Adam Torres and Hank Blank discuss Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Hank Blank, President at Blank & Associates, explore Blank & Associates and Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum.
Watch Full Interview:
About Hank Blank
Major agency experience working on major Global Brands across North America. Started my career working on McDonald’s at DDB Needham in Toronto. Promoted a number of times in two years. Left as National Account Executive. Then he spent ten years at JWT in Toronto and Chicago working on brands like Burger King, Labatt’s, Warner Lambert, Campbell Soup, Kellogg’s. Chicago office had 700 employees. Always worked on New Business as well. Ran the national Domino’s Pizza Business with a $50M spend in the 80’s. Fifteen direct reports. Followed his dreams to CA and was Executive Vice President and Partner Townsend and O’Leary in Orange. Primary accounts were CENTURY 21, Subway, and variety of local accounts. New Business Development at Marshall Advertising winning first major accounts in 3 years. President of Blank and Associates Since 2001 providing Marketing Services to a Wide Variety of Clients. Have conducted agency reviews for an extensive list of clients including Jenny Craig, Jacuzzi, Toyo Tires, Pentel Pens, Raley’s Supermarkets, The Irvine Company, Les Schwab Tire Dealers, The Habit Burger, Emtek, The UPS Store.
Help clients by strengthening their marketing teams with new talent. Have spoken to over 25 AMA and AAF Chapters. Featured Speaker at AAF District Conferences. Have spoken on networking and personal marketing to companies including Jacuzzi, Volvo, The UPS Store, and Sole Technologies.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest of the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. Alright, so today we are in Irvine, California at the Medical Innovation Forum powered by Octane, and my guest is Hank Blank.
Yes. Hank, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. Alright, so a lot going on at the conference. We’re on day two. What brings you out? What brought me here? Well, I’m Canadian, and it’s sponsored, one of the sponsors is the government of Canada. Mm hmm. So, Mama Condry, you know, who is one of the counselors, and all he does, he works in a life sized space, you know, connecting people, and so I I came to to it.
And I’ve gone to a couple other conferences that Optane’s put on the technology innovation. So I feel like they’re a terrific accelerator in Orange County. And they put together great programs with speakers that really, Intimidate me. Me too. You know what I mean? And they’re so smart, you know what I mean?
And, but it’s a great environment to learn, right? And to be stimulated, you know, as opposed to seeing something you’ve seen 50 times before. And I’ve enjoyed the conference. It’s kind of, not troubling. I’m going to find the right word. You know, it’s kind of sobering. I’ll say that you see how many disease states that there are.
Yeah, you know, and often, you know, they set up the problem first. The problems are like, Oh, wow, they died. That doesn’t seem like a good outcome, right? Yes. But, you know, so many wonderful solutions and inspiration from Jennifer, who spoke About the contraceptive product. Yeah, you know that she had her alley.
L. E. M. D. L. M. D. S. L. M. D. And I met her once before and a doctor. Yes, four kids. And as I met, she’s from Canada, too. Yes, that’s where she came from. I interviewed her. Yeah. And then she has four kids. And has MS. Yes. And able to rise above that. I saw this amazing woman. Yeah. Amazing woman, you know, and I, you know, my wife was a pharma rep, used to work in the MS sector and you know, it’s, it’s many people face huge challenges there.
Nevermind inventing a product and she’s still working at her clinic, you know, so there are great inspirational stories and you know, it’s terrific to see so many companies from Canada. That you’re presenting, you know because they’re, that’s gotta be fun. Cause I saw on the program, there was a lot, a lot of Canadians here.
It’s amazing. Like bridging that, like the innovation. Yeah. You know, but I, I know from being involved in a couple of Canadian groups here, business groups, social groups, like 13 percent of California straight trade is for Canada, you know, a lot of it is produce. I’m sure, you know, but then in the life sciences and entertainment, you just think, think about entertainment, all the actors that come here and music and other areas.
So, you know, in a close proximity in there. You know, I’m sounding like I work for the government, but you know what, a very highly educated workforce. Yes. You know, like other countries, we face challenges. You know, I always like to attend groups like this. Mm. As I said, you know, they get stimulated to come home, you know, and because my wife is in the, in the healthcare space, and it’s been a pharma rep.
