00:00:00:05 – 00:00:19:09
Unknown
So three hours down the road, I called him back and I said, hey, Larry, I’m not sure I can do this. I don’t know that I can do this to you. I said, I don’t know that I deserve this. I don’t know that that I, I want you to take a risk on me. He turned his car around.

00:00:19:11 – 00:00:48:00
Unknown
Drove back to Nashville. Wow. To sit in a parking lot with me and tell me. On Creative Assembly’s The Spark podcast, our mission is to amplify Nashville’s diverse creative voices, foster growth through shared journeys, and inspire a city that thrives on collaboration. And now, here’s the spark. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to The Spark. I’m your host, Marc Scrivener, and today I’m joined by a very special guest.

00:00:48:00 – 00:01:19:00
Unknown
I’m really, really excited about this episode for many different reasons. But I want to welcome to the show Robert Frosch. He’s the chief creative officer at Louis Communications and doing some very, very meaningful work in the community. Robert, I remember maybe about six or 7 or 8 years ago, we went to an award show and I was like, Louis Communications won every.

00:01:19:01 – 00:01:37:10
Unknown
I think you won almost every award that that night. And, you know, then I got to got to know of Louis communication through that and know of your work, and you’ve just done some amazing stuff along the way. And so really excited to have you on the show and hear a little bit about your journey and the story.

00:01:37:10 – 00:02:04:03
Unknown
So welcome. Thank you very much. I’m glad to be here and this special place you and I talked about it. It’s fun to to come to this space in a in a different way than when I was here before. Yeah. I don’t know if you want me to talk. Yeah. That’s definitely I think, you know, that’s why this is such a special episode, is even when I invited you, you had no idea that we were in the place.

00:02:04:03 – 00:02:24:02
Unknown
You went to church for your whole life. And so that was, you know, we were lucky enough to preserve it and turn it into our workspace. So that’s it’s going to be a great episode, man. You guys did such an amazing job with this building. That meant so much to a lot of people for a long period of time.

00:02:24:05 – 00:02:47:04
Unknown
Highly thought of church. The pastor was really well known and very charismatic and just a beautiful soul, great great guy and close family friend. And yeah, my mom was the secretary here. So I spent, as I told you, you know, I spent a lot of time in this building all days of the week, not just Sunday, you know.

00:02:47:06 – 00:03:11:12
Unknown
And so it, it it brings back so many good, good memories that. Yeah, I’m thankful to be able to come back in this capacity. You know, in the early days when we moved over here, it was funny because I would invite our clients over to the church, and one day my wife was like, Mark, I don’t think that the clients understand that we’re actually in a church.

00:03:11:12 – 00:03:43:17
Unknown
So when you say that, you know what it is, but they don’t. But yeah, it’s different looking and it’s different feeling. And you’ve done so many amazing things with it. And then, then the part of me that remembers that exterior front boy, when I drove up and sat in the parking lot, you know, I got here a little bit early because I thought this will be a little bit emotional for me, you know, showing up to a place that was such a big part of my life and where I was baptized and gave my life to Christ.

00:03:43:17 – 00:04:06:01
Unknown
And yeah, it was emotional sitting out in the parking lot before I came in. But I can’t thank you enough for being able to come here and be a part of this. Yeah, well, I’m glad that you approve of everything we’ve done as the other elders have, and so. Well, maybe just to kick us off, Robert. I mean, you’re the point 5% of people that actually grew up in Nashville.

00:04:06:07 – 00:04:31:26
Unknown
And so maybe take us back to your, like, a journey of what? What got you in the creative in the first place? I’m going to give you a couple of really interesting answers. If I go back to where it started, my grandfather was a very, very accent guy over in eastern Kentucky. He was a photographer. He sold Indian motorcycles.

00:04:31:26 – 00:04:58:27
Unknown
He had the general store. And he could he he could do optometry or he could, he could sell glasses, but he didn’t consider himself an optometrist. And so that eccentric creative personality, my mom always told me that I got that from from my grandfather. But man, from a young age, I always drew pictures. I was always interested in art.

00:04:58:29 – 00:05:25:19
Unknown
In high school, I took drafting, which gave me a really good framework for how to design. It taught me grids, you know, drafting was grid based and it taught me how to letter correctly. So I had a good start there. The funniest part of it is I got asked by the teacher when one day at school he said, do you want to be a part of a poster contest?

00:05:25:20 – 00:05:50:09
Unknown
As a representative for Stratford High School, which is right down the street? And I said, sure, I’ll do it. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I show up that weekend. We traveled to the show and it opened my eyes to what art could be, that it could be posters and brochures and design and things that were kind of new to me.

