Mark Piazza: Finance, Creativity & AI

Justin Levinson (00:00.555)‍

Hey everybody, my name is Justin Levinson, host of the Agency Side Podcast where you are viewing today. I'm here with my guest, Mark Piazza, who is the Chief Operating Officer over at Quigley-Simpson, which is an excellent creative agency that I'm sure many of our viewers have heard of. Thank you so much for being here today, Mark.

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Mark S. Piazza (00:19.842)‍

Thanks for having me, Justin. Good to be here.

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Justin Levinson (00:22.197)‍

Yeah, I'm interested in hearing your story and how you got into this interesting space. Maybe we can just start out briefly and you can kind of explain what Quigley Simpson's all about and what kind of things you guys do over there.

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Mark S. Piazza (00:37.23)‍

Sure, Quinkley Simpson has been around for about almost 24 years now.

and they're a privately owned, woman owned agency. And they are full service agencies. So we focus on media, creative data and analytics, planning and buying of media and so forth in the marketplace. And we are based in Los Angeles and we have about 200 strong individuals working for the organization. We have a New York office as well, the Chrysler building in New York. So we've got

presence on both coasts. yeah, it's a fantastic team. I've been here now for about just over a year. And it's a pleasure to be part of the team here that's been working together for almost 24 years.

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Justin Levinson (01:27.937)‍

Yeah, that's amazing. So how did you get into this creative agency space? Curious to hear about your story a little bit.

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Mark S. Piazza (01:36.578)‍

You know it's interesting I started you know I graduated college in New York I went to Iona College which is now Iona University they got so big now and graduated with a finance degree and I entered the marketplace in the world of accounting and finance and I did that for probably for about eight years or so in the worlds of

Philip Morris and General Foods worked for CPG brands like that. And also worked for Perrier Group of America for a couple of years. And then I spent about four years in retail for Liz Claiborne and Saks Fifth Avenue. And I had an opportunity to join the marketing services world in about 2000, near 2000, working for Digitas.

and actually met our current CEO at Quigley Simpson, who at the time was the head of media for Digitas. And we met at Digitas in 2000, worked together for about four or five years. So that was my first entree into working for a fully digital creative agency, which was a fantastic experience. Digitas now is owned, I believe, by Publisys, but it was a great

experience being in there in the financial world. And I migrated my world into being a general manager of one of the acquisitions that Digitas did. And that was a great experience. From there, I moved into CFO roles and then ultimately COO roles. then I ended up here, know, 20, 25 years later, I'm here at Quigley-Simpson. I'm in New York, actually, and I spend my time going back and forth.

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Justin Levinson (03:27.103)‍

Yeah, that's cool. it was sort of like CF like finance was sort of like your the bulk of your experience. You know, in general, that's sort of like the your has been your main jam.

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Mark S. Piazza (03:38.85)‍

Yeah, my main focus was more, first it was financial planning and reporting and analysis. Then when I joined Digitas, it merged into something called Client Finance, which is really the financial partner to our account leaders who manage our clients. And that brought me closer to working with clients and everything from contracts to staffing to project management.

really delivery management of the scopes of work that we develop for our clients, whether they be retainer based or project based. So when I got introduced onto that side, it really piqued my interest to really get closer to the people and the product and the services. And that's where the operational role started to expand. So my responsibilities today expand into talent, talent management, development, training, recruiting, project management.

operations and then commercial management everything from contracts and and and partnering with the financial team as well. So it's kind of nice to not be kind of in the monthly closed process every day, you know, you're kind of sitting and working with the finance team. So I did that for enough years. So it was good to be part of the operational function here at Quigley Simpson kind of expanding across all of those areas.

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Justin Levinson (05:00.971)‍

Were you always the numbers guy when you were like a, know, back in the day in school, where you always had an affinity for it?

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Mark S. Piazza (05:05.57)‍

Thank

It definitely was of the I wasn't the best student, my strongest class was in mathematics. And so I had a liking for it. And I loved working with money. I did a an internship at a bank and was a teller for a few years. So, you know, being a young person, you know, 18, 19 years old, dealing with a cash draw of ten thousand dollars in green cash was just kind of exciting for the summer for me.

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Justin Levinson (05:38.746)‍

Yeah.

