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Michael Shevack
executive coach
Executives and CEO’s are people with people problems. Business problems are always people and psychological problems in disguise. Virtually all our problems are simply contradictions in our minds.
Contradictions in our minds are usually due to antiquated “operating systems” so-to-speak. I help you download the new version.
I help people learn how to align their professional and personal lives so they can do it all– with less expenditure of time, personal-energy and money (in that order). Bottom lines improve quickly, because I teach you how to work with Life not against it. New business improves too with this approach.
However, you have to be afraid to face your fears or I can’t help you. You also have to be prepared to take a safe, calculated risk, in order to change the way you are currently operating.
"Mike Shevack is one of the most creative business thinkers I've encountered. He sees through apparent complexity offering simple and effective business advise that saves and makes money. Mike thinks about business and executive decision making in a very holistic and integrated manner. His view is that the executive suite both leads and mirrors a company's stakeholders. He excels in understanding how one aspect of a business affects the others, and therefore how to prioritize, develop and execute a multidimensional action plan. I highly recommend Mike's counsel."
"Because of Michael Shevack we had one of the best new business runs under my leadership. Shevack brings an entire toolbox with him while advising clients. From inspired creative ideas, to genuine empathy, he possesses a rare combination of skills that improve everything from topline thinking to bottom line results."
"When it comes to interpersonal relationships, Rabbi Michael Shevack is nothing short of genius. He not only takes both sides without making judgement calls, but also applies paradigm and structure to any dilema which demonstrates to the client multiple implications of the conflict at hand.
Moreover, his approach translates into financial success: decreased waste and increased quality of life. Rabbi Shevack can see money, relationships, corporate structure, personnel, as a single, integrated structure, and show you how to navigate it all with a minimum of time and resources."
imagemaker
I create positive images for people and companies, profit and non-profit.
An image should function as an advertising/marketing/PR campaign, a human resources campaign, a Wall Street or trade campaign, a capital-raising campaign, as well as make for great conversation at parties– or it’s not image.
One single, ownable, image that’s yours forever, or, you’re wasting your money.
"Michael Shevack is a creative, talented, and visionary marketer. He was instrumental in helping me find the perfect balance between projecting an interesting and friendly appeal and maintaining professional gravity for my nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament organization, Daisy Alliance. Michael is always upbeat and gives freely of his time to be a motivating coach. I just can’t say enough good things about him. "
"Michael Shevack is one of the most imaginative writers who ever worked at BBDO. He is an award winning copywriter of the highest order."
Michael is an expert with business and strategic planning. Coupled with his spiritual education and desire to make the world a better place he focuses on taking the "unseen qualities," the ones we take for granted and repositions them as keystones to build success on. One term come to mind when I think of Michael. "Seeing the Unseen." "Michael sees opportunities when others see nothing."
"He’s my favorite sounding board. I throw meatballs at Mike, and filet mignon comes back."
rabbi
I’m an ordained rabbi. I work with Christians, Jews, Muslims and many other groups around the world to help create peace and understanding. And, of course, I do my fair share of weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs and counseling.
I also seem to have a knack for helping people, whether religious or not, to have an "experience of God", which improves their lives in profound yet practical ways.
"Rabbi Shevack is a visionary, with a global understanding for the complexity of international problems. Fearlessly creative, Shevack turns PR, advertising and marketing into a science serving peace and justice. He finds solutions that are already there, but, no one else sees them."
"Rabbi Shevack's smart and insightful wisdom about the issues facing contemporary marriage and life, and his willingness to always be there and go the extra mile for couples in need, has truly saved our marrige. His gentle wisdom and delightful humor has helped us overcome a lifetime of abuse and put us on the path to happiness."
"I went to Hebrew School for 5 years, 2 or 3 days a week after school, up to my Bar Mitzvah. All I learned was some cool songs and how to read my Haftorah. My Hebrew name was Irachmel which basically means Bozo the Clown, as my Hebrew School principal would always remind me when he was not happy with my bad behavior– “May God have pity on you!”, he would say. Hebrew school to me was just a thing that would make me miss "Dark Shadows” during the week.
