Meet Yarden Brikman | Creative Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yarden Brikman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yarden, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I’m pretty naive when it comes to risk, and it always played to my advantage. I never think about the outcome, or what could’ve go worse, but how it excites me. Throughout every step of my career, I played the unsafe way, and sure, sometimes you win, but sometime you lose – But the biggest winning I’ve had, was just with risks involved, and while answering to that question – I’m while experiencing the biggest risk I’ve ever taken – I moved 7,537 miles, to the US, quitting my promising job, and started my own venture.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I’ve worked for the biggest advertising agencies all my life, and when I moved to LA, I was asked by a friend of a friend, if I can do for his business “whatever advertising agencies are doing”. I immediately replied yes. To be honest, that was the most fake it till you make it moment ever. I did led teams of creative before, and did work for fortune 500 companies, but filling every roll of every department, and lead this big of an operation was new to me – That is what led me to open my own advertising agency eventually – Did I do every mistake on the way? yes, and still does. Did I panicked when found myself without clients in some rough months, having in my mind that I need to give up? happened more then once. And did I had to let go of amazing employees because of cashflows and make tough decisions along the way? Every single moment.
There are lots of breaking points when opening your own business, especially in a very competitive industry, but I believe few make it because its so easy to just say enough and give up. I myself said I’m giving up thousand of times, but woke up the day after and was ready to conquer.

The key is to never settle, stay true to who you are, I know how cliche it sounds, and as a very cynical person I would roll my eyes if someone told me that in the beginning, but its true – Don’t do what don’t excite you, don’t compromise on clients you don’t like, and just because there is a paying client, it don’t means you have to have him at all cost. There are so many advertising or creative agencies, but no one have me, or my team in it – and part of what makes as apart, is how we create a very unique collaborative environment. I encourage my team to fail, to try, to experiment – It’s not an office setting, its a playground. We lost some clients because of our unique culture, but earned others who fitted in just perfectly!

I would suggest another value as crucial – transparency, both clients, your team and yourself.
I started with this killer instinct, fake it till you make it mentality, but when I did not make it, and it happens, client get upset, and I get them. One of the best success stories were when we approached by Cannabis client for selling his products online, and with full transparency we said – We have no idea how to do it (regulations, and other challenges that we knew we would face) He could’ve gone to another agency, but he decided to stick with us just because of that. Also be transparent to your team – they are there to support you, even if you are the leader. I talk to my team all the times about our struggles, and our success, they might offer a point of view you didn’t thought about, and it makes them more involved and pursing the goals of the business.

and lastly – be transparent with yourself – what do you want to happen, what will make you satisfied? are you happy? these questions seems so goes without saying, but you can lose yourself in the process – Don’t. Especially in our fields of creative, and creations – money is important, but you don’t have a tech software, or selling tomatoes, you are selling people’s ideas, and mainly yours.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m going to be provocative and start with 2 places in the Valley – first and most important, go check out Verse at Toluca Lake, a fusion between Japanese and Mexican cuisine with live Jazz band at evening times – A MUST. another cool casual place to check out is Casalena in Woodland hills, a modern Italian restaurant, very affordable compares to the quality of the food and the amazing design of the place.
for best desert in the Valley – Anita Ice Cream. and don’t take the ice-cream, but the frozen yogurt. I always buys in stock to have it in home
For fast food – the best Shawarma in town, made of Wagyu – Avi Cue in studio city.

the day after I would’ve stop by Topanga canyon at Cafe on 27 and enjoy the crazy view, while cursing towards the beaches on the way to Malibu, I cant explain this, but I always feel the waters there are nicer and warmer.

Next stop is Landver Cafe at Century City – It’s a very well known cafe in Europe, but have just one in LA, the menu is a bit different, but beyond. Never skip on the Rozallach.

I would then go for a run at Runyon Canyon for all the spare calories you just consumed.

If we already around West Hollywood, next best location is Carmel, which is great as a restaurant and as a bar, its pretty new, but one of the best ones.

For hidden gems – go to Haifa restaurant at Pico – a true Mediterranean gem, but if fancy is more your game, you’ll find NextDoor nearby – same cuisine, just more fancy.

As for shopping, my go to is Camarillo outlets (not really in the city, but worth it.), I think 60% of the designers in my closet are from Camarillo, I used to love thier Gucci outlet there.

For partying – LGBTQ most fun spot is Akbar at Silverlake, but in LA the real parties are at homes after 2am – So go to Santa Monica Blvd, hop between the different bars, and find locals to take you to what is happening in town. and if that is too shady for you – check out MasterBeat, in my opinion LGBTQ best party producers – they have parties once a month, usually downtown.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My career skyrocket when I decided to use my abilities for social justice or giving back to the community. One of my best exemple were when I was just an art director, I volunteered to the LGBTQ Task Force in Israel, and the government blocked a law for some parenthood rights for same-sex parents – so I took my creative skills, and we arranged a protest, what led to be the biggest LGBTQ protest ever took place in the middle east, and for my creative career – I had my photo on Wikipedia for that event, and the offers just started coming after, leading my career to rise. If I think about that, without the platform of the LGBTQ Task Force, and the people who believed in me there and my leadership, I might not be where I am right now.

Website: www.BRIKMANadv.com / www.YardenBrikman.com

Instagram: YardenBrikman / BRIKMANadv /

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/yarden-brikman-1ab04028