Categories: Podcast

SPOS #438 – The Misery Of Agency Life With Uwe Hook

Welcome to episode #438 of Six Pixels Of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast. There’s an infamous line from the 1976 film, Network, in which longtime fictional television news anchor, Howard Beale, screams, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” We’ve (probably) all done this at one point in our professional lives (granted, not the extent of Beale!). Some of us actually meant it, quit our jobs and went off to do other things. For others, we mutter these words beneath our breath or spout them off to family and friends on the weekend, but never really do anything to change our own, professional, situation. In June of this year, longtime marketing agency professional, Uwe Hook, did something about his unhappiness with agency life. After close to twenty years in the business, he quit his job and explained it all rather publicly in a Medium post titled, Why I quit my agency job. Several months later, DigiDay published a piece titled, Why Agency People Are So Unhappy, that quoted Hook’s piece along with other unhappy agency professionals. After reading both pieces, and others on the topic, I invited Uwe to share his thoughts. Ultimately, I don’t fully understand these positions. I can empathize with the feelings, but I’m not sure I get why we would tag the industry as such, and to what benefit this serves? We should always strive ti be better and do better work, but I would much prefer the route of doing this in a positive and productive way. Enjoy the conversation…

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast – Episode #438 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Running time: 50:25.
Please send in questions, comments, suggestions – mitch@twistimage.com.
Hello from Beautiful Montreal.
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or you can connect on LinkedIn.
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Six Pixels of Separation the book is now available.
CTRL ALT Delete is now available too!
Here is my conversation with Uwe Hook.
Medium – Why I Quit My Agency Job.
DigiDay – Why Agency People Are So Unhappy.
Follow Uwe on Twitter.
This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.
Get David’s song for free here: Artists For Amnesty.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast – Episode #438 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.