Failure Is Always an Option w/ Mike Platco

Episode 18 of Don’t F*ck This Up is here, and this week, Lauren hosts storyteller, creator and communications specialist, Mike Platco.

We discuss his unexpected career path that took him from wrestling rings and calligraphy pens to Snapchat doodles, the TedX stage, and collaborating with Disney.

Named one of the 50 most creative people in business by Fast Company, Mike shares why failure is always an option, the importance of enjoying your work, and the choices he made when burnout came knocking on his door.

Follow Don’t Fuck This Up on IG: @dontfckthisup.podcast
Follow Lauren Alvarez on IG: @LaurentheAlvarez

Follow Mike on IG: @mplatco
Connect with Mike on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/platco
Work with Mike: www.mikeplatco.com
TED Talk: If I could tell you how to become famous on social media.

Email the show at advice@dontfckthisup.com for your questions to be answered on an upcoming episode!

Transcript

Lauren Alvarez (00:00)
Hello and welcome to another episode of Don't Fuck This Up. I am so happy today I am met in the studio with Mike Plattco, none other. Mike, welcome to Don't Fuck This Up.

Mike Platco (00:13)
Lauren, thank you so much for having me on Don't Fuck This Up.

Lauren Alvarez (00:17)
Yeah, so please don't fuck this up, okay? Yeah. Now the pressure's on. I mean, there's a lot, I'm really excited to chat with you about just, you have such an artistic and creative background and obviously social media isn't something people can pursue in school when we were doing it, but first of all, how's it going?

Mike Platco (00:20)
Now the pressure's on. Great. You had to say that.

It's going great. Life is good, the family's good, the work is good. I get to tell stories all day. I get to create stuff all day. I get to coach people on how to create stories and create content all day. So yeah, things are good. How are you?

Lauren Alvarez (00:58)
Oh my gosh, thanks for asking. I'm great. I mean, yeah, it's a new year, it's a new energy. And I think we're going full throttle in 2024. I just feel like people are chomping at the bit and I'm here for it. So that's the vibe.

Mike Platco (01:12)
I love it. Me too.

Lauren Alvarez (01:14)
Good. Okay. Well, I mean, there's a lot I want to talk to you about today. I mean, first of all, like I know you started off in the arts, the creative space really early on in your career. Can you talk a little bit about sort of being a creative person? And when did you first know you were creative, you were interesting? Because we worked together briefly. I always was kind of taken aback by just like the way you can connect ideas. You're so gifted at that. Were you that kind of kid? Like what was this for you, Mike?

Mike Platco (01:18)
Thank you.

I was absolutely that kind of kid in a family of not those sorts of kids. And I was a bit of a black sheep, the athletic. You know, I was, you know, from the minute I could pick up a crayon and a pencil, I was doodling, I was obsessing over it. I was, everything from logos to characters. It was, I was that artistic kid. I loved art class. And you know, I got into the jock prep stuff.

Lauren Alvarez (01:49)
Okay.

That's what this podcast is all about.

Mike Platco (02:12)
the sports and all that a little later on, it was actually through an art teacher that I had in middle school. That first kind of teacher mentor that I had, Mr. Kirkus, who also happened to be the school, the high school wrestling coach. He really kind of took me under his wing, helped me embrace my creativity. And I saw in him that, hey, you know, there is a profession in teaching, but in still creating and being an artist. And I remember,

Lauren Alvarez (02:12)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (02:41)
He made a deal with me. He said he would teach me calligraphy if I tried out for the wrestling team. So that was sort of my start down both of those paths of doing the sports and stuff, but also really embracing art and education in the arts.

Lauren Alvarez (02:58)
And did he have you practice writing suplex in calligraphy? Like, was that a thing you were doing or? Ha ha ha.

Mike Platco (03:06)
Suplex, no, I remember he got me these special pens and I felt this was in seventh grade, you know, right where kids artistic, you know, ability starts to kind of come out and really develop and I remember just feeling so special and having these special dainty little pens and doing my calligraphy and then trying to do it in class but I was still learning cursive at that time. It was, it was a lot of fun.

Lauren Alvarez (03:07)
Yeah. Oh, cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (03:33)
It was really just great to have a person in my life like that to help kind of lift me up and point me in that direction

Lauren Alvarez (03:40)
Yeah, and it's really interesting you say that because I think a lot of times, you know, we don't get that maybe at home in our nuclear families. Like you said, you're a black sheep. I'm a black sheep. I get it. You know, I think that when you are different in that way, having someone who sees you, they're like, you've got something kid. And that is really empowering, whether they're like passing you a baton or a pen or whatever it is to push you. I mean, that's really incredible. So did you pursue that into high school? Were you doing more like arts and then carrying that into college or what was kind of the path that you took?

Mike Platco (04:09)
I mean, it was the path. I saw him and I said, hey, you know what? It would be pretty cool to be an art teacher, wrestling coach. So I started wrestling. I focused on that. And then I was on the art track. I was doing the AP art all through high school. I wanted to pick a school that I could do both at in college and I ended up going to Boston University, which brought me out of Pennsylvania, really out of my shell to a city.

Lauren Alvarez (04:16)
That's amazing.

Mike Platco (04:36)
and I was on an art education path. I got a BFA in art ed, I wrestled, and I was able to, you know, it was fine art, and it was the sculpture and the painting, and it was so, so many great teachers and so many great experiences. And as soon as I got that first student teaching placement, you know, I wanted to have the seniors, those like me, I wanted to be like, let's embrace this creativity. The first placement I got,

Lauren Alvarez (04:46)
Mm.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (05:05)
was kindergarten through fourth grade, and I'm 22 years old, fresh out of college, no kids at the time, and I was overwhelmed, and I immediately pivoted. I didn't want to be an educator then. I just couldn't deal with the social and emotional stress of being a teacher. I loved the art, and I still was trying to find other ways to create, but I pivoted and I started recruiting, and that's when...

