Duke & Duck

We are Duke & Duck, an Emmy award-winning content studio focused on brand, editorial, and documentary animation and motion graphics. We work with some of the biggest non-profit and corporate brands in the world to drive social change, promote products, raise money, and connect people through effective storytelling.

Founder & Managing Director

Double Scoop Studio

At Double Scoop Studio, we are serving up delicious animated content for kids that make a social impact.

Head of Studio

Voxiva

Marketing, research, and more at a small, socially-focused software startup.

Marketing Manager

The Bike Project of Urbana Champaign

The Bike Project co-op offers a space, tools, and community to repair bikes, share knowledge, hold classes, and advocate for bikes in Urbana-Champaign.

Co-Founder

ACTS Clinic

I went to ACTS to help them however I could.  What I ended up doing was helping them to upgrade their network infrastructure to link the main clinic with the pharmacy as well as to other local health resources.  I also won them grants from Microsoft and Dell for new software and computers.

Volunteer

Since 2009, I've been using animation to tell stories that matter. Stories are powerful. They tell us who we are, what we believe in, and how we should relate to the world around us. My life is dedicated to using that power to make the world a better place for everyone in it.

Duke & Duck is the Emmy award-winning content studio I started with my best friend Dave back in 2009. We produce brand videos, social content, explainers, advocacy campaigns, and animation for documentaries. Most of our work is direct to clients where we serve as strategic advisors and content creators, but we also work with select agencies as partners. We have years of experience creating award-winning animated content for household brands, including: Capital One, the ACLU, Nestlé, Patagonia, and National Geographic.

In 2022, I founded Double Scoop Studio with a single goal: To make sure that the next generation has access to stories that put as much emphasis on positive social values and impact as they do on entertainment and turning a profit. We make proprietary content for non-profits who want to reach kids, and develop and produce our own original IP. Our partners include the American Red Cross and PBS Kids.

Alex Herder

Carl Smith

Carl Smith is a community builder and philosophical futurist whose purpose is helping agency leaders connect, grow, and thrive. As the leader of The Bureau, Carl has hosted and attended over 500 workshops, webinars, conference talks, and masterminds, earning himself a front-row seat to the evolving playbook of agency leadership. His understanding of the shifting dynamics in creative and digital services and his passion for authentic connections and human-focused leadership make him a trusted voice in the industry.

Carl’s upcoming book, Built to Change: Designing The Agency of Tomorrow, explores the forces transforming knowledge work. From the real impact of AI, the collapse of the traditional agency model, and the rise of savvy clients, it offers a roadmap for those ready to reinvent their firms for the Intelligence Age. He believes the next decade belongs to those who build with curiosity, lead with empathy, and partner with humans and machines to unlock new potential.

When he’s not building community at The Bureau, Carl can be found running countless miles in the Florida heat, consuming everything he can find on the future of work and writing from the heart about leadership, loyalty, and second chances.

Owner

Eight years ago, someone I respected told me not to create Biz Dev Camp.

They said biz dev pros would never really share. That they compete for the same clients, guard their tactics, and protect their relationships. That putting them in a room together would be awkward at best and territorial at worst.

I’m so glad I didn’t listen. Because what I’ve seen, over and over again, is the opposite.

True biz dev leaders carry a unique weight inside their companies. They’re out front. They absorb rejection. They protect the brand. They fight for the right-fit client, not just the next commission. They are asked to generate growth while also safeguarding culture, margins, positioning, and long-term reputation. And when something doesn’t close, they feel it personally.

And it’s rarely fully appreciated.

At Biz Dev Camp, none of that was hidden. People shared what’s working and what’s not. They talked about pricing pressure, AI changing buyer expectations, inconsistent pipelines, hiring the right kind of hunter, and the mental load of carrying a revenue number. They opened up about mistakes and compared notes. 

No posturing. No gatekeeping. Just humans getting better together.

And now, I have some flowers to hand out 💐
To Nathan Chapman for hosting the welcome reception in your beautiful (and haunted) home. Your insights, stories, and wonderful personality will stay with us long after we're home.

To our sponsors, who not only helped elevate the event experience but also provided guidance and knowledge:
Agree.com for taking us to Preservation Hall and giving us a night we won’t forget.

Upsourced and Operating for backing the event and making it stronger for everyone. 

And to all three of you for picking up bar tabs when you didn’t have to. 😘

Metis Communications for providing the best guidance on finding more folks who need support and a community to lift them up. 

Meredith Durham, for keeping the train on the tracks, you crushed it!

Adam Kurzawa & Bart Mroz for moderating and facilitating. You show me the future of the community, one where I don't have to do all the things. ❤️

Most of all, thank you to every attendee who showed up ready to contribute, not just consume:
Ben Kalkman, Cathy Atkins, Craig Baldwin, Jenna Frye, Jenny Holman, Jill Golden, Joanna Troutman, Josh Linard, Kelly Schuknecht, Lauri Eurén, Lisa K. Lloyd, Marty Ringlein, Meredith Pickrell, Nathan Chapman, Ross Nover & Sarah Christiani.

When you get in a room with other people who do what you do, something shifts. You realize you’re not behind. You’re not alone in the pressure. You start to see patterns.

We are all on our own journey. But when we combine our experiences, we accelerate the learning curve for everyone in the room.

That’s when a group stops being a collection of individuals and starts becoming a force of nature.

