DesuckifyWork®

You can’t spit on LinkedIn without hitting at least ten coaches. 

But how many of them actually know what they’re doing?

The best way to learn is to observe them in the wild. Noting their presence. Scrutinizing their questioning skills. Detecting their ability to unearth insights and share them generously, without attachment. Seeing how well they listen. 

That’s a big one. 

I had the opportunity to observe and witness a truly masterful coach on the latest episode of the DesuckifyWork® podcast. Dan Kent embodies all of the qualities mentioned above and does so with grace, curiosity and vulnerability. 

Dan is one of the good ones. Try not to spit on him, please. 

During our conversation, we dug into the heart of what makes great coaching so useful. And despite what your feed might be telling you, it’s not about crushing your goals or 10x-ing anything. 

🐱 It’s about self awareness. And humility. Especially for leaders. Being open to feedback and creating the space for that to happen freely and safely. It may get a bit uncomfortable at times, but that’s a whole lot better than your team being uncomfortable all of the time. 

🐱 It’s about objectivity. A great coach brings an unbiased, detached perspective that we rarely experience in our day-to-day lives. So we can zoom out from our bubble and see where we might need to shift our thinking and behavior. 

🐱 And it’s about seeking the truth beneath the tumult. Embracing your inner kindergartener and asking “why” until real understanding emerges. 

If you want to understand what amazing coaching looks like, listen to Dan.

You can follow Dan on LinkedIn. And check out his site at bestself.coach. You should also check out his podcast, Clearing Obstacles. I was fortunate enough to be a guest a while back and Dan is one of the best interviewers I’ve met. Every one of his episodes goes deep to juiciest stuff. 

I’ve got some pretty juicy stuff on my site and my substack newsletter as well. I’m on a mission to make work suck less and I’d love for you to join me. Want to make that desuckification happen ASAP? Let’s set up a free half hour coaching session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider buying a DesuckifyWork® t-shirt and wearing it to the gym every day, pumping up our logo bigger and bigger as you get more and more swole.

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies #creatives #coaching #selfawareness #bestself 

If you’d like to watch this episode on YouTube, please click here.

What’s the purpose of your ad agency?

And don’t tell me it’s to make great work. That’s table stakes. Or in some cases, total BS.

What’s your point of view. What are you trying to change? What impact do you want to have? 

I’ve worked at agencies for over 25 years and I’m not sure I was ever clear on what any agency was really all about.

And we wonder why so many clients feel the same thing. 

Now, your purpose doesn’t have to be about “doing good” or saving the slippery tailed garden newt. But you need a reason to exist. A reason for clients to choose you. A reason for your teams to fight for you. 

You need Red Thread Leadership. And today’s guest, Sonya Shelton—Founder and CEO of Executive Leadership Consulting—can help you put it into practice.

What is Red Thread Leadership? It’s a pretty tasty sandwich, with purpose and passion acting as the bread that holds your plan, process and positions together. 

What does it help you achieve?

🐱 Strategic and cultural alignment. Neither one is eating the other for breakfast. They need to work together if you want to actually get anywhere. 

🐱 A more efficient structure, less hierarchical. One of Sonya’s clients actually flipped the org chart so that he was on the bottom, supporting every level, with the front line employees on top. Imagine that. 

🐱 Clarity. You know where you’re going. You know how to get there. And you feel confident saying no to all the shiny objects that will only get in your way.

That last one really hits home for the ad biz. We looooooovvvvvveeeee our shiny objects. 

I think Sonya really shines in this conversation. Let’s take a listen. 

You can follow Sonya on LinkedIn. And check out her site too. While you’re there, be sure to explore the free webinar on Red Thread Leadership.

I would love it if you also explored my site and my substack newsletter. I’m on a mission to make work suck less and I’d love for you to join me. Want to make that desuckification happen ASAP? Let’s set up a free half hour coaching session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider getting stranded on a deserted island and spelling out “DesuckifyWork® is my favorite podcast” using palm fronds and bamboo shoots. You may not get rescued, but your support won’t go unnoticed here on the mainland. 

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies #purpose #passion #redthreadleadership

If you’d like to watch the episode on YouTube, please click here.

Your success is killing you. 

Sacrificing yourself for the chase. The money, the awards, the status. Making your parents proud. Making your friends envious. Making yourself sick. 

Because you are getting lost in the process. 

This is what happens when we achieve without a well defined purpose. And it’s at the source of so much pain we see every day. Burnout. Substance abuse. Failed relationships. A toxic legacy we’re modeling for generations to come.

We know we don’t want this. But we can’t always see a way out. James Madison, today’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® podcast is here to help. 

James is an executive coach who helps leaders find balance in their lives, guided by a clear purpose. We just need to figure out three things:

🐱 What energizes us

🐱 What we are uniquely good at 

🐱 What our experience has been screaming at us for years. Those moments when what we love and what we’re good at have come together in a magical brew so intoxicating I’m surprised pharmaceutical companies haven’t tried to bottle it up and sell it for the cost of a small house. 

Once you’re clear on all that, James’ll have you tie it all up in a 3-word bow. His purpose? Ignite purposeful growth. 

Wonder what yours is? Listen to James, he’ll help you get there. 

You can follow James on LinkedIn, check out his site and feel free to email him as well. James is a wise man with an infectious love for life that is a delight to be around. 

I think my site and my Substack newsletter are pretty delightful as well. I’m on a mission to make work suck less and I’d love for you to join me. Want to make that desuckification happen ASAP? Let’s set up a free half hour coaching session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider becoming a NASCAR driver, slapping our logo over every square inch of your car and using said car to do donuts in the parking lot of every company who has forced people back into the office despite the record profits they earned while everyone worked remotely. 

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies #resilience #courage #survivors 

If you’d like to watch this episode on YouTube, please click here.

What if I told you that you could spell resilience with three letters. And an umlaut. 

Meet Zoë. 

Zoë Dalton is this week’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® podcast. And her story will impress, inspire and invite you to look within and see what you’re really made of. 

With $30.28 to her name, newly unemployed, coming off an abusive marriage and with two young kids in tow, Zoe was literally starting over. 

She didn’t just build a new life. As she describes it, she built a “queendom,” embracing a mindset shift that gave her the power to see possibility despite so much pain. 

And she has spent every day since stepping into action, bringing those possibilities to life for her and her two boys. 

She discovered the healing power of exploring nature, alone. Finding joy in the rebuilding of her self and the creation of new experiences.

She practiced gratitude, daily, giving thanks for every moment in her life, even the most painful. 

And she found strength in vulnerability, at home, at work, with her kids, everywhere. Showing up fully so that each connection in her life is grounded in truth, love and understanding. 

Today, Zoë has a job she loves, a family she adores and fights for and is seeing even greater possibilities for herself. She plans to pursue motivational speaking, something she will be amazing at, with a focus on high school students and survivor groups. 

We will all be blessed when she steps into that ever evolving version of herself. 

To see where Zoë’s story leads next, you can follow her on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. She shares vulnerably and generously. I highly recommend making a connection.

I also recommend checking out my site and my Substack newsletter. I’m on a mission to make work suck less and I’d love for you to join me. Want to make that desuckification happen ASAP? Let’s set up a free half hour strategy session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider backpacking through Europe and yodeling our praises to every man, woman, child and llama you meet. 

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies #resilience #courage #survivors 

To watch the episode on YouTube, please click here.

Work sucks when it’s harder than it has to be. 

It’s even worse when we’re the ones making it harder. 

As creatives, we resist structure. It’s confining. It’s corporate. It’s boring. 

It will also blow up your career in the best way possible.

Just ask Dan Nelken, today’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® podcast. 

Dan is a best selling author, has over 40,000 LinkedIn followers and has created courses, talks and workshops that have impacted nearly every corner of our industry. 

If you told 5-years-ago Dan that he would be doing all of this right now, he’d probably laugh at you. But today Dan is doing what he’s doing because he did a whole bunch of research and learned these life-changing lessons:

🐱 Structure isn’t “cheating.” It’s freeing. It allows you to focus on the work vs. how you do the work

🐱 Structure provides confidence, giving you multiple starting points to fill up the dreaded blank page, fast

🐱 Structure is used by almost all top creatives, including Jason Bagley, who rose to ECD at a little shop called Wieden + Kennedy and now runs The Audacious School of Astonishing Pursuits helping other ad folks learn the magical power of process

During the show, we also dive into the need for better leadership and more professional development opportunities in advertising. We talk about the importance of having your own personal creative projects. And we explore some of Dan’s favorite headline techniques like The List & Twist, The Smile and The Mullet. 

If you’re nice, I’ll share some pics of my own mullet from back in high school. It was pretty epic. 

Dan’s pretty epic himself. Let’s take a listen. 

You can follow Dan on LinkedIn. And check out his site, where you can learn about his courses, his speaking offerings and his amazing book—A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters. Which is really a self-help guide for people who like to think. 

I like to think my site and my Substack newsletter are pretty nifty too. I’m on a mission to make work suck less and I’d love for you to join me. Want to make that desuckification happen ASAP? Let’s set up a free half hour strategy session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider starting a booty short company called DesuckifyTwerk and creating a co-branding opportunity where we put our logo on one cheek and yours on the other. 

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies #copywriting #structureandcreativity #creativeprocess 

To watch the video of the episode click here.

You’re a selfish b*****d. 

You spend all day doing things. Work things. Family things. Community things. You’re busy as hell. Impacting people everywhere you go. 

But you’re not making time for you. You know, that dude or dudette in the mirror who stares back at you pleadingly, begging for some relief. 

