An Interview With Dina Aletras
READ! — I am tempted to make all of these read. Great writers, thinkers and leaders are great readers. Read everything — fiction, research, manuals, history — it all counts. Please, oh please, promise me you’ll get a library card and pick up a real book. The best people I know are readers. I’ve learned as much about my profession from classic authors as from modern folks covering advertising. Great story structure and words (thanks, Martin Wiegel) is a good strategy.
As part of our series about how to become known as a thought leader in your industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Abby Hill.
Abby Hill is the Senior Strategy Director at Dagger, where she oversees Strategy deliverables within the agency while leading her team to produce impactful work for each account. She has spent the past ten years dedicated to strategic insight and development, as well as empowering those around her to be leaders in their own right. Outside of work, Abby volunteers with The Giving Kitchen and Lazarus, offering marketing advice and her time to support both organizations.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us! Our readers are eager to learn more about you. Could you provide some background information about yourself?
For most of my life, I wanted to be a sports journalist and a writer. This dream inspired my field of study. I studied Journalism and English at the University of Georgia, and then had the opportunity to tell the stories of great athletes, great teams and great programs at both The United States Olympic Committee as well as the NCAA. I started my career as a true Sports Journalist and then I made the switch into advertising, where I’ve spent the past 10 years in the agency space, telling the stories of great brands, products and talent.
My trajectory may not make a lot of sense to some, but to me it’s perfectly clear. I have built my career around the power of a well-told story. I think all the same principles apply — curiosity about a subject, learning as much as you can, researching, first-person interviews, and telling a story in the simplest way to bring together what is most important, compelling and eventually arriving at an end-product. What is going to make someone want to read or listen or watch and seek out more information. There are so many ways to tell a story, and I am endlessly curious about the ways they can come to life. I think there is a lot of power there.
This also ties into a couple of things I’m equally passionate about — community, and connection. I have a few core principles — power of the untold story is absolutely one of them, also this principle of meeting someone like you’re going to know them the rest of your life. In my life, these two principles feel integrated and are what I bring to my job every day.
What establishes you as an authority on thought leadership? Could you briefly share your expertise with our readers?
My career has consisted of two professions where you’re paid to tell people what you know. I began my career as a sports journalist, writing the facts, stats and stories of great athletes. I’ve spent the past ten years working in advertising, where as a Strategist, I lead clients through the elements and tensions that make up the worlds of their consumers, plus the realities of the cultural and competitive landscape. Both professions act as “thought leaders” and must be subject authorities on their industries.
Can you recall a funny mistake you made when you were first starting out? What lesson did you learn from it?
When you are first starting out, especially as a curious person, you run the risk of positioning the new information you learn as new information for everyone. However, just because it’s new to you does not make it new and worth sharing. Our clients are, and remain, the experts on their business and industry. Once you realize that, you can start to bring them information that is new and interesting, as opposed to new things that you have just learned about their organization. A healthy dose of humility and perspective comes with age and experience.
What are the most significant disruptions you foresee in your industry over the next five years, and how can businesses adapt to these changes?
In advertising, disruption is necessary. We all witnessed the big change from traditional mediums to social and digital placements in the early aughts. This disruption transformed an advertiser’s landscape from a dozen ads per year to hundred per quarter. Everything was a consumer touchpoint. The disruption I am planning for, is a shrinking of consumer touchpoints. Half of Americans employ ad blockers, and most people no longer watch linear TV, showing me that people are doing everything they can to avoid advertising. We no longer can get them wherever they are and therefore, need to think smarter and more pointedly about our placements. What would you say if you had 12 ads per year? Where would you place them? Thinking in that vein will win in the next five years.
Can you explain the benefits of becoming a thought leader? Why is it valuable to invest time and resources into this?
Benefits for me are two-fold:
- Outlet to let my curiosity run loose: Asking a lot of questions and constantly making connections in your head needs an outlet — this is mine. It is mostly, purely for me and my passion points.
- Confidence when presenting to clients and other leaders: Knowledge is power, my friends. And the more you know about something, the more natural it is to converse with anyone.
Can you share an example of a significant challenge you faced in your career and how you leveraged innovative thinking to overcome it?
