The Creative Lead Playbook

I put together something special: it's all the advice I'd give to to anyone starting out in the industry. Listen on to find out more.P.S. I started a Substack - sign up here: https://thecreativeleadworkshop.substack.com/--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

I've been thinking A LOT about AI lately - and having a lot of passionate discussions about it with various people. In my day job, I'm leading the design for a product suite that contains various AI apps. I also wrote a series of research articles about using GenAI in the key art process on LinkedIn. I'm also giving a talk as a mentor for the Women in AI Summit in the next couple weeks. So like, suffice it to say: it's a bit of an obsessive topic for me. I'm willing to bet you've been thinking a lot about it too, and trying it out for yourself. Given all the hype in the social feeds, I really wanted to put out some content that wasn't skewed towards trying to either persuade you to BLINDLY ADOPT IT or conversely - VEHEMENTLY REJECT IT. There's good and bad. Just like everything.So, please enjoy the following top-of-mind advice I've got for you on the GenAI landscape. I already have a few more ideas for episodes, so you'll be hearing more from me soon.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

I have a new episode that talks all about a hack I have to help you define your personal (or small business) branding.I was inspired to share this after I went through an exhaustive process of defining my audience, catering my writing and graphics to that audience, and then realizing that the audience in my head wasn't who showed up. (And that that audience probably doesn't even exist 😫).The people who've showed up for me this journey - they showed up for who I actually am, not who I thought I had to be to attract people into my corner of the world.I wanted to give you a shortcut so you don't have to go through all that.You can use it whether you're writing your LinkedIn summary, developing your design portfolio or your building your side hustle.It takes literally 3 minutes. Listen on to find out more.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

Today’s topic is all about getting along with other people.  I know that sounds potentially generic or vague, but it’s a vital skill when you work for any company - large or small. I’m personally inspired by the time I spent at a really big company and there were infrastructure changes.When I was thinking about what skill or tool helped me the most during those times, I suddenly remembered something really important that I wanted to share with you. What I'm about to say is the key to resolving friction, ensuring good cross collaboration, and getting along with other individuals or teams. Listen on to find out more.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

We've all been on that Zoom call when that one guy unmutes himself and suddenly you hear a litany of heavy breathing, explosively loud typing, background noise, popping and clicking. Maybe we don't want to admit it to ourselves, but we definitely get a certain idea in our heads about somebody who has bad audio on a Zoom call, right?I think the opposite is true, too. When somebody has really good audio quality and/or video quality, we start to subtly think of that person as being a little bit more professional, a little bit more reasonable...and maybe even having a little bit of star quality to them. It's possible to incept people into getting a more sparkly impression of you - just by paying attention to nonverbal cues like audio quality. I'm all about doing whatever I can to help you in your careers. So today, what I want to give you is four different recommendations for upleveling your sound quality. Listen on to find out more!Links to products I've mentioned in this podcast:Wired Ear BudsWireless Lavalier MicrophoneInexpensive Cardioid MicrophoneHigher-End Cardioid MicrophoneThese are just guides - I encourage you to buy a variety of options from a place with easy returns so you can choose what's truly right for you.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

Okay, tell me if this sounds like you.  You've recently started a new business and you're trying to get yourself established...and you feel like you're drowning in all the things you need to do to brand yourself. Setting up a website, getting a logo in place, starting social media accounts...it's completely overwhelming. You spend two hours adjusting a button style on your website, or you generate a hundred different AI logos and hate them all. You can't think of any ideas, and it just feels like you're spending an insane amount of time on these tiny things that don't add up to a complete picture.If that's you, don't worry! There's nothing wrong with you. Branding for yourself is always the absolute hardest thing to “get right.”I wanted to share 3 simple tools that I use to help get unstuck when I'm dealing with personal branding.Listen on to find out more.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

When you’re a manager of a team, you’re going to have to figure out how to make sure that the work that needs to get done, gets done. And you’re going to need to figure out how to do that in a way that makes sense - from a budget and a project perspective.But you also want to make sure it makes sense from a HUMAN BEING perspective.One of the biggest mistakes creative managers make (imo) is that the second they run into an extensive coverage need, first thing they do is throw their employee’s well-being out the window (usually along with their own).  It’s “emergency mode”, all hands on deck 24/7, except that "emergency mode" doesn’t ever end because the requests and projects keep coming and coming.Curious about how to plan coverage in a financially savvy, effective, and humanely balanced way — even in high-pressure situations? Listen on to find out more.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG  |  Website

