Mikey Collard

Meet Mikey!

Mikey Collard is an award-winning public relations specialist with experience across a variety of verticals. As Executive Vice President of Earned Media, he is currently leading Method Communication’s earned media strategist program and working predominantly with tech-based clients, he has worked with the likes of Meta, Samsung, Xbox, TD Ameritrade, Deel, Guild, SurveyMonkey, Credit Karma, and Affirm, just to name a few.

Prior to joining Method Communications in October 2013, he was an account executive at leading entertainment agency Rogers & Cowan (now R&CPMK), working with clients such as the GRAMMY Awards, the Billboard Music Awards, the Daytime Emmy Awards, Logo TV, Kaskade, Skylar Grey and Paris Hilton. He earned a master’s degree in strategic public relations from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from the University of Utah.

 

Q: What was your first job out of college?

A: For my first job out of college, I took a non-traditional track – I was in a rock band, so I got a job as a retail manager at Abercrombie and Fitch to help pay the bills while I pursued music. It was one of those things where I thought to myself, “I’ll give it a shot and try it out for a year.” Then that turned into two years, then three years, then almost four years. It finally got to the point where I realized that I should probably get serious about a career that I was passionate about, so I decided to apply for and attend grad school at the University of Southern California.

 

Q: What is it about the Humanities that has helped you in your current role?

A: My degree in mass communication with an emphasis in journalism has really helped with my critical-thinking skills and my understanding of how a lot of things work, specifically how the media works, which is especially important right now as media illiteracy is a massive problem. Obviously, it’s my job – it’s what I do daily, so I have to know the ins and outs of the news media and how society consumes it, but a lot of foundational insights were picked up through my degree, not only in my humanities classes but also through my minor in sociology. I gained a lot of knowledge that has since translated into my current role and beyond.

 

Q: What is something you wish you’d known at the beginning of your college journey?

A: I felt there was a lot of pressure when starting college that I needed to have it all figured out. I felt like I needed to have a specific plan that included the exact college, degree, and career I wanted, but that just wasn’t the case. Obviously, it’s good to have some sense of what you want to do in the beginning, but I wish I had not felt as much pressure when starting college. It wasn’t until after my freshman year at Ithaca College and then a couple of years at the U on the journalism track that I realized that I was leaning more towards wanting to do public relations, which is in the same vein, but a different career trajectory.

All in all, I would say don’t stress out. If you’re going into college thinking that you need to know exactly what you want to do, know that college is there to help you figure it out. Try new classes around topics that excite you and join extracurricular groups that look interesting – maybe you’ll realize you want to do something completely different or do something similar but not quite the same. Don’t be too hard on yourself right now – you’re young and have plenty of time to figure things out. And even if you don’t have it figured out by the time you graduate, it’s not the end of the world. Especially in today’s world where many jobs of tomorrow don’t even exist yet, career growth often isn’t linear and we’re all learning as we go.

 

Q: What was something impactful during your time in college that you recommend, or was there something you wish you had done?

A: Internships are crucial because classroom learning is all theoretical, but applying it in the real world is a completely different experience. Understanding what you learned in the classroom, and translating it into actual things that people are doing is important. It’s very different getting that hands-on and practical real-world experience.

When I was in college, I had a few internships, including a promotions internship for a now-defunct TV station and a radio internship for X96. Those experiences were not quite what I expected. I imagined them being more glamorous, but they involved a lot of behind-the-scenes work I hadn’t considered.  Understanding what these jobs entail, including the unexpected skills they require, was eye-opening. Get as many internships as you can! That practical experience goes a long way.

 

Q: In what ways are the humanities relevant in today’s world? How were your courses relevant to what you currently do?

A: I had a lot of cool courses when I was at the U! A few of my favorite courses were–going back to the practical–a news-writing class and a broadcast journalism class where we got to create actual newscasts. The news writing class was taught by a science writer at the Tribune. He would give us real-world assignments by providing us with different materials and asking us to write a story. The material came from stories he wrote while at the Tribune. He would show us how he approached the story and would provide direction. It was a great course! I found the practical nature of what we were learning very helpful. The broadcast course allowed me to try different roles in a newsroom. One week you would be an anchor, the next you’d be a field reporter – it was a lot of fun. (I remember doing a story on how Facebook had just come to the U – I interviewed students on-camera around campus to get their thoughts and did an email interview with Facebook’s Chris Hughes. Good times.) 

Public relations is the flip side of journalism. In my current role, I focus on media relations, which involves communicating with reporters at outlets like The New York Times, Fortune, Business Insider, and The Wall Street Journal on a daily basis, and having that understanding of how their jobs work helps me do my job better.

 

Q: What is the best professional advice you’ve received so far?

1. “It’s PR, not the ER.” Or put another way by one of my former bosses: “We’re not f***ing curing cancer.” PR is a notoriously high-stress job. And so, when I’m feeling overwhelmed, it’s good to remind myself of these lines to help keep me grounded.
2. “It’s all about relationships.” In work and in life, making and nurturing relationships is how you get ahead. Especially earlier on in your career, you should be taking advantage of every opportunity to network and connect with people in your field and beyond. You never know where people are going to end up and the impact they could potentially have on you, your career, and your overall life.