Rethink New York’s Tara Lawall on leadership, creative excellence and life balance

Lawall first discovered advertising as a career path in college while majoring in general communications, after a blunt warning from one of her professors. He encouraged the class to complete as many internships as possible, cautioning them, “You don’t want to end up teaching an intro college course like me.” Taking this advice to heart, Lawall moved to Philadelphia and threw herself into internships, gaining as much experience as she could.

A stint at Philadelphia Magazine was followed by work experience at three advertising agencies, one of which was SFGT where Lawall was a research intern trying to figure out who and what she wanted to be.

“Every time I would go to the creative floor, they seem to be having the most fun,” she recalls. “There would always be music on, they would be throwing things around, people would be laughing and making jokes. And I was like, you know what, I think whatever that is, that’s what I want to do, I want to live on that floor.”

Lawall’s love for writing began at an early age, sparked by an obsession with song lyrics and books that continues to fuel her creativity today. “I kept a very terrifying diary from the time I was 14 to 21 years old,” she laughs. “Frightening material.”

Driven by this passion, she refined her copywriting skills at Miami Ad School and went on to become a two-time published author. Her early career took her through leading agencies like JWT, Y&R, and BBH, where she says every project felt fresh and exciting, helping her sharpen her storytelling craft.

Throughout all of her work, she says there’s a theme of “relentlessness” and a stamina evident, that helped make them happen. That attitude of never giving up has resulted in many successes for brands but is not always easy to repeat.

“You always have to believe that the thing that could be really, really cool can happen,” she adds. “Then once you all believe that it can happen, it’s creative problem-solving.”

One project in particular while at Droga5 saw her work alongside one of her comedic heroes, Rainn Wilson.

It was for a pet brand called Kaytee that believed small pets don’t get the attention they deserve. To rectify this, the Rethink team came up with an off-the-wall idea to enter a guinea pig into the Westminster Dog Show. It was “so stupid” that they had to make it happen, apparently.

“We found out that Rainn Wilson himself has guinea pigs and is a huge animal lover,” Lawall explains. “We approached him with this project, and he was all in, so that was wildly exciting because he’s a huge hero of mine. The Office is incredible.”

Lawall says it was one of those moments when it can be terrifying to meet your heroes as you don’t want to be disappointed, but he was lovely and very collaborative. “He was absolutely a fabulous partner. Just everything you would want Dwight to be, right? He was kind, hilarious and also took a directorial lens through the way that he was acting; it was incredible.”

Other pinch-me moments have included working with comedy legends such as Kristen Wiig and Ali Wong, who she’s also drawn inspiration from.

Lawall states: “That’s what’s so great about being a creative in advertising. As ideas are coming and as we’re working things out, you can bring in some of those people that you admire.”

Now, in her role as the chief creative officer at Rethink New York, Lawall is using creative problem-solving to make standout work. She says that one of the things she loves about advertising is the range: from dog food to new tech, no two days are the same. Creativity to one side, what she is looking to achieve in her career is the ability to be a good leader while leading a balanced life.

“I look to my contemporaries, like Amy Ferguson, Bianca Guimaraes and Julia Neumann, women who are ECDs and CCOs and seem to have enviable lives, not just who have enviable creative lives,” she says.

“That’s really important to me, and a huge value of mine, to then show more women that this is a job that they can have, and it’s not maybe the mold that they’ve seen in the past. There are more ways to lead and there are more ways to lead for women.”

It’s about blending the roles of mum, career and person in a way that you are still a “full person,” Lawall adds.

It’s been just over a year since she started at Rethink, an agency that enticed her due to its size and its independence, which offers a lot of creative freedom. “I’m very curious and fascinated by the different creative cultures I’ve been a part of,” she says.

“And so, getting to come into one that felt like it was in a place of growing and forming, it was really exciting to me to be able to impact that and make something that felt unique to the New York market, but also something that potentially hadn’t been done before.”