Greg Lewin

How did you get here?

Prior to jumping on board at updoc in February of 2022, I took on a number of different roles. Upon completion of my psychology degree, I was originally at EY in their People Advisory Services team. I was fairly dissatisfied with my position, and left to undertake study at film school.

Following this, I worked for a few years in behavioural science consulting alongside film production, but made the decision to pursue a creative career full time mid-2021.

I was fortunate to have a close strategic relationship with the two original founders of updoc through their other company, Jot Bikes. This made the original decision to bring me on board – a no-brainer based on past experience.

What options were you considering following your last role?

My most recent full-time role was as a senior behavioural science consultant, which I was generally a little disinterested in by the end of due to the lack of “real” implementation that generally occurs. 

Once I took up commercial film production full-time, it became a clear cut choice to couple my strategic consulting experience alongside my commercial creative skillset to build the creative capability at updoc.

How did you make the decision to take your current role?

Aside from the pairing of my abilities for a clearly defined gap needing to be filled for the growth of the company, the two co-founders, Clifton Hodgkinson & Dylan Coyne were two people I wanted to work closely with. Prior to officially coming on board, I outlined (in depth) the creative strategy that should be followed moving forward to clearly prove the need for an internal creative capability.

What is your role now? And what does your day-to-day look like?

I head up creative for updoc, a company that is building the future of healthcare. Our ethos is tied to reducing burden on the Australian healthcare system by making healthcare efficient, accessible, and simple.

I create all content at updoc, including everything in the full film pre-post production pipeline, filmography, editing, to photography, to more simple content creation and simple graphic design. I also handle all brand and PR developments, including working with publications to increase brand awareness. I also handle all communications funnels, including but not limited to eDM campaigns. I’m also responsible for any media buying, collaborations with external creatives (such as podcasts, influencers), casting of actors for UGC or scripted productions, and any OOH media partnerships.

I work with a range of software and tools, and my weeks vary significantly depending on where the creative pipeline is at, and what the needs currently might be for the company. The ability to be flexible with time is an important element of the role.

What do you love about your job?

The big difference between consulting for clients and moving to an in-house position is - maybe a controversial opinion - things actually get done. 

It’s very easy to fall into two traps in consulting. The first is that you feel like you could be having an impact, and that your advice is valuable, and you’re charging a lot for it (which to some is a barometer for quality). The second is that you’re constantly selling your own abilities.

Both of these things are less ambiguous internally. Especially if you’re in a “startup” ecosystem, the buck stops with you, and the proof is in the pudding. This means more responsibility, which also means you get to see the fruits of your labour usually in real time. This is very satisfying. 

You’re also focused on building the business, and wearing a lot of hats. You don’t need to convince anybody about your ability (if you’re at a good company, like updoc). It’s okay to fail, learn, and improve upon your own abilities. In consulting there is often an air of overconfidence bordering on arrogance, and a lack of genuine interest in learning through iterative processes. 

Consulting burnout is real, and this is significantly less likely internally where you have small win success. With updoc specifically, everybody looks out for each other all the time, and we’re all clearly aligned to the vision of making healthcare easy, accessible, and in turn reducing burden on healthcare systems. This was made all the more sweeter when we recently won Finder’s Social Impact Innovation award for 2022.

What do you not love about your job? 

This really is a tough one to answer as it’s the best position I’ve held to date. What I would say is that there is a slight air of uncertainty with building and growing any fast moving company - regulation could change at any moment, and you’ve got to be able to shift with the markets if necessary. There’s an air of exploratory uncertainty as well, where you really don’t know if something will fail or not (such as creative content). Being in a company which supports this and enables learning and growing from certain avenues falling flat really helps, though.

What advice would you give someone deciding what they should do? 

Ask yourself this question: “If I could be doing one thing, and it didn’t matter whether I got rich or famous from it, and I could do this until the end of my life with nobody knowing about it, what would it be?”

The answer to this should be what guides your decision making, especially if you’re young and early in your career. It might not land you in the perfect position, but it should start leading you towards something more suitable. I recommend avoiding the trap of getting stuck in a position because you either feel like it’s what you should do, or because of social or family pressures. If you’ve fallen into that trap, it’s never too late to get out of it.

More tactically, try to talk to some people who might be in positions you’re curious about. Explore a range of different avenues - don’t just limit your ambitions to one category. Think about whether you want to go out on your own, or if you want to work alongside other people. And look within your existing network for opportunities as there may be a lot more than you realise.

Finally, ask yourself if you’re happy. If the answer is mostly no, then you probably need a shakeup. Accepting that is the first step, and then moving towards a new direction is the second. It’s only upwards from there.