Out of Office is a new GeekWire series spotlighting members of the Seattle tech community about a passion or hobby they pursue outside of work.
Name: Mark Michael.
Day job: Co-founder and CEO of DevHub, a Seattle startup whose platform is used by big brands and/or their agencies to build websites and landing pages.
Out-of-office passion: Michael isn’t a big sports guy who fills time by watching football all weekend. He’s into fine arts and more. And right before the pandemic he started taking piano lessons.
After a while, his teacher insisted it was time for a recital because it was the best way to get better. So about three years ago he had his first recital in her back yard. The event featured 43-year-old Michael and a bunch of little kids.
“And when I played that concert and my two songs on piano, I’m telling you, I thought I was Elton John or Liberace,” Michael said. “It was 11 a.m. on a Saturday, I’m wearing a black tuxedo. My head was so big.”
He took singing lessons with the same teacher and recently hosted a performance for about 80 people in Seattle.
“Horrible, horrible, horrible,” he said of his singing. “Except the audience kind of liked it, because they couldn’t tell if it was real. Something was weird there.”
On Sept. 26 he’s going to do it again, on the other side of the country in Kennebunkport, Maine, a vacation destination he grew to love with his wife. He calls the upcoming concert — to which he has seriously invited former President George W. Bush — a mix of Dean Martin and ’80s synth sounds.
Most rewarding aspect of this pursuit: Michael admits to feeling full of anxiety and being “insanely uncomfortable” during a performance, but pushing through feels like finishing a race or something else you’ve been working hard on.
“It’s a release of all the tension,” he said. “And once it’s done, that high, whatever you want to call it, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow.’”
The lessons he brings back to work: Michael said playing the piano creates a level of focus that serves him well at DevHub.
Getting ahead of himself can be an issue in his music. When he’s playing good, Michael gets overconfident and imagines that he’ll soon be selling out Madison Square Garden. Work brings everything back to reality, and helps him focus on “the thing.”
His music also fills a void on the weekends after a week full of tasks, projects and momentum at work.
“What am I going to do, work by myself through the weekend? Am I going to stalk people on LinkedIn?” he laughed. “At least [music] has some element of a different kind of brain to get me over until Monday. So I can start Monday like, ‘Yeah, all right, did that thing, now it’s back to this thing.’”
Do you have an out-of-office hobby or interesting side hustle that you’re passionate about that would make for a fun profile on GeekWire? Drop us a line: [email protected].
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