Elizabeth Miner: I am so excited. I’ve arrived already ignited.

John: Yes. Elizabeth has created a coaching practice around her experiences and knowledge, which brought her from poverty to Senior Corporate Paralegal to one of the most iconic companies in the world to running her own business, to living life to the fullest. Thrive This Day was developed to bring the tools and information needed to live a happy, healthy, and abundant fulfilling life. All of those things are great, Elizabeth. Take a minute. Fill in some gaps in that intro and give us just a little glimpse of your personal life.

Elizabeth Miner: I kind of started off this path very unorthodox. I have been defying the odds and doing things that others believed weren’t possible, and I didn’t even know any better. So I’ve kind of developed my whole career around being unaware that I shouldn’t be able to succeed. So I’ve reached great success by living life that way, and now I am able to help others do the same and it just is just a great passion of mine.

John: So Elizabeth I kind of want to know right now what you consider your area of expertise? Like what’s something that you specialize in? Just sum it up in a couple of sentences.

Elizabeth Miner: Well, right now what I do is I’m a coach, right? So I help people take their myriad of ideas and give them some tools to help them get clarity, and because I’m such a pro at removing obstacles and getting around through, in, and out of boxes and obstacles, that’s what I am able to do, and I help them create a path to achieve their success goals.

John: Okay. So that being said, what’s something that you think that we might not know that you know because of your expertise that we should probably know?

Elizabeth Miner: I think that most people spend so much time worrying about thinking inside the box, thinking outside the box. The thing for me is I never even understood there was a box, so I think if we stop worrying about the darn box, I think that people will do so much better for themselves.

John: How about you get a website that’s live life without the box not inside, not outside, just without the box.

Elizabeth Miner: Forget about the darn box.

John: Now on that note, Elizabeth, let’s talk about something that you’ve recently changed your mind about. I mean you used to believe in a certain set of things even just recently that just because of the changing world that we live in you no longer believe in. What’s an example of that?

Elizabeth Miner: I go back to just the way I’ve lived my life. I’m a put your head down and go through it and just get everything done and just keep going and don’t look and don’t do anything. And I’ve recently understood that get your head up and look at the metrics. I’m not a big metrics person. I know we have to measure certain things and certain things I do measure, but certain things I just might just keep putting it out there or keep doing what you’re doing and it’ll all work out. And just keep working hard enough and that whole work smarter not harder that’s accomplished by actually taking a look at what your work is doing. And I haven’t always done that, so that has changed dramatically in my life recently.

John: Fire Nation, analytics are key. I mean if you don’t know what numbers you’re trying to hit, you know, and those numbers can be anything maybe it’s revenue, maybe it’s email optima’s, maybe it’s the listeners of your show, whatever it could be, you need to know what those analytics are so you know what’s working and what’s not because all you have is time. And when you don’t know the analytics, you might be spending time in the completely wrong areas with stuff that’s not working. So I love that point. Now Elizabeth let’s kind of make a focus on your journey now and dive into what you consider your worst entrepreneurial moments, and I really want you to take us to that moment. Tell us that story.

Elizabeth Miner: I’ve been thinking about this because I’ve been listening to your show for a while, and you know I don’t know that I’ve hit my worst entrepreneurial moment yet, which is kind of scary but kind of good. But I would say that I recently had something that I think is really poignant, and probably some of your listeners already know. But I had that focus on this one client, and because I do such customized work that I have one organization that I was working with, and they were a good majority of not just my revenue but my time.

My time was imbalanced so that I was doing a lot of work for that genre, that element of my business practice, and as you might suspect I did get the call saying you know we’re reevaluating. And that panic moment of okay I might lose this customer but my bigger panic and my bigger recognition and my most important take away from this was my time was not balanced. So I don’t have those other things in the shape that I would’ve wanted them to be in so that I just move to that next stage. So I’m now doing a little bit of scrambling to wrap up and move forward at a faster pace some of these other projects that I should’ve been moving along at the same time.

