By Jody Benjamin, EVP Strategy

My six-year-old does not walk into a room. She arrives.

If you’ve been on a video call with me you’ve probably seen her roller-skate in.

She has opinions about everything. She is confident and creative and completely, unapologetically herself. For International Women’s Day her school had a “dress like a woman you admire” spirit day and she went as herself. Her smile is beautiful and her laugh is contagious.

Watching her move through the world has taught me more about strategy than any brief I’ve ever read. She reminds me constantly…

 If you’re not having fun, make it.  

I know that sounds simple. But it works. I have built a career and a household around the belief that play is not the opposite of work. Play is the work.

A dance break in the middle of homework time can make multiplication click. A laugh during a tough day at work can turn the vibe around. The best strategies I’ve ever had didn’t come from putting my head down and grinding harder. They came from being playful, getting curious, and following something just to see where it went.

Make the work feel like play.

I lead strategy for some of our top accounts, including the LEGO Group. A brand that believes in the power of play. My job is to help earn attention for campaigns worthy of that belief. And the only way I know how to do that is to bring the same energy my daughter brings to a Tuesday morning: full in, no apologies, ready to create something.

Last year we brought the global campaign She Built That idea to life in NYC. A celebration of girls as builders who don’t need to be invited to create, because they already are. It was a modern rallying cry to celebrate the next generation of girl builders and to do it their way.

My daughter inspired the creative brief. She practically wrote that brief.

On International Women’s Day, I think about all the women in this industry carrying the full weight of two jobs. One on the calendar and the one that never clocks out. The ones who have something brilliant to offer every room they walk into at work and at home.

The way you move through your life at home with creativity and the ability to find the fun inside the hard thing is not separate from your professional genius. It is your professional genius.

We know how to find the insight in an ordinary Tuesday. We have been trained by the world’s toughest critics — our own kids — to make things that mean something.

So, let’s play. Let’s build. Let’s lead our teams the same way we walk into a room with our kids: not with all the answers, but with all the curiosity.

Now go take the dance break.