Self-awareness, agency legacy, and the cost of choosing your own risk.
This conversation centers Erin Riley, CEO of TBWA, and the pressure of leading an agency through the reshaping of advertising while carrying the weight of familiar names.

Creative leadership, examined from the inside.
Fearless Creative Leadership studies leadership through long, careful conversations with people running creative businesses and teams. The show favors self-awareness, operational honesty, and the human costs behind decisions that look simple from the outside.
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Fearless Creative Leadership is a measured interview show about the inner life and operating reality of creative leadership. It spends time with people leading agencies, brands, creative teams, and independent companies, then asks what their choices reveal about courage, culture, responsibility, and growth. The conversations are not hurried. They give guests enough room to explain the story behind a belief, the business context behind a decision, and the private tension behind public confidence. Charles Day’s framing questions often sound simple: why are you doing this, how much freedom do people have, what impact are you having, what kind of box are you building? The answers are where the show lives. Erin Riley’s episode uses the pressure around TBWA and the advertising industry to talk about self-awareness, risk, and the responsibility that comes with being watched by an organization. Amy Martin-Ziegenfuss describes a shift away from winning at someone else’s expense and toward a leadership style built on asking, learning, and rising together. Rocky Novak and Brad Searcy connect independence at Zeus Jones to investment discipline, financial trust, and the courage to stay ahead of clients. Cat van der Werff’s conversation turns perfectionism into a leadership problem, showing how excellence can be shared while perfection can narrow the room. Aaron Starkman argues that creativity needs thoughtful process, predictable mechanics, and fewer operational obstacles. Andrés Ordóñez brings AI into the conversation without losing sight of feeling, curiosity, and the human response that machines cannot fully share. The Ace of Hearts episodes follow the formation of a creative company through debate, adaptation, transparency, and aliveness. Across these conversations, the show keeps returning to a central idea: creative work depends on the conditions leaders create around people. That means structure and freedom. It also means curiosity, context, humility, and the willingness to make difficult calls clearly. The tone is warm but serious. It is not a hype show about disruption. It is for listeners who want to understand how leaders think when ambition, uncertainty, creativity, and responsibility meet in the same room.
Made for: For agency leaders, creative directors, marketers, founders, and managers who care about culture as much as output. It also suits listeners drawn to thoughtful interviews about ambition, responsibility, and human judgment at work.
What sets it apart: The show sets itself apart by treating leadership as a lived, emotional practice with operational consequences. It connects personal history, business pressure, creative standards, and team culture without flattening them into easy advice.
We talk to leaders of the world's most disruptive companies about how they are jumping into the fire, crossing the chasm and blowing up the status quo. Leaders who've mastered the art of turning the impossible into the profitable.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Executive interviews connect creative leadership principles to risk, reinvestment, organizational culture, and the personal weight of making consequential decisions.
Fearless Creative Leadership turns executive interviews into close studies of how creative authority is exercised under pressure. Charles Day begins with a pointed question, then gives guests room to examine the judgment behind their decisions.
When creative risk meets the CFO, your motivational speech had better bring a line item.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Self-awareness, agency legacy, and the cost of choosing your own risk.
This conversation centers Erin Riley, CEO of TBWA, and the pressure of leading an agency through the reshaping of advertising while carrying the weight of familiar names.
Leadership lands better when ambition leaves room for collaboration.
Amy Martin Ziegenfuss makes a familiar leadership idea feel grounded: strong leaders do not treat success as a solo contest. As Carnival Cruise Lines' Chief Marketing Officer, she frames ambition and collaboration as partners, and the value comes through in how plainly she links…
Creative courage becomes credible when it has a place on the calendar and a line on the balance sheet.
Rocky Novak and Brad Searcy join Charles Day for a measured look at creative risk as something a company has to make room for, not simply admire from a distance.
A reflective leadership conversation on responsibility, curiosity with AI, and why feeling still matters in creative work.
Leadership anchors Andres Ordonez's conversation with Charles Day, using his McCann role less as a credential than as a lens on the person inside it.
Ace of Hearts makes aliveness a practical case for open debate, clear choices, and adaptable leadership.
Ace of Hearts founders Rick Brim, Martin Beverley, and Polly McMorrow frame aliveness as more than a mood; it becomes a test for how a creative company is built and led.
A thoughtful leadership episode about self-awareness, agency pressure, and the personal stakes of deciding what to build next.
Erin Riley's conversation about leading TBWA centers on a tough but useful idea: for a leader, self-awareness is never just an inward exercise. Every decision, aside, and stray comment can be noticed, repeated, and turned into a signal.
A candid leadership conversation about PTSD, self-care, and the empathy that can grow from surviving trauma.
Leadership is framed here as a deeply human test: the expectation to have answers, conceal weakness, and keep serving others can leave even a seasoned executive without a sustainable way to lead.


Leadership balance before burnout takes over.




A midweek reset for school leaders.
This episode explores the critical role of context in leadership and creative work through a conversation with Gabriel Schmitt, global CCO of Gray, who emphasizes that business acumen is essential for effective creativity.
Charles Day interviews Erin Riley, CEO of advertising agency TBWA, about leadership during industry restructuring.
Charles Day interviews Nancy Hill, CEO of Marcus Thomas and former CEO of the Four A's, about her personal experience with PTSD from her husband's alcohol-related liver failure and death.
This episode features an interview with Sir Andrew Strauss, former England cricket captain, discussing leadership, creativity, and personal resilience in sports and business.
Ndidi Oteh, CEO of Accenture Song, traces her creative instinct to age four, when she chose the dress for a family portrait in St.
The excerpt begins with self-awareness.
Charles Day opens with a simple challenge about winning and loss.
Rocky Novak and Brad Searcy talk with Charles Day about courage at Zeus Jones.
This episode features Kat Vanderwerf, executive creative director at Canva, discussing how she evolved from a perfectionist leader to embracing freedom and excellence to unlock creativity in her team and company.
This episode features an interview with Aaron Starkman, Chief Creative Officer of Rethink, discussing how structured processes and predictable environments actually enhance creativity in business leadership.
Andres Ordonez, newly appointed global chief creative officer of McCann, tells host Charles Day on Fearless Creative Leadership that his creative instincts trace back to his advertising-executive father and motocross-racing mother in Colombia.
Charles Day opens with a question about how alive a person feels.
This episode explores the critical role of context in creative leadership through a conversation with Gabriel Schmidt, global CCO of Gray, who argues that business acumen is essential for effective creative work.
This episode features Gabriel Schmitt discussing the critical importance of understanding business context for effective creative leadership and innovation.
This episode wraps up a series exploring AI's impact on creative industries, featuring insights from interviews with industry leaders and observations from the Cannes Festival of Creativity.