John: They call it the stress test Fire Nation like you really need to be thinking like how can I put myself out of business? Like what can I do to really test the systems of my business that if this happens or if that happens? You know like for me what happens if the power goes out for five days here in Puerto Rico, which happened while I was actually on vacation. Like put your business through a stress test. Like what happens when that happens so that you can be prepared. So Elizabeth should’ve been asking herself that question before hey what happens if I get that email from that client that I rely so heavily on, what do I do then?

So that when she gets that email she’s not in total panic freak out mode she already has potentially a plan in place or at least a next step. So that’s my big take away, Elizabeth. What do you want to make sure that Fire Nation gets from your story?

Elizabeth Miner: I come from the legal field, so I am brisk management person, and I didn’t take that into my own business. And I didn’t give, you know, the sense of my schedule did not get the importance, and I was doing what was necessary right now instead of planning for that future entirely and giving much more attention to my full practice versus some areas of practice. And from time to time that’s necessary. You need to focus on finishing your book or what have you, but I definitely over the long term think that’s critical to be aware of where is your time going and are you doing enough things at the same time that one isn’t taking too much of your time and focus.

John: Elizabeth, what’s one of your greatest ah-ha moments? Take us to that story.

Elizabeth Miner: My greatest ah-ha moment and what actually set me to make a career out of what I am doing today was I got a call from somebody who was an acquaintance of mine. He knew of me through some family and such and had been a voyeur of sorts I supposed on my Facebook. And he sat down with me. He called me up and said can I get a cup of coffee with you. Absolutely. So we go out for coffee and he sat down with me and he said you know I know a bit of your story. I know a bit of your history and I know what you’ve experienced. There is no way you should be as happy and as successful as you currently are. What the heck are you doing?

And here’s the deal, I want to pay you to help me because I can’t figure this out. And I went oh my god I was just getting through life. I had no idea that I was really doing it differently, and I just am who I am. And he’s like no you’re obviously doing these things, and I need the help, and I thought you know what I can actually help people with the struggles I’ve been through. Ah, this is what I’m designed to do.

John: So what I love about this Fire Nation is that this is the light bulb that goes off for entrepreneurs when they get it. Some people they just continue going forward in things that are working they don’t quite know why. But then it all comes together, and you might be sitting there listening to this and saying man I don’t know if it’s all come together for me yet. But maybe you just haven’t taken a step back and thought about your business or had the conversations with people who have been there and done that that can maybe open that door for you and show you the light that’s so critical.

So have those conversations with people. Have those deep thoughts and just moments where you’re getting into your business. For me I do that in the morning when I’m journaling, when I’m meditating. I think about the business and that’s when ideas are revealed, so that’s my big takeaway, Elizabeth. What do you want to make sure Fire Nation gets from that story?

Elizabeth Miner: I think the most important thing that is good for people to understand is entrepreneurs were a bit of a different breed, right? So I think that when you figure out how you don’t fit in that’s exactly how you need to stand out. Don’t you agree?

John: So true. I mean Fire Nation if you can find your unique value distinguisher the thing that makes you different, then that’s your calling card. Don’t go away from that go towards that. On that note, Elizabeth, what are you most fired up about today?

Elizabeth Miner: I’m so fired up. I’ve been spending so much time in my career networking and making connections and learning about other people and their businesses and helping people along the way of course, and they’re helping me along the way of course. And now we’re at that stage where I have a number of people that I have the opportunity to collaborate with, and some of these collaborations are really getting very exciting and starting to really come into fruition. So that’s what I’m really fired up about these days.

John: Well, Fire Nation I’m fired up for the lightning round, so don’t you go anywhere. We’re gonna take a quick minute first to thank our sponsors. Elizabeth, are you prepared for the lightning rounds?

Elizabeth Miner: Hit me, John, hit me.

John: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Elizabeth Miner: You know, I don’t think I ever really realized that the ideas I had were entrepreneur ideas. It just wasn’t something that my family was around. I wasn’t around it as a child, but I had a lot of ideas, and so many people just quashed that, and I don’t think they meant to intentionally. But they were trying to protect me from myself or trying to protect the failure or you know that’s a lovely idea Elizabeth, but you know somebody else with more knowledge or resources should go try that not you. And you know so that held me back a lot. I had so many great ideas growing up, and even into my young adult life, and it wasn’t until I stopped listening to anybody that I was like oh I guess this is entrepreneurship, ah, oh, cool.

John: Well, you’ve got some horrible advice growing up, Elizabeth. What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

Elizabeth Miner: I’m gonna tell you about a year, year-and-a-half ago my sister, an accountant, does accounting for like multiple golf courses. She lives in North Carolina and I was like great my sister’s an accountant here can I give you my stuff, and will you just do this? Here’s my QuickBooks, here’s my stuff, and she said no. I was like wait a minute what? She said no I won’t do it until you understand it first. Nobody should be in your books if you don’t understand what you’re looking at. So you need to do it for at least a year before I will come and sit down with you and take it over. I’ll teach you but I will not do it, and what a brilliant, brilliant piece of advice.

John: I love that. What’s a personal habit, Elizabeth that you think contributes to your success?

Elizabeth Miner: Well, I’m a coach and I think that my personal curiosity about everybody’s story is definitely just a habit and an ingrained thing that contributes to my success because I’m constantly learning about where people are struggling and what their challenges are and that’s my whole business is helping people with their challenges. I don’t really subscribe to this whole pain point thing but it is the same theory, right? We all have challenges and if I know what people’s general challenges are I can take what I know and find where we intersect and I can help.

John: What’s an Internet resource you can recommend to our listeners?

Elizabeth Miner: You know I don’t do a lot of Internet resources because I find that once I get on the Internet I then get distracted. I have direct syndrome that you don’t know about. But I do use Zoom for my business. I do online coaching and I do it face-to-face and it is just an absolutely incredible tool that I take over any of the other opportunities or options that are out there. I think it’s the best fit for me.

John: If you can recommend just one book, what would it be?

Elizabeth Miner: It’s this book that helped me change my thoughts on metrics. It’s a new book out called The Profits Principles. It’s by Steven Briginshaw and it’s the practical guide to building an extraordinary business around doing what you love and it’s such a great thing. I’m such a math phobic and he comes at business from an accountant’s perspective, so he helps me understand what the numbers are trying to say to me, the story the numbers are saying. But then he also is really great throughout the book and helping you with time management to understanding how to put together the right team, their ideal customers. He just goes through the whole process, so I really found it to be healthful.

I think it’s great because so many books are written for either the new entrepreneur or the person that’s finder six figures or seven figures or nine figures, and this is really for somebody who’s been in business for at least a year, has some metrics, and now can figure out how can I make those better.

John: And who’s the author again?

Elizabeth Miner: Steven Briginshaw.

John: Wow, because that’s actually free on Kindle Unlimited. If Fire Nation you have a Kindle Unlimited, definitely worth the read because it’s not gonna cost you a dollar. Love it. So Elizabeth on Fire with a parting piece of guidance, the best way that we can connect with you, and then we’ll say goodbye.

Elizabeth Miner: The best way to connect with me is through email. I am Elizabeth@thrivethisday.com, and I’m on all the social medias @thrivethisday, so you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, what have you, and the parting piece of wisdom is just don’t give up on your dreams they’re with you for a reason, and just find your way that you stand out and then capitalize on it, and just make it so.

John: Fire Nation you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You’ve been hanging out with EM and JLD today, so make sure to keep up the heat. If you head over to EOFire.com just type Elizabeth in the search bar. Her page will pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today. We are talking best show notes in the biz Fire Nation timestamps, links galore. When people on Fire Nation, on EOFire when they share their email address, take action Fire Nation, Elizabeth@thrivethisday.com.

Shoot her an email, say thank you, ask her a question, whatever it might be, reach out. Elizabeth, I want to thank you for sharing your journey with us today, so for that we salute you and we’ll catch you on the flipside.

Elizabeth Miner: Thanks so much, John.