EP 168: The Power of the First Pivot with Chrissie Hanson

International Women’s Month Series… Part 2 

Chrissie Hanson is the incoming executive lead for Dentsu Media North America. As the former CEO of OMD USA, she led a team of 2,500 professionals and engineered the transformation that moved the agency from 10th to 1st in new business ranking, earning AdAge's 2025 U.S. Media Agency of the Year recognition.

What I love about this conversation is how Chrissie pinpoints the exact moment everything shifted.

She grew up in Hong Kong. Half Chinese, American, culturally British. Always on the outside. Never Western enough, never Asian enough. She wanted to be Secretary General of the United Nations. Her parents gave her three choices: doctor, engineer, or lawyer. She picked law because she didn't like blood and LA Law made it look glamorous!

Then she graduated and realized she didn't want to be a lawyer. She sat on her mother's kitchen floor and sobbed. At 21, she thought her life was over.

Looking back, she calls it the best thing that ever happened to her. That first shock built the resilience for every chapter that followed. Her advice: the earlier that shock comes, the stronger you are the next time. And there will be a next time.

She sent 80 job applications. One was a tiny classified ad for a marketing communications agency. She didn't know what that meant. She got the job. And she decided to just be excellent at every single thing she did and see what happened.

We talked about being a woman in a male-dominated industry. She never let it define her. She pushed through by being more prepared, more studied, more reliable. Her rule: if you make a promise to deliver something by a deadline, you keep it. Be the person someone else can rely on.

Right now she's taking time to invest in herself. Peloton five days a week. Japanese lessons. Journaling. Planning trips with her family. Starting a podcast with her daughter and her sister, three generations.

Her advice: be an architect of your own future. Experiment. Try the AI tools. Build something small. The longer you wait, the more fear you create.

Connect with Chrissie: linkedin.com/in/chrissiehanson

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