Travis Pomposello

Creative Thinking from an Ex-CCO | Lessons from 27+ Years Inside Media | Creative Agency Mentor | Author of The CCO’s Journal on Substack

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

Hi, I'm Travis Pomposello.

I have a lot of new followers here, so I want to reintroduce myself.

Without actually ever introducing myself properly! So here goes👇

→ I’m Travis. I’m 56 years old. I live in NYC with my wife and son.

→ Writing is my one true love, and I started my career in media writing for David Letterman, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Discovery. I’ve done every job you can think of in digital/streaming media since then.

→ During my time in Media, I helped launch the largest Internet-streaming sports event of its time (NCAA March Madness On Demand).

→ In 2007, I co-founded EPIX (now MGM+). Together - we wrote the streaming playbook. A highlight of my time was a $1B deal with Netflix.

→ In 2007, I also nearly died. I awoke to two Catholic Priests administering my Last Rites. That experience changed me forever and I decided to say yes to life and build my best life. I wrote a book about this in 2015 but that’s a story for another day.

→ In 2015, after a couple of decades spent awarding $100m in contracts to creative agencies, I left to start my own. What began as a solo venture grew into a $5M business over 7 years.

→ In 2026 - I’m focused on reshaping how creative agencies scale. I’m helping established creative agencies currently stagnated around $500k - $1m, propelling them to $1M - $5M through deep industry experience of being both a buyer and a seller in my career.

→ Outside work, I’ve always been engrossed in the world of high-octane sports such as Boxing, Judo, CrossFit, and Spartan. I have no doubt my fitness regimen has been instrumental to whatever success I’ve had so far.

Okay - enough about me. This is a two-way street.

What’s an interesting fact about you? 🤔 Tell me in the comments!

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

The relationship gets you considered.

It doesn’t get the purchase order signed.

The PO gets signed when someone inside that company can walk upstairs and make the case without you there to help them.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

What very few vendors realize:

Buyers don't necessarily want a pitch. They want to feel certain.

Walk into every meeting asking yourself what would make the buyer feel certain right now. Then deliver that.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

The deal closes somewhere you'll never be.Not in the pitch. In the conversation that starts after you leave. Someone you never met, protecting their own standing, deciding on your behalf.
Most agencies are still preparing for the wrong moment.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

The trophy and the scar are usually from the same moment.
You just tell the story differently depending on the audience.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

Some seasons are for building.
Some are for surviving.
Knowing which one you're in changes every decision you make.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

A great collaborator makes your idea better without making you feel smaller.

That's rarer than it should be.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

Most people edit their dreams down to fit the size of their fear and call it being realistic.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

The second year is harder than the first.
The first year has adrenaline.
The second year has reality.
The ones who make it through the second year usually make it.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

Somewhere there is a person doing exactly what you want to be doing who was once exactly where you are now.

They just didn’t stop.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

The founder who is liked by everyone has made too many compromises to count.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

Everyone wants the breakthrough moment.

Almost no one wants the 18 months before it that made the breakthrough possible.

That's the whole trick.

There is no trick.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

Creatives who refuse to learn business stay underpaid. Business folks who say "I'm not creative" stay replaceable. Pick up the other half - because that's where the money is.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

The work doesn't care about your intentions.
It only cares what you actually made.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

I just published I Had To Almost Die Twice To Learn How To Live https://t.co/NlXXcfK04r

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

If your best client disappeared tomorrow, what would break first?

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

The sentence usually gets worse right after I try to make it sound smart.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

Time is the asset most people undervalue until they no longer have it.

You can always make more money.

You cannot make more Tuesday mornings at 34.

Price your time accordingly - before the market prices it for you at a rate you won't like.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

The story you tell about why you are the way you are is either your greatest resource or your greatest prison.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

He who loves the process will always outwork the more talented guy who doesn't love the craft as much.

[Travis Pomposello @tpomposello]

Fail more.