February 7, 2024 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Britney Ruby Miller is CEO of Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment where she leads a team of more than 500 employees across 7 luxury steakhouses in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Britney is the author of 5-Star Life: The Faithful Fight to Overcome Obstacles and Pursue Excellence. Let’s take a listen to her story.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including yours. Send them to Ouramerican Stories dot com. There's
some of our favorites. Britney Ruby Miller is CEO of
Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment, where she leads a team of
more than five hundred employees across seven luxury steakhouses in Ohio, Kentucky,
(00:35):
and Tennessee. Brittany is the author of five Star Life,
The Faithful Fight to Overcome obstacles and Pursue excellence. Let's
take a listen to her story.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm Brittany Ruby Miller.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I'm the CEO of Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment, and we
operate seven family owned steakhouses USDA Prime steakhouses. Kind of
a white glove approach, not a corporate chain stakhouse. These
aren't commissary. Everything's made in house, move incredible chefs. And
my dad just grew up in restaurants. Was he had
(01:08):
very little family, didn't really know who his dad was.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
He had four fathers.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
At one point he calls him his forefathers, stepfathers, and
you know, once he found out who he thought was
his uncle, actually was his father, and so it's just
a really crazy story he has. And he went from
failing grade school to I think he was All state
wrestling and got a full right scholarship to Cornell University.
And when he came out of Cornell, Winegardner Hammon's Hospitality
(01:36):
gave him two choices, Syracuse or Cincinnati, and he was
a Reds fan, so he chose Cincinnati. He was running
at one point a few holiday inns as an innkeeper
and also though was really involved in promotions and marketing
and started making relationships with the Big Red Machine and
through those relationships Johnny Bench and Pete Rose, and they
(01:59):
backed his first restaurant, the Precinct, and then the second restaurant,
the Waterfront, which was a five star floating barge on
the Ohio River, was backed by Bloomers Eisen and Chris Collinsworth.
But we have restaurants throughout the Midwest, so we've got
four in Ohio, two in Kentucky, and one in Nashville.
I start my book by explaining what it was like
(02:20):
at five years old when mom walks through the door,
four and a half walks through the door and says,
your father's been in a.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Pretty bad car accident and he's in a coma.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
He might not make it. And I'm also pregnant. You're
going to have a baby brother. He had an experimental
procedure done and should have died, had a five percent
chance of ever living without being a vegetable and being
completely brain dead. And my dad's Jewish, and my mom
(02:51):
was raised Christian, and so she started a prayer chain,
and my dad contributes the prayer chain of five thousand
people to his morale aculus healing. So then I get
into high school and in college.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I have a million regrets from that period.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I was living a completely empty life, so underage, drinking,
going out and partying and having fun. You know, I
never got into drugs, I think because I was the
one thing I remember my mom always did, was even
if she didn't believe it, she would tell everybody like
what a good kid I am in front of like me, So, she's.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
A great kid, she's a great athletes, she's a great student.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Oh my gosh, it's she know she And so to me,
I was like, well, I guess if I smoke.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Cigarettes or drugs, she won't be able to say that anymore.
So I just never did it.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But I went to bars and I snuck in and I,
you know, my brother was making fake id's at the time,
so I got a fake.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
ID and it worked.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It was really good, and so we would go out
and my dad found out, and so he literally without
telling me, goes down to bar Cincinnati Jump all these
places on Main Street, which is where the bars are.
And so I didn't know, but I go to get
in with my fake ID, and the bouncer looks at
me and then he takes my ID and he peels
(04:16):
off the scans that and he goes. I want you
to know, I'm mailing this to your dad, go home.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I love that my dad chose.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Steakhouses to make a business because when celebrities come into town,
or you want to impress somebody, or you want to
build relationships. We have lots of relationships that have come
in very handy with politicians. I actually give a Ted
talks on this. There's a lot of things that they
all have in common. They all love bourbon steak and
red wine and decadent desserts, and so it's very simple
(04:51):
to build relationships in our restaurants. My dad always says,
when a guy comes home after working. The last thing
he wants to do is sit down to a Chilean
sea bass.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
You want to have a big old steak, you.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Want to have a drink, and you you know, it's
just an accomplishment, and I love steakhouses. So anyways, he
built a very strong relationship with Tommy Lasorda and the
Dodgers Eric Carros and Piazza was one of them and
basically became like his second dad.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You know, all I know is my boyfriend.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Is a pretty good baseball player and he comes home.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I'm like, what is wrong?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
He's like every single time I got up to home
plate today, Piazza heckled me.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Every single time, he screaming, like, get off. Jeff Ruby's daughter,
her dad's in the mafia. It's going to be bad.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Every time he got up, it was a different thing
that he would just try to get and he played horrible.
I was irate when it happened. And now you're like
high fiving him, and I'm like, never again. While I
did an athlete, they all cheat, they're all bad, and
you know, I'm just not interested. And I'm at a
Toby Keith concert and we take a picture and Marvin
(06:07):
Lewis's assistant, Sandy is my mom's best friend.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
She takes the picture.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
The next time I'm with Sandy, I'm at my dad
at a box at the stadium, and so we're I'm
sitting in there and I'm joking because there's this picture
of this football player who has long hair straightened down
to his shoulders, passed his chin, and he's got this
look on his face that he's just.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Gonna kill somebody.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Sandy's cracking up because I'd say to my dad, look,
there's my new type. And he's like, you've lost your mind.
And I'm like, ha, I know, yeah, never happening. And
she's like, Brittany, that's Caleb Miller, middle linebacker. He took
it as a joke. He actually is in ministry. And
aren't you in religious studies person, aren't you into this type.