Maybe tomorrow, you think as you run off to do more stuff. Important stuff! People are counting on you!

You are also counting on you. And it’s pretty selfish of you to ignore that fact. Because the version of you that everyone else is getting is depleted, distracted, and drowning. 

How is that helpful? 

Today’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® podcast, Katie McDonald, is here to help you nurture your soul, so you can bring more joy, inspiration and love to everyone around you. 

It starts by remembering that we are human beings first and foremost, not human doings. So who do you want to be?

🐱 Our relationship with ourselves will outlast all others. We must nurture it. 

🐱 We must confront our mortality and allow that awareness to lead us to more intentional choices. Ones that align with who we truly are. 

🐱 We must stop seeing work as this “other” thing separate from our “real” lives. It’s all life. We can start to see this with a simple experiment—stop keeping separate work and personal calendars. Put it all together and see the difference it makes in how you choose to spend your time. 

We must listen to Katie… she is wise and compassionate and brilliant. 

You can follow Katie on LinkedIn. And check out her site at  bnourished.com. It’ll grab you from the first headline… “for doers mastering how to be.” I think we can all relate to that. 

I bet some of you can relate to my site and my Substack newsletter as well. I’m on a mission to make work suck less and I’d love for you to join me. Want to make that desuckification happen ASAP? Let’s set up a free half hour strategy session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider raising a flock of carrier pigeons and training them to deliver messages that threaten an unholy unleashing of poop if they don’t listen to this show on the reg. 

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies #selfcare #worklifeintegration 

To view the podcast on YouTube, click here.

If agencies are from Mars, where are clients from?Don’t answer that. 

Instead, listen to Leesa Eichberger, today’s guest on the DesuckifyWork™ podcast. Leesa has been leading marketing at large brands for a while now, including stints as a CMO at Jenny Craig and Head of Brand for Farmer’s Insurance. Full disclosure, we also worked together while I was at Chiat years ago and she ran marketing for Vonage—if you’re old enough you may have their goofy theme song ear worming its way into your brain right now. You’re welcome. 

Leesa knows firsthand what it’s like to be “the client” and it was a lot of fun getting her POV from the other side of the solar system. 

🐱 We talked about the role of a CMO today and how’s evolving and occasionally disappearing.

🐱 We discussed the importance of trust and transparency in agency/client relationships and how a little skin in the game for agencies could help improve this dynamic. 

🐱 And we explored the reality that sometimes work does suck and that’s okay. In fact, that’s often where the magic happens, if we’re able to work through those hard challenges. 

Speaking of hard challenges, Leesa is also an avid triathlete, which has me feeling slightly guilty for complaining about my “long” walk to get the mail earlier Slightly. 

The point is, Leesa is awesome. You should listen to her.

You can follow Leesa on LinkedIn. She shares a lot of great insights that make you think more deeply about the work of advertising and marketing. 

Speaking of thinking, you should think about checking out my site and my Substack newsletter. I’m on a mission to make work suck less and I’d love for you to join me. Want to make that desuckification happen ASAP? Let’s set up a free half hour strategy session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider going back in time to put a few dozen DesuckifyWork™ product placements into the movie Office Space. That logo’d look awfully nice on a big ol’ Swingline stapler. 

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies  #agencyclientrelationship #CMO #marketing 

If you’d like to watch the episode on YouTube, please click here.

Chris McMahon may just be the most thoughtful human in advertising. 

Everything about him, from his presence and demeanor to the way he connects the dots between each facet of his life to develop and hone his approach to leadership, is inspiring and illuminating. 

Now, if you’ve spent more than a minute in advertising, you know that for every Chris, there at least a few (hundred) not Chris-es. 

One of the reasons I became a coach was to help folks find their inner-Chris. And you can get a head start on that work right now by listening to this episode of the DesuckifyWork™ podcast. 

Some Chris-isms that you’ll hear:

🐱 Passion is sexy. Encouraging and making space for authentic passion and vulnerability is important for great creative work. Our best tool in this pursuit has been the creative team. We shouldn’t abandon it in the face of new tech and evolving roles. We should lean into it and fortify it.

🐱 Being a swim coach makes you a better leader. You learn to meet people where they are, incrementally raising standards to help them grow into who they can be. 

🐱 We are woefully inefficient at matching talent to open roles or projects. Case in point: LinkedIn “cattle calls.” They’re great for activating our biases and toying with creatives’ emotions, but terrible at actually finding the best person for the job. The fix? Agencies need to stop treating talent as overhead and start seeing it as an appreciating asset to nurture. We’ll continue to see our best and brightest leave the industry if we con’t fix this issue. 

I think Chris is a top talent and exactly the kind of creative leader we need more of. I think you’ll feel the same after taking a listen. 

