Michele Gough
Chief of Strategy & Storytelling

Meet Michele

Born and raised in England. Michele has been a published author and fashion journalist, an entrepreneur who founded several start-ups, and a business leader who, as head of consumer marketing helped grow Smashbox Cosmetics into a half billion-dollar enterprise securing a successful acquisition by Estee Lauder Companies in 2010.

Michele has also been an enthusiastic student and teacher of human potential workshops, and more recently an advocate of horses and understanding the role they can play in human development. 

In 2011, at the height of her career with Smashbox, Michele quit. She had become disillusioned with the outdated and unsustainable beliefs in business, and after the passing of a dear friend found herself asking deeper questions about her own life, purpose and legacy.

At the same time she met an ex-racehorse horse named Romeo who, like Michele, was burned out from an exhausting professional career. Recognizing a kindred spirit in Romeo she bought him and devoted herself to understanding how to be in relationship with her horse without whips, bits, spurs, and traditional control-based training. She sought a deeper, more authentic bond, and trained with a woman who lived with wild horses. Here she discovered the true nature of the horse and how to speak his language, to connect from the heart.

Michele moved Romeo to live with a herd of 30 horses at a 100-acre horse sanctuary in Northern California. She spent the next two years immersed in nature observing the herd. It was here, in deep communion with the natural world, she began to fully realize the connectedness and interdependency of all things. Michele had a revelation that if business operated under the same holistic principles as nature, as the herd, to build stable, healthy and sustainable systems, our planet and everyone on it would thrive. It would begin with business leaders operating from the heart; their highest purpose and values, and then establishing a new narrative for brand engagement based upon these beliefs. Business had a new purpose and so did Michele. 

In 2012, Michele founded Heart&Soul Branding and since then has worked with brands helping them discover their purpose, articulate their story, and develop engagement strategies that drive growth for the bottom line and the world at large.

Meet Michael

Born in Vienna, Austria.  Michael spent a year at Oxford University studying politics and philosophy (this was when his hair started to fall out) before moving to NYC to begin his career in TV commercial production.

In 2007 he moved to LA to complete an MFA in Broadcast Cinema at Art Center Collect of Design. Here he won top awards and after graduating in 2009 got to work with some of the greats in advertising.

A serious back injury in 2010 forced Michael to get honest. His work took a new direction and authenticity became the key theme. Two years later a near death motorcycle accident prompted spiritual growth and a commitment to telling stories that move the heart and soul by showing the true nature of humanity, and the positive impact we can have on the world.

As a lead filmmaker for X-Prize, a global enterprise that offers millions of dollars to solve the world’s greatest problems, Michael has produced, shot and edited, numerous brand films that engage and inspire incredible stories of global change that benefit human kind. His moving films have become the centerpiece of X-prize’s marketing strategy.

The hair lost in Oxford never grew back, however these days you'll find him compensating for that by sporting a grizzly man beard.

Michael is about to give birth to his most meaningful creation to date, his first child.