Lauren Alvarez (05:07)
Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (05:34)
That's when you and I met at the creative circle, the creative. That was what I always tried to have something that was creative in my career. And I was at that time prepared to kind of follow that path and not necessarily be someone who creates, but to be tangential to that advertising, that marketing, that creative industry. And for a while, that was absolutely great for me. I was...

Lauren Alvarez (05:36)
Totally.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (06:03)
making my Harry Potter Halloween decorations on the side and going all out for Christmas. I still have some of those, although they are not holding up well 10 years on.

Lauren Alvarez (06:07)
Totally, I remember that.

Yeah, I mean, maybe time to go to Blick and invest in the long-term supplies, whatever those are. It's interesting because, you know, I think being in a creative adjacent space, like you still get that energy. I mean, and I actually have very fond memories of that work environment, of the people we worked with. We had a lot of fun. It was a great team. And we also had great leadership, which I think makes a really big, you know, big deal in that space of someone who's...

Mike Platco (06:20)
Hehehehehe

Lauren Alvarez (06:37)
seeing us as individuals, as creative people who weren't just like there to do nine to five. And I think that was really impactful. But one memory that stands out is I, you know, wasn't gonna mention this, but I feel like it's the right time to do so. I think I have a video of you still doing the cinnamon challenge. Now, do you remember doing the cinnamon challenge, Mike?

Mike Platco (06:57)
I have fully blocked that out of my memory. I believe you. I fully trust what you're saying. I don't need to see the video. Um.

Lauren Alvarez (07:08)
I mean, this is very like vine-esque if you really think about, you know, the time that we were in and the energy that was bringing. And I'm curious, like, were you making that kind of stuff outside of work or were you just, is this like part of your personality? Like, was this something that you did with your friends in college? I mean, you were really like down for the task and I was really scared to do this in

Mike Platco (07:12)
Yes.

You know, I should not have even attempted to crush that. I am severely asthmatic. There's a reason I don't specifically remember that. And that reason is trauma. But no, you know, I was creating stuff, doing more of the fine art, the drawing. And you know, I give friends doodles and paintings of their dogs or a family member for Christmas and make decorations, but.

Lauren Alvarez (07:43)
Yeah.

I love that.

Mike Platco (08:00)
You know, technology changed. And I had always been a bit daunted by Photoshop, by Illustrator, but I could not even conceive editing a video in college. I thought that was something that was purely for professionals in Hollywood that I would ever be able to do. But then you get an iPhone and it's, you know what? You get these platforms, these tools became available like Vine, simple, stop.

Lauren Alvarez (08:15)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (08:26)
and go, the stop motion animation with the ghost effect that you could really do interesting things and then you start to absorb more content. And yeah, you know what, Lauren? There was a year long period where I thought, hey, I could probably blow up on Vine. I remember there were some Boston Viners that I, geez oh man, I think we invited some of them to my wedding. Just as a, you know, I made a Vine about it and I was going to Ikea and making vines and.

Lauren Alvarez (08:44)
Sure.

That's amazing.

Mike Platco (08:55)
I was experimenting and it was great to be in an environment which was like, oh cool, you're making content. Social media is a thing. Keep it up. This is awesome. Um, but it was really just, that's what I, I had replaced the doodles and the painting and the sculpture with this very early on the vines and eventually, you know, stuff like Snapchat.

Lauren Alvarez (09:02)
Yeah.

Yeah, like that short form content. And I think like knowing that it gave way to, and you know, new platforms and kind of evolving with that. You also probably started to meet some interesting people. I mean, you mentioned you invited them to your wedding. So it sounds like, you know, in addition to that, and I can go really old school and say like, I remember Friendster, I remember, you know, Live Journal. And yeah, I'm old. It's fine. But as an early internet kid, I would say like, I think that that's like pretty.

cool gift to remember that, but that social component of actually meeting people in real life is something that you were able to transcend beyond just online. So can you talk a little bit about like some of those early connections and must have been a game changer.

Mike Platco (09:57)
Yeah, absolutely. There are two, I got to meet two people early on that honestly they changed my life. And this was, I was doing Vine and I downloaded Snapchat because, oh, you can doodle on this app? Great, I got a 13 year old cousin that's gonna love me turning myself into, Breaking Bad characters and Harry Potter. And then I started to doodle and doodle and doodle and put those doodles on Tumblr, another old school internet platform there.

Lauren Alvarez (10:24)
Mmm.

Mike Platco (10:25)
and gain a little bit of traction and start to get introduced to folks that were doing similar things. And one of my first real kind of buddies in this space was a guy named Sean McBride, he goes by Sean Durres. He was doing almost the same thing I was, doodles to tell a story. And we started to kind of get some, you know, brands that were interested in us because we were leveraging these other platforms to grow our Snapchat. And we were some of the first ones. And that was the first.

We like to say that we invented the Snapchat collaboration. We were the first two folks to get our accounts together to do something that was back and forth. It was a boxing match. We encouraged our followers to send us punches and whoever got the most punches would be from the other person would ultimately lose and we tallied them all up. And I remember getting snaps specifically from folks in the Snapchat office that were like, hey, we love your stuff, pow, but we're punching you.

Lauren Alvarez (10:56)
Yeah.

Ha ha

Mike Platco (11:21)
And he and I collaborated so many times, and it was great to have a partner that was validating my experience and the effort that I was putting into this. We were leveraging each other to grow our audiences. We were introducing each other to other people and kind of growing that community of collaborators. And eventually, one of those collaborators that got in contact with me, I get this random email, a buddy of mine had introduced me to Casey Neistat. This is someone whose content I...

Lauren Alvarez (11:31)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (11:51)
I remember watching his show on HBO. I loved what he was doing on YouTube. That was something like the video work that he was doing. Until this point, I thought I could never do that. And he emailed me and he said, Hey, I'm in Boston doing a thing with the MIT media lab. You do all this great stuff on Snapchat. Let's get together and tell a Snapchat story. What's the coolest thing to do in Boston? And so instantly flop sweat. I am like.

