Awaiting Approval
Awaiting Approval is a podcast hosted by Adam Jennings, a design leader with thirty years of experience. Each episode invites creative directors, design leads, and seasoned makers to discuss work they're proud of, lessons learned too late, and the unvarnished realities of leadership. The series explores the messy, human side of the creative industry, offering honest conversations often left unsaid. It is a Cordial Fox production.
Episodes
Mikaela Calypso Dragon - Vision
Mikaela Calypso Dragon has never done things the expected way. She grew up in Saigon falling in love with TV adverts because there wasn’t much else to watch, ran away from home twice trying to become a creative, and eventually left Vietnam entirely for what everyone assumed would be a short trip to study in the UK. She never went back. She is now a Creative Director, working with some of the bigge
Roberto Rotondi - Patience
Roberto Rotondi grew up in Italy knowing he wanted to design, studied industrial design in Milan, and then spent the next two decades letting life take him somewhere he never expected. A redundancy became a move to the UK. A quiet nudge from his wife became the confidence to try. A manager in Taipei, who on his first day told Roberto that even native English speakers make mistakes and the only goa
Julie Kennedy - Reinvention
Julie Kennedy learned to love design by walking the galleries of the V&A as a small child. She would walk around the galleries holding her granddad's hand, as he did his rounds as the Chief Warder. She went on to study sculpture, spend time dressing windows at Topshop during the IRA bombings, work at a tax office she hated, and eventually find her way to Yellow Pages, where she stayed for twelve y
Oriana Gaeta - Belonging
Oriana Gaeta grew up in Naples and stumbled onto design when making album covers for her friends. She didn’t know there could be a career in this kind of work, it was just a thing she kept doing. It took a degree she dropped, a year in London at 19, and a second attempt before she finally found her way to design properly. Since then she has worked at some of the best agencies in the world, includi
Mark Iddon - Instinct
Mark Iddon is Senior Commissioning Editor for Comedy Entertainment at UKTV, which means his job, in its simplest form, is to decide what gets made and what doesn’t. He has spent over 20 years in television, moving from making things to deciding which things get made, and somewhere along that journey he has developed a very particular set of instincts about people, about ideas, and about the differ
Emily Court - Authenticity
Emily Court is a freelance web and visual identity designer who works with solopreneurs, freelancers and microagency owners, and has built her entire practice around the idea that the client relationship should feel like a collaboration between equals, not a job interview she's perpetually trying to pass. She came to design via an unlikely route, through gift baskets, studio photography, teaching
Michael Glass - Legacy
Michael Glass has spent 25 years refusing to settle. He taught himself design in the late 90s by opening Photoshop every single day and learning something new before he was allowed to close it. He went from managing bars in Australia to becoming the guy you called when you wanted something on the FWA. He spent a decade as the most senior design voice at Fantasy Interactive, one of the world's top
Awaiting Approval LIVE 2 - In The Room
This one is different. No single guest, no slow burn, no deep dive. This is Awaiting Approval LIVE 2, broadcast simultaneously across three cities on one night, with people thirsty for creative insight in each room and a Clipboard of Truth to test the mettle of each guest.What made it into this edit is worth knowing about. Kris on the most ridiculous feedback he has ever received, and what it actu
Lara Juriansz - Boldness
Lara Juriansz was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Singapore, studied in Sydney, built her career in London, and is now Creative Director at TBWA Media Arts Lab in LA, working exclusively on ... well, let’s just say a very well known brand. She has said yes to almost every significant change that has come her way, not because she was certain, and not because she wasn’t scared, but because she has lea
Recruiter Roundtable - Part 2
Over a thousand questions came in from the audience. Six recruiters came back. And within the first few minutes, Tom Scott, said what a lot of people in the industry are quietly thinking: we talk about it every single day, and it would be really nice not to for an hour. And so the panel voted to ban AI from the conversation.What followed was one of the most honest conversations this show has produ
Maria Nicholas - Service
Maria Nicholas grew up between continents, between cultures, and between disciplines, and has spent her career making that range work for her rather than against her. She came into UX from advertising and brand design, learned to code in a three-month bootcamp where she didn’t see the sun, and built her leadership philosophy around a simple idea: a good designer facilitates great decisions out of
Martina Hodges-Schell - Range
Martina Hodges-Schell has spent thirty years moving through design, from advertising in Germany at the dawn of the web, through Amazon and Yahoo in their early mobile years, to pioneering UX consultancies and a six-year run helping organisations build genuinely collaborative product teams. She is also an equine coach, working with horses as unfiltered mirrors for how leaders actually show up, bene
An Invitation ...
Hey, it’s Adam. This is a short bonus episode because I want to talk to you about something I’m really excited about, and I think you might be too.On July 23rd, Awaiting Approval LIVE is happening again. Live, in person, in three cities at the same time: London, San Francisco and New York City.I’ll be hosting the London room. Amy Khan is hosting San Francisco. Maryam Cristillo is hosting New York.
James Ferguson - Adaptability
James Ferguson has spent his career moving towards things that excite him rather than away from things that don’t. From a Scottish design agency at sixteen, to building Skyscanner’s design system, to shipping interaction work at Atlassian from the other side of the world, to leading product and creative design at OVO Energy, he has consistently backed his instincts and figured out the rest on arri
Maryam Cristillo - Love
Maryam Cristillo grew up between cultures and continents, studied anthropology and art in the same breath, and has spent her career building creative teams at places like Victoria’s Secret, Naadam, and now Lindt, where she gets to do creative work on chocolate, which she will tell you is exactly as good as it sounds. She also runs a seventeen acre homestead in Maine with her husband, a hundred chi
Tamora Petitt - Clarity
Tamora Petitt has spent 25 years helping people find their way through complex experiences, from redesigning one of the internet’s most visited health tools to building UX teams from scratch, teaching over 200 career changers the craft, and quietly applying design thinking to everything around her, not just the screen in front of her. She started out as a dancer. That turns out to explain a lot.Wh
Charles Cadbury - Conviction
Charles Cadbury has spent 25 years building things at the edge of what’s possible. He created one of the first voice-enabled hotel concierge systems, invented voice-activated audio advertising, won the global Alexa Cup, and has spent the last decade quietly convinced that the way we talk to technology is about to change everything. He also watches the sunset every Thursday, without fail, with some
Odeya Noble-Bougay - Continuity
Odeya Noble-Bougay returns. If you heard her in Season 2, you already know why. If you didn’t, go back and find it, then come here. Odeya thinks in ranges rather than binaries, leads with a generosity that feels entirely natural rather than performed, and has a way of reframing a question that makes you wonder why you were asking it the other way round in the first place. She was the obvious choic
Nacho Zuccarino - Vulnerability
Nacho Zuccarino - VulnerabilityNacho Zuccarino has lived several careers in one lifetime. He started out teaching metaphysics in Buenos Aires, moved into advertising, spent a decade in Silicon Valley working at orgs like Google and Netflix, helped launch Starlink with SpaceX, and has spent the last two years building at the intersection of creativity and AI. He is restless, warm, and deeply, disar
Debbie Millman - Becoming
Debbie Millman has spent over 20 years interviewing the world’s most creative people, built one of the most celebrated design podcasts in existence, written a number of highly acclaimed books, co-founded the Masters Program in Branding at the SVA, and helped shape how an entire industry thinks about craft, identity, and what it means to do meaningful work. She is warm, considered, and disarmingly
David Martin - Curiosity
David Martin founded Fantasy Interactive before most people knew what interaction design was. He helped shape the visual language of operating systems used by billions, built one of the most influential creative agencies of its era, and worked with some of the biggest names in tech and culture. He’s also a pilot, a go-kart mechanic, a consciousness obsessive, and a dad who quit the nine-to-five to
Season 3 Trailer & Cast Reveal
Season 3 of Awaiting Approval is here.22 episodes. 22 conversations. 22 themes. One season.Starting May 7th.Watch the trailer now.E1 — David Martin — Curiosity — 7th May E2 — Debbie Millman — Becoming — 14th May E3 — Nacho Zuccarino — Vulnerability — 21st May E4 — Odeya Noble-Bougay — Continuity — 28th May E5 — Charles Cadbury — Conviction — 4th June E6 — Tamora Petitt — Clarity — 11th June E7 — M
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 18 - Debrief
Season 2 of Awaiting Approval comes to a close with something a little different.No guest this time. No one-word theme attached to a single conversation. Just me, stepping back to look at what this season became.And honestly… I’m still a bit stunned by it.Since launching the show in summer 2025 with no marketing spend, the podcast has grown far beyond anything I expected. More than 10,000 listens.
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 16 : David Sheldon-Hicks - Awareness
David Sheldon-Hicks, founder of Territory Studio, closes out Season 2 of Awaiting Approval with a conversation about awareness… and what it really takes to build something that lasts.We start in the garden with a hot drink. After long stretches in dark studios and edit suites, David will take any excuse to get outside. From there we move into the organised chaos of creative life: shelves of unread
Season 2, Episode 15: Lou Maxon – Care
Lou Maxon returns to Awaiting Approval for part two of our conversation, and this time the theme is care.We meet in a metaphorical Bryant Park with Mountain Dew in hand and quickly move beyond nostalgia into something deeper: what it really means to lead with kindness in an industry obsessed with speed, scale, and minimal viable products.Lou shares the story of the Mr. Rogers figurine that sits on
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 14 : Dan Onufrisyhn - Generosity
Dan Onufrishyn is Director of the Creative Leadership Program at Miami Ad School. But before the title, before the CV, before the impressive brand list, there is something simpler running through this conversation: generosity.We start on a nature walk with green tea in a thermos. Mountains, sketchbooks, laptops, stream-of-consciousness doodles. It quickly becomes clear that Dan thinks in systems,
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 13 : Lucy Jackson - Discipline
Lucy Jackson is the Founder and Chief Clarity Officer at Studio Jackson. She’s also a brilliant example of what happens when you back yourself, even when the plan isn’t fully formed yet.We start with a metaphorical drink in an English country pub and quickly get into Lucy’s love of flexibility, autonomy, and working in whatever spot has the best light. From there, she takes us through a career tha
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 12 - Sandra Gonzalez - Regeneration
Sandra Gonzalez didn't take the expected route into design leadership. She started in engineering, moved into education, product, and front-end development, then taught herself UX by building her own mobile app startup, intentionally designed to give her hands-on experience as a mobile UX designer and help her break into a UX career. That same conviction runs through everything she shares in this
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 11 : Recruiter Roundtable - Empathy
Hiring in 2025? Brutal. Struggle. Chaos. Messy. Exciting.In this special bonus roundtable episode, Adam is joined by five leading recruiters and talent partners – Laura Baker, Erica Fortgang, Sam Gale, Meg Rye and Jared Tredly – for an unfiltered state-of-the-market conversation about what’s really happening in design hiring right now.This isn’t a tips-and-tricks episode. It’s a frank, human discu
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 10 : Odeya Noble-Bougay - Light
By day Odeya Noble-Bougay is Director of Product Design at Aviv Group, but at heart she is a maker. Someone who thinks with her hands, listens deeply, and believes that creativity is as much about care and connection as it is about output. Her journey spans sound engineering, visual communication, early usability work, telecoms at massive scale, property tech, and leading large, pan-European desig
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 9 : William Barraclough - Curiosity
William Barraclough has built a creative career driven less by formal pathways and more by instinct, curiosity, and a willingness to try things before knowing where they might lead. Now Head of Product Design for International Wealth and Premier Banking at HSBC, his journey spans skateboarding, DJing, restaurant work, early digital agencies, global brands, and leadership roles earned without ever
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 8 : Hardy Sidhu - Presence
Hardy Sidhu is the Founder and CEO of Format-3, but labels have never sat comfortably with him. Designer, strategist, business builder, father, philosopher… Hardy has moved fluidly through roles and identities since entering the industry as a teenager, driven less by titles and more by a constant need to feel, question, and stay awake to the moment he is in.In this episode, Hardy joins Adam for a
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 7 : Angela Arnold - Grace
Angela Arnold has built her career by listening deeply. To herself, to others, and to the quiet signals that tell you when something feels right… or when it doesn’t.As Head of Product Design at Genomics England, her work sits at the intersection of craft, care, and impact, shaping experiences that matter in some of the most sensitive and complex human contexts.In this episode, Angela joins Adam fo
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 6 : Joel Gill - Integrity
Joel Gill has lived several creative lives in one. Musician, engineer, global design leader, single father, mentor, and now Chief Experience and AI Officer at Experience Artisan. His story stretches from hiding in a school music room and becoming a session synth player & pianist in 1980s London, to shaping early digital at British Airways, to leading design inside megacorps like Shell, HSBC and S&
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 5 : Venessa Bennett - Growth
