π§ In this episode of the Agency Side Podcast, recorded on July 22, host Justin Levinson sits down with Biz Hennigan, Partner and General Manager of Superdigitalβa creative agency reshaping how brands connect through a remote-first model and bold, innovative work.
Biz shares the story of Superdigitalβs evolution, from its early days to becoming a trusted partner for leading brands. He highlights how collaboration and teamwork thrive in a distributed environment, and why adaptability has been central to the agencyβs growth.
They dive into the role of AI in the future of marketing, how creativity and strategy intersect to build lasting client relationships, and what it takes to run successful campaigns that spark genuine brand love. Biz also opens up about his personal journey, passions beyond work, and the agencyβs vision for the future.
This episode pulls back the curtain on the creativity, adaptability, and collaboration that fuel Superdigitalβs successβoffering insights into modern agency leadership and what it means to grow with purpose in a rapidly changing industry.
Tune in for a thoughtful conversation on innovation, teamwork, and building brands people truly love.
[02:03] The Evolution of Super Digital
[06:08] Remote Work and Team Dynamics
[09:45] Navigating the Agency Landscape
[17:24] Client Relationships and Trust
[21:28] Successful Campaigns and Brand Partnerships
[27:14] Future Goals and Adaptability
[29:02] Personal Insights and Hobbies
Partner & GM
Biz Hennigan is Partner and General Manager at SuperDigital, a creative agency built on a remote-first model. With a focus on adaptability and collaboration, Biz has helped guide the agencyβs evolution while strengthening client relationships and leading successful campaigns. She brings a forward-thinking perspective on the role of AI in marketing and emphasizes the importance of creativity, teamwork, and resilience in navigating todayβs fast-changing agency landscape.
Justin Levinson (00:00)β
Hey everybody, welcome to the agency side podcast. I am your host, Justin Levinson. Today I'm citing the chat with Biz Hennigan, partner and general manager of Super Digital, a bold, fast moving creative company that proudly calls itself an anti-agency. They've built global campaigns for brands like Xbox, Microsoft, and Welches, all while keeping a remote first model and an agile creator driven mindset. This has helped shape the vision leading teams and partnerships that push boundaries of digital and social.
Thanks so much for being on here, Biz.
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Biz Hennigan (00:30)β
Yeah, thanks for having me, Justin. That was a mouthful, but well said. Yeah, I know.
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Justin Levinson (00:34)β
I tried to get through it. I need to go back to my speech therapy when I was a child. I actually battled a lisp when I was young. remember my teachers were always having me like the snake slithers slowly and I was just like...
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Biz Hennigan (00:50)β
No, Justin, the read was perfect. It was the mouthful of words we gave you that could use some refinement to help you out there. So no, that wasn't us. thanks for having me.
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Justin Levinson (01:02)β
Yeah, thanks for being on here today. Yeah, I guess the first thing before we get into is maybe you can tell us what you got, what super digital is all about for the folks that might not know.
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Biz Hennigan (01:11)β
Yeah, Super Digital. We like to refer to ourselves as a creative agency. We like to say we help brands serve the internet. But really what that is is just we like to take that audience-first approach to everything it is that we do. We really find ourselves helping serve our clients in a brand social capacity, which as we know has many components to it. Creative strategy, community building, creator partnerships, content production, even components of paid social. You name it, we're doing it.
And I think a lot of where we found kind of our niche in a place where we really help our clients find is really in that emerging audiences, emerging platforms territory. I think kind of the social fluency that we have as a collective group and just being so kind of native to the platforms we play on, I think that's what really helps us subscribe and show up.
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Justin Levinson (02:03)β
Totally. How did the agency come to be? Yeah.
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Biz Hennigan (02:06)β
So
Super Digital has been around since 2013. Our founder started Super Digital with the intent and aspiration to create a YouTube content studio. Shortly thereafter, he met up with folks like Julian Edelman and Guy Fieri and started to kind of take over what was referred to as, you know, personality social and really the rise of kind of those gentlemen and the platforms and the social presences they have today.
