Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 32

Planning for Holiday KDP Select Promotions

After the Veterans Day KDP Select promotion for the triad of military fiction novels, I reflected on what I had learned from different KDP Select free day promotions on Amazon for Kindle ebooks.

Holiday season is upon us, and I decided to try out a synergy of promotional efforts. I would pick four separate KDP Select free days — one for each of my current four fiction books — and submit the four titles simultaneously to the different websites that list KDP Select free days.



My holiday KDP Select schedule is:

Navy thriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS Nov. 27
Cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE: A REBECCA STONE MYSTERY Dec. 4
Romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY Dec. 11
Military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL Dec. 18

Now I’m going to admit that in one of the above cases I am NOT taking my own advice about running a KDP Select promotion:



At this moment CAST THE FIRST STONE has no reviews — and it is not a good idea to run a KDP Select promo until a book has 5-6 reviews.

Why am I breaking my own rule?

Because the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah this year starts the evening of December 8th, and as CAST THE FIRST STONE is a Jewish mystery in addition to a cozy mystery, it could make a good gift for people’s Kindles. Hence the free date of December 4th because the start of Hanukkah.

CAST THE FIRST STONE includes recipes for Shabbat from the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION that I wrote with Rabbi Karen L. Fox. You can get SEASONS on Amazon and get the recipes for Hanukkah along with an explanation of the Jewish calendar.

(Additional note in connection with CAST THE FIRST STONE: I am currently revising two short Rebecca Stone mystery stories for the short story book TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE that I will be publishing on Kindle in a few days. Business partner Yael K. Miller is creating the cover for this short story book now.)



As I am in full disclosure mode, I am going to reveal another of my own rules that I have been breaking — and will soon fix:

In this article “How to Have a Book Website That Effectively Sells Your Book,” I discuss six errors I frequently see being made. I am making error #4 on this site (although I am not making this error on other websites my company has). Click here to read the article and check yourself out against the errors. Are you also making error #4?

If anyone would like a free Kindle copy of the cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE to read — and then if you like the book to post a review on Amazon (hopefully before December 4th), email me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com

And if you have holiday promotion plans for your books, do leave a comment below describing it.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel and the cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE with a subplot of non-combat trauma PTSD.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Gratitude for Thanksgiving: My Father’s 88th Birthday

Today is the 88th birthday of my father Albert Zimbler, a first-generation born in America who in the last two years has become a published author.

He now has three books of his humorous short stories about love and sex (his books are PG-13):

The Love Life of Howard Handsome and Other Short Stories
Blossom Winters Is Driving on the Los Angeles Freeways and Other Short Stories
The Wild Italian Wedding and Other Short Stories, Poems, and Jokes

He grew up on the West Side of Chicago, the oldest of two children of first cousins born in Russia and who lived among their Zimbler relatives in Chicago. While in college he was drafted into World War II and pumped gas into planes in Florida.

One day he and buddies visited the student nurses at Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he met Ruth Fishman from Southern Indiana (whose parents were also born in Russia). They have been married since 1946 and my mother will celebrate her 88th birthday in three days. (Happy early birthday, Mom!)

After the war my father completed his college education and, because housing was tight, my parents moved to Elgin, Illinois, when I was six months old. My father commuted to an accounting firm in Chicago before becoming a CPA and opening his own accounting practice. Three more children followed.

Several years ago he sold his accounting practice and then my parents moved to a northern suburb of Chicago. While still retaining a couple of his oldest clients, he turned his focus to comedy writing.

At first he wrote his stories all in capital letters. Eventually he learned to type in upper and lower case and to use spellcheck.

He took (and continues to take) writing and improv classes both in Chicago and when he visits in Los Angeles. And he now teaches senior improv. (For an hilarious example of a senior improv class, click here to go to his website www.AlZimblerComedy.com)



In honor of this Thanksgiving what I would like to share about my father is this:

He has always been interested in everyone — he talks to everyone he meets.
He has always known a great deal about what is going on in the world.
He is a very funny storyteller.
And he is an example for everyone of trying new things no matter how old you are.

