Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
What's this stuff? Some cereal supposed to be good for you. bzz At an early age I recalled watching
watching television and critiquing how commercials were edited
this is something I really had an interest in and some
passion about
and then when I understood more about the business implications about the
opportunity be relevant to
some significant issues in our society in our communities
that's what really sealed it for me. "He likes it, Hey Mikey!"
I thought coming into school that my future would be in production
whether it was advertising or film or TV and
I saw a real opportunity to learn about different writing styles
production, electronic, print. Getting insight
and real grounded experience you know as part of the
Oklahoma Daily advertising staff was extraordinarily valuable to me then
and continues to be now
well there's a there's an old saying that to
to a hammer everything's a nail if you see a problem
and you're in advertising agency or PR agency that
that the instinct might be to solve it with advertising or
PR work. Being on the corporate side
open the door to look at different solutions
and some some problems could be solved in very different very creative ways
When I joined
Travelers it was to lead the communications function with this
organization that was a
you know very well known and with my passion for advertising and
and brand management it was a great gift to be able to
bring back one of the great business icons of all time the
the red umbrella.
As part of that effort we had a a terrific ad campaign that
that the team
put together and we were able to earn in fact a couple of Emmy
nominations but more importantly, lit really drove some key business metrics
and it meant a great deal for the company and to me personally
well to be able to deliver on the message
"when your insurance is in sync
you can roll with anything Travelers"
Well for the last many years i've described myself as a an "Okie in exile"
and so while I would pursue my career and have pursued my career
you know around the country I certainly was not heartbroken to come back to
Oklahoma
When the opportunity came up to be
part of Devon I just couldn't pass it up
when you work for company like this and have facilities like these
its it's not something you're entitled to its
really a standard to live up to. For me at Devon
in the job as chief communications officer really the face of the company
for many of our neighbours. The issues that we try to pay
attention to
are helping people understand the way the drilling is managed
everything from what's happening at the drill site, to what's happening the roads
lead up to it
it may be a little silly but my leadership philosophy
for many years has been
"Think big, do right and kick butt." nothing big is that our job is not just to produce stuff
What everyone that is in this kind of a roll understands is think about the
connections
with your audiences, with the business needs, with the risks with the trade-offs
do right because it's not always easy to do that sometimes is not easy to tell what
the right thing is to do
But it is something you always have to strive for in kick butt,
because it's always more fun to win. The experiences I've had
in advertising and media relations and production etc
Those things are all come together in ways that I could never
really
planned or expected but we made a difference for me what
drive success is different for each person you know that that foundation is
strongly based in those opportunities given to me
while a student at the University of Oklahoma