In late 2018 it became clear that brands were struggling to understand Gen Z. They’d just gotten comfortable with Millennials’ love of experiences over things and avocado toast* and weren’t ready to understand a new generation. I continued to hear the phrase, “Gen Z are just young millennials.” Through personal relationships with my younger brother and our agency interns, I knew this was not the case.
So, to put all of us, agency, clients and industry, on the same playing field, I proposed an in-depth study of this generation. We agreed that it would be funded by the agency, no clients needing to pay individually. This study ended up taking nearly 18 months to complete — spanning university groups, countries and then, a global pandemic. Once complete, I had the pleasure of presenting it 20+ times — to clients, internal teams and marketing organizations in the Southeast. I have the presentation memorized to this day.
Not only did this research push me and our clients, but it’s also how I got my interview at Dagger. My boss was in the audience of one webinar!
*I know we are so much more than this.
Now that we have covered that, we’d love to hear your advice on becoming a thought leader. Can you share five strategies that someone should follow to gain recognition as a thought leader in their industry? Please include examples or stories from your own experience for each strategy.
- READ! — I am tempted to make all of these read. Great writers, thinkers and leaders are great readers. Read everything — fiction, research, manuals, history — it all counts. Please, oh please, promise me you’ll get a library card and pick up a real book. The best people I know are readers. I’ve learned as much about my profession from classic authors as from modern folks covering advertising. Great story structure and words (thanks, Martin Wiegel) is a good strategy.
- Earn the right to be heard — Treat every conversation like an opportunity to learn something. Thought leaders must listen more than they talk. Employ secret-to-life phrases like, “Tell me more,” “say more,” and “give me more details” to unlock new friendships and new information. By being a good, engaged listener, you create the opportunity to be a trusted speaker, too.
- Have a home team — Being excited is important and it’s so helpful to have a small crew to share your early thoughts with. This can be via text, Slack, email, etc., but you need a small crew (5 people!) to share those headlines and half-baked hot takes with. They will help steer or validate where you’re headed. Bonus points, they will share their stuff with you, creating the perfect flywheel of information. (shout out to my teams, Boldest Type & Roomies!)
- Keep notes and reflect — Thinking on demand rarely happens. To set yourself up for success, build habits for note taking and reflection. I use Evernote to track all the random thoughts I have while reading, listening and working. It starts out as a bulleted list and then in time, I can see connections from disparate places. Beyond taking notes, carve out time to reflect on your work life and what you’re seeing in culture. Discover 2–3 prompting questions and let your mind run free. This can be true for any area of your work life.
- Share to connect — As with #4, this begins with what not to do. I avoid “being smart at someone” when presenting information in any form. We all know what this feels like and is a killer of conversation and good work. Instead, share with you think, as a means of connection. Connection can look like starting a conversation or opening minds to start their thinking. This applies to POVs, briefs or even LinkedIn posts. Because the goal is connection, rather than looking smart, soften and personalize your language where possible to avoid absolutes.
How do you foster a culture of innovation within your organization, and what practices have you found most effective in encouraging creative thinking among your team?
Innovation first comes from opinionated and curious people, and secondly from an environment that makes them feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, no matter how small or how incorrect.
At Dagger, we have smart and talented people who span many areas of interest. When you drill down to my specific team, I always say I have two mandatories for folks I hire: do you have a perspective? And can you share it easily in writing or in speaking?
Our environment is casual and open about sharing all you’ve learned. The best workplaces, like ours, don’t shun the random outburst of, “omg, listen to this!” or a quick, “can I tell you what I just found?” This is why I come to work every day.
Beyond the ease and spontaneity, we have formal moments of sharing. An example of this, is a monthly share out at our company Townhall. We call it Townhall Tok and it’s where a member of the team shares with the full agency something that is affecting our clients and/or the work we all do. Some recent examples include the Apple + ChatGPT partnership, Women in sports, and how the recession comes through in advertising.
These short presentations aim to be engaging, because to me the worst thing is when you can feel someone “being smart at you.”
Who do you think is an outstanding example of a thought leader? What specific qualities impress you about this person?
I have macro examples for this and my real day-to-day thought leaders.
On the macro scale, I will read anything written by Zoe Scaman, Shauna Niequist, Bruce Mehlman, Brene Brown and Kendall Baker. All of these writers/thinkers own their spaces and write from a place compelled to share vs. credibility. Each of them pushes the way I think and shows me how to connect what happens in real life, ad life, political life and sports life.
