Who am I and why am I qualified to be here?

Hello, and welcome to the very first episode of The Elevate U with Rebekah Podcast. I am so excited to have you here, I just want you to take a second to honor yourself for making this decision to press play today, you probably saw that the Elevate U Podcast is all about getting to that next level in life.

I just wanted you to take a moment and acknowledge yourself, because you being here just means that you are growing, you being here means that you are ready to get to that next level, that you are ready to do what it takes to create the life that you desire. So honor yourself for that, because not everybody spends the time in the personal development space that they need to. Not everybody spends the time investing their time in themselves, to be able to learn and grow. And you are doing that just by being here. So just take a second to honor yourself, acknowledge yourself for being here. And I am so excited to dive into this journey with you.

So the Elevate U Podcast was created to help you get to that next level, to be able to elevate your life, elevate your relationships, elevate your health, elevate your finances, and to break the cycles in your life that no longer serve you. We are going to be diving into all of the things over these this journey together. And I'm so excited to be able to do that because I have gone through this myself. I'm teaching this from a place of true wisdom. I'm not just sharing knowledge with you that I actually haven't applied in my own life. I am sharing knowledge that helped me go from a broke, struggling single mother to an abundant entrepreneur, living the life that I love and that I have designed.

I spoke this life into existence, just like I'll speak the rest of my life into existence, because I believe there's power in the word. So we're going to dive into all of the things we're going to be talking about how to reprogram your mind for success, how to get out of your own way to break those cycles, as we talked about.

But before we do any of that I really wanted to dive into my story.  Why? Because I think it's important for you guys to understand, who is it that you're learning from on this journey of elevating your life? Why am I qualified to be here? Why am I qualified to be teaching this information? What kind of struggles have I overcome, so that I can show you and paint the picture that if it's possible for me, it's possible for you. And I truly, truly believe that every single person is capable of creating the kind of life that they desire. And so I'm here to teach you exactly how to do that. So I want to start with my story. So that's what we're going to do today.

In today's episode, we're going to dive into my story where I came from, and where I am today. So you can see again, that it's possible no matter what your circumstances are, to achieve your goals and to live the life that you love. So let's just go ahead and dive right in.

Growing up, we were to say that we are poor would almost be an understatement. My mom was a single mother of seven children, and there were times that our lives were the only thing that we had was one another. We grew up in a very poor area of the United States. We grew up I went to McKeesport High School, so I grew up in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, which the last time I checked, don't quote me on this, but the last time I checked McKeesport was, I believe the fourth most violent, dangerous city in the US something around there, it's been in the top 10 for quite some time.

More recently, we were on the news because they were on Good Morning, McKeesport, when I say weeks I don't live there anymore, but the key spark was on the news for as COVID happened, right as COVID was taking place. And a lot of these schools had to try to hurry up and adapt to this digital learning. Right. There was a contest that Good Morning America ran. And I don't know all the details on it. But essentially, they were you could submit your school district and based on a certain level of criteria, you would be awarded laptops and Wi Fi for the whole school. Okay, because there's enough people who can't afford it in that area. And so McKeesport High School actually won that award, which is amazing. I'm so glad that that happened.

I love seeing that kind of thing take place, but it just kind of goes to show that because of the level of students who did not have access to the proper technologies to be able to work from us do school work from home, you can see that, because they didn't have those proper capabilities that Good morning, America actually provided that to the whole school district or however it ended up working out. But just to kind of paint the picture of, that's the level of poverty that is in that area. And it is very sad. And realistically, there's not a lot of ways out. What I mean by that is as children growing up in this area, there wasn't a lot of, there weren't a lot of examples of how to get out of this extreme poverty. And so this may resonate with you may or may not. But growing up in that extreme poverty place, a lot of times, you know, it's kind of like the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. And why is that? Right?