I'm like, Sandy, not a chance.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
No, thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And she's like, Oh, he's going through a really hard time.
You could be a good friend to him, right, I'm like, Nope,
I'm not taking on a project.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And you've been listening to Brittany Ruby Miller talk about
her father, her early life, many of the mistakes she
made is a lateeen and in her early twenties bar
hopping and partying and as she said, living an empty life.
And luckily she had a dad who cared enough to
visit all the bouncers in town and just let them
know which way was up, at least with him. When
we come back more of Brittany Ruby Miller's story here
(07:26):
on our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great
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(07:46):
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Speaker 2 (07:49):
Go to our.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
American Stories dot com now and go to the donate
button and help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com and we continue with
(08:10):
our American Stories and Brittany Ruby Miller, who is CEO
of Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment, where she leads a team
of more than five hundred employees across seven luxury steakhouses
in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Let's pick up where Brittany
last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So she follows up and she ends up calling me
multiple times, and she said, Caleb, really, I showed him
your picture. He really has no friends up here, and
he knows you're a religious studies major and you just
got baptized. So I was baptized in two thousand and
one as well. And he just grabs the phone from
her and he's like, hello, Brittany, I'm up here, drafted
to the worst city. Like I never wanted to come
(08:51):
to Cincinnati. I hate the city. I have no friends
up here, and I just need a friend. I'm going
through a really hard time in my life.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
And I would just appreciate it if you.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Would just carve out some time and we can talk.
I'll meet you for coffee and he's like that sounds
like a date. I'll just come over to your house.
We can just hang out as friends.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And I'm like.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Okay, And the next thing I know, I'm sitting in
my living room with my best friend watching ace Ventura
and it's the most awkward situation ever. We don't talk
about any of his problems at all, and we just
watched a movie.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It was the It's ridiculous that I fell for it.
We really built a friendship. First.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
He grew up very very religious, very legalistic, not an
excuse for anything, and his parents are tremendous, and so
he ends up going to college and he gets somebody
pregnant and he's he thinks this whole world's just over.
And so he's at that point she I think the
baby was almost due when we met, and so you know,
(09:59):
I'm not trying to get I'm just talking to him
as friends and trying to help him, and that's what
he said he wanted. And as we became friends more,
it developed into something more. But I'm thinking, well, you know, okay,
I can deal with the kid. The guy's got a son.
I can handle that. I'm not thinking there's anything else
going on with that relationship. And then we get married
and he comes to me and says, you know, I'm
(10:23):
learning he's still massively depressed. Oh then you throw on
an injury, a career ending injury in Seattle. I'm packing
the house up to move into our new house as
newly Woods, and I'm not even watching the game. I'm
listening to it because I'm in my closet packing, and
the announcer comes.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
On and is like, ooh, that's a bad one.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Caleb Miller is down, and then they cut to commercial,
and I'm like, what the heck? And so I called
Bill Connley, who was traveling secretary, I think, and he's
I finally get a hold of him, and he's like
Bernie's he's tackling on Alexander and this guy comes in
just crunches him backwards so it's like a bent pack,
and then lands on him. And for he said, about
(11:08):
two minutes he felt it was nothing. He could not move,
and then two minutes later he's like warmth came over
his body and he was able to walk off. Total
miracle that he's not paralyzed. But we both knew the
season was over at this point. And then you know,
he comes back and he is in the most tremendous
back pain.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
He tried to fake and he tried.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
To get back in shape and do what he could do,
and he, you know, he failed the physicals when he
would go and practice and try to you know, hit
a couple workouts with some teams, and so he turned
down another tryout I think in Atlanta, and he just said,
I can't play, and he said, but I got to
get my brain, I got to get my heart right,
(11:51):
and I've got to get my life right. And that's
when he confessed again that he had cheated on me.
And I, you know, my first thing is like, I'm
just done. I'm done dealing with this guy. He's got
to get his craft together and I'm not going to
be the one that continues to just sit there.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And this has been years now of him being fickle
and wishy washy, and now he's blaming it on depression.
And come on, I'm not buying any of it. I
could tell he.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Was genuinely sorry, he wanted to change. So I'm like,
I've got to at least give it a shot. If
you're dying to yourself at this point, you're dead, that's
all gone. Now you want to pick up the pieces
and fix yourself. This is the one and done shot
to do that, if you want to go figure that out.
And so he goes to the myroclinic. It's amazing, and
(12:37):
I remember your last session of the three weeks is
with the spouse, and the counselor said, look, I got
to tell you, Caleb's personality is not like many that
I've counseled, and I don't know if you can change personality.
And Caleb looks and he's heartbroken because he's needing to
convince me that it's worth like I'm better, he said,
(13:00):
And also he's not ready to leave. That part was true.
The part about you can't change personality is not true.
And that guy actually was not a good counselor. Doesn't
take any credibility away from the program at the myroclinic.
He just wasn't a good counselor, and so they got
him a new one. But my counselor said, you've got
to just continue to pray. Those are your weapons, and
so I prayed for Caleb NonStop during that time. He
(13:22):
goes and he stays for another three weeks, and at
this point I can tell there.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Is significant change. Is he fully healed?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
No, but this is a different person who who I
know is going to be putting in the work to
change himself. But then they tell me upon his checkout
that I should check in for three weeks and I'm like, what,
I'm fine, what do you mean, I'm not losing my mind?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
These are crazy people down here. He told me.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Some of the stories of these people, and I'm like, wow,
that sounds like a serious psych word crazy. I'm like,
I'm not going to that program at all. I'll do
my own thing up here. I've got some good counselors
and they're like no. And so when I get down,
the number one thing that was unveiled was that I
was dealing with perfectionism. That I just always kind of
thought that was a good thing, like I'm just excelling
(14:10):
in everything I do, and I realized it could be
a mental disorder.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
My marriage had to be perfect, my body had to
be perfect.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
You know, I had ten years of an eating disorder
that I never told anybody about. And then, by the way,
I've also got this thing I need to work out
with Caleb. But the crazy thing was we really didn't.
I mean, I process that with my counselor. And what
I loved about my counselors and I've been to many therapists.
You when you hire a therapist, it's not you just
don't go and like spill everything and then and hope
(14:38):
they're the one. You need to interview a therapist like
you're interviewing an employee. Because my mom and dad got
me a therapist when they chose to get divorced. And
this guy all he did was listen and he never
gave me feedback.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
He never gave me tools.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
He never And I'm like, I don't need to go
and just talk, like I need you to give me
some advice, talk to me. I actually had three counselors
like that in my life. Then I go to the
Meyer Clinic and she actually gives me her opinion. I'm like, wow,
this girl's awesome. And she looks Caleb in the eyes
and says, what you did is wrong. No, what you're
doing right now. She validated me so much, but she
would also validate him that, hey, that's toxic, that's below
(15:12):
the belt.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You can't say this. Here's the tools to fighting.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
And so because she was such an amazing counselor, and
she said, your biggest issue, Brittany is your perfectionism and
the other stuff you're going to heal. We're going to
help you with the marriage stuff to get over, but
like you need to really.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Be focused on yourself down here. And that's that's what happened.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Where I am now is almost married fifteen years and
it is the best marriage I could ever hope for.
And I remember when my pastor's wife, Kathy, when I
called her just sobbing hysterically that there's I mean, it's
just was it. I was so blindsided when I found
(15:52):
out he cheated in our marriage.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
That I was just it rocks you.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And unless you've experienced it, I also think people who
haven't experienced it will never really understand how beautiful the
healing can be. She told me that day, if you
can forgive him and put in the work and he
truly is repentitive and.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
He's sorry, you will have the most rock solid marriage.
And she that's what she told me.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
She goes, you know, and Pastor Dale shares this, my
pastor up here, they share it publicly, and same thing
with my mentor for Taylor and Sandrup.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I would have never known that that happened.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
And then like people are coming out of the woodworks,
unbelievable how common it is. I mean, I really thought
I was like the only one and nobody can know.
And when you deal with that, the greatest healing, even
it far exceeds. The Myra Clinic are meeting and talking
(16:49):
to women who had also been there and who chose
to stay and fight and it is the best decision
that I made because Caleb is the most amazing father
and the most amazing husband, and he truly.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Is a testimony that you can change. Like that counselor
was wrong, That was a lie.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
And you've been listening to Brittany Ruby Miller tell the
story not just of her marriage and her husband's infidelity,
but how she got through it and how she learned
about herself too, particularly her perfectionism. And anyone who's been
around a perfectionist, it's not pleasant. It's really not pleasant.
It can be one of the most unpleasant things of
(17:26):
all whose you're always disappointing that person and they don't
even know it, and they're disappointing themselves. And my goodness,
so many relationships do survive infidelity and come out on
the other side better, and sharing that story makes anybody
who's gone through that feel less alone. When we come
back more of Brittany Ruby Miller's story here on our
American Stories True, and we continue with our American Stories
(18:10):
in Brittany Ruby Miller, who's the CEO of Jeff Ruby
Culinary Entertainment, and we had just heard about how her
marriage had improved actually after an infidelity and a real
reckoning and probably some repentance and forgiveness. And now let's
pick up where Brittany last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
So I had graduated from UC, I start culinary school.
I'm managing, you know. So I served for a really,
really long time, and I just worked every position. I
ended up being in the operations for twenty years and
love restaurants and learned every position. And that was one
thing that my dad really a great decision that he
made because I wanted to as soon as I graduated
go to corporate office and start doing what I thought
(18:52):
that I should do. And he's like, you have not
served yet. You've done every other position, though, but you
haven't served.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I'm like, I know, but I learned through watching other people.
I've read every training manual, I created the documents.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Probably He's like, no, until you serve, you really don't
understand it.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And it is the hardest job.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I think every citizen should have to serve at some
point in their lives. And I think everybody should work
off of tips too, and so great experience. Did that
for a couple of years, and then I got into management.
And then I go to the corporate office and my
intro was guest relations manager, and so I go to
take my first call and I'm listening to this guy
(19:32):
tell me this crazy story that we refuse a seeing
eye dog and his spouse they're blind and they came
to the precinct and how dare we not serve them?
And we turn them away because he has a dog.
I just called my manager and go nuts on him.
I'm like, what is wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
How could you do this? And he's like, Brittany, what
day was it?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Like? We never had a dog in here? And who
was the server? And he goes, let me get back
to you. So I'm like, oh, he's lying through his teeth.
He just doesn't want to get fired. He knows this happened.
And I had just installed caller ID at the corporate office,
and so it came up from a hotel and I'm
thinking it's just a guest at a hotel, and I
(20:11):
go to take his phone number down, and my best
receptionist voice like trying to do everything very professionally, he
won't give me the phone number.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I'm like, Okay, that's weird.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
But it doesn't dawn on me that it could be
any scam until a couple of calls and a couple
of different hotels later, Motel six, red roof in.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It was just very bizarre.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And meanwhile, the story is not adding up at the
restaurant level.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Somehow, I'm super slow.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
It takes three calls from three different hotels to realize
this guy is scamming me. And it's the first complaint
I ever took. And I will tell you those things
don't happen very often. I've now been in the corporate
office for over ten years. Those things do not happen.
