Author Archives: Dave Young

About Dave Young

I'm Dave Young, a senior Partner at the Wizard of Ads group. Business owners hire us to help them grow their business by buying more efficient media schedules, writing more effective ads, building and optimizing their web assets. Our long-term clients almost all enjoy growth through tough economic times. We position them to get more than their fair share of business. I have a team of partners, each with specific skill sets. When a business owner wants to hire us, I listen to their story and put the team together that can make a difference for them. Kinda simple, huh? One more thing...I'm also a 2-star Admiral in The Great Navy of the state of Nebraska, in case that means anything to you.

BrandingBlog Radio: Shawn Phillips of Full Strength

1 Reply

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:21 — 40.4MB) | Embed

Confession: I never feel more out of my element than when I’m hanging out with athletes.

I met Shawn Phillips a few years ago and have slowly gotten to know him a bit in the last 6 months. I’m one of those “unfit” clueless people who never heard of his brother Bill’s book “Body for Life” back when it was changing the world. I managed to be totally clueless while they grew their EAS supplement company and sold it. I

Yep, that was me, sitting on my ass watching TV while Shawn was changing the shape of the world.

So, why am I interviewing Shawn? Hey, it’s never too late to start paying attention to getting stronger and eating better and growing older with a bit of grace. Is it?

It’s an admittedly awkward interview on my part. It’s half confession, half therapy session.

Shawn’s passion is men’s health in those “middle” years. We’re not young guys any more and we’re not old-timers.

I like his idea of sustainable fitness. I like his Full Strength protein shakes. I like Shawn’s passion for education and his concern for the state of men’s health.

Here’s a chart from his book, Strength For Life, that will help you understand the phases of fitness that he and I discussed. I hope you enjoy the interview.

BrandingBlog Radio: Roy Williams and The Pendulum

2 Replies

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:30 — 32.4MB) | Embed

Wow. I told Roy Williams that I wanted to hear the scary bits about his new book, Pendulum: Where We’ve Been, How We Got There, Where We’re Headed, he reluctantly agreed. He’s traced back the trends of societal change 3,000 years. What he’s found will give you a few reasons for apprehension the next 20 years or so.

Don’t expect many direct applications to advertising and marketing. You won’t find them in this book.

However, he doesn’t want to be known for just ringing the alarm bell and sending us all into hiding. So, he will be following the Pendulum with a new book called Invisible Heros. These are the type of people who can lead us out of whatever mess we find ourselves mired in for the next two decades.

If I were you, I’d have a happy movie ready to play after you listen to this one. You’ll need it.

BrandingBlog Radio: Brett Feinstein – Political Advertising

2 Replies

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:11 — 56.7MB) | Embed

Brett Feinstein - no doubt going negative

Brett Feinstein is a partner in the political advertising agency Pound & Feinstein.

He’s one of those guys that you have to get to know to understand. He’s loved and admired by those who take the time. If you know Brett Feinstein only superficially through Facebook or another near anonymous web arena, you probably only think you know him. That’s because he treats Facebook as his own psychology lab; questioning, pushing, shocking and provoking to see what kind of reaction he can get. It can be alarming…if you don’t know Brett.

I’ve known him for almost 10 years now and I always enjoy getting together for a meal when I can catch up with him or on Skype for a podcast interview. We talked for almost 4 hours. Most of it after I shut down the recorder.

I still ended up cutting about 30 minutes out of our official podcast interview just to get it close to an hour.

If you’re a student of marketing and advertising, you’re gonna like this one. We compare and contrast the various strategies used by retailers and candidates. I was surprised, enlightened and entertained through the entire conversation and I hope you will be too.

What I left on the cutting room floor was mostly a conversation about Facebook that got a little personal for a few third parties. So, I decided not to share it.

We did cover campaign strategy, messaging, research, direct mail and the life of a political campaign staffer.