This week’s Meeting of the Minds sees Gabby Mansour and Daniel Kearney from Captify reveal their leadership heroes, current streaming binge, and career goals.
The Mediaweek series showcases diverse perspectives, thoughts and opinions by bringing together two different points of view from an industry rookie and an experienced expert.
Gabby Mansour, Sales Manager, Captify
Favourite podcast/read – Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast has been a valuable resource for my personal growth and understanding of mental health. Through insightful conversations with guests like Selena Gomez, I’ve gained actionable advice on building better habits, reaching my full potential, and shifting my perspective to achieve better outcomes.
Current streaming binge – I love a good medical show. If it wasn’t for my squeamish stomach, I’d probably be a surgeon. I just finished Grey’s Anatomy and am streaming The Resident at the moment. The drama and medical mysteries keep me hooked!
Guilty pleasure content – Donkey videos on TikTok, they’re just such strange animals and so unpredictable. They could even be my spirit animal haha.
What do you have on repeat – Iris Goo Goo dolls – it’s such an iconic song with a really emotional back story. I feel like I’m in a music video every time I listen to it.
Best career advice – When you stop learning, you stop growing. An eagerness to learn will always benefit you in the long run. Don’t be afraid to be the one who asks challenging questions and debates different viewpoints – be the most inquisitive person in the room.
Leadership hero – Melanie Perkins is a tenacious Australian entrepreneur and co-founder of Canva who speaks powerfully about “rejection perseverance”—how short-term setbacks, when met with persistence, can lead to long-term success. This really resonates with me as someone working in sales, where pitching to clients is a regular part of the job and not every opportunity results in a win. Yet, pushing through those losses has helped me build stronger longer term client relationships. That same mindset stems from my competitive sporting background, where not every race or training session went to plan, but consistent effort over time led to real progress. Whether in sports or sales, resilience and belief in your vision are key to achieving meaningful success.
Best training course/session – The MFA Digital Foundations course. In my early days in media, this was fundamental in giving me a better understanding of the industry. A lot of learnings in this course were directly applicable to my work as a Client Service Executive at News Corp. Honestly, I found it way more useful than my university degree. My keen interest in digital media, particularly programmatic, started when this course delved into the programmatic ecosystem.
I wish someone had told me – This industry offers a vast array of opportunities; find a role that aligns with your work ethic, skillset, and desired growth, rather than changing yourself to fit a role that doesn’t fulfil you.
Favourite place to network – Agency events are perfect for networking and getting to know people on a personal level. For example, our run club with EssenceMediacom gives me a chance to chat to clients through a shared love of running. It’s always good to learn about people’s interests and hobbies outside of work, which can spark some fun conversations (especially about sports). And let’s be real, as a Parramatta Eels fan, I know that shared sports interests can be a make-or-break factor when building relationships!
Something that’s surprised you about the industry – The speed at which streaming has become more and more fragmented with so many new players in the market, Max, Paramount +, Prime Video, Netflix etc.
What is your hot take on the industry – How can we better understand the tangible benefits that brands receive from consumers who notice, interact with, or click on their ads? Going beyond meeting media KPI benchmarks (CPA, CTR, VCR) to understand how different media channels work together to achieve brand KPIs across the funnel (not just conversion) is a huge opportunity and a better success metric for brands.
Career goal for 2025 – Ensure that this test successfully meets its objectives while also providing insights for learning and improvement on future iterations. For example, extending onsite search data into environments outside of the online web….
Daniel Kearney, Melbourne Sales Lead
Favourite podcast/read – My all-time favourite author is Yuval Noah Harari. I love his predictions for the future based on humanity’s history. His last book, Nexus, was especially interesting to understand what implications AI might have in store for us based on how we have interacted with information technology in the past.
Current streaming binge – The Big Lez Show, a low budget cartoon made by a bloke in Queensland which is both absurd and low brow while also being very deep. While juvenile, there’s also something very profound about the show, as well as being very Australian.
Guilty pleasure content – Does music count? If so, I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that Chappelle Roan is killing it at the moment.
What do you have on repeat – Most consistently, I’d say it’s the album “Lost In The Dream” by the band The War on Drugs. It’s one of those albums that is fantastic from start to finish, and I’ve given it a serious thrashing since its release more than a decade ago.
Best career advice – Little to no growth happens in your comfort zone, but amazing things await on the other side of that discomfort. I’ve been very lucky to have a lot of great leaders and role models who have pushed me here as well as taught me this through their own behaviours.
Leadership hero – Barack Obama. As a novice public speaker, I’ve always admired the way he conducts himself as an orator. He’s especially great at slowing down and using pauses to make a point. As someone who tends to speak as fast as he thinks, he is a fantastic role model for me.
Best training course/session – Learning DISC (dominance, influence, steadiness, conscientiousness) behavioural profiling throughout my career has given me very useful tips for understanding other people’s motivations and pain points, or even just simple tips for collaborative working.
I wish someone had told me – That your mistakes early in your career end up being some of the lessons you treasure the most. In my first year working in media in Melbourne, more than a decade ago, I struggled with a presentation to the wider NGen audience that stuck with me for a few years. Fast forward seven years, later I was a keynote speaker for NGen and received a 98th percentile score. It felt like a full-circle moment in learning from your mistakes.
Favourite place to network – Over the years, the most consistent place to network has been the pub, and probably the College Lawn Hotel in Prahran if I had to choose one. Outside of that, I’ve been very lucky to network all over the world, from New York Adweek to the Cannes Lions Festival. Networking is much like some of the work we do with our clients; if you look after your brand, it will look after you for your whole career.
Something that’s surprised you about the industry – When I first joined the industry back in New Zealand 15 years ago, I first thought that the media lunch was a relic from before my time, some kind of indulgence. But I’ve probably had more deals get done over a media lunch than I care to admit.
What is your hot take on the industry – Late-stage capitalism and the consolidation of media are hurting the industry and allowing more and more anticompetitive behaviour to go on behind closed doors. Which not only hurts the rest of the industry, but all consumers of media in general.
Career goal for 2025 – Become a pro in developing technology such as generative AI and other emerging tools. I love how our industry often sits on the bleeding edge of tech, and I’m very eager to see where it goes.
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Past editions of Meeting of the Minds.
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Top image: Gabby Mansour and Daniel Kearney