DesuckifyWork®

Hosted by TJ Bennett - Executive Coach, Chief Desuckifier

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152

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Oct 2026

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About the show

We spend about half our waking lives working. Let’s make that time a bit better, shall we? And let’s chat with desuckifiers who are out there making it happen, every day. tjbennett.substack.com

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October 13, 202648 min

Ep 149 | How to get creative without going crazy with Justin Bajan

Your agency doesn’t have to be insane to produce great work. We’ve romanticized chaos in this business for years. 🙀 The weekly (daily?) fire drill🙀 The wall-to-wall meetings🙀 The indecisiveness masquerading as niceness Justin Bajan and his partner Dustin Artz wanted something different. After years riding the big-agency roller coaster, they created Familiar Creatures with an explicit goal to prioritize stability. Okay, maybe they were a little insane to think they could pull that off. But here they are 8 years later inventing stuff like Protein Vapes for Crunch Fitness—a completely fictional product delivering 35 grams of protein per puff. All while keeping the culture 93.7% chaos-free. Steadiness hasn’t made the agency less creative. It’s helped create the conditions for creativity:😺 People feel safe enough to experiment😺 Curious enough to follow strange ideas😺 Grounded enough not to chase every new trend In this episode, Justin and I talk about how to create enough stability for people to do brave work, how to protect your agency’s culture from bad hires, bad clients and bad decisions—and how to remain curious enough to keep stability from turning into complacency. As Justin says, mystery is where the juice is. (Vape juice?) — Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work less chaotic, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.) Let the desuckifying begin. — Follow Justin on LinkedIn and visit familiarcreatures.com to see what he and the team are creating. If your agency would like to try this whole stability and creativity thing, let’s talk. Schedule a free half-hour Chaos to Clarity session and we’ll identify one thing that could make your agency 2% less crazy—without making the work any percent more blah. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt . Bye, everyone! — Bonus question from Justin: Why did you choose this business? And what’s keeping you in it? Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe

October 6, 202653 min

Ep 148 | How networking can be less painful and more useful with Greg Roche

Networking doesn’t have to involve a room full of strangers. Or shotguns. After Greg Roche was laid off, someone invited him to a networking event built around sporting clays—which is apparently like golf, but with guns. Greg sat in his car thinking: “There has to be a better way to do this.” There is. Networking can be one conversation with someone you already know. No name tags. No elevator pitch. Just two people talking like actual people. Greg writes a Substack called The Introverted Networker . He helps people build genuine professional relationships without forcing themselves into situations that make them want to fake their own deaths. And those relationships matter. The first time Greg lost his job, it took him three months to find another. After intentionally building his network, his next job search took three weeks. But networking isn’t useful only when you need something. Knowing the people around us builds trust. It reduces conflict. It makes asking for (and offering) help easier—and work a hell of a lot more enjoyable. In this episode, we talk about:😼 How introverts can network without “networking.”😼 Why your best starting point is someone you already know.😼 How one good conversation can create opportunities you never saw coming. — Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work less chaotic, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.) Let the desuckifying begin. — Follow Greg on LinkedIn and subscribe to The Introverted Networker for practical tips that won’t require you to “work the room.” And if you’d like your agency to be 20% less crazy, let’s talk. Schedule a free half-hour “Chaos to Clarity” session and we’ll identify one place to start making the work less painful. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt . Bye, everyone! — Bonus question from Greg: When has a relationship helped you be at your best at work? Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe

September 29, 20261 hr 0 min

Ep 147 | Helping agencies relearn the art of communication with Django Weisz Blanchetta

