April 21, 2025 • 31 mins
Ever wondered how a career in industrial engineering can lead to a thriving podcast empire? Or how breaking into Apple's supply chain can take over two years of relentless dedication? Join me, Bret Schanzenbach, as I chat with Jim Miller, the mastermind behind Bold Leadership Stories Media. From his roots at Cal Poly to navigating the world of technical sales with giants like 3M and Hewlett Packard, Jim’s journey is a rollercoaster of perseverance and innovation.
Discover how the pandemic catalyzed Jim’s transformation into a health enthusiast, shedding 50 pounds and launching the Wealthy Healthy Life Show. We dive into his passion for storytelling, the power of networking, and the lessons he's learned from startups to personal wellness. Tune in for an episode brimming with insights for entrepreneurs and anyone eager to make a meaningful impact in their community. Don’t miss it!
Find Bold Leadership Stories on YouTube and explore Jim’s journey today!
Jim Miller's Bio
I have a marketing and sales background in high tech. My customers were Apple, Microsoft, HP and Google. I'm a dad of two beautiful daughters and PapaJim to my grand daughter. I'm currently working on building an audience for my girlfriend, Lisa Loree and am a video podcast host. My focus in life right now is learning and applying strategies for longevity health and generational wealth.
Connect with Jim
YouTube: @boldleadershipstories
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jimcmiller1
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jim Miller (00:02):
Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an
essential podcast for those wholive, work, visit, and play in
Carlsbad.
Bret Schanzenbach (00:14):
Good morning, and welcome, everyone. My name
is Brett Schonsenbach. I am thepresident and CEO of the
Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce,and I'm your host today. And I'm
excited to have with me JimMiller. Jim is the founder and
host of Bold Leadership StoriesMedia.
Good morning, Jim.
Jim Miller (00:32):
Good morning, Brad. How are you today?
Bret Schanzenbach (00:33):
I am fantastic. Thanks for coming
down and joining me. Awesome.This is
Jim Miller (00:36):
a wonderful studio. I'm I'm I I do a podcast as you
just said, and this is such atreat to come down and have a
chat with you here.
Bret Schanzenbach (00:45):
Yeah. Thank you. This this room up till
twenty twenty, it was it was itwas an office, and we had, like,
a business consulting andcounseling in here, but it had
kinda died off. And then COVIDhit, and so it was really dead.
And we were like, this roomneeds to be repurposed.
So we ripped everything out.There was a bunch of, like,
(01:06):
built in desks, you know, like,in built in.
Jim Miller (01:09):
Yeah. So we ripped them all
Bret Schanzenbach (01:10):
out in all the cabinets and made
Jim Miller (01:11):
it a little
Bret Schanzenbach (01:12):
podcast studio, and, yeah, we kinda like
it.
Jim Miller (01:15):
That's great.
Bret Schanzenbach (01:16):
It's got a fun Carlsbad vibe to it. Yeah?
Jim Miller (01:18):
Yeah. It does. Love it.
Bret Schanzenbach (01:19):
Yeah. This is our first time meeting, so I was
kinda looking in your backgrounda little bit. It looks like
you're a you're a graduate fromCal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Jim Miller (01:27):
Yeah. Slow town.
Bret Schanzenbach (01:29):
Yeah. My my sister's a fellow alum up there.
Okay. Yeah. And so I've had achance to visit the school.
Now are you from that area, orwhere are you originally from?
Jim Miller (01:37):
I grew up in in the Bay Area. I was born in New
Jersey, and we moved out herewhen I was five. So I'm I'm
pretty much a native Californianas as that goes. But, yeah, I
went to Cal Poly back in theseventies. Yep.
Been a been a minute.
Bret Schanzenbach (01:53):
Yeah. Been a little while. And then it looks
like you got involved intomanufacturing, right, kinda
right out the gate from college.
Jim Miller (01:59):
Yeah. I did. I I my goal was to get into technical
sales. So I started as amanufacturing and industrial
engineer, happened to just I Idid a stint when I was an
undergrad as a co op student atCal Poly. Uh-huh.
And it was with BurroughsCorporation, which is now
Unisys, I think. Yeah. And itwas great. I I had I got some
(02:21):
experience, and and at thatperiod of time, people were
having trouble getting jobsright out of college. Sure.
And so I thought, well, if I gotsome experience and I could put
something on my resume thatsaid, yeah, this guy's got
something going on, then itwould give me a better shot at
getting a job. For sure. And soand that's what I did, and it
worked out really well. In fact,I at Cal Poly, you have to do a
(02:42):
a senior project. It's like a amini thesis statement Sure.
Thesis. And so I did that, and Igot actually got paid to do that
and got an a on it. So it was itwas really good. And got
Bret Schanzenbach (02:56):
you got paid to do your little thesis thing
and and got a good grade. That'sgreat. And then as you just
said, you were you were hopingto get into sales, and I saw,
well, a few companies, one thatwas at least recognizable, three
m. It looks like you did somesales for them, and so tell us
about that part of your journey.
Jim Miller (03:15):
Wow. That's kind of at the end of the the whole
program. I was in I was doingengineering first for about
seven years, And I was inmanufacturing and industrial
engineering. Required. Right?
When you
Bret Schanzenbach (03:26):
come out of slow, you have to be an
engineer. Right? Oh, yeah.
Jim Miller (03:28):
I think so. It's it's like, yeah, we're we're
technical it's a technicalschool. Yeah. So it was it it
fit right in, and it was greatbecause I got a chance to to
really get immersed in theprocess. Yeah.
And I learned how, you know, howto do efficiency studies and
where the money goes and and theorganization, and I learned
about, you know, the theprocesses of, quality and making
(03:52):
everything work inmanufacturing, the incoming, the
inventories, where the money isin that process, and how to make
it efficient and keep thecustomers happy. And so, yeah,
it was it was a greatexperience. Moving then, my goal
was to move from that intoselling. And that was Where the
(04:14):
real money always is. Well, itcan be.
Not always is, but it can be.And it was a good decision for
me to make that transition. Butit was kinda like I looked back
on it, and it was kinda likeI've done some skydiving. And it
it looking back, it's kinda likejumping out of an airplane
(04:34):
without a parachute. Oof.
Because you don't know whatsales is. Yeah. You know? You
think you do. Yeah.
And you think your ego is like,yeah. I can do I can do great
with that. You know? Yeah. Andthen you jump out of the
airplane, and I at that time,
Bret Schanzenbach (04:48):
I had free falling. Yeah.
Jim Miller (04:49):
I mean, I I had I had some overhead. I had a house
Yeah. Mortgage. I was married. Ihad a new child on the way.
Yeah. And an opportunity came upfor me to transition from
engineering to sales. I wasmaking really good money for the
time. It was close to, like,90,000 a year. Sure.
Almost a hundred in in in myearly or mid twenties, you know,
Bret Schanzenbach (05:08):
which is
Jim Miller (05:09):
pretty good. Yeah. But I decided, well, I wanna
double that money. Yeah. And soI I just you know, ego as it is.
I jumped out and and took a jobas in commission sales. Mhmm. So
I six months, I was, like,
Bret Schanzenbach (05:27):
whew, sitting and running.
Jim Miller (05:29):
And not doing well. I got fired from a job.
Bret Schanzenbach (05:31):
Oh, golly.
Jim Miller (05:32):
My first sales job. And I had to the the thing is I
jumped out of this airplane, andI I needed to grow wings because
I didn't have a chute. Yeah. Andto get the feathers going and
all that, so I I jumped out sixmonths, lost a job. And within a
weekend, I had another job.
Mhmm. Got a project and startedmaking money. Nice. So I I just
barely scraped the ground andstarted flying. Nice.
(05:54):
So it but it was absolutelyworth it for me. Yeah. And then
after that, went into, you know,selling to various companies,
industrial companies. Mhmm. Iwas selling a product called
paper honeycomb,
Bret Schanzenbach (06:09):
which Paper honeycomb.
