Building brands that advance humanity forward w/ Willow Hill

Erik  00:05

We want to welcome all of our listeners to another episode of MRP, Minority Report Podcast with Erik and Kerel. Each episode, we talk with real operators and leaders in media, tech and business. And today joining us is Willow Hill. Willow is the Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder of Scout Lab. Let's jump in and get to know Willow. Willow, welcome. How are you?

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Willow Hill  00:26

Hi, I'm so good. This was so long awaited. I'm so excited that I'm kicking off my Monday with you two.

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Erik  00:34

We are thrilled too. What a way to start off the week and excited to hang with you. So much to learn and can't wait to dive in there. But Willow, for the folks that don't know you tell us a little bit about what you're up to at Scout Lab these days.

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Willow Hill  00:49

Yeah, so Scout Lab is really a Labor of love. It's a creative agency that we founded, my Co-Founder Caitlin Barclay, and I found it seven years ago this year. So, similar to you, I think you guys have been going at this what for a good six years now. A good solid time horizon. We really started with this idea that there was so much opportunity to build brands that really pulled from this idea of being purpose driven. That purpose and profit can coexist. We both come from the venture backed startup world, really very much in tech where in most rooms if you're a woman in tech, in many cases, you are kind of the one and only. So we came from backgrounds where we saw there was just so much more opportunity for diverse voices for diverse perspectives, really to open up the aperture in what brands had previously explored as opportunity, and really aligning that to where we want things to go. And candidly, it was also aligned with the 2016 election, really, really kind of motivated us in a lot of ways to make sure that we were spending our time really intentionally and helping to create as many purpose driven brands as possible. In my past life, I was at Airbnb building their brand and scaling them globally, kind of from the ground up. And my Co-Founder had been a part of selling a company to ClassPass. So we really just wanted to take all of the experience that we had in building and scaling brands that can truly make an impact and doing that in a way that we think is better fit for the 21st century.

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Kerel  02:31

That's awesome, Willow, and what has that experience been like? What is the reaction from the brands in the marketplace? Do you find a lot of brands really want to be purpose driven, and have a mission that pushes society forward? Is that a struggle? Is it sort of a mixed bag? What does that look like these days?

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Willow Hill  02:54

We're starting to see more and more of this, which I think is a really exciting thing that this is a conversation that seven years ago, when we started we would get a lot of blank stares. And now when we say purpose driven, I get a lot of nods. Right? So I think that just in itself, we're seeing a massive cultural shift. So when you look generationally, or inter-generationally, rather, when we're speaking to millennials, when we're speaking to Gen Z when we're speaking to kind of any thing beyond that, we see that it's very much table stakes. We've moved beyond the "is this something that's valuable?" into "this is something that is necessity," in order to really think through operating and scaling that in the century to come. And I very, very strongly believe that.

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Erik  03:44

Willow, I want to ask you about something you said just a few minutes ago because it really struck me. And I don't know if everyone knows that barely 1% of creative agencies are founded by women. As a woman owned agency, what's that been like for you all to sort of start that and be impactful in a way that's bigger than just the work that you do?

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Willow Hill  04:13

Oh, it's a ride. It's been a journey. I think the thing that I remind myself is, what is the role of something like an agency and you both are deep in this world so you know better than anyone that whether it's media or creative, the words that we speak, the things that we put on paper, have the ability to shape the way that culture shows up. Right? So when you're in advertising, a lot of what you're actually doing is help direct the collective imagination of where our consumption sits. And so the way that we like to think about it is it's really responsibility in a lot of ways. And when I look at that number, that 1%, it's really motivating, that when things get hard to remember, it's because we're up against a lot of odds, right? So it's a responsibility more than anything to just continue showing up, to start to be able to shift what those narratives are. Because I think the dominant narrative for so long has left out so much, that gives us a better opportunity to live from a place of more equality, from a place of more sustainability. There's just so much that I think is missing by not having more women at the helm of creativity.

