Episode 038: Finding Purpose

No need to whine, it's Whiny Palooza! Have some wine and join us on the Whiny Palooza podcast with Rebecca Green.

Welcome to the Whiny Palooza podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca Green. I'm a wife, mother of 3, and licensed clinical social worker. I also have 3 fur babies at home too. My passion has always been to help children and their families. I always dreamed of being a wife and a mother. Parents are always learning through their struggles, failures, and successes and joys. I am no stranger to this wild ride of parenting, and I know behind every great parent lies a team of supportive friends and family. I want to be part of your support system. I want you to know that you are not alone. We are in this parenting world together. Join me every week for insightful discussions with experts on parenting and marriage, as well as other parents who have found the secret to successes in parenthood. You'll learn tips and tricks to make life with your family better than ever. I hope you will follow along with me while we dive into what it takes to achieve a happy family.

Hello, this is Rebecca Green for the Whiny Palooza podcast, and I am super excited to have Rachel Miller with me. She is a lifetime learner, giver of hugs and kisses, mom to a van full, online entrepreneur. She has built several multiple 6-figure and 7-figure businesses, authored multiple books which each sold more than 100,000 copies. She now helps other businesses grow engagement for their brands. She has helped 49 businesses get their content in front of more than 10 million people with virtually no ad spend. Wow. Well, thank you, Rachel, so much for being here.

Rebecca, I'm so glad to be here. How are you today?

I'm good. How are you doing?

Good, good. Totally. So glad to be here.

I love, I love what you're doing and I am going to jump in because I have so many questions for you.

Oh, yahoo! Let's get started.

Can we start? I'd like to just learn a little bit about you. Can we start back with the first business and what inspired you to get started?

Oh, my first business. I think when I first began, I was like a VA helping people. I, it wasn't like helping like normal companies, like not when people think of VA, they think of somebody who's like answering someone's email and writing blog posts, maybe posting on social media. What I began as is I somehow found a company and I don't even remember the name of the company. That's how bad it is. That created software products, but they were from Japan. And so they created software and they needed user manuals. And so I was a school teacher. I had to lose my job school teaching because I had babies. And somehow I found this job online somewhere. I don't even remember how I found it, but they wanted somebody to write their manuals. So they would write, create a software product or like a camera or like a remote. I mean, I don't remember all the gizmos. They were like little gadgets and gizmos. And so software packages. And I would write the manuals. They would write it in English, but because they didn't speak English, they wanted someone to rewrite the manual into language that people could understand. So I would take their Japanese English, which was good English, but I mean, like, they're not native English speakers. And I would rewrite their marketing into English because I was a mom. That's why they hired me. Your mom who speaks English, great, you can write these. Nobody reads the manuals. Like, when do you actually ever read the My husband does. He does. Okay, well, in my mind, it was a very demoralizing job. Not— it is not to say that it was demoralizing, but it felt very purposeless for me. Um, and so it's soul-sucking, if that makes sense. I just have to write these words. Okay, write the next words. Okay, no one's reading these manuals. No one's telling me good job. They just want— they don't know if it's written in good English. They hired me like not for my English writing skills because I had no qualifications. I was an economics teacher, like So anyways, it wasn't— for me, it was not fulfilling. But it did put food on the table. And guys, just, you know, I was making less. I was making less than $5 an hour. So just— but it was food on the table that I could do with my infants. I didn't have to leave the house. They— it wasn't very demanding. So like, I was trying to justify it. Like, if I worked at McDonald's, I'd have to leave my house. So like, this is, this is a win for me. Okay, so now knowing that I was doing that, I was looking for the next thing. And my husband came home and said, I hear girls are on blogs now. I guess he had like one of his friends or somebody's wife was a blogger. So he's like, girls blog, why don't you get a blog? And like, looking at back, I'm not that kind of wife, so I probably would have like smacked him up the head. Um, But I didn't smack him up the head. And instead, I was like, yeah, sure, let's make a blog. And so next thing you know, I have a blog. And being me, I did it for free for like a hobby just to connect with people for like the first 6 months. But then after that, I began monetizing it and I began growing it. And next thing you know, it's getting 10 million page views a month. Then it's getting 2 million— 2.2 million followers on Facebook. And so we're growing at leaps and bounds. And then Um, I realized, okay, well, that's one website. Could I do it again? And I built another website and then I built another website and then I built another website. And then it became, okay, now I have these websites. Um, I'm selling products to these people. And as I'm selling products to them, um, I'm talking to like people and they're— I'm realizing I have a— I'm able to drive traffic to websites and other, other people are paying money for traffic. And I'm like, why on earth? Would you pay people to visit? They just come, like, and they just come in droves. Like, what's your problem? You pay for people to visit? Like, who does that?

Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

And then I realized, well, actually the whole world does that.

Yes.

So, um, that's when I began teaching people how to get traffic because I realized that I had cracked a code that other people didn't know.

So you cracked the code and then that led you to realize you needed to— that you wanted to help other mothers do this too.

Yes. And I, at one point, was helping corporate America even grow their businesses and grow their online audiences. And for me, that's not satisfying. Like, it's going right back to the— and I don't— they were sweet. The Japanese company that hired me was sweet, but it was impersonal. It was software, like, that's, you know, program your remote. Maybe you read your remote for most, but I don't know how to program it even now, even though I wrote the manual for it. So for me, that was impersonal. And so I wanted to go back to something that was helping people face-to-face type of thing. Yeah.

So when you moved to helping, you know, mothers, let's say, for example.

Yes, I loved helping mothers.

Can you tell us an example of one of them that you helped? Because I know you helped so many. Is that a hard one?

Okay, well, I literally just got off the phone with a person. Um, I'm gonna start crying because I bawled, like, I was literally bawling right before I got on with you. Um, like, dried all my Tears. We're headed into a podcast. Put a smile on your face. You got this, girl. Um, her, her husband has, uh, cancer, and they've gotten to the point where they're, um, they're, they're now denying treatments. So they're, they're at a later stage. Oh, and, um, because she has an audience and because the business that she built and because the audience is there and her systems are there, her business is a little bit on autopilot. She's not working very much anymore and she's able to take care of her husband and she's able to have money coming in. She's not worried for food on the table. I mean, she's worried for real things. Like, I mean, real, real things. But she can literally stop working and her, her systems are set up so social media continues to post. She's still present online, but she's not actually online. Instead, she's with her family in this time. And so, um, how rewarding for you. I'm gonna start crying again. So I got to talk to her today and got to encourage her. But also, and that's why I do this. I want to help moms, no matter what their circumstances are, to make an impact because they're called. Yes, they're called to be moms, but they're also called to, to, to make a difference in the world. And I love seeing, seeing this girl make a difference in the world and seeing the difference it's making in her family. In the sense that she's not, she has one less stress right now.

So doing good things.

That's such a good, she's, she's an amazing girl.

So I'm tearing up and I'm tearing up because you don't know this, but you made me cry today too.

Oh, did I?

You don't know this yet, but I, I'm gonna share with you. So one of the things that you're teaching mothers, you're teaching mothers so many things, but you said you have to find your I am statement. And that line has been haunting me. I want you to know, I said to Seth, my husband, I'm like, I am so upset with myself that I don't have an I am statement. And I put it out to the universe and I was like, I need a statement. And I'm, and I'm so upset. Like, I'm not gonna stop till I find it. Well, I did this really emotional blog on trust that I put out to the universe today. Super hard for me to write. And I was thinking about my podcast with you. I was thinking about my blog and I, it came to me and I'm like, I'm the honest mom.

I love that.

You know, and I, I've been like, and I've just started crying and I knew it was right.

Yeah.

And I've been see, I've been searching for my statement and I really share all of my parenting stories and all of my experiences in life and how I use my social work degree to help with that. And I realized that I'm just— my goal is to just be honest with everybody about what is going on.

I love that. Oh my word. And that's so powerful because we need more honesty. We need more authenticity in our lives and in the world. And, um, yeah, that's just beautiful. I love that mission. And I love—

oh, you helped me. You helped me on my journey to find that. And I feel so much better now that I know what it is.

Well, what the I am statement does— good. Now, those of you who are listening, one of the core things that we do is we want to think of what does our audience— what do we call ourselves? Because if we can't identify who we are, it's going to be really hard for us to identify who our audience is. What do we identify for ourselves as what our values are, what we believe, who we are? So like, I named my first website, guys, you can go look it up, Quirky Mama, because I'm quirky. I'm a little weird. I don't fit into like a box, right? I don't, I don't, I'm not the mom that fits in at the PTA meetings, right? I'm just not that person. And I bet almost all of you aren't that person too. We all feel like we don't fit in. Maybe you fit in at the PTA meeting, but you don't fit in somewhere else. You get me? Okay. I'm the quirky one who doesn't fit in. So I've always felt like I was that, that square peg in a round hole or whatever. And so quirky mom was what I described myself as, but it's also the thing that I use to attract one of my audiences. I say, you are quirky, moms. We're all quirky together and it's going to be okay. So that was one avatar with, I'm quirky, I'm weird, I'm different, I'm fun, I'm fun quirky. Another avatar is, my life is crazy, but don't you tell me that there's anything wrong with that. So like, crazy life, it's my chaos, girl. I want my chaos. Yeah, I keep it. I cherish it. It's my— don't tell me to change my craziness. So that's my other avatar, which is, I'm okay just the way I am, bug off a little bit. Yes, I know, I know. But that's one website. So it's funny. So each website kind of has its own personality. And then Moola Marketer honestly is, is helping people love, like love and marketing, because a lot of marketing is like, give me your money, give me your money, you need this, I'm going to tell you what's wrong with you and I'm going to give you the product to fix that. And you were like, dude, fine with my problem. Like, anyways, I want the person that's going to come alongside it and, and market with love. And so each of them, they embody who I am a little bit, like different parts of me. So they're my, they're me, but I need to find out my I am statement to figure out what my audience's I am statement is. And then once I know my audience's I am statement, I can craft content that says that statement and my audience can't help themselves. They respond and they respond in droves. So like the I am statement of I'm okay, like my life is okay. I got that from my audience. I literally asked my audience, what do you call yourselves? Like, how are you doing today? Oh, I'm okay. Like, they kept saying I'm okay. Like, my house is this, but it's okay. Like, they kept saying okay, okay. Like, you do a word cloud of your reader interview and their word was okay. I'm like, what the blank? That's such a weird word cloud for a reader interview. They literally wanted everyone to know they're okay. So now My house is fine just the way it is. Like, that's what I want people to know. Oh, by the way, I'm still fixing my garbage disposal. You know, like, who needs— who needed that fork anyways? Like, we write it in such a way— like, the fork that the garbage disposal ate up, in case you missed the connection there, because I know I jump around. We all want the world to know that we're okay just the way we are. So when I create a blog post about how to fix your garbage disposal, But as I'm saying it, I'm really saying your house is okay without that fork. You didn't want it anyways. Guess what? That post on how to clean your garbage disposal now took off. And now I'm not only telling people how to fix their garbage disposals, I'm also selling garbage disposals. And I'm selling it in a way that people want to engage on that content because it's telling them they're okay. So it's reassuring the person where they are. So that's one of my businesses. Um, but all of them have the same thing where if I learn my I am statement, and that I can use to connect with people, then I can transfer that into their I am statement. And then if I can find all the different ways to say that, with my blog posts, with my Facebook posts, with my Pinterest marketing, with my podcast episodes that I'm doing, with it, with all my content, people will relate to me and they'll hook on to me and say, okay, this is for me. And as soon as they say this is for me, They trust me and they're going to be more likely to buy from me. And I never had to say, I'm selling this to you, or you have a problem, I'm going to come fix for you.

