Chris Conlan is co-founder of Outside of Ordinary, a Manchester-based strategic branding and creative agency.
Established in 2019, the agency specialises in working with active and outdoor brands and has a list of leading clients including adidas, Terrex, Mountain Equipment, TOG24 and the British Mountaineering Council.
With over 25 years of experience working in creative and digital agencies, Conlan has previously worked at global networks such as McCann and JWT, as well as independents including magneticNorth and LOVE, where he was managing director for five years.
From lucky breaks to failures, Conlan shares all the lessons he’s learnt across his life and career…
Which single daily habit or practice could you not do without?
I’d love to say an early morning run, bike ride or yoga practice. They do all feature occasionally, but in truth the only thing I do religiously – and feel unsettled if I can’t – is check the news. I used to do that solely from the outlets that align with my own world view, but increasingly I make sure I look across the whole political spectrum to see how the same story can be told in strikingly different ways depending on the audience it’s intended for. It’s no wonder society has become so polarised when we’re being fed so many different versions of the ‘truth’.
What’s been your luckiest break?
Probably my first. I’d left university with a geography degree and had signed up to do a postgrad marketing qualification at MMU. I was finding it impossible to get a job though. Then my mum remembered the name of someone she’d worked for some twenty years earlier who she thought was quite high up in a Manchester agency called J. Walter Thompson. I tracked him down and was offered a week’s work experience in the production department. I swallowed my pride that my detailed knowledge of demographics, geographical information systems, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs counted for nothing in the cut and thrust of print production.
I knuckled down with the sole aim of making myself indispensable. Morning bacon butty run, preparing courier labels for newspaper ad artwork, spray mount booths, organising photography to make rapidly thawing frozen chickens look appetising for the Co-op. Anything. I was eventually offered a permanent role in production, before spells in the creative dept (still a dogsbody, but a more creative one) and then as an account exec. The three years I spent at JWT were my formative years in the industry and laid the foundations for everything that followed.
What’s your best failure?
If I look back at the time I spent as MD of LOVE, that’s a role I was given overnight and completely unexpectedly. I was 33 at the time and, I now realise, pretty naiive. The 2008 credit crunch was just about to bite, and the business was in a pretty perilous state. When I left seven years later, the team I was a key part of had transformed the agency beyond all recognition, working globally on amazing brand and experience projects (as it continues to do today).
It was the period in my career when I learnt the most and had the most pressure to deal with. I got plenty of things right and plenty wrong. I look back at the period with pride, but having now run my own business for five years I know there’s a lot I’d do differently if I had my time again. My key takeout would be that it’s easier running your own business than someone else’s.
What is the best investment you’ve ever made, either financial or time?
I’ll say it is the time I’ve spent getting outdoors. It’s something I got into at school and have done ever since. I’ve met loads of great friends that way, made some amazing memories and co-founded a business with enjoyment of the outdoors at its heart. Perhaps more importantly, the act of getting out in nature has a such a calming influence. It helps put everything in perspective. Whatever challenges you face at work or life in general seem a whole lot easier to deal with after some thinking time on the trail.
Which podcast or book would you recommend others to read and why?
There are a handful of good books or podcasts I could suggest, but in reality, I think that life becomes richer the more sources of insight and inspiration you take on board. So, I’m not going to focus on one thing but recommend a few things. Study the human condition. That thing that makes us such fascinating creatures and, for the time being, continues to separate us from AI.
With its growing power and capability, the observance of human nature is still one place we humans have the upper hand; to notice that almost imperceptible roll of the eyes or prick up of the ears that reveal one’s true feelings, or the knowledge that the words coming out of someone’s mouth can mean one thing but say something entirely different.
So rather than read or listen to a podcast, I say ‘do’. Get involved in conversations; go and sit on a bench in the middle of the city and watch the world go by. Eavesdrop shopping debates in the supermarket. Read the Daily Mail. It’s all too easy in the creative/media bubble to forget that really, most people don’t give a crap about what we do, yet our future (as agencies and brands) is in their hands.
Don’t be reductive when talking about your audience; get out and see, hear, and talk about the stuff that actually matters to people. Be curious about what fires their emotions and harness it to understand how your brand or product can earn a place in their lives.
What one piece of advice would you give your 21-year-old self?
Recognise that all those other people in the room don’t know more than you. They are just more confident saying it. You know more than you think you do. And, if you don’t know, don’t be afraid to ask the stupid question.
Who or what has had the single biggest influence on your working life?
Before I started work, my parents. My dad had a printing business (which sparked my early interest in design and advertising) and my mum was a college lecturer. They both worked extremely hard and with integrity, two things that I hope rubbed off on me. During my career, two people stand out – Lou Cordwell at both JWT and magneticNorth and Dave Palmer at LOVE – for their passion, drive, and talent.
Tell us something about you that would surprise people.
Despite having a geography degree and a lifetime of outdoor experience everywhere from the Arctic to the Himalayas, I have a terrible sense of direction. I get lost in the Trafford Centre.
If there was one thing you could change about your career, what would it be and why?
Throughout my career I’ve always worked in agencies who’ve specialised in brilliantly bespoke solutions for clients, be that websites, physical experiences, or strategic concepts. I love it, but sometimes I wonder if it would have been easier, in the words of one of my clients, to “buy widgets and sell widgets”. Invent once and sell many times. Original ideas are hard and take time; justifying their value to clients can be even harder.
What does success look like to you?
Honestly? A happy team, happy clients, happy family. And enough balance to get out and enjoy life.
