Inspiring Futures

Send a text Elle is the perfect person to talk to if you want an understanding of strategy inside organizations.  She started her work life selling punk fashions in London's Camden Market, but found her way into adland, landing strategy roles at Karmarama and BBH in London.  Elle then moved over to the US with BBH, then onto BBDO- where she led the agency's pitch for the global Ford account.  Her client experience includes time at EA, PayPal, Ford, and she's currently at McCaffe. Our conversation talked about her experience and her learnings on the agency side, and what it takes to bring strategy into an organization- how to operationalize it. Which often means handing it over to others to make it their own and action it in their own way.  We also talked about removing the term brand from every deck. 

Send a text Japan has one of the world’s deepest running cultures and at the center of it sits Ekiden: the long-distance relay that becomes a national obsession every winter.  In this episode, I’m joined by Jeremy Kuhles, a translator, writer, and runner who’s made it his mission to share Japanese running culture with the world through creative storytelling. Jeremy has lived in Japan for two decades and is immersing himself from the inside, training alongside the Tamagawa University women’s Ekiden team and running with RETO Running Club under Hakone Ekiden legend Daichi Kamino.  We get into what Ekiden actually is, why it’s “beyond a race,” and why the outside world often collapses the entire culture into one event: Hakone Ekiden. Jeremy explains why that’s a problem, how it funnels talent geographically, and how it shapes the career path for runners across Japan.  We also go where the conversation usually doesn’t: women’s Ekiden. Jeremy shares what he’s hearing directly from athletes, and why greater parity and awareness matter when sponsorship, media attention, and money disproportionately flow to the men despite equal work and sacrifice.  About Jeremy Kuhles Jeremy is a translator, writer, and runner focused on bridging the language and cultural gap between Japan’s distance-running world and a global audience through interviews, essays, and social storytelling.

Send us a text John is an ECD at Digitas and the author of a new book, "Zombie Brands." In our conversation, we talked about his book and the why, what, and how behind the rise of the Zombie Brand. Some of John's quotes from our chat. On the state of advertising: "No one went to, no one got into advertising to make a banner ad. No one got into advertising to make a Facebook ad." On the shift from craft to quantity: "The bragging rights have been we're working with Ridley Scott on this 60-second Super Bowl spot. Now it was we're spending five cents." On viral marketing's false lessons: "We spent zero in paid media and just gamed the system to draw lots of attention to this stunt that doesn't really have much to do with the brand itself... I think it was actually terrible for the industry in terms of the lessons taken away."On performance marketing: "I think a lot of this is hamsters on a wheel. I don't see the evidence that all this activity is leading to growth." On the attention span myth: "If people really did have no attention span, like every planes would be crashing all over the place... You just said no one pays attention anymore and then you watched like 37 hours of TV." On digital ads: "Digital ads are, to me, they're akin to postcards. They're reminders of a brand you already love. If you get a postcard from a brand you don't like, it goes in the trash can."On the zombie brand concept: "Zombies are not quite human, right? They kind of seem human, but they're not. They're hollowed out. They all kind of look alike. They all sound alike. They all grunt kind of the same few phrases. And yeah, they sort of maniacally roam the earth like looking for clicks." On Starbucks destroying its brand: "The whole brand, when I worked on Starbucks at Ogilvy, find the brand as fostering connections between human beings. It wasn't about coffee at all... they've completely killed the goose." On the data-driven optimization problem: "They had beta tested their way into basically a big subscribe button. That's all it was. It was a button for people who already had made up their mind to subscribe." On short-term thinking and performance marketing: "You're robbing future Peter to pay present Paul. I might not want you now, but maybe I do in a year, maybe I do in years." https://zombie-brands.com/books/zombie-brands

