Roberto Rotondi grew up in Italy knowing he wanted to design, studied industrial design in Milan, and then spent the next two decades letting life take him somewhere he never expected. A redundancy became a move to the UK. A quiet nudge from his wife became the confidence to try. A manager in Taipei, who on his first day told Roberto that even native English speakers make mistakes and the only goal is to be understood, gave him permission to stop being afraid of his own voice. He is now Head of Product Design at Trinity College London, speaking a foreign language in front of you, something he says he could not have imagined fifteen years ago.

This is a conversation about what happens when you stop trying to climb and start trying to grow. We talk about what it felt like to step back from a management role he wasn’t ready for, about what redundancy actually does to you the first time it lands, and about the particular kind of wisdom that only comes from having lived and worked in places that see the world completely differently. Roberto also draws with his daughter, quotes Ratatouille with full conviction, and has a very clean desk.

If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes.

Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com and book a call.

I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Want to support Awaiting Approval?

Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show.

And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

Julie Kennedy learned to love design by walking the galleries of the V&A as a small child. She would walk around the galleries holding her granddad's hand, as he did his rounds as the Chief Warder. She went on to study sculpture, spend time dressing windows at Topshop during the IRA bombings, work at a tax office she hated, and eventually find her way to Yellow Pages, where she stayed for twelve years - by her own admission it was longer than she probably should have. Since then she has been the first UK designer hired by Amazon, helped build Betfair's design team, launched an e-commerce site for a 300-year-old building materials company that didn't believe builders wanted to shop online, and is now Associate Director of Product Design at PokerStars.

What this conversation is really about is the accumulation of a career built through instinct, circumstance, and a hard-won refusal to be small. We talk about what it costs to hide the most important parts of yourself in job interviews, about the difference between a role that looks right on paper and one that actually is, and about the very specific freedom that comes with age and experience of simply caring less what other people think. There is also a Robin that visits the garden every day, a daughter's handmade Mother's Day coaster still on the desk, and one piece of advice from a manager at Amazon that Julie has never forgotten.

If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes.

Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com and book a call.

I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Want to support Awaiting Approval?

Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show.

And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

Oriana Gaeta grew up in Naples and stumbled onto design when making album covers for her friends. She didn’t know there could be a career in this kind of work, it was just a thing she kept doing. It took a degree she dropped, a year in London at 19, and a second attempt before she finally found her way to design properly. Since then she has worked at some of the best agencies in the world, including R/GA and on brands like Nike and Adidas. She is currently CD at Doc Martens doing some of the work she’s most proud of. She also has a three month old puppy named Kira who ate a tissue during this recording.

What comes through most in this conversation is how deliberately Oriana has built a life that works around and for her, not just a career. We talk about the difference between design and art and why that distinction actually matters, about instinct as a currency that compounds over time, and about the long, slow work of learning to let go of control. We talk about burnout with real honesty, about what it costs to push through it rather than stop, and about what recovery actually requires. And we talk about what it means to finally be proud of yourself, not for a project or a piece of work, but just as a person who has done the work and built something good.

If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes.

Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com and book a call.

I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Want to support Awaiting Approval?

Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show.

And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

Mark Iddon is Senior Commissioning Editor for Comedy Entertainment at UKTV, which means his job, in its simplest form, is to decide what gets made and what doesn’t. He has spent over 20 years in television, moving from making things to deciding which things get made, and somewhere along that journey he has developed a very particular set of instincts about people, about ideas, and about the difference between winning an argument and winning the thing that actually matters.

This is a conversation that goes somewhere unexpected and stays there. We talk about what it means to find the person in the room who cares more than you do, and why that is sometimes the best creative decision you can make. We talk about neurodivergence and the damage done by defining normal, about the gap between the bravado we perform and the person underneath it, and about the long, slow work of giving yourself permission to just be that person. Mark also has a grandfather’s watch on his desk, an unreleased album he won’t tell you about, and a very clear opinion on what the world would look like if we stopped calling things abnormal.

If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes.

Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com and book a call.

I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Want to support Awaiting Approval?

Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show.

And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

Emily Court is a freelance web and visual identity designer who works with solopreneurs, freelancers and microagency owners, and has built her entire practice around the idea that the client relationship should feel like a collaboration between equals, not a job interview she's perpetually trying to pass. She came to design via an unlikely route, through gift baskets, studio photography, teaching English in Korea, years of professional writing, and somewhere in the middle of all of it, a growing conviction that working for herself was the only version of work that was ever really going to fit.

