The Place:  Epoch Coffee

The Cup: Iced coffee for Jaime and I enjoyed an iced mint tea. Quite refreshing!

The Background: A dear friend, Olga, sent an email introduction to both Jaime and myself, indicating we were both on a similar quest – of interviewing people (strangers in my case, millionaires in Jaime’s case) and documenting the journey, and suggested we meet one another. Any chance I have to sit down with a fellow curious seeker, I jump at it. We aren’t exactly a rare species, but certainly not common.

Fortunately, Jaime was up for coffee with a stranger and I got to turn the tables on her and ask some questions.

As I mentioned, Jaime interviews millionaires. Before we get into how a girl from a small town in Maine ends up in Austin, interviewing some of the country’s most successful folks, let’s cover some:

Common Grounds:

1. What’s a food you can’t live without? Cheese. My kids both had milk allergies and I went without cheese for four years. But I love it.
2. How did you make your first buck? I used to sell everything when I was little. I’d sell my old books to people in our neighborhood. Every weekend I was either doing a lemonade stand, selling books or selling my drawings.
3. What is the best place to eat in Austin? Uchi.
4. What is the best gift you ever got? When I was 8, my parents bought me a desk. And in the desk, it had business cards. My maiden name was Masters and the cards said, Masters Design, because I was an art kid. Having business cards was so powerful to me. I thought I was so cool. I totally remember feeling so proud. Wow, I haven’t thought about that in years!
5. What is the best vacation you ever took? I went on a cruise when I was 21. We never went anywhere when I was a kid – my dad hated traveling. So I remember going to the different countries during the cruise and thinking, “Wow, this is interesting.” It was really good to broaden my horizons. Plus it was my honeymoon, so that was part of it.
6. What’s the most interesting thing in your purse? I keep a journal of all my business stuff and ideas.  I love my laptop, but there’s just something about writing things down.
7. If you could swap lives with a person for one day, who would you pick? Elon Musk. I am obsessed with astrophysics and all that stuff. Either him or Ray Kurzweil. He’s doing some AI stuff with Google that I think is fascinating.

Millionaire Dream

Jaime comes from a small town in Maine of less than 2,000 people. At the age of eight, she knew one day she would be a millionaire and it became her goal. She didn’t know how she would get to a million, but she was determined. Jaime says, looking back, she thinks what her eight-year-old self thought a million dollars meant, was freedom.

After college, Jaime landed a job that would have her on her way to her goal. At 22, Jaime was earning a six-figure salary in her job as an IT Project Manager for a video on demand company. She was earning the money, but she was trading it for her happiness. Jaime was miserable. On top of being unhappy, she was also $70,000 in debt and had recently purchased a new home and a new car. She felt anything but free.

Searching For Freedom

Jaime and her husband decided to make a plan and get out of debt. They knew they wanted to start a family, and the long hours and time traveling away from home for work didn’t jibe with her vision of motherhood. It took them 16 months and a lot of sacrifice, but they were able to pay off their debt. They got pregnant during the process, and just four months after her son was born, Jaime quit her job.

During the debt reduction time, Jaime took up blogging. She wanted to share her experience and help others find a path to financial freedom like she was seeking. She called the blog Eventual Millionaire.

Good Choices Early On

Jaime has several mentors who have made an impact on her throughout the years, but her first mentor was a business coach she worked for. Jaime said she loved working with him and learned so much from him over the years. But eventually, they got to a place in the business where they each had different ideas of what the future looked like. Jaime saw coaching as something that could happen virtually, and she was ready to explore that idea. Her choice meant parting ways with her mentor and bravely going off on her own.

Another important decision Jaime made early on came from reading Think and Grow Rich from Napoleon Hill. She took Hill’s advice and started a Mastermind Group. It was a conversation with someone in her Mastermind Group that lead to an iteration in the platform of Eventual Millionaire which resulted in the business Jaime has today. Two of the members had podcasts and Jaime wondered if maybe she should also have a podcast. Her friend then suggested, “You should interview millionaires.”

Talk to Me

Great idea! But Jaime said she didn’t know any millionaires. She asked around, and found that it wasn’t easy to find millionaires – and those she did find weren’t interested in making that information public knowledge. She had to find the millionaires who weren’t shy about telling the world. She went to iTunes, and found three people who were already giving interviews and admitting they had the dough. She worked up the courage and asked each of them to be on her show. All three agreed.

And this is how today’s Eventual Millionaire got its start. A brave woman who took a chance and three people willing to give her a shot. Love that!

On A Roll

Today, Jaime has interviewed 140 millionaires. She has transitioned from a podcast to a web show, and has very recently published a book, The Eventual Millionaire. She continues to coach people through various formats to suit different needs and budgets. Jaime tells me that her clients generally fit into one of two buckets. #1 – They are stuck in a job they hate, and are looking for a roadmap to freedom. #2 – They are already an entrepreneur and are ready to take their business to the next level. In either case, Jaime loves watching them achieve their dreams.

Jaime and I have a few things in common, but the one that stands out is our shared passion for getting into someone’s story, learning from their journey, and leaving the interview with a new friend. Jaime says she has built incredible bonds and friendships with many of her guests. I can totally relate to that. I adore each and every person who has had “coffee with a stranger” and of all the wonderful things that have resulted from the project, the new friendships are by far the best part!

Big Changes

I ask Jaime what was the most significant thing that’s happened for her in the last 30 days. She thought for a moment and said, “Wow, so much has happened!” And she’s not kidding. Three months ago, she and her husband and two kiddos moved from Maine to Round Rock. Just a month after making the big move, she launched her book. In the last 30 days, Jaime says it was probably the invitation to Elevate – an invite-only entrepreneur event in Boulder, CO. She says she’s not entirely sure what to expect, but she’s definitely looking forward to it.

What’s something people might be surprised to learn about Jaime? She tells me, “I love UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). I watch it all the time.” Wow, she was totally right. I found that quite surprising. I admit to her that I’ve never watched it, but find it too violent to even consider. She tells me that while it is violent, the athletes know what they are doing and are very skilled and respectful of one another. Which, let’s face it, is more that we can say watching certain football teams.

Influential Reading

A few books that have been impactful in Jaime’s life are The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and the aforementioned Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  She also enjoyed reading The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley but found the book to be heavy on data, and it was the stories she craved. The data is important, but she was most interested in knowing how successful people got where they are.

Connecting the Dots

What if happiness were the national currency – how would Jaime earn her living? She tells me there is nothing she enjoys more than connecting people. “I love to meet people and I love to connect people. I have connected people who are now best friends. If I could, I would just connect people all day long.” I share with Jaime that I too enjoy connecting my “strangers” and in fact, I set two up on a blind date and I’m thrilled to say, they are blissfully together and adore one another. One of my proudest Coffee With A Stranger moments, for sure!

Jaime hears a lot of advice. But the best piece is something she hears repeated again and again, and it was her first millionaire interviewee who she credits as having said it best. He said, “You need to exercise risk and fear like a muscle. The more you do it, the better you get at it.” Jaime adds, “If you think, ‘This makes me feel uncomfortable,’ that’s all the more reason to do it.” She’s so right! Getting out of a comfort zone isn’t easy, but it’s where all the magic happens.

Fight the Fear

She says many of her millionaires talk about this overcoming of fears. Or more accurately, looking fear in the eye and mustering the courage to move ahead despite the fear. Jaime says this is one of the reasons she loves doing her interviews, because she is able to get the whole story – uncomfortable bits and all. She says, “When I say I paid off $70,000 in debt, maybe that sounds kind of easy. It wasn’t easy. It sucked. But the truth is, in business, sometimes things suck. That’s just part of it. Being in your story is a whole lot harder than retelling it later on.”

A daily practice that Jaime says contributes to her overall success is routinely getting out all her thoughts and ideas – writing them into her journal. Once everything is out and on paper, she can look it over and determine her priorities, next actions and make a plan to tackle the most important tasks head-on.

Get Uncomfortable

If given 30 seconds to make a speech to the world, Jaime has this to say: “Do one thing every day that scares you. That’s a quote that Tim Ferriss has on his desk. I’d say if you just take one thing from this interview – if that’s the only thing you do, do that. It will really impact your life, and by doing it every day, or even just once or twice a week, then you can have the life you want. Everything builds on that – continuous forward motion.”

What a brilliant call to action. Do one thing each and every day that scares you. Stretch out of your comfort zone and exercise that fear like a muscle.  I am reminded of a quote from Karen Lamb, who says, ”A year from now, what will you wish you had started today?” After college I considered going to law school. At 22 or 23, four years seemed like an enormous amount of time and I decided against it. One day I was thinking about my choice – which felt like it had been made just months ago. In fact, it had been four years. I have no regrets, but what a huge realization that was for me.

The time is going to pass. Whether you spend it in a job you hate, counting down the minutes until you can leave for the day, only to dread coming back tomorrow; or whether you spend it doing work that was made for you, achieving goals set by you and living the dream envisioned by you. Sometime it doesn’t feel like we have a choice. But the truth is, everything in life is a choice. You may not be able to quit today, but what step can you take – right now – to move you a little bit closer to that goal?

No matter what you want to change in your life – this advice holds true. Advance forward every day, understanding that it will be scary sometimes, accepting that it won’t always be easy, but knowing that it will be worth it. Time goes on. Make those minutes count!

To learn more about Jaime, check out her Eventual Millionaire website.