Send us a text Introduction Justin Rashidi is co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at CDEX, a data-driven marketing and business consultancy approaching its tenth year. In this episode of Inspiring Futures, he talks about his unlikely path from biochemistry student to entrepreneur, the tutoring company that taught him everything, and how CDEX grew from freelancing for a dairy farm to working with Fortune 500 clients. Key Themes 1. The Tutoring Company: An Accidental MBA Waitlisted for medical school, Justin moved to New York, worked as a busser and bartender, and started tutoring affluent families. That side gig became his real education—lead generation, CRM, sales pipelines, hiring. He sold the company, which he now regrets: "I wish I never sold that company... that was a great company." Everything he does at CDEX traces back to what he learned there. 2. Problem-Solving as Growth After selling, Justin and co-founder Jacqueline freelanced for anyone who'd pay—starting with a dairy farm. "It wasn't like I set out to start this company. You solve enough problems, and then I found myself here." 3. Quality of Revenue He prefers longer sales cycles with larger clients who think in five to ten year terms. "The quality of the revenue is better. These people want to work together for five years." 4. Lead Generation as Core Competency Unlike agencies that wait for the phone to ring, CDEX actively generates leads. "I love when referrals happen, but I don't rely on referrals... we're out here generating the next lead tomorrow." 5. Systems Thinking Justin calls himself a "systems kind of dude." If it costs $20,000 to acquire a customer who pays $50,000 a month, the math works. "I don't care if it costs $2,000 to get a meeting." 6. Hiring for Passion He looks for people who read about SEO on Saturdays because it makes them happy. "What you actually want to hire for is people who want to be there." 7. AI Realism He pushes back on AI as a silver bullet. "You're going to save 50%? That's unrealistic. You still need people."

Send us a text Neil Perkin is a consultant, author, and self-described polymath working at the intersection of strategy, digital transformation, emerging technology, and leadership.  With roots in media transformation at Time Inc during the dot-com boom, Neil has spent the last 16 years helping organizations navigate change.  He's authored three books on agility and transformation, and now writes extensively about how AI is reshaping the practice of strategy. In this conversation, Neil shares his perspective on what it really means to work with AI—not as a replacement for human thinking, but as something far more nuanced and powerful. Five Big Themes from Our Conversation 1. AI as a Genuine Thought Partner Neil argues that the real opportunity with AI isn't automation—it's augmentation of human thinking through continuous dialogue. "How you can really use AI as a bit of a thought partner... it's like fully integrated into a strategy workflow, or any other kind of knowledge or thinking workflow, in ways where you're going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between human and machine." "Ideally what you are aiming for here, of course, is you're getting to places that you couldn't have got to on your own. And that's the possibility with AI." 2. The Danger of Cognitive Outsourcing Neil warns against the temptation to let AI do our thinking for us—what he calls "cognitive outsourcing"—and the hidden costs of "work slop." "This whole idea of cognitive outsourcing is a potentially big problem because if you are able to get the AI to do your thinking for you, you don't need to do any thinking, and thinking is hard." "It's a big temptation because it's good enough, but it's not good. And so the person, the recipient has to then redo the work and it takes longer to actually do that." 3. Think, Prompt, Think Before rushing to the AI, Neil advocates for starting with human clarity—a simple framework that changes everything. "Think prompt think, basically. So the importance of actually just starting with humans. Before you go to the AI engine, just thinking about what it is you're trying to do, what good looks like... So you start basically with your perspective." "Starting with you and then you having clarity and much greater depth with how you're then going to the AI... means that you're actually integrating it in a way which is not cognitively outsourcing or not disengaging your brain." 4. Five Roles AI Can Play Neil offers a practical framework for understanding where AI fits—from full automation to human-led illumination. "There's a model which I come back to a lot, which is just kind of like five sort of key roles that it can play... automator... decider... recommender... illuminator and evaluator. And they sort of balance human AI to different extent." "The illuminator part is where the AI is augmenting your thinking. It's illuminating things in a way that actually you hadn't seen things before." 5. Don't View the New Through the Lens of the Old Drawing from his transformation experience, Neil cautions against the natural tendency to apply old mental models to revolutionary technology. "I learned a lot about not looking at the new through the lens of the old, the need to kind of reinvent and redesign as well as use technology to optimize." "The first kind of versions of things were always kind of skeuomorphic... online magazines were like literally scans of pages of printed magazines. I think probably we're going to see a lot of that with AI." Find Neil: Substack: onlydeadfish.substack.com Blog: onlydeadfish.co.uk Named after the Malcolm Muggeridge quote: "Only dea

Send us a text It's always interesting to see what a network agency in a local market is capable of, especially at a moment in advertising history when geography matters less than it ever has.  A few weeks back, I got a chance to sit down with Havas Chiago's Chief Strategy Officer, Chase Cornett, and Chief Creative Officer Frank Dattalo to talk about the change they're implementing as a leadership team that includes President Kat Ott.  Our conversation was wide-ranging and covered their approach to thinking about the new duality of marketing today- a concept they call "High/Low", the importance of building brand, treating talent with kindness, and recognizing the power and the limitations of AI.  1. The Leadership Triad  In 2025, Frank Dattalo joined President Kat Ott and Chief Strategy Officer Chase Cornett to rebuild Havas Chicago's creative, strategic, and cultural core.  Together, they're positioning the agency as a modern, independent, culture-driven hub within the Havas network. Chase: "It's been great to come back to Chicago and reimagine what Havas Chicago can be, a modern agency with the freedom to build what's needed without red tape. Frank: "We knew what we didn't want to be, slow or rigid. We wanted a nimble, modern marketing approach with culture at the forefront. 2. The 'High–Low' Model — Think Like a Brand, Act Like an Influencer Havas Chicago's creative philosophy pairs strategic brand thinking ("high") with the speed, fluency, and emotional immediacy of creators ("low"). Inspired by fashion's high–low aesthetic, it merges rigor and agility to create culturally resonant brands. Frank: "Our north star is thinking like a brand but acting like an influencer or content creator. Chase: "This isn't agency fluff. It changes how we hire, how we make, and how we operate." 3. Breaking Down Silos — The Feed as the New Brand Canvas Havas Chicago rejects the traditional divide between social, brand, and performance teams. Culture, not channel, drives brand growth, and the feed is where that happens. Chase: "Brand building starts and ends in the feed. If it's not in the feed, people aren't talking about it. Frank: "Networks separate social and strategy, we're building an agency that does both." 4. Reclaiming Brand Building — Escaping the Performance Trap Cornett frames the 2010s as the "gold-rush era of performance marketing," where brands traded long-term equity for short-term metrics. The new Havas model rebuilds meaning, pricing power, and emotional value. Chase: "Performance became the buzzword, and brand was painted into a corner as arts and crafts." "If you follow the efficiency train, you're racing yourself to the bottom." 5. Culture, Kindness, and Creativity — Building a Human-Centered Agency The trio's internal philosophy blends high creative standards with genuine humanity. They aim to make Havas Chicago a place where talent thrives, not just performs. Frank: "It's not about being nice; it's about being kind. Be hard on the work, kind to people." Chase: "We've created mandatory maker hours; no meetings, just making." 6. AI as Tool, Not Savior — Protecting Creativity's Human Core Both leaders embrace AI for speed and efficiency but reject its overuse. For them, imagination remains the irreplaceable differentiator. Frank: "AI is like a bionic arm; powerful, but it doesn't have a creative point of view."

Send us a text A few months ago, in the middle of summer, I got a chance to sit down with Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, to talk about his brand new book, "The Running Ground." We got to talk about the book—what inspired it, how he approached it, and how he managed to create a compelling narrative. So this is a podcast episode about running, but it's also about writing and about the challenges of telling a good story. Nick's journalism career started at the Washington Monthly when he was around 24 or 25, working as a political journalist. From there, he moved to Wired magazine as an editor, then to the New Yorker, where he eventually ran the website, learning the business side of journalism. This led to his role as editor-in-chief of Wired before becoming CEO of The Atlantic, which was founded in 1857. But Nick is also a serious runner. In his mid-40s, Nike reached out to him as part of a program pairing non-elite runners with elite coaches. Through this process, he discovered he had talent he hadn't tapped into—his coaches realized that part of his problem was a fear of running fast, a mental block about what he could achieve. They had to "trick" him into going faster. The result was dramatic: he dropped his marathon time from 2:43 to 2:29, and eventually set an American record in the 50K at age 45, running 3:04. The book was originally going to be structured like a marathon and, of course, it was going to have 26 chapters, but then the chronology made no sense. The advice he got from a writer friend is that he needed to take the reader "deep inside the mind of the runner," and importantly, another bit of advice: "you have to make us care" and "you have to make us care about you." Where he ended up is an original and intriguing concept where he manages to weave his life, his father's life, and five other running characters together into a story. Once he had something, there was a process of editing out the unimportant stuff to focus on what mattered. The spark for the book was his father's death—on a plane back from his funeral, he wrote a 5,000-word letter to his three kids telling the story of their grandfather. This became the starting point, but he ended up telling his dad's story, his story, and also the stories of the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, his coach who had a story of addiction and recovery, his running partner who was homeless at one point in pursuit of her dream, a runner who developed Parkinson's, and another runner who has won a 3,100-mile race nine years in a row. As the Washington Monthly wrote in its review: "The Running Ground crackles with big ideas about intergenerational inheritance, the power of love and forgiveness, the inevitability of aging, the mind-body connection, and the value of hard work. The memoir's intertwined stories—Thompson's relationship with his father alongside Thompson's own journey as a marathon runner hitting his stride midlife—are compelling narratives."

Send us a text Brandon runs strategy at Trade School which is the creative agency which was born out of 22squared in 2020. The agency's clients include- Makita, Home Depot, Shark Ninja, Publix and Advent Health.  Brandon's experience includes time at Campbell-Ewald/Detroit after which he joined West Wayne in Atlanta, which became 22 Squared.  In our conversation, we talked about the evolving role of marketing, the importance of brands and brand meaning, and how AI is shifting and re-shaping the shopping journey. Here are some of Brandon's soundbites from the podcast.  “We are a dopamine-driven ephemeral society. That is very difficult for brands. And I think that's why you see a lot of brands chasing attention.” “Brands are having a hard time creating memory structures because they're chasing attention. People just don't remember any ads at all. I think only 4% of ads are recalled three days later.” “Our agency spends a lot of time, and it's probably because we've, we, we work with a bunch of complicated, multiple-location, retail-type brands, but from hospitals to banks to grocery stores to home improvement stores. We spend so much time doing the internal work, the alignment, the branding campaigns internally, getting people rallied around the heart of the brand and how they live it.” “The whole product and brand discovery process is getting completely changed by AI. We're going to have to re-engineer our journeys and what we invest in and our technology in terms of it's no longer about search engine optimization. It's about content. It's about making things discoverable for AI, all these things, right? But the thing that I think will matter more than anything is going to be the brand meaning.” “For a long time, we've associated brand with frivolous type advertising and communications that are a luxury to have. Brand is an operating system for companies. It’s not a new thought, but it's a true thought. A mental organizing form for action, which is how people think about the world and about the category you're in and about the actions that they take and what it means for them.”

Send us a text 5 Things I learned from talking to Kelsey Hodgkin- CEO-Special US  In a conversation for the Inspiring Futures podcasts that spans London, Buenos Aires, and Los Angeles, Kelsey Hodgkin — CEO and Partner at Special U.S. — maps out how a planner becomes a leader without losing her strategic soul.  Her story traces the evolution of strategy itself — from the village logic of London agencies to the fandom-driven, fragmented culture of 2025. Founded in 2007 in Auckland, New Zealand, Special Group began in an old cinema and is now a independent global network with offices in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, New York, and London.  The Los Angeles office opened in 2020. For Hodgkin, the decision to join Special US was philosophical as much as professional: “There was a joyfulness about Special I always really loved. I used to describe it like the film Bridesmaids — you could tell they’d had so much fun making it. That’s how the work should feel. I wanted to help build a place that protected that joy and applied everything I’d learned to a post-COVID world.” 1. She Lived The Antidote To Our Data-Obsessed Culture Working in Buenos Aires during Argentina’s economic turmoil taught Hodgkin a counterintuitive truth: when money becomes meaningless, creative output becomes everything. “It’s sort of this two-year experience of what it’s like to actually live somewhere where money and capitalism isn’t the driving force. It’s much more about the creative output… you have to be really resourceful.” 2. She Reframes Strategy as Living Beyond The Brief-Writing Machine While many agencies treat strategy as a creative-brief factory, Hodgkin articulates a more ambitious vision that challenges every CSO. “Strategy at its best is either upstream — really understanding the commercial side of the business — or downstream in the media complexity… being able to turn a big idea into an even bigger idea.” 3. She Named the Real Challenge: ‘Our clients are in a washing machine’ Instead of complaining about client chaos, Hodgkin sees opportunity in the turbulence. “The unpredictability, the uncertainty… having strategists that can really understand that commercial reality… being able to be in there with them every day.” 4. She Makes The Case For Agencies As Counter-Culture At a time when agencies increasingly mirror their corporate clients, Hodgkin argues for resistance. “The job of agencies is to be countercultural — questioning of the mainstream and contrarian… if it becomes part of the machine it’s trying to change, then it’s less valuable in being able to change.” 5. She Redefines Leadership As Creative Curation Hodgkin sees the planner’s superpower — pattern recognition, empathy, orchestration — as the foundation for modern leadership. “As a planner, my strength was more curation than creation — helping greatness happen through others. That’s what leading an agency is.” In an ad agency world struggling with AI, economic uncertainty, and purpose fatigue, Hodgkin offers a grounded roadmap: be resourceful, stay close to the chaos, protect creativity from corporatization, and lead by shaping the conditions for others to do their best work.

While most of us are obsessed with the creative and strategy side of the business, the harsh reality is that agencies succeed or fail based on their operational competence.  For this recent episode of Inspiring Futures, I spent time talking to Nick Avaria.  Nick has owned his own agency, and he also buys agencies and consults with them to help them improve operations.  Here are some of the highlights of our conversation.  The agency landscape has transformed.  Where generalist agencies once dominated through geographic proximity, today's winners are specialized, systematized, and financially disciplined. The Numbers that Matter  Agency finances are simple: Revenue minus pass-through costs equals Agency Gross Income (AGI).  People costs should consume maximum 45% of AGI (30% billable, 15% admin).  SG&A should range 20-25%.  This formula yields 30-35% profit margins—increasingly achievable in today's remote-first environment. According to Nick, most agencies fail by providing "Michelin star service at McDonald's prices."  The solution isn't cutting quality but is all about being able to align price with value. Specialization to Survive  In 2012, only 20% of agencies were specialized; today it's 70%.  Specialists command premium pricing because they deliver results in weeks, not months.  They skip expensive discovery phases, leveraging "institutional knowledge"—accumulated expertise that becomes an unassailable moat. The agency handling only Google Ads for personal injury lawyers doesn't need three months of strategy.  They know what works. This expertise enables premium pricing while reducing delivery time. The Operations Gap  Most agencies are "relationship driven, not systems driven."  Every handoff fails. Every project reinvents wheels. Results: inconsistent quality, evaporating margins. The fix requires two feedback loops: systematized client experience (onboarding, expectations, education) and standardized delivery (dashboards, SOPs, training).  These unglamorous systems separate scalable agencies from those that implode. What It Takes to Be Sold  For maximum valuation: maintain 30-35% profit margins while growing AGI 30-35% annually.  Achieve $1M+ EBITDA for 6-9x multiples. Build 2+ year client retention. Create owner-independent systems. Winners have transformed from creative shops into operationally excellent businesses.  They've chosen their lane—vertical, service, or both—and built expertise others can't match. What it Takes Today, rewards neither generalists nor operational chaos behind creative brilliance. Success requires specialized expertise, systematic delivery, positioning, and financial discipline. Agencies can't thrive on talent alone.  They need systems capturing talent's impact, positioning commanding appropriate pricing, and discipline ensuring every dollar builds a sellable asset.  Creative magic still matters, but it has to be wrapped in a sound business model.

