The Imposterous

Sir John Hegarty, awarded a Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to advertising and Creative industries, Founder, Creative Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) and The Garage Soho, now adds to his title, ‘The Imposterous First Birthday Edition Season Two Finale and Episode 50 Guest'. It's a lot. Welcome to the big time  SJH.John Hegarty has been central to the global advertising scene over six decades working with brands such as Levi's, Audi, Boddingtons, Lynx, British Airways and Johnnie Walker. He was a founding partner of Saatchi and Saatchi in 1970.  He founded Bartle Bogle Hegarty in 1982 with John Bartle and Nigel Bogle. The Agency now has offices in London, New York, Singapore, Stockholm, Shanghai, Mumbai and Los Angeles. John's creative awards are numerous. He has been given the D&AD President's Award for outstanding achievement and in 2014 was admitted to the US AAF Hall of Fame. John was knighted in 2007 and was the recipient of the first Lion of St Mark award at the Cannes Festival of Creativity in 2011. John wrote his first book ‘Hegarty on Advertising – Turning Intelligence into Magic' in 2011 and his book "Hegarty on Creativity - there are no rules" was published in 2014. In 2014 John Co-founded The Garage Soho, an early stage investor company that believes in building brands, not just businesses. John has just launched a new online 8-week course, entitled The Business of Creativity, aimed to equip people with tangible tools to help win through the application of creativity.

Dan Nelken is a Creative's Creative. Saying this exposes the fact we haven't read Dan's book, ‘A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters'. If we had we would have written something far more original and spent a lot less time sweating the unavoidable mediocrity of it. Anyway, Dan Nelken is an active advertising creative who works on the world's biggest brands and up-and-coming start-ups. His work has appeared in award shows nationally, internationally, and on his mother's fridge. He's spent many years winging the creative process and is now dedicating his life to understanding it, so he can help creative companies and creative people think faster and healthier (and that includes himself). His weekly newsletter hits 6000 Creatives' inboxes and is saving a bunch of us from feeling totally lost for words and confidence. His online learning course, ‘Writing Under Pressure' is proving the difference between - ‘the client wants more options and the client can't pick a favourite' - Matt Cascarino CCO, FARM.Early in this episode we meet Alan - a 6 year old pant's wetter and the ding-dong voice in Dan Nelken's head. According to Imposterous illustrator Camilo Suarez (@brostalobo) this is what Alan looks like.theimposterous.com/dan_nelken

Here we are, back with the second installment of SAW IT. AM IT. A series of conversations hosted by Shannon Crowe featuring some of the brilliant creative leaders Shannon met at Cannes Lions SEE IT BE IT program in 2017. Today's guest is Lizi Hamer.The Drum named Lizi as one of the world's most creative women, Cannes Lions selected her in the top 15 female creative directors globally, she co-Authored Creative Super Powers, Co-founded SisuGirls, and continues to build the SheSays Community. Lizi earns attention through her StoryHunting techniques, a powerful network of collaborators, novel thinking and a belief that creativity can change the world.From carting half a tonne of prawns into the desert to re-launch a beer and designing the first Lego character with ears to challenging masculinity in Australia and getting 500,000 people in Asia to touch music, Lizi's creativity is as contagious as it is impactful.Her campaigns have brought a blind man's world to life, changed law, and won awards for impact, storytelling, and craft, leading Lizi to be labeled as one of the most creative Women in the World. 

Welcome to the first episode of SAW IT. AM IT. A series of conversations hosted by Shannon Crowe featuring some of the wonderful creative leaders Shannon met at Cannes Lions SEE IT BE IT program in 2017. Today's guest is Maria Milusheva.Maria is Creative Director & Partner at Noble Graphics. Working in advertising since 2005 (17 years and counting!) Maria joins us on The Imposterous as she prepares to head off on maternity leave. We're so thankful to be talking to Maria today. For the past 12 years Maria has been developing ideas for some of the biggest beer brands. Her favorite business idea is turning a small local brand into No1 beer in Bulgaria, all without a single shot of male friendship or anyone saying ‘cheers'. Quite a feat huh!Zooming in from Bulgaria, one of the oldest countries in Europe and the only European country that hasn't changed its name since the year it was established, Maria reminds us Bulgaria ranks first in the world in terms of women's participation in the communication and information technology sector. BUT when it comes to personal life, no official statistics are being gathered and released in Bulgaria about violence against women. One of the many contradictions and challenges that keeps Maria fighting the good fight for women in advertising and all the women of Bulgaria.

In his uniquely brilliant laconic style, a way of speaking and thinking that we've quickly come to love here at The Imposterous Alvin says, “It feels like forever, but I am still new at this job. I've been ECD for some years now and I feel I need another 200 more to fully understand what the heck I am doing. I like the work, can't say I love the job. Been working on an array of Brands from Telco to Paint, from Insurance to Cable TV. I've had experience doing work for Banks, Tourism, Milk, Herbal Medicine, Automobile, and must I list it all here? Also started a social collective called Kita Kawan Mah to play a role in addressing the rise of racism in this country by promoting inter-racial friendship and dialogue. Apart from that, there is also a Project I See, an annual event where we harness the power of the arts community to help the public understand obscure, misunderstood or abused communities like the migrant, refugee and indigenous peoples. We started this in 2013. In all the work that I try to do, stripping away all the rocket science, I try to speak to the heart. I've never really believed in Brands speaking to Target Market. It's always heart to heart. Or person to person. Communication is personal. And while I believe in all that, I have to admit it's hardly ever easy to get to that level. We've had our hits and misses. More misses than hits to be honest. But still, it's a good place to start. And if we're consistent in this pursuit, we'll get there one day. While I am alive, hopefully.”

