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Cracking My Boss’ Brain: Chief Insights from SKM’s Chief Creative Officer
I’m always looking for ways to grow, and I often look to our Chief Creative Officer Mike Mathis for advice. Even though I get plenty of specific advice on developing campaigns, I’m always open to insights gained by listening to someone’s personal views. So I stopped by his office to ask a few questions. He was kicked-back in his signature “Creative Pose,” feet up on his desk, relaxed and ready to reveal his secrets.
LC: How did you get your start in this business?
MM: I degreed in Television and wanted to work in TV news, but it’s a tough business for beginners to get into. I was living in downtown Milwaukee at the time. One afternoon I was watching TV and noticed how terrible the commercials were. And it hit me: people got paid to write those commercials. I could do better. Looking out my living room window, I could see the tallest building in Milwaukee a few blocks away (U.S. Bank). I contacted the marketing director and asked if they needed a copywriter. They did. I was hired even though I hadn’t taken a single advertising course in college. I literally went to the library and studied for days to teach myself how to write copy. Two years later an ad agency contacted me saying they’d heard good things about me. I joined them as an associate creative director and worked with agencies ever since.
LC: What is it about agency life that you enjoy?
MM: Communicating. I love figuring out who we’re talking to, what we want to say, and expressing that in an effective way. The first creative director I worked for said, “Our job is to get people’s heads nodding up and down” (meaning, “Cool, I get it”). When you do that, people respond. And that makes communication complete. It’s a two-way street. With such a huge amount of advertising hitting us every day, it’s essential to craft your communications in an interesting, engaging way. That adds a whole new layer of fun and creativity to the process.
LC: Who inspires you to create?
MM: My audience. Period. Communication is a gift you give to them. You’re offering helpful information; you’re sharing positive emotions.
LC: Name one of your favorite projects while at SKM.
MM: I’ve always loved television. I’ve filmed babies that were literally four hours old. Dropped a new Jeep into a shopping basket in a grocery store. Shot in San Francisco for a week. Made snow fall on a postcard-perfect house (indoors on a soundstage in New York in the middle of August). That doesn’t mean any other project or medium is less important or interesting. It just means TV is always fun for me, so it’s a personal favorite. It’s the most powerful medium available because it has all the elements to work with – the closest thing to being there in person.
LC: What do you like to do for fun in your free time?
MM: Love motorcycling. I love to write for funsies. A few years ago I finished a novel called “The Median Man.” Signed with an agent in Beverly Hills and he pitched it to the biggest publishing houses in Manhattan. Lots of rave rejections but no sale – I kept hearing, “It doesn’t fit our standard genres.” The book is about a simple guy from Indiana who mows highway medians for a living. He’s chosen by a Chicago ad agency using supercomputers as the most statistically average man in America. The agency figures he’s the ideal guy to sell products for them. The hero (named Joe, of course; the average Joe) is reluctant at first, but his aw-shucks nature and good sense of humor make him a big hit. He travels the country, gets into trouble, and realizes like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” that “there’s no place like home.” Several publishing execs said, “We’re not going to buy this, but this man can write. Please send us his next work.” That inspired me to write a sequel. It’s about a woman who loses the ability to sleep, has about a month to live, and takes off on a cross-country journey to visit the home of her childhood hero. The title is “Going to Graceland.” Fiction writing involves really intense preparation because it’s no simple task to organize 333-pages and keep plots, subplots, themes, storylines and character arcs straight. You have to engage and delight your reader from start to finish (like advertising). But it’s also 100% creative because once you’re organized and start tapping the keyboard, the feeling is free-form, open-water, jam like a jazz band, go anywhere you want to go. If you’re a creative person, that’s going to light you up.
LC: Whom do you admire most both professionally? Personally?
MM: Does it count if he died 175 years ago? Professionally, Beethoven has always fascinated me. He wasn’t a prodigy like Mozart. He was from humble origins and worked like a dog to achieve what he did. He was incredibly passionate about his craft. I’ve never heard anyone capture the emotions of life like Beethoven. The beauty of nature. The sadness of war. The triumph of right. The joy of brotherhood. Not sure I’ve ever watched a performance of the 4th movement of his 9th Symphony (with 200 singers on stage) without tears in my eyes or my mouth open in awe at some point. The craftsmanship and emotion of the music are nearly as dazzling as witnessing a live birth (and I’ve seen 3). My soul can be found in that movement. Beethoven was also a one-of-a-kind character who didn’t take crap from anybody. He earned his place and knew his value. Proper dress? Politically correct? Perfect piano technique? Mere annoyances. Beethoven was always sharply focused on the integrity of your motivation and character. In Beethoven’s day, musicians were servants; to play in palaces for aristocrats, they had to go around to the back entrance. Beethoven literally banged on the front door and said, “If you want to hear me play, I’m coming in this way.” They always let him in. One day he was scolded by a soldier in the entourage of the Crown Prince – it was expected that you bowed your head when passing the future King. Beethoven responded by saying, “Prince?! What you are, you are by accident of birth. There have been thousands of Princes and there will be thousands more. Generations will come and go, but there is only one Beethoven.” Love it. Personally, I admire my Mom, hands down. She wakes up cracking jokes and doesn’t stop until she sleeps. Always thinking of others, always has a kind word, a smile, a good insight about life and people. At the age of 19, I asked her, “What’s the secret of life?” She replied, “Faith and a positive attitude.” It’s worked well for her.
LC: What’s your favorite movie and why?
MM: I don’t have a single clear favorite. A favorite to me would be a movie that comes on TV and I immediately drop what I’m doing to watch, even if I’ve seen it a dozen times before. A few that come to mind are “Kill Bill 2”, “Goodfellas”, “Oh, Brother, Where Are Thou?” Guy-oriented movies made by great directors.
LC: Name one challenge you’ve had to overcome professionally.
MM: Never worked for an agency in Manhattan even though I never doubted I had the talent and dedication to do very well. It just never felt like the right place to raise my kids. So the challenge would be regret, but that’s easy enough to deal with. You accept it and move on.
LC: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
Jesus. Beethoven would be second.
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