Brandon runs strategy at Trade School which is the creative agency which was born out of 22squared in 2020,  The agency's clients include- Makita, Home Depot, Shark Ninja, Publix and Advent Health.  Brandon's experience includes time at Campbell-Ewald/Detroit after which he joined West Wayne in Atlanta which became 22 Squared.   In our conversation we talked about the evolving role of marketing, the importance of brands and brand meansing and how AI is shifting and re-shaping the shopping journey. Here are some soundbites from Brandon from the podcast.  “We are a dopamine-driven ephemeral society. That is very difficult for brands. And I think that's why you see a lot of brands chasing attention.” “Brands are having a hard time creating memory structures because they're chasing attention. People just don't remember any ads at all. I think only 4% of ads are recalled three days later.” “Our agency spends a lot of time and it's probably because we've, we, we work with a bunch o  complicated, multiple-location, retail type brands, but from hospitals to banks to grocery stores, to home improvement stores. We spend so much time doing the internal work, the alignment, the branding campaigns internally, getting people rallied around the heart of the brand and how they live it.” “The whole product and brand discovery process is getting completely changed by AI. We're going to have to re-engineer our journeys and what we invest in and our technology in terms of it's no longer about search engine optimization. It's about content. It's about making things discoverable for AI, all these things, right? But the thing that I think will matter more than anything is going to be the brand meaning.” “For a long time, we've associated brand with frivolous type advertising and communications that are a luxury to have. Brand is an operating system for companies. It’s not a new thought, but it's a true thought. A mental organizing form for action, which is how people think about the world and about the category you're in and about the actions that they take and what it means for them”

Mary Lou Bunn is the CEO and founder of the agency Flower Shop.  "Ad Age’s Small Agency 2024 Newcomer of the Year. That’s right, we’re a creative agency. We may be based out of a former florist’s on the Lower East Side of New York City, but we sell sneakers (or spirits, or non-alcoholic beer, or women’s sports teams, or energy drinks for athletes, or trading cards) rather than bouquets. We like to look at things from a fresh angle, with a twist. So we may not bring you flowers - sorry - but we can promise beautiful campaigns that are undeniably famous and will grow your brand." In our conversation, we discussed her background in hospitality and architecture, and how it influenced her perspective on how to run an agency. Her agency experience, the story behind the origins of Flower Shop, its philosophy, and the opportunity for a nimble small agency at this moment in time.  

From digital media planner to Chief Strategy Officer - and now she's on a mission to democratize strategy for everyone. This is a podcast interview I did with Lucy Barbor, a strategy consultant and educator who's flipping the script on how we think about strategic thinking. After rising through the ranks to become CSO at both PHD and Carat in the UK, Lucy made a bold move: she decided to take strategy out of the boardroom and into the hands of anyone hungry to learn. Her philosophy? Strategy shouldn't be this mysterious, gatekept discipline that only a select few can master. In our conversation, we dive into: How she approaches teaching strategy to make it truly accessible The biggest misconceptions people have about strategic thinking What she learned climbing the ladder in competitive agency environments Her framework for breaking down complex strategic problems If you've ever felt intimidated by strategy or wondered how the best strategists think, this one's for you.

Rachel has spent over a decade at Work&Co. In the episode, we discuss the company's unique origin story and how it has evolved alongside the transformative changes in the world of technology.  We talk about.. 1. The importance of carving out space for creative risk, which clients demand because they find it challenging to accomplish in their environment.  2. How constraints increase the odds of innovation.  3. Why is simplicity hard? Because it requires a combination of iteration and bravery. 4. Experience matters- be a user, feel and find the frictions- go to the edge and experience those use cases because innovation comes from trial and immersion.  5. AI is transformative, but now is the time to get deep into the sandbox and play. 

Christine Olivas began her career by hand-delivering 50 resumes to San Francisco startups, which resulted in one startup hiring her.  Her entry into agency work came when an owner heard a webinar she produced and was impressed enough to bring her aboard.  At this agency, she excelled by running two departments and contributing to significant growth.  After years of success there, she transitioned to a strategy role at a New York agency before going freelance.  When client demand exceeded her capacity, she built a team, evolving into her current thriving business (No Single Individual) that provides agencies with talent across multiple disciplines.  Christine's journey illustrates the power of hard work, risk-taking, entrepreneurship, and market understanding.  Our hour together revealed not only her remarkable path but also her insights on how agencies have the opportunity to be more flexible and adaptable with talent in today's challenging environment. A shift that's creating new opportunities thanks to the breadth and depth of freelance talent. 

Tara is the Chief Creative Officer at Rethink NY. She has extensive creative experience from agencies including Y&R, BBH, Mother, and Droga (x2). In our conversation, we discussed her experience at Miami Ad School, where she was forced to think seriously about funny- to an approach and perspective on being sensitive enough to find funny in the world around you. We discussed her experiences and challenges at the different agencies she's worked at. How Rethink throws has a unique West-Coast culture that's designed to make working in a New York agency less like a hot house. How clients still want great work But this all depends on the relationship and how Rethink has a unique way of making this work from the get-go. 

The latest Inspiring Futures podcast features an interview with Pip Bingemann- the co-founder of Springboards.ai As strategy departments grapple with how to use AI, this podcast seems timely. Pip is an agency strategist who embraced AI from the early days, learned basic code, and built a model that attracted the attention of several agencies.  Fast-forward two and a half years, and Springboards.ai has funding, sales,  and customer service teams in multiple countries, as well as a bench of tech talent that includes a 17-year-old math genius.  Pip is doing something different with AI- recognizing that strategists need partners to help them bring their ideas to life, Springboards.ai is designed to be fun and creative. Its focus is on delivering variance vs. the typical AI model, where output is about conforming to an average.

The latest Inspiring Futures podcast features an interview with Michael Miller and Chris Nobile- two of the three founders of consulting group Consiglieri. Before the founding of the consultancy, Michael and Chris worked together and helped build T-Mobile's in-house capabilities.  In our conversation, we talk about what they learned from the T-Mobile experience and how it informed the development of their consultancy.  We discussed the pieces that matter, like the power of asking why certain things are happening, building operational competence, and doing things that help turn legacy marketing organizations into modern ones.  In a complex and complicated marketing world, Consiglieri exists to help CMOs build and operationalize their marketing function, allowing the CMO to manage the day-to-day. 

The latest Inspiring Futures podcast features an interview with Ali Burton.  Ali is Deputy Head of Gate One in London, which is a Havas-owned start-up incubator.  He's also in the process of growing his own start-up Catch.  https://catchcameras.co.uk/ The idea of Catch is to lean into the movement for people to appreciate the analog, enjoy waiting, learn new skills, and build IRL communities.  In our conversation, we talked about what he's learned from working with start-up founders, how he's thinking about and growing his business and what it was that drove him to develop the company.

The latest Inspiring Futures episode is all about "Futures". My guest is Donna Dupont, Chief Strategist, Foresight and Design at Purple Compass. As the Founder and Chief Strategist in Foresight & Design for Purple Compass, Donna Dupont brings skills and insights developed over 20 years working with leaders in healthcare, emergency management, government public policy, strategic planning and program design. She has facilitated a range of foresight and design activities for clients in healthcare, emergency management and military. In the conversation, we talk about the world of "Futures" what it is, what it isn't, the skills required, the approaches, and some of the challenges involved.