People First, AI Second — with Catherine Rushton

Episode Overview:

Nathan Guerra and Emmalee Crellin are back to dive into the intersection of human intuition and machine learning. In this episode, they sit down with Catherine Rushton (affectionately known as "Crush"), the Chief Strategy Officer and Partner at ⁠This is Flow⁠ [https://www.thisisflow.com.au/]. Crush shares how her agency uses AI to empower their team and why she believes human intuition remains the ultimate competitive advantage.

The TL;DR

 * The AI Breakup: Both Em and Crush discuss their recent "divorces" from ChatGPT in favour of Claude, citing better tone and writing capabilities — though they note Claude's high token consumption.
 * The "Happy People Project": Rather than a technology-first approach, This is Flow uses a people-first philosophy. They empower junior staff to audit their own workflows and identify "unhappy" manual tasks for AI automation — speeding up the menial so humans can slow down on what matters.

About Our Guest

Catherine Rushton is an award-winning strategist with over 15 years of experience driving high-impact communications for global brands like Dove, Chanel, and Volvo. Now a partner at This is Flow, she focuses on building elite, high-performing teams that can outperform algorithms by leveraging human intuition.

📚 Resources & Links from this Episode

 * Crush's Prompting Tip: "Outsource" your prompting by asking the AI itself to write the best prompt based on your verbalised thoughts. Take your AI for a walk!
 * Speech vs. Typing Efficiency: A Stanford University study found that speech recognition is over 3x faster than typing on mobile keyboards for English users. Level up your dictation game with Wispr Flow:⁠ https://wisprflow.ai/⁠ [https://wisprflow.ai/]
 * Switching to Claude?: Divorcing ChatGPT and flirting with Claude? Import your context and memory from other LLMs here:⁠ https://claude.com/import-memory⁠ [https://claude.com/import-memory]

🎧 Enjoying Mind the Model?

If you liked this episode, follow, rate, and share Mind the Model with your fellow AI-curious friends.  It really helps us grow and keep these conversations going!

💌 Got thoughts or ideas for future episodes?

We'd love to hear from you!

Drop us a message at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com. Your questions and suggestions help shape the conversations we have on the show.

Mind the Model: Ep 012 Catherine Rushton

Hosts: Nathan Guerra & Emmalee Crellin

Guest: Pip Bingemann, Co-Founder and CEO of Springboards.ai

Hosts Nate and Em welcome Pip Bingemann, CEO of Springboards, a company he co-founded with his wife, Amy Tucker, after a 2022 layoff. Initially built to address agency "pitching problems," Springboards evolved with the addition of co-founder Kieran Brown. The company uses AI as an inspiration tool, baking in variation to "inspire the most interesting idea" rather than giving the "most likely answer."

The Meat & Potatoes:

 * Springboards: AI as an Inspiration Engine: The core mission is to inject variation into AI, shifting its role from an "answer generator" to a tool that inspires original ideas, countering the homogeneity of models like ChatGPT.
 * The Future of Agency Billing: Pip advocates moving away from head-hour billing to value- or outcome-based models. The current system misaligns incentives in an AI-accelerated world, with pressure for change possibly coming from traditional sectors like law and finance.
 * Creativity as Pattern-Breaking: Pip defines creativity as "breaking patterns." He questions the capacity of pattern-following AI models to genuinely achieve radical, unpredictable creative input, necessitating architectural changes.

Quote of the Week

"The idea of billing for time in a world of AI doesn't make any sense.” - Pip Bingemann

Mentioned Links & Resources:

 * Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads that takes aim at OpenAI - https://www.thedrum.com/news/claude-s-first-super-bowl-campaign-asks-if-ads-belong-in-ai
 * Springboard’s recent ad that mimics/mocks OpenAI - https://www.bandt.com.au/stop-outsourcing-creativity-to-machines-springboards-highlights-the-peril-of-ai-produced-ads-with-parody-spot/
 * Check out the work of Springboards here - https://springboards.ai/ and their monthly newsletter Sparks - https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7393517069868228608/
 * Mind the Model: Got questions? Email the show at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com
 * Reach out to Pip via his LinkedIn if you’re interested in beta testing their latest version: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pipbingemann/