00:05:50:12 – 00:06:19:05
Unknown
So that’s really where it started. And then in college, I didn’t have the creative circus, you know, the the high level advertising background, education that a lot of people have. I went to Austin Peay Fine Arts degree. You were taught design, graphic design, but I knew that I was not completely equipped to do this job, you know?

00:06:19:09 – 00:06:51:11
Unknown
But I knew I loved it at that point. Robert, coming out of college, did you your first job in an agency and then did you know, like at that point, I want to ultimately become a chief creative officer of an agency or what? Tell us that journey. And and, you know, I’ll be vulnerable here in the center. I knew I wanted to make or get a job in this industry and in design at first, specifically design.

00:06:51:13 – 00:07:12:14
Unknown
I want to be able to pay my bills. You know, I came from a fairly middle class, lower class income home. And so money was something that was on my mind. You know, I was like, hey, I’ve got to make a living doing this. So I wanted to find a design job and one where I could learn, truly learn the craft.

00:07:12:15 – 00:07:37:17
Unknown
I gone to school, I got the degree, but I didn’t feel like I was totally prepared for the industry. And image design was a small design firm on 16th Avenue down on Music Row, and they graciously gave me a job, even though I don’t feel like I was probably qualified for it. And I’ll tell you where the tough thing to admit comes from.

00:07:37:23 – 00:08:07:09
Unknown
Or, you know, it enters into this is I did the best I could. I was a sponge. I learned everything that I could, but I knew I had to catch up. So sometimes at night I would find the project briefs and I would work on them at night on my own. Wow. To try to teach myself and to try to get better, to try to do what the other people in the agency were doing because I knew I needed to get better.

00:08:07:09 – 00:08:48:09
Unknown
And so I would spend 5:00 in the afternoon to 12:00 at night, 1:00 in the morning, working to improve myself. Yeah. What I guess over the years, like, has there been something early on that maybe changed the way that you think about creative and problem solving today? Yeah. Design was something that I did not completely understand. From the conceptual side of it, I understood the embellishment side of it, how to make things look beautiful, how to arrange things on a page, how to make things look pretty.

00:08:48:09 – 00:09:14:27
Unknown
And what I lacked was I didn’t understand the conceptual side of it, the meaning part of it, the real meat, how you connect to people with a concept. And so one thing that was really interesting is as I got better in design, I started to see agency work that was conceptual, but yet with design principles and just beautifully done.

00:09:14:27 – 00:09:38:01
Unknown
It was the perfect mix and that I was just enamored with that. I was like, oh, this is the cool looking stuff, but there’s meat there. It means something. There’s something for me to understand in a story. And so that was really how I got I became aware of of Louis communications, really. And so how long now have you been with Louis?

00:09:38:06 – 00:09:59:10
Unknown
I have been at Louis 32 years, 32 years. And I mean, that says a lot because people, you know, don’t necessarily stay with jobs like like you have, but it’s got you to a point where, you know, you’re the huge part of a big, big agency knowing you have the office here in Nashville and Birmingham and then mobile.

00:09:59:10 – 00:10:23:25
Unknown
And so, you know, and I guess you’re leading all the creative teams across all the offices, too. Yep. That’s that’s been tough to get used to going from the creative side to being on the leader side, I, I always struggled with that imposter syndrome that we, that we talked about earlier. And so you always feel like, well, there’s somebody else better to do that.

00:10:23:26 – 00:10:51:23
Unknown
You know, I’m probably not qualified for that. In fact, I’ll tell you a quick story if it’s okay. Yeah. About how the the my employment with Louis started. I met Spencer Till and Larry Norris, who were running the Louis office out of Birmingham and met him through Gary Brandon, a creative here in town at the time. He was a writer and now he’s a strategist.

00:10:51:26 – 00:11:20:17
Unknown
And we got connected. They said, well, let’s talk. And one thing led to another, and Larry offered me a job when he was up here for a Vanderbilt University shoot. And so I was ecstatic and scared to death. Those old fears came back to haunt me. And Larry was driving back to Birmingham and was almost back to Birmingham.

00:11:20:20 – 00:11:45:06
Unknown
So three hours down the road, I called him back and I said, hey Larry, I’m not sure I can do this. I don’t know that I can do this to you. I said, I don’t know that I deserve this. I don’t know that that I, I want you to take a risk on me. He turned his car around and drove back to Nashville.

00:11:45:08 – 00:12:17:27
Unknown
Wow. To sit in a parking lot with me and tell me, hey, I believe in you. I know you can do this. I want you here and it’ll be on me if it doesn’t work out. And, you know, people jump around in this career all the time, and I understand why. But the reason I stayed was partly because of Larry Norris and what he did for me, you know, to to give me that job.