And I came into the business in 2020 and we really made a concerted effort to really sophisticated kind of our agency offering and doing that for brands and what the group had done up until that point was again, figured out this formula and this playbook, if you will, right, for how personalities can show up on social and which isn't all that different from how brands needed to show up, right? And so around 2020 and, you know, it was good timing in the sense of
the rise of TikTok and short form video and really a focus on social video. And so we were able to kind of marry all those things and really show up for some enterprise brands and legacy brands in a way that kept them relevant and current in a way that really kind of pushed them into more of a modern marketing focus. It's been a journey and it's been a build over the past few years, but yeah, I think I speak for the majority of us. We're having a blast doing it.
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Justin Levinson (03:30)β
Yeah, that's so cool. So I was reading that you guys have offices or you're remotely located in like New York, Boston, LA or is it? Is that correct?
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Biz Hennigan (03:38)β
Yeah, we are a totally remote first agency. think a silver lining for us during COVID was that, you know, going totally remote allowed us to hire talent from all over the country, right? We were Boston headquartered, Boston based, even when I came in and joined the business, but it really allowed us to, okay, well, yeah, there's talent over there in LA that you can work here, right? There's talent, you can work here. have...
We're covering the map, Justin. That's my goal is to have someone everywhere, but it really helped us, you know, just kind of going beyond our Boston roots, which, know, I'm a central mass born and raised. So I hold our roots with a lot of pride, but it really allowed us to bring in the great talent. as you know, an agency is really only as good as the talent you have, right? That's our IP. It's staying remote. Not only has it been such a
you know, a way to attract talent, but also it's the agility we speak of in terms of how we need to produce today. We can stand up productions anywhere it makes sense, you know, because we have folks in some key locations that are able to kind of, kind of roll with, with the way we do it.
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Justin Levinson (04:47)β
Yeah, there can be some really great unfair advantages in having people on different time zones working while the people are sleeping or deliverables coming when the next people on their next time zone can wake up. can be pretty. β
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Biz Hennigan (04:58)β
Exactly.
It helps us move at the speed we commit to, right? And then people buy into that too, right? They want to be a part of that, right? That's not just a like, we're super digital and here's how we do it, right? It's like, okay, collective team, we're located all around the, how are we going to do this and how are we going to do it our way that works for...
us right because when there's that kind of that that gel and that movement and that rhythm and flow among the team like you better believe it's a it's it's felt in the output right that's magic so we're pretty proud of that.
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Justin Levinson (05:33)β
Do you have any like secret sauce and kind of keeping everybody collaborative and kind of, you know, working as a unit when you're on those different...
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Biz Hennigan (05:42)β
Yeah, you know, I think it starts all the way in the beginning in the hiring process, right? Like, you mean we're totally transparent about what folks are walking into and also, you know, wanting to make sure that they want to board this bus, they want to be part of this thing. And that thing is a group that, you know, works together as a teamwork. Teamwork is our biggest value here, right? And how we can kind of all come together and...
And individuality is such a key component to the agency world, right? But it's all kind of in service to the greater team and to the greater good and to the client that we're serving. Right? So I think so much of why we're able to be so successful in our collaboration in a remote setup is because, you know, we're all kind of eyes wide open and building and shaping that thing together. There's no one that's just being mandated or dictated to, right? It's kind of a collaborative effort through and through, you know, it's not just.
a word you put on a page or on a slide, right? It's something that you need to live and breathe. I think what supports it, that too, is just the nature of our work. It's not like we're always just on a Zoom or always just kind of figuring something out in a remote or a virtual setting. You know, we're on set for productions, right? We have, you know, for our concentrated New York group, we have this thing called Midtown Tuesdays.
you know, a peer space and everybody who's in the area kind of goes in and works for the day together, right? So it's, it's kind of just in the way that we like to be so audience led, right? And our marketing strategies were so kind of employee led in terms of how we want to continue to shape and, and build this thing that we're doing.
