How Nicole D. Miller Turned Pain Into Published Success
00:00:00 hey and what’s up everybody you tuned in to another episode of strategic moves I’m your host Ken da this is a place where we bring art culture politics and business all together and we do it every week right here on this channel when I’m not shooting this podcast I am the owner of strategic resources where we specialize in political campaigns government and public relations work I’ve been doing it right here in this city and this town for over 25 years and I want to make your next move a strategic move so this program gives me an opportunity to do just
00:00:29 that I get to bring on some of the people I met we talk about some of the things that we experienced through our life and maybe just maybe it’s something out of it that you will get there’ll help you in your personal life or your professional life so if that sound like something that you’re interested in all I need you to do is hit that like button hit the Subscribe button and hit the notification Bell as well so that you’ll know the next time this program’s coming on so without further Ado we going to get going today because we got a special guest in the house
00:00:58 today and she’s going to bless us with some of her works that she’s been doing across the city and across got books and she’s selling them all over the place not just here in Cleveland so we’re going to talk a little bit about that but before we get started I want to give a warm shout out to the producer of the podcast and been helping me pull these things together none than DJ true what’s happening with you brother yo what’s up Ken just in the back making it happen where magic happens oh everything’s good man I’m glad to see that you all involved
00:01:30 D and we got a new person that came on board to help us Pro uh with the podcast and as well as some of the stuff you going to see a little bit about him as we get things going he’s um going to come on help us with some content creation as well as he’s going to be helping me get a few things together so he’s my new CEO of strategic resources so I want everybody to give a warm welcome to Ezekiel Parker what’s up okay let’s give him the hand clap hand clap man Zeke is in the house we going to see more and hear more about Zeke as we get going he’s working one of the cameras today
00:02:07 just doing some behind the scenes stuff with us we go from there before we get started we was on our radio show and for people who don’t know we got a radio show that we do every Tuesday at 12 o’clock it’s called what’s on your mind Tuesday talk to me Cleveland with Kendal show and that’s on wovu 95.9 FM every Tuesday just a talk a call-in show where you get to call in and talk about whatever is on your mind and we go through those things every Tuesday so if you’re not busy and you want to
00:02:35 tune in something please tune in and listen to us on there but uh DJ earlier today we were talking about the fact that the Cleveland Browns are now losing miles Garrett so now we don’t have miles Garrett we don’t have no quarterback we don’t have no running back because we lost chub and we don’t even have a stadium and then you know what’s even worse what’s that Kareem hunt might win a Super Bowl yeah and Kareem Hunt is going to win is going win people leave Cleveland they do big things cuz
00:03:10 they left Cleveland yeah that’s that part remember that part left in there when they leave make up with Miles Garrett let’s get us a quarterback in there and let’s be winners we ready to be winners out here in Cleveland yeah I think we winners without them so we going to just keep it going from there all right so we’re going to jump into our program today because the young lady I got on the show today is somebody who we’ve been going around looking for guest to come on our podcast I go around looking at other podcast and other or groups of people and watching what people are
00:03:46 doing out here and I ran across this young lady’s profile and I thought that she will be a good person to come in and just have a conversation with without further Ado I want to introduce the young lady who’s coming on our program today she’s author and a young person I found who was doing some things around the community and I thought it would be good to have her come on our podcast so ladies and gentlemen I want to welcome you to another enlighting episode of strategic moves with kendow podcast and of course if you’re just now watching I am your host Kendal
00:04:17 and today I have the pleasure of speaking with a remarkable author blogger and entrepreneur who has been weaving narratives and resonating deeply within the urban community Nicole D Miller is here to share her journey and sight and her latest literary Works Nicole de Miller I want to welcome you to our program thank you thank you ktim Nicole we gonna jump into it I do a little thing when I ask people to come on the show to just give us a little background about you are you from Cleveland you from this area you grew up here yeah so I grew up in Cleveland I was born in Toledo we moved to
