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 Jules Brahe and Erfan Azyze from The Pistol reveal their leadership heroes, current streaming binge and career goals for 2023.
Jules Brahe, Business Director at The Pistol
Jules Brahe
Career advice: Take every opportunity, even if you think it’s not taking you where you thought you wanted to go.
Current streaming binge: ‘And just like that…’ – I am an old school Sex and the City fan.
My favorite podcast/read: Podcast: Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett, and I am pretty heavily invested in Joe Rogan.
Leadership Hero: I was lucky enough to work at St George Bank when Gail Kelly was CEO, she knew everyone by name and would stop me in the corridor to ask how a project was going. Everyone felt personally connected to the achievement of business-wide goals.
I wish someone had told me: Actually, on this one, I am glad someone told me that we are not saving babies. Don’t lose sleep on things that really won’t matter in a couple of weeks time, just do the best you can and move on.
Guilty Content Pleasure: True Crime Podcasts and Crime TV series, Deadloch is awesome!
Best Training Course: I did a Certificate IV in HR last year, as I took over more responsibility in this space at The Pistol. I learnt so much practical info in 6 months.
My Mentor: A friend who has their own business, she always has valuable insight and offers a different point of view.
Hot Medium or Show: obviously TikTok, you can’t NOT be on it.
Fave Media Event: I am based in Noosa these days, so I attend the monthly ‘REBOOT’, a group for Digital agencies based on the Sunshine Coast.
Wish I had done that: I say yes to most things, so I have no regrets on anything – but I wish I had launched an idea I had about 20 years ago, Julie’s poolies – fancy pool lilos!
Career Goals for 2023: I just completed the Reiss Motivation Profile training, so I am keen to profile at least 50 people to see and understand peoples internal drivers and desires. I’m eager to see how this can impact their career goals.
Erfan Azyze, SEM Specialist at The Pistol
Erfan Azyze
Best career advice: When faced with an issue, try fixing it yourself: trial-and-error is how we learn, and then always share your learnings with the wider team. Not only do you develop your problem-solving skills, but you could also make someone’s day.
My favorite podcast/read: My favorite non-fiction read has to be “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker. It completely changed the way I look at sleep and has changed my life for the better.
“The Overstory” by Richard Powers was my favorite read last year. It has various storylines that intertwine with trees as its main theme.
I’m not really a podcast fan (controversial, I know).
Current streaming binge: I just finished The Last of Us, and I can’t recommend it enough. I’ll be killing time until season 2 comes out.
Leadership hero
This might be a bit left field, but Dan Barrett has been an inspiration to me! I’ve been a fan of his music for a while and later found out he has a separate life where he runs an SEO agency. He also has a great blog where he talks about how he approaches things in both his work and his personal life.
I wish someone had told me: Sometimes there is no right or wrong answer; you just need to do what feels right and deal with any consequences as they arise.
Guilty content pleasure: I’m a YouTube fiend; it’s gotten to the point where Youtube is struggling to recommend me new videos.
I’m also a bit obsessed with reading through a musician’s Wikipedia page and learning everything about them.
Best training course/session:Any training course that forces you to actually do the work, instead of just reading and listening.
Your mentor: I’ve found The Pistol to be a great place to start my career. I’ve not only learned from people with more experience, but also from people newer to the industry, I think there’s a culture of openness and authenticity that allows you to soak it all in.
Hot medium or show: Definitely TikTok. My For You Page is way too specific and accurate sometimes, but I’m not complaining.
Favorite media event: Probably the Australian Open considering I’ve attended a few years in a row now. Although I don’t think I like tennis. Having to stay silent when they’re playing is a bit silly.
Wish I’d done that: When I was at University in Malaysia, one of our assignments required us to develop and present an idea for an app. My friends and I had this app idea for booking sports venues as well as joining pick-up games.
We only had to present the app idea, and we left it at that. A few years later, I heard through the uni grapevine that our presentation was shared at uni orientation, and someone from the same uni created a similar app that’s doing well now.
Career goal for 2023: Led by my specific interest in performance, I was fortunate to be able to shape my career progression at The Pistol from an Account Management role to SEM Specialist.
So, the goal for 2023 is to gain confidence in my new role, as well as stay up-to-date with all the changes in AI and continue to incorporate them in my current role to stay ahead of the game
