Success Made to Last with Entrepreneur Fiona Stevenson from The Idea Suite

BlogTalkRadio. Welcome back to Success Made to Last. I'm Rick Tokini. The show is brought to you by Edward Jones Financial Advisors, and we're so glad to have on our show today Fiona Stevenson, who is the president and founding partner of the Idea Suite, this Wonderful organization in Toronto, Ontario, selected as 2019 Canada's Top Growing Companies, 2020 Startup List, lots of awards, but I'm sure it's all deserved because Fiona is a great leader. Fiona, welcome to our program.

Thank you for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.

It's nice to speak with a Canadian given the the COVID-19 pandemic. So we welcome you and we want to know all about the Idea Suite and also about your career journey that led up to when you founded the Idea Suite.

Absolutely. Well, yes, my career journey started— I think I thought I would be a lawyer. I think a lot of people sort of think, oh, I'll go to law school. But Procter Gamble came to my university, Queen's University in Canada, and they were recruiting. And I was one of those big extracurricular kind of geeks, if you will. I was like news editor of the paper and, you know, leader of a lot of clubs and things. So someone told me, oh, that's really the profile that Procter Gamble looks for. So I kind of went through the interview process and then ended up getting hired and stayed at P&G for over a decade, well over a decade. I started in brand management in Toronto and then a couple years in I said, oh, I'd really love to go international if the chance ever comes up. And, you know, you have to kind of declare what you want because I think it was like 2 or 3 weeks later that they said, Hey, actually, the Switzerland office, the European headquarters, are looking for people sort of at your age and stage. Are you willing to move like as soon as, you know, a couple months from now? And I was like, yes, absolutely. So, went to the European headquarters and worked on the pet care business, which is relevant now. I'm one of the few people who did not get a dog through this COVID-19 lockdown period, but I think everyone in my neighborhood did. So, glad to know something about animals. Yeah, and that's where I got my first taste innovation, which kind of led me to the Idea Suite. I can talk more about that. I mean, I could go on and on with— tell me when to stop or if I can keep going.

Your start at Procter probably made the same difference it made on me, which was it imprinted core values, great people to work with, imagination, running your own business. I mean, there was something very, very magical and singularly fantastic about Procter Gamble. Tell us a little bit more about why now you look in the rearview mirror with perhaps greater admiration than ever for P&G.

Yes, you're absolutely right. I mean, I couldn't believe when I got there. I think within a couple of weeks of arriving, I went to the Brand College Experience in Cincinnati, which is a rite of passage. And I was just like, these people are amazing. I mean, they bring in the best leaders in the company to come inspire that young class, which feels amazing. And the work I was doing, the work I was given to do at such a young age, was just incredible. I mean, we really were sort of mini general managers at that age in brand management. I learned a ton. The people were fantastic. They are literally some of my favorite people in the world still. Many of them have become my clients, whether still at P&G or they've gone off to other companies. And one thing that I can't— I mean, there's so many gifts that P&G gave me, but wow, the writing. The clarity of thinking and writing. That one-page memo. I wish I could give everyone I ever work with That training, because it was— that discipline of writing is just so, so useful. I write every day, like I write a ton. It does not go away.

No, and that's something that for you young students out there that are considering the ideal first job, I know that everybody can't go to work for Procter, but what you should be looking for is in part what Fiona is talking about, and that's getting some of the basics down. And to some extent, I think at Proctor, they— I wouldn't say that it was boot camp, but there was a bring in a clean slate approach because I'm going to teach you 5-step persuasive. I'm going to teach you how to write a one-page memo. I'm going to teach you how to run a brand. And, and when you graduate from that, as 45,000 have from the alumni network, wow, there is this twinkle in your eye about What you've accomplished and what you've been through. And I would say every single day I'm still a Proctoid.

Yeah, I think that is fair. And I still— I mean, it was the worst when I left P&G because, you know, I left on amazing terms and, you know, almost like I could have stayed there forever and ever. But I think in the first 2 years, anyone I worked with, I couldn't help but saying, at Procter Gamble we did this, or at Procter we used to do this, or, oh, this time at Procter. And I was like, oh my gosh, I have to stop. But You just— there's so many experiences that you have, right? And you learn so, so much. And so it's hard. It's hard to get that out of you.

Well, tell me, what is the best part of your company that reflects some of the great virtues and traits that you learned at Procter?

