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Day 60 Is Live

July 2 - Single-Minded Propositions

This course focuses on critical thinking and creativity. It's not for people hungry for shortcuts and who struggle with introspection. It's also not a conventional learning experience and the material doesn't resemble a business or marketing degree.

What you'll get at Strategy Summer Camp

  • 100 Days Of Strategy

    That's right. Every single day, you'll get access to a new class. You can go into the material as deeply as you'd like. You'll need about 30 minutes every day to do the bare minimum.

  • 100 Exercises

    Every class will push you to put pen to paper. You'll get at least 100 exercises to do. The camp will run through Mark Pollard's new book "Strategy Is Your Words" (out in July, 2020). You'll get to explore yourself and the words you use at yourself as much as you get to learn practical strategy techniques.

  • A Gang

    One of the reasons we chose this particular training software is that we can put you together with people like you. Then you'll get to conquer your careers and the world together.

What we'll cover

Sure, we're going to cover a lot and you'll take out what you put in but here's a sample of what your brain will get to chew on:

  • We'll investigate words you might use at yourself - words such as “clarity”, “lone wolf”, “impostor”, “truth”, “meaning”, “rejection”, “empathy”, “art”, “opinions”, and “patience”.

  • We'll ask: What is strategy? What is an insight? What's an idea? What kinds of ideas are there in advertising? Why are ideas difficult?

  • We'll explore The Four Points, a strategy framework that will push your thinking further. And, insodoing, we'll play with over 20 ways to get to and then express strategic thinking.

Your Camp Counselor

Strategy CEO

Mark Pollard

Teaching strategy like I had 100 days to live. Host of Sweathead, a podcast with over 500,000 listens and a Facebook Group with over 11,000 members. Author of "Strategy Is Your Words". Once made a rap magazine and sat on the Australian Account Planning Group committee. From Sydney but alive in New York. A lot on the Internet: @markpollard.

Props

Alex Josephson

Global Head of Twitter Next @ajos

“Mark catapulted into our world at Twitter Next with a relentless curiosity - quickly gaining the trust of the our team, and pushing us to think outside of our comfort zone. He left our imaginations stretched, and our brains forever poked.”

Nick Fell

International Marketing, Facebook AR/VR (Oculus and Portal)

“Like after any good workout, we felt energized after Mark’s sessions, as well as hungry to create better, smarter and more daring strategies.”

Jean-Michel Hoffman

Head of Brand Strategy, SoFi

“Mark’s strategy workshop was an eye-opening experience for SoFi’s marketing team, one that challenged our engrained ways of thinking and excited us to search for novel ideas. His techniques around building common language between departments and lateral thinking are practical tools that are already making an impact in our work just a few weeks later."

Maura Tuohy

Formerly, Mozilla/Firefox

“I’ve never seen a room of zillennials not look at their phones for two hours.”

Harry Bee

CCO, Havas

“I would recommend it to my Enemy to make sure that they push me to better.”

Vince McSweeney

Chief Creative Officer, McCann Central

“Mark has the exceptional ability that all great planners have – at the same moment, he can make you feel incredibly inspired and yet completely crushed at your own inadequacies. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Mark Cripps

CMO, The Economist

"The marketing lion that is Pollard definitely does not sleep at night. His brain is not a quiet village."

I can't promise that the Strategy Summer Camp will change your life. You know why? I can't do that. You do that. But, come on, it will be fun.

Let's get founding

FAQ

  • How will the classes happen - will we have to meet every day?

    You can do the classes at your own pace. I'll publish classes every day in various formats (videos, presentations, audio). The classes will be available to you in some way while you are a member of Sweathead. The Summer Camp will also feature live sessions. These will make most sense if you're relatively up-to-speed with the classes.

  • Do I have to do one class to get the next class?

    Yes. I'm trying to guide you patiently through my crazy head. The more strategists I talk to, the more we back out of conversations about strategy to talk about life. Then we re-approach strategy with more vigor. Also, I'm not giving away 100 days of classes to people who log in once and leech it. Jeepers.

  • Are there any pre-requisites?

    Nope.

  • How much time is expected everyday?

    The heart of the classes and exercises will require about 30 minutes. But I'll push you to do more. For instance, if you have the time right now because you're out of work, you could certainly spend half a day on many of the classes.

  • Will the materials be available after the course is done?

    Yes. The material will be available to Sweathead members as part of an active Sweathead membership.

  • Am I too experienced or too inexperienced for this?

    This question is difficult to answer. I've been working in agencies on and off since I was 19. This class material has grown over the past 12 years. I just turned 42. And the clarity with which I feel this material has hit me in the past two years is real. I've taught college students and I've had CCOs and CEOs sit in my sessions. I'd encourage anyone who's yearning to learn to do it. And not just because I believe the student is their own teacher and I'm just here to nudge.

  • What level of difficulty is this material?

    The course isn't aimed at a high or low level. It's aimed at people with something to learn. It's such a tough question. The simple things, I'll break apart and get you to explore them differently. The complex things, I'll make simple as best I can.

  • Can I do the summer camp even if it's not summer where I live?

    No. I'm joking. You can do it in any season. Unless you're Australian. I'm joking. Why would I say that? I'm Australian. Australians can do this in their winter. I mean, winter in Australia isn't really winter anyway.

  • Whom is this good for?

    Anyone open to learning. At the heart of how I teach is critical thinking. And in the heart of this is a push to explore what's deep inside you. That is to say this is very heartfelt. You might be a college student, a marketer, an intern, an aspiring strategist, a strategist with 2 years experience or 10 or 20. It doesn't matter. You'll learn something or, at least, find entertainment in my mullet.