Confessions of a Creative Director

Aaron North was recently described as a marketing genius by the master marketing genius Ryan Reynolds for his work as CMO of Mint Mobile. And after our conversation, I would have to second Ryan's assessment. Aaron is here to give us a sneak peek at the multi-agency strategy and workflow that he's perfected to create Mint Mobile's amazing work. Learn more about Aron here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aronnorth/

Brett Essman is a Creative Director extraordinaire Brett Essman from ad agency Preston Spire in Minneapolis Minnesota. Brett’s here to talk about being proactive as a Creative Director and looking for the opportunity to create big ideas in every brief And when you boil all that down, what he’s really describing is this idea of not becoming complacent but pushing yourself to go above and beyond. It’s about the grit and perseverance you need to get to do the work that makes you feel fulfilled. And what I love about Brett is that he’s not all talk, he’s got the case studies to back it all up. Check out his work here https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettessman/ and here http://www.brettessman.com/

Today’s guest is Andres Fabian, a globe-trotting Dominicano creative director who has worked on three different continents for companies and agencies like Leo Burnett, Kelly Bluebook, Innocean and VMLY&R. On this episode Andres discusses his experience as a Latino creative in the world of advertising.  It’s an important conversation we all need to hear, and we both share personal stories about the most outrageous things we’ve been told or overheard to the weird practice of code-switching to the need for real action around diversity in our industry. This is can’t miss episode especially for people of color or under represented groups in our industry .

Fresh off her appearance at Cannes, Margaret shares her thoughts on the power of AI and how she's harnessing it to take GS&P to new heights in innovation.

On this historic 50th Episode of COACD we’re talking with the brilliant and super humble Greg Hahn Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Mischief @No Fixed Address which was recently ranked among the Top Three Best Agencies in the world by AdAge!  He’s pulling back the curtain to share some of the guiding principles and philosophies that make Mischief such a magical, mystical and near mythical shop. Plus, we'll also get a glimpse of Greg the kid from Ohio who dreamed of becoming a guitar shredding god!

Ned Brown is CCO of Bader Rutter in Milwaukee and an accomplished pianist and songwriter. Over the years he's leaned how to apply concepts and processes usually reserved for music composition to help him generate fresh thinking for advertising campaigns.

"You won't promote yourself so how can you expect someone else to do it?" - Words of wisdom by the very talented and effervescent Joe Bird. Jo is an accomplished creative director, creative coach, mentor, speaker, photographer, and all around inspiring personality on LinkedIn. She's here to share a lesson she's learned along her journey about the importance of creating your own personal brand as a creative that will help you stand out from the crowd and build credibility.

Remote work….love it or hate it, it’s here to stay. That means leaders need to accept it, embrace it, adapt to it and keep on leading. On today’s show, we’re speaking to Patrick Holly, Executive Creative Director at Upwork who shares his 5 Keys to Effective Remote Leadership. And spoiler alert…it has zero to do with monitoring peoples computer activity and everything to do with just being a good human being.    

Kevin is a self-proclaimed Creative Renegade. He is Executive Creative Direction & Founder of Juniper Jones which serves in-house agencies with insight driven creative & smile-producing content that challenges the status quo. And on the show, he will share his thoughts on how strong leadership and collective ownership leads to the best creative output.

It's important to have heroes in our business. People we can look up to, learn from, and even mimic while we search for our own voice. Chief Creative Officer Clarence Bradley, a self-proclaimed advertising nerd, had plenty of heroes coming up, but not too many that looked like him. But that didn't stop him from seeking out mentors and guidance he needed and in some ways becoming his own hero.