Jim Miller (06:11):
Yeah. At that time, it there was a big deal about
recycled Yes. Packaging materialbecause we were shipping stuff
out, you know, as a as a as acountry or shipping products out
with all the Styrofoam and Yeah.Stuff that fills up the
landfills. And and there was alot of awareness about how bad
that was at the time.
Yeah. So it was it was fun to beassociated with a a product that
(06:34):
could kinda replace in someapplications those materials,
and we were using kraft paper.
Bret Schanzenbach (06:41):
Nice. So an eco friendly alternative to the
Styrofoam and the Right.
Jim Miller (06:45):
Yeah. Yeah. So I got into it, and I used my
engineering and and startedlearning how to sell better. It
was the and the biggest thingfor me in the sales process was,
you know, I'd say, well, I'd gotalk to, say, the operations
manager at a business, and I'dI'd I'd just introduce myself.
Hey.
How are doing? Let's go back toyour process. I think I can help
(07:05):
you because I've got experienceand the production stuff.
Bret Schanzenbach (07:09):
You could speak his language and yeah.
Jim Miller (07:11):
Well but it turns out that that didn't work.
Uh-huh. What I learned was thatpeople need to know who you are.
Yeah. So I had to learn how totake the time to To build a
rapport.
Build a rapport, get some trust,and have some, you know,
authority with what I'm doingbefore they trust me enough to
(07:31):
to come in and and see whatthey're doing and actually make
a difference. So I thought
Bret Schanzenbach (07:36):
makes sense.
Jim Miller (07:36):
After I learned that, then things started
opening up.
Bret Schanzenbach (07:38):
Yeah. The I like what you said, though, a
little bit earlier. Even whenyou were in engineering and
working in the manufacturingside and you you said you you
got to learn how the moneyflowed and where the money was
and things like that. We werejust we've just launched a new
program here at our chamber formiddle school students.
Jim Miller (07:58):
Okay.
Bret Schanzenbach (07:59):
And it's a it's a little business academy
and entrepreneurism thing. It'scalled future CEO.
Jim Miller (08:05):
Oh, that's awesome.
Bret Schanzenbach (08:06):
Love that. And so we were just talking with
the kids yesterday about whatactually is an entrepreneur? And
they're like, oh, it's somebodywho starts a business, you know,
and and they got that prettyquick. And, of course, we talked
about some famous entrepreneursthat they would be able to
identify and but but we weretalking about how you start a
business to make a profit. Youknow, you start a bit it can and
(08:29):
we were kinda emphasizing, don'tforget the goal is to make a
profit, otherwise, you don'tcontinue.
Your your business will collapseand fold, it'll cease to exist.
Yeah. You know? And so it's it'sgotta be about you gotta have
that that awareness. And so wewere walking them through a
business plan, like, how to, youknow, do this stuff, and it's
great.
They were they were reallyresponsive, and it was it was a
good time. But it's
Jim Miller (08:50):
You know, that should be with my podcast.
Listening to the entrepreneursthat I've interviewed on my
show, they, almost to a t, startearly Mhmm. On their journey. A
lot of them have experiencesthat they've they started, like,
when they were nine years old
Bret Schanzenbach (09:07):
Sure.
Jim Miller (09:08):
With something. Yeah. And they had some little
bit of a success, and they theykinda got the bug.
Bret Schanzenbach (09:12):
You know? The spark. Yeah.
Jim Miller (09:13):
Yeah. So that's that's awesome that you're doing
that at that that level.
Bret Schanzenbach (09:17):
And speaking of the spark, well, I before we
get into because you foundedmultiple businesses from what I
can see, but you did have astint. It looks like, you know,
you were in sales as youmentioned. Mhmm. And then it
looks like you got into digitalmarketing for a little while. Or
Jim Miller (09:34):
Yeah. I was doing some digital marketing. I I had
been through the corporatesales. Yeah. Ice I was
instrumental in bringing somemajor accounts into our
business, including AppleComputer and Hewlett Packard and
Google and Microsoft, and wegrew the business from my
territory.
I started with about a $250,000book of business, three states.
(09:56):
I grew that to 11 westernstates, half of Canada and
Mexico, and landed some bigcompanies that I had targeted
that we weren't doing businesswith, like Apple and Microsoft
and Hewlett Packard. Those aresome big companies. Yeah. So I
grew my my territory from250,000 to over 18,000,000.
Nice. And we had I'd landedApple. It was my first big
(10:19):
account. Yeah. And that wasreally exciting.
We we took that. We were we gota ride on the very first iPod
back in 02/2001, and they werehaving a problem with their drop
testing. I was working with acompany that did shock and vibe
Wow. And acoustic stuff. So wetook that opportunity and
(10:40):
parlayed it into we eventuallyended up in every single Apple
product with some kind ofsolution.
Wow. It was all engineeredsolutions, custom stuff.
Bret Schanzenbach (10:51):
That's amazing.
Jim Miller (10:51):
And then we parlayed that into work with all the
other companies. I kinda setthese I had target accounts.
Yeah. And it was, like, theprecursor of account based
management or marketing rightnow. ABM, people might
recognize.
Well, we didn't have a computerback then that we have today. We
didn't have cell phones. We itwas all old school stuff. So but
(11:13):
the concepts in the and the thesame process is that I use we
use today, but it's just fasterYeah. With the computers that
we've got and the theinformation that we have access
to.
Bret Schanzenbach (11:27):
For sure. Yeah. Oh, that's wild.
Jim Miller (11:29):
So it's it's taking that those those concepts and
creating something from it thatfrom nothing. That's really what
I learned. Yeah. And serving themarket and developing those
relationships and the trust allkinda builds on each other.
Bret Schanzenbach (11:42):
Yeah. And then you founded some businesses
in the sales and marketingarena, it sounds like, as well
as others.
Jim Miller (11:50):
Yeah. The the digital marketing was fun
because I I started that becauseselling to Apple and doing all
that, you know, work took me twoand a half years to get Apple.
Bret Schanzenbach (12:02):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (12:03):
And I was just pounding the doors. I'd go in
like, every week, I'd fly fromhere, Southern California, to
San Jose. Yeah. And I'd I'd gointo Apple, knock you know, go
into the front door and ask forsomebody. No.
No. No. No. No. No.
No. No. For two years. And Iwhile I was doing that, I was
doing other things. I call themfishhooks now.
(12:24):
I put out a whole bunch of fishfishhooks. And one of them, one
day, finally, I got a call froma manager that Haya had
befriended and was working withon other projects in a drop test
house up there. And he called meup and said, hey. What are you
doing? I said, what what do youneed?
Yeah. You know, you alwaysanswer a question with a
question. Right? And so he said,well, I've I've got a couple
(12:46):
engineers here from a companythat I I need your help. And so
I was like, when can you behere?
And this was, like, eight in themorning he called me, and I was
in Orange County. Oh. So he saidand I said And he
Bret Schanzenbach (13:00):
was up in San Jose?
Jim Miller (13:01):
Right? So I was like, okay. Yeah. I'll be there
by noon. Yeah.
I just bet that I could do it.Yeah. And and I had to call my
boss and say, hey. Can I get aflight up to San Jose? I need to
go right now.
Bret Schanzenbach (13:13):
You know?
Jim Miller (13:14):
And at that time, the money was tight. They were
rationing pencils, I think.
Bret Schanzenbach (13:17):
Oh my goodness.
Jim Miller (13:18):
And so it was, like, really, really a challenge.
Finally, I got a call that's,yeah, go for it. So I flew up,
made the 12:00 meeting, and thatthat was the iPod. Wow. And they
were having trouble getting thisto pass the drop test.
They have to drop this theproduct from seven feet onto a
cement floor withaccelerometers, and they do that
(13:41):
nine times. They do this and itit's running. And there was a
there was a actual physical harddrive, spinning hard drive in
there, micro drive from IBM,that was in the first iPod.
IPod. So it was very fragile.
Bret Schanzenbach (13:53):
Yeah.
Jim Miller (13:54):
And what we our products were were shock and
vibration control. So we wereable to absorb, like, mini shock
absorbers. If it was designedwell, we could create a a shock
or shock and vibration controlsystem within that tiny space
Wow. To protect the hard drive.And so we did that because we
(14:17):
got there fast.