Lauren Alvarez (11:53)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (12:18)
I'm not cool. What's Casey, what am I going to do that Casey Neistat thinks is cool? And I actually, I took an extended lunch break at Creative Circle and we met, we met in downtown Boston and I took him to Bodega. We made a Snapchat story about going to this, this underground sneaker store that you have to go into a Bodega.

Lauren Alvarez (12:37)
Oh cool.

Mike Platco (12:43)
And then the soda machine slides open and it's a real underground stuff where it felt like that at the time. And we told this whole story on both of our accounts and he put it up on YouTube too. We tried to go to Bodega and they wouldn't let us in with a camera. So it was a bit of a failure. No,

Lauren Alvarez (13:00)
Yeah, I was like, there's no way they were letting you in with a camera.

Mike Platco (13:03)
Well, one thing I learned from MythBusters is that failure is always an option. And that failure turned out to be a great learning experience because instead of going into the store, we did go into the store, I bought a hat, I still have it, it became part of my brand identity for a long time. We sat down outside, kind of on the campus there and we just started talking. He's like, hey, man, you should do video. You need to be doing, these doodles are great and everything, but video is easy to start out on.

Lauren Alvarez (13:09)
Yes.

Mike Platco (13:32)
being super creative isn't, but he was doing these like vlogs and I'm doing these doodles and static stories with little bits. And he said, you could do this. This is the future. Don't be daunted by it. And so I dived in, I started creating longer form content. I started leveraging video, becoming a something of a, not just a doodler. That was very much the

Lauren Alvarez (13:40)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (13:59)
I was pigeonholed into that by a lot of the work that I was doing with brands. But being able to become more of a storyteller made me so immensely more valuable to a brand because, you know, Major League Soccer can reach out to me and say, Hey, can you doodle over these characters? But Disney can now reach out to me and say, Hey, we want you to tell an interactive story that goes through our parks to launch this account. Oh, and you can leverage your own account too. It just, it opened my eyes to what my real passion was.

Lauren Alvarez (14:03)
Mm.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (14:29)
where the most kind of profit was for this industry. And that's in video storytelling. And it's really what I'm most passionate about to this day, telling stories through video.

Lauren Alvarez (14:41)
I mean, that's incredible. And I mean, I would have to imagine that making video, although editing can be really time consuming as I've learned, but you know, I think that, you know, making a doodle, I mean, what was the average amount of time you'd spend on one Snapchat doodle story?

Mike Platco (14:57)
I've got arthritis to this day. No, I was, we are getting old. No, I would spend anywhere from an hour to six hours on one of these doodles. And if you remember the platform back there, it was glitchy. There wasn't, you couldn't really save. So it was a lot of screenshots and jailbreaking my phone to upload and reuse and continue a drawing. I did this.

Lauren Alvarez (14:59)
Yeah. Welcome to the club.

Ha ha

Mike Platco (15:25)
this one of myself as the cover of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, big nerd. I was so proud of it and I spent six hours on it. And it lasted for 10 seconds.

Lauren Alvarez (15:30)
I remember that.

Yeah, wow. Well, and that's the other thing too, is that it's like, it disappears after 24 hours and at that time you weren't able to save things in the same way. You weren't able to record your screen necessarily. So you were literally creating, spending.

a quarter of the amount of time that it would even be available for on that, which, you know, if we think about time as money, you know, it definitely can be really expensive. So I think Casey had a good point about video and, you know, short term, short form content rather and, you know, just being able to start telling those stories. So, I mean, what was the first gig that you can think about where you were like, Oh my God, they're going to pay me to make this like what was the first one for you that kind of was like, Oh, wow.

Mike Platco (16:20)
So the first real gig that I ever got, I was being paid in pizza by Grubhub. This is very early days. They launched an account. They were like, we connected on Snapchat. They said, hey, will you make doodles for us? We'll pay you in Grubhub gift cards. And I was like, okay, for sure. Absolutely. And I thought that was really exciting and it was invigorating because it was a bit of a case study.

Lauren Alvarez (16:40)
Ha ha ha!

Yeah.

Mike Platco (16:49)
Like, hey, look, brands, look what I can do. Look what, not what I can do. Look what brands can do on Snapchat and that. And look, Hey, and I look at my Tumblr of all of the work that I've done because it has to live there because it's gone on my account. Um, so that was game changing. And ultimately, uh, about half a year later, I circled back and I started working full time at Grubhub as a social media content producer and community manager.

Lauren Alvarez (16:49)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

and I can help you do it.

Mm. Yeah.

Mike Platco (17:19)
which was a career pivot for me. But that directly led to Disney, Walt Disney World, specifically Walt Disney World. They reached out to me and they said, hey, we want to launch a Snapchat account. We have an event going. And this was right when Stories launched. It used to be, you could only directly send Snapchats to one person and they would view it and they could screenshot it, but it was gone.

Stories launched, there was this 24 hour, this extension of the ephemeral content, and they said, hey, we want you to come launch our account, spend 24 hours straight in Disney World in tandem with this overnight event, and we'll fly you and your family down, and you can stay in a hotel, and we'll pay you, and you have the run of the park. And I'm a huge Disney nerd. So this absolutely blew my mind, and...

Lauren Alvarez (18:07)
That's awesome.

Mike Platco (18:17)
I got some really great advice from the partners down there that I worked with Disney because it was early days in content creation and being a creator and an influencer. And I said, hey, this is great. How do you know, what is the future of this? And they said, if you want to work for brands like Disney, make sure your content aligns with our values.

because if you're gonna talk about more adult stuff, brands like this won't necessarily reach out to you because there isn't an audience alignment. So be the creator that brands want to work with because they can align themselves with you and therefore your audience can align with their audience. And I took that to heart. I kept my content lighthearted, nerdy, deep in the Disney doodles and I...

