Home of #AskMikeG

What is #AskMikeG? 
As a seasoned consultant, I specialize in empowering small business owners to navigate financial challenges, drive growth, and achieve predictable success. With a focus on practical, actionable solutions, I help business leaders improve cash flow management, enhance profitability, and elevate communication for long-term stability.

 I assist businesses by:

+ Identifying gaps in financial practices and building a clear roadmap to stability.
+ Establishing robust tracking and forecasting tools for informed decision-making.
+ Implementing strategies to elevate communication to all stakeholders.

I provide one-on-one, group coaching and consulting.  I have spent 25+ years creating, starting, marketing, failing, and succeeding in B2B and B2C environments. I will happily share with you or your team what I have learned so you don't make the same mistakes I did.

Author, Coach, Consultant, Good Human - Cash Flow is the Success Metric.

Whose Story Is It?

The podcast was created for curious business owners who learn from other business owners’ experiences (mistakes). You will learn from other business owners who have succeeded but not without their own mistakes. But the twist is you will learn about “who” they are as much as what they did. And you will learn all of this without knowing their name. Guest identities will be unveiled after each story in the last few minutes of the podcast. To subscribe go here https://www.michaelgrabham.com/whose-story-is-it-podcast-learn-from-business-owners-stories/

Podcast Host

Hatchet Ventures 🪓

“Hatchet Ventures is defining a new VC model that fits with the needs of today’s founders. With our Co-Op model, Hatchet Ventures surrounds your company with 40+ executives, advisors, and like-minded founders who openly share insights; connections; best practices; and solutions, forming the optimal sounding board for bouncing ideas. Hatchet simplifies access to the knowledge of those who have walked the startup path, and provides attainable support to hatch your venture!”

Advisor

Survive the Streets

My wife and I started this nonprofit to help the homeless. We had originally created an organization that helps hundreds of homeless each year on Thanksgiving day. Go to survivethestreets.org if you would like to get involved with our 501(c)(3) nonprofit..

Director

Orbit Health 

Orbit was started with a simple vision of saving lives in sub-Saharan Africa, by applying technology in healthcare.
Considering the overburdened and clogged up healthcare services in Africa, we wanted to help hospitals and clinics increase their capacity and capability so that they will increase the number of patients by a minimum 10-15 additional patients per day. In this approach,  and if only one fourth of the healthcare facilities are participating in Ethiopia alone, there will be an opportunity for over 10,000 new patients that will be able to see a doctor in a day.

The Door Gym

Help your loved ones maintain their independence with the gift of fitness.
Many of the problems facing our rapidly growing senior population are due to preventable muscle atrophy. This is why we created The Door Gym, a patent pending technology that allows for a new level of safety and security when anchoring resistance bands and straps to your door. Our app and cell phone holder economically deliver over seventy guided exercises that can be tailored to any fitness level.

Customise To Your Style With Samshek

Samshék embraces the fashion popularism that inspires and creates trends that appeal to the modern consumer. Samshék recognizes that not all customers fit the mainstream retail clothing offerings, but rather seek the clothing that better suits their body size and shape, mood, character, style, and temperament. With Samshék’s clothing customization option and timely delivery, the customer's wonderful lifestyle and fashion desires can now become a reality.

samaritan

Samaritan is a mobile IoT startup that enables cashless, effective giving the moment a citygoer sees someone in need on the streets. This is changing the way people can give to people on the streets by knowing that the money is goes to help the person get basic needs met.

Compassion 4 Paws

We are a mobile veterinary practice that specializes in comfort care and end-of-life care for pets. Out of the drive to start her own practice combined with her passion for end-of-life care, Dr. Sara Hopkins founded Compassion 4 Paws in late 2012. Since then, her devoted team of veterinarians and care coordinators continue to offer you and your beloved companion the support and care you need during this difficult time of navigating your pet’s end-of-life journey.

Head of Strategy

Startup Grind

Awarded Chapter Director of the Year 2015.
Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting more than 1,500,000 entrepreneurs in over 600 chapters. We nurture startup ecosystems in 125 countries through events, media, and partnerships with organizations like Google for Startups. 

The cornerstone of our global community is monthly events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators, and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Founded in Silicon Valley, Startup Grind has helped millions of entrepreneurs build their businesses, connect with strategic partners, and secure funding.

We believe in making friends, not contacts. We believe in giving, not taking. We believe in helping others before helping yourself. We are truly passionate about helping founders, entrepreneurs and startups succeed. We intend to make their startup journey less lonely, more connected and more memorable.