Yeah. And we created a solution,we made it happen.
Bret Schanzenbach (14:21):
That's awesome. And that got
Jim Miller (14:22):
us in the door at Apple.
Bret Schanzenbach (14:23):
Got you into Apple, and then you were into
everything. And that's that's agreat lesson, right, about
perseverance, about, you know,and continuing like, the the
door that got you into Applewasn't the one you were
anticipating, it sounds like.No. You you were going in the
front door and getting shut out,but you created other
relationships that eventuallyled led you in, like, a side
(14:44):
door, and then you got fullaccess.
Jim Miller (14:46):
Yeah. Right. So it was that relationship with the
manager that had the betterrelationship with the right
people Yeah. At the targetcompany I was I was trying to
get involved with.
Bret Schanzenbach (14:54):
I love that. So now fast forward, take us to
your thought process. Why didyou start Bold Leadership
Stories Media?
Jim Miller (15:05):
Well, I I was up I spent a year up in San Jose. I'd
I left the like, three m. I'dleft three m, and I went to work
for another company. That didn'twork out well. I there for about
a year, and that didn't workout.
So I was kinda bouncing around,and I I my parents lived up in
and I got a divorce in there.Mhmm. So it was, like, a really
(15:26):
crazy time. And I I during thatfive year period, I I at the
end, I spent ended up going upand living with my parents.
Yeah.
You know? And it's like I'm 50,and I'm, like, living with my
parents. Yeah. So I think thisis the first time I've admitted
that anywhere. But it did.
Bret Schanzenbach (15:47):
It's out now, Jim. Yeah.
Jim Miller (15:48):
It's out now. And so I I was up in the Bay Area, and
I I had some friends up there.And so and I love startups.
Bret Schanzenbach (15:55):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (15:56):
So I said, why don't I go do something for a startup?
So I started taking BART intothe city and attending Shark
Tank. Like, they have all theseYeah. Meetings up there that you
can just go and listen andwatch. And it was a lot of fun.
I went to probably a hundred ofthose over the course of a year,
(16:17):
saw probably a thousand pitches,got to meet a whole bunch of And
I started thinking, wow. This isreally cool stuff. Why don't I
start a podcast
Bret Schanzenbach (16:25):
just About these stories.
Jim Miller (16:26):
About these stories. So I did I started it's called
Angels and Exits. Nice. And Istarted doing that and
interviewing people. Like angelinvestors and Exactly.
Yeah. Got it. Yeah. Angelinvestors and exiting. And so
and it was just having aconversation just like this up
there.
And I I started getting sometraction. I was like, wow. This
is this is kinda fun. But I Iran out of runway, and my
(16:49):
parents kinda kicked me out. SoI I had to come back I had to
come back to Southern Californiaand figure out what to do.
And so while I was doing that,when I got back here, was like,
oh, wow. I gotta do somethingelse that I you know? And I I
wanted to do something that Icould serve the community with.
Mhmm. And the the the firstpodcast I did was huge.
I mean, I always interviewpeople all over the world, and
(17:12):
it was great from that respect,but it was just like I couldn't
really make a difference.There's so many other podcasts
out there doing the same kind ofthing. So I thought, why don't I
do something local? So I I saidI thought said to myself, like,
if I could interview people inmy town
Bret Schanzenbach (17:27):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (17:28):
And those people would be doing business with
other people in this littlegeographic area
Bret Schanzenbach (17:36):
Right.
Jim Miller (17:36):
And put those up on YouTube and and just broadcast
you know, they say that youknow, advertise that we're here
in this town. So that and thisworked, actually. It's it's it's
like people who come on my showare local people, and the local
other local people see who theyare, and they get kind of this
(17:57):
mini celebrity status
Bret Schanzenbach (17:58):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jim Miller (17:59):
From this zero budget little show that, you
know, I'm I'm doing with nomoney. Yeah. And and people are
starting to kinda recognize it.
Bret Schanzenbach (18:10):
That's awesome.
Jim Miller (18:10):
And so it's it's giving them that back back, that
little bit of recognition. Andthen for me, I'm I just like
doing it. It's fun. Yeah. Soit's pulling the the ideas of
business people.
And then a side benefit is I getto learn about business from
some really smart people, and Iget to meet people in town
Bret Schanzenbach (18:33):
That are doing well.
Jim Miller (18:35):
That are doing well. So when I'm out and about, I
could you know, I get morefriends, and so it just kind of
expanded my personal network.
Bret Schanzenbach (18:40):
That's perfect. So let's do this. We're
gonna take a brief pause. We'retalking to Jim Miller, the
founder and host of BoldLeadership Stories Media. When
we come back, we're gonna talkmore about his podcast and what
he has going and how you canconnect with it.
So stick with us. We'll be rightback. So, Jim, before we took a
(19:57):
break, you were just reallygetting into the story of
starting Bold Leadership StoriesMedia. And but let's tell people
exactly what it is because Ithink in addition to, like, a
traditional podcast that peoplecan watch later, think you,
like, livestream and stuff likethat. Like, how can people like,
where can they follow you andfind out what's coming and,
like, join when it's happeninglive?
(20:17):
Because I think that's a coolaspect. Tell us about that part.
Jim Miller (20:20):
Well, I appreciate that question. And and I'm,
like, way behind the curve onthat. I'm starting another
business called Rebel FawnMentoring. Okay. And right now,
I'm diving into the tech side,which I've been trying to avoid.
Bret Schanzenbach (20:39):
Yeah. I hear you.
Jim Miller (20:40):
And so but I've I've building a website, and I've
I've got go high level, and II'm put putting everything in
there, building funnels, andwe're building offers, and we're
creating this wholeinfrastructure, building an
audience now. I'm using AI.Nice. And it's just there's so
many interesting things. And I'm67 now.
(21:01):
So it's like, why would somebodymy age dig into stuff that the
intimidates a 20 year old? Youknow? But it's like, I'm just
crazy. I I just like that's whatgot me into Apple. It's like,
I've I everybody was telling mewhen I started, I I said, I'm
gonna get Apple.
And it took me two and a halfyears, and they were telling me,
you're you're you're nuts. Yeah.You know? As I kept getting, no.
(21:22):
No.
No. No. I just had faith thatthis is gonna work. This is
happening. And I just saw thepicture of what it's gonna be
like in the end.
And so and and I basicallymanifested that. Yeah. It
created millions of dollarsYeah. In business. And so I'm
doing that with this now.
I haven't really applied theseprinciples to the the Bold
Leadership Stories side yet, Butand in fact, I've started two
(21:46):
other podcasts. I'm doing onefor Bright Business Yeah. Right
now in Bright Business Club.Who's a member of our chamber
here. Yeah.
Right. And so that that's fun.Just interviewing the members.
And then and then I'm also doinganother one because this journey
that I've been on when COVIDhit, my body I was working
(22:08):
really hard. I had just starteda job with a company here in
Oceanside, and I was a directorof sales for them.
And I had a pipeline started.I've been there for about six
months. And the first year,you're just hustling. Right?
Bret Schanzenbach (22:18):
Yes.
Jim Miller (22:19):
Because you gotta get business coming in, and it's
gotta be your business. Theydon't just turn stuff over. So
and I had about a milliondollars in pipeline going within
six months, which is prettygood.
Bret Schanzenbach (22:29):
Yeah. Yeah.
Jim Miller (22:29):
Yeah. Some really nice accounts, and COVID hit,
and it was in retail. So it itjust vaporized. Yeah. So I was,
like, going crazy, stressed out,trying to recover and get things
going, and so I was working,like, fourteen hours a day.
Mhmm. No week. I worked on theweekends, just Yeah. Totally
(22:50):
focused on getting somethingdone. My body said this was
February 2020 right before the,think it was March 2020.
Bret Schanzenbach (22:58):
Yeah. It started shutting down.
Everything shut down in March.
