Adventurous CMO
Adventurous CMO, presented by Grizzly, is a show about the leaders behind the world’s most Adventurous Brands. Each week, hosts Greg Gibson and Nate Spees explore and make sense of the changing world of marketing, and hold brave conversations with today’s brand leaders.
From rebrands to campaigns and creativity to culture, get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to be different, demand attention, and drive growth.
Alongside the world’s most innovative CMOs and creative leaders, we cut through the noise, break down the work behind the work, and help people navigate the best way to build brands that breakthrough in culture.
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Adventurous CMO
ACMO EP09 - Love The Work with Dave Brown
What happens when punk rock roots meet product innovation at scale?
Nate and Greg sit down with their longtime friend and creative leader, Dave Brown, Head of Creative at Square. Dave’s journey is anything but typical, from booking indie bands and running a record label, to leading creative at some of the world’s biggest tech companies.
They explore what it means to build a meaningful creative career in a world that’s constantly changing and how staying curious, entrepreneurial and grounded in people can lead to breakthrough work.
Dave shares lessons learned from agency life, the power of building trust with business partners, and why bringing your full self (from punk shows to product meetings) is a creative advantage, not a liability.
Whether you’re leading a team, growing a brand, or simply trying to navigate the intersection of creativity and business, this conversation is packed with insight, honesty and a lot of heart.
Sponsored by Grizzly, Adventurous CMO is hosted by Nate Spees and Greg Gibson.
Grizzly is an independent creative agency. We guide brands onward™ to challenge convention and impact culture.
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Oh, thanks. Yeah, I'm here in New Jersey. This is my home office. It's the attic of our home that I converted to an office and yeah, got a little couple artifacts from here and there. I Nate: like that Nate: door. Love it. Nate: That door is pretty sweet Nate: behind you. Dave: Thanks, man. Yeah. I thought you were gonna say you liked, Tim Timothy Goodman's artwork, or, this beautiful man. Nate: I was inspired by the door, Dave. Okay. Dave: That's what inspired me. Greg: I thought, we've been knowing each other for a ton of time. It'd be great for the listeners to the show you to know who you are and your journey
from your roots to attic in New Jersey. Do you wanna give the quick the quick tour around your journey? Greg: I think it's super inspiring your your path with creativity and kinda how you've evolved over the years. Dave: Yeah, sure. It is very non-traditional, is the best way to describe it, right? And I'm just a fan of racking up a lot of experiences and followed my gut and my heart and my passion and it led me from New York to San Diego. Dave:And fell in love with the city and it was just great 'cause it was an inviting environment to start being an entrepreneur. I started my own creative agency there. I. Started a record label, an art gallery, just like anything. I was like, oh, this sounds super cool. I'm gonna go learn it. Let's just do it. Dave: And, spent a long time there. Definitely the roots were very much grounded in music a lot is where a lot of it started working with a ton of great bands. And that sort of expanded then into marketing and advertising and working with brands. And it just kept morphing and morphing, right? Dave: And from there.
