When we think about creating a great product, a great brand, a great headline or design, or even building a great team, it can be easy to find ourselves overly stuck in systems, process and flows, forgetting that in the end, our work must create impact—and that getting there is a journey we should relish. With this, I bring a creative approach that elevates the journey to deliver powerful outcomes.
This mission isn’t just relegated to design: I bring an empathetic approach to everything that I do—from leading teams to getting my hands dirty with new designs. It is this unique approach that inspires people, builds fun and strong teams, delivers results, and executes at blistering speed. I partner with teams to ensure that design and brand are strategic differentiators in their initiatives and refine project scopes so teams can deliver exciting work. Well-thought creative solutions have a huge effect on everything—from conversions & ROI to trust. I bring my approach and combine it with tenacity, intuition, and a little secret sauce, that all play a big role in delivering great ideas to brands and people.
My approach to Collaboration & Leadership
“The best ideas must win.”
I am passionate about leading teams. I love working with every discipline of creatives from design to copy to video and even project management to help make their ideas come to life; coaching them to grow beyond their current selves, and shepherd a teams’ ideas to execution. I’m in love with team orchestration and creating things together that we wouldn’t have been able to do by ourselves. I believe, and am always actively work towards, enabling people to be their best and grow, while having a heck ton of fun in the process.
Steve Jobs' quote above has always resonated with me—and it is a core element to how I shape and build teams. I value a diversity of personalities, creatives styles, and ideas. I create space where opportunities for debate & critique can happen, and wrap it in an environment which teammates feel safe.
At the end of the day, the best ideas must win—anyone's.
About Mike
I leverage over 15 years of experience within the creative industry working with global brands focusing on design, creative direction, copy, project management, and brand building to drive outstanding marketing initiatives. As an expert in technical, conceptual, and design & brand development from concept to implementation, I can bring life to ideas that start at the whiteboard or on a napkin. I have led and managed a variety of teams ranging from copy writers, video editors, ux designers, graphic designers, project managers, photographers, and web developers, at startups and fortune companies.
I am passionate about stories and wrote, illustrated, and published my first children’s book for young girls.
TESTIMONIALS
I take great pride in building strong relationships. There is no replacement for those who you enjoy working with and who help you reach your goals. Here are a few who have shared their thoughts about working with me:
“I had the privilege of working with Mike on the launch of Seismic University. His creative design expertise and thought leadership in the design space was invaluable. Mike immediately made an impact with his attention to details and his relentless effort to create positive customer experiences. Mike is a natural leader, unites people, and knows how to maximize quality output from his resources. I greatly appreciated being able to lean on Mike for his advice and always found him to be insightful. He was a great partner to me on a highly visible and high profile project. I would definitely jump at the opportunity to work with him again!”
“I had the opportunity to work with Mike for 2+ years at Mendix. During that time we collaborated extensively on a number of creative projects including ongoing creative ideas for the corporate social media accounts. During our brainstorms, Mike always pushed the envelope by asking questions that helped to look at what we were working on from different perspectives. I appreciate the effort he put in to evaluate those perspectives to make sure we were always delivering high quality graphics that matched the audience we were trying to reach. Beyond our work related collaboration, we developed a great friendship. Mike always found humor in every situation and I valued his input and opinions. It made working together not only productive but a lot of fun.”
“Mike is a thoughtful, creative design professional who thoroughly involves himself in a project to arrive at the best outcome for the business. He worked with his colleagues and peers in a collaborative manner and took on a mentor role for new team members. Mike was responsible for several new initiatives for both B2B and B2C producing assets that had positive results for the business. In addition to all of this, Mike has a great attitude and sense of humor; truly a pleasure to have on the team.”
“I worked with Mike on a variety of projects during my time at Kaspersky Lab. Mike was always prepared when we met and brought new, fresh ideas to the table. Mike is more than just a graphic designer... he stays up to date on marketing and industry trends and always offers insightful suggestions.
Mike has a positive, can-do attitude. There is no project to big or too small for Mike and I always looked forward to working with him.”
“Michael has an impressive natural talent for visual design and the technical know-how to apply it to the web. He is both professional and fun to work with - a great asset to any team.”
“I worked with Mike for about 6 months at Mendix. In my role as a content marketer, I had the pleasure of collaborating with Mike on a lot of different projects, big and small. Mike is highly collaborative and transparent, great qualities you want in someone with whom you’re working on a creative endeavor.”
“Mike was great to work with at Kaspersky Lab. He is very creative and disciplined at helping to get the job done successfully and on time. He has an excellent ability to communicate and work with business owners to understand their requirements and turn them into designs and assets that met their business needs and goals. ”
“Mike designed several content-based campaigns for the Demand Generation team at Kaspersky. His approach of fully understanding the context and goal of each campaign led to many high-quality designs that engaged prospective customers. Additionally, as questions surfaced about anything from troubleshooting how an email or landing page is coded to the best layout of a new eBook, Mike was always willing to dive in and find the best answers.”
“I had the pleasure to work with Mike for one and a half years at Kaspersky Lab. Mike is extremely reliable and one of the best designers with whom I’ve worked. Mike is very easy to work with, and friendly personality. While working with him I witnessed his growth as a co-worker and friend. When I needed help he was more then able and eager to assist me. He brings many things to the table. His design skills, communication and openness to solving problems are all valuable traits. He is a true asset to any company.”
“I have had the pleasure of working with Mike on many high level projects on a daily basis. The quality of his work was always impeccable, his attitude and professionalism never waivered and he was always willing to help when needed. His positive attitude is great to have as a part of your team and his creative ideas would make any company proud to have him on board!”
“A great designer with a penchant for turning trash into treasure. Mike’s work always comes out with an extremely clean and professional ‘look and feel’, no matter how raw the initial input. Mike’s ability to design with conversion and ROI in mind makes him a pleasure to work with from a marketing perspective.”
“Mike is a wonderful person to have on your team. He’s bright, positive, encouraging, and is always bringing ideas to the table. Paired with his ability to illustrate, his web skills are top notch. He delivers every time and is eager to help anyone out at any time. He handles criticism professionally and is always looking for new ways to grow. I worked with Mike on a daily basis and I reached out to him because of his artistic freehand skills on a particular project. He helped me arrive at a solution that not only pleased the client, but our managers as well. I really enjoyed working with Mike and would recommend him to any team.”
“Since bringing Michael on board as the Lead Editor at Inspiredology we’ve seen a solid increase in both content and editorial quality. He constantly brings new and exciting ideas to the table in order to further progress the website and Inspiredology communtiy. To say he goes ‘above and beyond’ would be an understatement.”
“Mike has been a great addition to the Inspiredology team. We were confident in adding Mike to the team. He has shown a very high level of detail while being our Lead Editor. Mike has been a great source for new ideas and has added his own creative style to Inspiredology’s content. We are very excited to see where Mike can help drive our blog.”
“Michael has amazing talents and is very easy to work with. His creativity and eye for detail took our project to an entirely new level.”