Rosie Report

Frida Polli, CEO and co-founder of Pymetrics, passes the mic in our final episode of the season to We Are Rosie’s own Jessie Kernan, Head of Strategy and Insights as well as Executive Consultant for Outside Wave, a marketing & business consultancy for progressive and purpose-driven brands and agencies. The two discuss the future of work in marketing and what has changed about the landscape in 2020.

Becky Morrison, Owner of the production company The Light, passes the mic to Frida Polli, CEO and co-founder of Pymetrics, a company using neuroscience and AI to improve the accuracy, fairness, and diversity of hiring and talks about the future of inclusive hiring practices and how she used science to spark entrepreneurship.

Lauren Ruffin, co-founder of Crux, passes the mic to Becky Morrison, Owner of The Light, a production company committed to dismantling systemic inequity in the film industry and re-imagining production. The two discuss how she got into the business and the future of equity in production.

Henry Childs II, Founder and CEO of the Minority Wealth Commission, talks with Lauren Ruffin, co-founder of Crux, the first platform focused solely on amplifying narrative virtual reality content from Black creators, on why she co-founded Crux and what the future of platforms designed for Black audiences look like.

A. Walton Smith, Head of Content and Community Engagement at We Are Rosie and Founder of Black Woman Owned passes the mic to Henry Childs II, Founder and CEO of the Minority Wealth Commission, the largest multi-stakeholder organization solely focused on eradicating the racial wealth gap and finance the minority economy. In this episode the two discuss advice for minority business owners and what the ideal future of minority wealth looks like.

Brad Grossman, Founder and CEO of ZEITGUIDE, talks with A. Walton Smith We Are Rosie’s very own Head of Content & Community Engagement as well as Founder of Black Woman Owned, a community giving #BlackWomanOwned businesses visibility through social media as a means to increase their revenue. The two talk about social media’s role in community building and what the ideal future of inclusive and prosperous online communities look like.

Jinny Oh, Founder of WANDR, passes the mic to Brad Grossman, Founder and CEO of consulting and publishing company ZEITGUIDE as well as creator and host of Zeitguide's Culture Class. In this episode the two discuss what the ideal future of shaping culture looks like and the many ways to reach the masses.

Tammy Bjelland, Founder and CEO of Workplaceless, talks with Jinny Oh, Founder of WANDR Studio, an award-winning product strategy and UX design firm who’s “sacrifice as a founder” LinkedIn post reached over 20 million views. The two discuss what the ideal future of supporting diverse founders looks like and how to get there.

Lorraine Charles, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Na’amal passes the mic to chat with Tammy Bjelland, Founder, and CEO of Workplaceless, a training company that works to improve remote and hybrid team effectiveness. In this episode, they talk about how Workplaceless began and dig in to the future of distributed teams.

Kiana Pirouz, Head of Marketing at We Are Rosie and Co-Curator of Before We Were Banned interviews Lorraine Charles, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Na’amal, which provides support for refugees and other vulnerable populations to access dignified livelihoods, particularly remote work. 

The two discuss Lorraine’s mission and what the ideal future of work for refugees looks like.

As the final episode of season 1 of the Rosie Report podcast, Steph sits down with Tiffany Dufu, author of the bestselling book Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less and Founder & CEO of The Cru, a peer coaching service and community for women looking to accelerate their professional and personal growth. The Cru’s algorithm matches circles of women who collaborate to meet their personal and professional goals. The organization is also the most recently funded venture in the Bumble Fund, Bumble’s seed and early-stage corporate venture investing vehicle focusing primarily on businesses founded and led by women of color and those from underrepresented groups. Bumble Fund is open to all women entrepreneurs, prioritizing those with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

Tiffany Dufu’s life’s work in building communities and the advancement of women and girls is evident in every opportunity she is involved in. Tiffany has raised more than $20 million for the cause of women and girls and has been named to Entrepreneur's 100 Powerful Women as well as Fast Company’s League of Extraordinary Women. She was a launch team member to Lean In and was Chief Leadership Officer to Levo, one of the fastest growing millennial professional networks. Prior to that, Tiffany served as President of The White House Project, as a Major Gifts Officer at Simmons University, and as Associate Director of Development at Seattle Girls’ School. Tiffany is a member of Women’s Forum New York, Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority, Inc. and is a Lifetime Girl Scout.

