Speaking & Podcasts
Conversations on how people connect.
I speak, facilitate and join podcast conversations on the things I spend my days building: communities, hospitality businesses and experiences worth remembering. No keynote-machine; just honest talks grounded in the work.
Mike Mudrey is Executive Director at World 50 and Managing Partner of The 601 Group, and for more than thirteen years he has facilitated, moderated and hosted gatherings for senior leaders.
Much of that work happens in private rooms, which is rather the point. Over thirteen years he has moderated conversations and interviews with best-selling authors, Fortune 5 and Fortune 500 CEOs, heads of state, politicians and public figures, hosted dozens of executive dinners and events from the front of the room, and led virtual sessions for hundreds of the world's most senior leaders at a time.
He talks about what connects all of it: why people gather, how trust is designed and what turns an ordinary gathering into something people remember. Research shows that people who create together connect more deeply, not as a metaphor but neurologically, and his immersive culinary experiences are built on exactly that idea.
Experience
In the room
Thirteen years of facilitating, moderating and hosting, most of it where you'd never see it.
The most senior rooms are private, and keeping them that way is part of the job. What I can describe is the shape of the work. From intimate dinners for a dozen guests, to larger executive gatherings, to virtual rooms holding hundreds of senior leaders at once, the format changes but the craft is the same: put accomplished people at ease, then make the conversation worth their time.
It has meant moderating group sessions and one-on-one conversations with best-selling authors, Fortune 5 and Fortune 500 CEOs, heads of state, politicians and public figures. Mostly it happens out of view, which is exactly why people trust the room.
That experience now extends to teams directly. I facilitate purpose-built sessions for leadership teams and companies investing in their people, drawing on the same toolkit and scoped in advance around where a team actually is. When it helps, a session pairs with a hands-on culinary experience at The Local Epicurean, where our instructors lead the cooking and I lead the conversation around it.
On the stage
Failure:Lab Atlanta
One night I can show you in full. I built Failure:Lab Atlanta from the ground up and hosted the live event myself, emcee and facilitator both, for a couple hundred people. An evening of honest, unscripted storytelling about failure and what it teaches, it's the public version of what I do quietly the rest of the year.
Read the coverage →Topics
Talks are shaped to the room — these are the themes I return to most.
Community Building
Designing the conditions for trust, candor and belonging, from executive peer groups to a dinner table.
Hospitality
What great hospitality actually is and why it's a discipline every leader can learn from.
Leadership
Lessons from a career spent observing how the best organizations and people are built.
Entrepreneurship
The honest, unglamorous reality of building experience-driven businesses from the ground up.
Experience Design
How memory is made and why the details before and after the main event matter most.
Building While Leading Others
What it takes to lead a community and build a company at the same time and what each teaches the other.
Appearances & formats
Leadership, Hospitality & Human Connection
Keynotes, conversations and workshops exploring leadership, community, hospitality, entrepreneurship and the experiences that bring people together.
Team & Leadership Facilitation
Purpose-built sessions for leadership teams and companies investing in their people, scoped in advance around where a team actually is: alignment when direction has drifted, trust when too much goes unsaid, clarity on where energy should go next. Offered on its own, or paired with a hands-on culinary experience at The Local Epicurean, where our instructors lead the cooking and I lead the conversation around it.
Building Communities, Businesses & Experiences
Available for interviews on leadership, hospitality, entrepreneurship, community building, executive peer networks, experience design and the art of bringing people together. Invite Mike →
On air & in print
A few conversations and stories from along the way.
Latest · On air
Hospitality, leadership & growth lessons
A conversation on Michigan Business Network's Michigan Business Beat with Eric Trotochaud on building hospitality businesses and what real growth asks of you.
Watch the conversationOn hospitality & building a business
A spring panel on hospitality and the realities of building a business, the conversation that led to the Michigan Business Beat interview above.
Watch on Instagram →When failure is the story
On organizing Failure:Lab Atlanta, a live storytelling event built around honest talk about setbacks and what they teach us.
Read on the AJC →The Local Epicurean set for a franchise push
On acquiring The Local Epicurean in Grand Rapids and the plan to grow the artisan-pasta brand.
Read on Crain's →A specialty grocer comes to East Lansing
The Local Epicurean brings artisan pasta, cooking classes and a bar to downtown East Lansing.
Read in the Lansing State Journal →‘Willing to take the chance’
On opening For Crêpe Sake and buying Brown Butter during the pandemic, and the conviction to build anyway.
Read on Bridge Michigan →For Crêpe Sake opens on M.A.C. Avenue
The brunch spot finds its home near the Michigan State campus in East Lansing.
Read in the Lansing State Journal →How to properly insure your restaurant
On the operational side of running restaurants and the details owners tend to overlook.
Watch the conversation →How to purchase a business
On buying rather than building, and what to weigh when you acquire a business of your own.
Watch the conversation →Speaking inquiry
Tell me a little about your event or team and I'll be in touch.