[Top Israel Leader Series] Finding the Guts to Thrive During Hard Times with Dr. Erica Miller

Dr. Erica Miller is an inspirational speaker, entrepreneur, and international best-selling author who survived the Holocaust and was in the Israeli Air Force. She opened a chain of mental health clinics with over 40 clinicians. She also ran a nonprofit and is a highly sought-after guest speaker all over the world.

Dr. Miller oversees her family’s real estate in Austin, Texas. She’s the author of three books: Dr. Erica Miller’s Story: From Trauma to Triumph, Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Do It, and the international bestseller, Chronologically Gifted: Aging with Gusto: A Practical Guide for Healthy Living to Age 123.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Dr. Erica Miller recounts her memories of being herded into cattle cars and imprisoned in a Nazi holding camp 
• Dr. Miller talks about facing a Nazi guard as a 7-year-old and the brutality she witnessed in the camp 
• Why Dr. Miller believes she’ll live for 123 years and why she puts emphasis on letting your voice be heard 
• Dr. Miller discusses how her resilience and detachment helped her overcome her traumatic experience 
• How Dr. Miller’s aptitude for figuring things out and fearlessness helped her survive
• Dr. Miller shares why she enlisted in the Israeli Air Force
• Dr. Miller talks about how she met her late husband and her fondest experience as a member of the Israeli Air Force
• Dr. Miller’s decision to move to LA
• What Dr. Miller learned from running 40 mental health clinics and overseeing 40 clinicians 
• Dr. Miller reveals why her graduation was her proudest moment and why her mantra is “I’m lucky to be alive

In this episode…

People and businesses continue to suffer the effects of COVID-19 with no definite end in sight and yet, Dr. Erica Miller believes that it is possible to not just survive but thrive despite the challenging times. She should know what it means to be resilient and have grit in the face of challenges because she’s a Holocaust survivor. At 7 years old, she was herded in a cattle car and brought to a Nazi concentration camp where she spent four years battling hunger, oppression, and thoughts of never making it out alive. But she was resilient and when freedom came, it was only a matter of time before young Erica would conquer the world and decide to join the Israeli Air Force.

Now an octogenarian, Dr. Miller says she’s got the guts, grit, and gusto to keep smashing her goals all the way till she’s 123 years old. She has started and managed 40 mental health clinics and she has seen the world in all its beauty and tragedy. Her mantra? “I’m lucky to be alive”.

In this episode of INspired INsider, Dr. Erica Miller talks about the hurdles that she has had to overcome in her life and how her resilience, fearlessness, and determination paved the way for her to not just survive but thrive. It’s an insightful episode about fighting to survive, grabbing opportunities, and smashing goals one by one so stay tuned.

Resources Mentioned on this episode

• Dr. Erica Miller on LinkedIn 
• Dr. Erica Miller’s website 
• The Dr. Erica Miller’s Story: From Trauma to Triumph 
• Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Do It by Dr. Erica Miller
• Chronologically Gifted: Aging with Gusto: A Practical Guide for Healthy Living to Age 123 by Dr. Erica Miller 
• Gerri Knilans on LinkedIn

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Episode Transcript

Jeremy Weisz 0:19

Dr. Jeremy Weisz . Dr. Jeremy Weisz here founder of inspiredinsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Some you’ve heard of some you’ve never heard of, like, founder of p90x Tony Horton, I add on and I, you know, I’ll introduce Dr. Miller in a second but doctor Well, you know, I love to hear the challenging low point stories. And Tony Horton talked about Yeah, he sold hundreds of millions of dollars of p90x but was interesting to me was when he drove cross country to try and make it. He made money as a street mine for food and rent money. So he would put his head on the street. You do street mining and the money collected would go towards food and rent money and there’s other things People have never heard of which are just inspiring stories, which is I had Chris as a gay guy who’s a founder of two nonprofits to for profits. He grew up in Uganda, you may be able to relate to some of these stories. Dr. Mark, he grew up in Uganda at seven years old he became an orphan because both of his parents died of AIDS. So being the oldest of five children, he became head of the household in with the caretaker and early age, his brother died while walking him to the hospital. He was first pair of shoes at age 17. The first time he was on a flight was 22, age 22. From the US from Uganda. He speaks nine languages ended up coming to us for college, got us PhD, while running his companies, just a Korean the stories get even, you know, crazier in a good way, like the stuff he’s had to overcome. And so before I introduce today’s guest, Dr. Miller, this episode is brought to you by Ries 25, which I co founded with my business partner john Corcoran, and what we do is we help businesses connect to their dream 100 referral partners, clients, Dream guests and we help you run your podcast. So it generates ROI. But for me, podcasting is much more personal. I was sharing this with Dr. Miller before we started is my grandfather was a Holocaust survivor and him and his brother were in concentration camps in Nazi Germany. And they were the only people their family to actually survive. And his words and legacy live on because of the interview the Holocaust foundation did with him. So you can go to inspired insider.com and go to the about page that interview is there in its entirety, which is it’s some graphic details. So you know, Beware if you are listening to it, and but I do personally credit podcasting is the single best thing I’ve done for my business in my life. So if you have a question about podcasting, you want to start one go to rise25.com Go to support at Rice 25 media.com to email us And, you know, I am really excited. The reason I think I started the podcast over 10 years ago is to have this conversation right now with Dr. Eric Miller. And you’ll, you’ll hear why in a second. I do want to give a shout out to Jared islands, who runs trade press services.com, who introduced me to today’s amazing guest. And you know, I’m super excited. So let me give you a brief intro into Dr. Erica Miller, who has been, I guess she sums it up, by the way, she guess is a guest speaker all over the world. So if you do need an inspirational, motivational who’s done it in many different realms of life and business, she is the one but her path can be described, I think as grit and gusto gusto all wrapped into one. Just to give you a brief overview, we’ll dig into some of the stories. She survived the Holocaust. She was in this really weird Air Force, she opened a chain of mental health clinic Next with over 40 clinicians, she ran a nonprofit guest speaker all over the world. She also in addition oversees family’s real estate in Austin, Texas. She’s written three books, Dr. Erica Miller story from trauma to triumph. Don’t tell me I can’t do it living audaciously in here now in the international bestseller chronologically gifted aging with gusto. You can go to DrEricaMiller.com to find out more. Thank you for honoring and blessing us with your presence. First question, Dr. Miller Yeah, take me back for a second. Take me back to your I don’t know what you remember from the time but age seven. And you know I was reading on your site that um, you know, you were herded into cattle cars right

Dr. Erica Miller 5:02

May ham,

family be there heard it could not understand as a little kid, a curious little kid, I was seven years old. People are pushing and screaming young called motional people, they’re losing each other. And I kept on asking what’s happening? What’s happening. Like now with our epidemic, we need to explain to kids giving some words. Nobody told me nothing. My mother kept on saying, Don’t say anything. Don’t talk. I did not have a voice. So a mayhem and so I have memories. Blink here in there. Because four years is a long time and trauma does that you Luckily, you forget a lot of the things so I have visions of what I witness and experience for four years in the barbed wire camp was not Help him post it was a post of me that’s like now I self imposed to be McCarran teen. I was there. So four years is an eternity when you think about from seven to 11. And I have very sketchy, kind of like almost like visions of things. No faces for years. There were other kids. So, yeah. To me, it’s absolutely amazing that I survived not just I survived that I’m here talking to you, which called in Yiddish, but shared, that means destiny, like you and me. I mean, I mean, you know, but we just happened to kind of sample each other and I don’t understand what this is all about. So, yeah, I’m still here. And a girl is not supposed to tell her age, but I’m 86 and what can I not do it but I could do it for my daughter, who is Oh my gosh. 59 Can you imagine? She cannot keep up with me. Okay, so I don’t mean to brag I just share and I’m making you smile. So what else do you want to

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