Jun 10

Jun 10 Testing positive: Tessa Midgley by Daniel Borghesi

Tessa Midgley and Daniel Borghesi are copywriters at M&C Saatchi, Melbourne.

As I sit in my rental gazing point-blank at the creamy blinds in front of me, I’m trying my best to stay inspired. And also thinking these blinds probably need a clean.

Three blokes in one house though, fat chance. Crisis or not.

So, in my best effort to spur on those who find themselves at a brick wall, or literally staring at one across a share-house courtyard, I’ve had a chat with not only the happiest person I know, but a brilliant creative mind, writer and all-round inspirer.

Tessa Midgley. Here it is.

WFH. Arguably the most intimidating three letter acronym since ILY. How are you spurring creativity at home? A place we typically aim to switch off.

Somehow, work has become a way to switch off. It’s a distraction from the news. Not to sound too wholesome or anything, but I reckon creativity has a role to play in bringing a bit of positivity back into the world right now. And that in itself is inspiring and motivating. It’s a nice reminder of what you can do in this job. Yes, you can’t change what’s going on, but maybe you can give people a few minutes break from it all. Or just remind them to stay home.

Speaking of switching off, how important is switching off while ideating and doing something completely irrelevant for a bit? Furthermore, give us your must-watch TV series of this social distancing period. I’m fresh out.

Google Hangouts hasn’t stopped the weird ramble-y conversations you have while coming up with ideas. I guess it makes agency ping pong a little harder.

But I suck at ping pong so personally, that doesn’t bother me a whole deal.

As far as must watch TV, that doco Netflix is pushing with the tigers, American with the peroxide mullet and organised crime looks pretty nuts. I think it’s called Tiger King.

What’s your go-to method for getting over the wall when ‘WFH’? Or if not over it, working around it?

Go for a run (if you still can by the time this goes up). If you think man, I hate running, go for a walk. Or just leave the wall for a bit. Better still, talk to someone else about it.

Even though we’re all at home, this is still a collaborative industry.

And Google Hangouts/Zoom means you get to see what your colleagues’ houses look like.

Sometimes working creatively can begin to feel tedious. Like any other pencil-pushing job the world has to offer. As a notoriously happy person, how do you find yourself staying positive, particularly now?

By reminding myself that my job is not to figure out how the country responds to this situation. Or to treat really sick people. Or to be the security guard who has to pull apart the people fighting over toilet paper. This is a great job, even with all this craziness going on, and one I can do in track pants right now.

If you could give any bit of advice to the person who’s currently procrastinating (reading this, probz), what is it?

Procrastination can lead to inspiration.

Just maybe not when you’re on your 8th page of looking at cats dressed as Baby Yoda. If you can break out of procrastinating long enough to come up with one idea that gets you excited, that’ll probably get you excited enough to come up with more.

Very cool. Finally, what does your ideal working-from-home day look like? Is it any different from your perfect day at the office? How can we make sure we bring the same levels of inspiration home with us, even without our desk plants?

Now I don’t just have a desk plant, I have a desk house plant/tree. So I guess that’s an upgrade? Desk tree aside, keep talking to your colleagues (they are inspiring), keep looking at good work (that is inspiring), listen to the news, just not too much and if you feel like it, try and use creativity not just to sell stuff, but to try and help people through this.

I’m not saying solve COVID-19, but find ways your clients can help alleviate some of the stresses of working at home. Maybe your brands can help entertain kids, help local small businesses, help people living alone.