CEO and Owner
Michael Minard is at once a lifelong innovator, proven problem solver, skilled data analyst, compassionate business leader, and automation visionary who is redefining the future of real estate marketing. Since 2000, Delta Media Group, led by Michael, has become the quiet giant of real estate brokerage technology and digital marketing, growing an astonishing 4,000% under his leadership.1192405
Michael is a self-proclaimed tech “geek” and developer who is impassioned about automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Known as a preeminent AI thought leader in the real estate brokerage industry, Michael’s early focus on automation and "Early AI" paved the way for a landmark 2019 research collaboration with graduate data scientists, which transformed millions of behavioral data points into the industry's first high-accuracy predictive models.
Widely published for his strategic AI insights, he created the industry’s benchmark annual AI Leadership Survey in 2024 and was named a RISMedia Newsmaker for his AI leadership efforts. Michael continues to bridge the gap between complex data science and brokerage profitability, helping firms navigate the AI-driven future with strategic clarity and academic rigor.
His entrepreneurial journey began as a sixth-grader when he discovered the power of computers and programming.
Michael credits his father, a self-taught Management Information Systems (MIS) Manager, for fostering his deep interest in technology. His dad headed the development of the software -- Inventory, Accounting, Payroll, and more -- that ran the Manchester Tool Company. Michael watched his dad’s success as a technologist grow, helping the tool firm’s parent company turnaround other manufacturing companies it had acquired.
The early years
Born in Barberton, Ohio, and raised in Canal Fulton, Ohio, near Canton, Michael’s Northeastern Ohio roots would remain central to his success throughout his career. While not widely known, Northeast Ohio is a hotbed of invention and innovation, ranking among the top 15 U.S. markets for total patents over the last decade and a half.
Programming was Michael’s hobby in junior high and high school. He's also had a talent and penchant for mathematics. He would excel in math, taking three college-level Calculus courses while still in junior high.
Even more remarkably, as a teenager, Michael started his own successful tech company. He designed ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems for firms in the construction industry. His work included developing and deploying standalone software that worked alongside QuickBooks and provided sales performance reports to help his small-business clients run their operations. At 18, he was part of the Claris Solutions Group (acquired by Apple). Like many teenagers, Michael enjoyed cycling, which remains an active part of his life. He supplemented his tech development work by taking on a part-time job at a local bike shop while in high school.
Honing leadership skills
Ernie’s Bicycle Shop, a four-store franchise based in Ohio, was where Michael earned his first management stripes. Shortly after graduating high school and while studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Akron, he was named Store Manager at Ernie’s North Canton location.
Michael grew the shop’s revenue by over 400 percent during his tenure, to nearly $1 million annually. His management success led to additional responsibilities for ordering and stocking multiple product lines for all locations. When he left Ernie’s, the North Canton store had the highest revenue and the highest profit margins companywide.
For the next two years, Michael pursued his passion for helping people and commitment to his faith by taking on a full-time position as Youth Pastor at Calvary Bible Church in nearby Green, Ohio. He was responsible for youth ministries for 6th- to 12th-graders, overseeing vacation Bible school, youth sports outreach ministry, senior high ministry leaders, and more.
While he positively impacted the lives of more than 200 students, he also leveraged his technical skills to benefit his church. During his time as a youth pastor, he helped upgrade the church’s computer systems. Michael automated many of the Church's operations, developing and implementing payroll, management, and membership software systems.
The move to digitalization and automation
Another calling – his thirst for innovation – would lead Michael to start Miracom Design in the Canton area in 1998. His innovative web design company helped corporations launch websites and bring large printed product catalogs into the digital age.
Miracom’s primary client was a manufacturing and engineering firm with some 100,000 different product offerings. Michael pioneered automation systems to digitize a printed catalog of 100,000 products -- including specifications, part numbers, descriptions, and images–– into web-accessible databases. He invented an automated software process that accomplished this feat.
Through automation, Miracom undercut its competition with better pricing, successfully landing large businesses that generated between $10 million and $ 200 million in annual revenue. Its automated software also provided Miracom with significantly higher profit margins than those of its competitors.
It was at Miracom during the late 1990s that Michael pioneered and built what is believed to be the first website template engine. The website template engine was able to completely redesign and relaunch websites of any size, with no limit on the number of pages, in a matter of minutes. This technology would eventually become the website template engine that powers Delta Media’s template system today.
The Delta Media opportunity
Just as Michael was about to grow and expand Miracom in 2000, an opportunity emerged to purchase a failing firm based in Sunnyvale, California, called TigerFly.
Tigerfly’s overarching goal was to transform "brick-and-mortar" real estate companies into an e-marketplace, or Exchange. The platform that Tigerfly built would put real estate brokerages in control of their data. While the TigerData Exchange was built and ready for beta by the end of 2000, it never launched after the dot-com bubble burst.
While Miracom continued to operate and still serves a handful of clients today, Michael’s attention turned to the opportunity he saw with Tigerfly. In the fall of 2000, Michael and three other business partners purchased TigerFly, rebranding the company as Delta Media Group and relocating to Barberton, Ohio.
The first few years for Delta Media were tumultuous. Still, under Michael’s leadership, the company rebuilt and implemented an advanced, highly flexible, and reliable platform, enabling Delta to rapidly expand its technology offerings and features.
From 2001 to 2007, Delta Media began a growth spurt in product offerings, client acquisition, and revenue. Three employees rapidly turned into a team of more than 50. Property listings on the Delta platform surged from 14,000 active listings in 2001 to more than 4 million properties for sale across 48 states by 2007.
A talent for technology
During Delta Media's successful expansion, Michael’s proclivity for solving business problems, combined with his entrepreneurial spirit, led him to create and run a complementary business alongside Delta.
By 2008, Delta’s growth had exploded fivefold. Michael wanted to remove Delta from the hosting business. After an exhaustive search, he was unable to find a suitable data center in Northeast Ohio. Michael’s response: he built one.
At the dawn of the Great Recession, Michael founded SecureData 365. The data center was housed in Delta Media's new corporate headquarters in Canton, Ohio. The multi-story, 30,000 square foot Class A+ office building was custom-built for Delta Media, housing both Delta’s corporate offices and the new 7,000 square foot state-of-the-art data center. Michael eventually sold his interest in SecureData, but it remains one of Ohio’s most advanced hosting centers.
Rebounding from the Great Recession
While the Great Recession technically lasted for only two years – 2007 to 2009 – its impact on the real estate industry continued well into 2012. It was a time when Delta Media, like most real estate technology providers, experienced significant client loss. Yet under Michael’s leadership, Delta Media maintained its overall client count through effective new client acquisition.
Most of Delta’s competitors struggled to survive, but Michael focused the company's resources on re-engineering much of its legacy platform and on fueling its technological innovations. His vision for the future helped propel Delta Media to a stronger position as a leading technology and marketing solutions provider.
Beginning in 2014, under Michael’s guidance, Delta expanded aggressively into Digital Marketing services, creating robust, unmatched Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services. And in 2016, Michael bought out his remaining business partners and became the sole owner of all Delta Media stock. That strategy is Delta Media’s most important competitive advantage – being 100% family-owned – as it provides benefits that companies with outside investors or obtained VC (Venture Capital) funding can’t match.
The power of data
Michael is a gifted data analyst who relies on skills rather than intuition, helping him spot business and financial trends early. It's a talent that makes him one of real estate’s reliable visionaries, with the ability to create innovative products and services customers will need before they ask.
Numbers come easily to Michael – he loves his spreadsheets, diving into trends, projections, and leading indicators. It’s earned him a reputation as a smart, savvy business leader, which is why local business owners seek him out for advice.
All the products and services Delta Media offers its customers benefit from the exceptional data management systems Michael and his team have built. Best known for its all-in-one DeltaNET platform – including DeltaNET 7, its latest industry-leading, AI-powered version, born from 40,000 development hours and an investment of $40 million. Michael notes confidentially that Delta Media delivers real estate’s fastest, most durable, stable, secure, and affordable technology platform today.
Humility in leadership
What energizes Michael as a leader is when others on his team are recognized for their contributions. He confesses that one of the keys to his enduring success in business has been remaining humble. Humility is unique in real estate, where bravado often poses as confidence. Instead of chasing headlines, Michael’s focus has been on surrounding himself with a cohesive team, stacked with “people who are smarter than me.” The result is loyalty, as Delta Media’s team retention rate is the envy of any business.
It’s also why Delta Media customers consider Delta a “partner” instead of a “vendor.” And it is why Michael is obsessed with helping solve the problems his partners face, approaching each as if it were his own.
He explains his desire to solve problems involving technology, business, and productivity is likely why he has excelled in leveraging business automation for Delta partners. He admits he is energized when solving problems that others say can’t be solved because he’s driven to help his brokerage customers.
Midwestern ethos
Michael’s faith keeps him centered on the needs of others, while his Midwestern work ethic pushes him forward. Michael and his wife are active in the community where they live in Jackson Township, just six miles from Canal Fulton, where he grew up.
In addition to his involvement with his church, The Chapel in Green, he and his wife heavily support local organizations, including The Haven of Rest and Young Life. The Haven of Rest provides food, shelter, education, and hope for the disadvantage, while Young Life helps youths grow their faith.
Michael also remains supportive of several other local organizations, including Arts in Stark, a 50-year-old countywide nonprofit that uses the arts to “create smarter kids, new jobs, and healthier communities.”
On any given Sunday after church, Michael will be on a bicycle ride with friends, in a bike race, or hanging out at home. And he will likely be thinking about what Delta Media will be doing next.
Media contacts:
Kevin Hawkins · (206) 866-1220
kevin@wavgroup.com