The Imposterous: Cindy Gallop is sick and tired of brands celebrating and empowering women
Today’s Episode features Cindy Gallop, industry legend and tireless challenger of the status quo, wherever it occurs. So what about International Women’s Day? Cindy wishes that brands and organisations would stop talking about ‘empower’ and ‘celebrate’ and start doing a lot more of the ‘Hiring’, ‘promoting’, ‘investing’ and ‘leading’. In short, stop talking and start doing, like actually doing, all the time and not just when there is a convenient day to talk about it.
Cindy is a force of nature. She regularly speaks at conferences and industry meetings about the need to disrupt the old world thinking when it comes to advertising and marketing, Cindy likes to blow sh!t up. Case in point, Cindy doesn’t believe there is any such thing as Imposter Syndrome. There are only people, especially women, who have never been appreciated, valued and rewarded in the way they deserve.
The consequences of this are decades and decades of people in the industry that have had their potential ignored, hidden and crushed by lack of recognition, which in turn leaves us starved of vital role models. Throughout the conversation, Cindy circles back to the theme ‘You cannot be what you cannot see’ and the fact that male dominance has led to us all missing out to a galaxy of stars that never got the chance to shine.
Cindy moved to New York from London in 1998 to start up the US office of ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty and in 2003 was named Advertising Woman of the Year. She is the founder & CEO of www.ifwerantheworld.com, a radically simple web-meets-world platform designed to turn good intentions into action, one micro action at a time. She is also the founder of www.makelovenotporn.com her online platform business portraying a more humane way of viewing sex, educating couples about consent and creating a meaningful connection. Launched at TED 2009 and has become one of the most talked about lectures on the platform.
Yet despite the 100’s of public speaking engagements, Cindy’s still nervous every time before she gets on stage. What gets her past this is the knowledge that the audience is there for one reason – to hear what you have to say. That we all have to get to the realisation that our words have value and are waiting to be heard.
Cindy leaves us with a Buddhist quote from her grandmother; “The fool says evil cannot touch me, but drop by drop the pitcher fills”. When you are in an environment where you are not appreciated, when you are kept down it destroys your soul atom by atom. Put simply, get the f&ck out.
With a new episode every Monday, The Imposterous is hosted by Michael Knox (ECD, Roller) and Graham Drew (CCO, Grey Malaysia) and as has been created to explore the theory that even the world’s most respected creative professionals suffer pangs of inadequacy that either stifle their potential brilliance or protect them from mediocrity. Tune in to find out how Imposter Syndrome might just be your super power, if you let it.
LISTEN TO THE CINDY GALLOP INTERVIEW
Proudly and lovingly metaversed by We Love Jam Studios – The Imposterous is available now on itunes, Spotify, Google Play or imposterous.com
1 Comment
Fantastic guest – perfect for IWD. Well done to everyone who dud right by women yesterday.
Great podcast. Thanks for making this series.