Relentless: Homeless Teen to the Entrepreneur Dream with Natasha Miller

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind, where we get real world insights on winning from people who have accomplished amazing things. I'm your host, Larry Weidell. And let's get going. I'm talking with Natasha Miller and Natasha has a lot to say and started with her leaving home, being run out of her home in spite of being a prodigy as a musician, singer, whatever, being shockingly run out of her home at age 16 and having to support herself. And she did. And step by step, she put her life in place. And now today, she's got her own business. Revenue is over $4 million a year. Awards in major publications recognizes fastest growing top female entrepreneur. And revenue is over 4 million. I think I said, but dealing with Apple, Google, Gap, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Salesforce and your neighborhood 7 11, probably. But anyway, so how do you. When you're looking at this thing right here, you said, I'm going to write a book. And so what's your book about that you feel like I've got enough information on this subject. Everybody needs to know.

And.

How did you get the title?

So the title is Relentless Homeless Teen to Achieving the Entrepreneur Dream. And the title came to me because a lot of, you know, people in the last 10 years that have, you know, learned to know me and appreciate me. One woman in particular wrote after Covid hit and our multimillion dollar business went to zero and I was building it back up with another offering. She said, natasha, I just admire your relentless tenacity. And I think people have use that word, relentless in describing me, you know, if they know my story. And I really do believe, like it's not enough to be resilient. You have to be relentless to get from where you are now to where you want to go. So the books I started writing four years ago, I got the idea that it was time to write a memoir, a business memoir, when I was at a random, a conference, a mentorship conference with a bunch of seven and eight, nine figure entrepreneurs. And something happened shortly after I started writing that I won't give away. It'll be a teaser for the book. It's at the end of the book. Something major happened in my life that just blew through our family and stopped me from writing for six months. I had to figure out what was going on, pay attention to what was going on, and I wasn't sure I was going to pick up the pen and keep writing. P.S. i did not write in pen, but figure of speech, right? And I'm glad it took me that long to write Because I had to grow a little bit more into myself in order to be as vulnerable, raw, honest and real about some of the really hard things that, that I went through. And I'm so glad that I was able to publish it because the book now is just sending waves through the people that are reading it. A lot of entrepreneurs are reading it. And interestingly enough, because I'm a woman, A and two, because it's the story of my life. And three, because more women in general read more than men. I did not know that. Maybe not in the entrepreneur scheme, but of all humanity.

Right.

That men are really taken with my story. And I'm getting responses from them with the text circled or highlighted or flagged or underlined. And one recent person that I don't know, a man, wrote this incredible post and he wrote, this is the book I wish I had the courage to write. So I know that I've done something right with what I'm hearing from people, especially people I don't know.

What do you think you've done right?

What I think I did right was a very nice balance of being vulnerable and honest and putting some things in the book that most people wouldn't dare. There are a couple things in the book that I wrote about that my best friend and my therapist hadn't even heard from me. And I did mirror this. I made sure that it was appropriate for the reader and for the book by asking my editor, like, did I go too far? And he said, absolutely not. This is going to make people really trust you when they read this. They're going to know you're telling them the truth. So there was a balance of that with some of the storylines that are really tough inflection points, but then with the balance of the very soaring inflection points and the life lessons that were learned. So this book, my number one goal for the book was for it to read to the, to the reader like a beautiful work of fiction that you couldn't put it down, that you were turning the page and couldn't, couldn't wait to hear what was next. Now, my life story is not fictionalized at all, but it had to be written in such beautiful prose that was my number one, non negotiable. It doesn't read like an essay or a journal.

What do they get out of it in terms of what are they going to get out of that? Because here's where the question comes in. The fact that, okay, Ra, you're going to tell things. These things happen to me. And by the way, we all this is, no offense to you, but the times I've gotten where some of the worst times in my life that I actually explain that to somebody else, it just takes forever. Number one, it's exhausting. And then when it's over, they like, well, huh, that's unbelievable. Or you should write a book about that. Yeah, big deal. You know, and it's like, what's the point? You know, because I felt like, you know, I. There are things that happen to you so incredibly bad, you can't believe somebody, you know, that I was put through this at this stage of my life, whatever, and double cross like this, Rob, you know, whatever. And it's much funnier if it happened to somebody else, by the way. It's not funny if it happens to you. And. But then you get in there and tell us, like I've thought to myself, what's the point? What am I telling them? I mean, what, what good does it do? They already know I know what I'm talking about. I already know the other achievements, you know, like this people know the other achievements that you have in your life. You're probably doing it, you know, to establish your brand. You know, like if you go on a speaking tour or something, you've got a book, that's your calling card. That's why, you know, one of the big reasons for writing books, you know, to have a calling card. But the point is, like, when you, you actually open up and reveal the. It's like a murder on tv. You know, somebody's murdered, they're axe murdered. Well, you know, they're dead. You know, what, how, what's the value in seeing, you know, the ax through the forehead and the blood gushing out and everything? And so when you go in there, it's great for making contact with people that don't know you and they're meeting you for the first time. And so what, when you open that door, that receptivity with them, what kind of impact do you want to make that, like, pay attention to this now? Yeah, okay.

The impact that I'm looking to make with anyone that comes to the book is going to be dependent on where they are in their own story, where they are in their own life. And so I know from hearing from other people that I've impacted them positively in a small way, like a nudge. Some. Others are like, ready for that push. And again, it's not written as a motivational or an inspirational book. It just so happens to be both of those things. I didn't set out to make it that way. But for some people, you know, I'm, I'm definitely not trying to transform anybody's whole life. I don't have that power, I'm not that talented. But it has set people in a catapult outside of their, moving them from their comfort zone which really is a place where they don't want to be. And they read my story and what I'm hearing is, oh my God, if you could, you know, if you could go from where you were to where you are now, then I certainly can get out of my little petty party and make the moves to do these other things again. You know, it just depends on where you are. And it's not really necessarily age based but, but experience based how you may take the book. And again it's not prescriptive, it's not a to do. It isn't a business calling card for me. I do speak about entire productions in great detail toward the end. But you really see my learning curve and you know, where I went from lifestyle business to the aha moment of being able to scale and grow the.

Business and what can people. But people will always learn. You know, for something to stick with them it has to be more than a horror thrill story like wow, you know, she went through all of that.

I think they see the mind frame and the mindset and the decisions I made and you know, someone reflected back to me, you know, because what I think the book is about can be different from what readers think the book is about.

That's always, always the case. Yeah.

And so I'm hearing from. This was from a couple of people, Natasha, I read the book and I saw that you amplified every single opportunity to its fullest extent. Even the negative situations that were happening to you, you turned them around and you figured out a way to power your next move. Now had that not been said to me, I don't think I would be able to utter these words to you because it's not what I would have thought I was doing. But I like it.

Yeah. And so what did you know, you say it's not a to do book, it's not a learning book. You're not trying to teach, but there are lessons that you.

Oh absolutely.

So let's talk about those.

People are.

Out there saying okay and they want to hear it from you. Because the thing is, here's this between me and you. People read the book and then they don't even know what they have read. You know what I'm saying? It just poo. They could be all and the emotions of the thing. Wow. And thinking about what they're going to respond. And I should have done that. But in the process they almost always are likely to miss the plot, you know, and so of things they can take away. Because the whole idea of doing this is make a positive impact. Or at least that's what I did in my book. You know, I serial winner. You know, the idea was I went through a big injury, I was shut down. And during the process of dealing with that, I realized somewhere along the way I realized I'm sitting on a lot of information a lot of people can use, number one. Number two, I only had that information because certain key people came along and showed me the way in certain key areas when I needed it. And that got me going. And not everybody has a chance to find those people, you know. And so I can pass that on, you know, and do my know, make a difference kind of help people. So that, that, that appeared to be a better while I was recovering, better use of my time than trying to watch tv, which, let's face it, you don't watch tv, you watch commercials and could not take. My brain just throbbed from seeing the same commercial 100,000 times and a lot of times in the same half hour show. And so. And sometimes they'll pay them back to back. It's just like, I gotta get away from the tv. I'm gonna go lose my mind. What can I do? Okay. And so that's where the book came from. It's like, do something productive. And so what would you want people to take away to make sure they don't miss the point of the thing and see it work. See these kind of insights lived out through other people in other ways.

I mean, I don't think you can miss the takeaway. I don't think if you read the book from COVID to cover that you will not get it. And what I'm hearing, and over 8,000 people have bought the book in the last month so far.

Congratulations.

Thankfully, yeah, Wall Street Journal, USA Today bestseller. Which is. Was another, another thing that I never thought would be an attribute to my name. But very proud of that. And I guess I'm not hearing from the people that will forget about it or didn't get it. Right. I'm hearing from the people that it really affected. And I want them again to find the silver lining or the messages that apply to them. There are so many stories in the book that there's a handful of stories you may not resonate with. And then there'll be one that you do, and that one that you do is going to be different than the next person sitting next to you. It is really a triumph book, and it is a book about if I can do this. You certainly can.

Absolutely. Do you get requests to speak? Do you do a lot of speaking?

I do speaking and my presentation is slightly different than most keynotes that you'll see because I do short readings from the book excerpts. I talk to the audience, I talk with the audience, but I also perform pieces of my songs that go with the text. And so it's a very emotional. And I don't mean sad necessarily, but people, you know, I'm attending to many of the senses and they're caught off guard a little bit.

Good grief. You have all the tools to make an incredible presentation with the, you know.

Listen, I did my book launch at the San Francisco MoMA theater for over 200 people. It's a small theater and I had my band on stage with me and we did eight segments that was an hour long and nobody knew what was coming next. They might see me like the trailer was playing. Then the band continued the music from the trailer, which is a song I wrote called Her Life. Then I started, I addressed the audience while that song is being played by the band. Then I sang the first verse. Then I stopped singing. And while the band is still playing the song, I read an excerpt.

Ah.

And then I went back into the song and finished it. Now the audience might be thinking, oh, that's what she's going to do the next time. The next song.

Yeah.

No, totally different. So I kept everybody on their toes. And the response again from that. And this has a lot to do with my success. Entire productions is experience design.

Yeah.

I want to make sure that people are not expecting or they're not experiencing what they expect. I want to take it up a notch or 2 or 10. And so the response was that was not a book reading or a book launch that I've ever in my life experienced.

Fantastic. Thanks so much for sharing. That wraps up this episode. Consider leaving a rating and review if you like what you heard. In addition, I have a free video for you and it contains my book best insights from 20 years of running My Own Business and Also Coaching Million Dollar earners. You'll find it@whitelownwinning.com webinar. Thanks for listening and do it big.