We are a new breed of consultancy that leverages purpose-driven strategy and storytelling to grow your business and social impact.


Business in Service to a Thriving Planet

Heart&Soul Branding was founded on the belief that conventional business can heal the world. When people build and run companies from their highest values and purpose, it delivers profitability to stakeholders, meaningful work to employees, and positive social change to our culture.

Business as healer is generative in nature.  It brings into fulfillment a thriving planet. This is the true purpose of business, the founding principle.  Purpose is not a lofty, touchy-feely dream, it’s a proven business strategy that delivers positive results on every level. All of us can experience well-being, abundance and a sense of meaning through our work.

What if your business, your life, your legacy, could do that?

 What would that mean to you, your family, executive team, investors, and customers?

Whether you’re a beauty brand that wants to help women find self-acceptance, or a tech firm that wants to understand how to meaningfully connect with audiences, our promise is to help you discover your unique purpose, position your brand around it, and tell your story so you and your business can rally millions and remake the world.

Our Team The Best and The Brightest
 

Michael Freund
Filmmaker, Storyteller

Meet Michele

Born and raised in England. Michele has been a published author and fashion journalist, an entrepreneur who founded several start-ups, and a business leader who, as head of consumer marketing, helped grow Smashbox Cosmetics into a half billion dollar enterprise securing a successful acquisition by Estee Lauder Companies in 2010.

Michele has also been an enthusiastic student and teacher of human development workshops, and more recently a passionate advocate of horses and understanding the role they can play in human development.

In 2011 at the height of her career with Smashbox, Michele quit. Having accomplished her career goals and after the passing of a dear friend, she found herself asking deeper questions, primarily about her own purpose and legacy. For the next year she spent most of her time deeply immersed in nature with her horse Romeo. It was here she had a revelation that if people were living their highest values and purpose through their organization it would result in personal fulfillment, positive social change, and yes…profit. Business had a new purpose, and so did Michele.

The following year she founded Heart&Soul Branding and since then has worked with many brands helping them discover their purpose, articulate their story, and develop engagement strategies that build trust and drive growth for the bottom line and the world at large. 
 

Meet Michael

Born in Vienna, Austria.  Michael spent a year at Oxford University studying politics and philosophy (this was when his hair began to fall out) before moving to NYC to pursue a modeling career. It was while modeling in Europe that he had the opportunity to direct his first music video for a friend’s band and fell in love with the art of visual storytelling.

Back in NYC Michael switched careers and become a production assistant working in commercials with some of the industry greats. In 2007 he moved to LA to complete an MFA in Broadcast Cinema at Art Center Collect of Design. Here he won top awards and after graduating in 2009 began living the LA dream. A serious back injury in 2010 forced Michael to get honest. His work took a new direction and authenticity became the key theme. Two years later a near death motorcycle accident prompted spiritual growth and a commitment to telling stories that move the heart and soul by showing the true nature of humanity, and the positive impact we can have on the world.

As a lead filmmaker for X-Prize, a global enterprise that offers millions of dollars to solve the world’s greatest problems, Michael has produced, shot and edited, hundreds of brand films that engage and inspire you in incredible stories of global change, unimaginable innovation, and radical business and technology breakthroughs for the benefit of human kind. His moving films have become the centerpiece of X-prize’s marketing strategy.

The hair lost in Oxford never grew back, however, these days you’ll find him compensating for that by sporting a grizzly man beard.

Michael is about to give birth his most meaningful creation to date, his first child.

Success in any endeavor depends on the degree to which it is an expression of your true self.

Our Values
 

Love
We love what we do and we want you to love it too! As a family of compassionate, concerned, and caring individuals, we support each other, our partners, and our customers as we grow and flourish both personally and professionally. We especially encourage people to always be themselves, because the things that make us different make us!

Truth
e love what we do and we want you to love it too! As a family of compassionate, concerned, and caring individuals, we support each other, our partners, and our customers as we grow and flourish both personally and professionally. We especially encourage people to always be themselves,  because the things that make us different make us!

Playfulness
We love what we do and we want you to love it too! As a family of compassionate, concerned, and caring individuals, we support each other, our partners, and our customers as we grow and flourish both personally and professionally. We especially encourage people to always be themselves, because the things that make us different make us!

Self Expression
We love what we do and we want you to love it too! As a family of compassionate, concerned, and caring individuals, we support each other, our partners, and our customers as we grow and flourish both personally and professionally. We especially encourage people to always be themselves, because the things that make us different make us!