Michael began as a U.S. Navy Rescue Swimmer, where staying present under extreme conditions was essential to safety and mission success. After the military he trained as an actor, earning a BA in Acting and Directing from DeSales University and an MFA in Acting from Rutgers University, where he worked directly with Sanford Meisner protégé William Esper. That training deepened his understanding of attunement, embodiment, and what becomes possible when people get out of their own way and connect meaningfully with others.

Michael carried that understanding into a successful career as a portrait photographer in New York City, where his work appeared in The New York Times and on Comedy Central. The studio taught him something acting school had begun. The most powerful thing you can do for another person is make them feel safe enough to be seen.

Ready for a change of pace, he was introduced through a mutual friend to the founders of the CIO Strategy Exchange. He spent the following decade behind closed doors with senior Chief Information Officers from Fortune 70 organizations and major public agencies. In those off-the-record rooms he saw a consistent truth. Innovation and trust do not emerge from politeness or impression management. They emerge when people feel safe enough to think out loud, name the real tension, and stay in contact.

Taking what he had learned at the CIO Strategy Exchange into the classroom, Michael developed and successfully piloted The Communication Dynamics Lab™ as a course for undergraduate students at the University of New Hampshire's Paul College of Business and Economics, where he has taught for five semesters.

He is currently completing his second Master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Northwestern University. In the role of therapist, Michael is a Relational Behaviorist. He believes the therapeutic relationship is the primary instrument of change, and that change is not real until it shows up in the client's life. The relationship makes new action possible. The action proves the relationship worked. That conviction is the through line across every room he works in, on camera, in the workshop, on stage, and in the chair. Today the work lives in two connected expressions of one core idea.

SoHo Creative Studio helps business owners and professional service firms build trust with their audiences through authentic video and podcast content. Because authentic connection is the fastest path to trust.

The Communication Dynamics Lab™ is a psychologically safe space to practice real human interaction. Athletes have the practice field. Actors have the rehearsal room. The Communication Dynamics Lab is the rehearsal space for real life, where individuals and teams build the confidence, clarity, and genuine human presence that high-stakes moments demand. The keynote version of this work, Drop the Act: The Power of Presence in a Performative World, is delivered at industry conferences, leadership offsites, and executive education programs.