How To Always Make The Right Choice With Michael Krause

Dr. Kim Grimes continues her topic about integrity vs. appetites in this conversation with Michael Krause. The CEO of Tovuti discusses the importance of making the right choice all the time but always keeping in alignment with the truth and the will of God. Michael explains why taking accountability for every decision is a must and how bad choices affect more than just yourself. He also talks about the intertwined meaning of integrity and identities, emphasizing how your actions define the very individual you want the entire world to see.

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How To Always Make The Right Choice With Michael Krause

You folks know that here, we empower people to uncover their greatness to find their true identity, and own who they were created to be. We believe that by revealing and understanding your greatness, you will fall madly in love with who you are. In the post-COVID era, I’m witnessing, and I know you folks are well. We have said this over in previous episodes, witnessing so much dishonesty, untruthfulness, increased violence, and so much more.

I’m quite sure like I said, I’m not by myself here when I say this, and because of this, I want to continue our conversation on personal integrity. Our readers, you know about the phrase structural integrity, and we stated before that structural integrity is a building science tree. We are not talking about structural integrity.

The technical definition of structural integrity is the ability of a structure to withstand its intended low without failing due to fracture or fatigue. Unfortunately, we all have seen a structure integrity failure in Miami. It was last summer when we heard about it. We saw what happened when the structure was cracked, and it could not handle or bears its load.

This series is not about that at all. In this series, we are talking about personal integrity because what we know is this. We are quick to excuse our personal lack of integrity. We are real quick with that but we are not quick to excuse the breach of integrity when it comes to others, especially loved ones, our friends, and our leaders. We are not quick to excuse that. The question is, “What is integrity? Do you have it?” If you don’t have integrity, now the question becomes, “What’s guiding you?”

Our topic of this episode is your integrity or your appetite. What’s guiding you? Is it your integrity or is it your appetite? I want to make sure that all our readers have a better understanding of what we are talking about, integrity, and when we say personal integrity. Here’s my definition. I got a couple, so bear with me.

Integrity is the resolve and the courage to do right and the noble thing. Only because it’s right and noble, that’s it. Integrity is the will, the courage, as I said, to do the right thing but here’s the thing. Regardless of any consequences, integrity is a universal, inescapable, expectation that assumes and we ought to do right. In the book of Proverbs, Chapter 11:3, I’m coming from the New American Standard Bible version. It says, “The integrity of the upright will guide them but the crookedness of the treacherous will destroys them.” We know we ought to do right.

If we don’t, what will happen? It will eventually destroy us like structural integrity. The failure of your personal integrity impacts other people, especially those around you. Even more so, it impacts those who are closest to you. Does your integrity guide you? I don’t know. Here’s the challenge. We don’t know if integrity guides us. If integrity guides you until maintaining it costs you.

When it costs you something, that’s when you will know if it guides you or not. It’s okay to make a mistake. We are going to make mistakes. If we are going to fail, we get back up. It’s okay but it’s not okay to cover it up. It’s not okay to act as if nothing happened. Your integrity is so much more important than your infallibility. Respect from others is contingent on your integrity and not your failures or mistake. The crookedness of the lack of your integrity will destroy you and the people that are around you.

Again, the question is, “What guides you?” I want you to think about that. We all know the lack of integrity is personal but it is not private. It’s because it impacts the people that are around you. Why is maintaining integrity so hard? Why is it hard? This is why we are here, and that is because our appetite, your appetite, my appetite, we always want more. We want more stuff, more attention, responsibility, money, food, and sex, to say the least.

Our appetites pose a constant threat to our integrity just about every single day because we have to say no to one to protect or satisfy the other and satisfy an appetite. This is a constant tension that we live with every day on multiple levels. In other words, we have to say no to our appetite sometimes to protect our integrity or we say no to our integrity but we can’t do both. That’s what we are talking about. That’s why you are here.

We are still, and you all know that in our series, the way we have this set up is instead of having multiple guests come in and talk about a lot of different topics, we have multiple guests come in, and we want to talk about the same topic. The reason for that is that we want different perspectives. My perspective may not suit you but someone else’s perspective may. That’s why we want to reach a much larger diversity of readers.

Now that I set all that let me introduce you to our guest for this episode. Let me introduce you to my friend but before I do that, I want you to know about him. I want to share something about him before I go in, tell you his name, and bring him on. Let me set the stage. Our guest, his name is Michael Krause. He is the Chief Operating Officer of Tovuti.

Tovuti is the number one ranked Learning Management System, LMS. You can google it. It is A to Z solution, and it has everything from housing content to knowledge-based libraries course and course content creation, live learning, reporting, and so much more. Michael began his career on the technical side of things, which I love because I’m a techie. I always say, “I’m that closet geek.”

He started this on the technical side with his degree in Computer Science, likewise me. Later, he achieved his MBA and now, is in the process of his Doctorate degree. I can’t wait to call you, Dr. Krause. He worked at Microsoft on the original dot-net framework team as a software design engineer. For techies like me, I know what that is.

Michael has worked with many amazing brands to ensure the success of their missions. We are talking about brands like Nike, Apple, eBay, Microsoft, Google, White House, the NFL, Tesla, SpaceX, NBC, BBC, the Grammys, Warner Bros, Michael Page, Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense, to name a few. Michael’s claim of fame like what he is known for, what he’s all about, is known for being a family man, married to his best friend, Sheree. He also has 5 amazing children and 5 grandchildren.

Michael was born in Los Angeles and raised in the Northwest. He loves the outdoors, kayaking, camping, hiking, and mountain biking. Michael and Sheree love to travel and explore the world. I need to share this. When you introduce a chief operating officer, you may think, “He’s all up here or she’s all up here.” I want you to know what his job description is. He’s responsible for all client onboarding, account management, support, and customer service. I’m emphasizing that for a reason, and I will get back with you on that when you do.

He’s responsible for contributing to the executive leadership of all teams and departments to see that Tovuti and its incredible clients, team, and partners realize world-class experience. Please help me to welcome my guest, my friend, Michael, soon-to-be Doctor Krause. Thank you for being here. I truly appreciate you. Go ahead, and let’s jump in.

Thank you so much, Dr. Kim. It’s my honor and privilege to be here, aside from all that, which was amazing. I got to say, and I’m a child of God. I’m a forever learner and a humble servant. If I can’t add value to those that are in my life, my children, my family, my friends, and my community, then I am missing the mark. Super excited about our conversation. Integrity is at the heart of self-health, first and foremost, and a healthy community. Irregardless of its work, family or other, we are talking about the heart of ourselves and our healthiness now. Integrity is important.

Yes, it is key. Before we jump into our discussion, I would love for you to share how did we meet.

It’s easy to say, “Dr. Kim was looking for an LMS, and we got introduced to each other through that process.” I think the how is so much greater than that. God has plans to bring lives together. As I said, he’s a great influencer on our lives, our communities, and our journeys. This was something that he had planned. He wanted iron to sharpen iron in that context.

When we allow ourselves to listen and step out of the business of some of our meetings, we meet hundreds of people sometimes in a single day through 15-minute meetings, and in 20 of those 15-minute meetings, we get caught up in the busyness of it. Every once in a while, we listen and pause. There’s so much more to unpack to experience, and this was one of those.

I agree 100%. As Michael said, I was looking for an LMS. I didn’t know, stumbled upon it, and did not know Tovuti. It was during the pandemic, and I thought I was ready and wasn’t ready. They gave me so much grace, and I see why. It’s because, under your leadership, there was so much grace, and I’m still grateful for it. Meeting you, it was like when you eat Cracker Jatz, you got the prize, and you are like, “The prize is so much better than the Cracks Jatz.” To be honest, that is it. I’m like, “Yay.” Like I told you time and time again, it’s an honor to know you. I’m so grateful.