Amazing. And what I love about everything you're saying is the authenticity and the love for people is what is like shining from you. And I—

yeah, yeah, it's true. I care. I, I think all of us, though, every single person that's out there has a calling to make a difference in someone's life. Like We have gifts that we've been given, and we're not given those gifts to, to hold on to them, to hoard them, to say, well, how dare you do that? Like, I, I'm the only one good at this. Like, that's not the way— that's not what our gifts are. Not here to serve us. Do our gifts serve us? Yes. But they're really truly meant to make an impact in other people's lives. And if your readers look back at their own lives, the times that they felt fulfilled and the times that they felt like they were in their zone was when they were doing something for someone else. Almost 95% of the time, it's when they're doing something for someone else. They're doing something that makes an impact on the world. They're doing something that impacts the environment. They're doing something that lasts beyond them and that moment, right? So knowing that, that your audience has that feeling, how can we as business owners make that a reality for them? How can we empower them to love the world and serve the world better. When we make it not about us and showcasing ourselves or showcasing our products, even if our cup of soda is— or sparkling water is the best sparkling water you've ever had because it's got raspberries and da da da, that's not what they care about. What they care about is how does this make me look and how does this make me feel.

Oh, I love it all. I love it all. And I'm thinking of the mothers listening who are like, okay, Rachel, okay, Rebecca, you both have found like purpose and love and serving others. You have found so many ways to do that. Where do I start and how do I discover mine? Because I think that mothers that I talk to don't know. They want something in their lives and they don't know what to do.

I love to start with, um, I mean, you do have to solve a problem with your business because that's what businesses do. They solve problems. They get paid to solve problems. Even if it's a cup of soda, right? Yourself to, to, to give— it's whatever. So you want to think of a problem that you're able to solve, but you also want to think of who you're able to help. And you're also going to need to think of like what your, what your gift is. And what I mean by that is you've got a way to solve a problem that's different from everyone else's. So one of my students, she has a candy store. She was a brick-and-mortar. People would come into her candy store and they buy her candy. The problem, though, is that candy was only because it was a— it's a beach town. So like people would only come there certain times of the year, like she was. So she was only selling her candy for like 3 months a year. She's like, this is not like a sustainable— it feels like I'm working, working, working, not working at all, working, working, working. I'm like, this is too stressful for me. I just want like something consistent. This— I don't want this like ramp up work. Every day for 7 days a week for 3 months and then not work at all and have to make that money last all year. So for her, it was, it was stressful. How can we, how could she make a business that wasn't stressful, that was still making an impact and online? So she went and asked, I had her ask her audience, her friends and her family, what do you know me as? What am I good at? She's like, well, everyone thinks of me for candy. I'm like, but that's That's Candy. But like, so you've got a soda bottle, who cares, right? What do they know you as? And everyone replied to her and said, you're so kind, I love how you helped me with this, you were so kind, I love how you inspired when I was having a rough day, you did it, uh, and that was really kind of you. So she made a word cloud of all of those things that people talked about her. And guys, they— we think it's weird to go online and say, okay, I What am I good at? What do you know me at? The reality though is all of your friends and all of your family, they want to tell you why they love you. They want to tell you what you're good at. You, you want to tell your friends and family what they're good at, right? You want to tell them that you love them, and you just don't remember to do that sometimes. But you love getting to tell someone what they're good at. That feels good for you. So give your friends and family the opportunity to feel good about themselves. How can you do that? By asking them what you're good at and giving them the chance to love you. That's going to make them— you're not, you're not inconveniencing them. You're not being weird. You're giving them the chance to have that good feeling, right? So like, how dare you not give them that good feeling? Go ask them what they think you're good at.

So, okay, go on your thing.

Ask them, what am I good at? You're going to find out, just like this girl did, that she's good at being kind. Okay. So what do you do with that? So, okay, Rachel, I'm good at being kind and I sell candy in a brick and mortar store and I don't want to be at the store anymore because I'm tired of the summer crowd and I love my town, but I am not doing another summer. So what, what could she do? She created a kindness pay it forward, kindness candy campaign. Oh, buy 3 bags of candy, give 2 away. And instead of selling it once, she has a membership. Every month you get 3 bags of candy, 1 for you to enjoy, 2 for you to give away. So she now built a brand about that thing that she's good at. Now, once you know, here's the thing I'm going to sell, here's the problem, or the thing I'm going to sell, candy, and then you know what you're good at, kindness, you can marry those 2 together and that's your business model. Her business model is meant to have that thing that she's called to be, called to do. And you, you may not know that kindness is your thing. Your friends and your family, they know what it is that you're good at. So even if you're like putting blinders on, like, I just cannot think of what that is, give your friends and family the chance to love you, feel good in their own day because they want to tell you why they love you, and give them the chance to tell you what you're going to be good at. Because when you combine those things together, you're going to see that you're going to have a business that can grow.

That is such good advice. I, I want to go do it right now.

It's, it's so empowering when you see what people say about you and then you can think, how can I apply this to a business and see that happen? It's just, it's just goosebumps. Yeah, it's beautiful.

You are good.

You are good.

I am so impressed and blown away right now.

Oh.

So you have— let's talk about— you have 6 kids.

Okay, you have 6 children. Yes, it's a crazy house.

You have double what I—

well, it's— people often tell me, well, like, 6 kids is so many, but the reality is after 3, like, it's just one more hot dog. Like, you're making 3 hot dogs, you might as well make 4, and if you're making 4, you might as well make 5. Like, okay, after 6, well, now we're, we're very much done. But like, it's just another person in the house, like whatever. I'm actually like next week where we, we're surrogate for foreign exchange students. Long story, I'm not sure how it happens, but they have to have two families like to be their guardians in case like one wants to go on vacation or they just need a break or they have a fight with their teenager and they just, it's not their teenagers that they want, like they need a respite home, right?

So the way that you—

the government sets it up is they have two families and the one family backed out and they're like, oh, no worries, we got her. And so they told me like, heads up, we just, we just applied you to be the surrogate family. So next week we're having some kids from Italy come in to live with us for a week because they're having a respite week for their host family. And it'll be fun. It's just two more hot dogs, right? Okay. Probably more like six more hot dogs because they're teenage boys, but, um, You know, it'll be fun. So, okay, so what I'm hearing, you can just put another pack of hot dogs in your grocery cart, it's fine. And they're kids, they'll just sleep on a sleeping bag.

So I'm learning a lot, and, and I want to ask you, you love, you love it, you love the 6 kids, you love the extra kids, you love the chaos. Can you tell us how— if we don't love it, how to embrace it and love it?

Oh, if we don't love it. Well, I guess there's times I don't love it.

Well, what do you love about— you, you seem to really enjoy— I'm gonna put in quotes— chaos is the word.

Oh yes, I thrive.

I—

if I didn't love chaos, then I wouldn't run multiple businesses and have the life I have. That's very true.

So tell us what you love about it, because I think it'll help people.

If you— if everything is planned out for you, it's pretty boring. Um, and I love— there's a little bit of adrenaline that comes when, when you have a, a problem that you don't know how to fix, or you have a new thing you have to figure out. Um, so true. And I also think it's a lot easier to have a large family of kids than it is to have just one or two, because I would— if I had one or two kids, I would have to be the source of their entertainment, and I'd have to be the source of like getting them to things. Whereas now I can say there's not enough resources, there's not enough mommy to drive you everywhere, so y'all have to figure it out, or you get your bike and you go. So like, I'm not going to be driving my 15-year-old back and forth from band practice. If they want to go to band, well, they get to ride a bike because there's— if I did that for every kid, there's, there's just no way I could do it. Like, there's not enough— that's 6 schools, there's 5 schools, excuse me, because the triplets are on 4 schools because the triplets are on one school. Yeah, but my point is that made me resourceful. It's made my kids resourceful. And, and I, and I never allowed myself to say I can't for very long. So I'm sure I've said I can't in the past, but I can't basically means I don't want to. And instead of saying I can't, say I can, but I can go pick you up from school, but that means I all of these kids won't be picked up. And that's not really fair for me to just drop everything to pick you up. So I can't, um, I can go get you, but I'm not going to. Um, I can, you can go to band, but you'll have to get yourself a ride. But you're gonna have to get a bike. But you're gonna have to figure out how to carry your instrument on your bike. But you're gonna have to figure all of this out on your own. And I can, but is a huge gift that I have given to myself by having some chaos in my life. I can, oh, I can have 2 more kids, but it means I am going to have to make sure I have my meals planned probably a little bit better because I am going to have teenage boys and they are going to eat out of the house. But I am going to need to make sure my internet is buttoned up so they are not doing something inappropriate because I don't know who they are. Not very well, right? But I am going to have to make sure there are things lined up to protect like our family structure with extra people in the house. Guys, I have teenagers. I know what teenagers do and I am used to this, but at the same time, I also know and enough to say we're going to make like, we set boundaries up for, for teenagers.

Sure, sure.

So yeah, so okay, am I making sense? But yeah, I can, but, and then once you figure out the buts, now it's a checklist. You just check off the buts and you're good.

So it sounds like the way that you are managing to balance all of it, the businesses, the kids, all of it, is that your kids are really resourceful people.

We all are resourceful because you've got it. You'll figure out a way to make it. Like, I'm going to run a business and I'm going to have kids because I love my kids. But I know it honestly, my kid, I didn't have a big business before I had kids. It was my kids became my why. I needed to pay for things that my kids wanted. And then also I needed to stay sane. And when you have kids, well, there's a whole lot you can't control in the sense they're having a temper tantrum. They're dead. I wanted something that I could control the results of. You know what? I can control the results of my business. I can make money. I can choose not to make money today, but either way, it's my choice. It's something I am in charge of. And so for me, I got to have like my running a business was for my sanity more than anything else.

And yeah, I totally relate to that statement.

I needed some sanity and like in chaos. This girl's having a business. Y'all, you 6, do your thing. I'm having a business and The reality, they all playing computer games together. Well, I'm on my computer running a business. Um, they're all, you know, watching TV. Well, I'm on watching TV too, but I don't want to watch that show, like the Widow what, you know? Okay, we can watch Black Widow again, but, or whatever the Marvel show of the day is. And, uh, and I'm on my computer at the time because that for me, I'm still spending family time, but so I'm with them, but I'm not like really there, you know, and they're okay with me not being there as long as I make sure there's popcorn and I'm sitting with them.

As long as we're paying for the popcorn.

Yeah.

Tell us, tell us what you think that business has taught you about motherhood.

I think that I can, but, and to not ever give myself excuses. Um, like just, yes, just like to, um, this morning I was telling my daughter, she, uh, sprained her ankle. So she is on like a cast and crutches. And, um, it's fine. She was— it's kids, they do things. Um, so she's on a Cats and Crushes and she's like, I can't clean my room. I'm like, yeah, you can. You're gonna have to figure out the— I can, but— okay, but maybe you have to negotiate with your sisters and maybe they carry them the heavy things and you're gonna do something else for them. You figure that out. It's your room, your mess. You will clean it up. I don't care about your thing. I can, but— that's for me I didn't— I— there was times when I said, I can't do this, I have 6 kids. No, no, you can still run a big business if you want to, and you can still spend quality time with your kids. You may not get to do all of that in the exact same time, in the sense of at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I can't be an amazing mom and be an amazing business owner. I may have to pick one of those in that moment, but I can still, in the course of my day, be an amazing mom and an amazing business owner. I just have to kind of like finagle it. I can, but like anything that's about you, just make it a checklist and you check it off. Don't give yourself an excuse.

I'm going to take that with me today. Awesome advice. What do you think your biggest challenge is right now?