Venessa Bennett has built a career that mirrors the evolution of digital itself. She is now Global Director of UX at Dye & Durham, but her journey began in graphic information design, moved through early digital agencies, transport consultancies, comparison sites, and eventually into design leadership, where she found her true sweet spot. Her story is one of intentional growth, constant reinventio
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 4 : Hema Mehta - Courage
In this episode of Awaiting Approval, Adam sits down with Hema Meta for a deeply honest, heart-first conversation about what it means to keep going when life and work both feel heavy. It is a quiet, powerful episode about bravery in the very ordinary moments - telling the truth about how you feel, asking for help, and staying soft in a world that keeps hardening its edges.Across the hour, Hema let
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 3 : Anjali Gajera Patel - Resilience
Anjali Gajera Patel has lived multiple creative lives across India, the UK and now San Francisco, where she is Director of Product Design at Ancestry. Her story spans advertising, freelancing during a global recession, self-taught UX, major in-house roles at Clorox, GAP and Kodak, and the cross-continental journey that eventually led her to one of the most loved consumer brands in the world.In thi
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 2 : Christopher Nguyen - Momentum
Chris Nguyen has lived more creative lives than most designers ever get close to. He is the Founder of UX Playbook, former Head of Product Design at TrueMonkey, and previously UX Manager at Wizeline, where he helped grow the team from a dozen designers to more than forty.In this episode, Chris joins Adam for a fast, honest conversation about designing a career on your own terms. He shares how he w
Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 1 : Cat How - Fearless
Cat How has built one of the most talked-about branding agencies on two continents. She is Co-founder and Executive Creative Director at How&How, D&AD Jury President 2026, and has been recognised among the 100 Women to KNOW in America and 100 Most Influential Creative Leaders in 2025.In this episode, Cat joins Adam for a relaxed, very human conversation about the reality of creative leadership. Sh
Season 2 Trailer
Awaiting Approval Season 2 will premiere 4th December 2025.Yes, the podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership is back. With 17 brand new episodes, 16 brand new guests, and one familiar face from season one!This season I talk with design leaders from Microsoft, Ancestry, Elsevier, Lloyds Banking Group, Vodafone, BMW, Rightmove, Shell, British Airways, HSBC and many more.*You can fi
Exclusive Season 1 Cast Roundtable
Bonus Episode – Season One Exclusive Cast Roundtable ConversationWelcome to this - a roundtable conversation with as many of the cast of Season One as schedules would allow. This is your once in a lifetime chance to sit in on a chat with exceptionally talented creative leaders from a myriad of disciplines including design, advertising, user research, user experience, product design, animation, ind
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 14 : Bonus Episode: Season Debrief
Bonus Episode – Behind the Mic with Adam Jennings, Creator and Host of Awaiting ApprovalWhat does it really take to make a podcast about creative leadership - without a production team, a marketing budget, or a safety net?In this special bonus episode, Adam pulls back the curtain on Awaiting Approval itself. Why it exists. Who it’s for. What it’s becoming. From a quiet idea shared with a partner,
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 13 : Roger Rohatgi
Roger Rohatgi - Chief AI Officer (Former VP Global Head of Design at BP, with past work with brands such as Verizon, Twitter, MTV, Motorola Solutions, Oracle and more)What happens when a motion designer turned creative director becomes one of the world’s leading voices in Human-Centered AI?In this episode, Roger Rohatgi takes us on a remarkable journey from lifeguarding and cleaning gas pumps to l
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 12 : Jason Giles
Jason Giles - VP of Product Design at UserTesting (ex-Ticketmaster, AT&T, Microsoft)From laying carpets by day and playing synths by night to becoming a VP of Product Design at UserTesting, Jason Giles’ journey is anything but conventional.In this episode, we dive into his early struggles with imposter syndrome, how a supportive culture at Microsoft helped him rise, and why he believes some of the
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 11 : Dr Chris Arnold
Dr Chris Arnold – Author, Ethical Marketing Pioneer, Neurodiversity Champion (Former Creative Director and Board Director at Saatchi & Saatchi. Founder of Creative Orchestra and Dyversity Lab)What if your greatest creative strength was the very thing school told you was wrong?In this energetic, honest, and refreshingly unfiltered conversation, Dr Chris Arnold shares how being ADHD and dyslexic bec
Season 1, Episode 10 : Lou Maxon
Lou Maxon - ECD at Maxon House (Acer, BMW, McDonald's, Lego, Lexus, Sothebys, etc)From crafting editorial layouts at Time Out New York to building immersive brand experiences for global giants, Lou Maxon’s career is rooted in curiosity, craft, and storytelling.In this conversation, Lou shares what it’s like to lead from a forest-bound studio on rails, why authenticity beats scale, and how his work
