Growing up, our guest, Dale Alexander, was shocked when he knew people were paid to create those commercial breaks short movies. For him, advertising was as entertaining as the movies and the sitcoms he was watching. 

Fast forward some years, and after over 20 years working with creativity, Dale’s eyes light up the same way when he needs to come up with an idea, whether it is for a multi-billion dollar company or helping out a friend with their terrible folk album. 

Dale Alexander is the Creative Lead at Zelus. For the past 20 years, Dale worked as Creative Director of UPROAR!, Group Concept Director at The Marketing Arm, and VP Creative of the Dallas Mavericks. 

In this episode, we go through some of Dale’s biggest learnings throughout his career in marketing and advertising. We learn about NFTs, the irruption of new technologies, and how they modify the way society interacts, works, and evolves. We also dive into the future of marketing and branding, the importance of leaders creating space for their teams to speak their minds and share their thoughts, and more. 

Resources:

You can connect with Dale on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalealexander/

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Full Episode Breakdown:

3:53 – Dale talks about how AT&T’s Jordan Spieth activation influenced his career and how he approached marketing. 

6:41 – John and Dale share stories about how they fell in love with marketing, branding, and advertising.

12:01 – John and Dale discuss the groundbreaking campaign VaynerMedia put together with female soccer and the multiple benefits it represented for both the industry and the sport.

16:20 – Dale talks about how his Dallas Mavericks journey started, how it was to work there during Dirk Nowitzki’s last year as a player, and the night the basketball superstar retired.  

22:54 – Dale talks about how his need to be connected with people and his deep interest in being part of disrupting new technologies led him to be part of Zelus.

27:39 – Doing more homework now than when he was at school. Dale describes how he manages to avoid being attracted to every shiny object and how he assesses new opportunities. 

33:14 – John and Dale talk about how companies build their culture based on what they don’t want to be instead of what they actually want to be.

37:27 – Dale talks about the evolution of the internet and how little information can confuse people about what things like blockchain or crypto coins actually are.

43:05 – The stock market works because society has this agreement. Dale sheds some light on what is blockchain and NFTs. 

49:05 – We are dancing on the bones of all the failures of the beginning of the internet. That is how technology works. 

51:05 – Dale shares some thoughts on how people should approach the new technologies arising.

1:01:05 – John and Dale talk about the importance of leaders generating space for their team members to feel free to speak their minds.