Anouk Jans creates creative concepts, brand identities, campaigns, social media strategies and digital content to help define, establish and build international love brands that shape culture. Driven by a pioneering spirit, Anouk gives brands an opportunity to rethink marketing by creating dynamic campaigns for today's audience, with stories about purpose, values and human nature. At The Imposterous Head Office Anouk Jans' name has featured at pretty much every all-staff meeting and we've been in a particular hurry to talk to her since the launch of Kill Your Darlings - A documentary about the world of modern advertising and the talent defining it. A story seen through the wide-open eyes of Anouk, a young Creative Director looking for answers, positive change and a brighter future for herself and everyone that loves the business of creativity. The documentary  stars and follows the youngest Creative Director in Germany as she ponders her future in the industry and travels the world interviewing industry legends such as Scott Galloway, Cindy Gallop, Fernando Machado, Rob Reilly, and many more. As Anouk puts it, “When I first started in this industry, I didn't question anything – not the structures, not the hierarchies, or the working hours. However, as the years passed, I saw the creatives around me suffer and become cynical about the industry, including myself.” It was incredible to talk to Anouk and to produce this episode, it's a conversation we're sure will stay with us for a long time to come.  

David Smith is a creative thinker of international standing. Founded Blood UTD in 2016 - an agency that began life with a focus on doing the best work in the space of sport and fitness. But has since evolved to focus on good companies - by good, we mean companies that are focused on generating profit in a manner that is fair and sustainable. This is not about strident wokeness or ardent moralising, but rather the belief that profit and decency don't need to be divergent forces, that there is a path forward where you can make money without messing things up. Joining David on this episode of The Imposterous is Regina Stoombergin and Julia Spencer aka M.I.A aka Mums in Ads. MIA who is still the most exclusive club in advertising! But the good news is they want you! All you need to do is1. Be a mum2. Be in the industry and3. Find the bloody time to squeeze one more thing in.Mums In Ads will be on the rooftop at the Corner Hotel in Richmond on Thursday 29 September from 6pm. So if you're in Melbourne, an Adland mum of whatever sort (hey, we don't discriminate), join them for a drink. 

You know it's a good day when Natalie Lam joins us on The Imposterous. Natalie is Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. She's responsible for overseeing the creative output of more than 60 agency brands including Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis, Razorfish, Sapient, Digitas with integrated creative, data, media and tech offerings in some of the world's most dynamic markets. With her roots in design, a strong digital background and being a hopeless romantic for big ideas, Natalie advocates for strategic creative work that brings optimism, joy and beauty to the world, in truly media-agnostic ways to help build the world's biggest brands. Her 20+ year career included senior creative leadership positions in Google's Art, Copy and Code, R/GA, Ogilvy and McCann World Group in NYC, with a break from advertising to start an electronic music and DJ school, The Foxgrove, that was featured in Rolling Stone. Natalie was selected for AdWeek's Creative 100 ranking in 2022, as an “agency leader defining a new era.” Her work for global innovative brands such as Nike+, Spotify and Mercedes-Benz won top global awards including a Cannes Grand Prix, D&AD Black Pencil, and ADC Black Cube.  She is a frequent jury president and judge at global and regional awards shows such as Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, ADC, LIA, and Spikes. How we managed to convince Natalie to join us on The Imposterous remains a mystery. We're very glad she did though!

Much loved Australian television and radio host, and passionate mental fitness advocate Gus Worland founded Gotcha4Life in 2017, following the success of the ABC series Man Up and losing a very close friend and life mentor to suicide, as he realised he had the ability and networks to make a real difference. Gus simply does not accept the alarming statistics surrounding suicide in Australia and that eight people take their life every day. Gotcha4Life believes in the power of prevention through connection and champions the idea of proactively building mental fitness and the resilience required to deal better with the challenges that life throws at us. Gus is a big believer in starting meaningful conversations by developing better social and emotional connections with mates, families, colleagues and community.To drive real change, Gotcha4Life funds educational workshops and innovative training programs throughout Australia that build mental fitness in individuals, organisations and communities to activate strong, open and binding relationships.

Veronica Beach is the original founder and now partner of the poolhouse (www.the-poolhouse.com), a social network for Producers in TV, Film & Advertising. Previously Veronica  was the Director of Production at Pereira O'Dell from 2020 - July 2022 overseeing the San Francisco & New York offices from the Agency side and their In-House production department, Barrelhouse. Prior to that, Head of Global Production at DAVID and was a founding member of DAVID and even moved to Brazil to open the São Paulo and Buenos Aires production departments. While living in Brazil, Veronica  served a dual role leading Global Production for Ogilvy Brazil. In Veronica's  first year at Ogilvy Brazil they won Agency of the Year in Cannes through the projects she produced, Dove, Real Beauty Sketches and Coca Cola's, Crazy for Good. That year winning 29 Lions, including the Titanium Grand Prix as well as previously mentioned, Agency of the Year. To date, Veronica has won over 100 Lions, and multiple other prestigious awards. Veronica was recognized by Business Insider as one of the top Creative Influencers in Advertising while being part of the team to globally launch the Miami office as one of the top 5 agencies in the world at Cannes. 

