“Know what you’re good at," Laurel Boyd from BarkleyOKRP

Meet Laurel Boyd, EVP at BarkleyOKRP, where her two decades of experience help her lead award-winning innovation. Her career has blurred the line between media and creative, spearheading work that earned Cannes Lions and multiple Adweek Media Plan honors, including Best in Show. She was also named Ad Age’s Media Planner of the Year and featured in Adweek’s Creative 100. Her professional experience spans across several industries, but her favorite mix is at the heart of media, content, and culture.

Outside of work, Laurel trained as a professional violinist and played with the Plano Chamber Orchestra. Her approach to media was shaped by years of dedicated practice and mastery, where her takeaway was to know the fundamentals and then break them with purpose to create work that disrupts and commands attention. 

Laurel met with Deirdre Locksley, Associate Director, Content Marketing at SiriusXM Media to discuss putting in the hard work, staying curious, and finding what you’re good at.

Check out the full interview below, then listen to some highlights from the conversation.

Make it the best it can be.

Highlight: “Know what you’re good at. Doing the hard work at making that part the best it can be is super important. That means knowing the conditions you need to work at your best and fiercely protecting that. I know specifically for me, I have to be prepared… When you really own the material, it makes it so much more fun in the moment.” - Laurel Boyd

Ritualize your curiosity.

Highlight: “When you're in a creative field like advertising, so much of it is about curiosity, but also ritualizing that curiosity and making it a practice, just like you would practice anything else. ‘What are the new things I can learn? What are the partners I can meet with or a new ad platform that I’m curious about?’ I keep a big collection of all of those thoughts, even things that aren’t relevant in the moment. There’s always a point in the future where there’s a connection, and it fuels an interesting idea or solution.” - Laurel Boyd

The unfamiliar isn’t always something to avoid.

Highlight: “The unfamiliar isn’t always something to avoid. It's made me actively seek out non-traditional roles and unconventional approaches because I proved to myself that the unfamiliar was a good bet.” - Laurel Boyd

Bank the positive and move on.

Highlight: “In the moment, it is super deflating when you don’t achieve what you set out to do. You have to train yourself to bank what was positive about an experience and move on… I also think having a network outside of work is just as important…people who pull you out of your echo chamber and keep things in perspective and make career setbacks feel recoverable, not defining.” - Laurel Boyd

Treat it as data.

Highlight: “Whether it’s losing a pitch or when an idea doesn’t get approved, one thing I learned fairly early is to take the emotion out of it and think about it as gaining information and data. It’s less about resilience and grit and more about, ‘What can I learn from that experience? How can I use that to feel more confident next time and make the next experience better?’” - Laurel Boyd

Be hard on the work, not the person.

Highlight: “Feedback is so important. And the delivery of the feedback should always be about the work, not the person. As a receiver of feedback, I try to take the emotion out of it and focus on how it will make me better. And when you deliver that feedback to someone else, it's for their personal growth. Even though it might be tough in the moment, it’s so good for their long-term gains.”

Knowing what you’re good at is the key to your growth and your teams. Because when we can identify our strengths, we know exactly where we’ll shine. Feeling inspired and ready to hear more? Check out the Pass the Mic page.

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