Mike Wien has built a career successfully out-thinking his competitors. He spent much of the first 28 years of his professional life working in senior marketing roles at Frito-Lay, Pepsi, Citibank, Omni Hotels, U.S. Franchise Systems, and Deloitte.
For the past 18 years, Mike has been a professional speaker and a marketing consultant working with entrepreneurs in a variety of industries including franchising — all while competing at the world championship level in Ironman triathlons.
As a professional speaker, Mike provides relevant content about creating a competitive advantage. He is known for delivering practical, entertaining, and inspirational keynotes and interactive workshops by weaving relevant stories from his business and triathlon careers into presentations customized for each audience and filled with real world ideas that are easy to implement. Franchise owners and operators walk away with tactics for successfully attracting new customers and living a more fulfilling life. Mike has been invited to speak at conferences such as the International Franchise Association Convention, as well as national and regional meetings for specific franchises.
Mike works with franchisors and multi-unit franchisee owners, helping their operators leverage the brand’s competitive advantages by out-thinking and out-maneuvering their competitors instead of just out-spending them.
For example, during the COVID pandemic, Mike worked with a franchise organization that supplies residential dumpsters. By maximizing their specific edge, they were able to pivot when most of the world was suddenly staying-at-home and capitalize on the fast-growing trend of homeowners choosing to remodel and declutter.
In addition to consulting and speaking, Mike was an adjunct professor of marketing and the franchising academic advisor for the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality within the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University for 15 years. Mike’s franchising experience beyond academia includes being Chief Marketing Officer for Omni Hotels worldwide when franchising was introduced into the system and director of field sales for U.S. Franchise Systems (Microtel, Hawthorn Suites, AmeriSuites, and Hyatt Place franchisees).
After leaving the university, Mike moved to Boulder, Colorado to spend more time skiing and training for Ironman Triathlon and marathon races. His hard work paid off as he won his age group in the 2021 Ironman 70.3 World Championship, the 2021 Boston Marathon, the 2021 New York Marathon, and the 2022 Disney Marathon.
So far, his competitive athletic career is comprised of more than 30 Ironman and Ironman 70.3 triathlons (including 12 World Championships), along with 60 marathons including Boston (15 times) and New York (15 times). Mike is a member of the Octagon Elite Racing team.
He is a member of the USA Triathlon Investment and Finance Committee, chair of the Global Triathlon Safety Task Force, and a retired board member of USA Triathlon, the governing body for triathlons within the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Mike’s book The Specific Edge: How Sustained Effort Wins in Life and Business includes stories from the business and triathlon worlds about the role concentration, discipline, and endurance play in success. He founded The Specific Edge Institute, an organization dedicated to helping companies become more effective in growing their business by creating a meaningful competitive advantage through identification of their primary market segment and taking focused action to leverage it.
The educational foundation of Mike’s marketing acumen includes an MBA in marketing from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and a BS in business from Colorado State University.
