Interview with Jacki Kelley, CEO, Dentsu Americas - Podcast with Julie Roehm
“Jacki Kelley, CEO of Dentsu (Americas) is the American Dream personified. Her family settled in Colorado in the 1800's from Scotland..and stayed. But not Jacki. She's blazed a trail from California, to Texas, to DC, to NYC via USA Today, Yahoo!, Bloomberg, Universal McCann, Martha Stewart and Dentsu all while raising a family that includes 25 foster kids. Smart, inspiring and truly one of the good ones...meet Jacki.” - Julie Roehm
Jacki Kelley and Julie Roehm. Two names that, when paired together, reverberate through the industry like a clarion call. These two powerhouses have not only made their mark individually but also, when their paths cross, create something uniquely engaging, sparking thought-provoking conversations that ripple throughout the professional realm.
When Julie Roehm steps into a conversation with Jacki, it's a meeting of minds that radiates energy. Roehm, known for her strategic acumen, pairs brilliantly with Jacki's dynamic approach, creating an amalgam of ideas that invite us to rethink our own perspectives.
The magic of their dialogue lies not just in the depth of their collective experience, but in their shared commitment to exploring new ideas. When Julie Roehm engages with Jacki Kelley, she brings an insightful perspective, drawing from her rich background in marketing and business strategy. Jacki, in return, offers a fresh viewpoint, driven by her diverse experiences in the industry.
Their conversations, a blend of strategic thinking and dynamic exploration, offer valuable lessons for anyone looking to broaden their professional horizons. Julie Roehm's astute observations, coupled with Jacki's vibrant perspectives, make for compelling dialogues that push the boundaries of conventional thought.
The impact of these conversations, however, extends beyond the immediate participants. The ideas and insights that emerge from Julie Roehm and Jacki's dialogue ripple outwards, influencing discussions and sparking fresh thinking in boardrooms and conference halls alike.
In these dialogues, we see the power of diverse thought and the value of open, thoughtful conversation. Julie Roehm and Jacki remind us that when we engage with differing perspectives and openly explore new ideas, we can challenge our assumptions, broaden our understanding, and ultimately drive innovation in our respective fields.
So, what's the resonance from this duo's dialogues? It's a call to action for all of us to engage more deeply, think more critically, and embrace the value of diverse perspectives in our own professional journeys. After all, as Julie Roehm and Jacki Kelley demonstrate, it's through these vibrant exchanges that true innovation is born.
About ‘The Conversational’ Podcast
“The Conversational," a podcast by Julie Roehm, is a cornerstone of insightful dialogues, a meeting point of intellects where the power of words shapes the future. Fueled by Julie Roehm's dynamism and her passion for innovation, it serves as an arena where ideas are exchanged and voices of transformational leaders are heard.
Julie Roehm, a titan in marketing and business strategy, adds an extra layer of depth to every interaction. Her experience and instinctive inquisitiveness unlocks unexplored perspectives, making "The Conversational" more than just an auditory experience. It's a platform that bridges the gap between listeners and leaders, creating a channel for knowledge and inspiration.
Navigating through diverse industries, Julie Roehm explores the intricacies of technology, healthcare, marketing, and entrepreneurship. The podcast is a goldmine of stories — tales of challenges, triumphs, and visions that shape the future of these sectors. With Julie Roehm at the steering wheel, the journey is as enlightening as the destination.
The Conversational isn't merely a series of dialogues. It's a masterclass in understanding our ever-evolving world, a compass for those navigating the labyrinth of life and business. Julie Roehm's role is pivotal, her voice a beacon guiding listeners towards enlightenment and transformation.
Transcript:
Julie: Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Conversational. My name is Julie Roehm. Today, I have the distinct pleasure of chatting with... I know I say this a lot, because it's true, but it's another longtime friend. I know I opened with that quite often, but this is the point of these podcasts is I get to bring back these people I've known forever and introduce them to all of you and their amazing stories. So, Jacki Kelley fits that bill perfectly. We were just [00:00:30] chatting before the recording about when we met. It's probably 20 years this year, which means we were both just children when we met initially.
So, Jacki, for those of you who don't know, Jacki, she is the CEO of Dentsu Americas. Funny story, my son, some of you know, Luke is a freshman at Emerson up in Boston studying marketing communications. I have no idea why, but I was telling him about my podcast coming up today talking to Jacki. [00:01:00] I told him about Dentsu. He's like, "What's Dentsu?" I was like, "Oh, it's an agency holding company." Well, what's that? So, I went through. I'm like, "It's on Omnicom, WPP, IPG, Publicis, Dentsu." Wow. So, I think Dentsu often doesn't get billing maybe because Jacki and her brother and aren't quite as prolific as the former Sir Martin Sorrell and John Wren. But for anybody [00:01:30] who knows anything about the industry, Dentsu is the powerhouse in data and science, technology.
So, it makes total sense that they would put somebody like Jacki at the helm, because she's at great blend of actually understanding the benefit of science and technology, but with that total human connection and relationship and just understanding of overall business strategy. So, she's not been here very long. [00:02:00] So, she's been at Dentsu just a year basically, last year, January of 2020. Before that, she had a lot of really cool jobs. 2019 is when she left her last position. So, she was president, chief client officer, DAN, D-A-N, US. And then before that, she was Deputy COO for Bloomberg LP, working with Michael Bloomberg. Super interesting stories there.
