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Tools of the Trade is a feature to highlight the many tools that help make advertising and marketing folks successful. The tools can be anything that helps people perform at their top form, from a favorite drafting table to the best software program to a lucky pen, a vintage typewriter or a pair of headphones.
Next up is Jeff Maggs, managing partner at agency Brunner.
What is one tool you use all the time at work, and how does it inspire your work?
The tool that I use all the time for work is not actually at work. It is the tool of weightlifting. Weightlifting, and earlier in my career, competitive powerlifting, has been a tool that has inspired me to be strong, resourceful, intensely competitive, bigger than I actually am, and to carry a bit of a chip on my shoulder in my professional career. I have worked with challenger brands and at agencies, such as Brunner, that are challenger brands themselves for the entirety of my 40-plus year career because I love beating the big dogs. I always believed that I had to push harder, outhustle, and outthink my competitors. I visualize the lift before it happens just like I visualize potential big creative and business-building ideas coming to life in my brain before I ever put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard.
Why is it your favorite?
Weights are my favorite tool because they serve as a release mechanism and a place where I can allow all the physical and emotional strength to come together in a single move or lift. It opens my mind to focus on what is possible or what is the next goal versus wasting time thinking about what I can’t do or what isn’t possible. It is my favorite because people who don’t understand the tool of weightlifting actually think it is for “meatheads or muscle heads.” I have actually experienced some of my finest and most impactful thinking in this space, as I am far from a “meathead.”
How did you acquire your tool or hear about it for the first time?
From the time I was very young and small, I was never afraid of a fight or challenge despite my small stature. Weightlifting gave me confidence and strength, both mental and physical.
How does it help you be successful?
By minimizing fear of failure, weightlifting gives me the cajónes to try to do more than anyone would think is possible without allowing people or situations to limit my potential. This has helped me help Brunner, other companies, and my clients be bigger than they ever thought possible. Dream big and win.
Does it have sentimental value?
Weightlifting has more than just sentimental value it is part of my core ethos and helps define my “why” in life. I wouldn’t be me without it.
Do you think your tool could go TikTok viral?
It could and it likely has already done so.
We want to know what tools you use to make you successful. If you’d like to contribute or know someone who would want to be featured in Tools of the Trade, contact kyle.obrien@adweek.com and fill out our survey.
