Podcast

A person has been able to receive the thoughts, emotions, intent transmitted by another across media. Maybe more amazingly, a person has been able to translate that transmission. Artistic transmissions are able to be sent by children to their parents, and across eons on cave walls. The most able are Read more…

It’s Adam. I’m planning a light weight version of the show that I can support in 2024 along with my work on In the Demo (with the one and only Farrah Bostic). I can’t do that without thoughts, ideas, questions from you, the listeners. There’s three ways to share your Read more…

Shall we play a game? Sorry, couldn't resist and I know that only people over 40 will get the joke. Jamin Warren of Twofivesix has been working in gaming for long enough to see the influence of games come full circle. Before, games tried to capitalize on pop culture, like Read more…

You are no doubt familiar with some of the elements of dating apps that have become UX and pop culture staples.For some of you, you’re all too familiar with the ways gamified UX features affect approach to dating. Dr. Katy Coduto can explain why. She’s been researching dating apps and Read more…

You’ve probably read or heard a lot about the plight of news in America, and specifically how local news has shrunk over the years. LION is an organization started to help more local groups successfully report their local news. Lisa Heyamoto, Programming Director, Membership Education at LION helps develop tools Read more…

If you’re interested in memes, this show is for you. Managing director at Literally Media and Editor in chief of Know Your Meme, Don Caldwell joins Adam to talk about how memes have evolved from the early days of the commercial internet and how they look like they’ll change going Read more…

Have you ever felt like you hit the wall? How did you get through it when you know stopping isn’s a long term solution. Nishita Tamuly joins the show and talks about what’s she has discovered about intention as a powerful force for overcoming burnout. She’s joined by the one. Read more…

How much time do you spend thinking about how you might perform better – at your job or in other areas of your life. Just in time for your new year’s resolution, Dr. Carla Fowler is thinking about it for you. After leaving a pursuit of medicine, she realized she Read more…

How do the skills you learn in one industry set you up for future career success in another? Both Ezra Englebardt and Matt Rainone started inside ad agencies working on planning and strategy. Now, they’re both in house at CVS Health moving forward complex and occasionally sensitive comms efforts, using Read more…

How many times have you come up with an idea, and then you have no idea how to measure it to see if it’s successful? Nick Bond writes (and thinks and dreams) about professional wrestling. While acknowledging that WWE promotes a scripted sport, which he describes as subjective, Nick identified Read more…

A new podcast from the makers of The Strategy Inside Everything. How did the generation defined by hope become the enemy? Where do stories this big come from? And why does it matter? Introducing, in the demo. A new podcast about how stories of groups are created, subverted and destroyed. Read more…

Author Brooke Sellas (she’s still getting used to that descriptor) has been leading and measuring conversations for years. As CEO of B Squared Media, she’s developed a model for metrics that have meaning and help organizations understand what is happening and why. Instead of generic measures linked to ‘engagement’ she Read more…

Ever wonder why a meme resonates with you so hard? Ever catch yourself realizing the dumb looping video you just giggled at and retweeted is actually a clever commentary on a common social convention? Ever apply library science skills to one of the largest meme data sets in the world? Read more…

If you are a regular listener to this show, you probably make plans for a living. Ever feel like the job stalls out in Google Slides? Like, you work on the thinking but seeing it take flight is never quite right? Aric Wood of XPLANE gets strategies airborne for a Read more…

Ever meet someone and feel like you’ve known them your whole life? This episode captures that feeling in real time. The amazing Kaitlin Maud Moon was kind enough to join the show to talk to Adam about her non-linear career path and the inspiration for her pursuit of a degree Read more…

***Industry leader, voice of reason and friend of the show, Derek Walker, has been given an unexpected cancer diagnosis. If provided proper treatment, it should be fully recoverable. If you are able, please join us in contributing to this fund to cover the costs of his treatment.*** Co-Founder and Chief Read more…

