Sep 2, 2026 · 52 min · 12 segments
In this episode of Inside the Collective, Brad Amos sits down with Willie Mack, a creative and commercial strategist and partner at The Jays and The Carrot Collective, who has led over $1 billion in…
Willie MackGuest
Brad AmosHost
What does it take to stay human in a space where most brands either sensationalize or sanitize?
I think what it takes to stay human in those types of situations are two things.
I mean, I think one, You have to determine what you're trying to say to the audience that's very important to you and finding a way that continues to look at what problem are we solving for the individual, ultimately.
Like, how am I making your life better? How am I inspiring you? What are we doing that can allow for something that allows you to feel connected to in a way that is ultimately, you know, excitement and some form of joy desire that extends beyond just making money and and from how is how i've always looked at it you know so you know the cannabis space like so much of when i first started was in the cbd and the health and wellness side like we have families who are suffering from kids with epilepsy autism people dealing with severe injuries lots of pain how do you you know to take a to to go and to remove the human connection to that as well as the connection of the history of the prohibition of it is disingenuous to the foundation of the culture.
And if you really want to tap into what is going to take, what's going to be connected to the authentic side of the business, you have to kind of look into, well, what is the human, where is the human side of this? How do we humanize this so that at the end of the day, we are all going to connect to this on a personal level.
People want to spend their money, connect to it in some way, share about it, talk about it, create content about it.
get upset at you for whatever it is at some level you need to you can't go to stayed in my opinion because then you are really building a bridge that i think has has longevity if you think about some of the most successful brands in the world there's a there's a connection to them you know if could apple some of the bigger sort of like iconic brands have been around for forever this you know from like marshall with music and all these other companies that have been around for so long and continue to navigate the the storms of running a business, it goes back to, does this make me feel some kind of way? What's my connection to it? Do I want to share this with someone? Am I proud to be part of this collective of individuals who are part of this community? And I think that is ultimately where we all should be looking at, because, you know, at the end of the day, we're all trying to find a way to make our lives a little bit easier, spend time with people that we love, feel good about ourselves, hopefully share in something that's exciting to us and not something that's making us anxious or giving us anxiety.
It's a bit like the brands that we choose are sort of a patch or a flag for the tribes that we want to be in or are already in.
Yeah, I mean, I, in the beginning of my career, when I started my first company, you know, and even to this day, I was like, the brands that I work with are in many ways a reflection of me and a reflection of what I choose to spend my time with.
And how you choose to spend that time Again, with partnerships, with coworkers, with clients, with other artists, even as a creative myself, it's like, what do I want to spend my time on? Which project, which body of work as a photographer, which body of work as a visual artist? Because at the end of the day, I want to make sure that it's connecting to something that's hopefully going to make me feel a greater sense of awe and hopefully wonder in my daily life in some small way.
For a while now, I have this theme going through my brain, which is, you know, it used to be about creation, creation, creation, and, you know, scale and as much as possible.
And like when I go to photograph a space, I love to sit in the space for an hour before I touch the camera and just, you know, get a sense of what's happening.
And, um, that, that seems to be resonating more with how I walk through, through life.
And it feels like that curation that you've been doing and the customers that you work with helps you reaffirm who you are.
You know, it's funny on the photography side, when I was, I have a series around traveling calls off exit and, um, I mean, someone's asking me like, what's the inspiration? I'm like, you know, I'll go to, I'll travel somewhere.
And sometimes I'll have an idea in mind if I'm traveling, I'm gonna sort of shoot some story.
But a lot of times I'll just go and spend like the first day just getting a sense of where I am and what am I seeing and allowing myself the time and the space to kind of walk without an intention to find the intention based upon wherever I am, to take in what's around.
What does it take to stay human in a space where most brands either sensationalize or sanitize?
I think what it takes to stay human in those types of situations are two things.
I mean, I think one, You have to determine what you're trying to say to the audience that's very important to you and finding a way that continues to look at what problem are we solving for the individual, ultimately.
Like, how am I making your life better? How am I inspiring you? What are we doing that can allow for something that allows you to feel connected to in a way that is ultimately, you know, excitement and some form of joy desire that extends beyond just making money and and from how is how i've always looked at it you know so you know the cannabis space like so much of when i first started was in the cbd and the health and wellness side like we have families who are suffering from kids with epilepsy autism people dealing with severe injuries lots of pain how do you you know to take a to to go and to remove the human connection to that as well as the connection of the history of the prohibition of it is disingenuous to the foundation of the culture.
And if you really want to tap into what is going to take, what's going to be connected to the authentic side of the business, you have to kind of look into, well, what is the human, where is the human side of this? How do we humanize this so that at the end of the day, we are all going to connect to this on a personal level.
People want to spend their money, connect to it in some way, share about it, talk about it, create content about it.
get upset at you for whatever it is at some level you need to you can't go to stayed in my opinion because then you are really building a bridge that i think has has longevity if you think about some of the most successful brands in the world there's a there's a connection to them you know if could apple some of the bigger sort of like iconic brands have been around for forever this you know from like marshall with music and all these other companies that have been around for so long and continue to navigate the the storms of running a business, it goes back to, does this make me feel some kind of way? What's my connection to it? Do I want to share this with someone? Am I proud to be part of this collective of individuals who are part of this community? And I think that is ultimately where we all should be looking at, because, you know, at the end of the day, we're all trying to find a way to make our lives a little bit easier, spend time with people that we love, feel good about ourselves, hopefully share in something that's exciting to us and not something that's making us anxious or giving us anxiety.
It's a bit like the brands that we choose are sort of a patch or a flag for the tribes that we want to be in or are already in.
Yeah, I mean, I, in the beginning of my career, when I started my first company, you know, and even to this day, I was like, the brands that I work with are in many ways a reflection of me and a reflection of what I choose to spend my time with.
And how you choose to spend that time Again, with partnerships, with coworkers, with clients, with other artists, even as a creative myself, it's like, what do I want to spend my time on? Which project, which body of work as a photographer, which body of work as a visual artist? Because at the end of the day, I want to make sure that it's connecting to something that's hopefully going to make me feel a greater sense of awe and hopefully wonder in my daily life in some small way.
For a while now, I have this theme going through my brain, which is, you know, it used to be about creation, creation, creation, and, you know, scale and as much as possible.
And like when I go to photograph a space, I love to sit in the space for an hour before I touch the camera and just, you know, get a sense of what's happening.
And, um, that, that seems to be resonating more with how I walk through, through life.
And it feels like that curation that you've been doing and the customers that you work with helps you reaffirm who you are.
You know, it's funny on the photography side, when I was, I have a series around traveling calls off exit and, um, I mean, someone's asking me like, what's the inspiration? I'm like, you know, I'll go to, I'll travel somewhere.
And sometimes I'll have an idea in mind if I'm traveling, I'm gonna sort of shoot some story.
But a lot of times I'll just go and spend like the first day just getting a sense of where I am and what am I seeing and allowing myself the time and the space to kind of walk without an intention to find the intention based upon wherever I am, to take in what's around.
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