Own It

This week on OWN IT, we’re talking to Suzanne Barbosa of Atlantic New York. Her firm is the reigning AdAge Small Agency of the Year! Her experience prior to ownership included stops at MullenLowe, BBDO, Grey, Victors & Spoils and more. So, she brings the perspective of the big and the small to the conversation. Suzanne loved being in the middle of everything through her career, so she came up in t...

This week on OWN IT, we’re talking to Katie Irving of The Moonshot Agency. She works mainly in the fashion industry and started her career as a textile designer. That happens to be one of my favorite things, so we could have spent the whole episode talking about that … but we didn’t! Katie and Christy Hiler explored her journey to ownership, the women who inspired her along the way and the challen...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Leeann Leahy of The VIA Agency.  She hails from Portland, Maine where VIA does outstanding work and is an outstanding place to work. They were Ad Age’s Best Agency Culture winner in 2022. Leeann’s history of work is impressive. She’s been with big and small agencies through the years. She admits she had to learn how to play politics at the big age...

On this episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Victoria Roedel of Ice Cream Social. Her experience includes time at both big agencies and big brands. She co-founded Ice Cream Social, which is a digital media and content firm, in 2020. They have PepsiCo, among other brands, on their client list. And yes … they actually have three ice cream trucks which are incorporated into their business.  Victoria i...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Natalie Graeme and Lucy Jameson of Uncommon London. Both spent a number of years at a handful of incredible agencies before joining forces on the management team at Grey. From there they envisioned starting their own shop and in 2017 they did.  They’ve always been known for great work, but 2023 turned out to be “The” year for Uncommon. The agency...

This week on OWN IT, we’re talking to Lyndsey Corona of Slap Global. She has just been an owner for about a year, so that piece of her journey is new. But her path to that point has a lot of lessons for us all. First of all, Lyndsey is a boxer. She says it’s shaped her approach to business and ownership. She has certainly come into ownership swinging and I must say those punches are landing. She a...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Josy Amann and Taji Zaminasli of Media Matters Worldwide. Their agency is 20 years old and is a media planning, buying and analytics agency. It has always been independent and women-owned so their experience is a treasure trove for us.  Josy and Taji also trail-blazed the concept of remote work. Media Matters Worldwide has been fully remote since...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Louise Rengozzi and Jess Hickman from The Cusp. This dynamic duo has worked together in various stops along their journey, but joined forces to found The Cusp earlier this year. So we’re catching them on the very beginning of their journey as owners.  Louise and Jess are based in Whales in the United Kingdom. We talked about their decision to laun...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Katie Klencheski of SMAKK. It is a Brooklyn-based branding and marketing agency focused on wellbeing. Katie has dedicated her life and career to using creativity to drive meaningful change. We talked about her love of art, her path to ownership and, of course, her take on what we can do to close the gender gap in agency ownership. I so enjoyed thi...

In this encore episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Cindy Gallop from If We Ran The World and Make Love Not Porn. The original episode dropped on August 29, 2022. As you might guess from the name of her companies, Cindy is bold, brave and a bull in the China shop. She has deep experience in the advertising business and has been ruffling the feathers of the status quo for a long time. Cindy starts o...

This week on OWN IT, we’re talking to Krista Carroll of Latitude. She and her husband took a mission trip to Haiti in 2009 and returned to reshape their life to reflect their values. Latitude was the by-product of that shift as they launched the agency with the purpose to spend half of their time reinvesting in purpose-driven causes and brands. The company mantra is “Purpose Elevates Talent.” They...

On this episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Allison Henry Aver of Letter A. Allison has been an instrumental creative force for brands like Bumble and bumble, Kate Spade and more. She was the founding creative director for Kate Spade Saturday in fact. Allison is a creative problem solver and her agency works with emerging brands looking for personality, purpose and point of view. I enjoyed her poi...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Elena Robinson of Putney. I’ve been so excited to talk to and learn from Elena since she announced Putney at Ad Age’s Small Agency Conference last year. She’s been at it for a little over a year now, so this is going to be an informative episode.  Elena has been at most of the big agencies in Chicago … Leo Burnett, BBDO and more. But now she’s tur...

