HAPPY NEW YEAR. Let's Rock 2012 with Passion.

I have said often in my lectures there's something you can't teach... PASSION. It needs to be nurtured, it needs to be inspired and it needs to honest.

My love and passion for advertising is 24/7/365... and I love a leap year (hey, isn't 2012 is a leap year). Yup, that's one extra day to be passionate about the greatest biz in the world. The legendary (and one of the original "Mad Men") Jerry Della Famina said it best, "I honestly believe that advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on". (Read more great Della Famina quotes)

I'm not saying you can't have other interests outside of advertising, G-d knows I have too many, but you gotta love "it". If you're a student reading this you need to shift your mindset from "advertising student" to that of "Student of Advertising". That simple shift will inspire you to learn, love and build the passion that is needed to day.

Add to your reading an amazing view of what the future trends are ahead for the ad business by TBWA\ChiatDay CCO Rob Schwartz on his Forbes blog "Metal Potential" titled "5 Places To Strike Gold in 2012". Yes, we have all been blinded by all the bright shinny objects that are digital and spend our every waking moments wrapped into the world of Social Media. This year there are new places to discover and own. I am truly inspired by change and adopting.

So here's to 2012. Make yours. Rock it. Be awesome.

After all, only you can/will author your future.

I remind my students everyday of my personal mantra. It's pretty simple, 10 words, 2 letters each.

IF IT IS TO BE. IT IS UP TO ME.

Happy 2012. Make it yours, 24/7/366.

Places to Work Part II – Mod Men Chandelier Creative NYC

Mod Men - First Appeared in New York Magazine February 22, 2009

I have been looking a great places in terms of creative spaces to work... this yet another office in New York City I found very unique and creative. Anyone who has seen my office...

A purple piano, a latex sofa, and a Ronald McDonald head make for a classic-kitschy mash-up at this former art studio, speakeasy, and morgue turned ad agency.

In New York, the Noho office (north of Houston Street) of advertising agency Chandelier Creative, the staff has china and crystal for their lunches. There are fresh flowers on the purple piano. Each employee's desk is different; they are found at flea markets and lacquered black for visual uniformity.

Founder Richard Christiansen who has been a creative director at art-book publisher Assouline and Suede magazine before he took out a second mortgage to start Chandelier Creative three and a half years ago. The space satisfies Christiansen's desire to make even the workday an event.

From the legendary Jerry Della Famina, early on, Mr. Christiansen got the chance to pitch the Nordstrom department stores—but at the time he had only three employees. So in order to appear impressively busy and important, he "staged" an office: hired fake staff off Craigslist, rented a space, and furnished it with flea-market tables and rented computers. It worked.

Since then, Chandelier's accounts—in this, his real office—have included the Mandarin Oriental, Parfums Givenchy, Old Navy, Morgans Hotel Group, and Liberty of London.