From Phil Gerbyshak, Principal, Make It Great! Institute

I hired Miki Saxon to edit a book I co-authored with someone with a very different style from mine.

Miki didn’t disappoint, in fact she LEAPED over my expectations. The book turned out great, the voices were perfectly blended, and even some of my closest friends and folks who’ve read my work for years didn’t know which parts were mine and which parts were my co-authors. If you’re looking for someone to do an outstanding job editing your work, offer great insights, push you to make your deadlines, and come in ahead of time and on budget, you need to hire Miki.

From Jeff Shood, President, Intuvo
“Miki is a great person to work with. Within a few days she was able to turn our Executive Summary into a masterpiece. Upon presentation at a VC Roundtable meeting [VC Taskforce Elevator Pitch Roundtable] our presentation was voted top for the evening. Miki provided great insight into our process of raising funding, well beyond simply helping with the writing.“

From Nick Mikhailovsky, President and CEO, NTR Lab, Moscow, Russia
“Miki has been instrumental in rewriting our websites (ntrlab.com and ntrmedical.com) in really good English – this has been critical for us because we have few native English speakers working in the US market. I would recommend her rewriting services to anyone who wants marketing texts that are smart, meaningful and fun. Also, corporate culture is one of our main assets. At least, the one that makes my business both successful and fun for me. And all I have learnt about corporate cultures is from Miki. Thanks!“

From Lois Landau, CEO, Reach Communications Inc.
“Miki Saxon is a word master. There is a new trend called “data-ink ratio”. What that means to me is you want to say a lot with a little ink. Refining your message to be clear, concise, and convincing is a skill. Miki has that skill. I highly recommend her for making your marketing powerful.”

From KG Charles-Harris, CEO, Emanio
“Miki has greatly enhanced my company’s success by guiding me in how to find, compensate and manage stellar employees. This is the lifeblood of my company’s success. She helped me in the hiring process and had excellent material to read so I could do it myself in the future. In addition, her Option Sanity stock options program is a HUGE success by allocating stock fairly between employees.”

From Scott Allen, About.com Entrepreneurs Guide, About.com
“Miki’s blog, MAPping Company Success, is some of the best advice you’ll ever read about managing people and corporate culture. I’ve also known Miki several years, and she’s consistently been one of those who has done more than her part to keep up the relationship by being proactive and always bringing something of value to our interactions. Being a solopreneur for the past several years, I haven’t had the opportunity to work with her in a corporate context, but on the basis of her expertise, communication skills, personality and everything else I know about her, I can highly recommend her.”

From Matt Weeks, Founder/CEO, eyeTmedia.com
“Miki is a brilliant organizational strategist, able to see through to the “truth” of the situation and make succinct, wise and effective recommendations and changes that really matter. As a coach, she is an invaluable confidante, a leader’s leader, and serves as both a compass and a lighthouse. Always a pleasure working with her.”

From Katherine Florio, Director, Development & Operations, M3 Foundation
“I have found Miki to be generous with her time and her insights. She provides the kind of coaching that makes a positive difference in an organization. When it comes to motivation, and culture, Miki knows what she is talking about.”

From Emily White, Entrepreneur
“Miki Saxon is a top notch business coach for those ready to evolve to that next level professionally and personally. Part of what distinguishes her from other coaches is her knowledge about both the human psyche and how business works. She understands startups inside and out. She knows what it takes to build companies of all sizes and manage and survive in them She calls it like it is and it’s not always easy to hear, but if you listen, you can move forward in a big way. If you seriously want to reinvent yourself, your team, the company you are building or just learn to communicate in general, she’s someone you ought to get to know.”

From Michael Smith, President, TeraTech, Inc and CFUnited
“RampUp has been a great help in growing TeraTech beyond the initial founder’s company into a well run 2nd level company. Subtle   issues of culture and how to interact with the most valuable part of the company, the people, have been invaluable. RampUp also helped us to formulate a bonus plan that motivates the correct behavior of both individuals and the team as a whole. Miki Saxon, the RampUp CEO, has always been available as a sounding board for culture and company growth issues. Her Empowerment through Management Communications has also been very helpful and provided a number of immediately implementable ideas that we have used here.“

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“RampUp, and especially Miki Saxon, have been a great help in my career advancement and confidence as a manager. When I was promoted to my position as Business Manager at Teratech, I felt incompetent and timid. Talking to Miki and reading my EMC every time I needed help communicating with people was a great help. I am now able to communicate to the people I manage exactly what the company needs to be successful. From there they use their judgment and skills to achieve these goals, which, in turn, make my job easier and boost my confidence. I have also learned a lot of valuable skills that I use everyday in my personal life. Miki, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” –Lucy Mwinamo (past office manager)

From Jerry Sandoval, President, ETracks, Inc.
Miki, just a quick note to say that the stock allocation plan you did for us is working as promised. It has alleviated stock negotiations when we hire and given our employees confidence that they are being treated fairly. I wish RampUp the same success that eTracks is enjoying.

From Michael Duggan, President & Co-Founder, Digital Media Interactive (currently VP, Oosah, Inc.)
The assistance that RampUp has provided to DMI in the areas of 1) defining and clarifying its corporate culture, and 2) developing the techniques, skills and systems needed to effectively identify, attract, evaluate and recruit high-quality talent has played an important role in the company’s success to date. RampUp’s no-nonsense approach for enabling the organization to develop in-house recruiting skills provides the company with what I feel are important corporate development tools. Equally important is the fact that RampUp’s approach practically forces a start-up to focus on issues of corporate culture as an integral part of the recruiting process. This activity is one that is so crucial to long-term success, but so easy to let slide amid the press of seemingly more urgent short-term survival concerns. And yet, it is really only at the outset that a company has its best chance at making an effective positive statement about its culture.

From Paul Schnitzler, PhD, VP, Operations, ZMedia, Inc. (currently President/Consultant, P S & A)
When I joined ZMedia, RampUp was already providing a variety of services to our company.
ZMedia is startup and many of us have multiple roles. Keeping these straight and productive requires us to communicate well. On occasion, time pressures and differing management perspectives would get in the way. You gave us a common “vocabulary” to open conversations on sensitive issues. As a consequence, we grew to understand some internal cultural concerns. One critical observation that came from your cultural evaluation was that some employees felt “left out” when plans were being reviewed and decisions made. The CEO started holding executive planning meetings in a central public area and invited all to listen in and take part. While this was awkward at times, often excellent ideas came from unexpected sources. This was vital in building strength in our corporate team. Thank you for your help and continued support.  

From Jackie Kessel, founder, HiTech Law (merged with Hanson Bridgett LLP, currently Head of the Silicon Valley Practice)
We needed to hire an assistant and, like most small businesses; we really didn’t have the time or the expertise to productively do it ourselves. In these tough times we were overwhelmed with so many resumes I despaired of being able to sort through them all. Not only did Miki screen the resumes, she did preliminary phone interviews, coached me about what I should say in my phone interview, coached us through the whole process, and helped us find a great person. It was painless, efficient, and I can honestly say the best recruiting experience I have ever had. Businesses always have turnover; having lots of candidates does not make it easier. This has to be one of the best bargains of the year. Miki has over 25 years of experience in recruiting, and despite being in business for over 25 years myself, I still learned a thing or two from her! I highly recommend her services to you.  

From Paul Ling, CEO, Creative Digital Research
Hiring RampUp was a very good decision for CDR. You taught us much better interviewing skills as well as how to best sell CDR to candidates. You helped us to identify the good things in CDR culture and showed us how to use the information to keep from hiring people who don’t fit in here.   The manuals make it easy to learn and they make the information available for new people and for people who forget. The Net nights have worked out well and more people are getting interested. It is a good way to recruit; pretty soon everybody in CDR will be a headhunter. This approach is saving us time and money. I also appreciate your willingness to get directly involved in the screening process. The insight you offered on our new compensation and stock plan were excellent. Much more creative and I liked the way the incentives encourage our people to focus on CDR’s goals instead of their individual goals. You see CDR as a whole from the outside and think of things that we miss being inside. Even if I don’t agree with all of them they get me thinking and the result is better than it would have been without your ideas. It has been a pleasure working with RampUp and I would like to stay in touch with you in the future.

From Rafael Zamora, CEO and Founder, RealTime Access, Inc.
I first called you when we were in somewhat of a crisis mode, and I believe that that call made the difference between gaining and losing a critical senior manager we had been courting for a long time. It was a difficult situation, but the coaching you gave us and your direct interaction with the candidate facilitated a resolution of key philosophical differences. I am especially pleased with the Dual Mission Statement you developed for us and am looking forward to implementing the “infrastructure” you suggested to stabilize our culture as we grow. To date, our senior managers like your manuals; they especially like that they can continue to get help when they need it. Best of all is learning how to use our culture to screen out those who aren’t good matches—especially when we are in a hiring frenzy.  I would recommend RampUp to any high technology company like ours that cannot pay astronomical salaries, but desires to hire the best, and needs to have an extraordinary commitment from all employees to make the company successful. Please feel free to use me as a reference at any time. From one founder to another, Miki, I believe you have a real winner!

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