Own It
We’re buying out of the ad industry boys’ club. Hosted by Cornett owner Christy Hiler, Own It lifts up the stories of women and nonbinary ad agency owners: their challenges, their successes, and their goals for the industry. We’re aiming to start a movement—because you don’t have the power until you own it.
Episodes
February 24, 2026 • 42 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Alexis Toney and Grace Kwak from Background Noise. It is a strategic consultancy that promotes diversity through inclusive strategies that help meet brands where they are and help them grow to where they need to go.
And diversity lives through every bit of their firm. Alexis is a New York City club deejay when she is not working on client projects. Grace balanced that busy life by moving to Ca...
Mark as Played
February 10, 2026 • 41 mins
This week on Own It, we’re talking to Mandana Mellano from PEONY Talent. It is a boutique talent recruitment and advisory practice that services the media, advertising, marketing, technology and entertainment industries. Her efforts have been focused on modernizing the talent recruitment process in our industry. I love how she’s innovating in that space for us all.
Mandana and I talked about her journey, the issues facing the indu...
Mark as Played
February 3, 2026 • 39 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Chelsea Matthews from TUX, a creative agency with offices in L.A. and Montreal. Chelsea is also an owner beyond the agency world. She is also a partner in Highly Likely which has a number of casual dining restaurants in Southern California, and co-founded Candid, a content creation platform that was acquired in 2024.
We certainly dove into her ability to thrive balancing multiple ventures and u...
Mark as Played
January 20, 2026 • 75 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Tiffany Rolfe from R/GA. She is the global chair and one of the new owners of one of the world’s largest and most successful agencies so this episode has a lot of value in it. Tiffany has recently touched work with Puma and Jay-Z, the ACLU and many more. She’s in the middle of leveraging influencers and creating strategic solutions at the intersection of storytelling and technology that lead to ...
Mark as Played
January 13, 2026 • 42 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Remy Stiles from Kepler. After serving as the North American president for the previous three years She is now Kepler’s global CEO. She’s been with the firm for over 13 years and came up through the account side of the industry.
Remy has been instrumental in building the culture, innovation, and vision that defines who Kepler is, which is a critical piece of the leadership puzzle. We talked abo...
Mark as Played
January 6, 2026 • 44 mins
This week on Own It, we’re talking to Lennon Barnica from Wild Manor. It is a editorial and finishing house that focuses on the quality and craftsmanship they bring to client projects. They say they’ve created a place for storytelling to flourish. We love that.
Hearing Lennon tell her story was fascinating and inspiring. We had a wonderful time hearing that, getting to know her and certainly getting her perspective on the gender g...
Mark as Played
December 23, 2025 • 36 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Emily Siegel from Lafayette American. She not only started her Detroit-based agency in 2018, but did so at the same time she had her first child. None of that held her or the firm back. It has earned AdAge Small Agency of the Year, was on the Adweek Breakthrough Agency of the Year Shortlist and Emily was named an AdAge Woman to Watch along the way.
Emily came to ownership through running the co...
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December 16, 2025 • 40 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Michele Kunken and Julie Liu from Slim Creative. As you might infer from the name, they are focused on the power of less and strip away the layers that crush great ideas.
Michele and Julie lead the agency from different coasts with Michele operating out of the New York/New Jersey area. Julie is in Los Angeles. We dove into their firm, their individual and collective journeys to ownership throug...
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December 2, 2025 • 39 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Aleena Kuzma from FUSE Create. She’s based in the Toronto area in Canada but immigrated there from the middle east when she was a teenager. That sense of adventure and travel drives her creativity.
Aleena has been with FUSE for eight years and earned her way to a partnership role very early in her tenure. The firm promises to create work that turns heads. They are such a fantastic creative agen...
Mark as Played
November 25, 2025 • 44 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Alexis Young and Danielle McNeill from Definitely Real. It is a creative marketing agency committed to delivering impactive creative solutions based in Vancouver, Canada. Alexis and Danielle started the firm in 2021 after meeting at a music festival in Toronto.
