Podcast

Former Creative Director has made a lot of changes as the industry has changed around him. He’s now the Chief Marketing Officer at RPA in LA – working with a new perspective. Tim and Adam sat down for a chat about how the ad world has changed since they both got started and what lessons Tim has learned about strategy. Enjoy!

Frank Speiser is the founder of Social Flow. He also happens to be an old friend of host Adam Pierno. In fact, Adam was Frank’s RA at Boston University. This episode is two old buddies catching up and talking media, one of them is an absolute expert. (Hint: It’s Frank.)

Darien LaBeach of Huge and Strtgst talks about the challenges of community? What do people want from one? What brings them together? What keeps them from sticking? He’s done the research and now putting his efforts into building a strategy community.

We were lucky enough to catch Richard Shotton just before his fantastic book The Choice Factory won BBH’s World Cup of Advertising Books (well deserved, though I was pulling for Decoded). He’s got so much information that our talk moves all over the board as it relates to decision making – but we sink our teeth into the pratfall effect and how we see it playing out in every day life; well beyond advertising.

Mike Monello visits with Adam Pierno to talk about storytelling. Stop, don’t leave. Not storytelling in the cliché marketing way. Mike and his team at Campfire have an approach that is more about getting a person who hears the story to want to learn more or retell it. He’s been Read more…

Listen here: https://specific.substack.com/p/kevin-holesh-makes-a-habit-of-understanding-96f?r=n6j6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy Moment: https://inthemoment.io/

I had the pleasure of sitting with Rob Schwartz, CEO or TBWA NY for a back-to-back pod session. He was interested in learning about what inspired me to write Under Think It, and made some time to tell me how his experience solving creative problems has equipped him to be a CEO in these wild times.

Talking with RGA’s Tom Morton to hear what they have learned about biases through their work on the Ad Council’s Love Has No Labels campaigns.

Had the great fortune to speak with Kit Krugman, Chief Curator at co:collective and President and Chair of the Board at WIN: Women in Innovation (hat tip to Brian Dell for the intro). Kit walks me through how recruiting and team building has changed and how to build an organization with diversity and balance built into its core. Used the opportunities to take a lesson for future recruiting for guests on the show and talent at Santy. This is one of the best conversations I’ve had hosting this show.

What if you were asked to write a book and genuinely had no intention to do so? As we discuss Tom’s approach to the giant task of writing a book, you’ll quickly learn that he has little to no filter, which makes his book a must read. Adam and Tom share insight on creativity and on getting things done. We had an absolutely delightful conversation with Zenith Head of Innovation Tom Goodwin.

Founder of Sparrow Advisors and all around brilliant Ana Milicevic joins Adam today for a talk on the future of work. Ana’s background around all different parts of the tech, entertainment and marketing complex gives her a unique perspective on what it’s all building towards.

UM Head of Strategy, and author Eaon Pritchard discusses applied evolutionary psychology with Adam. How does everything come back to a basic desire or fear humans have always felt. Fun to learn about Eaon’s unique pathway to strategy from life as a DJ. Eaon’s also written a wonderful book called Where Did It All Go Wrong that we discuss a bit.

We welcome Mark Pollard to the show to discuss how he thinks, solves problems and sometimes creates mischief. This is a good one.

Faris Yakob of Genius Steals sits down for a conversation about how fictional universes grip our attention. This chat wanders quite a bit as we chart corners of pop culture and strategy. As usual, Faris makes it worth a listen and a share.

We spoke with Fitzco’s David Matathia about how to maintain strategic focus when there are just so many distractions. Oh look, a butterfly. Sorry.

Ice Cream For Everyone host and strategist Willem van de Horst joins us for this chat on how games open your mind, your approach to teams and why we play.

Very – VERY interesting conversation with Farrah Bostic, founder of The Difference Engine and faculty at Parsons. We don’t usually talk politics, but this look behind the curtain is insightful and engaging. We went overtime because there was so much ground to cover.

Sr. Comms Strategist Hallie Wright walks all the way down the hall (of our old office) for this lively chat on the not so clear strategy Target is employing to fend off Amazon and the retail implosion.

Keith Stoeckeler dropped in via the internet to talk about the changes to sports fandom and celebrity due to the direct access afforded by social media. We get into who is getting it right and who is next in line to leverage this opportunity.

This conversation is all about the way brand culture is built up around a mission, and the single minded drive companies take, until they can’t. Mike Jones of Resound joins and makes many, many great observations about the two cultures and the output to consumers.