In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Libby Bentley, a punk musician and live music performer, for a candid 20-minute conversation about live music, performing on stage and the changes in the Miami music scene. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

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👉 The Scoop – I met Libby in the most fun circumstances, her band, Morbid Opera, was playing at the legendary Churchill’s Pub. I was standing about 3 feet from her, photographing, suddenly, a guy was picked up by the mosh pit and thrown up on stage.

Libby was punk at 17 and continues being punk at 64. She began her storied career after listening to some punk bands in Miami, with her friend Lisa, and thinking “those bands are pretty bad, if they can do it, we can do it”. So they started a punk band.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Forming her own band and performing live

👉 Unexpected change or event – The number of women-fronted bands today, a radical change (in punk) from the early days of the industry.

👉 What did she do? – Keep playing. Churchill’s can be overwhelming on a night like this. The mosh pit is rowdy, 300 people crammed into a small room, but Morbid Opera powered through. Life in a punk band is not stable, for sure, so musicians take every opportunity to play.

👉 About older workers – Maturity. Reliability. Libby is currently a professional pet sitter so, the other aspect: “I’m not going to throw a party in their house”. People who hire her can go to their event knowing that the house will be there, intact, when they come back.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, a true icon of the US Hispanic Marketing industry, for a candid 20-minute conversation about growth, evolution and the courage to say “if not now, when?”. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, a “gringa” was one of the earliest forces in the U.S. Hispanic Advertising industry, when she started working for Pedro Font, founder of Font & Vaamonde and one of the earliest Hispanic agencies. Eventually, she moved to the West Coast as President of F&V West and opened her own shop: Enlace Communications. An actress by training, Rochelle now dedicates about 40% of her time to her own projects.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Joined Pedro Font as his “girl Friday” even before there was a Font & Vaamonde office.

👉 Decisive Moment #2 – Tried to leave the entire industry and met Aaron Walton and joined Walton-Isaacson.

👉 Unexpected change or event – After 44 years in the business… the lack of growth of the U.S. Hispanic Market.

👉 What did she do? – At Walton-Isaacson she rethought Hispanic marketing itself, creating new conversations at the intersections of cultures. The entire Hispanic market began as a “multicultural” effort. Walton-Isaacson’s approach is to open up new possibilities of reframing and rethinking.

On the personal side, Rochelle also reached the “if not now, when” point and started to move on towards her own projects.

👉 About older workers – Talk to me about what you bring to the equation.

So, on the one hand, there's this sort of bias that the person's gonna be stuck in their ways, or that they're overqualified. So, we have to get rid of, stuck in their ways, overqualified, but those are all perceptions.

Tell me why my vast experience is not stuck in nostalgia

Experience: What am I doing to keep my chops, for lack of a better word, my skillsets not only fresh, but future focused.

As an older person, how do I prove to somebody like you that I'm future focused? Five words.

First of all, that your life is bigger. That it is in touch with contemporary culture. That you are contemporary, that you are not only a sponge that it comes to you and you absorb it, but also a seeker.

Tell me a story that makes you the narrator on the cusp of seeing things that we are not seeing. Tell me what you're seeing that you believe is a value to a current and future conversation about whatever role we're being hired for. So have that sort of worldview.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Nelson Cortez, who for the past 2 decades has audited agency-bought media on behalf of clients, for a candid 20-minute conversation about the growing complexity of media and the need for a critical eye.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Nelson and his family left Venezuela, where he was the media director of one of the leading international ad agencies, for the US with nothing lined up. His network and reputation for being a hard and intelligent worker soon got several openings and he joined a media auditing company as a partner.

👉 Decisive Moment – The move to the US and starting all over again

👉 Unexpected change or event – For Nelson, there were no really unexpected changes in the auditing industry. Being in the thick of it (the first year they audited $35 billion) they saw the entire change from TV to digital in a gradual way. They also saw the increased complexity of digital buys as a gradual change.

👉 What did he do? – Nelson and his team (they now have 15 people working for them) are naturally implementing AI into the company. While AI has been successful in reducing the time and complexity of the different processes they employ, senior people are still needed to give clients actionable insights. And what clients pay for are these senior insights.

👉 About older workers – Particularly in media, their value, is the experience, the knowledge, these (older) people have the experience.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Leopoldo Garcia, who, as a star salesman at Radio Caracas Television left Venezuela to talk about the humbling experience of beginning again and how hard work and self-confidence pay off. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight into becoming a content creator.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Twenty years ago, Leo –as he is known—left a stellar career in Venezuela’s Radio Caracas Television to start from scratch in the U.S. After what he describes as a humbling experience with local media in Miami, he was recruited by HBO to run its ad-supported network in Latin America and, later, Extreme Bridge. Leo helped build HBO’s Cinemax into a $50 million, 18-country success.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Left Venezuela for the U.S.

👉 Decisive Moment #2 – Was recruited by HBO Group for Latin America

👉 Unexpected change or event – The tectonic changes that took the industry from television through cable, streaming, FASTV to web-based video (like YouTube)

👉 What did he do? – This is probably one of the biggest challenges that I have to confront. The hypergranular data, and metrics that we need to offer to brands and audiences to be able to create a match, to be able to create an engagement between them. This is one of the challenges that makes me to go from media to understanding that now we are in the world of ad tech. We have an ecosystem of advertising. We have an ecosystem of media that is supported by technology. And that's where I am right now.

👉 About older workers – “The scar tissue, that's the way that I call it, scar tissue.” If you are the CEO, I'm happy that you're having young people. But in order for them to succeed, you need to have a combination. You need to have a balance of people who really know how to handle complex situations, how to navigate hard rooms, how to close deals and how to make them better. Because they're going to make me better too. So that's for me the perfect balance.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Christina Carlini, whose life has taken many routes from finance to owning a nutraceutical, to talk about scaling back from a successful company to enjoy motherhood and serving the community. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight into becoming a content creator.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom atwork.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Christina is proof that finance doesn’t have to be boring. “I got my degree, but I always ventured into industries that had a little fun”. After working in a modeling agency and a multinational ad agency, she started working with a nutraceutical, and eventually became a partner.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Had her daughter. “I had a very difficult time having a child.” At one point she had to decide between continuing to build a company that was making serious money or being a mom. She scaled back and chose to spend time with her daughter.

👉 An important Moment – Became president of her PTA, which allowed her to serve the community.

👉 Unexpected change or event – How saturated the nutraceutical industry has become. “All of a sudden everyone became a lifestyle guru and they were all out there selling.”

👉 What did she do? – They are still deciding. “I think for me, I like to dabble. I find more joy in dabbling, in building friendships, in helping my community in that aspect. Finding the younger kids who still look up to you and still appreciate my background.” However, Christina will remain working too. “I also want to continue to show my daughter that I still work”

👉 About older workers – “I would have to say that our value is that we're very black and white at this point in our life. We say it like it is. It's either piss or get off the pot. If you can't do it, then just say you can't do it. We are teachers. We're not going to bullshit.”

When Churchill’s Pub closed for COVID, it was like the entire Miami music scene was kneecapped. That’s how important Churchill’s is.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Victor “Fritz” Joseph, a Brooklyn transplant to Miami and Managing Partner of Churchill’s Pub to talk about the long and winding path to making it big in the Miami hospitality scene. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight into becoming a content creator.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Fritz moved from Brooklyn to Miami and went into the event business. After working with his cousin for seven years, traveling all over Florida, decided to go on his own and eventually formed Top Shelf Beverage Catering, Tomorrowland and then became the managing partner at Churchill’s Pub, the oldest live music venue in Miami and a sacred institution for its fans..

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Moved to Miami

👉 Decisive Moment #2 – Learned how to sell liquor in “non-bar” places and opened his event company “Top Shelf Beverage Catering”

👉 Unexpected change or event – How Miami Beach changed from its grittiness and fun into something way more polished… and expensive.

