Fireside · Career · 30–45 min
The day I reworked the client’s business instead of his brief.
A decade in agencies, then the crossing — and the honest version of what changes when there’s no client left to hand the risk back to.
Ten years across Webchutney, Jack in the Box, Ogilvy, Isobar, White Rivers and The Glitch. I wasn’t clocking in — I was trying to get two decades of craft into one. Then, one afternoon, across the table from a senior client, we’d delivered a strong campaign and I caught myself not thinking about the next one at all. I was reworking his acquisition, his retention, his P&L.
You are judged on the quality of the recommendation. If the market disagrees, the client carries it.
You are judged on what the market actually did. If it disagrees, there is nobody to hand it to.
The parts that don’t make it into LinkedIn posts: what agency skills transfer and which ones actively mislead you; why ‘they’d let me do it my way’ mattered more than the title; the first six months of unlearning jargon and relearning finance; and how to tell whether you actually want ownership or just a bigger room.
It also works in reverse — brand-side folks who want to understand why their agency behaves the way it does.
What the room leaves with
- Which agency instincts transfer to brand side, and which betray you.
- How to know if you’re ready to own the number, not just the work.
- What to negotiate for beyond the title.
- Why the first six months are about unlearning, not delivering.
Agency leaders eyeing the crossing, brand teams who want to understand their agency, and career-stage audiences at industry events.
The full story: owning the brand · the agency decade · the last agency chapter.