This time, we sit down with Rhonda Hiatt, Global CEO of M+C Saatchi Consulting and CEO of Clear. From mowing lawns in the Midwest to helming a global consultancy and opening a restaurant on the side, Rhonda’s career is a masterclass in reinvention, resilience, and reading the cultural tea leaves. We talk navigating chaos, leading with empathy, and why clarity is the ultimate growth hack. Our Favorite Stories Rhonda’s journey from Midwest entrepreneur to global CEO of M+C Saatchi Consulting.St...
In this episode of The Bad Podcast, An Advertising Podcast, we get inside the mind of Tom Suharto, Global Strategy Lead at Forsman & Bodenfors. From cutting his teeth in research to leading strategy on a global scale, Tom's career path is anything but linear—unless you count the 400-page data reports he once sifted through. We talk cultural codes, creative instincts, and why trusting your gut is the real killer app. Our Favorite Stories Tom's journey from working in research to leading gl...
Our Favorite Stories Erin’s unconventional path to advertising—starting with an English and film degree, moving to Chicago, and launching a scrappy startup before breaking into UX.The “hot cake” corporate training at McDonald’s, where new hires spend a full day working in a restaurant, and how it shaped her design perspective.How McDonald’s global headquarters offers a rotating international menu, giving employees and customers a taste of different cultures.Big Moments from Doing the Work Mov...
Our Favorite Stories: Hotboxing the next blockbuster idea: starting a career at the tail end of the "Mad Men" era in digital healthcare advertising. Working with Rich Norman, Todd learned how Allegra got its name. "An articulation, not of the problem statement, but of the relief"."Many times in my career, humans were reduced to numbers or broad statistics... not individualized and not humanized, and while that was the political ethos and mandate, that did not feel right to me." If you ar...
Happy New Year, we hope you've had a fantastic holiday filled with much deserved rest, good food, and even better company. We're starting 2025 with strong with TBWA veteran-turned-indy CCO Chuck Monn. Among many things, he takes us into the mind of an award-winning creative director who touched cultural pillars like the Olympics, Visa, and Apple. He leaves brands more memorable than he found them, and has shaped iconic work like 'Mac vs PC' and 'Shot on iPhone'. Our top 5 moments: "You...
Our Favorite Stories Alec's journey as the "Photoshop kid" at Grey Entertainment, helping build the Batman movie's first website.His reflections on surviving the Web 1.0 era and the exciting chaos of startups in 1990s New York.Using virtual reality for healthcare. Talk about ahead of the curve! Alec tells us about a 1993 college paper he wrote at Columbia on VR as a treatment for schizophrenia.Big Moments from Doing the Work Alec's transition from startups to healthcare advertising, driven by...
Our favorite stories: From record label & photography studio to ad agency; shaping incredible brands like Lollapalooza and Pitchfork to now Kimberly-Clark and PatagoniaRenting a $700/month, 2,000 sq ft industrial space to make band posters & album art, produce music, and photograph musicians. Creating Someoddpilot at 25 - "the gusto, the sincerity, the sureness even though I had no idea what I was doing" "I'm the kid that walked out of art school and wanted to keep tha...
Our favorite stories: Mass media shaped by sight-sound imagery, inspired by watching a ton of TV and critiquing the commercials as much as watching the programming. Recalling jingles, surgery cartoons, GEICO ads...On trying research journalism - "something just wasn't clicking, it felt like it drained me of energy." Part time restaurant job and appliance & repair parts marketing... the perfect recipe for becoming the future Head of Strategy at Sid Lee? JK - it helped with learn...
Our favorite stories: Trained as an industrial designer (furniture or automotive) but later found advertisingGlobal experience from Japan to France to The UK to NYC Horizontal education style and curiosity led to scores of career pivotsA lot of interviews, and because of the duality of my experiences, someone would tell me you're too much of this but not enough of this... Until I found a place that accepted me for me and service both sides of my experience: product and advertising -...
"If you got one foot in tomorrow and one foot in yesterday, then you're squattin' on today." - Brian's grandma Our favorite stories: 3x author, professor, and agency chief turned clinical therapist Over 20 years in China leading perhaps the most storied industry-shaper J. Walter Thompson on accounts like Kraft, Nike, and Microsoft. There was a lot of proud when you saw your work up there... there was a lot of social cache. Investment banking was a big thing and consulting wa...
Our favorite stories: "I started Bakery when I was 27... I didn't know how to do anything but I thought I knew how to do everything better than everyone else.""If you're from a place like the Dominican Republic, you're surviving... there's very few career tracks. You have a main career and a lot of side (hustles).""Once puberty hits... I was out there tagging walls... and then I had a mentor." "This is the passion of my life, working with people who are way more talented than I'll ...
Theo Gibson, ECD of Joan Creative and visual artist Bank Moody, joins us from Joan's NYC office to share his Jedi-like wisdom around authentic artistic creation, and how it has served him during an award-winning advertising career, from his early days building a creative community in Toronto, Canada, to his current role and life in NYC. Our favorite stories: How a friend's words, "sketchbook Theo is the best Theo," reminded him to re-prioritize making art with his handsIntentionally c...
This episode, we sit down with Lameya Chaudhury, the driving force behind social impact at Lucky Generals, the UK-based advertising agency known for work that doesn't just resonate—it challenges perceptions and drives meaningful change. With over 15 years of experience connecting brands to their communities, Lameya shares her journey of being curiosity-led, collecting mentors, and helping brands align their actions with their words. Our favorite stories: Making a complicated topic simple an...
Multi-hyphenate creative legend JoRoan Lazaro, ECD of Experience.Monks joins us to talk all things emerging technology, career lifecycles, and getting his start AOL in a time when UX design was still a nascent discipline. Our favorite stories: One of the odd birds in both product design and brand communicationsGoing against the grain: started in client-side and transitioned to agency"Instead of choosing one major I chose three. Computer science, psychology, and art - it didn't make sense at ...
Suzie Bao, IW Group's new VP Account Director for McDonald's stopped by the Bad Pod to talk about... Joy work; engaging career growth and creativity with a focus on multicultural representationLessons on finding mentorship early and often; the courage it takes to embrace people willing to tell you what you are bad atAccelerating and championing Asians in Advertising, a non profit organization dedicated to elevating traditionally overlooked voices and faces. Superpower: being a “fixer” an...
You'll be glad you caught this one. Matt Johnson has paved his ad career as a strategist and now agency founder with determination, humility, and of, course, a heaping helping of creativity. He cut his teeth at some of the most iconic names in LA advertising; Goodby, 72&Sunny, 180LA, and now Haymaker Matt tells us about sharing an alma mater with Dan Weiden and “growing up” in his career path alongside the rise of Jordan in the ‘80s when, for the first time, a single athlete was defining ...
Introducing our guest all the way from Lincoln, Nebraska… Clint Runge, CEO & Founder of Archrival!Turns out, advertising was a second chapter for Clint, who actually started out in architecture and design. Archrival is a youth culture agency setting out to reinvent how brands with the hearts and minds of young adults, teens to twenty-somethings. Clint and his team of 65 have worked with brands like Spotify, Adidas, and Epic Games, and they aren’t slowing down.“Rewriting the Ten ...
After 3 years and over 60 guest interviews, The Bad Pod co-founder, Amelia is leaving the podcast. AND Eric L. Hu, Head of Strategy FinTech at Walmart and our episode 37 guest from August '22, is taking over as co-host! Eric & Brian talk with Amelia about the pod past, our futures, what makes the work "worth it," and what is most important in our professional lives. Please join us in bidding a fond farewell to Amelia and wishing her all the best as she continues...
Look no further than this episode's thumbnail image to see that Ryan Mack likes doing things differently. And it's that ability to go with his gut, even and especially when unconventional, that has ushered him through a truly inspiring career. In his words, Ryan Mack's special talent is making small things medium. As the former President of Virtue Worldwide, he did just that, building Vice's agency into an advertising juggernaut. As Chief Commercial Officer at Made In Network, he has over...
It's the Happiest of New Years here at The Bad Pod because we finally got to sit down with the co-founders of our long-time sponsors, Book 180! Sarah Latz & Francesca Piancone were PR & Agency professionals who moonlighted as instructors at Chicago Portfolio School. And it's there where they first began to get the idea for another way to do this whole portfolio school thing, and where their friendship blossomed into a co-foundership. And the results are in! It. is. working. Graduat...