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Published on:

2nd Jun 2025

Hemispheres in Focus: The Art of Market Research with David Bauer

In this episode, we interview David Bauer from Hemispheres, a full-service customer insights agency. David shares the journey of Hemispheres, their approach to research, and how it informs brand and business strategies. He discusses the variety of projects they've worked on, including collaborations with major brands like Microsoft and John Deere. We also dive into the importance of qualitative research, trends in the industry, and the impact of AI on research methodologies. David offers valuable insights into the challenges and processes involved in branding and rebranding, highlighting the significance of combining rational and emotional components for effective brand names. Lastly, he shares advice for young professionals in the research field and emphasizes the importance of contributing to discussions and solving problems collectively.

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Transcript
Speaker:

. Laura: hello and welcome David

Bauer from Hemispheres David.

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We're so happy to have you here today.

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David: Laura, thank you so

much for having me join.

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I'm looking forward to it.

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I haven't done much podcasting

yet, and I'm looking forward to it.

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Laura: Absolutely.

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Well you've got that Yeti

microphone, so you are ready.

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So David, first of all, hemispheres.

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Tell us a little bit about

it and then how you started.

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'cause what I know about Hemispheres

is you guys are all things research

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across the board, but I, I deal with

it with marketing and, and media.

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David: Absolutely.

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Yeah.

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So Hemispheres has been around

for 22 years now, which is crazy.

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Can't believe it's been going by so fast.

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We're a full service customer

insights agency doing all kinds

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of research and strategy projects.

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We use a lot of different research tools,

working with clients across different

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types of organizations and delivering

them the insights that they need to

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make important business decisions.

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Laura: Well, that's what

made you get into that.

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David: So I have a degree in

marketing and creative writing.

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I originally thought I was going to

become a copywriter working in advertising

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and marketing, and I found a brand

strategy agency called Tattoo that did

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brand consulting and brand strategy

in San Francisco and worked for them

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with them when I was relatively young.

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Found out that they did research

to inform the brand strategy.

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At that point, when I was 24, I

had no idea what marketing research

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was or that people even did that.

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And so we helped to inform some

huge brands and during that time, I.

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As a relatively young person, I was

sitting in meetings with CMOs of Fortune

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500 companies and learning so much, and

I loved talking to people and getting

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their life story and their insights.

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And then that really helped shape some

of the brand strategy that we worked on.

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And the cool thing about research was

that even at a relatively young age.

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I was able to share things

that people told me.

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With these leaders of Fortune 500

companies, they wouldn't have listened

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to me when I was 24, but I was

sharing things that their customers

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had said, which was really cool.

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And I just really enjoyed the opportunity.

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It's been an amazing career.

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I.

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My business partner, Lynn

Reed, has a similar background.

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She got into business strategy

and go to market strategy and

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used research to inform that.

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So we've really created hemispheres

with the idea that yes, we're doing

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research, but it's really there to inform

brand strategy and business strategy,

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and that's what gets us excited.

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Laura: Oh, that's cool.

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That's cool.

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So, can you

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David: I.

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Laura: about any of the cool

brands you used to work with,

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or, it's okay if you can't.

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David: No, no, absolutely.

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I mean, over the years we've done work

with Microsoft, John Deere a lot of

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different food companies like Frito-Lay.

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Clarisonic, which was founded by

David Giuliani, who created the first

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the Sonicare toothbrush and then

the the Clarisonic facial brush.

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They started their company around

the same time we did in:

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we worked with them for 10 years

as they grew and grew and grew, and

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then eventually sold to L'Oreal.

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And unfortunately David passed away

a few years ago, but an amazing

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mentor and an amazing inventor, and

he really created his company's.

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By listening to his team,

listen to his customers.

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And I think that was a

big part of their success.

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So, that's, that's one of the

exciting projects we've worked on.

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One of my favorite things that

I've done is get to travel

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internationally on projects.

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And so we work with local translators.

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I've been to farm country in Brazil and

Bogota, Columbia, and across Europe and

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to Hong Kong and Sydney, and such an

opportunity to meet different people.

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One of our favorite stories, we

were working on a project for

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Microsoft in Milan, Italy, and we

were talking to people who made

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technology decision, software

decisions for their organizations.

