How to get your creative team refocused, re-energized and back at the table where decisions are made.

Learn the only system with proven steps to boost employee satisfaction, process clarity and stakeholder credibility in six weeks or less.

"I didn't think we needed outside guidance. But after one meeting with Wayne, I expanded his work across my entire leadership team."
Jiva Smith Jiva Smith, VP of Creative Ops, Peacock
This system has worked at
Boeing Expedia Peacock UKG Synchrony
— and more.

Does this sound like your team?

Well, you're not alone...

Hi, I'm Wayne. I used to lead big, successful PR firms and ad agencies, so I thought I knew how to lead client service teams. And then I inherited a 300-person in-house creative team at Boeing.

That's when I learned that my own expertise was in my way.

Wayne Barringer Wayne Barringer · Founder, Jaro Group

When I began as the head of Brand and Creative at Boeing, the team's employee satisfaction score on my first day was 52%.

This team of 300 were taking orders, isolated from the decision makers. Creatives were burning out.

Project managers were working day and night, committed to the end, knowing there was no end in sight.

Stakeholders were frustrated at the slow work and expensive output. They called me every day.

"Wayne, this team needs to change, or we're going to use an outside agency."

The CMO said, "Wayne, fix this or we'll outsource it all."

All of this in the first week.

I felt the pressure. And in those first few months, that pressure built. "I'm supposed to be the expert," I thought. "I'm going to fix it."

But I remember constantly feeling like we weren't making progress. I'd complain to family and friends: "Why can't this team get it?"

Everyone's jobs depended on making real progress. So I went to find help.

I looked for an industry group or consulting firm who knew how to get us out of this mess. I found consultants who were charging $20,000-$50,000 or more just to deliver reports and thick powerpoint presentations. Some even had VP titles at big-name companies long ago.

None had ever sat in my seat before and taken a team from lost to great.

But I was the expert. The CMO hired me to fix it. My career readied me for this.

So I stepped on the accelerator.

I made the moves the consultants were telling creative leaders to make. The ones I knew from my experience were best.

But none of it worked.

The team became even more resistant than the 52% indicated. "Wayne you're going to ruin this place just like all the others before you."

At first, I defended myself. "They're just being resistant. They're not cut out for this. They don't know how to perform at this level."

Then I had an experience that changed my entire view of how to lead a team of creatives out of the order-taking and into the rooms where decisions are made.

At 19,341 feet, Mt. Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa. I set out to climb it with my son and a few friends.

Day 3 of the 7-day climb was spectacular. I turned to my son and friends and said, "Wow, I feel like Superman!"

10 minutes later, as everyone else kept hiking, "Superman" stepped off the trail.

My vision tunneled. I felt like I was breathing through a coffee straw.

Altitude sickness is your body's response to not having enough oxygen. And it was about to make me turn back.

My crew was a quarter-mile up ahead, and I wanted desperately to keep going. To find a way. "You're supposed to be able to do this. It's what you trained for," I told myself.

In reality, though, I was alone and scared. I didn't understand what was happening. In that moment, everything I knew was being turned upside-down.

Just then, Poppy showed up. As the head trail guide, he knew exactly what to do. He'd been on this journey hundreds of times.

He was the guide I needed in that moment.

He simply took my backpack, offered me his water and said, "Just follow my steps."

An hour later, I was at the next camp, resting with my pals and my son.

3 days later, together, we were on top of the world.

Wayne and his climbing group at the summit sign on Mount Kilimanjaro
The summit. 19,341 feet.

What does Kilimanjaro have to do with leading your creative team?

Here's the thing I realized. I felt the same suffocating pressure that day on Kilimanjaro that my creative team were feeling as I tried to get the organization back on track.

The team meant well. They wanted to thrive and survive. But all the change I was throwing at them "because it was my job" was causing their brains to shut down. Their bodies and minds were exhausted.

My creative team needed the professional version of more oxygen.

They needed me to be Poppy.

Poppy didn't give me a rah-rah speech about my vision or reaching the summit.

He took some of the weight off my back, and he gave me very simple instructions, in my language, that I could follow, even in my exhaustion.

That's when I knew I needed to take some pressure off my team and myself, and begin to give everyone very simple, clear instructions that THEY could follow. In their language.

When I landed back at Boeing, I began building what Poppy and Kilimanjaro taught me.

And over the next 18 months, employee satisfaction took off. First, from 52% to 65%. Then 74%. Then 81%. Ultimately 90%!

We won more awards in two years than the previous 10 combined: ANA, IHAF, AdAge... 10 awards in two years, when the previous 10 years they'd only won six.

We earned back our seat at the table and began to beat some of the nation's biggest ad agencies for world-changing work.

The best part? Two years later as I left to start the Jaro Group, the same people who earlier told me I was ruining everything came up to me and said, "This is the best place I've ever worked."

"I never thought working in an in-house creative team could be so fun and fulfilling."

I've been helping leaders just like you learn what I now call The Jaro Method to boost morale, simplify processes and get their team at the strategic marketing table.

Wayne speaking at the Creative Operations Summit in New York
Creative Operations Summit, New York. May 2025.

“Wayne’s not a consultant. He’s part creative ops expert, part thought partner, part strategic guide, part confidant. He was always in our corner.”

nbc-peacock Griffen Thomas · Director of Operations, Peacock

“We’d tried everything. Wayne helped us finally get that seat at the table.”

ukg Lisa Pratt · VP of Customer Engagement Marketing at UKG

“I and my team would not be where we are today without Wayne’s guidance and partnership.”

ukg Kenny Volk · VP of Creative & Marketing at UKG

How to get your team and stakeholders back on your side:

Book a Discovery Call →
1

One Clear Message.