00:12:17:28 – 00:12:42:26
Unknown
And also because Louis was a place where you could grow and continue your career path and you didn’t have to go somewhere else. So I just stayed because one, I loved the people and what they stood for. And two, I loved what I was able to do all of those years, whether it was the starting as a graphic designer or moving into leadership.

00:12:42:27 – 00:13:09:12
Unknown
Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, the trick in any business is hiring people more talented than you and managing them because they make you look so much better. And I would say today, there probably are creatives in the shop that are more talented than you are absolutely across the board. But it just it just continues to elevate you and your leadership there.

00:13:09:12 – 00:13:37:03
Unknown
And so, you know, that’s a great story though of, you know, just how somebody made you feel. And it’s like those little things that people can do to build that trust. You know, where you just, you know, you remember that story, you tell that story. And I know you shared another one before we started rolling about, you know, when you were winning all the wards at, you know, the AD Federation show.

00:13:37:03 – 00:14:07:04
Unknown
And, and you mentioned David Bohan walking up after and love to hear it maybe. Yeah. You know, Blind Squirrel finds a nut. Right. So I was doing some work that was getting some recognition at one point, and we had some really high profile clients at that time too. I was working on HGTV or in the early heyday, so it was a good opportunity and a good synergy to be able to accomplish some good things with the work.

00:14:07:04 – 00:14:47:10
Unknown
And I got I won Art director of the year in the National AD AD Federation, Addy Awards, and one of the first people to come up to me was David Bowen. Wow. And I he does not know how much that meant to me, but I still think about it today. What? Just him recognizing who I was. Thanking me for caring about creative, being a craftsman, working hard at good work, and him saying, hey, you know, I’m glad you’re here in town and congratulations.

00:14:47:11 – 00:15:06:10
Unknown
Wow. They just meant it meant the world. Yeah, well, David’s been a guest on here, and I hope he hears this because he deserves it. He’s done that for so many people. And it’s those little things that he’s done that has just made him an icon in this business. And just like you are, too. But what do you.

00:15:06:12 – 00:15:28:20
Unknown
I mean, like, literally the night that we went, I don’t know how many, but I would think it would have taken a wheelbarrow to roll out all the addy’s and awards you won that night. But what do you think like separates the good creative from like really like great, truly inspiring. Like creative stuff that you guys do today?

00:15:28:21 – 00:16:05:19
Unknown
Yeah. I think it’s a it’s a few things I think, you know, craft plays a role in it. If, if an idea is crafted that much more, it gets recognized that much more. I think that’s always been the case. And I hope, you know, with I hope craft doesn’t go away completely, but I would say recognizing the gap between communicating an idea and the consumer, understanding that idea is the magic spot.

00:16:05:21 – 00:16:29:19
Unknown
You don’t want to tell too much. You don’t want to give away too much. You want to give them just enough to meet you in the middle and to go ahead. And for me, that has been kind of the the magic thing is you find that really narrow gap where you are telling the consumer something, but giving them just enough room to meet you in the middle.

00:16:29:21 – 00:16:53:28
Unknown
It’d be like telling the joke, and then the person telling the joke gives away the punchline before you have a chance to think about it. You know, like, I really wanted to get that, you know? Yeah. So were you leaned into it a little bit with with AI. And I know, you know, we first met at Belmont University doing a presentation on AI in the creative space in the agency world.

00:16:53:28 – 00:17:24:25
Unknown
And, and I was like, blown away by your presentation and the stuff you guys were doing. I thought we were way ahead with AI. And, you know, to see everything you all were doing was just so impressive. And to hear that and and not necessarily that it’ll ever replace the creatives, but you used it as a way to really like, streamline a process or show a client what could be before you have to go out and spend a lot of time and energy.

00:17:24:25 – 00:17:50:24
Unknown
And the client may not want to go down that path and maybe just talk a little bit about how you guys are continuing to leverage AI to continue to do great work. You know, I think I’m lucky. We’re lucky in that we have a lot of people that are embracing it and not pushing it away. I think it’s too easy for for creatives to look at it and say, I really don’t want that in my life.

00:17:50:25 – 00:18:10:18
Unknown
I don’t believe in that, or I think that’s wrong. And, you know, it’s been that way with a lot of changes in our business all through the years. Computers did the exact same thing. I was there when when computers were introduced, and you had the people that were used to working on t squares and boards say the exact same thing.

