Q&A: Get to know Chief Creative Officer Mark Stone

In our third Q&A with our DS+CO leadership team, we sat down with Chief Creative Officer Mark Stone to ask the important questions.

From what inspired him to pursue his creative career and how he stays motivated to hobbies outside of work and his go-to coffee order.

Let’s dive in!

Mornings are for getting inspired. I look forward to streaming Matt Wilkinson’s show on Apple Music 1 while grabbing breakfast and reviewing and planning my day.

Once I’m at my computer, I always make time to explore. Being curious is the lifeblood of anyone who does creative work. It runs the gamut from art and design blogs to pop-culture websites to music, news, technology, business, what’s trending on different platforms, even interior and product design. It all has the ability to influence your work at some point.

The flow of my day is usually about 25% meetings and catching up with colleagues, 25% executive management and strategy work, and 50% collaborating, reviewing and advising on creative work.

Whenever possible, I try to have lunch at home with my wife and pups, Ellis and Higgins. It breaks up the day and makes me happy.

Sometimes we end up in a big pitch, presentation or working on a project with an accelerated timeline. Those days, anything goes and I’m A-OK with it. It’s never boring, and I love that.

My wife, Michaela, had already worked here for a year, and during that time, I got to meet Mike Schwabl and Lauren Dixon. Mike and I really hit it off and connected on a few things. Hockey, cars, renewable energy, creativity, etc. When an opportunity opened for the CCO job and I got a call from Lauren asking to talk, it was really a no-brainer. It proved to be exactly what I thought it would be. An opportunity to join an organization that was held in high regard throughout the community and to invest further in building our creative reputation. I’m so proud to tell people I work at DS+CO.

This is all about servant leadership and lifting other people up. It starts with helping to build a culture where creativity has the best chance to thrive. People doing this type of work are put in a pretty vulnerable position when sharing their ideas, design and copy, and when they are encouraged to push boundaries without fear or judgement, the work gets better.

We’re pretty good at empowering people and not micromanaging them. When they have the chance to own their work, you are surprised time and again by their creativity, innovation and in the way they show up. I’m usually thinking about how I can support them throughout the process. Sometimes they need a hand. Sometimes they just need a gut check and validation that they’re on to something special. At the end of the day, we’re all in this together and I want to do everything I can to be a reliable and inspiring teammate.

I’ve found that real growth rarely happens by staying in your comfort zone. When you put yourself in a situation where you start to feel uncomfortable or uncertain, you can bet you will learn and grow. It’s not always easy—and that’s the point.

Take a look around in the technology and marketing space right now. It’s truly an exciting and sometimes even intimidating time to be doing this type of work. That challenges and energizes me as much as I’ve ever been throughout my career.

AI allows us to do things we never thought would be possible. It’s speeding up the creative process, allowing us to more easily illustrate ideas and concepts, and helping with the more mundane tasks, which free us up for more creative thinking. The opportunity is to stay committed to creativity and use technology to take it to new places.

I have a strong belief that as long as you stay curious and driven and are running toward change instead of from it, you can contribute great things. If you can’t be motivated by that opportunity, I don’t know what will get you going.

To stay driven and keep developing my skills so I provide what the agency needs from the CCO role. As soon as I become unmotivated to learn or become close-minded about something new that could benefit the work, it’ll be time to do something else.

I very much dislike onions, mayo and doing math. I very much like watching as many sports as possible and doing anything I can to help the environment.

My very first day as an intern at JWT Detroit, I thought I was done for the day and headed out when a creative director came out of nowhere and asked a couple of us if we could stay and help concept ideas for a Ford truck commercial. At the time, I didn’t realize how making myself available to help on short notice would begin to elevate me with leadership, but looking back now, it’s clear. It was about extra effort, but that also created the stage for me to showcase my skills and abilities to people who could help me grow in my career.

Seeing our work make a difference in some way. Whether that be an invitation to a gala that helps raise money for a hospital, or a video that helps generate scholarships for students in need, or when one of our clients gives us an assignment to showcase how they’re working to remove plastic from our oceans. It’s all meaningful and brings more purpose to the job.

Anything that involves art. I was surrounded by items that inspired creativity, whether it be LEGOs or art supplies like markers, crayons and painting. I didn’t fully grasp the opportunity of building a career as a professional creative until later in high school, when I took a lot of art and design classes and started to get the picture.

Take a breath and relax. Expect the unexpected. The highs are invigorating. The lows can be crushing. Both can come in the span of 24 hours. At the end of the day, we’re using our talent, skills and experience to help our clients meet their objectives. There are many ways to accomplish that, and it’s often the ambiguity and project pivots that stress people out. Enjoy the journey and do what you can to contribute something constructive every time you’re in the work.

Starbucks vanilla sweet cream cold brew, substitute the regular vanilla syrup for sugar free.

To buy a great Napa Cab and go to the bike store.

I’m a cyclist and my happy place is being on a trail with my mountain bike. Nature has the ability to boost your mood and promote thinking. I also spend a lot of time creating modern abstract paintings. I’m slightly obsessed with making our yard awesome. Michaela and I like to explore hiking spots and restaurants in the Finger Lakes. I’m regularly involved in equal parts chilling out and roughhouse play with Ellis and Higgins.