Mind the Model: Episode 011: Pip Bingemann

Hosts: Nathan Guerra & Emmalee Crellin

Guest: Kiri Masters (Retail Media Breakfast)

Retail media is booming, but are AI shopping bots about to disrupt the entire ecosystem? We brought in the big guns. Kiri Masters is the host of Retail Media Breakfast Club, a daily podcast and newsletter that provides sharp, actionable insights into the fast-evolving retail media landscape. Informed by a decade in the industry, she built the award winning agency Bobsled Marketing before its acquisition in 2022. She writes regular columns for Forbes, The Drum, and WARC, and has been named a Top Retail Expert by RETHINK Retail for four consecutive years.

She drops in fresh from the NRF Big Show in New York City to break down the future of retail media, "agentic shopping," and exactly how brands need to adapt.

Quote of the Week:

"Look at this agentic pathway as a new surface to reach customers."

Mentioned Links & Resources:

 * Check out the current state of AI and frontier model intelligence over time here: https://artificialanalysis.ai/trends#frontier-language-model-intelligence-over-time
 * Google’s recent release for UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol):
 * https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/agentic-commerce-ai-tools-protocol-retailers-platforms/

Find Kiri at:

https://www.retailmediabreakfastclub.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiri-masters/

Mind the Model: Got questions or feedback? Email the show at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com

Mind the Model: Episode 010: Kiri Masters

Season 2, Episode2

Hosts: Nathan Guerra & Emmalee Crellin

Guest: Martin Bertilsson (Founder of AIMSOO)

Is the AI bubble about to burst? Maybe, but it’s not 1999 all over again. In this episode, Nathan and Emmalee sit down with Martin, ex-Google veteran turned AI founder..

From the "devastation" of traditional creative work to the rise of the "AI Butler" who gatekeeps your customers, Martin lays out a future where Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) eats SEO for breakfast. If you aren't optimizing your data for the machines, you’re basically invisible.

The Meat & Potatoes:

 * RIP, SEO. Hello, GEO: Forget clicks. It’s about verifying your data so AI models (the new gatekeepers) trust you enough to serve your answer.
 * The "Butler" Effect: Marketing is no longer about convincing a human; it’s about convincing the AI assistant that summarizes the world for them.
 * Ad-pocalypse Now: Think AI is free forever? Think again. Martin predicts 2026-2027 will be the "golden years" for advertising as ads inevitably flood AI interfaces.

Quote of the Week:

"You must treat AI the way you treat death" — Martin

Mentioned Links & Resources:

 * AMSO: Martin’s startup solving the discovery problem for small businesses. Check out AIMSOO.ai [http://aimsoo.ai/]
 * Check out Martin’s LinkedIn Newsletter: Feed the Machine: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/feed-the-machine-7343126532489388032/
 * Mind the Model: Got questions? Email the show at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com

Mind the Model: Episode 009: Martin Bertilsson

Mind the Model is back, after our Australian Summer break.

This week we’re talking to Adam Goodman.  Adam is the Director of AI in Advertising APAC for Microsoft Advertising, where he is responsible for helping launch new and future advertising experiences.

We caught up with Adam right before Christmas and had a wide ranging discussion.

If you’re after his prompting secret sauce it’s: Context, Outcome, Tone

Get in touch with Adam here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/angoodman/



More info about Microsoft AI:

https://microsoft.ai/

https://copilot.microsoft.com/

https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en

Mind the Model: Episode 008: Adam Goodman

📚 Resources & Links from this Episode

Book Natalia recommended

 * The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
   Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Creative-Act-Way-Being/dp/1838858660
   
   

Follow Natalia & the Creative Brain Club

 * Creative Brain Club on Substack: https://creativebrainclub.substack.com/
   
   

Connect with Natalia

 * Email: hello@natalkadesign.com
 * Website: https://www.natalkadesign.com/
 * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliatalkowska/

🎧 Enjoying Mind the Model?

If you liked this episode, follow, rate, and share Mind the Model with your fellow AI-curious friends — it really helps us grow and keep these conversations going!