You can follow Chris on LinkedIn. And check out his site at passionissexy.com. His work is delightfully silly and dare I say, thoughtful. 

Speaking of silly and thoughtful, you should check out my site and my Substack newsletter, where I take a lighthearted, cat-heavy look at leadership and personal development. Want some of that silly thoughtfulness all up in your face and s**t? Let’s set up a free half hour strategy session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider becoming a billionaire, colonizing Mars, and making sure every space suit comes pre-equipped with the full catalog of this podcast playing on a loop.

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #creativeleadership #thoughtfulleadership #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies 

If you prefer to watch on YouTube, please click here.

NOTE: We had some technical difficulties with the recording of this episode and apologize for any quality issues.

You’re getting very, very, emotionally healthy. Very, very, emotionally healthy…

This is the power of combining coaching with hypnotherapy. Something today’s guest on the DesuckifyWork™ podcast does quite well. She also does a great job busting the myths and misconceptions around hypnosis. Spoiler alert: a waving watch is rarely involved. 

Michele Molitor is a coach, clinical hypnotherapist and the author of the best-selling book, “I Am Perfectly Flawsome – How Embracing Imperfection Makes Us Better.”

She is also a former creative director who was bullied out of her job, leading her to her current path. If you spent more than a minute in the advertising and creative space, you know it’s not always the most welcoming—we have a lot of work to do.Michele can help. 

She can help us disconnect from negative beliefs and rewire new neural pathways so we show up better for ourselves and those around us. 

She can help us deal with the elevated cortisol, burnout, and procrastination that comes with perfectionistic thinking and learn to embrace the flaws and mistakes that ultimately make us stronger. We talk about how this is exemplified in the Japanese art of Kintsugi. Check it out, it’s quite beautiful. 

She can also help companies—yes, even ad agencies—Increase belonging, collaboration, and productivity with the help of a tool called Dignify. 

Michele brings a whole lot of dignity to our conversation. Let’s take a listen. 

You can follow Michele on LinkedIn. And check out her site for free resources, articles and a link to her book, I am Perfectly Flawsome - How Embracing Imperfection Makes us Better. 

Speaking of imperfection, you should check out my site and my substack newsletter. They are loaded with flawed attempts at insight and inspiration. If you’d like to get a taste of that face to face, let’s set up a free half hour strategy session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider officially changing your name to Count DeSuck and joining me as cohost on this show every week. 

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #dignityatwork #hypnotherapy #perfectionism #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies 

If you get a chance to bring George Tannenbaum on your podcast, you do it. And if you’re smart, you keep him on the line for as long as possible. 

I’m feeling pretty wise right about now. And you will too after watching or listening to this nearly 2-hour conversation with the most prolific human in advertising. 

George has opinions on a lot of things and he shares a bunch during this episode. 

🐱 Not surprisingly, he offers a strong rebuke of the holding company model, saying they have industrialized the ad business and stripped agencies of their distinctiveness. As historically important names like Young and Rubicam, J Walter Thompson, Wunderman and others get memory holed, it’s hard not to see his point. 

🐱 He reminds us of the importance of brand platforms or epigrams. When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight. The relentless pursuit of perfection. We try harder. You don’t see this kind of stake in the ground taken much anymore. Today, the brand that seems to have the most faith in this approach is one of the most controversial, selling not cars or shipping services, but a political movement raking in 80 grand a day on red baseball cap sales. 

🐱 Most importantly, George reminds us that the dignity of work and being paid fairly for that work (something he speaks at length about) stems from a simple and beautiful truth laid plain in an iconic photo from the civil rights era. The phrase, “I am a man,” displayed on a simple white sign with red lettering, held by striking sanitation workers in Memphis, in 1968. Four short words that said everything. And still do. Each human, worthy of respect, dignity and a paycheck that reflects both. 

Strip away the gendered language and the message today is as clear as it was nearly 60 years ago. We are all worthy. And we are each worth more than what that doubting voice inside our head tells us. The more frequently we can remember that, the more chance we have of taking the suck out of work. 

Two hours with George is like a masterclass in desuckification. So let’s get started, shall we?

You can follow George on LinkedIn. And his blog is an absolute must-read. You should check out his portfolio and company sites too. 

His work is fantastic. But it’s his POV that makes George, George. And it’s what people are paying for when they hire him at rates many would be afraid to even say out loud. Agencies could do well to remember that. 

Agencies should also remember to check out my site and my substack newsletter. I’ve got my own POV on how we can make work suck less and mean more. Wanna find out what that can mean for your agency? Let’s explore during a free half hour strategy session. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please like, share, rate, review, subscribe or consider opening a fast-food franchise called DesuckiFried Chicken and becoming the official sponsor of this show. 

Bye, everyone!

#desuckifyworkpodcast #desuckifywork #iamaman #dignityatwork #branding  #executivecoaching #advertising #adagencies