I agree with you as well when you say this is what God is calling us to do. To me, he allowed us. I will pass the cross. Let’s jump into the discussion but here’s what I want. This is the question that I used to lead into the discussion. It’s about the title of the show. What does it mean to you, Michael, to be you unapologetically? We got to answer that question first because that’s the title of the show, You Are YOU Unapologetically. Let’s jump in with that question first.

Authenticity is so important. Part of why I’ve chosen to align myself with the current founder and company is because we have started to create versions of ourselves. That fractured self is the first way we start to remove ourselves from integrity, wholeness, and completeness. It’s important that we align ourselves in work, in play, and in the family as our single united self. In that, that’s how we start to become authentic. We don’t make apologies for our faith. We don’t make apologies for our priorities. We don’t make apologies for our values.

It’s so important that no job, no activity, no journey that we choose is a reduction in our values and what’s our priorities. Those are not easy. They can come with complexities but that’s the first step in self-empowerment, “I’m not going to give up what’s important to me for this opportunity. No money, no ego, no award, no certificate is worth sacrificing who I am.”

Would you say that you are happy with who you are or would you say that you are still working to become that person that you want to be?

I’m happy with who I’m becoming every day. As we think about it from a faith perspective, we are all on a journey. I believe my journey is not going to end on this planet, in this lifetime. I have to believe and practice that belief like up here, great things. For great things to happen, I have to have a North Star, and my North Star guides that. That reinforces my values and my authentic unapologetic me.

That’s what I’m talking about. Share with me if there were, and I’m quite sure there have been some incidents or situations that had occurred in your life that caused you to choose either your appetite over your integrity or your integrity over your appetite.

When we think about the appetite, sometimes, it’s literally driven by our physical needs. I come back and relate this almost from a biblical context. We have a couple of different examples that are pretty significant, and there’s a big contrast in that. One of them that I love is Joseph. Joseph was confronted with his physical needs all the time, whether it was being approached and propositioned by another man’s wife, power or wealth.

He chose from integrity what was right and fled what was wrong. In our lives, there are times and mine too, where those challenges are like, “I could take this job, and this money and have made those mistakes,” and being authentic in that. Joseph gives us an example of that pure making the right choice but then we have David. David is recognized as a person that’s after God’s own heart. God loves David. David made mistake after mistake but was so quick to recognize and transparent as the world noticed PSA. “I did not make the right decision,” and was instantly back in God’s favor.

There’s this truth in choosing the right and choosing the right, right away. We are not always going to see the immediate implications of a bad choice but when we do, we owe it to ourselves, our families, and our communities to make those corrections and make them out loud so that we can be a model and demonstrate that we understand how to turn ourselves back. The last piece I will say is important. My stepdad was a pilot in the Navy and also an avionics technician who owned his own company.

I got to spend a lot of time in my early years working with him, and he was an amazing individual but an attitude. An attitude, we think of it, “Do we have a good attitude?” For an airplane, it’s these 360 views of our place and space. It’s not that we are, from an airplane trajectory, never on target but always driving to that target and that North Star. There’s a constant and continuous correction that’s taking place. That’s how we position ourselves and our integrity on those right things.

That right thing is in here. Outside doesn’t determine what’s right. Inside determines what’s right. Outside is distractions and influence but inside, there is a North Star and truth that I believe in. If I make choices against my own beliefs, that’s when things start to break down. That’s when my internal structures, my internal healthiness, start to take the impact and degrade because I’m making decisions that I know are not right. I’m suffering the consequences along with my family and my community.

That goes right into the question, “How does that impact you?” and you share that. The people that are around you, and I always say the decisions that we make, rather good or bad, are going to have an impact on those who are around us. Those people are around us, especially those who are closer to us. You hit the nail on the head with how you shared.

If there’s a breakdown within you, it not only impacts you. It’s going to your family, your community. All of them are going to see it and feel it as well. With that, what advice would you give? Can we give someone who is struggling or who is trying to find and maintain their integrity when the world is trying to tell them who to be or they don’t know who they are? What can you say to those people who are struggling in that space?

When I’m mentoring or coaching young people, and there are a couple of young men, including my sons and daughters, in my life, I’m always mentoring and encouraging them. The very first step in understanding integrity and having a North Star, understanding what is right or wrong, is that we each have to decide what’s our source of truth. What’s the authority and authoritative truth in our lives? It may be different.

Everybody may share my beliefs and my values but for me, I have chosen that authoritative source of truth. Once you’ve chosen that authoritative source of truth, you have to practice and live it. You will know because you have a conscientious reaction internally. When you do something, you will have shame. That shame can be an indicator that you are going outside of it. The next piece that’s important, there was an amazing sermon that my family got to witness. That was all about our identity. Integrity and identity are integrated on levels that it’s difficult to grasp but are codependent.

If we have a source of truth, and in my beliefs, my case, that is in Jesus, God, and the Bible. I live that truth and have an identity come on based on that truth. If those are in alignment, everything is working great. There’s a joy. It’s deeper than happiness. It’s in a completeness day in and day out. In those places, storms can come. We can experience loss. We can experience disappointment. We are not going to win all the time, and it’s okay because we have a foundation in our source of truth and our identity, “Who am I?”

We can understand those two things, and I look at the world, I look at the brokenness. You mentioned that there’s violence and disrespect for life and for all the things that many of us hold dear. Not all of us promote it necessarily in the same way but we all agree. My life, my relationships, my community, and my family are so important, and then we see the violence that comes against that. In most cases, as they unpack those things, you will find that the individuals that are perpetrating that struggle. They don’t have a clear identity. They don’t have a clear source of truth or authority inside them to guide them in right and wrong.

The world has more questions now because there’s a lack of a strong source of truth and identity. Those, to me, are how we live our integrity. It is by understanding because otherwise, there’s not right and wrong. It’s all up for grabs. It’s all ambiguous. Can you imagine a compass that doesn’t have a North? I even wrote an article about it, and you can see the compass and the attitude. If we don’t have a North Star, what guides us?

You unpacked much and gave our readers so much juiciness that they can eat for days. Thank you for that. You put together the integrity and identity that are intertwined. One of the reasons why I do what I do is help people to uncover their greatness so that they can see who they are, they can find their true identity, and can be who God created them to be. That’s what drives me. That’s why when I open my mouth, I’m interacting with people. I’m saying, “What is it that you love about yourself? What is it that you admire about yourself? What is it that you like about yourself? What is it that you appreciate about yourself?”

I ask those questions so that they can begin to start uncovering because life, as it happens, it covers up. Before you know it, all of the greatness that we were created within our mama’s womb gets covered up, and we can’t see it. My goal, my drive, is I’m determined to help people to uncover it so that they can uncover their greatness, find their true identity and be who God created them to be. You unpack it for us in a way that was scrumptious, and I appreciate that. Are there any ways now that you find it challenging in any way to walk in integrity? How has walking in integrity made your life better?

The challenges and you talked about appetite. That’s fantastic. What are the temptations? What are the vices that we drag with us every day that are very human aspects that we are all confronted with? The cost of allowing those appetites to lead our decisions, our associations, and our relationships is that we will see degradation in our relationships. There will be trust issues. There will be an overly focus on the superficial and not the person. Anything that pulls us away from the plum line is a great reference.

There’s a plum line that represents a perfect alignment of ourselves with God, our source of truth and with integrity, what’s right and wrong, and how we manage that. That looks right, and some self-management. When I was a young man and learning, discovering, and declaring, “This is my source of truth. Christ is my source of truth. That’s my anchor. That’s my plum line.” With that, I can understand that I have been chosen. I am perfect as I am. I don’t need to be a different Michael in any scenario or situation. Whether it’s at work, at the grocery store or at home, I’m the same me in Christ. That truth is my plum line. How do I overcome the appetite? How do I overcome the challenges and temptations?

Something that I discovered very young in Christ as a young adult was that I can start every day with a focus. This is because we have so many distractions. We have media, social, and people in our lives that maybe are a poor influence and our own thoughts. Christ brought everything back. When Christ talked about sin and corruption, he didn’t talk about the things we do that are visible and that are granted. He brought it all the way back into our thoughts. In Matthew, “What are you thinking? Are you coveting? Are you lusting? Are you angrier? Are you raged?” All these things in here are where it begins.

In Corinthians, “We are called to hold every thought captive.” In my young mind, I was thinking, “If it’s a battle of the minds, Romans, then how do I accept my compass every day?” For me, I start my day focusing on him. I journal and read. I draw myself back to the center of who I am. Over the years, my children began to grab onto that. They were like, “Dad is up. It’s 6:00 AM. What’s he doing in there? I want coffee too.”

“I want to play.”

It’s an intentional self-investment every day that says, “I’m not here to bring everybody with me. I’m here because I desperately need to refocus my life because there are so many distractions that the next 24 hours, the odds of being tempted, distracted, coerced, misled, and bombarded with different truths and other people’s ideas and priorities. How do I at least have a reset every 24 hours?” I teach my children. Sheree and I also were blessed to lead youth and college groups over the years, especially growing a family. Those were amazing things to participate in but also the pause button.

When do we get to pause and give ourselves permission and time as we exercise? We want to have a healthy diet and exercise. Our spirit, our self, and our soul need that reset. I have chosen mornings. My wife is a night owl. She will end every day with this refocus and this reset. I start every day with it. We will meet in the middle. It’s perfect.

The way that God built and designed me, Michael, that morning drives my set and says, “In all your business decisions, all your engagements, escalations, encounters, any part of my life, I’m now resetting myself to that source of truth, that plum line. This is my integrity. This is what I believe is right and wrong. I’m going to follow this road now.” It gives me that chance. Throughout the day, it’s a jungle. It’s a journey. All these things are happening.

I can come back and look at it the next morning and say, “A thousand things happened, and nine of those, I managed well. Thank you, Lord, for keeping me on that track but wow. Look at this 10%. Now I’m David.” I’m trying to get these back on track. I’m making apologies. I’m making corrections. I’m sharing my learning lesson with my team, my wife, and my family. Every day, I grow. That’s the hope that we get to share as gray backs with the whiskers in the journey is. I need to learn how to self-correct along the way and be open to accountability.

Accountability is a big one when it comes to integrity. Without accountability, it gets a wider swing. We get further into the appetites and don’t have it coming back. We don’t have a close person, a spouse or a best friend that can. That’s not the authentic you, Michael. I know the authentic you. I know who the authentic Dr. Kim is, and that’s not it. Can we get back to that?

You gave me my next topic because I was praying like, “God, what is the next like? What is the next discussion going to be about?” I’m open, and you shared it the accountability because it ties in. Stay tuned, readers, because that’s what’s coming up next. Michael, what I love about what you shared is that you were able to give it to our readers in a way where they can follow it like a recipe or you mashed it where it’s palatable, and they don’t even have to chew it like apple sauce.

I don’t know anybody who chooses apple sauce. I know I don’t. It just made me think of that. Anyway, thank you so very much for that. What I would love for you to do is to please share with my readers how they get in contact. If they want to get in contact with you, the soon-to-be Dr. Krause? As they read what you are saying and you may strike a chord within them, and they may want to reach out and say, “Thank you so much for the words of wisdom,” how can they do that? What do they need to do?

There are a couple of ways. The absolute best way, and because of integrity, I have very controlled and limited access to social for all the obvious reasons. LinkedIn is where I would say, professionally, that’s a great way to connect. There’s a lot of transparency and accountability in that environment. It’s a very appropriate and business-minded environment, and I love LinkedIn for all those reasons.

If you are very adventurous, you could go hunt for Mike and Ree on Facebook, and you will find my wife, my beautiful bride and best friend. She can connect with you and give you different ways to get in contact. That’s another option. Also, email Michael@IKrouse.com is my personal email or Tovuti, which is all available through LinkedIn as well. If there’s an opportunity for me to share, invest or answer questions, I would welcome that.

Whenever we get into a good conversation, we have such a wonderful time that we must bring it to a close when we don’t want to. What I would love for you to do, Michael, is please share some closing thoughts, some takeaways or something. You have been given juicy nuggets. I have been calling them scrunches the entire time. What would you like to share as closing thoughts or comments to our readers?

I would love to encourage everyone that’s reading that it’s so important to know ourselves. “Know thy self,” is what they say. If you haven’t found your source of truth and as I said, we are founded in Christ and the Bible and the truth that goes with that. There’s no greater source of truth. That’s my belief but if you don’t know that, they would say like, “Your heart of hearts,” then you are on a journey of determining your truth. Until you have a truth, a fundamental proven like there’s no doubt, it’s going to be difficult to operate in integrity, and you can operate in accountability.

You can invite people and say, “If you see me behaving or acting,” but those are very external. Those are superficial controls. Not bad, not wrong but without a source of truth, you won’t be able to understand who you are. Your identity is based on your truth. I would encourage everyone that if you don’t feel comfortable or confident in who you are, you need to determine your source of truth. What authority? What determines right and wrong in your life? That’s what I mean by a source of truth.

It’s deeper than values. It’s at the very core of who you are. In any situation, you will know this is right and wrong, and this is why. Our souls and our spirit help us understand that. We might not understand why but it is in us all. I would encourage you to explore that. I know Dr. Kim has information and resources to help you on that journey. I would encourage you to determine that in your life. It’s so important.

You are right. It is so important. Thank you. I don’t want it to end. I don’t want to stop. I do that with all my guests because we get into it and it’s like, “No, it’s time.” Like, “Already?” Michael, thank you so much, soon-to-be, Dr. Krouse. I can’t wait. I’m jumping the gun, calling you that now. Thank you so much for your time, for coming and pouring into our readers, and for sharing. I know that those who are reading someone have been and will be moved by what you shared. I’m honored to know you, to work with you, and to meet you the way that we have is an honor for me.

Thank you again. This may be the first time but it won’t be the last. I’m telling you. You will be back. I’m telling our readers that he will be back like all the other guests that we had as well. They will be back. I look forward to us connecting and having more of a conversation such as this.

Thank you.

Folks, what we are talking about is that it’s easy. It is easy to lose yourself in today’s clashing ideas, conflicting beliefs, and flood of information. Michael spoke of it when he was sharing. With society’s rigid expectations and endless opinions, self-expression and self-appreciation can feel challenging and daunting. Most of the time, what we do, we push away. We dumb down to it. We hide who we are or we go with the flow but we are here to put an end to this disparaging mindset and to empower you to begin to own your authentic self.

Join me here on this show, and we will create a safe space. We initiate influential conversations about being you. That’s what I said about being you because you are you unapologetically. This is what I know, and you owe no one an apology for being you because no one is better at being you than you. Thank you so much for reading. Looking forward to seeing you on the episode. Until then, you folks take care, and we will connect. Bye. See you.

Important Links

• Tovuti
• LinkedIn – Micheal Krouse
• Michael@IKrouse.com

About Michael Krause

Michael Krause, Tovuti’s Chief Operations Officer (COO/CXO) began his career on the technical side, with a computer science degree. Michael is responsible for all client on-boarding, account management, support, and custom services. Contributing to executive leadership across all teams and departments to see Tovuti and our incredible clients, team, and partners realize world-class experience. Later Michael achieved his MBA and today he is in process of his doctorate.

He worked at Microsoft on the original .Net Framework team as a software design engineer. Michael has worked with many amazing brands to ensure the success of their mission! Brands like Nike, Apple, eBay, Microsoft, Google, White House, NFL, Tesla, SpaceX, NBC, BBC, Grammy’s, Warner Brothers, Michael Page, Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense, just to name a few. Michael is a family man, married to his best friend Sheree, and with 5 amazing kids and 5 grandchildren. Michael was born in Los Angeles and raised in the northwest. He loves the outdoors, kayaking, camping, hiking, and mountain biking. Michael and Sheree love to travel and explore the world.