P.S. 🍒💣

I ❤️ The Bureau. It's where leaders and their teams find connection, growth, and friendship. Recovering founder, zero successful exits, advocate for humanity in leadership.

Today's newsletter on Gen Z and the future of work didn’t start with my usual research. It started with a room of college students trying to figure out what the heck comes next.

Last Tuesday, I attended the Coffee and Conversation event at the University of North Florida and learned so much from the students. Not just in what they said, but in how they expressed it. The tone in that room shifted my perspective more than any headline could.

Huge thanks to Dee Colvin-Ott for creating the space, to the other guests Gretchen Kernbach and Stephen Freeman, and to the students who were candid, thoughtful, and far more nuanced than the generational stereotypes we we see thrown around.

To the lovely folks in this photo, you gave me a new angle on what the future of work really looks like, not in theory, but in a narrative I could relate to.  Thank you for that gift. 💝

I was recently invited to meet with a group of students at the University of North Florida about AI in creative companies. To prepare, I shifted my bo

Open article: Gen Z, AI and the Future of Work  by Carl Smith • 4 min read

Episode 3 of the AI Fact or Fiction trivia game is live. Today's question for Khushbu is, "Can AI read emotions accurately from your face?" But that's the question for Khushbu! The question you need to answer to score a point and get closer to the grand prize is down there 👇

For anyone new here, AI Fact or Fiction is our treasure hunt disguised as a slightly ridiculous trivia game show, created with our friends at E2M. Each short video covers a moment in the history of AI. In every episode, there is something specific to catch. Sometimes it is a small detail. Sometimes it is a ridiculous moment. Sometimes it is a judgment call.

Your job is simple.
Watch the video.
Spot the thing.
Comment with your answer.

First correct answer in each channel gets the point. And each channel counts! Slack. LinkedIn. YouTube. Even my DMs. We are tracking them all.

This contest is still wide open! If you've been watching from the sidelines, now is a great time to jump in. Nobody got the answer for the second question, so go back and you might just catch the leaders. And what's the prize? 

At the end of the series, the person with the most points wins real prizes, including a free (and transferable) ticket to Vistara, E2M’s AI-focused event in Austin this May. A prize worth about $1,000!

In this week's episode, you can get a point for sharing what movie is visually referenced when Carl says to Khushbu, "This is why you are our official AI Partner." 

Comment here and anywhere else The Bureau or I can see it and you get closer to the goal! A free ticket to Vistara! And if you can't go, you can gift it to a special friend. 😘

Go get 'em, Tiger! https://lnkd.in/eT6muhsP

Open video: AI Fact or Fiction Q3 on youtu.be

There's an unspoken expectation in today's professional world. Be available. Respond fast. Stay visible with our little green dot. And somehow, do our best focused thinking at the same time.

Availability and productivity are two things can't coexist.

We keep Slack open, we check email before we're fully awake, we apologize when we take more than two hours to respond to something that wasn't urgent. It feels like the responsible thing to do. Responsiveness feels like respect regardless of how we respond.

But there's a quiet tax on all of this. 

Cal Newport has written extensively about what he calls "deep work." That kind of focused, uninterrupted thinking that produces real output. Not the appearance of productivity. But actually actions that move us closer to the goal. Doing the stuff that moves the things forward. And the research is pretty clear, it takes roughly 20 minutes just to get in the flow, and a single interruption resets the clock. The average worker gets pulled out of their focus more than 30 times a day.

Do the math. We are sabotaging ourselves trying to look effective at the expense of actually being effective! Bleh.

What's interesting, and a little uncomfortable, is that the interruptions aren't random. They're structural. When praise and sometimes promotions get informally tied to response time, when leaders, clients or prospects send messages after hours and expect acknowledgment, when the green dot next to your name becomes a proxy for effort, our business culture has made a choice. We've just never said it out loud.

The irony is that the behaviors we associate with being a good colleague, always available, always responsive, always present, are often the exact behaviors that make us a bad colleague. We've mistaken motion for progress. And because everyone around us is doing the same thing, it feels normal. 

I've noticed it in myself. There's a pull toward my inbox that has nothing to do with what's actually in it. It's just easier than the harder thing hiding in my brain's todo list. Answering an email feels like getting something done. It has a clear end.

Deep work doesn't give you that dopamine hit, at least not at first.

The teams and leaders I respect most have figured out something simple: accessibility is a feature, not a default state. They're reachable, but they've decided when. They protect time not because they don't care about their people, but because they understand that showing up distracted isn't really showing up.

It's worth asking what you're actually optimizing for when you stay constantly available. Most of it probably doesn't require you. But responsiveness feels responsible, so we react. 🤷‍♂️

To give you a taste of where agency leadership conversations are headed, this latest issue of the Built to  Change newsletter focuses on six challenges that are converging on us. All of this is based on months of research on the future of work and conversations with successful independent shops.

These insights have also guided us in the programming for Bureauverse Southwest and I am stupidly excited about what we've put together. If you are a leader in an agency and you're trying to figure out how to navigate today, tomorrow and the next five years, this is your event. 

We'll dig into each of these topics, and not as theory, but as working sessions with people who are in the same boat and figuring it out in real time. Supporting each other is what The Bureau does best, and this event is going to be a strong one.

Join us as we start this journey to what's next together!

I've been asked by subscribers and community members to focus more on how to get through the next five years versus the next evolution of agencies. So

Open article: The Agency Survival Guide by Carl Smith • 8 min read

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