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And so we're there interviewing people.

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Incomes a none dressed

in her full, none habit.

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She's over 50 or so.

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And we're all like, oh, she must,

she must be in the wrong place,

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but we have to be obviously

really gentle and sweet with her.

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And turns out that she makes all

the business decisions and software

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decisions for her convent and

knew everything about technology.

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So it's just a reminder

never to make assumptions and

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listen to people's stories.

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Laura: that's awesome.

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Thank you.

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. Lisa: Obviously there is a huge

variety of research projects and

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types of research that can be done.

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Do you have a personal

favorite to work on?

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David: Of, of methodology or.

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Laura: Yeah, with brand strategy,

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David: absolutely.

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I tend to lean more into

the qualitative side.

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I'm part of an association, which is

a long name, but qualitative Research

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Consultants Association, and it's

a group of people passionate about

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qualitative, which really means talking

to people on one-on-one or in small

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group settings, whether it's in person

or online or in small communities.

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But I really love hearing people's

stories and them talking about.

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Whatever it is that interests

them or what's relevant to the,

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to, to the way that they're using

the client's product or service?

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I feel like there's, you know,

hemispheres is about left brain and

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right brain thinking, and a lot of the

ways we make decisions are not rational.

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They're more emotional, they're based

on different influences that we have.

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And so when you really get a chance

to hear someone's story and kind of

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explore what's important to them, that's

really when you get at some of those

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deeper emotions, which I think really.

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Influence how people make brand decisions.

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And then within that, my favorite

methodology is to go into people's homes

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because you learn so much about them.

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And what they're, you know, you see things

in their home that you can ask questions

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about, and it, it really is powerful.

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One quick example.

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We were doing a project for a food

company and they wanted to understand

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the big box shopping experience.

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And so we go shopping with someone,

he comes back with this big box

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of some kind of frozen food.

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He opens it up 'cause it

won't fit all in his freezer.

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He is gotta put some in his

kitchen freezer, some in

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his in his garage freezer.

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And he gets outta Sharpie and

he starts writing down something

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on each of the packages.

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I said, what are you doing?

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He said, well, I have to write down.

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How long I put it in the oven or

microwave 'cause there's no label on it.

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And so just, someone wouldn't have told

us that if we'd asked, what do you do

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when you take out your, your packaging?

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But because we observed it,

he barely noticed he did it.

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It was a great insight that they needed to

individually label every, every package.

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Laura: Wow.

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That is cool.

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That is the fun stuff.

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Getting to see like the individual

in their daily lives and I heard

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about a, a friend, one of the,

one of the research women that.

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she came and spoke at MCI, but she

talked about that with having to

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sit and watch a woman put on makeup.

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She worked for L'Oreal

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David: Yeah.

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Laura: and she had to watch how

she put on makeup and learn.

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You know, it was just fascinating

that, that's how we learn now.

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Is there trends, are there trends

out there right now in research?

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Meaning like, are you doing

a lot of focus groups?

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Are you doing a, is there, you know, is

it, is there a lot of virtual interviews?

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Like what is the primary way of

with brand strategy that you're

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methodology that you're using?

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Aside from just like overall

qualitative preference.

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David: absolutely.

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Well, we're still doing, we,

we do a lot of online surveys

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and that's not going away.

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People are taking a lot of

those surveys and we're doing a

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lot of analysis based on that.

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A lot of traditional kind

of focus group in, in-depth

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interview work has moved online.

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So we're doing a lot of those

over platforms like this.

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So, and it's actually really cool

'cause a lot of people who wouldn't

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want to or were able to take the time.

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To go to a research

facility are participating.

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We did an interview on beer and one of,

one of the, the customers of this brand.

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She did the interview from her truck

and it turns out that she has a, a baby

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that's just really attached to her.

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So if she was had done this from

her house, the baby would've

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kind of gotten in the way.

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So her husband was with

the baby in the house.

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She went into her truck and we did this

whole interview and it was fantastic and

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we were really able to, to hear her story.

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So that's a trend.

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People are, you know, using

their phones to share.

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Video or images of their

home even while we're remote.

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So that's really cool.

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There's online communities where

people all get into a certain

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research platform and share that.

