This time, we sit down with Rhonda Hiatt, Global CEO of M&C Saatchi Consulting and CEO of Clear. From mowing lawns in the Midwest to helming a global consultancy and opening a restaurant on the side, Rhonda’s career is a masterclass in reinvention, resilience, and reading the cultural tea leaves. We talk navigating chaos, leading with empathy, and why clarity is the ultimate growth hack. Our Favorite Stories Rhonda’s journey from Midwest entrepreneur to global CEO of M&C Saatchi Consulti...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 85
In this episode of The Bad Podcast, An Advertising Podcast , we get inside the mind of Tom Suharto, Global Strategy Lead at Forsman & Bodenfors. From cutting his teeth in research to leading strategy on a global scale, Tom's career path is anything but linear—unless you count the 400-page data reports he once sifted through. We talk cultural codes, creative instincts, and why trusting your gut is the real killer app. Our Favorite Stories Tom's journey from working in research to leading glob...
Mar 24, 2025•57 min•Ep. 84
Our Favorite Stories Erin’s unconventional path to advertising—starting with an English and film degree, moving to Chicago, and launching a scrappy startup before breaking into UX. The “hot cake” corporate training at McDonald’s, where new hires spend a full day working in a restaurant, and how it shaped her design perspective. How McDonald’s global headquarters offers a rotating international menu, giving employees and customers a taste of different cultures. Big Moments from Doing the Work Mov...
Mar 10, 2025•59 min•Ep. 83
Our Favorite Stories: Hotboxing the next blockbuster idea: starting a career at the tail end of the "Mad Men" era in digital healthcare advertising. Working with Rich Norman, Todd learned how Allegra got its name. "An articulation, not of the problem statement, but of the relief". "Many times in my career, humans were reduced to numbers or broad statistics... not individualized and not humanized, and while that was the political ethos and mandate, that did not feel right to me." If you are an 'I...
Jan 27, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 82
Happy New Year, we hope you've had a fantastic holiday filled with much deserved rest, good food, and even better company. We're starting 2025 with strong with TBWA veteran-turned-indy CCO Chuck Monn. Among many things, he takes us into the mind of an award-winning creative director who touched cultural pillars like the Olympics, Visa, and Apple. He leaves brands more memorable than he found them, and has shaped iconic work like 'Mac vs PC' and 'Shot on iPhone'. Our top 5 moments: "You're not ma...
Jan 13, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 81
Our Favorite Stories Alec's journey as the "Photoshop kid" at Grey Entertainment, helping build the Batman movie's first website. His reflections on surviving the Web 1.0 era and the exciting chaos of startups in 1990s New York. Using virtual reality for healthcare. Talk about ahead of the curve! Alec tells us about a 1993 college paper he wrote at Columbia on VR as a treatment for schizophrenia. Big Moments from Doing the Work Alec's transition from startups to healthcare advertising, driven by...
Dec 30, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 80
Our favorite stories: From record label & photography studio to ad agency; shaping incredible brands like Lollapalooza and Pitchfork to now Kimberly-Clark and Patagonia Renting a $700/month, 2,000 sq ft industrial space to make band posters & album art, produce music, and photograph musicians. Creating Someoddpilot at 25 - "the gusto, the sincerity, the sureness even though I had no idea what I was doing" "I'm the kid that walked out of art school and wanted to keep that feel going... of...
Dec 16, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 78
Our favorite stories: Mass media shaped by sight-sound imagery, inspired by watching a ton of TV and critiquing the commercials as much as watching the programming. Recalling jingles, surgery cartoons, GEICO ads... On trying research journalism - "something just wasn't clicking, it felt like it drained me of energy." Part time restaurant job and appliance & repair parts marketing... the perfect recipe for becoming the future Head of Strategy at Sid Lee? JK - it helped with learning how to re...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 77
"If you got one foot in tomorrow and one foot in yesterday, then you're squattin' on today." - Brian's grandma Our favorite stories: 3x author, professor, and agency chief turned clinical therapist Over 20 years in China leading perhaps the most storied industry-shaper J. Walter Thompson on accounts like Kraft, Nike, and Microsoft. There was a lot of proud when you saw your work up there... there was a lot of social cache. Investment banking was a big thing and consulting was too, but there was ...
Oct 14, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 76
Our favorite stories: "I started Bakery when I was 27... I didn't know how to do anything but I thought I knew how to do everything better than everyone else." "If you're from a place like the Dominican Republic, you're surviving... there's very few career tracks. You have a main career and a lot of side (hustles)." "Once puberty hits... I was out there tagging walls... and then I had a mentor." "This is the passion of my life, working with people who are way more talented than I'll ever be." "A...
Sep 30, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 75
Theo Gibson, ECD of Joan Creative and visual artist Bank Moody , joins us from Joan's NYC office to share his Jedi-like wisdom around authentic artistic creation, and how it has served him during an award-winning advertising career, from his early days building a creative community in Toronto, Canada, to his current role and life in NYC. Our favorite stories: How a friend's words, "sketchbook Theo is the best Theo," reminded him to re-prioritize making art with his hands Intentionally curating y...
Sep 16, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 74
This episode, we sit down with Lameya Chaudhury, the driving force behind social impact at Lucky Generals, the UK-based advertising agency known for work that doesn't just resonate—it challenges perceptions and drives meaningful change. With over 15 years of experience connecting brands to their communities, Lameya shares her journey of being curiosity-led, collecting mentors, and helping brands align their actions with their words. Our favorite stories: Making a complicated topic simple and wor...
Aug 26, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 73
Multi-hyphenate creative legend JoRoan Lazaro, ECD of Experience.Monks joins us to talk all things emerging technology, career lifecycles, and getting his start AOL in a time when UX design was still a nascent discipline. Our favorite stories: One of the odd birds in both product design and brand communications Going against the grain: started in client-side and transitioned to agency "Instead of choosing one major I chose three. Computer science, psychology, and art - it didn't make sense at th...
Aug 12, 2024•57 min•Ep. 72
Suzie Bao, IW Group's new VP Account Director for McDonald's stopped by the Bad Pod to talk about... Joy work; engaging career growth and creativity with a focus on multicultural representation Lessons on finding mentorship early and often; the courage it takes to embrace people willing to tell you what you are bad at Accelerating and championing Asians in Advertising , a non profit organization dedicated to elevating traditionally overlooked voices and faces. Superpower: being a “fixer” and “cl...
Jun 03, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 71
You'll be glad you caught this one. Matt Johnson has paved his ad career as a strategist and now agency founder with determination, humility, and of, course, a heaping helping of creativity. He cut his teeth at some of the most iconic names in LA advertising; Goodby, 72&Sunny, 180LA, and now Haymaker Matt tells us about sharing an alma mater with Dan Weiden and “growing up” in his career path alongside the rise of Jordan in the ‘80s when, for the first time, a single athlete was defining the...
May 20, 2024•1 hr 17 min
Introducing our guest all the way from Lincoln, Nebraska… Clint Runge , CEO & Founder of Archrival! Turns out, advertising was a second chapter for Clint, who actually started out in architecture and design. Archrival is a youth culture agency setting out to reinvent how brands with the hearts and minds of young adults, teens to twenty-somethings. Clint and his team of 65 have worked with brands like Spotify, Adidas, and Epic Games, and they aren’t slowing down. “ Rewriting the Ten Z playboo...
Apr 08, 2024•1 hr 1 min
After 3 years and over 60 guest interviews, The Bad Pod co-founder, Amelia is leaving the podcast. AND Eric L. Hu, Head of Strategy FinTech at Walmart and our episode 37 guest from August '22, is taking over as co-host! Eric & Brian talk with Amelia about the pod past, our futures, what makes the work "worth it," and what is most important in our professional lives. Please join us in bidding a fond farewell to Amelia and wishing her all the best as she continues to dominate over at VML Chica...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 68
Look no further than this episode's thumbnail image to see that Ryan Mack likes doing things differently. And it's that ability to go with his gut, even and especially when unconventional, that has ushered him through a truly inspiring career. In his words, Ryan Mack's special talent is making small things medium. As the former President of Virtue Worldwide, he did just that, building Vice's agency into an advertising juggernaut. As Chief Commercial Officer at Made In Network, he has overseen th...
Jan 15, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 67
It's the Happiest of New Years here at The Bad Pod because we finally got to sit down with the co-founders of our long-time sponsors, Book 180! Sarah Latz & Francesca Piancone were PR & Agency professionals who moonlighted as instructors at Chicago Portfolio School. And it's there where they first began to get the idea for another way to do this whole portfolio school thing, and where their friendship blossomed into a co-foundership. And the results are in! It. is. working. Graduates of ...
Jan 01, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 66
In episode 65 of The Bad Pod, An Ad Pod, we delve into the mind of Ian Baer, an advertising maven with a storied 35-year career at the helm of industry giants like Publicis and TBWA. Ian recounts how the classic sitcom "Bewitched" sparked his initial fascination with advertising, setting him on a path to become a strategic powerhouse in the field. From his early inspirations to his revolutionary work at Sooth, Ian provides a masterclass in advertising strategy and its evolution. Throughout our d...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Allie LeFevere and her co-founder/best friend, Lyndsay Sanders, have been using clever concepts and witty wordplay to grow a wide range of brands, like Blue Bunny ice cream, Native cosmetics, the LA Rams, CMT, and a slew of other organizations across myriad industries. We talk about why humor works, why brands are scared of it, the sweet spot that comes with knowing your niche, and how your side hustle doesn't have to be your career. Episode Links: Obedient Agency Brandsplaining Can they brand t...