I did that for a long time, ran my own shop for about 12 years and then decided to go see how the other half lived and moved back to New York and worked at places like Etsy and then agency side. And then decided to go back to the west coast this time, the Pacific Northwest, where I got pretty deep into the tech world. Dave:And that's where I first. Got really introduced to what does it take to build products and ship them on a global scale, which is really interesting. Being, also being like a creative sort of with a DIY mentality and roots in that sort of do it yourself aesthetic, but living and working in this environment that was really structured and what does it take to be a creative in those types of environments. Dave: So it really helped build out my toolkit I feel like and then. Eventually, after a few years out there, I moved back to the East coast, had some kids and have grounded ourselves here just outside of New York City. And yeah, it's been a ride. Greg: And and today you're head of creative for restaurants at Square. Greg: Do you wanna talk a little bit about that
role and what it entails? And then I'd love to, to pick off some of those experiences that you mentioned. Dave: Yeah, sure. So I've been at Square for over about five and a half years now. It's been awesome and a lot of people, like especially in the us have have a sense for what Square does. Dave:They think of us as a payment company, financial tech company, and even as an employee coming into the company, have a, an idea of our perception of what you think it is. And then you realize, holy shit, you go underneath the hood and you're like, wow, this is super deep. The complexities are really rich. Dave: There's lots of business units, lots of audiences, lots of products and services. So we play in both software and hardware, which is a space I really have grown to love. At first, when I first came in as a design director, I was responsible for helping build out a lot of our audience teams. So contributed towards I was overseeing hardware and retail and restaurants and health and beauty. Dave: Kind of helped build those teams up and we were just growing from a creative standpoint. And then I spent the last probably four years just dedicated in the f and b food and
beverage restaurant space, which has been just super fun. And then most recently I've just pivoted as well to now take on a bit more scope where. Dave: Helping with our sales teams, our events teams, and our demand gen sort of performance led marketing teams as well. So just always pivoting around one of the cool things about working at Square two is just the just never ending learning experience that you get there. Greg:Love it. I think that's a great segue in like you, you talked about your non-traditional background, but the idea of never ending learning, like how, what. Things that you put in place to go from record label owner indie creative Agency founder booking shows and managing bands like being in community to like running creative at a tech company. Greg: Like what did you learn early on with holiday matinee about like creative practice and creative principles that helped guide you and help you follow your gut?
Dave: Yeah, it's a great question, Greg. I feel like, you guys know this firsthand too, running a successful agency, like I feel like anyone who even gets the opportunity to work in an agency environment or an entrepreneurial environment, you're wearing a lot of hats. Dave:And that's like a skill where you maybe don't realize it right away but you certainly do. So like years later, the fact that I have that experience of. Having to wear every hat essentially when you're running your own business, you are responsible for all of it, right? And then you're trying to grow, and that's when you can start figuring out how to do delegation properly and then realize where your strengths are, where your weaknesses are. Dave: It's a super valuable skill that often probably took me too long, I think, to figure out how to do that. 'cause I just wanted my hands in everything. But that's really where, I feel like I, I came into the tech world really well prepared in having all of these experiences, whether directly or traditionally or non-traditionally, right? Dave: Like I taught myself design. Like it would've been amazing to go to a design school, accredited school for that, but that's just not the path I took, right?
And many people also just can't, don't have the privilege to be able to do something like that. And so it was, I had the privilege of being able to have the. Dave: Just passion to learn this stuff. And then I take all of those experiences and skills and now I'm able to apply that to an environment like the one I've been in for the last 10 years in this tech world. That's where it shows up, right? It's just taking, it's just again, racking up those experiences. Nate:For sure. I love what you said about being a DIY a DIY creative. 'cause I think that to be, to your point of what you just said. Being able to take those moments and learnings from all of these unique experiences and also being able to be entrepreneurially grounded enough to say, Hey, I can figure this out. Nate: Is in and of itself a superpower that I think has subliminally enabled a lot of your amazing IM impact that you've created across many different organizations because you've just been willing to figure it out, which oftentimes is like so top line, but also can be overlooked.