You know, I can share some of the things that, you know, and I said, look at the qualifications for some of these people and yesterday those people read, you know, they’ve got multiple degrees, you know, not only MDs, but, you know, MBA and then some other letters that I don’t know what they mean, you know, but yeah, so talk a little bit about what you do.
Well, I, as I mentioned, I’m Canadian, so I started my career in the advertising business, and my first account was McDonald’s. Ah. McDonald’s restaurant, so that was a great learning experience. I just watched The Founder again, one of my favorite movies. Yeah, Roy Kroc, you know, and And then I worked for an agency called J.
Walter Thompson. That was in 90 offices, 90 countries, you know, founded in 1870. It’s funny. It doesn’t exist anymore. That’s how much the advertising business changes. So you have to change. So, and then I, you know, I worked for JWT for 10 years in Toronto and Chicago. That was the show, you know, the Hancock building, you know, madman, you know, 700 people at the agency, you know what I mean?
Dining room on the 95th floor. Then I ran the National Domino’s P business. And like many Canadians, you know, we have a strong gravitation to come to the U. S. And I sat on a beach when I was probably 23, 24 in Laguna Beach and said I want to live here. And it took me a little bit of time. Now I don’t live in Laguna, but close by.
So, and I help clients in a variety of ways. I am a huge networker. And if you look at me, I have 30, 000 followers on LinkedIn, you know, because I put out a lot of thought leadership and give out a lot of advice on networking you know, I was a mentor at at Chapman University on Monday night, you know, I enjoy doing that and how I help clients.
It changes over time. You know, the biggest things they do is I help them with agency searches. So let’s say one of these companies says, I want to find an advertising agency. Well, that’s like me saying, I want to find a good doctor. You know what I mean? You’ve got to do a Google search. Half of that is sponsored.
You know what I mean? You can look up, you know, best PR agency in Orange County. You’ll get somebody in Connecticut, you know? So I help them with that. And I helped them because I do have a huge network and my network is very broad that they come to me and say, Hey, I need some marketing talent. I need a digital person, you know?
And so I help with marketing solutions my card, it says speaker and you know, you know, I’ve spoken to 25 ad clubs, 25 AMA chapters, you know? Many, many groups that have gone away. Unfortunately, COVID impacted a lot of, a lot of networking groups and some of them are no longer with us. So I, that’s what I do.
I do everything in the marketing space. I’m a connector. You know, if you told me, Hey, I’m, I’m from. Argentina, I could say, Oh, would you go a little bit there? You know, you know, it’s a natural tendency. And I have a new presentations called Networking. Why talking to strangers is good for you. And amazing.
Yeah. You know what? And if you read, you know, there’s A crisis of loneliness in the United States and, you know, and there’s a lot of people and, you know, issues with mental health and there’s so much content now and so much, so many articles about just the interaction is important and not just people that are old, you know what I mean, or not for the elderly or the more senior, but for anybody, for young people, you know what I mean?
Often people tell me, you know what, I’m going to networking events. I work at home. I’m all totally remote. I don’t talk to anybody. I go to a grocery store. I talk to a machine. You know what I mean? There’s fewer cashiers. And then I go home. I’m by myself, you know? And I think, you know, just getting involved in conversations, talking to people is a great way to lead an enriched life.
And I think a more healthy life on both the mental and physical fronts. Hank, final question. If somebody wants to follow up and connect and connect with you, how do they do that? Well, you know what, you go to I’m easy to find, Hank Blank, right? So you go to my websites there, you can contact me, you can send me a LinkedIn invite, Hank Blank.
Pretty easy to find, you know, so fantastic. It’s not hard at all. Just Google Hank Blake. Awesome. And for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll put the links to Hank’s contact info and all that good stuff. Websites are in the show notes, so you can just click on the link and head right on over.
Speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe button. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, new thought leaders, and new ideas to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Hank, thanks again again for coming on the show.
Okay. Thank you very much for the invite.