TV Host Reveals How She Built Multiple 7-Figure Businesses

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.

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.

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

This week, From Underdog to Entrepreneur flips the script. Instead of hosting, Pat Miller sits in the guest chair as fellow podcaster and friend Sarah Walton takes over the mic to interview Pat about her brand-new book, Underdog to Empire. It's a rare, personal look behind the scenes of the show and behind the woman who's spent every week asking other entrepreneurs to share their stories. Pat opens up about the difference between her first book, a memoir written from a dark, rebuilding chapter of her life, and this second book, which captures her shift from surviving to thriving. She shares the real, unfiltered story of nearly shelving the project entirely, juggling schedules, doubting herself, and wondering if it was even worth finishing, and the moment that changed her mind. Chapters 0:01 Intro – Sarah Walton Takes Over as Host 1:05 Why Pat Did a Role Reversal Interview 4:34 Pat's First Book: "Kicking Karma's Ass" 6:06 Why She Wrote Book Two: Underdog to Empire 8:28 Standing Out Instead of Fitting In 9:51 The Story of "Nobody Listens to the Blonde" 11:18 Confronting a Client Who Crossed the Line 17:02 Almost Not Finishing the Book 18:56 Feeling Disheartened After Losing Bids 19:38 The Phone Call That Changed Everything 20:50 "Rejection Is God's Protection and Redirection" 21:27 The Moment She Decided Not to Quit 24:34 Why She Keeps Writing and Sharing Her Story 26:43 The Importance of In-Person Connection 28:10 Advice for Anyone in an "Underdog Moment" 30:58 Surviving vs. Thriving 31:34 Her Favorite Chapter to Write 32:59 Where to Get Underdog to Empire & Launch Party Details