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I think the, the latest

thing really is ai.

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And so there's a lot of tools being

developed to augment research with

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ai, and that's something that we're

paying a lot of attention to and

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figuring out how we can use it or

how we can help our clients use it.

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Laura: Do you find that when you're doing

virtual focus groups, because I, I've been

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in enough focus groups to know that there,

you know, you have a moderator, right?

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Which is probably you or whomever

and or Lynn, and have to like.

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Control the narrative a little bit.

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'cause there could be that one person

that talks a lot and then everybody

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kind of goes in that direction.

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How do you mediate when you

have that like lag time?

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And there's just like a lack

of spontaneity sometimes.

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David: That is absolutely a challenge.

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More so online when you're in a

focus group room, you can kind of

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use body language and see everybody.

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It's a lot easier to get them

connected because of that.

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We try to have smaller groups

online and, and really, and a lot

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of times we prefer one-on-one.

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But if we're doing a group setting

online, we want a smaller number of folks.

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And we wanna try to keep them engaged

with some different exercises.

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Some of the research, online

research platforms have some

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tools, some things they can do.

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You could have them draw on a whiteboard.

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One of the things we did learn that

was in a an advantage of online,

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over in person was something

as simple as the chat feature.

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So while you're having the conversation,

people in the chat feature, can

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you know, I agree with that.

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Or I have another thought on that.

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Whereas in a focus group room,

they'd have to write their own notes.

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The moderator wouldn't see them.

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So there's some tools for online

that, that make it more powerful.

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Then of course, the clients can observe

in a virtual backroom and share notes,

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and they can be anywhere in the world,

which is, which is really powerful.

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Laura: I like that.

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The more I think about it too, the better,

because even one-on-one, you know, if

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you're gonna do a focus group, let's say

you do a focus group of 20 over, I mean,

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still that one-on-one is, that's how

that person is experiencing life anyway.

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So it's like better to not

have all that influence.

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David: Exactly.

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Exactly.

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And then even seeing people's backgrounds,

like, I'm seeing your backgrounds

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and you're seeing my background is

a little clue into everybody's life.

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And so you can get that and get

a, a snippet of their home life,

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you know, in the, in the research.

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Lisa: Are there any advantages

to larger groups, or is it

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just a time saver basically?

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David: Lisa, you asking about for online?

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The advantage is that you do have more

people you do have more perspective.

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And when it's goes well, they're

responding to each other and they're

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building on each other's ideas.

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And it's a little bit more

of a brainstorming session.

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But that can be harder to do online.

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But there's techniques that we can use

to try to get them to interact with each

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other and, and share their experiences.

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Laura: Okay, so let's really quick talk

about naming and, you know, obviously our

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audience is marketing directors and, and

leaders, You know, everyone talks about

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going through a rebrand and, and it's a

really big deal if you're doing a, a name

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change and it's like the biggest deal.

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Right?

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So, briefly, obviously this is so complex

but, you know, what are the steps that

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someone would ha what are the things

that people have to think about that

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they're not thinking about that need to

consider when they're going through a name

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David: Yeah, absolutely.

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So I think this goes back to the idea

of hemispheres and left brain and right

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brain thinking, rational, emotional.

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My personal view, and I'm sure

other people share it as well,

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is that the best brand names.

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Have both an irrational

and emotional component.

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They're not completely wacky.

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They have some connection to the

category, but they're also evocative

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and creative and emotional.

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Otherwise, they become kind of

forgetful forgettable or generic.

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And so to use some, some local

examples the name Starbucks, which.

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On the forefront doesn't suggest coffee.

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It does.

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You know, there's a connection to

the book, Moby Dick and Traveling.

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And so this idea of coffee shipped

around the world and it has a

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little bit of mystery to it which

is where they pulled in the mermaid.

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And so there's, there's some

kind of interest to it that

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does tie you think about.

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People on ships maybe drink a

lot of coffee, and so there's

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this kind of mystique to it.

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Another brand I've worked with with them,

I also worked with another brand that they

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eventually acquired Seattle's Best Coffee,

which is a very straightforward name.

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It does have Seattle in it, which

people associate with coffee.

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But it, it's somewhat generic and,

and it's probably not a surprise

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that Seattle's Best Coffee no

longer exists and Starbucks does.

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But I think if you had asked people in

the seventies, which of these is a better

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name for a coffee company, they go,

obviously Seattle's Best coffee, right.

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Because, so, so really in naming

research or whether it's you're actually

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talking to your potential audiences

or you're just a team thinking about

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what's named, do we wanna rebrand our

company or our product or our service?

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If you go too generic,

it's really forgettable.

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So you wanna really think about

what are the brand attributes.

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Product attributes you want this

name to convey, and how well

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does that name hint at that?

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And so, so a research process that we

and others follow is to really evaluate

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how well does the name suggest things

that you want your brand to represent

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or stand for, and use that information

to inform your decision rather than

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which one do you like the best?

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Laura: Oh, I love that.

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I love the idea of would seem like

something you have, like your methodology

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and the way that you go about it and

the way you think about it, which

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comes from years of experience.

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But then now you have AI that will

also help you, like go out there and.

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It just pulls from weird places that

maybe, you know, it would take forever

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to pull from, to give you some like

feedback and ideas of like, I mean, I

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would just think that would be helpful.

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Like, you know, oh, this is

the Greek word for blah, blah.

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So that would be, you know, I don't know.

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David: That's, that's absolutely right.

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When we're generating name ideas or

brainstorming with clients to generate

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name ideas, we start with the themes.

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What are the themes or the brand

attributes that we want our

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organization or our product to have?

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And now let's concentrate on

those themes and not think

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about would this be a good name?

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But let's just put that aside for

now and just say, if we wanna be

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healthy or educational or fun.

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What are all kinds of fun things and

let's get imagery and use that to

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inspire and let's write down 60 words

related to that attribute and then use

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that and then we can kind of synthesize

those and pull together names that

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are based in some brand truth, but are

interesting and creative on their own.

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Lisa: It's funny you brought up

the Seattle's best coffee example,

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because to me that sounds like an SEO

nightmare, which is sort of similar.

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I ran into this recently.

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I was helping a friend try to look up

a roofing company in their town, and

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it was their town's name best Roofing.

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And turns out that brings up like

10 different companies and none of

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them were the one that had that name.

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So it

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David: That's a great point, Lisa.

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'cause you know, in the early days

of, of doing naming, we didn't have

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to worry about is the website there

or SEO and now we do, there's actually

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a big debate about whether you need

to own, you know, you brand name.com

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or if you can add modifiers to it.

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And some people say, well, doesn't.

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Do I need to be.com

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or can I be dot something else?

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And I think where I'm hearing more

often from people is that having the.com

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still is the best.

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It shows that you're a

legitimate company or.org

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if you're in, in that situation, but

that you don't need to worry too much

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about it because you can really just

pull in some aspect of your name.

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And once people start going to your

site, they're not going to care

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whether it's exactly that name or not.

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So for example, hemispheres wasn't

available when we started 20 years

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ago, but Hemisphere's Insights was

so where Hemispheres insights.com,

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it could lead to a little bit

of confusion maybe, but it still

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has the essence of our name.

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And once people bookmark you or

they just are gonna click on a link

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anyway, it's, it's less important.

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Laura: That's true.

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Lisa: too to social media platforms if

that's part of a marketing strategy.

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I, I feel like if you find a name where

it's free everywhere, you kind of have

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to, the stars have aligned for you.

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David: Yes.

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Yes, absolutely.

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Laura: Well, definitely for me, for

Double Z media, I just, it fell, it

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fell into, you know, not everybody has

two Z's in their last name, genius.

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Right.

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Lisa: Do you have any suggestions

or recommendations for a company

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to keep in mind before they begin

working with a company that'll sort

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of help them get the most out of the

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Laura: Mm.

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David: Yeah.

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Thank you so much.

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We we spend a lot of time with our

clients or prospective clients.

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Asking questions from the very

beginning to make sure some people

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are really clear, they know exactly

what they wanna do and what they wanna

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solve for, and some people don't.

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But really it goes down to what is the

problem that you're trying to solve for?

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What is your marketing challenge?

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What's your business challenge?

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What's your organizational challenge?

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And what are all the

questions that you have?

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And then if you had the answers to those

questions, what would you do with that?