She was COO of Bloomberg Media, CEO North America and President [00:02:30] of Global Clients for IPG Media Brands, and Global CEO of Universal McCann. Not listed on her bio, but I know because that's where we met. Before that, she had really cool positions at places like that place called Yahoo and USA Today and even Martha Stewart. So, she has seen the full gamut and today serves on boards like the Ad Council, FreshPet, Comic Relief USA. She has been very duly honored [00:03:00] with several different awards such as United Way of New York City's Power of Women to Make a Difference award, because as I said, she is more than just a pretty face. She is a giver and a smart cookie.
She was also named Matrix Award Honoree by New York Women in Communications, Advertising Woman of the Year by Advertising Women of New York, a New York Women in Film and Television News Award Honoree. She was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement. She's also been given lots of other awesome awards, like [00:03:30] the 50 Most Powerful Women in New York, Ad Age's 100 Most Influential Women in Advertising, as well as Business Insider's 30 Most Powerful Women in Advertising list. She's a neighbor. So, we actually typically always run into each other back when you could run into people in New York City, but she lives closer to me here than probably when we were in city. So, it is my pleasure to welcome you, Jacki, to The Conversational.
Kelli: Well, thank you for having me. Delighted to be here.
Julie: It's fun. So, as you [00:04:00] know, my favorite opening line is... So, you live in Connecticut now, but I know that's not where you started. Will you tell us where you were born and just a little bit about what your parents did and brothers, sisters?
Kelli: Yeah, of course. So, I was born in the fabulous State of Colorado. I'm a fifth generation cattle rancher. I was born in Denver, but raised in Douglas County, which is very rural South of Denver, Southeast of Denver, I guess. I'm [00:04:30] the middle child. I've got an older sister who's a lawyer, very accomplished lawyer, and a younger brother, who works for my dad. They are both mortgage financers.
My dad is an entrepreneur. He's had his own business for most of my life, I remember him having his own business. He is over 80 now and still is the hardest working person I know, which I admire. He loves what he does. He would never have a day where he didn't enjoy going to his office. [00:05:00] So, it's inspiring to watch. My mom is an accountant. She was an accountant during part of my upbringing. She stayed home with us a lot as well, which was wonderful. She's an incredible accomplished pianist and singer and sewer. She did lots of stuff at home that just always kept things interesting. So, I'm very fortunate to come from an intact and very loving home and enjoyed my upbringing in Colorado.
Julie: Did you pick up any of those musical [00:05:30] genes?
Kelli: You know what? To my mom's credit, she had all of us take piano lessons. I love playing the piano. I remember getting my first professional bonus. I went out and bought a grand piano with it. So, I still have it. I'm looking at it as we speak. It still makes me smile, because it's how I chose to spend my first free money that I got to do something nice with. I bought a piano.
Julie: Do you play?
Kelli: [00:06:00] I do.
Julie: You do?
Kelli: Not anymore. I mean, I don't play it enough. Pianos like anything else, if you don't do it enough, you get rusty. So, I have a few favorites that I can pull out and if I play for about a half an hour, I can get back to where I was, but it's not easy. I need to spend more time doing it.
Julie: I bet that's fun during back when we were having proper holidays and things with people over. Do you get on? I just envision those people who are musical doing those things.
Kelli: Yeah, who plays the Christmas carols and everybody sings. [00:06:30] Yeah, we do some duets. It's fun. When I'm at home, my mom and dad are both very musical. My mom unfortunately was diagnosed with MS many, many decades ago. So, it's hard for her to play now, but my dad is also very musical. So, yes, it's fun.
Julie: I love that. Yes, I mean, for me, that's idyllic. Speaking of idyllic, we spoke. You said not only were you living in Colorado, but I think probably super unique, I have to say probably to anybody I know, is [00:07:00] the fact that basically, your generations of your family settled in Colorado back in the 1800s. I mean literally came off the boat and traversed the country.
Kelli: Yeah. We are the oldest family-owned ranch definitely in Colorado, I've heard maybe even West of the Mississippi. My great, great, greats came cross from Philadelphia [00:07:30] in 1863 and homesteaded there. It's been run by my great, great grandfather and then my grandfather ran it. My cousins have run it. Right now, my cousin runs it. It's always been in the family. It's pretty amazing. The rest of the land around us has been acquired by others and largely for conservation, which is a very honorable thing. John Malone who is the father [00:08:00] of cable in our industry has bought up a lot of land in Colorado including around us, but we are the one family who hold out.
Julie: You guys, you said, are from Philadelphia, but Philadelphia via way of Scotland, right?
Kelli: Yes, originally from Ireland and Scotland. Yeah.
Julie: That is where the town that you mentioned, which is Kiowa. Is that Kiowa?
Kelli: So, the ranch is in Kiowa, and then I grew up just two towns from that in a little town called Franktown.
Julie: Okay. Kiowa is [00:08:30] the whole area. Was it settled by... So, I just assumed. I've got this whole movie Broadway thing in my head like Far and Away, where you've got the covered wagons rolling across the country. It's all Scottish and Irish settlers together. Is it predominantly... Was it for a long time?
Kelli: I would say that it is. Most of those that ranch with us over the decades, they were family-owned as well. They were [00:09:00] owned by generations. I think that probably three or four generations, but we might be the only fifth. You find arrowheads in the ground. There's so much history in every part of the world, but certainly, we see that. We have an old cemetery that's on the ranch that has tombstones from the late 1800s. It's pretty amazing.
Julie: Wow, that is so cool. When you guys say you own the ranch, [00:09:30] did you work on the ranch? Were you into horses? What kind of ranch?
