Mike Davis is managing director at Brilliant Agency, a Leeds-based social-first creative agency.
Davis has been MD of Brilliant Agency for over a decade, helping to grow the company into one of the leading creative agencies for food and drink brands working with the likes of Fox’s Biscuits, Thorntons, Saint Agur, SPAM and SKIPPY Peanut Butter.
Alongside his role at Brilliant, he is also a founding member of sustainable design agency, Five Creative, and a non-executive director for Rethink Food, where he works to improve food education for primary school children across the UK.
From lucky breaks to failures, he shares all the lessons he’s learnt…
Which single daily habit or practice could you not do without?
Not high on anyone’s list of the most enjoyable things but I’d have to say a cold shower. I swear by them, even in winter. It resets the mind and wakes up the body.
What’s been your luckiest break?
Meeting my wife – Laurra.
Sounds very sentimental, but it’s absolutely true. I wouldn’t even want to guess what my personal and professional life would look like had I not met her!
What’s your best failure?
My music career. Before Brilliant came along I was a music producer and despite some successes I can look back on fondly, it ultimately didn’t work out.
It’s my best failure because it ended with me getting into marketing and I can now focus on my love of music without having to try to earn a living from it!
What is the best investment you’ve ever made, either financial or time?
After quitting the music industry, I totally committed myself to learning how to build and run a business. I invested what little money I had into training, learning and development, and business coaching and it’s ended up being worth every penny.
12 years later I now have two companies that generate multiple millions in revenue and I sit on the board of several companies. Thanks to the knowledge I invested in at the start of my business career, I’ve had opportunities come my way that I’m almost sure I would have missed, had I not invested in that knowledge.
Which podcast or book would you recommend others to read and why?
The book Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.
It teaches you to keep believing, learning, trying and teaching – even if it’s not the way that’s been done by others (all told through the story of a seagull!)
What one piece of advice would you give your 21-year-old self?
It doesn’t matter what other people think of you, what matters is that your values are sound and you try your best to live by them.
Who or what has had the single biggest influence on your working life?
My wife Laurra and my other business partners; Lynne (Brilliant), James, Sean and Ryan (Five Create) and Nathan and Kevin (Rethink Food).
They’re all a constant source of inspiration, creativity and knowledge, and their incredible work ethic influences my own.
Tell us something about you that would surprise people.
That I do gymnastics and calisthenics.
It’s not many people’s go-to form of exercise and I suppose I don’t look like someone who can pull off a triple somersault (and to be fair, I can’t.)
But I love the challenge of it – the sheer mental focus, strength and balance needed is more than a lot of people realise!
If there was one thing you could change about your career, what would it be and why?
There was a period years ago when I was running Brilliant when I was side tracked from my vision and belief for what the agency should be. I was told that the vision and “our way” was not standard practice and that it should be done differently. I’m not from an agency background and I believe you can learn so much from listening but you’ve got to be able to filter the BS from the gold.
In that moment, I chose to listen to that point of view which wasn’t aligned with my own vision and beliefs but was simply another person’s perspective. So whilst for them it was correct, for me it wasn’t. For me, not having an agency background has been an enormous strength, and at Brilliant we have an amazing team with varied backgrounds both in and out of agency.In retrospect, this was an important lesson to learn, so ultimately I’m grateful for it.
What does success look like to you?
Spending a balanced amount of time with my family and my work, and a healthy mixture of contentment, gratitude and happiness.
