From Law to Life Balance – Arlene Cohen Miller on Reinvention, Resilience, and Soulful Living

In this heart-centered and inspiring episode of Life-Changing Challengers, host Brad Minus sits down with Arlene Cohen Miller, former AV-rated attorney turned work-life balance and harmony coach, to explore a life journey full of reinvention, resilience, and soulful transformation. Arlene opens up about her early days in law, the intense pressures of balancing entrepreneurship with motherhood, and the profound pivot she made to create a life centered on wellness, spirituality, and supporting others through personal growth.

From running a successful law practice in Cleveland and Colorado to becoming an avid runner, triathlete, yoga devotee, and certified holistic coach, Arlene shares how physical movement and mindfulness helped her shift out of burnout and into deeper purpose. Now, through her business Jewel Consultancy, she supports others through coaching, mentoring, and even soul readings—helping clients cultivate harmony in all areas of life.

Episode Highlights

• [15:00] – Practicing law in Cleveland, moving into family and collections law, and opening her own practice at age 29.
• [30:00] – How motherhood, burnout, and law firm culture led her to seek something more fulfilling.
• [42:00] – From marathon running to triathlon relays and hot yoga: how Arlene used movement to manage stress.
• [55:00] – Why she turned to coaching and the moment she realized her law degree didn’t teach her how to listen.
• [1:10:00] – The creation of Jewel Consultancy, and how she helps clients with inner transformation, energy balancing, and soulful success.
• [1:20:00] – What it means to find balance from the inside out and how gratitude can transform your mindset.
• [1:35:00] – A glimpse into her soul readings—and how they help people connect to intuition and clarity.

Key Takeaways

1. Reinvention is Always Possible – Your career doesn't have to define you forever. It's never too late to pivot toward purpose.
2. Movement is Medicine – Running, yoga, and physical activity helped Arlene stay grounded through stress and major life transitions.
3. Success Without Balance is Burnout – True harmony comes from aligning values, priorities, and lifestyle—not just checking boxes.
4. Gratitude is the Gateway – Focusing on what you can appreciate rewires your brain and opens the door to peace and resilience.
5. Spirituality is Personal – Whether through meditation, mindful walking, or soul readings, connecting inwardly leads to powerful outward change.

Links & Resources

• 🌐 Jewel Consultancy: JewelConsultancy.com
• 📱 Follow Arlene Online:
  • LinkedIn: Arlene Cohen Miller
  • Instagram: @arlenecohenmiller
  • YouTube:

Contact Brad @ Life Changing Challengers
Instagram: @bradaminus
Facebook: @bradaminus
X(Twitter): @bradaminus
YouTube: @lifechangingchallengers
LifeChangingChallengers.com

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Transcript

Brad Minus: Welcome to another episode of Life-Changing Challengers. I'm really excited, guys. You're not gonna believe the stories that we are going to hear today. This is Arlene Cohen Miller. She is what she calls a work-life balance and harmony coach. But when we get into this, you are not gonna believe it. But this woman is absolutely amazing.

She started her career as a lawyer. And she has a AV rating. And I'm gonna tell you right now, go Google AV rating for lawyers and you're gonna see these are the highest of ability. Highest of ethics. Yes. Ethics. I know that you probably never hear me say that lawyer and ethics in the same sentence, but I just did.

I mean, and especially with the political atmosphere going on right now. No, this woman has the highest of ethics and the highest of abilities, and we're gonna hear all about it. Arlene, how are you doing today? 

Arlene Miller: I'm doing great. Thank you so much.

Brad Minus: Oh, you are so welcome. So, Arlene, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood? You know, maybe what was the compliment of your family? Where did you grow up and what was it like to be Arlene as a kid? 

Arlene Miller: That's a lot. So I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. After I graduated from law school, I moved up to Cleveland, Ohio with my then husband.

Everyone sort of in the legal profession sort of teased me, unmercifully, so how I was speaking. So in order to practice law in Ohio, I had to let it go. I am the oldest of three. I have a brother that's two years younger than me, and he's a partner in UBS in Louisville and does great investment stuff.

I have a, my baby brother is 12 years younger than me. He lives in Singapore with his wife and yes, he does all kinds of broadcast shows and, just a really interesting guy. So that's my family. My mother was a stay at home mom. Her parents were quite poor and she sort of felt like she had made it to stay at home.

And most of the mothers in my community when I was growing up were stay at home moms. It's a very different world and I know I had a pretty uneventful childhood. My father was an entrepreneur. His parents came over from Russia when they were the first generation. Maybe the second generation.

But anyway, they were in the movie theater business and that's what he went into after, college. And then he decided to go off on his own. And he had his own business called Standard Vendors where he sold candy and cotton, candy and popcorn and all the vending machines to movie theaters in schools, which I thought was absolutely wonderful.

And so I think I got my, entrepreneurial spirit from him. 

Brad Minus: Wow. Okay. And your dad's doing vending machines. Oh my God, you must have been in heaven. 

Arlene Miller: The best part was he would bring on these huge bags of popcorn. There's a lady that came in and popped fresh popcorn once a week and he would bring on these huge bags of popcorn or when I was in high school, I worked with him occasionally and I would always try to get there on the day that she popped popcorn because the whole place smelled great.

And of course I would get some free popcorn and yeah, I thought it was fantastic. 

Brad Minus: Oh my God. So I, let me just tell you this anecdote real quick. When I lived in Arizona, I was looking to get into a business, and a friend of mine brought up this idea, it was a popcorn vending machine where when you put your dollars into it, it would freshly pop it.

And then drop it into a bag. So literally you put the thing in the corn would drop into this thing. It would heat it up with oil, then it would pop the popcorn, put it into a bag. The ingenious part was that at the top there was a fan that blew out to not only cool the machine, but blow the aroma everywhere to entice more buyers.

That to me was the ingenious part. Unfortunately, try to get a VC to get that off and I had just graduated from college. It didn't actually work out, but I thought it was a great idea. You mentioning popcorn brings back memories, but anyway, okay, so yeah, so you lost your, you lost your accent, which is.

Arlene Miller: Southern accent if I choose, but I don't really choose because people just, you know, there aren't that many. No one really speaks southern around here, so.

Brad Minus: It, it, you know, it's super interesting because I am in the south. I mean, literally I'm in the south of the south and this is not really the south, you don't find a lot of people that actually have a southern accent out here unless they actually transplanted from somewhere else. So, all right.

So you grew up in Louisville. You went to high school in Louisville? 

Arlene Miller: Yeah, I graduated from Ballard High School and went to high school, went element everything all the way through. 

Brad Minus: Oh, nice. Were you in any extracurriculars, sports or anything like that? 

Arlene Miller: I didn't really start working out until I got to be a freshman in, college.

I was just really skinny and, I was, I guess more interested in boys than I wasn't working out, so I really didn't do that. I did play the guitar when I was younger. I sort of gave that up, but, yeah, I did that and. I just hung out with my girlfriends. I was a pretty normal kid.

Brad Minus: Yeah, you were normal. There's nothing wrong with that because you rose to excellence. So I got no qualms about that, but that's great. You had a good time. And you were skinny. Even with probably all the treats in your garage from your dad's, business.

So obviously you were able to control yourself. That was good. Except for the mounds of popcorn that you ate, but you know, it's actually a low calorie snack, so that's cool. Alright, so you went to college and did you go to college in Ohio? Did you go to college in Kentucky then you went to Ohio for, 

Arlene Miller: I went to Ohio Wesleyan, in Delaware, Ohio. And then I transferred to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia for the last three years of my university's. To get my political science degree. I was dating someone who was at Emory and I wanted to go be with him. So my parents let me transfer and I really love Atlanta.

I loved, both of the universities, but Atlanta has a special place in my heart. 

Brad Minus: I am sure it does. Interesting enough, so if you didn't read, you probably did because you seem to be very, very, detail oriented, but I'm actually an endurance coach.

And I'm also an athlete, and I did do the Ironman, Ohio 70.3, which is like a half. It used to be called a half Ironman, like 70.3, which is done at Ohio Wesleyan. 

Arlene Miller: Wow. I didn't know anything big happened in Ohio Wesleyan. 

Brad Minus: Yes. And the last quarter mile is done on the track at Ohio Wesleyan.

Wow. 

Arlene Miller: Wow. 

Brad Minus: Isn't that interesting? Oh my God, that's amazing. And my grandparents, spent 30 years in a suburb of Cleveland, Beachwood, Ohio. Outside of Sugar Heights. Yeah, I know 

Arlene Miller: Beachwood. Yeah, we lived, in the east side for Cleveland Heights for a while.

Then we moved to Rocky River and later I lived in, Lakewood. It just felt the west side of, Cleveland felt more like the south and the east side felt more like New York and New Jersey we were kinda like fish outta water.

So anyway, it's a really cool place to live. 

Brad Minus: I would spend a week with my grandparents, and it was all about, playing and going to the pool and finding things to do, going to Cedar Point in Sandusky. 

Arlene Miller: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: So yeah, that was some great times, some great memories.

So then you ended up going to law school. In Ohio as well. Kansas State? No, 

Arlene Miller: I went to University of Kentucky. I went back home to Kentucky. Which is in Lexington. It's a beautiful place in the country. You have a lot of horse farms there and, I mean, you had the city there as well, but it's a beautiful place to go to school.

That's where I went. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. Did you, I don't know much about law school. I actually was accepted at one point, but. The finance side of it just didn't work out for me. But is there, like, you know, I, hear all the things from television, like law review and legal studies, judge ships and all that stuff.

Did you get to enjoy any part of that? 

Arlene Miller: No. I was a pretty average student in law school. I wasn't like law review or anything at the top. I was just sort of like in the middle of the pack and. I, I mean, in hindsight, I went straight from, you know, university to law school and I, the one kind of opportunity that I felt like I missed in my life is I really felt, a strong calling to like take a year off.

And like get a year old pass and go through Europe and be a waitress and just not do anything that was really mental. But it would've broken my father's heart, you know, for me to go that far away. And there wasn't cell phones back then, so I just sort of sucked it up and went to law school. But I was, I was kind of burnt out.

It would, it would've been a better thing for me to take a year off, but, you know, I was my then to be husband was up there and so I had him there too. And. I was sort of the middle of the pack at University of Kentucky College of Law. 

Brad Minus: Hey, we all this, you're with me. I was never the top of anything.

I was middle of the pack the whole time and we're both successful. So it doesn't really matter once you get out. And obviously you have done wonders, so I don't, I just don't wanna discourage anybody from. Top of the line, we can just be the best we possibly can. For school-wise, I always thought no matter where you are, once you get out, it don't matter.

It really doesn't matter. I've worked with people that have had degrees from Harvard and Yale and stuff like that, and I surpassed them. So once you get outta school, it doesn't really matter. So you end up with this lottery. What was the first thing you did? Because I know that you only spent three years outside of law school before you decided to hang your own shingle. So what happened in those three years? 

Arlene Miller: Well, I took the, my ex went up to Cleveland.

He was, we graduated from medical school the same year I graduated from law school. He was doing a residency, the Cleveland Clinic. He went ahead of me. I stayed back and took the Kentucky bar, and then I came up to Ohio. And I was like, I dunno, any of the law up here. So I worked as a law clerk for a little bit and then I took the, a high bar and passed it.

And after working for a solo attorney and in a medium sized law firm during that time. I just wanted to go out on my own. I guess. I had my father's blood in me and, I really couldn't find a law firm that I was working for. There is a bias in the law.

You know, if you are top of your law school class, it's a lot easier to get hired by a big firm or a medium sized firm. It does hold a lot of weight and people that graduated from certain schools, that were very prestigious, have other people from those same schools ruled me out and I just like, I'm gonna open my own law firm.

And so I did. I was 29 and I didn't know what I was doing, I found a storefront office in Lakewood, Ohio, which is a first Western suburb of Leveland there were two attorneys there that had their own office. One attorney owned the building. There was an employment agency, and a really nice guy who, became a good friend of mine who sold collection packages to businesses to help them collect their debts.

And so that's where I started off my practice of law. I literally had a desk, a chair, a couch, a typewriter, and then after I was in practice for a month and put up my shingle, I found out I was pregnant. And yes, those things got really interesting. From there, 

Brad Minus: I only could imagine. So finally.

You settle in entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial spirits going crazy. What did you specialize 

Arlene Miller: When I was working for other attorneys, I did two things. One was family law and basically I was doing all the work behind the scenes.

I wasn't actually going into court, except for some really small things, I learned family law, divorce, dissolution of marriage. Child custody and stuff like that. The other thing that I learned working for other attorneys was collection law. The attorney that I mainly worked for, did both of those things and, you know, he helped, businesses collector debt.

So that's the two things that I ended up doing as well. 

Brad Minus: Did you enjoy it? 

Arlene Miller: Family law was. Hard, you know, I was, I started, doing it at 25. I was 29. I came from the suburbs. I hadn't ever experienced, anything like that. So. Yeah, I just was, it was kind of flabbergasted. It was hard.

Mm-hmm. I did the work. I was appointed by the court for a little bit of time to represent children in cases where, one or both of the parents had, alcohol or drug problems and, you know, what were we gonna do? And, yeah, a lot of the parents, I mean, I guess maybe I just attracted to myself, but a lot of the parents, would put the kids in between themselves and not really look at the best interest of the kids 

it was a real culture shock for me. And so after 12 years of that I was like, I'm done. And I just focused on commercial law, which is helping businesses collect their debts, which is really fun. You know, people deserve to be paid. And it was, pretty straightforward work and I enjoyed it. We traveled a lot.

There was a lot of business meetings around the country, so we get to go to all different kind of neat places with conventions. I did a lot of leadership positions in the organizations we were involved with, and I really, really enjoyed all of that. 

Brad Minus: Did you spend any time in court with collections, law or commercial law?

Arlene Miller: You know, quite frankly, my area of expertise that I ended up doing that I loved, 'cause at least I sold my practice in Ohio. My son was nine and we moved out to Colorado and bought into a small boutique firm that just did collection law. And I ended up being the marketing person and the person on the phone mostly that was settling cases because I loved doing that.

I really didn't wanna go to court and do all that stuff. And so we had associates, we had two associates and they did that work. Very grateful for that. And opportunity you.

Practicing law a whole lot, but some. 

Brad Minus: Excellent. So just for, just for some people that are listening because, not everything is what you see on television, right? The only thing we see on television are things that are exciting, right? Suits, you know, they do all the stuff in the boardroom and then they go to the court and they did have this big thing, but most lawyers don't actually go to court all that often.

Just like yourself. Isn't that correct? 

Arlene Miller: Well, it really depends what kind of work you're doing. Most of the time, you're gonna make more money and serve your clients better if you know how to negotiate settlements and resolve it for them. If you're a personal injury attorney, you might be going to court more.

It really depends, on what kind of work, what kind of clients you attract. And for divorce work. It was really, an interesting thing because a lot of the attorneys when I was practicing were very antagonistic towards each others' and they would not want to resolve cases so that they could have higher fees.

Not all of them. There were just a few bag eggs in the bunch That really made it sort of difficult for the rest of us who just wanted to serve our clients, get something worked out within their means, and let them go forth and live their lives. 

Brad Minus: That is, that's super interesting.

So, you know, I mentioned at the top of the show that you were AV rated. How does that work? 

Arlene Miller: Well, the way it works is, at least from my experience of it, is that, I became pretty well known in the collections industry. And loved doing the work. And we went to business meetings all over the country, like every single one of them.

We were active members of a couple of collection, industries that brought all the people together, you know, all the players, the collection agencies, the attorneys, the people that brought them together and, became pretty well known in that we also did some, I went to some business meetings overseas and so.

Basically you just ask people in your industry, if you'll support me to move to AB rating status. And if you get people that appreciate what you do, think you're worth it and will, support you in that endeavor, then you can get AB rated. And so that's what I did. 

Brad Minus: The like I said, for everybody listening, I don't usually do that either, but you know, Google it 'cause you should see there's actually different ratings and, and Arlene was, is rated the highest, meaning the highest ability, and the highest of ethics. So, you know, it's, it's obviously she's gotta be recognized for that and she was.

So, I would say if it was me and I was looking for a lawyer. I would find somebody that was AB rated. So, you know, 'cause you know, most likely you're not gonna get screwed. 'cause you just, Arlene just told you about people that would, that would keep cases going so they could keep getting fees. So, and that's something we don't want.

On average, what did you end up spending? As far as hours in a week? When you were at the top inside of Colorado, how many hours a week were you spending in the office and working on cases?

Arlene Miller: Well, I didn't do it like a normal person because my son was right. Well, my partner and I would go to these things together when we would market and, so that was working. You know, you would go to cocktail parties and business meetings and you'd go to shows and be on boats and you'd choose and talk to people So that was part of your job?

Yeah. But it was fun. It was a lot of fun. We had friends from all over the country and it was like a family. You come to these meetings and catch up with what everyone was doing. I was really blessed to be in that kind of community and to find those kind of groups.

'cause they're not doing very well anymore. A lot of it is falling apart, so, yeah. We did that and I could take my son with me to some of the stuff and he got to see some pretty cool things, stay in hotel rooms and eat hotel food. Then I'd slip out from some meetings and show him around the city.

So I didn't do things conventionally, you know, I was, I had a son, so, you know, I might pick him up and take him to school and spend a little time with them and then bring some work home. I never really kept track of that hours, but I'm sure I put in, you know, 40 to 50 hour week. But I did it my way.

Brad Minus: Right. So even though you're having a great time, it still can get kind of stressful. Correct. 

Arlene Miller: Yes. Practice of law, I thought I found stressful. 

Brad Minus: What did you do to combat that? 

Arlene Miller: Well, I'm an athlete like you, so for years, I injured myself when I was in my forties, but I was doing, some half marathons and like in some of them in the mountains.

So you, it was really hard. And a bunch of five Ks and 10 Ks. And I, also was a runner in triathlons when you had like a team. So I did that when I was in my Did you do that too? 

Brad Minus: Well, no, 

Arlene Miller: I'm just excited because 

Brad Minus: I, because, because, I mean, because obviously most of the time people start when they're younger and you said that you weren't an athlete younger most of the time it's like you're an athlete.

Well, I took, I started when 

Arlene Miller: I was 19, you know? One of my best friends in my first year of college at Ohio, Wesley, and her brother was a senior and he got me running and they were, I don't know how he did it, but I think he was like, he was flirt, wasn't. Sister's friends, but I thought, well, I can do that.

So I started running when I was my freshman year of college. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. See, that's me. I mean, I started running, moved into triathlon. And you went into triathlon, but you were doing relays? Is that what you're basically what you're saying? 

Arlene Miller: It was a full triathlon, but I just did the running 

Brad Minus: Okay, okay. Sorry. And I had another 

Arlene Miller: friend do the swimming, 

Brad Minus: right. Yeah. And we, today it's, I mean, that's a relay, you know, oh, okay. Somebody does swimming, pass it off to the biker. The biker does the biking, and then they pass it off. Right. So, but that's, no, that's fantastic.

I'm about to do my first relay on triathlon. I usually do it all. But actually in, next month, about six weeks, I'm doing my, I'm, I'm gonna do a triathlon as, as a, I've never done it before. So, and I'm actually gonna do, the bike is strongest. But no, I'm excited about that. But that's just awesome that you were, that, that you ran and you did it in Colorado.

That's tough. 

Arlene Miller: It is. 'cause I started running in Cleveland and I was crazy flat. I was running in the winters when it was snowing and cold and I would still go out, but I was young and then I came out to Colorado and I was like. I could run like a whole minute and a half faster in Cleveland at sea level than when I came here.

It was very, very humbling. But you know, a lot of people come out to Colorado to train, you know, because of the mountains and the terrain and everything. So, even though you couldn't go as fast, nobody else could go as fast either. So it was, it was fun. Yeah, I really enjoyed all of that. 

Brad Minus: No, I did a couple of my certifications in Boulder.

So, oh, wow. Yeah. So when I was in Boulder, I got it. I've actually, I passed Frank Shorter, on the trail over by, God, I forgot the name of it. It's been so long. But there's a major trail that runs through there, and I was running on it before class and I passed Frank Shorter it was a very, very cool, place. But yeah, absolutely. So go out and train in Boulder and then come back down to sea level.

And you're faster, you're absolutely, 

Arlene Miller: you're very much faster. 

Brad Minus: Yes, I would love to be able to have the ability to spend three, four months in Boulder, train out there, and then come and race at sea level. I think it would be great. It'd be amazing.

But you took on, yoga at some point, right? 

Arlene Miller: Well, I didn't listen to my body and I ended up with, injury from my piriformis muscle to the inside of my knee, both sides. And I literally had to sit on those little inner tubes you do after you have a baby, you know, for months couldn't sit.

It took me quite a while to recover and I just started doing, that Bikram hot yoga, that 90 minute, hot yoga. And I did that for like 15 years now. I do power vinyasa and sculpt and bar and hot yoga. There's something else I'm doing now too. But anyway, my yoga school has all of that and that's what my body needs now.

So it doesn't really want the pounding anymore. And you can stay in really good shape with all of that stuff too. So that's what I enjoy now. 

Brad Minus: I loved Bikram, and obviously they don't even call it anymore. They call it something else. No, don't. Yeah, they got, he got in, he got in trouble for sexual harassment or something.

But when it was Bikram, that was my introduction to yoga too. And basically it was that it really helped me recover. So I would work out six days a week and then on Sunday at noon, I still remember when I first started this, I would go and do hot yoga. And it was frustrating at first, but when I got done.

It was ridiculous how good you felt like, the first, I don't know, first four or five weeks, it was hell, it was hot. It was, you didn't get used to it right away and you're slipping and sliding because you, you know, and then finally, but after my body started to get used to, and I got started to get my flexibility and the whole bit.

It was amazing. And then when you were done, your body just let go of all those toxins. And when you walked out of that hot room into the cooler air, you were just like, wow, what a difference. Amazing. 

Arlene Miller: I have a pretty amazing flexibility because of all that. And I just love it. But now I've just sort of expanded out to other areas because I think it's important to get your arms and your core really strong.

And I don't think that kind of yoga helps that much with it. I really like the sculpt 'cause you get to work with weights and stuff like that, but I love it all. And I love the community. It's a really cool, the yoga community's really pretty cool. You just need some really lovely people that are passionate about what you're passionate about.

Brad Minus: Yeah. And very accepting, you know, very accepting. There's no real, you know, there's no real judgment that goes on anywhere. Because I was obviously, as a guy, we have an intense ego, no matter who the guy is. So you go into these classes, and the first time you go, you're like, you know, looking around and they going, oh my God, she's doing that so much better than I am.

Sitting in a guy there and you're like, oh no, I can get deeper. I can get deeper. And then you end up hurting yourself, you know? But all of a sudden you find that as you talk to people, they're like, yeah, it's your practice. That's what you learn is it's your practice, not anybody else's. And there's nothing, you are not doing yourself any favors by trying to go deeper or longer or whatever than anybody else.

'cause it's your practice. It's very personal. Yeah. And that, yeah. So I agree. I agree there. And what did you end up expanding out to, besides the sculpting and everything else? You started, you started, went, did you go into the, the mental aspect for a while? Right. 

Arlene Miller: Into what aspect? 

Brad Minus: The mental aspect mindset. 

Arlene Miller: Talking, well, the mindset, I guess I meant more the spiritual bent with, with, stuff. Okay. But, I mean, those are the kinds of yoga that I practice now. But yeah, I guess with the work-life balance and harmony coaching, which is what I do now, where I help people is like from the inside out, you know, it's like, because.

There's like life hacks and work hacks and mom hacks and all sorts of ways that you can organize yourself and, and have more time and all that kind of stuff. But if, if you're still anxious and stressed and overwhelmed and maybe a little bit burnt out on the inside, you need to deal with those things, you know, or you're not gonna really change on the outside.

So I guess that's what I help people do because, you know, as an attorney it. It never ends. There's always something to do. And I guess that's, that's a stressful part about it. You're, you're dealing with other people's lives and other people's money and, they're not always at their best when, you know, they have, you know, money problems or family problems and they're looking to you to make it all better like it once was.

And that's not always possible. And so, yeah, I found, you know, the practice of law, stressful. And I also began to get into all of this because when I got divorced, my son was three and he developed like a DHD and I wanted to help him and I didn't know how, and I didn't wanna just put him on drugs.

And so I learned a bunch of healing modalities. I studied all that kind of stuff too. But it just really helped me. I was a pretty much a thinking left brain person and the yoga and working with different healing modalities and getting more in touch with my spiritual side sort of developed the right brain, 

so it really helped to balance me out. I mean, working out did too, because like, gosh, when you go running after the first mile or so, you're just in a different place. And the same, and the same thing with yoga. It feels like, 'cause all the breath work that's involved in yoga, you can just really like let go and let the rest of the world go when you're, when you're doing your practice.

And, so this was just another, another aspect of that. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. So after you develop the fitness right, it takes a minute for you. You've gotta be. In the moment in your running while you're gaining the fitness part. But for me and at least most of the clients, I find once they're able to the point where they can run six miles straight and it doesn't matter the pace, even if it's easy pace, but you get to that point where you've got the endurance to go six miles at that point, you can shut your brain off, from the running part and you can pretty much think about anything but running.

And that's what I used to tell everybody. I'm like, all right, you guys can go sit in your freaking. On your pillows with your, with your legs crossed and your arms and ohms and stuff like that. Me, I just go running because as soon as I get, just like you said, as soon as you get past that first mile and you go into flow, I can meditate on the run.

Arlene Miller: Yeah. And, and the spirituality tough. I knew because a lot of people don't wanna meditate or whatever because that, that's what they think. You have to sit there for five hours and go, that's not true. You know, you can do a walking meditation, you know, not do it the athletic way, but just go out there and really appreciate the beauty of nature and breathe and take it all in and just take yourself from anxiety to rest and relaxed mode.

You know, so there's lots of ways to, you know, like have a walking meditation or just do some breath work or, just feel things that you're grateful for that you can just. Take that stress level and let it go. And I do help people with that because, you know, we're taught about it intellectually, but not really how to feel it.

We have a different kind of experience with it. 

Brad Minus: I agree. There's been a lot of trending going on nowadays where habit that people are starting to come by and it's been trending now for a few years. The first thing you do in the morning, is you get up, go work out, but there's also a trend of get up coffee, do something mental, and then you go outside and walk for 10 to 15 minutes part of it is getting sunlight into your eyes, which is supposed to help out your circadian rhythm.

Rhythm because. The idea behind it is, you know, in the nervous system so that when the sunlight hits your eyes, it triggers your brain and your circadian rhythm to, you know, it wakes you up. But what it also does is trigger that you are in daylight. So then when night drops, you automatically start to relax.

So as soon as it starts to get dark, you start to relax because your brain is already telling you, okay, it's starting to wind down, starting to go to sleep. So by getting that sunlight in your eyes, the first thing in the morning energizes you for the day, and then it'll start your, bringing down your, serotonin levels and, 

Arlene Miller: okay. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. Euphoria, the, you know, the euphoria, everything else is. It's starting to, it's starting to burn down because your body's telling your, telling you that, okay, it's getting ready, you're getting ready to go to bed and sleep.

So there, you know, there's a few people out there that's touting about that. So, and I think that, that walk, that 10, 15 minute walk in the morning, that meditation. 

Arlene Miller: Yeah. I mean you can make anything you want. I mean, you could be washing your dishes. And meditating. In other words, you're just fully present in your body.

You're grounded in your body. You're fully present here. Now you're not worrying about the future, you're not reminiscing or being remorseful about the past. You're just fully present in the moment. Washing the dishes, maybe even being grateful that you have dishes to wash and food to eat. And that can be a meditative experience.

So, you know, one of my friends, every time she walks through doorway, it's not just plowing through. She just sort of floats through the doorway. She makes that part of her meditative experience just to stay fully present in this moment and not sort of waffle off over here or over there where you can go into worry or anxiety.

And she's one of the most chill people I've ever met in my life. There are many ways to meditate, and she's told me about this for years. I haven't adopted it, but I've watched her in action with it and it works. So, she's on to something there. 

Brad Minus: Oh, well we're gonna have to look into that.

So you have a numerous amount of certifications from life coaching groups. I don't even wanna get into all of them 'cause there's a ton of them. You're a senior coach from the global training. Global Coaching Academy, international Coaching Federation, level two.

You're cert four and coaching and mentoring from global coaching, diploma from Transformational, holistic Counseling and Australia. Oh my God. I mean you just go on and on and on. What made you start to go into, to take that route? Into life coaching and where you gotta the point where you're today?

Arlene Miller: Well, I have a couple of like amazing women friends and, both them started their own tools and they, they went through all the training that felt, that training was fantastic, but they just felt like there should be more. You know, and that there should be more like a huge compassionate, more technical stuff.

And so, and one, you know, the coaching degree and one got the ing and. Open their own schools. And so the one with coaching degree was tried for a while to get me to come and get a diploma in coaching and mentoring. And I was a little bit arrogant and I sort of was like, I have, I have a political science degree, a BA in Emory, and I'm a, I got a, I'm a law degree from Kentucky.

I'm practicing law. I have my own business. I don't need to go back to school. But I realized that the training that I had didn't teach me how to listen. You know, I was negotiating settlements, I was marketing, had a teenage son, you know, I had people that were working for me and I'm like, I'm a really, and I could really benefit from the training, you know, to go deeper and to be able to hold a bigger space for people.

So I, while I was still practicing law in the second law.

I really, really appreciate the training that it gave me. And I'm still like a tutor and a mentor coach in the Global Coaching Academy. So I get the joy of working with students going through training and I get to tutor them and, help them to get out into real session of, coaching, people out in real life, I just view you as a tremendous gift because I just love it. And so I do that.

Brad Minus: So you went ahead and you parlayed that into your business that's now called a Jewel Consultancy, your specialty is the work life balance, what made you move into that realm and start to specialize in that niche? 

Arlene Miller: Because I mean, I guess my, when I was nine years old, pregnant, and all my family was in Kentucky and all my colleagues were in that area of the world and I didn't have anybody, I had to sort of build my own.

This is a lot of plates that people have to have going in their life. And so for that, because I didn't have anyone there back then, and yeah, so that's, that's I guess why I ended up doing that and help people.

Brad Minus: Yeah. That, that's a great story. I mean, that's, so you basically parlayed something that you needed in your own life into helping others, and that is the greatest gift. I mean, you were already helping people as a lawyer, right. 

You were just, you were focused on helping people, which, you know, lawyers give a bad name for the people like you, you know, that are the good ones. Thank you. So yeah, I think that is, that's an amazing story. And the fact that you were able to swallow your pride. You know, from being, you know, like you had mentioned before that you felt like you were, you know, a little arrogant, but you actually learned.

Arlene Miller: Well, it took me a while. I realized that my head was a dark place. It was very arrogant, to think that I didn't need any more further training and stuff like that, it took me a while 

Brad Minus: but it doesn't matter is the fact that you did that. You saw it. Right. And that's a lot of things that people don't understand.

People aren't self-actualized. Where they can sit there and they could be honest with themselves and they look in the mirror and go, you know, like, I mean I've, it's, it sounds negative, but I use it as a positive man. There's times in the morning, like I've been getting up at four in the morning for years and my, my thing is that, and I give myself an hour and a half to do some mental stuff and hygiene and.

Take care of my cats. You know, little stuff like that. But when it's at five, when it's five 15 and I'm thinking, okay, I wanna be out of the house by five 30 'cause I wanna get two hours in before I gotta think about going to work. There's times I just don't, even though I'm up, coffee's in me, I'm ready to go.

I'm like, I just don't feel like doing it today. And I can just look in the mirror and go, you wimp, you know, you wimp. You haven't, you haven't missed a workout. And so-and-so, you know, when that's strategic, I have strategic days off, right. For recovery. But there's, but those days when you don't have it and you know you gotta go out.

You know, it's to be self-actualized enough to sit there and say, you are just being wimpy. You just need to get out there. Take that first step, get the, get the heart pumping, you'll be fine. You know, don't cave into that. And that's, you know, it's self-actualized. Knowing that that's how I'm feeling and that I know that I can get out the side.

And you were self-actualized enough to say, you know, you might be a little arrogant about this. You gotta kind of like learn to listen and maybe go into this coaching thing, not so bad. And you realize that now you took that and you parlayed it into something where you get to help even more people.

Arlene Miller: And I did have some friends there that were gently hinting to me that. I might have my head up a dark place and this might be very good for me, so I am very grateful for it. For those two women friends. 

Brad Minus: You think this trend of gratefulness is helpful for people?

Arlene Miller: What do you think? I mean because great, if.

Your, your heart is expanded. You're more outlet bigger instead of all contracted with fear.

You think that you have to accomplish that before you can be grateful, but there's all sorts. It's like you can be grateful for your cats. You can be grateful for the fact that even if you're a little bit grumpy, you don't wanna take that first step.

You get out and take the step and by about the 30th step, you're beginning to feel different. You, you can be grateful for the fresh water in a nice bed to sleep in, or a hot shower, all those little things.

Get more of in your life. I'm sure you know that as an endurance coach and having people to focus on, 

Brad Minus: yes. And this whole idea of a gratitude journal, I think is like a really amazing idea. I've kept one now for a while. And, it used to be, I used to feel like it was a waste of time because I was grateful for the same things all the time. And I realized that, so what if you're grateful for the same things?

You're not trying to like, you're not trying to, you know. This is for me, this isn't for anybody else. And I thought, oh, well how am I, can we grateful for the same things and blah, blah, blah? You know what I mean? You should think of something a little bit better. But as I, even though I was repeating some things, all of a sudden it, I'd be in the moment somewhere and I'm like, you know what?

Hey, I'm grateful for, for the fact that I, I have the ability to wrap my fingers around a pen and place it to paper. I got to that point where I was able to think about that. And then look outside into the environment and go, there's a lot of people that can't. There's people without hands. There's people without fingers.

You have the ability to be grateful for that. For them, it's the same thing. You know, there's a lot of times I run for people and I think about all the people that can't run. They're missing a leg, they got spinal issues, they've got a disease, they've got multiple sclerosis, they've got muscular dystrophy, whatever that stuff.