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Mark S. Piazza (05:38.792)‍

And so I always loved working with money and budgets and things like that. And I had a knack for working with folks in my career as a financial director, as a financial manager, even a CFO, of being able to help other people who are not as financially inclined to understand the financial side, the financial picture. So being able to bridge that gap from, say, creatives and account management people and media people who are

who are not as in the weeds on the budgetary side of things, the commercial side of things, the contractual side of things, I was able to bridge that gap and speak both languages. So that ability to flex was helpful.

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Justin Levinson (06:21.195)‍

Yeah, that's an interesting superpower to have. think like, at least from in my circle of friends, know, like artsy music type people, there's a certain language, you know, we kind of speak and then, you know, I would say that it's not, you know, the artsy people don't necessarily always have the affinity for the numbers and the finance and all that kind of stuff. So it must take a real, you know, it's probably skillful. It's a skill that you

you must have to be able to sort of speak the language to the artists, to the creatives, as well as kind of, you know, really know the numbers and have all this client facing and people skills that you bring to the table.

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Mark S. Piazza (07:01.886)‍

actually it's it's actually an interesting point Justin because part of my leap from the strict financial roles to the operational general management role was a journey for me because at first when you're a financial person you know it's black and white right it's on the left side or the right side of the balance sheet and when you enter into that world it becomes a world of gray it's it's kind of what if what can we do with the client what

Where can this relationship grow to? Is there a better way to approach this strategic pitch? Do we need to be able to provide not just what the client is asking for, but a vision for how they can expand their business and grow brand awareness or acquisition or retention of the client base? you know, that idea, that concept of working with the gray, that came to me not immediately, that took years to do that.

I remember interviewing for specific roles, one role I really, really wanted and it was in the world of client finance. I'm sorry, it was a general manager role I was interviewing for. I didn't get it the first time around and I sat down with my current general manager and I asked him about that. He said, dude, you're too black and white. You got to go with the flow. You have to be more inventive. You have to be more collaborative.

You know, it can't always be yes or no or black and white. And then that's when I started to really understand that it's all about relationships and being that partner, that strategic business partner. You don't want to be known for, that person really closes the books really quickly. And, you know, they get the numbers right all the time. You want them to say, before I go into the room and sit with a client and present a presentation or a scope of work or a pitch and what have you,

I've got by my side a strategic business partner, a strategic business partner that's in the world of finance and operations. And that's what I evolved to over time. And that's where I got the most gratification. It's nice to get the books right and get the numbers right, but you really want to be appreciated and you want that invite to the table to be in the room, to be able to influence key decisions. And that's what gets me up.

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Justin Levinson (09:20.521)‍

Yeah, no, that's that's awesome. And it's interesting about your so this was when you the person that you were working for, he was telling you why you didn't get the job before basically. Yeah. That's, that's interesting that you were able to get it the second time and that you were able to get that feedback. Yeah, I'm curious. Now you're probably in the you're probably on the other side of the fence now interviewing a lot of people. What is it that you are?

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Mark S. Piazza (09:32.861)‍

yeah, yeah.

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Justin Levinson (09:49.975)‍

kind of looking for when you're interviewing people.

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Mark S. Piazza (09:54.744)‍

Well, I think it's really exactly just that. mean, most people that you're interviewing, they've got the basics, they've got the skill set, they've got the educational training and so forth. But we're really looking for people that are looking to make a difference and go that extra mile to work with the team and the client. We hired someone recently at Quigley Simpson. I won't mention her name, but she was on vacation from work and she had taken time out.

to because her clients were in the region where she was vacationing and she took the time to make appointments, go to lunch, take them to dinner, etc. So when she came back from vacation, she's we said, was your vacation? She said, was great. I got to see Sam and I got to see Beth and I wait a second. Weren't you on vacation? yeah, I was on vacation, but I took time to visit with the client. And what she did was she just took the relationship to the next level.

she made us more than a vendor, right? We are wanting to be strategic business partners. So she went that extra mile. So, you know, when we're sitting down and we're interviewing candidates, and we're looking at talent, you know, and we're, you know, we're not huge operation, we have 200 people plus plus some freelance and so on.

But we have people from the data and analytics side of the fence. We have people on the media planning, the account management side, the project management side. So we're looking for that strategic business partner in every position. It doesn't make a difference if you're a VP or you're a planner. We're looking for folks to have that zest for that type of relationship building. So kudos to her for doing that. And we look for that when we seek out talent.

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Justin Levinson (11:37.655)‍

Yeah, no, is really on point. I'm always looking for that too, people that are willing to go the extra mile. yeah, I personally do the same thing when I'm on vacation. If I'm in a location where I can meet a client and I can take them out to lunch and just talk to them, it doesn't have to be about business. It can just be about how are you? What can I do for you?

great to know you, what do you like to do? Where do you like to go? What are your interests? Because, you know, and it's not just about getting the next job. It's like, it's actually, it should be interesting to get to know other human beings. that's like, that's why we all, you know, and yeah.

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Mark S. Piazza (12:17.162)‍

Absolutely. That's what it's all about. I mean, you hit a good point. mean, at the end of the day, we spend, you and I spend time, more time with the people that we work with than we do our own families. I mean, we're spending eight to 10, 12 hours a day working with a team of people. And quite honestly, your clients are doing the same thing. So you want to work with people that you know, you respect, and you like. So you really do have to bring a well rounded personality to the table when you're doing that. So

For us, it's critical to have those business relationships. When I think back in my career, having experience in the commercial and operational side, you can come across relationships where you have relationships with clients where you have long standing relationships, but you're a vendor. And you might be a vendor because you are providing costs at the lowest cost. You're providing services at the lowest cost possible.

Those are not to the relationships that we want to have. We are in the business of creating value and outcomes for our clients and we're looking for those types of relationships. It's easy to be the lowest cost provider. It's very difficult to be able to attract and retain the best talent in the marketplace when you are the low cost provider.

So it's important for us to evaluate our relationships, build commercial operational relationships with our clients that are going to be beneficial for them and for us. We want to achieve their outcomes. And we do that by providing and giving them the best talent in the marketplace. So it is a delicate balance in our ecosystem that is financially driven, operationally and relationship driven. And that's really, really important. it's not easy to do and you have to make trade-offs.

between each of those, right? Relationship, commercial, financial, you make trade-offs from time to time. It's not always perfect, but we strive to have that balance.

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Justin Levinson (14:11.189)‍

Yeah, I love that. It's really important to have that, you know, being an extension of your client, opposed to just being like having that sort of transactional approach. Yeah, that's interesting. So when you are as far as you're, when you're interviewing people, you're interviewing people, are you are you also the person that's

often looking at resumes and cover letters and all that other kind of stuff before they're actually sitting down and having an interview or when do you sort of, you know, come into play in that picture?

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Mark S. Piazza (14:42.604)‍

Yeah. Well, we have a, I wouldn't say we have an intense process, but I think it's fair. We've got a nice recruiting team here at Quigley-Simpson. It's only about a couple of people, two, three people on the team, but we know exactly what we're looking for. So we start off by understanding the credentials and the requirements for the role. So everything from a basic job description and skill sets.

And we try to understand, okay, they have to a basic understanding of data and analytics and these types of systems. But we're also putting into that description the type of personality of the individual we're looking for and those inquisitive features that we want to have in an employee that's part of the team. And then from there, there's a screening process that's done and clearly it's narrowed down to some key players. We also incorporate some personality tests as well.

And we've incorporated this since joining Quigley Simpson, whereby before we had a pretty good recruiting process, but we've enhanced it to take a look at what people are doing and the type of individual they are. And it's a tool that we've been using. It's been very helpful. we can, within four or five minutes of you, Justin, taking the test, we'll understand a little bit about your personality. Actually, shockingly, I took it myself.

and it was amazing, it was spot on. It was spot on about who I was, what made me tick, what got me up in the morning, and how best can Justin interact with me on having a healthy relationship and partnership. And what we are finding is that it's giving us early signs that you wouldn't visibly talk about, but it's coming across in how you've answered the questions. And again,

It's a tool we use we can talk about it and we've implemented it and we're actually expanding it for all of our hiring So we're not going to hire somebody unless we do this because we want to know upfront that profile So it's been very helpful. So that's part of our recruiting process and yeah, it might come down to two or three candidates the test gives us some additional information about that person and fit within our organization and the role and

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Mark S. Piazza (17:05.571)‍

It's helped us avoid roadblocks.

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Justin Levinson (17:09.079)‍

That's fascinating. I've heard about some of these programs before and you feel it's pretty tailored to, it works well in the creative space and that you you found good results with it.

