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

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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

✉️ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

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

✉️ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5 

📸 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/

✉️ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5

📸 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

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

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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

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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

So. Many. Trends. But what's really worth our attention? 

In this episode of Sweathead, Chike Ume (Essence, Seattle), Hayley Grant (VaynerMedia, New York), and Matt Klein (Reddit, New York) each introduce three trends they think we need to pay attention to.

We recorded this in front of a small but live virtual audience on Zoom. We managed to remove most of the Zoom glitches and there is a little lag in which we speak over each other but this chat left me energized. I hope it does the same to you.

You can find these minds here:...

Chike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chikeume/

Hayley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayleykgrant/

Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kleinkleinklein/

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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

The strategy career has been kind to me. Frustrating but kind. And I hope it’s kind to you.

You can find this post on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZxTLRRpZ7S/

**

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

Nick Hirst is Executive Strategy Director at adam&eveDDB in London. He's twenty years into his planning career. He's been at adam&eveDDB for eight years and spent some of them as Head of Planning. That's after being a Head of Planning at Dare and working at Lowe and Grey.

In this episode of Sweathead, we discuss the messy reality of doing account planning.

You can find Nick here: https://twitter.com/nickhirst 

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Pooja Munshi is Head of Web, Data Analysis, and Digital Transformation at the UN Environment Programme. She's based in Nairobi, Kenya, but she's lived and/or worked in Paris, Berlin, London, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Miami, and New York. In fact, after ten years of working in advertising in New York, Pooja felt somewhat burnt out and decided to follow her partner to Paris. 

In this episode, we discuss burnout, purpose, and what it's like to live and work in so many different cities. 

You can find Pooja here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/poojamunshi/

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