Paul Middleditch has directed four feature films and is regarded as one of the top performance/action TV Commercial Directors in the world. He is Australasia's most awarded commercials Director, having over 300, with 8 Cannes Lions, 4 of which are gold, and numerous International and National awards to his credit. He was recently ranked 8th Best Commercial Director of all time, based on Lüzer's Archive. He has continually upheld a Number One Director World Ranking on Best Ads on TV, with Carlton Draught's 'Big Ad' being awarded the Best Beer Ad of All Time. His work has featured at the Super Bowl for 6 consecutive years and he is one of the few Australian creatives to have appeared on the cover of Shots Magazine. At the age of 19, Middleditch's first short film 'Light of the Blade' won Best Direction at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival. His first feature film, Terra Nova, won the first film prize in Montreal in 1999, won Best of Festival at the Edinburgh Film Festival and went on to screen at over thirty festivals worldwide. His second feature, A Cold Summer, premiered in competition at the Rotterdam Film Festival, and earned him an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Director. In 2009, Middleditch completed his third feature, Separation City, a dramatic comedy starring Joel Edgerton, Rhona Mitra and Thomas Kretschmann, which was nominated for 4 QANTAS Awards. His first American feature film for Lionsgate titled Rapture Palooza was released in 2013, starring Anna Kendrick and Craig Robinson. Paul is the first guest on The Imposterous whose bio has been directly lifted from IMDb. This is something we're sure he'll never mention but we will be a #humblebrag in social posts of ours to come.

Pum Lefebure is a co-founder and chief creative officer of Design Army in Washington, DC, where she oversees all creative coming through the agency's doors. The Thailand native brings a global sensibility to American design - a creative point of view that draws from different cultures and resonates with diverse audiences. In this episode of The Imposterous Pum brings savvy street smarts, an undeniable entrepreneurial edge and a caliber of confidence born from years of incredible world leading creative work.Guided by an international eye, Pum has helped expand the agency's client base and elevate its reputation as a trend-setter. Pum's hallmark is a distinctive union of the artistic and the commercial. With a rare balance of creativity, strategic thinking and industry know-how, she has proven that good design is the cornerstone of good business. Another good imposter indeed.

The Imposterous, Peter Nankervis is Founder and CEO of Lighthouse Group and a passionate corporate coach working with CEO's and guiding leadership teams to identify the right people and performance solutions to accelerate business transformation and growth. He brings to this episode a history of partnering with companies that have successfully accelerated their enterprise value, in many cases leading to acquisition.He's all about providing a clear roadmap for leaders and developed the leadership technology platform 6Ceed, for which Lighthouse was awarded the Westpac top 200 Business of Tomorrow. Priding himself on a very down to earth approach, being an active listener, and having the ability to develop practical and simple solutions to complex problems. Pete's passionate about helping clients navigate tricky spots and accelerate when the winds blow fair.Prior to founding Lighthouse, this episode's imposter had a corporate background with state, national and regional leadership roles in management consulting with a global multinational company. In his younger years, he was a champion Whac-A-Mole player, but he's not in that game anymore.

Two great guests, two episodes in one. Where to start?Let's begin with Steve Sammartino. Wikipedia tells us Steve is an Australian futurist, author and entrepreneur and according to Forbes, he launched Rentoid in 2007, one of the early sharing-economy, peer-to-peer online hire and rental marketplaces. Rentoid was featured in Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers's book, What's Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing the Way We Live. Rentoid was later sold to an ASX listed company in 2014. According to the World Records Academy, Steve collaborated with Raul Oiada in 2011 to launch the world's first Lego Space Shuttle into space. Propelled by a helium-filled weather balloon, the Lego Space Shuttle model 3367 was launched from German airspace into the stratosphere to an altitude of about 35,000m (114,800 feet). According to Wired in 2013 Steve and Oaida developed the world's first life-sized, drive-able Lego car with a compressed air-powered Lego engine. According to TV Week however, Steve is the co-Host of Rebound TV with Tommy McCubbin, who co-creates and hosts the show that is  helping Australian businesses bounce back after the pandemic. Screening on Channel 9 on Saturdays at 12:30. Before being wooed to the screen Future Sandwich podcast host Tommy McCubbin co-founded WellAware with the mission to accelerate the world's transition into personalised, proactive and preventative health management where he works with some of Australia's top companies to help them manage and minimise the risk of Cancer, Heart Disease and Mental Illness striking down their workforce unnecessarily. Tommy's podcast Future Sandwich is Winner of Australia's Best Tech Science and Gaming Podcast, and has expanded into multiple live events and content series. We have no idea how we convinced Tommy and Steve to join us for this chat, but they're here now so let's go for it. Ding, ding.

Meet the imposterous Elaine Li, creative director and photographer. Elaine was born and raised in Hong Kong, spent time in Melbourne, Chicago, San Francisco, and is now based in Sydney. So far in her advertising career, Elaine has planted a beer ad in people's dreams; raised money for bushfire victims with a burnt Christmas tree; and made edible finger lickin' good nail polish. Elaine competed in Cannes Young Lions in 2017, representing Hong Kong. Shortly after moving to Sydney, she tutored AWARD School, and won Young Lions Australia with her partner Jared. They competed in Cannes and came top 5 worldwide. Most recently Elaine judged AWARD Award. Elaine's obsession with photography and social media has garnered over 260k+ followers on Instagram, work with various brands, and do public speaking engagements as a social influencer. Elaine's work is killer! When Elaine's not making ads or taking photos, she enjoys travelling and diving into the world of NFTs and metaverse. But somehow she found time to talk to us about the imposterous things that have happened along the way. Lucky you!

Brent Smart is a rare breed of marketer - equal parts creative and commercial. A brand builder who has taken NRMA to third strongest brand in Australia (it was 36th when he started) and is the strongest insurance brand in the world. With a track record of changing the fortunes of brands, leading NRMA to 3 years of customer growth after 7 years of decline, delivering Cheerios first quarter of sales growth after 13 quarters of decline and even helping Yellow Pages steal share of search from Google. Brent spent 20 years in the ad business, rising to CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi New York, having run New Zealand's Agency of the Decade Colenso BBDO. Without doubt this Imposterous guest knows how to build a creative culture on the inside that delivers more effective creative output on the outside. Brent has the honour of being the first CMO to join us for a chat on The Imposterous and we're all the better for it. 

