So You’re Into Role Playing?

We’ve come a long way since cavemen

In today’s world, we as human beings are conditioned to act in certain ways to facilitate our everyday lives. We behave in certain manners, react in particular ways, and perform specific functions to uphold the structures of our society and how we fit into it.

While some of these behaviors are inherent, like getting dressed in the morning and brushing your teeth, a lot of them are done by preference. We choose which roles to take and consciously make an effort to perform them to the best of our abilities. This is most commonly seen in workplace scenarios where employees take on different roles and responsibilities. What people don’t understand, however, is that a role is so much more than just the performance of a function. A role encapsulates personality, attitude, mentality, and behavior as well.

Take an account man or woman working in a creative advertising agency, for example. Their role is to bring in and retain clients, yes, but they also have the responsibility of radiating an inviting, trusting, honest, and exciting personality (depending on what your agency looks for in an account person).

But as we all know very well, the days of Mad Men are gone, and new meanings are emerging for the roles we play. The catch is, everyone is making up their own meanings. If you take a look at all the different advertising agencies in Austin, you’ll notice how they tailor their job descriptions to fit into their overall brand. But even this can be done in a cookie cutter fashion

As one of the best creative advertising agencies, Rock Candy Media refuses to type-cast people, and every employee here conducts themselves how they would naturally. Not based on how some job description tells them to act. It’s a culture that was inspired by one person.

A Muse and a Boss

Employees will almost always try to reciprocate their boss’s actions and mentalities. It’s the person that pays your bills and keeps you employed, why wouldn’t you try to align yourself with them? The problem is, a lot of the time bosses are trying to maintain a certain facade. Whether that be serious, distinguished, or intelligent, it often results in an unnatural and inauthentic attitude that doesn’t reflect who they really are.

That doesn’t sit well with us.

At our Austin Graphic Design Studio, Rock Candy Media, we have an owner who has never, and will never, put on a face for anyone. She is 100% authentic, 100% of the time. Sometimes to the shock of new clients and employees. Whether it’s a crude joke or an embarrassing and entirely too revealing story, she isn’t your typical boss. At times, it’s even hard to imagine her as the mother of a 9-year-old.

A client at one point referenced Annie as Mrs. Jones. Mrs. Jones? The 3rd-grade science teacher? Nah, not our boss. We’re not sure anyone would feel totally comfortable letting Annie teach school children. Chances are they would end up leaving the class instilled with the ideals of existentialism and a new vocabulary.

In a creative setting, like a branding and design agency, this dynamic is extremely beneficial. When Annie acts and speaks freely, it makes it easier for her employees to do the same. This gives way to highly personalized advertising content that’s able to influence consumers in unfounded ways. In ways that feel like your actually talking to someone. New strategies are conceived that wouldn’t have been thought of without Annie’s liberated attitude and no-holds-bar restrictions to personality too.

It’s the fact that Annie encourages her employees to speak freely and engage her openly which has led to the establishment of a creative force to be reckoned with – all housed inside our Austin advertising agency.

Interested in hearing more about our fearless leader? Check out what one of our content strategists had to say about her after first coming to Rock Candy Media.