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Justin Levinson (07:21)β
What would you say is your personal superpower? was looking through your LinkedIn and you... It seemed like... I don't want to speak for you, but it seems like came from an accounts background. Is that sort of where you...
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Biz Hennigan (07:32)β
Yeah, you know, I've been, you know, agency side. I haven't gone to the dark brand side yet. Don't have any intention to, but, um, no, I've been agency side 17 years started out as, as a receptionist, just kind of got sucked into this world. And, know, I had a love for the game of, what this advertising agency world is all about. But, you know, I think I give all the credit to the team for all of our success, you know, but I do think, you know,
a place where I do add some value is just in kind of building and leading these teams. And I think especially as we look at, you know, the marketing landscape today, like it's as a blank page as it's ever been, right? And so being able to kind of galvanize a team and bring a group of really driven, creative, thoughtful and caring about the thing it is that we're doing, kind of being able to bring them together.
to work on the stuff and then be able to scale what that is. I think that's what's been such a hashtag blast. That's what's been so great. And I feel so fortunate to be able to wake up every day and do that. How cool is that? But when I came into this business having such that agency history and coming up through account management, which gives you so much exposure to all different things, I was pretty adamant and committed to not recreating the thing we all left.
And not because we didn't like learn a lot there and bring stuff forward to where we are now, but more so of just like, there's gotta be a better way, right? There's gotta be a way to do it differently. And especially at the pace of consumer expectations today, you've gotta be able to move and bob and weave with the best of them, right? So the structures and the layers and the red tape that I had experienced in the past, I was just kinda like, we don't need that, right? And I think what we've
proven and what we've found is that, you know, when you really bring just that like right mold of people together, that unit to work, you don't need 20 people to do the thing, right? You just need like five really good, thoughtful, adaptable, resilient people to get to that finish line together. I'm totally forgetting what question you even asked me, Justin. Hopefully I answered it.
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Justin Levinson (09:45)β
You did. think I understand. I was kind of leaning into your superpower and I think you gave me some good insights there. But one thing I'll double click on is you said you've been doing it for 17 years.
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Biz Hennigan (10:01)β
I started when I was 10. Doesn't everyone say that joke? How many times do you hear that joke?
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Justin Levinson (10:06)β
But yeah, I was kind of curious, know, what, I mean, obviously you went from receptionist to where you are now. What are some of the biggest changes that you have seen since that initial agency?
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Biz Hennigan (10:19)β
my gosh, so many changes. I lived in the world where I would sign off on a print proof, right? So I'm back in the getting the mechanical ready, are we sending it to students? So I kind of lived and breathed what we now refer to as traditional media days, right? And so it's been super cool. I won't use that word a lot just because we're super digital, by the way. As it was coming out of my mouth, was like, darn it, not again.
But I totally lost my train of thought. don't even know where I was going.
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Justin Levinson (10:48)β
no, you're telling me about some of early on things where you're talking about with print and some of the things that you
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Biz Hennigan (10:52)β
the evolution of everything. know, it's probably about like halfway through my career I really started just out of my own interest in curiosity like exploring more of the digital and social platforms and you know even personally, know like the MySpace days or you know the early kind of... Speaks to Yeah, there you go, right? I'm like I signed on Facebook with my college email, you know, that was the only way to get in it.
I just had a genuine curiosity to how folks showed up and shared and participated or consumed on these platforms. so I remember, I won't name the brand or the agency that I was at, but there was a work stream for social and it was referred to as stock. And I was like, this isn't right. There's something that's so...
against what social is all about when you're sourcing, you know, the materials and the communications from a stock site, right? Like, and so there's something that just, you know, felt full of friction with that. And so it just like kept me kind of going in a direction that just kept kind of unlocking like how to do it a little bit differently and not just from an operational or strategic perspective, but really from like,
Well, what's gonna make them care and what's gonna actually add value to their day? It's such basic, logical stuff, but I think so much of the time we're over-engineering it in a way, right? Where you just need to simplify it and clarify it and just continue to tinker with it until it sticks, you know? Totally. But that's been a cool thing to witness and I don't think like...