Mietta started her career in Sydney at Ogilvy and Droga5 working across brands KFC, QANTAS, Coca Cola and Sunbeam Appliances. Seven years ago Mietta made the move to New York where she's since created influential campaigns for The New York Times, The Jed Foundation for Teen Suicide and Kraft. Her work has been featured on CNN, Buzzfeed, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Mashable and Creativity. Now a Creative Director at Squarespace, Mietta has been named One Show's Next Creative Leader, top 3 global finalist for Ad Age's Creative of the Year and most recently earned a place on Adweek's Creative 100. In 2017, Mietta helped induct her dad Tom McFarlane into AWARD's Hall of Fame. Tom was always Hall of Fame material. His career began in Melbourne as a despatch boy. Four years of part-time study at RMIT, and four agencies later he headed to London to hone his writing skills. At 34, he was appointed ECD at J Walter Thompson Melbourne, followed by several years in the same role at DDB Melbourne. A major turning point came in May 1996 when he received an offer from friend Tom Dery, his former MD at DDB, just a year after Dery had opened M&C Saatchi's first international office. Within a year of McFarlane taking the creative tiller, ‘the Toms' had 14 clients, 39 staff and an Agency of the Year title. Crucial to McFarlane's copywriting gifts is an ability to cut right to the heart of any brief and a pitch perfect ear for the Australian vernacular. McFarlane has also been a prodigious identifier and nurturer of talent. Many young creatives blessed with his generous tutelage over the years have gone on to become huge players, both in Australia and overseas and guests on The Imposterous, such as Matt Eastwood and Ben Welsh. At the end of 2021, Tom announced his retirement and is widely regarded as one of Australia's most influential and effective Creative leaders

Damon is Chief Creative Officer and one of the founders of The Monkeys Aotearoa. Before that he was Regional Chief Creative Officer of DDB (New Zealand and Australia). He was formerly Chief Creative Officer of DDB New Zealand where he won over 20 Agency of the Year titles, including DDB New Zealand being named agency of the year in Australia. Before that he was Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia and TBWA Hunt Lascaris, which was voted South African agency of the decade in 2010.Damon has collected awards at some of the most prestigious international advertising festival shows, receiving over 50 D&AD Pencils – including 6 yellow and the first and only Black D&AD Pencil ever won in Africa. He has also judged D&AD three times. He's won 67 Cannes Lions, including the Grand Prix, 10 Gold, a Titanium and Innovation Lion, two Grand Clio, 11 One Show Gold Pencils, and the first ever ADC Black Cube ever awarded.He has been recognised as one of the top 10 Executive Creative Directors in the world by both Creativity Magazine and the Big Won Report on multiple occasions. In 2011, Finance Week awarded him Achiever of Year in South Africa. He's had a variety of short stories published as well as articles for various magazines and writes a blog called damonsbrain.com. It is stuff he thinks about instead of world domination.OK, we're stopping there. The ambition of The Imposterous is to make us all feel a little less insecurity and Damon's bio just isn't helping. We had a great chat with Damon and felt all the better for it. Please enjoy the episode.

The term “thought leader” is vastly overused. But when it comes to Valerie Young, she's that — and more. Widely considered the world's foremost expert on impostor syndrome, Valerie is uniquely qualified to help organisations, workshop facilitators, coaches, and individuals to stamp out impostor syndrome. Valerie earned her doctoral degree in education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1982. Her research sought to understand why so many bright, capable women (including herself) felt like frauds. Then (as now), most impostor phenomenon research is done with university students. Instead, Valerie chose as her subjects professional women — a majority women of colour. And unlike psychologists and academics who offer largely therapeutic solutions to impostor feelings, Valerie used her training as well as her findings to create educational solutions to impostor syndrome. Taking impostor feelings out of the realm of therapy and creating educational solutions has proved tremendously effective. (source The Imposter Syndrome Institute and if they don't know what they're talking about then who does?)Rachel Lounds returns for her second episode on The Imposterous and we welcome her back with all the self doubt and insecurity of Season One and then some. Prior to becoming a regular on The Imposterous, Rachel enjoyed a long and rich career in production and creative services in such esteemed agencies as Droga 5, McCann and LeoBurnett, and after enough time in those agencies Rachel took a pause and quit. Since 2020 she has been a Certified Life & Mindset Coach, Imposter Syndrome Specialist. Rachel is on a quest to help people in media and advertising who want to overcome negative thinking, lack of self-confidence, and imposter syndrome so that they can become the confident, courageous, phenomenal leaders they know in their heart they can be. In other words, she actually knows what she's talking about.

How we got Jeff Goodby on The Imposterous still baffles us. But then we remember Laura Petrucelli talked him into it so yeah, it had nothing to do with us. Back to feeling like imposters.Jeff, along with his friend Rich, started this whole Goodby Silverstein and Partner thing.Jeff grew up in Rhode Island and graduated from Harvard, where he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Boston, and his illustrations have been published in TIME, Mother Jones and Harvard Magazine.He began his advertising career at J. Walter Thompson and was lucky enough to meet the legendary Hal Riney, whom he still thinks of as his mentor. It was with Riney at Ogilvy & Mather that Goodby learned his reverence for surprise, humour, craft and restraint.He also met Rich Silverstein there. They founded GS&P in 1983 with a founding client they renamed Electronic Arts. Since then, the two have won just about every advertising award imaginable. And yes, Jeff was the guy who originally wrote “got milk?”He is also a director and has delivered the director's address at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers. His work has been memorialised in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In 2006 he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame, and in 2019 he and Rich received the Cannes Lion of St. Mark Award for lifetime achievement. In 2020 the two starred in an 18-part MasterClass online learning series.Jeff has always held that the best advertising is like vandalism—loud, funny and still there the next day. It's a topic that has earned international attention, in a talk first given at Cannes and then at comparable creative events in London, Sydney, New York City and Boston. He continues to believe that his success is a happy confluence of his mother (a painter), his father (a Wharton graduate) and the rest of his family, who have always been a constant reminder of irony and humility. He lives in Oakland, California, with a dog, a cat, three horses and said it was OK for us to lift this bio for GSP's website.

