HOW IT STARTED

My career in Advertising started in 2007 after completing Sheridan College’s 2 year diploma. I was 21 and had been working at Ste. Anne’s spa in the dining room since I was 15. I had just finished taking a year long aesthetician certificate, thinking I would work within the Spa as my career. I realized it wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life so I decided to explore college courses. 

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The cost of college was definitely a concern knowing I would need to be able to cover the cost myself, pay for my expenses, and still be able to work. My parents later helped me out but I set-out thinking I would fund costs myself. I started looking at courses I could afford and found Sheridan’s Advertising program. I was always a creative person, I wanted to be a fashion designer when I was in high school. With Advertising, I thought I’d be able to use my creative skills and be the person making ads. It was a 2 year program and the cost of the course was low, I would be able to afford it. 

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I was considered a mature student as I wasn’t applying right out of high school. This worked in my favour as I never finished high school. I dropped out after grade 10 and had to complete a GED to apply to Sheridan. Being a mature student worked in my favour as a few spaces are open in the program. I didn’t need to rely on my non-existent grades to get in. I went to a program information session, took my portfolio and fell in love with the idea of advertising as my career. 

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I enjoyed the school work and the projects we had to do. I’ve always found advertising requires you to be creative and analytical at the same time. Being able to read data and then come up with creative ideas don’t often go together in jobs. I was always great at math and research, and loved art class. I found the projects and classes suited me perfectly. 

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All the work and lessons just made sense and I excelled at Sheridan, earning a 4.0 GPA in my second year. I wanted to do well to be able to get a good internship and hopefully a job afterwards. I was more motivated than the other students and was interested in the classes and wanting to do well. I was still working every weekend at Ste. Anne’s but I didn’t want to go back full time after I was finished at school. 

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MY FIRST AGENCY

When it was time to apply for internships, I applied to an agency in Toronto called Doner. They were an American company with a Toronto office. I wanted a creative internship so I could use my art background but there weren’t many available. At the time I didn’t realize to be on the creative team you would have needed to go to school for Art or Design. 

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The internship at Doner was for Media, I went in for an interview and met the team and thought how great it would be to learn from them. When I was offered the internship I jumped at it. I wasn’t really sure what I’d be doing in Media as school only had one class that covered it. We basically learned how to calculate stats. 

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When I started the first day, I found out another student from school was there too. Little did I know at the time but he’d be the one to introduce me to my now husband. I had an instant friend to go through the experinece with. The team at Doner was very close and I built some great relationships that I think of fondly.

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I can’t express how thankful I was to get to work with so many inspiring people on the team. As an Assistant sometimes the work wasn’t groundbreaking. I remember sifting through construction magazines to see my clients ad and list all the competitors. I played phone tag with TV reps about what pages didn’t make it through the fax machine correctly. I bound printed copies of presentations at 9PM before the client meeting the next day. I also went to some pretty epic media parties and events, we can leave those stories for another day.

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The people that I got to learn from as I was given more responsibility truly shaped my knowledge and ways of working. They taught me to think, research, brainstorm, think some more, then put it all together. I was lucky enough to start in an agency when our managers were our mentors, wanting to teach us and taking the time to help us grow. It helps that the industry at that time wasn’t a race to the lowest rate and accounts were appropriately staffed. 

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It’s the team at Doner that I credit with showing me how to do things, they built my foundation and fuelled my passion for the industry. I am forever grateful for Brad Clarkson, Helen Turbian, and Vivi Desmond for all that they taught me. I even went on to work with Brad years later at another agency. 

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STEPPING INTO CORPORATE

After 3 years at Doner, I felt a little stuck as the agency was going through some troubled times. Leadership changed and for a lot of clients, we worked through the US office, having to follow their strategies. I thought I’d try something different and started working corporate, Shaw Media in TV estimating. I then moved to Rogers on a special team implementing their sales software. When the project ended, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wasn’t built for a corporate career. 

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BACK TO MY FIRST LOVE

I missed advertising and working in an agency. Agencies are dynamic, they’re ever changing, and they’re fun to work at. I felt a pull to go back to that world. I thrive when things are different, when I have a challenge. Rinse and repeat will never be something I can do. Having a brief land in my Inbox, spending days thinking of the right solution, putting it into action, and then watching and analyzing how it does, optimizing to make it better, that’s advertising. That to me is the most enjoyable career. 

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After 20 year, I still haven’t exactly placed what it is I love about it. Maybe it’s simply the balance of analytics and creativity that brings me joy. Maybe it’s the ability to make something better than it was, solving a puzzle. Maybe it’s having an impact on a clients business and seeing their business improve because of my work. It doesn't matter which of those it is, I’m glad my decisions 20 years ago led me to where I am today.