I don't think that evolution is ending anytime soon either. I think every day we're faced with something different, whether it be an algorithm change or a platform launch or a platform ban or what have you. We follow where the audience goes and that is such a fragmented place that it's cool to just witness that and help drive it.
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Justin Levinson (12:58)β
Yeah, yeah, things are definitely changing rapidly.
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Biz Hennigan (13:02)β
Yes, also can we take a quick pause and talk about those amazing guitars behind you? Are you playing on or what? Okay
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Justin Levinson (13:07)β
Thank you,
So in between like,
you know, calls and stuff, I tend to get my Zen moments playing my guitars, but more of a piano player. Okay. But my guitars are important to me. And I do enjoy playing them, which is I'm a big music person. And yeah, I've always had that as a sort of dream in some capacity. Still haven't figured it out. 40. Still haven't quite figured out where it's going.
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Biz Hennigan (13:36)β
I love it. I went the athlete route, so I am extremely jealous of anybody with a music ability. currently trying to teach myself how to play the harmonica. Nice. So we'll see how that one goes. Impressed with the...
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Justin Levinson (13:51)β
Thank you. I love the harmonica as well. I'm also a big sports fan. For some reason, I think the sports part has actually made me better in the recruiting world because it's so competitive and I enjoy that hustle. So I love sports too. I ran track and field and I played baseball. mean, if you looked at me, you would not picture me playing sports. I wasn't terrible.
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Biz Hennigan (14:13)β
You look like an athlete. look like a musician. Justin, got all the parts down. I appreciate it.
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Justin Levinson (14:19)β
What did you play?
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Biz Hennigan (14:21)β
I played field hockey in college and I played field hockey, basketball and softball in high school. And know, a family that is playing multiple sports and so it was just kind of the culture we grew up in. But I hear you on the recruiting front or even just the mentality of kind you know, it comes through in the teamwork and the goal and growth mindset and the mental toughness and resilience and...
You know, like that competitive edge, think there's, you know, the agency business especially is the ultimate team sport in business, you know.
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Justin Levinson (14:54)β
is. And it's so like, I think the reason why I like it so much is so relationship driven. And you can't, yeah, you just can't really get away with, yeah, you have to really, you got to read the room, you know, I think that's a big thing, especially with accounts. And like, I think that's one thing that I enjoy is like, getting email back. like, sometimes I'll look at I'll read it and be like, what does this mean? You don't overthink it.
But you can kind of like read a personality and a vibe a lot, even just through an email. And kind of, I like that strategy and sort of thinking like, okay, I'm gonna let this one breathe for a couple of days and then I'm gonna approach it with this. And it's gonna sound like this. I enjoy, I mean, it's not like manipulating, it's just, it's just feeling the, reading the room. Like, you you don't go into a room just like, hey, what's up guys? You know, you just like, hey.
You know, I like to, my parents even said when I was a kid, I was quiet, I would go into a room and I would observe for a while and kind of, you know, see which kids were behaving badly and which kids were kind of doing the right stuff. And my mom would sometimes be like, Hey, Justin, that guy, he's really not behaving well. Do you see what he's doing? Don't you? And I was very like, I like to absorb all of that before I sort of entered. I know this is podcast that obviously isn't about me, but.
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Biz Hennigan (16:14)β
Keep going, I'm learning, I love it.
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Justin Levinson (16:17)β
As an accounts person, I know that's where you came, you kind of worked it. It's like, you don't really win business by being, like forcing it down someone's throat. You have to really build something.
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Biz Hennigan (16:29)β
Totally, you know, and I think there's something about the group and just, you know, so super digital on the whole. We're we all kind of bring that client service mentality, right? Like, sure, we're a creative agency, right? But we're a client service business, right? And so, you know, nothing is very nothing feels and it's very intentional that it doesn't feel as transactional or kind of like one. You know, this is we are in the.
and the business of partnerships and to your point relationships. And I think, know, the more we're all on the same page, again, as a team about that, like the easier it is to kind of navigate. have some complex, you know, client dynamics, not just with as individuals, but just, you know, we're looking at Microsoft and Xbox. These are some big orgs that have, we have many clients on the same project, right? And so not only does it take skilled managers in navigating that, it takes very kind of
thoughtful, we're all in, we're leaving it on the field, creatives and strategists and social media managers to all be aligned and locked in on the same thing, right? And I think that is kind of the super digital difference in terms of what clients feel as a result of that partnership.