00:04:56 Cleveland when I was five and I’ve lived here ever since I definitely claim Cleveland is where I’m from what community did you grow up in Garfield ironically enough that’s where I’m at now but we jumped around the east side like Maple and Beford and as an adult I lived on the west side west 25th Lakewood so I’m pretty familiar with both East and West so you spent most of your time in the suburbs yeah I would say the black suburbs I understand that’s cool what high school you went to I went to
00:05:25 nordonia mhm where nordonia at that’s on the West Side that’s in Macedonia that’s a real suburb so when we from Garfield Middle School and Elementary I went to nordonia for high school how was high school for you it was cool I had my little click there and got good grades and was able to go off to college so it was a good launching pad for me to go to college what college did you go to Miami University in Ohio that’s a good school that’s a hard school too yeah definitely got me together I thought I was smart till I went there yeah I know that’s a really I I have four kids and so I
00:06:01 went through that of all the schools so I know that was a really you had to have some really good grades to go there so yeah I do I did well enough to graduate I I tell the people all the time they don’t check after graduate they just want to know that you graduate exactly as long as you made it let turn me down just a little bit thank you sir Nicole your path to as becoming an author is quite inspiring can you share with us and our listeners what enlightened your path of writing and beginning your journey what start you into doing that I appreciate you saying that one
00:06:35 thing I love about writing is that you don’t necessarily have to have a degree in writing or some type of formal training in writing as you mentioned I went to Miami so my degree was in marketing and in business and so I took a very unorthodox path I ended up working in corporate for nine years went back and got my MBA and accounting so my background is in accounting and finance but because I wasn’t moving mov forward in my career I started blogging back when blogging was hot that was before podcasting and so I ended up falling in love with blogging
00:07:08 and that inspired my very first book how to overcome heartbreak recovering from misguided love and it was that book that kind of was my launching pad into becoming a writer because it helped so many people I got some recognition and so where I was at a standstill in my career in the business world I had this side Hustler or gig of writing and I released my second book how to overcome heartbreak stories that heal which is a sequel in 2015 so let’s stop right there let’s go back to the first book because the first book was what was the title again how to overcome
00:07:42 heartbreak recovering from misguided love so what was the inspiration behind that book so it was me sharing a really difficult breakup that I went through in college and initially I blogged about it and the blog got so much attention that I felt led like I need to write a book to help people so what was the blog about yeah so it was very transparent it was really tough stuff I was in a very serious relationship at a very young age so I talk about instances of how that breakup affected me but what helped me heal and get through it and even just owning some of my own stuff when you’re
00:08:16 that young you don’t really know who you are you’re looking for love in the wrong places you don’t know what to look for in a romantic partner and I revisit some of those themes in the sequel to it okay but yeah so it was really just me being vulnerable but also sharing about my faith in my community and how those healthy Outlets helped me get through it so I was going to ask you what were some of the healthy outlets and some of the things you did that um helped you get through that time yeah I think the biggest thing was diving into events outside of my relationship that affirmed
00:08:48 my identity because often you can lose yourself in a relationship especially being that young so me being away at College was really helpful because I gained community at College I became an RA I started a dance ministry I started what was a campus event organization so we did events on campus and it was that it was being a part of the church youth Ministries I just needed to know who I was outside of that relationship and all of these activities affirmed me in doing that and then I had my friend group I had mentors spiritual leaders really undergird me and cover
00:09:24 me during that time so all of those things were helpful finding your talents your interest and your passions are always is helpful in helping you deal with heartache because you feel like you’ve lost you but you haven’t you know so you have to get through those spaces of I’m still here and who am I and rebuilding okay so once you got that you was feeling good at least you left you got it all off so I’m feeling better and so now I’m I feel I’m healing so you got to the next point I guess right and that book was yeah so it’s interesting because I never saw myself as a creative writer so
00:09:57 those first two books are non-fiction a little bit and it was like me taking some literary Cleveland classes I don’t know if you’re hip to them they’re a literary organization in Cleveland they do a lot of workshops some of them free during the pandemic they would be virtual and I found this community of writers and it was in one of their workshops that I wrote my very first short story and at the time my roommate had written a short story I never once thought I could write a short story never once thought I could write a novel anything creative because I was very much
00:10:28 left-brained and I was accounting and finance and business but I fell in love with creative writing and I wrote this short story titled Lisa and it ended up being the very first short story that I published in my book stories for the Urban Soul stories for the Urban Soul is a compilation of short stories novellas and poetry infusing black culture and spirituality and it gives you a taste of my creative writing style I released it in 2021 and that is when I got serious about being a creative writer I kept feeling like God wanted me to take that leap but I was so scared
00:11:03 who makes money writing I can’t do this but with that book it was like I couldn’t shake it it was like let me see what’s on the other side of this and when I made that decision that is when purpose just unfolded in a whole new way in my life so in the process of pushing that book I ended up writing my first novel When Love wins okay you be rolling I got to slow you down I know you I looked at you you did a lot of books I want to talk a little bit about them because you be went through all your books real quick so let get back to that first one because you said that
00:11:32 was a series of books right you said it’s a series of stories so they’re shorter stories so novellas aren’t as long as novels but they’re longer than short stories so that’s called a Nolla noas yeah and there’s poetry sprinkled throughout and it’s the first two short stories in that book are featuring a blackowned cafe called Devon’s Cafe in New York so what I’m doing is I am building a world with a series of books that will take place at de’s Cafe okay so the novel When Love wins is a Dev Cafe novel and I’m currently working on my second novel which will be released this
00:12:07 summer which is also a Devon’s Cafe novel let’s talk about Devon’s Cafe so what is Devon’s Cafe so it’s Chic it’s cute it’s popping they have open mic first Friday of every month we have spaces like that here in Cleveland but I chose New York just to capture a wider audience um because they’re known for those things but the owner is Devin he’s a faith-based guy good guy but it’s just like the characters who are there there’s a waitress named Denise she’s just like cheeky a little bit gossipy and fun and cute and all that and then in When Love wins we learn her
00:12:41 best friend is Ashley who’s the main character in When Love wins meet all of these different people Lisa frequent there she’s a writer and a journalist for Black Magazine everything is like blackowned it’s just like this world or where we run everything correct white people are the minority but they also have Awakening moments of being privy to our culture and so it humbles them and we see white people stepping up and taking ownership when it’s like creating the world I want to see so this book came after the first two books right so the interesting thing about stories
00:13:11 for the Urban Soul I had started writing some of those short stories in 2017 my mom transitioned and that was very pivotal for me because with grief I could not write anymore I sto blogging so I had been blogged since 2012 but when my mom transitioned I couldn’t write anymore I couldn’t vog but I started reading a lot of creative writing not realizing that was stirring up my gift for creative writing so in 2020 when the pandemic hit I had more time on my hands I did have my own bookkeeping business so I am a Serial entrepreneur like I have several businesses and so I ended up
00:13:45 saying you know what let me pick up those short stories I had started and that’s when I completed stories for the Urban Soul so I was able to go back and heal through writing and creative writing after I took that time off through my grieving and then with When Love wins both the characters lose their mom so I was able to process my grief even more through those characters probably ready to deal with it a little bit then yeah it was like I couldn’t handle it initially and about few a few years later I was able to but it was a little difficult cuz even with my editor one
00:14:16 of the characters wasn’t going that deep into her grief and I knew it’s cuz I wasn’t and so it pushed me too so your editor asked you to get more in deep she said this character needs to be developed you know she’s not responding the way she should be and I knew it was because I didn’t want to go there cuz she had just lost her mom so so let me ask you a question like what how you write a book like that you sit down now I can understand writing the first ones where because you’re building that off of experience and I I’m mad at this dude I’m mad at myself I’m mad at
