A Million Miles In A Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

Donald Miller is an American author, business owner, and public speaker. He was born in 1971 in Houston, Texas. At 21, Miller left home to travel across America with a friend. After their money ran out, they lived in the woods in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. Miller moved to Portland, Oregon, where he owned a small textbook publishing company called Coffee House Books. He grew up fascinated by storytelling, and his writing often focuses on Christian spirituality, faith, God, and self-discovery through a storytelling. Miller wrote about his road trip experience in his 2000 travel memoir Through Painted Deserts.

In 2003, Miller published the semi-autobiographical book Blue Like Jazz, which became a New York Times bestseller. The book is a collection of essays reflecting on God and Jesus Christ. Miller unpacks his growing understanding of God’s nature and the necessity of an authentic response to that understanding. The book is based on Miller’s experiences with friends and fellow students from Reed College. Miller describes grappling with spiritual questions as he and his friends struggle to find meaning in life. The book gained popularity among Christian audiences and the emerging church movement—a Christian movement in the early 21st century that embraced an evolving, deconstructed, and decentralized view of traditional evangelical doctrine. The memoir was adapted into a film in 2012 by director Steve Taylor. In A Million Miles in A Thousand Years, Miller analyzes the experience of adapting the memoir into a screenplay and its transformative impact on his life.

Miller has continued publishing books while developing his own business projects. In 2004, Miller published Searching For God Knows What, a book that expands on his views of Christian spirituality, discussing the connection between the traditional understanding of the gospel of Jesus and a theory of personality. Miller argues that Christianity is an invitation to a fulfilling relationship with God rather than a moral checklist. In 2006, Miller published To Own A Dragon, a book about growing up without a father. While reflecting on this experience, Miller founded the Mentoring Project, a non-profit initiative in partnership with local churches and communities focusing on mentoring children across America who grow up without fathers. The program works to ensure that kids graduate from high school, emphasizing support and intervention to prevent gang involvement, addiction, and teen pregnancy. As a result of the program, President Barack Obama invited Miller to serve on the presidential task force on Fatherhood and Healthy Families in 2009.

Miller has been coaching and consulting for more than two decades. He is the founder and CEO of StoryBrand, a marketing company that helps businesses grow. Based on the seven key elements of compelling storytelling, the company helps business clarify their message to engage their audience and connect effectively with customers. Miller owns the YouTube channel Coach Builder, supporting clients with the goal of turning their personal skills into successful coaching businesses. Miller has also published books on business development including Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message so Customers Will Listen (2017), Business Made Simple (2021), a guide for creating a healthy and profitable business, and the bestseller Building a StoryBrand 2.0 (2025), which analyzes Miller’s business development framework based on powerful story elements for business to grapple with the chaos of digital marketing. Miller is a popular keynote speaker who inspires small business leaders by offering practical messages and advice.