The story
From block, to framing, to restoration, to rails
- 1980s Summers laying block while still in high school. The work started with his hands, not a pitch deck.
- 1993 A custom framing company with a formidable regional reputation. Craft, payroll, and a name neighbors could repeat.
- 2001 A pivot into residential home restoration: helping families rebuild after devastating disasters.
- The trap Lead platforms sat between the pro and the household. A $900 HomeAdvisor lead that went nowhere made the architecture obvious. No job. No return. No dignity.
- The answer RETURNIUM, a Human-to-Human rail system, and HomeProDeals.com, the first train. Then the book, The Pro-Human Economy.
Mike’s mandate is rebuilding local economies by returning discovery, connection, and trust to the hands of workers. Beyond the work, he is anchored by his deep faith and his marriage to his wife and best friend, Terry. Meaningful purpose, he holds, is far more valuable than endless money-chasing. When you serve the community well, the financial rewards naturally follow.
He believes HomeProDeals.com will be one of many trains on the RETURNIUM rails if communities are to keep pace with the Extraction Economy. He remains optimistic. The service industry — skilled, trusted humans in people’s homes — is the industry of the future worth building.
That is the rail. That is the future. And it belongs to us.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.