00:18:10:20 – 00:18:38:24
Unknown
So I think we’ve got a lot of people that embrace it. There’s a lot of curiosity, and we’ve told people at Lewis, AI is not going to replace you not learning AI, because I think it is a much more efficient way for for doing some things, not everything, but some things. So embrace it where it makes sense, use it where we can, but don’t force it.

00:18:38:25 – 00:19:07:20
Unknown
Like this is still about people. I think it’s still about ideas. I think it always will be. I think the alarmist have have kind of scared a lot of people into thinking it’s, it’s the big bad thing that it’s not. If you here’s another thing. If you look back at artists, fine artist all through history, they all looked at others before them and learned from them.

00:19:07:23 – 00:19:34:23
Unknown
AI is doing the same thing. AI is looking at things all over, and it is coming together with some of the vision that you helped create to help you further your idea. Like, I don’t see how you can be disingenuous and say, well, I don’t want inspiration from the machine, when all through history we’ve had inspiration from artists, other artists and other creatives.

00:19:34:25 – 00:19:58:13
Unknown
So that’s the way I look at it. Yeah. And I guess them seeing your team, seeing you embrace it and like, explore with it and probably makes a big impact on, hey, it’s it’s okay to start learning some of this stuff and see what works, what doesn’t, because it’s definitely not perfect. It’s not a it’s a lot of trial and error.

00:19:58:15 – 00:20:26:02
Unknown
The programs change constantly, platforms change constantly. I would say the biggest issue that that we face right now is how do you systematize the whole agency with with AI? Episodic use is great. And we even had an advisor come in a few weeks ago and talked to us about it, and we asked the question, we were like, well, how how do we systematize this?

00:20:26:02 – 00:20:52:21
Unknown
How do we establish a protocol, make it much more efficient? And they even admitted, they said with it changing daily, it’s hard to say tomorrow is going to be the way that you did it today. So they said the way we recommend you do this is you experiment with the programs. As they evolve, you get rid of the ones that aren’t working for you and you continue that evolution.

00:20:52:27 – 00:21:15:04
Unknown
Aggregators, I think, are going to be big in the future. You know, you look at like weaving and Figma just recently, I think the aggregation system is going to be the way it goes. Yeah. And the automation system to it’s like open claw. But now Claude Code comes out and they are Claude coworker now it does the same thing.

00:21:15:04 – 00:21:43:10
Unknown
So now there’s going to be a lot of efficiencies that happen. But you’re right, it changes all the time. Some some do a better job of certain tasks than others. And that’s from a creative standpoint. From the creative department standpoint, that is the toughest thing for us to wrestle with, is that one thing might be best for a photo for this, but it might not be best for a photo for another client or a situation.

00:21:43:10 – 00:22:07:17
Unknown
Or this might be better for video. This doesn’t quite work. So you are you are really wrestling with 30 to 40 different AI tools, is there? That’s interesting. And I’m sure the audience would love to hear is is there like 3 or 4 that you go, we’ve tested these. We use these. They’re pretty regular in what we’re doing from a like just a creative standpoint.

00:22:07:18 – 00:22:37:25
Unknown
Yeah. It’s it’s some of the ones that, that most people are familiar with. Midjourney is is a big one. We used Sora before. Sora, you know, went under like the Sora was the one that we were using a lot ChatGPT and Claude and and all of the Adobe products are staples. We are constantly using them. And then there are other things that are brought in when necessary, you know, so we just use what is right for the job.

00:22:37:26 – 00:23:02:13
Unknown
Okay. And I guess, like, you know, I could have probably asked this a little bit earlier, but like for somebody that is hearing about Louis for the first time, like how would you describe what the agency actually does? Yeah. Louis is in the most generic sense, a full service agency to to some people that’s the easiest way to explain it.

00:23:02:13 – 00:23:29:20
Unknown
But, what we believe in, which I think is the most important thing, is we believe growth is beautiful, which you’ll see that a lot in our materials. We believe growth is truly important from a financial standpoint, from a personal standpoint, from a corporate standpoint. We celebrate celebrate greatness. It’s not that we hit it every time, but we celebrate greatness.

00:23:29:20 – 00:23:55:03
Unknown
And whether it’s us, whether it’s a client, whether it’s a competitor, whether it’s somebody else out in the world that does something great. We we like to celebrate that. Yeah, man. You you know, it was funny because you were talking earlier days of like, the computers. And I was going to ask you like, what was your very first computer that the Commodore 64, was it something past that?

00:23:55:04 – 00:24:15:19
Unknown
It was. It was later than I’m not sure exactly what it was. It was just a little beige box. And I remember us all gathering around it, looking at it like, what is this thing? Like, what are we supposed to do with this? Everybody in the agency, in the conference room at it? Yeah. Everybody’s like, so this is the thing.

