![[]](images/spacer.gif) |
![[ Mike Stevens ]](images/about_mike_sm.gif) |
![[ Mike Photo ]](images/mike_photo.jpg) |
Contact Information
Express Press
3401 Fiechtner Drive
Fargo, North Dakota 58103
Phone
(701) 232-6044
Fax
(701) 239-1748
Education
Hillsdale College,
Hillsdale, Michigan
Evangel College,
Springfield, Missouri
Moorhead State
University
Moorhead, Minnesota
B.S. Degree in
Business Management
Honors
Graduated
"Summa Cum Lucky"
Books
The Bankers Best
Kept Secret
NAPL Press, 1997
Win Top-of-Mind
Positioning
GATF Press, 2001
|
|
Mike Stevens grew up in the 1950s in the small mid-western city of Grand Blanc, Michigan. The oldest of two children, Mike spent much of his boyhood playing baseball, teasing his sister, Deanna, and watching TV shows like Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, and Father Knows Best on his parents' 15" black and white TV set. Mike's mom, dad, and two wonderful sets of grandparents shaped his life through their loving and understanding manner. His dad and both grandfathers worked in the auto factories in nearby Flint, Michigan, and provided Mike with deep and solid blue-collar roots and values.
Growing up, Mike had a feeling that someday he would have his own business. As a boy, he "owned" several businesses, including a door-to-door Christmas card sales company and a firecracker "distribution" business. (Inventory was purchased on family vacations through Georgia and resold in firecracker-free Michigan.)
Mike graduated from high school in 1969 and left two weeks later to begin attending summer school at Evangel College in Springfield, Missouri. Through a long series of events that aren't at all interesting, Mike ended up moving to Moorhead, Minnesota, and graduated from Moorhead State University with a degree in business management.
Mike's first job was selling insurance for Mutual of Omaha. He has said he thinks every young person coming out of school with a business degree should be required to sell insurance for five years. It is a terrific way to get a lot of street smarts about selling.
Mike's second job was selling used cars. He did that for six years and was lucky enough to work at a dealership that let him do a lot of direct mail advertising. Even though his employer had one of the worst product lines in the area (American Motors, Fiat, Lancia, Renault, and Jeep), they became quite successful because of the "pulling power" of direct mail.
In 1983, Mike purchased Express Press as an "investment," absentee-owned business. After he bought the print shop, it began to rapidly go downhill, with sales declining 60% in less than two years. Mike was afraid he would lose everything and go bankrupt if he didn't make a move to full-time print management. So, with his dream house on the golf course, lifetime savings, and a new print shop on the line, he reluctantly resigned from his job as a car salesman to embark on a new career in printing. Little did he realize that his decision would turn out to be one of the luckiest things he'd ever done.
Mike quickly grew to love printing. It was fun, the time went fast, and there was always a new challenge. Express Press started to grow rapidly as Mike implemented monthly direct mail advertising based on what he had learned in the auto and insurance industries.
With the passage of time, other printers started to hear rumblings about that print shop in Fargo that was doing so well, and Mike began to receive invitations to present seminars at printing industry conventions. Quick Printing magazine called and asked if he'd write a monthly column about marketing. Along the way, he was elected to the Board of Directors for the NAPL and the NAQP (now Print Image International). Express Press also won a lot of printing industry awards and has been the only printer in history to win printing's "triple crown"—the Hall of Fame Award (NAPL), Printer of the Year (PII), and Best Workplace in America (PIA).
In 1993, Mike married Jenny Schuma from Helena, Montana. Mike claims she is the perfect wife... smart, beautiful, funny, sexy, and kind... and the best customer service manager you could ever find! In 1997, their first daughter arrived. Mike wanted to come up with a "good name for a printer's daughter," so he named her... Paige. Their second daughter, Sunday, was born in 1999.
When  asked about his late start having kids, Mike says, "Yep, it sure does change everything. I thought running a print shop was hard, but it doesn't even compare to the complexities, responsibility, and effort needed to raise children. I have a new respect for working parents striving for balance and success in their careers. You can make all your plans, but when a little one calls and says, 'Daddy, can you come home? I don't feel good'...suddenly your plans don't seem so important."
Jenny currently works about 30 hours a week at Express Press, while Mike is there daily.
Home Address
Mike Stevens
3101 36th Avenue South
Fargo, North Dakota 58103
(701) 235-7354 - home (until 9:00 pm)
|