Hmm, I love that question. Well, yes, so my co-founder and I, when we founded the company, I mean, first of all, we were looking at that kind of creating a company that was built on that combination of Business-mindedness and creativity. So I had the business-mindedness side from P&G, that client-side mentality, and then she had worked in innovation for a long time and in consulting, so kind of that agency side, and it was bringing those two together. But we also really wanted a values-driven company because of course the PPP at Procter was so huge and such a huge part of how we operated. So we really thought a lot about what our values were, and then we really wanted to be this magnet for great creative talent in Canada. So it's kind of like, smart, creative people who really want to make a difference. How can we make them choose us? And ultimately, with our clients too. We just want to be around people who have that sort of ambition for— at P&G, we all just wanted to do better, and you wanted the next program to be even better, and you're always challenging yourself. I talk to Procter Gamble still, and it's just that ambition and Type A-ness, whatever it is. So we've brought a lot of that spirit and energy to the company for sure. And again, that discipline. Yeah, that discipline. But you know how it was at P&G, there was like a ton of discipline and structure. But then, you know, within that, it's kind of— we always talk about creativity with constraints. Like within that, there's tons of room for creativity, but there's like, you know, a nice structure and process to kind of ground yourself in.

That's right. Fiona, let's talk about brand strategy of the future. And this will be a fun conversation. For the life of me, having worked on brands, and some of them included at the time the $3 billion Doritos brand, I look back and then I look forward to how brands are operating today and brand guidelines and how they're written. And I just— it blows my mind that brands are not thinking about a sonic identity or a sonic strategy. And some of the, some of the brands that we had at Procter were driven by great music or mnemonics, just like an Intel or a Netflix is, or NBC with the GE. See, why in the world, in your opinion, are brands not including sonic identity in their brand guidelines?

Wow, that is so interesting. You know, I mean, that's a really, really interesting question. It's so funny because I was talking to my son a few minutes ago where I was like, oh, I'm about to do this podcast. And I was like, what are some of my favorite commercials? What are the ones that I really notice? And he said, and he referenced this tiny little Canadian commercial where it's like a lawyer or something. And at the end it's like, don't put it off, sock it off. Like the lowest budget ad. And he's like, you always like that one. You always start singing it. And I was like, oh my gosh, I can't reference that. That's like this tiny little ad, but how funny. And like, I think your question now is quite hilarious because yeah, that's huge, right? Like that's those mnemonic devices and those like, you know, those whatever, those things stick in your head and all of that. That's really important to me. I don't know why. I wonder if it's around, you know, there's just so much now. You know, those kinds of tastes are so personal and subjective, and you can't possibly design for something that everyone likes. And it's about, you know, I don't know, people making brands their own. But I don't have a good answer for that. That's a really interesting question. I'd love to hear your opinion on it.

Well, here's my opinion. My wife and I have a travel company called Living Seasonally, and it's about traveling through your 5 senses, and we've studied with neurologists about what is the fastest sense and where you remember the most. It starts with sound. Sound is the fastest sense. And so I, I sit there going, why? Why does State Farm— why did they come up with that? State Farm is there, and like a good neighbor. And it was, and it is stuck. And if you look at all the brands that, that have some sort of sonic identity, they've never changed because It's what people remember first. And then I think about my experience in working in Cambridge, Ontario, and having 14 Tim Hortons around me. And I always wondered, why, why didn't Tim Hortons have a sound or a sonic identity? Why didn't Canadian Tire? Why, why didn't, you know, the hardware store that's up— I can't remember the name of your famous hardware store in Canada.

Lowe's.

It goes brand after brand after brand. It's like it is the last thing, I swear, that brand managers think of. Yet some of the greatest brands in the world started with and have kept their same sonic identity.

Yeah, there's one in Canada that you may remember, the Sleep Country Canada. Why buy a mattress anywhere else? And it's still It still sticks, you know, with all these, like, you know, very innovative new models for bed purchasing and stuff. And that one, I still— I've probably said that little jingle like 3 or 4 times in the past month. It comes up all the time in conversation with people. Or so it's really interesting. Now I'm going to be on the lookout for this.

Yes, please do. Please do. Okay, well, speaking of brands, tell me about, if you can, without giving away, you know, any client information, tell me about a brand that you've worked on or a project in the Oh, wow.

I mean, there are so, so many. We take a lot of pride in our work. So sometimes it's those ones where it's kind of like the speed of things. We worked on a global project. I would say probably about 60% of our work is with US clients, which, as obviously I was saying before this call, that I used to be on a plane to the US every single week. literally every week. And so for the past year and a half, we've been dealing with our US clients and our global clients virtually, which has been exciting, an exciting pivot. And we'll kind of see what happens as things open back up and the border eventually opens. But, you know, sometimes— there was one last year before, just before the pandemic that we did where it was a 6-week innovation journey with 6 different countries. And there were 2 of us essentially kind of flying around. So we, in that time, between some other projects we had going on as well. We were in Mexico, Brazil, China, France, the US. I mean, we were literally flying all over the world and figuring things out along the way, looking for what are the regional nuances, but also what's kind of like the global strategic things that all hang together. So that was exciting. It's always nice to do some travel when you're working. I think we've done some really, really interesting work for some clients who are doing some very good, good work. We've done a lot of work with AARP in the US, and they just do such innovative stuff for, I mean, nowadays it's for the 40+, right?

