Gigi Rice is not one for neat narratives. She’s a playwright with a background in PR, a boxer who received Cannes Gold in her first 12 months out of advert faculty, and a Brit discovering her voice in North America’s ever-shifting company panorama. Maybe most impressively, she’s somebody who’s not afraid to confess when she’s failed.
“The win did not simply form my profession – it modified my complete life,” she says, remembering the second she and artistic associate Elle Bellwood grew to become the primary UK workforce to win Gold within the PR Younger Lions class at Cannes. “It was the primary time I would felt that I’d really be semi-decent at this inventive malarkey, and to swing at each alternative life threw at me, no matter whether or not I received or not.”
That risk-taking mindset has caught together with her, and so has the sense of self-belief it sparked. On the time, they had been two unemployed freelancers scraping collectively the entry price themselves – a gesture of religion of their concept that ended up opening doorways to worldwide work, inventive panels, and ultimately, a transfer to New York.
Now, Gigi is about to take up a brand new function as affiliate inventive director at Golin, however she arrives battle-tested. Previously 12 months, she’s been laid off twice, misplaced her visa, her house, and skilled a full-life implosion that would’ve despatched anybody into retreat. As an alternative, she stored exhibiting up.
“When you preserve relentlessly exhibiting up, the needle will transfer,” she says. “I do know it feels exhausting and soul-destroying to maintain going many times when it seems like nothing is occurring… however by exhibiting up consistently, you retain a small area alive in your life for the precise individuals who get you to reach.”
That very same mix of resilience and irreverence runs by means of her inventive work. Whether or not writing for the stage or the display screen, she’s drawn to stress. The type of stress that does not resolve simply, however as an alternative invitations you to sit down with discomfort, chance, and humour.
“Stress is 2 totally different (however not all the time opposing) concepts or ideas that rub towards each other and reside outdoors the grain of the established order,” she says. “The presence of this battle creates area for one thing way more entertaining and unpredictable.”
It is an perception honed by means of numerous rounds of shopper suggestions, last-minute marketing campaign tweaks, and the self-discipline of realizing when to battle for an thought or let it go. Promoting has taught her craft and collaboration, theatre has taught her guts, and from each she’s discovered a shared fascination: individuals, in all their messy contradictions.
“My creative imaginative and prescient boils right down to a perception that darkness is the place the sunshine hides, and I have to convey it out,” she says. Her performs, which have offered out in London and been proven on the Edinburgh Fringe, discover thorny subjects with humour and coronary heart – every little thing from abortion to terminal sickness and intercourse work.
That willingness to wade into the murky center is one thing she’s carried into company life, too. “I do not consider in good versus evil. The hero or the villain. My fascination lies within the gaps between,” she provides. “Notably in divisive present occasions and subjects of a controversial nature. I reign this love for controversy again in after I’m working in Adland, haha.”
Nonetheless, Gigi would not shrink back from inventive mischief. She gravitates in the direction of briefs that get the room laughing or that faucet into actual emotion. Healthcare is one space she’s eager to discover subsequent. “Individuals already care, I haven’t got to make them – I simply need to weave a rattling good story.”
Along with her new function at Golin, she’s hoping to channel all this power and expertise into constructing a extra empowering inventive tradition. One which welcomes surprising concepts, encourages experimentation, and makes room for individuals to develop.
“I would wish to be an engine,” she says. “Somebody who’s completely dependable on consistently spitting out concepts and protecting the passion and keenness for them alive all through the method.”
Greater than that, she additionally needs to create area for others to convey their very own concepts to life. “If a inventive needs to design Christmas wrapping paper for the company, sure, you’ll be able to. If an account particular person needs to convey forth proactive concepts to the desk, sure, you’ll be able to.”
There is a no-nonsense generosity to Gigi’s management model, formed by working throughout the UK, Canada, and the US. She’s needed to study the nuances of every tradition and every workplace, from Montreal lingo to Miami rituals, Californian heat to New York bluntness.
“You turn out to be a cultural chameleon,” she says. “From the best way you greet individuals within the morning, as to whether there’s an company champagne trolley at 5pm on a Thursday.”
That does not imply diluting who you might be. It means adapting, listening, and studying. Gigi credit the British and Australian markets with educating her the worth of darkish humour and artistic directness, however she’s softened these edges when wanted to construct higher intercompany relationships.
Ultimately, whether or not she’s pitching a marketing campaign, preventing in a Muay Thai ring, or crafting dialogue for the stage, Gigi’s widespread thread is momentum.
“The ring is the one place the place my thoughts shuts off,” she says. “As a result of if I do not take note of what occurs in entrance of me, I will get hit. It’s a blissful aid from fixed overthinking.”
Her recommendation to different creatives is to embrace the chaos. “Consider the highs and lows as crafting a (generally tremendous painful to undergo) narrative that’s solely yours. Everybody loves an underdog.”
And when the story takes a flip? “Suppose the place you need this story to go subsequent, and begin to be sensible about how one can get it there.”
Seeking to the longer term, Gigi hopes to construct a inventive legacy that offers others permission to strive, fail, snigger, and take a look at once more. “Dare to compete,” she says, quoting a narrative Hillary Clinton as soon as informed a couple of highschool scholar who challenged her to run for Senate. “Daring to do it and fuck up. Daring to do it after which win.”
And, after all, she provides: “Have enjoyable like your life will depend on it –’trigger it does.”
