Michael Cooper

High Performance Orgs

Coaching executives and leadership teams to drive growth and innovation. Leading team workshops and training courses to develop the proper mindset, specialized skillset and robust toolset required for sustainable growth. 

Coaching executives and growth-stage leaders in our 1:1 High Performance Executive Coaching program to develop the mindset, skillset and toolset to drive growth and innovation. 

Coaching startup teams in our Smoother Scaling Team Coaching to have the hard conversations that most teams avoid to build high-performing teams. 

Developing and leading Quarterly Growth Alignment Sessions to ensure client teams stay laser-focused and rowing in the same direction to drive growth.

Developing and leading Culture Design workshops to help teams work in a cohesive and productive manner, driven by their mission, shaped by their values, with the required rituals, norms, meetings and decisions to exceed their goals.

Hosting and leading The High Performance Leadership Accelerator which equips leaders with the 12 skills required to drive growth in constantly changing environments: psychological safety, emotional acumen, burnout monitoring and prevention, trust building and repair, alignment, problem definition, communicating with different brain types, feedforward, performance conversations, development plans, humility and shared leadership.

Coaching executives and leaders on their Speech, Presentation and Pitch Skills to ensure they craft the proper messages and engage, educate and inspire their most important audiences, including their employees, investors, industry peers and the media. 

Developing and delivering thought leadership in keynote speeches around the globe. 

Developing and sharing thought leadership on podcasts, blogs and publications.

Founder & Head Executive Coach

Alchemist Accelerator

Startup Mentor

Innovators + Influencers

I help Innovators and Influencers run their businesses, manage their teams, harness their untapped potential and identify their self-limiting beliefs to break bad leadership habits. I help smart, successful people surpass their plateaus and transform their organizations through regenerative business strategies that keep their teams focused, energized, productive and profitable.

Executive Business Coach, Facilitator & Trainer

LovingLeaders, LLC and BrillianceQuest

Right-brain entrepreneurs and executives hire me to help them stand out in the left-brain world of business by actualizing their hidden potential, monetizing their gifts, finishing what they start, hiring competent staff (vs. hiring for potential) and giving themselves permission to get the help and support they need. 

I also help people discover their unique brilliance in a 12-week intensive coaching program called BrillianceQuest, which includes Life Purpose, Neuro-Compatibility, LifeTrajectory Action Plan and Internal Alignment.

Executive Coach

LEVER/edge

Train and equip aspiring leaders / high potential employees (your leadership pipeline) with the skills, tools and resources to make a difference in organizations, using the 10 Proficiencies of Modern Leadership.

Co-Founder, Trainer, Leadership Mentor

Messy Monkey Arts

Combined humor, play and interpersonal dynamics during team building exercises to discover the underlying traits, characteristics and leadership skills people employ when working together. Facilitated creativity and team building to impact business results.

Group Facilitator

Paragon Strategies

Managing partner of training and meeting facilitation company. Responsible for developing and delivering sales and management training services within companies.

Principal

CoachVille

Taught coach training curriculum in several different classes.

Coaching Instructor

International Association of Coaches

Founded the organization with Thomas Leonard. Set up the Board of Governors and infrastructure, coordinated the development of the certification process and continue to serve on the board as advisor and Past President.

Founding President

BetterMe.org

Helped business owners discover and overcome their personal blocks and issues that interfered with business results. Aligned business expectations with personal expectations. Developed business strategy to increase revenue, attract clients, improve products and services and manage people more effectively.

Executive Business Coach

Equipping growth-stage leaders to achieve their revenue goals.

After a Series A or B fundraising round, you must #scale fast.

But that’s exactly when most startup founders and executives struggle. 

Here’s the problem: most founders and executives don’t have the skills to scale their organizations. 

These skills are not just “nice-to-haves" -- they are non-negotiable.

You make excuses or claim you don’t have time for it and you end up pushing everyone harder, stressing every person on the team and creating a toxic environment. 

Morale tanks and you start to lose good people. 

You’re in trouble with only a few months of runway left and you start to freak out, losing confidence that you’ll be able to get off the ground. 

Your investors get nervous and question if you can pull it off. 

Your confidence spirals, which bleeds into your leadership style. 

It happens more often than you think. You shouldn’t let it happen to you. Trust me, I’ve been there. And I learned how to get out.

With these factors in mind, it’s no wonder that 55% of Series A companies don’t raise a Series B round and 90% of startups fail. 

Here’s a hard truth: you had a great idea that secured your funding, but you don’t have the leadership skills to deliver quickly and consistently. Don’t worry - most founders don’t have those skills because technological innovation is an entirely different skillset from human-centric leadership.

It doesn’t have to be so difficult – with the right coaching and training, you can: 

1. Stay focused on what matters most: commercial traction by creating value for your customers. 
2. Clarify your values and hire, fire, incentivize, recognize and reward based on those. 
3. Create value for your customers and stay laser-focused on market changes to consistently generate more revenue. 
4. Improve teaming fundamentals daily, improving morale and productivity. 
5. Streamline your meetings and gain back the time you need to execute on your goals. 
6. Develop consistent standards and a common language  across your team. 
7. Use science-backed tools to identify important metrics and solve problems fast. 
8. Train your leaders and managers to build psychological safety, trust and alignment. 
9. Give frequent feedforward through performance conversations and co-create inspiring development plans. 
10. Send the right signals to potential investors to secure your next round of funding. 

