From A Digital Love Story To Helping Christian Singles and Entrepreneurs
Jamal Miller says pursuing purpose is the key to his success
When Jamal and Natasha Miller first met on Facebook, they never realized how God would use their digital love story to turn into a profitable business helping others prepare for their future marriage.
The couple had a strong desire to teach others how to do relationships God’s way, but before they built a $10,000,000 business educating others, they had to go through hard times as beginning entrepreneurs with a newborn baby.
“A little over four years ago, Natasha and I had to make one of the most humbling decisions of our life,” Jamal shared on Instagram. “That was to go on food stamps while I struggled to find work while building our business.”
Miller worked as a tutor to high school drop-outs for $13 an hour and as an Uber driver from three to nine every day, he told viewers on his free 5-day “Unlock Your Business” challenge live on Facebook that started last night.
“I was driving folks around, and it was the most humbling season of my life,” Jamal said. “But there comes s point where you just say, ‘Enough is enough,’ and I remember the moment when God said, ‘Jamal you’re expecting people to take you seriously, but you’re taking yourself seriously.’ ”
A breakthrough
Miller says his business had a breakthrough after he made one simple change: “Stop chasing the money and start chasing purpose.”
“Once I started chasing purpose, the money followed,” the former youth pastor says and author of 25 Ways to Prepare for Marriage Other Than Dating. “When you’re chasing what you were born to do, there’s no way to not have a profit.”
Their second conference brought in $40,000, allowing Miller to quit his job. Their next two conferences brought in $150,000 and $300,000, he said.
“This is what happens when you chase purpose,” Miller says, who also recently taught the series The Entrepreneur’s Bible Study online. “The money follows.”
The Big Thing
The Big Thing that remained for the Millers was to identify what was going to be the “consistent thing” that brought in sustainable revenue every month.
“The online conferences were great for generating cash quickly and getting us to be able to do things,” Miller said. “But we still hadn’t created that product that would be sustainable that what I would consider being our core offer.”
Miller says he and his wife’s lives changed when he stumbled into the core part of their business, helping men and women of faith discover their purpose and to learn to prepare for their future marriage through offering online courses.
The couple started a subscription-based company, The One University (TOU) where 7,000 students have graduated. It has “changed everything” for them.
“TOU is what put us into the millionaire business status, and so many people say, ‘Man, how are y’all making millions helping singles. I would never have thought about that.”
— Jamal Miller
Chasing purpose, not money
Miller told his Facebook audience on the first day of his 5-day business challenge,
“When you chase purpose and do the thing that only you were born to do, it will succeed because it can’t and won’t be done like anybody else.”
“Tonight is all about unlocking your why so many of you are caught up on so many minuscule small-minded, limited ideas of what your life should be when God is saying do you know how much I have planned for you.”
He said other entrepreneurs asked for help starting subscription-based schools, and TOU now has three signature schools, Impact University, Leader School, and Everyday Seminary, with over 6 million graduates to date.
“Every age offers an opportunity to those who are ready to maximize it,” Miller said. “There are those in front maximizing the opportunity and those hiring others to maximize it for them. You have to decide which side you will be on.”
His teaching on entrepreneurship from a biblical view is a popular topic on his YouTube channel — as well as teaching about relationships from God’s view.
Jamal’s entrepreneurial journey
Miller said he started his entrepreneurial journey after he had an interview for a corporate job paying a $3,500 a month salary, and he was turned down on the spot because he was “unqualified” and lacked enough experience.
“On the drive home I questioned my entire life and was angry until I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, ‘You’re expecting others to take you seriously when you don’t even take yourself seriously,’ ” Miller wrote in a Facebook post.
Miler said it was the wake-up he needed to start taking the gifts God gave him seriously and not waiting on someone else to “give me a chance.” He decided to “bet on himself” as an entrepreneur rather trying to get hired by someone.
Once he became serious about his business, he says it took him less than a year how to “unlock the business within me” and to turn it into a $17,200 a month business with no team, and he teachers entrepreneurs they can do it.
Find your why
“It’s not the who or what that sustains you as an entrepreneur,” he says. “It’s the why that sustains you. When my first webinar didn’t make any money, it was my why that sustained me. You have to have a purpose for your business.”
That’s why he decided to host the free 5-day challenge called, “Unlock Your Business,” on Facebook. He said over 5,000 people registered before the first night which also focused on learning to break “self-limiting” beliefs.
“You have to replace your limiting beliefs with liberating beliefs,” he says.
Entrepreneurs, don’t miss learning from Miller’s in his five-day challenge. Day two is 7 p.m. Central time and will focus on “The Business Idea Matrix.”
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