💌 Got thoughts or ideas for future episodes?

We’d love to hear from you!
Drop us a message at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com — your questions and suggestions help shape the conversations we have on the show.

Mind the Model: Episode 007: Natalia Talkowska

Show Notes

Sir Martin Sorrell on the future of advertising with AI
Insightful commentary on how artificial intelligence is reshaping creative work, media efficiency, and the structure of modern agencies. Read more: https://www.mediaweek.com.au/sxsw-sydney-five-ways-ai-is-redefining-advertising-according-to-sir-martin-sorrell/



IAB Australia
A valuable source of industry standards, research, and learning materials for advertising and digital media professionals.
Explore their work: https://iabaustralia.com.au/
Access the AI resource guide curated by the AI Working Group: https://iabaustralia.com.au/resource/ai-unlocked-a-resources-learning-guide-for-the-ad-industry/

🎧 Enjoying the show?
If you liked this episode, follow, rate, and share Mind the Model with your fellow AI-curious friends — it really helps us grow!

💬 We’d love to hear from you!
Got thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Drop us a message at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com. Your suggestions help shape the conversations we have on the show.

Mind the Model: Episode 006: Gai Le Roy 

In this special episode, Nate and Em talk all things SXSW Sydney - no guests, just their POV on the event and what they learned about AI.

Special mentions:
Ethan Mollick blog post: An Opinionated Guide to Using AI Right Now: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/an-opinionated-guide-to-using-ai

Ethan Mollick’s Book is called: Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI

You can find him on X @ https://x.com/emollick [https://x.com/emollick?lang=en]

His substack is great: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/

Note: Open AI have since changed their corporate structure, converting its main business into a for-profit corporation, run by a non-profit.  Yeah it seems to make little sense to us (or many other people out there).

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/28/openai-for-profit-restructuring

🎧 Enjoying the show?
If you liked this episode, follow, rate, and share Mind the Model with your fellow AI-curious friends — it really helps us grow!

💬 We’d love to hear from you!
Got thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Drop us a message at mindthemodelpod@gmail.com. Your suggestions help shape the conversations we have on the show.

Mind the Model: Episode 005: SXSW Recap (Extra)

This week we're featuring our first live episode recorded live at SXSW Sydney in collaboration with Paul Blackburn, Chief Growth Officer at Vudoo, and one of the co-hosts of Commerce Media Matters.

Be sure to check out…

 * Their podcast: https://vudoo.com/commerce-media-matters-podcast/
 * Paul’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulblackburn/

Mind the Model: Episode 004: Paul Blackburn

Louise Cummins is an award-winning marketing and digital transformation leader.  She ranked in Australia’s Top 50 CMOs. She’s the founder of the Australian Centre for AI in Marketing as well as the founder of AI-Ready Consulting, helping organisations adopt AI with intelligence, ethics, and humanity.

She’s held senior leadership roles at World Vision, H&R Block, and Align Technology.  She’s also a published author, keynote speaker, and a passionate advocate for resilience and reinvention.

Australian Centre for AI in Marketing: https://www.acam.ai/

Mind the Model: Episode 003: Louise Cummins

Buckle up! "Mind the Model: The Modern Marketer's Guide to AI" is here to cut through the BS and provide insight into how advertising and marketing teams are really using AI. Join Emmalee Crellin and Nathan Guerra, two seasoned advertising pros based in sunny Sydney, as they empower you to confidently integrate AI into your daily work.

Each episode, Em and Nate, along with a special guest—from CMOs and agency leaders to consultants and "aifluencers"—will demystify what's happening in AI. You'll get practical, real-world applications and specific "how-to" insights to immediately start using AI in your work, understanding their concerns, wins, failures, and top tips. We translate the complex world of AI into immediate, day-to-day applications, helping you confidently get started and 'do more' with AI, regardless of your current expertise.

Learn in an engaging and accessible format, exploring how to use AI to get better at your job, and confidently accelerate your journey with it. Send your questions or ideas for future guests to mindthemodelpod@gmail.com.

Emmalee Crellin

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