00:24:15:21 – 00:24:44:21
Unknown
This is it. Yeah. That was that was a big moment. Scary, exciting. All of the above. How’s our work going to come out of this? Like, you know, then comes the type setting that you had to send out. You know, the engraving you had to do the lithographic printing that you have to do. Like, you know, it was a really interesting time in the business, you know, like looking back at, you know, all the projects you’ve done over the years.

00:24:44:22 – 00:25:17:24
Unknown
Is there one that or maybe a couple that stand out to you as some of the most meaningful work you’ve done? Man, there’s there there are a lot of projects that that I can remember that were important and big for different reasons. One that we did for HGTV was just a fantastic opportunity. We got to go over to Belize and we got to create grass huts on a deserted island and shoot over there for two weeks.

00:25:17:26 – 00:25:53:20
Unknown
Like that was fantastic for one reason. Then I probably one more design awards for a logo that I did for my mom’s smoking children’s clothing smoking business. Really? Nelly’s originals. Yeah. Got in type Directors Club and you know, the Art Directors Club and the British Art Directors Club and graphics and how and print magazine and like. So there are different things that I’ve been able to work, been very blessed to work on some amazing opportunities.

00:25:53:20 – 00:26:22:19
Unknown
Yeah. Well, you know, there’s a past guest, Tom Woodard, and he, you know, he talked about Louis so much and you and your team and just all the great work you did for him. Maybe if you maybe say something I know that was impactful for you. Yeah, it was and it was impactful because of Tom one. Yeah. I just I so admire him.

00:26:22:22 – 00:26:57:19
Unknown
I mean what a great guy. And what he stands for and who he is and his his faith and his belief that just wow, just fantastic. So to help him out was was great. Yeah. The neurodivergent effort that he’s doing. And it was we he he named it The Ability Machine. And it was a really cool it was a cool problem to solve because, you know, one thing that I or we as a team went to Tom with was we were like, hey, we’re not sure of the name.

00:26:57:22 – 00:27:25:03
Unknown
We’re like, Tom, I get what you’re saying with it, but do these people, do you really want to be considered a machine like that? Seems like the opposite of the feel that this thing has to have. And so we worked really hard to bring the humanity to that name and to make the, the, the name machine mean something different than you might normally think of at first.

00:27:25:04 – 00:27:50:27
Unknown
Yeah, the synergy among these people and what they’re doing and them and the clients that they work for, the artwork that they do like, started to see this motion that we brought forward in the in the market and the identity and and knowing Tom’s faith is where, you know, there’s three parts to that mark that represent the Trinity.

00:27:50:29 – 00:28:12:17
Unknown
We don’t talk about it, but it’s there at the basic level. Yeah. Well, he’s he’s doing some amazing work. And he just went on and on about you. And I appreciate the great work you were doing with him. So back to him. He he’s he’s a good friend. And he actually texted this this morning and said when are we going to have lunch?

00:28:12:20 – 00:28:39:15
Unknown
Sometime soon, I hope. Yeah. You know, in the creative world, I know you you probably deal with this all the time of artists, art directors, graphic designer, designers. They, you know, they get so into the project and I guess how do you how do you help them balance like the storytelling, the branding versus really like getting some measurable business results?

00:28:39:16 – 00:29:11:20
Unknown
Yeah. At the at the end of the day, if a, if a piece or work that we’re doing does not produce identifiable results, that can be that can be put on a data sheet, you know, then it’s failed in my in my mind, good work for good work sakes. Not good enough. I sometimes say that it has to work.

00:29:11:23 – 00:29:44:01
Unknown
I always remind the art directors, the writers, everybody in the agency that we aren’t artists, we can do art in what we are doing, but it has to be for a financial goal for the client. And also remember the audience that we’re trying to communicate to. A lot of times you can get so buried in what you were doing and forget who it’s for, who, who.

00:29:44:04 – 00:30:05:19
Unknown
This is to, you know, we have have done things in the past to keep people grounded in what the things are for. I went and rode in a Purity Dairy delivery truck when we were working on Pure Dairies work, you know, just so that I would know what that delivery guy at Purity Dairies is thinking and going through and seeing and experiencing.

00:30:05:23 – 00:30:37:06
Unknown
So like, I think you always have to keep yourself rooted in the end result. What lessons shaped you the most as a leader, like coming up in the creative world, recognizing that design is not for design sake, but it is to communicate something was something that has really helped me all through my career and even with teaching younger creatives, it is easy to embellish.

