Ben Culpin is a managing partner at Amsterdam agency Lifely. He turned in a 5-year freelance strategy career to join a company he knew well - as a freelancer and also as friends. Prior to this, Ben worked at Strawberry Frog and Nomads, and, somewhere in-between all of this, he has been a video maker and ethnographic researcher.

In this episode of Sweathead, we discuss what it's like to make all these shifts - into then out of the freelance life and into then out of a lone wolf life.

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Marcelo Ferrarini is a Brazilian in London working for The Lego Group as Senior Manager, Global Insights. 

Recently, he published an article on LinkedIn that later made its way to WARC. And, now, you can hear it from his mouth right here.

In this episode, Marcelo takes us through what he's learned from the marketing sciences and how what he's learned has changed how he goes about marketing. 

You can find Marcelo here: https://twitter.com/immarcelinho

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Taylor Marks is a senior strategist at SixSpeed in Minneapolis. Taylor completed the very first public Sweathead Strategy Accelerator in 2021. I liked her work and wanted to share it with you. (BTW Our next accelerator starts on March 31, 2022)

One of the briefs in our accelerator asks you to sell Party City to people who aren't comfortable partying due to the pandemic. In our chat, Taylor takes us through her Four Points and her strategy story for this brief. 

We also discuss how the accelerator has helped her and what she's still applying from it in her dayjob.

You can find Taylor here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-marks-830592187/

Find out about our next strategy accelerator at http://www.sweathead.com

**

🔥 Strategy classes: http://www.sweathead.com

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🔊 Podcast & other links: https://znap.link/sweathead

Immediately after speaking with Philipp Paster on Friday, March 11, 2022 (the episode before this one), I spoke with three more Ukrainians about their experience of the war they're living through.

In this episode, Nata Zaharova joins us from Odessa, Valeria Tymotievych from Dubai, and Andriy Nimkovych from Kyiv. 

We discuss this feeling of induced psychosis, how Ukrainian “Creative Forces” are self-organizing on Telegram and giving each other jobs to do (including helping Ukrainian advertising people get jobs overseas), and the group's personal experience of the past few weeks.

- Nata is 23 years into a marketing and advertising career: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natazaharova/

- Valeria is a strategic planner at Fedoriv: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeria-tymotievych-183455107/

- Andriy is a project manager: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimkovych/

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🔥 Strategy classes: http://www.sweathead.com

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🔊 Other links: https://znap.link/sweathead

Sweathead Facebook group member Philipp Paster lives in Kyiv, Ukraine. Much of his family is there, too. But everyone lives in different apartments. 

On Friday, March 11, Philipp (formerly a brand strategist at TBWA Ukraine) spoke with me about what it’s been like to be living in Kyiv during the Russian invasion. I only watched the documentary “Winter On Fire”, which looks at the toppling of one of Ukraine’s leaders Yanukovych, after speaking with Philipp. Watching it before speaking with Philipp would have given me better questions. 

Like many of us, I’m only just starting to wrap my head around the history of Kyiv and Ukraine. Still, many thanks to Philipp for sharing his thoughts with us. I’ll post another interview with three Ukrainians later this week. 

** 

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📸 Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard

Günel Sadigova is eight months into her first strategy role. A pandemic strategy baby (if that's a thing), Günel was once a professional pianist. She then moved into marketing and, now, into a job with Toronto's Performance Art (coincidentally named–you know, because Günel was a performer and artist).

In this episode, we discuss what Günel has learned over the past eight months. She discusses coming to terms with making mistakes, how some briefs will feel exciting but not all of them will, and how doubt doesn't disappear–you just need to learn how to manage it better.

On Tuesday, March 8, 2022, Günel will be taking over Mark's Twitter account for International Women's Day. So you can find out more about her story @markpollard. 

You can also find Günel herself here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunelsadigova/

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📸 Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead

🔊 Podcast & other links: https://znap.link/sweathead

"Any advice for my first strategy job?" is a big question. In this episode, I try to answer it along with eight other questions, including:

- Can you get promoted too soon?

- How do you do deep thinking when you have to work fast?

- How do you sell strategy as a standalone offer?

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Find out about our Strategy Accelerator at http://www.sweathead.com

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The book "Strategy Is Your Words" by Mark Pollard is here: http://www.sweathead.com

Strategy is an odd job. It’s doused in ambiguity and riddled with confusion while sounding important at all times.

This is why we brought in Pilar McQuirter. Pilar is a Cultural Strategy Director at Los Angeles' Cashmere Agency. In this episode of Sweathead, Pilar will help you explain yourself to people around you, especially the ones who see you all the time but still don’t know what you do or why you’re so…you know, odd.

Find her here: http://www.instagram.com/ayy_pilar

**

Find out about our Strategy Accelerator at http://www.sweathead.com

Follow the fun on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead

Subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

The book "Strategy Is Your Words" by Mark Pollard is here: http://www.sweathead.com