The mental health epidemic is no secret these days. Our insights from The Rosie Report found that 80% of traditional full-time marketing employees say their work affects their mental or physical health. 62% of traditional full-time marketing employees have suffered burnout in their current role, compared with only 36% of freelancers. During the COVID-19 work-from-home mandate, our research saw an increase in the percentage of employed marketers who say they are exercising and sleeping more, have been practicing better self-care, and have felt less work-related stress since working from home. This data provides insight that flexible talent models allow the space, time, and freedom for these practices to benefit our work and our overall mental health. In this episode of the Rosie Report podcast, Steph sits down with Laurel Stark Akman, a Creative Director and Copywriter – and member of the Rosie community – to discuss the importance of destigmatizing mental health in our industry and why we need more diverse creative leaders.

Laurel is known for her passion for starting hard conversations and facilitating change using creativity, empathy, and honesty. This is clear in the work she does as co-founder of Next Creative Leaders, a portfolio competition through the collaboration between The 3% Conference and The One Club that identifies, celebrates and gives a global platform to talented women and non-binary creatives who are making their mark on the world with both their work and a unique point of view on creative leadership. Laurel is also co-founder of Our Silent Partner, a crowd-sourced reflection on mental health where creatives in our industry can turn their struggles with mental health into a public portfolio of creative work in order to encourage us all to talk, open and honestly.

The movement against racism and injustice is far from over. Social media may get quieter, but we need to stay in motion. At a time when skill evolution, inclusion, and diversity are so critically important, embracing flexible talent and building communities with each other, not for each other, can work in the favor of both talent and business. It’s a competitive advantage opportunity today that will be a prerequisite to survival tomorrow. In this episode of the Rosie Report podcast, Steph sits down with Nate Nichols and Stefanie Behringer from Palette Group, a commercial creative agency focused on producing content for campaign activations both online and offline. The three chat about creating change in our industry and the power of community through intentional virtual events, mission-driven organizations, and meaningful networking.

Nate and Steffi’s background and accomplishments definitely don’t stop with their creative work at Palette Group. They are the brilliant minds behind Freelancer Cyber Summit and Allyship + Action. Freelancer Cyber Summit was a wildly successful virtual event series launched in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Allyship + Action broke out on the scene last month as a direct response to adland’s responsibility to Black and marginalized talent, igniting real conversations, action & accountability across the industry.

70% of freelancers report working with diverse teams compared with only 59% of traditional employees. Open the workforce strategy and suddenly, achieving diversity and inclusion requires far fewer committees and initiatives, and our creative work starts to reflect the world we actually live in. In this episode of the Rosie Report podcast, Steph sits down with Kat Gordon, Founder and CEO of The 3% Movement and author of the forthcoming book “The Future Belongs to Belonging: How Inclusive Cultures Unlock World-Changing Creativity.” Kat founded The 3% Movement 9 years ago due to the fact that only 3% of Creative Directors were women and very few were people of color. Through the work and influence of The 3% Movement, Kat and her team are continuing to improve the ratio. Tune in as Kat and Steph cover everything from how change actually happens in our industry, to the radically inclusive future of work that just so happens to be the reason Steph started We Are Rosie as well as the theme of the upcoming virtual 3% Conference taking place at the end of this month! Did we mention Steph has the honor of speaking at the conference? You won’t want to miss it.

Kat Gordon has had over 20 years of marketing experience working with major brands and many of Silicon Valley's most exciting start-ups. She started her copywriting career at Cosmopolitan and then as the youngest copywriter ever at Sports Illustrated. In 2008, Kat made her first move in pursuing her passion for gender equality in the workplace by launching her own agency, Maternal Instinct, dedicated to the woman consumer. Often called a “triple threat” of an entrepreneur, advertising woman, and marketing to women expert, Kat was named Visionary of the Year by Advertising Age in 2018 and one of the 30 Most Creative Women in Advertising by Business Insider in 2016.

It’s difficult for companies and leaders – even those with good intentions – to create diverse and heterogeneous teams because people tend to hire what they see in the mirror. In our own research, only 59% of traditional employees report working with diverse teams, but based on recently revealed workforce statistics across the marketing and advertising industry, the reality of diversity is actually much bleaker. 

