W+K Vet Jason Bagley Enlists Top Industry Leaders for Advertising Coaching School

Veteran creative Jason Bagley stepped away from Wieden+Kennedy nearly four years ago with a plan to teach others and help them excel in the agency world. Now, Bagley has enlisted some of the industry’s top creatives for his project, the Audacious School of Astonishing Pursuits (ASAP). As it launches its latest sessions, Bagley is joined by FCB global creative partner Danilo Boer, master presentation coach Ben Levy, former Wieden+Kennedy managing director Jessica Monsey, former Mekanism chief social officer Brendan Gahan and former Grey global creative chairman John Patroulis, among other guest lecturers. “The whole positioning of the Audacious School of Astonishing Pursuits is to provide the best of the best, world-class coaches. If they're not that, then it doesn't really fit what I'm trying to do,” Bagley told ADWEEK. Upskilling ad professionals Bagley had a successful career as a creative, mostly at Wieden+Kennedy as a creative director and executive creative director. He also had a stint as CCO at Deutsch LA, and worked on numerous award-winning campaigns including “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” for Old Spice. He valued the creative mentorship he received as he climbed the ladder at W+K for 16 years, and in 2021 he decided he wanted to help others in the industry. He started ASAP in November 2021 as a virtual mentorship and training platform to provide advertising professionals with the skills they need to excel in the agency world. It has since expanded beyond just Bagley, including guest lecturers and now top industry pros. “I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be traveling the world, making crazy, amazing campaigns for brands and getting to do all the fun stuff that I did. And none of that would have been remotely possible without the incredible mentors that I had at Wieden+Kennedy,” said Bagley. He noted that the level of mentorship he received is not accessible to the vast majority of people in the industry, so he started ASAP to remedy that. The six- to eight-week courses are designed to fit into the schedules of working professionals. They consist of weekly on-demand video lessons that participants can watch on their own time, followed by weekly live Q&A virtual sessions led by coaches with small cohorts. The cohorts are limited to 15-20 participants to maintain quality learning and discussion. The video sessions also include an extended interview series where industry legends share principles for making great work. Instead of homework assignments, the tools and techniques discussed in each lesson are designed to be immediately implemented into current projects or briefs. Unlike a portfolio school or university course, the ASAP program is for any professional at all levels. Bagley originally thought it would mostly be junior level creatives, but he has seen a wide spread of talent. “Almost every session has about 30% juniors, about 30% mid, and about 30% extremely senior. There's usually a CCO or an ecd in every session, so that makes for a fantastic conversation because everybody gets to hear different questions and different issues brought up,” said Bagley. So far, Bagley has had 500 people go through the program, and now he’s ramping it up with more professional teachers. He also has support from the agency world, including W+K, Publicis Groupe, BBH and Saatchi & Saatchi. Landing top talent Landing the level of instructors was no easy feat, but Bagley noted that his time in the industry put him in contact with a lot of “very talented and accomplished friends,” which is why he was able to convince them to come aboard. While it took a couple years for things to fall into place, the timing was right for the people he wanted as coaches, many of whom were transitioning away from full-time agency employment to more freelance work. “It's a testament to networking and building friends in the industry as to how I got them,” said Bagley. Jess Monsey is one of the coaches at ASAP. Bagley added that the problem he had landing the coaches he wanted was the same problem the industry has trying to get mentors for rising professionals—the best senior talent are spread too thin or have too much demand put on their time. He counts himself lucky that he got the ones he did. Classes for ASAP’s next program features courses for creative directors, art directors, social strategists, account managers and creatives, as well as how to sell great work to clients. The course list so far: Bagley will head up a course on how the best creative directors lead teams and clients to world-famous work Boer will uncover the secrets and techniques of the world’s best art directors Levy will teach how the best creative professionals present and sell award-winning creative Monsey and guest lecturer Jordan Muse from MullenLowe show how to inspire teams and clients to unleash game-changing creative Gahan will teach social strategy and influencer marketing Patroulis will host an exclusive cohort of C-suite creative leaders mastering how to lead creative organizations to greatness "I'm super excited about this rockstar group that I have, and they're all people that have a passion for mentorship and happen to have the bandwidth and the time at this time in their careers that they can do it," Bagley said. ASAP is taking applications for the 2024 courses now. Visit the school’s website to learn more.