There's an occasional weird thing, but something like that that
(20:55):
is so premeditated and planned out and it's bizarre. And
thank god it did, because I then made the decision
that I'm going to always take my employees back. First,
all feedback is relevant, that doesn't mean I agree with it,
and so our team is innocent until proven guilty, and
we take forty eight hours if you complain at one
(21:17):
of our restaurants, I thank you for your feedback.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Before we accept.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I don't tell them this, but before we take any
we train on this. There's zero liability that's taken until
we invest some time into talking to the manager. Looking
at our cameras looking at the guest check, seeing what
was calmed, seeing how long the ticket time was, how
long it took.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
To get drinks.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
And so we do a full report on every single
complaint that comes in and most of the times look
a service screwed up or we own it.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
We have to apologize, and that's what we do and
we handle it.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
But I realized that I need to make sure that
my team knows that I trust them and even if
they screw up, I trust them to do the right
thing to make it right. But at that point, you know,
my dad, the way that he ran the business was
very hands on, one man show, and he is a
maniac for restaurants being the best and insane amount of
(22:08):
national awards, I mean USA Today, Top ten, Travel and Leisure,
Top twenty five steakhouses, I mean, the list goes on
on the Food Network, Best Steakhouse in Ohio. And so
at this point we have a really good company. I
know our restaurants are great, but everything is tribal knowledge,
whether it's the mac and cheese that's famous, to the
way that we our hostess is answer phone, like everything
(22:29):
is just passed down. There's nothing documented. And then I
become director of operations, and my dad brings on.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Russell mankis So.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Russell started as the GM of the Waterfront in nineteen
eighty six, and then he left. He wasn't there very
long because he was recruited by Hilton and so he
goes to open Hilton's all over the world. He's in Asia, Mexico,
he opened Times Square, and then he landed at the Drake.
So he's running the Drake at that point. He's a
general manager of the Drake. Dad goes to Chicago to
(23:01):
write his book, which is an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
It's called Not Counting Tomorrow, his life story.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Dad comes back from writing this book and he said,
I think Russell's going to come be the managing director.
And I'm like, oh, you know, And there's a part
of me I'm like, why do we need a managing director.
I'm director of operations. We're fine, and I'm nervous. I'm
about to get a new boss. I've always reported to
Jeff Ruby. But Russell said, look, Jeff, I got two
years left before I retire, and I want to retire
(23:26):
knowing that I did something really great. And I'm going
to move back to Cincinnati and I want to mentor
Brittany and position your company to scale.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
He was the best thing that happened in my career.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
I had only seen the very eccentric, colorful, charismatic type
of leadership before. And that's passionate and that's good, and
that's why he has a company the way that he
has it. But it also takes somebody with a leadership
that's more calm and not as reactive and rational to be.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Able to build a business. So my dad built a brand.
Russell built a business.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
A joke that his middle name is metrics, like Russell
metrics Mancus. Because I couldn't just say we did a
great job. I'd have to show him data, show him numbers,
Explain why our numbers were so good, Explain why our
guest sentiment was so good.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And then when we would open new restaurants.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
At that point, it was great because we built training
documents for every single department.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
The way that we look at it is we go
to build a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I've got the playbook here on here's how to do
that for everything from finance to operations to culinary And
we built three restaurants in four years. And then he
retired and so I've been president and CEO for a
couple of years and then covid hits I grew up
from the time I was five years old, five stars
is what you strive for.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's crazy. At five, I knew who our critic was
here in town.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I knew what it took to get five stars in
the restaurants, and that's what we strive for. And then
through this journey, I said I was living a one
star life. God wants us to have a five star life.
He wants us to have the fruits of the spirit.
He wants us to have the joy, not happiness. He
wants to have joy in our hearts. And five stars
to me became not just in my restaurants. But that's
when it dawned on me that we need to be
(25:07):
striving for five stars in our personal lives as well
and celebrate the victories. We've got so much craziness that's
happening around us. I am living my five star life,
but it's because I put in the work when it
was the one and two stars, and I'm so glad
that I did so. Just to summarize the where Caleb
and I are now, healthiest relationship, I could ever ask
(25:29):
for amazing relationship with Caden's mom, and we co parent
better than anyone out there.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I believe it took a lot of No it didn't.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
It took one conversation sit down, and there was massive
amount of healing and she is my friend now and
we are close and it's awesome and my kids.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Are absolutely incredible. They would not be here today if
I chose to walk away.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
And so for marriages, I just want to say, it
is really worth fighting for. And it is a life
for death, literally a life or death decision when you
go through those hard things. And I'm so glad now
that I've got you know, after five years of infertility,
we have three miracle babies.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
That's the one thing I didn't say.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I found out I carry a gene mutation that makes
you very prone to neural tube defects, and I had
a neural tube defect baby. I had a thirty percent
chance of ever having a healthy baby, and I've had
three fully healthy babies, Hands on prayer, crazy miracles that happened.
And for anybody listening, God's got a destiny and a
purpose for you, And don't be ashamed to celebrate five stars.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
He wants us to have the best lives we can.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
And a great job is always by Greg on the
production and the storytelling. And a special thanks to Brittany
Ruby Miller. And she's the author of five Star Life,
The faithful fight to overcome obstacles and pursue excellence, and
she is so right that marriages are worth fighting for.
