Meeting of the Minds brings together two different points of view from an industry rookie and an experienced expert.
The Mediaweek series aims to showcase their diverse perspectives, thoughts and opinions.
This month’s Meeting of the Minds sees Tyler Greer and Adam Pinto from News Corp Australia reveal their leadership heroes, current streaming binge and career goals for 2023.
Tyler Greer – General Manager Client Strategy, Solutions & CPM Newsamp VIC, SA & WA
Tyler Greer
Best career advice – “The work always wins”. I have no idea who said it, and it’s possible I made it up myself (if it turns out I did, and you use it, please credit me). It’s slightly utopian but, by god, I gotta believe it.
My favourite podcast/read – For podcasts, I move between geo-politics and footy and tend to believe footy holds the more strategic thinking. As for reading, it’s mostly fiction.
Current streaming binge – I just started the Arnie doco on Netflix because I can relate to his drive, charisma, and enormously muscular physique.
Leadership hero – Single person heroic leadership is a little out of vogue right now but in my view people follow people, and a singular leader can make an enormous difference to a team. I won’t name them, but at News I work with a couple of the best leaders I have ever seen, both above and below me. I learn something from them daily.
I wish someone had told me – That, for someone like me, spending 18 months trying to learn Excel was a total waste of everybody’s time.
Guilty content pleasure – I’m currently fixating on UFO footage. And if the conspiracy theories are to be believed these highly advanced, big-brained intergalactic travellers are, unsurprisingly, bald-headed.
Best training course/session – Clarety coaching by Clare Robinson has stuck with me because I learned a lot about myself, where I fit into teams, and how to build a great crew around me.
Your mentor – My father is an architect and he taught me how to look at ideas as the coming together of many parts into a whole. But so far as learning from others goes, I try to get as much as I can from young people and the way they view the world, which is generally more culturally plugged-in, optimistic and technically (especially in Excel) proficient than mine.
Hot medium or show – You’re asking a bloke whose greatest earthly pleasure is to spend 3 hours on a Saturday wandering the weekend newspapers. That said, shoppable content is the biggest and most interesting story in media and has barely begun to make the impact it surely will.
Favourite media event – This year I made my acclaimed debut at Cannes in Cairns. As a networking event, it was hard to beat – though Peter Zavic’s induction into this year’s Media Hall of Fame might give it a good shake. But what I really love is a proper long lunch with clients. Though increasingly rare and costly, they are hard to beat.
Wish I’d done that – The large out-of-home billboard at St.Kilda Junction for CUB that read “Brewed locally, just 3 hours up Punt Road”. A genius example of a sense of place.
Career goal for 2023 – The same career goal as every year: trying to make sure the vision I hold is not pure madness and can be brought to life. Cause the work always wins.
Adam Pinto – Client Strategy Director, Newsamp VIC, SA & WA – News Corp Australia
Adam Pinto
Best career advice – Tolerate discomfort. It will allow you to play with problems longer without feeling the need to solve them, which often means you come up with more original solutions.
My favourite podcast/read – It may be very Americana, but I’m enjoying the irreverence of geopolitical strategist, author and podcaster Peter Zeihan. He is an expert in global energy production, demographics and national security so he shares a really interesting, and freakishly accurate view on how the world works.
Current streaming binge – I’m about 13 years late to the apocalypse, but The Walking Dead is getting a good run at my place. As a parent of toddlers, I feel connected to the show’s themes of conflict, being pushed to the limits, and navigating a world of chaos and yuckiness.
Leadership hero – My older sister Crystal. She runs her own retail business 7 days a week. Has built an upcycled, vegan-friendly handbag and accessories brand on her own called STL. Is a mum of three very active and super bright children, one with special needs. And on top of all of that, she is the primary caregiver and helper to our parents. I don’t know anyone that is as hard-working, supportive and galvanising as she is.
I wish someone had told me – To take my annual leave more consistently over my career. I always waited till I had somewhere to travel, when I should have been taking it to simply unplug and unwind.
Guilty content pleasure – Doomsday prepping. Everything from reading lists of things to pack the car with when you need to get out of town in a rush, to looking at secluded properties on REA that sit outside of a nuclear blast radius and have plenty of fresh water supply….. I blame TWD and Zeihan for this!
Best training course/session – A few years back I made it into national selection for Young Lions, where we were all put into presentation training with a guy that can only be described as one of those super jacked, pyramid scheming, TikTok life coaches. Within the first 10 mins of meeting him he took us to a busy lunch spot in Sydney and handed each group a topic on a strip of paper.
Mine was ‘Why men should be allowed to wear shorts to work’, noted; an easier sell in modern times. After we each got our topic, without warning, and zero F’s to give, he jumped up on top of a table, started clapping and screaming at the hundred or so people in the area. Commanding each of them to listen in because we had something important to say.
We then had to join him on the table and present our case as loud as we possibly could. It was terrifying and humiliating, but hands down the best presentation training I have ever done. The rest of his 2 day workshop was a little more textbook, but built on the fact that any presentation we do moving forward, would never be as scary as that.
Your mentor – The other guy in this feature. Tyler Greer. He is that irritatingly smart and provocative mentor that all strategists need in their life. A simple question from Tyler can challenge you in ways you had never conceived, either fanning the flames of your inner creativity or reminding you to pull your head out of your own arse. He is thoughtful and considerate, always available to support and most of all hilarious, which has made working with him for so long tolerable.
Hot medium or show – News Corp Australia’s total commerce shoppable experiences suite which turns ads, content and even editorial coverage into your new retail shopfront.
Favourite media event – Media Hall of Fame. x10 when Swifty hosts it.
Wish I’d done that – It’s a long list made up of jobs, adventures, hobbies, investments, people.
Career goal for 2023 – Firstly I would like to meet as many of the strategy community in Melbourne as possible over the next few months and learn all about them and their clients. I think I have a lot of value to add from over 10 years working in agency strategy teams. Then before the year is out I’d like to see the News Corp Australia Newsamp team stand side by side with some of those magnificent agency people on media awards night. That would be a boost!
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Top image: Tyler Greer and Adam Pinto