{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Brand Design Masters - Personal Branding, Creative Entrepreneurship, Small Business Marketing & Career Success for Designers and Content Creators","title":"John Gleason: Inside the Client-Agency Marriage","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3338,"description":"John Gleason: Inside the Client-Agency Marriage\n\nIn this episode of Brand Design Masters, I sit down with my old friend John Gleason, someone I've known for more than 15 years going back to my Landor days in Cincinnati. John spent two decades at Procter & Gamble running Clay Street and managing outside agency relationships, then another twenty years as an independent consultant working right where corporate design teams and their agencies meet. He calls it matchmaking and marriage counseling, and it's the best description I've heard for what he does.\nWe cover a lot of ground: how John built one of the strongest networks in the industry (without a website, which I had to call him out on), where the client and agency relationship tends to break down, and some eye-opening data on why design is losing ground inside big corporations. We also talk about why agencies rarely run a competitive audit on themselves, the eight things virtually every agency says about itself, and how enterprise companies are really using AI right now.\nIf you're an agency owner, freelancer, or in-house design leader who wants a clearer view of what's happening behind the curtain, this one is for you.\nIn this episode, you'll learn:\n\nWhy empathy is the foundation of real relationship building, and how John's \"five new people a day\" habit shaped his consulting business\nThe mantra \"collect the dots before you can connect the dots\" and how staying curious keeps your aperture open to opportunity\nA repeatable networking approach for introverted designers, including warm introductions and making every conversation about the other person\nHow to reach out during a career transition without leading with the job ask\nWhere the client and agency marriage breaks down, from power dynamics to agencies failing to leverage their cross-category experience\nWhy clients so often choose the \"safe\" agency over the right one\nJohn's data on design's decline: 40% of the companies he tracks have eliminated the top one or...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/y0HscpPZ-YMirV8OIyHBE0TIMNWr48z3ohMEERh_Qz8/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzY0NDIvMTcwNzcz/MzkwNC1hcnR3b3Jr/LmpwZw.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}