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OhHello - Scott Hess (Part 3)
32 Plays1 year ago
💬 Embrace Authenticity and Break Conventions! 💬
In a candid interview, during Volume 3 (of OhHello.io 🌞☕️'s 3 part series) w/ Scott Hess, the CMO of Publicis Media and advertising icon, shares a pivotal moment when he defied norms, wearing a Rancid t-shirt at a leadership retreat. A bold move that marked the beginning of embracing his true self.
🌐 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Shift in Perspective 🌐
Following George Floyd's tragic death, Hess reflects on the industry's awakening. His key takeaway? Approach DEI with genuine love and empathy. Love becomes a superpower in fostering connections and breaking down barriers.
🔥 Love as a Catalyst for Positive Change 🔥
Hess advocates for leading with love, not just for colleagues but for all fellow human beings. Love opens windows, making it hard to go wrong in DEI efforts. It's time to turn talk into a powerful walk!
🙌 Scott Hess, a beacon of authenticity, shares insights on personal growth, DEI, and the transformative power of hashtag#mentorship hashtag#selfawareness hashtag#selfimprovement
To wrap-up this amazing series, let's all make waves in the industry, by breaking norms, and fostering genuine connections. 🌊 hashtag#Authenticity hashtag#DEI hashtag#Leadership hashtag#careerdevelopment hashtag#BreakTheNorms hashtag#authenticself
What were some of the best nuggets that you got out of this series?!?! Please let us know!
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Transcript
Introduction and Scope of Authenticity
00:00:01
Speaker
Throughout your experience, throughout your career, at what point did you realize that it was okay to unleash being your authentic self? At what point? How understanding that when this errors are going to be 57, I'm 42, nearly 43.
00:00:19
Speaker
And our listeners and our viewers are anywhere between college age, too. I've gotten texts and DMs from people in their 60s and 70s that listen and watch this. So there's a big span.
Humor and Authenticity Challenges
00:00:31
Speaker
And when people look to a Scott Hess, a Jeremy Bloom, I say my name in jest, I'm teasing when I say that, but for everybody else in this ecosystem,
00:00:42
Speaker
I'm not really I'm really not saying my name in jest. I was but yeah, come on own it. Yeah, I will own it. Actually. I was trying to be tongue and cheek, but it was a really shitty version. So at what point I'll be more succinct with this question. At what point did you realize like, huh? This is okay. This is who I am. Because it's a constant evolution. But there's got to be like a precipice or something a catalyst to help you understand that it was okay.
00:01:11
Speaker
So first, I'll give you an answer that you may not love, which is that, because I'd talk to people from when I was younger, people I worked with or people I went to high school with or swam on the swim team with, and I'll be like, I just had this realization
Cycles of Authenticity
00:01:23
Speaker
about myself. And they'll be like, well, that's who you were then. Look, I think most of us have kernels of sauce and authenticity all the time. Like when I was, I would have days in college where I was the guy I thought, I was at my unvarnished authentic self.
00:01:40
Speaker
but then I would go back into submerging and questioning and all that stuff. So to me, more of what's happened is that the cycle times between feeling comfortable in my skin and feeling miserable, the feeling comfortable have gotten longer and the miserable have gotten shorter. And I distrust, I distrust when I feel invincible, but I also distrust when I feel horrible.
Pivotal Moment: Unconventional Attire
00:02:04
Speaker
And I've recognized that those two things, my sense of being,
00:02:09
Speaker
I don't know what's the, what's the like, like not good enough or the greatest thing ever that both of those are kind of false and I distrust them, but they're part of, they're part of what everybody does. If you want a precipice moment, one leaps out, but it's, it's just one.
00:02:26
Speaker
I was at a youth research company, which was a great place for me to discover that I had some talents that made me unique, where I really couldn't ignore the fact that I was succeeding. And we had a, it was a little company with a leadership retreat. And the leaders of the company were obviously older people, and they were a little more serious and stuff. And we were at a place like in Lake Forest, some like writer's retreat, kind of like,
00:02:51
Speaker
in a place where it would have been appropriate to have a blazer with patches on the elbows. And I wore my long sleeve rancid t-shirt and I wore my black Vans. Now, you know, it isn't the rancid t-shirt or the black Vans, but it was like this kind of, those are kind of a cliche, right? But what it was, was I was like,
00:03:15
Speaker
I'm not doing the thing I'm supposed to do, and I'm going to see what impact that has. And the reality was that after one of my colleagues made an off-handed comment, I was able to work and do what I wanted. I cringe a little thinking about how hard I tried to show up in a rancid t-shirt with black hands on. But it was the time where I was like, I'm not going to do it.
00:03:38
Speaker
I grew up with a mom who we had to wear a collared shirt to school. And so my brothers and I learned to put our band t-shirts or whatever our Reverend t-shirts were in our gym bag and we'd go to the gym and change and then come back at the end of school and change back out. And it was almost a symbolic moment where I decided that I was going to just wear the t-shirt to school and see what happened and my mom would have to live with it.
00:04:00
Speaker
Obviously, at this stage of my life, my mom no longer gave a shit and she would laugh at this, but I had to get to the point where I was comfortable asserting who I was, even if I got it wrong. And so that meeting was a moment where just because I broke the clothing conventions, I don't think I did anything special, but I do think it was the first time I had some real courage to break loose. Yeah, so I don't know if that's what you're looking for, but... This is about you. This is about...
00:04:29
Speaker
dropping knowledge nuggets to those that are watching and we're listening. What else? What else goes through your head?
Democratizing Mentorship and DEI
00:04:38
Speaker
When you think about what the Oh, hello community is building, when you think about the mission that I'm after to democratize access to mentorship,
00:04:55
Speaker
and to be able to have that altruistic feeling of being able to give back for the mentors, because it is a paid mentorship program, to be able to say, hey, you know what? I wanna be able to give back to 40, 50, 60 different charities. These are the causes that are near and dear to my heart. When you think about just access, you think about diversity, you think about equity, inclusion, you think about just our ecosystem of being an advertising marketing media, how we are usually,
00:05:24
Speaker
on one side of the table when it comes to change, but we also talk a lot about making change. Many of us do. And the talk is sometimes a lot more robust than the actual walk. So maybe if you could just go a little deeper on just those topics before we end the session.
Love and Empathy in DEI
00:05:46
Speaker
You know, like all the agencies, publicists,
00:05:51
Speaker
probably the summer that George Floyd was killed was, for me, the moment where I felt like my employer and many other employers were like, I guess maybe diversity isn't just about how many people we hire of color and how good of a job we do with Black History Month, like maybe. And there was a moment
00:06:15
Speaker
So there was a lot of like gnashing of teeth and soul searching and a lot of like white people like me being wildly guilty and making sure that everybody knew how horrified we were by all the things that people before us had done and that we had somehow unwittingly perpetuated and all that kind of stuff. And I'm lucky enough to have black colleagues that are friends of mine
00:06:36
Speaker
who were pretty frank and fairly merciless like blah blah blah great we're sorry that you feel guilty but let's not make it about your pain and you're like yeah so I was like oh shit you know and it was like I was like well that's mean and I was like oh it's also truthful so thank you for that
00:06:52
Speaker
But I watched, and I'm like, I don't know what to do. I'm like, I don't think I'm going to say the wrong thing, because I've been reading about this for a long time. And I know my heart is true. But but it's still, you're still, there's a weightlessness to to trying to talk as an old white guy about what what diversity, equity, inclusion means.
00:07:12
Speaker
And I had some fear because what I heard from my employer was, everybody can speak their heart now. And I was like, oh shit, I thought we weren't supposed to talk about this stuff at work. Now I can speak my heart. I think my heart's okay. I watched a video. It was a college coach, a college basketball coach who was white, had asked a dear friend of his who was a college coach who was black,
00:07:34
Speaker
How do I address all this social unrest and the killing of George Floyd with my players in a way that I can connect and they'll see that my heart is pure. And the coach said, the black coach said to the white coach, do you love them? Do you love them? And white coaches like, do you love them? Do you love them? Not for you to love them in your heart. And if you do,
00:08:02
Speaker
I choke up when I says every fucking time. If you love them, they'll know it and nothing you can say is wrong. And if you don't, they'll know that and there's nothing you can say that will be right. And so my thing has been when I'm in these situations as a leader, and people are asking me in the abstract to consider my colleagues
00:08:26
Speaker
I think, I think of the people that I love. You know some of the people that I love. And I think, I don't just think of them, I think about their family and their community and their heritage. And I think about it from place of love. And then I don't think I can screw up. I think it's a superpower when it comes to DE&I is if you have love in your heart,
00:08:45
Speaker
It's the same way I feel about, it isn't just about my black colleagues. It's like a window that you crack open and then once it gets open, it goes all the way open. And if you can show up with love for your fellow human beings, it's very hard to screw up.
00:09:04
Speaker
Really well said. I personally loved that and hearing the story because it is such a topic as we talked about several minutes ago that people
00:09:22
Speaker
the talk versus the
Empathy and Fulfillment in Relationships
00:09:23
Speaker
walk. But I think when you hear about a scenario where you can just be empathetic and relate to people that you love, people that you care about, being able to look them in the eye, being able to listen, being able to touch, being able to appreciate elements that are different and be like, holy shit, that's what life is about. It really opens up and kicks down barriers. Thank you for sharing that. That was really insightful and helpful.
00:09:50
Speaker
Scott, this has been awesome. I don't want to drag this on. I know that you've got a meeting that you have to jump to in several minutes. I value you. How do I go to a media meeting after we do the love talk? You take off the black shirt, you go put on your band t shirt.
00:10:09
Speaker
You take a few deep breaths. After each one of these, that's typically what I do. It's hard to go check your email immediately. It's hard to return a call immediately. I usually stop recording these and I just sit there for a minute and I'm like, huh, that was awesome. Or, wow, I should have helped this person do X, Y, and Z. And I hope that this was therapeutic and cathartic and helpful for you as I'm sure it was or will be for those listening, for those watching.
Gratitude and Closing Remarks
00:10:39
Speaker
I appreciate you, Scott. I appreciate our friendship. It's been so nice reconnecting with you again. Thank you for taking so much time out of your day to help with ohello.io, with the ohello community and the platform that we're building. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you, my friend. Nice to talk to you. Good luck. You too. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Catch you soon.