Media

Mike is managing director of Global Business Café and enjoys helping people with communication challenges (and suggestions for solutions) on television and radio shows along with live audience presentations.

Mike’s book series, Connecting with Key Decision Makers (How to Reach “Hard-to-Reach” Businesspeople Who Can Say “Yes”), illuminates how to reach decision makers by communicating in a way to be understood. The completely updated book in the series of Connecting  is coming mid-2025.

A graduate of Baylor University with a Marketing degree, Mike also earned an MBA from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with emphasis in Accounting. In his spare time, Mike participates in amateur radio (WA5SQD) and travels.

Questions Interviewers Can Ask

I like to keep the conversation “light” and fun so…

1. What’s one of the funniest methods you’ve seen from someone trying to communicate with a decision maker? (I have several funny stories to share, but this is one story that stands out.)

One man who was having problems reaching senior-level executives for a product presentation came up with the idea of sending a wedding invitation to each person “inviting” them to meet for no longer than 20 minutes for a sales presentation.

When this man started to follow-up on the notes he mailed, he was getting these kinds of responses… “I’m sorry, but my boss will be unable to come to your wedding.” “Do I know you?”  “Where are you registered (for wedding gifts)?”

Needless to say, this “wedding invitation” idea did not work, but funny, nonetheless.

2. What are some of the differences in the way different generations communicate today?

The younger generation is married to their phone. I’ve observed that people, usually over 40, aren’t as glued to their phone and prefer a more personable approach to communication.  I see a shift today in the younger generation of businesspeople, though, relying less on their phone than in previous years.

Another difference in the generations is often how the younger generation dresses for business compared with the more seasoned businessperson. Younger businesspeople are often quite casual, and the seasoned businesspeople usually go from golf course attire to business suits.

3. What attracted you to pursue a career in the communication field?

When I was younger, I struggled with making my thoughts clear to others…always seemed to mess up when it came to communicating the message I wanted to get across. This motivated me to research how successful people in society were communicating…their language, tone of their voice, body language…everything to do with making their thoughts easy to understand by other people. Over the years, I’ve noted many methods that work and many methods that “bomb” when it comes to communicating with other people.

4. After years of seeing what works and what doesn’t work with communication in business, what’s one key takeaway?

“Be Professional and Unique.”  These two words together can result in success. If you’re too professional, you come across as stuffy or unapproachable. If you’re too unique, you come across as being weird and not desirable to associate with. Being professional AND unique sets you apart in a positive way from the masses.

For example, when I want to meet a senior-level executive in person, I will send a nice, personalized Hallmark note in an A2 envelope (not #10 envelope) with the outside of the envelope typewritten and the note highly customized to that individual. This approach consistently works.

5. Has the evolution of business dress code affected communication today?

Most definitely it has. In short, dress to match the person with whom you will be meeting or to whom you will be making a presentation. This point has been lost too many times in recent years and those who don’t follow this rule wonder why the other person does not respond in a desirable manner.

When businesspeople meet, there are MANY nonverbal messages being exchanged. One big message is how each person is dressed compared to the other people in attendance.

Many people need to be cognizant of dressing nicer in a business environment. My mentor told me that you have weekday dress standards and weekend dress standards and the two should be completely different, meaning one is professional and the other is casual. There are exceptions but this is a good rule to always consider.

Radio, Speaking and Television I’ve Been on

I enjoy interacting with audiences on television, radio and face-to-face because I enjoy being with people and it keeps my content current. A few of the shows I’ve participated in include:

WOAI-TV – San Antonio, TX

On this live show, there was a reporter “in the field” asking people questions that I would respond to from the studio. Wonderful experience.

WSM – Nashville, TN

Y100-FM – San Antonio, TX

WFAE-FM – Charlotte, NC

KFI – Los Angeles, CA

KQED – San Francisco, CA

Fresh Air with Terry Gross (NPR syndicated show from WHYY Philadelphia)

America in the Morning – Westwood One – Washington, D.C.

Southern Women’s Show – Raleigh, NC

National Association of Health Underwriters – Baltimore, MD

Future of Communication

What I see for the future of business communication is the tight connection between technology, productivity and collaboration using digital programs with, hopefully, a human touch.

Artificial intelligence is the “elephant in the room” that will lead the way to changing much of how we communicate. AI should be just one resource to help businesspeople communicate better, not the “end all solution.”

Hot on the heels of AI is the increasing acceptance of robots to perform everyday business tasks. So, we’re going to have to learn to communicate effectively with these new helpers.

The rise of mobile-centric applications will give employees more freedom to communicate from wherever there is a phone or Internet connection, opening the door even wider for employees to be from anywhere in the world working remotely.

Unified-Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) now enables people to collaborate across platforms offering voice, messaging and conferencing in one cloud-based platform.  Cloud-based communication is coming on strong.

Customer service has been progressively moving toward chat, chatbots and self-service, removing much of the “human touch” in communicating with people outside the company. I constantly hear the frustration people have with this lack of ‘human interaction, so it will be necessary for a company to have a “human interaction” option so as to not alienate prospects and customers.

We are now embroiled in a tug-of-war between interaction with technology and “the human touch.”  Look for this conflict to continue because there are some things relating to communication that silicon chips just cannot match with the good old human touch.

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