Special Sauce

John Hayes is the former Chief Marketing Officer of American Express, a longtime leader at advertising agencies, and a recent inductee into the Advertising Hall of Fame.

John joins the podcast to talk about the lessons he learned from Amex CEO Ken Chenault, how Walt Disney's dissatisfaction that his animated films were trapped on screen shaped his own belief in experiential marketing, the near-disaster behind an important card launc...

Amanda Richman grew up on a family farm in Tower City, North Dakota (population 360) with her eye fixed on New York City from the time she was old enough to sense it through magazines, films, and family road trips. In the years since, she has become a big player on the advertising world's biggest stages.

Amanda joins the podcast to talk about leading Mindshare's transformation from conventional media agency to agile marketing partne...

Bryan Wiener has spent his career getting into new areas of marketing early and then building organizations around what he saw coming: search, social, e-commerce analytics. Now, with 37Arc, he's doing it again. This time he's squarely in the middle of the AI transformation reshaping marketing from the inside out.

Bryan joins the podcast to talk about why he believes AI represents a fundamentally different era than anything that came...

Ramsey McGrory was a Montana kid who drove his dad's two-toned '57 Ford truck by sliding in through the passenger side door. He joined the Army out of high school, served in the Gulf War, worked a presidential campaign, and stumbled into the early internet through a modem at NationsBank — all by his early 30s. That restless, excitement-junkie energy carried him straight into the plumbing of digital advertising, where he has s...

Brian Matthews built a career at some of the most iconic media brands in the world -- CNN, the BBC, and NBC -- where he spent over a decade as a digital evangelist inside traditional television organizations, convincing linear sales teams that the future wasn't a threat to their business but an extension of it. In 2014, he joined the NFL, which turned out to be the dream job he might not have dared to write down on paper.

Brian join...

Atit Shah has spent nearly three decades at one agency -- not because he stood still, but because the agency always let him keep moving forward. What started as a Monster.com resume posting and a junior account executive role, has turned into one of the most quietly remarkable creative careers in our business.

Atit joins the podcast to talk about what it felt like to be "voluntold" by a senior colleague that he was in the wrong depa...

Kristine Segrist got her start writing meta tags for SEO at a small St. Louis agency (probably not exactly the Don Draper copywriter role one might envision), but that humble beginning opened doors she couldn't have imagined. From there, she spent over a decade building digital practices at WPP, before heading to Meta for nearly seven years where she rose through roles spanning media, product marketing, and brand.

Kristine joins the...

Kevin Wassong has spent his career chasing what’s next — often before the rest of the industry was even ready for it. From television to entertainment to digital and now AI, he has consistently built at the edge of change.

Kevin joins the podcast to talk about working on The Golden Girls during its final season (editor's note: best show ever), how early exposure to storytelling and technology shaped his instincts, and wh...

Chrissie Hanson has built her career at the intersection of rigor and curiosity -- shaped early by growing up in Hong Kong, navigating multiple cultures, and learning how identity, discipline, and brands signal meaning long before she had language for any of it.

Chrissie joins the podcast to talk about how those formative experiences influenced her leadership style, why discipline and follow-through matter more as careers progress, ...

Tim Castelli has built a career by repeatedly stepping away from what was comfortable in order to lean into what was coming next. From print to digital, from static to dynamic, and from content to commerce, he never sits still.

Tim joins the podcast to talk about growing up as a studious kid in Weirton, West Virginia, what studying psychology at Duke taught him about sales and leadership, and why he believes the most i...

Katherine Naylor Pullman has had a big few years. She got married, became a mom, left her full-time job, and turned a side project into a fast-growing national community for women. As the founder and CEO of Our Third Place, she’s building something that sits somewhere between networking, friendship, and the modern search for belonging — and she’s doing it in a way that feels both deeply personal and surprisingly s...

Bob Lord has built his career helping companies navigate moments of profound change — from early automation on factory floors to digital transformation across media, technology, and marketing.

Bob joins the podcast to talk about how past technology shifts reshaped entire industries, why removing mundane work is often what unlocks the most human value and why today’s AI moment feels familiar. He shares lessons from leadin...

Mike Romoff has built a career at the crossroads of community, technology, and commercial leadership — from early roles in ad tech and publishing to senior positions at LinkedIn and now Reddit, where he serves as Chief Revenue Officer. Known for his eclectic style and systems-driven mind, Mike has made a career out of bringing order to complexity.

Mike joins the podcast to talk about his spirituality, a recent meeting with the...

Janet Balis has spent her career at the intersection of media, marketing, and transformation — from Time Warner and AOL to Martha Stewart Living, EY, and now BCG. A connector of people and ideas, she has helped shape how companies adapt to disruption, and how leaders think about influence, innovation, and purpose.

Janet joins the podcast to talk about how AI mirrors the early days of digital, and why asking the right questions...

Seb Tomich has helped redefine how legacy media evolves for the digital era. After early hustles selling Patagonia jackets in Boulder and sunglasses in New York, he found his footing at Forbes under the mentorship of Meredith Kopit Levien — who would later bring him to The New York Times, where he spent more than a decade driving digital transformation, building T Brand Studio, and shaping the company’s pivot from print...

Jacki Kelley’s career spans the full breadth of modern media — from the circulation department at USA Today to leadership roles at Yahoo, Martha Stewart, Bloomberg, Dentsu, and now Interpublic Group. Raised on a Colorado ranch, she learned early the values of discipline, empathy, and hard work that would define her approach to business and life.

Jacki joins the podcast to talk about what it means to “become a begin...

Rob Norman has spent decades helping to define the modern media industry. Starting as a media assistant in London, he rose to lead GroupM North America and later, as it's Global Chief Digital Officer, he traveled the world helping clients drive innovation during the rise of social, mobile and auction-based media. All along the way, he has helped shape the careers of many of today's industry leaders.

Rob joins the podcast to talk abo...

Abbey Klaassen is the Global Brand President at Dentsu Creative, where she leads thousands of creative professionals around the world. Earlier in her career, she was at Advertising Age, where she rose from reporter to editor and associate publisher, before making the leap to the agency side at 360i.

Abbey joins the podcast to talk about the risks of leaving journalism for advertising, what she learned from running new business pitch...

Penry Price is a media and technology leader whose career has spanned publishing, ad tech, and some of the world’s most influential platforms. He’s held leadership roles at Rolling Stone, Us Weekly, Google, and LinkedIn, where he served as VP of Marketing Solutions for nearly a decade.

Penry joins the podcast to talk about growing up in a Mad Men household, his family’s 800-person reunion, and what it was like to h...