Work sucks less when we talk to each other like human beings. Especially creative work. People need to feel safe asking dumb questions, challenging assumptions, and saying, “I have no idea what you mean,” before everyone wastes three days heading in the wrong direction. We try to solve this with process. 😼 We add another Slack channel.😼 Schedule another (ten) meeting(s).😼 Try our 17th project management software in the past 3 years And no one ever thinks to just pick up the damn phone. Communication isn’t a soft skill. It’s part of the agency’s creative infrastructure. And I can help you build it. When people understand one another, they collaborate. They challenge each other. They spend less time decoding half-thoughts and more time doing cool s**t. Django Weisz Blanchetta gets it. And he’s living it every day as co-founder of Superheroes . Their mission is to save the world from boring advertising. A-freakin’ men. Django knows the way to do that is to get people talking. You know, that thing we used to do before we started hiding behind tools and screens? Sometimes that means reminding folks we’re actually capable of it. At their daily lunch around the big table in the agency, there are two rules:🐱 No phones.🐱 No talking about work. I can feel your panic through the screen. But you get used to it, and even enjoy it. Django swears. This is the work. Meanwhile, we’ve set up systems in most of our agencies that set fire to our collective EQ. The one thing that will actually keep us distinct from the robots. We should stop doing that. — Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work less chaotic, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.) Let the desuckifying begin. — You can follow Django on LinkedIn and visit hellosuperheroes.com to see how the agency is saving the world from boring advertising. If communication breakdowns keep producing confusion, rework and unnecessary chaos at your agency, let’s talk. Schedule a free half-hour “Chaos to Clarity” session and we’ll identify where communication is breaking down—and one place to start creating the conditions for better work. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt . Bye, everyone! — Bonus question from Django: What’s one thing your agency does—outside the work itself—that helps people connect and create better work together? Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe

September 22, 20261 hr 14 min

Ep 146 | Let's make work less soul sucking with Greg Harrod

Work sucks less when it doesn’t suck the life out of us. Obvious, right? And yet, agency leaders spend a lot of time thinking about utilization, capacity, deadlines and deliverables—and very little time thinking about what kind of work actually gives their people energy. So the brilliant strategist spends half her week building decks. The creative director becomes a project manager. The agency founder approves every decision down to the brand of sparkling water in the fridge. Everyone is busy. Nobody is working at their best. And the whole place feels more chaotic than it needs to. This is one of the reasons I believe agency chaos isn’t simply a workload problem. It’s often a clarity problem. This is one of the reasons I believe agency chaos isn’t simply a workload problem. It’s often an alignment problem. Are the right people doing the right work? Does everyone know what they own? Are people spending enough time using their strengths—or is too much of their energy being drained by work that belongs somewhere else? That’s why I loved this week’s conversation with Greg Harrod . Greg uses the Six Types of Working Genius to help leaders understand how work moves from an idea to a finished product—and where the wrong people, unclear ownership or missing capabilities can cause it to fall apart. It gives teams a shared language for something we often feel but can’t articulate:“I can do this work. But if I have to do it every day, I will cut a fool.” In this episode, we talk about: 🐱 Why being capable of doing something doesn’t mean you should own it.🐱 Why agencies create rework when they leap from ideas directly into execution.🐱 How understanding what energizes your people can reduce friction, confusion and burnout. Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work less chaotic, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.) Let the desuckifying begin. You can follow Greg on LinkedIn and take his free Leadership Clarity Scorecard to see where a lack of clarity may be making leadership harder than it needs to be. And if you’re leading an agency where everyone is working their asses off—but the place still feels stuck in permanent fire-drill mode—let’s talk. Schedule a free half-hour “Chaos to Clarity” session and we’ll look at what’s creating the chaos and identify one place to start making work feel calmer, clearer and less life-sucking. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt. Bye, everyone! Bonus question from Greg: Do you know your working genius pairing? If so, how has that impacted what you do at work? Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe

September 15, 202658 min

Ep 145 | How to be an agency optimist in a crazy world with Stephen Brown

If you spend enough time reading about the agency business, you might think we’re all completely screwed. AI. Shrinking budgets. Procurement. Tariffs and trade wars. Another holding-company reorg announced before you’ve finished your McMuffin. But Stephen Brown isn’t buying the doom and gloom. After 23 years as co-founder and CEO of Fuse Create , Stephen has seen it all. He’s survived major client losses, recessions, digital disruption and a pandemic. And today, while others are panicking, he’s doubling down. Not blindly. Optimism, for Stephen, means staying grounded in the fundamentals: build real client relationships, create great work, know exactly who you are—and remain flexible about the role you can play. In this episode, we talk about: 🐱 Why culture is one of your most critical business assets. 🐱 Why agencies need to treat themselves like clients. 🐱 Why the future still belongs to people willing to build. — Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.) Let the desuckifying begin. — You can follow Stephen on LinkedIn. And check out fusecreate.com to learn more about his agency. If you enjoyed the conversation and want to cut through the chaos so your agency teams can stop living in fire-drill mode 24/7, let’s schedule a free half-hour “Chaos to Clarity” session . Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt! Bye, everyone! — Bonus questions from Stephen: What is the moment in your career where you felt most inspired or most invigorated or most energized? Can you reflect on the worst boss you’ve ever had? Great, now do the opposite. Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe

September 8, 20261 hr 4 min

Ep 144 | Making change at work less scary with Allen Hardin

“There’s gonna be some changes around here.” Ruh-roh. That’s the reaction most of us have when leaders announce an exciting new initiative, new tech or new process. Why’s that? Because people are hardwired to fear change. Especially in a world where everything seems rootless and chaotic. You can’t just dump a steaming pile of new on everyone’s heads and expect them to smile and fall in line. Allen Hardin works with companies to get this right. To lead through change in a way that isn’t scary, isn’t disruptive and actually has a chance of sticking. His company, Joyful, has been in this work for years. And their approach is rooted in actual human behavior vs. wishful thinking. It’s called the LUCID model: 🐱 Leader-modeled : Leaders must visibly adopt new behaviors to provide a clear example. 🐱 Urgent : A sense of urgency signals the change’s importance and keeps it prioritized. 🐱 Clear : The “why,” “how,” and “what” must be articulated for all audiences, connecting the change to the organization’s mission, values, or strategy. 🐱 Inspiring : Frame the change to be something people want to be part of, not are obligated to do. 🐱 Dynamic : Communicate consistently across all channels (1-on-1s, town halls, video) to ensure the message is ever-present. That first bullet is so critical. Leaders can’t dump and dash when it comes to this stuff. Get on board. Show ‘em how it’s done. Be the change and all that. Communicating the WHY clearly is also huge. I hear this from my clients all the time… if I just understood the reasoning behind this new thing, I’d get on board. Without that clarity, most of us look like bad politicians (redundant?) when trying to articulate things to our teams. Hemming, hawing and umming and ahhing our way to blank stares from everyone. No blank stares during this conversation. Hope you enjoy. Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.) Let the desuckifying begin. You can follow Allen on LinkedIn. And check out joyful.co to learn more about his company and their work. If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to explore what a more human work culture could look like, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session . Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt ! Bye, everyone! Bonus question from Allen: If there’s one action that you can take today to positively impact your organization’s culture or experience, what would that be? Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe

September 1, 202646 min

Ep 143 | How to survive and confront false urgency at work with Eric Recker

False urgency is killing us. Literally. Nearly a million people die each year from workplace-related stress. And yet we keep feeding the beast. What if we just stopped? What if we asked the simple question, “is this ASAP BS?” Most of it is. And it’s not just killing us—it’s making us less productive, less creative and less useful. Is that really what we’re trying to do here? Eric Recker decided he didn’t want to play that game anymore. He was burnt out. Working crazy hours running his dental practice, $3 million in debt, serving on five boards, and coaching two soccer teams. Oh, he was also training for two triathlons. All to prove he was “good enough.” We’re all good enough. And we’re all trying to fill the hole that some childhood wound has left open for far too long. We don’t have to kill ourselves to fill ourselves. Eric wrote a book called “The False Sense of Urgency and how to #WINtheNOW” that outlines a saner and safer approach. 🐱 Focus on the current moment instead of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.🐱 Shift from loss-focused thinking to impact-focused thinking.🐱 Curate your information diet—train the algorithms to feed you stuff that feeds your soul. My favorite thing Eric mentioned was something he calls “micro-resets.” Taking two minutes to just breathe or send an encouraging text to a friend instead of doomscrolling or staying on the ASAP hamster wheel. The TLDR is simple. Trust your gut. Take care of yourself. And turn those BS ASAPs into DTAARGPTDKMITPs (doing things at a reasonably good pace that doesn’t kill me in the process). Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.) Let the desuckifying begin. You can follow Eric on LinkedIn. And check out his site at ericrecker.com to learn more about his work, his books and his story. If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to explore what a more human work culture could look like, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session . Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt ! Bye, everyone! Bonus question from Eric: What’s your pain? How bad is it? Is it time to do something about it? Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe

August 25, 20261 hr 15 min

Ep 142 | Let's create user guides for all of our coworkers with Jeff Gibbard

You know when you order something from IKEA, you get a list of all the pieces, plus instructions on how to put them all together? Why don’t we do that with people at work? A user guide, complete with a person’s preferred ways of working. What’s their relationship with time? What environments give them energy and which ones suck the life out of them? What communication methods work best? What are their superpowers? What is their kryptonite? You know who does this? Jeff Gibbard . Jeff is a speaker and coach with a mission to help leaders change the world. But we can’t do that if we don’t understand the folks we’re leading. Good thing one of Jeff’s superpowers is really seeing people. Jeff is neurodivergent, which has helped him recognize the value of each person’s unique way of showing up in the world. When you create a user guide for everyone on the team, all of that comes into focus. Instead of saying, “why can’t they just…” we say, “oh, she’s different than me, cool.” Then we find ways to actually work better together. Jeff wrote a book called “The Loveable Leader” where he goes into all of this and a lot more. Love at work? What are you crazy? Maybe. I think we’re all holding back some of our best craziness at work and it’s keeping us from doing great things. So, what would your user guide say? — Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast .) Let the desuckifying begin. — You can follow Jeff on LinkedIn. And check out his site at jeffgibbard.com to learn more about the awesome work he’s doing. If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to explore what a more human work culture could look like, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session . Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt ! Bye, everyone! — Bonus question from Jeff: What’s stopping you from being more heroic at work? From saying the thing that needs to be said, standing up when somebody is being treated unfairly, making sure that everyone has their seat at the table… what’s stopping you from being that person? Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe

August 18, 202650 min

Ep 141 | Placing a big bet on human creativity with Sam Littlefield

Most agencies are in survival mode right now.Hell, the entire world is in survival mode right now.It’s a crappy place to be.We’re defensive. On edge. Reactionary.Nervous systems fully engaged all day long. Good luck being creative when you’re crouched under your desk all day. And yet, creativity is exactly what we need right now.To build a new reality instead of being cowed by the current one.To see something beyond mere survival. It’s a leap of faith. Faith in the one thing—creativity—that we’ve hung our hat on since folks actually wore hats to work. Sam Littlefield took that leap in 2021, when he told his agency, “it’s time to gather again.” Mid-covid.Barely a year into his role as agency president.His peers thought he was nuts.He didn’t care.He saw what was on the other side,locked arms with his team and said LFG. They freakin’ went, and they’ve spent the last 5 years doing what many in our industry can barely remember doing. Growing. Building. Dreaming. They turned LFG into an agency rallying cry: 🐱 Littlefield Team First🐱 Freaking Go to the Edge🐱 Got to Adapt or Die For Sam and the team, being back in the office was the necessary catalyst to make all of this happen. For your team, it may be something else. But whatever that thing is that you know in your gut is needed more than anything right now, do it. The world needs more leaps of faith. Let’s freakin’ go. Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.) Let the desuckifying begin. You can follow Sam on LinkedIn. And check out littlefieldagency.com to learn more about their work, their culture and their POV on this nutty business. If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to explore what a more human work culture could look like, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session . Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt ! Bye, everyone! Bonus question from Sam: Are you getting full fulfillment in what you’re doing every day? Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe

August 4, 202651 min

Ep 140 | How stalking your clients leads to agency success with Kim Lawton

Want the secret to running a successful agency? Stalk your clients. Not in the creepy, quite possibly illegal way. But in the over-the-top, can’t stop being curious about who they are way. This is what the teams at Inspira Marketing and Enthuse Marketing do—two agencies run by today’s guest, Kim Lawton . Who has time to dig into that kind of detail on every client? The folks who work in a culture where relationships—with clients and fellow team members—are the most critical KPI. Of course Kim cares about profit and all the other financial stuff that keeps agencies afloat. But she doesn’t aim there. She focuses upstream on the stuff that consistently leads to great numbers. And more fulfilling work. When you know your clients in ways you may not even know your own friends, you come up with better, more relevant ideas. You sell those ideas more often. And you enjoy the crap out of those successes together. When you know your teammates deeply, you collaborate better, because making things work with folks you know, like and trust just matters more. So, who should you be stalking more? Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. (If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.) Let the desuckifying begin. You can follow Kim on LinkedIn . And check out her agencies at enthuse-marketing.com and inspiramarketing.com . If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to explore what a more human work culture could look like, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session . Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt ! Bye, everyone! Bonus question from Kim: Is there is something you track in your business or agency that has nothing to do with the work? Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe