Latest / Beyond Fulfillment Podcast / From The Prison Yard to Multi-Millionaire: Ken Miller’s Journey of Resilience & Reinvention

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From The Prison Yard to Multi-Millionaire: Ken Miller’s Journey of Resilience & Reinvention · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

• 0:05
  Yeah, it has to start somewhere.
• 0:06
  There's always a pivot, there's always a door, and I open that door.
• 0:12
  Today's guest is Ken Miller, an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and coach whose journey spans from Ivy League success to unimaginable adversity and ultimately to building a multi million dollar business empire across multiple countries.
• 0:29
  Ken's story is one of true resilience.
• 0:31
  From being adopted after years in foster care, to attending Dartmouth, to facing homelessness and drug addiction, and finally reinventing himself as a thriving business owner and inspiring mentor.
• 0:44
  In this episode, Ken opens up about his dramatic life twists.
• 0:48
  From his darkest days in addiction to discovering hope behind prison walls, and how he rebuilt his life step by step.
• 0:56
  We dive into his practical strategies for overcoming setbacks, the role of truth and mentoring in resilience, and how he now helps others achieve transformation through business coaching and giving back to the community.
• 1:10
  Whether you're an entrepreneur facing a rough patch or someone seeking inspiration, Ken's hard won wisdom and infectious drive will leave you motivated to take on any challenge.
• 1:22
  As always, if you found value from.
• 1:24
  This content, please like and subscribe.
• 1:27
  All right, Ken Miller, welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
• 1:31
  Thank you, Dave.
• 1:32
  I'm looking forward to the conversation.
• 1:34
  Yes, sir.
• 1:35
  We.
• 1:35
  We're glad you took the time to be here and we are looking forward to this conversation as well.
• 1:40
  So, Ken, you are a author, speaker, entrepreneur, employer, property owner, employer in multiple countries.
• 1:52
  Very, very successful.
• 1:54
  Just looking at your resume and what you've built, but you've got quite an interesting story and life journey that that took some very dramatic twists and turns.
• 2:05
  So can you just give our audience your backstory?
• 2:09
  Yeah.
• 2:09
  I love the word dramatic.
• 2:11
  It was melodramatic.
• 2:13
  There was a horror movie in there.
• 2:15
  It was some love in there too, but definitely some Dr.
• 2:20
  My story, very simply.
• 2:21
  My name is Ken Miller and I live in Bellingham, Washington.
• 2:24
  Now.
• 2:24
  I'm 62 years old.
• 2:26
  1962.
• 2:27
  My mother was a white teenage runaway in New York City.
• 2:32
  And she met my father, who was a pimp and drug dealer.
• 2:36
  And I'm the byproduct of that relationship.
• 2:39
  She put me up for adoption at birth.
• 2:42
  And I did the next six years as a foster child.
• 2:45
  So in and out of foster care, I was adopted by Irene and Sam Miller at age 6.
• 2:51
  And at that time, which is really interesting, I couldn't read, I couldn't write, I couldn't tell time.
• 2:56
  I couldn't even tie my shoes.
• 2:58
  True story.
• 2:59
  And that first summer, my mother taught me.
• 3:02
  I talked about my foster mother, really my adoptive mother.
• 3:07
  Make sure I Say that correctly taught me how to read.
• 3:09
  And I fell in love with reading.
• 3:11
  And by second grade I was reading at the sixth grade level.
• 3:16
  Then you could say I was precocious.
• 3:18
  Age 12, I moved to Alaska.
• 3:21
  I loved academics, and by age 17, I was a National Merit scholar.
• 3:25
  I was accepted to Harvard.
• 3:26
  I went to Dartmouth and got my degree from Dartmouth College.
• 3:30
  Ivy League.
• 3:31
  I got out of Dartmouth.
• 3:33
  I always tell people with a degree in fraternity with a minor in drinking, that was my degree.
• 3:39
  Okay, coming out of Dartmouth.
• 3:41
  And I went into the corporate world for a couple of years.
• 3:44
  I was with Kodak, I was with 3M.
• 3:46
  I looked good, I smell good, I talked well and did well.
• 3:51
  I remember 1986 was my second year, really my first full year in the corporate world.
• 3:57
  I was making $50,000 a year, which in 1986 was a lot of money for a 22 year old.
• 4:04
  And unfortunately, after a couple years, I relapsed and I was to spend the next 26 years homeless, in and out of treatment centers, homeless jails, prisons.
• 4:17
  I'm a three time convicted felon.
• 4:20
  And in 2004, I was arrested for sales of controlled substance, a $10 rock of crack cocaine.
• 4:30
  And I was sentenced to six years in the penitentiary, Nevada State Penitentiary.
• 4:35
  I did three, a little over three.
• 4:37
  I got out and had no skills because I hadn't done anything legal for many, many years.
• 4:45
  And I took.
• 4:47
  But I, what I did have is I had hope.
• 4:49
  I was clean, I was sober.
• 4:51
  In fact, I'm coming up on 21 years clean and sober on September 23rd of this year.
• 4:57
  So I had that as a foundation.
• 4:59
  And then I had a want to do more, not to be stuck because the first job I got was in a blue collar working in a warehouse.
• 5:09
  And nothing against, I love my mind and it's a gift and I wanted to put that mind to use.
• 5:16
  So I moved back up to Anchorage, Alaska from Nevada.
• 5:21
  I got a job in a convention center, food and beverage supervisor, white collar.
• 5:26
  And then I got in the field of development, which is fundraising, fell in love with that.
• 5:33
  And then within four years, 2014, I started my first business, which was Denali FSP, which is a company which I still own, have employees, which we do fundraising, consulting and coaching, and we also write grants specifically for tribal
• 5:50
  entities.
• 5:51
  And so that's like the quick version of getting to where I had my first business in 2014.
• 5:59
  Okay, all right, wow.
• 6:00
  So a lot to get into with the story.
• 6:03
  So you're coming out of Dartmouth, right?
• 6:06
  Ivy League, prestigious university, and like you said, 1986, you're making good money for a young kid out of college with some major corporations.
• 6:15
  And just on the surface, it would look like you've got a bright career trajectory ahead of you.
• 6:20
  I mean, what, what, like looking at it now, what made you relapse and go down that path where you'd be homeless for 20 plus years and a drug addict on the street?
• 6:33
  Okay, so let's rewind to my first drink.
• 6:39
  So I go off to Dartmouth.
• 6:40
  I had a half a beer in high school.
• 6:42
  That's it.
• 6:43
  It was called Senior Skip Day Bartlett High School, Anchorage, Alaska.
• 6:48
  So I go off to Dartmouth.
• 6:50
  And what we do to socialize, as in most colleges, is that we have a party.
• 6:57
  And I went to the fraternity in October, maybe late September, October 1980.
• 7:03
  And within a month, I was a full blown alcoholic within a month.
• 7:08
  What does that mean?
• 7:09
  Very simply means, without any certainty, I cannot control the amount I drink once I start drinking, period.
• 7:17
  And I drink a lot.
• 7:19
  And I make really bad decisions, really bad decisions for me, my loved ones and society, the community at large.
• 7:27
  So here I am, December of 1980, I'm already an alcoholic.
• 7:32
  And by June, or yeah, June, when I return home to Anchorage, Alaska from Dartmouth, which is in New Hampshire, my mom sends me or commands me to go to an AA meeting.
• 7:45
  So I went to my first meeting.
• 7:46
  Summer of 81, less than six months of drinking, approximately six months of drinking.
• 7:53
  I didn't want to be an AA or any of the anonymous programs as a college kid.
• 8:00
  And so I just floundered through college, joined a fraternity and drank a lot.
• 8:06
  I get out of college, my graduation present.
• 8:09
  I thought I was going to get a car.
• 8:11
  I got my first treatment center.
• 8:14
  I ended up doing 14 inpatient treatment centers, but that was my first one.
• 8:18
  It was outpatient.
• 8:20
  So I do that because I'm getting to this point and I get sober and I'm sober.
• 8:26
  So 1984 to 1986, I'm sober.
• 8:30
  I am now 23, 24 years old.
• 8:33
  23.
• 8:35
  And I decided to go to Hawaii on vacation.
• 8:39
  And again, I smell good, I talk good, I look good, carry myself well.
• 8:44
  I'm wearing Hickey Freeman suits.
• 8:46
  I'm wearing silk suspenders, silk bowties, you know, Allen Edmonds wingtip shoes.
• 8:52
  That's what I dress.
• 8:53
  That was my uniform.
• 8:55
  And I go off to Dartmouth and at Dartmouth, go off to Hawaii and gentleman offers me a Blue Hawaiian.
• 9:01
  Yeah, I'm just in the bar, I think I was in Moose McGillicuddies.
• 9:06
  And I said, maybe I can drink without Pain on the back end, because that's what it.
• 9:12
  It creates.
• 9:15
  Within two to three days, I was broke, calling mom, needing money to get back home.
• 9:21
  So I was a spin from 1986 to 2004, but I count 2007, 21 years because I was in prison for those last three years, which is a byproduct of my drinking and drugging.
• 9:37
  So what happened was, is I thought I could drink without pain.
• 9:41
  I thought I wasn't an alcoholic.
• 9:43
  I thought if I got everything together, got everything well, emotionally, psychologically, financially, physically, I could drink like a normal person.
• 9:55
  I cannot, period.
• 9:57
  I can do it today, and I have.
• 9:59
  My life is as good as it has ever been.
• 10:03
  That's.
• 10:03
  Wow, relapsed.
• 10:05
  So that one drink.
• 10:06
  So you had everything together.
• 10:08
  You got sober, right?
• 10:09
  You got.
• 10:10
  You got a good job.
• 10:11
  You're, like you said, fresh suit, you're on vacation in Hawaii.
• 10:15
  Thinking that everything else in my life is good, so maybe I can control this.
• 10:18
  And that one drink sent you in a tailspin, which would ultimately have you homeless for the next 20 plus years.
• 10:25
  Mm.
• 10:25
  Yeah.
• 10:26
  Wow.
• 10:26
  Yeah.
• 10:27
  Start somewhere.
• 10:27
  There's always a pivot.
• 10:29
  There's always a door.
• 10:30
  And I opened that door.
• 10:32
  The door says on, there is addiction and alcoholism.
• 10:36
  Do you want to open that door and go in that room?
• 10:39
  And I made a conscious choice to open that door.
• 10:43
  I didn't know the consequences were going to be as great.
• 10:47
  The difficulties.
• 10:49
  Once you get in the room, it's difficult to get back out.
• 10:54
  And I would get back out for short periods of time, but I would go right back into that room until this last stint.
• 11:03
  Okay.
• 11:03
  And so let's.
• 11:05
  Let's focus in because clearly, right, those 20 plus years, there's a lot of agony, pain, mistakes, all that.
• 11:12
  But let's focus on when, like, what was the turning point which finally made you clean up for good.
• 11:20
  So the turning point was September.
• 11:22
  It started September 22, 2004.
• 11:27
  It's in my book.
• 11:29
  And that's when I started to become Ken, as opposed to before that.
• 11:34
  I was known as addict.
• 11:35
  I was known as an ex con.
• 11:37
  I was known as a thug, whatever.
• 11:38
  I was on the streets.
• 11:40
  That was the terms I went by.
• 11:42
  But to become who I am, Ken, today, that day was the day that started it.
• 11:47
  And very simply, I woke up in a closet because I'd been living in the closet for about three days in this boarding house, in the hallway closet with the roaches and the brooms and the mops, with my crack
• 12:01
  cocaine and my natural ice.
• 12:05
  That's why?
• 12:06
  I drank 32 ounce natural ice.
• 12:09
  And the landlord came in.
• 12:11
  So I was in the closet, asked me to leave.
• 12:14
  I called my mom, asked to go back to treatment one more time.
• 12:18
  And she said she'd have a ticket for me to go to Seattle to get treatment.
• 12:24
  And I was walking the streets of Reno.
• 12:26
  I needed money for the bus.
• 12:28
  I did a hustle.
• 12:29
  I was paid with crack cocaine to do the hustle.
• 12:34
  And I went to sell this one rock of crack cocaine to the undercover.
• 12:41
  Well, I ended up selling to an undercover policeman, which is so interesting because in my whole life of smoking crack cocaine, there's only been two times that haven't smoked every single piece of crack that was in front of
• 12:54
  me.
• 12:54
  But that was one of them because I was trying to get help.
• 12:58
  And so I was arrested.
• 13:00
  And when I was arrested, I had a pair of sneakers, no socks, pair of shorts, no underwear and a T shirt on.
• 13:06
  Those are the sole possessions I owned in the world.
• 13:11
  And I'll never forget, I'm handcuffed behind the back and I'm waiting for the paddy wagon and I'm crying profusely.
• 13:21
  I'm crying.
• 13:23
  And the cop thought something was wrong.
• 13:25
  And he said, are you all right?
• 13:27
  Why are you crying?
• 13:29
  And I never forget I looked him now.
• 13:30
  I said, because I'm going to live.
• 13:32
  I'm going to live because I couldn't survive on the streets.
• 13:36
  I couldn't.
• 13:37
  I was either commit suicide or I'd been killed because I just was too deep in the addiction.
• 13:44
  So I'm telling her, I'm crying in gratitude that I'm going to jail and going to prison.
• 13:50
  That's how bad it was.
• 13:51
  I couldn't wait.
• 13:53
  And so I go into jail.
• 13:56
  It takes three months to get sentenced, you know, go to prison.
• 13:59
  And I'm in jail and I'm lying on the bunk and I had a conversation with God.
• 14:04
  And God very simply said to me, he said, it's not going to be easy, it's not going to be without pain or discomfort.
• 14:10
  But I will be there.
• 14:11
  I'll walk beside you.
• 14:13
  And ever since then, I haven't wanted to use.
• 14:17
  There's a lot of things I had to grow, a lot of things I had to do to be the person I am today.
• 14:24
  But I've been good.
• 14:26
  I've been good.
• 14:27
  And again, I haven't picked up volitionally any mind altering substance in 21 years.
• 14:34
  Okay, all right.
• 14:36
  So incredible, right, that you're such rock bottom that you're crying in gratitude that you actually are going to get to go to prison because that would, that saved you.
• 14:45
  So I've never heard that before, but that, that's incredible.
• 14:49
  So now you do your time, you get out and like you said, you had no skills.
• 14:56
  You've been a homeless drug addict for the past 20 years.
• 15:00
  And I'm clearly you had, I'm sure, some, some ambition, some goals, some things you wanted to do to put your life back together.
• 15:07
  How did you go about the process once you got out and like, how did you transform for that, that version of Ken to where you are today?
• 15:16
  Okay, it starts in prison.
• 15:17
  So let's, let's go back there.
• 15:20
  So I've been sentenced to six years.
• 15:21
  And the way they do it, they call indeterminate sentencing.
• 15:25
  So you.
• 15:25
  And this is very.
• 15:26
  If you ever hear people get sentenced, always listen for this.
• 15:30
  In the real world, real life, you get sentenced to months.
• 15:34
  You never get sentenced to years.
• 15:36
  It's months.
• 15:37
  So they'll say something like 16 to 72.
• 15:40
  So I was sentenced to 16 to 72.
• 15:43
  That means I.
• 15:44
  The minimum amount of time I have to do in prison is 16 months.
• 15:48
  The maximum is six years.
• 15:50
  Well, I got what they call dumped on parole.
• 15:53
  So I ended up doing almost three years.
• 15:56
  So I go into prison.
• 15:57
  I said, if I am the same person coming out of prison that I am going in, because I've been here twice before, then I'm going to have the same results.
• 16:06
  So I had to work on the physical, the intellectual, the emotional and the spiritual.
• 16:12
  Those four areas of my life.
• 16:14
  And this is for all the listeners.
• 16:17
  You have to do an audit of your life.
• 16:20
  If you find that you're being held back or you're not achieving the successes that you.
• 16:26
  Or the dreams or the aspirations that you want, do the audit.
• 16:32
  That's the first thing I would always say to people.
• 16:33
  Do an audit of self.
• 16:36
  Okay, So I went in there and let's just go through real quick physical.
• 16:41
  I came in there 165.
• 16:42
  I'm 205 this morning.
• 16:44
  I came in at 165 because we call it, we, we, we don't eat.
• 16:49
  When you're on crack cocaine or methamphetamines, you don't eat.
• 16:53
  That's why they're skinny, okay?
• 16:55
  Because you lose your appetite.
• 16:57
  You literally lose appetite.
• 16:59
  So.
• 17:00
  And plus I had no strength.
• 17:02
  So anyway, I started lifting weights and I ended up setting a record on the, on the yard.
• 17:07
  I lift.
• 17:08
  I did a deadlift of 518 at 198.
• 17:11
  198 pounds.
• 17:13
  I got really strong.
• 17:14
  Okay, so we took care of that.
• 17:16
  So I'm lifting four or five days a week.
• 17:18
  What else you got to do?
• 17:20
  Next thing is intellectual.
• 17:22
  I literally, literally would read a paragraph in a book, and by the time I got to the last sentence in the paragraph, I couldn't tell you what the first sentence said.
• 17:33
  Couldn't.
• 17:33
  Couldn't even remember because I wasn't using that part of the brain.
• 17:37
  My vocabulary had shrunk.
• 17:40
  I had about 100 words I used on, on this, on the streets.
• 17:44
  Probably 20%, 30% I cannot use on this podcast.
• 17:48
  That's my vocabulary from the streets.
• 17:51
  So I went and started reading.
• 17:54
  One year I read 160 books.
• 17:57
  160 books.
• 18:00
  What else you got to do?
• 18:01
  All I got is time.
• 18:02
  That's all I got.
• 18:03
  And I read nonfiction.
• 18:05
  Per dumb.
• 18:06
  I did read a lot of Dean Koons.
• 18:07
  Okay, so that takes care of the intellectual.
• 18:10
  Probably the two most important are the emotional and the spiritual.
• 18:16
  So I went to counseling and I talked about my secrets to the counselor.
• 18:23
  I'll never forget asking her.
• 18:24
  I said, how many people are in your caseload?
• 18:27
  There's 1100 men on the yard.
• 18:29
  And she wasn't really supposed to answer that.
• 18:31
  She's a civilian.
• 18:32
  And we had built a relationship, you know, that we're talking.
• 18:36
  And she said, two, two.
• 18:39
  It's free.
• 18:40
  Free counseling.
• 18:42
  And I went to counseling for the whole time I was down.
• 18:45
  I went to a drug program for a year in there.
• 18:48
  But anyway, my key thing was taking away the power of the negative secret because I had some secrets that I didn't want anybody to know about.
• 18:56
  And that was killing me.
• 18:58
  And so I dealt with that.
• 19:01
  And then I did the spiritual.
• 19:03
  I tried Muslim, I tried Christian.
• 19:06
  I tried just reading the Bible.
• 19:09
  But the key thing I got out of me, and I do have a God today, I call it God.
• 19:15
  It's something, but it modifies my behavior because I run certain decisions by God first to see what is the next indicated correct thing to do, not the one that's going to cause me the least amount of discomfort or
• 19:30
  bring me the most pleasure, because that's self will.
• 19:33
  But I want to know what's God's will.
• 19:35
  And I don't have to do that.
• 19:36
  Maybe 0.5% of life.
• 19:38
  I don't have to do that when I'm driving down the street, you know, talk to God about which part of the street to drive on.
• 19:44
  I don't have to do that when I'm bench pressing, but I have to do that on some of the Bigger, harder decisions.
• 19:50
  So that's what I did to.
• 19:53
  To get that foundation, then to get out.
• 19:56
  And then once I got out Again, this is 2007, and all there is, it's bad.
• 20:03
  The economy is really bad.
• 20:05
  It's called the great financial crisis.
• 20:08
  And I got out all I could find with my three felonies is a warehouse job part time.
• 20:16
  But I did it.
• 20:18
  And I made some decisions early on that were really good for me long term.
• 20:23
  That's another key thing is as an addict or alcoholic, our time horizons are very, very short.
• 20:31
  All I care about is how do I get my alcohol today, how do I get my crack today?
• 20:37
  That's all I'm camera.
• 20:38
  I'm not worried about my court date in a month.
• 20:42
  I missed so many.
• 20:43
  I always had a failure to appear.
• 20:45
  I always had a warrant out, always had a warrant out for my arrest when I was on the streets, always.
• 20:51
  Because I never showed up.
• 20:52
  Because I'm just thinking about that day and feeding my addiction and drinking.
• 20:57
  So I get out, my time horizon expands.
• 21:00
  I made some really good decisions early on to pay the debt.
• 21:04
  I had a debt of like eighteen hundred dollars, which to me was a million dollars.
• 21:11
  Okay?
• 21:12
  And.
• 21:13
  But I paid that debt.
• 21:14
  I didn't go out there and buy a bunch of FUBU or chains or any other junk that the other guys who I was getting out of the penitentiary were buying.
• 21:24
  I paid my rent to the halfway house, and I paid my debt, and I ate out twice.
• 21:32
  I ate out.
• 21:32
  Every payday I buy an $8 burrito.
• 21:35
  That was my treat to myself.
• 21:37
  That's another thing.
• 21:38
  I learned how to treat myself better, you know, and then I would eat out on payday.
• 21:46
  When we.
• 21:47
  When we got our check, we would have to go cash it, and we'd go to Burger King on the way back, and then I do the burrito that evening, and that's it.
• 21:55
  Okay.
• 21:57
  Okay.
• 21:58
  All right.
• 21:59
  So you have this plan going into prison, how you're going to change all these areas.
• 22:02
  And like you said, you went from not eating and being super skinny to setting a deadlift record in prison.
• 22:08
  So you turn that around quickly and you got.
• 22:11
  You got the intellectual right.
• 22:13
  You went to counseling, you get out, and all you can get with the three felonies is a warehouse job.
• 22:18
  But like you said, you were disciplined and just started the rebuilding process.
• 22:24
  And then what happens next?
• 22:26
  So what happens next is that I moved from Reno to Anchorage, Alaska.
• 22:37
  That's where I grew up.
• 22:39
  And the thing that's great about Alaska, and I always say, this is Great about Alaska is they don't care if you're black, white, a convicted felon.
• 22:48
  They don't care can you do the job.
• 22:51
  Because they're so needing of good workers.
• 22:55
  And that's one thing I knew I could do.
• 22:57
  I mean, when I was in school, I never missed a day of school.
• 23:01
  Literally, you know, you get a little certificate, never missed a day.
• 23:04
  When I go to work, I don't take time off for sickness because first I don't get sick that often.
• 23:11
  And other than an operation here and there, especially as you get older, I never take time off.
• 23:15
  I grind every day.
• 23:17
  I still grind.
• 23:18
  I grind six days a week, I go to work.
• 23:21
  So I had these built in qualities and probably one of my best qualities is that I am a fast learner.
• 23:29
  I learn fast.
• 23:31
  I have some cognitive ability to learn fast.
• 23:34
  So no matter what I'm doing, I'm usually going to do a really good job.
• 23:37
  And I did.
• 23:38
  So I come up there, I'm given a shot to again, I'm doing white collar as a supervisor, food and beverage super, because somebody knew somebody and put a word in for me.
• 23:50
  I do that, lose that job because I snap my Achilles tendon playing basketball, adult league basketball at 50 plus years.
• 24:00
  And I'm laid up for two months because I can't have a boot on.
• 24:04
  I can't drive.
• 24:05
  So I'm laid up, can't work and I get out.
• 24:07
  And then another person put the word out for me based on trust to become a development director for a soup kitchen called Beans Cafe.
• 24:20
  And that was the beginning.
• 24:21
  I fell in love with it.
• 24:23
  I always tell people that because fundraising is sales.
• 24:26
  A lot of people don't want to call it that because that's not.
• 24:29
  Seems too corporate or too profit driven, but it's sales.
• 24:34
  And I've told people I'm really, really good at sales, legal and illegal.
• 24:40
  I'm really good.
• 24:40
  I've sold everything.
• 24:42
  Okay.
• 24:43
  So I went in there, fell in love with it and did a really good job.
• 24:49
  And then I was approached by the largest foundation to become a consultant.
• 24:54
  And I put out my.
• 24:56
  Took me six months because of fear to get started.
• 25:00
  So to all the entrepreneurs, first of all, I honor that you're an entrepreneur.
• 25:04
  I honor your courage to do the business.
• 25:09
  Because for every entrepreneur that started a business in the last year, two years, there are 10 people that they've started in their head.
• 25:20
  But they don't do it most of the time because of fear.
• 25:25
  And it, it's, I'll be honest, it took me six months no, it took me eight months.
• 25:30
  Eight months getting ready to get ready to get ready.
• 25:35
  All right, so again, you're.
• 25:37
  You're on the rise.
• 25:38
  You're putting your life together, you're getting these better opportunities.
• 25:41
  You finally start your company, right?
• 25:44
  And then how, how did you evolve into speaker, author, and, and all the things that you're doing today?
• 25:53
  Slowly, the, the process.
• 25:58
  I have to speak to each of them.
• 26:00
  So speaking.
• 26:02
  I love to teach.
• 26:03
  I love to teach.
• 26:06
  I love to impart knowledge that will help another individual to obtain proficiency or success or what we call efficacy.
• 26:18
  So I'd been in fundraising probably a year, year and a half, and I started teaching fundraising.
• 26:28
  And in the beginning, it was just one or two classes.
• 26:30
  Now I have like 16 different classes.
• 26:32
  I teach.
• 26:33
  I'm teaching next week five times in four different cities.
• 26:37
  I fly around the country and I teach.
• 26:40
  Okay, that's teaching.
• 26:43
  Those are what we call breakouts.
• 26:45
  And then I became a consultant.
• 26:47
  I'm a coach.
• 26:48
  Then I started.
• 26:50
  Someone asked me, they said, you have a great story.
• 26:53
  Would you mind being our, would you be open to being our keynote?
• 26:58
  And I'm like, what's the keynote?
• 27:00
  You know, I was just teaching classes and doing workshops.
• 27:05
  And they explained to them, I said, sure, I'll go up there and tell my story.
• 27:09
  It's my story.
• 27:10
  And so I started doing keynotes and plenaries, usually a morning plenary, there's a closing plenary, and there's a lunchtime keynote.
• 27:20
  And I started telling.
• 27:21
  So I have a specific keynote, but I can always modify it to any group.
• 27:27
  But my keynote is resilience in the face of the known and the unknown.
