Welcome to the Ad Undergrad Podcast! A show where Katie Moy and Julian Lewis sit down with marketing practitioners to share their experiences, insights and tips from the industry. The Ad Undergrad Podcast was created to give students, recent grads and those switching industries the opportunity to learn about advertising outside the classroom and provide career advice through the paths of practitioners.

In this episode of Ad Undergrad, Katie and Julian are joined by Fahad Khawaja, Founder of Hue, a platform built to advocate change by amplifying voices of color working in marketing. We talk to Fahad about the importance of surrounding yourself with a diverse community that challenges you and helps you to grow personally and professionally. In addition, we talk to Fahad about his career path from agencies to the marketer-side of the industry. Listen to this episode to find out more about his journey and what he learned along the way that led him to creating Hue.

Jump straight into:

(01:39) - How Fahad’s interest in advertising started and the path that led him to work on the Marketing Client’s side - “I actually knew in High School that I wanted to go into advertising”.

(04:47) - Should you get an MBA? Is it really necessary in today’s world? - “I just don’t think that’s true, I don’t know that most students would need to do that, would need to go back to Grad School, unless their background was just something really different”.

(07:20) - How the experience of working at different Marketing agencies helped him to transition to the corporate environment - “There were countless problems to solve every single day, so going into a brand at Marketing corporate environment, I think for me it was much easier because I had the agency background”.

(08:43) - All about hue: A platform built to help people of color working in Marketing, Advertising, Creative and Design. - “By all of us coming together, we can actually have a much louder, much more powerful voice and just tangibly help each other get ahead. That’s the whole idea”.

(11:46) - The importance of community to grow in all areas of your life - “You need to have a curiosity about people that are different than yourself, because you’re gonna learn something”.

(19:17) - Fahad’s advice on starting to build your skills and give your full potential. Plus, how powerful it is to lean on others in order to succeed - “I’d say the number one thing is to force themselves to be uncomfortable”.

Resources

Connect with Fahad through LinkedIn

Adweek

hue: advocate change and amplify voices

Hue (@We_are_hue)

Ad Undergrad is a podcast hosted by Katie Moy and Julian Lewis. To learn more, visit adundergrad.com and follow on social channels @theadundergrad. You can reach Katie and Julian directly via email hello@adundergrad.com. 

This show is recorded and produced at StudioPod in San Francisco. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast go to