Steven Michael Fies is an artist, thinker, and creative entrepreneur at heart. He started building websites at age thirteen after buying his first books on HTML and JavaScript, then launched his first business that same year as a computer/tech consultant.
Fifteen years later (2015) Steve “rebooted” that business as S.MICHAEL Creative Branding, offering an expanded scope of services with branding at the center. Over the years since, Steve has helped dozens of clients with their branding and technology needs.
In his free time, Steve enjoys playing the guitar, chess, exercise, home projects, lake and ocean watersports, working on his car, traveling, being with friends and family, and spending time with his wife and two dogs.
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
This is currently Steve’s 8th year running S.MICHAEL Creative Branding, which has grown every year since inception. More than anything else, Steve wants to help fellow business owners succeed. A small business owner himself, Steve has worked hard to build a reputation for solid communication, expert consultation, and high-quality work. His work style is friendly, collaborative, and driven by curiosity; his philosophy stems from the belief that your greatest creation happens when you combine art and science.
Steve enjoys working with fellow business owners and marketing professionals who are also friendly, collaborative, and curious – and who have some ambition to steadily grow their business. Steve occasionally consults new business owners, but most of his clients are established businesses and entrepreneurs with clear branding, marketing, and technology goals.
In addition to developing a wide range of creative and technical skills over the years, Steve has invested significant time developing his “soft skills” – things like leadership, interpersonal communication, emotional intelligence, and project management. Steve has obtained professional certifications in many of these areas from TTI Success Insights, and periodically works with an executive coach to ensure he stays on track.
Why make the effort to develop “soft skills” as a branding, marketing, and tech guy? In a nutshell, Steve has discovered these qualities matter just as much, and sometimes more, than raw technical ability. While you can generally assume most vendors in a given field will have basic technical competence, not all are equal with respect to communication, scheduling, project management, or reliability – and these factors often determine if a project is successful, and whether the business relationship matures in a positive way.
Always making sure to integrate his creative, technical, and soft skills into every project, Steve has worked with dozens of clients over the years – ranging from individual entrepreneurs, to small businesses with 2-50 employees, to even larger companies with over 1,000 people – to create and deploy effective branding, marketing, and related operational strategies.
Steve has worked with authors and TED speakers, professional consultants, law firms and accountants, clinical research companies, 3PL logistics firms, international tool giants, online influencers, professional sports players, countless local businesses, non-profits, and more. His portfolio spans the entire spectrum from brick-and-mortar to ecommerce.
No matter how large or small your project, if your business needs help with branding, marketing, and/or technology – Steve’s door is always open to start the conversation.