• 27:33
  How do you come back from the setback?
• 27:36
  And that's what I speak to.
• 27:37
  Because I definitely had some setbacks and I've come back today.
• 27:41
  I'm a millionaire.
• 27:43
  You know, I have a six bedroom home in Ecuador with swimming pool.
• 27:47
  I got a home here in Bellingham.
• 27:50
  I have possessions.
• 27:51
  Okay, that's great.
• 27:53
  But the key thing is that I'm also supporting those individuals that I pay, whether they're contractors and, or employees.
• 28:02
  And I give value added to the clients and the customers and the people that hire me to speak.
• 28:09
  So that takes care of the speaking.
• 28:12
  The author people for years had said, ken, you need to write a book.
• 28:17
  I mean, I touched just the bare tip, you need to write a book, you need to write a book.
• 28:23
  I kept hearing that.
• 28:26
  So I started three years ago, August, three years ago, writing a book.
• 28:30
  And it took me two years, two and a half years to get the first book, Becoming Ken, I always point to the wrong direction Becoming Ken.
• 28:41
  And it was great doing it.
• 28:45
  The process.
• 28:46
  I learned a lot.
• 28:48
  And I also learned how to write books a lot quicker now.
• 28:51
  So I will have three more books coming out this year.
• 28:54
  One on respect and disrespect in communities, one on fundraising, pragmatic fundraising for small nonprofits.
• 29:04
  And then another one that I will be writing is mentoring in communities of color.
• 29:11
  Because those are three areas that I have some subject matter expertise, as you would say.
• 29:18
  So that's speaking then I have a property company.
• 29:24
  So I have property in Ecuador, which is.
• 29:27
  I always sell Costa Rica, 30 years ago, 40 years ago.
• 29:31
  And so the company takes care of my property.
• 29:35
  I have condos and a house down there that I rent out.
• 29:38
  It's like a BNB for the properties there.
• 29:43
  Then I have a company that does AI and virtual assistants.
• 29:50
  So I have virtual assistants in Philippines and in Ecuador that are trained, and I mean trained in AI, LLMs, large language models.
• 30:03
  ChatGPT is your example there.
• 30:05
  AI, image, AI, audio, AI, video and automations.
• 30:11
  And they are trained before they can be place with a client.
• 30:16
  And so I have that company, it's called Evolution.
• 30:19
  And then I have my company that writes grants and does fundraising consulting Denali FSP since 2014.
• 30:27
  So that's a little background.
• 30:28
  And really it's a background on.
• 30:30
  Well, it's all companies but revenue streams.
• 30:34
  Okay.
• 30:35
  Wow.
• 30:35
  So incredible that just hearing your story and everything that you went through and how you turned your life around, I mean to, to the entrepreneurs out there because you know, people face challenges, setbacks and oftentimes too can be
• 30:51
  staring at a situation and just feel like, how am I going to do this?
• 30:54
  What would your advice be given, you know, to someone that's facing a challenge right now, given what you overcame and then where you are today?
• 31:03
  First thing I would do and they're going to be connected.
• 31:08
  So there's two things.
• 31:09
  The number one thing, because I talk about this in, when I, when I talk about resilience.
• 31:13
  How do you come back from the setback?
• 31:16
  The fundamental is truth.
• 31:19
  Let me say that again.
• 31:21
  The fundamental is truth.
• 31:23
  That has to be the foundation of the comeback.
• 31:27
  And what does that mean?
• 31:29
  That means you have to take your cognitive thinking brain and try to understand what is this setback?
• 31:40
  What is it?
• 31:41
  What really is?
• 31:41
  It can't be.
• 31:43
  The setback can't be, I'm down.
• 31:47
  The setback is I was hurt.
• 31:49
  Setback can't be, I'm angry.
• 31:51
  Those are feelings.
• 31:53
  That's not cognitive we can't do anything about a feeling except change it.
• 31:58
  Usually with information and time, sometimes with chemicals.
• 32:03
  And I'm not against anyone that has to take a drug for their any mental that's been prescribed by a doctor.
• 32:12
  Again, I'm not that person that says don't do that.
• 32:16
  But you have to understand what the truth of the situation is because what we're trying to solve for is a problem.
• 32:23
  This is a really good one.
• 32:24
  Dave and I teach on this and talk about this.
• 32:28
  What is a problem?
• 32:30
  Let me ask you that.
• 32:30
  Dave, I know you're the host, but I'm just going to do it.
• 32:33
  What's a problem?
• 32:34
  Real quick, What's a problem?
• 32:36
  What's a definition of a problem?
• 32:39
  I'd say the definition of a problem is something that a situation within our lives that is not what we want it to be.
• 32:49
  Okay, okay, okay.
• 32:51
  This is what a problem is.
• 32:54
  Two plus two is not a problem.
• 33:00
  Two plus two is a statement.
• 33:03
  Two plus two equals is a problem.
• 33:08
  It's a math problem.
• 33:10
  And the reason it becomes from a statement to a problem.
• 33:13
  This is going to go back to what we're getting ready to talk about is because it is a set of circumstances that seeks a solution.
• 33:23
  That's what a problem is.
• 33:26
  So when we're trying to solve for the problem, the setback, we have to define what are the set of circumstances and what is the solution that we're seeking?
• 33:39
  Is the solution to never do this again?
• 33:42
  Is the solution to try to fix the problem?
• 33:45
  Is the solution to.
• 33:46
  Because you can do a lot of things with a problem, sometimes the solution is to accept that this is the circumstances and there is no outcome that we can seek that's going to change the circumstances.
• 34:03
  That problem can't be solved by anything that we do.
• 34:08
  It can only be solved by our acceptance.
• 34:12
  When my mother passed away, who I loved dearly, that was a problem for me.
• 34:22
  And I had to give it some time and some thought.
• 34:25
  And my only solution is to accept that that's God's will or that's truth and let's move on.
• 34:33
  Ken, you can't turn to her for counsel.
• 34:37
  You can't turn to her for emotional support.
• 34:40
  Let's look for other people to do that.
• 34:42
  Okay, so that's number one.
• 34:44
  You have to define truth of the situation.
• 34:46
  You also have to define what solution are we seeking.
• 34:50
  And that takes thought, it literally.
• 34:52
  Sometimes I tell people, write it down on a piece of paper.
• 34:56
  The second thing is get it out of here.
• 35:01
  Share it with someone.
• 35:03
  So many times we get A setback and we just internalize it and just keep it revolving in the brain.
• 35:11
  And because what comes out of a setback, and this is the key component, is self talk.
• 35:20
  It's self talk and most of the self talk is negative.
• 35:24
  That I am not competent enough, I'm not beautiful enough, I'm not lovable enough.
• 35:31
  That's why he left me, she left me, whatever it may be.
• 35:34
  And I'm talking, we can go back more into the business realm.
• 35:37
  But that's why that client let go.
• 35:40
  Because I'm no good, I'm not competent enough, I'm not enough value added.
• 35:45
  And you got to understand your truth of what you have to offer as a product or service, be comfortable with that or work on making the value added stronger.
• 35:57
  So those are the two main ones is to get the foundation of truth facts and then share it with another person.
• 36:08
  And so you've heard me mention it once or twice.
• 36:11
  I'm really big on mentoring.
• 36:13
  I'm really big on mentoring, not coaching.
• 36:17
  I love coaching.
• 36:17
  I do it for a living.
• 36:19
  But mentoring where there's no cost involved, but someone has a vested interest in your well being and success.
• 36:31
  Okay.
• 36:32
  All right.
• 36:33
  And Ken, if people want to learn more about what you, the work you're doing, your coaching, that the businesses you mentioned or they want to grab a copy of your book, I mean what, what's the best way people
• 36:45
  can reach out to you and find you online?
• 36:47
  All right, well, the book is Amazon just becoming.
• 36:50
  Ken.
• 36:50
  There's no other book on with that title, but just go to Amazon or Audible and you can pick it up there.
• 36:56
  And then if you want to get a hold of me, if you're interested in the speaking, there's my website right up there, KenMillerSpeaks.com real simple.
• 37:05
  KenMillerSpeaks.com or you can do the QR code, but the most communication I do is through LinkedIn and my handle is KenMiller84.
• 37:18
  That's it.
• 37:18
  Because I graduated in 1984.
• 37:20
  So Ken Miller 84L LinkedIn.
• 37:22
  You can do a DM or shoot me a message on there and I respond to every.
• 37:29
  I respond.
• 37:30
  I have four VAs that work for me, but I respond to every communication that comes through LinkedIn to me.
• 37:38
  Okay.
• 37:39
  All right, and we'll link all that in the show.
• 37:41
  Notes for everyone.
• 37:43
  All right, well, Ken, thank you so much for taking the time to be here and sharing this incredible story and the journey you've been on with our listeners.
• 37:50
  We greatly appreciate it.
• 37:52
  Thank you.
• 37:52
  Thank you for your time and thank you to your audience.
• 37:55
  Thank you.