Meet Scott Mallone of Los Angeles, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Mallone.

Hi Scott, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Since as early as I can remember, I loved being creative. I’d spend hours alone in my room building LEGO worlds straight out of my imagination. I grew up in a musical house. My dad played drums, my mom played piano and sang. I’m incredibly grateful for that heritage. It gave me the freedom to explore a world where creativity thrived and inspiration was the fuel. It wasn’t long before I picked up the guitar and formed a band with my buddies. We were terrible at first, but it didn’t matter. Music became my passion and probably kept me focused at a time when I could have easily drifted and lost my way.

Pain was also a very real part of my life. My mom was sick with cancer from as early as I can remember, and her illness hung heavy over our family. I’ll never forget sitting in a doctor’s office hearing him tell her she had less than a year to live. I was eight. I remember every detail. Music wasn’t just a passion. It became an outlet. A way to channel the fear, pain, and anger that defined so much of my teens and almost took me down in my early twenties.

She fought bravely for another eight years and passed away on a Friday morning in Arlington, TX. I remember my dad waking me up in his old burgundy robe, looking at me with a kind of emptiness, and all he could say was, “She’s gone.” It wasn’t a surprise. By then, hospice visits were part of daily life. Friends and family came by to say their goodbyes. She had shriveled down to 75 pounds but somehow never lost her sparkle. She had this way of making everyone else feel okay, even though I can’t imagine the pain she was enduring.

That night, I played in a basketball game thinking it might play out like some movie moment where I hit the winning three at the buzzer. It didn’t happen that way. I played terribly, and I honestly can’t remember if we won or lost.
The next few years were a blur as I tried to make it through high school. I numbed the pain by drinking, fighting, and making music. During the day I was a good kid; at night, Jekyll would come out. When the opportunity came to travel the world with a few friends and backpack through places we knew nothing about, I jumped at it. We started in Hawaii, then Fiji, living right on the beach in a youth hostel. Back then you could pull that off for pennies a day, and for a couple of 18-year-olds it was unreal.

We went on to New Zealand, hitchhiking from Auckland down to the tip of the South Island. It felt like another planet. Such a beautiful place. Then we settled in Australia and fell in love with the people, the surf, the culture, the whole vibe. They took us in and taught us how to surf, how to explore the outback, and maybe most importantly, how to embrace an outlook on life summed up best by the phrase “no worries.” For someone like me, someone who had been consumed by worry for so long, it was life-changing. For a while, I felt free.

Then we traveled to India, and my world was rocked. I had never seen anything like it. Everything was foreign. The people, the culture, the food, the rawness of it all. The poverty I witnessed on the streets hit me hard. It changed me. My problems suddenly felt tiny. We moved on to Thailand, riding Enduro bikes through the forest and seeing some of the most breathtaking temples imaginable.

I came home a different person. Arlington used to feel so big. Now it felt tiny. Everyone was the same, but I wasn’t. Re-entry was tough, but during that time my dad and I became closer than ever. For about a month, we were as close as two people could be. Then one Sunday morning, I watched him suffer a massive stroke. Once again I found myself in a doctor’s office hearing the grimmest news. This time I was nineteen, but it felt exactly like it had when I was eight. Within a year, he was gone. My sisters and I were suddenly orphans. It’s a strange word. I know I was technically an adult, but I didn’t feel like one.

I’m not sure why I’m telling all of this other than the fact that it’s my story, and it shaped who I am. And because all that pain needed an outlet, and I found that outlet again through creativity.

So I packed up everything I owned, told my Texas girlfriend I was leaving, and headed to California hoping to find peace in the warm sun and surf, and success as a rock and roll star. So cliché, right? My twelve-year-old would call it cringe, and he’d be right. But it’s the truth. And I’m not allowed to use that word anyway.

I got close to the rock and roll dream, I guess, but the real gift of that time was falling in love with design. Someone had to make the band posters, flyers, EPKs, and websites, so I taught myself Photoshop out of books. I really wish YouTube had existed back then, but somehow it worked. Eventually, I convinced an older friend to hire me as a junior designer. It took a lot of convincing. Who hires a kid with dyed black hair and black nail polish to be on a church web team? But he took a chance on me, and I was hooked. Within a year I was helping run the department. We were streaming video online at 28K per second. Horrible quality by today’s standards, but we didn’t know any better.

Fast forward a couple of years and the dot com boom hit. It was 1999 and investors were handing out a million dollars to anyone with a halfway decent idea. I was lucky enough to get my first startup funded. $1.5M dollars to launch an online record company. I genuinely thought I’d made it. And honestly, in some ways, I had. It was life-changing.
That is when my love for entrepreneurship was born. Creating something from nothing, riding the waves from the initial spark into the trough of sorrow to the pure exhilaration of seeing something you built come alive. I spent the next few years jumping into every startup opportunity I could. None of them would be considered major successes today, but I learned so much and loved every minute of it.

In August of 2012, I met Morgan Harris and Ashley Heron from HYFN, a scrappy, brilliant crew of engineers tucked inside an old theater in Hermosa Beach. Morgan was this charismatic force and Ashley the steady compass. “We surf when the waves are good. We work our asses off when it’s flat,” Morgan said. I was sold.

Over the next eight years, I built a world-class creative team from the ground up and helped Morgan and Ashley take the company from one million dollars in revenue to over one hundred million. We called it a pirate ship. Looking back, I don’t know if we understood how special it was. It was the single greatest professional experience of my life. The people were ridiculously smart, incredibly talented, and genuinely good humans. You had to bring your A-game every day. Iron sharpening iron. The culture was as real as blood.

