Own It

On this week's episode of Own It, we’re talking to Julia Beardwood and Sarah Williams from Beardwood & Co. Julia started the agency almost 20 years ago after time at P&G both on the brand side, and serving them at an agency. And Sarah, though she was one of the first employees, just took over ownership from Julia.  The firm was born from a dissatisfaction with existing agency models. The agency ai...

On this week's episode of Own It, we’re talking to Kelly Bayett from Love Song and Barking Owl. She owns not one, but two audio production companies. Her work has touched many aspects of the advertising and agency world, so she not only has the ownership experience to share, but a unique perspective on the greater advertising world. We talked about her inspirations and challenges along the way to...

On this week's episode of Own It, we’re talking to Alison Monk from Eden Collective. Her resume is a Who’s Who of the advertising and media business. Edelman, Mercury, Price Waterhouse Cooper, Grey, Conde Naste, Merkle. That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to get her on the show … she has such a deep and wide set of experiences to share with us. Alison and I talked about her journey to ownershi...

To kick off 2024 on OWN IT, we’re talking to Christine Olivas of No Single Individual. Her firm bolts on strategy to other agencies, but she has a wealth of experience across nearly every vertical you can think of. She’s also a 2023 Stevie Award winner which is an award for women in business.   We talked about her journey, her experiences working at and with agencies, and of course, we heard her p...

On this episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Tevis Houston of Friends Everywhere. Her creative studio is a little over a year old and  helps brands connect with their communities through what she calls transformative visual storytelling and seasonal campaigns. She has a lot of experience and work in the fashion and youth culture spaces and has driven award-winning work for brands like Levi’s, Vans,...

On this episode of Own It, we’re talking to Holland Martini and Maria Vorovich from GOODQUES. Their firm is what they call the “anti-research” research company that is changing consumer insights practices. Their approach is to tackle research in a creative way.  They founded the company in 2019 after years working in the larger agency world. They were named a top global research company to watch i...

Today, we are celebrating a milestone. This is the 100th episode of Own It! And what a journey it has been. Today we welcome back the co-founder of the Own It effort and our first guest way back in episode one, Jean Freeman from Zambezi. We wanted to look back on the last two years of conversations and progress, recap the amazing Own It Summit we just finished in New York, and talk about what’s ne...

On this episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Lee Deas from Obviouslee. She started her agency when she was 25 with no money or capital investment. She actually taught salsa dancing to make ends meet while she built it. Almost 20 years later, she’s built an amazing agency that does awesome work. Lee is a force. And you’ll get that in the conversation today. We talked about her lessons learned throug...

This week on OWN IT, we’re talking to Julie Sheldon and Lindsay Waugh of Tough Love. They say very clearly they are not an agency. They are strategy partners for all things brand, communication and social. Both come from backgrounds in strategy and planning for a variety of brands and agencies of all sizes. They came together to start Tough Love just one year ago. We talked about their inspiration...

This week on OWN IT, we’re talking to Jolene Delisle of The Working Assembly. She started out wanting to be in journalism, but came into advertising during an internship. She wound up leading creative for a lot of big-hitting advertising and branding shops along the way.  She launched The Working Assembly seven years ago and has flourished as an agency owner. But she also owns an ice cream shop, s...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Alisha Goldstein of the Jane Smith Agency. Alisha’s focus is on offering a speciality in what she calls the most powerful consumer in the world - The Discerning Female Consumer.  We talked about the unique focus of her agency, her path to ownership and, of course, her thoughts on why there are so few female agency owners in advertising today.  We...

On the latest episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Brittany Woitas of Kōvly Studio. She might have the most interesting career journeys I’ve ever seen. She has been a financial advisor, a family farmer, a teacher and an agency owner. Her parent’s family farm gave her that entrepreneurial spirit.  We walked through her journey and her take on the gender gap in agency ownership. She is just brilliant...

This week on OWN IT, we’re talking to Hollie Fraser of Shelance. It is a community of freelance female creatives that serves to help that talent get found and seen. As  you might imagine, Hollie spent time as a freelance creative, but comes from a long history of working at some of the biggest agencies in the world. Leo Burnett, Grey, MMC and others. She started Shelance in 2023 after frustration...

On this week's episode of OWN IT, we’re talking to Faith Hurley and Stacy Callighan from PinPoint Collective. In many ways these two power women are the Odd Couple, from their interests … food versus working out … to their backgrounds … Faith was an actor in a previous professional life. Stacy was an architect. They met at a human-centered research and design firm. Faith gathered insights and Stac...

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...