Kelli: I don't know if any of the listeners will know 4-H, but 4-H, it's a youth program where as kids, you have projects. We always had projects. You take animal projects. There's other projects as well, but each year, my sister and brother and I would each raise a steer. Sometimes [00:10:00] we'd raise multiple steers, where you buy them when they're babies, and then you raise them all year long. You show them at the county fair.
Fortunately, if you do well... In my case, I did that for a decade. It paid for a lot of my first year of college, thankfully, because you sell them at the end of the project. You keep the proceeds, relative to what it costs to buy them and feed them for the year. Of course, you're up at 5:30 in the morning to feed them every morning. So, yes, we learned a lot of hard [00:10:30] work early on by virtue of our 4-H projects, which were always tied to the ranch and really my family's belief that you learn a lot at an early age by taking on responsibility for something like that.
Julie: I grew up a lot in the Midwest. So, I was born in Wisconsin. I've lived in 12 states, but a lot of the states were Midwest. So, 4-H was a very big deal. I always admired just the hard work and the tenacity of the people who did [00:11:00] that. So, I always envision you go... Again, now see, it's like books, Charlotte's Web. They showed the prize pig and then the pig. Then the pig becomes bacon. I mean, did you ever?
Kelli: It's terrible. Yeah, it's terrible. It's really hard. I love that mentioned Charlotte's Web because she got grand champion pig. So, I had the grand champion steer in 1984, I'm proud to say. It's really hard. I remember the first time [00:11:30] that I showed my steer and then sold him and then you wait. Sunday of the county fair is when they come to pick them up. I was eight or nine years old. It was so sad because I had loved him all year long. Yeah, that was the hard part. You get never used to it, but you know it's coming. So, you enter into the relationship slightly differently. Yeah, it was really hard.
Julie: I would think it's like Silence of the Lambs. I mean, as children, we're [00:12:00] so... I don't know. It's the harsh reality of the cycle of life and the food chain. Those kinds of things hit you pretty early when you do-
Kelli: It does. Yeah, I used to feel worse for my friends who had projects that were the lambs. I mean, steer is a big animal. So, it's a different love, I would guess. But the little lambs always bothered me, but anyway.
Julie: I know, I know. This is not what this was about. I just got off on this tangent thinking [00:12:30] like, "Wow." You talk about holy shit moments, I bet those were mini moments, just the jarring of reality as a child, but anyway.
Kelli: When I think back on it, I said to my parents that there were days where I used to begrudge the fact I had to get up early and feed the steers. We lived in Colorado. So, there's blizzards. You're out there walking and feeding and whatnot. Back then, you didn't value it. Like all things in life, in hindsight, you realize how [00:13:00] much you were learning in that moment and how it really crafted your character in a way that's valuable. So, I always look back on it with such gratefulness that that was my upbringing. Yeah, I love it.
Julie: So rooted and so Americana. So, how does a girl from fifth, sixth generation Coloradan rancher make her way to California and then all the way the East Coast?
Kelli: Yeah. [00:13:30] Because my family has lived in Colorado my whole life, I figured when I went to college that I had four years, only four years of my life to live anywhere else. So, I wanted it to be distinctively different than Colorado. I remember it distinctly. I was looking through the New York Times Guide to Colleges. I saw a picture of Pepperdine University on the beach in Malibu. I said to my dad, "This is where I'm going to go." I mean Pepperdine still today is a really competitive [00:14:00] school. It was very competitive then. God bless him. He looked at me and he said, "Honey, I love you, but I'm not sure you'll get in," which was fair. It was a very fair statement from my father. I did get whitelisted. I am a proud Pepperdine graduate though. I teased them today that they waitlisted me, but it was so great.
I loved going to school there. It's a great campus in that it's beautiful in its setting. It is. [00:14:30] It's a religious school. It's affiliated with the Church of Christ, which was important to me. I was raised as a strong Christian. I really wanted a school that represented those values, but it also had great education in communications. Organizational communications is what I studied in marketing. They have a great program. They still do, which I'm engaged with today. I loved going there. But I thought I would go there and then go right back to Colorado.
I got an internship [00:15:00] at USA Today as a senior. Thanks to a wonderful marketing professor and an alumni from Pepperdine that had gone to work at USA Today. I started as an intern in my final year of school and left USA Today 18 years later. They teased me, I was the longest living intern, but it was really a great place. I graduated in 1988 from college. At that time, USA Today was only five years old.
Julie: Oh, my God. Is [00:15:30] that true?
Kelli: Yeah. If you go back and look at 1982, it's an incredible year of companies that were founded. I think CNN is '82. FedEx is '82. I think I've got that right. There's a lot of great companies that were formed in '82. USA Today was one of them. So, we said we were coast to coast, because we had distribution in New York and in LA, but I don't know we were fully national yet. [00:16:00] But it was the only color newspaper. It was distributed nationally. It was known for its [inaudible 00:16:08] and a great coverage. It was a really, really great place to work. Every two years, I was changing jobs. I worked in circulation, which is really the lifeblood of a newspaper.
Julie: Was this old DC, Jacki? Did you go intern? Did you go cross?
Kelli: Yeah. So, I started in LA. And then funny enough, [00:16:30] I always encourage people to have the chutzpah to be clear about what you want. I had finished my internship and decided I didn't want to live in LA. I love going to college there. But growing up in Colorado, LA just felt... I don't know, I missed the four seasons. There's lots of things I missed about Colorado. So, I made a meeting with my Regional Vice President, a wonderful leader named Russ Ford. I said to Mr. Ford at the time [00:17:00] that I wanted to work with the company, but I didn't want to work in LA. He challenged me. He said, "How do you feel about Dallas?" I'd never been to Dallas. I got a one-way ticket to Dallas and took a job and took the open role that was a permanent position after graduating. So, I was in Dallas for maybe six or eight years.
