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“How long have you been with Love Scott?” I get this question all the time, and I haven’t yet come up with a simple answer. How long have I worked here? Easy – four years. How long have I been here? Hmmm, let’s see…my whole life? Not as in “it feels like I’ve been here my whole life”, as in my whole life. As of February, I’ve been with Love Scott for 35 years.

If that doesn’t make it clear enough, let me elaborate. My father is Bill Love of the Love Scott. My earliest memories include running the halls, literally, of this company. The Love Scott offices of the early days (before computers) were a child’s dream – markers of every color imaginable, dry-erase boards for endless drawing entertainment, giant calculators for playing “store”, electric pencil sharpeners (no explanation needed), unlimited paper of all sizes and color, typewriters, multiple TVs, and the best part – the elevators. Confession: to this day, if my sister and I are in the elevators of the office building together, we stand on one foot and hop up and down while the elevator carries us floor to floor feeling the exhilarating (less so when you’re 35 than 5 years old) drop of our stomachs when the elevator stops on the 5th floor. Yes, a 35-year old and a 39-year old jumping up and down like two young school girls just for memory’s sake.

But what runs deeper than those memories is my love for the business. My dad has always said, “If you don’t wake up and love what you do for a living, you need to do something else.” I watched as he and Ron Scott built this company – I’ve heard the stories of huge creative successes and seen the face of deep disappointment. I’ve witnessed the business grow and shrink and grow again as the number of employees reflected the inevitable change in clientele. I’ve been in countless commercials, as have my friends, and I’ve watched and listened as the industry changed through the decades. This business is a part of me…a part of my history.

Being named president of the company in 2009 struck two deep emotions in me: immense pride and cold fear. I’ve always dreamed of having a job I loved as much as my dad did, and I could never seem to find it. Now I have it. I wake up excited to come to work, to create the strategy that gets companies noticed, to move them forward. At the same time, Love Scott was one of the main constants in my life. To be responsible for it continuing to be a constant is, at times, overwhelming. Luckily, I have the world’s greatest mentor guiding me through the triumphs, and especially this year, the turbulence.

People who have worked with my dad at some point through his 40 years in the ad industry love to tell me I have big shoes to fill. Yeah, I know. But knowing what this business has meant to him, and to the whole family in fact, means I don’t take this gig lightly.

My dad now calls himself “the old man in the corner office”, but what his modesty prevents him from recognizing is that his creativity still drips from his office walls, seeping down the hall, inspiring us all. What’s more impressive, though, is that he’s built a team of sheer talent. I marvel at every person in this office for their individual genius. I am incredibly proud of the work we do, and would stack it against the best in the business any day.

I’m hoping some day my kids will look at me the way I see my dad – strong, talented, a visionary and a trusted leader. I’ve already started grooming my 5-year old to take over some day, convincing her she LOVES writing and that her stick-figure drawings are the stuff of pure talent. I don’t know if she’d ever be interested or good at running an ad agency, but it’d be a kick to carry Love Scott into a third generation. I’m incredibly proud to say she’s already mastered the elevator…