JEREMY WORTSMAN

Jeremy Wortsman:
Director, Jacky Winter

Meet Jeremy Wortsman. He is the director of creative services agency The Jacky Winter Group and Lamington Drive gallery, the Melbourne host of Creative Mornings, a keen yet admittedly terrible ice hockey player, and the proud father of a newborn baby girl.

Born in New York, in the early naughties Jeremy fell in love with Melbourne and soon decided to make the move to Australia – in which he fondly refers to as ‘The Lucky Country’ – a permanent one.  

Luck has long been on his side, and something he tries to maintain a constant awareness of as he humbly acknowledges the relationship between being open and passionate, successful and lucky.

But just a glance at Jeremy’s impressive career trajectory, it’s easy to see that hard work, creativity, collaboration and determination have all played an important part in setting his trail ablaze. He has worked as a Finished Artist and teacher, and co-founded and designed award-winning Is Not Magazine with four others, as well a design studio called Chase & Gallery with Stuart Geddes.

Combining a strong foothold in Melbourne’s creative community with an entrepreneurial eye, Jeremy founded Jacky Winter from his bedroom. Today, the fully-fledged creative services agency represents over one hundred talented artists, photographers, and illustrators and brings hundreds more ideas to life.

Generously, he shares with us the details of his daily commute, the disruptive joy of parenthood and what it’s like being a little on the shy side in the jostling, extraverted world of the arts.

Weekend routine

My partner and I are both creatives – she is a freelance writer – and we are both very active apart and on our own paths during the week,  so the weekend is a bit regimented. 

We might go out for breakfast – The General Food Store is our favourite place. Or we go to Cameo Cinemas in Belgrave… we go there a lot.

We really love having people over. Living far away is tricky, so when people come over we like to make a big deal of it and usually have something special planned to make it worth the trip.

I usually have a hockey game every Saturday and I referee and officiate on Sundays. Then the rest is spent kind of preparing for the week.

On overcoming shyness…

Through therapy…

I don’t know if I really have [overcome shyness], but therapy has been a big part of it. I’ve been in therapy half my life – which I love – and I think it’s hugely important for someone who works entirely with their brain.

If you’re an athlete and work with your body, you get regular massages and physio. I always say that when you work in a creative field, you need the same thing for your brain.

Through meditation…

I think meditation is a part of that as well. Even though I’m horrible at meditation and I can’t do it properly, it still doesn’t stop me from trying. It helps to be mindful and know when I’m being crazy – like when I’m having a gallery opening downstairs at Lamington Drive and I’m just staying up in the office. I do that a lot.

Through stepping outside your
comfort zone...

Try to continuously make yourself uncomfortable whenever you can. It’s really hard, but try.

A lot of it comes from having confidence in what you do and knowing who might, or might not, be interested. And knowing yourself is a really important part of it. But that kind of self-awareness is tricky.

On making things with inherent value…

There is this idea in advertising and marketing where you are constantly expected to be like, “Hey, hey, look at me, let me tell you about this thing,” and I think it’s really hard to get people’s attention now.

But marketing and explaining our artists to clients is a big part of our job, so I always try to craft things in such a way that people will be inherently interested.

In a sense I try to engage in non-marketing marketing. If someone is coming to Lamington Drive on a Thursday night when it’s pouring rain, they are doing it because they actually want to come. And so that hurdle is already being jumped, and people don’t think it’s a pain or anything, it’s a much more pleasant way to communicate and advertise the work of our artists.

On life’s four burners…

In David Sedaris new book, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, there is a story called Laugh, Kookaburra where the characters have this conversation in the car where they talk about how life is like a stovetop and you have four burners.

One burner represents your health, one is your family, the third is your friends and the fourth is your work. In order to be successful in one area of your life, you have to turn one burner off. In order to be really successful, you have to turn off two.

And I think – from the people that I know – I find this to be true. I’m always kind of tweaking my burners around different areas. 

On the social life of an introvert…

I’m not a very social person – I’m incredibly introverted actually, and very, very shy. So I really enjoy bringing people to me where the focus is on a project. Like with hosting Creativ Mornings, that’s once a month where I meet a lot of people who are interested in what we as a group are putting out there.

Part of the reason I started Lamington Drive gallery was to create a physical space for friends and new people to visit the Jacky Winter agency and that’s where I do a lot of my socialising.

So the months are kind of bookmarked by the Lamington Drive openings and Creative Mornings. But as for just going out and socialising, I don’t really do that anymore in a kind of loose way, it has to be more regimented.

On sticking at things you’re not good at…

Ice hockey is my main passion outside of work – and I’m horrible at it! [Laughs]

Even though I’ve been playing my entire life, I’m still really bad. But I think it’s amazing to keep doing something you are terrible at. 

Being humble and wanting to get better at something is really important.

Something like playing hockey is so tied to the physical limits of what you can do, so it’s a challenge trying to get better. 

On starting a family…

You talk to new parents and they are just brain dead and that’s what it’s like at the moment. [Laughs]

One thing you realise is that you have a lot less time to pursue things. There are many things I’ve always wanted to do – I love taking classes, trying new things, and exploring, but it’s kind of a new reality now and I’ve learned to take satisfaction in different aspects of life.

So I spend a lot of time with my daughter, doing nothing and just sitting there and staring at her. But I feel that as time goes on, I’m going to really want to explore various things with her when she is able.

On sheer dumb luck…

There have been times, especially early on in the business, where I just didn’t think I would be able to make payroll, and then a job just comes through and it gets paid on time. The whole business could have collapsed if it didn’t work that way!

I attribute a lot to just being lucky. But I don’t think luck is an isolated thing – I think you have to work hard to have the right set of circumstances there. Luck is a reflection of how much you have invested in it yourself.

If you’re doing the right thing and putting it out there, luck makes sure the right people see it and opportunities present themselves. 

On the value of time…

Time is the most valuable thing you have, and I think what you do with it is a really interesting question.

I think everyone is working to have more time, and the idea is that you eventually get to a place in your career where other people are doing certain tasks for you, so you have more time.

Right now I am time poor, because of all the things you have to do just to keep the plates spinning. But I’m very happy.