Julie: It's not too different than Colorado. I mean, depends on where.
Kelli: It's not. I love Dallas. I think Dallas is a really vibrant [00:17:30] city. It was a great place to work. For part of the time, I was focused on the Dallas territory, which included Oklahoma and lots of Texas and parts of Louisiana, and was working on the circulation side and distribution. Back then, you might remember this, Julie, you go to any hotel. You get a USA Today at your door. So, I ran a lot of those programs.
Julie: Still do, I call it the people's paper.
Kelli: Exactly right.
Julie: I do.
Kelli: And then [00:18:00] at that time, I took a job training a lot of the other offices. So, I became a sales trainer helping our other offices hone our sales pitch and drive growth. So, I was traveling a lot. So, during that time, I had a national job for part of that. But being based out of Dallas for national job is great because DFW is such an accessible airport. So, I did that for a while. And then I moved to Headquarters, which is DC. So, I went to DC in '98 maybe [00:18:30] and loved living in DC as well.
Julie: Right. As far as cities go, I mean, it helps that you can't build anything taller than the Washington Monument in the city. So, you don't get that overwhelming New York Metro feel, but a little bit more of a conservative town. I mean, in terms of just the way the behavior, it's not quite as crazy. So, was that an easier transition in terms of moving to "a city"?
Kelli: It was great. I loved being in DC. I always [00:19:00] lived in Virginia, because that's where Gannett was headquartered. Because you've got proximity to so many different, whether it's DC or Maryland, it's a wonderful place to live. Well, I left USA Today in 2006. So, I was there for still quite a while. I moved to the advertising side during that time. So, I had wonderful people who saw potential in me that I didn't actually see in myself. I had not [00:19:30] thought about switching from the distribution side to the advertising side, but had an opportunity to do that. I left in 2006 as the head of advertising for USA Today and left only because the consumer behavior had changed so dramatically as you will know.
Certainly, USA Today and Gannett more broadly had worked hard to pivot to digital, but because so much of our infrastructure [00:20:00] was based on a daily publication and our journalism team was... I mean, they had grown up writing articles, which is different than writing for the web. Although, in hindsight, I always said, USA Today was such a perfect brand for the web, because it was built on short stories. It was really custom built for that moment. But we weren't pivoting fast enough. I think any of us that were there at the time would probably argue in hindsight, there were some pretty [00:20:30] big pivots that we needed to do more quickly that we missed. I had the opportunity to go and work with one of your other podcast's areas of focus, Wenda Millard.
Wenda was running sales at Yahoo at the time. She had said to me, "You need to be at Yahoo. Consumer behavior's changing." Two years before I actually moved, she said, "You have to think about how consumer behavior is changing. You have to follow that." That stuck with me. As much as I loved [00:21:00] Gannett and spent a lot of time there, it's hard to leave a company when you have that equity, because you know all the bricks in the building. But I really felt like it was time to become a beginner again. Wenda challenged me to do that and set me up with the structure and the role that allowed me to be a beginner again and not have to know everything about digital, because I really did not know some of the more obvious [00:21:30] things because I didn't come from that.
Julie: No. I always talk about when we launched the Ford Focus back in '99, I had committed 10, 20% of the Focus launch budget to digital, which was crazy, because of course, the first internet ad only ran in 1995. It was an AT&T ad. I've given presentations on this. It's the only reason I know that. But [00:22:00] you think about 2006. So, it's like, "Okay, well, that was 10, 11 years." However, as we know, the number of ad dollars committed to "the internet," even in 2006, was not... I mean, it was certainly not the majority. It was not that big, but on the other hand, it was certainly the movement, because we talked about Yahoo. Then, Yahoo was such a big deal. It was the yodel.
Kelli: That's right.
Julie: I don't know if you do karaoke, [00:22:30] but it was like the Yahoo. It was just crazy. It was very well known. It was the digital platform. AOL had been there too, but AOL, even by that point had gone-
Kelli: [inaudible 00:22:43], right.
Julie: ... from email versus the internet, right? Yahoo was the first one to really become, I think, internet, right?
Kelli: Yeah, I had the same feeling, Julie. Again, I always say, "Back then." It's not that long ago. There was [00:23:00] AOL. There was Google, and there was Yahoo. If you were in the business back then, they had very discrete roles that they were playing. For those of us who loved building brands, Yahoo was the obvious place to go because they were teaching marketers how to build a brand on the web. They had such depth in doing it. It was really a great place to be.
Julie: Yeah, and so interesting. Again, talking about holy shit moments to [00:23:30] your point, I think you'd said, when you left in '06, what percent of digital was USA Today?
Kelli: Yeah, I think when I left, I feel like it was definitely no more than 6%. It might have been even less than that. It was a tiny percentage. I had been interviewed before. I remember saying that it got less than 5% of my time. Now, that's unfortunate, right? As an executive, I should have been making that pivot. But when you've got a business that is so anchored in one [00:24:00] aspect that you're serving clients and working to feed every day, it's hard to make that pivot. I think as executives and people in the industry, we have to plan for the pivots. When you miss those and it's that foundational it, it changes the course of companies. So, I think certainly I was glad to have made the pivot and really jumped into the deep end of what at that time was the best place to get a digital education in the industry, [00:24:30] I thought.
