public speaking

On March 1, 2016, Doug Stewart posted “A conversation with an Entrepreneurial Marine” to his YouTube channel. Stewart was one of Michael’s co-presenters for TEDxRaleigh 2016, set for March 19. A week earlier he had hosted a group Blab with Michael and another speaker. This time it was a one-on-one, and it runs about an hour and fourteen minutes.

What they covered

Stewart’s description lists the ground they covered:

We talked about TEDx, Public Speaking, Passion, bad teachers, learning disabilities and a lot of awesomeness about entrepreneurial veterans.

Doug Stewart, YouTube description

In plain terms, the topics were:

• TEDx and public speaking: two speakers on the same lineup, a few weeks out from the event.
• Passion: what drives the work.
• Bad teachers and learning disabilities: school experiences and learning differences, and how they shape a person.
• Entrepreneurial veterans: veterans starting and building businesses.

Stewart closed his description by pointing viewers to three places they could find Michael at the time:

• Cigars and Sea Stories, the podcast he co-founded (cigarsandseastories.com)
• BloodStripes.com, the Marine professional-development site he wrote for
• Bunker Labs, the national nonprofit for veteran entrepreneurs

Why it mattered then

The long-form format gave Michael room that a 12-minute talk does not. A TEDx talk is cut down to one idea. A relaxed hour with another speaker leaves time for the background behind that idea: how he learned, what frustrated him in school, and why he cared about veterans in business.

At about 74 minutes, it is the longest recorded conversation from the weeks before his TEDx talk. For anyone who only knows the 12-minute talk, it gives a fuller picture of the man who gave it.

The Bunker Labs link matters too. In early 2016 Michael was already connected to the organization’s Raleigh-Durham effort. His TEDx talk description, published that June, invited people to link up with him at Bunker Labs RDU, “where he spends most of his time connecting and working with fellow veterans.”

Looking back

Less than three weeks after this conversation, Michael gave his TEDxRaleigh talk, “What’s your IED? How to add value in explosive situations.” By October 2016 the Veteran On the Move podcast reported that he had taken over as director of the Bunker in Raleigh-Durham. The topics from this conversation, speaking, learning and veteran business, stayed at the center of his work.

This post is part of the From the Archive series, which collects Michael’s past media appearances in one place. See the full media archive.