Jason Bagley, former CCO of Wieden+Kennedy Portland, has enlisted the help of fellow legendary creatives to address what he calls “a mentorship crisis” in the creative industry.
Creatives can work in the business for years and never get solid advice or mentorship. In 2021, Bagley created The Audacious School of Astonishing Pursuits (ASAP), a creative mentorship/coaching platform for industry creatives, to address the issue and make top-level mentorship more accessible.
And it seems to be working.
What started as one online program has now grown to include top industry talent and multiple courses. With over 700 creatives having completed the courses, Bagley has launched the ASAP Guild — a year-round, all-access membership for creative professionals seeking elite mentorship, face time with some of the biggest names in the industry and an international community of like-minded talent.
“The reason we launched the ASAP Guild came as a direct response from ASAP grads. The courses had such a dramatic impact on their work that they want that rapid growth to continue,” said Bagley.
Bagley noted the 700-plus grads who have gone through the eight-week programs came from all over the world, including Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America, and he’s been humbled by the positive response. “It’s been awesome to see the impact that it's had on so many creatives,” said Bagley. “Creatives are so starved for high-quality, deep mentorship, so ASAP programs are like an all-you-can-eat-Wagyu-steak-and-cavier-nacho buffet.
The ASAP Guild expands the offerings for professional students and will now happen year-round, online through the Circle community platform.
The ASAP Guild is an invitation-only creative coaching collective designed to be a home base for ambitious creatives who want to keep growing and pushing in their careers. They need to go through an introduction call and fill out an application to make sure they’re a good fit for the program. Members receive an all-access pass to ASAP’s most sought-after courses. Those courses include: “Creative Megamachine” with Bagley and “Art Director Megamachine” with FCB global CCO Danilo Boer and creative director Lawrence Melilli. The Megamachine moniker came about from Bagley’s love of hyperbolic language.
John Patroulis, CMO at tech startup Tools for Humanity and former global creative chairman at Grey, teaches the CCO Megamachine with Bagley. Patroulis had many great mentors when he was coming up in the industry, so passing along some of the great learnings he got from them is a big motivator for him to give back.
“No one gives the CCO a manual on how to do the job, and people usually end up in these roles because they are amazing creatives around the work, not necessarily because they are also great creative leaders of a business. I loved the idea of being able to create some frameworks and processes that might help. I deeply believe creative people should lead creative businesses, and this was a chance to help people do that,” said Patroulis.
Patroulis added his course is a practical step-by-step process on how to functionally do the job to get to the work someone is already creatively capable of achieving. Then there are once-a-week open office sessions via Zoom for questions around the lessons, discussion and going deeper on specific issues anyone may be facing.
“We’ve had everyone [as students] — from those looking to start their first CCO gig to highly awarded, successful CCOs running famous agencies who are looking to reimagine what their agency and leadership can be,” added Patroulis.
The ASAP Guild also features new master classes from some of the industry’s top creative talent. In the “Kings and Queens of Comedy Masterclass Series,” students can learn from the best comedy talent in the industry, including Nathaniel Lawlor, Craig Allen, Matt Sorrell, Eric Kallman, Chen Liang, Ashley Davis-Marshall, Guto Araki, Chris Beresford-Hill, Andy Laugenour and Darci Burrell. There is also a “Headline Megamachine” with Dan Nelken, author of “A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters,” plus master classes on production, AI and manifestos.
Beyond the courses, the ASAP Guild now has a slate of exclusive experiences designed to put members in direct contact with the brightest minds in advertising. In “The Cabal of Forbidden Knowledge,” students get exclusive inner-circle access to live sessions with top talent, revealing their creative secrets, including Beresford-Hill, Mischief’s Bianca Guimaraes, The Martin Agency’s Ashley-Davis Marshall, Araki and TBWA\MAL’s Brent Anderson.
Bagley notes that he gets such great talent because the most successful creatives in the industry generally want to give back. “They love talking about things they are expert in, so they’ve all been excited to be a part of it. And I’m happy to say that ASAP is now such a strong brand in the space that top talent see it as an honor to be invited to participate, which I’m very grateful for,” said Bagley.
Other experiences include a Backstage Pass access to ASAP coaches, a “Learn and Burn” review of Guild members’ work and a live, in-person Guild Gathering “built into the side of a forgotten volcano next to an Arby’s at the edge of madness,” jokes Bagley.
In addition to the core membership, ASAP Guild Pro offers a creative director-level experience with added courses such as “CD Megamachine,” “Selling Megamachine” and exclusive Q&As with the industry’s most accomplished CDs. Every membership includes access to a private, global online community of ASAP grads, with 24/7 chat, searchable directories and peer-to-peer support that spans continents and time zones.
Bagley hopes to continue to grow the ASAP Guild, sharing that when a group of creatives go through an eight-week course together, they form a strong bond. Many ASAP grads have done in-person get-togethers in their respective cities around the world, and the annual Guild Gathering will be an opportunity for everyone to hang out in person, learn and have some fun.
Bagley said he learned from his 16 years at Wieden+Kennedy that “when you’re surrounded by incredibly accomplished creatives, you never stop learning and growing — you’re always learning from and getting inspiration from the talent around you — even after 16 years. So I want to provide that level of growth and access to any creative with the ambition to want it.”