Jane Caro AM spent 35 years as an award winning copywriter and 7 years teaching Advertising Creative in the School of Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. Jane is a Walkley Award winning Australian columnist, author, novelist, broadcaster, documentary maker, feminist and social commentator. These days Jane is a full time writer, speaker and broadcaster and is standing for the Australian Senate at the country's May 21 Federal Election. Jane will stand as a candidate for Reason Australia. She has published multiple books, including three novels Just a Girl, Just a Queen and Just Flesh & Blood – a trilogy on Elizabeth Tudor, and a memoir Plain Speaking Jane. She created and edited Unbreakable featuring stories women writers had never told before, which was published just before the Harvey Weinstein revelations. Her book, Accidental Feminists about the life story of women over 50 was launched in 2019 and her latest novel, The Mother is a current best seller! How Jane found time to talk to us we're not sure - but jeez we're glad she did!

Faker by Tom Spicer. Spoken by Rupert Degas.As Tom Spicer says, “If ever there was something in desperate need of a rebrand, it's imposter syndrome.  It definitely sounds bad.  But so many amazingly talented people have encountered it and lived to tell the tale, how bad can it really be?  In fact imposter syndrome might just be the reason for their amazingness in the first place.  Maybe Charles Bukowski summed it up best when he said, “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence”.  Hear, hear Tom Spicer! Your poem Faker, is the perfect way to end Season One of The Imposterous. Thank you for sharing it with us and our fellow frauds!Tom's career spans 20 years and two continents. His work has been frequently recognised by Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show and many others. Tom's 'Moonwalking Bear' was directly credited with helping reduce cycling fatalities in London by a third.  In his time at Arnold Furnace Tom helped the agency win a host of awards for the first time in its history, including at the Webbys, New York Festivals, Award Awards and Spikes Asia.  After returning to the UK and Creative Director stints at Anomaly and Grey Tom is now back in Australia freelancing and calling Brisbane home. 

Not every conversation on The Imposterous ends with us looking at each other saying, ‘Well, she'd be good to work for'. But this one did. Emma's career spans 25 years, from junior writer, to Group CD, through to Executive Creative Director and Board Member at Clemenger BBDO. Now ECD at M&C Saatchi Melbourne Emma has won multiple international awards, judged locally, nationally and internationally and mentored up and coming talent as a lecturer and tutor at Award School. Emma gives back to the industry in the work she makes and the Creatives she inspires. There's a generation of Creatives out there because of the advice Emma has given and the example she has set. Fun, funny, caring and a cracking writer, Emma is one of our favourite imposters for sure. 

Claudia Cristovao is the Head of Google Brand Studio APAC. She studied Communication, Film and Fine Art between Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and London and is an honors graduate at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and holds an MA from Saint Martins in London.Claudia has worked as a writer, brand developer and Creative Director for Nike, Google, Honda, Adidas, MINI, AMEX, at agencies like W+K, Sid Lee and AKQA. Her projects have included music videos, interior design, art installations, digital experiences, social media campaigns and business transformations. Claudia was the President of the Innovation Jury at the Cannes Lions 2020-2021 and has been a juror for the New York Festivals, Cannes Lions, ADFEST, Spikes Asia, W20 and the WIRED Hack Awards. Her artwork has been exhibited across the world, namely at the São Paulo Biennial, the Dakar Biennial, the Guangzhou Biennial, De Appel in Amsterdam and MOCA in San Francisco. And without doubt, a wonderful guest on The Imposterous.

David's son Cameron better known as Cam has led international creative shops including Droga5 New York and Sydney, Publicis London, AMV BBDO, Grey, BMF; for the last four years he's filled the Chief Creative Officer's chair at M&C Saatchi Australia. Cam has been awarded hundreds of times at international awards including a coveted D&AD Black Pencil for The New York Department of Education, D&AD Yellow Pencils and Cannes Lions for CUB and Cadbury, two Grand Clios and two Gold Clios for the A-League. And in 2020 another D&AD Pencil for hijacking the Queen's Christmas Address with ‘Matesong' for Tourism Australia. Cam is currently the Chairman (or is it President?) of The Australian Writers and Art Directors organisation (AWARD).Cam's dad David is a very successful Creative leader too having done it all years earlier in offices with doors. David or Blackers as he is affectionately known oversaw Clemenger Melbourne and took them to the very top of Creative and New Business ladders year after year. Blackers turned Clemenger Melbourne into one of the first true hot shops in Australian advertising winning at Cannes Lions more than 10 years in a row from the late 80's to early 2000's. This was at a time when Cannes had a lot less categories and gave away only a fraction of the metal. Returning from a stint in BBDO's London office, Blackers founded The Australian Writers and Art Directors organisation (AWARD) and in 2014 was inducted into its Hall of Fame. After 34 years at Clemenger BBDO, Blackers retired as its Chairman and went on to take up the position of Chairman at Brainwave Australia and a lot more painting. 

