Meet Michael Collins

We recently connected with Michael Collins and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?

From an early age, my parents always instilled a sense of making me feel like anything was possible. My mom made sure I tried as many different types of activities as possible — sports, music, reading, acting, etc. — so I would be able to experience a world of possibilities. I was terrible at most things I tried but my mom always said “the best is yet to come” and I’ve lived by that ever since. My teams will tell you that’s one of the things I say often and also I encourage my teams to focus on getting to “yes” in every situation.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a global marketing leader for B2B and B2C brands. I’m a brand champion and customer obsessed. I focus on accelerating profitable revenue growth and I do this by ensuring I am a magnet for the very best talent. My teams and I deliver B2B/B2C revenue growth and innovation at organizations across the financial services, technology and education sectors. We transform corporate and product brands, launch new products and services across global markets, leverage generative AI to improve customer and employee experiences and build high performing teams.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Looking back, three key skills I developed and that I typically employ regardless of the company or problem I’m trying to solve include:

1. Asking many questions … quickly. Typically I am in situations professionally and personally where decisions are needed quickly. I tend to ask many questions quickly to get as much information as there is available. My teams and I use the information at hand to make a decision and move on. Not that many decisions are so important that if you make a fast decision and it’s not exactly right that adjusting and continuing moving forward is a problem.

2. Working through my team leaders. I learned from a colleague the idea of “trust but verify” early on in my career. I try to do my best for my team leaders to understand the goals and expected outcomes and then trust them to execute and deliver on the goals in their own way. Along the way I check in to see how it’s going (the verify part) but leave it to them to use their talents which are often way better than my own to deliver against our goals.

3. Gratitude and thanking people. It’s quite on trend now to talk about gratitude. I’ve been expressing my personal gratitude and thanking my team members and others who I come in contact with on a regular basis. Everyone, including me, likes positive feedback.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

We all take too much onto our plates in our personal and professional lives. It’s easy to get to points in time where you feel overwhelmed and scared that you won’t be able to deliver and you will let family, friends and colleagues down. My strategy for dealing with this is pretty simple. I list out everything I need to get done across my major life dimensions. I prioritize that list and most of the time once I get it out of my head and onto a piece of paper I realize it’s all way more manageable than I realized.

• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/collinsmichaelj