Sweathead, A Strategy Podcast

In today's Sweathead episode, Dr. Clint Johns takes us on a nostalgic trip back to the heyday of magazines, particularly at Tower Records. Clint shares his experiences working at the forefront of distribution and sales of a wide array of magazines at Tower, he talks about the traits possessed by zine-makers large and small, and discusses the stories of independent zine-makers around the globe. He also shares what he's currently up to as a cognitive psychologist and researcher. Clint Johns is a cognitive psychologist and data scientist researching the impact of education applications, with a focus on applied statistics. Most recently, he was a research scientist studying language processing, reading comprehension, and memory retrieval, and sometimes is an adjunct professor of psychology here and there. Prior to that, he worked for Tower Records as their Director of Newsstand Operations, including purchasing, distribution, and just about anything else that might be linked to a zine or magazine or newspaper ending up in one of Tower's stores. He is a long-time indie press promoter and critic. Connect with him at Twitter @DrClintonJohns. ** Find out about our strategy classes at http://www.sweathead.com Follow the fun on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

Itumeleng Ndaba, an art director aspiring to be a strategist, shares her journey and the influence of NANDOS on the advertising industry. They discuss the role of art directors, heroic moments, and the importance of concise insights. The chapter also emphasizes the role of strategists as lifelong learners.

In this episode of Sweathead, Penny Norman talks about her journey from working in account planning and startup strategy to focusing her strategy work in the niche of social good. She discusses how strategy can encourage individual behavioral change as well as government policy change. And Penny shares examples of her contributions to social impact campaigns in mental health, substance abuse, vaccine hesitancy, and child care. Penny has worked in London (Publicis, AMV BBDO) and Vancouver (DARE, Pound & Grain), and is now a Senior Strategist at Rescue Agency, a social impact agency focused on health behavior change. She also founded APG Good Thinking, a strategy hack-a-thon created to tackle real life problems to give other strategists a head start. You can connect with Penny at https://www.linkedin.com/in/pennynorman/ ** Find out about our strategy classes at http://www.sweathead.com Follow the fun on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

Esther Wang is two years into her strategy career. We recently spoke in a Sweathead Happy Hour (online) about creative briefs–How do you make them good? How do make them better? How do make them something that creative teams will use?  So, in this episode, we wanted to have that kind of conversation again.  We talk about why talking about creative briefs is a much more complicated discussion than many people realize. We workshop a creative brief to get teachers to use an online learning system. And we discuss the 3 to 4 phases that brief writers tend to mature through. There is a lot of thinking out loud in this episode but, without admitting the mess involved in our work, well, we'd be liars. You can find Esther here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esther-wang7 ** Find out about our strategy classes at http://www.sweathead.com Follow the fun on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

Are marketers allergic to creativity? How do bold ideas thrive in huge international companies? How can creatives work within a systematic, data-driven company or agency? All these questions and a lot more are answered in this Sweathead episode with Karl Isaac, who also talks about his experience working on some of the most popular brands worldwide. For over 20 years, Karl’s been giving brands chiropractic adjustments. He’s led some of the world’s best-known brands at Microsoft, Adobe, and Ebay and agency-side at Razorfish, Landor, and Hi It’s Us. Now, he’s a Fractional Chief Brand and Marketing Officer helping companies define, grow, and accelerate brands by better connecting to culture, embracing digital, and uniting through a common vision on a global scale. He’s presented at SXSW, DMEXCO, AIGA National Conference, and Digiday events and been interviewed and published in Wall Street Journal, AdWeek, AdAge, Inc., Forrester, and CMO.com. Karl has an MBA and Master of Architecture degree. You can find Karl at @redglassesclub on Twitter and Instagram, and on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/brands. ** Follow the fun on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

A brief word about resilience while walking Central Park. Plus a bunch of questions from Instagram answered: What's a creative strategist? What skills will a strategist need in the future? What are neglected strategy skills? Should you work in a network agency or an indie shop? And more. (Apologies if this episode has appeared a couple of times in your feed––we had some technical issues). Find me on Instagram here: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard ** Find out about our Strategy Accelerator at http://www.sweathead.com Follow the fun on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

A quick episode about how strategists mature. But also a brief chat about sleep and exhaustion. ** Find us at http://www.sweathead.com @sweathead: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead More posts about briefs @markpollard: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard

In this Sweathead episode, Heeru Dingra talks about the challenges she has faced as a CEO managing three agencies in the midst of a global pandemic. She also discusses her experiences of being a woman in a highly male-dominated culture and professional landscape. Heeru also shares her life lessons and wisdom about how to be an effective leader. Heeru Dingra is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Isobar Group India. The Group houses award-winning agencies - Isobar, WATConsult and Perfect Relations under one umbrella. Heeru started her journey with WATConsult a decade ago and today leads a team of 1000+ people across offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. You can connect with her here: Twitter: @heerudingra Instagram: @heerudingra LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heeru-dingra-b2769035/ ** Find out about our Strategy Accelerator at http://www.sweathead.com Follow the fun on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

In this Sweathead episode, Sara Tate talks about her experience as the CEO of TBWA\London and the valuable lessons that she learned from being the head of one of the top 10 marketing and communications companies in the UK. She also discusses how disruption, collaboration, and collective spirit can take a company to the next level. Sara was most recently the CEO of TBWA London and had a very long stint as strategy director and managing director at Mother (almost a decade). She is currently writing a book on rebuilding things in life and work while currently doing an MSc in organizational consulting with a focus on executive coaching.  You may connect with Sara at https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraktate/. ** Find out about our Strategy Accelerator at http://www.sweathead.com Follow the fun on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

In this Sweathead episode, Lydia Taylor talks about the many places where strategy lives -- may it be in agencies, within startups, on the client side, or at a social media platforms, to name a few. Lydia also lets us know what she thinks are the hottest places that a strategist can work at right now.  Whilst Lydia has done her time at the big agencies, she's not a traditional agency strategist. Having spent the last few years growing a creative tech startup and then hopping around as a freelancer, she keeps strategy as simple as she can, solving problems with a human lens and avoiding overly complex frameworks. You can find Lydia on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiataylor0/ And on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDcYQYjQlQ6BGA6wkZASBzg ** Find out about our Strategy Accelerator at http://www.sweathead.com Follow the fun on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5