EP 309: 5 key traits for a successful creative with Jamie Roberts

Build a Better Agency Podcast

Creativity lives at the center of every agency, but finding, nurturing, and retaining the best fit creatives can feel like an impossible task. Someone with an impressive resume who interviews wonderfully can suddenly feel like a mismatch once they’re actually in the role. It can feel like a guessing game, which is especially daunting for such an integral part of the team and your agency’s success. Jamie Roberts has been a creative at agencies large and small. She grew up on the art side of the business and realized that all creatives are not wired the same. They might have similar skills but where they live on the spectrum of that skill defines their strengths and weaknesses. With this knowledge, she identified five key traits that can help agencies find creatives, or better understand the creatives they already have.

In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Jamie and I explore the spectrum of these five key skills. We discuss how understanding them can simplify hiring decisions that lead to long-term success for both the agency and the new employee while also giving more insight into how to best leverage your existing creative staff. I even put Jamie’s skills to the test with an off-the-cuff discussion on where she believes I fall on the spectrum of these five skills.

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• How to rethink the approach to creatives
• Understanding creative traits on a spectrum
• Responsive vs. deliberative adaptability
• Abstraction vs. analytical curiosity
• People vs. process agility
• Collaborative vs. independent confidence
• Broad vs. deep commitment