00:14:50 everybody so I’m G blog it down I’m G write about it now I’m feeling better about it I’m gonna tell you how you can heal from it yeah I get that but how you trans position that to saying I’m going to write about a guy who’s sitting at a bar I’m GNA write about this lady over here I’m all these different Char where did that come from that’s a good question and I think it’s interesting so there are two different types of writers typically you have the outliner and you have the fly by the seat of your paner so the outliner is someone they have an understanding of where they want
00:15:22 to go what they want to write about ahead of time and this chapter one 2 three blah blah blah you would think I would be like that because I’m brain I’m in accounting and finance and all this stuff but for me writing is like my time of creativity and letting it go and being free and it’s a time of worshiping with my Creator I feel like I’m co-creating when I’m writing so I let it all go and I just free write and the story tells me it comes to me so even with When Love wins I didn’t know really where it was going until like chapter nine there was this beef between both characters
00:15:55 the cousins had beef mainly because one cousin was jealous of the other one I didn’t know where the beef stem from until I got to a certain point and then even though it is creative writing you’re still pulling off real life experiences they’re dealing with adops with their moms childhood bullying depression anxiety and cutting which we don’t typically talk about in the black community Ling relationships friendships so you’re still pulling off of real life themes that are going to touch the reader interesting I I just find that very interesting how people can just come
00:16:27 up with characters and I ideas and say just what you sitting here you telling me you like I didn’t know what they were arguing about I’m sitting like how the hell K you not know you writing the story didn’t you but you you just knew they was in an argument and somewhere down the road you going to figure out why they AR at some point it’s going to reveal itself and it did that’s deep that’s deep I just think eternity is written in our hearts and when we tap into self and our creator in that
00:16:54 space it will be revealed it’ll be Unleashed All right so how many books you done wrote I think cuz it’s getting up there it’s like I have four of my own that are published I have an ebook out called self-publishing oneone everything you need to know from one author to another so I started the publishing house so I help other people publish and I started that at the tail end of stories for the Urban Soul and then I started ghost writing this past year so I co-wrote three books this year okay so I don’t know if I could claim those cuz they’re or the author but I
00:17:29 written a lot of books I’ll say that and when you say publish what for our auth our people what is that so it’s basically when you’re putting your work out there for Distributors for other people to purchase your books like some people may just have a manuscript where it’s not online or available for re resale or in a bookstore at the library or online you’re not technically considered a published author unless it’s out there and you say you’re a publishing house now what’s that yeah so we are Indie Miller publishing is a boutique h publishing house
00:18:00 which means we’re fusing traditional publishing and self-publishing so traditional publishing you have the four or five major publishing houses and it’s a rat race and very competitive to get a deal you need a lit agent you need a query letter there’s a lot of Hoops to jump through they give you an advance they may eat up your advance and marketing but that was typically the way everyone did it Indie authors started publishing themselves and back in the day it had a negative connotation to it because the quality was was n there the professionalism wasn’t there it wasn’t available
00:18:32 to the masses social media and the internet has really leveled the playing field right so now we’re able to have Boutique publishing houses where you keep all of your rights you’re the in you’re the independent author but I’m going to come alongside you and teach you the publishing process and defin definitely each Boutique house changes like we don’t all have the same rules that we go by but Andy Miller publishing we specialize in debut authors um because we are faith-based we specialize in releasing stories of overcoming adversity healing from trauma so a lot
00:19:05 of the books that we published you’re going to leave inspired you’re going to leave encouraged these people have been through some stuff and they came out on the other side so and you call those boutiques I would say Indie Miller publishing is a boutique publishing house but we’re technically considered a hybrid publisher so any company that is going to come alongside an indie author and help them publish is considered a hybrid publisher interesting I I was reading here it said that you know I wanted to ask you a question as it relates to your publishing you are self-published
