Rebel in a Black T-shirt: Taking Your Career From PC to Punk Rock with Rodd Chant

<p>What does it take to build a creative career that answers to no one?</p><p>Rodd Chant has spent over 20 years as a Creative Director and Chief Creative Officer, building agencies and creative teams across New York, Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok, and Sydney.</p><p>He&#39;s won Cannes Lions, One Show, and Clio awards, been named a LinkedIn Top Voice, and built the micro-agency model years before anyone called it that.</p><p>In this episode of The Flame, host Bob Raynor reconnects with the mentor who helped him rebuild after a layoff in 2024. Bob and Rodd talk about what it really takes to build an independent creative career: staying small onpurpose, self-promotion in an industry that&#39;s afraid of it, why the holding company model is collapsing, and why he&#39;s not the least bit worried about AI.</p><p><strong>Topics covered:</strong></p><ul><li> Building micro-agencies before the term existed, and running creative teams across five countries</li><li>Why self-promotion isn&#39;t optional if you want a sustainable creative career</li><li>What to do first if you&#39;ve just been laid off with no plan</li><li>The &quot;punk band&quot; model: why a four-person team can be a billion-dollar creative business</li><li>Why big brands like Levi&#39;s are already walking away from traditional agency-of-record relationships</li><li>The real reason clients aren&#39;t as panicked about AI as agencies are</li><li>Why AI can&#39;t replicate the spontaneity that makes great commercials and films work</li><li>Losing and relighting a creative flame after burning out in agency leadership</li><li>What Rodd wants his career to actually stand for, thirty years in</li></ul><p><strong>Key quotes:</strong>&quot;There&#39;s eight point six billion people on this spinning space rock. Majority of them don&#39;t know you&#39;re alive.&quot;</p><p>&quot;If you work in advertising and you don&#39;t like self-promotion, you&#39;re probably in the wrong business.&quot;</p><p>&quot;It&#39;s not how good you are, it&#39;s how good you want to be.&quot;</p><p>&quot;You can&#39;t eat an award.&quot;</p><p>Whether you&#39;re rebuilding after a layoff, running your own creative business, or just tired of the old agency playbook, this conversation has something for you.</p><p>CHAPTERS• 00:00 — Two Years Later: Bob and Rodd Reconnect• 00:37 — Building Micro-Agencies Before They Had a Name• 04:10 — Living and Working Across Cultures: Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok, New York• 08:00 — Does Staying in One