Shoot me a message if you need to learn how to scale quickly and finally escape the pressure cooker. Human-focused growth coaching can deliver tangible results for your customers and investors without burning out your team.

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Dual reporting to the Director of Advancement, Partnership, and Outreach of VTTI and Executive Director of the LINK, the Associate Director of VTTI Advancement will:
Nurture and expand relationships with prospective individual donors and industry partners in collaboration with the VTTI Director, senior leaders, and university-level Advancement professionals. 
Work closely with a team within VTTI comprised of technical experts, faculty, program managers, staff, and Advancement colleagues to engage industry partners, making links between company interests/market needs and university opportunities, research, and students.
Create new connections, including with the C-suite, to enhance strategic and holistic partnerships that, in some cases, may span Virginia Tech and other ecosystem partners.
Define, enlist, and manage an advisory board of industry partners and influential individuals.
Lend industry, market, and/or technical domain analysis, insight, and experience to identify possible opportunities and value drivers to inform and support cultivation and engagement strategies.
Develop intelligence around and connections to VTTI faculty and research interests, capabilities, and activities connections, identifying opportunities that have industry/market relevance; organize working sessions, and effectively connect and shepherd the relationships. 
Identify, shape, and solicit corporate opportunities (including philanthropic), through a variety of mechanisms, including organizing working sessions and developing opportunity briefs with members of the faculty and staff.
Schedule and host individual donor or corporate visits to campus that reflects the breadth of VTTI offerings, driving toward tangible opportunities and outcomes.
Maintain knowledge of technology, research, and recruiting needs of industry, as well as of specific firms.
Assist in developing marketing initiatives and stewardship programs that appeal to donors and corporate partners.

Assoc Dir of VTTI Advancement w/the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute & LINK + LICENSE + LAUNCH

Virginia Tech - LINK + LICENSE + LAUNCH

Associate Director, LINK Center for Advancing Partnerships

Virginia Tech

The Senior Director of Major Gifts assists in carrying out the designated duties and responsibilities of the College of Engineering development programs. As a highly motivated professional, I am involved with the planning and implementation of the College of Engineering fundraising efforts in support of current operations, endowment and other capital purposes from all private sources. I have previous Major Gifts experience working with progressively complex strategies as well as professional level consultative experience building relationships and soliciting business and support from clients and executives in industry. In addition, I have demonstrated experience closing Major Gifts, have experience working closely with high-level volunteers as well as deans, unit heads, provost, and other high ranking academic officers.

Senior Director of Major Gifts - College of Engineering

The Director of Major Gifts assists in carrying out the designated duties and responsibilities of the College of Engineering development programs. As a highly motivated professional, I am involved with the planning and implementation of the College of Engineering fundraising efforts in support of current operations, endowment and other capital purposes from all private sources. I have previous Major Gifts experience working with progressively complex strategies as well as professional level consultative experience building relationships and soliciting business and support from clients and executives in industry.

Director of Major Gifts - College of Engineering at Virginia Tech

The Associate Director of Development assists in carrying out the designated duties and responsibilities of the College of Engineering development programs. As a highly motivated professional, I am involved with the planning and implementation of the College of Engineering fundraising efforts in support of current operations, endowment and other capital purposes from all private sources.

Associate Director of Development

LEAD VA

Board of Directors Member

Radford City Public Schools

Radford City School Board Member

LEAD VIRGINIA

Board of Directors Member/Executive Committee - Alumni Chair

One Care of Southwest Virginia

	Responsible to Board of Directors of 32 corporate and public leaders in the 9th Congressional District for implementing mission, programs and services of an incorporated 503(c) organization that helps people in Southwest Virginia access human and health services applying technology, unifying access and enabling services 
	Research, cultivate and secure multiple $500 to $15,000 gifts from individuals, corporations and regional entities for medical and health outreach related to substance abuse.
	Administer budget of $53,500 under policies and guidelines from funding sources including state funds, local and regional grant and contract funds and private donations.

Executive Director

VA's Rural Center/Council Board of Directors

Board of Directors Member/Executive Committee

Southwest Virginia Technology Council

Virginia Economic Bridge, Inc.

President & CEO

Southwest Virginia Director and Linked Workforce Initiative Program Manager

Southwest Virginia Director

"a wealth of information ready to address your curiosities."  

With over 10 years of major gift fundraising experience, I am a passionate and driven leader who strives to advance the transportation innovation and research mission of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) and the LINK Center for Advancing Partnerships at Virginia Tech. I have successfully secured and managed over $30 million in gifts and agreements from individual donors and industry partners, including $3 million from blockchain pioneer Block.one and $15 million for departmental naming and student affairs program support.

As the Associate Director of VTTI Advancement, I work closely with a team of technical experts, faculty, program managers, staff, and advancement colleagues to engage and cultivate relationships with prospective and existing supporters, aligning their interests and needs with the university's opportunities and initiatives. I also leverage my horticulture and engineering education and background to communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders and audiences, and to demonstrate the value and impact of VTTI and LINK's cutting-edge work in the fields of smart mobility, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.

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Michael Cooper

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