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 9 : Kevin Parry
Kevin Parry – Stop-Motion Animator & Video Wizard (Clients include Disney, Laika and more)From hand-drawn frames to viral visual illusions, Kevin Parry has carved a unique path from the stop-motion stages of Laika to the scroll-stopping magic of social media.In this episode, Kevin reflects on learning animation with pencil and paper, creating one-to-two seconds of footage a day on features like Ku
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 8 : Jane Cook
Jane Cook - Product Experience Design Leader (ex-Uswitch, Global Media, Visa Europe, Vodafone, Dell Technologies, Hasbro, Mattel)From designing Barbie dolls in Milan to leading design teams across fintech, healthtech, and global consumer brands, Jane Cook brings heart, grit, and clarity to every stage of her creative leadership journey.In this episode, Jane shares how an early career in industrial
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 7 : Bill Snebold
Bill Snebold – Creative Director & Entertainment Industry Specialist (Former design leader at Paramount Pictures and Disney; clients include Disney, The CW Network, and PBS)From specifying typographic details for actor resumés in a Hollywood attic to designing marketing materials for Titanic and Mission: Impossible, Bill Snebold has been at the forefront of media innovation.In this episode, Bill t
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 6 : Rashmi Lopez
Rashmi Lopez - Creative Director & Founder (ex-CareRev, Genius Sports, MediaTemple, IGN)From gaming and beauty to healthcare and tech, Rashmi Lopez has led design across some of the most unexpected corners of the creative industry. Her journey? Anything but linear.In this episode, Rashmi opens up about surviving multiple layoffs, chasing community over titles, and why every sketchbook should be yo
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 5 : Dave Zaboski
Dave Zaboski - Artist & Former Animator at Disney, Warner Bros. and Sony (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Fantasia 2000)From animating some of the most iconic films of all time to painting for the Dalai Lama and co-founding a tech startup, Dave Zaboski has spent a lifetime turning thoughts into things - and teaching others to do the same.In this episode, Dave reflects on
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 4 : Laura Baker
Laura Baker - Managing Director at Fearless (Founding member of FIFTY, ex-industrial designer)From Post-It notes in the dark to leading one of the most respected design consultancies in the UK, Laura Baker’s path into leadership was anything but planned.In this episode, Laura shares how an unexpected client decision thrust her into leadership, how a gut-punch moment around burnout reshaped how she
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 3 : Stan Reimgen
Stan Reimgen - Co-Founder at Big (ex-Commerzbank, Zalando, Microsoft, Tomorrow Bank)From launching mobile banking for 1.5 million customers at Commerzbank to building sustainable innovation with pioneers like Zalando, Microsoft, and Tomorrow Bank, Stan Reimgen’s journey is a masterclass in purpose-driven design leadership.In this conversation, we explore his shift from business school to hands-on
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 2 : Charmaine Wyland
S1. E2. : Charmaine Wyland – User Focused Design Leader, (Ex-Gumtree, Just Eat, Expedia, SapientRazorfish)From e-learning in Dublin to redesigning legacy media platforms and leading massive digital transformations for big brands in both the USA and UK, Charmaine Wyland’s creative leadership journey is anything but linear - and all the better for it.In this episode, Charmaine reflects on her serpen
Awaiting Approval. Season 1, Episode 1 : Kevin Frank
S1 E1 : Kevin Frank - Creative Leader (ex-Apple, LinkedIn) and Author of Raising Creative TeamsKevin Frank has spent three decades leading creative at some of the world’s most iconic brands, from launching global campaigns at Apple to redefining brand and culture at LinkedIn. Along the way, he’s earned recognition from Cannes, D&AD, and AdAge’s In-House Agency of the Year and Best Places to Work l
🎙️ Awaiting Approval - Season One Guest Line-up Announcement
For the last 30 years, I’ve led creative teams across every discipline.One thing’s always been true - the most interesting conversations happen with creative people.So I started recording them.Awaiting Approval is a podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership.And Season One is packed with the kinds of guests I wish I’d had access to when I was starting out.From Apple, Microsoft, Par
Awaiting Approval Teaser Trailer
This is a new podcast where I sit down with seasoned leaders from across the creative industries to talk honestly about the work, the lessons, and the leadership moments that shaped them.The episodes are real, unfiltered, and always end with the same simple question.How each guest interprets that question? That’s up to them!And you’ll need to subscribe to find out what the question is.This trailer
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