Jim Miller (23:00):
So February, my body just basically filed divorce
papers on me. I said, dude,you're just you're you're I'm
not doing this with you anymore.Yeah. You can follow me or not,
but, you know, it's like, if youfollow me, I'm not and you keep
doing what you're doing, I'm notgonna be here. So so I had to
make some changes, and it wasactually a blessing if COVID
hit.
And I lost my job, and I waslike, I got hey. There's nothing
(23:21):
I could do. You know? I wastrying to interview for work,
and it's like nobody wanted tohire an old guy. Yeah.
But, you know, in fact, I hadone guy look at me. I was in an
interview, and he looked at hiswatch. He looked at me, and he
said, shouldn't you be retired?That's right. But I was like,
oh, man.
I I I thought I could I own youright now. Mhmm. But I decided,
you know what? I just wanna workfor a company that has that kind
(23:43):
of thing. Yeah.
So I I just didn't do that. AndI just decided, well, it was
good because I decided rightthen that I need to do this on
my own. And I the health wasn'tgetting any better, so I had to
make a decision. It's like,okay. Who's gonna am I gonna go
to the doctor?
And I went to the doctor. Theysaid, you're fine. Get out here.
Go do your thing. And I waslike, no.
I'm not. And I and then theythey wanted to start doing a
(24:07):
bunch of testing, trying tofigure out what was wrong. And I
had, fortunately, some reallygood people in my life, those
relationship thing again Yeah.Where I could they told me, you
know, it's your diet, and you'reprobably too stressed out, and
you're not exercising. You'reoverweight, and you're not
(24:28):
sleeping very well.
So I I listened. Yeah. So I waslike, okay. I went on this
started this journey, and Istarted reading books. Doctor.
Gundry, Doctor. Boz, Doctor.Fung, Doctor. Davis, all these
people I've learned about. AndI've read all their books, and
I've learned about how the bodyworks now.
And so I lost 50 pounds. Wow.And I've I've I've become kind
(24:52):
of an expert on longevity and onintermittent fasting and how
your body works, themitochondria
Bret Schanzenbach (25:02):
Sure.
Jim Miller (25:03):
And your microbiome and all that. So I'm I'm now
eating for my mitochondria
Bret Schanzenbach (25:07):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (25:08):
To so that they can produce the most ATP, adenosine
triphosphate, which is thecurrency that the body uses for
energy. So I I've learned a lotabout how that works, and I'm
eating now for them. I eatbasically one meal a day. I'm
eating window of about fourhours a
Bret Schanzenbach (25:23):
day. Mhmm.
Jim Miller (25:24):
And so I've I've keep kept the weight off. I'm
exercising now. I'm managing mystress through meditation, and
I'm trying to get at least sevenhours of good sleep a night. And
I tell you, just those fourthings have helped me so much.
And I I had to take some time tokinda relax and and rebuild
myself.
Sure. And I learned aboutbecoming Mhmm. Again. So I
(25:48):
started focusing on that. Andthen I learned about audience
building and the podcasting.
Yeah. And then I learned aboutgenerational wealth. So those
are my seven things now. Seventhings I do is, you know, diet,
exercise, stress management,sleep, becoming building an
(26:09):
audience, and generationalwealth. Those are the, like, my
seven pillars of my life rightnow.
Bret Schanzenbach (26:13):
Nice. I love it. Well, in the as you know, I
mean, here we are talking on apodcast, and we're talking about
your podcast. And I love the thename of the bold leadership
stories because and the wordstories really jumps out because
you've been sharing aboutdifferent people you've met
through what you've done, andthat's one of the things I've
(26:34):
enjoyed most about starting achamber podcast is getting to
the stories of the differentpeople and their their
background, what motivated them.I always love to get behind the
scenes Mhmm.
Jim Miller (26:45):
And see Yeah. I love stories.
Bret Schanzenbach (26:47):
What was that spark? Yeah. What what did you
see when we were talking withthese young kids in the future
CEO program? We were talkingabout how, like, what problem do
you wanna solve? What what's thething?
What's missing? Or what'ssomething that's out there
that's not exactly as you thinkit should be? Like, what you
know, that's where you gottastart, you know? And but that's
(27:09):
what's so fun about podcastsbecause it's the ultimate
storytelling medium these days.You know?
Consumers and I know I'm a I'm apodcast consumer big time in my
car, you know, brushing my teethin the morning, you know, out on
a walk whatever. You can listento them so many places. Mhmm.
And so I think it's great thatwhat you are doing is taking all
(27:33):
these amazing stories andputting them out there. So if
somebody wants to listen to yourpodcast, where where do they go?
Jim Miller (27:40):
Well, we're we're publishing on YouTube. So it's
it's at bold leadership storieson YouTube. So you can just go
there, and it's I've got about ahundred interviews. It's
probably about a 35. It's notbig.
And but No. It's not bad,though.
Bret Schanzenbach (27:56):
A 35 interviews. Let's let's not
minimize that. That'simpressive.
Jim Miller (28:00):
Yeah. Because it it takes
Bret Schanzenbach (28:00):
an effort to do that. Does. I
Jim Miller (28:03):
As you know.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:03):
Know. Yeah. I saw a recent one you did. I
mean, see, I'm assuming you youcover a variety of topics. I saw
one recently.
It looked like it I think he wasa doctor, dementia patient
caregiving topic.
Jim Miller (28:15):
Yeah. Yeah. There's there's so much fun to learn
from people who have suchamazing experiences, and and
dementia is one of those topicsthat right now I think are is
really important for us tograsp.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:31):
Yes, sir.
Jim Miller (28:31):
My dad passed away. He and he had dementia.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:34):
Sure.
Jim Miller (28:35):
And it's like he was in his mid nineties, so he had a
good run.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:39):
Yeah.
Jim Miller (28:39):
But I've lost two friends in the last three months
that are younger than me torelated health issues Yeah. That
are completely fixable now.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:52):
Yeah. That's too bad.
Jim Miller (28:54):
Yeah. It's like and that's kind of my it's turning
into my mission. In fact, I I'mI'm just I mentioned I'd have
three podcasts just looking atI've started another one. I call
it the Wealthy Healthy Live Showwhere we talk about longevity
health and generational wealth.I like it.
Yeah. Yeah. So it's like and andand so I can I can start talking
(29:15):
about the aspects of chronichealth issues that we're dealing
with now and why because I'veexperienced all that, and I've
overcome a lot of it? I'm stilldealing with some things, but I
feel like and and zero drugs.I've taken zero medications.
Nice. Done it all with my diet,just the the seven things. You
know, the four diet, exercise,stress management, and sleep.
(29:37):
Those four things can go a longway, and I think those are
fundamental now. If you're notdoing those things for your
life, you're gonna die early.
Yeah. You know? Yeah. That'sgreat. And, you you know, for me
right now, I'm Unnecessarilyearly.
Unnecessarily early. Like, I'veboth of them both my friends
(29:58):
were in their early sixties
Bret Schanzenbach (29:59):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (29:59):
That passed away from
Bret Schanzenbach (30:02):
Very young.
Jim Miller (30:02):
You know, these, yeah, these diabetes you know,
you they call it metabolicsyndrome, and then they call it
prediabetes, and then they callit diabetes. It's all the damn
same thing. Yeah. It is. It'sit's that you're yeah.
Don't I don't know if you wannaget into this right now, but I
think we can talk about it. Butit's it's like it's an easy path
to fix. I'm so happy that not toget into politics, but I'm
(30:27):
really excited that RFK Junior'sdoing what he's doing because
he's got, I believe, the rightmessage from what I've learned
over the last five years.
Bret Schanzenbach (30:34):
Sure. Yeah. Well, it's definitely he's kinda
disrupting some status quo, sowe'll see where that goes.
Jim Miller (30:39):
In trillions in profits for these big pharma and
all these big companies.
Bret Schanzenbach (30:43):
Yeah. For sure. Well, this is great. I
really appreciate you taking thetime, Jim, to come down and
share with us about BoldLeadership Stories media and
what you're involved in. And Iknow you're part of the the
business I'm I just lost thename of it.
The the group
Jim Miller (31:00):
Bright Business. Business, yeah,
Bret Schanzenbach (31:02):
here at the chamber, which is fantastic, and
it's a great group of businessowners coming together. So so we
thank you, you know, for coming,sharing your story. Thank you
for taking the time and beingpart of us.
Jim Miller (31:14):
Well, I appreciate it. It's great to meet you,
Brett.
Bret Schanzenbach (31:16):
Thank you. My pleasure. Thanks for joining us
today on our Carl's the People,Purpose, and Impact podcast. If
you got value out of our episodetoday, please hit the follow
button on your favorite podcastapp, and please tell a friend.
Can't wait to see you next timeon Carlsbad people, purpose, and
impact.
Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an
essential podcast for those wholive, work, visit, and play in
Carlsbad.
Bret Schanzenbach (00:14):
Good morning, and welcome, everyone. My name
is Brett Schonsenbach. I am thepresident and CEO of the
Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce,and I'm your host today. And I'm
excited to have with me JimMiller. Jim is the founder and
host of Bold Leadership StoriesMedia.
Good morning, Jim.
Jim Miller (00:32):
Good morning, Brad. How are you today?
Bret Schanzenbach (00:33):
I am fantastic. Thanks for coming
down and joining me. Awesome.This is
Jim Miller (00:36):
a wonderful studio. I'm I'm I I do a podcast as you
just said, and this is such atreat to come down and have a
chat with you here.
Bret Schanzenbach (00:45):
Yeah. Thank you. This this room up till
twenty twenty, it was it was itwas an office, and we had, like,
a business consulting andcounseling in here, but it had
kinda died off. And then COVIDhit, and so it was really dead.
And we were like, this roomneeds to be repurposed.
So we ripped everything out.There was a bunch of, like,
(01:06):
built in desks, you know, like,in built in.
Jim Miller (01:09):
Yeah. So we ripped them all
Bret Schanzenbach (01:10):
out in all the cabinets and made
Jim Miller (01:11):
it a little
Bret Schanzenbach (01:12):
podcast studio, and, yeah, we kinda like
it.
Jim Miller (01:15):
That's great.
Bret Schanzenbach (01:16):
It's got a fun Carlsbad vibe to it. Yeah?
Jim Miller (01:18):
Yeah. It does. Love it.
Bret Schanzenbach (01:19):
Yeah. This is our first time meeting, so I was
kinda looking in your backgrounda little bit. It looks like
you're a you're a graduate fromCal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Jim Miller (01:27):
Yeah. Slow town.
Bret Schanzenbach (01:29):
Yeah. My my sister's a fellow alum up there.
Okay. Yeah. And so I've had achance to visit the school.
Now are you from that area, orwhere are you originally from?
Jim Miller (01:37):
I grew up in in the Bay Area. I was born in New
Jersey, and we moved out herewhen I was five. So I'm I'm
pretty much a native Californianas as that goes. But, yeah, I
went to Cal Poly back in theseventies. Yep.
Been a been a minute.
Bret Schanzenbach (01:53):
Yeah. Been a little while. And then it looks
like you got involved intomanufacturing, right, kinda
right out the gate from college.
Jim Miller (01:59):
Yeah. I did. I I my goal was to get into technical
sales. So I started as amanufacturing and industrial
engineer, happened to just I Idid a stint when I was an
undergrad as a co op student atCal Poly. Uh-huh.
And it was with BurroughsCorporation, which is now
Unisys, I think. Yeah. And itwas great. I I had I got some
(02:21):
experience, and and at thatperiod of time, people were
having trouble getting jobsright out of college. Sure.
And so I thought, well, if I gotsome experience and I could put
something on my resume thatsaid, yeah, this guy's got
something going on, then itwould give me a better shot at
getting a job. For sure. And soand that's what I did, and it
worked out really well. In fact,I at Cal Poly, you have to do a
(02:42):
a senior project. It's like a amini thesis statement Sure.
Thesis. And so I did that, and Igot actually got paid to do that
and got an a on it. So it was itwas really good. And got
Bret Schanzenbach (02:56):
you got paid to do your little thesis thing
and and got a good grade. That'sgreat. And then as you just
said, you were you were hopingto get into sales, and I saw,
well, a few companies, one thatwas at least recognizable, three
m. It looks like you did somesales for them, and so tell us
about that part of your journey.
Jim Miller (03:15):
Wow. That's kind of at the end of the the whole
program. I was in I was doingengineering first for about
seven years, And I was inmanufacturing and industrial
engineering. Required. Right?
When you
Bret Schanzenbach (03:26):
come out of slow, you have to be an
engineer. Right? Oh, yeah.
Jim Miller (03:28):
I think so. It's it's like, yeah, we're we're
technical it's a technicalschool. Yeah. So it was it it
fit right in, and it was greatbecause I got a chance to to
really get immersed in theprocess. Yeah.
And I learned how, you know, howto do efficiency studies and
where the money goes and and theorganization, and I learned
about, you know, the theprocesses of, quality and making
(03:52):
everything work inmanufacturing, the incoming, the
inventories, where the money isin that process, and how to make
it efficient and keep thecustomers happy. And so, yeah,
it was it was a greatexperience. Moving then, my goal
was to move from that intoselling. And that was Where the
(04:14):
real money always is. Well, itcan be.
Not always is, but it can be.And it was a good decision for
me to make that transition. Butit was kinda like I looked back
on it, and it was kinda likeI've done some skydiving. And it
it looking back, it's kinda likejumping out of an airplane
(04:34):
without a parachute. Oof.
Because you don't know whatsales is. Yeah. You know? You
think you do. Yeah.
And you think your ego is like,yeah. I can do I can do great
with that. You know? Yeah. Andthen you jump out of the
airplane, and I at that time,
Bret Schanzenbach (04:48):
I had free falling. Yeah.
Jim Miller (04:49):
I mean, I I had I had some overhead. I had a house
Yeah. Mortgage. I was married. Ihad a new child on the way.
Yeah. And an opportunity came upfor me to transition from
engineering to sales. I wasmaking really good money for the
time. It was close to, like,90,000 a year. Sure.
Almost a hundred in in in myearly or mid twenties, you know,
Bret Schanzenbach (05:08):
which is
Jim Miller (05:09):
pretty good. Yeah. But I decided, well, I wanna
double that money. Yeah. And soI I just you know, ego as it is.
I jumped out and and took a jobas in commission sales. Mhmm. So
I six months, I was, like,
Bret Schanzenbach (05:27):
whew, sitting and running.
Jim Miller (05:29):
And not doing well. I got fired from a job.
Bret Schanzenbach (05:31):
Oh, golly.
Jim Miller (05:32):
My first sales job. And I had to the the thing is I
jumped out of this airplane, andI I needed to grow wings because
I didn't have a chute. Yeah. Andto get the feathers going and
all that, so I I jumped out sixmonths, lost a job. And within a
weekend, I had another job.
Mhmm. Got a project and startedmaking money. Nice. So I I just
barely scraped the ground andstarted flying. Nice.
(05:54):
So it but it was absolutelyworth it for me. Yeah. And then
after that, went into, you know,selling to various companies,
industrial companies. Mhmm. Iwas selling a product called
paper honeycomb,
Bret Schanzenbach (06:09):
which Paper honeycomb.
Jim Miller (06:11):
Yeah. At that time, it there was a big deal about
recycled Yes. Packaging materialbecause we were shipping stuff
out, you know, as a as a as acountry or shipping products out
with all the Styrofoam and Yeah.Stuff that fills up the
landfills. And and there was alot of awareness about how bad
that was at the time.
Yeah. So it was it was fun to beassociated with a a product that
(06:34):
could kinda replace in someapplications those materials,
and we were using kraft paper.
Bret Schanzenbach (06:41):
Nice. So an eco friendly alternative to the
Styrofoam and the Right.
Jim Miller (06:45):
Yeah. Yeah. So I got into it, and I used my
engineering and and startedlearning how to sell better. It
was the and the biggest thingfor me in the sales process was,
you know, I'd say, well, I'd gotalk to, say, the operations
manager at a business, and I'dI'd I'd just introduce myself.
Hey.
How are doing? Let's go back toyour process. I think I can help
(07:05):
you because I've got experienceand the production stuff.
Bret Schanzenbach (07:09):
You could speak his language and yeah.
Jim Miller (07:11):
Well but it turns out that that didn't work.
Uh-huh. What I learned was thatpeople need to know who you are.
Yeah. So I had to learn how totake the time to To build a
rapport.
Build a rapport, get some trust,and have some, you know,
authority with what I'm doingbefore they trust me enough to
(07:31):
to come in and and see whatthey're doing and actually make
a difference. So I thought
Bret Schanzenbach (07:36):
makes sense.
Jim Miller (07:36):
After I learned that, then things started
opening up.
Bret Schanzenbach (07:38):
Yeah. The I like what you said, though, a
little bit earlier. Even whenyou were in engineering and
working in the manufacturingside and you you said you you
got to learn how the moneyflowed and where the money was
and things like that. We werejust we've just launched a new
program here at our chamber formiddle school students.
Jim Miller (07:58):
Okay.
Bret Schanzenbach (07:59):
And it's a it's a little business academy
and entrepreneurism thing. It'scalled future CEO.
Jim Miller (08:05):
Oh, that's awesome.
Bret Schanzenbach (08:06):
Love that. And so we were just talking with
the kids yesterday about whatactually is an entrepreneur? And
they're like, oh, it's somebodywho starts a business, you know,
and and they got that prettyquick. And, of course, we talked
about some famous entrepreneursthat they would be able to
identify and but but we weretalking about how you start a
business to make a profit. Youknow, you start a bit it can and
(08:29):
we were kinda emphasizing, don'tforget the goal is to make a
profit, otherwise, you don'tcontinue.
Your your business will collapseand fold, it'll cease to exist.
Yeah. You know? And so it's it'sgotta be about you gotta have
that that awareness. And so wewere walking them through a
business plan, like, how to, youknow, do this stuff, and it's
great.
They were they were reallyresponsive, and it was it was a
good time. But it's
Jim Miller (08:50):
You know, that should be with my podcast.
Listening to the entrepreneursthat I've interviewed on my
show, they, almost to a t, startearly Mhmm. On their journey. A
lot of them have experiencesthat they've they started, like,
when they were nine years old
Bret Schanzenbach (09:07):
Sure.
Jim Miller (09:08):
With something. Yeah. And they had some little
bit of a success, and they theykinda got the bug.
Bret Schanzenbach (09:12):
You know? The spark. Yeah.
Jim Miller (09:13):
Yeah. So that's that's awesome that you're doing
that at that that level.
Bret Schanzenbach (09:17):
And speaking of the spark, well, I before we
get into because you foundedmultiple businesses from what I
can see, but you did have astint. It looks like, you know,
you were in sales as youmentioned. Mhmm. And then it
looks like you got into digitalmarketing for a little while. Or
Jim Miller (09:34):
Yeah. I was doing some digital marketing. I I had
been through the corporatesales. Yeah. Ice I was
instrumental in bringing somemajor accounts into our
business, including AppleComputer and Hewlett Packard and
Google and Microsoft, and wegrew the business from my
territory.
I started with about a $250,000book of business, three states.
(09:56):
I grew that to 11 westernstates, half of Canada and
Mexico, and landed some bigcompanies that I had targeted
that we weren't doing businesswith, like Apple and Microsoft
and Hewlett Packard. Those aresome big companies. Yeah. So I
grew my my territory from250,000 to over 18,000,000.
Nice. And we had I'd landedApple. It was my first big
(10:19):
account. Yeah. And that wasreally exciting.
We we took that. We were we gota ride on the very first iPod
back in 02/2001, and they werehaving a problem with their drop
testing. I was working with acompany that did shock and vibe
Wow. And acoustic stuff. So wetook that opportunity and
(10:40):
parlayed it into we eventuallyended up in every single Apple
product with some kind ofsolution.
Wow. It was all engineeredsolutions, custom stuff.
Bret Schanzenbach (10:51):
That's amazing.
Jim Miller (10:51):
And then we parlayed that into work with all the
other companies. I kinda setthese I had target accounts.
Yeah. And it was, like, theprecursor of account based
management or marketing rightnow. ABM, people might
recognize.
Well, we didn't have a computerback then that we have today. We
didn't have cell phones. We itwas all old school stuff. So but
(11:13):
the concepts in the and the thesame process is that I use we
use today, but it's just fasterYeah. With the computers that
we've got and the theinformation that we have access
to.
Bret Schanzenbach (11:27):
For sure. Yeah. Oh, that's wild.
Jim Miller (11:29):
So it's it's taking that those those concepts and
creating something from it thatfrom nothing. That's really what
I learned. Yeah. And serving themarket and developing those
relationships and the trust allkinda builds on each other.
Bret Schanzenbach (11:42):
Yeah. And then you founded some businesses
in the sales and marketingarena, it sounds like, as well
as others.
Jim Miller (11:50):
Yeah. The the digital marketing was fun
because I I started that becauseselling to Apple and doing all
that, you know, work took me twoand a half years to get Apple.
Bret Schanzenbach (12:02):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (12:03):
And I was just pounding the doors. I'd go in
like, every week, I'd fly fromhere, Southern California, to
San Jose. Yeah. And I'd I'd gointo Apple, knock you know, go
into the front door and ask forsomebody. No.
No. No. No. No. No.
No. No. For two years. And Iwhile I was doing that, I was
doing other things. I call themfishhooks now.
(12:24):
I put out a whole bunch of fishfishhooks. And one of them, one
day, finally, I got a call froma manager that Haya had
befriended and was working withon other projects in a drop test
house up there. And he called meup and said, hey. What are you
doing? I said, what what do youneed?
Yeah. You know, you alwaysanswer a question with a
question. Right? And so he said,well, I've I've got a couple
(12:46):
engineers here from a companythat I I need your help. And so
I was like, when can you behere?
And this was, like, eight in themorning he called me, and I was
in Orange County. Oh. So he saidand I said And he
Bret Schanzenbach (13:00):
was up in San Jose?
Jim Miller (13:01):
Right? So I was like, okay. Yeah. I'll be there
by noon. Yeah.
I just bet that I could do it.Yeah. And and I had to call my
boss and say, hey. Can I get aflight up to San Jose? I need to
go right now.
Bret Schanzenbach (13:13):
You know?
Jim Miller (13:14):
And at that time, the money was tight. They were
rationing pencils, I think.
Bret Schanzenbach (13:17):
Oh my goodness.
Jim Miller (13:18):
And so it was, like, really, really a challenge.
Finally, I got a call that's,yeah, go for it. So I flew up,
made the 12:00 meeting, and thatthat was the iPod. Wow. And they
were having trouble getting thisto pass the drop test.
They have to drop this theproduct from seven feet onto a
cement floor withaccelerometers, and they do that
(13:41):
nine times. They do this and itit's running. And there was a
there was a actual physical harddrive, spinning hard drive in
there, micro drive from IBM,that was in the first iPod.
IPod. So it was very fragile.
Bret Schanzenbach (13:53):
Yeah.
Jim Miller (13:54):
And what we our products were were shock and
vibration control. So we wereable to absorb, like, mini shock
absorbers. If it was designedwell, we could create a a shock
or shock and vibration controlsystem within that tiny space
Wow. To protect the hard drive.And so we did that because we
(14:17):
got there fast.
Yeah. And we created a solution,we made it happen.
Bret Schanzenbach (14:21):
That's awesome. And that got
Jim Miller (14:22):
us in the door at Apple.
Bret Schanzenbach (14:23):
Got you into Apple, and then you were into
everything. And that's that's agreat lesson, right, about
perseverance, about, you know,and continuing like, the the
door that got you into Applewasn't the one you were
anticipating, it sounds like.No. You you were going in the
front door and getting shut out,but you created other
relationships that eventuallyled led you in, like, a side
(14:44):
door, and then you got fullaccess.
