John
Miranda

There’s a moment when you’re a kid and something on a movie screen stops you cold. Not because of special effects or ear-splitting sound, but because it’s true. For John, that happened when he first saw The Bad News Bears. A team of foul-mouthed Little-Leaguers. A coach with a drinking problem. An eleven-year-old girl who turned out to be the best player on the field. Not exactly a Disney film. But for the first time, he saw kids on screen that he recognized. The way they struggled. The way they pushed back. The humor they used to navigate a world that had no place for them. If a movie could make him feel that understood, he thought, stories had more power than anyone was letting on.

As a kid growing up in a working-class suburb of San Francisco’s East Bay, it never occurred to John that he could make movies. He didn’t go to film school. He wasn’t headed to Hollywood. Then, just one year out of college, a friend left a job working for one of the most powerful directors in the world and thought of John. When the call came, he packed his car and drove from Memphis to Los Angeles.

Over the next three decades, John worked with world-renowned directors, on Academy Award-winning films and landmark franchises, and he launched the careers of writers who went on to reshape American television. His film and TV work continues to this day.

John’s other great love was Notre Dame football. A passion rooted in childhood, passed down from his grandfather. It was a different kind of storytelling, but just as powerful. All the stakes, all the drama, resolved in three hours instead of the three years it takes to make a film. Every Saturday, a complete story. For someone who lived and breathed narrative, Notre Dame football was as gripping as any blockbuster.

Then, in 2021, the NCAA cleared the way for NIL — and college athletics would never be the same. John saw it immediately: student athletes were going to need more than a brand. They were going to need an unforgettable story — and the self-awareness to tell it. He built a methodology around it and called it First Person.

Identity Architecture was different. John wasn’t looking for it — it found him. A longtime collaborator called with an unusual request: a high-profile friend at a career crossroads who hadn’t gotten clarity from her previous advisors. John walked into that meeting as a film producer and did what he’d always done — listened carefully, asked questions, and excavated until he found what made her unlike anyone else. She went on to build something that reflected her creative passions, and word got around.

Identity Architecture was different. This work found him. A colleague called with an unusual request: a high-profile friend at a career crossroads who hadn’t gotten clarity from her previous advisors. She wasn’t looking for a traditional adviser — she wanted someone with a unique perspective on executive identity. John took the meeting and did what he’d always done — listened, asked unexpected questions, and excavated until he found what made her unlike anyone else. Word got around.

Founders and executives started calling, usually in a pinch and sometimes in a crisis, and John kept finding the same thing: the real obstacle wasn’t strategic. It was identity. Out of those conversations, he built Identity Architecture.

The thread running through all of it — the films, the athletes, the founders — is the same. John Miranda finds what’s singular in people and puts it to work.