In this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Michelle Edelman of PETERMAYER. Michelle is an ad industry veteran She’s served on the boards at the 4A’s and is currently serving on the board at AMIN Worldwide. She’s been at PETERMAYER in New Orleans for 10 years.  Michelle grew up thinking she would be a doctor. She actually went to medical school before opting for public affairs and healthcar...

In this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Ellen Faulkner of Lewis Communications. We are going to learn a lot this week. Ellen is the CEO of Lewis where she has been for almost 39 years. She started as an account coordinator, but moved up and was SVP and managing director until last year. Interestingly enough, she purposefully avoided ownership. But as time went on, she joined five others...

In this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Sally Weavers and Jenny Jones of Craft Media London. Both credit their mentoring and inspiration to a string of formidable women leaders in advertising. Now that they’re the formidable leaders, they’re inspiring more women to follow that path to ownership.  Sally and Jenny both came up through media and strategy. They’ve worked with some of the bi...

On this episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Sara Eolin and Veronica Diaferia from Tinygiant. Tinygiant is a Canne’s Silver Lion award-winning production company that has worked with an incredible roster of the world’s biggest brands and agencies. Their big selling point is they offer the intimacy of a boutique firm at the speed and scale of a production company that does big work.  We had such a f...

On this episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Michelle O’Grady from Team Friday. Michelle is big into life experiences, and to compliment that, has a background in experiential marketing. She’s based in Los Angeles where Team Friday has existed for the last decade. It’s a creative agency with purpose driven and culturally relevant work in mind. I love these conversations, especially this one with Mi...

This week on OWN IT, we’re talking to Kate Wolff of Lupine Creative. She comes from a family of powerhouse women, including her mother who is an attorney, and her grandmother is Janet Wolff, one of the first women inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame. Kate has lived up to that legacy, starting Lupine Creative after navigating a career that included stops at TBWA/Chiat/Day, DDB and others. As...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Leigh Chandler of Sister Mary. It’s an exciting time to talk to her because she is in the middle of launching the firm. She’s a native Brit who moved to New York 10 years ago.  Leigh is a traveler and keen observer of different cultures and people, which makes her a fantastic translator to them from brands. We talked about the inspiration behind t...

On this episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to MaryBeth Adduci and Karin Rose of 6. We’re going to explore a different angle to ownership with this dynamic duo. MaryBeth and Karin are both creatives and met as creative partners at DDB in Chicago. They started 6 to build an agency that focused on what they call work that matters.  But the two still freelance as a creative team for others. The combinat...

On this episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Amy Deneson from House of Puff, Pheno and the Cannabis Media Council. Each of those endeavors prove she’s not only entrepreneurial, but isn’t afraid to take that plunge into founding and owning agencies and businesses within our space.  We talked about why and how each of those were started, the challenges of marketing in the corporate cannabis world, an...

In this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Jane Ferguson, a correspondent for PBS Newshour and contributor to The New Yorker. As you might expect, this episode expands our conversation into the world of journalism and how Jane has seen parallel challenges in gender equity and opportunity. Since our industries are not only similar, but intimately intertwined, this conversation is an importa...

In this episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Blair Brady of The With Agency. It is a brand partnership agency based in Atlanta. She is a mom, a cook and a former ballerina. She started like many of us as an intern at an agency. Her career took what she calls zig-zags through a couple of agencies before she launched With in 2012.  Blair had so many interesting things to share including the perspecti...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Shannon Gabor of Clever Creative. She has been an agency owner for almost 18 years, so we tapped into her wealth of experience in ownership. Shannon came through the creative side of the business and, in a rather timely coincidence for what’s going on in the world today, she once worked on the licensing and packaging team at Mattel for the Barbie...