It's that time of year — you're tired, ready for a break, but there's roughly 1,483 tiny pots boiling over at work.  Or if you're a freelancer, maybe you just got a windfall of client projects and you're afraid to ease off the momentum, even though you feel like you're sleepwalking during the day.So how do you deal with the anxiety you feel about resting long enough to actually rest? That's what today's podcast is all about. I'm going to give you some tips on how to set yourself up to feel rested all year round, not just in the holiday season.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

Having worked on the brand side for a good length of time, I can tell you that there's one thing people do (agencies, vendors and designers alike) that results in major side-eye and skepticism when it comes time to review the creative work.The good news? If you STOP doing this right now, I promise it will make your projects go far more smoothly.It's really simple advice, but it can take time and care to pull it off properly.Listen on to find out more.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

Networking: The horror! 😱OMG...I hate the mere mention of the word. But yet, you’ll dramatically increase your chances of being hired and finding more opportunities for advancement if you do it. So unfortunately, it’s somewhat necessary. If you don’t like networking, I’ve found that it doesn’t help to hear about it from someone who LOVES it.So I thought that today I’d give you MY take on networking as a registered, card-carrying, spectrum-dwelling INTROVERT. Because sometimes the "networking" can feel like a test of how well you can be the "life of the party" — when in reality, that's not a requirement at all. It's totally possible to define networking on terms that feel comfortable to you.Listen on to find out more.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

So today I have something that is kind of special to me. It's special because it's based on some advice that my dad gave me a very long time ago when I first started my career.I don't think I'm over exaggerating by saying that might've been the most important advice I've ever gotten.  In fact, the more, more and more I think about it, the more and more it applies to pretty much everything that I've done in my career. Listen on to find out more!--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

When you're running a project, it's important to make your clients feel INSPIRED....but SAFE. What am I talking about?  Well, I think people go to one of two extremes when they are creatively directing a project.Either they are in full "razzle dazzle" mode - where they're vibing and exploring without a clear plan....ORRRR they've got the whole project choreographed down to the MINUTE and if their client steps one toe in a direction that isn't in the plan, they bug out.The thing is, BOTH "freestyling" AND sticking to a plan are actually vitally important to the success of a project.  It's just that they have to be balanced.I call this "structured flexibility" and it's what today's episode is all about. Listen on to find out more.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG  |  Website

Back again with another installment in getting your work approved. Today I want to discuss the importance of leveraging precedence.Because you can't effectively guide your client into green-lighting a new creative direction if you don't understand and don't have respect for where they've been.It's kind of like knowing how to do traditional photography, even if 99% of the time you just do the same kind of effect with Facetune or Photoshop. Listen on to hear more.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG  |  Website

Today I wanted to talk about the importance of learning how to get your work approved.The psychology of YES, as it were.Getting things approved is a SKILL. And it’s an important one.Approval doesn’t happen just because the work is amazing (even though our society seems to have this invisible agreement where we pretend we only care about the quality.)IMO, only 50% of the key to getting work approved is the quality of the work itself. Maybe less. Listen on to find out what you can do to improve your chances.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG  |  Website

Today we're talking about how being BAD at something is actually the secret to becoming good at it.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

A well-designed system is almost invisible. All you "see" is the absence of a problem. But a poorly-designed one will have you up all night and on edge all day. Join us this week to talk about how getting good at system design is part of becoming a creative lead.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

Today we’re talking about how a workplace situation that feels chaotic can actually be an opportunity.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG | Website

I've noticed that one of the hardest mental transitions people make at work is the transition of thinking about themselves as an individual versus thinking about themselves as a team lead. I wanted to share with you a personal anecdote about thinking of the team as a whole, and what that can unlock for you and them, if you can successfully manage this mental transition. Listen to hear more about my experience when I worked as a VP of Interactive Design for HBO.--------I’m Cathy Davenport Lee, and I hope today’s episode leaves you feeling inspired and ready to push the boundaries of your creative career. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for Lunchbox Notes—my free encouragement and advice letter for creatives. Stay connected for more insights, tools, and resources to help you thrive. Until next time, keep creating, keep pushing, and let’s move this industry forward together.Follow for more:IG  |  Website