Brigadier General John Michel of The Avalon Institute

Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy

Ep 226 | Aired 1/6/2020 During my Up In Your Business interview with Perry Smith, the new owner of the Minute Man Hamburger franchise, I met his business partner, Brigadier General John Michel. Mr. Michel was in town on business and decided to accompany Perry to our interview. Though the interview’s focus was the rebirth of Minute Man, we did stray off topic a bit and talked about these two gentlemen’s other venture, the Avalon Institute. This is when I learned about John Michel’s interesting life as the Brigadier General of the US Air Force. During his stint in Kabul, Afghanistan, he founded The Gratitude Café, a makeshift coffee shop with the goal of lifting GI’s spirits and building a high morale community. John found this experience to be so rewarding and enlightening that, once retired from service, he decided to pay forward his learned leadership knowledge by founding The Avalon Institute. Their mission statement says it all: The Avalon Institute was founded on the principle of Roundtable Leadership™ where individuals learn to effectively collaborate in order to tackle complex challenges together. We tap into the full potential of an organization’s collective intelligence, find sustainable solutions, and affect positive change. In addition to the Avalon Institute, John’s unconventional work has been featured in a wide variety of articles and journals including Harvard Business Review, Washington Post, National Geographic, Joint Forces Quarterly, Huffington Post, Switch and Shift, and Innovation Excellence. Listen to hear this interesting man’s military story and get insight (and a free lesson) into how the Avalon Institute is building tomorrow’s leaders.