Julie: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Because you're pretty seasoned, I mean, you've been in the business a long time. I mean, people may not realize this, but during print and running ad sales that you said it was a big deal. I mean, you were very well known. I mean, it was a big deal. You go from that to having a substantial role at Yahoo in a medium that you're unfamiliar with. I mean look, I'm sure [00:25:00] felt a lot better because Wenda brought you over and she was going to help you be successful, which is, of course, why we glom on to people and we support one another. How were you feeling? Do you remember a moment when you were there that either you were scared shitless or were like, "Okay, I can do this"?
Kelli: Yeah, hundreds of moments. I always encourage people to zig and zag in their careers, because [00:25:30] at the time I left USA Today, again, in hindsight... Everything looks more obvious in hindsight. But in that moment, I think there were probably others, but I was the successor to the CEO. I was the most senior female executive, myself and the editor. I mean, I love that place, right? When you spend 18 years someplace, [00:26:00] you grow up with people there. So, I felt like part of the fabric. The equity that that creates, whether it's in your heart or in your wallet is substantial. Leaving that was really hard, but I landed at Yahoo. I joked that I had a corner office with a bathroom because that's what we had back then in big print.
I landed in a cubicle with a pole where I literally had to stand [00:26:30] up in order to get out of my seat. For the most part, Yahoo didn't have offices. We were an open space, again, very forward thinking in terms of what most of us now are in open space. I would never want to go to back to an office, but when we're in an office, I realized. It was really different. I was an individual contributor, right? I left managing a huge team and I was an individual contributor. But I always encourage people, become a beginner again. Only when you are really awkward in what you're doing, are [00:27:00] you, I think, really learning at a level that is meaningful. I was awkward most days. Most days, I would walk to the train station.
I relocated to New Canaan. So, I was commuting in and out of New York, which again, for somebody who grew up on a cattle ranch, New York is not exactly my cup of tea. But I would walk to the train station every night, and I would just roll around in my brain everything that I heard that I had no idea what it meant. And then I would research on the train [00:27:30] on the way home what the acronym was or what they meant or the case study they were talking about. So, I went to school again. It was really good for my brain. It was good for my energy. It was good for my future, right? At the time, I didn't realize that. But anyway, I always encourage people to zig and zag.
Julie: I love that you leaned into it, because again, it could have gone either way, right? One you could have been [crosstalk 00:27:56] or you could have been like, "Whatever, I'm going to fake it until I make it," [00:28:00] which is not I think what you did. You actually worked to make it. So, I mean, I think people could have been like, "Whatever, I'm here to do whatever strategy. So, I'm not going to get into the details. I'm not going to take the time to learn all..."
So, I think it's a really good learning lesson for people, because it can be a holy shit moment. You make a choice. So, it's really great. Look, I like to pull these little lessons out of all these things. Okay. Because I remember that pivotal moment, [00:28:30] I mean, I remember being at Chrysler. It was in '05. It was my last year. I was asked to speak to Tim Armstrong. This is the benefit of all of us being seasoned. That's a kinder word than old and have known each other. But when Tim was running ad-
Kelli: Ad sales.
Julie: ... at Google, he invited me to come speak because towards the end of '05, we were starting to mix in some more Google. They were the new young. It was like, "All right. Well, we'll see what happens. They weren't as-"
Kelli: Yes, that's right.
Julie: "... established [00:29:00] as Yahoo." It wasn't a safe bet for us as marketers. So, it's very interesting though. I don't have the dates or the stats, but it only seemed like a matter of maybe months like 24 months, 18 months, where the tide shifted dramatically.
Kelli: Yeah, for sure. I feel like I was there as the tide was shifting, because I joined in '06 and I left a year and a half later. When I left, it was a fundamentally different company. [00:29:30] I think at the same time, we forget about MSN. MSN was also a good competitor back then with Yahoo. Joanne Bradford was formidable. Joanne, Wenda and Tim were the trifecta of ad sales. I think it was during that time that Yahoo really changed. I think we lost our way a bit. Now, the one thing that they did, which I think really propelled them for periods of time, is they merged their [00:30:00] search business with their brand business.
If you think about the benefit of what performance media tells you, search tells you about your brand business, that's obvious to us today. But Yahoo was the one company that had both of those in significant ways. So, we did merge those two right as I was leaving, which was a significant opportunity, but you're right. I mean, Google was beginning to really shift their strategy and become far more than search.
Julie: Yeah. Yeah. [00:30:30] So, Terry Semel was the CEO when you were there.
Kelli: Yeah.
Julie: So, how long were you at Yahoo? What caused the shift? I know when it comes back in to play.
Kelli: I was at Yahoo for under two years, which again, somebody who'd been at someplace for 18 years, I expect it to be a joiner again. But again, it was shifting a lot. I think we have three CEOs during the short time I was there. It was a strategic [00:31:00] shift in merging search and brand, which not only was a strategic merger, but it was a cultural merger. Those are very, very different skill sets, very different people, very different perspectives on the industry. So, that cultural combination was also a trick in change management that was really important.
Some people left during that time, and Wenda was one of them. Wenda chose to leave and go to Martha Stewart. Again, I often tell people [00:31:30] to pick people. I think we are products of the individuals that we have the privilege to learn from and serve with every day. I wasn't done learning from Wenda. So, I finished a project I have committed to help the integration of search and display at Yahoo. And then I went and joined Wenda at Martha Stewart, which is where she had left to be the CEO.
