Blair Brady is CEO & Co-Founder of the award-winning WITH/agency, the only brand agency creating sustainable client-agency relationships.
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It was a long dry spell for Atlanta Braves fans. For more than a quarter of a century, our home team hadn’t won a World Series. Then, on one magical November night, the Braves clinched Game 6 of the series with a 7-0 win over the Houston Astros. No one—the sports media, the fans, the league, the analysts—would have pegged this team to be the team in the end.
In fact, one of their star players, Joc Pederson, didn’t even join the roster until after the All-Star break. A week before winning the World Series, he wrote this stand-out article that gives a unique glimpse into the unexpected magic brewed up by that team.
The winning Braves team was a powerful mix of confidence tempered with fragility, tenacity but with gratitude for being there, optimism with a dose of groundedness. This team teetered right on the edge every game, and they knew it. But with chins up and hearts full, they had the courage to ask themselves an important question: Why not us?
Mid-season, Joc Pederson got traded to the Braves. The Cubs had been struggling a little and needed to sell and trade some players. Pederson was disappointed. But once Pederson settled in, he realized that his new team had something magical—swagger, confidence, culture, vibes—that he hadn’t noticed from the outside. Once he focused inward on the tools and teammates he was working with, he started to see and realize the potential. The tables started to turn and the Braves started winning more than they were losing. As Pederson wrote, “Nothing is as dangerous in baseball as a team with a ton of confidence.”
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All of us in the agency world can learn from the mojo that the 2021 Atlanta Braves brought to the World Series and made them champions:
• Eliminate energy vampires, comparison and limiting beliefs. Focusing on what makes your own team special and different is far more fruitful than looking at ways you measure up to the other guys. You’re trying to make your team better, not their team worse. Embrace the “Why Not Us” attitude. Get rid of limiting beliefs. It’s hard enough out there, so don’t stand in your own way.
• Put culture first. This is the unicorn. Creating a strong culture requires immense intentionality, yet yields little concrete ROI. It’s hard to measure, and you can’t force it. It just is. Whether you realize it or not, your agency’s energy is the superpower that keeps your talent and your work fresh, motivated and fulfilled.
• Switch things up. Pederson writes about hopping aboard the pitchers’ bus one day instead of the other bus that the position players ride on. He wanted to tap into their unique energy and perspective on the game, but the main reason he did it is because he’d been playing cards with new buddies on the plane and didn’t want to stop. He was bonding and having fun. Finding swagger. Embracing culture. In agency life, it’s easy to insulate ourselves through the daily routines and workflow, which can limit our perspectives and make us insular. We should all take a page from Pederson’s playbook. Sit somewhere new, collaborate on a piece of work you normally wouldn’t, go to lunch with someone in a role you aren’t exposed to much. The greater the understanding, the greater the strength.
• Trust the process. Becoming a winning team is a slow burn. It’s decades of experience that coalesce one day at the right time and in the right place. Pederson talks about how winning is nothing like a sports movie montage. He simply noticed one day that the team started winning more than they were losing. That’s it. For agencies, it’s campaign by campaign, project by project, client by client. You don’t become an unstoppable agency overnight. That journey is sometimes awkward, frustrating and uncomfortable. Cultivation of talent, failing forward and building trust are essential ingredients of sustainable work, success and strength. They take time.
• Let the scorecard take care of itself. The magic isn’t on the scorecard or the copy or the deliverables. It’s in the teamwork that gets you there. Work comes and goes, but the relationships we build have a lasting impact. Our trust in each other and our collective desire to grow as a team are the true markers of greatness. Without them, where’s the heart? Where is that feeling of “leaving it all on the field”? It’s that power of believing that keeps us motivated through the losses. It’s that power of believing that gives us the courage to keep asking “Why not us?” Stay focused on your teamwork, and the scorecard will take care of itself.
Atlanta Braves fans celebrated hard when our home team won the World Series. The mayor closed schools and organized a parade that ran the entire length of Peachtree Street through the heart of the city at a time when many people were struggling to cope with the new omicron Covid spike. It was a moment of unbridled exhilaration, joy and pride.
Each Braves player is a master of their craft. Most of them have been playing baseball since kindergarten, and they have thousands and thousands of hours of expertise in what they do. They have failed, they have lost, and they have been traded. But they also came together as a team with hope, confidence and swagger.
Agency leaders can cultivate that same mindset in their own teams. Swing for the fences. Make the ambitious pitch. Keep telling your team: Why not us?
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Author: Blair Brady, Forbes Councils Member
