When my daughter was in the third grade, she had an assignment that asked her to draw what she thought was at the end of a rainbow, and then write a story about how to find it.

My daughter simply wrote, “I do not think there is anything at the end of the rainbow, because the rainbow doesn’t have an end.”

Intelligent thought from a third grader if I do say so myself. But, what I think my daughter was getting at is that there is actually no metaphorical pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. There’s only our never-ending quest to find that gold, that ‘end,’ and I think that this is a mindset that translates well in the world of marketing and communications.

On the agency side of marketing and communications, we should never, ever fall into the idea that we own our clients’ brands. They own their brands. What we as agency professionals do is partner with our clients to discover their brands’ potential for greatness (the ‘pot of gold,’ if you will), and work to communicate the emotion, dedication, and service/products behind that brand to the people who matter.

An agency serves as the best partner to its clients when it not only invests in the technologies that contribute to create better work, but when it also invests in the people and minds that use those technologies. Invest in the courses and educational tools that will expand an employee’s thinking. Allow employees to learn skills and methods that are outside of their traditional job descriptions. Inspire people to break free from what their titles say they should do and move in a direction that accompanies their interests and also benefits the agency as a whole. When we invest in the people that make up our agencies, we position ourselves as a more vital and helpful resource for our clients to work with.

Breaking outside of our traditional roles can be scary, but with today’s technological evolution moving at breakneck speed, it has become a necessity. Always keep that fear of new ideas and practices in the back of your mind, but don’t let it bog down your ability to learn, expand, and evolve.

If we always remain on that quest to find the ‘pot of gold,’ there’s no telling what we’ll discover, both for the brands we work with, our agencies, and within ourselves.

To be most valuable to the company, and to yourself, don’t be afraid to liberate the full promise inside of you.