by

Tim Ferriss

Chris Beresford-Hill — A Master Ad Man on Superbowl Confessions, How to Come Up With Great Ideas, Cold Emailing Mark Cuban, Doing Naughty Things, Poetic Mind Control, Creative Process and Insider Tips, How to Negotiate with Bosses and Clients, and The Power of a Stolen Snickers (#715)

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Artist's rendering of Chris Beresford-Hill.
Illustration via 99designs

“The best ideas are when you’re like, ‘We can never do this. We’re going to get in big trouble. This is so wrong.’ When you feel that, you’ve got to stay there. You absolutely have to. That’s where all the interesting stuff happens.”

— Chris Beresford-Hill

Chris Beresford-Hill is one of the most sought-after creative leaders in advertising and has led brands with a combined market cap of over $1 trillion. He was recently named Chief Creative Officer of the Americas at BBDO Worldwide.

Previously, Chris served as North America President and Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy and Chief Creative Officer at TBWA\Chiat\Day. His work for clients like Guinness, Mtn Dew, Dove, Workday, Adidas, FedEx, McDonalds, HBO, and Foot Locker has driven sales while putting dent after dent into pop culture. 

Chris and his teams have won every award for creativity and effectiveness many times over, including five campaigns in the permanent collection at MoMA. He has been named to Adweek’s list of best creatives—Adweek’s Creative 100—Business Insider’s Most Creative People in Advertising, and the Ad Age 40 Under 40, back when he was under 40.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by Wealthfront high-yield savings account, LMNT electrolyte supplement, and Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega fish oil.

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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#715: Chris Beresford-Hill — A Master Ad Man on Superbowl Confessions, How to Come Up with Great Ideas, Cold Emailing Mark Cuban, Doing Naughty Things, Poetic Mind Control, Creative Process and Insider Tips, How to Negotiate with Bosses and Clients, and The Power of a Stolen Snickers

This episode is brought to you by LMNT! What is LMNT? It’s a delicious, sugar-free electrolyte drink mix. I’ve stocked up on boxes and boxes of this and usually use it 1–2 times per day. LMNT is formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and perfectly suited to folks following a keto, low-carb, or Paleo diet. If you are on a low-carb diet or fasting, electrolytes play a key role in relieving hunger, cramps, headaches, tiredness, and dizziness.

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This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is a financial services platform that offers services to help you save and invest your money. Right now, your cash can earn 3.30% APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account from its network of program banks. That’s 8 times more interest than a typical savings account at a bank, according to FDIC.gov as of 05/18/2026 (Wealthfront’s 3.30% APY vs. 0.38% average savings rate). Right now, for a limited time, Wealthfront is offering new clients that use my sign-up link an additional 0.75% boost over the base rate for three months, meaning you can get up to 4.05% APY, limited to a $150,000 balance. Terms & Conditions apply. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started. 

The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC (“Wealthfront Brokerage”), member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The 3.30% Base APY on cash deposits is as of January 30, 2026, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum balance. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where it earns the variable base APY. The Direct Deposit Plus Investing Program from Wealthfront Advisers LLC and Wealthfront Brokerage LLC provides eligible clients a 0.25% APY increase above the base APY on eligible Cash Account balances (up to an overall boosted rate of 4.30% for a limited time when including the three month 0.75% APY boost for new Cash Account clients) when you direct deposit $1,000/month plus maintain a funded investing account. Wealthfront may change or end the program at any time and determine eligibility at its discretion. Terms and conditions apply. Full details for both promotions at wealthfront.com/promo-terms.

Tim Ferriss, who is not a client, receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage LLC for advertising and holds a non-controlling equity interest in the corporate parent of Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, which creates an incentive that results in a conflict of interest. Tim expresses his own opinions and Wealthfront does not endorse, sponsor, or promote them. This ad may not reflect the experience of other Cash Account clients, and similar outcomes are not guaranteed. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, not bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. See full disclosures here. 

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Want to hear another episode with someone who sells for profit and fun? Listen to my conversation with domain broker Andrew Rosener, in which we discussed securing brand identity, negotiating equity, a potential digital real estate boom, avoiding attraction to unnecessary pain, domain investors vs. domain squatters, the impact of AI on the domain industry and SEO business, and much more.

#711: Andrew Rosener — Becoming The Hokkaido Scallop King, Leasing Blue Chip URLs, Life Tenets from Charlie Tuna, Selling 8-Figure Domains, and More

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Connect with Chris Beresford-Hill:

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SHOW NOTES

[09:45] How Chris landed his first job with the help of Mark Cuban.

[16:28] Lessons learned from first boss Lance Jensen.

[20:37] Writing cold emails that work.

[25:27] What Chris’s dad taught him about workarounds.

[34:41] A golf strategy that inspired Super Bowl aspirations.

[37:07] Good taste and the Modernista style.

[41:22] Portfolio building.

[45:15] How Chris landed his first Super Bowl ad.

[58:46] Editing and expectations.

[1:02:58] Critical acclaim.

[1:03:35] Working with BBDO’s David Lubars.

[1:06:51] Working fast and resisting the urge to “gild the lily.”

[1:09:45] Shining a light on the Super Bowl LIV Mountain Dew commercial.

[1:15:48] The value of the vaguely naughty mindset.

[1:19:35] Making less more with Tor Myhren.

[1:21:59] The Adidas/Billie Jean King gambit.

[1:32:34] A Napster campaign crashes.

[1:38:54] Creative industry-related reading and viewing.

[1:45:11] Overcoming creative roadblocks.

[1:49:10] What Chris does in lieu of meditation.

[1:53:34] Books and videos that save lives and inspire curiosity.

[1:58:20] Best investments of less than $100.

[2:00:46] Capturing and saving good ideas for later.

[2:06:21] What words are worth.

[2:11:26] If the idea is good enough, there’s always more money.

[2:13:00] Give Chris a Foot Locker and he’ll take a mile.

[2:18:40] An ego check.

[2:23:16] Chris’s billboard.

[2:24:17] Parting thoughts.

MORE CHRIS BERESFORD-HILL QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I’m not here to do what the plan is today. I’m here to see what’s possible.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“The best ideas are when you’re like, ‘We can never do this. We’re going to get in big trouble. This is so wrong.’ When you feel that, you’ve got to stay there. You absolutely have to. That’s where all the interesting stuff happens.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“Another lesson — certainly in advertising, but anywhere — is the more ground you can cover in a room, the better because you start further ahead than if you constantly come together and split off and come together and split off.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“The best gift you can ever get is a first boss that has great taste or high standards.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“It just felt like I was able to create the life of my dreams, even if the day-to-day reality didn’t totally match it. And that was fine by me.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“This is not the kind of idea that gets green-lit. I had a stolen Snickers in my pocket, and I wanted out of that store.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“I liked my climb. I liked working my way up slowly and learning my craft and not doing something that might’ve made me very sought after and might’ve gotten me a bigger, better job faster. So it was a heartache, but it put me right on the path that I needed to have, which was the long path.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“If the idea is good enough, there’s always more money.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

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