We're actually downsizing a little bit. We're downsizing and we're moving to Evergreen. And so Evergreen is doing well. And so now it's just how to do that with grace and to navigate that and to have clear messaging because we've gone from one business model to a different business model. And it's one that I worked a lot of hours last year and I don't want to work this many hours. So, um, I did it and it was kind of nice and it felt really good to like, look at the bank account and be like, oh, I did that. And then I realized, wait a second, I only have a couple more years with my kids. I'm not going to work a 45-hour workweek anymore. I'm only going to work 25 to 30 hours. So if I'm going to do that, I can, I can decide because I'm a grown woman and I can decide I'm only working 25 hours and I can, but well then what do I have to let go of? And then what do I need to put in place so that I can make that a reality? And so we're shutting down, like, um, of the last 6 weeks, 3 of them I did not work. One of them, I took a trip with a friend. One of them, Texas, decided it wanted to make me have a vacation week. Texas had a— in case you missed it, they had like all— no cell phone, no electricity, no heat, no— I think we didn't have water. We had to boil our water. Anyways, it was like, heat is meant to escape our house. So when it goes to zero and our heat is meant to escape because we're used to 100-degree weather, like We don't know what to do. The whole city shuts down. So anyways, my point is I had to take a week off work then. That's okay. Like, I literally continue to grow my business for 6 weeks with 2 weeks unexpected vacations. Um, and then that, that's beautiful and wonderful. And I, you know, that's like, that's the life I want to have. I want to have where I can choose to work, um, part-time or even have life circumstances come to me and say, you're going to be working part-time or not at all. And, and me still have a business structure in place where I can be successful. And that's what happened. And we're putting those structures in place. And I'm super grateful that we did. Like about 2 months ago, we started putting them in place because I'm seeing those benefits now. And I know that if I work more strategically, those benefits will continue to grow. And I'm super, super excited and grateful.

So awesome. I love that. Great direction. I have to ask you about being on Good Morning America because it's such a cool story. It is such a good story. Can you tell us the story?

Oh my word, that's such a— okay. I was a blogger and I had posts go viral and Good Morning America contacted me and they're like, you've got this viral, we'd like to have you on. I'm like, I'm kind of busy. You need to get my business partner. And so my business partner went on. And then they contacted me again. I'm like, I'm kind of busy. You need my video editor. He's going to come up, he'll do it. And then the third time they called, I was like, maybe I'll do this one. And I had always been behind the scenes. No one knew who I was or that I was part of these businesses. No one knew. Like, no one knew it was Rachel. Like, it was Rachel. I was the last page of the book where small print said, with Rachel Miller, you know, like nowhere was it about me. And so somewhere in there I went to Good Morning America. I made no money for it. It didn't really help my business. So people who say, oh, I'm featured on Forbes, I'm in Inc. 100, I'm on Women's Today. Well, guess what? I've done those things and I don't think they're really— I mean, they're helpful, but they're not really that helpful. So, but what Good Morning America did do for me was my mother-in-law would like say, I need you to drive me to the airport. I'm like, I can't. I'm working. She's like, right, okay. Could you still drive me to the airport? Because she's thinking like, she's just like selling lipstick. I was selling essential oils, but I was selling essential oils through my blog and on a large scale. Okay. But she is thinking, I have a friend who also sells essential oils, so like she can take time. You could— so she just wasn't realizing that I was the primary breadwinner because we just hadn't communicated that, right? And so it was, it was just a, she wanted me to drop everything, but it wasn't just her. It'd be like, like friends at church and like nobody understood that I worked. Like I would tell them I work, but nobody really understood it. So what Good Morning America did for me was tell the world Rachel actually has a job. Because when you say you're self-employed and you do, you work from home, like everyone has like this picture of you not realizing, wait, she has a media empire. Is she running from her house? And yes, in a, like, an office the size of a closet, but like, it's a, it's a bona fide real business. And so that's what Good Morning America did for me. Now, for those of you who are listening, why I'm laughing and why she's laughing is because I folded my laundry on Good Morning America. It doesn't— I don't sell more programs when I fold laundry on public, on TV, but it was kind of fun. They flew me up there with about 24 hours notice, and I got on face— on their show with something— Stephanopoulos, I think his name was— and I folded my laundry for national TV.

It is such a cool story though, because, you know, I realized— I haven't gone to watch it yet, so I have to go find it— because you fold laundry in a way that doesn't make the children ruin the drawers and ruin the suitcases. Because I was laughing hysterically when you were talking about this, because My, I, you know how long I spent in my 8-year-old's room organizing her drawers and you should see what she's done to it.

Oh, I know. Because I had this conversation this morning with my daughter who's on crutches and I was like, you, we don't live like this. Like, we don't live like this.