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Justin Levinson (17:40)β
There's times where you have to be bold too and it has to be like we have to you know Express your vision and it might not be the most cookie cutter thing that the client maybe may want to hear but maybe it it will provide the biggest ROI in the end
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Biz Hennigan (17:56)β
100 % and I think you know where you know taking that risk if you all give the example inside but like doing that, you know, the root of that is is is trust and confidence with your with your clients and to be able to kind of get to that spot early through showing the hard work the you know that you're there for them like you can get those quick wins and it just takes one right? Yeah, I'm doing right for for your client. Okay. Yeah, I trust you know and the example is
We launched Windows, Microsoft Windows on TikTok back in October of 2021. It was in conjunction with their Windows 11 operating system launch. And we got to a million followers in nine months. I that. And a lot of, that's a new platform for a lot of folks within the Microsoft. And it was looked at as a testing platform, right? So it didn't get a lot of.
you know, eyeballs, so wasn't under the same kind of red tape, if you will, or layers of approval. And so we were able to really stay experimental as the platform and the audience grew. But it certainly, you with our day-to-day clients, it took, you know, it took the, you got to educate and explain, you got to bring them along with you. You you can't just be like, here it is, like, trust us, cool. It's like, no, what's the origin? If we're going after trends, right? Like, what's the origin of it? What's the context?
what other brands have participated, right? So we've found, especially as we go into, you know, merging platforms and we're trying to think about Gen Z and Gen Alpha, right? How are we getting on? Nothing's proven yet, right? So it's all kind of a fertile testing ground, but bringing them along for the ride, there's no like, okay, see you in two weeks for the big reveal. It's like that shit's gone, you know? Gone are those days. It's like,
They don't have to be along for every part of the process, but know when to bring them right into the parts of the process that helps the thing move a lot more swimmingly. And I think that when you, in the paragraph you read about us in the beginning, that's that anti-agency aspect to us, right? We're not trying to have these client agency lines. like, no, we're...
We're one team with the clients, right? And that partnership can come through even more when, again, you're all bought into that mindset, to that mentality, and you're all playing for the name on the front.
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Justin Levinson (20:15)β
Yeah, I love that. most of the like, are you, guess when it comes to winning new business, do you find that a lot of it is just based on the success you've already had to kind of come in organically or you guys go out and hunting for new business and farming or how does that?
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Biz Hennigan (20:32)β
Yeah,
you know, in all my years at Super Digital, almost five, we don't have a business development department, right? It's always been on the roadmap to build, but we've been fortunate enough that we've grown organically so quickly over these past few years. And again, it's still, we need that client diversity, right? And more brands for folks to work on. it's not that we don't want kind of this influx of net new opportunities. It's just that we haven't needed to.
to focus on that part of our business because the brands we already have in the building have been expanding. So it's organic growth there. And then just naturally by way of the success with those brands, just have folks coming to the inbound of it all coming to us. So there's certainly some exciting open up the fire hose moments ahead of us. yeah, we've been really fortunate to be successful with organic growth today.
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Justin Levinson (21:28)β
I love that. That's a, that's great to have that funnel coming in organically. And at the bit, the brands that you're working with are obviously succeeding from what you're, you're in, from what you guys are contributing and they're growing and keeping you part of it. So that's always wonderful. Do you have any campaigns that were particularly, I mean, all camp, I'm sure there's a lot, but any specific ones that I've seen that were very special to you?
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Biz Hennigan (21:31)β
Honestly.
Gosh, the, you know, it's I hate picking favorites, Justin, you're putting on this fire. there is one that comes to mind because I think it's just so core to kind of internet culture. And it's another Windows example. So here I am totally picking favorites of all the examples I'm giving. this past summer with the launch of CoolPilot plus PCs, we launched a creator.
campaign really centered around the Windows wallpaper, right? So much of the Windows operating system wallpaper is iconic, right? Bliss and Bloom, right, since Windows 11 launched. And so we set out seven creators across the globe to recreate or to capture, not recreate, but to capture a total kind of like new.
wallpaper for Windows and then we kind of brought it back in and let the community vote and what sounds like in description and on paper like kind of like, yeah, well like yeah, that's a way up like obviously like cool. That's a creator campaign, right? There was something that was Again, so like thoughtful and genuine about how it rolled out, right? It wasn't spawn con. It wasn't like hey Microsoft sponsored me to do you know, wasn't any of that. It was really these like
creators who appreciated the technology, who use the technology to really have impact on their small businesses or on their world and being able to then create something that, we have like 96 % positive sentiment, And that's among all the Windows service questions, right? Or out of service type things. So we're mixed along a lot of kind of customer service conversation yet.
Our sentiment is skyrocketing because we have so much of these brand love opportunities that are, that is surrounding a lot of the conversation. So that was one I was particularly proud of the whole group that's here working at Superdigital. They're putting out hits after hits after hits. And just as we don't have a business development partner, we have a, you know, a PR partner, but we're pretty bad at marketing ourselves. I'm not going to lie. So a lot of times when people come to us.
they're like, wow, you guys are really flying under the radar. And there's a part of me that like kind of like that. there's like a little mystery and a little bit like, we are who we are. We're doing it because we love it, not because we're looking for the press on it. But certainly, I understand as we continue to grow that then we're gonna have to focus on a little bit more.
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Justin Levinson (24:18)β
Yeah, that's awesome. Are you actually in Boston right now? that where you print?
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Biz Hennigan (24:23)β
No,
okay Justin, so I was a nomad. I was born and raised in Worcester, lived in Boston, went to school in Boston, spent the majority of my time in Boston. And then a few years ago, and you know, since we were a remote agency, I was like, I'm gonna hit the road for a little while. that's what I did. I intended to do it for a year, just like hopping around. I ended up doing it two years. Wow.
And then finally was like, okay, I can't live out of a suitcase in a storage unit anymore, hopping from like hotel to Airbnb. Granted, I travel so much for work, right? It was kind of natural, but I planted some roots. am currently in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. So still holding it down as a New England girlie, but Portsmouth is where I'm currently.
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Justin Levinson (25:08)β
Well, we're actually not too far apart because I'm actually in Vermont. my gosh!
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Biz Hennigan (25:12)β
I
about three months during my nomad journey in Stowe. Really? I was obsessed. What part of Vermont are you from? I live in Stowe. So that's a little bit south of where I was in Stowe, right? even more. Yeah. Cool. Vermont's where it's at. I love Vermont.
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Justin Levinson (25:19)β
Shelburne. Shelburne, Vermont.
Okay.
Yeah, it's cool. mean, we like lived in LA for a long time right for the pandemic. ended up moving back here because of my family and then nothing really changed. I like it. Yeah, it's a cool, it's cool vibe here. February gets a little bit difficult to see.
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Biz Hennigan (25:38)β
Yeah, Vermont's
Do
or do you any winter activities that help you make it through?
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Justin Levinson (25:50)β
I am planning on trying to ski. Okay. I used to ski when I was like in my, is, I have, I have two little kids. so I'm going to attempt to try that. We'll see if my, if the, the old knees can, can make it on the slopes.
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Biz Hennigan (26:05)β
I have confidence in you. I have confidence in you. Thank you. You got this.
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Justin Levinson (26:09)β
But yeah, Vermont's a cool spot. yeah, that's cool that you're in New Hampshire. And you guys were able to keep the team going from all over the place. That's great.
