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Does education define one’s success? Education is a good investment, but it should’nt dictate one’s path. In this episode, Emily London Miller, a professional photographer, shares with us her inspiring story towards success as an entrepreneur and how she had not let educational attainment dictate her future.
Welcome back. By popular demand, we’re here with Emily London Miller. And in this one, we’ve got an amazing story. We’re talking about high school dropout to very successful entrepreneur. Stay tuned for this one. Yeah. Let’s go back to where this started. High school dropout, what’s that all about? -Okay. So, 13 years ago, I was a high school dropout. Teenage mother who was living in a trailer park in the cheapest trailer on the trailer park. And with my husband was going to school at the time. And I had this idea that I, you know, I was actually maybe had a big hobby of shopping online a little bit. And so, I would spend all this time online shopping and I wanted to buy this specific type of product. It was basically like stickers they put on your wall to put a poem on your on your wall. And I I’m doing all this online shopping and I can’t find anything that’s like really well done. And I just remember thinking… Even as a high school dropout who had no graphic design background, like, “I could do this better.” And so, I went to my husband who’s in school and I was like, “Can I… Can I take some of our savings?” And I think we had like $500. You know, our whole savings. And invest in a machine that cuts this this kind of vinyl stuff out and the vinyl sheets. And he’s like, “Oh, my gosh. This is good to get you off of shopping online then just take the money, let’s do it.” So he… He gives me, you know… We get… He gives me… It’s funny to think about now. I get the go-ahead and we go ahead and invest in this business and started. And the… After I sort of get involved in the graphic design like learning and making some of the designs themselves, I realized, you know, I really need to distribute these online which was my original goal. And I said, “Oh, honey. You’re a computer engineer student.” I was like, “Make a website.” And he just laughed at me like, “I’m a full-time student. With a full-time job and I’m a dad. Like I want to be able to see my kid. I don’t have time to make you a website. Why don’t you do it?” And I just remember just being like, “I can’t honey. You know ,I’m a high school dropout.” And I just kind of… I’m laughing now at my mentality because it seems so foreign to me now for 13 years later. But at the time, I was so limited by how I felt about myself based on that framework. And he just kind of laughed and he’s like, “I’m a computer engineering major. And I don’t know how to build a website. Like that’s not something that’s part of my curriculum. What I would do to build you a website is I would start by looking up how to use Dreamweaver and how to use…” And this outdated software, it doesn’t even exist anymore. I can’t remember. And he’s like, “Just Google that. Start there.” And I remember at the time being really irritated to him. And after I built our website which was very ugly. I built another one. And it was marginally better. And then I built another one and then our business took off. And I look back now you know at that moment in time as being the… Almost the cornerstone of my what I became. Because my husband didn’t just catch me a fish. You know build me a website. And he didn’t teach me to fish. He didn’t say like, “This is how you build a website.” He gave me the best gift ever which was to realize that I could teach myself how to fish. How to build a website, how to take pictures, how to become a better graphic designer. How to do anything that I… That eventually came in my path that I wanted to learn how to do. Which gave me enormous confidence. And also gave me basically the only tool that I needed to become a successful entrepreneur. -So, because we’ve talked previously, I’ve heard you say the phrase self realization. Is that what you’re talking about here? -This is definitely like the very, very beginning step of my self realization journey. I think even at this point in time, I didn’t even realize that I was lost yet. I was still so young back then. I was 19 with my brand-new baby. So, yeah. My self-realization journey really didn’t begin till I was like 25. -Okay. So, you started out not feeling very confident about yourself because you’re a high school dropout. That’s the label you put on yourself. But then through this experience, especially in retrospect looking back, it’s like that kind of where it started to pivot. Because I realized, “I can achieve things or I can learn, I can figure things out.” So, what happened at age 25 then? -Okay. So, age 25, that business that I was talking about before become a 7-figure business. And we’re doing really well. And my kids now I had another one. So 2 kids. My youngest was 4. And I think in that, you know, as a mom… And also because I was spending so much energy building my businesses that I was not progressing as a human. Like I was progressing as a business person and I was progressing my children, you know, keeping them alive. But all of a sudden like I had some space to kind of (Breathes Heavily) realize that I was feeling super unfulfilled. In that point in my path, I was basically… I was blaming my kids in that moment for all of the lack of self realization that I had in my space. And also a little bit on my husband. And I went on a trip to Europe. I actually want a ticket from British Airways. And while I was there, it just had this big opportunity to just start exploring myself and growing up and become myself. And I kind of… I had a really interesting year after that where I basically came home and told my husband like, “Maybe this marriage thing isn’t working out. Like, we need to… I want to grow up and become myself.” And I’m really lucky that I have a husband who just said, you know like, “Let’s go together.” So, we both went to Europe. We both… We backpacked through Europe. That trip was not super romantic and fun. It was like an opportunity for us to kind of break down our old marriage and make a new one when we got home. And gave us the chance to kind of say okay, “Emily needs to have some space to grow up and become herself.” My husband was 25 when I met him or when I married him. So, he’d already had some time. And at this point, I was just turning 25. So, for me, the way that that looked was that instead of focusing on my business (with the first business that I had made) that I was going to just try lots of things. So in my case, it was like, “I don’t learn to play the ukulele. And I want to learn French. And I want to go to Europe and I want to go to China and to Hawaii and skydive and play the cello and all these different things.” Including pick up a camera and learn how to take pictures in manual mode. Which ended up actually starting me down the path that I am on now. Which is as a photographer. It also was a time when I realized that I really didn’t have a lot of close relationships with girlfriends and that I was really yearning to have bonds with other women. And that was a big part of why I specifically you know niched myself to be working with women because I was so longing for those connections. And so, you know now, I look at that. You know, it’s maybe… It was seven years ago? And I just think like, “Oh, my gosh. I wish I could show that person. That version of myself.” Like how I how the path progressed. Because it ended up being… Like that I was able to create those specific things that I was really looking for. You know, the bonds with other people. The business that really fits me better than my other business. Which was just kind of like on a whim. Yeah. That for me, you know, self-realization when I talked to my clients about who do you want to see when you’re looking at your portraits, I just really remember that story. Looking back on not knowing who I was and not having grown into myself. And I… The reason that I’m able to help my clients to hold space for them to have that journey is because I’ve been on that journey. And I think that as humans, we go through versions of that journey over and over and over. You know, in your 20s, in your 30s, in your 40s. And so no matter how old my clients are or what they’re doing in their business or their life or their family, you know, experience. They’re usually going through some aspect of that self-realization journey. So, that’s why it’s a huge core theme. -Awesome. So, as I’ve been trying to define in my mind, “What is self-realization?” It’s kind of like… It sounds like you’re describing discovering who you are. -You know, I would say, “Yes, it’s like finding yourself.” But at the same time, the word realize is something that it… That I very specifically chose because it’s not just like finding and discovering but it’s actually like becoming. Growing into. Evolving into. Like taking the step in doing. -What about any part of choice or creation? Is that part of it? Creating who you are? -Absolutely. Self-creation, for sure. -Okay. So for our viewers, you know, we… I love hearing stories like this and seeing stories or seeing people that go from a place of, you know, struggle to success. Or from lack of confidence to confidence and clarity. What would you say were the key things or the key attributes that helped you do that? I mean, how can… How can our viewers face their challenges and get through them like you have? -Okay. So, I definitely want to say that I can appreciate that I had a lot of things going for me. I had a lot of support. I had a partner who was helping me through some of those kind of discovery. So, I don’t wan to say that everybody’s path is going to look like mine at all. But I think that what definitely can relate to anybody is that… My takeaway of… If you learn no other skill after you watch this video, like stop the video and immediately begin learning the skill of finding education for yourself in any way that you excites you. So for me, I never went to college. And ever did that route. But it was like if I wanted to learn how to become a photographer, I found a website. You know, education, incredible resource. Where I had an educator who mentored me and you know, really pulled me up to a certain level. If I wanted to learn how to play the cello, I actually found a guy on YouTube and I to him and I said, “Hey, do you do Cello lessons?” He lived in Texas and I live in Utah. And so, I bought a really good microphone and we would do Skype lessons where I was learning the cello on skype. So, I mean… When I wanted to learn how to build websites, it was just looking videos on YouTube. Videos like this, right? Or going online and finding articles. So, every different type of thing that I’ve learned, I wanted to learn how to do watercolor painting… -So, does this come back to belief then? -I would say, “Absolutely, yes.” That you have to know you can learn anything that excites you that you want to learn. And an enthusiasm to only be learning stuff that that thrills you or that leads to what you want to become. So, as far as a step-by-step detailed blueprint of how to get from point A to point B, that’s not what we’re talking about here. But at the foundation to have a belief of… A belief and a confidence that, “Hey, I can do this. Hey, I can learn this. Where do I want to go?” And just really having the confidence and making that decision. -Well and also, creating the time… -And the priority. -The priority in yourself. So, I think a lot of people prioritize all of the busy work they have to do over themselves for a long time at the expense of themselves. And so then they never get that opportunity to do it. So, it’s carving out the time and the space for it. -Awesome. Well, thanks so much Emily. I really appreciate you being in this episode. Emily, if you don’t know already. She’s an amazing portrait photographer. Check her out at Emilylondonportraits.com We’ll put the link down below. If you’re on YouTube, be sure to subscribe. If you watch this far in the video, I know that you’ve enjoyed it. But we’ve plenty of other videos you’ll enjoy. And if you’re watching this on LinkedIn, you can also give it a thumbs up there. Comment below. Share. There’s lots of good ways that we can interact and engage on LinkedIn. We’ll see in the next episode.