Bold Journey Interview: Meet Liv Mills

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Liv Mills a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Liv, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I stand on the shoulders of the greatest giants before me. I’m proud and immensely grateful to come from a long line of the most inspirational, resilient, loving human beings I have ever met—and meeting people is my superpower. My mom was essentially a single mom of five kids for most of my life, and I watched her navigate some of life’s greatest heartbreaks and challenges. From losing her sister at the age I am now (31), to losing her home and her business—her “world,” which she had worked incredibly hard to build—crumbled beneath her, I watched her respond to some of life’s greatest tragedies with grace, love, optimism, grit, generosity, and a selflessness toward us as her kids and others I aspire to embody in every aspect of my life. I’ve watched her rebuild many times while growing up: losing it all and somehow finding a way to spin straw into gold. She’s now a top 1% real estate agent at Keller Williams, outperforming teams of 15 people all on her own, has sent all five of us to college, and somehow finds meaningful ways to show up for the endless number of people who love and appreciate her intentional care for those around her—especially her kids. I feel incredibly fortunate to have someone like her who has relentlessly cheered me on as I navigated putting myself through college, a heartbreaking divorce, devastating business and financial challenges, relationships in which I gave the best of myself in return for their worst, having everything I ever owned stolen—literally—four times at my lowest moments, and having to move countless times while navigating the uncertainty of my future. It is a gift I will treasure my entire life. Her example has been the light in my darkest days, illuminating a deep knowing that I can and will find a way. Now that I am the age she was when she seemed “so old,” I’m often bewildered by how in the world she did everything she accomplished with five children when I can barely keep up with myself and my one dog. She’s truly superhuman.

There was one moment in particular when she said something to me that truly changed who I am and became my guiding mantra for the person I choose to be in the world. I was going through an incredibly awful divorce, had just had everything I owned stolen, then everything I bought to replace it stolen again three days later; I lost every friend I thought would be in my life forever without so much as a word, during COVID, while navigating a business betrayal that took everything I had worked for—including my equity, pay, and car—and I remember deciding my life was over. I remember being in tears, with no hope or desire to continue living, telling my mom I had nothing to live for, that everything I had was taken, and that this world was too dark and people too disappointing for me to stay. And she said to me, “You know what, Liv? YOU. BE. YOU. The one thing nobody can take from you, the one choice you have in the midst of despair, the one defining aspect of every single person on this planet is that you get to be who you are. Let them be who they are, and if you can choose to be someone you are proud of at this point in your life, you can be that person no matter what awaits in the future.” It was so simple, yet so profound that it changed my entire outlook on life. I looked at the people I lost, the relationships that were “everything” to me, and I was truly proud of the person I chose to be during that time. And they couldn’t take that from me. Nobody can. No money can buy the peace of mind that comes with kindness, love, generosity, and choosing to treat people with love whether or not they deserve it, and life with an unflinching optimism despite your circumstances. Because that’s just who you are and what YOU deserve. I believe that is at the heart of true resilience: not giving up on who you are, because you are the only one who gets to decide whether to linger in bitterness, offense, betrayal, disappointment, or hardship—or to make up your mind that you will live a meaningful, joyful life in spite of others’ inability to do the same. You can throw in the towel on a failed attempt at a dream or resolve in your mind that it’s just one failure closer to success. You get to decide whether a job, friend, hardship, disappointment, or heartbreak defines you or propels you into becoming the best version of who you want to be. You can be the one who looks at the breaking point of the average to set your limitations—or you can burst through the finish line of others because yours is exceptional.

