We recently connected with Thaddeus Miller and have shared our conversation below.

Thaddeus , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

This entire journey has been one of risk. The very moment the idea of becoming my own boss started to keep me up at night. I knew my path of taking risk has begun.

I’ve realized when you bet on yourself, (not let me try this), but really make up your mind that what you want to build for yourself, family and community is now number one in your life.

That simple decision will risk you losing most things you thought were the most precious to you, those same friends and family we work so hard for!

Your risk losing your social self, the parties, because business comes first. Making something out of thin air isn’t easy, it’s extremely Tedious, time consuming, lonely, and at times feel impossible to accomplish.

However

There’s also the freaking awesome side of it. The reason why Entrepreneurs can’t sleep at night. The thought of being great bubbling through your mind in the form of ideas.

The risk of changing your family outcomes for the rest of time! Being able to look back at the community and know you helped make it a better place for your peers and everyone that comes after that.

The risk of being happy not slaving to someone else’s dream on their time clock.

I say that to say this starting Popup Comfort was the biggest Risk in my life. I left a great company behind. I’ve lost best friends, strange family relationships etc.

However, I’ve been rewarded with a full heart. I usually control my own time in this life (like the Prince of Persia). My community is doing better and will continue to do so.

The lives touched changed through Popup Comfort’s mission is priceless

So take the risk, without it you will not see any rewards!!!!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

It’s been a while since we chatted, therefore I’ll take time to reintroduce myself!!

My name is Thaddeus Miller, I grew up in North Dallas which we can all say is the best side of Dallas (till this day) haha. I graduated in 2004 out of Lake Highlands High School.

I was summoned to the Midwest by great jobs and the opportunity to find myself as a person and grow. I found out cool things about myself while on my journey out of Texas.

Like I’m a Pinterest wizard, can pitch tent and start a fire like the first men. Can drive anything on wheels, and most importantly it’s ok to just play in mud sometimes, it’s not weird at all. ;)

Upon moving back to the big city of Dallas aka home I realized how much it had changed and how my values also had matured. Living the slow North Dakota pace forced me to see the world face value. Being back in Dallas, I felt we were in bad shape as far as being kind and helping our fellow humans out.

So I came up with the non profit organization Popup Comfort, with the goal to make anyone we encounter smile and provide a comfortable situation to those who may need it.

Popup Comfort has been around 4 years now, we have assisted countless amounts of people in the DFW area, 10 plus states outside of Texas. We’ve recently started the first of its kind School Moral Boosting program. Which over the past two school years have been proving a success. Popup has a strong presence in 10 schools (DISD,RISD)

I’m proud that we have the freedom to mold programs to fit an exact direct need. We can’t wait to Popup near you!!!! Big Ups to a few schools we’re in. (Forest Lane Academy, Seagoville Middle School, Sunset High School, Marsh Lane Prep Academy,)

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Originally the idea to start a business of this nature wasn’t a thought. I didn’t know anything about Non profits.

I started going out in the community during my most depressed Time in life, handing out dollars bills like I was rich. I then recruited my friends Tomas and Jarric to assist me with handing out fruit and water.

This grew pretty fast. So I sat down with my business advisor/friend Ryan we bounced ideas around and the non profit Smile Dealers was born ( sadly the name was taken, thanks a lot New Zealand) POPUP COMFORT was the next option.

Now we get into ok let’s get everything filed, get all the things needed to start a business with money going out right away and no funds coming in.

The first year we didn’t take funds from anyone. We didn’t know what we were doing so we decided not to Risk people hard earned money. Every single event, Item gave, water, hygiene hotel stays for homeless, etcc was all out of pocket.

By end of year I was tapped on all savings and started to sell off stocks to continue the mission(shout out to Amazon stocks)!!

The mistake I will tell new business people to remember or write down. Have a capital system in place before leaving the work place. Or do crowd funding.

Your resolve will have to be extremely sound during the times your business isn’t making you a living. Most people give up on their dream at that point.

Be prepared for the unthinkable and always have a safety net. However you have to take that risk and bet on yourself all money in( remember it’s a marathon not a sprint NIP)!!!!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

This one is pretty simple hard work, as in always finding a way to make someone’s day better. The world is in bad shape so trying to make it a better place don’t come with many days off.

Consistency. We can happily say we’re at 98.9% consistency’ rate. Perfection is the goal!!

Caring we are extremely big on personalization. We want to get to know every person in the crowd, not just the vibe of the crowd itself.

Fun: for sure if Popup comfort involved there’s plenty of funnies involved!!!!

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Thaddeus by way of Apple!!! Sals famous-artist Don Louis-musician Jon Shaw- Inside look live Lema Dacosta- Touchd by Lema massage company Seagoville Middle School Sunset High School Marsh Lane Prep Academy