We'll help you create a clearer vision, written in their language, so they won't resist it — they'll understand it and advocate for it.

2

Five Survival Soundbites.

Together we'll build the exact phrases that answer the threats your people are feeling. You'll speak them with earnestness, confidence and clarity.

3

The Operational Blueprint.

We have literally dozens of proven org structures, intake strategies and process flows that squash meeting bloat, quell order-taking and improve your team's visibility.

4

The Brand Execution Roadmap.

We'll show you step by step how to implement an operating model that lifts your team, delights your stakeholders and wows your C-Suite. All without burning out yourself or your people.

5

1:1 Live Expert Guidance.

This is NOT an AI course. You work alongside me, and I show you the system we built at Boeing — and that we've installed at Peacock, Expedia, UKG, Synchrony and more.

How clients just like you turned order taking into strategic advising.

Wayne and Ken Volk presenting Jaro Group and UKG on the mainstage
Wayne Barringer and UKG's Kenny Volk, on the keynote stage at ANA's In House Agency Conference 2024.

UKG · From resistant to thriving

"My team and my leaders are where we are today because of our work with Wayne and Jaro Group."
Kenny Volk · VP Creative and Brand, UKG

Strong team on paper, but over-processed, siloed and not yet at the table, with credibility slipping in front of executives. We found the source of the resistance, rebuilt the structure and trained his leaders. Six months later employee satisfaction was up 25 percent, leaders and team members had been promoted, and the C-suite had started treating the function as a critical force. Kenny won the President's Award.

Peacock · A startup inside a legacy behemoth

"I didn't think we needed outside help. But after a few short weeks with Wayne, we started seeing real results."
Jiva Smith · VP of Creative Operations, Peacock

A three-year-old streaming business operating like a startup inside Comcast, Universal and NBC, with the confusion, rework and burnout to match. We simplified the message, the structure and the plan, and we stayed with them until it held.

Expedia · From overload to sustainable performance

"I always recommend Wayne's program to my leaders."
Lauren Cannon · Sr. Director of Operations, Expedia

Burnout and declining engagement were squeezing out innovation. Leaders lowered resistance, raised their own credibility, and held on to top talent through repeated reorganization.

An in-house creative team in discussion around a conference table

The Jaro Method works for a specific type of creative leader.

Who this is for

  • You lead an in-house creative, brand or marketing team.
  • You are burning out, whacking moles and putting out fires, and you know there is a better way to lead your team and your career.
  • Your transformation has been announced but there's still resistance.
  • You are consistently asked to do more with less.
  • You feel, or you know, that your employee satisfaction scores are lower than you want them to be.

Who this is NOT for

  • You want a tool to install rather than a system to lead.
  • You want your vision validated rather than examined.
  • You already know you can't (or won't) find the time.

“Working with Wayne showed me the steps to actually improve my team – even when the odds seemed impossible.”

cboulder Maria Kuntz · Director of Creative Communications, University of Colorado Boulder

“We never expected the results that Wayne delivered to our team. If you give him a chance to do what he does best, you won’t be disappointed.”

amex Michelle Manino · Sr. Manager, Product Management, American Express

Let me take out all the risk.

100% Guarantee.

I am completely confident that my 1:1 frameworks and ToolKit will work for you and your team. It's already helped countless brand leaders just like you.

But I understand that it's an investment and all investments carry risk. It's only worth your company's investment and your time if it works.

So to make it an absolute no brainer for you, I'm going to personally shoulder ALL the risk.

That's right — If it doesn't work for you, I'll give you a full refund, to the penny.

Plus, I'll pay you $1,000 for wasting your time.

This way, it's a complete win-win. You either start earning your seat at the table or you don't pay, plus you learned something new, essentially for free.

You'll even get to keep all of the training materials, simply as a way of saying thanks for giving me a shot.

Book a Discovery Call →

FAQ

I already have a vision. Why would I need another one?

You're not getting another one — we're just going to Poppy-ize the one you have. If you're six months in and still meeting resistance, the problem is almost never the vision itself. It's that the vision was announced rather than translated. You'll leave with the same vision, framed so people hear it and choose it.

What if my CMO won't buy in?

This program is designed and priced to move quickly and efficiently. Most clients can self-approve $6,400. And when we're done, your CMO will be elated at the speed, power and capability of your team.

We tried fixing our process before and it made us slower.

Most process work adds steps to solve a problem that was caused by too many steps. The first thing you'll do is identify what to remove.

Is this coaching?

This is a 1:1 series of system implementation roadmaps, complete with a method, system and set of templates done for you. We provide you the templates and show you how they work. We do coach executives in other engagements; this program is not that.

How do people pay for this?

Most VPs have a discretionary training budget. If yours doesn't, the budget you manage for agencies, freelancers and outsourcing usually covers it.

I don't have the time.

You're already spending far more than 45 minutes a week absorbing the cost of a change that hasn't taken hold. Stopping that is worth protecting 45 minutes on your calendar. If your team is struggling for a seat at the table, or morale is down, or stakeholders are saying they're slow, finding those 45 minutes a week will be the best investment you make with your time. And the outcome is 100% guaranteed.

What do I actually walk out with?

A one-page message for your vision, an org structure mapped to your strategy, an intake flow, a written execution plan, and the five survival soundbites you'll use with your team next week. Plus, you'll now have the innate skill of knowing exactly what to do so your team thrives — even when they're gasping for air.

The Creative Authority System Book a Discovery Call →