So I'm grateful that I can run for them. I had somebody, one of my first episodes, a mother daughter, and the daughter had everything going for her, like top grades, graduated from Yale and she happened to be in Columbia. On a internship and the internship was three quarters and she was in between her first and second quarter and her and a girlfriend decided to go whitewater rafting and they went wire water rafting.

They were having a great time. They pulled over to the side to take a break doing the right thing by not tiring themselves out. They went over to the side and they pulled the raft up and they were sitting down and a boulder came loose and crushed her. She at from that point on, she has problem walking.

She, had head trauma, TBI, you know, the whole bit. And she literally spent almost a year. She had a flight of Bocata, then Bocata to Miami. She spent a couple years in Miami, then finally got up here to Tampa. And now she's doing better, but she'll never be the same.

But every year that she does a race and somebody pushes her, in her mobile wheelchair, she gets a thrill outta that. She gets absolute thrill and I think I get a thrill out of pushing her. Or I would, get a thrill out of pushing her. So I wanna do that one of these days and I'd be grateful for that.

Arlene Miller: Grateful. And that's really cool. 

Brad Minus: Yeah, I think what it did is it made me see other things. Like I said, the idea that I can grasp a pen and put it to paper, I was grateful for that, you know, grateful that I have a voice to do this podcast. 

Arlene Miller: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. So that's why I wanted to get your take on that, and I think that's amazing what you said about opening up.

So how long has it been that you've had the JUUL consultancy? 

Arlene Miller: Well, I got my diplomas back in 2011, but I really didn't start the company until around 2013. And then it was just sort of a side thing. 'cause I was still practicing law, so it's really right.

In the past, seven years that I've really put a lot of my energy into it. That's what I'm doing. 

Brad Minus: So this is amazing. So the Jewel Consultancy, coaching, mentoring, meditation, and soul readings. 

Arlene Miller: Yes. 

Brad Minus: Might have to, let's talk about soul rings before we, finish up here.

Tell me about that. Okay, 

Arlene Miller: so I, I use Psychic Terra Oracle cards. Basically what I do is I heart connect with the other person.

I can hard connect and I can feel people and I can sort of work with the energy. I declare. I'm not a psychic, that's not my deal. But I do have an ability to do this and,

and even if.

Excellent. 

Brad Minus: I gonna have to get one, one of these days. I'm gonna have to like get in there and get an appointment with you. I think this is, that's just amazing. I think it's something that everybody should do. So let's wrap this up. So again, just to give you a bit, so Arlene, this amazing woman, it's jewel consultancy.com.

And she is, you know, like she said, coaching, mentoring, soul reading the whole bit. And it looks like Arlene, you're on every single social platform. Is there one that you're more active on? 

Arlene Miller: I am on LinkedIn.

It's a great platform for people to find people nowadays, but I guess mostly, you know, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube. Okay. I haven't been doing it a lot recently, but you know that, that's Arlene Cohen Miller. I don't know anyone else with that name. So if you Google that, you'll find all the platforms that I'm on and it can always come to my website, my phone number and my email address are there.

And especially if you mention life changing challengers. And you can always text me at 7 2 0 9 3 6 2 6 3 4 because I know that you met me on this podcast and I'm happy to chat with you. 

Brad Minus: Yes, please. Did you definitely need to reach out to her? You know, go on to juul consultancy.com. You can go through there, but you also have YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn is where she spends most of her time, so slide into her dms.

In the show notes, we will have all of those links directly on how to get, in touch with Arlene. Just go into the show notes. You'll get a nice summary of what this was all about, what we talked about. And then towards the bottom you'll get all of her links, jewel consultancy.com, YouTube, Arlene Miller, Instagram, all that stuff.

So you can just do one click, you'll be there, slide into our dms, and you know, get a soul reading. If you are watching on YouTube right now, why don't you go ahead and maybe hit that like button to subscribe and hit that notification bell so you always know the next time we drop a new episode.

Also if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, if you can leave us a review, that'd be great. And, you know, I don't care if it's a good review. It could be a bad review because any feedback is just gonna help me evolve the podcast. And as you can tell over the last few episodes, it has been evolving, it's been kind of moving in a different direction.

Still showing people like Arlene, exceptional people that have overcome adversity and in their own way and have taken that and multiplied their greatness. So if I'm sure Arlene has dropped a bunch of nuggets, and you know what? I have how I feel about nuggets. If you've taken away one thing away from me from today, you've gotten one piece of information that helps you level up, we're successful.

So yeah, so if you're happen to be watching on YouTube, drop us us a comment, tell us the nugget you picked up. Spotify does comments now too, so drop us one there too. Just tell us what nugget you picked up and how you're gonna use it. Then drop down to the show notes.

Hit jewel consultancy.com and get yourself soul reading, and talk to Arlene. But anyway, Arlene, thank you so much for joining us. This has been wonderful. I really appreciate it. 

Arlene Miller: Oh, thank you for having me. 

Brad Minus: Okay, so challengers, listen for myself and Arlene Cohen Miller, we will see you in the next one.