Definitely Real was recently featured in AdWeek as a Top 10 Indie Agency to Watch.
We had so much fun hearing about their journey to e...
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November 18, 2025 • 45 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Meryl Draper from Quirk Creative. She is truly global, leading a firm that has offices in New York, Guadalajara, and Paris, where she is based now.
Meryl spent time at iconic agencies and with impressive brands through the years including Ogilvy & Mather, MSL Group, Cisco, Blackboard, IBM and more. After co-founding Quirk Creative in 2015, she has guided the agency to Adweek’s Fastest Growing ...
Mark as Played
November 11, 2025 • 40 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Anjali Ramachandran from Storythings. She is based in the UK but is really a global citizen, having lived in many different countries and cities. She told me was always drawn to the colors, vibrancy and stories that advertising had to offer, even as a child.
She has an impressive career journey that included a stop at Nike, and working with brands like Burberry and Warner Brothers. She started ...
Mark as Played
November 4, 2025 • 45 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Bethany Wilcox from Unusual. She started her firm to help brands stand out. They strive to help their clients be genuinely differentiated. She says they entertain, instead of advertise.
Entertaining is an apt description of Bethany as you will see. She’s full of energy, creativity and ideas. That makes her the perfect guest for us to dive into her journey, her inspiration and her thoughts on c...
Mark as Played
October 28, 2025 • 33 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Heather Waisanen from Coastal Maverick. Her firm is a custom out of home consulting company. That segment of the advertising world became her passion and she has built an amazing company around it.
Heather was a gymnast in her younger years and wound up as a gymnastic coach living in places like the Grand Caymans and South Africa out of college. She’s based in Florida now and has such a smart o...
Mark as Played
October 14, 2025 • 37 mins
This week on Own It, we’re talking to Elizabeth Rosenberg from The Good Advice Company. Her firm is focused on executive personal branding, thought leadership, and brand positioning and high-level PR strategy. But she also founded a company or project called Chief Spiritual Officer.
We talked about that, her amazing career, being present and so much more. I loved her perspective on closing the gender gap in agency ownership and g...
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October 7, 2025 • 33 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Carrie Stein from Bridge Insights and Media. She obviously came up through the media side of the ad business, working for many years at Neilsen before co-founding Bridge with her partner Jenny Griffith 10 years ago.
They started with the idea that advertising could be smarter, more cost-effective and easier for clients. We talked about her firm, her journey to ownership and her thoughts on the ...
Mark as Played
September 30, 2025 • 39 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Jessica Blumberg from hunterblu media. It was formed in 2018 to make working with a media agency easier for brands and creative agencies, and has blossomed.
Jessica certainly came up through her career on the media side of the advertising industry. She spent time at Crispin Porter + Bogusky before turning consultant, then agency owner.
We talked about her journey, her passion for media and ma...
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September 23, 2025 • 41 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Casey Benedict from Maverick Mindshare. Her firm spawned from the conflict between bloggers and public relations professionals that emerged in early days of brands being involved in social media. She began bridging the gap between the two sides and brokering brand deals with what we now know as influencers.
We talked about her journey to starting and building her agency, her thoughts on the ag...
Mark as Played
September 16, 2025 • 42 mins
This week on Own It we’re talking to Courtney Lewis from The Variable. She just stepped into the role of partner and CEO there two months ago after being on the strategy and leadership team for several years.
Courtney didn’t land at The Variable from the agency world. She was in business and management consulting before and brought that experience and knowledge to the firm.
We talked about everything from her journey to agency l...
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September 9, 2025 • 37 mins
This week on Own It, we’re talking to Holly Conti of Full Swing PR. If you remember the firm’s name, Holly is the co-owner with Caitlin Copple, who was our guest back in November of 2022. She wasn’t originally an owner, so we get to hear how an employe moves into an ownership role.
Holly and Christy had a great conversation about her journey from wanting to be creative and the boss when she was young, to being creative and the bo...
Mark as Played
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