By a lot of people where they go, Hey, I, I don't think I know how to figure this out. Nate: Whereas the mindset that I've seen you always show up with is I'll figure it out. And I'll and I'll make it work with the team that I have, which I've always been super inspired by your ability to do that. Dave: Yeah. Thanks. Even in it's, it is, it's great preparation for what you're gonna get hit with, right? Dave:In a more co corporate structured environment. I'm very much immune to it now 'cause I've been in it for a while, but. It still pivots from time to time where, you might be expectation might be set. You have a certain budget, a team, you're gonna work on something. And then that changes. Dave: Life changes the macroeconomic, economies at scale change, right? So there's lots of things that affect the way you work. And I think having those experiences, I still pull from my punk rock roots all the time. A year, just last year we at Square one of the projects, like our sales team really needed social proof, which is a. Dave: Like silly acronym, I guess in a way or terminology for just we're selling a product and a service here and it's pretty obvious that like most people buy from their peers. That's who they're mostly influenced
from. Not brands. And so when you realize that you wanna get out there and let your, interview more and more of your customers, so that way. Dave: You can let them do the talking for you. And so our sales team was telling me about a year ago they had nothing. They were like, dude, we need a lot more of this content. Can you go out there and get it for us? And I was like, no problem. And I work with such a great, talented team and was like, I have one of my designers, he's really into photography? Dave:One of our writers has been doing a great job just interviewing. And I was like, Hey. You guys don't have kids, would you, if I booked like a 30 day tour where you interview 30 sellers or customers in 30 days, what we would do on punk rock, or in rock tours like, I did that with Death Re Cutie and Jaw Sound and album Meet like so many bands. Dave: And they were like all into it, right? It was like, yeah, definitely. And then we, we worked with some partners to help figure it all out on the production side, but it was pretty gr really grassroots, super gritty. And we sh we just learned a shit ton and we actually learned a lot more than we even set out to about how people are not
using our products, what they think of our products, the language that they're using, which then we take all those inputs back and it's helping inform product roadmaps. Dave: It's helping inform our creative that we're gonna be developing for the marketing. So it's. Relatable and authentic. But at the root of it was this just concept. Like I just went back to what I knew, just let's go on tour, love that. That's great. Greg:And do you, I'd love to hear one one story or like kind of one pivotal moment for you when you when you realized. Greg: That like experience factor was gonna, you were gonna be able to turn that into a career of kind of creative leadership Dave: when Greg: I was able Dave: to turn it into Yeah. Yeah. Greg: Like when you what is it, what was the pivotal moment where you figured out hey this whole creative problem solving thing and being able to like, learn through experience. Greg: I can make something outta this. That's a great question. Candidly and maybe just being vulnerable here I think there's a lot of times I'm
still trying to figure it out, right? I think as creatives we're often like our own worst enemies in a way. Like we're so critical of ourselves and a lot of, like the partners I work with, they see some stuff that they're like, oh my God, this is amazing. Dave: You've raised the bar and it's like. Ooh. I'm actually not super stoked. I wish I had more time. 'cause I want to iterate, right? And so I think I'm constantly reevaluating myself and is this a career? And but you're right, like it's transpired now for over 25 years I've been doing this. Dave:I think it has become a career. I don't know if there's a, I think it's a sum of its parts, really? Again, these experiences. When I was at Edelman, I felt like at the top of my game, but then all of a sudden I went to Microsoft and Amazon where I just, it, it brought this knowledge base of expertise that I just didn't have until then that I'm really grateful for. Dave: And yeah, it's a great question. I don't know if I answered it very well. Greg: No it's actually really great because I think I, I have and it's a helpful segue. I have the experience of. You and I know each other and I was
just, at the time I was playing music and I see you like doing a tour with Ford and they gave you a bunch of cash and you're running your own agency. Greg:And it was super inspiring to me to see this guy like figuring it out and doing something different with this creativity. And so I think, those moments like you said, they're like, they're a progression. How do you. How do you take that and impart that wisdom to the teams that you work with because we've been in projects with you, but also know a lot of people who you've led and super inspiring leader. Greg: And so how do you take that kind of continual growth mindset and empower your teams? Dave: Great question. Yeah. For me as a leader, like I really try and lean into just being open and honest, right? With the way I communicate. Communication is so important. I wish, like I learned that much earlier on in my career. Dave: I feel much more comfortable in that space now, and that's where I lean into it. Like when I'm meeting with my team or thinking about the rituals we wanna create on a weekly basis or
monthly basis. How often are we getting together in person versus virtually I. How do we ensure, like what is saying, we want to create a safe environment for our team to do our best work. Dave: You hear everyone say that shit, but what does that really fucking mean? That's the kind of stuff I like to really think about, like deeply think about that's the strategic sort of mindset that I have where I'm trying to go deep in it and understanding that like, you're just one human as well and you wanna make sure you can show that side of you. Dave:And so I often do I'm not afraid to show. I'm very privileged to be able to show that side too, i'm very cognizant of that. But I try and keep it really open and candid, like making sure I'm communicating like these are the expectations I have for you. I also am a firm believer, like making sure people know we're not a family. Dave: This is not our family. Some companies love that terminology. It's this is our job. And I relate it more to a team environment, like a sports team. Like I'm a big sports fan. I feel like I wanna create the best team around me, and and I wanna
win championships. But that has nothing to do with my family, right? Dave: And so that's separate, and I wanna make sure people recognize that. And so I just try and bring all these things to the table. So even like earlier this week, I was given a presentation and just even thinking about the way that you package things up and present yourself. Trying to bring the, inject a little personality. Dave:I like to call it the Kobe swagger that I like to bring. He always had that little just put that, inject that into like the work that we do, and just like how you show up as a leader every day. And then just reminding people that like, everything starts and ends with people, right? Dave: Yeah. Kindness goes a really long way. I've been in a lot of environments as well that I've worked where I've learned a lot from folks on how I never wanna show up and how I never wanna treat people. And those are, maybe not at the time they didn't feel valuable, but fast forward they're pretty valuable, right? Dave: In just understanding. And the last thing I'll say too is just it's a work in progress, always. I think that's one of the things I love about being a lead is you never really hit that point where you're like, that's it, I'm done. I've mastered it.
Especially with the way the world's changing around you and the environment's company level, like there's, team level, org level, company level, and then life level, there's so many factors that influence and challenge you on a daily basis. Dave: That requires you to just figure out how to show up every day. And that part's really tough. It's challenging, and it's not cut out for everyone. I feel really lucky and excited that like I get to play in that space. I think it's like an honor to be someone's lead, and I take it pretty seriously Nate:when as a lead and as someone that, that helps others navigate all sorts of different environments. Nate: Like one thing that comes to mind from a question standpoint for you is what are some of the challenges that you face leading in that type of environment? Because again, like working in tech there is you are navigating with teams through rapid change or rapid pivots and through what can feel like pressure, maybe not internally on your team, but like externally. Nate: How do you keep how do you keep people engaged in that process? 'cause, especially for creative
teams. I know that can be a challenge 'cause we're all generally pretty emotionally tied to our output and like our contribution and, we all carry the weight of our world on our shoulders. Nate: Like how do you navigate those seasons where there are some, maybe some friction points or challenges that are facing the organization? Dave: Absolutely. There. That look, that's just the natural right? You, we've all experienced that. I think how I go about it is impact. I think it's so important for creatives especially to understand the business side of the house. Dave:And if you're only focused on your pixel pushing and your typography, look, those are all components for sure, and they're important ones. But at the end of the day, the best way to get people fired up is to be able to show them and say to them like. Hey, that thing that you just worked on, let me show you how that actually had an impact on the business and here's why that's important, if they feel a part of it, right? Dave: Which is something that most creatives just don't understand. They don't either speak the language of the business side or spend the time to actually investigate,
