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A few weeks ago, a client asked me: "What's the one thing you picked up working at Nike and Apple that actually changed how you work?"
I laughed, because I couldn't pick just one.
I spent the best part of my career sitting in rooms with some of the sharpest marketers in the world. And most of what made them so good wasn't in any training manual. It was the small, unspoken habits I picked up just from watching how they operated.
Why most people never learn these lessons
This kind of knowledge doesn't usually get passed on. It's not in a job description. No one tells you how to protect your energy, negotiate your worth, or speak up in a room full of senior leaders.
Most people learn it the hard way, if they learn it at all. Years go by, and they're still making the same avoidable mistakes.
So here's what I'd tell you instead
These are 10 things I learned through my career at Nike and Apple. Steal them.
1. Don't let other people's stress become yours. There will always be someone trying to offload their pressure onto you. Push back. Their stress management is not your job.
2. Negotiate your salary on the way in. You have more leverage accepting a role than you'll ever have once you're in it. Push as hard as you can before you sign.
3. Speak up in the first five minutes of a meeting. Even if it's just backing up someone else's point. Once you've contributed early, the pressure to "say something" disappears for the rest of the meeting.
4. Come with solutions, not just problems. Senior leaders don't want a list of what's wrong. They want to know what you're going to do about it.
5. Stop over-explaining. I'm a talker, and I had to learn this the hard way. The clearer and more concise you are, the more people see you as a future leader.
6. Document your wins every week. Every Friday, write down what you achieved. You'll need it for reviews, for job applications, and for the days you need a reminder of how far you've come.
7. Have a coffee chat once or twice a week. Not with your usual crew — with someone you don't know well. Relationships are everything in business, especially in bigger companies.
8. Write the email. Then don't send it. If you're annoyed, get it out, then walk away for a few hours. You'll feel better and won't damage a relationship by sending it unfiltered. (These days, I'd let AI fix the tone instead.)
9. Spend 15 minutes each morning planning your day. It's the difference between reacting to your inbox and actually getting your priorities done.
10. Protect your mornings. It's far easier to defend the time before work than the time after it. Use it for the gym, a walk, breakfast with a friend — whatever fills you up before the day takes over.
None of these are complicated. But together, they're the difference between drifting through your career and actively shaping it.
If your current role isn't stretching you the way it should, and you want to be learning from the best in the business again, that's exactly what the Creative Career Level Up programme can help you find — your next role, at a company that pushes you forward.
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