Lauren Alvarez (18:51)
Mm-hmm.

I'm sorry.

Mike Platco (19:15)
was able to really leverage a long lasting relationship with the Walt Disney Company to work on many more of their accounts for the parks and for free form. I was the face of the Pretty Little Liars Snapchat account. That was crazy. And it was, you know, some of these lessons that I got early on in my career were just

Lauren Alvarez (19:31)
I saw that. That's really cool. Ha ha ha.

Mike Platco (19:41)
kind of like that art teacher, that he gave me the right guidance at the right time. And I was able to take that to heart and really grow my creativity, my fulfillment and my value as a creator and influencer.

Lauren Alvarez (19:57)
That's amazing. I mean, you're so just naturally energetic. You're very optimistic. Can you share a time maybe where that wasn't coming as easily for you or so naturally for you? Because I especially can imagine if you're the face of your own brand and your brand is optimistic, it's lighthearted and you're having a bad personal week. How do you find the balance there? And can you even share maybe a time where that happened?

Mike Platco (20:26)
So I absolutely can. And it wasn't necessarily one specific time. There were plenty of days that I just had to plaster on a game face and go create content, which sometimes isn't that fun. I went to Coachella three times and I only saw like two bands perform because I was taking pictures and then desperately trying to find wifi so that I could hunker down with a scarf around my face and just doodle over these chats. So some of these gigs, they weren't super exciting, even though the content.

Lauren Alvarez (20:42)
That's awful.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (20:55)
made it seem that way. But you know, things got really, really busy. And I was doing brand gigs every week, Coca Cola, T-Mobile, Toyota, flying all over the place. And I started to get really run down and the you know, it was great for my we were growing our family, the money was fine. It was, you know, fulfilling to an extent, but I really got tired of being on.

Lauren Alvarez (21:15)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Platco (21:24)
all the time and you know me, I am an energetic, happy-go-lucky guy and coffee helps with that. But no amount of coffee could really make me satisfied with that being an influencer element. And you know, it took a while for me to realize that it was the influencer stuff, the being on, my camera being on, the having to like,

Lauren Alvarez (21:27)
Yes.

Yes it does.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (21:53)
kind of not hide my children from my content, but be cognizant of oversharing. We didn't share my kids' names on social media for years. And it just became harder to be a personality, especially on these platforms that I'm 10 years older than the standard demographic. And I decided ultimately that what I loved about what I was doing was creating.

Lauren Alvarez (21:59)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (22:23)
not necessarily being an influencer and being a personality. And that's when I pivoted. I decided I'm gonna take a step back from exclusively doing influencer work. And I really want to leverage what I've learned about social media content and strategy and digital marketing and really kind of storytelling to empower brands. I started to do a lot more speaking engagements. I started working with brands to Amazon.

Lauren Alvarez (22:28)
Mm.

Mike Platco (22:50)
uh, flew me out to speak to their social media team, to help empower them to become storytellers for this short form content. And I started to work on passion projects that were, I remade all, I started remaking movies on different social media platforms, just as a thing that I wanted to do and focusing more on the strategy, kind of launching my agency and being more of a, a strategist.

than an influencer was really what it allowed me to get back to being fulfilled in what I was doing as opposed to just being on and selling products.

Lauren Alvarez (23:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I appreciate the vulnerability there because I think there is a big misconception of, you know, when you're an influencer, when you're in front of the camera, that it's fun, that it's easy, that it's fancy, that you're getting flown everywhere. And there is also a tax that comes with that is a real drain on your energy. I mean, you were in the early days of, you know, having young kids, having a family, that can really take away a lot. And, you know, there's a lot of magic happening in your home when all that stuff is happening too. So to...

Mike Platco (24:00)
Yeah.

Lauren Alvarez (24:00)
be away from it. There's also a price that you're paying for that. And it's like, you could be making a lot of money, but is it worth it to step away? I mean, when you made that decision, how did you sort of, and I'm asking this from the perspective of, we have a lot of listeners who are wanting to, you know, pivot maybe back inward. They've kind of gone a little too outward. They feel a little overexposed. They feel like, wow, I've really kind of overextended myself. So when you were making that movement of kind of...

Mike Platco (24:08)
Yeah.

Lauren Alvarez (24:29)
looking inward, seeing what you needed. How did you articulate that to maybe clients or partners or collaborators who were eager to work with you and they just weren't aligned with what you wanted to do anymore?

Mike Platco (24:40)
So in making the decision, just not make as much influencer-centric content. You know, an influencer makes a lot of content that's just them. It's not for a brand. It's not endorsements. It's not an ad. It's just the type of content that they are making. And regardless of what you're getting paid to make, when you take a step back from making that content and start focusing on other content, brands take notice. Um, your numbers dip a little bit.

you maybe start to lose followers. And when that becomes less of a priority for you, it kind of naturally tends to be something that is less sought after. I still get influencer opportunities sent my way and yes, sometimes I'll do them, but more often than not, I'll take a pause just because it's not, A, Snapchat isn't as big of a platform for creators like me as it used to and my numbers don't necessarily, they are not indicative of someone who is trying to be an influencer.

Lauren Alvarez (25:09)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (25:37)
So the pay isn't, and therefore it's not worth it as much for me, but I had all these great relationships with big brands and I'm an energetic person. I try to make friends with the folks in these agencies and because that's just what I want to do and I'm eager to learn and often they are too. So I have these great, this kind of catalog of colleagues that I was able to really just honestly position and say, Hey, we have worked together for.

Lauren Alvarez (25:38)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (26:07)
six or seven different projects and I've absolutely loved it. I'm seeing an opportunity to empower your team. And I would love to have a discussion about leveraging what I have learned working for you and other brands in empowering your team and educating them. If that means doing a seminar, if that means creating, working with them to create documents, fantastic. Let's explore that option. I didn't necessarily know exactly what my capacities were, what my offerings would be.