Chapter Director Seattle

Consultant | Author | Helping Founders make better decisions to scale their company.

The Two Pillars of Business Success: CASH  & COMMUNICATION
As a business owner, you know that growth is essential—but sustainable, profitable growth requires more than vision. It demands a disciplined focus on two critical areas: managing cash flow and fostering clear communication.

I specialize in helping business owners like you turn strategic goals into actionable plans by focusing on these key areas:

Optimized Cash: By analyzing and enhancing your profits and monitoring your cash flow, I help ensure your business remains financially strong and agile, giving you the confidence to invest in growth and navigate challenges effectively.

Aligned Communication: Both internally and externally, effective communication is essential to align your team with your goals, foster collaboration, and deliver a unified message to customers and stakeholders.

This is a Real life result... I started working with a small service based business. They had few processes in place and almost no financial insights. Fast forward 2 years and they got an offer to sell. We decided to turn it down and fast foward another 2 years and they got an offer they had to take. The value when I started working with them was around $2.5M and they sold for almost 3X that number. The changes we made were about optimizing profits, managing cash flow and making sure the business could operate without the owners doing ALL the work. 

By nature, I am a curious leader who has experienced success, failure, and everything in between. (6X founder).  I have been lucky enough to sell a few of those and unlucky enough to go through bankruptcy. (not fun)

At age 28, a partner and I bought a struggling magazine for the travel industry. Four years later, after growing revenues by 7X and introducing a disruptive product we sold the company to a larger industry leader. (Winner)

I was also a partner in a services company that grew from $750k to $7M in just 3 years. We grew too fast and made some mistakes. Over the next 2 years, I managed to keep parts of it alive but by 2011 I had to close it down. I went through some very dark times with this venture and I learned a few things. (Cash Flow is King)

My wife and I started a nonprofit, Survive the Streets, 25 years ago, to help people who live in shelters or who are almost living on the streets. This has been extremely rewarding and eye-opening. (Helping Others is good)

Mike Grabham

One of the most powerful parts of CMX Summit is the diversity of practitioners in the room.

Builders from 40+ countries.

Different platforms.

Different maturity levels.

Different challenges.

What makes this valuable?

You see how community operates across:
 • Enterprise vs. startup environments
 • Developer vs. consumer communities
 • Regional regulatory constraints
 • Cultural differences in participation

That cross-pollination is where breakthrough ideas happen.
Global growth requires global perspective.

If you're scaling community beyond one region  this is the room to be in.

I would like to do a shout out Derek Andersen, Lauren Indovina Yurii Lazaruk they have been helping people in the CMX community for years. Thanks for your support.

Helping service business owners maximize take home pay, and sell their company. Coach | Consultant | Good Human

The most valuable conversations aren’t on stage.

They happen in small groups — where practitioners are solving real problems together.

At CMX Summit, peer-led breakout discussions and our Unconference will create space for:

• Platform migration challenges
• Demonstrating ROI to leadership
• AI integration in community workflows
• Scaling globally with limited resources

Instead of passive listening, you participate in active problem-solving with people facing similar challenges.

The agenda evolves around the questions that matter most to attendees.

In an industry without formal training, shared experience becomes your strongest asset.

#CMXSummit
 #CMX
 #CommunityLeadership
 #CommunityStrategy
 #CommunityBuilders
 #CommunityManagers
 #CommunityLed
 #CommunityGrowth
 #ProfessionalCommunities
 #IndustryEvents

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AI for Marketers

Package delivery notification and protection device, system and method 

Helping homeless and others in need by providing a website where donors can see who they can help and what they can help with before they give any money. Donors can provide for the less fortunate in a crowd-sourcing format. 

Survive The Streets - Charitable Organization

Helping business owners understand, manage and grow Cash Flow. Coach | Consultant | Good Human

The Two Pillars of Business Success: CASH FLOW & COMMUNICATION
As a business owner, you know that growth is essential—but sustainable, profitable growth requires more than vision. It demands a disciplined focus on two critical areas: managing cash flow and fostering clear communication.

I specialize in helping business owners like you turn strategic goals into actionable plans by focusing on these key areas:

Optimized Cash Flow: By analyzing and enhancing your cash flow, I help ensure your business remains financially strong and agile, giving you the confidence to invest in growth and navigate challenges effectively.