00:19:36 multiple books which is not a small feed what challenges did you face in self-publishing world in the self-publishing world and how did you overcome those challenges I was just telling your associate one of the biggest challenges is brand recognition visibility and being known okay the big Publishers the reason most people fight for those opportunities is because they have the brand awareness they have the connections with the Distributors they can get your book everywhere and everyone knows about it so they’re going to buy it as an indie author is very similar to
00:20:09 any independent creative you’re an independent musician right it’s like getting out there and getting known most writers are introverts I myself consider myself an introvert that doesn’t mean I’m not social it just means it can be very draining for me so I gear up to be social but I felt like my part in this was to get out there into Network and so that was my challenge was getting brand awareness when I started this nobody knew me so even when I started publishing in 2014 I had a level of it but I still was a part-time creative when I published When Love
00:20:45 wins I had fully stepped away from my bookkeeping business I dove into the Andy Miller publishing hybrid company and focus on building my brand and so instead of me just blogging willy-nilly like I was I looked at my marketing analytics when are my people reading my blog 7:00 a.m. at mon Monday on at 7:00 a.m. I need to release my blog Monday at 7:00 a.m. which means I need to write it Sunday so everything became scheduled I need to show up on social media I need to do a live on Wednesdays
00:21:15 what of the day Wednesdays I need to send them out an email on Wednesdays because I built up my email list your email list is your Bible so I had strategy intentionality and consistency and then I capitalized on not just being in the literary world world but in the entrepreneurship space in the black entrepreneurship space in the fitness space I wear all of these hats and do all these different things and then I started doing these quarterly discussions called girl talk we started those online and now it’s a podcast and so that has me in a whole another space and I do
00:21:47 hosting for other events and things too busy woman very yeah that and that’s Steve you mentioned the fitness real quick what is you doing in the Fitness World so I love doing hip-hop po up which I’m actually going to go to after this I actually train with Ari Baker okay over at the Vault and she’s actually my new client so we are publishing her book sorry for the weight it releases February 15th she’ll have her book launch at fukee of large here in the area Okay so yeah you know you should
00:22:18 have her come on and when she launch her book I definitely will let’s dive into your latest novel When Love wins right sure and the story explore explores complex themes within the Christian Life what inspired the narrative for this book as I mentioned before the basis was that these two young women lose their moms but they lose their moms in different time periods we have Ashley and they’re night and day so Ashley is like the urban social light she’s fun she’s kicking it but she’s also very snobby she’s the one that has this angst and a against her cousin Natalie but she lost her
00:22:53 mom and never really processed the grief and so she became a mean girl of sorts and then we have Natalie who was like the goody to shoes she’s the writer She’s Fresh off of her grief and so she’s trying to go through the stages of healing but she’s Also spiritually further along and she feels this calling to love on Ashley anyway so even though Ashley is being this big jerk to her Natalie’s lost her mom and she’s in shambles she still shows the love of Christ even through Ashley Shenanigans Sisterhood is a huge theme I’ve been the byproduct of beautiful women in my life
00:23:27 loving on me through my stuff me them through their stuff so I definitely can relate in that way but I would say the recovery from grief the impact of a mother’s love an Sisterhood which I’m a product of all of those things are any of your books on audio books so when love WS is so you can go to audible Audible and get did you do it I did oh excellent excellent I might get that for my daughter for good know faith and spirituality are the C are Central in your storytelling how do you balance B these elements with the reality of urban life in your writing I love that question
00:24:04 and I think the the key word to me is balance and the word I like to use is Infuse okay I think historically the church has done a poor job of really meeting people where they are and there’s been this like view of God that he’s just so far above and away from us and I really aim in my stories to show that he is love with skin on he is with us in the day-to- day and the everyday and we’re human because he we’re Made In His Image and he is the element of humanity so there’s laughter there’s fun there is music there’s dancing there’s food right God is Not stoic and so I really try to
00:24:43 show that these people who have a faith are still people they still are going through things or feel a kind of way about things but it really is his love that shines through and this question might be close to what you just said but I’m going asking anyway your Works often touch things like grief mental health and res and resilience why do you feel is important to highlight these topics in today’s in your stories with today with everything that’s going on today I would say obviously I’ve personally experienced those things but having girl talk really showed me that
00:25:21 what you think you’re going through other people are going through too so we can be so isolated and lost in the hard the hardships of this life but when we come together or you read someone else’s story or you hear someone else’s story you and it resonates with you I think you can be encouraged to know you’re not alone and so clearly our climate here politically and and otherwise is wild right now people need hope and I think that those of us who have hope are accountable to give it and we can definitely edify each other when we open our mouths and share our stories you
00:25:56 mentioned earlier about your entrepreneur rship with Indie Miller publishing and you I wanted to just get a little bit more out of you about the mission of that or your mission of that publishing house and everything so give us some background or what is your true mission of why you think it was important for you to partner with them what is so interesting I will give you some tea I never saw myself doing a publishing company and it was probably 2018 when my mom passed that um woman in my life who is a spiritual mother of sorts gave me a word and she said you’re going
00:26:34 to have a publishing house one day the interesting thing is at the time I had a bookkeeping company I saw myself as a bookkeeper I was just kind of I’m putting that word on the Shelf she has historically spoken things into my life that were very accurate but that one I was like I don’t know fast forward for years her daughter comes to me and says I want you to publish my book her daughter became my very first client I really was trying to give her my ebook girl just read the book it’s cool you know I want you to publish me so it was something that came to me
00:27:05 but now I understand the need for black stories of resiliency faith-based stories that release hope to be released to transform communities because at the end of the day when I look at all of my projects all of the things I do the theme behind it is community transformation everybody feel they got a story and I’m sure every time every soon as you run into somebody and they you tell them what they do they can you write my story I’m sure you get that all the time for everybody that’s listening out here who wants to write a book but they don’t want to write it let’s put it
00:27:40 that way because there’s a lot of people want to write a book but don’t want to write it what are the steps you should take it just depends on how you’re wired because remember I said there’s two different types of writers so my first thought is you can do an outline if that’s your thing honestly people have it so easy now with AI and that’s like a bad word in the literary Community but you can Google topics to get you going but honestly I would say if you really struggle because this is how I’ve gotten my clients who I’ve worked with for ghost writing you can get
00:28:12 a ghost riter some of my clients are actually writers like one of them actually wrote other books but the story she wanted to tell with me was so traumatic that she couldn’t say it herself she needed someone to hold her hand and put words to what she was she had experienced so take me through that process somebody who wants a ghost riter what they do they sit down with you and you just take a lot of notes or how does that go I do take a lot of notes we do the video calls I video call okay I recognize the way that I’m wired I I’m empathetic I can hear and it feels like it’s me um
00:28:48 I can hear your story I can put myself in your shoes I could see it through your Viewpoint I’m very intentional to pull out your vernacular to make it sound like it’s you and I also do think that these have been Divine Partnerships the people that have been brought to me it’s like I’m tailor made to write their story I especially felt that way with AR’s book it was like so many similarities that we had went through I was like I am made to write this book so some of it is just us being in alignment and having that connection and then my own gifts to be able to empathetically
00:29:21 understand where you’re coming from and give you the words to share is any different in men and women in doing that I haven’t worked with a man yet but honestly I don’t think it would be different for me because it’s about the person’s experience and me being empathetic to that yeah because I would think that I know a few men who have wrote books and I think they always when I talk to them about it they usually get a ghost riter or they working with somebody who help them put it together and I never quite knew what a ghost writer did I figured they wrote it but I
00:29:52 didn’t know if they actually wrote the story and you looked it over or was they working with you and it varies right I think some of these celebs are people who don’t have as much time on their hands maybe they couldn’t do the video chats maybe they had written material already down and but some kind of way they have to work with the writer for the writer to know their story enough to make it accurate so the first thing you do is you say you should have some kind of idea what you want to write about you definitely need that right and then from that standpoint try to get with somebody
00:30:23 to help you put those thoughts together sounds right yeah and it depends if you’re writing a memoir and I do write coaching sessions so this is stuff that I will tell a client for writing coaching um you can pull other journal entries or blog posts or other writings that you’ve done and see if you can compile some things together that can help you get started so who are some of your favorite writers it’s a really good question I would say Francine Rivers um she’s a Christian fiction writer and she writes volumes of books and her characters are so detailed in the plot
00:30:58 is so intense that I’ve devoured some of her books I fell in love with the ’90s classics like the Fly Girls and the sister soldiers that stuff and I actually am very influenced by that type of writing and so I pick up on that style people read my books they be like it makes them feel like the 90s Classics okay but yeah I read a variety of books and and what’s the biggest book you wrote so you mean longest book so what the longest book yeah wi love wins was definitely very very meaty and that was because I didn’t know there’s like a typical word count for different genres this go
00:31:35 around I was very intentional with the novel but it’s just interesting because I never thought I could write a novel that was so intimidating to me so to be able to pour out and pour out like that I was like I didn’t know I had it in me wow and I did you just said something else I F you you said there’s different word counts for different genres there’s different literary rules different genres you know an autobiography versus a memoir versus a fiction nonfiction children’s book I didn’t know
00:32:01 that I just they thought you just wrote to you wrote so you try to keep them within a certain number of yeah and if you’re like going to apply to the traditional publishing companies they’re looking for stuff like that you’ll they’ll weed you out if it’s WR oh yeah wow so what’s your favorite type of book to read that’s a good question I feel like I love Urban culture so when I think about and a lot of times I’m audio booking it cuz I don’t have time to sit and read anymore especially when I’m writing and reading my client stuff um but I definitely like the romance black
00:32:36 Romance Books Mark you like you got the Hallmark Channel on your your book I’ve definitely been told like stories of the urban solos is definitely not at homark and I do give off homark Vibes like my Instagram and when H the holidays come I’m all about the decor and the pajamas and all the things yes well that’s cool a nothing wrong with that nothing wrong with black hmark for sure Nicole as we wrap up what can readers expect to hear from you what’s you got coming up what new projects you got going yeah there are definitely some things so girls hog we will have that next
00:33:10 month and I’m very excited because we’re actually going to feature all men so no let’s talk about girls talk because we you you do a lot and like I said we’re good on time so tell me what’s Girls Talk what’s that so girls talk is a panel discussion of all women we meet quarterly and we Dialogue on women’s issues our very first one was are you a feminist we’ve talked about our good friends hard to find we’ve talked about is black love still exists so we go deep and it’s very authentic and transparent and vulnerable but it’s really giving female leaders a safe space for them
00:33:46 to I say take their Cape off and really enter into an empathetic experience because as women leaders and leaders in general you’re caring the world and you don’t really have those safe spaces to build Sisterhood and to edify each other so where yall usually do those at we’ve been doing them at Ink Therapy Studio which is in Bedford which is a tattoo parlor but it’s very chic and cute owned by my girl butter okay we did do one at unbar Cafe off larem they actually sponsored us last year in March but mostly we’ve done them at Ink Therapy the next one since it’s featuring all men will be
00:34:19 at the gentleman’s cave off chin now let’s talk about this all men thing what you got going with the men I’m excited for this one because we’ve never had any of the men in any of our some of them will attend of course but we’ve never had them featured as panelists so I really want to give them a space I hate to say clap back cuz I don’t want it to be like a negative thing but I want to give them a space to chime in on some of our topics yeah and be like okay y’all didn’t get to talk about this and my real goal is to build that Brotherhood and create that space that’s
00:34:50 safe for them to be vulnerable and share their emotions do you know some of the topics you’re going to talk about with the brothers yeah so some of them will definitely be the ones that we’ve discuss this girl talk and then I’ll come up with questions that specifically pertain to male culture and how you going to pick the brothers I already have them picked you already have them picked yeah you got a A different group of them they are they all in one a these are men that I’ve connected with on the entrepreneurial path of purpose so they’re all male leaders doing
00:35:18 their thing Heavy Hitters you know killing it okay M and when is this March 23rd March 23rd and it’s going to be at Ink Therapy no it’s actually going to be at the gentleman’s cave right that’s correct you said it gentle and the gentleman’s cave you say is on carnegi it’s on shagin shagin yeah oh I know where that is it’s out in Shaker right yeah that’s Shaker that’s Shaker right it is yeah I think that’s Shaker it’s like Warren the corner of Warren war that little area over in there yeah I
00:35:45 know exactly where you’re going to be exactly a little bit across from Van for aspiring writers in the audience especially those who looking for self-published do you have any advice to offer them be patient it is such a process I will say I’ve been at this 11 years now fulltime the last three I still am not where I want to be although I’ve made a lot of progress but you got to keep believing in your dream like I look at the grades I look at Tyler Perry I watch so many documentaries and I read so many people’s books when you talk about books it’s probably like the
00:36:22 people’s stories who made it and overcame and did their thing those are the ones that are so inspiring to me and even watching Tyler Perry’s Last documentary what was on my heart was like there have been people who have had less who believe for more so he came from like dire circumstances impoverishment sexual abuse all this stuff but said he was going to be friends with Oprah one day and look what happened he’s friends with Oprah so those are the inspiring stories for me um Kevin Hart is another one I loved his Memoir so much like the way that he grind I’m like yes so
00:36:54 I would say be patient and keep grinding hey I really appreciate you coming on our show I knew you was going to be great I very good conversation you enlightened us on new stuff new people I like meeting new people and we like expressing that and bringing new people on DJ always do this before I leave you got something you want to say before I go man yes do you think you’ll write a movie One Day from one of these books my heart of hearts is that my books will be movies or be on Netflix and
00:37:27 Hulu so we’ll see you think you can write a movie I don’t know if I necessarily want to I could enter into a phase where I want to but right now I really like writing books excellent again I want to thank you for coming on our program you did a excellent job I want you as we do with all of our programs we going to give you close out our program by letting you look right there in that camera and you get a chance to tell the world what you got going is there anything that’s on your mind or anything that you want the people to know if you got something that um new books or anything
00:38:02 that’s coming out and where people can find all your products make sure you give them your website and all of that good information and people we G to make sure all of her stuff is in the description so when you go in the description of this video you will find links to all her website and her information she has a couple of websites and all kinds of stuff out there and we’ll make sure that you’ll have that in the description so that you can find these books that she’s talking about so Miss Nicole D Miller I’m going to turn it over to you for this camera so yes my name
00:38:34 is Nicole D Miller you can learn more about me at Nico miller.com if you’d like to learn more about winlo wins my debut novel you can go to winlo wins. love you can subscribe to my email list and my blog I release a weekly blog and a monthly newsletter you can also follow me on Instagram at HB which stands for how to overcome heartbreak you can follow the Publishing House on Instagram at ND millerp publishing you can follow girlt talkgirl talk you can follow my business page on Facebook facebook.com HB and join the Facebook community and join the girl talk community and
00:39:13 you can also follow me at LinkedIn I told y’all she had a lot of places to find her no excuse not to find her that’s what I’m tell you when I look she was loaded so you can find her she’s a very interesting woman she got a lot of stuff going on out there she has a lot of good very good spirit and very good Soul so make sure you check out her books and again we’ll have all the links to how you can reach Miss Nicole D Miller in the description of her video and I want to thank you guys for watching our program and we will see you next week peace great job