Ad agencies have lots of skills but they rarely use them for the benefit of those who really could use them outside of their paying clients. Over in the UK, Akil Benjamin worked with M&C Saatchi to create Saturday School a program that helped provide mentoring for Black-owned businesses. Blackbusiness.mcsaatchi.com He achieved a lot of success with that program and is now scaling it up on his own. In the UK- agencies signed an open letter of solidarity after George Floyd's death and Akil's program provides a chance for them to put transfer this intent into action. In the episode, we talk about his background, his work, and support from M&C and the idea behind his new program and the support it has generated. Donate, volunteer and sign- up for the mentoring scheme bit.ly/2XGHodm

John Dempsey is one of the founders of the digital shop Road Trip.John got to experience the contemporary world of brand marketing while working on the KFC team at Wieden and Kennedy in Portland.In the episode, we discuss his thinking behind setting up Road Trip, the worlds of digital and brand marketing, and what he learned from his experience on the KFC account at W&K.

Chas Edwards is one of the founders of Pop-Up Magazine. The idea of Pop-Up Magazine started as an experiment with friends to turn a physical magazine into a live experience. Word of mouth soon followed and Pop Up became something of a cultural phenom selling out venues like the Lincoln Center and rolling through the country on a national tour.In the episode, I talk to Chas about his career trajectory- what took him into the magazine space and the secrets behind creating a compelling live experience for a generation who have a tough time putting their cellphones down. Of course, we also talk about COVID and how Pop-Up has pivoted to creating its experience online and what the implications of this learning might be for the business in the future. https://www.popupmagazine.com/

Jeff Sweat runs his own ad agency PR and consulting shop (Sweat and Co) in Los Angeles. Having started his career as a tech journalist he then moved to Yahoo where he got the chance to interact with a number of ad agencies. He then went agency side and had stints leading new business efforts at 72 and Sunny and Deutsch in LA before setting up on his own.My conversation with Jeff involved asking about his career trajectory and what he learned from his different experiences and inside agency cultures. We went onto talking about agencies today - how they have a unique opportunity to be real advisors to their clients and how important it is for agencies to practice what they preach to their clients by building their own differentiated and distinctive brands and cultures.Jeff is also a podcaster himself and has a very successful series- with Agencies under Quarantinehttps://www.sweatandco.com/quarantineHe is also a novelist which will be the topic for our next conversation. https://www.sweatandco.com/

It has been 15 years since David Charles and I worked together at BSSP. David has since gone on to jobs at AKQA, 72 and Sunny, and opening the Los Angeles outpost for KesselsKramer. He started off in Brazil writing comic books before making his way into advertising with the dreams of becoming a filmmaker. At AKQA and KesselsKramer he got the chance to direct spots and hone his skills. This all was put to good use when he came across an amazing opportunity while working with the team at Airbnb. Post the Trump election the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus announced it would be protesting by touring the South by Bus. After winning over the chorus and Airbnb David went on to make the documentary Gay Chorus Deep South which has picked up a ton of accolades on the festival circuit including the audience award at Tribeca. The film was recently purchased by MTV. In the episode, we talk about David's journey from advertising to filmmaking and the process involved in making his first documentary. We also talk about how the film served to explain the essence of the Airbnb brand and the power of long-form filmmaking to tell brand stories. 

Michael Arterberry is the Executive Director of the Youth Voices Center. His work involves working with high schoolers to get them to think beyond race and skin color and to understand their fellow schoolmates as people. In a wide-ranging conversation, we talk about his life experiences, the work he does and his observations on the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd.

Justin Small is the founder and mastermind behind FSC- Future Strategy Club. Justin is determined to reinvent the agency model by creating teams for clients made up of the best talent possible, FSC is not a no thrills remote network- it has an HQ, host parties, trains its members, and is even in the process of setting up a ventures arm.Justin wants agencies to be great again and FSC is his attempt to make that happen. https://futurestrategyclub.com/

Jay Chaney is a strategist and part of a crack team of Canadian advertising professionals who have gone and done something completely insane by launching an ad agency in the middle of the Covid 19 crisis. Chaney has teamed up with Beverley Hammond, Todd Mackie, Carlos Moreno, and Denise Rosetto to create Broken Heart Love AffairChaney is no stranger to challenges has been part of successful turnarounds at both DDB and Cossette. In the interview, we talked about Jay's interesting career that included time as a Canadian broadcaster, the inspiration for the new agency, the name, and what they are hoping to achieve. Plus, of course, the challenges and perhaps some of the advantages of launching during Covid. 

George Olver is the co-founder of Movidiam.Movidiam is all about changing how films get made. It is basically a global network of skilled practitioners in the world of film production. The network allows production to be more efficient at a time when clients are short on both time and money. It also ensures a level of quality because the experience of individuals is fully transparent. Think of it as a global production house at your fingertips which allows for both payment and project management.In the episode, I talk to George about the evolution of the company and where it headed.  

Jen Patterson is now a mom and a life-coach after spending over 20 years as a strategist. She started her career at Wieden and spent time at Deutsch in LA and at Wunderman in Seattle. In the episode, we talk about her career trajectory - growing up at Wieden and then moving to Deutsch. About agency cultures and her thoughts on the magic part of the culture that make Wieden, Wieden, and how different things were at Deutsch. We discussed her time in Miami with The Community and the challenges involved in getting clients to understand the importance of the Hispanic market. We also talk about her passion which is listening and learning from others. Nowadays Jen has channeled her passion into life-coaching and motherhood. We talk about these two roles and some of the challenges. We discuss the way in which agency life and corporate life in general squeeze the self out of people and how the best advice she gives people is about getting centered around who they are and what they want is.Her life-coaching practice is about paying close attention to you and developing a program which is, in simple terms. a gym for the mind.