Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael BROWN.
Hi Michael, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’m not originally from Memphis but from a small town in Arkansas on the river about an hour and a half away. I was raised by my grandmother who brought us shopping and visiting relatives in Memphis. At around 12 years old two callings entered my heart. One was a call to the ministry and the other was the call to be a police officer. The call to the ministry came through dreams and visions but the call to law enforcement came when I saw for the first time an Arkansas State Trooper in uniform. Something said to me, that is what you will be someday. Both calls were strong, but I ran from one and ran to the other.
What I didn’t know was that the one I ran to (law enforcement) would be the one to prepare me for the one I was running from. I’m from the old school African American community of the late 60’s early 70’s and it was almost a sin for a black man to be the police, and it was definitely impossible to be a preacher and the police!
Through high school and college, I was on a journey to become a law enforcement officer. I attained my goal a year after college, becoming a Memphis Police Officer. Then 12 years into journey I was involved in a critical incident with a mass shooter. The shooter killed 4 people before I made the scene. I engaged the shooter and stopped him, but after that incident, my life changed.
See, God had shown me a dream of the incident 3 months before it happened. The dream was a part of the gift I was given for the ministry calling. I was prepared for the battle. I was able to save lives that day by the hand of God working in my life. I received the medal of valor for bravery. I was changed by the trauma of the incident. The change led me to accept the second calling. I learned that God calls us all to certain work and he will equip you to do the work. He will tell you when to change jobs. He didn’t ask me to leave the police department; be he did ask me to now work on the next calling.
I shortly began pastoring, helping people and other officers. It was 15 years after the shooting that I retired and continued to pastor. Then God called me to leave where I was pastoring and start my consulting business. It was blueprinted by Him! I was led to consult on verbal de-escalation, self-defense and self-awareness and life coach people that have been through some of the trauma I have been through. So, three years later, here I am!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh no, the road was not smooth. Just to get a little personal, I was raised by my grandmother because of emotional abuse I had suffered from a parent. My grandmother didn’t have much, but she gave what she had. She had a 6th grade education, but she wanted all her children to go to college. Her husband was killed in a car accident before I was born. Her mother was in that car accident, and she was crippled for the rest of her life. At the time her husband was killed she had 6 children and the youngest was 4 months old. She had never driven a car or had a job when this happened. I was proud to be raised by someone with the resilience to keep going after the odds she was facing.
When I went to college, I learned to be hungry, but survive and thrive. I had enough of a scholarship to stay in the dorm and sometimes get books, but not enough to be on the meal plan. One night I reached out for help from someone that I thought would want to see me succeed. I was down to my last $20 dollars with no job and a whole semester to go. I made the collect call; the person answered but refused to help and even hung up on me.
That night I went back to my dorm room got on my knees crying and praying next to the bed and I fell asleep there. I woke up the next morning on my knees and knew God had told me to spend my last $20 dollars on a set of hair clippers. It didn’t make any sense, this was my last money, but I was so desperate for a miracle right then I did it!
Later that night after I bought the clippers, the Holy Spirit told me to get up and go cut your hair. I did it, I had nothing else to lose. Some guys saw me cutting my hair in the community bathroom and asked how much I charged. I cut five heads that night and made back my money plus some more! After that night I averaged no less than $200 dollars a month until I got a work study job. Even though it was still rough graduating, God had put his stamp of approval on me being in college. He let me know through whatever hardships I was about to face; he would be making a way when there was no way! College was for me to learn to trust Him and not to give up.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a natural teacher/coach. My consulting business is basically my avenue to coach people to build confidence and overcome obstacles that life may throw at you. I specialize in communication, verbal and non-verbal.
I teach communication and the awareness of people and surroundings.
I train church security teams in verbal de-escalation. I will also help churches develop security teams and active shooter training.
I teach self-defense, it is not training to fight, it is to defend and escape. The training mindset is from a biblical base to help in training calmness. Self-defense training is also avoiding a confrontation by learning how to assess your surrounding at all times.
I teach verbal de-escalation and classroom management. I help people bring out their best communication skills in the boardroom or the classroom. I teach the skill of listening. Everyone thinks that they need the gift of “gab”. When you listen, that is what draws other people’s attention. When you listen you gain insight on what to say when you didn’t know what to say before the conversation started. Everyone wants to be heard. There is an art to listening.
I am an inspirational speaker. I do speaker engagements to inspire people to move through the trauma and obstacles in their life. I like to say I use the planned setbacks of the enemy as a setup for a comeback. The Bible says a righteous man will fall seven times and still get back up. There are so many stories of my falls and how Jesus has raised me back up I can’t tell them all in this interview, but I use them in my speeches. Not that I am so righteous, but I have a network of friends and family that pray for me! The Bible states the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous will avail much.
One of my best assets as an officer, told to me by my peers, that I really knew how to come in and de-escalate almost any situation. I want to teach people that skill. I want to teach you to trust that when you are prepared you can work through tough situations.
I guess you can say my business is a communication expert consultant.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Peace makes me happy. The will of God and the things of God reside in peace. Peace is something that is hard to come by in this world today. Peace is something you have to work for and work on when you get it.
Something will always come to disturb your peace when you find it. There has to be a level of peace inside you that will make you search out and find peace. A person who stirs chaos does not love peace. To have peace it is important to have a well picked, small inner circle of friends. Protect that circle with your life. There you will find peace.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tribalance.org
