Mike’s Story
Mike’s professional background has uniquely equipped him as a mentor to others. After serving for 15 years as an Army Paratrooper, Police Officer and SWAT Team Commander, Mike would find his true calling as a professional trainer.
Starting in the early 90s, Mike began teaching various police departments, military units and federal agencies including the DEA, FBI and US Marshall’s Service. By 2001, Mike had become the most credentialed tactical trainer in the United States with additional black belts in multiple martial arts.
Following the events of 9/11, Mike was the most called upon training expert for the airline industry. He then developed his flagship Behavior Assessment Program for the Disney Company and wrote the Protecting Soft Targets Program for the Department of Homeland Security. In 2006, Mike returned to the “field” and spent the next five years serving as a bodyguard for some of the world’s wealthiest executives, including both co-founders of Microsoft and the CEOs of Berkshire Hathaway and Google.
While all these details might suggest that Mike has always been strong, decisive, and focused, this was far from the case. Mike’s life began inauspiciously. As the product of an unplanned pregnancy, Mike grew up poor with a mother who was captive to alcoholism and disastrous relationship decisions. Frequent moves were the norm and horrific incidents of domestic violence became a constant. For Mike, a small, weak kid, every day was terrifying. Then, when Mike was 15, his mother died of cancer.
He would spend the next several years bouncing around between relatives and descending into addictions of his own. After spiraling downwards for three years, Mike unsuccessfully tried to take his own life at age 18. An experience that led him to reexamine his troubled existence and would begin his journey to faith in Jesus later that same year.
As Mike puts it, “In February of 1981, I had nothing to offer the world. And the world seemed to have nothing to offer me. I was as low as you can get. But one thing changed that. THE One. So, while I was now saved, I was still directionless. And weak. In every conceivable way.
Then I felt a calling. A calling to help others. Something I was definitely not yet prepared to do. But, with God’s help, I was able to begin to think differently. Which started moving me in a new direction. A stronger direction. The direction I continue pursuing to this day.”
Mike’s message has now resonated around the world. His teaching materials have been sold in over 50 countries. He has personally trained tens of thousands of people. His mind-over-matter stunts have been documented by Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe it or Not. And through his books, online courses, and speaking engagements he continues to spread his message of a different kind of strength. A strength not his own. A strength we all can claim.
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
—Isaiah 41:10
Mike Gillette is the father of four and grandfather of nine. He and his wife Tammie, an EMS helicopter pilot, currently reside in Southern Illinois.
They have been married over 40 years.