And we made some cool stuff.

Who figures out how to connect an old arcade claw machine to the internet and tie it into a sweepstakes activation for Doritos and TMA called the Mix Arcade. Who gamifies the 2012 election with MTV, turning it into Fantasy Football for politics and somehow gets millennials to care at a time when apathy was the default.

Those years were magic. Big props to Morgan and Ashley for being our fearless leaders. Love to all my fellow hyfnites who made that time unforgettable.

Like all good things, HYFN eventually came to an end. We were acquired by a big media company that got acquired by another big media company. Pac Man style. You know how these stories play out. Corporate “synergies” can never compete with true culture. No hard feelings. I’m grateful for the ride and for the amazing people. Many of them I still call friends.

So where am I today? The ad game has changed. A lot. And I genuinely feel for the younger folks who will never know how electric it felt to be part of a great team doing great work and feeling like rock stars.

But I’m not sentimental. I’m good with change. We are living in the most dynamic era in human history, and that is exciting.

In 2023, a few old hyfnites and I launched a nimble agency called SHFT Labs. Me, Kim Howe, and Jason Jacquot founded it with help from none other than Morgan Harris. It feels good to be back with talented people navigating this wild new era of marketing.

We use our experience to help brands thrive. We are hands-on. We care deeply about results. And we are learning how to leverage AI to bridge the gap between the giant budgets and big teams of the past and the more nimble, results-driven work brands need today. We have helped Habitat for Humanity raise millions online supporting incredible causes through smart digital fundraising, helped launch the Brooklyn FC soccer team, partnered with the amazing AI startup Genspark alongside Alex Morrison’s Magnetic, and reinvented ecommerce for the iconic jewelry brand Sidney Garber.

And full circle, my love of entrepreneurship is burning brighter than ever. I’m working on bringing several new products to market. One in music, one for creators, and one aimed at transforming charitable giving.
That spark from years ago has never gone out. I’m using my twenty plus years of creative leadership to help startups build real brands, the kind of true moats that create emotional connection at a time when that matters more than ever.
In closing, I’d like to share a few parting thoughts.

If you are a creative person coming up in this digital age, do not worry. There is still a place for you. Treat AI like a tool, no different from Photoshop or After Effects, but understand that it can never replace that human spark. I don’t care how many people tell you differently.

If you are someone carrying a lot of pain, do not run from it or try to numb it. That is your superpower. Trust me. Tap into it. Harness it. It will be the fuel that guides your expression, whatever form that takes, and it will help you connect with others.

That is also something AI cannot create.

Peace and love, my friends.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Has it been a smooth road? No. But honestly, it’s not supposed to be. Anything great is forged in the fire. I’m not saying I’m great, but greatness is the bar I set for myself and for anyone I’m fortunate enough to lead.

I touched on a lot of my struggles earlier. I’ve dealt with deep depression, moments of really dark thoughts, and a long journey of learning how to turn pain into art instead of letting it destroy me. I also had to shed a version of myself that cared way too much about what people thought. That ego-driven guy eventually crashed and burned, and as painful as that was, it needed to happen. It made room for something better.

Struggles shape us. You can’t dig a seed out of the ground, crack it open, and expect it to grow. It needs pressure, darkness, and time. We are the same. We grow through challenge. Our society doesn’t like to say that part out loud, but it’s the truth.

Pick your favorite artist, athlete, or successful entrepreneur and look into their story. It will break your heart. Aretha Franklin. Ray Charles. Their stories were soul crushing, yet they weren’t crushed. Their struggles birthed their brilliance.

I’ve faced immeasurable loss and obstacles that could have taken me out. But I would not change any of it. I’m strong because of what I’ve been through. Resilient as ever. And every challenge became another layer of strength I still carry with me.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Great question. I’ve always been fascinated by what actually makes a brand. One day we’ve never heard of a company, and the next it’s part of our life. Why Google instead of any of the dozens of other search engines that existed at the same time? Why do some people swear by Mercedes while others will only drive BMW?

What creates that kind of loyalty? What makes us care? Watching that happen has always been unbelievably cool to me.

I’ve been fortunate to work with some incredible brands over the years. MGM Resorts, Frito-Lay, Toyota, GE, Ad Council, New Balance, and many more. Helping them tell their story, refine their voice, and build real emotional connection with their audience has been a privilege.

I’ve also helped build brands from the ground up, starting with a logo, a tagline, a set of values, and watching that spark turn into something real that people actually respond to. Seeing a brand you helped create resonate with an audience in a deep, meaningful way never gets old. It’s more than marketing. It’s something human.

That is my passion. It’s what drives me every day. I love creating, building, and strengthening brands, whether they are massive global companies or early-stage startups trying to find their footing. Helping a brand connect emotionally with people is where the magic is, and that’s the work I’m most proud of.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that it’s always about the people. It’s the human connection. Yes, you need a great product or service, but it’s the spark between people that actually creates loyalty and moves culture. That matters now more than ever, especially as we all chase the next shiny object and pretend it’s going to replace what makes us human.

I love AI. I use it every day. It’s an insanely powerful tool. But it’s still just that… a tool. The mistake is thinking it can replace the soul of what we do.

Humanize your marketing, no matter what platform or technology you’re using. AI, influencers, billboards, whatever. At the end of the day, your customer is just a regular person like you. How would you talk to them if they were standing right in front of you?

Be bold, be polished, be creative, but never lose the human connection. That’s the part that actually lasts.

Pricing:

• Project rate or hourly depending on project

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shftlabs.ai/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shftlabs/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmallone/