Michael Koenig

Background

About Michael Koenig

Why do I write? Because good writing is good thinking. A well-written piece is a joy to read, whether it’s a short story or a proposal to provide maintenance services at a major U.S. airport. That’s why I love working with technical people and salespeople to translate their ideas into concise, persuasive proposals, presentations, web copy, white papers, and other forms of written communication.(In my spare time, I’ve published short fiction and poetry off and on since I was a teenager and am a contributing writer for a soccer blog on SFGate.) It was a career I kind of fell into at first: a temp job at an engineering firm ended up lasting five years. I relished the opportunity to interact with brilliant people who see the world differently. At my first job at an engineering firm, I was able to interview the founder, who had received the National Medal of Science from President Reagan and had presented Reagan with a proposal for a literal “peace bridge from Alaska to the Soviet Union. And so that became my career: working with analytical engineers and mercurial architects to communicate their ideas to help them win projects or communicate with the public. When the opportunity came to work at a janitorial and building maintenance firm, they told me they needed to up their game because their competitors were winning work by building better proposals. I quickly found that the same skills could help my new company refine its messaging and build proposals that were much easier to read because they tell great stories. And it worked: over the past six years, our proposals helped the company win contracts at four of the top 25 airports in the U.S. Now I’m looking for a new way to apply my current skills, as well as the opportunity to learn more. I love working with great teams and finding ways to help each team member succeed. Skills: Proposal Writing, Marketing Collateral, Page Layout, B2B Marketing Strategy