Yeah.

So we've done some really fantastic stuff with them, but it is hard working in innovation where you have to be so secretive about stuff until it actually launches, and then it's very, very exciting when finally you see stuff launch. But the work we do with clients, so we're leading them through consumer insight work into creative ideation, into concept writing. Stuff eventually goes into, you know, the classic bases test, and then it might take 18 to 24 months sometimes to launch. So we're just seeing a lot of stuff launch in the last little while that we worked on quite a, quite a long time ago.

When you work with a client like AARP, that membership starts at age 50, Is there a tendency to want to work on looking at the consumer as they approach 50 or the consumer who's already 55, 65, 70?

It really depends on the project. It does. We did a really interesting project with them where we were talking to people just around that 50 mark. And, you know, it is kind of like this life change point where, you know, obviously people like the 30s, 40s, you're often quite busy with the kids at home and life is a bit of a blur. And then around 50, often if you have kids at home, they're kind of going off to college. And that was such an interesting group to talk to because they're sort of looking at, hey, wait a second. Let me kind of reevaluate. I have a lot more time than I did. Do I want to start— even a few years ago, many people were starting these side hustles. They were driving for Uber suddenly or getting into some passions like art or cooking or whatever else, deciding to make a radical career shift, or really looking at what drives me, what really makes me happy. I really love travel. I really love wine, whatever it is, and leaning into their interests. So, that was— I loved talking to that age group. It's always fun to talk to consumers at change points where they're sort of reevaluating everything from how they spend their time, what they buy.

Yeah, and then—

And then some programs are obviously targeted much more. Okay, we're really looking at an issue with, like for the 70+ or whatever it is. But that was the most fun, I think, that turn point.

Yeah, I like that. We're talking with Fiona Stevenson, and this is the halfway point of our show. Fiona, how about doing a little commercial for your own company and telling everyone where they can contact you?

Sure. Yeah, so my company is called The Idea Suite. So we are at www.theideasuite.com. Theideasuite.com, and we are an innovation agency. So we work with a lot of big CPG, you know, I didn't stray far from the CPG world, food and beverage companies, but also like banking clients and others, sort of large corporates who are looking to innovate. So we help them, you know, whether it's spot big opportunities, which might be, you know, adjacencies or, you know, new lines of business they want to get into, or, you know, new regions they want to get into. But most often it's really these innovation projects where they're saying, okay, we've got a brand, We need to fill the pipeline for the next 2 or 3 years. We want to come up with, let's say, 15 or 20 commercial ideas. Kind of go. And then we go through a design thinking process, really from starting with immersing in the consumer, and then moving through, again, creative ideation, writing things into concepts, workshopping those with consumers. And then we also do a lot of just insight work and strategy work as well with our clients. So for many of our clients, we're sort of like the first call now. And then we'll either say, oh yeah, we'd love to take that work on, Or, hey, we can connect you to this agency or this party who might do something a bit better, like quant. We don't do quant research, for example. So that is us. As I said, we work with a global client base. And then we started another, a second company this year, kind of on top of the first, which is called Energy for Growth.

Mm-hmm.

So that's www.energyforgrowth.com. And that was actually a passion play. So we've been very interested in energy for a long time. And when I say energy, it's really, you know, to make innovation happen, it's a heavy lift. And it takes a lot of actually creative energy and an energized team to make it happen. So when we take corporate teams through this innovation process, this design thinking process, the process is kind of 50% of what's responsible for the success, but the rest is really behaviors, behaviors that build creative energy. So over the years, we've done a lot of keynotes and stuff on how to energize teams, how to optimize your own energy. And when this pandemic happened and people were, I mean, first in the first few months, just trying to get their bearings and dealing with kids at home and pivoting businesses, and then kind of pushing through. And, you know, now in Canada we're still sort of in lockdown, and it's been a year and a half, so people are burnt out, and more than ever, and people are disconnected, right, from the teams that they work with. And so we decided, hey, why don't we actually start this company? You know, we'll start off with really interventions. So we're working with clients. We have a 12-week program that we take them through to help energize and connect and make their team really high performance, even in this kind of scattered or dispersed world. So we worked with a quant agency to develop actually an energy test that you can take, an energy index. So you can find out, okay, what is, you know, what's my energy score? What is my team's? You know, how do I compare to my team? And a team leader can look at, oh, okay, you know, here's where our issues are. Then we kind of go through this process, and at the end they can measure their energy score again and hopefully see a real uplift. So that's been exciting.