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Biz Hennigan (26:19)β
Honestly, and you know, I'm in New York often. It's been fun to fly out of Portland versus driving down to Boston. That's been kind of a cool thing. Yeah. But I'm in New York often. We're out to LA pretty frequently too. And then, you know, we're standing up productions all over wherever it makes sense. So it's kind of nice to be in a position where you can just kind of like pick up and go wherever you need to be. But no, again, the remote thing, it's working for us.
as long as we find enough togetherness time, right? Like we can't be like strictly like, never gonna see each other in person. I had a big learning over the past couple of years, just how when new folks start in this environment, right? Like they need to, within the first month, either meet their boss or other teammates, or I don't care if you're in the middle of the country, we'll get you to New York, you know? Like it's just important for the business to commit to just how we bring people together out the gate. And then it's so...
It's so much easier to kind of have that remote dynamic work for you. And we just got to kind of keep a pulse on it as we continue to grow to make sure that's the format that's still working for people.
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Justin Levinson (27:23)β
Yeah. Do you guys have any big goals or things that you're kind of looking to achieve in the near future?
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Biz Hennigan (27:28)β
Yeah, you know, we always just want to be the best at what we do and in a real simple way, just get better every day. And that kind of growth and goal, that's not just even at like a business level, it's very much at an individual level, right? I think we always kind of make decisions and prioritize our goal setting and our roadmap, you know, client.
people, clients, business, right? In that order, because one impacts and drives the other. So I'm pretty proud of how disciplined we've stayed to that. But as we're growing and as everything is ever evolving and changing, I appreciate our adaptability and our agility just as much as our creativity. And I think as long as we're able to kind of maintain that, we're going to hit the goals, but then we're going to be constantly resetting them too. I think there's a thing about us that we don't ever get too static. We're constantly moving. And I think that's
required of first class marketing today.
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Justin Levinson (28:23)β
Yeah, you gotta always try something new. Yeah, that's interesting. you, what do you do to keep up on the times? you like an avid reader or do you like, there a lot of like, where do you sort of go?
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Biz Hennigan (28:25)β
Right, experimental.
Yeah, you know, I like to get out in the world and absorb, right? So, you know, not dissimilar to what you were saying about just like being able to observe, and not just from like sitting there and people watching standpoint, but just how are people engaging, you know, with the world around them, right? Or even how are they behaving in a store or if we're at a pop-up, what are they, you know, what are they interested in, right? And I think to just...
I have a love of learning, right? And so I'm always just kind of trying to absorb and observe the things that are happening around me. Like if I think about what our role is in service to the brands that are part of our roster, like we're there to help them show up just organically in the world and the environment of that which we're navigating and consuming, right? So that's a big part to me to just like experience life, even if that sounds a little like cliche and cheesy.
That's a big part. But then I, you know, I'm a big music fan headed to Newport Folk Festival this weekend, you know, so just all the sports, of course, all the kind of big pillars of culture. I'm kind of, you know, experiencing and observing in an ongoing basis. And then I think a thing about us too, that's pretty cool. There's like a bug here.
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Justin Levinson (29:49)β
My
last podcast the guest had a fly that was driving her nuts
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Biz Hennigan (29:53)β
This guy was like driving me crazy. I'm like these old folksmith houses. Yeah, exactly. Where was my dad? Over here. Oh, that's funny. There I go. I lost my train of thought again. This is like... Oh no, it's all good. ...studied by a doctor.
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Justin Levinson (30:06)β
It's a fly.
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Biz Hennigan (30:07)β
It's all good. Everyone's like, I'm sure that's ADHD, but creative doesn't have it, right?
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Justin Levinson (30:13)β
I have follow up question anyway that, and I dare say the two letters AI, but I'm curious if they've had any effect on your particular part of the industry.
