[Growing] with Zoe Scaman

The thinking behind Growth², guiding brands to think beyond instant results, and fostering moments of connection as a solopreneur

I first came across

Zoe Scaman

‘s work via her Motherload report - an unflinching look at the reality of being a mother working in advertising - last year. My son was 18 months old at the time and the content resonated deeply. I’ve been following her work with fan-like fervour ever since.

Last month, Zoe published Growth². If you're reading this newsletter, I assume you've already read it at least twice, but if not, go and do so now! It brilliantly unpacks the evolving nature of value creation and explores the shift from extractive, linear growth to exponential, transformative growth.

As a strategist working with some of the world’s biggest brands, Zoe is at the forefront of helping businesses navigate this shift. I wanted to dig deeper into the thinking behind Growth², how she supports brands in moving beyond traditional growth models, and how she prioritises connectivity and creativity in her week as a solopreneur.

First up, please give an introduction to your business and explain your role.

Bodacious is a strategy studio built for the brave, the bold, and those ready to navigate new frontiers in innovation. I work with brands and entertainment giants like Nike, Netflix, Oatly, Unilever, EA Games, Coca-Cola, and many more, helping them decode emerging technologies, cultural shifts, and new business models to stay ahead of the curve.

I’m equal parts strategist, provocateur, and explorer. With over 20 years in brand strategy, I’ve always been drawn to what’s next—whether that’s the evolution of fandom, the rise of community-driven brands, or the intersection of gaming, education, and play. Beyond client work, I spend a lot of time researching and writing, translating complex shifts into tangible strategies. From The New Fandom Formula to The Creation Generation and, most recently, Growth², my focus is on challenging outdated paradigms and reimagining how brands create value in an increasingly complex world.

I also lead strategy at 77X, a youth-culture studio founded by the NBA player Luka Dončić, and have worked across creative agencies, production studios, and with global talent.

What specifically sparked you to create Growth²?

Growth² was born out of a realisation: the way we define and pursue growth—both personally and in business—is fundamentally broken. After writing about Type 2 growth as an alternative to the burnout-fuelled hustle culture we’re regularly sold, I was inundated with responses from people who felt the hollowness of traditional success metrics. But what struck me was how these weren’t just personal reckonings—they were systemic red flags.

Companies were scaling unsustainably, startups were chasing valuation over value, and our entire economic model was running on outdated equations that treat growth as a straight line rather than a dynamic, living system. Growth² was my way of challenging these assumptions—of asking, what if we’ve been measuring success all wrong? And more importantly, what might a more resilient, regenerative model of growth look like?

It’s less a report and more a recalibration—a way to move beyond extraction and optimisation toward something that actually creates lasting value​.

Growth² by Zoe Scaman - Bodacious

What role do you think for-profit brands play in addressing systemic challenges such as the climate emergency?

For-profit brands sit at the heart of systemic challenges like the climate emergency—whether they like it or not. The choices they make, the supply chains they operate, the narratives they push, and the influence they wield all shape our collective future. And while it’s tempting for brands to default to CSR spin, carbon offset sleight-of-hand, or purpose-washing, the reality is that real impact comes from fundamentally rethinking how value is created.

The old model—growth at any cost, short-term shareholder gains, and linear extraction—has run its course. What we need now is a shift toward regenerative business models, where brands aren’t just mitigating harm but actively rebuilding ecosystems and redesigning consumption patterns. That means moving beyond transactional sustainability initiatives into systemic transformation—rethinking materials, supply chains, incentives, and even how success itself is measured.

Brands have the resources, reach, and cultural power to drive large-scale shifts faster than governments or NGOs alone. But that influence is only meaningful if it’s backed by action—if brands are willing to embrace uncomfortable change, prioritise resilience over relentless scale, and see themselves as stewards rather than extractors.

The climate emergency isn’t a PR exercise. It’s a business imperative. And the brands that fail to adapt will find themselves irrelevant—not just ethically, but economically.

You state in Growth² that “Time isn’t a constraint to conquer - it’s a dimension to nurture. Like a masterpiece that unfolds over time, real innovation needs space to grow, evolve, and mature.”

How do you approach guiding brands to think beyond instant feedback loops and embrace planting seeds that grow slowly and compound in value over time?

The obsession with instant results—whether in marketing metrics, product launches, or business growth—is one of the biggest barriers to true innovation. The challenge is rewiring brands to think in terms of ecosystems, not just transactions; compounding value, not just quarterly gains.

I guide brands to shift from a short-term, dopamine-driven mindset to a more expansive, regenerative approach by anchoring them in three key principles:

1. Reframing Success Metrics – If all you’re measuring is immediate engagement, you’ll optimize for noise, not meaning. I work with brands to redefine value creation—whether it’s deep community participation over passive reach, cultural impact over campaign impressions, or long-term brand equity over short-term spikes.

