Isabel Kilroe

My success really comes from dance, because in dance, you learn precision and control and discipline. As you learn the techniques of dance, what you are trying to achieve - a lot of people criticize us because we are trying to achieve perfection, which we know does not exist. But what we're really trying to do is we're trying to acquire a level of artistry that is truly excellent. To get to that point, you have to really, really, really get into being very precise, and really learn to control both your body and your mind. That discipline and precision from my ballet training has carried through to everything I do in advertising and in life.

The best career advice I ever received was to 'stay above.' When I was an employee, I used to get involved in a lot of things like what we don't like about the company, what is wrong, or this person is mean, or the other one is this or that. I would get involved in all of those things as opposed to having a vision for business. When I heard the words 'stay above,' it was like, yeah, it makes perfect sense. That really made me have a different attitude towards work. Now, anything that I do for work, every time that I approach a project, it's always with the idea of how can I solve a problem, how can I make it work, and how can I bring the team who's working with me to make things happen.

I would say there are a variety of ways to show how one can be creative. It doesn't necessarily come from one place only. A lot of people think that just by showing your portfolio, that that is enough, but I think that the best way to show creativity is to show different ways in which you can be creative - be a more rounded individual, as opposed to only focusing on the work and showing the work. I mean, that's obviously the main thing, but I feel that the more rounded people are, the better. One of the things that we used to say when I had the agency is that we try to hire people more for who they are, as opposed to what they do. That helped a lot to find candidates and individuals who were really more well-rounded.

The biggest challenge is always new business. Ad agencies live and die, as we say - you get a client, and that's the very day when you start losing it. So the challenge and the reward is always there. It's the pitching of business, spending a lot of hours and a lot of time offering ideas and strategies to potential clients who may decide to work with you or not. That is very challenging, because it takes a lot of time, a lot of dedication, and a lot of experience. When you go and pitch a business, you know that you stand a chance of getting it or not, but you still have to do it. And of course, when you do get to work with a client, that is the most rewarding part of it, because then you know that they chose you for a reason.

The values most important to me are trust, dignity, honesty, focus, intention, and hard work. These principles guide everything I do, both professionally and personally.