Aligned Communication: Both internally and externally, effective communication is essential to align your team with your goals, foster collaboration, and deliver a unified message to customers and stakeholders.

My approach is hands-on, practical, and results-oriented. Whether you're streamlining operations, boosting profitability, or planning for the sale of your company, I provide the tools, strategies, and support needed to achieve real, measurable outcomes.

If you're ready to turn challenges into opportunities and build a business that's both profitable and resilient, let’s work together to make it happen.

By nature, I am a curious leader who has experienced success, failure, and everything in between. (6X founder).  I have been lucky enough to sell a few of those and go through bankruptcy. (not fun!)

At age 28, a partner and I bought a struggling magazine for the travel industry. Four years later, after growing revenues by 7X and introducing a disruptive product we sold the company to a larger industry leader. (Winner)

In 2004, before the smartphone...with a team of smart engineers, we launched a software company that gave real estate agents access to maps, pictures, MLS info on their phones. We were the first in both Canada and the US to do this on a single wireless device.  (Started too soon)

I was also a partner in a services company that grew from $750k to $7M in just 3 years. We grew too fast and made some mistakes. Over the next 2 years, I managed to keep parts of it alive but by 2011 I had to close it down. I went through some very dark times with this venture and I learned a few things. (Cash Flow is King)

My wife and I started a nonprofit, Survive the Streets, 24 years ago, to help people who live in shelters or who are almost living on the streets. This has been extremely rewarding and eye-opening. (Helping Others is good)

Jim Dever from Evening Magazine spends time with Mike Grabham to get inspired about starting a new company. For more info go to https://youtu.be/WT3zwbuT6bg

How to Launch a New Idea with Mike Grabham

I have interviewed 200+ CEO’s worth billions, Venture Capitalists managing billions, Angel Investors betting on billions and Thought Leaders talking about billions. To see them all go to https://www.michaelgrabham.com/startup-grind-interviews/

NW Top CEO's Interviews

King 5's Evening Magazine talks with Startup Expert Mike Grabham about how to grow your business and the risks of starting a marketplace business. To see the highlights https://youtu.be/WT3zwbuT6bg

King 5 TV: How to Grow with Mike Grabham

A Monthly TV show on KOMO 4 about Startups in Seattle. Hosted by Mike Grabham who shares insights and first-hand experiences from some of the top entrepreneurs in the NW. To view an episode go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK5bB4oTAc0

Start IT Seattle | Episode 3

JAY B.

For years, community teams were measured by likes, comments, and login activity.

Today? The conversation has shifted.

Community is now viewed as a business driver  connected to product, sales, retention, and customer lifecycle impact.

At CMX Summit 2026, the focus moves beyond surface-level engagement into how community data connects to business systems — CRM alignment, attribution modeling, and measurable ROI.
If you're transitioning from “community moderator” to strategic operator, this is where the conversation is happening.

👉 Connect with peers.
 👉 Learn how teams are tying community directly to business outcomes.
 👉 See what’s working across organizations worldwide.

Explore tickets & details: cmxhub.com/summit 

CMX
Alex Hilleary
JAY B.

Designing Community @ Superpath | Co-Founder @ Gather (acqd) | YC & VFA Alum

👋 Human-Led LinkedIn Growth | 🤝 Conversations → Connections → Clients | Helping You Grow on LinkedIn with Ease 🌟

Belonging + Business Impact.

Community isn’t just about creating connection.

It’s about designing connection that drives retention, loyalty, and measurable growth.

At CMX Summit 2026, the conversation explores:

• Human-centered design in digital spaces
• Turning members into advocates
• Building inclusion into community governance
• Connecting participation data to business metrics

The key shift?

Belonging becomes intentional, and measurable.

When community strategy aligns with business goals, it stops being a “nice to have” and becomes infrastructure.

#CommunityLedGrowth
#BusinessStrategy
#CustomerRetention
#GrowthMetrics
#ROI
#BusinessInfrastructure

Zeno Group

On a mission to build Silicon Valley's first agency of record one click+like+tweet+share & conversion at a time 👍🏼

Data-driven, creative and constantly thinking of innovative ways to reach audiences online with content, programs, campaigns and stories that matter. 

➜ Data & Analytics: 
Use data analysis to find whitespace in the market for clients. Analyze media data, social data, web analytics, sales data, competitive & primary research, extract insights and use them to inform marketing and communications programs.