2. Designing for Durability, Not Virality – Innovation needs gestation. That means resisting the urge to force growth and instead creating environments where ideas can evolve organically. We look at cultural movements, not momentary trends; at building brand gravity, not just attention. The best brands aren’t those that burn bright and fast, but those that quietly accumulate significance over time.

3. Embracing Networked Growth – Brands don’t need to control everything they create. The most powerful ideas are often those that start as small seeds and grow through community involvement, iteration, and decentralized expansion. It’s about setting foundational conditions for growth rather than forcing it on a schedule.

The brands that thrive in the long run are the ones that resist the pressure to sprint toward instant validation and instead nurture something bigger than themselves—something that, given time, becomes impossible to ignore.

You also emphasise that “value doesn’t diminish through sharing; it multiplies through creativity and connection.” As a solopreneur, how do you foster unexpected connections, spark creativity, and integrate collaboration into your work?

Absolutely. Creativity isn’t something that happens in a vacuum—it’s an emergent property of connection, curiosity, and cross-pollination. To actively cultivate that, I structure my week with deliberate randomness and intentional friction points.

1. Divergent Inputs → Unexpected Outputs – I make a point to consume content far outside my immediate field. One day it’s deep-diving into AI ethics, the next it’s the evolutionary biology of fungi. The best ideas come from the edges, and I’ve found that borrowing mental models from wildly different domains often sparks the most original thinking.

2. Conversations Without Agendas – I set up calls or coffee chats with people doing fascinating work—without any predetermined outcome. No pitch, no project, just exploration. Whether it’s a game designer, a crypto economist, or a documentary filmmaker, these conversations create lateral connections that often lead to unexpected collaborations or insights.

3. Play as Strategy – Creativity flourishes in play, so I deliberately build unstructured time into my week. That might be experimenting with AI tools in ways they weren’t designed for, building weird thought experiments, or even just sketching ideas without a clear purpose. The lack of pressure to be productive often leads to the most productive breakthroughs.

4. Sparking Serendipity – I leave space for surprise. Whether it’s following a rabbit hole that seems irrelevant or letting a spontaneous idea take over a project for a while, I’ve found that some of the best strategic insights emerge when I allow room for intuition and instinct to take the lead.

Creativity isn’t about forcing brilliance on demand. It’s about engineering the right conditions for sparks to catch—and then making sure you have the patience (and systems) to let them burn into something bigger.

Which people or organisations inspire you on the topic of challenging conventional growth models that Broken Growth readers should check out?

There are so many brilliant minds challenging conventional growth models, but here are a few that consistently push my thinking:

1. Indy Johar – Co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, he’s doing incredible work on reimagining civic infrastructure, economic systems, and the future of governance with a regenerative lens. His perspective on long-term value creation and systems change is essential reading.

2. Kate Raworth – Economist and author of Doughnut Economics, she’s redefining what “growth” actually means by moving beyond extractive capitalism toward models that prioritize planetary and social boundaries. A must-read for anyone questioning the status quo.

3. Kevin Kelly – His thinking on Type 2 Growth—the kind that’s more about evolution, emergence, and interconnected expansion rather than simple scale—is foundational. His work with Wired and his book What Technology Wants are goldmines of insight.

4. Mariana Mazzucato – A powerhouse in economic theory, she challenges the notion that the private sector is the sole driver of innovation. Her work (The Entrepreneurial State, Mission Economy) reframes the role of government in value creation and rethinks how economies should function.

5. Douglas Rushkoff – A sharp critic of short-termism and the extractive nature of modern capitalism, his book Survival of the Richest is a brutal takedown of the billionaire mindset and a call for more regenerative, human-centric systems.

6. Adrienne Maree Brown – While not an economist in the traditional sense, her work (Emergent Strategy) explores how we can design for organic, decentralized, and resilient forms of growth, inspired by nature and community movements.

These thinkers are all wrestling with the same core question: what if everything we know about growth is wrong? Their work is essential reading for anyone ready to explore what comes next.

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Huge thanks to Zoe for sharing her thoughts for this edition of Growing XYZ and thanks to you for reading! You can connect with Zoe on LinkedIn and subscribe to her Substack.

Growing XYZ is a Q+A series with leaders challenging and redefining successful growth beyond traditional capitalist and patriarchal blueprints. If you or someone you know should be featured I’d love to hear from you.

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Broken Growth is written by London based digital strategist Matilda Lucy. Matilda supports brands to redefine success and grow sustainable online ecosystems via audits, strategy and fractional support.