Julie: So, I mean, look, well, we're about to come into what I consider to be probably one of the most interesting parts of anybody's story, which is that you are about [00:32:00] to come here to work for Martha Stewart, and then you're going to leave there and you're going to go Michael Bloomberg, which are two of the biggest personalities ever. So, I mean, for whatever you can share, I think that the thing with those two personalities and what you did and how you worked with them and knowing you, I mean, the persona that those two individuals have in the public sphere, which is always very different than reality, of course, but who I [00:32:30] know of you is a total opposite, even keeled, soft spoken behind the scenes. Those two are very limelight, obviously wicked smart, but very controversial in their own way.
So, I am super interested to hear your experience of both of these companies and how you got to there and your journey of getting to them, but then what you learned about yourself. If there's any of those moments along the way that I think would be useful for people to hear and to realize about these personalities and really [00:33:00] some of the value that comes out of them and what that taught you would be really helpful.
Kelli: Yeah, I'm happy to do that. Let me just give you a thumbnail. In between Martha and Mike, funny that they're Martha and Mike, I took my first stint at an ad agency. So, I'll come back to that.
Julie: It's true, right. Yup, yup, yup. Okay.
Kelli: Martha and Mike, they're both incredible entrepreneurs, right? These are two people who both [00:33:30] founded their own companies. They came to it very differently. Martha had been a homemaker, a good homemaker, who realized she could make a business out of what she was doing, catering in Westport, Connecticut. Mike was terminated from a role and given a big severance check and took his severance check and turned it into Bloomberg, because he saw the gaps in the trading practices at Solomon where he was. He knew he could make it better with technology. [00:34:00] He's an engineer by trade.
I watched this. I admire both of them so much. Yes, to some degree, I guess they can be polarizing, but what they have in common, which is when you're in their presence, it's all inspiring to me. They both have an incredible attention to detail. Mike will tell stories about installing the terminal and getting on his hands and knees and plugging in the cable for their first customers to make sure that it worked. [00:34:30] So, no job is too small. I would say the same thing about Martha, right? Every product she makes, she tests herself to a significant degree. They're both tireless, right? They're both tireless, but they're never tired, which I find amazing. They both have really strong core values. They're different, but they have core values.
The culture of Bloomberg is one of the strongest cultures I've ever worked. [00:35:00] It is directly related to what Mike values, because people join that firm and they're there for most of their career. So, it's about transparency, which is inherent in the product. It's about being fast, but being thoughtful. I always love that value, because you can argue that those two things are inherently at conflict. Yet, he was very clear. We have to be fast, but be thoughtful about what we're doing. It's a bold company. [00:35:30] Bloomberg doesn't do anything small. It is a bold company, but at its heart... This is what I probably value most about Mike's leadership. At its heart, it wants to do the right thing and it wants to make the industry it's a part of better.
So, he created something that world markets now trade on with transparency, he made that better. 100% of his profits now go to making the world better through climate change and healthcare and education. His foundation is an [00:36:00] incredible part of the organization. So, I always felt really proud about working there, because I knew every profit dollar I created went right into making our world a better place. He's an incredible leader. He would have been an incredible president, I say that still to this day. He might not have been a great candidate. I get that everybody challenges me on that. He would have been an exceptional president.
Julie: Yeah, I remember the ads coming out. I actually remember you being a testimonial in the ad. It's so funny. I was like, "Oh, my God. There's Jacki."
Kelli: I was. It was an honor to be asked. [00:36:30] One of my got you moments a bit at Bloomberg is I joined Bloomberg and Bloomberg Media. Mike had left the mayor's office right as I was joining Bloomberg. His term had expired, his third term, which he's only supposed to get two. Only Mike can figure out how to get three. He was not expected to come back to the organization. He's expected to return to the foundation. He came back as the CEO of the company. [00:37:00] That was a gift. It was a treat that that was a bit of a pivot. But two years into that role, the strategy changed a bit. My boss at the time wanted to make a pivot in Bloomberg Media and wanted me to move into a different role. Everybody needs to take their own stock.
When somebody wants you to move into a different role, one, you have to look in the mirror and say, "Gosh, what did I not do well enough in the role I had?" And then you have to say, "Am [00:37:30] I excited about this thing they want me to pivot to?" In my case, I wasn't that excited about it. So, I had made the decision, I wanted to leave Bloomberg Media. Mike, to his credit, came to me and said, "Would you consider being a successor to my COO and moving to what I call the mothership out of Bloomberg Media, which operates as a startup inside a well fund financial firm? Would you consider moving into the financial side?" I did that.
[00:38:00] It's one of the reasons why I chose to be in that commercial, because he was getting such criticism for the culture he creates for women. He created an opportunity for me as a woman. I remember sitting there debating with him whether I was qualified because I wasn't qualified to help run his supply chain and tech services and things I've not done. HR, I got to lead for a period of time there, which I love. That's an area I had more experience in, but there were many things he gave me that I had no background in.
[00:38:30] He looked at me and he said, "Jacki, I've got thousands of people who have background in that. I'm not asking you to know the ins and outs of it, but I'm asking you to lead it. I'm asking you to go in there and help enable their success and learn it. I'll give you the time to do that." The fact that he bet on me like that and he's done that. There's countless women like me inside Bloomberg, where he has handpicked us to do unique roles. I will always be grateful for that. So, I felt very privileged to be asked to be in that ad.
