Listen to the interview here!
Daphne Miller
Toni Reece: This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project. Today I am joined by Daphne Miller. Hi, Daphne. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Daphne Miller: Hi, Toni. How are you? It’s great to be here.
Toni: I’m great. Daphne, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Daphne: My name is Daphne Miller, and I live in Reading, Pennsylvania, and I own Overlook Mansion Bed and Breakfast here in the town. I’m 50 – can I say I’m 50? I’m loving it, so it’s great.
Toni: Let’s go into the very first question of the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Daphne: That’s an interesting question. I thought about it a little bit. Inspiration to me is when I have the drive or someone has the drive, and it just lifts my spirits, and it kind of touches the soul in a way that makes me believe that anything is possible. I think that’s kind of where my dreams come from. It’s derived from the inspiration.
Toni: Can you give me an example of when that might have happened?
Daphne: Inspiration in general might have happened?
Toni: Right. When you recognized that, “Yes, I’m inspired.”
Daphne: I get inspired every day by different things. I recognize it pretty much on a daily basis, but I would have to say from little on up, inspiration has been instilled in me by my mom, and the way she’s inspired me to make sure that whatever my dream is, that I know that I can obtain it – it’s just going to take a lot of hard work and maybe some creative thinking to make it happen.
Toni: Daphne, how do you put that definition of inspiration into practice here in Berks County?
Daphne: The way that I put my inspiration into practice here in Berks County is I’ve purchased a bed and breakfast 12 years ago, but it didn’t just start with, “This is what I want to do.” It really started with a dream. It started when I was a student at Penn State in the hospitality industry, and I thought, “This is just going to be fabulous.” I chose the most amazing historic property right here in the City of Reading in Centre Park Historic District, so it wasn’t just a quick thing. It really was a dream that took baby steps.
With the support of my family, friends, and the community such as yourself, Berks County Living and just great customers, my dream has just grown into something amazing. I’ve been here 12 years, absolutely love it, and that’s just one way that I use my inspiration. We use it every day here – the inspiration of, “Wow, what else can we put out there for everybody else to enjoy our home?”
Toni: So that dream keeps building for you.
Daphne: It does.
Toni: That is so cool.
Daphne: The dream does just keep building, and with everybody’s help – it’s not something that I just do by myself. Really, it takes everybody, and I think that when you get inspiration it’s really important to reach out to other people, because they’re going to think of something that you didn’t think of. It’s the brainstorm that comes with the dreams and the inspiration, and then you’re inspired by the energy of those people. A lot of my inspiration really comes from, again, my mother and how she raised me, and my daughter. My daughter is over-the-top amazing for me, and a great inspiration of you can really do anything. She tells me – if there’s just one moment that she sees me waver and I say, “I don’t know about this …” she just jumps right in and says, “You can do anything. You’re amazing.” She reconfirms it. We just feed off of each other.
I think inspiration does that, and I think that’s where communities come in, that you can't do and build a community all by yourself. It’s not a one-person task; it really is just everybody working together. Trial and error comes with that inspiration, too. Sometimes it seems like a great idea, and you said, “Wait.” But that’s why you have everybody else around you, and that’s why you can't do it alone. It’s just great fun.
Toni: What a great lesson that you’ve just given here. You spoke about being inspired, meaning that it’s a dream that you worked really hard at, and you’re inspired to make it happen, and you made it happen – but you also said that you can't make it happen on your own, that you’re inspired by other people and that sense of community to help keep that dream alive and keep other dreams at the center of your focus so that you can support the community and be supported yourself. What a great lesson that is.
Daphne: Thank you. It’s kind of our building block – be inspired by others to inspire you. It’s just a great working and building block for everybody.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Daphne: That’s really a hard question, because when we say who inspires me, while it’s so many people and we’ve talked about that, I really think the root of my inspiration and what keeps me going has to be the two strongest women in my life. I’ve already talked about them, and that has to be my mom, who has passed, but she taught me amazing strength and work ethic, and that whatever you believe, you can have it, and there’s no such thing as failure – just the lesson that brings you closer to the success. Every step you take is a learning lesson and a new chapter in your life.
My daughter, I’m telling you, her youth and her intellect and just her own perseverance has just made me more inspired to say, “I can do this.” Earlier I gave away how old I am, because I’m not afraid of how old I am. Really, this is just another great chapter, and it’s fabulous.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Daphne: That’s pretty simple, I think. I think as far as my legacy, it’s pretty simple. I just want to reach out and I want the be a positive influence to my daughter, but I really just want to touch lives in a positive way and make people smile, if just for a moment. Any way to just share and bring a smile to somebody’s face.
Toni: I have been on the receiving end of a little bit of what you do at your Bed and Breakfast, and if that little snapshot is part of what you want your legacy to be – wow! That’s amazing, and I would encourage everyone to experience that as well.
Daphne: You are so sweet. Thank you so much. It was great meeting you, too.
Toni: Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project, Daphne.
