Dan Miller On Fear and Success

John Henderson

8 years ago

New York Times bestselling author Dan Miller explains how he overcame $430k in debt and became a world class author, speaker and coach.

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Dan, first off, I can only image how busy you are, so thank you for giving us some of your valuable time. To start at the beginning can you tell any reader who may not be familiar with you, who you are and what you do?

Sure, I am an author and life coach. I help high potential individuals understand their greatest talents and passions and engage those in meaningful daily work so they can thrive, savor every day, and leave a legacy for those they care about.

Right, your books and coaching programs have helped mountains of people find work they love and live life successfully, by their own definition. But that wasn’t always the case. You have owned many other businesses. You tell a story about a time you sold one of your previous businesses and wound up in some trouble with the IRS. Can you tell us a little more about that?

Yes, as a response to changing bank policies I sold a business at auction. Rather than giving me a cushion for my next venture, I was left with a $430,000 debt. $119,000 of that was to the IRS for withholding taxes from employees. Not the peachiest position to be in.

Yeah, peachy definitely would not describe my feelings if I learned I was $430,000 in debt! But can you tell us how you did feel?

I was devastated. But I’ve never been one to blame or point fingers. Yes, the bank changed ownership 3 times in 3 years, sure the economy was in a down cycle, and my industry was racked with instability. But the next morning I looked in the mirror at the guy that had gotten me exactly where I was and asked him what he was going to do to walk me out of that situation.

Whew, that was a big mountain to climb. So you decided to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and dig through it. Looking in the mirror to find a resolution had to be tough, but you are married. How did your wife take it, after she learned what had happened?

She was frightened – terrified of the creditors that started calling daily. But her support and belief in me has always been there. She remained confident that I would be able to handle it somehow.

Wow. That is incredible support. To have a wife who trusts you that much in the wake of that obstacle must have felt great and put a pretty heavy load on you. You said she was terrified, did you ever feel afraid?

I don’t think I was ever afraid. I’m a glass half-full kind of guy and I remained confident I could whip this puppy and be back on top in a couple of years.

You must have a huge glass if it was half full at that time! Okay, so you have decided that you can handle this, your glass is half-full, but what did you really have at your disposal? What tools were you planning on using to “whip this puppy” back into shape?

At that time I already had my degree. I was certainly employable – or I could jump right back in the entrepreneurial game with no net, but no ceiling.

So you had to decide between two, huge choices. Go to a “safe and steady” job, or continue in entrepreneurism, which was what got you into the debt in the first place. What did you do?

Although the rational and practical thing to do would have been to get a responsible job – maybe making $70-80,000 a year was recommended by many, I just couldn’t get myself to choose that option. With that kind of income and three small children, I’d never see the light of day again financially. I took a sales position with no base, no guarantee, no benefits but some apparent opportunity – and no ceiling.

Yeah, I think lots of people would have chosen differently. But you had a different outlook. You saw what positive things could happen, instead of the potential problems. So you take what everyone else would consider as a huge risk by avoiding the job. How did it turn out?

Within 3-4 months I was making $8-10,000 a month and was winning TVs, trips and other incentives. It wasn’t my dream job by any stretch of the imagination – but it was a solid opportunity and I started to chip away at the debt I had.

Wow! That sure beats $70,000-$80,000 a year, which was really good money at the time. It had to be tough to decide to walk away from that. Hind-sight being what it is, if you had it to do all over, would you do anything differently?

Everyone advised me to file bankruptcy (that would not have eliminated the IRS debt but all the rest). I was raised to believe that when we give our word it should mean something. So instead of taking a legal way out I chose to honor the word I had given. Rather than the couple of years I had anticipated it took me exactly 12 years to unravel that mess. In that period of time we could not own a house or build any asset. But I worked diligently to get to the next season in our lives. The very month I got the last IRS lien release, we purchased the house we still live in today.

Oh cool! I know that a lot of neat things go on at that home, including all the things that you wife Joanne has written about in her book, Creating a Haven of Peace. But right now there is someone facing a less-than peaceful problem, like your mountain of debt. If you could give them one piece of advice, what would it be?

Look in the mirror, accept complete responsibility for where you are and then dream, plan and act into the next chapter of your life.

Perfect, and you are on to that next chapter, which includes a wildly popular book. The New York Times bestseller, 48 Days to The Work You Love. Did the IRS/debt situation affect what you do today? Did it change the way you do things?

Going through that challenging experience opened my eyes to new ways business could be done. Had that not happened I would have continued to build bricks and mortar businesses with a growing number of employees. Today I have a business with no employees, seven distinct revenue streams, and the time and income freedom that most people dream about.

And that all grew from your book. Can you tell us a little more about some of the things you do now, thanks to the huge influence of your book?

The worldwide success of 48 Days to The Work You Love has opened so many new doors of opportunity. Today we conduct sold-out events called Coaching with Excellence that train writers, speakers and coaches. We have an advanced program called Coaching Mastery where people spend six months building their own successful coaching businesses. We match all the requests for my personal coaching with those competent coaches. I have online courses that create ongoing income. My wife has written six books with more on the way. We love introducing our grandkids to entrepreneurial adventures of their own with some awesome success stories.

So in your events, where you transform client’s professional lives, or in the online courses, other books, or even when you are talking with your grand kids, do any of the things you learned dealing with this huge mountain of debt come up? Do you relate any tools that you gained from your experience to those with whom you have influence?

Absolutely. Patience while having a clear plan of action. Look through the windshield – not that tiny rear view mirror.

Very cool. So can you give us some examples of people who have taken those tools and really used them well? What have some of your clients gone on to do?

Well there’s Kent Julian who is rocking and rolling with his speaking career. Also there is Jevonnah Ellison. She is crushing it with her coaching and Maximum Potential Academy membership site, and Aaron Walker – completely filled high level Mastermind groups and requests for his coaching that far exceed his capacity to fulfill, just to name a few.

Dan, thank you for this. Thanks for letting us in on such a transformational time in your life, thanks for the work you do and the lives you change and thank you for facing that huge fear and telling us all about it. Where can people go to find out more about you?