Katie Dreke has a lot of experience helping people get above the bar. Better thinking, better work, better outcomes. In agencies and global brands, she has tested ways to get people to feel and do their best work. In this conversation, Katie and I explore the conditions that help people Read more…

Before all this talk of “quiet quitting,” Joey Camire noticed people just tapping out of their work and other responsibilities. He realized there was something big going on, something beyond apathy and approaching nihilism. With waves of bad news, how can we reach people to reengage them, and apply meaning Read more…

When Adrian Ho founded Zeus Jones, he had a vision to be a partner that would help solve deeper business problems than the ad agencies in which he got his start. Over time, the firm did just that. Seeing there was more to do to drive change in the world, Read more…

I was wondering about role models, especially in the type of work where people are being assigned to do things that they have never done. I didn’t have to look far to find the excellent book Mirror Thinking, and its author, Fiona Murden. She is an Organizational Psychologist and the Read more…

Aggregator platforms are always talking about finding new content relevant for you; Netflix, Google, Amazon, Spotify. David C. Lowery has spent a lifetime figuring out first-hand how to find and curate audiences for his own bands, Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, and now teaching all he’s learned as a Senior Read more…

The initial prompt for this conversation was “What would you accomplish at your job if you had no fear of losing it?” Sara Lobkovich is the perfect person to respond. She not only helps organizations identify and navigate positive change, but she’s been challenging her perception of fear in activities Read more…

Dr. Timothy Summers is Executive Director of Product Development of Digital Trust and Lead of Pocket initiative at Arizona State University and CEO at Summers & Company. He has the knowledge and expertise that would make some people tough for laypeople to understand. But he approaches problem solving and opportunities Read more…

At the end of every episode of How I Built It, host Guy Raz asks extremely successful founders whether hard work and smarts played as much of a role as luck. Andy Nairn is the founder of Lucky Generals. He’s been paying attention to the role that luck plays in Read more…

Like many of our guests, Craig Elimeliah thinks a lot about things. But he’s thinking a lot about a lot of things, and trying to assemble the pieces to understand patterns. From his early start studying the Talmud, through finding his way in the early commercial web, he’s developed a Read more…

After years of traditional strategy training at shops VMLY&R and PHD, Sanya Deshpande was inspried by the offering of Oura Ring. She talks about what elements of her experience have served her in this new world, and what she’s had to learn and help create. You can find Sanya on Read more…

Kate Knibbs is a senior writer for Wired. In her work, she wants stories to be true and interesting. In pursuit of those goals Kate is a determined researcher. In this conversation, she shares her process and talks about stories which presented unexpected turns in the reporting which lead to Read more…

Carolina Cruz-Letelier has seen career growth from a lot of different angles. From brand side to agency side to jumping to new cities without a job, she’s had a chance to think about how people adapt to new teams and organizations, and what prevents success there. Over the wild (understatement?) past Read more…

Adam Nayman is a film critic, lecturer, and author. In an interview he posted with the maker of the film The Empty Man (which I loved), Adam presses the director on other films he was reminded of or felt was referenced. The interview raised some questions for me about my Read more…

Jenny Nicholson, Executive Director, Brand Experience at McKinney began her career as a copywriter. But before landing in advertising, she earned a Master’s degree in Social Work. She’s always been in touch with how people think and make decisions. Despite working on beautiful and compelling creative, she wondered traditional advertising Read more…

Chief Innovation Officer at UC Irvine and UN Advisor on AI, Neil Sahota, joins a lively discussion with host Adam Pierno on how AI is improving. Improving means getting smarter, but also carving out niches for applications. This wide ranging conversation touches on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and thinking beyond Read more…

Colin Mitchell has come from a traditional planning background at BMP and other shops famous for planning and creative, along with a stop at McDonald’s before his current role at Virtue, the agency powered by Vice. Adam and Colin discuss how that planning education from the pre-digital era has informed Read more…

Reginald Cash, CEO of 3BLACKDOT joins Adam for an in-depth discussion about how creators are transcending (escaping?) the confines of platforms through their own creativity. His background spans the NY party scene and top-levels of high finance communications, providing a different prism to the oft rehashed world of creators, looking Read more…