There's not—

anyways, I know, but here's what we do. There's a way that you can fold your clothes where you can unfold it and it doesn't unfold the clothes. So you wrap, fold them in such a way that your, your shirt stays together or your jeans stay together in a ball. And so I showed how to do that on national TV. And it's on my blogs, like we've, one of my blogs is every, like how to organize and do things. So it's on there. But the reality though, is my kids don't actually do that every day. It was super helpful when I had 2-year-olds, because the 2-year-olds would go into the laundry pile, and then the laundry would be everywhere, but they didn't have the understanding to to clean it up themselves, if that makes sense. Especially when I had 3 2-year-olds, like we had to make balls of everything and that's just— and then if they threw it, well, I just put the balls back in the bucket and then, you know, that was my way of trying to keep sane with, with 2-year-olds. But at this point, my 15-year-old can fold her clothes properly the right way by herself. She does not need her mother and she doesn't need the excuse of crutches.

She's fine. So true.

And guys, I have good kids. As I'm telling my— these stories, I'm not telling them to disparage my kids in any way. They're just normal kids with normal life and doing normal things, and normal 15-year-old girls don't have the cleanest room, so it's all part of it.

Tell us the ages of all 6 of your kids.

Um, 5th almost 15, 4 almost 14, uh, no, 13 and a half, then I've got 12, and then 3 10-year-olds.

Wow, just wow. Tell us about your books because I think there's a few of them, right?

Yes. And they're from my— so remember I told you I have multiple businesses? So I start one business, I start another business. So the Good Morning America was showing hacks of You're Okay. Remember I told you You're Okay? So that was the hacks, how to, how to look like you're okay and you got it together when we all know we don't. Who cares? We just put your yoga pants on. That's that site. Okay. And then my other site is we're quirky moms who have fun and we do weird things and we have fun with our kids being weird. And most of those are for preschool kids. So that business, I've got books that I've sell and we've sold over 200,000, I think 20,000 copies of our books so far.

Wow.

And then, so that's that site. And then the other site is the DIY home and how to fix things. And then my other sites about cats, I started that one as a joke. I got a Crock-Pot site, so how to cook on a Crock-Pot. I don't actually cook on a Crock-Pot. It's, that's a long story as well. And then my other website is teaching people how to build websites and sell. So like my Crock-Pot site, I sell Crock-Pot accessories and meal plans. I'm not selling it right now, but we could turn that sales funnel back on if we wanted to. And so we have different products that we sell in different businesses. And yeah, so I teach people how to drive traffic now and how to drive traffic without ads because people think you have to pay to get people to pay attention to you. And y'all know, when you walk into a room, you can get attention if you want it. Now, it may not be the attention that's going to get you the, like, good graces, but we've all been able to walk into a room and get attention when we need attention. Like, where's my son? He's late. Get him here. We've all done that where we've gone into a place and we've been able to get attention. And we've been even able to compel an action. The same way we can do that in real life, and we aren't getting paying people for that attention, we can do online because People are people and they're the same everywhere. So once you know those tricks about how to get attention online, you can do it for free. You don't have to pay for it.

Love it. Okay, so what else do you want to share that I didn't ask you?

Anything else? I always hate that question. I get that question all the time. And I should probably write something down for that question because I never know what to say.

I'm sorry. Well, because I asked you so many things and I want you to be able to share something that maybe I didn't ask ask you, but maybe I asked you everything.

Well, I would love for people, if they want to learn more, to come hang out with me on Facebook. You can find me on Facebook, you find me on Instagram, Rachel Miller Marketing. Um, on Facebook, I'm Rachel Miller, and, um, my Facebook group is Grow Your Audience. And I love helping people, especially parents, um, make differences in their customers' lives because their customers find out that they exist. And before— you may have the world's best program, the best product, the best idea, the best gift, that other people need in their lives. But if they don't know you're there, it doesn't help them in any way. And so I would— I'm on a mission to help like a million people because I'm helping you help your people that you're meant to help. And so, yeah, that's, that's where I am. Come find me.

Well, you're amazing. I love what you're doing for people. I have loved talking to you. I can't thank you enough for being here.

Thank you so much, Rebecca. I hope you have an amazing day.

This is Rebecca Green. For the Winey Palooza podcast, reminding everyone to spend every day laughing, learning, and loving.

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