true confessions of an EP

I've been executive producing commercials for close to fifteen years. A lot has changed in the industry. It's more competitive. Less profitable. There are more tools to work with and less time to use them. In spite of all the differences in the last decade and half, the job skill set remains the same.

An EP's job is to think two steps ahead of the reps, the line producers, the agency and the directors. We must be part problem solver, communicator, therapist and salesman. And, I forgot to mention bidder, scheduler and deal closer. These roles lead us to playing either the hero or the scapegoat. Sometimes richly deserved while other times wrongfully credited. We need to be all of these things simultaneously and do so with ease and tact. 

This week Lisa Margulis is starting as a new Epoch EP. We hired her because she possess all of these characteristics and many more. Most importantly she is replacing someone who needed to he replaced. He served Epoch well for many years but we needed to make a change. That person happens to be me.

Enough self-deprication. I'm still a pretty decent EP. And least i like to think so. The decision to replace myself was a conscience choice on whether to remain a life style business or build a company that lasts beyond the partners. In making this change, we made two major statements. 

We had a 20 year culture of promoting from within. This model served us well but as the industry changed around us we began to realize it limited our scope. Lisa represents a shift in our philosophy. She will bring an entirely new set of expertise and relationships to help us grow. There is always fear with a company as rooted in culture as our own that a new presence at a high level may taint what has made Epoch special. For those of you that know Lisa realize her inclusion will only enhance our culture and our brand. Those of you that don't know Lisa, send us a project. We'll give you first hand experience. 

The other statement. Non-traditional advertising represents the growth in our industry. Every year it commands a larger piece of corporate marketing budgets. Lisa's presence also allows me to focus more on Dandelion and branded content opportunities without sacrificing our core business. It is my intention to use this platform to create more opportunities for our talent and diversify our company. I'll be writing in future posts how we intend to achieve that end.

Despite this shift, I will still retain the title of my blog. As I see it, I'm still very much an Executive Producer. And I'm still going to confess. The only question remains is whether I'm going to continue to do it publicly. Time will tell.