Meet Michael Troxell
Empowering leaders to communicate with clarity and lead with courage
Mike Troxell is an international speaker, teacher, and leadership coach with many years invested in leadership training, team development, and personal transformation. For nearly two decades he served as a pastor and evangelist, guiding organizations, counseling leaders, and speaking to audiences in diverse settings across the United States and abroad. His leadership journey extends beyond ministry into the business and financial world, including work as a stockbroker, financial educator, and as VP of Finance/CFO at an educational institution. In each role, he has combined strategic vision and financial management with practical leadership development, equipping others to lead with both wisdom and courage.
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Drawing from his background in leadership, finance, and business administration, Mike brings a rare blend of clarity, depth, and passion to every setting. His teaching helps leaders and teams cut through complexity, discover practical strategies, and move toward lasting transformation. Whether working with executives, middle managers, or frontline professionals, he creates engaging and actionable experiences that empower people to lead with integrity, communicate with impact, and achieve sustainable results.
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Together with his wife, Melanie, a nurse manager and leadership coach, Mike co-founded the Transformationship Leadership Group, a speaking and coaching company dedicated to helping professionals in high-pressure industries thrive without burning out. Their mission is to strengthen leaders, elevate communication, and build healthier organizational cultures.
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Known for his ability to connect authentically with diverse audiences, Mike’s leadership philosophy is both practical and inspiring: transformation happens when people are intentional about how they lead themselves and others. His work continues to impact organizations, teams, and individuals who are ready to grow in resilience, clarity, and purpose.
For Event Planners and Organizers:
Click on the linked filenames below to download the items you need:
Signature Keynotes Talks
Any of the keynote presentations, or additional topics, listed below can be tailored to your organization's needs, including teaching them in a workshop setting.
Beyond Strategy: How Culture Shapes People, Performance, and Profits
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How leaders can transform workplaces so people bring their best, stay engaged, and multiply results.
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Every organization has a strategy — but few have a culture that makes it work. This keynote helps leaders move beyond mission statements and management theory to the invisible system that drives every result: culture. When culture aligns with purpose and people feel valued, communication improves, innovation flourishes, and retention rises. When it doesn’t, even the best strategies fail.
Through stories, data, and practical frameworks, Mike unpacks how beliefs become behaviors, how values drive performance, and how small leadership choices create big cultural shifts. Leaders will leave equipped to build workplaces people don’t want to leave — where engagement, accountability, and excellence multiply naturally.
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Learning Objectives:
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Identify the hidden drivers of culture that shape behavior more than policies or procedures.
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Translate values into daily habits that reinforce accountability and trust.
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Recognize early warning signs of cultural drift before they affect results.
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Align communication, recognition, and performance systems with cultural goals.
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Lead change through clarity and consistency — not fear or force.
Decisions at the Speed of Trust
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Transforming the way leaders and departments connect, align, and solve problems together.
In today’s complex organizations, the speed of business is the speed of trust. When trust is high, decisions are faster, collaboration is smoother, and innovation accelerates. When trust breaks down, everything slows — communication, execution, and morale.
This keynote helps leaders and teams master the “trust equation” by combining emotional intelligence with practical decision-making frameworks. Mike equips audiences to diagnose friction points, repair alignment, and rebuild credibility across teams and departments. The result: faster decisions, stronger collaboration, and healthier performance.
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Learning Objectives:
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Understand the core components of trust and how they directly impact decision velocity.
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Apply practical tools to resolve misalignment between teams and departments.
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Recognize how transparency and feedback create psychological safety and speed.
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Strengthen credibility through consistent communication and follow-through.
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Build a culture where trust is measurable, maintainable, and mission-critical.
The Real Bottom Line​​
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A financial lens for leadership: people-centered choices that strengthen trust, communication, and organizational success.
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Every decision has a cost — but not every cost is on a balance sheet. This keynote reframes financial leadership through a people-first lens, showing how communication, trust, and cultural health directly affect productivity, retention, and profitability.
Drawing from his background as a CFO and leadership coach, Mike bridges the gap between financial performance and human performance. Leaders will see how investing in people and clarity yields measurable returns — and how neglecting them quietly drains the bottom line.
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Learning Objectives:
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Connect leadership behavior and cultural health to financial outcomes.
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Identify “hidden costs” — turnover, miscommunication, and disengagement — that erode profit.
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Learn to make data-informed, people-centered decisions that drive sustainable results.
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Translate financial principles into leadership language everyone can understand.
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Build a leadership rhythm that balances compassion with accountability.
Opportunity Cost: The Hidden Math of Life
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Practical strategies to help leaders and teams shift from exhaustion to resilience through clarity and connectedness.
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Leaders face hundreds of small choices every day — but few realize how each decision carries an unseen cost. In this engaging and reflective keynote, Mike introduces the concept of opportunity cost as a powerful framework for leadership and life. Every “yes” requires a “no,” and clarity about what matters most determines whether we thrive or burn out.
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Blending economics, psychology, and leadership science, Mike shows how intentional decision-making creates margin, meaning, and momentum. Participants walk away with renewed focus, sharper priorities, and tools to make decisions that build resilience rather than exhaustion.
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Learning Objectives:
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Define opportunity cost in both economic and personal leadership terms.
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Recognize decision fatigue and its impact on clarity and performance.
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Develop filters for prioritization that protect time, energy, and focus.
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Strengthen team alignment by clarifying shared values and non-negotiables.
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Shift from reactive decision-making to purposeful, values-driven leadership.
Additional Titles & Subjects Available on Request:
Leadership, Communication, Culture & Finance:​​
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Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
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Hired to Lead, Paid to Babysit
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Thick Skin, Soft Heart: Leadership in a Fragile Age
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Emotional Intelligence for Tough Conversations
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Leading Without Losing Yourself
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The Power of the Pause
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Minding The Gap
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When It’s Time to Say No
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Conflict Without Casualties
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Beyond the Numbers
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Count What Counts
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What You Permit, You Promote
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Culture Code: The Hidden Operating System
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The Temptation of Leadership
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The ROI Mindset: What Every Leader Should Ask Before Spending
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Financial Blind Spots: The Hidden Costs That Leaders Overlook
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Dollars, Decisions, and Disengagement
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Realignment: Rebuilding Trust, Energy, and Clarity
Decision-Making, Gaining Clarity & Personal Growth:​​
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Small Choices, Big Impact
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The Road Not Taken Wasn’t Paved
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The Pyrite Principle: All That Glitters Ain’t Gold
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The Gift of Disorientation
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Designing Your Destiny—One Choice At A Time
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The Person You Talk to Most
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From Chaos to Clarity
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Becoming Who You Were Meant to Be
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Biblical Principles of Faith, Leadership & Finance:​​
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When God Doesn’t Speak: Leading in Silence
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Vision Leaks, Budgets Speak
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Budgeting with Mission in Mind
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Stewardship vs Scarcity
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Counting the Cost: A Biblical Approach to Leadership Finance
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Moses Moments: When You’re Called but Don’t Feel Capable
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When the Mantle is Heavy
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The Sin of the Shortcut
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Reading the Numbers: A Crash Course for Visionaries
Additional Training, Workshop & Retreat Opportunities:
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Mike, together with Melanie, has organized and conducted many retreats, workshops, training & strategy events. He would love to come to your business or church to help your team with some of the following more in-depth event needs. These events below will be team-led by Mike and Melanie depending on the availability of her schedule
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Marriage/relationship retreat: Designed for couples wanting to build an amazing, intimate relationship that lasts. Or, it can the tailored as a more intimate event to help those considering separation or divorce and want to restore their relationship. This event is designed as an interactive retreat over 2-4 days.
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Pre-marital/engagement encounter: Designed for engaged couples as an interactive pre-marital preparation encounter to deepen their relationship. This event is designed take place over 2-3 days.
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Mission, vision, goals and strategy sessions: Personalized to your organization’s needs based on what you want to accomplish. Designed as an interactive workshop while facilitated and assisted, so that your team's work and team building are best supported. Designed to be done as a 1-2 days workshop or retreat, but can be tailored to fit a shorter time span if needed.
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Maxwell Leadership Game Team Building: This is a powerful tool for team building in a fun environment. It is excellent for opening up discussions, building team understanding and trust, and creating alignment. Designed to be a 2-3 hour experience, but can be integrated into a larger leadership event.