Wildwood Talent

Fancy a cheeky Founder Focussed bitesized listen from Natalie Graeme?

It's 7 minutes of expertise from one of our favourite founders, to round off our Founder Focus month.

Natalie reflects on life, 9 years into her Uncommon Creative Studio lifespan:

• how Nat always wanted to be a founder but considered it a pipe dream, until she met her Founding Partners.
• advice for anyone starting an agency today.
• how to help back entrepren...

Lucy Jameson's interview is one of my favourites.

Her absolute confidence in the company she has built, alongside Nils and Natalie, has never faltered (and I don't think ever will). And even with hindsight, she wouldn't change one single thing about their journey and rise to success.

Lucy's confidence and brain shine through but so does her ability to laugh and share more vulnerable moments, for example, how she struggles w...

Producers - this one's for you.

You are some of my favourite people.

Problem-solvers, leaders, multitaskers.

Without you, we'd be nothing.

So I thought I'd grab two of the top Chief Production Officers, from two of the top creative agencies, to have a chat.

We discussed:

• what a CPO actually does.
• how moving from producing to leading the department is a big transition.
• production as the 4th leg of the agency table.
• how...

Strategists, this one's for you!

For our final, festive After Work Drinks episode of the year, we cherry-picked two of the best, funniest and most approachable strategists in town.

Oh, and they are mates, so the sofa chem was on point.

We knocked back some drinks and discussed:

🧠 what a CSO actually does.

🧠 how the role has changed over the years.

🧠 the need for resilience in the role.

🧠 whether their department can ...

Our first episode of the year covered a conversation about instinct, experimentation, chaos and why thinking more like an artist might be the future of strategy.

Oh and a bit about her amazing co-Founder, Sir Idris Elba.

(I might have repeated his name a few times, to get that tiny bit closer ☺️).

For our first sofa chat of the year, we discussed:

✨Why Alien Baby was called Alien Baby.

✨The pros and cons of having an artist...

Our sofa chat with Helen explored leadership without ego, preserving culture (while evolving it) and why emotional intelligence & perseverance matter more than ever in creative agencies.

We sipped herbal tea, marvelled over how high my heating was turned up (I may have gone into winter over-kill) and had a lovely 13 minute chat about leadership:

✨ In a new role, how enhancing magic (rather than shaking things up) can be ...

I've been wanting to meet Hollie for a while.

Not only because she'd been recommended as a powerhouse of a leader but also because she has just moved to my second home, Amsterdam.

Hollie gave this interview everything, emotionally. She shared some hard-hitting moments in her career - from a lack of feeling like she belonged in our industry to her IVF journey.

We snuggled up, created a space for sharing and discussed:

...

The excitement and intimidation I felt having these two powerhouse CCO's on my sofa was extreme.

But as they are the least intimidating and most lovely, warm people, that soon dissipated.

Raising a glass to my first two Creatives on the sofa - and what a duo!

We sipped negroni's and had a relaxed chat about:

• intimidation in the creative department.
• what a CCO actually does. And whether it takes them away from the work.
• ho...

2 years after our first interview...NAT'S BACK!

A lot has changed for her over the last 6 months.

She now has a SMALL baby + a BIG business.

Nat opened up about how she found Maternity Leave, after 20 years working full-throttle in the advertising industry.

-how her co-Founders ghosted her communications to prevent the urge to be half-in, half-out.

-how being out on Maternity Leave has given her the opportunity to redefine...

Oooh, I really like Mel Arrow.

She's relaxed, easy to talk to, likeable... and she wore the best trousers!

Mel moved from a Chief Strategy Officer position to become a CEO. Not unlike others in our industry (Lucy Jameson at Grey and Paula Bloodworth at Alien Baby).

I wanted to find out why CSO's make excellent CEO's. And which parts of the job were tricky to adjust to.

We snuggled up and had a chitchat about:

• Mel's new ...

Claire and Alicia shot an episode of After Work Drinks to help shed some light on the joys and thorns of being a Founder.

Whether you’re 2 years in (Alicia) or 13 years in (Claire) there are still challenges that keep you on your toes.

One thing is clear: being a Founder isn’t just a job.

If you're lucky, it's the biggest professional commitment you'll ever make.

We covered:

💗How these two became Founders - ac...