I still make things.
I write and record melodic dance music as Goldenhour. Shipping my own releases keeps my creative judgment sharp — and keeps me honest about what it takes to put my own work in front of strangers.
Goldenhour →Chief Marketing & Communications Executive
Transformational marketing leadership for organizations ready to scale.
Chief Marketing and Communications Executive with 24+ years across entertainment, global consumer brands, and nationally scaled mission-driven organizations.
- Brand & revenue growth
- Media & content
- Executive communications
- Audience & CRM
- Teams & partnerships
6x
Organizational revenue growth
$1.5M → $9M+ annual revenue · Mighty Oaks Foundation, 2018–present
See the case →
20x
Year-end campaign return
$3M in year-end revenue on a $150K marketing budget · Mighty Oaks Foundation
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10,000%+
Owned-audience database growth
Alongside 500%+ web-traffic growth · Mighty Oaks Foundation
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$2.5M
Crowdfunded in 30 days
13,979 backers · Stone Brewing Co. on Indiegogo, 2014
See the case →
Selected work
Three organizations. Three kinds of scale.
A studio franchise, a global consumer brand, and a national nonprofit — each with a different growth problem, and a clear account of my role in solving it.
01 · Mission-driven · National nonprofit
Read the case
02 · Entertainment · Agency-side
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03 · Global consumer brand
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From regional program to national brand
- Challenge
- A proven, regionally known recovery program for veterans and first responders needed national relevance, sustainable revenue, and a scalable audience engine.
- Decisive action
- Rebuilt marketing as a content-led growth system — media, publishing, film, fundraising, and CRM operating as one.
$1.5M → $9M+
Annual organizational revenue, 2018 – present
Studio franchises at the speed of culture
- Challenge
- Theatrical releases get one opening weekend. The audience has to be built — and kept energized — before it arrives.
- Decisive action
- Led agency-side digital and 360° social campaigns for five studios across franchise and tentpole releases.
20M+
Entertainment community followers managed at peak
A craft brand, crowdfunded at global scale
- Challenge
- An independent brewery expanding to Europe needed its community to help build what came next — without the campaign feeling like a sales pitch.
- Decisive action
- Designed and executed a crowdfunding campaign that turned fans into backers, alongside leading digital strategy for the global brand.
$2.5M
Raised in 30 days from 13,979 backers (2014)
Organizations and partners
Warner Bros.LionsgateSummit EntertainmentRelativity MediaTyler Perry StudiosStone Brewing Co.Salem Media GroupMighty Oaks Foundation
Organizations and partners from across my career. My exact role with each is described in the case studies.
Leadership thesis
Attention is rented. Trust is owned.
Every organization I’ve helped grow had the same hidden constraint: it was renting attention it should have been earning. Studio campaigns taught me that culture moves in hours, not quarters. A global craft brand taught me that a community will fund what it believes in. A national nonprofit taught me that marketing, built properly, becomes infrastructure — content, media, audience data, and fundraising operating as one system.
My job as an executive is to connect those pieces: find the story only this organization can tell, build the owned channels that carry it, and hold the whole system accountable to revenue.
How I lead →Beyond the brief
What I bring into the room.
Hands on, not hand-waving.
I build with AI every week — agent workflows, AI-integrated campaigns, automated reporting — and I’ve studied Bitcoin since 2016 as a lesson in trust, custody, and community. I write about both.
Read the ideas →Work that has to matter.
Since 2018 I’ve led marketing for an organization serving veterans, active-duty military, and first responders. It has made me a more disciplined leader: when the mission is people’s lives, every dollar and every word has to earn its place.
About Michael →Where I’m most useful
Problems I’m built to solve.
If your organization is facing one of these, I’d welcome the conversation.
- A brand that has outgrown its origin story and needs a national one.
- Revenue that leans on too few channels, events, or donors.
- Content and media that cost money instead of building an owned audience.
- A leadership team that needs a clear, credible public voice.
- An organization ready to put AI to work in marketing — responsibly and measurably.