👉 What did he do? – Moved to Downtown Miami, which was in the process of being gentrified and also to Wynwood, which was also being gentrified.

👉 About older workers – Experience. Sometimes young people, from what I've experienced, they don't know how to deal with situations the way they should. Because you're in the hospitality business and you have to take the mentality of the customer is always right. And I guess us from experience, we've learned that, you know, this is not a boxing ring.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Soleil Bermart, a self-made artist, for a candid 20-minute conversation about the importance of having an unwavering faith in yourself and constant improvements. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/donorbox⁠

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – I met Soleil when she worked for one of the mythical actresses of the Mexican market, Lucia Mendez, who starred in “Tu o Nadie”. “I’m going to be a singer”. Period. No doubts. Today, she is a singer. An actress. An entertainer. And, as we tape the episode, a soon-to-be television director.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – She was born. Really. “I think I'm the only person who was born thinking what I want. I always want to be an actress or a singer or...”

👉 Decisive Moment #2 – Got hired by Lucia Mendez, at the time, the star of “Tu o Nadie” the top rated telenovela and begins to understand the business, becoming interested in the marketing of the business.

👉 Unexpected change or event – First, Marc Anthony walks into her life. Second, the music industry changes the way it promotes people… and not for the best.

👉 What did she do? – Applied all the lessons she learned from Mark Anthony’s manager: going back to basics on promotions (e.g., flyers), live performances and more.

👉 About older workers – The older people for me obviously have a biggest value for everything. The biggest secret in life is listen. Listen to the people who really know and try to have a mentor, you know? Older workers bring emotional intelligence. They bring resilience. They understand cycles, success, failure, and reinvention. Reinvention is key for everything. And younger talent brings speed and innovation. Older talent brings perspectives and stability. And the most powerful companies combine both.

In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Kimberly Lancaster, expert in privacy, security and compliance, for a candid 20-minute conversation about how minding the “holy trinity” increases customer trust. No edits. No retakes. Just authentic insight.

Welcome to Your Gray Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to ending age discrimination across advertising, marketing, and the creative industries.

At Your Gray Matters, we believe creativity and leadership don’t have an expiration date. Our mission is to fight ageism, elevate seasoned professionals, and celebrate wisdom at work.

👉 Learn more: ⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/⁠

👉 Support our mission:⁠https://www.your-gray-matters.org/don...

🔔 Subscribe now so you don't miss any episodes

👉 The Scoop – Kimberly as been in privacy, security and compliance for most of her professional life. Over the years, the “holy trinity” as it is called has gained importance in many different ways. Companies are more aware of the need to safeguard the data. People are more aware of the value of the data. And companies are also aware the privacy, security and compliance touch every department.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – She was working for one of the big tech companies and at a conference in Orlando. One of the other leaders came on stage and said, look, we're here to help raise the bar. To do this, we have to have everyone in the company participate. And he did mean everybody. You've always heard the “It takes a village” So that was probably from a business perspective when I really started to understand that.

👉 Unexpected change or event – “I think one of the biggest that comes right to mind is being able to not have to make a long-distance phone call.” Zoom changed all that and gave everyone the possibility of establishing real connections and work with people all over the world.

The other event was COVID, which allowed everyone to work remotely, but made privacy, security and compliance so much harder.

👉 What she they do? – Working from home but establishing relationships remotely with people all over the world. Also, Zoom allows for speed of business to continue to grow. Now, we are growing extremely fast. Everything's going, 100 miles an hour, which is so much more than it was when we were in the office.

Kimberly soon began seeing the value of having privacy, security and compliance protocols working together: Privacy, security and compliance can stand on their own, but they're so much stronger, tied together, and they enable a business and they enable individuals to do things much more effectively,

👉 About older workers – The real value of an older person, very honestly, comes down to not only do I have on the job experience. I've learned how to listen. I've learned how to talk. I've learned how to ask questions. I have learned how to mold and help people grow. I'm here to help you grow the business. I'm not here to make my own path forward because my success comes with the business success.