I read recently that fourhead of five marriages that were
(27:00):
on the brink of divorce five years later was stronger
and better than ever, having the reckoning that ultimately Brittany
had and her husband. It really shook me when she
said the words, I was running five star restaurants but
living a one star life, and that so many of
us putting in all of our excellence into our work
and not into our families. The story of Brittany Ruby
(27:22):
Miller here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including yours. Send them to Ouramerican Stories dot com. There's
some of our favorites. Britney Ruby Miller is CEO of
Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment, where she leads a team of
more than five hundred employees across seven luxury steakhouses in Ohio, Kentucky,
(00:35):
and Tennessee. Brittany is the author of five Star Life,
The Faithful Fight to Overcome obstacles and Pursue excellence. Let's
take a listen to her story.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm Brittany Ruby Miller.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I'm the CEO of Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment, and we
operate seven family owned steakhouses USDA Prime steakhouses. Kind of
a white glove approach, not a corporate chain stakhouse. These
aren't commissary. Everything's made in house, move incredible chefs. And
my dad just grew up in restaurants. Was he had
(01:08):
very little family, didn't really know who his dad was.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
He had four fathers.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
At one point he calls him his forefathers, stepfathers, and
you know, once he found out who he thought was
his uncle, actually was his father, and so it's just
a really crazy story he has. And he went from
failing grade school to I think he was All state
wrestling and got a full right scholarship to Cornell University.
And when he came out of Cornell, Winegardner Hammon's Hospitality
(01:36):
gave him two choices, Syracuse or Cincinnati, and he was
a Reds fan, so he chose Cincinnati. He was running
at one point a few holiday inns as an innkeeper
and also though was really involved in promotions and marketing
and started making relationships with the Big Red Machine and
through those relationships Johnny Bench and Pete Rose, and they
(01:59):
backed his first restaurant, the Precinct, and then the second restaurant,
the Waterfront, which was a five star floating barge on
the Ohio River, was backed by Bloomers Eisen and Chris Collinsworth.
But we have restaurants throughout the Midwest, so we've got
four in Ohio, two in Kentucky, and one in Nashville.
I start my book by explaining what it was like
(02:20):
at five years old when mom walks through the door,
four and a half walks through the door and says,
your father's been in a.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Pretty bad car accident and he's in a coma.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
He might not make it. And I'm also pregnant. You're
going to have a baby brother. He had an experimental
procedure done and should have died, had a five percent
chance of ever living without being a vegetable and being
completely brain dead. And my dad's Jewish, and my mom
(02:51):
was raised Christian, and so she started a prayer chain,
and my dad contributes the prayer chain of five thousand
people to his morale aculus healing. So then I get
into high school and in college.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I have a million regrets from that period.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I was living a completely empty life, so underage, drinking,
going out and partying and having fun. You know, I
never got into drugs, I think because I was the
one thing I remember my mom always did, was even
if she didn't believe it, she would tell everybody like
what a good kid I am in front of like me, So, she's.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
A great kid, she's a great athletes, she's a great student.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Oh my gosh, it's she know she And so to me,
I was like, well, I guess if I smoke.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Cigarettes or drugs, she won't be able to say that anymore.
So I just never did it.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But I went to bars and I snuck in and I,
you know, my brother was making fake id's at the time,
so I got a fake.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
ID and it worked.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It was really good, and so we would go out
and my dad found out, and so he literally without
telling me, goes down to bar Cincinnati Jump all these
places on Main Street, which is where the bars are.
And so I didn't know, but I go to get
in with my fake ID, and the bouncer looks at
me and then he takes my ID and he peels
(04:16):
off the scans that and he goes. I want you
to know, I'm mailing this to your dad, go home.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I love that my dad chose.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Steakhouses to make a business because when celebrities come into town,
or you want to impress somebody, or you want to
build relationships. We have lots of relationships that have come
in very handy with politicians. I actually give a Ted
talks on this. There's a lot of things that they
all have in common. They all love bourbon steak and
red wine and decadent desserts, and so it's very simple
(04:51):
to build relationships in our restaurants. My dad always says,
when a guy comes home after working. The last thing
he wants to do is sit down to a Chilean
sea bass.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
You want to have a big old steak, you.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Want to have a drink, and you you know, it's
just an accomplishment, and I love steakhouses. So anyways, he
built a very strong relationship with Tommy Lasorda and the
Dodgers Eric Carros and Piazza was one of them and
basically became like his second dad.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You know, all I know is my boyfriend.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Is a pretty good baseball player and he comes home.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I'm like, what is wrong?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
He's like every single time I got up to home
plate today, Piazza heckled me.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Every single time, he screaming, like, get off. Jeff Ruby's daughter,
her dad's in the mafia. It's going to be bad.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Every time he got up, it was a different thing
that he would just try to get and he played horrible.
I was irate when it happened. And now you're like
high fiving him, and I'm like, never again. While I
did an athlete, they all cheat, they're all bad, and
you know, I'm just not interested. And I'm at a
Toby Keith concert and we take a picture and Marvin
(06:07):
Lewis's assistant, Sandy is my mom's best friend.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
She takes the picture.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
The next time I'm with Sandy, I'm at my dad
at a box at the stadium, and so we're I'm
sitting in there and I'm joking because there's this picture
of this football player who has long hair straightened down
to his shoulders, passed his chin, and he's got this
look on his face that he's just.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Gonna kill somebody.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Sandy's cracking up because I'd say to my dad, look,
there's my new type. And he's like, you've lost your mind.
And I'm like, ha, I know, yeah, never happening. And
she's like, Brittany, that's Caleb Miller, middle linebacker. He took
it as a joke. He actually is in ministry. And
aren't you in religious studies person, aren't you into this type.
I'm like, Sandy, not a chance.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
No, thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And she's like, Oh, he's going through a really hard time.
