Erica Elle Miller released her latest book, From Success To Struggle: $6 Dollars To Six Figures. She’s having a book signing this Saturday, March 22, at the Vibrary: Wine & Bookbar in Georgia where you can hear some gems from the book and pick up your own signed edition. Miller was our guest on Meet The Author, and she told us more about why she wrote this book.
What was the inspiration behind this book?
What inspired me to write this book is as I began to move up the corporate ladder and also constantly increase my business as an entrepreneur, I learned that a lot of people don’t know small, minute things to actually gain wealth or, you know, save money. The average American doesn’t have $200 in their savings account. So, I thought that if I wrote this book, I have two master’s in education, so it’s a quick read. The formatting is in large formatting so people can get through it, and it’s also a space in there where you can take notes. So, I was very intentional on how I structured and what I actually put in the book.
But what was the moment your mind transformed, and you wanted to take it way further than just being a regular employee?
So, and I talk about this in the book, I was 16, and I was pregnant with twins, and I was hiding it while working at Wendy’s, and I was making $6 an hour and that’s where the $6 to six figures come from. So, you know, I’m hiding my pregnancy. I’m in there cleaning toilets and mopping, and I knew that wasn’t the life that I wanted to have. But now I’m bringing these human beings into the world making this little money, you know, still going to school, and I had to figure out other ways to drive that income. So, I also talk about in the book, if you just work a nine to five, which I think is amazing, you can utilize those benefits, but you have to have something else on the side. You have to have a business.
Since March is Women’s History Month. Who were your inspirations?
I think Maya Angelou. And I say it’s not; I think it’s who I know, Maya Angelou. I admired her grace through all of her hardship and everything that she went through, and her words still hold value. Her legacy, you know, still holds value, and she, you know, has been physically gone from this earth. I just love her. I admire her. And I talk about it in the book, actually, because my mom passed when I was six years old, lying right next to me. And I talk about in the book how when you don’t have those mother figures, how important it is to cultivate those relationships, or look for influences like a Maya Angelou, even though I never met her, who went through so much pain and trauma, but actually persevered.
What are just things you’ve seen from people that are stuck in the struggle mindset?
People expect others to give like they expect everybody to give. I’m in this chat, and people like, Oh, I’m still in the hotel, or my kids don’t have food and I’m just like, you just want people to give what they worked hard to get. And I tell you know, I have grown kids, so I can say I’m preaching to the choir. There are so many ways to get money out here, so many ways. And sometimes you have to humble yourself to get to it. Sometimes, you just have to do what you need to do: do Instacart. My son did Instacart on his skateboard because he didn’t have a car.
