Lillian and her husband Dave are the team behind Brummet Media Group, high-fiving cheerfully as they pass each other on the way from checking off one item or other from their long to-do list. Their business includes the Angle Hill Studio (drum teaching /repair services), The Brummet Media Channel (on Youtube), numerous award-winning books (on Amazon) and 2 very popular blogs.

Hi everyone! I’m Lillian Brummet and have been married for 33 years. We reside in the Kootenay region of BC (Canada), where we have been working on the home and property for 12 years. My passion falls in the realm of making a difference – our blogs feature non-profits and offers free resources, networking opportunities, interviews and more. We donate books, drums, gift certificates, to fundraisers and silent auctions locally, we donate 10% of the business income to charity, we adopt fur-kids from shelters or re-home situations, we grow 60-70% of the fruit, nut & vegetables and purchase the rest locally. Sharing processed foods and wine, syrup and juices made from items we grew on this property is a great way to cut down on the cost of purchasing gifts for every celebration there is, and people really seem to love the gifts. We share excess harvests with friends, neighbours and clients who then share their excess harvests with us in return. You never know when someone is going to drop off a box of pears or walnuts or something! It is a fun, organic, totally natural, casual thing. We gladly donate books, drums or gift certificates to local charities, fundraisers and as prizes to various events (ie conferences, festivals, fairs). Our business, too, focuses on creating positive change, helping others become more proactive in making the world a better place.

Following a dream, pursuing that goal, means that we are stepping into the fears and that vast ocean of self-doubt. Taking the uncertain journey, stepping into that unknown arena, means we are feeling that fear and doing it anyway.

By doing so we slowly become better at overcoming the inner judge, the inner critic and the inner saboteur. For me, well I’ve been on my own since before the age of 14 due to a broken family home… very broken. To survive I did a lot of odd jobs for farmers and garden nurseries – basically any thing they needed done, I’d do. These jobs were rarely in a group setting, so I became used to holding myself accountable and making decisions on the spot.

As time passed, I took on jobs in the fast food outlets, restaurants, newspaper outlets, and janitor genre services. Doing so meant I had to follow their rules, their policies and politics. I saw so many areas that were done incompetently that could be fixed easily – yet no one wanted to create change, to evolve or improve.

During slow times I was discouraged by others to find work projects, such as deep cleaning, because they felt entitled to stand around when it was slow. I found all of this really weird, awkward. One day while cycling to work a car hit me as they pulled out of a busy parking lot. That incident put me on crutches for 6 months and another 6 months of therapy before I was ready to work. The former job was no longer waiting for me, of course, but I felt a bit jilted by that because I had sacrificed so much for them and did anything they wanted or needed.

I learned that loyalty did not go both ways. It also meant that I would be starting at the bottom and working the way up the ladder somewhere else. I felt exhausted and depressed and started looking for alternatives.

There was a program happening at the time to help people start their own business, so I took the course and got the sponsorship (a minimum monthly allowance – just enough to get by for a few months) that helped me start my first business: Incredibly Clean. I loved being the boss, the one who made the decisions and being on my own. Sadly another accident took that business away, but it also created the first sparks that led to Brummet Media Group.

Truly, there is no such thing as one standard path for all to travel. Every one is unique and while much of the standard business operations and marketing methods apply, we have to tweak things to suit our unique situation. This means we have to look at many things from who we are as an individual and our unique situation at that moment – including our passions and the things we care about. We then blend that with the business plan, house policies, Internet presence, marketing efforts and events. Every business action must then represent what we have come up with. Imagery, colour design, keywords – everything. Second to that comes networking and keeping organized records for follow through and follow up activities.

“Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson