I recently went one-on-one with Jake McCoy, interim CEO of RWS Global.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Jake: Thanks, Adam. I’d say my experiences at university really shaped who I am today. I studied at Creighton University and received a B.F.A in Technical Theatre Production. If I wasn’t in class, I was working professionally around town. I got the Assistant Stage Manager position at Opera Omaha. Through that work, I was on a stage management list and got the call from Broadway Dreams, and started working for Broadway Dreams Foundation as Director of Production. I moved to NYC and started working professionally with Mariah Carey. It was there that I met Ryan Stana, founder and former CEO at RWS, backstage, and the rest is history!
Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business?
Jake: I’d say four core ideals:
Leadership maturity: Continuing to level up our executive and senior leadership structures to support global scale.
Commercial excellence: Ensuring every part of the organization is optimized for success.
Operational scalability: Building repeatable, global processes that allow us to deliver efficiently at any size or scope.
Creative integrity: Protecting the core of who we are while elevating quality consistently across all regions and markets.
Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of sales, marketing, and branding?
Sales: Don’t sell, solve problems.
Marketing: Create emotion, not noise. People remember how you made them feel and what is what makes them come back.
Branding: Your reputation at scale. Your brand is not your logo, website, or tagline. It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Strong brands are built through consistency between what they promise and what they deliver.
Above all, you need to tell a story. Storytelling is the heartbeat of guest experience and is what pulls all of this together.
Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?
Jake: Simply put, ownership, clarity, and execution. Take responsibility, focus on what matters, and follow through. This approach creates real trust and drives you forward. Be someone who everyone wants on your team. Human connection is incredibly important.
Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Jake: Understand the product and always stay close to it as you build operational and business skills. When I was studying to be a production manager, I spent a lot of time understanding all the production disciplines I managed. This gave me the vocabulary and, importantly, the trust of those departments.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Jake: Put people at the center of every decision. Businesses grow through people. Communities thrive through people. Great leaders never lose sight of that.
Create clarity, then execute relentlessly. Vision without execution is just aspiration. Set clear goals. Define what success looks like. End every meeting with action items, owners, and timelines. Measure progress consistently and remove barriers that slow your team down.
Stay curious and keep learning. The world moves too quickly to rely solely on past experience. Read widely. Follow industry trends. Learn from people with different perspectives. Stay close to your customers, your team, and your community. The best leaders are students first.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Jake: Be willing to collaborate. I rely heavily on transparent communication and collaborative leadership. You can’t lead companies from a distance. You must be present, engaged, and willing to listen. I rely on close collaboration with each team member and partner to design transformative experiences that resonate in their respective audiences. I stay very close to the work. I play an active role in creative, production, client relations, marketing, finance, and people management. But you have to trust your teams. They are experts in their fields. It is my job to get out of the way and let them do what they are here to do.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Jake: Be dependable, be solutions-focused, be easy to work with, and be someone people want to work with. Like Ryan [Stana, founder and executive chairman of RWS Global] says a lot, “Work hard and be nice.” It’s that kind of mentality.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Jake: Our world is changing. With AI, human experience has never been more important. Human experiences are powered by exceptional human talent.