You could be a good friend to him, right, I'm like, Nope,
I'm not taking on a project.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And you've been listening to Brittany Ruby Miller talk about
her father, her early life, many of the mistakes she
made is a lateeen and in her early twenties bar
hopping and partying and as she said, living an empty life.
And luckily she had a dad who cared enough to
visit all the bouncers in town and just let them
know which way was up, at least with him. When
we come back more of Brittany Ruby Miller's story here
(07:26):
on our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great
American stories we tell and love America like we do,
we're asking you to become a part of the our
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(07:46):
becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Go to our.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
American Stories dot com now and go to the donate
button and help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com and we continue with
(08:10):
our American Stories and Brittany Ruby Miller, who is CEO
of Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment, where she leads a team
of more than five hundred employees across seven luxury steakhouses
in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Let's pick up where Brittany
last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So she follows up and she ends up calling me
multiple times, and she said, Caleb, really, I showed him
your picture. He really has no friends up here, and
he knows you're a religious studies major and you just
got baptized. So I was baptized in two thousand and
one as well. And he just grabs the phone from
her and he's like, hello, Brittany, I'm up here, drafted
to the worst city. Like I never wanted to come
(08:51):
to Cincinnati. I hate the city. I have no friends
up here, and I just need a friend. I'm going
through a really hard time in my life.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
And I would just appreciate it if you.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Would just carve out some time and we can talk.
I'll meet you for coffee and he's like that sounds
like a date. I'll just come over to your house.
We can just hang out as friends.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And I'm like.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Okay, And the next thing I know, I'm sitting in
my living room with my best friend watching ace Ventura
and it's the most awkward situation ever. We don't talk
about any of his problems at all, and we just
watched a movie.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It was the It's ridiculous that I fell for it.
We really built a friendship. First.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
He grew up very very religious, very legalistic, not an
excuse for anything, and his parents are tremendous, and so
he ends up going to college and he gets somebody
pregnant and he's he thinks this whole world's just over.
And so he's at that point she I think the
baby was almost due when we met, and so you know,
(09:59):
I'm not trying to get I'm just talking to him
as friends and trying to help him, and that's what
he said he wanted. And as we became friends more,
it developed into something more. But I'm thinking, well, you know, okay,
I can deal with the kid. The guy's got a son.
I can handle that. I'm not thinking there's anything else
going on with that relationship. And then we get married
and he comes to me and says, you know, I'm
(10:23):
learning he's still massively depressed. Oh then you throw on
an injury, a career ending injury in Seattle. I'm packing
the house up to move into our new house as
newly Woods, and I'm not even watching the game. I'm
listening to it because I'm in my closet packing, and
the announcer comes.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
On and is like, ooh, that's a bad one.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Caleb Miller is down, and then they cut to commercial,
and I'm like, what the heck? And so I called
Bill Connley, who was traveling secretary, I think, and he's
I finally get a hold of him, and he's like
Bernie's he's tackling on Alexander and this guy comes in
just crunches him backwards so it's like a bent pack,
and then lands on him. And for he said, about
(11:08):
two minutes he felt it was nothing. He could not move,
and then two minutes later he's like warmth came over
his body and he was able to walk off. Total
miracle that he's not paralyzed. But we both knew the
season was over at this point. And then you know,
he comes back and he is in the most tremendous
back pain.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
He tried to fake and he tried.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
To get back in shape and do what he could do,
and he, you know, he failed the physicals when he
would go and practice and try to you know, hit
a couple workouts with some teams, and so he turned
down another tryout I think in Atlanta, and he just said,
I can't play, and he said, but I got to
get my brain, I got to get my heart right,
(11:51):
and I've got to get my life right. And that's
when he confessed again that he had cheated on me.
And I, you know, my first thing is like, I'm
just done. I'm done dealing with this guy. He's got
to get his craft together and I'm not going to
be the one that continues to just sit there.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And this has been years now of him being fickle
and wishy washy, and now he's blaming it on depression.
And come on, I'm not buying any of it. I
could tell he.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Was genuinely sorry, he wanted to change. So I'm like,
I've got to at least give it a shot. If
you're dying to yourself at this point, you're dead, that's
all gone. Now you want to pick up the pieces
and fix yourself. This is the one and done shot
to do that, if you want to go figure that out.
And so he goes to the myroclinic. It's amazing, and
(12:37):
I remember your last session of the three weeks is
with the spouse, and the counselor said, look, I got
to tell you, Caleb's personality is not like many that
I've counseled, and I don't know if you can change personality.
And Caleb looks and he's heartbroken because he's needing to
convince me that it's worth like I'm better, he said,
(13:00):
And also he's not ready to leave. That part was true.
The part about you can't change personality is not true.
And that guy actually was not a good counselor. Doesn't
take any credibility away from the program at the myroclinic.
He just wasn't a good counselor, and so they got
him a new one. But my counselor said, you've got
to just continue to pray. Those are your weapons, and
so I prayed for Caleb NonStop during that time. He
(13:22):
goes and he stays for another three weeks, and at
this point I can tell there.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Is significant change. Is he fully healed?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
No, but this is a different person who who I
know is going to be putting in the work to
change himself. But then they tell me upon his checkout
that I should check in for three weeks and I'm like, what,
I'm fine, what do you mean, I'm not losing my mind?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
These are crazy people down here. He told me.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Some of the stories of these people, and I'm like, wow,
that sounds like a serious psych word crazy. I'm like,
I'm not going to that program at all. I'll do
my own thing up here. I've got some good counselors
and they're like no. And so when I get down,
the number one thing that was unveiled was that I
was dealing with perfectionism. That I just always kind of
thought that was a good thing, like I'm just excelling
(14:10):
in everything I do, and I realized it could be
a mental disorder.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
My marriage had to be perfect, my body had to
be perfect.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
You know, I had ten years of an eating disorder
that I never told anybody about. And then, by the way,
I've also got this thing I need to work out
with Caleb. But the crazy thing was we really didn't.
I mean, I process that with my counselor. And what
I loved about my counselors and I've been to many therapists.
You when you hire a therapist, it's not you just
don't go and like spill everything and then and hope
(14:38):
they're the one. You need to interview a therapist like
you're interviewing an employee. Because my mom and dad got
me a therapist when they chose to get divorced. And
this guy all he did was listen and he never
gave me feedback.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
He never gave me tools.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
He never And I'm like, I don't need to go
and just talk, like I need you to give me
some advice, talk to me. I actually had three counselors
like that in my life. Then I go to the
Meyer Clinic and she actually gives me her opinion. I'm like, wow,
this girl's awesome. And she looks Caleb in the eyes
and says, what you did is wrong. No, what you're
doing right now. She validated me so much, but she
would also validate him that, hey, that's toxic, that's below
(15:12):
the belt.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You can't say this. Here's the tools to fighting.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
And so because she was such an amazing counselor, and
she said, your biggest issue, Brittany is your perfectionism and
the other stuff you're going to heal. We're going to
help you with the marriage stuff to get over, but
like you need to really.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Be focused on yourself down here. And that's that's what happened.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Where I am now is almost married fifteen years and
it is the best marriage I could ever hope for.
And I remember when my pastor's wife, Kathy, when I
called her just sobbing hysterically that there's I mean, it's
just was it. I was so blindsided when I found
(15:52):
out he cheated in our marriage.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
That I was just it rocks you.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And unless you've experienced it, I also think people who
haven't experienced it will never really understand how beautiful the
healing can be. She told me that day, if you
can forgive him and put in the work and he
truly is repentitive and.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
He's sorry, you will have the most rock solid marriage.
And she that's what she told me.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
She goes, you know, and Pastor Dale shares this, my
pastor up here, they share it publicly, and same thing
with my mentor for Taylor and Sandrup.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I would have never known that that happened.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
And then like people are coming out of the woodworks,
unbelievable how common it is. I mean, I really thought
I was like the only one and nobody can know.
And when you deal with that, the greatest healing, even
it far exceeds. The Myra Clinic are meeting and talking
(16:49):
to women who had also been there and who chose
to stay and fight and it is the best decision
that I made because Caleb is the most amazing father
and the most amazing husband, and he truly.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Is a testimony that you can change. Like that counselor
was wrong, That was a lie.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
And you've been listening to Brittany Ruby Miller tell the
story not just of her marriage and her husband's infidelity,
but how she got through it and how she learned
about herself too, particularly her perfectionism. And anyone who's been
around a perfectionist, it's not pleasant. It's really not pleasant.
It can be one of the most unpleasant things of
(17:26):
all whose you're always disappointing that person and they don't
even know it, and they're disappointing themselves. And my goodness,
so many relationships do survive infidelity and come out on
the other side better, and sharing that story makes anybody
who's gone through that feel less alone. When we come
back more of Brittany Ruby Miller's story here on our
American Stories True, and we continue with our American Stories
(18:10):
in Brittany Ruby Miller, who's the CEO of Jeff Ruby
Culinary Entertainment, and we had just heard about how her
marriage had improved actually after an infidelity and a real
reckoning and probably some repentance and forgiveness. And now let's
pick up where Brittany last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
So I had graduated from UC, I start culinary school.
I'm managing, you know. So I served for a really,
really long time, and I just worked every position. I
ended up being in the operations for twenty years and
love restaurants and learned every position. And that was one
thing that my dad really a great decision that he
made because I wanted to as soon as I graduated
go to corporate office and start doing what I thought
(18:52):
that I should do. And he's like, you have not
served yet. You've done every other position, though, but you
haven't served.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I'm like, I know, but I learned through watching other people.
I've read every training manual, I created the documents.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Probably He's like, no, until you serve, you really don't
understand it.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And it is the hardest job.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I think every citizen should have to serve at some
point in their lives. And I think everybody should work
off of tips too, and so great experience. Did that
for a couple of years, and then I got into management.
And then I go to the corporate office and my
intro was guest relations manager, and so I go to
take my first call and I'm listening to this guy
(19:32):
tell me this crazy story that we refuse a seeing
eye dog and his spouse they're blind and they came
to the precinct and how dare we not serve them?
And we turn them away because he has a dog.
I just called my manager and go nuts on him.
I'm like, what is wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
How could you do this? And he's like, Brittany, what
day was it?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Like? We never had a dog in here? And who
was the server? And he goes, let me get back
to you. So I'm like, oh, he's lying through his teeth.
He just doesn't want to get fired. He knows this happened.
And I had just installed caller ID at the corporate office,
and so it came up from a hotel and I'm
thinking it's just a guest at a hotel, and I
(20:11):
go to take his phone number down, and my best
receptionist voice like trying to do everything very professionally, he
won't give me the phone number.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I'm like, Okay, that's weird.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
But it doesn't dawn on me that it could be
any scam until a couple of calls and a couple
of different hotels later, Motel six, red roof in.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It was just very bizarre.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And meanwhile, the story is not adding up at the
restaurant level.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Somehow, I'm super slow.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
It takes three calls from three different hotels to realize
this guy is scamming me. And it's the first complaint
I ever took. And I will tell you those things
don't happen very often. I've now been in the corporate
office for over ten years. Those things do not happen.
