Hometown Hero: Michelle Thompson


Michelle Thompson could easily boast of her accomplishments as a successful businesswoman in a competitive and complex market.  After majoring in journalism at Ohio University  with a focus on advertising management and a minor in Spanish,  she completed a masters program in global business administration.  That led to a career with Procter & Gamble and then ten plus years in advertising where she was able to travel the world.

However, Michelle describes herself quite differently.  “Who am I?   I am a child of God.  I am so  humbled that He would choose me to be a writer and a speaker and a teacher.  I get a lot of excitement and joy writing about Him and about the relationship I have with Him,  inviting others to have a relationship with Him as well.  I feel I am in a season where God is allowing me to strip off  the labels of the world because we always want to wear these positions or titles.  It could be good or bad.   It could be I’m a wife, I’m a mother, I’m a CEO, I’m a published author, which I am four times by the way.  (Laughing).    All that stuff doesn’t matter when you are standing before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  All that matters is Him. Am I abiding in Him and am I living out the abundance of Him?  That’s who I try to be:  reflecting Him in all that I do.”

Currently Michelle has two businesses:  for-profit Designed For Destiny LLC  where she helps businesses with consulting, communication, strategic planning, and culture work and non-profit Table for OneMInistries, which is rooted in John 17:21 “I pray that you all be one”.  Speaking of Table for One, Michelle commented that  “it was birthed as a friend of mine died in the middle of a divorce.  Her  wholeidentity was tied to being married.   A family  minister friend said that she wasn’t dying because water built up around her heart but because of a broken heart.  After that I was asking God why I walked with someone so closely through this.  He said ‘ that is your purpose’.  I said ‘to help people die?’.   He said,’ no, to help people live whole’.   It took ten years to publish my first book, but God was faithful.  Delayed but not denied.  Today  I work with at-risk youth, women and in prisons and help people live whole.