Julie: [00:39:00] That's amazing. I love that story, because I think that honestly... This is not supposed to be about him. ... pre-him running for office, that's what I had thought and heard about him. I think running for president is the worst thing anybody can do to themselves. You have to have a bit of a sick part of you that opens yourself up for people to create a caricature of who you are. Until all of that, that's exactly what I had heard [00:39:30] and then thought about him is just the super savvy, industrious, hard working. I'd seen a lot of women-
Kelli: He's all that. He is all of that, right? Their culture is not perfect, but no culture is. They were doing all the hard work as everybody is now today. But even the DEI efforts that everybody's taking on today as we live through 2020, every company I've been in has had great efforts. Bloomberg was the most committed to diversity, [00:40:00] equity and inclusion that I have ever worked in. Some of that was Peter Grauer, who's the Chairman in addition to Mike, but anyway. Yeah, you don't get to be the founder of a company that's that successful without some level of controversy, right? It's just how it works.
Julie: Of course, right. Because we're all controversial. It's just we're not all public.
Kelli: Exactly right. Exactly right.
Julie: Exactly. Because I know I skipped over the Universal McCann, but [00:40:30] let's go to how you decided to leave Bloomberg and go to Dentsu. Then let's connect the dots with Universal McCann and your agency experience that was preceded Bloomberg and how that influenced your decision to move towards Dentsu.
Kelli: Yeah, I can quickly do that. No problem. I was just sharing before we started the podcast that I had met a wonderful leader in the industry that [00:41:00] many listeners will know named Mike Hughes, who was the creative energy of the Martin Agency for decades. Mike told me early on in my career when I was at USA Today that the agency side of the business is magical, because the goal is to find work you love with people you love. Once you find that, don't ever let that go was his advice to me. I found that at UM and at Mediabrands and at IPG. [00:41:30] I love the agency side. I went there a bit unwillingly. I've never been worked at an agency.
I had professed on many panels that I thought agencies were a barrier to my progress as a media owner, because they didn't give me the gift of time and transparency, which is what you need in order to develop your best ideas as a media owner. At the time, the CEO of UM named Matt Siler was really interested in flipping the agency model, making sure we are the best partner to media owners. So, that's why I joined UM. I loved being part of IPG. [00:42:00] It was a wonderful part of my career. It taught me a lot about our industry. I loved being on the agency side. Left and went to Bloomberg, because it was just super enticing to me. I love news organizations.
What got me back to agencies is, as I was mentioning, Mike wanted me to be the successor to his COO. I knew eventually that moment would come. I was doing work that was interesting with people I admired, which was different than work I love with people I love. [00:42:30] I went looking to go back into the agency world. I was very transparent with him that I was going to do that. He was terrific to allow me to continue to show up at Bloomberg every day and do my work there while I was considering what I would do next. I went to all the holding companies. I became intrigued with Dentsu, because it is the oldest holding company formed in 1901, but it's also the newest, the youngest, because internationally, it was not formed [00:43:00] until its acquisition of Aegis in 2012.
So, it's only eight and a half years old, nine years old, internationally. It was built through acquisition in a digital age. So, we have the capability that I would argue matters most to marketers today. We don't have these big, siloed walls between our capability because we're a group of entrepreneurs. So, we have gone through a transformation to really streamline that capability. I think it is formidable. [00:43:30] I think that we are focused on the right things for clients, on the ability to integrate services from creative to media to customer experience with data and technology at the core.
My premise... Mark Pritchard has said this, Forrester has said this, and I think they're right, that the complexity of what our CMOS and experienced officers are dealing with today... Julie, you know this firsthand. ... is how do I have fewer partners that are helping me solve much bigger, complex [00:44:00] problems? I want to be the network that can be to those who want it, one-stop shopping across all those things.
Many partners don't want one-stop shopping. But if you don't want that, whatever door you come in and whatever service I have, I want our teams to be thinking about, "What's the yes answer to that? What's the thing we can add that will make whatever we're doing even more valuable because we've got the breadth of that purview?" That we give our teams the breadth of that purview, no silos. [00:44:30] We have structures that support that. So, I think Dentsu is the most modern in how we're thinking about the future of a holding company and how we serve clients.
Julie: Well, what was the moment that you were convinced? Look, I think the story of you through listening through all of your different travails is that you love this integration. You like taking all of the different pieces and making them make sense in [00:45:00] total. So, what you're saying about this getting it all done in one place, it makes sense, because I think that's where your passion is and where you get excited about seeing the big picture versus the vertical. What was the tipping point for you? I know part of the great story about this is that when you told Mike, Bloomberg, you didn't want to stay and take on that role. He was gracious and he said, "Sure, kid, go figure out what you want to do." You took the time and [00:45:30] you're able to talk to companies, right? You chose this.
Kelli: Yeah, yeah. Actually, when I was looking, I was very focused on three things. Who had the capability that I thought was the most relevant in a modern era? Who was truly structuring to get to this notion of a single P&L? Anybody who's worked on the agency side knows how hard that is to serve a client with the complexities of P&Ls across the agency holding companies. We've all tried.
No [00:46:00] matter what network you're in, we all have different schemes in order to make that easier, but it's always challenging. So, I was looking for who had a really different view on how to fix that. And then always about the people. So, I was interviewing to determine leaders I could learn from, people I could lock arms with. You're in foxholes all the time on the agency side. So, who do you want to be in that foxhole with? I became convinced that Dentsu [00:46:30] was the best choice for me.
Julie: So, was there a holy shit moment that came upon you as you were looking at these things like, "This is what I need to do"? I say that not only just with Dentsu but in general, because agencies are getting a pretty bad rap these days. I mean, lots of big things are being brought in house. It's a little bit of gluttony for punishment. You've had all these great-
Kelli: Everybody said that to [00:47:00] me.
Julie: Yes, sign me up for more agency.
