In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Ramiro Sosa, who has worked for some of the leading brands on both sides of the aisle, for a candid 20-minute conversation about today’s transactional environment and the need to combine data and branding. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – After decades of working in ad agencies, selling media and working with advertisers, Ramiro harnesses all these learnings, focuses on the power of branding to differentiate and drive sales, and helps startups grow.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Ramiro listened to a friend. While working at an ad agency, Ramiro got an offer to run marketing in Latin America for Sony. He was “thinking about it” when a friend convinced him it was a fantastic opportunity. Ramiro took it.

👉 Unexpected change or event – Advertising, and to some extent, marketing went from creative-led to data-led. And when everyone is exposed to the same research, the results are commoditized.

👉 What did he do? – Doubled down on research to truly understand what drives the users of a brand and dove deeply into segmentation.

👉 About older workers – Wisdom. After living through many experiences and cycles, you emerge with wisdom, knowing how things work. This brings value to my decision-making. Older workers also are better at coaching younger ones and add value to the organization.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Luis Javier Pisonero, who introduced some of the most innovative consumer insights tools in Venezuela for a candid 20-minute conversation about how small shifts in focus have a disproportionate effect on success. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/don...

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Luis Javier transformed his life with a seemingly-simple shift. He went from the common “To Do” list to the “Decision-Making” list. “Avoid regrets” Luis Javier says “if you make a list of worries, you’ll find that each worry ties to a decision you didn’t make. So, make a decision, eliminate the worry”.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Moved from Vapro/Bozell, a small, mainly-local Caracas agency to Lintas, taking on the challenge of managing large multinational clients in a large multinational sandbox.

👉 Decisive Moment #2 – Moved from managing Franklin Whaite y Asociados/Lintas, an 80-person agency, to then way smaller FCB in Caracas. “Risky, but worth the challenge” because of the learning opportunities in tools and methodologies.

👉 Unexpected change or event – Tools and computing power. The agencies reinvented advertising with new technology, new processes and new tools, and you get much more effectiveness and efficiency for the client budgets.

👉 What did he do? – Luis Javier not only went all-in on new technology, processes and tools, he leadered a lot of the transformation across Latin America.

👉 About older workers – When you interview an older person you need to look beyond what you are seeing because it's not the tangible thing, it's not the visible thing, it's the invisible thing. I would recommend that you take a look of this podcast to understand how these kind of people could make your data more valuable than you think. That's what I think is the key thing.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Neal Topf, the legendary customer experience expert, for a candid 20-minute conversation about chancing into call centers and customer service, his relentless quest for quality and the lighting speed of change in his industry. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – For many of us involved in direct response marketing, Proactiv is a legend and the call centers who work with Proactiv are considered to be the absolute tops. So, none of us were surprised when Neal Topf’s Callzilla won the entire business for the U.S., Neal transformed Callzilla into a national powerhouse by delivering top notch service to its clients and its callers.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Graduated with an MBA in 2003, middle of the economic crisis, a headhunter took a chance on him and he went to work for a call center based in Colombia who needed to grow in the U.S.

👉 Decisive Moment #2 – Expands away from the U.S. Hispanic Market into national.

👉 Unexpected change or event – AI, of course.

👉 What did he do? – Implement LLMs, as AI assist tools. It's called Agent Assist to help the call center agent who's sitting in the contact center in real time. So, there's an engine that's listening to a call or reading a chat. This AI bot will tell the call agent the answer to the customer’s question; it will fill out all the fields related to the customer and much more, including deep data analysis.

👉 About older workers – I think, and this is a bit of a cliche, but I would hire for grit. I would hire for perseverance, for tenacity, for desire, for willingness, for loyalty. Age is not a determinant of that. I value the experience that someone older will bring just as I value the energy, hopefully, that someone young might bring. But for me, it's not a factor of age. It's a factor of willingness and desire and I think grit.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Joe Zubi, one of the most iconic Hispanic market advertising leaders, for a candid 20-minute conversation about the jump from being “salaried” to being the boss, building one of the leading national Hispanic agencies and giving back. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Joe Zubi is a Miami advertising icon. While his mom –The legendary Tere Zubizarreta—created Zubi advertising, it was Joe that transformed it into one of the top Hispanic agencies in the U.S. with national clients such as Ford, American Airlines, JP Morgan Chase and many more. Joe himself was one of the most effective evangelists for Hispanic advertising.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Leaves Miami ad agency Beber Silverstein in 1990, after 8 years, to help Zubi Advertising land the national Pizza Hut business. And transitioned from having a predictable salary into being an owner.

👉 Decisive Moment #2 – Sold the agency to WPP. And transitioned from being the owner to being an employee.

