Michael grew up on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. At the early age of 4, he taught himself how to skate and hasn’t stopped since. He has played hockey all his life and that was the spark for what became a love of sports. At the age of 12, he was hired as a caddy at the local country club. That job turned into a passion, and for the next 16 summers, he came to appreciate the importance of the mental side of sport.

After 3.5 years of undergraduate study at Kent State University, 6 months from a degree in education, Michael switched his major to psychology with the end goal of pursuing a career in the field of sport psychology. He was accepted into one of the top sport psychology graduate programs in the world at Miami University, studying under renowned pioneers in the field of sport psychology.

Since 2015, Michael has been contracted by the United States Army as a Performance and Resilience Expert. In his time working with the Army, Michael has specialized in training mental toughness and leadership to soldiers all over the world. He is extremely grateful to serve those who serve our country.

In addition to his work with our servicemen and women, Michael has developed mental toughness in Division I college athletes and teams, professional athletes including UFC fighters, first responders, and corporate executives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was asked to host resilience discussions with frontline healthcare workers. Michael has worked with thousands of healthcare workers at over 10 different healthcare organizations and counting.

Outside of work, Michael is also a collegiate hockey referee and board member of the Texas Collegiate Hockey Conference and Central Texas Hockey Officials Association.