Kelli: Sign me up for that. Everybody challenged me on that, but I don't know, maybe I'm just built this way. I find that the people that are on the agency side, they are the most curious. They are incredibly talented in the breath of what they know about how consumer behavior is occurring, how it's changing, where it's going, what that means. I mean, the talent on the agency side, [00:47:30] I think, is some of the best talent in the industry. It is such a team sport. There is no team sport better than the agency side. I really love that.
The variability of what you do, it's dynamic every day. I got bit and I think that it needs to be improved. I understand all the challenges and the criticism, but that's opportunity for transformation. I felt like Dentsu had the appetite [00:48:00] and was already doing that. All I got to do was come in and help accelerate that. So, I guess, the moment for me always in any company is, "Am I learning? Am I adding value? Am I learning?" If at any point I answered no to that, then I usually have to think about leaving, because I think we're all works in progress. I always want to be challenging myself. Usually, you get to a point in a role [00:48:30] where you just realize it's time to become a beginner again.
Julie: Yeah. You can do it and still be you, because at the heart... I mean, I remember the story that you were telling me about some people get really excited when they walk, get off the train in Grand Central. You get exhausted.
Kelli: I get exhausted. Yeah. Yes, I do. [crosstalk 00:48:51] girl out of Colorado.
Julie: So, you've chosen this very madman, Fifth Avenue industry for a girl who doesn't like being in that. [00:49:00] Again, that's the benefit of, I guess, where we are. You can live in Connecticut.
Kelli: Yeah, you can.
Julie: You can find the balance. I'll wrap with this, because I think we can talk forever. Whether it's your family or leadership or takeaways personally, but have there been any... It doesn't even have to be necessarily a holy shit moment. But has there been any turning points for you? Because now that we're a week away or so from a [00:49:30] year of lockdown, in terms of clients, agents, just differences that you see personally, professionally. You take it however you want to take it. I'm just curious.
Kelli: Yeah. I'll stick with what's positively changed and then give you one that's a little bit of a watch out. So, I think that the access to people, I think, has changed. I think that the screens that we live through today has [00:50:00] made people more accessible. You can grab 10-minute meetings. I think people are just more available to connect. Part of that is because we've taken the busyness out of our day. We're not commuting. We're not traveling unnecessarily to conferences that maybe we didn't need to be at to begin with, right? So, there's all this noise that's gone away. So, there's a focus that's allowed, I think, better access.
The got you in this is I think we are hyper focused right now on the [00:50:30] well-being of our people, because I think there's a mental health crisis that's happening underneath this. There's lots that's been written on this. I think we're really concerned about how do we help make sure that we are supporting our people. I don't think that there's any consistency to how people are living through this. Our younger employees that live in small apartments with lots of roommates, this is not a great way for them to be working. For those parents who are homeschooling at the same time, God bless them. That [00:51:00] is one of the hardest things to do, right?
So, I think it's uneven on how we're all managing it. Personally though, I will say, we are proudly foster parents. We have our 25th placement with us. She's this fabulous little girl. She was six months old when we went into lockdown. I have loved being able to be at home, because my time with her would have been so limited if I was living my normal travel life. [00:51:30] So, that has been a huge silver lining. It's just the quality of family life. I mean there's certainly a lot of togetherness, but that part's been great. I have loved being home and being available to her.
Julie: Oh, that's amazing. So, this is a total miss on my part, 25 fosters? Did you say 25?
Kelli: She's my 25th. Yeah, our 25th. I say my. You're kidding me. My husband is such a partner [00:52:00] in this.
Julie: Oh, that's amazing. And then I promise we'll wrap. When did you start taking on foster children?
Kelli: We started in 2014. We got our first placement in the fall of 2014.
Julie: Twenty five in the span of six and a half, seven years?
Kelli: Yeah, there's different types of fostering. We do what is called temporary, which is up to a year. So, we are what I call the safe port in the storm as the parent [00:52:30] is trying to get healthy, right? It's poverty or neglect. There's an issue certainly, but the parents are aiming to get healthy. All of our kids have gone back to a family member or to mom or to dad. We've not had any that we have the opportunity to adopt. They've all gone back into some permanent care situation. This little one might be different. We'd love to keep her. They're all different circumstances.
Julie: Oh, that's so beautiful and amazing. I didn't know about that, but it [00:53:00] just speaks volumes about who you are and just speaks truth of what I was saying about you. You deserve every single one of those accolades. Do you keep in touch with all of those kids? Do they or do you have to separate? Is this like the cow where you sell it?
Kelli: No, no. [crosstalk 00:53:15]. It's the beauty of fostering. In fact, one of our little guys that was with us for a year, he comes back and spend a weekend with us when his aunt and uncle need a break. We love having him. So, [00:53:30] yeah, we have a few that we keep in touch with, not all of them. Some of them were babies. They won't remember us, but we'll certainly remember them. Hopefully, you give them a slightly better shot at life.
Julie: Yes. Oh, my God. I love that.
Kelli: When all this clears up, we'll get together for lunch. I'll bring little baby Nova.
Julie: Oh, my God. I would love that. I like trying to connect dots. I love twisting the story of you, whether you were fostering animals as a child [00:54:00] or as an adult, this is what you do. I love this.
Kelli: Yes, I like caregiving. [crosstalk 00:54:08].
Julie: Yeah, but you're the people person. Your watch out was about the people you're fostering. At the heart of this wildly successful businesswoman is a person focused first and foremost on the giving back into people and the fostering of people in relationships. So, it is so who you are. I'm blessed to know you. I'm just so excited that [00:54:30] you were able to be on the podcast. Thank you.
Kelli: I've enjoyed listening to you. It's a privilege to be one of them. Thank you for inviting me.
Julie: Thank you.