00:30:37:07 – 00:31:09:02
Unknown
It’s easy to make something pretty, but it’s got to mean more. And so that is one thing that I always try to push that where’s the meaning in this? If it if it doesn’t have a meaning, is it necessary? Less is more. A lot of times when when I’m talking to creatives, we now don’t have time to spend like we used to with creative has communicate much quicker than it used to.

00:31:09:05 – 00:31:39:01
Unknown
Used to could sit and look at a brochure and find things in it. Now you’re looking at, you know, at a digital ad that’s on the screen for a split second before you grow past it. So if you’re not communicating quickly, a meaningful thing, then it’s probably not going to succeed. You you touched on this a little bit earlier, but, you know, managing creatives across multiple offices sometimes can be a little a little tough like it is.

00:31:39:09 – 00:32:25:05
Unknown
How do you like create an environment where they like thrive? Yeah. You have to recognize that the that the environments are all different. The cultures are somewhat a little bit different in the different cities, different offices. You can’t take that out of, of those locations. You have to roll with that and work with that. I think the big thing is making sure that there’s an understanding that at the highest level, from a corporate level, these are the types of things that we are trying to do that doing something great, always having a North Star, that all three offices are all ten officers or however many offices you have as a leader, so that there’s

00:32:25:06 – 00:32:48:06
Unknown
the North Star that you’re always shooting at. Yeah, just just trying to keep everybody on the same page, knowing that we’re doing this for the client, for them to succeed. And then if they succeed, we succeed. Just high level things that we all work towards. Let’s say we take it back to the, you know, getting out of school, Robert, and we say, hey, we’re going to give you some advice.

00:32:48:06 – 00:33:13:21
Unknown
What advice do you typically give young creatives coming in to Louis that actually probably are going to want your job at some point? Yeah, and I hope they get it at some point. Totally. I hope I hope they’re good enough and stay at it long enough to do it. I always tell them, work as hard as you can, you can always grow and you can always get better.

00:33:13:24 – 00:33:36:24
Unknown
Don’t shy away from learning something new. There is always going to be changing every business, not just hours. You’re going to have to get used to that. You can’t get complacent. And especially now with AI, most recently with some of the students at Belmont and Trevor and some of these other schools, they have been hesitant, you know, about the AI thing.

00:33:36:25 – 00:33:56:21
Unknown
They’re scared. They don’t know what to expect. They don’t know if they’re going to have a job. They will have a job. I think there is plenty of room and I hope that they stay in this career. I hope the alarmists don’t scare people out of it. But you do have to embrace it, that that is inevitable, that it that train left the station.

00:33:56:22 – 00:34:22:00
Unknown
You’re not going to avoid it. Embrace it and roll with it and just use it to your advantage. Yeah. It’s you know, I was shocked when we went over to Belmont and the, you know, that it was almost told not to use AI. And I think both of us said we probably would never hire somebody in the agencies that didn’t.

00:34:22:01 – 00:34:50:06
Unknown
They didn’t embrace AI. They weren’t using it. They weren’t learning about it at some capacity. Isn’t that something? Because I remember that and I get it, you know, academia and and that AI almost feels like they’re incongruent, right? Like you want them to learn the basics. You want them to know things that are going to enhance their technical skills and their understanding and their abilities.

00:34:50:06 – 00:35:17:06
Unknown
But at the same time, this technology exists. It’s not going anywhere. You’ve just got to incorporate it. You can’t ignore it, you can’t push it to the side and say, oh, they’ll learn that later. No, we have to have younger people that know it. Yeah, yeah. You know, you I think you all are in office or a majority of the time you’re in office.

00:35:17:07 – 00:35:45:13
Unknown
And I guess, what is is there something you see with being in office that maybe like a lesson that creatives can only learn by being there and being around people that have the experience like you have? Absolutely. I’m a big believer in office work. I think you can have conversations face to face that you can’t have through slack and email or even a phone call.

00:35:45:14 – 00:36:19:25
Unknown
I think being able to see a person’s reactions is helpful. I think it cuts down on the communication that you have to do about certain things so much. I don’t have to over explain. You can be able to like, sit with them, get behind their computer. It’s just so much easier to be there. And and I know, you know, we went through that period with Covid and after Covid where work from home was the big thing and people were saying, oh, I get more done at home.

00:36:19:28 – 00:36:48:03
Unknown
I just do not believe that that was the solution ever. I think in office work, when you can do it, it’s helpful to your career, especially if you’re younger. You get to see what older people have done. You get to see what better people are doing. It’s just the experience you get that you won’t get from your living room or your dining room or your kitchen.

00:36:48:05 – 00:37:16:13
Unknown
We let people work from home when they want to. We let them leave when they need to or want to. Total freedom. But I think most of them would tell you that there’s a lot that they learn by working in office. Yeah. I, I just don’t see how you can replace that. Like is just and I think a lot of right after Covid, I think a lot of the big agency owners, you know, would say, oh we’ve got this figured out.

00:37:16:13 – 00:37:42:17
Unknown
And I see they’re probably about half the size that they were at that point in time. And there’s a reason, you know, and so I you know, I could I could be wrong. But I do think at least for the people that I meet, talk to and am around, there is a true value to being face to face, being in an office.

00:37:42:20 – 00:38:11:26
Unknown
The cultural benefit of it, it’s just it’s hard to get, you know, when you’re by yourself a lot. Yeah. You know, you’ve you’ve worked at Lewis through three decades of, you know, work and you’ve seen a lot of change. You talked about it from the computer to, you know, where we’re at today with AI. Have you? Was there ever been a time where you’ve seen a bigger shift than is happening today with.

00:38:11:28 – 00:38:44:21
Unknown
I think this one would be the biggest shift that I’ve seen, maybe partly because of the speed that all of it happens. We had an opportunity to get used to certain things when when we went from drawing boards to computers, when we went from getting type galleys to doing type, you know, in the office. And, I think the speed just contributes so much to this one.

00:38:44:23 – 00:39:12:09
Unknown
What all we have access to, all the ability to explore now that we have access to the changes that are happening within, within platforms, within programs, the new programs that come out daily, weekly. I think this one’s the this was one of the biggest if not the biggest. Well, you know talking about it 32 years and you know even more before that.

00:39:12:17 – 00:39:39:17
Unknown
Like you’re still winning awards, you’re still producing amazing work. Like what? What is it that keep that spark of, like, curiosity, the spark that keeps you, like just driving forward and trying to achieve the best creative? I think we are able to still succeed with creative integrity and doing good work, because we’re not putting the emphasis on the tools.

00:39:39:19 – 00:40:10:26
Unknown
I think that’s the most basic way to say it. The tools are the helpful thing to to get the work done, but they aren’t the the solution. And so I think Louis has always kept the idea at the forefront, the storytelling at the forefront, the things that are important and then how you do it has changed. We’ll keep evolving on that part, but I think it’s always going to be about good ideas.

00:40:10:26 – 00:40:34:28
Unknown
You guys are working with some big clients today. I know I’ve talked to Katie quite a bit on your team and she’s, you know, always bragging about big things you guys are doing. What’s what are you the most excited about with Lewis maybe in the next few years. Is there anything you, the executive team are like really excited about?

00:40:35:00 – 00:41:01:18
Unknown
I think one thing that is more broad that we’re excited about is we have expertise and abilities in a lot of different categories, which is good. You know, at one point, Lewis was a very health care centric shop, and we made a big decision at that point to go after less health care because we didn’t want to be completely known as health care agency.

00:41:01:20 – 00:41:30:27
Unknown
We did Tiffin motorhomes. We did homeschooling products with the Becca. We still did health care. And, you know, as of recently, in the last year or two, we got into distilled spirits, you know, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and various brands within that. And I think what excites us is that we have not put our stake in the ground in one category, and we can go a lot of different ways.

00:41:30:29 – 00:41:53:07
Unknown
Yeah, we still want to do health care. We still want to do homeschool. We still want to do outdoor products and services. But we are we are capable of applying what we’ve learned in those areas to a lot of different things. So that’s kind of exciting. Yeah. And with new, you know, AI technology, who knows where the where that’s going to go.

00:41:53:08 – 00:42:14:23
Unknown
Well, I’m sure Katie’s always brought up the the Bourbon Trail. And I was going to tell her, I’ll tell you that when you just need a free hand like a free intern and you need some extra hands, just give me a shout. I’ll come and work. I’ll work my tail off for you guys. Do you know how many people we’ve had say that?

00:42:14:24 – 00:42:38:06
Unknown
Really? We’ve had. There’s been a lot of people say, hey, we will. We will help you out with that bourbon thing. And I totally get it. It’s something that everybody enjoys and it’s a great category. Good people. I don’t know how many you’ve met from that industry. Oh my goodness, those distillers, the master distillers and the owners and stuff, they’re the best people in the world.

00:42:38:07 – 00:43:06:05
Unknown
They’re just great. Just a good industry to be associated with. It’s fun. Fun times really is. Well, Robert, is there anything maybe that I didn’t ask you that you think would be helpful for the audience? I know we talked about a ton. No, man, I, I think we covered a lot. Probably as much as I can talk about it, but not it’s been fun to come and talk about the industry and the things that are going on in it.

