Sweathead, A Strategy Podcast

Can companies change? If so, how? Hilton is VP of Marketing at Cognitive. He was born in Zimbabwe but he's worked in the UK, the USA, and Canada. And he was a founding member of the Account Planning Group (APG) in Toronto, Canada.  After a long career in advertising, Hilton wanted to get closer to business problems. This led him to exploring company culture and change management. In this episode, we discuss: - Shifting from account planning to marketing - Change management - Organizational culture as an accelerant of strategy You can find Hilton here https://www.hiltonbarbour.com/ ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com

"Should I work in advertising or marketing or something else?" In this episode, we discuss what it's like to shift from advertising to marketing - and back. Challapalli Kalyan Ram is based in Mumbai, India. From project/account manager to strategist to a consumer planning and research manager in Diageo and back to strategy, Kalyan is now running his own shop Wolfzhowl where they specialize in branding, research, and many other services.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/challapallikalyan Dmitry Grobov is based in Moscow, Russia. He started out as a strategic planner and moved his way up to strategic planning director and is now the head of marketing in Xiaomi Russia. He uses a creative yet data-driven approach that helps him craft marketing campaigns and guide teams to success. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgrobov/ ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com

How do you get clients to shake shit up when the world already seems shook up enough? Chuck Welch is CSO of Rupture Studio, a company he runs with his MBA-awarded wife Nandi. It's a mom-and-pop business that helps the couple do the work they want to do while also helping them spend time with each other and their children. Chucks' early years were spent at companies like Def Jam, Naked, and McCann. Now he and Nandi help brands shake themselves up in a time when by-standing is not in fashion. We discuss: - Working in the music industry and at Def Jam - Shifting into advertising - Running a consultancy with his wife Nandi - Getting brands to act more urgently through times of strife You can find Chuck and Nandi's company Rupture Studio here: https://www.rupturestudio.co/ ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com

What does the journey from doing strategy for other people's brands to making your own product look like? Brooklyn's George Crichlow made $250,000 selling bamboo hats in high school. This bought him a ticket to the elite Georgetown college and it made George the first person of his family to go to college - most of his family had not stayed in school beyond the fifth grade. After college, George ran an agency gamut that took him from telling the world about brands to help companies create brands to making his own product and telling the world about it. He was AKQA's tenth employee in New York and made pitstops at Wolf Ollins and Red Scout along the way.  Now, he does freelance strategy but puts most of his time into Kynsho, an outerwear brand that he created. And it's into this brand that he puts his love for problem solving, making, and entrepreneurialism. In this interview, we discuss: - Running a business in high school - The attributes of an entrepreneur - Making your own product   You can find Kynsho here http://www.kynsho.com  You can find George here http://www.georgecrichlow.com/ ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com

Do creative lives happen in straight lines? Carolyn Hadlock is Executive Creative Director at Indianapolis's Young & Laramore. She does creative work but, as part of doing that creative work, Carolyn also does ethnography. She likes to go deep into people's lives to try to understand what's going on inside their minds. It's an unusual combination–a creative director who does ethnography–and it's led her to set up her own publication Eunoia where she's recently started documenting other people whose minds are also unusual combinations. In this interview, we discuss: - The creative and agency scene in Indianapolis - Young & Laramore and the work they do - Carolyn's circuitous path into advertising (after seven years of undergraduate study), and - Carloyn's investigation of minds she finds beautiful through Eunoia, a blog started four years ago You can read her interviews with beautiful thinkers and listen to them chat at Eunoia: https://medium.com/eunoia-by-carolyn-hadlock  ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com

What do strategists do and where do they fit in a large digital agency? Based in New York, Grant Owens is Global Chief Strategy Officer of Critical Mass. He's had the role for over five years and that's after an eleven-year stint at Razorfish.  In this episode, we discuss: - Organizing strategy activities in a large agency - How to effectively use "open office hours" You can find Grant here: https://twitter.com/grantowens ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com

What do different roles such as user experience designer, strategist, and managing director have in common - and what's the real work involved with doing these roles well? Jess Mireau is a strategy and agency leader. She started as an animator then she moved into user experience then strategy then strategy team leader then managing director. The last role she did in Hong Kong on behalf of her Brooklyn agency. In this interview, we discuss: - What these roles have in common - How to pay attention to what you're really interested in - The shift from user experience into strategy - Managing a new office in a foreign country - Mental health challenges  You can find Jess here https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessmireau/  ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com

How do you get people with power to talk? Vince and Max host the podcast Son Of A Pitch from Sydney, Australia. Vince works as a strategist in advertising; Max used to. They've interviewed many agency leaders and we found ourselves discussing the power of naivety and dealing with power dynamics in interviews.  We also discuss: - Whether advertising is a compelling career - Making podcasts - Australian banter You can find the Son of a Pitch podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/son-of-a-pitch-podcast/id1483296304 Vince is here: https://www.vinceusher.com/ Max is here: https://www.maxlearmont.com/  ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com

If you wanted to tell the truth to a group of students eyeing advertising careers, what would you tell them? Vanessa Toro is Group Strategy Director at Digitas North America. She's based in Atlanta. She loves both her chosen city and her agency And, often, she loves her industry but she knows it can do better, especially for the new batch of students trying to get into it. In this interview, we discuss: - How advertising students want to change the advertising industry - Bringing who are to your day job - Her love of Atlanta You can find Vanessa here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessatoro/ ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com

Strategists can take many shapes but what do those shapes look like outside of a full-time agency? This episode is from a livestream in the Sweathead Facebook group. It features Ian Crocombe, Jackie Crynes, and Carlos Hermida.  We discuss: - Things that make people leave agency life - What people hope to find after agency life - How "qualified" is "qualified enough" - Perceptions hirers have of agency people Ian Crocombe is based in London. From strategist to VP Innovation to CSO to finding his own shop to teaching and then working at Facebook, Ian is now on his newest venture of helping in-house teams build the next generation of performance brands. Find him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iancrocombe/ Jackie Crynes is currently based in Arizona. She started out in strategy then moved client-side and is now back in a strategy role where she blends the worlds of digital, product and brand strategy to design meaningful experiences and drive business results. Find her here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiecrynes/ Carlos Hermida is based in Colombia where he is now focused on advising entrepreneurs and startups. He has experience in marketing, strategy, branding and communications. Find him at his twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/walkthefox ** Find the book "Strategy Is Your Words" and 100 strategy classes at Sweathead here: http://www.sweathead.com