The Imposterous: Julian Cole thinks that Nemawashi trumps Tah Dah everytime
Today’s Episode features Julian Cole, a strategist that has found the source of his own feelings of Imposter Syndrome and is on a mission to help people worldwide address theirs. Julian believes that all planners/strategists have a seed of imposterism planted within them right at the start due to an industry wide lack of formal training. So what did he do? He quit and set up a school.
Julian’s Strategy Finishing School aims to address this secret that strategists never talk about – that nobody ever taught me how to do this. He wants to give planners a resource and grounding in the core tools that they need – a formal foundation as opposed to the random box of tricks that they hopefully pick up along the way.
In the conversation we talk about how ‘the brief’ is the spotlight moment for people like him – one that can easily break you if you put yourself under the pressure of always cracking it on your own. Rather Julian firmly believes in the Japanese tradition of ‘Nemawashi’ – an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback. In short – that battle is won in the hallways, not the boardrooms. By sharing your thoughts with the CD and teams long before the brief and crafting it together, those feelings of pressure and inadequacy will be greatly reduced.
Julian started his career in smaller digital agencies right as the social/digital boom was kicking off – meaning that he soon found himself in high demand from the big acronym agencies. But then he had the issue of innovation vs tradition – another great source of inadequacy. Yet, soon he found himself at BBH NY making iconic work for Playstation as head of Comms planning. He then moved onto BBDO in 2015, heading up a team of 15 strategists and making award-winning work for the likes of Bacardi, Snickers and the Sandy Hook Foundation.
In 2017 he started the Planning Dirty newsletter to share the best tools and resources. Subscriber numbers to the newsletter have grown to over 30,000. Julian has an undeniable passion to create better Strategists by providing the knowledge and tools to be brilliant. Listeners of
The Imposterous are invited to enjoy 25% OFF ($500USD) a Lifetime membership to The Strategy Finishing School. Use this coupon code when booking.
The Strategy Finishing School teaches the fundamentals of strategy and will give you the confidence to walk into any room knowing you can deliver value. It has over 2000 members who have access to lessons and frameworks to be better at their jobs.
With a new episode every Monday, The Imposterous is hosted by Michael Knox (ECD, Roller) and Graham Drew (CCO, Grey Malaysia) and as has been created to explore the theory that even the world’s most respected creative professionals suffer pangs of inadequacy that either stifle their potential brilliance or protect them from mediocrity. Tune in to find out how Imposter Syndrome might just be your super power, if you let it.
LISTEN TO THE JULIAN COLE INTERVIEW
Proudly and lovingly atomised into your consciousness by We Love Jam Studios – The Imposterous is available now on itunes, Spotify, Google Play or imposterous.com