00:43:06:05 – 00:43:28:29
Unknown
And at Louis. Yeah. I hope we get to do this again at some point, man. I hope you’ll come back down the road, and I hope you’ll come back and be a part of this at some point. Any time you ever want to come over and just, you know, reconnect your roots, it’s really special that you came back and got to be a part of it.

00:43:29:02 – 00:43:53:21
Unknown
We tell another quick story as met a, one of our current project managers. She you know, we interviewed her remotely and then she came over and we interviewed her and she said, you realize, like, I grew up going to church here my entire life. And her dad was one of the elders when we bought the church. And I was like, we had no idea.

00:43:53:21 – 00:44:22:26
Unknown
But we didn’t hire for that reason. But we ended up hiring her because of her talents. And she came in and we had her desk all set up, and she was like, Mark, do you realize, like where you put me is exactly where my parents and I said every Sunday of my entire life growing up like, this is the pew that was to away from the stage, from the pulpit.

00:44:22:26 – 00:44:46:13
Unknown
And. Oh, yeah, and it was it was really special. So it is a small world. Yeah. It is. I really appreciate you let me come over and this. Well, thank you and thanks for everything you’re doing. I got a real quick ask. We’re going to do some rapid fire Q&A questions for you. Are you going to stop me a 3030 second spark?

00:44:46:14 – 00:45:14:24
Unknown
This these may be easier, so. But just say the first thing that maybe comes into your oh my God. Okay. And you’ll a lot of these with you being from Nashville recently. Like they should be pretty easy okay. So Ryman or an arena show Ryman hot chicken on a scale of mild or to regret, where do you where do you mild?

00:45:14:25 – 00:45:46:18
Unknown
Yeah. I’m not good with the hot stuff. Okay. I’m mild. Yeah. So black coffee or a latte with enough sirup to be a dessert latte. Yeah. Okay. Worst industry buzzword at 2026. Oh my goodness. Change. Change is the only constant in this world. Well, that’s a good one. It’s a great word. Let me say it’s a great word.

00:45:46:19 – 00:46:23:10
Unknown
I just you hear it so much. Yeah. You know. Okay. How about that? Speaking of change, AI, your creative assistant or your replacement creative assistant would call the death of the billboard fact or fiction. That’s fiction. So they’ll have billboards, environmental graphics. Interacting with people in their spaces is always going to have a place. And you and you have to think Billboard can be defined as a lot of different things.

00:46:23:12 – 00:46:52:18
Unknown
So good call. So TikTok trends you participate or observe from a distance. I observe from a distance to let the younger people in the agency do that, and they teach me the cool words. Do they use? They do. Do you ever ask them to help you, like take over your accounts so that they can run them? I for sure ask their advice and get their input.

00:46:52:21 – 00:47:27:27
Unknown
The most underrated skill in marketing? Empathy. Great call. That’s a good one. Best way to find the spark when you’re stuck on a creative project, get the heck outside of the office, outside of your work, away from the computer. Go do something fun. It happens every time when you do not expect it. That’s my advice. Yeah, man, you cannot beat yourself into an idea that’s such a good call.

00:47:28:03 – 00:47:47:18
Unknown
What a great lesson, man. Thank you and thanks for thanks for all the great lessons today. Thanks for being a part of the spark and really like thanks for everything you’ve done and continue to do for the creative community here in Nashville. I think you’ve put a lot of people on the map. You’ve put Nashville on the map.

00:47:47:18 – 00:48:11:18
Unknown
And you know, I know you’re super humble and you don’t take the praise because you know, it’s just who you are. But that is you have definitely made a huge impact, and I really appreciate it. The audience appreciates it. And listen, if today’s episode with Robert sparked any questions, please drop them in the comment section and we’ll get them over.

00:48:11:18 – 00:48:34:20
Unknown
If you’re a young creative and you’re looking to get into this world, I think he would be an incredible person to talk to and gain some insights off of. So glad to do it. Yeah, and if you haven’t yet, please subscribe, rate and review the show just so we can get the word out to more creatives in Nashville, more agency owners and people that need to hear this.

00:48:34:22 – 00:49:01:02
Unknown
On behalf of myself and the entire spark team. We’re out until next week. And that’s a wrap on this episode of The Spark from Creative Assembly. Thanks for spending time with us and exploring the minds shaping Nashville’s creative future. If you’re walking away more inspired, connected, or energized, that’s exactly the point. A big thank you to our sponsor snapshot and the incredible team behind the scenes who make this show possible.

00:49:01:07 – 00:49:18:04
Unknown
Your support fuels every conversation and keeps collaboration alive. So if you haven’t already, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review. Thanks again for tuning in and till next time, stay creative, stay curious and keep that spark.