In this episode of the Rosie Report podcast, Steph sits down with Winter Mendelson, Founder and CEO of Posture Media, a full service creative, marketing, and advertising studio in New York City that is passionate about diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality. There’s no hiding how big of a fan we are of Winter, as their mission in starting Posture so closely aligns with the mission of We Are Rosie– to spread wealth and power to underrepresented and marginalized groups in our industry. Winter chose the challenging path of entrepreneurship to create a business that celebrates the incredible work of underrepresented creatives and entrepreneurs. The work that drives culture and trends but often don’t get the recognition they deserve. Tune in to hear Steph and Winter chat about what the future of representation looks like in the advertising and marketing industry, and how we can work to make representation more of a standard than an afterthought.

By moving to the big apple just one day after graduating from the University of Georgia in 2012, Winter began their pursuit as a queer non-binary person on a mission to make an impact on the industry’s lack of representation. Since starting Posture 7 years ago, Winter has presented on diversity in media at educational institutions such as Parsons, RIT, Harvard, Pratt, and others, and has been interviewed for major media platforms such as Refinery29, NBC News, VICE, Huffington Post, OUT, Curve, and more.

In this episode of the Rosie Report podcast, Steph sits down with Bennett Bennett, former journalist at The Drum and former copywriter at BBDO who recently made the transition to marketing and content consulting under the name Aerialist. You might also recognize his name for the open letter he recently spearheaded that was signed by 600+ Black advertising professionals, directing industry leadership with 12 urgent actions to create more inclusivity for Black talent. There is no question that action over allyship is what this movement needs, and that’s exactly what this episode dives into. From the role Bennett’s open letter has played to the role that brands will continue to play, Steph and Bennett cover the current industry revolution and the ways in which we can all individually work towards the positive change we desperately need to see

Up until his more recent switch to independent working and being a voice for making change, Bennett Bennett has spent his career working on the agency side as well as for global brand consultancies as an award-winning copywriter and expert marketing and content lead.

In this episode of the Rosie Report podcast, Stephanie sits down with Derek Walker, advertising creative and founder of Brown and Browner Advertising Agency, a loose assembly of creatives who believe advertising is about speaking to the human being in all of us — and we couldn’t agree more. This episode was recorded in the midst of COVID-19 and just hours before hundreds of protests across the nation began to fight racism and injustice in our world. Steph and Derek discuss the flaws in agency structures, lack of inclusion and diversity, the downfall of a linear hierarchy, biases, prejudices, and the only ways in which change can emerge out of the pandemic.

Based out of Columbia, South Carolina, Derek has worn many hats while being the owner of Brown and Browner including janitor, secretary, mailroom person, and chief instigator — always starting something. Derek has been in the advertising industry for over 25 years but prefers to say he’s more of a passenger on the train wreck, never truly knowing where his career is headed next.

We’re all looking forward to seeing what the new normal is going to be like in the workplace as the world slowly pushes on during this pandemic. Well… it’s already been seen. Stephanie sits down with Scott Mason, future of work expert, to talk about the research behind successful workplaces as well as ways in which organizations are going to have to evolve and adapt. This episode is a deep dive into how businesses have been run in the past and how they should prepare to run moving forward. From getting rid of their physical offices to letting employees decide for themselves how they best perform, the future of work is new for many but don’t worry, we’ve already got all the kinks worked out.

Scott’s career has been focused around helping large organizations transform their org structure and the way they think about work by partnering with human resources departments. Scott’s time with Future Workplace has been spent advising HR departments on what the future of work is going to look like, something the company has been doing for the past decade. Scott’s very own organization Life’s Work Associates also closely aligns with We Are Rosie’s core values by providing industry experts with opportunities that allow them to do their life’s work every day.

COVID has reset the entire landscape of Advertising and Marketing … or has it? Stephanie sits down with Jessie Kernan, a consumer insights and customer experience expert - and Rosie consultant - to get real about what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what (hopefully) happens next. Digging into some deep and recent research on the state of work in our industry, they preview the first inaugural Rosie Report, and offer a glimpse into the significant shifts ahead for both agencies and in-house teams.

Jessie has spent her career defining data-driven customer-centric strategies for big-time brands, as a senior leader at Marketing agencies large and small, and ultimately as an independent consultant and owner of customer experience consultancy Outside Wave.