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Erik  05:31

Willow, before Scout Lab before Airbnb, before all of that, there was a Willow history. Tell us a little bit about, tell us about where you're from, tell us where you were born and raised.

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Willow Hill  05:44

So I grew up in a few different places. I grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona. And then I also grew up in Portland, Oregon, so a little here a little there. I grew up with a single mom, she was 16 years old when she had me, she's such a boss and you know, just an incredible inspiration to me, and a reminder of what it looks like to truly have determination. She put herself through college while I was a kid, working nonstop just to really build a life that I think was, one, more meaningful to her that she wanted to live, but also a better life for my sister and I as children. And I think that ultimately had a really big impact on what I thought was possible, looking at the world understanding that if I wanted to go build my own company, I could. I've had this opportunity to really look back on my roots and see that there's just so much inspiration that comes from that. And then my father was a civil rights activist for the American Indian Movement. And I grew up very estranged from my father, but I grew up very much understanding my Native American roots and a lot of philosophy from that side of my family. And so in my adulthood, it's been a really beautiful thing that's helped shape a lot of my perspective and understanding how many different worldviews can enter a conversation around something like creativity, or a conversation around how we can start to approach things like, whether that's building a brand, or just imagining what a company could look like. So I've really taken that as well, just from my past, and from my childhood as kind of a pillar of opportunity in terms of what are some worldviews that I think the world is missing and the ways that they've impacted me.

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Erik  07:32

That's interesting, I was gonna ask you to maybe expand a little bit more on sort of that Native American sort of piece and the sort of philosophies that you feel like, kind of translate into, like what you do today. Tell us a little bit about some of that, and how that inspires you.

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Willow Hill  07:48

Yeah, so there are two kind of core philosophies. The first is, I really appreciate this kind of modality of the medicine wheel. And it's something that I use in creativity. It's also something that I use with my own team to really start to look at how we can reshape our thinking from being something that's so linear to something that's more circular and cyclical. I think that's something that's actually missing in a lot of our conversations today is what we put in and how that starts to inform where we end up. So often, I think we're thinking in terms of input-output, but we're not actually thinking in a more circular way. So that's one that I really stand by and love to kind of use as a modality. And then the other is this idea of seventh generation. And this is an idea that actually comes from the Iroquois, but it's a concept that says, "when you're making decisions, can you look seven generations out? Can you start to think about not me today, not my children or my grandchildren, but if I extend beyond, you know, if I am the ancestor in the room, what impact am I leaving? What am I creating for those that come after me?" And so that's something that we try to incorporate into our work at Scout Lab is this idea of seventh generation, right? How are we helping to guide these brands in a way that are going to essentially become a platform for the next generation to jump off of, rather than thinking, you know, in these terms, that it's only about us.

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Erik  09:18

Wow, that's huge. That's great. And you mentioned sort of like the generations and now you've created the next generation. Tell us about what it's like to be a founder and a new mother and what that's like for you.

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Willow Hill  09:35

My son is now five months old, I guess he'll be six months very soon, five and a half months, and so far, it's been such a rodeo to be a new parent. I have so much respect for everyone who had children during COVID. I think I had one day last month where I was working and had to hot potato the baby back and forth because there was no child care. So we're still very much in the newbie phase. But what I'm finding is that children have this really incredible innate ability to humble you. And really bring you back down to earth, and just remind you of your own humanity in so many ways. My favorite thing from a creative perspective is I feel like I'm re-seeing things for the first time, you know, getting excited to show a child something that maybe you've seen it 1000 times, but all of a sudden, you get the opportunity to experience it all again, which I never really fully appreciated that or thought about it when we made the decision to start a family, but it's something that I'm finding is one of the most beautiful gifts that parenthood actually gives you.

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Kerel  10:44

And you're seeing it through a different lens now, too, because you're a parent, right?

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Willow Hill  10:49

Oh, completely. Yeah. So whether it's all of a sudden, I'm noticing the pattern on a leaf, or really appreciating what it looks like when, you know, it's cold outside and your breath comes out. And you can actually see it, because oh, actually, that feels kind of magical. There's so many little things throughout our day that I don't think we actually stop and see how uniquely profound they are in the moment, but with children, especially little children, there's that opportunity to live more with a state of wonder again.

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Erik  11:19

Yeah, I'm gonna ask you about something profound, I feel you said, and I read, it was pretty cool. And I was gonna ask you to expand and kind of share that with the audience. You talked about chasing balance, and this idea of kind of like work-life balance. Kerel and I talk to a lot of different leaders about work-life balance, and I thought you had a really great perspective, can you share what your perspective is there?

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Willow Hill  11:46

My perspective, it's BS (laughs)... no. I appreciate what the idea of balance is trying to get to, what I find for me, and I never like to be too prescriptive, because I realize every family has their own path, for me, as a founder, someone who is actively working on building my business every day, building my clients businesses, very important to me, and it's not a nine to five job, necessarily. And neither is being a parent, right? It never turns off. And so what I find to be more helpful is moving away from this idea of balance, because I find, it can actually leave you feeling like there's something that you're not doing at any given time. So for me, whether it's, I'm sitting here having a great conversation with you, am I missing the first time that my child rolls over at home? Right? Or those first steps. Or the first word. And if you really sit and you know, let yourself think about that, you know, the moment when you are at home with them, and you're thinking about, you know, all the work that you need to be doing. You're constantly in this state of chasing the thing that you should be doing, all of the shoulds, and my new motto is to move away from that completely. Balance is not necessarily going to exist in any perfect form, but what I can control is how present I am in any given moment. And so I know, Erik, you were just talking about the, what was it, the six day weekend?

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Erik  11:50

(laughs)

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Kerel  11:50

(laughs)

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Erik  13:18

Yeah, absolutely. That's why it resonated so much with me, kind of the less guilt and more joy in the process. And I feel like so many can relate to that. Yeah, you know, I try to maximize that time, and really put myself 400% in it. Right? And I feel like that's how you can make the memories. That's what you're gonna remember. And that's true. And I think personal life and then also in business-

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Kerel  13:41

-in real life, yeah.

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Willow Hill  13:42

Yeah, it is exactly. So if you can pack the moments that you're in wherever you are, with more intention, you're gonna get more out of it. It's funny, everyone should hire parents - this is my plug (laughs) - the world would be so much more efficient. I realize now I'm like, what did I used to do with all my time? I know everyone says that. I didn't realize how time rich I was until now. But really, there's so much opportunity to rethink the way that we use our time. And sometimes it's going to be more time at work, sometimes it's gonna be more time at home is what the moment calls for. So if I can just be more present in those moments and maximize them to the most extent, I think I will at least feel good about the way that I'm showing up. Whether or not it's always balanced is neither here nor there.

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Kerel  14:32

Willow, now that you're back at work, and you're sort of understanding how you need to focus on, like you just said, time, right and where you're spending it and how you're managing it - is that something you think you'll talk to the folks that work in your organization more about as well? Time management?

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Willow Hill  14:51

So funny. Now I'm just practicing what I preach. We actually use a tool that I love that I liked it before and now I live by it, it's just time blocking. So giving yourself longer stretches of time to get very specific things done. The catch is you have to hold yourself accountable, right? So you actually have to finish the thing within that block of time and working with creative folks and creative teams having  uninterrupted stretches of time to be able to go in and do deep work and really do big strategic thinking is something that's so necessary, but I find, we almost never give it to ourselves, right? We run frantically from meeting to meeting. And then we try to compress all of the thought process into a short span of time. So that's something I'm really working on. Like I said, practicing what I preach, I don't know if it'll be me taking this back to my team so much as my team continues to teach me as well. And impress me with the way that they're actually jumping on managing their schedules. But certainly, as a parent, when I block those times now, I get the thing done.

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Kerel  15:55

Gotcha.

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Willow Hill  15:56

There's no messing around, which is lovely. It's great, great results.

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Kerel  16:01

Yeah and from a leadership perspective, it's okay that your team teaches you things as well, too. Right? I feel one of the keys to leadership is understanding and being open to learning from others, right, that work for you. I'm curious to hear from you, what are some of the things you think about when you think about leadership? What are some keys to leadership?

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Willow Hill  16:26

I have a couple that I think are really important. And I think there's maybe multiple levels of leadership, right, there's, you know, the company level, and then there's just the way that we show up in our everyday life. I think, ultimately, anyone can be a leader, whether or not you're in a leadership position. And so with my team, I like to start with that as the assumption, that we have an impact on people, no matter what kind of role we're in. With my team, I really like to remind everyone, one, that everyone is creative, that creativity isn't something that's, you know, exclusive just to, you know, a designer or a writer, but that ultimately, leadership is recognizing our own ability to act, and then doing that with intention. So one of the kind of keys for us is looking at, if you're really looking at how to be a leader, then your present, you're intentional, you're not just kind of making decisions, but you're actually being really thoughtful about the way that you go about things. And I think that that - and you're informed, right? That's something that I see lacking a lot today when we look at things like politics, as an example. We don't need to go there on this podcast, but I do believe that reminding everyone that they have the opportunity to lead no matter what role they are in, is really important as we start to look into where everything is headed, because young people are really hungry for that. And I think they have so much to say, and there's so much strength. I mean, you know this, you run such incredible organizations, and I'm sure see this every day. But part of being a leader is acknowledging that your job is actually to create the next generation of leaders and not make it about you.

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Kerel  17:00

That's great advice. So I read that Scout Lab won a 2023 Digiday Award for Best B2B Branding Campaign. Congratulations on that.

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Willow Hill  18:13

Thank you.

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Kerel  18:16

So when you think about that campaign, and the work you do for brands, can you give us a few tips that you would have for any brand, looking to launch a branding campaign?

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Willow Hill  18:42

What I love about the B2B campaign that you're referencing is it's for healthcare company. And what's really interesting in this is part of the reason I think it really struck a chord culturally and won an award was because it didn't feel like a B2B campaign. It really felt like we were talking directly to people. I think that's one thing whether you're B2B or B2C just to throw a little more jargon in there, a lot of brands miss that at the end of the day, you're actually just human to human. And regardless of who's at the end of the decision making pile, you need to have a human message and you need it to emotionally resonate with a story. And it's so easy to get caught up in "well, we're talking to an HR representative, or we're talking to a CEO, or we're talking to-" whoever your end customer is, that's their title, but they are still, you know, they're parents, they're people, they're busy, right? They've got a lot of these really human traits because they are human. And we always forget that. So it's one of the places that no matter what type of project we work on, you know, whether it's something really shiny and big, like the Venmos and the [inaudible] of the world, or it's something that's a little bit more serious and B2B, we still take the same approach, which is first really digging in and looking at who we're talking to, and understanding how we can craft a message that will actually resonate with them as a person.

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Erik  20:09

Willow, where are you drawing inspiration from these days?

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Willow Hill  20:14

Ooh, so I kind of draw inspiration from a large range of places, but the number one for me personally is travel. I find that getting out of, whether it's my comfort zone, or my kind of culture is really key to my creative process. So being able to put myself into situations where, you know, English is not the first language and I'm getting to really experience and see different design perspectives, different realities, right? The way that different cultures approach different problems is always such an enlightening experience that can really draw so much, so much from for any type of creative work that we're doing.

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Erik  21:01

Any recent trips kind of come to mind or recent travel that really kind of like impacted what you were just talking about?

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Willow Hill  21:08

Yeah, absolutely, so this was kind of wild, kind of the last leg of my maternity leave, we decided to do a trip, we went to Europe, and we're really traveling all over. And it was pretty bold with a four and a half month old, but still a wonderful experience nonetheless. And I think that experience in itself was really interesting, because I've traveled quite a bit extensively before but never with a child and certainly not with a baby. And so that alone, I think was a really incredible process to just see how different cultures treat parenthood, how they value parenthood. Something as simple as when you show up to the airport, is there a line for families, right? Or when you go into the bathroom, is there a changing room in the men's table? Or there's so many tiny nuances to the way that we culturally show up for different people in different demographics. So I always find that that is something that gets me just super fascinated with how that can be applied and what are all the kind of creative potentials.

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Kerel  22:13

Willow, what advice would you have for any woman that's listening right now that's thinking about starting an agency?

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Willow Hill  22:19

My advice is, don't wait for permission. Don't wait for permission, because it might not ever come. And I think that's part of why we need more female voices, more women in this space, whether it's Creative Directors, CEOs, Managing Directors, whatever that looks like, your lived experience is really valuable to every conversation, just by your existence, and there's not enough of it. So I think so often we get a little bit in our own way, when we're thinking about what the possibilities are, but I would hope that, you know, Scout Lab just by existing can inspire other women that it's completely possible, they can, not only can they do this, but they should, because there's just not enough, there's not enough of our voices.

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Kerel  23:12

Is that the same advice you would give to Willow who was just first starting out in her career? Or would you give yourself different advice?

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Willow Hill  23:20

I think I would give myself the advice to trust the path a little more thing, I tend to be a little impatient (laughs). I want things to move faster than they always move, which is just hilarious. So I think trust in the process is something I would also recommend to myself, but certainly giving that permission is huge. And I think that applies to whether you're starting your own thing, or you're even just working within an organization because so many people have the ability to make such a bigger impact in the organizations they're in, they just don't quite realize it. So raising your hand, you know, joining that meeting, putting your idea down on paper and pitching it. Right? You don't have to found a company to make an impact. And you don't have to have a creative agency to further women's voices in this space. So, opportunities literally everywhere.

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Kerel  24:14

What does a good day look like for you?

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Willow Hill  24:16

Oh, my gosh, a day like today. No, I think the joy in my role comes from getting the opportunity to meet and work with people that have really big visions, right? People that are building things and getting to sit down with them and work through some of these really big challenges and help them solve those from a brand perspective. Those are always the days that I walk away with my cup filled and feeling really refreshed. So getting to sit down with like I said, folks like you who are really intentional, really creating something that's creating so much impact is, you know, what could be better on a Monday?

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Kerel  24:55

I hear that. Thank you. Alright, we're gonna close this out with a fun question. What's in your music rotation right now? What songs motivate you?

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Willow Hill  25:06

(laughs) This is so funny. I've got two answers. One is Rye, which is not new, but was newer to me, which is hilarious because I'm so far behind on music. And that's been kind of on repeat, which I think probably drives my family crazy because I like to listen the same songs on repeat. And then the other is just reggae. I've been listening,  going back to Bob Marley, the Wailers and I can't stop. It's so happy. It's like, especially for hanging out with the baby, it's just the happiest music you could-

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Erik  25:35

(laughs)

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Kerel  25:35

Are you going to see the movie when it comes out next week?

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Willow Hill  25:38

What?!

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Kerel  25:39

Yeah, there's this movie coming out.

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Erik  25:42

(laughs)

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Willow Hill  25:42

No way!

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Kerel  25:43

Oh, yeah.

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Willow Hill  25:44

Okay! Yes I am, is the answer to that. I had no idea, now I've got something to look forward to.

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Erik  25:50

Yeah...

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Kerel  25:51

I'm looking forward to it. I definitely am.

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Erik  25:54

Well, Willow, it's been a lot of fun hanging out with you. Our audience likes to stay in touch or reach out. What are some good ways that they can follow you and get in touch?

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Willow Hill  26:03

Yeah, so Instagram is always a good place @bywillowhill, or follow us at @scoutLabco. Also, our website, scoutLab.com is another great place to find us.

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Erik  26:15

Excellent. Well, thanks so much for spending some time with us. And thanks for all the insights that you shared. Thanks everyone for listening to another episode. And be sure to share more episodes and you can find a whole lot more everywhere you find all of your audio and video, just search Minority Report Podcast and look for the logo. Thanks, everyone.

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