Julian Cole is a strategy consultant to global brands including Apple, Facebook, Disney, Snap and Uber. Previously he held the role of Head of Comms Planning at BBDO and BBH in New York. Julian has helped create award winning work for PlayStation, Bacardi, Pepsi, Google and Coca-Cola. With a void of practical information online, in 2017 he started the Planning Dirty newsletter to share the best tools and resources growing to over 30,000 subscribers. Julian has an undeniable passion to create better Strategists by providing the knowledge and tools to be brilliant. Listeners of this podcast are invited to enjoy 25% OFF ($500USD) a Lifetime membership The Strategy Finishing School. The Strategy Finishing School teaches the fundamentals of strategy and will give you the confidence to walk into any room knowing you can deliver value. It has over 2000 members who have access to lessons and frameworks to be better at their jobs. Thanks Julian!

Cindy Gallop likes to blow shit up. She is a brand and business innovator, consultant, coach and keynote speaker available to work with anybody who wants to change the game in their particular sector. People go to Cindy for radical, innovative, groundbreaking, transformation - Cindy does not do status quo! She can help you own the future as the leader you want to be, the business you want to be, the gender-equal, diverse, inclusive workplace you want to be. We could at this point go into Cindy's achievements and past experience but like Cindy we're way more interested in talking about the future and directing you to her social sex revolution, Make Love Not Porn, her online platform business portraying a more humane way of viewing sex, educating couples about consent and creating a meaningful connection. Without doubt one of our favourite conversations.

Ben is one of the region's top creative leaders, known for his inclusive leadership style and strategic rigour. Over the years he and his departments have won numerous Australian and international creative and effectiveness awards. In 2015, Ben was voted Campaign Asia's Best Creative Talent for Australia and NZ. His inspiration is the reader, the viewer, the listener and the clicker; our raison d'etre, who for the most part, is bored, insulted and uninspired by what our industry produces. Ben's recently released The Pitch, a novel about climate change, advertising, politics, love and a vertically challenged limo driver is a must read. And for those who enjoy much shorter stories and the occasional well priced high quality tipple, his blog wineunder20lifeover50.com is made for you.

Anais is a Kiwi-turned-Aussie copywriter who's changing behaviour for the better. In just her sixth year in the industry, Anais has created ideas for Cadbury, Subway, WNBL, Isuzu, Suncorp, and various Government clients. She won the B&T 30 Under 30 Grand Prix and Creative categories in 2021, adding to her growing list of international and local industry awards. But these only keep imposter syndrome at bay for so long.It's the meaningful stuff that really stamps it out. Anais' proudest work would be her road safety ideas and One Less Present charity campaign which revolutionised Christmas donations and raised over $300K to help abused Australian kids.Anais strongly believes in giving back. She guest lectures at university, is a seasoned Youngbloods committee member, and helps drive the female mentoring program Assisterhood.

Over the course of his career, Andre G Gray has made integrated campaigns for varied categories, from deodorant to Ultraboosts, leading global campaigns for brands like adidas, Gatorade and Nissan. Mr. Gray is the author of Digital Anthropomorphism: Humanizing the Brand, a staunch advocate for underrepresented voices and lives to add to the cultural conversation. His POV is that of a Black/Jewish polyglot who grew up going to French school in San Francisco, lived the last 3 years in Amsterdam and 5 years in Paris, believes the message dictates the medium and has a burning desire to inspire others. For him, it is not what you say, but what you do. 

Multimedia artist Graham Fink is one of the world's most respected, and highly awarded, creatives. Fink works in the fields of film, photography, painting, illustration and technology. Graham Fink's career has been defined by never being satisfied with the status quo, whether that's in the world of art or advertising. Fink loves to explore the ideas of the subconscious and creativity across multiple platforms including video, installation, photography, and painting. He wants to understand the principles behind artistic practices and pushes for new forms of creativity that arise from the collision of art and technology.

Matt joined McCann Health as Global Chief Creative Officer in January of 2019. Formerly Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of J. Walter Thompson where he led the agency to win a total of 80 Lions, more than it had ever won in its 150-year history. Matt was described by Britain's Campaign magazine as a “unicorn” in the communications industry. Matt has won numerous accolades and honors including Campaign Brief Agency of the Year, Clio Health Network of the Year, Australian Creative Hotshop, Adnews Agency of the Year, Creativity's Agency to Watch, B&T Agency of the Year, Spikes Network of the Year, and Campaign magazine Network of the Year. Despite all this Matt agreed to appear on The Imposterous. How's that for irony?

Rachel is a brilliant creative, just not in the way you might think. But she is most definitelysomething we've all thought about from time to time, ex-advertising. Prior to a long and rich careerin production and creative services in such esteemed doorways as Droga 5, McCann and LeoBurnett, Rachel took a pause and quit. Since 2020 she has been a Certified Life & Mindset Coach.Imposter Syndrome Specialist. Rachel is on a quest to help people in media and corporatewho want to overcome negative thinking,  lack of self-confidence, and imposter syndromeso that they can become the confident, courageous, phenomenal leaders they know in theirheart they can be. In other words, she actually knows what she's talking about.

The Aunties is the brainchild of Phoebe Sloane, Creative at Special and brought to life bythe eleven women of the Melbourne Advertising and Design Club (MADC) committee. TheAunties is a program that aims to inspire, protect, connect and champion women of allages and backgrounds across Melbourne's creative industries, through tailoredmentorships, seminars and networking opportunities. The Aunties is for industry womenat all stages of their careers and lives. Offering mentorships to women entering the industry,levelling up those in mid-senior roles, a ‘future founders/leaders' category that will connectwomen at an executive level and for the first time, matching up mums with other mums.The name pays tribute to and is inspired by legendary advertising mentor, Esther Clerehan,who often refers to herself as an “auntie” to the countless number of women she'smentored over the years. As Phoebe says, ‘We hope that by having an Auntie, they'll havean objective person they can confide in and establish a deeper connection with.”

