One Take with Jan Weinstein

We catch Jan fresh off a hot-air balloon safari, a great time to talk about defining moments.

“Marcelo, this was when we worked together at FCB. The reason I got the job at FCB – I had worked at Initiative prior to that—was entirely because of the relationships that I had cultivated in the industry and a light bulb went off in my head: I realized that my career was going to be built on relationships. Because who you know and how you show up and the chemistry you build with people and the relationships that you foster are gonna be as important, if not more important than what you know.”

What change in our industry she could have never predicted? “Okay, I never would have imagined the influence that social media would have on our entire culture and the media landscape. Back in the days when we first started dabbling with it, we had Friendster accounts, like, what's your Friendster name or whatever it was? But once social really started to boom as a platform, it became like an unprecedented platform for not only culture, but how to market products and services.”

How did she cope? First, hiring responsible digital opinion leaders. Second, create compelling stories from real patients. Third, use third-party verification for trusted platforms.

Advice to a CEO or CMO facing a 55+ professional? “First, I'd say hire them, hire us, right? The two words that I would probably say to a CEO or CMO is work ethic. We grew up in an industry and a profession where we took pride in working hard to get the job done. Someone of the certain age, person of age, they're not gonna be resistant to checking emails or checking their phone in off hours because we have the capability to better balance our lives and our work. The other piece of advice that I would give is that consider return on investment.”