Hey, what's the business goals here? And how can creative actually help? Move those. I actually feel like creatives is creative, is now more than ever, is so perfectly positioned. Dave: Yeah. In this world that we're in this moment, that we're in right now, to be such a dominant like profession to be playing in yes. There's a million things to be terrified. That's always the case. But showing the impact and under connecting the dots between creative and business is something I absolutely love. Dave:I wish I got to it even sooner because I love imparting that to the teams. 'cause you get that. You get like those folks who are really working behind the scenes, especially on software. It could be on a production side or wherever it might be that don't feel like they're on the front lines. I. Dave: Making sure that's a great way to show them bring visibility to these folks and make them realize oh shit, the work that I'm doing does matter. And then talking about it more, right? Yeah. Just having those conversations, even when shit's really challenging. We've all been in those situations, myself included, we're like a partner's, you're presenting something and they just feels like you're getting watered
down, right? Dave: Your vision's up here, and then by the time the meeting's over, it's like down here. Demoralizing, but at the same time, part of the game, right? Like Dave: you get 20 nos before you get that. Yes. I wanna say it took Jordan seven years before he got his first championship, Shaq eight and LeBron nine, right? Dave:Like in some ways you just gotta remember those things. Like you can't just get the, the low hanging fruit right outta the gate kind of thing. This shit takes time. Build up those experiences and then you're going to like really shine. Greg: For sure. Yeah. We talked last week, Nate and I, about Drogas retirement and how like he's living proof that create creatives can have an impact on business. Greg: I think I think fondly about our time at collaborating at Microsoft. Where yeah. Drinking from my favorite mug from Met Seattle. Yeah, I was gonna say Rock a Nate: Seattle mug right there. Greg: Nice. Which their name means to train in French. Which I think is lovely metaphor for, like both the pain and excitement that you were just talking about. Greg: When you think about. Creativity's impact on business and the ability to impart that knowledge to your creative teams. But I saw someone recently talking about how, because it is the best time ever for CRE Creative to have a role or creatives to have a role in business. Like some of it is gonna be us developing the language to prove our value, we've always known it's valuable. Like back in those days of Microsoft, we knew the impact that the work that we were doing was having on the culture on those teams. But like, how much of it is just giving the right language to your team, like telling them the right things to say so that they understand how to talk about it. Dave: Oh, absolutely. That's super key. That's one of the first things I do when I. Start a new position or around a new company, it's alright, who are all the decision makers and what's the language that they're speaking in? And you wanna if it's a sports analogy, it's if you're, if you're going from the minors to the ma, all right, what are the rule
differences, right? Dave: And who's in charge, right? You gotta understand the playing field, right? It's just so key. You can be the best designer in the world, but like you need. You need great partners around you. Certainly, yeah. And you need to, you'll be even more effective if you understand the language that's spoken that's gonna have the most impact. Dave:Because a lot of what we do is, and you guys know this firsthand, it's we're really selling, we're like salespeople in a way, and most of the time with our, all of our stuff, 'cause we're selling ideas, and so then you learn, there's like actually a trick to all this, right? Dave: Which is if you wanna shut down the room of opinions, which is often the case a great way to do that is to actually like, throw your work in front of your customers ahead of time, get some feedback, and then bring that to the table. And like you call it data. Sure. And it's look, it's a small sample size, but at least you're getting some signals of, might be what might be helpful and what might not be helpful, right? Dave: You're validating your hypotheses or just your gut sometimes too. I'm a big believer in having those inputs. But I will say I'm just more inclined to tell my team this too, which is, we
should be inspired by data, but not driven by it. Yeah. And I work in a company, everyone's obsessed with data, and and I've gotten obsessed with it myself. Dave:But it's about how do we take those inputs and be inspired by it. 'cause I don't want people to forget that. You're here for a reason too. We want you here 'cause you're a. Freaking great writer or designer or motion designer, right? Like all those things I think sometimes get diluted and it sucks to, so I like to make sure we remind people like you earn your seat at the table and we don't want you to forget that. Dave: So if you come from punk rock roots and your music background, infuse that, you know, find ways to make that show up in the work that you do. Greg: That's awesome. Love that. And in terms of being able to use that language to create impact. Like you've done some amazing work lately at Square, like how do you see the translation of being able to speak to the other side of the business and convince them to do things like. Greg: Show with Eric Heim or a new a new podcast or
