Creative Leadership Coach June Laffey on Helping People Shine

New talent entering the industry aspire to make a difference

June is not your ordinary creative coach. She helps leaders get unstuck and rise through the ranks. How? With a heap of insights, tools, strategies and experience nurtured over 30 years in creative leadership and international award-show judging. Her mission is to nurture creative leaders and guide them until they believe in themselves.

How did you get started in the marketing biz?

I started in advertising well after Mad Men, but at a time when we still spliced audio tape and AI was not even glint in Father Technology’s eye. I got my first advertising job in the U.K. When my Aunt Peg pegged it and left me some cash, I legged it to Australia. That’s where my career really began. After a brief stint at PNG, I worked my way through the ranks in Sydney, Southeast Asia and the U.K., with my three-decade leadership career culminating as CCO at McCann Health’s flagship office in New York. 

How did you get into creative coaching? 

Helping people shine has always been my passion. Giving creatives the confidence, insights and tools to be better leaders and better people not only lifts the individuals, but also the industry. When I returned to Australia to be with my kids through Covid, coaching future creative leaders seemed like a no-brainer. Being unable to find a coach with leadership experience to guide me in the U.S., I realized there was a gap in the market. And more importantly, there was the chance to build careers and make a difference.

How has creative coaching changed during your tenure in its ranks?

My approach is tailored to individual needs, and while there are certain commonalities, everyone needs development in different areas. For example, learning the power of delegation or storytelling could be central to one person’s journey, while leaning into creative tools and approaches could be the key to another’s. I craft specific decks for each subject, which my clients can keep. The longer I coach, the more my library of decks grows. 

How did you get interested in the health marketing field?

I made a conscious decision to start the new millennium in health comms. Why? Because working on food brands, cruise-line, newspaper and alcohol campaigns just wasn’t floating my boat. I strongly believe that if you can get the right product or service into the right hands at the right time, you can empower—and even save lives. The opportunity to make a difference and do good work in an area that, at the time, was sadly lacking, was so appealing. It was then. It still is. 

What’s your favorite health & wellness campaign of late? 

I’m going to lean into my fave pharma campaign: from 21 Grams, the incredible comedy series for a rare disease, Friedriech’s Back. I love it because it crams heavy-duty information into a comedy format, and that is as rare in health as the disease itself. It demonstrates a different approach by an agency for an extremely brave client in Biogen. 

What excites you most about health marketing today? 

I am excited about the new talent who are entering our industry because they want to make a difference. Also, I am excited about the many advances in health, including but not limited to AI, personalized treatment, and the emphasis on proactive health, not just curative health. 

How did you get involved with the Clios’ Next Up initiative (which introduces emerging creatives to the judging process)?

My experience chairing and judging many international health award shows exposed me to several first time judges, who are whip-smart, but are often intimidated by the experience. And struggle. Together with the Clio Health organizers and the other mentors, we wanted to create a new safe space, one that gave up-and-coming creative leaders the chance to experience the whole judging process, without intimidation, fear or anxiety.

Gathering the group together to benefit from guidance, support and community allowed all to find their voice, without the prospect of being judged even more harshly than the work. This was the most heart-warming jury experience of them all. Honest conversations, active listening, changing perspectives and peer support—all with a noticeable lack of ego—made the day refreshingly enjoyable. 

I shared my own method for judging top creative work in the room: “Head” (does it make you think?), “Heart” (does it make you feel?) and “Hands” (have hands shaped the craft?) To see eyes light up, and have one of the mentees come to me months later telling me this approach had made judging creative work so much easier in her next jury room is gold.