Prior to moving to Spain t0 join 14 as CCO, Toby (not Tony) held the role of CCO at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ for three years. Before that he was CCO at DDB Sydney, and was behind the most awarded mobile campaign in the world #comeonin for Sydney Opera House, and before then at DDB New Zealand, where he took home the coveted title of Campaign Asia Magazine's Creative of the Year. Toby is currently the No.2 ECD in the world on the global bestadsontv Creative Rankings over the last 18 years. As CCO of DDB Sydney, Toby led a complete creative transformation that resulted in the agency being crowned as Australia's most awarded at Cannes. During his five years as Group ECD of DDB New Zealand, he transformed the Auckland based organisation into one of the world's most creative agencies, where it remains today. Toby is the incoming Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Australia and New Zealand.

Paul has spent many years working in advertising in the UK, Australia and New Zealand including ECD roles at some of these country's largest advertising networks. Paul co-founded his own agency, Barnes, Catmur & Friends Dentsu and while working he often writes articles for the business press as well as car and fishing magazines. Paul now lives on the beach outside Auckland where he concentrates on writing a column in the NZ Herald along with a couple of books. A prolific writer with many years experience, Paul is the host of New Zealand's best podcast (IOHO) Truth and Soul Inc. And if all this isn't enough, Paul also has a screenplay in the pipeline. 

A promising career in fashion design was cut short when Vicki discovered she couldn't draw. Encouraged by her mentor Paul Smith to write her ideas down instead, Vicki soon found her way into the world of advertising. Vicki joined Grey London in 2009, creating campaigns for clients including British Heart Foundation, Lucozade and Marks & Spencer. She is now Chief Creative Officer at Havas London. Vicki is also a vocal champion of diversity and helped establish the Creative Circle Foundation, supporting people from diverse backgrounds wanting to get into advertising. The IPA has named Vicki one of advertising's Women of Tomorrow, Business Insider voted her one of the 10 most influential women in advertising. In 2016 she took the Chairmanship of the Creative Circle Awards - becoming the first female chair in history - as well as a judge of the Cannes Glass Lions.

In 2008 Josy Paul started BBDO India from the backseat of his car. In 2016, he was named Creative Agency Head of The Year by the Indian Advertising Association. Josy is among the most influential people in Indian advertising - according to The Economic Times. Campaign Magazine awarded him Creative Person of the Year for India and South Asia multiple times. Josy and his team won the inaugural Glass Lion Grand Prix at Cannes in 2015 for Whisper's ‘Touch The Pickle'. They also won the Cannes Lion Gold in 2015, 2016 and 2017 for Ariel ‘Share The Load' - ranked as the world's most effective campaign by WARC twice in a row. In 2000, Josy set up the challenger agency ‘David' for Ogilvy in India. It was the first David office in the network. To this day Josy has remained a challenger whose work has changed culture and built highly effective world famous brands.

Daniel Lobatón helped create the highly-awarded “It's a Tide Ad” campaign, currently ranked #1 on WARC's Effective 100. Now we could stop there with his introduction but that would seem a bit sucky, so...Daniel became CCO at Saatchi & Saatchi in March of 2020 after three years as Executive Creative Director at the agency, overseeing work on Tide. Since joining the agency in 2017, Daniel has been part of developing breakthrough work for brands like Tide, Goldfish, TikTok, Olay, the National Down Syndrome Society, Women In Film, among others. Prior to his time at Saatchi, Daniel held copywriting and creative director positions at VML, LatinWorks, and Young & Rubicam.

Episode 11 -Shannon Crowe exited from full time agency life on 4th January 2016. Not so coincidentally, her son was born the very next morning. It was a unique set of circumstances that saw Shannon take a step back and in doing so her perspective has widened. Her days are now spent amongst the people we try so hard to reach. So after years of overtime, Shannon's work-life balance was skewed very much in the opposite direction. Shannon believes this made her ideas stronger. In fact, 2016 saw Shannon named one of the world's 50 most awarded copywriters, and in 2017 that ranking rose to #8. Shannon is currently Creative Director at Thinkerbell. Still working the way she has and remaining highly effective because as Shannon puts it so eloquently advertising is not about the hours - it's about the insights. 

Merlee Jayme, Chief Creative Officer at dentsu international APAC may have been silent in the past but it's her beliefs and achievements that now demand to be heard. Known for work that pushes Insights and innovation, Merlee has won major awards that include a Cannes Lion Grand Prix for Mobile, Gold and Silver lions for outdoor, Grand CLIO, LIAA, The One Show, D&AD pencils and Campaign's Creative of the Year. Merlee is Cannes Lions Radio & Audio Jury President 2021, ADC 100th Annual Awards Jury President for Interactive, ADSTARS Executive Judge for Brand Experience, The One Show Asia jury member and LIA Jury President this year. She is one of CNN's Leading Women, and an author/illustrator of a handbook “Everyone Can Be Creative”, a mom to 4 creative girls, and an inspiration in breaking the glass ceiling in this mad men's world.

Jo Sellars + Grant Rutherford are our imposter syndrome tag team smackdown champions.  Jo talks about her favourite piece of work being Grant's Barry Dawson campaign for Cougar Bourbon and Grant sums up his respect for Jo by saying ‘Even her shit ideas are better than my good ones.' But platitudes aside, let's get into their insecurities and fears. Jo Sellars started her career in Mojo Brisbane working with advertising heroes Mo and Jo. Over the years she has worked on Australia's biggest brands, shooting commercials all over the world and leading Creative departments with care. Leading by example always. Grant Rutherford is an industry name of note.  Grant created, in our humble opinion Australia's best ad, only pipped at the post from winning a Film Lion Grand Prix - ‘The Big Ad'. He now runs a Strategic consultancy East of Everything and is the the Founder of the incredible Snowdome Foundation.