whatever it may be. It's not just doing what sales needs. You're like, you're actually doing it at, in a way that does bring creative value to the business and taking a chance. So how do you. How do you get the suits to take a chance over a square? Dave:Yeah. Look, it's also you're in the business of building relationships. Great partnerships drive great outcomes. I've been always a big believer in that. I love working with really great people and working on things together. Seeds of ideas may come from anywhere, but it definitely often requires like a good partnership, a good team to bring it to life. Dave: I'll say it again. Great partnerships drive great outcomes. Like it's so true. So like even the Eric Whan, you get some, wins underneath you and you start building up those relationships. You're building trust you're, yeah. You're building empathy with folks as well. Dave: And for me, I've always just been really focused on the customer, right? I'm a creative who knows this is not about making stuff for me. I'm selling to a different audience potentially that has very different nuances of
things that they're interested, different mindsets. So understanding like their needs is like critically important to help me. Dave: And once I have that understanding, then it builds that confidence where I can go to the to an executive room and be like, okay, here's like the brief that I saw. Here's how I'm answering the brief. This might seem like a wild idea, but actually it isn't because it's hitting on all these things and it's just another way of thinking about how to get to that same result. Dave:But just in a more maybe clever way or creative way, and then you just start building around it. 'cause you're getting a lot of good brain trust in the room. The Eric Heim thing was yeah, I'll be, like I had confidence in it. Like I felt really had a lot of conviction that like, Hey, I. Dave: Here's a guy that I've been following just personally for years, right? Like from the Tim and Eric Days and but more so I thought what was really appealing was the fact that this is a guy who's a true entrepreneur. He really understands business and he's got some businesses of his own. Dave: He's got a great wine company, he's a filmmaker, he's a director, he's a writer. Like he's all these things. And then he had this like obsession with food post COVID that. He,
like everything he was doing was around food and it, he had developed all these relationships with pretty successful like the, Michelin star chefs all over the world and stuff. Dave: And so that was what was really appealing was like he was more, I. Man, this is a guy who's truly genuine and authentic and he firmly believed he knew what it took to run a restaurant. And we were like, oh, that's the seed of the idea right there, right? Let's put this guy who thinks he knows what it takes 'cause he's been to everyone's restaurant and let's see if he really does. Dave:And we'll put him in three different restaurants in LA and have him talk to the chefs and owners and really understand like the challenges that it takes. And we'll just document the whole thing and then we'll cut it up and package it up in the way that we need it to for the business. From a content strategy standpoint and that had all these extensions and stuff. Dave: But yeah, that was I think it's just, I had a built up a level of trust at the time, I think, where I was able to pitch those kinds of ideas and then that just, you build off of that. And now I'm seeing other folks at the company, like just did this amazing launch of the podcast with Guy Raz and they're
interviewing sellers there. Dave: And, we're opening up we just opened in the mission district in San Francisco, a really cool popup. And so again, like there's just great ideas coming from all over and we're all just building off of each other in that way. Nate: I love that the groundswell of the, what you mentioned of just building good partnerships leads to more opportunity actually to take more creative risk, but with it all still super, super grounded and connected to business objectives. Nate:So I love that it's not, what I love about this discussion, it's not one or the other, right? It's not oh all you have to do is just take big swings. It's yeah, no, keep pushing. But simultaneously be aware that you'll have more opportunity to do that as you build the impact and you're able to show that. Nate: And it, it enables the momentum to build faster and more people to get involved in the process, which I love. Dave: Hell yeah. And look, don't get me wrong, we're also the first to be cut. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Nate: Like Dave: I don't want come across That's true. No, that's fair. That's
firstly fair business and we're just killing it, right? Dave: Oh, Greg: totally. Dave: Because look, we still work in that corporate environment. We're like, yeah, no. Oh, let's look at that p and l. Oh, let's see. We gotta make some decisions. I don't know. Let's get rid of the marketing department. Greg: Totally. Specifically on the partnership side, do talk about. The kind of connection between creativity and marketing. Greg: How do you bring those people along for the ride, and how do you build that relationship that helps you get to the outcomes that you talked about? Dave:It's one of the coolest things I would say about working at a company like Square is the success of our business is really directly tied to the success of our customers. Dave: If they're not doing well, we're not doing well. And so there's skin in the game it's yes, our mission is economic empowerment and it's like something that drives a lot of us to wanna come work for a company like this. And then you start seeing it firsthand it's from the top down and it's everybody. Dave: And that's something that our product was always being iterating on and iterating on, but now it feels like
