From Underdog to Entrepreneur: Building Dreams with Pat Miller

What do you do when the only job you can get after graduation is nannying, and it ends up launching a 10-year career? In this episode of From Underdog to Entrepreneur, Pat Miller sits down with Melissa Farley, an entrepreneur, media host, producer, and founder of her own communications business who has turned storytelling, marketing, and community connection into thriving ventures. Melissa built a marketing company and a daily morning show from the ground up, and she's now working on a book and podcast about mortality.
Melissa shares her "accidental career" path: graduating in 2008 during the recession, taking a nanny job for the editor-in-chief of the Arizona Republic, and rising through the ranks over nearly a decade to manage a team of 20 producers and 38 properties. After being told she was "unmanageable" for standing up for her young team, she decided to bet on herself. She left in 2019, took a deliberate pause, and went on to launch her marketing company, Stronger Today, which passed the six-figure mark quickly. When the work started to feel like a content churn machine, an Instagram video led to her own morning show, giving small businesses a free platform to tell their stories.
Chapters
0:01 Intro – Welcome Melissa Farley
1:11 From Nanny to Newsroom Career
3:23 How Her Morning Show Started by Accident
5:02 Why She Left Corporate Media
6:52 Building a Six-Figure Marketing Business
10:14 Being Underestimated as a Woman
12:41 You Don't Have to Burn Out to Succeed
14:30 Her "Year of the Hermit"
17:27 The Day She Said No to a Promotion
20:05 Journaling and Taking Thoughts Captive
24:41 Advice She Ignored: Scaling Up
31:21 Action Is the Antidote to Fear
33:51 Women, Confidence, and Failing Forward
39:22 Choosing Clients and Business Partners
44:14 New Book and Podcast About Death
50:47 Advice: Schedule Quarterly Check-Ins
54:52 Where to Find Melissa Farley 
📖  Underdog to Empire —Available Now
Pat's new book — Underdog to Empire: Breaking Barriers and Building Businesses with Strength, Strategy, and a Sense of Humor — is available now. 
The story of how a girl who ate last at the dinner table built a construction company from a $100 bill. How she lost her husband and still got back up. How every person who tried to hold her back ended up building her up instead.
👉 Get your copy now at: www.patmiller.net
Connect with Melissa Farley. 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-farley-b8097531

What does it take to walk away from a six-figure salary, a Miami lifestyle, and a 20-year career in luxury fashion? In this episode of From Underdog to Entrepreneur, Pat Miller sits down with Melissa Hidrobo, creator of The Stellar Soul, who helps high-achieving professionals design strategic exits from corporate America through a blend of personal clarity and practical strategy. Melissa spent two decades climbing the ladder at luxury brands, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany & Co. before leaving to build something of her own on her own terms.

Melissa shares how growing up around her aunts' luxury boutique in Ecuador sparked a lifelong passion for fashion, which led her to an MBA in international luxury brand management in Paris and a career with Louis Vuitton, her dream brand. She opens up about the night in the summer of 2019 when, sinking into her couch after closing the boutique, she heard a clear thought: "I don't want to do this anymore." Rather than quitting overnight, she built a bridge, earning a master's degree in transpersonal psychology while working full-time, hiring a financial advisor, and forming what she calls her "personal board of directors."

Chapters
0:00 Intro – Welcome Melissa Idrobo
1:52 Growing Up Around a Luxury Boutique
3:12 Landing a Job at Louis Vuitton
5:43 The Night She Decided to Leave Corporate
6:12 Questions to Ask Before Changing Careers
8:29 Building a Quiet Exit Plan
8:57 Studying Transpersonal Psychology
11:18 The Hardest Part of Leaving a Six- Figure Career
12:33 How Her Network Grew After Leaving
15:42 Defining Success on Your Own Terms
19:26 Why a Financial Advisor Was Key
23:11 From Golden Handcuffs to Freedom
24:42 Turning Fear Into Fuel
32:44 Building a Personal Board of Directors
37:04 Letting Go of Perfectionism
43:21 Why Working for Yourself Feels Different
46:13 Advice for Women Who Feel Stuck
51:46 Where to Find Melissa

📖  Underdog to Empire —Available Now 
Pat's new book — Underdog to Empire: Breaking Barriers and Building Businesses with Strength, Strategy, and a Sense of Humor — is available for eBook pre-sale now. Widely available everywhere on September 22, 2026. 
The story of how a girl who ate last at the dinner table built a construction company from a $100 bill. How she lost her husband and still got back up. How every person who tried to hold her back ended up building her up instead. 
👉 Get your copy now at: www.patmiller.net

Connect with Melissa Hidrobo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melissahidrobo/

From splicing underground cable in Manhattan to co-founding a $10 billion global media empire, this episode is packed with one of the wildest entrepreneurial journeys the show has ever featured. In this episode of From Underdog to Entrepreneur, Pat Miller sits down with Larry Namer, CEO of LJN Media and co-founder of E! Entertainment Television, a cable network now valued at over $10 billion and broadcast in 142 countries. Larry's career spans more than 50 years, including launching media companies in Russia and China, and he's the author of the book Off Script: Never Followed the Crowd.
Larry shares how he started as an assistant underground cable splicer making $90 a week in New York, rose through the ranks at Manhattan Cable, and eventually landed in Los Angeles to build the country's first fully underground cable system. From there, an idea sparked over movie trailers, a scrappy business plan, and just $2.5 million led to the creation of E! Entertainment, a network that grew from 11 employees to over 1,100 in three years and helped launch the careers of Howard Stern, Ryan Seacrest, Greg Kinnear, and the Kardashians.
 
Chapters
0:01 Intro – Welcome Larry Namer
1:38 From Coney Island to Cable Splicer
2:52 Rising Through the Cable TV Union Ranks
4:19 Building the First Underground Cable System in LA
5:46 Moving to LA and Chasing Hollywood
6:13 The Idea That Became "The Trailer Channel"
7:35 The Idea That Became E! Entertainment Television
9:03 Raising Money with 31 College Interns
11:39 E!'s Explosive Growth to 1,100 Employees
12:42 Launching Howard Stern, Kardashians, and Talk Soup
14:07 Producing Music Festivals in Russia
15:40 Starting a Concert Company with David Bowie, Bowie & More
17:14 "Influence Is Temporary, Impact Is Timeless"
20:00 Why He Finally Wrote His Book
21:45 Blending Memoir and Cookbook in "Offscript"
22:45 Using AI to Hit the Bestseller List in 4 Days
24:50 Backstage Stories: Kardashians, Stern, and O.J. Simpson
26:23 Expanding East: New Jersey Film & Media Growth
28:37 Embracing AI in Business
39:56 Defining Legacy Beyond Money
41:26 Closing Thoughts and Where to Find Larry 
 
📖  Underdog to Empire —Available Now
Pat's new book — Underdog to Empire: Breaking Barriers and Building Businesses with Strength, Strategy, and a Sense of Humor — is available for eBook pre-sale now. Widely available everywhere on September 22, 2026.
The story of how a girl who ate last at the dinner table built a construction company from a $100 bill. How she lost her husband and still got back up. How every person who tried to hold her back ended up building her up instead.
👉 Get your copy now at: www.patmiller.net
 
Connect with Larry Namer.
Larry Namer is the co-founder of E! Entertainment Television and CEO of LJN Media. He is available for board, advisory, and consulting roles focused on architecting global strategies.
📖 New Book: Two Minute Television
Larry's latest book, Two Minute Television, is now available on Amazon in Kindle, softcover, and hardcover editions.
📖 Also Available: Offscript… Never Follow the Crowd
Get your copy of Offscript… Never Follow the Crowd on Amazon in Kindle, softcover, and hardcover editions.
Contact Larry:
ljn@ljnmedia.com
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/larrynamertv/?hl=en

Why do so many ambitious women hit the same wall, no matter what industry they're in? In this episode of From Underdog to Entrepreneur, Pat Miller sits down with Stefanie O'Connell, an award-winning journalist and author of the new book The Ambition Penalty: How Corporate Culture Tells Women to Step Up and Then Pushes Them Down. Stefanie's reporting spans industries from Silicon Valley to the military to the trades, and what she found was strikingly consistent: women who speak up, ask for more, and assert their ambition are met with backlash  regardless of the field they're in.
Stefanie shares how her career evolved from writing about personal finance in the early 2010s to uncovering a much bigger story: that when the same effort produces different outcomes depending on someone's identity, that's not an individual problem; it's a systemic one. That realization led to years of reporting, data analysis, and interviews that became the foundation for her book.
Chapters
0:01 Intro – Welcome Stephanie O'Connell
3:52 Staying Silent to Avoid Being Labeled
8:38 Why This Book Starts a Bigger Conversation
15:34 The Gender Pay Gap Hasn't Moved Since 2005
16:56 How DEI Became a Cover, Not a Fix
20:34 Why Women Drop Off at the Partner Level
22:59 The Backlash Against Ambitious Women
27:04 Burnout Isn't Personal; It's Environmental
30:53 Pat's Story: Starting a Company With $100
34:26 The Shocking Leisure-Time Gender Gap
39:09 Why "Doing It All" Is Unsustainable
44:13 Turning "Underdog" Status Into a Strength
47:31 Why Equality Benefits Everyone, Not Just Women
48:35 Pat's Fight for Her WBE Certification
51:51 Where to Find Stephanie's Book
📖  Underdog to Empire — Pre-order the eBook Now
Pat's new book — Underdog to Empire: Breaking Barriers and Building Businesses with Strength, Strategy, and a Sense of Humor — is available for eBook pre-sale now. Widely available everywhere on September 22, 2026.
The story of how a girl who ate last at the dinner table built a construction company from a $100 bill. How she lost her husband and still got back up. How every person who tried to hold her back ended up building her up instead.
👉 Pre-order your copy now: www.patmiller.net
📩  Join the Underdog Community — Free Weekly Newsletter
Every Tuesday, Pat sends a free weekly newsletter with:
* Episode recaps and key takeaways
* Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else
* Pat's personal thoughts on entrepreneurship, resilience, and building something real
* The Subscriber Exclusive — a personal question from Pat that doesn't appear anywhere else
👉 Subscribe free: www.patmiller.net/newsletter

What if the thing holding your business back isn't a strategy problem but baggage you've been carrying since childhood? In this episode of From Underdog to Entrepreneur, Pat Miller sits down with Curtis McCullom, creator of Legit Mindset, who helps CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs eliminate the blind spots that have silently held them back, often since childhood. Curtis draws on nearly 40 years of practicing self-hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming, combined with mental and emotional release (MER), to help high-achieving entrepreneurs break through invisible ceilings.
Curtis walks through the four pillars behind Legit Mindset: Learning, Growing, Expanding, and Transforming and explains why so many successful entrepreneurs hit a wall even after achieving real financial success. He shares the science behind why change is so hard (our behavior is roughly 5% conscious and 95% subconscious) and why simply talking to the conscious mind rarely creates lasting transformation. Curtis also opens up about a deeply personal story: uncovering a belief he'd unknowingly carried since he was two years old that "success is hard and difficult" and how identifying and releasing it changed the way he shows up in his own business.
Chapters
0:00 Intro – Welcome Curtis McCullom
2:19 What Is "Legit Mindset"?
4:37 The Universal Capacity Principle
7:39 Why Your Success Doesn't Limit Mine
8:47 Uncovering Your True Identity
10:34 The 11 Million Bits vs. 50 Bits Theory
11:45 The 5% Conscious vs. 95% Subconscious Mind
13:04 How Bespoke Mental Audio Supplements Work
15:11 Discovering the "Legit Mindset" Framework
17:14 Why Curtis Sees Clients as Already Whole
17:39 Understanding Hypnosis and Trance States
19:59 How Media Normalizes Negative Programming
22:14 The Power of Daily Mental Conditioning
23:37 Processing Grief Through Loss
25:25 Why Outside Perspective Matters for Healing
28:06 Resetting Yourself When Out of Alignment
29:43 Why Boundaries Matter in Business and Life
30:47 Pat's Story: Losing Her Husband and Staying Professional
39:19 Why Successful Clients Still Feel Stuck
40:38 What It Feels Like to Release the "Baggage"
42:44 Turning Adversity Into Power
44:01 Doing the Hard Stuff First
45:20 Holding Grief and Gratitude at the Same Time
46:38 Curtis's Own Breakthrough: "Success Is Hard and Difficult"
51:20 Why It's Okay Not to Be Okay
53:09 Pat's Story: Surviving Birth Against the Odds
55:44 Where to Find Curtis McCullom
 
📖  Underdog to Empire —Available Now
Pat's new book — Underdog to Empire: Breaking Barriers and Building Businesses with Strength, Strategy, and a Sense of Humor — is available for eBook pre-sale now. Widely available everywhere on September 22, 2026.
The story of how a girl who ate last at the dinner table built a construction company from a $100 bill. How she lost her husband and still got back up. How every person who tried to hold her back ended up building her up instead.
👉 Get your copy now at: www.patmiller.net
📩  Join the Underdog Community — Free Weekly Newsletter
 
Every Tuesday, Pat sends a free weekly newsletter with:
* Episode recaps and key takeaways
* Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else
* Pat's personal thoughts on entrepreneurship, resilience, and building something real
* The Subscriber Exclusive — a personal question from Pat that doesn't appear anywhere else
 
👉 Subscribe free: www.patmiller.net/newsletter