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Mark S. Piazza (17:12.931)‍

you

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Mark S. Piazza (17:21.358)‍

It's, it's, you know, it works across all channels. It's not specific to folks that are in the data and analytics world. It's, it's not specific to anyone. The account management world, could be anybody working, someone working in a manufacturing facility. You could, you could, you could apply that as well. Um, so the, the, the, the test itself is, is called the predictive index and we, we work with the predictive index tool and it's been really useful for us. So they get a free plug today. Um, but.

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Justin Levinson (17:50.551)‍

This podcast is sponsored by it's getting

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Mark S. Piazza (17:50.67)‍

Yeah, it's a tool that we use. It's only top of mind, Justin, because I just was discussing last night their contract and how we want to expand the service to more people within the organization. it's just one ingredient to the recipe of being able to. And what we also try and do is in this world of technology and being online and

being on Teams and Zoom. We also try to have in-person meetings with folks because we are a hybrid organization. So we've got people in the office a few days a week and then a lot of people myself, you know, I'm in the, in New York and I'm talking to folks on the West coast and I'm going back and forth. So it's important to meet certain people in person. So we've actually instituted that for certain positions and above to get that in-person look. So

things come out in person that maybe wouldn't come out on video.

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Justin Levinson (18:53.813)‍

Yeah, I like that this test is so accurate and so helpful. I really find that fascinating because I remember when I was young and I think it was my first job was in a, well, I think it was in a, it was actually in a grocery store and they had sort of a personality test which is much, much different, I imagine. But I remember even at that time, some of the questions were like, how many days

Do you show up to work inebriated? One two three days or not at all and I remember being like who is going to be Writing like the honest answer of like well. Yeah, I do show up to work three days a week inebriated. Yeah, I'll But that was like Yeah, it was really cutting through you know, I guess through the talent pool in that specific niche, but

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Mark S. Piazza (19:42.67)‍

What's the best way to answer this? Right.

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Justin Levinson (19:53.973)‍

That was just the first thing that came to my mind.

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Mark S. Piazza (19:54.414)‍

That's actually quite funny. Yeah, no, it's very interesting. I recommend it for the talent function. We're very much focused on learning and development, right? We're all very focused on the growth and development process. Individuals enter the organization. They're at a certain stage in their career. And what we're trying to do is we're trying to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

and we're trying to basically provide guidance and support to fill in the blanks for them. And so what's really nice, and we are a member agency of the 4As, the advertising agency of America, and we participate in their learning and development programs. And we also work with LinkedIn Learning as well. And I'm not plugging this for any reason, but we try to create a learning curriculum.

that employees understand that we are investing in them on an ongoing basis. So it's not just you come in and that's it. No, we're continually investing in people and trying to get them to achieve their personal professional goals as well as the organizational goals. So combination of this type of testing that we do before they come on board, right? And then from once they're on board, there's a very integral detailed onboarding process. And then

throughout their growth and development process within their first six to 12 months, we have specific goals that we work on and we have certain training that they go to. Some of the training is mandatory training, some of it is training that them, they and their supervisor agree upon. Presentation skills, conflict management, anything like that, they're going to be able to have access to that. So it's a big part of what we do here at Quigley-Simpson.

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Justin Levinson (21:46.795)‍

Yeah, totally. In the hiring process, know that a lot of agencies have been frustrated with the amount of AI that's been used in terms of resumes that have been completely generated by AI, cover letters that have been completely generated by AI. And obviously, it's not a very difficult thing to do. You say, please write me a cover letter that matches this resume with this.

job description and tell this person why I'm a great fit, but also make it human and sound like me and here's some writing of me. And then it comes up and then you have something that's phenomenal. mean, it can be so I wonder if like some of this personality test and these these things that you guys are adapting into your hiring process if that's actually kind of helping offset some of that AI stuff.

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Mark S. Piazza (22:39.222)‍

I think it's a great point that you make here and I'm glad that we're talking about AI and at Quigley Simpson we're definitely powered by a lot of AI tools that are out there. The reality is we've got a dedicated AI steering committee which I chair for the organization and we've got representatives across all the practices. The thing about AI is a lot of people are scared of it. They're worried about it. it's going to take my job. It's going to make me

put me out on the street type thing. We approach it from AI as a companion, right? It's a companion along the journey, right? So we use these predictive index testing, personality testing.

But we're also using AI in ways to be companions on how to write better briefs, how to do better research and so on. And look, when we get those resumes coming in and it's a little bit cookie cutter, you can kind of tell. My daughter was recently interviewing and, you know, she sent me her first draft and I said that we need to bring this to life a bit, right? We want to talk a little bit more about, you know, Christina and what Christina brings to the table. So we had a conversation and then she went back and she took what was

I believe auto generated and brought it to life. So to me, it's, it's, it's a companion tool that we use. And at the end of the day, we have to do it because if we don't, we'll be left behind in the dust. need to be efficient. need to be cost effective in providing our services because what took 10, 20 hours two years ago doesn't take 10 to 20 hours. The research that took our teams and our business development team, you know,

they did that manually, they did that on their own. But there are tools out there now that are really beneficial and we tap into those as needed. So with the utmost confidentiality, of course. So it's a bit of a, know, we're creating a cake and there's a lot of ingredients that go into it and AI is just one of those ingredients that we use.

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Justin Levinson (24:43.895)‍

Yeah, I'm very, I'm really fascinated about AI. am, you know, actually, I mean, some people who follow the podcast may know that I'm from a, I come from a recruiting background agencies, agency recruiting. And part of the reason we do this podcast is not only just to show, I've said it time and time again on the show, but it's to show younger people who are coming up in the industry to hear from leaders like you so they can learn from you what they can do better to be seen like people by people like you, as well as other

people who are also, you know, more senior level that just want to trade ideas and have the whole community be elevated. So that's the value I'm always trying to, to bring here. But I'm very interested in AI on a lot of levels. I just went to a actually recruitment summit in St. Pete, which was fascinating with a lot of industry leaders, some of the top billing recruiters in in pretty much all sectors.

And they talked about AI as being sort of to humanity what the discovering fire was, you know, and how this is really changing the game. you know, we did a lot of interesting conversations about AI agents and how those are coming into play in our industry and how they're working, you know, how they're...

you know, you know, as terms of like outbound and sales, how some of these AI agents can really do some just insane things. Obviously, there's a million different ways we use it in our company. I guess I'm going on a rant here. But I guess what I would close it with is I'm curious, we discussed a little bit about how it works, you know, in recruiting here. But is it also having a place in on the finance and operations side? Are there tools that

that you're using that are also making your life easier.

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Mark S. Piazza (26:41.834)‍

Yeah, I mean, I can tell you that there are tools, I'll talk holistically, know, there are creative practice utilizes tools to that are AI driven in the media and data and analytics world. There's tools that are out there as well. From the from the finance side, you know, this this concept of AI, people don't even know that they're utilizing tools that are

AI driven, know, everything from, you know, scanning of invoices, as opposed to manually inputting the invoice into your system, that type of technology, that's an AI technology that's been around for many, many years. So anything that we can alleviate our team of people from getting away from data aggregation, data input, this is where we're seeing a lot of low hanging fruit, even in the finance and accounting world.

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Justin Levinson (27:32.427)‍

Yeah.

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Mark S. Piazza (27:34.158)‍

And that's the same thing in the world of project management and so forth and so on but So if we can shift people's focus from talent world from data aggregation data input into strategy and development that's where we're going to have those long-standing relationships we talked about where we become a Strategic business partner because anyone can take the data and put it into a machine or it's what you do with the data what you do with the insights

and the outcomes that you're trying to drive. So, you know, we tout that when we're pitching for business, we're not selling hours, we're not selling costs, we're selling the outcome of acquisition for retention, for win back as far as clients and customers go. So we've got to spend more and more time utilizing AI tools to shift people upwards. And here's the reality of it. When you do that, people are more satisfied in their jobs, Justin.

People are gonna say, I love going to my job, but what we have heard and what I've heard throughout my career is that individuals are working and you ask them, tell me about your job. And they say, well, I love what my job is supposed to be. They don't love their job that they're actually doing. They're trying to get to the supposed to be job, what's on the job description, but they're doing a lot of those executional tasks. So the more we embrace AI, the more that we can automate

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Justin Levinson (28:32.843)‍

Yeah.

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Justin Levinson (28:52.47)‍

Yeah.

