Rock n' Roll Research Podcast

From growing up on a West Texas farm to starting her career in the energy sector, April Bell has had a fascinating path to and through the world of insights. With her company, Made with Empathy, April has helped spur innovation for a who’s-who of the world’s great consumer brands. Her approach, supported by both personal and client examples, can be found in her book, “Firestarter: Igniting Innovat...

Chad Nicholson is the EVP of Strategic Intelligence at the independent advertising powerhouse, BarkleyOKRP. You’re familiar with their iconic work like the Burger King “You Rule” campaign. They also work with other great brands llke AMC Theatres, Winnebago, Frontier Airlines, Planet Fitness and many others. I first met Chad while at Anheuser-Busch where he started his career as an intern and climb...

From his home on the Spanish coast, Bernice Klaassen has been a leading thinker and contributor to the global dialogue on the future of insights and analytics. Once you know his journey, it is easy to understand why. Bernice’s professional journey has taken him all over the world with companies like Kantar, Ipsos, Citibank and now RSB Insights, and it spans several disciplines including design, mu...

Gabe McElwaine is currently a Sales Director at the super innovative insights firm, i-Genie, who is meeting the moment and addressing timeless business and marketing questions for brands in new and clever ways. Gabe’s journey is a really cool one – from working at record labels as an underground DJ in NYC, to encountering Napster and discovering Nielsen Soundscan, he helped build and grow the medi...

After a long run as a consulting and client leader at Ipsos by way of GfK, Tim Spenny is now at Conveo helping to chart the future of qualitative research at scale. But once upon a time, Tim was fronting original and cover bands all around Chicago playing classic venues like the Double Door, the Subterranean, Big Horse and more. Tim traces his journeys through both insights and music and shares hi...

Robert Pierson is currently the SVP North America at the UK-based insight firm, Rigour Research, and a member of the board of British American Business Council, Chicago.  Robert has had a fascinating journey from organizing techno raves to relocating to the US through acquisition at 451 Research to leading business development at Kantar Profiles and helping expand the sport of polo in Chicago. Lis...

Fresh from winning the Expert Choice and Audience Favorite Awards at the 2026 Greenbook IIEX Insights Innovation Competition, I sit down with Angelique Taylor, founder of AddMaple, to discuss her fascinating back story. Ange founded AddMaple to solve a long-standing set of challenges she faced as a consultant; specifically, how to connect the dots, see the full picture and share the insight story...

Celebrating episode #150 of the RRR Podcast with a guest who needs no introduction. Katrina Noelle has long been a force in the insights industry. As the founder of KNow Research and co-founder of Scoot Insights, she has recently teamed up with the disruptive, technology-focused insights firm, Hootology. Check out what they’re up to! You may also know Katrina from her tireless advocacy with the In...

Bill Salokar is a long-time fixture in the insights community. After starting his career as a state lottery expert, Bill found his way to the agency side where he spent most of his career. He has just recently started at Gazelle Global, one of the most trusted research operations firms in the business. Bill has also long volunteered his time with organizations like MRxPros, Insights Association an...

We first spoke with Mark Loughney five years ago on Episode #16.  Since then, so many exciting things have happened in Mark’s world that it made sense to do an update. Enjoy!

Channel 83 Records was founded in 1987 in Minneapolis/St. Paul by Owen Polifka. With the scouting help of Brent Huberty, they signed several legendary Twin Cities metal bands including Disturbed, Impaler and Soilent Green and renowned goth rockers, Morticia.  They later partnered with Sci-Fi Western for several rockabilly released led by The Vibro Champs.  Owen and Brent share a verbal history of...

Socratic Technologies was founded in 1994 with a mission to bring pioneering technology to the research profession. Today they are an agile, full-service insights consultancy with blue chip clients across several industry verticals. Chris Davis is currently EVP at Socratic and has been the driving force behind much of the company’s technological advancements. Chris shares his journey from writing...

Andrea Rowden’s fascination with the human condition has led her to a career in insights. Currently, she is Senior Manager, Consumer and Product Insights at hims & hers which has grown to over $2Bn in revenues in just eight short years. Outside of work, Andrea is a vocalist for a soul band in Chicago called S.O.U.L. (Spirit of Universal Love). Andrea discusses how starting her career on the su...

