Frances Gaillard

Twenty years in advertising and brand management showed me where creative judgement really breaks down: under pressure, when nobody around you has time to ask if you're okay. I've led brand and culture work for Skittles, Hilton, Stoli and Lacoste across agencies and brand-side roles in London, Chicago, Shanghai and Singapore, so I've sat in most of the high-stakes rooms this industry has to offer, the pitch about to go wrong, the brief that's lost the plot, the client meltdown nobody saw coming. I now run Asunder Studio, a small creative agency built on the idea that the work only stays good if the people making it stay whole. Alongside that I write Not Dead Yet, where I talk openly about the parts of this industry nobody puts in the deck: imposter syndrome, burnout dressed up as ambition, and what it actually takes to stay creatively alive once the novelty of the job has worn off. My sessions are built for mid-level marketers and creatives who are good at their jobs and quietly running on empty, the ones holding everything together for everyone else. We work from real briefs and real agency stories rather than theory, on judgement under pressure, managing up and sideways, and finding the line between ambition and burnout before it finds you. Depending on the brief I sometimes bring in Joseph, my Asunder creative partner, or others from our network, so the room gets more than one point of view. Outside of work I'm usually walking, reading or jogging with my almost-4 year old, which is where most of my actual thinking happens. My aim for any session is simple: people leave a bit clearer, a bit braver, and reminded that staying sharp creatively doesn't have to cost them everything else.