JANET KESTIN &
NANCY VONK
CO-FOUNDERS, SWIM | INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS AND TRAINERS
LEADERS BEHIND THE DOVE FOR REAL BEAUTY CAMPAIGN
“A no-bullshit duo bent on changing everything. "
Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk are co-founders of Swim, a creative leadership lab called out
by Forbes and Fast Company for an unconventional approach to developing leaders. They empower people with a skill set that's vital to having maximum impact in their roles. Their clients lead at companies like Spotify, Refinery29, Droga5, Facebook and many others around the globe.
This duo were Co-Chief Creative Officers of Ogilvy & Mather in Toronto (’98-’12). They’re two of the leaders behind Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty, and were named on the Advertising Age 100 Most Influential Women in Advertising 2012 list. Janet and Nancy are Marketing Hall of Legends and Usherwood Award recipients.
TOPICS:
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BREAKING INVISIBLE RULES OF BUSINESS THAT HOLD WOMEN BACK
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NAVIGATING CONFLICT DURING MASSIVE CHANGE
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LEADING WITH CREATIVITY AND HUMANITY IN A DIGITAL WORLD
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GIVING FEEDBACK THAT GROWS IDEAS (AND PEOPLE)
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RADICAL LISTENING: WHY IT'S CRITICAL FOR HITTING '20 GOALS
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BUILDING INVINCIBLE TEAMS - TOGETHER AND APART
LANGUAGE :
LOCATION : TORONTO, ON
PUBLICATIONS:
International gender finance specialist Joanne Thomas Yaccato calls their HarperCollins release Darling You Can't Do Both (And Other Noise To Ignore On Your Way Up) the "don't buy into the bullsh*t guide for women at work". Fast Company
cofounder Alan Webber calls it “A guide to breaking the rules that stunt careers and wreak havoc at home. The how-to follow-up to Lean In.” It was listed among Inc. Magazine’s 2017 “top 60 books on leadership”. They’re tapped by companies, schools and organizations who want fresh insights and ideas to break down barriers to women’s success; UCLA, Google and RBC among them.
They penned Pick Me: Breaking Into Advertising and Staying There (Adweek Books/Wiley) in ’05, based on their long-time online advice column for young professionals, Ask Jancy. It’s become a staple in advertising schools from Texas to Turkey. Their career advice and thought leadership appears regularly in spaces like Huffington Post and Fast Company.
Janet is included in D&AD’s 2018 edition of The Copy Book: How some of the best advertising writers in the world write their advertising.
Nancy was the first female chair of the Art Director’s Club Awards (NY) in their 87-year history. She has served on the board of The One Club since ’09.
Janet and Nancy collaborate with The 3% Movement and Factry, the Montreal-based School of Creativity Sciences. They write a regular column on leadership for The Message, Sink or Swim.
TESTIMONIALS:
We spoke after your incredibly inspiring talk. I think I told you it was "one of the best talks I'd been to at SXSW." Well, I lied. That was THE best talk. Period.
-Hayden Gilbert (GSD & M Creative Director, Austin, Texas)
Janet and Nancy,
Thank you so much for coming to Facebook today and sharing your invisible rules to break. It is incredibly inspiring to hear from two successful women who have real stories and lessons to share that are so applicable to many. I loved the fact that many of our younger people came who have yet to have families. It will be this generation that needs to instil the way they approach work not as ground breaking, but as they expected way of operating. As I mentioned, I am thoroughly enjoying reading your book – it is so human and the stories are so easy to follow, relate to and extract piratical advice that you can apply to your day to day life. Thank you for continuing to draw attention to this important topic and caring enough to share your story. All the best with the book launch and please let us know if there is anything we can do for you.
-Samantha Stetson, head of women's development at Facebook