There's an occasional weird thing, but something like that that
(20:55):
is so premeditated and planned out and it's bizarre. And
thank god it did, because I then made the decision
that I'm going to always take my employees back. First,
all feedback is relevant, that doesn't mean I agree with it,
and so our team is innocent until proven guilty, and
we take forty eight hours if you complain at one
(21:17):
of our restaurants, I thank you for your feedback.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Before we accept.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I don't tell them this, but before we take any
we train on this. There's zero liability that's taken until
we invest some time into talking to the manager. Looking
at our cameras looking at the guest check, seeing what
was calmed, seeing how long the ticket time was, how
long it took.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
To get drinks.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
And so we do a full report on every single
complaint that comes in and most of the times look
a service screwed up or we own it.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
We have to apologize, and that's what we do and
we handle it.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
But I realized that I need to make sure that
my team knows that I trust them and even if
they screw up, I trust them to do the right
thing to make it right. But at that point, you know,
my dad, the way that he ran the business was
very hands on, one man show, and he is a
maniac for restaurants being the best and insane amount of
(22:08):
national awards, I mean USA Today, Top ten, Travel and Leisure,
Top twenty five steakhouses, I mean, the list goes on
on the Food Network, Best Steakhouse in Ohio. And so
at this point we have a really good company. I
know our restaurants are great, but everything is tribal knowledge,
whether it's the mac and cheese that's famous, to the
way that we our hostess is answer phone, like everything
(22:29):
is just passed down. There's nothing documented. And then I
become director of operations, and my dad brings on.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Russell mankis So.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Russell started as the GM of the Waterfront in nineteen
eighty six, and then he left. He wasn't there very
long because he was recruited by Hilton and so he
goes to open Hilton's all over the world. He's in Asia, Mexico,
he opened Times Square, and then he landed at the Drake.
So he's running the Drake at that point. He's a
general manager of the Drake. Dad goes to Chicago to
(23:01):
write his book, which is an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
It's called Not Counting Tomorrow, his life story.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Dad comes back from writing this book and he said,
I think Russell's going to come be the managing director.
And I'm like, oh, you know, And there's a part
of me I'm like, why do we need a managing director.
I'm director of operations. We're fine, and I'm nervous. I'm
about to get a new boss. I've always reported to
Jeff Ruby. But Russell said, look, Jeff, I got two
years left before I retire, and I want to retire
(23:26):
knowing that I did something really great. And I'm going
to move back to Cincinnati and I want to mentor
Brittany and position your company to scale.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
He was the best thing that happened in my career.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
I had only seen the very eccentric, colorful, charismatic type
of leadership before. And that's passionate and that's good, and
that's why he has a company the way that he
has it. But it also takes somebody with a leadership
that's more calm and not as reactive and rational to be.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Able to build a business. So my dad built a brand.
Russell built a business.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
A joke that his middle name is metrics, like Russell
metrics Mancus. Because I couldn't just say we did a
great job. I'd have to show him data, show him numbers,
Explain why our numbers were so good, Explain why our
guest sentiment was so good.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And then when we would open new restaurants.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
At that point, it was great because we built training
documents for every single department.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
The way that we look at it is we go
to build a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I've got the playbook here on here's how to do
that for everything from finance to operations to culinary And
we built three restaurants in four years. And then he
retired and so I've been president and CEO for a
couple of years and then covid hits I grew up
from the time I was five years old, five stars
is what you strive for.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's crazy. At five, I knew who our critic was
here in town.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I knew what it took to get five stars in
the restaurants, and that's what we strive for. And then
through this journey, I said I was living a one
star life. God wants us to have a five star life.
He wants us to have the fruits of the spirit.
He wants us to have the joy, not happiness. He
wants to have joy in our hearts. And five stars
to me became not just in my restaurants. But that's
when it dawned on me that we need to be
(25:07):
striving for five stars in our personal lives as well
and celebrate the victories. We've got so much craziness that's
happening around us. I am living my five star life,
but it's because I put in the work when it
was the one and two stars, and I'm so glad
that I did so. Just to summarize the where Caleb
and I are now, healthiest relationship, I could ever ask
(25:29):
for amazing relationship with Caden's mom, and we co parent
better than anyone out there.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I believe it took a lot of No it didn't.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
It took one conversation sit down, and there was massive
amount of healing and she is my friend now and
we are close and it's awesome and my kids.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Are absolutely incredible. They would not be here today if
I chose to walk away.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
And so for marriages, I just want to say, it
is really worth fighting for. And it is a life
for death, literally a life or death decision when you
go through those hard things. And I'm so glad now
that I've got you know, after five years of infertility,
we have three miracle babies.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
That's the one thing I didn't say.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I found out I carry a gene mutation that makes
you very prone to neural tube defects, and I had
a neural tube defect baby. I had a thirty percent
chance of ever having a healthy baby, and I've had
three fully healthy babies, Hands on prayer, crazy miracles that happened.
And for anybody listening, God's got a destiny and a
purpose for you, And don't be ashamed to celebrate five stars.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
He wants us to have the best lives we can.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
And a great job is always by Greg on the
production and the storytelling. And a special thanks to Brittany
Ruby Miller. And she's the author of five Star Life,
The faithful fight to overcome obstacles and pursue excellence, and
she is so right that marriages are worth fighting for.
I read recently that fourhead of five marriages that were
(27:00):
on the brink of divorce five years later was stronger
and better than ever, having the reckoning that ultimately Brittany
had and her husband. It really shook me when she
said the words, I was running five star restaurants but
living a one star life, and that so many of
us putting in all of our excellence into our work
and not into our families. The story of Brittany Ruby
(27:22):
Miller here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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