Are creative directors just there to "sprinkle some magic" on C-suite agendas, or are they trying to help people who can't handle the truth? And who really needs them anyway?

Expo with video.

The single most challenged resource for any leader is usually time – but effective work rarely falls out of reactive panic. So, for the frazzled Corporate Marketing Officer, is a truly invaluable creative critical friend someone who helps you hold space to think straight – and bring the best out of you? My brilliant chat with Ed from Carswell Gould on the new UnEdited Marketing Podcast, while philosophical, was rooted in our collective “two hundred years of experience” influencing the shape of things in the supposedly *real* world.

Creative director Ed Gould and I have had some excellent chats in his car.

We had another one on the way to recording this one, and it’s an insight into how we both use our creative confidence and experience to make sense of practical biz challenges for clients. There’s a lot in here, and it’s at the business end of my creative life over so many years. But working with Ed has helped me think in real world applications even more – he’s a realist, and I’ve watched him get to the heart of a problem or the implications of a solution in seconds. Even while sometimes deploying UN ambassador-level diplomatic efforts to land the right strategic storytelling. He’s among the best of the creative director mates I’ve made and learned invaluable examples from.

Here we chat about what it’s like to bring the art bit of you to work, how we’ve nurtured relationships with trust in the heat of deadlines, and what it means to make a real difference to a team’s expectations. Somewhere in all this we also came up with the term Corporate Devolution and I think we should all go away and explore what that could mean for our economically failing times.

This episode of The UnEDited Marketing Podcast isn’t officially out until November 4, so as a Momo amigo you’re getting an exclusive, you lucky poppet. Hope it inspires your own creativity – for it belongs absolutely in the *real* world. This is how we make it.

A huge thanks to Ed for the invitation to share some insights into our always excellent conversations.