Very good.

Very fun work.

Very timely too.

Okay.

And so as we— thank you for that. And so as we go into the second half of this show, this is the, the more fun, deep philosophical stuff. So we'll start with this one. I happen to know from your background that you're a comedian, and that you're also into improv. So within your lifetime, who has been that one or two mentors that you had who's helped your Oh, that's interesting.

Who has been— you know, I don't know if I've had a comedic mentor. I think it's really cool through the network I've gotten to know Andrew Tarvin. I don't know if you've had him on your show before, but he's got his whole company around humor, which I think is just so fascinating to start a company on, you know, humor in the workplace, because I think it's so important. I mean, I could not have gone through my through life without humor. the crises that we dealt with at P&G. When you're in brand management, it's like this customer is going to delist something, or this kind of went off the rails. It's constantly like crisis and issue management, but you're working with really fun people. So we use comedy all the time just to kind of help us get through, and certainly the improv skills. I find as a facilitator too, especially in this new world, it's like you're suddenly— the connection dies. Your child walks in in the middle of a 300-person keynote you're giving. or whatever it is, and just to be able to sort of roll with it has been so important. So it's something, again, if I look at, you know, what recommendation would I make to people starting out, and start at a company like Procter where you can get great training or train yourself, and then take improv courses. It's like the best possible spend, and I think one of the most transferable and useful skills you can focus on.

Exactly, especially on podcasts on Saturday afternoon, right? So you've got to be able to do improv. OK, the next question is related to success, and success I think has changed, transcended through COVID-19. How would you define success for you personally and professionally in a post-COVID-19 era?

Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think success, you know, I'm kind of— I'm an overachiever. I'm an extrovert. So I think success for a long time was a lot of those stripes like the top ratings and the promotions. And when we started our own agency, it was like, oh, we started with one client. We had like one client logo which was Nestlé. And it was like, how do we get 10 client logos, 20? And now we are at 50. And then these lists, right? We wanted to make like the Adweek list which we made. So it was all about those stripes. And I kept thinking like, okay, I don't need to worry about that stuff anymore. But you can't help it when you've been hooked on that stuff since you were a kid trying to get A's in school. But yes, the pandemic has absolutely shifted that. I think, you know, certainly success right now, I mean, A, it looks like being able to do what you love every day, and I actually really get to do that. I feel like I've gotten to do that most of my career, but just doing work you love, that is such a gift. And then just positive contribution. And so, you know, I think any piece of work, I mean, I take a lot of pride in it because I want it to be, you know, I want the process of working with me to kind of like be helpful to others and energizing to them. I want, you know, my team to feel good and grow through working on a project. And then you just want to put good work out into the world. You know, I have this like, when I have more time, which I need to carve out time for, but I want to write books. You want to write articles that matter. For me, contribution is so, so important. And then of course, there's just so many people in need in the past year and always, you know, there's endless opportunities to contribute. So looking for those.

Yeah, you speak of quality. And you also speak of or imply speed. And why is the right pace and the right quality of work more important to you as you get older?

Yeah, I think, I mean, I think we've had experiences where, you know, it's like, ah, there's a rush, rush, rush, like we got to get this done so quickly. And you're trying to kind of like cut corners and you realize, you know, A, the deadline ended up being false. And suddenly, oh wait, we can wait 3 or 4 weeks because someone is going on vacation. And you're like, oh my gosh. Early on you make those mistakes where you even sacrifice your own vacation or your own schedule to make a client's timeline or whatever work. And then you realize, you know what, I could have probably pushed back on that. I could have said no. And the same thing with our— we have a 6-step design thinking process. And sometimes it's like, okay, we don't have much time. A client might say, can we just do step 1? 1, 4, and 5, or can we just jump to step 3? And it just doesn't work. Sometimes shortcutting really doesn't work, and you end up going back and kind of having to rework things. So we've gotten briefs sometimes where a client did work, or they did work with someone else, and they were like, we kind of rushed it, and now we find ourselves here, and we don't really know what to do. And you have to end up starting at the beginning. So I think by this point you have perspective on And do it right the first time. And too many lessons of where things were rushed and the outcome suffered.