On the day-to-day level, I am the luckiest gal in advertising because of the strong foundation of peers I get to work alongside — Carla Guy, Michaela Wilkins, Jake Brannon and countless others who meet me exactly where I am each time I exclaim at my desk/over Slack/via text. They’ve made every thought I’ve ever had richer.
How do you stay informed about the latest trends and developments in your field, and how do you incorporate this knowledge into your strategic planning?
I am a self-proclaimed “fan girl” of advertising and with that in mind, I approach my field in the same way a fan of a sports team or pop star would behave. I consume everything — the more, the better.
My advertising diet consists of:
LinkedIn, TikTok, X (sorry!), YouTube, select daily newsletters, select Substacks, Axios everything, weekly NYT scrolls and Slack channels with current + former coworkers. Even while watching College Football (Go Dawgs!) or SNL (#4life), I send Slack messages to myself with thoughts on the ads I am seeing or trends I’m tracking.
Unlike a sports fan, I don’t need a fantasy league, because this is my real life — like I said, luckiest gal in the world.
Some people feel that the term “thought leader” is overused and has lost its impact. What are your thoughts on this?
Admittedly, I cringe at the term when used as a profession or bragging moment. It is not something I aspire to be known as, but more a natural side effect of someone who is curious and passionate about sharing what they know. This same thinking applies to influencers and tastemakers. While not bad things to be, I’d say, bad things to be in a vacuum, but naturally becoming one through genuine interest and expertise, an honor and a privilege.
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How do you balance short-term business goals with long-term strategic vision, especially in a rapidly changing market?
Beyond staying informed and having solid teams around you, a key part of balance and maintenance is rhythms and routines. Everyone should have a list of “rules for being you.” This list includes the rhythms and routines you need to create your best work, for your organization and clients. It could look like:
- Blocking focus time during your best brain space
- Committing to reading one newsletter/blog/podcast each week
- Sharing two headlines with clients each month
- Re-reading the Brand strategy with the team once per quarter to seek alignment on where we’ve strayed
Make them measurable and reasonable, you get to create the rules to make your best work.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? How has it been relevant in your life?
“Great lives are just the accumulation of great days and great days are the accumulation of great connections.” — Kelly Corrigan.
I am a Strategist in everything I do, which is another way of saying, I am deeply compelled to have a vision and then translate that vision into incremental, measurable tactics. A strategy is simply a set plan to reach an objective. The above quote is just that, but about a big, beautiful life.
If you want to have a great life, have great days. If you want to have great days, make great connections.
I am deeply extroverted with gobs of social energy, just as curious about the people in my life as I am the ad world and sports world. I find energy through meeting people and hosting loved ones in my home.
This quote also reminds me that those connections are the foundation of my actual life and investing in them will always lead me to my vision.
Many influential figures in business and entertainment follow this column. Is there someone you’d love to have lunch or breakfast with? They might notice if we tag them.
See my list of thought leaders above (Zoe Scaman, Shauna Niequist, Bruce Mehlman and Kendall Baker) plus, Tina Fey, Kara Swisher, Anne Lamott, Kelly Corrigan, Dawn Staley — your words, both spoken & written, are woven into the fabric of my life. All hail a powerful woman.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I am ag_hill on Instagram & X, and Abby Hill on LinkedIn.
Dagger will share all the great work we do as an agency.
Thank you so much for your insights. This was very insightful and meaningful.
About the Interviewer: Dina Aletras boasts over 20 years of expertise in the corporate media industry. She possesses an in-depth understanding of growth, strategy, and leadership, having held significant roles at some of the UK’s largest media organizations. At Reach PLC, the UK’s largest tabloid publisher, she served in various director capacities. Additionally, she held leadership roles at The Independent Magazine Group and DMGT. Her extensive knowledge spans editorial, digital, revenue, sales, and advertising.
Upon relocating to Switzerland, Dina took on the responsibility of managing and promoting the international section of Corriere del Ticino — CdT.ch pioneering the English page “onthespot.” She also was the Co-Editor of Southern Switzerland’s first official Italian and English bilingual magazine.
Abby Hill of Dagger: 5 Things You Should Do To Become a Thought Leader In Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.