I think it evolved from me being a designer and actually doing the work to then managing the work to then managing teams to then managing departments. And so I think you know my trajectory took the course of a lot of designers where you know you find yourself for a good part of the career you know fingers on the keyboards or with the mouse actually designing things moving type around and whatever um to then kind of you know art directing to then directing whole teams through conversation. So I think my trajectory probably maps to a lot of creatives where we went from doer to talker
I you know, we’re we’re really lucky here because I think we’re one of the few companies around at this scale um that was founded by designers and where the CEO and co-founder is a designer. And I think it’s it’s incredibly rare to have the chief decision maker um understand the creative process and appreciate the creative process and understand the value of it even though it’s incredibly hard to measure the value of it and the value of a brand and the emotional impact of a brand. And that that’s really credit to um Brian the CEO and co-founder who really drives a lot of the work day-to-day that he can create this environment where creatives really have a seat at the table and can succeed
I had to show Steve what the ads were gonna look like… I showed an example from Sears and I showed an example from McDonald’s, and I got about 10 minutes into the ads and everyone’s laughing except for Steve .
So Steve 's like, “I’m gonna leave for a second here. Could you guys all explain why we’re gonna kick Andy out of the room?” They’re like, “Dude, you can’t have Sears as a brand that’s going out of business. McDonald’s is like childhood obesity and a shovel. Steve is all about the high-end, the beautiful.”
I literally said, “ Steve , what the hell, man, what am I gonna do here?”
He’s like, “Do you have any design sense? Like what are you doing here? What are these brands?”
I said, “You bought an ad network, not an ad agency. I don’t have a group of designers here. I don’t have amazing artists. I don’t have a motion graphic. I don’t have anything. I got a bunch of guys from Boston who were scrappy enough to put a company together and suckered you into buying it.”
And he’s like, “You know what? Fair. I appreciate you talking back to me.”
He’s like, “Get the [
So I got my bag and I’m taking just wires… I’m all set up to take my stuff up on a laptop, mouse, but everything in my bag. He’s like, “Are you still here? I have work to do here. You’ve wasted enough of my time.”
So I go outside with my bag… I’m running, I got my bag, I got my everything, my phone’s ringing like crazy because all my guys who’ve been up all night want to know how things are going.
There’s a knock on the door about half an hour later and it’s the Executive Assistant. She comes in, she’s like, “Is there an Andy Miller here?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” She’s like, “ Steve on the phone for you. Before you pick up the phone, he sent two people over to see you.”
Door opens. Two police officers come in and I’m like, “What the hell?” And they’re like, “ Steve , please pick up the phone.”
He was like, “I have one question for you.”
I was like, “Yeah?”
He’s like, “Why did you steal my laptop?”
I was like, “What?” He’s like, “You stole my laptop.” I look in my bag. I looked at my bag like, “Oh [
So he’s like, “Tell me why you stole it.”
And I said, “Because I’m an idiot and I was scared.”
He’s like, “It’s all right, I got you. Give it back.” So I hand over to the officers. I reach my bag, I take out the laptop, I give it to him. I reach in my bag, I look around, I take out the mousepad, I give it to him. I look in my bag and there’s his mouse. I’m like, “That’s all I got.”
Because I thought I was getting fired. And I’m keeping his mouse. I still have it in my house now. I’m keeping Steve 's mouse.
Those guys made the greatest ads and we came back and I presented it and Steve was like, “Great job. Today you’re an Apple person now. You understand what we want to do.”
And that’s what he wanted. That’s the way he taught.