Dec 11, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Rodney Johnson jumped into the deep end on production with his start at Tube Creative, an independent production studio in Atlanta, which gave him his 10,000 of hours of experience and then some. Since then he's only added to his resumé, working on productions in the ad world, for music videos, and beyond. He and Brian met when Rodney was moonlighting as the Creative Circus' video editing instructor and campus guru. Now, he's bottling his extensive knowledge into an easily accessible video editi...
Nov 13, 2023•56 min•Ep. 63
Sebastián is one of our favorite people and fellow VMLYR Commerce employee. Unfortunately for this pod's hosts, that's where the comparison stops, because Sebastián has separated himself from many in the advertising world by having more Lions than sub-Saharan Africa. He joins us off the heals of his most recent win, a Grand Prix for his work on Oreo Codes. Tune in for a world of wisdom from one of the industry's most winning (and totally humble about it) copywriters. Episode Links: Sebastián's B...
Oct 23, 2023•57 min
Episode 61 welcomes back Joshua Womack to talk about his new book about his days as a Cleveland comedian. He tells us what he's learned about book publishing between his debut Copywriting manifesto, "I'm Not a Copywriter But...". He tells us about the importance of a good editor and why he loves the morning time best for his creative pursuits. Buy his new book at the link below! Episode Links: "You Are Not That Funny: Stories from Cleveland Stand-Up" on Amazon Find us us on Twitter , Instagram ,...
Oct 09, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 61
Extra thanks to our episode 60 (!!) guest Ellie Lloyd, Executive Creative Director at Glow, who joined us amidst a tropical storm that was falling on top of her Los Angeles home. But the connection holds out and we get a special look at her extensive career in advertising with a focus on promoting for hit movies and television series like The Last Jedi, The Rolling Thunder Review, Mayans, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Legion, Ready Player One and more. She brings us insights on building fa...
Sep 25, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 60
His friends call him "Mundo." Mundo Sando if they're being proper. Edmund Sandoval is a Chicago-based Senior Copywriter for R/GA and a writer writer in his time outside of agency life. He brings us yet another completely unique story about a nonlinear entrance into advertising. He tells us how the pandemic shaped his creative life and what it feels like to submit a story. For anyone with art in their heart, Mundo's story will resonate completely. And for anyone with advertising on the brain, her...
Sep 11, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 59
Episode Summary: "Spark of Creativity: Philip Khosid's Journey with Battery LA" In this episode of "The Bad Pod, Advertising Podcast," we interview Philip Khosid, the co-founder of Battery LA. With a background in Grey Worldwide and BBDO, Philip's journey led him to establish Battery in 2013, which saw him crafting campaigns for titans like Warner Bros. and NBC Universal. Philip talks about Battery's philosophy that "the idea is king," how audacity in creativity can spark innovations, and how a ...
Aug 28, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 58
These young creatives gamified the Cannes Lion experience with The Loudest Roar, a virtual juror experience for anyone with an eye for advertising to see how their taste stacks up against the real Cannes jury selections. Chirag Khushalani is a strategist at AKQA Media City where he and his co-worker, Tobbi Vu, a UX/UI designer got the ball rolling on this budding community experience. Alongside an Art Director and Copywriter, the four of them launched the inaugural year of The Loudest Roar with ...
Aug 14, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 57
Long-time creative team and co-founders of Major Agency, Andrew Fatato & Dave Haller join us for episode 56 to talk about their new pocket-portfolio school, Handbook for Hacks. It's a concise and thorough breakdown of the job of being a creative in advertising. We talk about the foundations of advertising, the problems facing modern advertising schools, their plant food side hustle, and how an accidental freelance project in Japan led them to founding their own agency. Episode Links: https:/...
Jul 31, 2023•59 min•Ep. 56
In this episode of TBP, Brian sits down with Mark Robinson, a senior marketing and strategy executive and author of the new book, "Black on Madison Avenue" (available everywhere July 1st). The lack of diversity in advertising has been a long-standing concern, and Mark sheds light on the industry's ongoing struggles with empathy and inclusivity. Mark shares how his mother's career and a life growing up in St. Albans Queens influenced his aspirations. He reflects on an incredibly creative career f...
Jun 26, 2023•57 min•Ep. 55
