Know Your Neighbor: Lauren Amsterdam
From the time Lauren Amsterdam was a student at Briarcliff High School, she knew she wanted a career in advertising. The business and creative aspects of the industry were attractive to an energetic young woman.
“I loved the creativity, the psychology, business strategy, the design, and I just had such a passion for the field,” Amsterdam said. “I was also dragging my parents to (advertising) expos and exhibits. When I was in high school, already I knew.”
Her passion for the industry has certainly paid off. Amsterdam, 39, is co-owner and executive creative director of Amsterland, the advertising and marketing company she and her husband, Michael Wilson, launched and operate, created almost exclusively through referrals starting from the time she worked at the large advertising agency Doner.
Last week, Amsterdam was recognized by the Business Council of Westchester as one of its Forty Under 40 rising stars in Purchase.
While Amsterdam has had the entrepreneurial spirit since childhood–although short-lived, at about eight years old she started her own card making and calligraphy business–it was as a young advertising professional at Doner where she seized the opportunity that would later become Amsterland. The executives would send her clients that didn’t have a large enough budget to be taken on by the company.
“I loved the interaction, I loved to take care of them and the clients I started with are still with us,” Amsterdam said. “Really, that’s how it all began.”
For a number of years, she worked at various agencies, but kept the freelance clients. Fortunately for Amsterdam, she had the stamina to make that work. Eventually, some of her clients planted the seed about her striking out fulltime on her own. Amsterdam didn’t have any qualms about whether she had what it took to make it work–only being able to afford her own health insurance.
“Other than that, I was raring to go,” she said.
Along with her husband, who she met at Briarcliff High School and is the business strategist behind Amsterland, they have amassed an array of diversified clients. Some of their best known are Ritz-Carlton, the U.S. Tennis Association and Oppenheimer Funds, along with retaining automotive and real estate clients.
For Amsterdam, amassing a roster of talented freelance creatives and adding a more personal touch rather than cut-throat corporate tactics, have made Amsterland a success. She looks upon her clients and the people she works with as friends.
“I only work with good people,” Amsterdam said. “People I work with on our team are not only top-notch, top of their field, actually, but they’re such gems as human beings, such good-hearted people. That’s the only way to do it, surround yourself with great people–clients included.”
To get to this point, Amsterdam has certainly worked hard and paid her dues. During high school, she signed up for graphics courses at SUNY Purchase. At the University of Michigan, where Amsterdam took a double course of study, she earned a bachelor of fine arts in graphic design and a bachelor’s degree in communications. During her summers, she also enrolled in the Rhode Island Graphic School of Design.
While still at Michigan, Amsterdam got a job with a small creative agency. That firm did work for Doner, which helped hook her up with after graduation. She and Wilson, who have a son in second grade and a two-year-old daughter, moved back to Michigan while he returned to school, but they now live in the Pleasantville section of Pocantico Hills, about a mile from where she grew up in Briarcliff.
One of the best pieces of advice Amsterdam received was from her father, a Briarcliff dentist. As a child, he told her to keep her own name and to be her own boss. It is advice that she has followed, although not getting that paycheck every two weeks, can be disconcerting, she aid.
Despite a busy schedule, Amsterdam still finds time to be a class mom and is on the board of the nonprofit Child Abuse Prevention Center of New York. She also loves to bake and a few years ago won Martha Stewart’s baking contest with her mud pie.
Amsterdam doesn’t have any major goals for her company, other than continuing to help her clients achieve the best results and to enjoy the creative work.
“Just working with our clients,” she said of the future. “I truly love them, truly love them.”
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