there's just, there's so much competition in this space. So I think even the reliance in on marketing and having that strong leadership at the top is so important. And it's really just a lot of confidence in our leadership here and the way that they communicate really core goals. Dave:Here, this is what we're after, this is the vision and this, these are what this quarter is gonna look like. And the transparency is incredible. Yes, we're a publicly traded company, so like we do, you can read the quarterly reports, but what's really cool is i've never worked for a company where I gave a shit really about the quarterly reports and they come out, I'm like, this is awesome to read. Dave: I'm like really excited by it. And oftentimes you see a lot of the work that we do on the creative marketing side in those reports, like an interview I did in Chicago with a local restaurateur who's a small business right? Is featured in the most in our Q1 report. And it's that feels really good. Dave: Just even on a personal level, it's just like you feel. You feel pretty excited about just, working for a company that, that treats its employees like that
Nate: I love. That's awesome. I love, I, I love the line of questioning, but also being sensitive to knowing that we're running out of time on the podcast today. I did have a couple like, questions for you that are more just about your your ability to just continually stay curious and to. Grow yourself and and your team, but like, how do you stay, how do you stay in the game? Nate:How do you stay curious and inspired day in and day out? Because I think something that I've loved and it, it's a privilege that we get to spend time with you at least a few times a year. Like, how do you stay locked in? Like how do you work on yourself to stay curious and engaged in your creative practice? Dave: Yeah, it is just this infinitely curious mentality, I think. I went to school for sociology. I was a gender studies man. I've always been fascinated with people and understanding how we tick and the behaviors and stuff. And certainly as it relates to gender as well. And just, so for me, like being in like just curious about people in
life, right? Dave:It just felt natural to then, oh, I'm like diving deep into the world of music and then the world of advertising and then the world of technology and and then you're starting to see these like convergence happening and they're just really fascinating. Even being a parent, like watching your kids growing up and going through different phases and challenging you in different ways and testing you. It's just, you gotta stay sharp, right? And from a professional standpoint, I try and cont, I try as best I can on a daily basis to just be in tune with the world around me, and I have a bunch of different mediums that I consume content on and people I follow. Dave: And just, whether it's listening or reading or, watching man, I'm a content junkie and just find inspiration. In all of this stuff, and then you like bring that back into our world. And find ways to like pepper that into the work that we do. But yeah, just staying curious, like super important. Dave: Even when I interview people, it's like a trait I look for and so a similar question that you just asked Nate, a resume is like one thing, but I wanna know who am I working with, yeah. I'm gonna be spending a lot
of time with you, like almost more so than my own family for sure. Dave: You wanna make sure, you're with someone that like is not the same as you either, right? You wanna make sure that's what's so great is, I've been lucky enough to be in a position where I get to hire a bunch of folks throughout the years and build teams and and that part's super exciting where I. Dave:I've been lucky to hires folks that have just been so effing talented writer from Canada that's just like one of the most, incredible people I've ever hired in my entire career. And or just like having these experiences that you build on, working with you guys at Microsoft felt a huge milestone in my career. Dave: And like we did such great work together that I'm just so proud of, looking back on. And I'm excited to see what's that gonna look like five, 10 years from now? And how are all these new platforms and the new technology innovation that's happening, what's the world gonna look like? Dave: It's gonna be very different than it is today Greg: For sure. If you had to give give the audience like three things you're into today that you're like,
dude, you gotta check this stuff out. Whether it's music or content or whatever. What's something you're into right now? Dave: I am really into this coworking space. Dave: I think they're based in North Carolina or Georgia. They're called switchyards. Nate: Yep. Dave:I've never been there, but oh my God. They've got they've got their social media dialed in the way that they're creating these local neighborhood clubs, I think they call it. Yep. Whew. Everything from the branding just like you see some of their content, you can just feel it, and that is the best kind of advertising, right? We all say that, right? You wanna feel it, it's the emotional part that matters most. And so I. Yeah, Switchyards is just like crushing it. Every time they post something I'm like, damn. I'm fly there. I wanna spend like a few days just like working outta their spaces and just soak it all up, and the other thing is yeah, I've been working in the food in hospitality space for a long time and and I feel like just like the innovation I'm seeing and just like thinking about efficiencies and just like the quality ingredients and stuff like. Like George MAs, like a
burger legend opened up Hamburger America in New York City, and it's just like a work of art. Dave: You gotta go there. Next time you're in New York we're all gonna go and get some like great burgers or grilled cheese sandwiches if you're not a meat eater. But it's one of those things where you take a bite and you're just like transported somewhere. Like it's just euphoric feeling. Dave: It's so exciting. What about you guys? What's. What's something you're seeing? I'm sure the Padres last night win might be a good thing or I that comfort behind it. Greg:Yeah. Some somehow being out of our slump. I don't know. What do you got, Nate? Nate: I. That's a great question. Switch charge is awesome, by the way, Dave. Nate: You bet. And I agree with you. Yeah. There's a couple of 'em here in Atlanta. I don't know where it started, but they're awesome. One of our collaborators works outta the one in Roswell, which is pretty close to my office here. Oh, nice. In Atlanta. Mine is I think the thing that I, so I had a interesting conversation a few weeks ago, and this is just random, but it's what came to my head my, I had a interesting conversation with someone a few weeks ago where he was asking like, what do you read? What do
you like? What are you into? And I was like. Dude, I read a lot of business related stuff. I like, I'm like, like you're like, I've got a report about creativity and ai that's like literally an academic paper that like, that'll be, my, my airplane reading tomorrow. Nate:But but he was like, when was the last time you read a fiction book? And I was like, it's been a while. And this was probably three weeks ago. And since then I've been on like a fiction binge of books and I've listened to and read. Every night like for 30 minutes, like four books, like four fiction books. Nate: And that's just been an awesome it's been a fantastic mental reset for me because I, similar to what you've been talking about, like we can get so myopically focused on the work I. And like what we do in our roles that we like, like we don't hold enough space to just be to just be inspired by something totally different or something that's just like totally fiction. Nate: And for me, that's been really fun. I haven't turned the TV on other than for some sports. In three weeks. And it has been so cool that even this week where I've been
solo parenting at night, I'm like, haven't turned the TV on. I've literally grabbed a Kindle before I go to bed and just started. Nate: Oh, wow. Reading. Reading. Which has been super fun. And so that would be one. And then and then I, I'm inspired by brands as our most, but this is a soccer jerseys are super in. This is Sugarloaf social Club. Golf brand that make made a jersey. Oh, wow. Nate:I love I love that type of stuff. So I love finding those, like up and coming brands that are doing cool stuff. And I think that's, I spend probably too much time trying to find find inspiration from brands that are doing cool stuff. But but yeah that's me, man. Nate: That's what I'm into these days reading more fiction. Greg: Love it. Love it. I'll make mine short. I got two things just starting on a home renovation project, which is like so fun to flex a different kind of creativity. Pulling the inspiration and working with architects and all that stuff is just a nice break. Greg: And if you haven't seen it, there's this amazing comedian named Lou Wall. She has a series called Lou Wall Breaks the, OR versus the Internet,
but there's a clip of her talking about a Facebook marketplace interaction where she, and she just like. Makes this person's name and image public and she just goes through the whole entire thing and she may turn it into a PowerPoint presentation and a musical. Greg: It's like literally it's, it is, I believe it's the funniest thing on the internet right now. We'll definitely put it in the, in the comments. But it's amazing. I'll send it to both of you guys. That's awesome. Dave:That sounds so cool. That kind of reminds me this isn't very new, but it's still one of my favorites, which is that brand barilla that makes the pasta that you get like the supermarket they're not the greatest, or I shouldn't say they're amazing. Anyhow, what's super cool is a couple years ago they created a Spotify playlist for each one of their pastas. And basically instead of setting a kitchen timer, you just play the song as soon as you dump the pasta in and when the song's over. Dave: That's when you know it's aldente and they have it for each of their pastas. And that level of, that's Nate: that's
