Strategy · Communications · Creative leadership
I help people and mission-driven organizations understand what they are trying to do, find the language for why it matters, and turn ambitious ideas into concrete movement.
Clear ideas. Human language. Real movement.
01 / The value
My strongest value is not one narrow technical specialty. It is the ability to understand people and systems, see connections, clarify complex ideas, create language that lands, and build the strategy that gets people moving.
I have done that as an entrepreneur, strategist, consultant, communicator, trainer, advocate, salesperson, community leader and creative maker. The settings change. The underlying work is remarkably consistent.
02 / Selected evidence
$200K+
Grew Michael Mapes Coaching from an early-stage practice to more than $200,000 in annual revenue within three years, supported by an email audience of approximately 5,000.
$100K
Secured approximately $100,000 in contracted gross advertising sales within six months at Nexstar Media Group / KCAU through consultative, story-led business development.
70+
Engineered individual outreach and paid campaigns that generated more than 70 tours for Amera Senior Living, helping the new community welcome its first 15 residents.
10K+
Advised entrepreneurs and first-time six- and seven-figure CEOs on client attraction, positioning, marketing strategy, package development and growth.
Also: approximately $20,000 in sales from the stage at a one-day event, an Amazon bestselling book, and a career spent helping good ideas become legible, magnetic and real.
03 / Selected work
I work across the whole arc: insight, positioning, language, experience, outreach and growth.
Concept, brand and platform development
Co-developed Women Who Risk with founder Teri Bybee, helping build the concept, website, social presence, email marketing and ongoing leadership content that turned an idea into a durable community.
Integrated launch and growth strategy
Combined positioning, targeted outreach, paid advertising, live events and a television commercial I wrote and produced to help launch a new senior living community on a shoestring budget.
Human-centered social strategy
Reframed institutional content around actual human stories, increasing typical post engagement from roughly 1–2 likes to an average of 15 or more, with some posts reaching substantially higher.
Local growth and revenue development
Helped increase foot traffic and expand revenue opportunities by developing additional offers, partnerships and practical new revenue streams.
04 / How I work
Find the lived reality beneath the brief, the habit or the institutional language.
Locate the throughline, sharpen the stakes and create language people can carry.
Turn insight into a message, campaign, offer, experience, partnership or next move.
Help the right people understand, care, decide, participate, buy or belong.
05 / An emerging body of work
MICHAEL MAKES
Michael Makes uses story, psychology, humor and art to explore how we become more alive, more honest and more human together.
It is taking shape through poetry, musicals, songs, comedy, essays, chosen family, sexuality, liberation, advocacy and creative experimentation with AI. It is not a finished business model. It is a body of work becoming visible.
Currently: listening, making, testing