The tale of my OMB journey begins last summer. With a full-time job and less than a month until my daughter and I would get on a one-way flight from the UK to Croatia to join my husband, things were chaotic to say the least.
I was gradually emptying a two-bedroom house alone between school runs and work, all the while fighting with mountains of red tape and paperwork.
You’d think the last thing I needed was another thing to do.
But when I opened LinkedIn on July 18th and saw that a former colleague had liked a post from a page called One Minute Briefs, my curiosity was piqued. It was a collaboration with Auto Windscreens, and I decided to give it a go.
I was working as a content marketing executive, and happened to already have Canva open for another project.
So I opened a new file, and my first ever OMB entry was born:
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t win.
But I was immediately embraced by the community, especially a lady called Lynne, who I’ve since come to realise is the unofficial OMB hype man, who cheered me on and made me feel proud of my creation.
I started submitting OMBs when I thought I had good ideas for the briefs, and became increasingly fond of the community.
It became a bit of a hyperfixation fairly quickly, and as the stress around moving and troubles at work became overwhelming, the moments spent creating OMB entries became the highlights of my day. I started entering briefs even if I didn’t have a decent idea, partly to challenge myself, but mainly because they were flashes of pure fun and creativity, reminding me why I love marketing and keeping me from going into a full neurodivergent burnout.
My first winning brief was a poster for the Barbie movie, and although it wasn’t one of the coveted prize briefs, and I shared the winners’ title with several other OMBLES, I was over the moon!
Then, suddenly, I was brought crashing back down to Earth.
A few days before the big move to Croatia, I got the news that the company I worked for was closing down. Thankfully, I could be kept on as a contractor, but at almost half of the wage I was paid before. Between that and the stress of the move itself, my mental health took a real nosedive.
I stepped back from OMB to use the little energy I had left to move and try to settle into my new home, but after a few weeks, I felt the pull to return to OMBling and opened X to see that day’s brief.
It was as if I never left - Lynne was there to like and repost my entry, Sean’s signature sketches were all over my feed, and I was retweeted and cheered on by the official OMB page.
It was then that I realised how wonderful OMB truly is.
I mean, I’d loved it since day one, and still think it’s an absolutely genius way to provide effective advertising for clients while boosting the confidence and portfolios of the OMBLES.
But it’s so much more than that.
It’s a community, inspiring each other’s creativity, meeting everyone with positivity, and treating each other as friends rather than competition.
So when Nick put out a call for new OMBassadors at the start of the year, I knew I had to get in touch.
Truth be told, I was in a worse position than I was when I first found OMB.
I lost my job just days before Christmas, and there was a real threat of my family being indefinitely separated again if I didn’t find some form of income quickly.
I was scared, anxious, frustrated and lost.
But OMB was there again, providing a very welcome and much-needed bit of fun and positivity, and the least I could do was reach out and help become a part of bringing that joy to other OMBLES, old and new.
I have since made headway with a few work opportunities, with one freelance opportunity being a direct result of my OMB entries, and things are looking up.
But whatever happens in the future, come rain or shine, one thing is for certain:
I’ll always remember I’m an OMBLE!