This conversation moves fast and covers a lot of ground. We talk about what it actually takes to go solo, not the inspirational version but the real one, about the repetitive uncomfortable things that separate people who make it work from people who don't, and about why saying yes to the wrong client out of desperation is almost always the most expensive decision you make. We talk about chronic illness, neurodivergence, the forty-hour work week as a form of polite torture, and why the most important thing Emily has ever built is not a website or a brand, but her own reputation, from nothing. And near the end, she says something about getting back up, over and over, that I think will stay with a lot of people.

If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes.Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com and book a call.I’d genuinely love to hear from you.Want to support Awaiting Approval?Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show.And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

Michael Glass has spent 25 years refusing to settle. He taught himself design in the late 90s by opening Photoshop every single day and learning something new before he was allowed to close it. He went from managing bars in Australia to becoming the guy you called when you wanted something on the FWA. He spent a decade as the most senior design voice at Fantasy Interactive, one of the world's top 3 experience design agencies. He builds his own computers, runs a local AI trained exclusively on himself, and is currently renovating his bathroom ... which he started doing in the 45 minutes before this recording began.

This is a conversation about what it actually means to push work as far as it can possibly go, and why good enough is the phrase Michael finds most offensive in the English language. We talk about how he learned to argue with a designer for two weeks straight just to show them what they were capable of, about the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and what it taught him about talent versus skill, and about what it really means to relinquish control, both to your team and to the tools that are starting to do more of the heavy lifting. There is also a lot of ADHD, a missing coffee, and a demolished bathroom wall.

If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them.

Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes.

Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com and book a call.I

’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Want to support Awaiting Approval?Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show.

And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

This one is different. No single guest, no slow burn, no deep dive. This is Awaiting Approval LIVE 2, broadcast simultaneously across three cities on one night, with people thirsty for creative insight in each room and a Clipboard of Truth to test the mettle of each guest.

What made it into this edit is worth knowing about. Kris on the most ridiculous feedback he has ever received, and what it actually takes for a purpose-driven agency to earn that label rather than just claim it. Gray on what he genuinely looks for in a creative hire that most people overlook, and what it means to lead a team working on a brand that will never be theirs. Sunny on the hardest truth about creative work that nobody wants to hear, on what it looks like when a brand is lying to itself, and on why the best solution is not always the beautiful one. And across all three rooms, a conversation about AI that nobody planned but that everyone in the building needed to have.

Adam, in London, hosted Kris Samyui-Adams. San Francisco, with Amy Khan in the chair, hosted Gray Joyce. New York, with Maryam Cristillo, hosted Sunny Stafford. Three rooms, three conversations, one show. What you’re about to hear is a 45-minute edit of what was a two-hour event, which means you’re getting the highlights, the sharpest moments, and the questions that landed hardest. The full experience, the energy in the room, the signing of the Clipboard, the pin badge, the gold Sharpie, the moment Gray’s camera fell over mid-answer, none of that makes it into a podcast. For that, you had to be there.

There will be another LIVE event later this year. Keep an eye on socials for the announcement. In the meantime, this is what it sounded like.

If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes.

Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com and book a call.

I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Want to support Awaiting Approval?Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show.

And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

Lara Juriansz was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Singapore, studied in Sydney, built her career in London, and is now Creative Director at TBWA Media Arts Lab in LA, working exclusively on ... well, let’s just say a very well known brand. She has said yes to almost every significant change that has come her way, not because she was certain, and not because she wasn’t scared, but because she has learned, repeatedly, that the floating feeling eventually settles, and that the benefits and lessons learnt that come after are almost always worth the leap.

This conversation unfolds across two sessions, the first cut short by a power outage, the second picking up exactly where it left off, which feels fitting for an episode about boldness. We talk about what it means to be the permanent outsider and why that might actually be the best vantage point in any room. We talk about emotional attachment to work, about knowing when a painting is finished, and about the particular pressure of being a mother who is also a creative who also cares deeply about craft. And near the end, Lara says something quietly devastating about what 80-year-old you might most want you to remember right now, and it has nothing to do with work.

If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes.

Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com and book a call.

I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Want to support Awaiting Approval?

Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show.

And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp