In moments of rapid change, strong leadership isn’t about having all the answers, it’s about setting direction, creating space, and enabling others to perform at their best. The most effective leaders today know how to balance clarity with creativity and structure with flexibility.

This free interactive workshop explores leadership through an unexpected but powerful lens: jazz.

Like jazz ensembles, high-performing teams thrive when leaders establish a clear foundation that includes shared goals, rhythms, and expectations, while also allowing room for improvisation, responsiveness, and creative risk-taking. The result is not chaos, but momentum.

Through a mix of short reflections, group discussion, and hands-on exercises, attendees will examine how leaders can:

• Set the “tempo” for teams without over-controlling outcomes
• Balance strategic rigor (logic) with creative confidence (magic)
• Encourage collaboration, trust, and shared ownership
• Adapt quickly when conditions change, without losing direction
• Lead with presence, listening, and intentional restraint

Attendees will analyze real-world brand examples that demonstrate this balance, then step into a fast-paced “jam session” where they experience what it means to lead and follow, when the unexpected shows up. Curveballs are intentional, mirroring the ambiguity leaders face every day.

The session closes with guided reflection, helping attendees identify one concrete leadership action they can take to bring more flexibility, clarity, and creative energy into their teams and decision-making.

This workshop is dynamic, participatory, and just a little unscripted, much like true leadership and like jazz, it’s rarely about sticking to the sheet music. It’s about knowing when to hold the groove and when to let others take the solo.

Join Allison Stadd, brand strategist and former jazz drummer for this vibrant, interactive workshop that blends marketing strategy, improvisational leadership, and jazz-inspired creativity.

Key Takeaways
Attendees will be inspired creatively and more likely to:

• Balance structure with spontaneity when conducting brand and campaign work
• Lead like a drummer: set the rhythm, create space, and elevate others
• Use data as your tempo, not your limitation
• Build teams that can improvise, iterate, and innovate in real time
• Spot cultural and audience signals that spark creative breakthroughs

This workshop is perfect for marketers, strategists, brand leaders, creatives, and teams navigating rapid change. It offers a fresh approach for those wanting to blend the rigor of insight with the fluidity of creativity. It’s also for anyone craving a brand building approach that’s less a rigid format…more freestyle.

Virtual Event Details
Date and Time: Wednesday, January 21, 2026 | 11:30 am – 1:00 pm EST
Format: 90-minute virtual workshop
Cost: Free to all; pre-registration required

This is an AMA Baltimore Mentor Connections 2026-sponsored professional development virtual event that’s open to the general public only 2x yearly.

You will receive an email 24 hours before the event with the Zoom meeting link and ID needed to join.

Meet the Speaker

Allison Stadd
CMO, Ollie
Allison Stadd is currently the CMO of Ollie, a premium dog food brand that delivers fresh, human-grade, vet-formulated meals tailored to your pup’s needs. She has almost two decades of experience in marketing leadership at consumer-obsessed, digital-first brands, including three IPOs (Shake Shack, Sweetgreen, BarkBox) and led the global digital advertising and content transformation for Stella Artois at Anheuser Busch InBev as well as the marketing and creative transformation for Shipt at Target.

Allison is an intrapreneurial leader combining creative acumen, commercial mindset, operational excellence, and deep knowledge of the digital landscape, and has a proven track record building brands and teams within fast-paced, high-volume, matrixed organizations of all sizes.

She was a member of the inaugural U.S. class of 30 of The Marketing Academy, a 9-month fellowship targeting the fastest rising stars in U.S. marketing and was selected as one of Ad Age’s “40 Under 40” and Brand Innovators’ “40 Under 40” in 2019.

Allison is also a jazz drummer. Her personal newsletter, The OffBeat, takes cues from music and culture to jazz up how we lead at work.

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