More than 30 years. Five platform shifts. One job underneath all of them.

Mike Millett founded Digilu in 1999 and runs it today. From 2022 to 2026 he was VP of Marketing at Stratus Building Solutions, a national commercial-cleaning franchise, for all four of its years at #1 on Entrepreneur’s Fastest-Growing Franchise list.

$1B+recovered by Robertson & Associates for fire survivors reached through the platform Mike built
#1×4Entrepreneur’s Fastest-Growing Franchise, 2023 to 2026, while Mike was VP of Marketing at Stratus
3.4→4.7Google rating across the Stratus franchise system, from when Mike started to when he left

In brief

Mike founded Digilu in 1999, when a website was still an advantage.

Then search changed discovery. Social changed reputation. Smartphones changed access. AI is changing what customers learn before they ever reach the business.

Each shift turned yesterday’s advantage into today’s minimum. He has worked through every one.

The job underneath never changed: see what customers are doing now, see what is coming next, and move the business before the market decides for it.

Where it startedBeing the best at it did not save him.

Mike learned marketing from his father, writing ad copy together at home. His father was at the top of his trade for decades, and he is still Mike’s hero.

A technology shift ended that career.

By then his son was already on the other side of it. In 1988, in high school, Mike produced an entire newspaper on a Macintosh. By 1989 he owned a business built on a Mac SE and a laser printer.

The pattern has repeated ever since. The tool gets cheap, the skill stops being the moat, and the businesses that last are the ones people still understand and trust.

Growing upA size 8 and a size 12.

Mike Millett blocking a ball at the net for Chatsworth High, in a 1988 newspaper photo — “High Stepping: Millett Bucks Medical Experts to Stand Tall for Chatsworth.” Chris J. Parker. Photo by Joe Vitti. Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1988.

Right foot, size 8. Left foot, size 12. He grew to 6′4″ anyway.

He was born with a right leg that is shorter and weaker than the left, and the experts told his mom he would never be able to walk. He was walking at nine months.

In high school, throwing a football alone in the back yard, he felt the right hamstring go with a pop. Nobody was home. After a full-length cast the leg would not hold him up.

By his junior year he was a middle blocker for Chatsworth High, and the Los Angeles Times ran his story as High Stepping.

His senior year, Chatsworth went 17-0 and met Palisades for the City title at UCLA. Down 8-2 in the fifth game, they came back to win it 15-11. Mike had 20 kills and seven blocks.

Los Angeles Times: High Stepping (1988), Chatsworth Outlasts Palisades for 4-A Title (1989).

The experts’ verdict was a starting point, not the ending.

I learned about
Winning
Overcoming
Teamwork
Prayer
Discipline
Respect
Coaching
Mike Millett

Close-up of Mike Millett at the net, from the same newspaper photo

I get a huge photo in the newspaper and I look like a Shar-Pei (haha). From a volleyball level, my eyes are open and my positioning is pretty good. We did block that ball.
Mike Millett

Mike Millett as a young boy, sitting in a tree — Mike as a kid.

The operating yearsThe work came before the frameworks.

Stratus franchise owners at a company meeting — Stratus Building Solutions franchise owners.

Stratus Building Solutions is the clearest example.

Mike ran marketing there as VP while the company ranked #1 on Entrepreneur’s Fastest-Growing Franchise list four consecutive years.

The job: reputation, franchise recruitment and training, HubSpot and system accountability, social strategy, brand consistency, and four years of changing how a national franchise presented itself.

The StratusClean identity went live in April 2026.

The rename was the visible finish. The work started years before it.

BeforeStratus Building Solutions Three buildings in the mark, and “building solutions” in the name.

AfterStratus Clean The category is in the name, and the mark stops arguing with it.

NowThe fifth shift.

AI now describes a business before the customer ever reaches it. Mike’s work at Digilu centers on what AI systems can find, read and verify about a business, and what to do when they get it wrong.

He developed the Marketing Helix, the model for customers in motion, and wrote Elevate or Vanish, on why good businesses fade.

He has taught marketing at Pepperdine: SEO and AI visibility, e-commerce optimization, and how infrastructure can cost a business its search results.

Family and backgroundOutside the work.

Mike Millett's four children as young kids, sitting in front of a Christmas tree: Dillon, Paige, Brooke and Carson, left to right — His four kids, left to right: Dillon, Paige, Brooke and Carson.

Mike Millett has four children: Carson, Brooke, Paige and Dillon, and one grandson, Liam. Carson Millett, his youngest son, is married to Emma. Paige Millett Hastings is married to Zach Hastings, and Liam is her son. The family lives around the Sacramento area. They attend and serve at church, then go grab food together.

His parents are Ken and Nancy Ann. His sister, Laura, has two children, Marissa and Gabriel. Marissa is married to Greg Chen, and their son is Carter.

He also helps people living with chronic back pain, many of them Boston Scientific patients, and is an official Boston Scientific Patient Ambassador.

He has also served as a pastor at churches in Chatsworth, Simi Valley and Elk Grove, California, most recently as executive pastor through 2022.