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Mark S. Piazza (29:02.712)‍

drive efficiencies, we basically help ourselves, we help individuals be self-sufficient, we help individuals elevate their level of contributions, and we elevate the outcomes for our clients. that's really, we're kind of at the bubble of all this, and it's really exciting to be a part of it because everyone is out there, and we get the greatest and best ideas from the most junior people in the organization. The folks that are in the weeds day to day, they're saying,

I could do so much more if I had a tool like this or a tool like that. So part of what we do is we spend time interviewing these folks. I personally have spent this past year, myself and our head of talent, probably in upwards of 50 different individual meetings, over 150 hours interviewing members of our team at all levels, from the planners to the VPs about

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Justin Levinson (29:35.563)‍

You

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Mark S. Piazza (29:59.058)‍

How do you do your job, Justin? What are the roadblocks that are in your way? And how can we help you be more productive? And we're really finding that a lot of their time is spent on more executional than strategic tasks. So we're trying to help the organization and them have a much more satisfactory because turnover is going to come. People are always going to come and go. But we're able to manage that at a much more controllable level by adding these elements into their day to day.

So it's rewarding for them and rewarding for us.

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Justin Levinson (30:28.491)‍

Yeah.

So it's giving you a chance to try out a lot of new tools that they're recommending as well. Is that sort what's coming from these interviews? Yeah.

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Mark S. Piazza (30:36.116)‍

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And the danger, not the danger, but the watch out for everybody that might be listening here is that any tools that are out there, you can't just use everything, right? You got to be very compliant with privacy practices and protocols and confidentiality. So what we've established is a steering committee that basically approves every tool that we utilize.

in servicing internal operations and the external client services. So it's very important to understand the inventory of all the AI tools you use, which ones you can use, cannot use because some systems are open-ended. We don't use open-ended AI tools because we have confidential information in there. So it's really important to build compliance around the use of AI. And that's part of the challenge.

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Justin Levinson (31:27.927)‍

I love the strategic way of using your own network and your own team to sort of as a lead gen tool to understand what these new things are and then test them. you're using, you you're working with your own people to make their lives easier as well as their knowledge of tools that you guys can try and make everything more efficient. Like I'm always one that likes to like really use my own personal network.

as much as possible, especially in recruitment. My first when I was a rookie, the first thing you do is you go to LinkedIn, you know, and you start typing in things. But once you start getting more efficient at it, you know, if you need a really great CFO, I don't go into LinkedIn, I call up Mark Piazza. And I say, dude, you're you've been a great CFO for a lot of years, you probably you must know somebody that could be really good and

in LA that has these skills. Like, do you know anybody that could be a fit? that's sort of my strategy and it's way easier because good people will give you other good people, you know, just like the people you work with that are good people are gonna, they're gonna give you, that you've already hired, you know they're great. They're gonna give you tools and other things that are likely also gonna be great that you're gonna wanna learn.

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Mark S. Piazza (32:29.506)‍

Absolutely.

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Mark S. Piazza (32:48.334)‍

Absolutely, absolutely. mean, know, word of mouth is still very positive. Referral programs are so important. You know, I mentioned earlier that we're a participating agency, a sister agency of the 4As. So I sit on a forum at the 4As and I'm talking to...

15 to 16 other CEOs, COOs that are in the industry facing the same challenges that you and I are talking about today. And, you know, AI is a part of that and tools and technology a part of that. And networking and sharing talent is a part of that. So it's you've got to have both. I think, you you've got so many clubs in your golf bag. Not that I'm a golfer. I'm actually horrible, but

you've got all these clubs in your bag and you need to have that AI club, you need to have that networking club, you need to have that training and learning and development club, and you need to be able to approach your clients in a strategic business fashion. Because it's all about developing those outcomes for our clients. our industry has been plagued with...

how many hours did Justin and Mark spend on that? And okay, so what is their cost per hour? What is their payroll rate? It's not about that. Did we achieve the results you were looking for? And we wanna share in that success with you. So that's where we're focused. But yeah, all these ingredients make that better cake that we're making.

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Justin Levinson (34:18.903)‍

Do you think that someone like yourself, you've sort of, it seems like you've created a role where you're doing a lot of things. Obviously we've talked about strategy, finance, operations, you're doing client facing, you're doing all these things. You're sort of a multi-faceted individual here. Do you think that with the change of AI, it may shrink down the market for the person who may be

just a numbers person, just sort of in that game. Do you think that it's going to be a more elevated position where now folks are gonna have to have more of your skillset, which is more like consultant, bigger picture, relationship space. Do you think that's gonna be sort of the future of this part of the agencies?

