Speaking & Podcasts
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
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
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 →A few conversations and stories from along the way.
Latest · Podcast
“If I have to answer the same question twice, we need to put a system in place to answer that question.”
A conversation with Josh Kopel on Full Comp: buying a crêperie with no restaurant experience, keeping the corporate job, and what four locations — one of them an hour away — taught about designing a business to run on its own.
Listen on Apple Podcasts Spotify →A wide-ranging Voyage Michigan interview on seeing potential in things that are not quite right yet, and turning that instinct into hospitality businesses people want to be in.
Read the interview →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 conversation →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 →On organizing Failure:Lab Atlanta, a live storytelling event built around honest talk about setbacks and what they teach us.
Read on the AJC →On acquiring The Local Epicurean in Grand Rapids and the plan to grow the artisan-pasta brand.
Read on Crain's →The Local Epicurean brings artisan pasta, cooking classes and a bar to downtown East Lansing.
Read in the Lansing State Journal →On opening For Crêpe Sake and buying Brown Butter during the pandemic, and the conviction to build anyway.
Read on Bridge Michigan →The brunch spot finds its home near the Michigan State campus in East Lansing.
Read in the Lansing State Journal →On the operational side of running restaurants and the details owners tend to overlook.
Watch the conversation →On buying rather than building, and what to weigh when you acquire a business of your own.
Watch the conversation →How I show up, and the themes I return to most.
Keynotes, conversations and workshops on leadership, community, hospitality and the experiences that bring people together.
Purpose-built sessions for leadership teams — on their own, or paired with a hands-on culinary experience at The Local Epicurean.
Interviews on building communities, businesses and experiences, and the art of bringing people together.
Designing the conditions for trust, candor and belonging, from executive peer groups to a dinner table.
What great hospitality actually is and why it's a discipline every leader can learn from.
Lessons from a career spent observing how the best organizations and people are built.
The honest, unglamorous reality of building experience-driven businesses from the ground up.
How memory is made and why the details before and after the main event matter most.
What it takes to lead a community and build a company at the same time and what each teaches the other.
Tell me a little about your event or team and I'll be in touch.