Paula Rosecky is both a true expert qualitative research practitioner and a tireless contributor to the insights industry through WiRE and her significant long-time involvement in the QRCA (a fantastic organization!).  Her journey through the world of research is one-of-a-kind, encompassing several opportunities for cultural immersion and broadening experiences. Paula and I discuss her unique path...

Jeff Grant has had an enviable career in insights, first on the client-side where he rose to SVP Insights and Analytics for Time Warner, where he supported the Cartoon Network among others for 20 years. He then transitioned to the supplier side and now the agency world as VP Audience Strategy at Razorfish.   But Jeff got bitten by the comic book bug as a wee lad and it turned into a lifelong passi...

Dr. Faith James and Stacy Graiko are founders of the insights-led marketing and strategy consultancy called The She Lab, where they apply their deep expertise to help clients win with women. They are also just about to release their second book, “Decoding She: How to Drive Growth by Understanding Women Consumers,” packed with insight and evidence on understanding and marketing to women. Faith and...

After years of leading insights and analytics teams at great companies like Diageo, H&R Block, Supervalu and Best Buy, Dr. Ed Dobbles has recently joined the highly disruptive alcohol industry analytics start-up, Overproof, as Chief Analytics Officer.  But for the past several years, Ed has been volunteering his precious spare time as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).  Ed shares some fun...

Rachael Dimit is currently Sr. Manager of Global Consumer Insights at Foot Locker where she continuously uncovers fresh cultural trends that drive the business.  In her spare time, Rachael also has a successful Instagram business (@pomodorapomodora) slinging custom pizzas to a rabid customer base in Chicago. She has very cleverly adapted the famous Foot Locker “sneaker drop” model to spur enthusia...

Chris Hayward is a colleague and fellow Lead Client Partner at Mintel, but that is not all we have in common. Chris is also a drummer and quite a successful one at that!  With his band The Samurai Seven, he released a full-length album, “Le Sport” in 2002. The band also recorded five “Peel Sessions” with legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ, John Peel, in the same studio where the Beatles recorded “Pop Goes t...

Carley Hart has spent her career advising, mentoring and teaching customer discovery to entrepreneurs which she currently does as Director of Partnerships for Cornell Tech’s Runway Startups Program. Cool job!  But Carley has also applied everything she’s learned along the way in launching her own lifestyle company, Ahhhsome Kids, with a mission to “equip young children with essential life skills t...

Doug Keith started his career in public broadcasting, both as a producer and an on-air host. A grad program in communications led him to transition his career to insights. Today, Doug is 18 years into his research consultancy, was co-chair for the 2025 QRCA speaker committee and is a co-founder of the Insights Career Network.  Doug shares his career journey and how qualitative research has become...

Austin Harrison is the CEO of Northbeam, a marketing intelligence platform helping clients maximize the profitability of their marketing spend. Austin knows more about this space than anyone I know, having been involved in digital audience measurement and attribution since he helped build NetRatings’ first audience panel. In parallel, Austin has long been involved in the world of comics and animat...

Sabrina Brastad is one of those audacious insights pros with the conviction and drive to transform consumer insight into successful, award-winning products. After learning the ropes on the agency side with Ipsos, Hall & Partners and Vision Critical, Sabrina was hired by David Yin (episode 67) to help build out the initial insights function at Fitbit which was her first foray into new-to-the-wo...

“If you have too much VC funding and it’s just like ‘Margins! Margins! Margins!,’ you can’t start a revolution. You can’t be a pirate.” Adam Stephenson founded QuantifyAI last year after a successful business development career in the research sample space. He entirely self-funded the launch of his company, a DIY ethic that follows directly from his skate punk youth.  By bootstrapping, staying foc...

Start with a UC Berkeley background in the hard sciences and some time working on the Valdez oil spill, take a turn toward data analytics, layer in some orchestral bassoon and tattoo artistry and then you start to understand what makes Bryson Cwick tick.  Bryson is currently Business Development Manager at the research consultancy, Orchard, where they help their clients understand authentic consum...