Lauren Alvarez (26:34)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (26:35)
But in having those candid conversations with business professionals that I had a relationship with, I was able to develop that kind of set of skills and relaunch my website, come up with a pitch deck and really pivot.

Lauren Alvarez (26:47)
I love that. I mean, I think that, you know, it sounds like you have a lot of learnings from taking on new things and also from saying no. And I think there's a lot of power in saying no. I think that it can be a really good litmus for where we are. And I often, you know, end up coaching people on that. I would say it's like one of the top three things I coach people on is like putting up boundaries, saying no to things. And then it makes space for the stuff.

that you're more inclined to do or you're interested or you're eager to say, you know, let me just give that like one little go around. I'm curious. Then it gives you space for that iteration versus being maxed out, which like nobody's at their best when, you know, as they say, you can't pour from an empty cup, right? I think that that's like a big one. I mean, if you were going to

Mike Platco (27:26)
It is.

Lauren Alvarez (27:29)
Collaborate with a brand like who would be your dream partner? I'm just curious like to collaborate with and maybe I mean it is the new Year, we could be manifesting something, but what would that what would that be for you?

Mike Platco (27:41)
You know, I have come, my career has taken such an interesting journey from wanting to teach to walking away from it, wanting to be creative, doing sales and recruiting, and then influencer and creator and strategist. And most recently, what I'm doing is, it's internal stuff. This, I...

The most valuable stories that I've been able to contribute to have not necessarily been the marketing centric ones. The buy Coca-Cola, it's delicious. What it's been is, hey, this company is doing good in the world. We treat our employees right. This is what it's like to work here, come work here. Or that's the employer branding. Making what's happening inside of a company apparent.

Lauren Alvarez (28:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mike Platco (28:37)
across different platforms to folks who want to come and work there. And then also helping facilitate communications internally there, which seems like a complete one 80, but I really am enjoying the work that I'm doing with internal communications, employee engagement, which really, it stems from that, that passion for storytelling and being creative. Um, but it's to a much smaller cohort, but a cohort that is invested in.

Lauren Alvarez (28:47)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (29:05)
these outcomes and what this company is doing. This is so nerdy, but one of my favorite things to do, Lauren, I love writing newsletters. I don't know why, it's just, you can be a little bit, I just like being able to take information and put it in the most, and understand it, and put it in the most digestible form possible, and then give it to the people who, not the people who might like it, but the people who need it.

Lauren Alvarez (29:17)
That's amazing.

Mike Platco (29:34)
And it's bringing value as opposed to end entertainment, but as opposed to just a scroll. So honestly, are we manifesting? Are we manifesting right now? I would love to continue working with the Walt Disney Company. I think that, you know, I've been able to see kind of behind the curtain there. And what they do is,

Lauren Alvarez (29:45)
I think we are. I mean, I live in LA now. We manifest a lot out here.

Mike Platco (30:02)
I mean, I'm totally drinking the Kool-Aid. It's making magic. And companies like that, those entertainment adjacent companies. I love entertainment. I'm a huge movie person. I love that whole creative process, but the Netflix's, the Hulu, which is Disney now too. But those big entertainment companies, I would love to be able to help them tell their story, not necessarily from the marketing point of view, but from...

Lauren Alvarez (30:06)
Hmm.

Mike Platco (30:30)
engaging with employees and engaging with talent.

Lauren Alvarez (30:33)
That's really exciting. I mean, if we're speaking magic, like if you had a magic wand, what would you change about the way that most companies are approaching branded employer content today? Because I think that you're right. Like you touched on something, and I want to go back to it. There is kind of a lack of connection. And especially, so many companies have remote work environments, have places that we're coming from where you go to work by opening your laptop. You know, what is that environment? So what do you feel like would be, if you could make a sweeping

wave of the magic wand and change this for companies, what would be the first thing you'd change?

Mike Platco (31:08)
First thing, Lauren, we've known each other for 10 years. What makes you think I don't own multiple magic wands?

Lauren Alvarez (31:15)
I remember you had a wand on your desk. I'm actually, this is all coming back to me. Yes, you're right. You're right. So if you had one of your most powerful wands in your hand with a wave of it, what would you change, Mike?

Mike Platco (31:28)
I think that employers need to be leveraging, they need to be leveraging video more. And I was, I was, video is the most engaging form of content. You can post all the static imagery that you want. And I know it's harder to create video even though the applications that we have on our phone are amazing and they make things so much easier. And even things like Adobe Premiere Rush make things.

very, very easy compared to 10 or 15 years ago when you had to go on final cut. But leveraging video to tell the story of what your company is all about, what it's doing, how it's engaging with, what it's like to work there, the missions that they're accomplishing and kind of the goals that they're achieving, that's the biggest thing that brands can be doing. And it doesn't need to be the most polished content because having that real...

And people are very used to it this time across all audiences, absorbing rough content. Look at TikTok, look at Snapchat, even in the day of Vine, we have been programmed to look past the polish and see the reality, the humor, the personality, the, you know, the kind of the mission of this content. So if brands could just leverage video content more, I think they would be.

having so much more success in making them seem as cool as they actually are. And, you know, maybe that's, you know, I'm coming from a biased point of view. My first, you know, professional role at a company, internally doing internal communications, a company called Thrasio, was me coming right off of that. I'm a video producer, this is what I do. I do social media. And then I had the tools, the skillset to

Lauren Alvarez (32:57)
Hmm.

Mike Platco (33:19)
really shake things up there and we were able to build such an incredible culture internally and attract great talent by leveraging that social influencer content creator point of view and skill set in employer branding.