➜ Influencer & Audience Marketing:
Support clients by identifying influencers and audiences across multiple sectors - Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Enterprise Security, C-Suite, and Healthcare. Build programs that leverage and extract key insights, affinities, conversations, sharing patterns and media consumption that will inform laser-focused editorial and creative content, social, paid media and rigorous integration with traditional media relations programs. 

➜ Brand Storytelling:
Support clients with the technical aspects of building online newsrooms - integration with corporate website and blog, social medial and 3rd party content. Also support the content engine that powers the newsroom - identifying contributors, editorial workflows, KPIs and the content distribution strategy. 

➜ Social Platforms & Technologies:
Expert power user in social listening platforms (Crimson Hexagon, Sysomos, and Meltwater), influencer marketing technologies (Onalytica, Traackr, Buzzsumo), audience intelligence platforms (Affinio, Audiense, DemographicsPro), traditional media monitoring platforms (Trendkite, TechNews, and MuckRack) and social marketing platforms (Spredfast, Sprinklr & Sprout Social).

Global Head of Analytics

The Social Intelligence Lab

Advisory Board Member

Kogan Page

Participation Marketing explores the benefits of getting employees to subscribe to a brand’s ethos in order to magnify a brand’s voice. Employee advocacy has always been worth investing in, but the importance of leveraging it has massively increased with the explosion of unique social media connections. Earning the respect and passion of hard-working employees, and encouraging them to share the company’s activity in their personal channels, importantly communicates a transparent and human brand.

This book will help business leaders think strategically about employee advocacy as a new channel to market and will show them how to develop trusted brand messages. Participation in company activity and sharing content not only helps reach wider communities with trusted peer-to-peer endorsements, it also reinforces the credibility of a company as a positive brand experience. Alongside higher employee engagement, retention and productivity, Participation Marketing shows you how to work with the most vital influencers that any organization can have: its employees.

Participation Marketing: Unleashing Employees to "Participate" and Become Brand Storytellers

Pearson

➞ Published by Pearson Education, 2013

There is a content surplus and an attention deficit in the minds of consumers today. They are highly influential and aiding others down the purchase funnel using organic conversations about the products they care about and the ones they don't. In order to reach these consumers, brands must create recent, relevant and value add content in order to break through the clutter and successfully change their behavior. 

Content is still king - and if you're a brand marketer, you need to start thinking like a media company, too. Your Brand, The Next Media Company brings together the strategic insights, operational frameworks, and insights and practical approaches for transforming your brand into a highly successful media company.

Your Brand: The Next Media Company

➞ Published by Pearson Education, 2011

Many organizations today have already evolved into social brands. They may be active on Twitter and Facebook; they may have corporate blogs and communities and they are trying hard to engage effectively with the social customer. However, behind the firewall, chaos, anarchy, and conflict reign. In Smart Business, Social Business, leading enterprise social business consultant shows how to build an internal framework based on change management that will lead to success with social media: one that will make external engagement more effective, meaningful, and sustainable. 

Michael Brito systematically identifies the internal culture, process and technology obstacles to long-term success with social media, and offer best practice solutions. He discusses a wide spectrum of issues, offering actionable intelligence and helping decision-makers build strategies and plans that deliver value. Topics addressed include change management, organizational models and dynamics, internal communications, collaboration, governance, metrics, training, employee activation, policies, technology integration, workflows, social CRM, and much more. Drawing on his own experience working for Silicon Valley companies, HP, Yahoo! and Intel, Brito presents dozens of examples and case studies. Using this book, companies can begin to transform their organizations from just a "social brand" to a fully collaborative and dynamic "social business.”

Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization

San Jose State University

I teach a strategic social media and business communications class to both undergraduate and graduate students. The class covers the following: 

• Creative storytelling: How to create a narrative 
• Best practices for social media marketing and publishing 
• How to build audiences and launch paid campaigns in Facebook & LinkedIn
• Best practices for influencer marketing for B2B and consumer brands
• Presentation skills: Oral delivery and how to build strong PowerPoint decks

Adjunct Professor

Golden Gate University

➞ Teach a graduate class about social media marketing, content strategy and analytics.

LEWIS Global Communications

➞  Responsible for business growth, P&L, hiring and office culture for the 60+ staff in the San Francisco office and digital organization in the US. 

➞ Worked with a variety of B2B & B2C clients (VMware, McAfee, TiVo, Jenny Craig, PCA Skin, ServiceNow, NVIDIA, Cisco, and Infosys.)

