Awaiting Approval

Nacho Zuccarino - Vulnerability

Nacho Zuccarino - Vulnerability Nacho Zuccarino has lived several careers in one lifetime. He started out teaching metaphysics in Buenos Aires, moved into advertising, spent a decade in Silicon Valley working at orgs like Google and Netflix, helped launch Starlink with SpaceX, and has spent the last two years building at the intersection of creativity and AI. He is restless, warm, and deeply, disarmingly honest. And he will tell you, without hesitation, that he is still a broken kid. This conversation goes to places neither of us expected. We talk about what it means to drag yourself into rooms full of people who know things you don't, and why that discomfort is the fastest way to learn anything. We talk about therapy, about fathers and mothers, about the generation of men who were taught to take the hits and say nothing. We talk about what happens to your identity when the two things you built it around, being a parent and being a professional, are suddenly out of reach at the same time. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, Nacho says something that has stayed with me: becoming an adult is mostly killing your creativity. That is what this conversation is really about. If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes. Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com [http://www.growwithadamjennings.com] and book a call. I’d genuinely love to hear from you. Want to support the Awaiting Approval? Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show. And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp [https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp] This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe [https://growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Debbie Millman - Becoming

Debbie Millman has spent over 20 years interviewing the world’s most creative people, built one of the most celebrated design podcasts in existence, written a number of highly acclaimed books, co-founded the Masters Program in Branding at the SVA, and helped shape how an entire industry thinks about craft, identity, and what it means to do meaningful work. She is warm, considered, and disarmingly honest. And she is, by her own admission, still very much in the process of becoming. What struck me most in our conversation is how someone who has achieved so much remains so genuinely curious about the gap between where she is and where she wants to be. We talk about the strange emptiness that tends to follow creative achievement (as covered in her latest TED talk), about the mechanisms we build in childhood to protect ourselves and then spend decades trying to dismantle, and about what it really means to show up for your work and the people around it with honesty and without pretence. It is a conversation about courage, mostly the kind that arrives late and the kind that is still on its way. If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes. Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com [http://www.growwithadamjennings.com] and book a call. I’d genuinely love to hear from you. Want to support the Awaiting Approval? Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show. And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp [https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp] This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe [https://growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

David Martin - Curiosity

David Martin founded Fantasy Interactive before most people knew what interaction design was. He helped shape the visual language of operating systems used by billions, built one of the most influential creative agencies of its era, and worked with some of the biggest names in tech and culture. He’s also a pilot, a go-kart mechanic, a consciousness obsessive, and a dad who quit the nine-to-five to be trackside with his eleven-year-old son. He is, in the best possible way, a lot. This conversation goes everywhere. We talk about ADHD as a superpower and a saboteur, why David believes education is fundamentally broken, the Thursday morning coffee meetings where a pastor, an ex-NFL player, and a tech founder argue about the nature of existence, and what it means to raise kids in a world where the rules are being rewritten in real time. We also talk about opportunities, the kind that change the direction of a life, and what it really takes to spot someone worth betting on. David doesn’t do inspiration for inspiration’s sake. But there’s a lot in here that’ll stay with you. If you’re feeling stuck, or just want to think out loud about where you’re headed, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I offer free 15-minute conversations for anyone who wants to talk through what’s in front of them. Whether that leads to working together or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got someone in your corner, even for 15 minutes. Head to http://www.growwithadamjennings.com [http://www.growwithadamjennings.com] and book a call. I’d genuinely love to hear from you. Want to support the Awaiting Approval? Remember to rate this episode, and subscribe to the show. And you can get your hands on amazing Awaiting Approval caps, mugs and more, here: https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp [https://adam-jennings-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp] This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe [https://growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Season 3 Trailer & Cast Reveal

Season 3 of Awaiting Approval is here. 22 episodes. 22 conversations. 22 themes. One season. Starting May 7th. Watch the trailer now. E1 — David Martin — Curiosity — 7th May E2 — Debbie Millman — Becoming — 14th May E3 — Nacho Zuccarino — Vulnerability — 21st May E4 — Odeya Noble-Bougay — Continuity — 28th May E5 — Charles Cadbury — Conviction — 4th June E6 — Tamora Petitt — Clarity — 11th June E7 — Maryam Cristillo — Love — 18th June E8 — James Ferguson — Adaptability — 25th June E9 — Martina Hodges-Schell — Range — 2nd July E10 — Maria Nicholas — Service — 9th July E11 — Recruiter Roundtable Part 2 — 16th July E12 — Awaiting Approval LIVE — 23rd July E13 — Lara Juriansz — Boldness — 30th July E14 — Michael Glass — Legacy — 6th August E15 — Emily Court — Authenticity — 13th August E16 — Mark Iddon — Instinct — 20th August E17 — Oriana Gaeta — Belonging — 27th August E18 — Julie Kennedy — Reinvention — 3rd September E19 — Roberto Rotondi — Patience — 10th September E20 — Mikaela Dragon — Vision — 17th September E21 — Katja Alissa Mueller — Identity — 24th September E22 — Guy Vickerstaff — Craft — 1st October E23 — Terri Williams — Trust — 8th October E24 — Jess Campbell — Healing — 15th October E25 — Cast Roundtable — 22nd October E26 — Season Debrief — 29th October To every single person on this list: thank you. Thank you for trusting me with your story. Thank you for your honesty, your vulnerability, and your willingness to go to places most people don’t go to on a podcast. This season exists because each of you said yes. Just search “Awaiting Approval” on your podcast platform of choice, including YouTube. Follow now so you don’t miss the season premiere next Thursday. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe [https://growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 18 - Debrief