When my first child was born my wife wanted to go to synagogue every Friday. Again, I was not a willing participant but I went. I learned some more cool songs and liked the Rabbi. Then my daughters went to Hebrew school and I had two $40,000 Bat Mitzvahs, total $80,000. But they got more out of Hebrew school than me.
This was the end of my religious life until I met Rabbi Mike 25 years
later.
I still don't go to synagogue but my belief in God has gotten much
stronger. Mike explained and proved to me that God does exist. I had met
Mike after my 2nd divorce and his guidance has help me and my business
get to another level.?My business of 27 years was going down fast. Rabbi
Mike was a great support for me. He keep pushing me to figure out how to
delay impending end, because he said a miracle could happen.
“Never give up until you find something better”, he would say. And a miracle did happen! I found a partner who could help me financially and bring in more business. IT WAS A TRUE MIRACLE!!!! Mike kept saying it would happen and it did!
I believe in his theory that God has a path for all of us. It's not worth getting too stressed out when horrible things are happening because God always leads us to a better place after the pain.
Mike's theory of keeping money and sex in balance has changed my life. Many times I didn’t take his advice, but he never said, "I told you so” when I mess up. Instead, I always learn something from my mistakes. I am ready for my next spiritual level and know Mike is the one to take me there.
You can't go wrong with Rabbi Mike. God Bless you all!”
biography
After leaving medical school (in the fourth year), I found my way
into advertising, where I began as a jr. copywriter at BBDO.
Fortunately, I didn’t go out to dinner one night, and I was discovered
by the late, great Phil Dusenberry– the guy who did the Reagan campaign
and (accidentally) set Michael Jackson’s hair on fire for Pepsi. Phil
was my “rabbi” in the business and tremendously influenced the scale of
my thinking, especially how I approach creating image for clients.
At BBDO, and then afterwards at DMB&B, Y&R and KPR. I (along with many amazing people) created award-winning campaigns for Apple computers, Black & Decker, US Post Office, Colgate-Palmolive and many others, as well as some pharmaceutical campaigns for Risperdal, Rezulin, Nasocort and others. (Always turn your failures, like medical school, into successes.) My claim to fame still lingers as the writer of Gillette. The Best A Man Can Get, still running in over 100 countries around the world.
After a decade on Madison Avenue, a strange, mysterious “chance”-meeting happened, which, many years later, lead to my ordination as a rabbi and involvement in inter-religious dialogue. I was appointed Director of Communications at the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding at Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport Connecticut, where I worked to help further the reconciliation of the Catholic Church and the World Jewish Community. I’m now working to do the between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East.
Recently, I was appointed to the Board of Directors for The Center for Spirituality and Health Education at the State University of New York (Stony Brook), In addition, I was appointed adjunct professor in the School of Social Welfare, teaching, on a graduate level, spirituality and comparative religion.
At the behest of the late Monsignor Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, I’ve been a guest lecturer at New York University, Boston University, the Universities of Milan and Venice, The University of Madrid and others. I’ve been a two-time guest speak at the Whole Life Expo, then the world’s largest spirituality conference. I’ve been intimately involved in the healing of American Black Muslims and Jews, helping the late Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement.
As my knowledge of advertising, business, image, spirituality, religion and ethics has fused into a single life-understanding, this eventually lead me to coaching executives and CEO’s of all faiths and no-faith. My forte is teaching them how to improve their bottom line by handling, correctly, their personal and professional lives which, when in conflict, drain people, emotionally and financially.
Through my previous consulting firm, In the Image, Inc., I helped a lot of non-profits along the way, including AARP, CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations), URI (United Religions Initiative). I continue to do this today on my own, working with the Patton Stiftung/Foundation, the Daisy Alliance and other worthy non-profits.
As you’ll discover on this website, I’ve authored some books, had a column in Success magazine and a proverbial 5 minutes of fame.
Right now, I live in Bucks County PA, with my wonderful wife of 27
years, artist Teddy Frank (www.teddyfrank.com). We have three children,
Christian, Adam and Zoe. I’m rabbi at the small, admittedly
experimental, Bucks County Free Synagogue,
www.buckscountyfreesynagogue.com
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
michael shevack
2310 Byecroft Road
New Hope, Pa 18938
215.297.5747