➞ Pitched new business, respond to RFIs & RFPs and develop marketing plans for the San Francisco office.

➞ Built innovative products and data-driven approaches for marketing, analytics, public relations, content strategy and B2B influencer marketing. 

➞ Provided clients with strategic planning for PR & digital communication programs, campaign activations, social marketing and lead generation activities and using data to inform content strategy (brand narrative, campaign programs & editorial approach.) 

➞ Established strategic partnerships with social technologies and platforms: Crimson Hexagon, Zignal Labs, Sysomos, People Pattern, Spredfast, Meltwater and Traackr. 

➞ Built and create new, innovative product offerings for clients that drive business impact:
 
- LEWIS Analytics 
- Employee Activate
- Data-Driven Storytelling 
- Influencer Marketing and Activation

Head of US Digital

W2O Group

➞ Led a team of 10-12 social, digital & content marketers.

➞ Collaborated across the organization with internal stakeholders to ensure high-performance of social programs and high-quality client deliverables – account, planning, analytics and creative. 

➞ Built global, social content programs and campaigns integrating paid, earned, shared and owned media channels for Healthcare, Consumer and B2B clients (Sanofi, Best Buy, HPE).

➞ Used audience data and insights to inform creative content, editorial strategy and paid media initiatives for owned media (blogs, newsrooms) & Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn. 

➞ Launched employee and customer advocacy programs focusing on brand activation and storytelling by partnering with Dynamic Signal (employee advocacy technology platform).

➞ Developed social media training and certification programs emphasizing employee activation, executive visibility, best practices for social engagement and measurement. 

➞ Launched Content as a Service (CaaS) - strategic approach that helps brands operate like publishers.

Head of Social Marketing

TED Conferences

➞ TEDx presentation about legacies and the importance of a "personal brand".

Keynote Speaker, TEDx

UC Berkeley

➞ Taught Berkeley-Haas MBA students about social media marketing, content strategy and data-driven storytelling.

Adjunct Professor, Strategic Business Communications

Digital OG. Global Head of Analytics @Zeno Group + TEDx Speaker + Adjunct Professor + U.S. Marine | @Britopian

Digital OG, but still learning. 

Battle-tested, but ready for the next test. 

Mamba mentality, always.

Humbled and grateful for friends, family and colleagues who have always believed in me, especially when I failed. From chasing ambitious goals to facing unexpected pivots, I've been humbled by the reality that success isn't always a straight line. Each setback is a reminder that there's always more to learn.

I failed algebra twice in High School, and 30 years later, I'm leading global analytics at Zeno. True story.

Years ago, a mentor taught me how to make "big data" small and more actionable. It wasn't easy, and after many pitfalls, it began to click. Since then, I've been helping brands turn data into actionable insights that enable them to make swift, informed decisions.

And, this is my expertise and passion: using real-time narrative and cultural intelligence, integrated measurement, and predictive analytics to drive strategic business outcomes for my clients.

Leveraging an advanced tech stack, strategic approach, and proprietary algorithms, I bring precision and depth to analytics and measurement, ensuring that brands can see around corners and stay ahead of the curve. 

Today, this is more important than at any time in history. 

My philosophy: Data-driven marketing and communications produce business results, increase customer lifetime value, and create brand love. And, the truth is  … if you love your customers, they will love you back and tell others. 

Legendary brands know this.

🏆 Awards and recognition I'm thankful for:

Bylines & Media Mentions ↘
Featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, Adweek, Information Week, and other reputable media outlets.

TEDx Talk ↘
It's still mind-blowing that I was invited to speak at a TEDx event, but I did it in 2017. 

Industry Awards ↘
▶︎ Recognized as one of the Top 50 Social Intelligence Pioneers by The Social Intelligence Lab.
▶︎ Named to PRWeek's annual list of 25 of the most influential people in communications technology–Dashboard 25 Class of 2022.
▶︎ Identified as one of the Top 25 Digital Innovators by PRovoke Media.

Published books 📖:
▶︎ Smart Business, Social Business (2011)
▶︎ Your Brand: The Next Media Company (2013)
▶︎ Participation Marketing (2018)

Specialties: Social Listening ▹ Narrative & Cultural Intelligence ▹ Media Insights & Analysis ▹ Research & Analytics ▹ Influencer & Audience Analysis

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Mike Grabham

Michael Brito

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The Battle

Mike Grabham

Michael Brito

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Mike Grabham's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreMike Grabham's LinkedIn Performance