Media People Podcast

Entrepreneur, senior media executive & leader, award winning media buyer, and one of the early advocates for mental health & wellness in the media industry, Cynthia Rubino, stops by to chat. A Cosssette media alumnus, Cynthia landed at the agency right out of university. In an industry where it’s not uncommon for talent to move around she stayed at Cossette, moving from planning assistant to media manager during her 16-year tenure with the agency. When Novus Media expanded into Canada, Cynthia was one of their first hires. After building and establishing the Novus Canadian office, she moved into teaching where she currently mentors and educates the future media leaders of tomorrow. It was also during this time that Cynthia founded CYTRINE CONSULTANCY, a firm that provides 2 services. The first being media strategy, buying & planning, and the second dedicated to wellness and mental health solutions. Mental health in the media industry is something Cynthia has become very passionate about. She's the founde

Starting a website might be easy, but finding success in today’s digital publishing world is extremely difficult. Both audiences and advertising dollars tend to be concentrated between a few popular platforms, with the rest of the internet duking it out for the leftovers. But that didn’t deter today’s guest, Manny Bahia, from jumping in. Manny is the co-founder and Chief Revenue Office of Daily Hive—a news, information, and entertainment site servicing millennial audiences through localized editions in select Canadian and US cities. Originally a computer science major, Manny shifted to business after taking a microeconomics elective in his first year. It was during his time in University that he co-founded the website Vancity Buzz. Vancity Buzz would later be renamed Daily Hive as part of national expansion strategy into Toronto and Montreal. Expansion into Calgary and Edmonton followed, and just recently Daily Hive has gone international, adding Portland and Seattle to the family. Manny Bahia talks to

You can call Brooke Robinson many things- social media maven, entrepreneur, and multiple sclerosis survivor. One of the OG’s of social media strategy, Brooke’s career started at Sunlife Financial, where she was charged with managing their social media presence. Her experience took her to the agency world, where she would start and head-up, Mindshare Canada’s first-ever social media department. There she worked on campaigns for clients such as American Express and Ford, to name a couple. It was during this time that Brooke was handed her biggest challenge yet- she was diagnosed with an accelerated form of multiple sclerosis. One that had her walking with a cane, and was poised to have her wheelchair bound. A chance meeting with a stranger would set her recovery in motion. He advised Brooke about an experimental treatment in Ottawa. As luck would have it, she qualified for the procedure which put her MS into remission. Brooke’s gone out on her own founding BRS, where she’s lending her marketing experience

Educator and Sales Leader, these are two ways you can describe today’s guest, Ivan Pehar. Ivan’s media career started agency side, where he worked at a number of (agencies) including Mediacom and OMD. His work in performance marketing caught the eye of AOL, which recruited him to manage advertising campaigns for their home internet service. He pivoted to AOL’s media sales department after the company got out of the ISP business, and went on to hold senior media sales roles at Sympatico MSN and Yahoo! Canada. Ivan is currently the Manager of Large Client Solutions at Twitter Canada, and when isn’t helping brands creatively engage audiences in 280 characters or less, he’s teaching college students the fundamentals of advertising.

Many people have made the jump from media sales to agency life. But few have left the world of media sales to start their own agency, but that’s exactly what Zoltan Toth- Managing Director of Mellor Croy has done. A lifelong music aficionado, Zoltan's first media gig was overseeing the jazz time slot at his University's campus radio station. After graduation he parlayed that passion into a full time career, holding positions at Denon Music, Koch Entertainment, and Entertainment One. He pivoted into media sales at Famous Players—looking after the emerging world of in-cinema advertising. Famous Players was eventually bought by Cineplex Entertainment, and after nine years with the company he made his first entrepreneurial foray into agency life with Octopus Media. Zoltan’s latest venture is Mellor Croy, a boutique agency providing senior level media buying/planning expertise to a variety of clients.

