How to creative direct.

“Larry, do you have a minute, we might need your help with something,” we said upon entering his office. Larry Postaer, the “P” in “RPA,” would give creative direction in the same way a father gives advice to an adult child. He seemed to have a knack for communicating just the right thing without ever saying it out loud.

“We’re having a little rough patch with the client and we were thinking about having you come to the next meeting to smooth things out a bit,” we asked. For a number of years, Todd Carey, my writer-partner, and I were given nearly total autonomy to run the Blue Cross/Blue Shield account. The account ran well, and occasionally, we’d seek Larry’s advice whenever challenges arose.

As he often did, Larry began giving his advice with a familiar phrase, “let me tell you a story,” he said. “When I was in Chicago, I had these two guys that ran the State Farm account,” he began. “Every couple of weeks they’d drive two hours to the client’s headquarters for meetings and handle everything. I didn’t have to do anything.” He paused a moment, “I loved those guys.”

We heard what he was saying loud and clear.