CONSTRUCTION INNOVATION • MINNEAPOLIS
Mike Kaeding
The Client
Mike Kaeding
CEO, Norhart
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Software engineer by training. Builder by conviction.
Twenty years in construction. Largest residential project in Minneapolis history—a $100 million building, over 1,000 units delivered, $230M in assets.
The Challenge
Mission clear: cut construction costs in half to solve America's housing crisis.
Zero online presence to make that mission travel.
Technical posts. Intermittent. Impersonal. The work was loud. The story was quiet. Being the best-kept secret in an industry that desperately needs what he's building.
The Challenge
"I inherited a company I never asked to run. My father died. I became CEO overnight. But having a story to tell? That came later."
Mike Kaeding runs Norhart, a residential construction company in Minnesota. He didn't choose to lead it—his father's unexpected death put him there. What he did next matters more: he turned a family business into the kind of company that builds the largest residential project in Minneapolis history. A $100 million building. Over 1,000 units delivered. $230M in assets.
But none of that showed up online. Mike is a software engineer by training, a builder by conviction. He had a mission—cut construction costs in half to solve America's housing crisis—but no system to make that mission travel. His posts were technical. Intermittent. Impersonal. The work was loud. The story was quiet.
The risk wasn't failure. It was invisibility. Being the best-kept secret in an industry that desperately needs what he's building.
The Translation
We built Mike's story around three things: the personal arc that got him here, the operational clarity that sets him apart, and the industry challenge he's solving.
01
From Son to CEO
Mike didn't choose leadership. It chose him. His father's death forced a decision: walk away or step up. We told that story—not as tragedy, but as transformation. From fear to vision.
02
Builder with systems thinking
Most construction CEOs talk about growth. Mike talks about waste. Why residential construction is broken. How regulation inflates costs. Why reducing waste solves more than building faster. He's an engineer solving systems problems.
03
The mission behind the work
Norhart isn't building apartments. They're building a case for why construction needs to cost less. We positioned Mike not as a developer, but as someone challenging an entire industry's assumptions about what's possible.
This gave Mike something most CEOs don't have: a narrative system. Not just posts—but a repeatable way to turn leadership into content that builds trust and travels beyond LinkedIn.
03
The work that travels
Each post turned twenty years of construction expertise into stories that opened conversations with policy makers, industry leaders, and media.
04
Press
What this looks like.
Consistent voice, consistent presence
• 85+ posts published
• 20+ months without missing a week
• Average 300 words per post
• Zero generic content
Material reused across channels
Content that started on LinkedIn ended up in:
• Keynote presentations
• Internal newsletters
• Investor decks
• Media interviews
• Policy submissions
One system. Multiple outputs.
"CRUDA gave me something I didn't know I was missing—a system to turn what I do every day into a story that actually travels. I don't sound like every other CEO anymore. I sound like me."
— Mike Kaeding
CEO, NORHART
85+
Posts published (20+ months)
20
Months of weekly publishing
1
Voice that cuts through