👉 Unexpected change or event – The dot com crisis, which, when it went bust left many agencies with huge media debts. A second change is streaming, which is tailor-made for Hispanic workers, who tend to have weird hours.

👉 What did they do? – At the time of the dot com Zubi created an interactive division, I-Zubi to explore these new directions. Obviously, Zubi not only kept with the changes, but was front and center in creating and understanding new media.

👉 About older workers – “El Diablo sabe más por viejo que por diablo” (the devil knows more because he’s old than because he’s the devil)

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Phillip Bacon, an accomplished businessman and philanthropist who started his career by selling salt, for a candid 20-minute conversation about the importance of mentorships and helping young people by creating working businesses. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox

⁠🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Phillip is both, an experienced businessman and a philanthropist with a special interest in helping disinvested kids improve their lives through education and building businesses.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Right out of the university, with no job, Phillip was driving a cab when a friend called him over to interview with Cargill. He followed their management training program and wound up in sales. Selling salt.

👉 Decisive Moment #2 – Came to South Florida in the early 70s, with American Hospital Supplies, and started selling in an industry where “the sky’s the limit”.

👉 Unexpected change or event – The government changed from reimbursing hospitals by cost to reimbursing by procedure. The industry was forced into consolidation and commissions were cut in half.

👉 What did he do? – Started working for the Collins Center in Broward, which morphed into Urban Philanthropies, which then began creating businesses to employ and teach kids in Overtown. This has continued to this day.

👉 About older workers – First, they bring enthusiasm, because by the time they get to be “of a certain age” they have decided what they really want to do. They bring maturity and a longer attention span.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Ahmed Gonzalez Nuñez, an author and philosopher whose career has included being a dynamite blaster, for a candid 20-minute conversation about continuous learning, why a living editor is better than AI and the real meaning of success. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes👉 The Scoop – Ahmed experienced many facets of life. Intellectually, he went to Hampshire College then UC Berkeley where he cowrote a book on AIDS. Physically, he worked in construction, the airline industry and even on blasting. Yes, real dynamite blasting. Today, Ahmed is a philosopher and a writer.👉 Decisive Moment #1 – There was no decisive moment per se. There was a realization that for him, success is an internal thing. “Success meant being at ease with myself.”Once he came to terms that for him success was internal, he boiled down to this: “I've been basically a student all of my life. And I'm not ashamed of saying that at all. I think that learning never ends.”👉 Unexpected change or event – Two big changes: Self-publishing and AI.👉 What did they do? – Doesn’t use AI for many tasks. “My experience with AI, it's not bad. But you know, AIs tend to be suck-ups. I don't want that. I want someone who can challenge me.” So in writing, especially in editing, an editor has to confront you and challenge you.👉 About older workers – They have experience yes, but, more importantly, they have insights.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Alfredo Duran, who saw little “Channel 23” transform itself into the powerful Univision, then helped create the pan-Latin American cable industry, for a candid 20-minute conversation about the death of some media and embracing digital. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/don...

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – The phrase “present at creation” has been overused. But, in Alfredo Duran’s case it applies 100%. He joined WLTV when it was only a local channel… which then became Univision. He joined the tiny Latin American Pan-Regional Cable industry and helped it take off.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Learned the important of vision.

👉 Unexpected change or event – First, the growth of Latin American Pan Regional Cable. Later, the advent of digital.

👉 What did he do? – Embrace digital in every aspect including making sure that digital rights were always included when negotiating programming deals.

👉 About older workers – Yes, you're right. We're not digitally native. But that doesn't mean we're not really smart. And it doesn't mean that the digital world is neuroscience, for crying out loud. Older workers are really good at transmitting the culture of the company and training younger workers. “We are a great package of wonderful things”

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Keith Spurlock, tech wizard AND successful professional photographer, for a candid 20-minute conversation about handicaps (he’s deaf), using all sides of the brain and embracing AI in every aspect of his business. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/

⁠👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Let’s get one thing out of the way quickly: yes, Keith Spurlock has a handicap: he’s deaf. This has not stopped him from using both sides of the brain. He’s a professional tech wiz, fixing and installing computers AND a professional photographer.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – While working at a hospital using a computer to do brain scans, discovered Symphony (NB – the predecessor to Excel) and began doing his own spreadsheets for banking and finance using his own macros.

👉 Unexpected change or event – Definitely AI, which has changed everything, including how people relate to everything computer.

👉 What did he do? – Completely embraced AI for his work both in the computer and photography businesses. AI saves Keith an amazing amount of time.

👉 About older workers – More experienced, of course. More mature. They love to work in offices so the RTO mandate is not a problem.