Oh yeah, sounds like the fable of the tortoise and the hare. It's— that was really well stated. I appreciate that. Okay, 2 more questions for you. And this is the one that we're writing a book about. So if— I bet you you're going to land in our book. Or we will ask you for your permission. I want you to describe your relationship with fear and how you've managed fear in your career and in your personal life.

Wow, that is a big question. You know, I think fear of failure was probably something that I struggled with for, you know, a long, long time. I think that drove a lot of my achievement of just, you know, from everything, even It wasn't like that proctor interview, like, I don't want to fail. I want to get this job. So, you know, it was like success means, you know, getting it right every time. And again, I probably learned this lesson way too late in life, but now working in innovation, you know, you learn that failure is everything and failure is not something to fear. In fact, you know, if you're not getting that feedback that failure teaches you, you are not growing. That's actually like my real fear is being stagnant, is not growing. So I want to grow every year. I want to improve every day, every year. And that means becoming a lot more comfortable with failure, a lot more comfortable with risk. And so those were things I think that was always like my opportunity area when I was at Procter, which was kind of risk-taking. I wanted all the answers before I moved forward, and I would move quickly. get those answers. So I wasn't necessarily slow. I was probably killing myself.

Mm-hmm.

But like, you know, realizing like you— it's okay to just like take that leap and, you know, my gut and my intuition will probably, you know, take me there and take me to the right place. You know, there are two-way door decisions and one-way door decisions. And so kind of being more comfortable with that. Now, as I said, I'm all about growth. So failure doesn't scare me. You know, and it's exciting because, you know, even through the last year, I think so many brands had to kind of like try something. Nope, that's not going to work. Like pivot. What about this? What about this? The rules kept changing from, you know, kind of a new standpoint. And so, you know, that flexibility, although it was pretty horrible for a lot of companies to live through the past year and a bit, will really set them up well for the future.

Hmm, thank you for that. That was so insightful. And I would just add that as a parent of 2 adult daughters, that the fun part now is trying to teach them to have a healthy relationship with fear so they can do what you just said. I mean, literally walk the talk and understand risk and, and take it and, and have no regrets.

Yeah, I've definitely learned a lot from, you know, if I think about my mentors right now, I'm in an entrepreneurs group with very, very kind of high-achieving entrepreneurs. So, you know, the kind of people who, they build a $100 million business and then sell that. And just seeing, I mean, first of all, like a lot of humility despite all the success, but just how they take risks and they try things and they lean on each other. They're not afraid not to have all the answers either. I mean, I love that. whole like who, not how. So you don't need to look in fear like, how am I ever going to get there? I don't know. I know what my goal is, but I have no idea how to get there. There are a million people and probably like hundreds of people at your disposal who could actually help give you the answers to get you there. So I try not to be paralyzed by the how anymore, the tyranny of the how. I don't let it get me down. We set big goals and then we just know that we can find the right people to help us get there.

Well, that's beautifully stated. All right, final question for you, Fiona, and it's this. You impress me as a futurist. If you could live another 100 years, what would you want to accomplish in that 100 years?

Wow. Well, I hope I can. I've heard some things that, you know, there may be some exciting advances coming. We might be able to live a lot longer. For now, I would say, as you talk about writing a book, I would love to write a lot of books, absolutely. I think if I could spend the last half of my life really writing, and writing both— there's a lot of business books maybe that I can think of, and books about innovation, and books about energizing teams, but I'd also love to be a little more creative and potentially try some fiction. Try some maybe like, you know, movie or a screenplay or something like that. And I think just because I'm so fascinated by human beings, I think that started at the beginning of my career. You know, I've always been focused on consumers and how they behave and characters and stories. So, you know, I'd love to spend a lot more time writing.

Beautiful. Fiona, thank you so much for being on our show today. You're welcome back anytime. And as a matter of fact, it would be fun to talk to you at least once a year to get an update on the Idea Suite and also on Energy for Growth. So thank you so much. We appreciate your time on this Saturday, and our best to you and your family. And thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and, and telling us about your great past. And I just want to remind you to take your work seriously but never yourself.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. This was fun, and I would love to come back whenever you'll have me.

That would be great. That was Fiona Stevenson. We appreciate her being on our Success Made to Last show today. And you can go to theideasuite.com to learn more information. And her newest company is energyforgrowth.com. What a fascinating idea, and timely, I would add. This show is presented by Edward Jones Financial Advisors. Thanks to our guy, Serban Marasini. You can contact him for personal advice at serban.maracine@edwardjones.com. He'll help you navigate your crazy financial waters out there and help you set very specific goals and hopefully set you on the course to being happy. Thanks for joining us on this show. As we always say, may you move from ordinary to extraordinary. Have a great week.