About Mike
I grew up skateboarding on the cobblestone streets of Charleston, South Carolina. Yeah, I know, a weird place to find skateboarding, but there I was board under my feet and my Dad’s camera in my hands to photograph the skate sessions.
As my ollies got higher, my photography got better. It led to my friends and I making skate videos out of our adventures. Those videos would land us sponsorships and other futures we didn’t see coming.
I ripped my ACL at 19. It was a devastating blow to my hopes of skating professionally. But I did what skateboarders do I picked myself up, figured out what happened, and tried again. This time taking a different approach. While rehabbing my knee, I started taking classes at the local community college.
Those community college classes turned into enough credits allowing me to transfer to the University of South Carolina. While in school, I was introduced to branded videos and learned where the future of video content was headed. My professors taught me the cinematic techniques that are the foundation for what I do today. They prepared me for a world where every brand was a media organization.
After graduating. I set forth to find a job where high-end production and a DIY skateboarder mindset would be valued. Turns out, not many companies were into it at the time. I got lucky and found local TV. People were willing to take a chance on me. I was just stoked to get paid for filming and editing.
Over the years, my creativity flourished. I was given opportunities to make awesome stuff and learn from my failures. I took that knowledge across the country when offered a creative position in Denver, Colorado. It was a big jump coming from a small TV market to market 16. It was risky, but the opportunity to do some of the best creative of my career couldn’t be passed up.
Every job move I’ve made isn’t really for money or because something’s wrong. It’s always for the opportunity to make better things. I know most of my experience is in local TV creative departments, but I believe that can translate well into any creative department or agency. Everything I’ve done in my career goes back to skateboarding. If you fall, get up, figure out what happened, and try again.
My wife Doris and I love living in Colorado. We spend our time away from work together. Hiking with our dog Gopher and doing DIY projects on our home. I still skate and always will. It keeps me learning, adapting, and pushing forward.
