Welcome to Business Innovators Magazine…Please introduce yourself and a brief thumbnail sketch of your background.
MB: Hello, My name is Michael Burks, I grew up in on the south-side of Chicago, IL. in a two parent household with three younger sisters. Being raised in very humble beginnings and surrounded by poverty, gangs, drugs and alcohol abuse I always saw the downside to what life has to offer. I always understood, even in a life of lack, that I would have to adopt core values that would promote hard work and integrity in order not to live in the cycle I had seen for so long. In 2010, i found my passion for speaking and personal development and after having an amazing 12-year career in information technology, I quit that career path and pursued my passion.
BI: What would you say is the area in business that you are most passionate about and why?
MB: I love creating new ideas. I thrive on making up new ways for my audience to find their own personal success. I truly believe that if you help enough people get to where they want to be in life, you will eventually gain your own personal success.
BI: How are you different than your competitors?
MB: I am reachable! I feel that personal interaction is missing in most peoples business. Even when I acquire an office full of employees, the culture of my company will be personal interaction with the customer.
BI: Please tell me about any recent business accomplishments that you are most proud of and why?
MB: I think my most recent accomplishment would be the response I got from a group of young men at a detention center I speak at every Friday. These young men who have had the misfortune of learning the wrong information and got in trouble with it game me the best response from an audience I have ever experience. At the end of one of our weekly sessions, I received a standing ovation and several call for mentorship after their release. Most rewarding thing I have experienced in my speaking career.
BI: What Leadership qualities in Leaders do you most admire and why?
BI: I admire integrity. I think there are a lot of qualities that make a great leader like; great communicator, confidence, commitment, creative and positive attitude. But the most important to me would be integrity. Knowing someone is exactly who they say they ease my mind about who I am following down the path of success
BI: What has been a key element of your success?
MB: I think the key element for being successful at anything is staying consistent. The one thing that holds most people back from succeeding or achieving their goals is not staying consistent to their passion and quitting with things get their hardest. I teach my audience all the time if you stay consistent with the process and the plan you will eventually reap positive result on the road to success. No one said it would be easy, but it is possible.
BI: What are some of the business projects that you are currently working on that you are excited about and why?
MB: I am working on an empowerment conference right now that will have a panel of dynamic speakers who will be sharing an array of information from Financial literacy to starting a business from scratch.
BI: What are 1 or 2 things you would like to say to a prospective client who stumbles across this interview?
MB: I would tell them 1. don’t be scared to pursue your dreams. You are only scared of what your minds is telling you that can happen. But what if you stop feeding negative possibilities into your mind and start inputting positive thoughts about your success. You will see the difference in you belief level. And 2. never let anyone tell you that your dream is unobtainable. Your dreams are yours, and you guard it with everything in you.
BI: To wrap this up, what are you most excited about in the upcoming months in your business?
MB: I am excited about the people I will meet along the way. Impacting lives is my passion; it’s what’s drives my business. I have never been the type to look ahead and get excited about what “may” happen. I always tell people, I know what the wall looks like, I just focus on laying one brick at a time.
