“It wasn't an easy decision to leave the industry - it was equal parts family, geography and creativity,” Levi Slavin told AdNews.
After 20+ years of working in advertising, Slavin has left the agency world and exited his role as chief creative officer at Howatson+Company to work full-time at his family’s start-up The Ironclad Pan Company as chief creative officer.
Slavin's departure comes one month after Clemenger BBDO Sydney CEO Brent Kerby resigned from adland to pursue two independent business ventures.
Is this the beginning of an industry trend? Slavin was certainly influenced by his peers to make the jump.
While Slavin wasn’t officially working at Ironclad, he helped a lot behind the scenes.
Alongside his friend Joe Carter and wife Kate Slavin, the three ex-Colenso BBDO seniors co-founded the business in 2019.
Now as the business is more successful, Slavin is going all in on the family business - including moving back to his home New Zealand - to see what else he can do.
Source: The Ironclad Pan Co.
Slavin told AdNews he didn’t move into his family’s business earlier because he was “still in love with advertising.
“That sounds really trite and stupid, but working on tons of different brands in a real fast paced environment is really addictive and I didn’t want to let it go,” Slavin said.
“The minute I announced my departure it felt bizarre and liberating.
“I've never really lost a passion for the industry, but when the opportunity came up to do business for ourselves it was a bit of a no brainer.
“I have equal parts excitement and fear of the next stage because we'll get to see if we make it or fail.
“There's a couple of ex-industry people who also went into business that I really admire like Stirling Howland who is an exceptional human I used to work with and started Balter Breweries.”
When first joining Howaston+Co one year ago, Slavin caught up with Howland and was inspired by how happy Howland was owning his own business highlighting the benefits of total autonomy and creative control at Balter.
Slavin is also inspired by ex-colleague Matt Knapp who went from adland to Dollar Shave Club to now Milkrun.
These significant figures made Slavin think - is it possible to do what we do with a different sort of creative pressure? Away from timing, deadlines and budgets?
“The fear of stepping away from the industry isn’t real - you can always go back. So why not try it?”, Slavin said.
“Part of the reason I announced my departure on LinkedIn - which I never post anything on - was to push myself to commit to the move.
“And I think that’s half the problem of being a creative - you're so driven for ideas, fresh thinking and innovation, but there's always that fear of: can I make it without the institution?
"I think that keeps a lot of people in the industry for longer.
“But also my business might collapse and then I'll be back freelancing or driving an Uber probably.
“At least my wife and I can say we put everything we could into our passion.
“The constant annual cycle of performance creativity in advertising makes time go very quickly and you end up with years flying by.
“As a result, we all have a fear that stepping off the wheel for a year or two years or forever is the end of the creative career - which is just completely false because it's impossible to perform consistently at that level.
“One thing I need to add - throw out your Teflon pans and use iron. I don’t mind if you don’t use mine, just use iron.”
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