Where do you fit in and why? Christina Garnett has figured out that people rarely fit in to communities that aren’t welcoming. She’s been single-handedly making Twitter friendlier (put her on the payroll, cowards!) and sharing insights about how to nurture meaningful communities. If you’re a long-time listener, you know Read more…

Joe Cole joined me from his cross-country travel to share what he’s learned building a list of what agencies are serving the interests of oil and fossil fuel companies at Clean Creatives. He’s been rallying creative people–and others (that’s important) to bring that work into the light, and make it Read more…

In this episode, I’m joined by Brad Scott of Applied Design Works. I wanted to talk to him about how Applied worked with the Braille Institute on a branding project and ended up developing a font intended for people with visual impairment, that they called Atkinson Hyperlegible. We talk about Read more…

Leslie Short studies workplace dynamics and to identify how diversity, equity and inclusion can be better woven in–sometimes in places where it has never been considered. Her approach is practical, pragmatic. I was fortunate to speak with her and learn more about the questions she asks, and how she addresses Read more…

I had to take a break from publishing. Truth, I got extremely busy at my full-time job, some challenging freelance strategy projects for brands, and little disinterested in extra effort beyond all of that. Thanks for hanging in there while I paused. When I tried to turn the podcast and Read more…

Some decisions seem really simple. When I get to a fast answer on something, I can get frustrated by questions which aim to bisect something that appears straightforward. But as we’re all learning, there are very few simple answers built on something without defined principles. We can’t consider every possible Read more…

Nick Childs is an incredible mind. Hear the episode at specific.substack.com/p/nick-childs-helps-tell-your-story Transcript of the episode here: Adam Pierno: Alright, welcome back to another episode of The Strategy Inside Everything. Today we are going to have an enlightening conversation I’m positive. Our guest today is Nick Childs he is co-founder of Read more…

All day long, you hear challenges and create plans to navigate through them. Briefs, decks whatever. You put in writing the plan for how to get from the place the organization or brand is in today to where it needs to be. Where are you today? Are you where you Read more…

Most industries work in teams. The recent adaptation to the way we work has affected our approach in some simple and profound ways. As I’ve spoken to strategists and marketers, I’ve learned that this has impacted the way their assignments happen, or maybe just the way they feel. Work, or Read more…

How often do you look back at your old work? A funny thing happened during the recording of this episode. My guest, Ben Perreira began describing something he had done earlier in his career and made an off-hand joke about a decision he made. But we continued to discuss, and Read more…

For the past year, there’s been a big reason for each of us to think about ourselves. My safety and security. My health. My job security. Basically protecting our small bubble. As vaccination happens en masse and we take our first tenuous steps back towards a physical social world, you Read more…

What happens when a promise made by a company is broken? Complaining on Twitter. No more customer. You can lost trust one customer at a time, or en masse. When companies suffer surges in demand that let customers down (Clorox wipes) or just get caught with their hand in the Read more…

When I write down my influences, I’m often pretty embarrassed. Terrible stuff like 80’s metal, schlock horror and comedy like Mr. Show inform some of my basic sensibilities. Despite a college education and continued study, the academic and arts portion of my influence pie chart is hovering at about 20% Read more…

Over the past year, I’ve been living almost exclusively online. If I had to guess, I would estimate I’ve watched more than 200 movies and competed a dozen series. I wrote and recorded a bunch. I’ve played video games and scrolled multiple marathons distance on Twitter. And then came TikTok. Read more…

In the month of January, I thought I reached the limit of my capacity. Again. I returned to work from a week away from the “office” to all that awaits when you are off for a week. Days of non-stop meetings, and non-moving deadlines kept me moving from item to Read more…

How do you find the things you love? Films, music, products, people, food? More and more, we’re turning to the internet to find pretty much anything. Or, we may not even be looking for things anymore. Amazon, Google, Spotify, Netflix are all recommending things, to varying degrees of success. Social Read more…