Strands of Genius: A Counter Culture of Commitment, Nuanced Language, Rest of World

Guest curated by Katie Dreke

Mar 18, 2021

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, KATIE DREKE ::

LOCATION: Portland, OR
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: DRKE

Hello 👋🏼

I'm Katie Dreke, a Global Strategy & Innovation Consultant.

My work bridges brand, systems-thinking, digital transformation and storytelling to design emotionally meaningful and financially powerful experiences for human beings.

Most recently I spent 7 years at Nike across Global Brand Innovation, Global Media, Nike Membership and Nike Women -- as well as DTC business roles within the APAC region, including a two year assignment in Tokyo specifically.

In prior years, I guided both traditional and experimental work at agencies like Droga5, W+K, IDEO, and Wexley on behalf of some innovative and influential global brands such as: Coca-Cola, Honda, Nintendo, Starbucks, REI, adidas, ASICS, Qantas Airlines, Tiger Beer, DHL, Microsoft, and many others.

Having lived and worked in America, The Netherlands, Australia and Japan I bring an instinctively global and culturally nuanced perspective to every conversation.

Editor’s Note (Faris): I met Katie back when we she worked at the quirky, charming agency Wexley School for Girls (sadly no longer in operation) during the heyday of planning blogging (the plannersphere!), when I blogged a lot and met a lot of planners. We managed to meet in person a few times over the years as I watched her career rocket through top tier global agencies and move around the world, a desire I too was feeling but had yet to act on. Her job at Nike made me believe the brand was thinking in right directions, especially when she casually asked for my ideas about naming her new department. Katie is one of the thinkers at the intersection of brand, comms and technology that I’ve always felt kinship with, and we’re excited to see her go out on her own.

:: THE LINKS ::

A COUNTER CULTURE OF COMMITMENT

This 8 minute commencement speech was the highlight of my week:
"The most radical act we can take is to make a commitment to a particular thing… to a place, to a profession, to a cause, to a community, to a person. To show our love for something by working at it for a long time — to close doors and forgo options for its sake. We often assume that some acute and looming threat — be it a foreign invader or a domestic demagogue — will be our downfall. But if we were to end, that end is just as likely to come from something far less dramatic: our failure to sustain the work." 🎓 (YouTube)

NUANCED LANGUAGE

Words matter, and are a pure reflection of what is valued in any given society -- for example: here are thirteen different Arabic words to describe the varying depth of friendships available in this language.
This spectrum beautifully begins at one end with a peer of approximately the same age, and ends with a 'spiritual double' or soulmate. How exquisite. (Twitter)

REST OF WORLD

A huge shout-out to the team at Rest Of World, for consistently bringing diverse, fascinating, and insightful international tech stories to a wider audience. To pull this off in the current media market is quite something. I encourage everyone to give it a look and a subscribe. (Rest of World)

Looking for more from Katie Dreke? Those enrolled in The School of Stolen Genius will receive a deep dive from her in their inbox shortly! You can access all our expert interviews for SOSG here.

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: Tokaido Road

:: City :: Tokyo

:: Book :: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

:: Podcast :: Long Now: Seminars About Long-Term Thinking

:: Album :: Erykah Badu, Baduizm (1997)

:: FRIDAY NIGHT QUARANTINE KITCHEN SHUFFLE ::

Katie Dreke

kdreke@gmail.com

website

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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

Strands of Genius