Happy birthday, Dad!

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel and the cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE with a subplot of non-combat trauma PTSD.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Monitoring TV Portrayal of Fictional Female Military Characters

I faithfully watch ABC’s new submarine drama LAST RESORT each week to monitor the portrayal of the sub’s female military personnel.

On this sub the third-ranking officer is Lieutenant Grace Shepard (played by Daisy Betts), who is a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy (the equivalent of a captain in the U.S. Army).

And in the submarine book thriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS that I wrote with my husband (and which was on Amazon long before the LAST RESORT premiered) the third-ranking officer is Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders, with a Navy rank equivalent to a major in the Army.

In the fictional realm LCRD Sanders deals with threatened sexual assault on the sub, and in an earlier episode as I recall so does Lt. Shepard.

In the Nov. 15th print edition of The Wall Street Journal — the same day as the most recent episode of LAST RESORT and in the midst of the ongoing Gen. Petraeus sex scandal, the news story “Air Force Combats Sex Misconduct” by Ana Campoy and Julian E. Barnes reported:

The U.S. Air Force said Wednesday it is taking broad measures to prevent sexual misconduct against recruits during basic training, after conducting an investigation into dozens of allegations of sexual harassment and rape by instructors at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

I have believed for many years that the portrayal of people in fiction can strongly impact perception in the real world.

Thus it is with deep regret in my opinion that, on the Nov. 15th episode “Nuke It Out” of LAST RESORT, Lt. Shepard “hooks up” with the hot Navy Seal character James King (played by Daniel Lissing) in what she decrees as a “one time” act.

As Lt. Shepard “comes on” to King and not the other way around (he has already just slept with the woman who runs the bar on the island), one could make the argument that this is a realistic portrayal.

And one could also make the argument that Lt. Shepard “hooked up” with someone not on her submarine so she didn’t risk her chain-of-command authority. (How the Navy Seal came to be on the same remote island was explained in the first episode.) And, yes, she acted after a “near death” experience.

BUT … given how often in reality women military personnel must fend off sexual assaults, I would have preferred that this particular scene have been eliminated from the TV show.

Why? Because people confuse fiction with reality. And I can see sexual confusion resulting from such a portrayal.

(In the same episode, the captain of the sub, Marcus Chaplin — played by Andre Braugher, correctly turns down a subtle “come on” from a woman sailor on his sub.)

I do not believe that the women currently serving in the armed forces are well served by the “hook up” portrayal of the fictional character Lt. Grace Shepard.



And while the writers of LAST RESORT can certainly write whatever they want (within the network’s standards), I hope in the future they will consider how their fictional portrayals might impact real life. (According to imdbpro.com — so far there are only four MALE writers on the show.)

On the other hand, for a positive TV fictional portrayal that can help in real life, see my blog post “Truth and Fiction: News Events and Fictional Stories”

UPDATE: Just after I published this blog post, I read that LAST RESORT has been cancelled. If you want a fictional story of a woman on a submarine who does NOT “hook up” with a Navy Seal, get LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS on Amazon now.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel and the cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE with a subplot of non-combat trauma PTSD.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Truth and Fiction: News Events and Fictional Stories

‘Covert Affairs’: Troops First Foundation PSA

As I shuttle back and forth between reading about the potential breach of classified documents due to the scandal associated with now-former CIA director Gen. Petraeus along with watching the Nov. 11th episode of Showtime’s HOMELAND and the Nov. 13th episodes of CBS’s NCIS and USA Network’s COVERT AFFAIRS, I am experiencing a blurring of the lines between truth and fiction.

In my mrslieutenant.blogspot.com post “Update on PTSD Help for Veterans” I described the real-life project OPERATION PROPER EXIT, a program of TroopsFirstFoundation.org. In the Nov. 13th episode of COVERT AFFAIRS, Christopher Gorham’s character Auggie Anderson goes back to Iraq as a battle buddy for OPERATION PROPER EXIT.

The PSA in the video above is shown partway through the episode. It is an excellent example of how fiction can help in real life.

On another although related subject, I am immersed in reading the Kindle format of WAITING WIVES: THE STORY OF SCHILLING MANOR, HOME FRONT TO THE VIETNAM WAR by Donna Moreau. It is a fascinating memoir of a decommissioned Air Force base used to provided housing for families of men fighting in Vietnam.

Thus while reading the news and watching the TV shows of modern-day military and espionage concerns, my head is also back in the period May 1970 to May 1972 when my husband served as a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army.

Thus how appropriate that it should be this week that I learned of the efforts of Circe Olson Woessner to start the Museum of the American Military Family. (Click here to visit the museum’s Facebook Page.)



In turn, Circe introduced me to Karin Pohl in Germany who is involved with a museum exhibit of the U.S. Army presence in Munich during the Cold War. Dr. Pohl has been kind enough to send me information about the exhibit. (But even when I studied German while living in Munich, my German would not have been up to the level to translate the documents, so I do not yet know what the material says.)

And a few weeks ago I read two stand-alone novels by Dorothy Gilman (of the Mrs. Pollifax series’ fame), both of which mentioned Gypsies murdered by the Nazis. To this day I have a searing memory of staring at three Gypsies — a woman with a man on either side of her — standing in a gateway at Dachau concentration camp.

In conclusion, you may begin to see why the lines between fiction and fact are blurring for me. (My romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY is fiction based on a real event in Germany during the Cold War.)

I hope that this coming together of fact and fiction will motivate me to complete a memoir of my time as part of the U.S. occupation forces in Germany. I have all my original documents from that time and look forward to helping to preserve the truth — regardless of how fiction may make use of it.

P.S. Big thanks to authors Bonnie B. Latino and Kathleen M. Rodgers following the successful Veterans Day event for our triad of military spouse novels. Click here for more info about these three award-winning military fiction novels.



© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel and the cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE with a subplot of non-combat trauma PTSD.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Veterans Day, PTSD and Free Military Spouse Novels

As Veterans Day begins, I am profoundly grateful that my husband does not suffer from PTSD gotten from serving on active duty with the U.S. Army. It is partly out of this gratitude that I try online to spread information about PTSD to help others.

In a recent blog post on www.mrslieutenant.blogspot.com I wrote an update about PTSD after taking part in a Department of Defense’s Bloggers’ Roundtable (of which I am a member). The post included information about Operation Proper Exit that I learned about from the USA Network’s popular TV show COVERT AFFAIRS (full disclosure: I’m a fan of this show). Click here to read this blog post.



IF YOU WATCH TELEVISION — Tuesday night, November 13th, will have two fictional shows dealing with PTSD:

Christopher Gorham’s COVERT AFFAIRS character Auggie Anderson will return to Iraq as part of Operation Proper Exit.

According to the Nov. 12-18 TV Guide, NCIS will start a two-parter — “Shell Shock”: “[A] veteran suffering from PTSD holds the key to a murder case.”

I personally believe in the power of fictional stories to get across important information. This is why I am hoping to move forward with my proposed PTSD-related TV series www.SolomonsJustice.com



AND FOR VETERANS DAY — myself and two other military spouse authors are offering our novels for FREE on Kindle on Sunday, November 11th. You can get the links to the books on Kindle in this article about us in the SpouseCalls column on Stars and Stripes.

(Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at http://amzn.to/NBoSGU)

Besides this SpouseCalls article, our Veterans Day project has been getting other good online coverage:

“Honoring Those Who Serve” at Digital Book Today

“The Best of the Sunday Free Kindle eBooks” also at Digital Book Today

“Military wives mark Veterans Day with free gift of their novels” at MilitarySuccessNetwork.com

““Sharing Our Military Wife Experiences” at MilitaryWivesCentral.com

“Army Wife” at the Army Times

“Phyllis Zimbler Miller” at Deleyna’s Drift

“A Triad of Writers” at Deleyna’s Drift

“Veterans Day Special: Award-winning Military Fiction” at Kindle Book Promos

“Mrs. Lieutenant: Free Kindle Book” at Freebooksy.com



© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

New Cozy Mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE Now on Kindle

It’s official! CAST THE FIRST STONE: A REBECCA STONE MYSTERY is now available on Kindle.

Click here to get this cozy mystery.

And click here to tell a friend.

Here’s what this cozy mystery is about:

Cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE introduces Los Angeles business reporter Rebecca Stone. In her first amateur sleuth case she is asked to help determine whether the murder of a Wharton professor spending the summer term at UCLA is connected to The Wharton School.

But when this request requires Rebecca to work with a former fiance who dumped her to focus on his Wall Street career, Rebecca is confronted with the moral dilemma of whether the price of Wharton team spirit is too high.

Meanwhile, she tries to improve her cooking skills to impress her current fiancé. He doesn’t know about her former one and Rebecca intends to keep it that way!

Recipes from the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION by Rabbi Karen L. Fox and Phyllis Zimbler Miller (available on Amazon) are included in this cozy mystery.

The cover photo of North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, California, was taken by Yael K. Miller, who then created the cover design.

If anyone would like a free Kindle format emailed to you to read (and if you like it to review on Amazon), email me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com

(Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at http://amzn.to/NBoSGU)



And remember about the three FREE Kindle military spouse novels on Veterans Day — click here for more info.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Four Guest Posts and a Query

Some of you may recognize that the title of this blog post riffs on the film “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” I just wanted to find a catchy title to share with you four new guest posts of mine:



Encouraging teens and young adults:



Following Your Passion

The quicksand of fictional character portrayal:



Can a Female Fictional Character Have the Same Traits as James Bond?

Book marketing with holiday promotions:



Ask PZM November 2012

The origin of the triad of military spouse novels (FREE on Veterans Day):

A Triad of Writers

And now for the query:

I have just published to Kindle (awaiting approval to be published) the first book in the Rebecca Stone cozy mystery series. Here is the description I wrote for Amazon for CAST THE FIRST STONE:

Cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE introduces Los Angeles business reporter Rebecca Stone. In her first amateur sleuth case she is asked to help determine whether the murder of a Wharton professor spending the summer term at UCLA is connected to The Wharton School.

But when this request requires Rebecca to work with a former fiance who dumped her to focus on his Wall Street career, Rebecca is confronted with the moral dilemma of whether the price of Wharton team spirit is too high.

Meanwhile, she tries to improve her cooking skills to impress her current fiancé. He doesn’t know about her former one and Rebecca intends to keep it that way!

Recipes from the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION by Rabbi Karen L. Fox and Phyllis Zimbler Miller (available on Amazon) are included in this cozy mystery.

If anyone would like a free Kindle format emailed to you to read (and if you like it to review on Amazon), email me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com

(Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at http://amzn.to/NBoSGU)

And remember about the three FREE Kindle military spouse novels on Veterans Day — click here for more info.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Mark Helprin on Why China Can Overtake U.S. Naval Power

I am the co-author with my husband Mitchell R. Miller, a member of the U.S. Naval Institute, of the Navy thriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS.

We wrote this Navy thriller in part to demonstrate:

the need of the Coast Guard for more resources to protect the U.S. coastlines
the challenge from China in the South China Sea

Here is what author Mark Helprin says in the October 29th Wall Street Journal opinion piece “Mark Helprin: America’s Capsizing Naval Policy”:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s diplomacy in the South China Sea is doomed to impotence because it consists entirely of declarations without the backing of sufficient naval potential, even now when China’s navy is not half of what it will be in a decade.

He goes on to say:

Not until recently would China have been so aggressive in the South China Sea, but it has a plan, which is to grow; we have a plan, which is to shrink; and you get what you pay for.

Helprin concludes his opinion piece of what it will take to keep the U.S. a major naval power in the future with these “fighting” words:

This will demand a president who, like Reagan, will damn the political torpedoes and back a secretary of the Navy who, like John Lehman, will unashamedly and with every power of rhetoric and persistence rebuild the fleets. The military balance, the poise of the international system, and the peace of the world require no less. Nor does America deserve less.

And at the same time that Americans have to worry about the size of the U.S. Navy, we must worry about the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration’s shameful “services” for returning veterans entering the job market.

If you have not yet seen this video of Jon Stewart using humor to demonstrate the economic gap for returning veterans, click here now.

Perhaps you will be the person who can get the DD 214 once again provided to veterans as part of their discharge packet.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Jon Stewart Uses Humor to Demonstrate the Economic Gap for Returning Veterans

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c


Exclusive – Economic Reintegration for Veterans


www.thedailyshow.com








Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor & Satire Blog
The Daily Show on Facebook

Watch this 12-minute video to better understand the challenges facing returning veterans as they attempt to transition into the civilian job market.

I say “attempt” because Jon Stewart demonstrates how difficult this can be.

And perhaps what is most interesting (and can be fixed the quickest) is not the question of certification.

It is the time it takes to receive a form that you must request in writing that will then allow you to request form DD 214 that lists what you have done in the military (good for showing to prospective employers). When requesting the form to request the DD 214, returning veterans are told they must wait 10 to 90 days for a response.

Jon Stewart goes through the telephone transfer calls you would experience if you tried to call the VA to get the form to request the DD 214. While an hilarious sequence on the show, it is a very serious impediment to returning veterans.

Is there someone in the military who watches this video and can:



1. Have the first request form automatically given to military personnel as they exit the military.

2. Allow the completed request form to be emailed and then receive the completed DD214 within 10 working days.

Better yet, give veterans a completed DD 214 as part of the discharge process!

(Yes, this might eliminate some civilian jobs with the military. But those people might be better employed doing real work rather than “make work.”)

Simple, right? Then how come this isn’t already being done?



I do hope someone watching this video here or elsewhere on the Internet can do something about this NOW!

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Question of KDP Select for Ebook Launches and Older Ebooks

I have been having a very interesting email exchange with military history author Eric Hammel about ebook publishing and Amazon’s KDP Select.

As many of you know, KDP Select is the Kindle program that requires a 90-day exclusive for the ebook (physical books are NOT included in the exclusivity) in exchange for certain benefits.

Eric reviewed my newest ebook — TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON: 3 Books in 1 — and pointed out to me his reasons for not having his books on KDP Select.

As we wrote back and forth, we both clarified our opinions. And here’s what I think is important for authors to consider:

1. If your ebooks are already doing well on other sites, then you have to consider whether you want to pull your ebooks off these sites in order to meet KDP Select’s exclusivity requirements.

2. If you are about to launch a new ebook, you can put your ebook on the KDP Select program for one 90-day period. Then after experimenting with this program, you can decide whether to keep your ebook on KDP Select, or leave the program and distribute your ebook to more online retailers.

But, as I said in TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF KINDLE —you need to fairly evaluate KDP Select:

1. Being on KDP Select without using any of the free days is NOT trying out KDP Select.

2. Having free days without “working” those days — doing promotion before and during the free days — is NOT trying out KDP Select.

As in most things in the online marketing world, you need to try things yourself and then evaluate your efforts. And the more you learn about your online marketing opportunities, the more options you will have.

Click here for Eric Hammel’s review of TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON: 3 Books in 1.

Click here to visit Eric Hammel’s military history book site.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Her newest nonfiction ebook is book publishing and marketing ebook TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and her newest fiction ebook is the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com