Episode 8 - Joakim Borgstrom (Jab) has a secret weapon that helps him see the world differently. Jab is the Worldwide Chief Creative officer of the black sheep at BBH. Prior to this, Jab held a number of leadership roles, including Creative Director/Director of Innovation at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, Creative Director at Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam, Creative Director and Partner at DoubleYou, Barcelona. Jab is a rare mix of Swedish and Argentinean, speaks five languages and has worked in five countries and might not stop there. He has worked on brands as diverse as Nike, Audi, Electronic Arts, Coca-Cola, Google, Doritos, Barclays, Heineken, Chevrolet and on recent award-winning campaigns at BBH for IKEA, Mentos, The Guardian and Samsung.This episode also introduces you to our 100th follower on Instagram. @niccimartin_draws and her illustration of what The Imposterous would be if it was an animal pretty much sums up this inspiring, entertaining and colourful conversation.

Fran Luckin is by far the smartest and funniest person we know. Her poetry is quite shyte though. Fran is the Chief Creative Officer of Grey Africa.Fran has been named one of the Top 10 most influential people in South African advertising and has judged international and local creative awards shows (including D&AD, the Clio Awards, The One Show, and three tours of duty judging the Cannes Lions.) Her work has been recognized repeatedly at all these award shows. In 2017 she served as Jury President of the Print and Publishing Jury at the Cannes Lions – the first female Jury President from Africa. Fran is Chairman of the Academic Board of the Red and Yellow School of Advertising – South Africa's leading advertising school and has an MBA from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

Sarah Barclay makes the work most of us dream of and won't rest until there's equality in Creative Department leadership. After winning AWARD School Sarah was discovered by The Campaign Palace Melbourne, and among her many highlights there, she created Sic 'em Rex for Holeproof. After several years, Sarah joined Clemenger Melbourne where her work included Not Happy Jan for Yellow Pages and The Milk campaign, featuring the legendary Retired Milkman, Roger Daly. Sarah then moved to BBDO New York briefly before being snapped up by the worldwide creative chief of Saatchi Bob Isherwood as a Regional ECD on Procter & Gamble, and she spent the last decade as Global ECD for JWT New York. Her work has appeared on more Hall of Fame reels than any other individual and she is the only person to have work appear in three of the four AWARD Decade showreels. 

Kitty Lun has successfully navigated the double whammy of being both female and Asian on her way to the very top of the game.  Born in Hong Kong and studied advertising at Baptist University, Kitty rose quickly and jumped the sacred fence from Creative into management.  As  Chairman/CEO at Lowe China, Kitty achieved tremendous business growth and led the agency to become the most awarded agency in China in 2014 and 2015. Kitty was named top 10 Creative Directors of the Year and top 10 Distinguished Advertising Women of the Year. In 2011, Kitty was the organizer and host of the Cannes Lions forum “Beyond Mad Man: Towards Gender Balance in Creative Roles”. She was honoured by AdAge as one of the Women to Watch in Advertising in China in 2013. Kitty is the author of “Advertising Without Lipstick” a book about her life and experience in advertising.  In January 2016, she turned a new page in her career and joined Facebook as Head of Creative Shop, Greater China.

Rob Campbell is determined to create an environment where his team feels safe to be dangerous.  Now Head of Planning at Colenso and used to be a session guitarist for some of the World's most well-known, terrible pop stars. He's lived and worked all over the world and led strategy across America, Europe, Asia and Australasia respectively. He's made famous work for NIKE, Spotify, IKEA, P&G, Converse, Chrysler & the rock band Metallica, won awards for everything from global Olympic ad campaigns to airport lounges and has an alumni of planners who now hold senior positions at Apple, Facebook, Reddit, Wieden+Kennedy, Mother, Uncommon, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & Supreme. But the thing he's most proud of is being called an “asshole” by Dan Wieden, Richard Branson & Lars Ulrich.

Nils Leonard is a creative champion with a long list of MotherF&ckers to prove wrong.  An agitator for change and diversity in the industry, Nils is a regular speaker and judge at industry events, is on the board of trustees of D&AD and is listed as the Sunday Times 500 most influential people in the UK.  More recently Nils has founded the Uncommon Creative Studio alongside Lucy Jameson and Natalie Graeme and is on a mission to build brands the world is happy exists.   On their 4th birthday, they are doing that in ways that's influencing the entire industry.

Laura Petrucelli managed to convince Post Malone to get a Dorrito face tattoo and taught Morgan Freeman how to Snapchat.  Currently Executive Creative Director at Goodby Silverstein and Partners San Fransisco + New York.  Laura has been included in Adweek's Most Creative People in Advertising and both the 3% Conference and the One Show have named her as one of the top 10 Next Creative Leaders. Laura has helmed many a holy grail of Superbowl ads and worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Morgan Freeman, Peter Dinklage, Matthew McConaughey, Little Nas X and Post Malone. Laura is a star of the industry and an inspiration to many creatives be they fresh out of college or industry veterans.

The awkwardness is palpable. If it wasn't for Graham's mobile buzzing and chiming with urgent messages this conversation would have gone in all directions and taken a lot longer. Enjoy this pilot episode knowing that the only way from here is up.

Trailer: Imposter syndrome and how it affects the world's best Creatives. Hosted by Michael Knox and Graham Drew. For more information visit theimposterous.com