Jim Miller (14:46):
Yeah. Right. So it was that relationship with the
manager that had the betterrelationship with the right
people Yeah. At the targetcompany I was I was trying to
get involved with.
Bret Schanzenbach (14:54):
I love that. So now fast forward, take us to
your thought process. Why didyou start Bold Leadership
Stories Media?
Jim Miller (15:05):
Well, I I was up I spent a year up in San Jose. I'd
I left the like, three m. I'dleft three m, and I went to work
for another company. That didn'twork out well. I there for about
a year, and that didn't workout.
So I was kinda bouncing around,and I I my parents lived up in
and I got a divorce in there.Mhmm. So it was, like, a really
(15:26):
crazy time. And I I during thatfive year period, I I at the
end, I spent ended up going upand living with my parents.
Yeah.
You know? And it's like I'm 50,and I'm, like, living with my
parents. Yeah. So I think thisis the first time I've admitted
that anywhere. But it did.
Bret Schanzenbach (15:47):
It's out now, Jim. Yeah.
Jim Miller (15:48):
It's out now. And so I I was up in the Bay Area, and
I I had some friends up there.And so and I love startups.
Bret Schanzenbach (15:55):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (15:56):
So I said, why don't I go do something for a startup?
So I started taking BART intothe city and attending Shark
Tank. Like, they have all theseYeah. Meetings up there that you
can just go and listen andwatch. And it was a lot of fun.
I went to probably a hundred ofthose over the course of a year,
(16:17):
saw probably a thousand pitches,got to meet a whole bunch of And
I started thinking, wow. This isreally cool stuff. Why don't I
start a podcast
Bret Schanzenbach (16:25):
just About these stories.
Jim Miller (16:26):
About these stories. So I did I started it's called
Angels and Exits. Nice. And Istarted doing that and
interviewing people. Like angelinvestors and Exactly.
Yeah. Got it. Yeah. Angelinvestors and exiting. And so
and it was just having aconversation just like this up
there.
And I I started getting sometraction. I was like, wow. This
is this is kinda fun. But I Iran out of runway, and my
(16:49):
parents kinda kicked me out. SoI I had to come back I had to
come back to Southern Californiaand figure out what to do.
And so while I was doing that,when I got back here, was like,
oh, wow. I gotta do somethingelse that I you know? And I I
wanted to do something that Icould serve the community with.
Mhmm. And the the the firstpodcast I did was huge.
I mean, I always interviewpeople all over the world, and
(17:12):
it was great from that respect,but it was just like I couldn't
really make a difference.There's so many other podcasts
out there doing the same kind ofthing. So I thought, why don't I
do something local? So I I saidI thought said to myself, like,
if I could interview people inmy town
Bret Schanzenbach (17:27):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (17:28):
And those people would be doing business with
other people in this littlegeographic area
Bret Schanzenbach (17:36):
Right.
Jim Miller (17:36):
And put those up on YouTube and and just broadcast
you know, they say that youknow, advertise that we're here
in this town. So that and thisworked, actually. It's it's it's
like people who come on my showare local people, and the local
other local people see who theyare, and they get kind of this
(17:57):
mini celebrity status
Bret Schanzenbach (17:58):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jim Miller (17:59):
From this zero budget little show that, you
know, I'm I'm doing with nomoney. Yeah. And and people are
starting to kinda recognize it.
Bret Schanzenbach (18:10):
That's awesome.
Jim Miller (18:10):
And so it's it's giving them that back back, that
little bit of recognition. Andthen for me, I'm I just like
doing it. It's fun. Yeah. Soit's pulling the the ideas of
business people.
And then a side benefit is I getto learn about business from
some really smart people, and Iget to meet people in town
Bret Schanzenbach (18:33):
That are doing well.
Jim Miller (18:35):
That are doing well. So when I'm out and about, I
could you know, I get morefriends, and so it just kind of
expanded my personal network.
Bret Schanzenbach (18:40):
That's perfect. So let's do this. We're
gonna take a brief pause. We'retalking to Jim Miller, the
founder and host of BoldLeadership Stories Media. When
we come back, we're gonna talkmore about his podcast and what
he has going and how you canconnect with it.
So stick with us. We'll be rightback. So, Jim, before we took a
(19:57):
break, you were just reallygetting into the story of
starting Bold Leadership StoriesMedia. And but let's tell people
exactly what it is because Ithink in addition to, like, a
traditional podcast that peoplecan watch later, think you,
like, livestream and stuff likethat. Like, how can people like,
where can they follow you andfind out what's coming and,
like, join when it's happeninglive?
(20:17):
Because I think that's a coolaspect. Tell us about that part.
Jim Miller (20:20):
Well, I appreciate that question. And and I'm,
like, way behind the curve onthat. I'm starting another
business called Rebel FawnMentoring. Okay. And right now,
I'm diving into the tech side,which I've been trying to avoid.
Bret Schanzenbach (20:39):
Yeah. I hear you.
Jim Miller (20:40):
And so but I've I've building a website, and I've
I've got go high level, and II'm put putting everything in
there, building funnels, andwe're building offers, and we're
creating this wholeinfrastructure, building an
audience now. I'm using AI.Nice. And it's just there's so
many interesting things. And I'm67 now.
(21:01):
So it's like, why would somebodymy age dig into stuff that the
intimidates a 20 year old? Youknow? But it's like, I'm just
crazy. I I just like that's whatgot me into Apple. It's like,
I've I everybody was telling mewhen I started, I I said, I'm
gonna get Apple.
And it took me two and a halfyears, and they were telling me,
you're you're you're nuts. Yeah.You know? As I kept getting, no.
(21:22):
No.
No. No. I just had faith thatthis is gonna work. This is
happening. And I just saw thepicture of what it's gonna be
like in the end.
And so and and I basicallymanifested that. Yeah. It
created millions of dollarsYeah. In business. And so I'm
doing that with this now.
I haven't really applied theseprinciples to the the Bold
Leadership Stories side yet, Butand in fact, I've started two
(21:46):
other podcasts. I'm doing onefor Bright Business Yeah. Right
now in Bright Business Club.Who's a member of our chamber
here. Yeah.
Right. And so that that's fun.Just interviewing the members.
And then and then I'm also doinganother one because this journey
that I've been on when COVIDhit, my body I was working
(22:08):
really hard. I had just starteda job with a company here in
Oceanside, and I was a directorof sales for them.
And I had a pipeline started.I've been there for about six
months. And the first year,you're just hustling. Right?
Bret Schanzenbach (22:18):
Yes.
Jim Miller (22:19):
Because you gotta get business coming in, and it's
gotta be your business. Theydon't just turn stuff over. So
and I had about a milliondollars in pipeline going within
six months, which is prettygood.
Bret Schanzenbach (22:29):
Yeah. Yeah.
Jim Miller (22:29):
Yeah. Some really nice accounts, and COVID hit,
and it was in retail. So it itjust vaporized. Yeah. So I was,
like, going crazy, stressed out,trying to recover and get things
going, and so I was working,like, fourteen hours a day.
Mhmm. No week. I worked on theweekends, just Yeah. Totally
(22:50):
focused on getting somethingdone. My body said this was
February 2020 right before the,think it was March 2020.
Bret Schanzenbach (22:58):
Yeah. It started shutting down.
Everything shut down in March.
Jim Miller (23:00):
So February, my body just basically filed divorce
papers on me. I said, dude,you're just you're you're I'm
not doing this with you anymore.Yeah. You can follow me or not,
but, you know, it's like, if youfollow me, I'm not and you keep
doing what you're doing, I'm notgonna be here. So so I had to
make some changes, and it wasactually a blessing if COVID
hit.
And I lost my job, and I waslike, I got hey. There's nothing
(23:21):
I could do. You know? I wastrying to interview for work,
and it's like nobody wanted tohire an old guy. Yeah.
But, you know, in fact, I hadone guy look at me. I was in an
interview, and he looked at hiswatch. He looked at me, and he
said, shouldn't you be retired?That's right. But I was like,
oh, man.
I I I thought I could I own youright now. Mhmm. But I decided,
you know what? I just wanna workfor a company that has that kind
(23:43):
of thing. Yeah.
