Anna Petrow

We’re so back. Excited to be joining tms as a Senior Strategist. I’ve always believed the most compelling ideas start with understanding people deeply. Looking forward to working at the intersection of psychology, strategy, and creativity.

As part of Whisper for Help!, the app that amplifies the voices of people who stutter during an emergency, we set out to create a super simple interface that connects callers to 911 with just one tap, while amplifying their voice in real time using AI. But the truly innovative part happens behind the scenes. The Whisper-to-Speech AI detects low-volume, non-linear speech, including whispers and stuttering patterns such as silent blocks, prolongations, and repetitions. During calls, it uses specialized datasets, speech recognition, and contextual reconstruction to analyze fragmented speech, convert it into text, and render it as a clear, natural-sounding AI voice within milliseconds. A design system that prioritizes simplicity at the interface layer and complexity in the underlying architecture, reducing cognitive load for the user while handling speech variability in the background. Check out the full project here: https://lnkd.in/eiHUnfVY Alessandro / Gonçalo / Bruno / Josh / Jana / Erick / Casey / Max Grey

Louder Than Cancer is a Webby Award Winner! The project that turns music into medicine, now recognized with the internet’s highest honor.  Proud to be part of work that can make a real impact on people’s lives. We made it! Jana Bruno Josh Luis Max Abby Mike Jon Jill Sindy Marion Joshua Elaine Steve Genséric / Amazon Music + Grey + The Webby Awards https://lnkd.in/e9YQUwqb

After almost 4 years at JACQUES NY (formerly Havas Tonic), yesterday was my last day. I owe so much of my personal and professional growth as a strategist to my mentors and champions from over the years (shout out neil kumar, Jaime Klein-Daley, Lauren Turner, and Libby Dwyer) and to the amazing team that helped us get thousands of assets, multiple branded and unbranded DTC campaigns off the ground and into the world. It’s been the highlight of my career to have connected people with HIV prevention and treatment options that change lives for the better. Onwards and upwards, and looking forward to the next challenge 🚀

There is no cute way of saying this. Running a business while grieving sucks. Something I’ve noticed in other content people share, and the content I often share myself, is that we don’t share the hard thing while it’s happening. We share it after the fact when we can add some sort of reflection to the mix. I’ve done that plenty. Heck, I just did that with my last post about finding our way to more stability this year. I wasn’t talking about our instability challenges last year as we were living through it. That would have been brutal. But there is something extra jarring about running a small business while actively grieving. Within the last month, my best friend of 10+ years lost her mom and my father-in-law died. Both losses were unexpected and fast. Both were people I loved. And both losses have deeply impacted the two closest people in my life. Surreal is the only word that has felt right when it comes to how life has felt these past few weeks. And adding to the surrealness? I still have a business to run. Because while our current clients are unsurprisingly, wonderfully understanding, I need to ensure that we’re getting in front of new clients for May, June, July. Anyone who runs a small business, especially a service business, knows that to shut down marketing and sales for a month is often impossible. As an agency just beginning to stabilize, the idea of stopping all momentum is more than terrifying. It’s just not a real option. So instead, I cry in between calls. I have an away message on my email telling folks I may be delayed in my response due to a family emergency. I’m not sure how long I’ll leave it but my gut says at least another week. I’m helping to plan a funeral in between strategy sessions. I’m trying to move my body daily, even if it's just a morning walk, but more preferred is an actual workout session. I’m writing this blog post instead of the ‘Why it’s not about going viral’ that was scheduled for this week because how in the world am I supposed to focus on that? I’m compartmentalizing on level 10,000. Running a business while grieving sucks. So my vulnerable, terrible ask of you is to keep TLC on the top of your mind when needs arise. And in exchange, I’ll give you some advice I’ve learned this month in supporting loved ones and colleagues going through their own loss. Always reach out. Your message can be simple. My favorites have just been some version of “I love you. I’m so sorry. I’m thinking of you.” Because love and grief are two sides of the same coin; you can’t fix the loss but you can carry it with them.