About
Michael D. Austin Unique, Non-Executive Board Advisor and Director for Special Companies of 7 to 8 Figure Valuations
Capitalism with Heart™
Expert business strategies for each scenario, meant for your ‘long game’. Crafted with you by a cross-disciplinary, seasoned, innovative entrepreneur with 3+ decades of firsts as a guiding hand for positive impacts in many fields.
“Having now built, sold and turned around a whole raft of businesses around the globe, Michael is now looking to add just a few very thoughtfully selected Non-Executive positions to his already impressive portfolio, where a business can truly benefit from him energising a large project, turning around a failing one, or simply leveraging such a clarity of mind in a growing business.”
Executive recruiter, founder, and international sales director
Michael values his experience and expertise in these roles:
- Strategies to prosper through Black Swan events
- Mold breaker-mold maker
- Serial entrepreneur
- Coach in international cultural relationships and business cultures
- Founder
- Nonexecutive business growth and success coach
- Crowdsourced forecasting
- Growth-stage startups
- Seed-stage startups
- US political strategies
- Turning inspired board visions into successful, roundtrip moonshots
Here are some highlights of what I have already accomplished, as well as what I am doing:
Co-founder, director, and first funder of ThoughtifyTM, a new, worldwide events forecasting platform for mobile crowd sourcing, scheduled for beta testing in 2025
Directing founder of a private fund with its crowd sourced forecasts, and its management company’s methods are mentioned in the 2018 book of accessible science, The Premonition Code
Co-founder, strategist, and advising director of the conservation technology company reversing the extinction of the California desert tortoise, Hardshell Labs, which is discussed in the 2017 Autodesk book, The Future of Making. Hardshell’s applied research in 3D printing, telerobotics, and mobile video games garnered audiences in BBC’s World Update, Italy’s La Repubblica, Audubon, Motherboard, Smithsonian, CNN Digital, TEDxBerkeley, and FastCompany
Co-founder, marketing manager, strategist, advising director, and investor in the animation art publishing company which held one of two Warner Bros.® animation art licenses in existence at the time, including publication and distribution of animation cels and lithographs, featuring New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees and Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield
Communications director, markets strategist, house advisor in publication and sales of licensed art editions, international art consultant, drive-time radio ads consultant, investor, and in-house computer network architect for the world’s premiere gallery of vintage animation of its day, including Disney, Warner Bros.®, Chuck Jones Gallery, Clampett Studio Collections, DC Comics, Fleischer Studios, Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, Walter Lantz Studios, MGM Animation, and Hanna-Barbera Studios
After 38 years his Soul Rider team resuscitated a long-dead forensic archaeological project, which aimed to test ancient remains which could be those of a worldwide, household name
His 2nd planet-wide niche talk show, Casual SaintsTM, airs on an all-positive talk network of 2.2M monthly listeners in 137 countries, and all 50 U.S. states
Strategist and advisor for the 8-figure sale of a large, private collection of Amarna Egyptian antiquities connected to King Farouk, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the King of Siam – current holders of the collection’s antiquities include San Francisco State University’s Global Museum, the Louvre, and the Denver Art Museum, and past collectors included animation legend Jay Ward
Strategist and advisor to INSIGHT to expand its mission of “computer vision techniques to the work of archaeologists and other researchers in the disciplines that comprise the world heritage field” to NFT funding of high-value archaeological sites by fractional stakeholders
His voice was heard in 108 nations on a talk radio network of 100,000 daily listeners on Blue Planet AlmanacTM, his first talk magazine, and also his News@7 Environmental Super Segments
Top producer at the leading independent provider of insurance marketing and management training, and client retention materials in its day, its first account executive featured as brokerage business development and retention expert, named its new E&S lines division, staffed its annual member convention
As a pro journalist, interviewed HH the 14th Dalai Lama on the eve of his acceptance of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize
Secured what Sierra Club said was its 1st corporate sponsorship in 1988
8+ years as staff funding development director including American Cancer Society, City of Hope, Cal Poly University, and United Way, including conventions of nationwide delegations
A lifelong meditator of 11,000 hours’ experience, applied directly to three decades of professional projects using proven, ancient methods in consciousness