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We really work back from what is

the reason they need some more

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information or insights and what

are they trying to solve for?

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Are they developing a new name?

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Are they evolving their brand?

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Are they changing their pricing strategy?

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Do they wanna figure out if they

want to go into new channels?

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To offer their products.

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Do they wanna change

their marketing messaging?

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And so we really wanna understand that.

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And then based on that and other things

like their time and their budget, we

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work on a, a plan that will work to

provide the information and insights

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they need within their, within their

parameters for their, their business

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challenge or organizational challenge.

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Laura: Okay.

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I have a question.

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So we oftentimes, as media buyers.

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Have kind of go with

audience personas, okay.

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That are given to us sometimes

from the client or the creative

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firm, or sometimes we find them.

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how, I guess what I'm saying is

sometimes clients will be to like, we

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want you to tell us who our customer is.

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We want you to tell us, you know, all

these things that we're like, well.

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Okay, we're gonna have to do some research

and figure out who your customer is.

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You could tell us, but no, just,

so, and, you know, potential, but

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really it's a customer, like, right.

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How would you, I guess, how could

you help somebody who was wondering,

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like, who are, who are our customers?

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someone like me who is like, this is a

brand new, you know, and I'm not sure

376

:

David: Yeah.

377

:

Sometimes I'll start with just.

378

:

Getting them if they, if they're not

sure, getting them to just brainstorm

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:

and start to talk about some of the

audience elements or some of the segments

380

:

that they think that they might have.

381

:

You know, we're not saying

this is it for sure, but let's

382

:

just start to talk about it.

383

:

And that really helps us to think about

how do they think about their customers?

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:

Just letting them kind of talk through it.

385

:

Are they, are they thinking

about them from demographics?

386

:

Are they thinking about them from how

often they, purchase certain products.

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:

In the case of the roofing client, maybe

it's about do they own their house or not?

388

:

They probably do.

389

:

And what kind of house is it?

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:

So just hearing the parameters helps.

391

:

And then once we kind of get those

parameters out there I ask them

392

:

questions about, well, well, how much

information do they have about this?

393

:

And are there sources of that information?

394

:

Often if they have current

customer data, that's a great

395

:

place you can tap into that.

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:

But if it's prospective target

audiences we really need to then

397

:

potentially do some research.

398

:

Another way to do it is to look

at their competitors and go to

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:

the competitors' sites or see

what the competitors are saying.

400

:

And there might be some clues there

in how the competitors are talking

401

:

with their audiences to understand

how they might be looking at some

402

:

different customer pro profile types.

403

:

Laura: Oh, that's cool.

404

:

It's the only way that we are able to do

it really, is to start testing messages

405

:

on different audiences and seeing which

resonates, is, it's okay if it, but

406

:

it, you know, to get any kind of a real

sample size, you gotta spend some money.

407

:

And so it's.

408

:

Yeah, it's kind of a lot of testing

409

:

David: Yeah.

410

:

, Laura: There's just different ways to

go about it, but that sounds a lot more

411

:

reasonable to find like audience personas.

412

:

Like to go and tell the client.

413

:

this is Mary.

414

:

She's 52 and she likes wine and cats.

415

:

David: Yeah,

416

:

I will say there are some brand new

organizations out there that are working

417

:

in AI to take data that already exists and

create AI based segments, and then you're

418

:

able to ask the AI segments questions.

419

:

About anything you could ask

that potentially anything, you

420

:

know, what is your house like?

421

:

Do you have any pets?

422

:

What do you do on the weekend?

423

:

Now the potential is, is huge.

424

:

Where they're actually getting their

data from is a unknown in some cases.

425

:

Now, if you're a, a huge organization,

that already has a ton of research

426

:

and a ton of information on

your clients or your customers.

427

:

You.

428

:

That may be effective and, and,

and probably accurate information.

429

:

If you're an independent that's pulling

it from random places, that would be a

430

:

question I'd really ask them is, where is

that data coming from and can I trust it?

431

:

But it's an exciting potential.

432

:

And at this point, without knowing too

much about it, I'd say that it could

433

:

be an idea for a way to brainstorm some

things, but I wouldn't necessarily wanna

434

:

base a big business decision on it yet.

435

:

Laura: On the ai.

436

:

David: Yeah.

437

:

Laura: Yeah, I know.

438

:

We've, I've had to like ask seven

times and where'd you get this from?

439

:

Sources.

440

:

So, and then like deeper

and deeper and deeper.

441

:

Can you get me more than two then?

442

:

Can you get me, you

443

:

David: Right,

444

:

Laura: it's, it's really prompt,

prompt, prompt until to get to brass

445

:

tacks of like, who is, you know.

446

:

just some other agency

given their opinion.

447

:

No, I, you know, I'm just curious,

448

:

David: right, right.

449

:

Laura: industry standards and that sort of

450

:

David: Yeah.

451

:

Yeah.

452

:

Laura: anyway.

453

:

Lisa: Have you ever experienced

someone misinterpreting or

454

:

misapplying research results?

455

:

David: Never, never happens.

456

:

Lisa: Not your research

results, of course,

457

:

David: Yeah.

458

:

Yeah, yeah.

459

:

No,

460

:

Lisa: insights and reporting.

461

:

David: I mean, we all have

our own biases, right?

462

:

I was just working on a, a.

463

:

Packaging redesign project where there's

three different directions and the client

464

:

asked me which one I like the most.

465

:

And I said, you know, I really, I can't

help but have ideas from all the work

466

:

that I've done, but I really hesitate to

say it until we do the research because

467

:

I don't know if I'm your target audience

or not and what they're gonna say.

468

:

And so I really don't like to do that.

469

:

But I think that often people.

470

:

Some people use research to just back

up what they already believe, and so I

471

:

just really encourage clients to kind

of step back and, and, and check their

472

:

current beliefs, which are still valid.

473

:

You know, they've been working

in their careers for maybe many

474

:

years, but to be open to what their

customers are saying and, and be sure

475

:

to listen to it with an open mind.

476

:

Laura: Oh, yes.

477

:

I have sat in focus groups with clients

and watched their faces like, oh.

478

:

Yikes.

479

:

I didn't know but, I don't think there's

a downside ever to, to focus groups

480

:

because worst case scenario, yeah,

it backs up what you already know,

481

:

David: Yeah.

482

:

Laura: least you know, so.

483

:

David: I, I did have a situation

once, and this does happen sometimes

484

:

that a stakeholder who's not involved

in the research process is only

485

:

there for the final presentation.

486

:

And it doesn't happen often, but

sometimes they say something like, I.

487

:

I, I knew all this already.

488

:

You know, why do we do this project?

489

:

You know, you're not telling me

anything new that I didn't know.

490

:

And my response to that is,

well, you've been working in

491

:

this business for 40 years.

492

:

The chance that a gen general consumer

is gonna tell you something that you

493

:

didn't know is probably pretty slim.

494

:

They're not experts.

495

:

You're an expert.

496

:

You, all you do is think about

this and, and your your family's

497

:

wellbeing is probably based on

you doing well and making money.

498

:

But I said, what?

499

:

What this has done has told you the

top three things that are important to

500

:

these consumers, and these are the three

things you're supposed to be focusing on.

501

:

So you might have had a hundred

ideas in your brain, and of course

502

:

these three of those were already

in your brain, but now you know the

503

:

top three priorities to go after.

504

:

That's a new learning and,

and that actually has changed.

505

:

So my, they're okay.

506

:

Now.

507

:

I understand, right?

508

:

They that I, I was thinking about all

this stuff, but they helped me understand

509

:

what are the three priorities that we

should be focused on for this initiative.

510

:

I.

511

:

Laura: Very nice.

512

:

If there's anything else

actually that you wanna cover, I.

513

:

David, I think we've covered a lot of

514

:

David: Yeah, this has been fan.

515

:

You have such good questions.

516

:

I, you guys are two researchers

as well too, it seems like.

517

:

Laura: yeah, I mean, to be honest

with you, I wanted to like, I,

518

:

same as you as far as copywriting,

that's what I got my degree in is

519

:

advertising with a copywriting,

you know, concept advertising.

520

:

And you know, I got an immediate

vine, but I even a, a research

521

:

firm, another research firm,

what a long time ago was like, I.

522

:

Would you moderate focus

groups, you'd be really good.

523

:

And and I was like, that would be so

cool research because it's so fun.

524

:

Like it's, yes, you can argue with

it if it's, if it is, you know, left

525

:

brain, right brain in some cases.

526

:

But there is so much, it's just

so much like what we do where

527

:

I go into a client and say.

528

:

You can't argue with the metrics.

529

:

You can't argue with this, this,

this is not me speaking here.

530

:

This isn't, this is the metric.

531

:

How many people came to your website?

532

:

How many people watched,

how many people converted?

533

:

And so it's, it really

that's, it is the same.

534

:

Very similar in that way.

535

:

It's just there's not subjective,

like creative coming in, going,

536

:

you know, three different ideas and

everybody has a different opinion.

537

:

David: Yes.

538

:

Laura: So very cool.

539

:

Lisa: Well, David, thank you

so much for joining us today.

540

:

We do have one final question for you.

541

:

If you could go back in time to yourself

at the beginning of your career, what

542

:

is one piece of advice you would give?

543

:

David: Excellent.

544

:

Before I answer it, Lisa,

you asked that so perfectly.

545

:

Earlier in my career we used

to say something like, what

546

:

is the best or the most?

547

:

And we've learned since that if you just

say, what is one thing, they're probably

548

:

gonna say the thing that's most important.

549

:

And it's a lot easier to answer a question

like that than when you ask the most.

550

:

So that's perfect.

551

:

That's a great tip for your kids too, if

you have them if you're, if you're driving

552

:

home from school, you say, what's the

best thing that happened at school today?

553

:

They'll be like, oh, nothing.

554

:

But if you just say, well, what's one

cool thing that happened at school today?

555

:

Everyone can come up with that,

and it probably was the best thing.

556

:

Okay, so now I have to think

about your question and answer.

557

:

It's

558

:

Laura: communications

559

:

David: yeah, yeah.

560

:

Lisa: From the creative

writing to analytics position

561

:

Laura: That's true.

562

:

Lisa: I don't know what

it, I don't know what it is

563

:

David: oh, we're, we're all left

brain and right brain people,

564

:

which I think is, is really cool.

565

:

One thing, I think that when I

first started it was intimidating

566

:

working, you know, hearing about all

these big companies and these big

567

:

decisions that they needed to make

and, and to make a contribution.

568

:

When I was just starting out in these,

these debriefs and ideation sessions

569

:

with these top level folks, and I was

24, I challenged myself that in every

570

:

meeting I was gonna say three things.

571

:

Might not be super smart, I might just

be saying, well, what she said was

572

:

really good because blah, blah, blah,

and building on someone else's idea.

573

:

And, and the thing I learned from

that is that, you know, everybody has

574

:

something to contribute and everybody

has a different perspective and people

575

:

want to hear your perspective and, and.

576

:

I also want to hear other people's

perspectives, and so that it doesn't,

577

:

you don't need to be intimidated

or concerned to contribute.

578

:

We're all groups of people trying

to solve challenging problems and if

579

:

you're a kind of a good participant

in that process and open-minded and,

580

:

and eager to listen to other folks

together we can solve those problems.

581

:

Laura: David, thank you so

much for joining us today.

582

:

And , you can

583

:

findDavid@hemispheresinsights.com.

584

:

That's hemispheres with an s insights.com.

585

:

That link will also be in the description.

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About the Podcast

The Paid Media Playbook
Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Digital Marketing Strategies
Welcome to The Paid Media Playbook — where marketing leaders share what’s really working.

‍Each episode, we go beyond paid media to explore the strategies, insights, and behind-the-scenes lessons shaping modern marketing. From brand building to measurement, comms to creative, no topic is off-limits. You’ll hear from a diverse mix of Marketing Directors, Creators, Researchers, Agency Leaders, and Founders — all pushing the edge of what’s possible in their fields. Whether you're leading a marketing team or just love smart marketing conversations, this show is your playbook for what’s next.

About your hosts

Laura Szczes

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Paid Media Agency Owner with over 25 years of Paid Media Strategy Experience. Based in Seattle and talking about Paid Media, Marketing, Clients, and the Pacific Northwest.

Lisa Wekellis

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