Lauren Alvarez (33:35)
I mean, that's incredible too when you think about, you know, how necessary that is. And I'm willing to bet that a lot of companies, I mean, most of the companies I work with and coach, they aren't, they don't have a Mike Platt Cohen house. They don't have somebody on their team who's able to do this. I mean, there is only one you unless you have a cloning machine along with those wands, who knows? You might. Hmm.

Mike Platco (33:56)
Hmm, I'm sensing a side hustle opportunity here.

Lauren Alvarez (34:01)
Yes, exactly. I mean, are there any companies that you think are doing it right? I mean, I know you mentioned Disney. I think that they have a lot going for them. They're obviously so gigantic. Is there other companies that come to mind when you're like, I like what they're doing, I'm into that content that people could look to if they're looking to sort of follow in your footsteps and do something similar? And they're like, hey, this could be a career for me. I could do this too.

Mike Platco (34:23)
I am enthralled with one specific company and they're Boston, they're a Boston native company I believe, Toast.

Lauren Alvarez (34:31)
This is a Boston focused podcast. I mean, in my

Mike Platco (34:34)
Okay, all right, good. so I was in LA for a while, and when I decided to make a pivot, we moved back here to Boston because we just, it was a little bit more comfortable. So there's a company out here called Toast. They do the restaurant transactions, just so much for the restaurant industry.

Lauren Alvarez (34:49)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (34:54)
And there's a couple things that they are doing really, really well. So much so that I've had multiple comments, I'm like, Hey, can we, let's have a chat. Let's, I really love what you're doing. Or are you maybe hiring? Let's see what's going on. Um, they are embracing a silly, goofy personality in, on these employer branding networks. So they have, they have these life at toast Instagram account and their, their LinkedIn account is full, full.

Lauren Alvarez (35:06)
Hehehehe

I love that.

Mike Platco (35:24)
of wordplay and puns. If you look at one of their job descriptions, they don't call it a role, R-O-L-E, they're all R-O-L-Ls. They call their room. Exactly, so yeah, are you ready to come make some dough? Come be a toaster. Apply for this role. It's just, it tickles me. It tickles me to see. And I'm not the only one. They are growing so fast. And it's in part because they are really attracting talent that is...

Lauren Alvarez (35:32)
Oh, because toast bread. Got it. Yep.

Yes.

I love that.

Mike Platco (35:53)
in line with what their kind of employee, you know, they, they want fun and energetic people. And so they're attracting those people. So that is just one of the things they're doing. They're leveraging separate accounts. They're a big enough company to have, here's toast. Here's our marketing Instagram for toast. But then here is life at toast. And Hulu does a great job with this too. And so, so does Disney, these, these cast member stories, these life at Hulu, the Hooligans account, things like that.

Lauren Alvarez (36:15)
Hmm

Mike Platco (36:23)
where someone, probably a team of people honestly, is from a social media point of view, making content that is, shows you what it's like to be there. Yes, it's checking off the boxes, or here are the benefits of working here. Here are, you know, our, how we reward our employees, and we're a remote hybrid workplace. So it's getting all of that across also, but it's also showing it's fun to work here. Here is what we do. Here is how we value our employees.

And that is just, there are so many stories that even companies that might be kind of struggling from a cultural point of view, there are so many stories that they could be telling if they just had someone internally that they could dedicate and have the confidence to create that content and leverage it.

Lauren Alvarez (37:10)
I love that. I mean, yeah, when I spoke with Abby Mills, you know, last month, and, you know, she talked a lot about how it should be really fun. You know, work should be fun. And she's a believer in that. I think you're a believer in that. I'm a believer in that. It doesn't have to be a drag. I mean, think about the percentage of our life that we spend working. We should be having fun. And we also should feel proud of working in a fun environment. I mean, as I mentioned earlier, like Creative Circle was pretty serious, you know, work when we were working, but we also had...

I mean, we had Thursday dance parties. I remember this. Like, it can be fun, but can you imagine if that was part of the employer brand and we're like, come join our Thursday dance parties? I think we would have had some cool people applying or not, depending on whose dance moves were shown. But, you know, I think, I think that there is a lot of really good space for this. And I'm curious, too, like when you think about like what someone could do who wants to expand or improve their footprint as a brand, you know, as a company.

Mike Platco (37:47)
Yes!

Lauren Alvarez (38:06)
you're saying right there to incorporate video storytelling, to bring people into these positions. And I think you're also like, don't be so self-serious. Is that sort of thematically what you're saying?

Mike Platco (38:16)
Yes, absolutely. Don't take yourself too seriously. You know, I've had, I've had experience working with folks at the executive level who were not comfortable on camera, who it is difficult to get them to open up. And if they're going to, and I always advise considering this strategy, making your leadership something of a personality, making them an influencer in your industry for your company. Um, if you know, that's not something you should consider. If you can't,

Lauren Alvarez (38:39)
Mmm.

Mike Platco (38:46)
have executive leadership, there's not kind of someone that can advocate through their actions and be a personality. But I've also worked with folks who, um, the leadership when I was at Thrasio, they did something which was so incredible and they opened up and they took my direction and they, they acted for me. We created content that was fun and they got into it. They loved making it and they became

Lauren Alvarez (38:51)
Yeah.

I love that.

Mike Platco (39:14)
it was kind of something of the face and a personality that you would see on social, but also internally. It was some of the most rewarding work that I've done, being able to turn the president of a company into an influencer internally and to not take themselves too seriously and to be self-deprecating and to make jokes at their own expense because it gets buy-in. If you can get buy-in from the personalities at a company, then you're going to be more inclined to get buy-in for that company itself.

Lauren Alvarez (39:36)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (39:43)
So if there is someone there in the leadership or even just folks that you can, you know, advocates that you can turn into personalities across social or internally, leverage them because that is so valuable and it's not necessarily an easy to find thing in leadership.

Lauren Alvarez (39:53)
Mmm.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's really incredible. I'm curious, like have you spent time, or worked with brands and you've spent a lot of time creating something that maybe didn't pan out? Because there's a lot of goodness that comes from this. And I think that sometimes we put a lot of time and energy into.

plans are into, you know, launching a program and then it falls, falls flat. Can you share anything like this? And if so, like how you might have dealt with that? Just, I mean, there's disappointment because it's personal. Like, how could you not care so deeply about the work that you're doing?

Mike Platco (40:37)
you know, one of the first projects that I worked on, a big project that I worked on was with was with Freeform. I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but they reached out to me through our Disney connections and said, hey, we want to do something related to the Pretty Little Liars show on Snapchat. What do you have in mind? We have this influencer that.

is massive, is big, and we want to leverage them. We'd like to use you for a creative direction point of view. And we workshopped it. We wrote out scripts. There was weeks and weeks of developing this idea, which we got the buy-in for. And it was days before launch, and we had to drop the influencer. I forget what had happened, but they became unavailable. And so...

Lauren Alvarez (41:24)
Hmm.

Mike Platco (41:28)
we didn't have the buy-in that was going to push people to the account. And then at that point, it's, is this worth it anymore? Are we going to do this? And I was devastated because it was to date the biggest project I'd ever worked on. It was, even though I didn't necessarily watch every single episode of Pretty Little Liars, I understood the gravity of it and I knew that it had such massive potential. And so we...

It was, it was potentially going to be dropped. And I was working through an agency and I said, Hey, I have an idea for how we can pivot. It won't affect, you know, it won't affect budget. It's just going to be me. I can make this content and have it be what we turned it into was more of an after show. And I was, you know, I would be the host of it. I would create the content. I would watch the episodes. I would react to them in real time.

This was right when after shows were becoming big. This wasn't necessarily an after show. It was a during show. During the commercial breaks on Snapchat, we would react to that content in real time. And it was a really interesting idea. We had the technology to make it work, which wasn't widespread at that time, but we still were missing one piece. And it was, how are we going to get people, the Disney account, the Freeform account, the Pretty Little Liars Instagram account can draw here, but you lose.

Lauren Alvarez (42:30)
Hmm.

Mike Platco (42:54)
the barrier of entry from going from one platform to another is just massive. Who on Snapchat are we going to get to push to this account? And it was at a time where I had been doing all of these collaborations and I had this list of people that, you know, they weren't massive influencers at the time, some of them absolutely became, but I was able to approach a dozen of them and say, Hey, this is a really good idea. Here's the budget.

Lauren Alvarez (42:59)
That's right.

Mike Platco (43:21)
Would you be interested in doing one story to help us kick off this thing? I think it could be massive. And we got the buy-in. We had five, I think maybe like eight different influencers that were just on Snapchat, pushed to the account. Within six months, it was the largest branded entertainment Snapchat account in the platform's history. And we lost the big influencer that had millions right off the bat. And we were able to pivot.

Lauren Alvarez (43:41)
That's incredible.

Mike Platco (43:49)
going from absolute heartbreak of, oh, I just lost a dream gig, to let's completely pivot, leverage my contacts, leverage the friends that I've made. And then it also was fantastic for me because at the time I wasn't necessarily an influencer. I was more of a creator that was just big on Snapchat. I became the face of the biggest account in the platform's history, which was great until I was shopping at the mall.

and 13 year old fans of the show would come up to me and say, are you M. Platko? Are you the PLL Snapchat guy? Incredibly embarrassing for my wife. She had to actually walk away. It was so embarrassing.

Lauren Alvarez (44:25)
Ha ha!

Oh my gosh, that's amazing. I mean, that is such a full circle moment too for you. You know, we keep coming back to that thematically, but like you're able to take something that, you know, is either on the cusp of or is falling apart and you're able to.

rewire it and make it something that's really authentic to you that is innovative. And it really shows like, I mean, you are, you know, one that cannot be crushed. I think that's definitely your resilience. And I know that resilience also comes from a place that's sometimes not as fun. So I appreciate that, you know, you've been able to like dust yourself off in those moments and be like, all right, let me regroup, reframe, and we're going to go for this. I mean, where does your support come from when you're making those, you know, bigger

bigger kind of adjustments, those pivots. I know you mentioned your wife a couple of times. It seems like you have like a really amazing relationship there. What can you share about those moments where you're like, cool, I want to put my head through my phone right now. Maybe she can pull you back.

Mike Platco (45:28)
So yes, she has on many, many occasions reeled me back from the brink of absolute just emotional devastation. She is the most supportive person in my life. And I mean, you've met her. She's just a she's a great gal. And I actually owe everything to her because I was doing these doodles. I had screenshots of them. Some of them were saved. I had like 30 of them.

Lauren Alvarez (45:37)
Yeah.

incredible.

Mike Platco (45:55)
and they were ridiculously intricate. And it was before there was such thing as a Snapchat influencer. And she said, share these, put them on, I don't know, make a Tumblr. And I did, and I went viral overnight. And without that stimulus, none of this would have happened. Without that stimulus, I'd probably still be working at Creative Circle. But no, not at all. So happy doing that. But...

Lauren Alvarez (46:18)
Also not a bad gig to be fair, but yeah. But you were destined for bigger things and she knew it.

Mike Platco (46:27)
I mean, she saw potential. She saw something that I wasn't necessarily seeing because I was just content doing my thing, making my cousin chuckle. But she said, no, this is funny. You're funny. I don't say it often, but this is funny. She won't laugh at my dad jokes now that we have kids, but she saw the potential in there and I put it all up on Tumblr. And that was just so invigorating and she's always been a support person.

Lauren Alvarez (46:47)
Yeah.