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Mark S. Piazza (35:13.964)‍

Yeah, I think it's a great point, Justin. I think that the opening stakes are rising, right? And I think that the roles over time are changing. you know, those executional data aggregation roles that are out there.

you know, they're not going to be needed in the future. What's going to be needed is the ability to interpret the data and so forth. So I think those higher level skills, rational skills are really going to be important to relationship building skills. You're still going to have, you know, you're either a data scientist or you're an account manager, right? Or you're a planner and strategy for media or creative strategy. You're still going to

pivot in a certain direction. But in each of those practices, if you drill down within the organization, those entry level positions are changing, right? A lot of things are being automated. So let's just say you had multiple coordinators within a media group and you had 10. Well, next year, it might be eight and five and four and three. You probably will have a presence always at that level, but not to a larger degree.

And I think that will just give people the opportunity to step up and do more strategy and analytics and interpretation of data and understanding the insights. So I do think that that will change our recruiting. It'll change the skill sets we're looking for. It may even change what universities and colleges are doing to educate students in their curriculum because...

as the industry pivots then the educational system also needs to pivot. I do see that happening more and more and our needs are changing because of it.

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Justin Levinson (37:07.01)‍

Yeah, that's fascinating. Yeah, you know, you before we had our conversation, Mark, you were you seem like you were maybe unsure that, you know, that because we interviewed so many creatives that you that that there may not be a, you know, may not be as much of a fit for you. But I want to say it's probably one of the most interesting conversations I've had on this podcast. And I think that, well, you know, I'm kind of

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Mark S. Piazza (37:23.586)‍

Yeah.

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Justin Levinson (37:33.143)‍

I'm kind of interested in a lot of the things you are finance and AI and I get into the operations and I'm sure even outside of this podcast, we'd get along well. And also, you you actually your New York accent, it sounds just like everybody in my family. All my family's from New York and New Jersey. So I'm like, this guy sounds like somebody. I live in Vermont right now. So my all my parents, my parents have a kind of a New York accent and they all

it sticks out like a sore thumb here. Everyone's like, mom, my mom's like 70. And like everybody is like, wow, where's your mom from? Sure is as much heavier than yours, but it's a familiar sound. But yeah, we've got about another couple minutes here, but I'm curious outside of the day to day stuff that you do in your gig, what kind of things do you do for fun and what sort of interests you?

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Mark S. Piazza (38:09.198)‍

That's great.

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Mark S. Piazza (38:24.088)‍

Gosh, I can tell you that my mother is a great cook and she's gonna be 87 this year and she's passed on the love of cooking to myself and to her grandchildren. And I have five children myself. So they're all seem to have a little flair for wanting to get into the kitchen and doing something. I'm a terrible cook, but I try to fake it as much as possible. So.

That's a big passion of ours because, you know, coming from an Italian family, originally from my parents were from the Bronx, me, Laura Westchester, I've lived in Westchester County my entire life. So gatherings and breaking bread together is a big part of what we do. So the cooking is a part of that. So we enjoy our holidays and cooking. Beyond that, I'm with five children, you know, the youngest being 10, the oldest being 30.

I'm at every stage of life with children. So it's never boring, Justin. So everything from coaching T-ball to helping my daughter interview for new jobs to helping my son and his fiance get situated in a new home. So I spent a lot of time with the family and helping out the kids and so forth. But I'm an active member.

in my local church and my son is also going to Hebrew school because my wife is Jewish so she's going to Hebrew school. So I get all facets, all sides of it. So I'm trying to be the best I can be and contribute at all levels and like you said, the people you work with and who you love, it's why you get up in the morning. So it's for all of them and I

I couldn't be happier that another day is here and we've got another opportunity to make the world a better place.

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Justin Levinson (40:23.627)‍

Yeah, Mark. Well, thanks so much for talking with me. And it's been really a pleasure to get to know you and about what you do and all the things that you all the value you bring to Quigley Simpson. yeah, hopefully we can continue conversations in the future and have a have a wonderful weekend.

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Mark S. Piazza (40:44.302)‍

Thank you, Justin. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

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Justin Levinson (40:46.816)‍

All right, Mark, take care, Bye.

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Mark S. Piazza (40:48.78)‍

Bye.