From selling domain registrations to media buying & planning to building & managing advertising trading desks, Tessa Ohlendorf has quite the expansive resume. But if you look back at the early part of her life, you’d be hard pressed to find a direct path to the ad tech world. Born & raised in Toronto, Tessa’s early passions were rooted in photography and art. But it was philosophy that captured her mind and would become the cornerstone of her university education. After university, Tessa entered the world of internet marketing- holding positions Tucows & HostCompare. Tessa would eventually pack a suitcase for New York City and the life of a Madison Avenue media executive. While in New York, she held senior roles at CrossMedia and Convergence Point, all while starting her own agency— Online Media Management. The great recession of 2008 brought Tessa back home to Toronto where she went on to senior roles at Mindshare. She’s the founding employee of Cadreon’s Canadian office, and is now leading MightHive’s

Jamie Schouela, Blue Ant Media's President of Canadian Media stops by to chat. A Montreal native with a life-long passion entertainment, Jamie always found a way to tie this passion into both his academic and work life. From campus DJ to summer student running the promo van for a Montreal radio station, after university Jamie moved into full-time marketing gigs for some of the biggest names in Canadian media including Alliance Atlantis, Canwest, and Shaw Media.

The Media People Podcast turns the big 3-0! For our 30th episode we get a look into the life and career of educator & entrepreneur, Emily Baillie. The founder of Compass Content Marketing, Emily’s story starts in the small town of Grand Bend, Ontario, and continues to cities like Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, along with a brief stint in Dublin, Ireland. Social justice has played a major part in her career. Emily’s held positions at both the Irish Human Right’s Commission and Legal Aid Ontario. In-between she’s managed to mesh her passion for travel with communications, heading up content marketing for luxury travel group, Kensington Tours. Not only is Emily her own boss, but she is also putting her experience to work in the classroom, teaching the future marketers of tomorrow at McMaster University and Humber College.

Have you ever volunteered your way into a management role? Tracy Ball has. The founder of Stars & Strollers- a program where parents enjoy a day at the movies with their toddlers, impressed corporate partner Cineplex so much that they bought the idea, and made her made their manager of groups sales and special events. But this just one of many roles in the career of Tracy Ball. This Waterdown native studied Broadcast Journalism at Mohawk College. After graduation she jumped into the entertainment industry, booking talent for campus events. From there she pivoted into media, holding sales support and leadership roles at the CBC, Sun TV, Pelmorex Media, AcuityAds, among others. She made the jump from media sales into the agency world, and now heads-up programmatic advertising at INNOCEAN Worldwide Canada.

Tyler Cameron, published author and media sales leader stops by to chat. What make’s his story so interesting is that it’s full of career jumps and pivots. Born & raised in small-town Northern Ontario, Tyler relocated to study radio broadcasting at college in Hamilton, Ontario. After college he pivoted into media buying and planning, landing at mega media agency, OMD. From there he made the jump to media sales, hocking TV and digital ad space at TheScore, Rogers Media, and Brightroll. Tyler is currently the head of partnerships at True Calling, but he’s also a published author. He'll give us a peak into his first book- A Dude’s Guide to Surviving his Wedding.

Yuli Shumsky, the Director of Digital Marketing & Operations for Canadian financial institution, CIBC, stops by to chat. Born in the Ukraine before the fall of communism, Yuli, emigrated to Canada as a teenager. He went on to study at York University in Toronto, and quickly caught the advertising bug through a summer marketing gig. He liked both the work and the paycheque, and decided to swap his life around going from full time student and part time employee, to part time student and full time employee. The rest of his story reads like an unofficial history of programmatic advertising, where we worked on early digital bidding platforms well before anyone had coined the terms real-time-bidding or programmatic. Yuli is also one of the founding members of Toronto AdOps, a not-for-profit organization aimed at bringing together advertising operations professionals from all corners of advertising industry.

INNOCEAN Worldwide Canada Head of Insights & Analytics - Seif Khemaissia, stops by. Born in Algeria, Seif's personal and professional journey has taken him across four continents, and from entrepreneur to analytics & ROI guru. He shares with us his thoughts on the media industry- and where he thinks it's all going, his passion for football, and why he calls retired Manchester United player Eric Cantona, one of his heroes.

From the front desk to the corner office: Michelle Kelly stops by to talk about her rise from receptionist to Editor-In-Chief of Cottage Life Magazine.

Stewart Stevenson is the president and founder of The Social Producers- a Toronto-based startup focused on simplifying the social video production process for both brands and consumers. A digital media veteran, Stewart kicked-off his career at internet domain & directory company N49. From there he made the jump to the agency world, holding senior level positions at places such as Cossette Media, Mediacom, Klick Health, and OMD. Stewart chats with us about his time in the industry, where he got the idea for The Social Producers, and why he chose to go out on his own.

Tom Yawney is both the head of business development and a partner at The influence Agency- A Toronto-based agency leading the charge in the influencer marketing space. Tom’s career path has had some interesting turns- with more pivots than linear progressions. Some highlights include playing hockey in Australia and the Netherlands, scriptwriting for TSN, and working as a consultant for an internet marketing company. What makes Tom’s story unique is that unlike other entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Media People Podcast- with businesses in their 4th, 5th, or 6th year of operation, is that at time of recording The Influence Agency is just four months old.

In this episode we chat with Jed Schneiderman, President & Co-Founder of Tapped Mobile- a mobile-focused ad tech solutions company. But media and tech weren’t always part of his story. Jed started out in the garment industry before making the jump to CPG powerhouse, Procter & Gamble. His professional media career kicked off at AOL- back when dial-up subscribers were just as important as ad sales. Jed’s held senior roles at Digital Cement, Echo Marketing, Bell Media, and Microsoft- where he helped launch the Bing search engine to the Canadian Market.

My guest is Shelley Middlebrook, President of Fifth Story- a company that specializes in content marketing solutions and strategies. Shelley started her professional career selling cars, but a recession moved her into media sales as a print rep, working for some of Quebecor’s B2B publications. Her next role was at Brunico Communications, where she started an impressive 11-year stint capped off with her rising to the role Executive Vice President. She pivoted to broadcast media at the CBC, and after holding senior roles at Rogers Media, the Globe and Mail, and Postmedia, she’s moved into the agency world.

Today we get a peek into the life of an executive at a global media agency. Scott Stewart, Managing Director, Head of Strategy, for Maxus Canada stops by to chat. Scott’s path into the media world didn’t start directly out of school. After taking some time to be a self-proclaimed snowboard bum in Kelowna, British Columbia, Scott landed his first media gig at the legendary Canadian advertising firm, Vickers & Benson. From there he rose through the industry ranks, assuming senior roles at agencies such as Vizuem, Carat, and UM. So what’s Scott’s secret to success? More than anything else, he credits having great mentors.

From client side, to supplier side, to agency side- Ray Reid has had one of the most well rounded media careers. Ray can also add one other title to his resume: entrepreneur. The former head of Neo@Ogilivy sits down to chat with us about his two new endeavours: advertience, a digital media agency and consulting firm, and Digital AdLab, an education company brining practical and theoretical programmatic education to the masses.

Today’s guest is Dave Howlett, RHB. He’s the founder and Managing Director of Real Human Being Inc.- a keynote speaking company focused on helping organizations and their employee’s breakdown silos and transcend tribalism. But being an entrepreneur is just one of the many hats this self-proclaimed 'military brat' wears. Dave is also a distinguished toastmaster, veteran scuba dive instructor, triathlete, and most recently, published author. Dave Howlett drops by to chat with us about growing up in a military family during the cold war, the perfect pitch for selling an electric toothbrush to dentists, his personal experiences with entrepreneurship, and the Real Human Being philosophy for breaking down silos and shifting gears.