Mike Platco (46:56)
And some of my best ideas come from her. In fact, the biggest piece of content I have ever made, you've probably seen it, it became a whole meme. I did this whole Snapchat story of me coming home from work one day and there being a note on the door with a Nerf blaster and it said, I'm hiding somewhere in the house with another Nerf blaster, take this, may the odds be ever in your favor, loser cooks dinner. And I created this whole story, but the first frame of that story with

the image on the note and the door and the blaster, which so many people were devastated to learn that this was entirely fictional. This didn't really happen. Nope, it was a story that I created and she was like, yes, and. She yes, anded that story. She involved herself and it turned into this whole story, but that first frame went totally viral. If you watch the whole story, you know it's a setup. It's staged.

Lauren Alvarez (47:35)
Oh no, wait, I thought it was real.

Mike Platco (47:55)
But that first frame, which neither of us are even in, it went viral, it hashtagged relationship goals, it blew up. My phone broke because I had notifications turned on Tumblr when that happened. And it was the biggest piece of content I've ever made. And it was, you know, we came up with that together and she was the star of it really. So she's been the most supportive person in my life, hands down. And she's given me the three, I mean.

three amazing kids who inspire me every single day. And I am certainly a better dad because I have this creative outlet and I'm able to be goofy and create with them. And also I think that in situations where things, they come kind of crashing down, that anxiety and that stress, it kind of motivates me more and I work best.

under pressure. It's why I'll wait till the very last second of the night to do the dishes and clean the whole kitchen before I go to bed because I need to go to bed before a certain time where I won't get my sleep. It's this, this just when the pressure is on, I do my best work. And for the 90% of the time, maybe I'm, you know, putting something off, but that last when it comes down to the wires, when I'm able to be most creative. And fortunately, that served me well in instances where I needed to pivot.

to keep something alive.

Lauren Alvarez (49:25)
I love that. I mean, Danny Meyer's, you know, amazing restauranter has this philosophy of constant gentle pressure. And I always describe that as like the way I operate best is like, I'd like to know that there's something looming over me if I don't keep moving, you know, and I think that that's a, it's a good way of getting stuff done. It's a good way of accomplishing those goals. I think that's like a really remarkable, you know, way to move through it. I'll also say that I think it's really cool that your wife is like open to sometimes when you're a funny person.

and someone tells you you're funny, it can really just egg you on into nuclear territory. But I love that she rolls the dice with telling you that you're funny, because it can go both ways, but it sounds like it's a good motivator as well.

Mike Platco (50:07)
Oh no, it's backfired so terribly on her. She doesn't laugh at my jokes, so I have to start like following Instagram accounts that have worse jokes than mine to then regurgitate to her. And I'm actually, I don't even go for laughs anymore with her, I go for cringes. If I can get a good cringe, if she'll walk away sighing, I have, I've done it. That's peak humor for me.

Lauren Alvarez (50:08)
Oh

Oh God.

I love that. I mean, you know, knowing that we have limited time together, I do want to know like some of the things that you're pursuing now, like what goals are you pursuing? What are you most excited about? We are at the start of the year, so I'd love for you to like hype us up with that positivity. Like what are you going to crush 2024 besides the dad jokes?

Mike Platco (50:49)
I am, oh no, they're never gonna stop, never. No, I'm excited to go into this year and to really just continue to kind of grow my business of helping companies tell their story, to bring in talent, to engage, to entertain, to excite, to educate, whether that's, you know, I work with companies, you know, to...

coach their internal teams to create content for their internal teams, to create content for external, for the talent acquisition, the internal communications. And I'm just excited to keep growing that business and working with more of those brands that I can really align with because people talk so much about what their dream job is. I don't have one dream gig, one dream job.

I just want to be able to align what I can provide with a company or a brand or even just a person that I can get behind, that I can vibe with on a company basis, on a content basis. I want to keep working with those brands and empowering them, bringing something to the table. I'm at a point in my life where I can work with companies that I really align with most.

And I'm just excited to do that. You know, this is something full of these full circle moments, but at Creative Circle, you know, telling folks that like, if you find a gig doing what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. And I've said it so many times, and now I'm at this point in my life where it doesn't feel like I'm working. I'm not on all the time. I can save that for my family to make my wife cringe and make my kids giggle.

Lauren Alvarez (52:31)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Platco (52:46)
And I can really just be passionate and driven about creating that content and doing that work and helping folks that I can really, it makes it feel like I'm actually contributing something to something that I can appreciate.

Lauren Alvarez (53:02)
That's, I mean, it's honestly such an incredible vantage point to have. And I think that it is really incredible to also have, you know, kind of seen what it's like to go, you know, up to like the top of, you know, okay, I'm an influencer. I'm in front of it. And to like, I actually don't like this. And I think it's a lot bolder to walk.

back to where you feel that you're able to contribute on a level that means something to you versus doing everything for everybody else. And I think that saving that for the people at home, you know, your folks, they're going to appreciate it much longer than something disappearing in 24 hours. You know, it's just that's just what it is ultimately. I mean, like, where can people go to learn more about you and the work that you do? They want to work with you. Where are they going to go? We can link it in the show notes, but you got to tell us.

Mike Platco (53:49)
Yeah, no, my website is Mikeplatko.com, M-I- And if you, I did a whole TED Talk about my story, about how being a creator and influencer of social media made me a better parent. We can drop a link to that, but you know, add me on Instagram, connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm sharing my stories everywhere.

Lauren Alvarez (54:12)
I love that.

That's amazing. I mean, what is one final thought you want to leave our listeners with today?

Mike Platco (54:21)
I encourage listeners to tell their own story regardless of whether or not it necessarily gets virality. I was able to catch lightning in a bottle a couple times, have some stuff go viral and I was able to leverage it. But if you're trying to do that, it's not going to happen. Just create the content that you want to create and don't be afraid to lift up those advocates.

at your brand or your company to let them create the content that really speaks to what you're all about.

Lauren Alvarez (54:57)
I love that so much. Mike, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been another episode of Don't Fuck This Up, the podcast answering the ultimate question, how the fuck did you land that cool job? I'm your host, Lauren Alvarez, and we will talk to you next week.