Season 2 of Awaiting Approval comes to a close with something a little different. No guest this time. No one-word theme attached to a single conversation. Just me, stepping back to look at what this season became. And honestly… I’m still a bit stunned by it. Since launching the show in summer 2025 with no marketing spend, the podcast has grown far beyond anything I expected. More than 10,000 listens. Charting in over 15 countries. And not a single day since August 2025 where it hasn’t appeared somewhere in the charts. That still feels surreal. But this episode is not really about numbers. It’s about what stayed with me. Across Season 2, I gave each episode a single word. Not to reduce the conversation, but to give it an anchor. A way of holding onto the essence of what each guest brought into the room. And when I stepped back and looked at those words together, something else emerged. A pattern. Not a neat one. Not a single message repeated over and over. But a thread. And the thread that kept surfacing, in all sorts of different ways, was kindness. Kindness in the work. Kindness in leadership. Kindness in how we treat each other. And maybe most of all, kindness towards ourselves. Because so many of these conversations touched on pressure, expectation, self-doubt, burnout, ambition, fear, and the endless feeling that we should somehow be handling it all better than we are. And underneath all of that was this quieter truth. We do not need to make it harder than it already is. This episode is a reflection on what Season 2 has meant to me, what the guests gave so generously, and how the podcast has started to grow into something bigger than a series of interviews. I also talk about one unexpected side project that came out of the season - a playlist called Awaiting Approval - The Soundtrack - made up of one song from each guest, with no names and no explanations. Just emotional fingerprints, side by side. Tune in on Spotify here [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0F8sBM53uurt11aR0yWxpX] Tune in on YouTube here [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg04wl30BvuxGIPVDNyfEZPO69njpSldz&si=xBMGXih7Drz8Qztr] https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg04wl30BvuxGIPVDNyfEZPO69njpSldz&si=xBMGXih7Drz8Qztr There is also a look back at the first ever Awaiting Approval LIVE, which was very much an experiment, and a look ahead to Season 3, which is already in motion and feels bigger, deeper, and more emotionally honest than anything we’ve done so far. More than anything though, this episode is about gratitude. For the guests. For the listeners. For the people who shared the show, rated it, messaged about it, or quietly kept coming back to it. Because without that, this would just be a collection of conversations. With that, it becomes something else. In this episode, we cover: • The growth of Awaiting Approval since launch • Why Season 2 felt different • The one-word structure behind each episode • The themes that emerged when looking across the full season • Why kindness became the defining thread • Pressure, self-doubt, expectation, and the emotional undercurrent of the season • The importance of being kinder in the room, in the work, and to ourselves • The origin of Awaiting Approval - The Soundtrack • Why one song from each guest became its own kind of portrait • Reflections on the first Awaiting Approval LIVE • What I learned from putting the podcast into a room • The different ways listeners can support the show • Gratitude to every guest who trusted me with their story • Why the audience matters more than stats ever can • A first glimpse at what’s coming in Season 3 If the rest of Season 2 was about listening closely to others, Episode 18 is about listening closely to what the season itself was trying to say. And for me, it said this: Lead with care. Stay human. Keep going. === This is Awaiting Approval. The globally charting design podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership. Hosted by Adam Jennings - a creative leader with three decades of experience leading teams and projects for global brands including Microsoft, Salesforce, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Ancestry, Dolby, BBC and many more - this show features honest, unscripted conversations with the leaders shaping design, storytelling, and innovation today. These are the conversations you don’t hear in keynotes. The ones about imposter syndrome, trust, failure, confidence, and finding your voice as a leader. Whether you’re just stepping into creative leadership or you’ve been at it for years, Awaiting Approval is your place to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged. Awaiting Approval is a Cordial Fox production. Hosted by Adam Jennings. Produced by Adam Jennings & Jasmin Egner. © Cordial Fox Limited, 2026. Ready to level up your leadership with real, honest support? Join the next cohort of Supercharged Creative Leaders - my flagship four-week programme for creative leaders who want clarity, confidence, and a community that gets it. ✅ Small groups (just 6 per cohort) ✅ Weekly live sessions with me and your cohort ✅ Async access to me and your cohort via a private Slack community ✅ Invitation to join my alumni community once you’ve completed the programme. Previous attendees have gone on to win major pitches, land new roles, get promoted and step into leadership with more purpose and presence. 🚀 Learn more and apply here: https://www.growwithadamjennings.com [https://www.growwithadamjennings.com] This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe [https://growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]