Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
The unexpected twin of actor Ashton Kutcher. Under five pounds, struggling to breathe, facing life-threatening complications from the start.
About Michael
A guide for people ready to see what's possible.
Michael doesn't take the stage as the hero of the story. He serves as the guide, helping audiences discover that they already possess the resilience, courage and potential they need.
His story
Credibility you cannot rehearse.
Every person, team, and organization faces moments that test confidence, challenge assumptions, and demand a new way forward. What matters is having the perspective to turn those moments into opportunities.
His credibility comes from lived experience.
Michael has spent his life confronting challenges most people never will. Those experiences taught him something profound: our circumstances don't determine our future. Our perspective does.
Today, Michael helps people reframe the stories they tell themselves. Across Fortune 500 companies, healthcare organizations, business associations, educational institutions, and nonprofits, his keynotes do more than inspire. They create perspective shifts that influence conversations, decisions, and relationships long after the event.
The journey
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
The unexpected twin of actor Ashton Kutcher. Under five pounds, struggling to breathe, facing life-threatening complications from the start.
Diagnosed with cerebral palsy
By age three, along with significant neurological and developmental delays, vision and speech impairments, and delayed motor skills.
Heart failure, then a second chance
At thirteen, given only weeks to live, Michael received a life-saving heart transplant. It became the turning point in his journey, and ignited a desire to help others and live with intention.
Living forward
The years after the transplant were not a postscript. They were the ones where he worked out what to do with them.
A life, not a diagnosis
Work, family, and the ordinary things that had once been in question. The perspective that would later become the keynote was being built here.
Saying it out loud
What he had spent years keeping private became the thing he stood up and talked about, for audiences who needed to hear it.
The guide, not the hero
Keynote speaker. Spokesperson for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, advisor to Joshin, organ donation advocate with Donate Life.
Diagnosed with cerebral palsy
By age three, along with significant neurological and developmental delays, vision and speech impairments, and delayed motor skills.
Heart failure, then a second chance
At thirteen, given only weeks to live, Michael received a life-saving heart transplant. It became the turning point in his journey, and ignited a desire to help others and live with intention.
Living forward
The years after the transplant were not a postscript. They were the ones where he worked out what to do with them.
A life, not a diagnosis
Work, family, and the ordinary things that had once been in question. The perspective that would later become the keynote was being built here.
Saying it out loud
What he had spent years keeping private became the thing he stood up and talked about, for audiences who needed to hear it.
The guide, not the hero
Keynote speaker. Spokesperson for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, advisor to Joshin, organ donation advocate with Donate Life.
What audiences leave with.
Not a highlight reel. A set of shifts that show up in how people work with each other on Monday.
- Transform adversity into opportunity.
- Build cultures of belonging where every person contributes.
- Lead with empathy, resilience, and purpose.
- See “Diffability” instead of disability.
- Replace limiting beliefs with possibility.
Why he speaks
Michael's story may be what brings people into the room.
But helping people see their own stories differently, and shape what comes next, is why he speaks.
Kutch’s Kommunications
He writes the way he speaks. Short pieces on perspective, resilience and the things worth noticing, published about once a month.