Mentors to millennials: ‘Excitement is contagious; drop f-bombs!’

Ask any successful leader in media or marketing and they’ll tell you they didn’t — they couldn’t have — done it all on their own. Behind every great agency executive you’re likely to find a mentor. That’s why we’ve gathered some of the brightest young minds in the the digital advertising space in Vail, Colorado, this week for the annual Digiday Agency Innovation Camp.

Around 80 young digital natives — all in their late 20s and early 30s — are on hand to meet, greet and compete in a series of games, challenges and brand hacks. Central to the experience is mentorship. Executives from M&C Saatchi, Digital LBi, Huge and others took time between the fun and games to share their collected nuggets of wisdom. The takeaway: Be passionate about what you do. And passion isn’t something you can will into existence.

“Excitement is contagious,” said Whit Hiler, creative director at Cornett. “Stand up, drop f-bombs, get everybody hyped up.” Adam Price, social media program manager at Dell urged younger employees to get mad. “Problems have to make you angry,” he said. “You have to look at problems, you have to say I will solve that even if i have to step out of what i think my role is.”

Watch the video above to see what other tips the mentors had for the millennials.

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