We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Berman-Mikel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’ll say this as my primary thought…and then give you all the background behind it below it.

“My ultimate point for anyone listening is that you cannot have a back door in entrepreneurship. You will fail. You can’t say, “I’m going to dip my toe in this, and if it works out great, but if not, I’m going to go back to this other thing.You will never commit to 100% growth, nor commit to the things you have to do in order to make it….”

I grew up as a competitive athlete and swam all through college (Rutgers University). Upon completion of college became a competitive Crossfit athlete just after finding out my dad had stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. At the time, I was working in corporate America as a social media director for a public relations firm, but I hated it!

I went out on my own in 2012 and did simple social media management for local businesses in southern California before I started in the Instagram world exclusively in 2014 as an influencer, but not in the traditional sense. I was buying and selling Instagram accounts, similar to how you would flip real estate. I would buy accounts, grow them organically and sell advertising to large brands who wanted to sell products in the meantime while the account grew. I was in charge of creating and developing large-scale advertising campaigns for companies that involved creating adverts, leveraging my relationships with owner account owners to place ads in front of their page audience, and ideally turning a profit for my client.

In 2018 the “influencer” space I was living in was really shifting and I ended up hiring a business coach in the UK to help me level up and focus on the future of my career. I flew to the UK alone, met up with him and his wife, and mapped out the future trajectory of my career in coffee shops for seven days straight. As soon as I landed back in the states, I fired all my clients that were not in Real Estate and or the Loan Space and reversed engineered everything I had done prior to create and develop the Instagram Power Method Course. That course was born in 2019 and has since exploded. I now teach nationally, speak nationally, and have clients and students in 26 states and counting. I have two employees, my VP is Sara Anderson and my Content Operations and VIP Client Coordinator is Marissa McCoy.

What should our readers know about your business?
I specialize in building a strategy to organically grow your business through funnels and ultimately bringing everything back to my Instagram. I have an insane knack for helping people figure out WHAT kind of content their audience actually NEEDS and how to strategically place it in front of them without being salesy. The goal is to help my clients generate leads that are on fire for them.

What sets me apart is the fact that 1) I am an actual day in and day out a practitioner of my craft. I walk my own system every single day. I am not someone claiming to be a “guru”, I am truly in the trenches alongside my clients. 2) I believe in personal relationships with every single client. Whether you are a VIP client, a course student, or just a coaching client, every single person who comes through the Berman Media Pd, and Instagram Power Method door, gets to talk to me directly. I really don’t think this exists very much!

What I am most proud of brand-wise is that when people see my logo, they feel our passion for what we do. When people hear me talk, speak, teach or even just see my content on IG, they know that I eat breathe and sleep their success. If they aren’t succeeding, then neither am I.

Your readers need to know that we offer coaching (both group and VIP), an extremely high-level course, and VIP all-inclusive services. What they should also know is that the clients who work with us know how much we value walking alongside them in their creation/content and ultimately success and are not just a VA that knows nothing about the client. We create personal relationships, and with that comes a truly elite service experience.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am a coffee snob! so we would go to all the cute little hole in the wall coffee shops every morning (Cartel Coffee, Press, Provision etc). Dinner wise, Bourbon and Bones, the Keg, Orange Sky and then have fun at Top Golf, indoor go cart racing, and then drive up north to Flagstaff and camp off the grid for a few days. We would also be hitting up the gym everyday! Huge fan of F45 and training with my friends are Sanctuary Barbell in Phoenix.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have honestly had incredible mentors and people who have supported me along the way! Truly though, one in particular stands out above the rest and as cliche as it sounds it is my husband. From the moment we met (and got married two months later exactly!) he has been the reason why I have been able to build what I have in such a short time. I had alot of doubts in myself in the early years, and when I met Dave he encouraged me to jump in and create what I have. Told me my mindset was the only missing piece, because the work ethic, the idea, the vision was all already there. He never let me quit, celebrated every single win with me, no matter how big or small (even learned my happy dance too haha!) and to this day is a part of every decision I make as a leader, company owner, wife and entrepreneur.

I also have to say thank you to my assistant Sara Anderson who joined me when I didn’t have much to offer her other than a vision. She just jumped in, straight to the deep end where all the great white sharks are, and was my ride or die immediately. Together her and I have built an incredible friendship, partnership, and most importantly a company that truly changes peoples lives, one client at a time.

Website: http://bermanmediapd.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bermanmediasocial/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-berman-mikel-9a1ab448/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bermanmediapd

Image Credits
Photographer here in AZ that we use for EVERYTHING is Roberto Cordero JR. Owns his own company called rccreativemediaco and works with Real Estate Agents ALL over the state!

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutArizona is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.