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Biz Hennigan (30:22)β
Yeah, you know, I mean, certainly, you know, with a client like Microsoft on our roster, we're, you know, not just kind of adopting AI for our own business. We're part of marketing it. Right. And so that kind of finds us in an interesting position. But we are we are all in on on AI in the sense of how we think about it for our work in terms of, even how I use it. I'm constantly using Copilot. Just as a thought partner. Right. Or like
I have this like, we're fine. Like, how can I refine this or how can I make it clearer or what might be the interpretation if I say this, right? and what's a good analogy for this, you know, I've, I've, found it to just be so helpful. as we're, kind of navigating everything today, but certainly, you know, in the content creation process, right. We're able to get to a VO read a little bit quicker. We're able to, you know,
When we think about the CPG clients we have in the building, like when we think about product photography, right? There is a really nice solution for how we think about the quote unquote traditional, you know, product shots, right? That we don't need to maybe spend a week with different lighting setups in a studio doing. So I love how forward thinking the team is here because we're always asking our questions, like asking ourselves what
tool, whether it's an AI tool, what can we add to this process or what can we strip away or what can we do that's going to make the output great? And everyone is just kind of always thinking in that way. So we're always uncovering different ways of making things better and certainly making the process to getting there easier.
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Justin Levinson (32:03)β
Yeah, as in terms of communicating as a team, you guys use Slack or how do you guys?
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Biz Hennigan (32:07)β
Yeah,
we're a Slack fan, we're a Teams fan. But Slack for internal comms has kind of been our central communication. But of course, you with clients, we have some clients on Teams. So we're there as well. But yeah, that's a key piece to how many community chats there are on Slack. Just for our group, that's part of kind of keeping that togetherness and that culture alive, even in a remote setting.
That's been pretty cool.
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Justin Levinson (32:39)β
Yeah, that's great. Well, I guess the last thing. Yeah. for you here on the hot seat is what do you enjoy doing outside of work? What do you?
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Biz Hennigan (32:47)β
So, well, as I mentioned, you know, I'm trying to play the harmonica. I'm trying to get into that. And that's like really like kind of a joke, but I'll get I'll get one one song done before I hang it up. Sports music again, live live music is is I'll never say no to to a concert.
And big family gal, right? So hanging out with my family, I'm a proud aunt of six. I have five nephews, one niece. So I'm often, you know, starting to chase down their softball games or sports games or plays or whatever that might be. But yeah, not taking life too seriously and just kind of living in the moment and enjoying the ride.
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Justin Levinson (33:30)β
What's your favorite, like what are your favorite musicians or like what's, you know.
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Biz Hennigan (33:34)β
Yeah,
you know, I like to say I have like good range when it comes to music, you know I'm going from like Luke combs to Lil Wayne to you know, whatever it might be But I'm really excited this weekend to see and I actually have tickets for them at Red Rocks later this This summer Mount Joy. I'm really enjoying you ever listen check
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Justin Levinson (33:54)β
I haven't. always
looking forward to getting new recommendations.
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Biz Hennigan (33:58)β
And you know, I could see you strumming a few tunes of theirs. Yeah, so Justin, that's on your list.
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Justin Levinson (34:05)β
That's
cool. The Newport Folk Festival just made me think of in the last Bob Dylan movie, some of the flashbacks of that. Yes. It was kind of cool. I enjoyed that movie as a Dylan fan.
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Biz Hennigan (34:16)β
Yeah, I mean, I'm right there. I'm right there with you. And Folkfest, I'm always so impressed by, like, talk about a festival that sells out before even one artist in the lineup is announced, you know? I'm like, gosh, how do I recreate that kind of brand fandom for our clients?
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Justin Levinson (34:34)β
And
that's so organic too, know, they're all... ...drumming guitars and... Totally. ...there's still a light for that. Yes! A hunger for that sort of thing, which is cool.
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Biz Hennigan (34:36)β
Exactly
And I love it. And I love it. So, just-
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Justin Levinson (34:48)β
Cool,
Biz. Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate you being on and offering insights and telling us everything you did about Super Digital and hope to have you back on again sometime in part two and learn more about what you guys are doing.
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Biz Hennigan (35:00)β
I love it. I appreciate the time. Thanks so much.
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Justin Levinson (35:03)β
Take care.
Agency Side host and the creative matchmaker extraordinaire at Coming Up Creative. Connecting top talent with leading agencies by day, uncovering industry secrets by night (well, whenever we record).