David Smith is a creative thinker of international standing. Founded Blood UTD in 2016 - an agency that began life with a focus on doing the best work in the space of sport and fitness. But has since evolved to focus on good companies - by good, we mean companies that are focused on generating profit in a manner that is fair and sustainable. This is not about strident wokeness or ardent moralising, but rather the belief that profit and decency don't need to be divergent forces, that there is a path forward where you can make money without messing things up. Joining David on this episode of The Imposterous is Regina Stoombergin and Julia Spencer aka M.I.A aka Mums in Ads. MIA who is still the most exclusive club in advertising! But the good news is they want you! All you need to do is 1. Be a mum 2. Be in the industry and 3. Find the bloody time to squeeze one more thing in. Mums In Ads will be on the rooftop at the Corner Hotel in Richmond on Thursday 29 September from 6pm. So if you’re in Melbourne, an Adland mum of whatever sort (hey, we don’t discriminate), join them for a drink.

You know it’s a good day when Natalie Lam joins us on The Imposterous. Natalie is Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. She’s responsible for overseeing the creative output of more than 60 agency brands including Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis, Razorfish, Sapient, Digitas with integrated creative, data, media and tech offerings in some of the world’s most dynamic markets. With her roots in design, a strong digital background and being a hopeless romantic for big ideas, Natalie advocates for strategic creative work that brings optimism, joy and beauty to the world, in truly media-agnostic ways to help build the world’s biggest brands. Her 20+ year career included senior creative leadership positions in Google’s Art, Copy and Code, R/GA, Ogilvy and McCann World Group in NYC, with a break from advertising to start an electronic music and DJ school, The Foxgrove, that was featured in Rolling Stone. Natalie was selected for AdWeek’s Creative 100 ranking in 2022, as an “agency leader defining a new era.” Her work for global innovative brands such as Nike+, Spotify and Mercedes-Benz won top global awards including a Cannes Grand Prix, D&AD Black Pencil, and ADC Black Cube. She is a frequent jury president and judge at global and regional awards shows such as Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, ADC, LIA, and Spikes. How we managed to convince Natalie to join us on The Imposterous remains a mystery. We’re very glad she did though!

Much loved Australian television and radio host, and passionate mental fitness advocate Gus Worland founded Gotcha4Life in 2017, following the success of the ABC series Man Up and losing a very close friend and life mentor to suicide, as he realised he had the ability and networks to make a real difference. Gus simply does not accept the alarming statistics surrounding suicide in Australia and that eight people take their life every day. Gotcha4Life believes in the power of prevention through connection and champions the idea of proactively building mental fitness and the resilience required to deal better with the challenges that life throws at us. Gus is a big believer in starting meaningful conversations by developing better social and emotional connections with mates, families, colleagues and community. To drive real change, Gotcha4Life funds educational workshops and innovative training programs throughout Australia that build mental fitness in individuals, organisations and communities to activate strong, open and binding relationships.

Veronica Beach is the original founder and now partner of the poolhouse (www.the-poolhouse.com), a social network for Producers in TV, Film & Advertising. Previously Veronica was the Director of Production at Pereira O'Dell from 2020 - July 2022 overseeing the San Francisco & New York offices from the Agency side and their In-House production department, Barrelhouse. Prior to that, Head of Global Production at DAVID and was a founding member of DAVID and even moved to Brazil to open the São Paulo and Buenos Aires production departments. While living in Brazil, Veronica served a dual role leading Global Production for Ogilvy Brazil. In Veronica’s first year at Ogilvy Brazil they won Agency of the Year in Cannes through the projects she produced, Dove, Real Beauty Sketches and Coca Cola’s, Crazy for Good. That year winning 29 Lions, including the Titanium Grand Prix as well as previously mentioned, Agency of the Year. To date, Veronica has won over 100 Lions, and multiple other prestigious awards. Veronica was recognized by Business Insider as one of the top Creative Influencers in Advertising while being part of the team to globally launch the Miami office as one of the top 5 agencies in the world at Cannes.

Paul Middleditch has directed four feature films and is regarded as one of the top performance/action TV Commercial Directors in the world. He is Australasia's most awarded commercials Director, having over 300, with 8 Cannes Lions, 4 of which are gold, and numerous International and National awards to his credit. He was recently ranked 8th Best Commercial Director of all time, based on Lüzer's Archive. He has continually upheld a Number One Director World Ranking on Best Ads on TV, with Carlton Draught's 'Big Ad' being awarded the Best Beer Ad of All Time. His work has featured at the Super Bowl for 6 consecutive years and he is one of the few Australian creatives to have appeared on the cover of Shots Magazine. At the age of 19, Middleditch's first short film 'Light of the Blade' won Best Direction at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival. His first feature film, Terra Nova, won the first film prize in Montreal in 1999, won Best of Festival at the Edinburgh Film Festival and went on to screen at over thirty festivals worldwide. His second feature, A Cold Summer, premiered in competition at the Rotterdam Film Festival, and earned him an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Director. In 2009, Middleditch completed his third feature, Separation City, a dramatic comedy starring Joel Edgerton, Rhona Mitra and Thomas Kretschmann, which was nominated for 4 QANTAS Awards. His first American feature film for Lionsgate titled Rapture Palooza was released in 2013, starring Anna Kendrick and Craig Robinson. Paul is the first guest on The Imposterous whose bio has been directly lifted from IMDb. This is something we’re sure he’ll never mention but we will be a #humblebrag in social posts of ours to come.

Pum Lefebure is a co-founder and chief creative officer of Design Army in Washington, DC, where she oversees all creative coming through the agency's doors. The Thailand native brings a global sensibility to American design - a creative point of view that draws from different cultures and resonates with diverse audiences. In this episode of The Imposterous Pum brings savvy street smarts, an undeniable entrepreneurial edge and a caliber of confidence born from years of incredible world leading creative work. Guided by an international eye, Pum has helped expand the agency's client base and elevate its reputation as a trend-setter. Pum's hallmark is a distinctive union of the artistic and the commercial. With a rare balance of creativity, strategic thinking and industry know-how, she has proven that good design is the cornerstone of good business. Another good imposter indeed.

The Imposterous, Peter Nankervis is Founder and CEO of Lighthouse Group and a passionate corporate coach working with CEO’s and guiding leadership teams to identify the right people and performance solutions to accelerate business transformation and growth. He brings to this episode a history of partnering with companies that have successfully accelerated their enterprise value, in many cases leading to acquisition. He’s all about providing a clear roadmap for leaders and developed the leadership technology platform 6Ceed, for which Lighthouse was awarded the Westpac top 200 Business of Tomorrow. Priding himself on a very down to earth approach, being an active listener, and having the ability to develop practical and simple solutions to complex problems. Pete’s passionate about helping clients navigate tricky spots and accelerate when the winds blow fair. Prior to founding Lighthouse, this episode’s imposter had a corporate background with state, national and regional leadership roles in management consulting with a global multinational company. In his younger years, he was a champion Whac-A-Mole player, but he’s not in that game anymore.

Two great guests, two episodes in one. Where to start? Let’s begin with Steve Sammartino. Wikipedia tells us Steve is an Australian futurist, author and entrepreneur and according to Forbes, he launched Rentoid in 2007, one of the early sharing-economy, peer-to-peer online hire and rental marketplaces. Rentoid was featured in Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers’s book, What’s Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing the Way We Live. Rentoid was later sold to an ASX listed company in 2014. According to the World Records Academy, Steve collaborated with Raul Oiada in 2011 to launch the world’s first Lego Space Shuttle into space. Propelled by a helium-filled weather balloon, the Lego Space Shuttle model 3367 was launched from German airspace into the stratosphere to an altitude of about 35,000m (114,800 feet). According to Wired in 2013 Steve and Oaida developed the world's first life-sized, drive-able Lego car with a compressed air-powered Lego engine. According to TV Week however, Steve is the co-Host of Rebound TV with Tommy McCubbin, who co-creates and hosts the show that is helping Australian businesses bounce back after the pandemic. Screening on Channel 9 on Saturdays at 12:30. Before being wooed to the screen Future Sandwich podcast host Tommy McCubbin co-founded WellAware with the mission to accelerate the world's transition into personalised, proactive and preventative health management where he works with some of Australia's top companies to help them manage and minimise the risk of Cancer, Heart Disease and Mental Illness striking down their workforce unnecessarily. Tommy’s podcast Future Sandwich is Winner of Australia's Best Tech Science and Gaming Podcast, and has expanded into multiple live events and content series. We have no idea how we convinced Tommy and Steve to join us for this chat, but they’re here now so let’s go for it. Ding, ding.

Meet the imposterous Elaine Li, creative director and photographer. Elaine was born and raised in Hong Kong, spent time in Melbourne, Chicago, San Francisco, and is now based in Sydney. So far in her advertising career, Elaine has planted a beer ad in people’s dreams; raised money for bushfire victims with a burnt Christmas tree; and made edible finger lickin’ good nail polish. Elaine competed in Cannes Young Lions in 2017, representing Hong Kong. Shortly after moving to Sydney, she tutored AWARD School, and won Young Lions Australia with her partner Jared. They competed in Cannes and came top 5 worldwide. Most recently Elaine judged AWARD Award. Elaine’s obsession with photography and social media has garnered over 260k+ followers on Instagram, work with various brands, and do public speaking engagements as a social influencer. Elaine’s work is killer! When Elaine’s not making ads or taking photos, she enjoys travelling and diving into the world of NFTs and metaverse. But somehow she found time to talk to us about the imposterous things that have happened along the way. Lucky you!

Brent Smart is a rare breed of marketer - equal parts creative and commercial. A brand builder who has taken NRMA to third strongest brand in Australia (it was 36th when he started) and is the strongest insurance brand in the world. With a track record of changing the fortunes of brands, leading NRMA to 3 years of customer growth after 7 years of decline, delivering Cheerios first quarter of sales growth after 13 quarters of decline and even helping Yellow Pages steal share of search from Google. Brent spent 20 years in the ad business, rising to CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi New York, having run New Zealand's Agency of the Decade Colenso BBDO. Without doubt this Imposterous guest knows how to build a creative culture on the inside that delivers more effective creative output on the outside. Brent has the honour of being the first CMO to join us for a chat on The Imposterous and we’re all the better for it.