Resilience is a choice. It’s a resolve. It’s an unwavering mind made up that you ARE someone who is going to find a way no matter what. I made up my mind that I am someone who leaves people and places better than when I found them. Who treats everyone, no matter who they are, as if they’re the most important person I know. Who is generous in compliments, acts of kindness and eager assume, find and highlight the absolute best in any person and situation. I want to be who I’d be thrilled to meet and grateful to have in my life, and encouraging others by example to be the same is my purpose. You be you—nobody else can.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Hi, I’m Liv! I’m a 5th generation roofer, and I’m a woman in the industry where that’s uncommon. My grandfather started a roofing business in 1919, and I grew up in the industry. Though I grew up in the industry, I was not interested until later in my career. I was a journalism major, and landed my first job doing Major Gifts at Cornell University, raising gifts from $250k-10M for the #1 Hospitality School in the world. I fell in love with the hospitality industry’s heart of service, and I transitioned from Cornell into consulting for many small to medium sized start ups in the luxury consumer product goods sector and various other industries, implementing go to market strategy, organizational structuring, capital raises, and sales growth for various industries. Ultimately, I’m someone who is passionate about people, navigating homeowners through the stress of catastrophe, and is highly knowledgable and skilled in the vast complexities of insurance processes. I’m passionate about the roofing and construction industry because I’m passionate about fairness, advocating for homeowners, and deeply caring for homeowners as if it were my own family, as this was the value I was raised to understand. Honesty is my unwavering principle and an area of this industry I aim to significantly raise the standard—one homeowner at a time. I’m a perfectionist of trades and setting the bar for excellence in product and customer experience – it’s in my blood!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Honesty, fairness and being the person you want to meet. This industry is notorious for greed. Contractors taking advantage of homeowners, their own sales people, and charging or doing what they can “get away with”. I detest this, and I sincerely believe that you thrive in this industry if you can sincerely walk through a homeowner’s doors with the heart to do what you would hope someone would do for you. I end every new hiring class training with the same story:

I had the honor of helping my grandmother, whom I am very close with, navigate a storm insurance claim. This is THE legend of our families roofing business, and she trusted me. She also had just lost her husband, navigating Parkinson’s disease, and had just broken her pelvis, becoming bedridden for the first time of her life. She was heartbroken, in pain, and frustrated. Taking care of her during this time was the most meaningful moment of my career. I made a promise to myself after this that before every single door, person I speak to, contract I make, attention to detail I note, that if I wouldn’t do it with my grandmother, I wouldn’t do it all. I attribute my success to this rewarding and significant practice. My integrity, even when it’s tough or will cost me significantly, is the reason I operate exclusively off of referrals. People can feel when you’re their for them vs. when you’re there for yourself.

In what is the most expensive repair on the most important protective layer of what is often the most valuable investment of someone’s life, people deserve your best. I see contractors and sales people trade a few thousand dollars in “what they can get away with” for the millions of dollars in sales by doing what’s right so well that people want to shout you from their rooftops (pun intended). Be who you want to meet, understand the power of resilience, and make up your mind that who you are is someone you’d love to invite into your home and people will continue welcome you into theirs.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

I shared about how meaningful my mother was and is to me, but I would say the most meaningful thing both of my parents did for me was not only teach us that we were capable of doing anything in the world, but believed greatness out of our potential emphatically. This is called the Pygmalion Effect, and I’m obsessed with it. I have two brilliant entrepreneurs for a mom and dad, and they have lived lives that reflect the power of overflowing optimism. They also breathed this into us as children, and I’m beyond grateful for that. I had my first business when I was eleven because I wanted to buy something and I was taught that if I wanted it, I could earn it. I put flyers together for household chores, and went door to door! In high school I was a straight A student, the captain of two 6A sports teams, a national honors society scholar, worked two part time jobs, in over 15 clubs, and started my own car detailing business.

Then put myself through college by waking up at sunrise to manage my landscaping business until going to work as a bank teller from 11-3:30 p.m., rushing home to change for my server job from 4:45-11:00 pm, and completed my online course work from 11:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. I sold my car to pay for tuition, and I completed my major and minor (ninety credit hours) in a year, with two internships to save $30k in tuition, did my entire senior thesis on advocating for funding for higher education and that was how I was hired at Cornell University as the youngest by 10 years at the number 1 hospitality school in the world at an ivy league university in an Alumni Affairs and Development Department of 250 people with a $6 Billion endowment.

I share all of that not because I think it’s all that impressive, I just truly believe that the power of believing the absolute best in people calls them into a future and potential they may have never thought possible. It can change the trajectory of someone’s life, and I am passionate about being that same believer in others and have experienced how powerful that impact is in friendships, with my siblings, at work and my personal contentment in choosing to see all that’s wonderful in others and this beautiful world of possibilities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.qualityexteriorsatx.com/team/liv-mills

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livtheroofer/

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577864737945