In the world of leadership and innovation, communication often separates those who advance from those who stall. Executive Communication Coach Mike Acker has built a career helping professionals close that gap.
Acker is the author of Speak With No Fear, a book featured by Forbes in 2020 among “7 Books That Will Help You Conquer the Fear of Public Speaking.” He has since written several titles on leadership and communication, including Speak With Confidence (John Wiley & Sons, 2022). His work focuses on helping executives, teams, and professionals build clarity, confidence, and calm under pressure.
Before launching his company, Uplevel Communication, Acker spent years in leadership and public speaking roles that shaped his approach to executive presence. He teaches a process-driven model that moves clients through awareness, knowledge, practice, and feedback. The method, known as the Uplevel Formula, reframes confidence as a learned skill rather than a personality trait.
When asked what most leaders overlook about communication, Acker often says it’s not the words but the weight behind them. “People focus so much on what to say,” he explains, “but presence is what others feel when you speak. It’s the calm confidence that earns trust before you even finish your sentence.” He teaches that presence starts with awareness, recognizing how you show up in the room, how your tone lands, and how your audience perceives you.
He also emphasizes that confidence grows through repetition, not perfection. “You don’t need to be fearless,” Acker says. “You just need to speak anyway. That’s where confidence begins.”
Over the past decade, Acker has trained leaders from Fortune 500 firms, medical organizations, and global associations. His clients have come from companies in technology, healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. He has also spoken at industry events including the AMIN Worldwide Conference, the Experience Inbound, and TEDx, where he delivered his talk “Why We’re Doing Web Conferencing Wrong.”
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