The American Copywriter Podcast Had to Be a Lot of Fun but Also Beneficial in Many Ways. Can You Think of a Better Educational Tool Than Personal Side Projects?

I consider side projects essential. But I think strictly curating them is key. As creative people, we can find ourselves in any number of mixes, and I think most of us are curious and optimistic enough to want to say “yes” to almost anything. But I think that can work against you. For starters, you have one bucket of energy for each day. Being overcommitted is harmful to the soul. I also think it’s so important to do things that exercise different parts of your brain. I try to take on things that are creatively different than most of my day-today activities. Why take on something that duplicates the frustrations of your day-to-day? Most important, I look for projects where the person I am most answerable to is me or a small group of like-minded co-conspirators. There’s a lot of freedom in just creating for its own sake and not worrying about whether or not anyone else likes it or needs it or cares about it. Ironically, I have found that this approach tends to make people like it, need it and care about it.

How Are You Shaping Your Creative Team Differently Today Than in the Past?

For a time, what agencies did was really pretty defined. It was centered mostly on “thinking.” The idea. The concept. The strategy. All of that is still critically important, of course. But today, there is so much opportunity to “make.” So, I’d say that lately we’ve been looking to add makers of all sorts to our SHS stew. Do you illustrate or paint or sculpt or build or stage or shoot or cut or code or cobble? Because those maker skills give us a chance to experiment with and prototype things we can sell.

Back to your first question, we’ve also been encouraging our teams to look for opportunities to create outside of the briefs that hit their desk. Making an opportunity is infinitely superior to waiting for one to show up. So, I’d say I’ve also been keeping an eye out for creatives with an entrepreneurial spark because that’s what it’s going to take for us to continue to compete. Every day, someone in this town is out there making an awesome opportunity for themselves. Every day, I’m saying, “Damn, that’s great.” It’s critical to be attempting to inspire that feeling in others, too. Collective inspiration is important to all of us in KC.

► Watch: Kansas City Chiefs “Lights”
► Watch: Kansas City Chiefs “Hallowed Ground”

Let’s Talk About Volcanic, the New Service Design Firm Shs Is Spinning Off. What Prompted That Particular Focus? and How Does It Compliment SHS?

When you take a look at the entire ecosystem of things that impact and influence brands, most of what you’ll find has nothing to do with advertising or marketing at all. Beyond that, when you look at the brands that are really disrupting the world, they’re not doing it via advertising. Uber, for instance. No big, sexy brand spots there. But a smartly designed service that revolutionized an industry and for all intents and purposes has become a household name.

As we considered this, we felt that service and experience design would give us an opportunity to apply design thinking to the DNA of almost any company or brand. In a way, it’s like dragging UX out of the digital realm and applying it everywhere else. It’s a field where the projects can be as simple as rearranging the furniture in a waiting room or as complex as reimagining transplant patient care. It can be either small and incredibly focused on one particular piece of a puzzle or mind-bendingly broad.

You have to look at the relationships between people, things and organizations. Any way it goes it’s a pretty inspiring undertaking. Volcanic is one of the very first companies in the U.S. fully dedicated to service and experience design. And we started it right here in KC. Almost every company and brand is a potential client. But it is not an easy sell. Some potential clients we’ve spoken to embrace it immediately. Others kind of look at us like we have three heads. So, right now, we’re focused on building the business one use case at a time. And I’m encouraged. Ultimately, we hope to create brands that are as well-designed on the inside as they are marketed on the outside.

► Watch: What Is Service Design?

Ad Agencies Are All About Service. Have You Given Thought to Running Your Own Agency Through the Ringer?

Ha! Yes. But you know how it goes with the cobbler’s children. As a side note, service design and customer service are not synonymous.

What Is Your Latest Epiphany?

It’s not so recent, but I was reminded last year that if you want to accomplish something you should flat out resolve not to talk about it. Talking can give you the illusion that you’re making progress. You need to shut up and get to work making it happen. What’s the old saying? Ideas without action are just dreams. That’s been big for me lately.