So I I just didn't do that. AndI just decided, well, it was
good because I decided rightthen that I need to do this on
my own. And I the health wasn'tgetting any better, so I had to
make a decision. It's like,okay. Who's gonna am I gonna go
to the doctor?
And I went to the doctor. Theysaid, you're fine. Get out here.
Go do your thing. And I waslike, no.
I'm not. And I and then theythey wanted to start doing a
(24:07):
bunch of testing, trying tofigure out what was wrong. And I
had, fortunately, some reallygood people in my life, those
relationship thing again Yeah.Where I could they told me, you
know, it's your diet, and you'reprobably too stressed out, and
you're not exercising. You'reoverweight, and you're not
(24:28):
sleeping very well.
So I I listened. Yeah. So I waslike, okay. I went on this
started this journey, and Istarted reading books. Doctor.
Gundry, Doctor. Boz, Doctor.Fung, Doctor. Davis, all these
people I've learned about. AndI've read all their books, and
I've learned about how the bodyworks now.
And so I lost 50 pounds. Wow.And I've I've I've become kind
(24:52):
of an expert on longevity and onintermittent fasting and how
your body works, themitochondria
Bret Schanzenbach (25:02):
Sure.
Jim Miller (25:03):
And your microbiome and all that. So I'm I'm now
eating for my mitochondria
Bret Schanzenbach (25:07):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (25:08):
To so that they can produce the most ATP, adenosine
triphosphate, which is thecurrency that the body uses for
energy. So I I've learned a lotabout how that works, and I'm
eating now for them. I eatbasically one meal a day. I'm
eating window of about fourhours a
Bret Schanzenbach (25:23):
day. Mhmm.
Jim Miller (25:24):
And so I've I've keep kept the weight off. I'm
exercising now. I'm managing mystress through meditation, and
I'm trying to get at least sevenhours of good sleep a night. And
I tell you, just those fourthings have helped me so much.
And I I had to take some time tokinda relax and and rebuild
myself.
Sure. And I learned aboutbecoming Mhmm. Again. So I
(25:48):
started focusing on that. Andthen I learned about audience
building and the podcasting.
Yeah. And then I learned aboutgenerational wealth. So those
are my seven things now. Seventhings I do is, you know, diet,
exercise, stress management,sleep, becoming building an
(26:09):
audience, and generationalwealth. Those are the, like, my
seven pillars of my life rightnow.
Bret Schanzenbach (26:13):
Nice. I love it. Well, in the as you know, I
mean, here we are talking on apodcast, and we're talking about
your podcast. And I love the thename of the bold leadership
stories because and the wordstories really jumps out because
you've been sharing aboutdifferent people you've met
through what you've done, andthat's one of the things I've
(26:34):
enjoyed most about starting achamber podcast is getting to
the stories of the differentpeople and their their
background, what motivated them.I always love to get behind the
scenes Mhmm.
Jim Miller (26:45):
And see Yeah. I love stories.
Bret Schanzenbach (26:47):
What was that spark? Yeah. What what did you
see when we were talking withthese young kids in the future
CEO program? We were talkingabout how, like, what problem do
you wanna solve? What what's thething?
What's missing? Or what'ssomething that's out there
that's not exactly as you thinkit should be? Like, what you
know, that's where you gottastart, you know? And but that's
(27:09):
what's so fun about podcastsbecause it's the ultimate
storytelling medium these days.You know?
Consumers and I know I'm a I'm apodcast consumer big time in my
car, you know, brushing my teethin the morning, you know, out on
a walk whatever. You can listento them so many places. Mhmm.
And so I think it's great thatwhat you are doing is taking all
(27:33):
these amazing stories andputting them out there. So if
somebody wants to listen to yourpodcast, where where do they go?
Jim Miller (27:40):
Well, we're we're publishing on YouTube. So it's
it's at bold leadership storieson YouTube. So you can just go
there, and it's I've got about ahundred interviews. It's
probably about a 35. It's notbig.
And but No. It's not bad,though.
Bret Schanzenbach (27:56):
A 35 interviews. Let's let's not
minimize that. That'simpressive.
Jim Miller (28:00):
Yeah. Because it it takes
Bret Schanzenbach (28:00):
an effort to do that. Does. I
Jim Miller (28:03):
As you know.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:03):
Know. Yeah. I saw a recent one you did. I
mean, see, I'm assuming you youcover a variety of topics. I saw
one recently.
It looked like it I think he wasa doctor, dementia patient
caregiving topic.
Jim Miller (28:15):
Yeah. Yeah. There's there's so much fun to learn
from people who have suchamazing experiences, and and
dementia is one of those topicsthat right now I think are is
really important for us tograsp.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:31):
Yes, sir.
Jim Miller (28:31):
My dad passed away. He and he had dementia.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:34):
Sure.
Jim Miller (28:35):
And it's like he was in his mid nineties, so he had a
good run.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:39):
Yeah.
Jim Miller (28:39):
But I've lost two friends in the last three months
that are younger than me torelated health issues Yeah. That
are completely fixable now.
Bret Schanzenbach (28:52):
Yeah. That's too bad.
Jim Miller (28:54):
Yeah. It's like and that's kind of my it's turning
into my mission. In fact, I I'mI'm just I mentioned I'd have
three podcasts just looking atI've started another one. I call
it the Wealthy Healthy Live Showwhere we talk about longevity
health and generational wealth.I like it.
Yeah. Yeah. So it's like and andand so I can I can start talking
(29:15):
about the aspects of chronichealth issues that we're dealing
with now and why because I'veexperienced all that, and I've
overcome a lot of it? I'm stilldealing with some things, but I
feel like and and zero drugs.I've taken zero medications.
Nice. Done it all with my diet,just the the seven things. You
know, the four diet, exercise,stress management, and sleep.
(29:37):
Those four things can go a longway, and I think those are
fundamental now. If you're notdoing those things for your
life, you're gonna die early.
Yeah. You know? Yeah. That'sgreat. And, you you know, for me
right now, I'm Unnecessarilyearly.
Unnecessarily early. Like, I'veboth of them both my friends
(29:58):
were in their early sixties
Bret Schanzenbach (29:59):
Mhmm.
Jim Miller (29:59):
That passed away from
Bret Schanzenbach (30:02):
Very young.
Jim Miller (30:02):
You know, these, yeah, these diabetes you know,
you they call it metabolicsyndrome, and then they call it
prediabetes, and then they callit diabetes. It's all the damn
same thing. Yeah. It is. It'sit's that you're yeah.
Don't I don't know if you wannaget into this right now, but I
think we can talk about it. Butit's it's like it's an easy path
to fix. I'm so happy that not toget into politics, but I'm
(30:27):
really excited that RFK Junior'sdoing what he's doing because
he's got, I believe, the rightmessage from what I've learned
over the last five years.
Bret Schanzenbach (30:34):
Sure. Yeah. Well, it's definitely he's kinda
disrupting some status quo, sowe'll see where that goes.
Jim Miller (30:39):
In trillions in profits for these big pharma and
all these big companies.
Bret Schanzenbach (30:43):
Yeah. For sure. Well, this is great. I
really appreciate you taking thetime, Jim, to come down and
share with us about BoldLeadership Stories media and
what you're involved in. And Iknow you're part of the the
business I'm I just lost thename of it.
The the group
Jim Miller (31:00):
Bright Business. Business, yeah,
Bret Schanzenbach (31:02):
here at the chamber, which is fantastic, and
it's a great group of businessowners coming together. So so we
thank you, you know, for coming,sharing your story. Thank you
for taking the time and beingpart of us.
Jim Miller (31:14):
Well, I appreciate it. It's great to meet you,
Brett.
Bret Schanzenbach (31:16):
Thank you. My pleasure. Thanks for joining us
today on our Carl's the People,Purpose, and Impact podcast. If
you got value out of our episodetoday, please hit the follow
button on your favorite podcastapp, and please tell a friend.
Can't wait to see you next timeon Carlsbad people, purpose, and
impact.
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