (UT) in May.

The job market was not good. I had been an intern for over two years at my dream job but the agency wasn’t hiring. My plan B was to go to NYC. While I figured that out I worked for a dating service as a cold calling telemarketer and I also sold sofas at a high-end sofa retailer.

I enjoyed both jobs. Telemarketing was a lot better than I could have ever imagined. Growing up my grandmother in particular wasn’t kind to telemarketers. She’d get so outwardly pissed because ‘those people just ignore’ those “I’ve already told you… take me off your list” requests. Probably 1 in 10 told me to buzz off which to me was a great, happy-day, surprise. We’d call from torn out pages of the telephone book.

I was 24 when I drove with my dad to Miami for The Miami Ad School in December. I remember we got me set up in an apartment walking distance from the school and I was alone on New Years in the new place for 2002. IN MIAMI BEACH!

Seems like MIAMI BEACH should be in all caps always. I distinctly remember that New Years because I thought the world was ending when at around midnight firecrackers were exploding onto my window. I was in bed. Someone on a higher floor was shooting bottle rockets – and, instead of going away from the building, they were hitting my window. All of them. I’m sure of it. It sounded like bombs. Happy MIAMI BEACH.!. Boom!

The program ended late March [I think that’s right] and my parents drove up in their suburban to help me get home. I remember taking turns driving with my mom and dad. We had two cars- my car and the suburban.

My dad likes to drive fast like me [probably because he taught be how to drive :)] and my mom likes to drive fast but not with me, or rather she just doesn’t like for me to drive too fast. It took a lot longer to get back to Texas. I also remember my mom almost flipping the suburban that trip back. She almost missed an exit and when she darted to it she just about flipped the suburban. Seriously. There was one of those hidden ditches. My mom almost died driving back from Miami in the suburban.

. . .

Great undergrad degree. Stellar post grad degree. No job. Folks in NYC and elsewhere were giving me informational time of day, but I learned pretty quickly I needed to be in NYC to get a job in NYC. My favorite UT advertising professor [Dr. Murphy] even said, “Show me your plane ticket to NYC and I’ll make a few calls for you.”

My parents did not want me to go to NYC without a job. But … I had some savings. Growing up I was in 4-H and was involved in this thing called “the fair”. I raised and showed animals – lambs and a few commercial heifers, specifically. Even won the big show one year with my commercial heifer. That’s another story [imagine rodeo announcer announcing, “Please be aware folks, the Grand Champion Heifer has gotten loose. Please don’t be alarmed by the stray cow on the premises.”]. Plus, I was a saver. I have my first ever savings account logbook with $.15 deposits. Point is I had a good chunk of change saved up and so I decided in May I would move to NYC.

“Hi Alix, Not sure if you remember me but I was one of your students at CCNY. I saw your profile and just wanted to thank you for being a great teacher. I learned a lot in your class and still remember lessons from our Zico project. Hope all is well and happy holidays.” Thanks, E.D.

Today someone I work with is turning 25. I was 13 when he was born-

On my 25^th birthday I’d been in NYC for four months.

At four months, I was working as a receptionist off Fashion Ave and at a bar as the door girl for bands on the weekends off 7th and C. Biggest priority was the ability to pay rent.

Fashion Avenue was fascinating to me because of the personalities and the sexuality. My big boss was running into doors checking out the new intern and colleagues. I’d never experienced that.

It was early fall at four months and I’d just moved from Greenpoint, Brooklyn to Astoria, Queens. I’d truly lucked out by reconnecting with a friend from high school. She and another girl were looking for a place to live together and they let me in on that. The three of us moved into a 2^nd fl apartment at the end of Ditmars Blvd. We were at the time very likely debating on ‘investing in cable TV’ as to save money on weekends. I believe my room was 10×10. I slept on an AeroBed.

That November was my first Thanksgiving away from home – which was fantastic because it meant four types of potatoes for us! We invited friends over and set no rules or menu – so, naturally everyone brought their favorite type of potatoes. Potato freedom! Ha.

It was a wonderful dinner — less the con artist. As it turns out, one invitee from Texas was discovered to be a total, for real, con. And a con I’d been connected to through association for three years or so. Turns out he was never registered at The University of Texas [bought books, attended classes, was in study groups, etc.] and was significantly older than he claimed. He dated a good friend of mine for a couple of months. He was leaning in to be Treasurer for our local alumni group chapter…

In December, I’d interview for the job of my life and in January I’d start that job at Young & Rubicam off Madison Ave.

When I moved to NYC my idea spot, where I wanted to live, was Gramercy Park. I’d stayed at the hotel there on a student group trip and loved the area. I didn’t end up living there- couldn’t afford it. I did get a forever memory out of it, though.

The way you looked for places back then was to visit the local coffee shops and such. There, on the wall, almost always tended to be a ‘community board’ with listings of folks looking for roommates or rooms to rent. I found one in Gramercy Park!

What I found was a partitioned living room with what looked to be a comfy couch. This is what the tenant was renting. A partitioned portion of her living room! Seemed ok – in Gramercy! And then the list of rules came out. Most were fine, no biggies for me- clean this, lights out, door looked.

And then in big bold- NO PURPLE TOWELS. That was going to be a problem. I had purple towels. The reason was complex. You see, she had a white couch and she’d had previous roomies that liked to get out of the shower and sit with wet purple towel/s on white couch which had once stained her couch. I think said roomie hadn’t washed that purple towel.

Purple towels always make me smile now. It wasn’t the deal-breaker it was more like the illuminator. With more searching and outside of Manhattan, I could get a lot more for my money [like my own room, for one!] and I could keep my purple towels.

Are you accepting LinkedIn randoms? You should be. Here’s why:

• In the communication industry (and beyond), specializations are the norm. With that comes specialized certifications and specialized talent. One wonderful with LinkedIn is that it’s searchable. Need a NVivo certified analyst, for example? Search for one on LinkedIn!

• Random outreach does glean responses (people are responding to random outreaches on LinkedIn!). Case in point:  AlixCompany needed a particular type of talent for a new business opportunity. I searched on LinkedIn, found several specialists, contacted them randomly (they all responded), confirmed their talent with references, and guess what — AlixCompany won the scope of work!

• Why not? You can indicate on LinkedIn that you don’t want to share your connections with connections.

• If someone doesn’t accept randoms, the worst that could happen is that they don’t accept your invitation.

• A book you must read if you’re at all on the fence:  The Network Always Wins by Peter Hinssen. It has changed the way I do business. It solidified my POV on accepting and requesting random connections.

Here are a few quotes from networking where I asked the question, “Do you accept LinkedIn randoms?”

“I recently accepted a random request from someone at a well known advertising agency and that person nominated me for a keynote speaking opportunity. I ended up being the keynote speaker.”

“I needed an introduction and noticed one of my LinkedIn connections was connected to that person. The connection was a random one, but it didn’t matter. She was happy to make an introduction after a cup of coffee.”

“I just started accepting randoms! Previously, there was some pride in knowing all of my connections but now you just never know how you can be a resource for clients. I’ve accepted more randoms than I’ve requested. That said, I’ve started to send out more random connection requests.”