Genuine Humans

This week, we’re talking to the wonderful Ruth Fittock, marketing director of simply roasted crisps, who was one of the team behind the launch of Popchips and Vitamin Water.

She tells Wendy and Tamara how burnout in her early career led her to reassess how she approaches life and work, the influence of strong women in her family in her career, and how being told to “speak up or no one will hear you” influenced her approach to marketing.

She talks about how important it is to overcome the fear of not fitting in and how standing out and being different is the best thing you can do in marketing. She tells us how having a supportive but honest network can guide you. And how she learned to tell the difference between fear of change and your gut instinct.

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Chief marketing officer at Virgin Red, Kelly Best, has wanted to work in marketing since childhood. Kelly, who has also held marketing leadership roles at Sky and TalkTalk, joins Wendy and Tamara to talk about creating opportunities from chance encounters, the importance of being your authentic self and the value of mentorship.

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Persuasive leadership has had a powerful impact on Bryan Scott’s career. Currently, the Marketing Communications Director at Ozone, Bryan recognises the positive influence a persuasive leader can have over their teams. 

This week, Bryan joins Wendy and Tamara to discuss how persuasive leadership has influenced his career and talk about how he approaches resilience.

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Reuben Arnold is currently Vice President at Claire’s Accessories and has previously held senior leadership roles for Eurostar, Virgin Atlantic and Starbucks.

Reuben talks us through his career path and the essential role his early managers played in shaping who he is today. In this episode, you’ll hear about transforming and reinventing iconic brands and the huge impact that mentor-style leadership can have on people.

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Claire Koryczan founded Imagine Beyond to help people develop their self-awareness and build trust in leadership teams. This week, Claire joins us on the Genuine Humans podcast, where we discuss the importance of mentorship, what good leadership looks like and why you should always follow your curiosity.

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This Mental Health Awareness Week, Tamara and Wendy are joined by Paul Sutton, social and digital marketing consultant (who also hosts the fantastic Digital Download podcast).

Mental health awareness is important to Paul, who has balanced depression with running a successful business for years. We talk about what it’s like to experience mental health challenges and look at how important it is for employers to create a culture that prioritises mental health.

Asad Dhunna spent much of his career working for PR agencies before founding strategic ED&I consultancy, The Unmistakables. 

He’s taken inspiration and guidance from several previous managers and leaders, such as Richard Kanareck and Gioconda Beekman, who he worked with at Fleishman Hillard. He’s also inspired by current clients, such as Evelyn Espinal of Unilever.

Asad is driven by the desire to create cohesion and provide people with the opportunities they deserve and could otherwise miss out on.

We loved speaking to Dino Myers-Lamptey on our most recent episode of Genuine Humans. Dino is the founder of The Barber Shop, a strategic creative company that works with disruptive, purpose-led or purpose-seeking brands. He’s also part of the Conscious Advertising Network and on the Board of the Marketing Society. 

He’s a natural entrepreneur. His first business, set up in competition with his brother as a teenager, was a barber shop (hence his company name today), cutting hair for friends in his mum’s sitting room. Their next venture was to found a basketball tournament in London that became the biggest of its kind.

He’s created an agency model at The Barber Shop that builds on this entrpreneurialism, allowing the team to be entrepreneurial in the way they work, to be consultative, and to keep the company fresh by challenging the status quo. 

We talked about why he’s excited by the ‘mindblowing, powerful tools’ that are part of the industry now, and what they mean for creativity; why scale isn’t always the end goal of every agency; and why successful businesses always have creative leaders at their head. He also talks about the importance of ethical advertising.  

Some of the takeaways you’ll hear from this episode: 

• Have a healthy disrespect for your bosses
• Take responsibility for your decisions 
• Creativity is about solving problems, not making slogans  
• Don’t always take investment if you’re offered it

Helen Tupper cofounded Amazing If to help make careers better for everyone. Helen’s always had a fascination for business and leadership, and has spent her career working for some of the UK’s most recognisable brands.

This week, Helen tells us about how her growth mindset has shaped her career and led to her desire to help other people discover their potential.

Jason Andree has travelled all over the US during his career. After four years working in Switzerland, Jason became the CMO for healthwear start-up, Nufabrx.

This week, we hear how Jason’s drive and determination to find positive changes from negative situations has been an invaluable skill in his success.