There's actually psychological reasons for that. But the habits and the cycles around money are typically repeated for generation after generation after generation. And that's a very common thing that happens. And the reason is because as children, we are learning certain things, we are learning how to be in the world. Okay. And we're going to dive more into this when we talk about the subconscious mind and how to reprogram it and why it's programmed certain ways. So we're going to dive into all of that in future episodes. But realistically, growing up, I grew up in a very poverty mindset home. And it's not to say that my there was anything wrong with my mom, or the way she raised us. That's not what I'm getting at at all. She did the best with the information that she had at the time. And she was just trying to get by, she's a single mom of seven kids, you know, and there wasn't a lot there. So that kind of paints the picture of the city that we grew up in now, we ended up buying our home foreclosed so so my parents, I say we I was probably three.

My mom and dad bought our home as a foreclosure. I think back then it was $20,000 or so that they bought the house for, it was a not a very nice place. And my mom actually ended up through the years, she turned it into a beautiful, beautiful home. But, you know, to sort of give you an idea. So our house was I mean, that's what we paid for it back then was $20,000 so, you know, this is essentially just to paint the picture of where we grew up, and what our lifestyle was like back then. And so my mom didn't work all of the time that I was growing up, because she was, well, I don't wanna say she didn't work, she worked outside the home, she was raising seven children.

So that's a plenty, plenty amount of work as it is, but I'll never forget that when my mom was when we were younger, my mom always taught us that no matter how bad we had it, there were always people who had it worse. And so the beauty of that is, I mean, when we were growing up, we knew that there was something different from us than the other children, just simply based on the material things, right, we always knew my mom taught us to be strong in our morals and our values in in our faith that was always at the top of our priorities as children, she always made sure that we were doing the right thing that she was teaching us those strong fundamentals. So we knew that we were good people. But essentially, you know, as it relates to other kids, when they would get the new shoes, or when they would get the new cool toys, or the new clothes. That was never something that we had access to. So there was always like this disconnect where we got along with other children really well. And we had lots of friends. And we were always in that place where we we got along with anyone, but we knew that there was something different, okay, because sometimes as children, you don't recognize what's actually going on until you get a little older. And then you can look back and say, holy crap, how did my mother raised seven children by herself, and keep a roof over our head and US have even what we did have, right? So back then it wasn't as apparent what was actually going on.

But now I look back and just I'm so appreciative for everything that she did for us to make sure that we had as normal of a life as we possibly could. But there were definitely some disconnects. And those became more apparent as we got older, but I want to just go back to the point where I was talking about shows made sure that we knew that people had it worse than us. So it was really important for my mom for us to do things That were volunteering, you know, volunteer work. So we would do volunteer work, we would volunteer at, you know, different shelters, and we would, we would go on these mission trips, and we would do things that really would give us this picture of what's actually happening in the world. So that even though, again, we had it bad, or we were, I don't wanna say had a bad, but we had it.

We didn't have it as great as some people, we could really see that, wow, okay, we have a roof over our head, food in our bellies, and a vehicle. And sometimes that was all we had and each other, which that was enough, right, because we really got to see what life actually looks like for people who are worse off than us. So that was ingrained in my mind at a very young age, that we are suppose to help others, I believe, even to this day, that that's a big reason as to why we're even on this earth. And so it's to give back and to help one another grow, hence why I'm here as well, helping you to elevate your life that was ingrained in me at a very, very young age. So I'll never forget, and I want to share a story with you guys here. Because I think that this is really powerful. And again, at the time, I didn't realize how impactful my mom's situation was, and what she was actually doing to make things work for us. And if you're a mother, you know exactly what I mean by that we do things for our children, I have a 15 year old as well. And so we'll get to that in a second. But we have children and we would do anything to to make their life a little easier, or to help them or to try to hide some of the pain and the things that we're going through. Because we want what's best for them, we want better for them than we had for us. Right? So we try to do a really good job of hiding things that they don't necessarily that we don't want them to see sometimes, because we want to protect them. Right. And so that my mom did a really, really good job of that as as as we were growing up. So I'll never forget, it was a Sunday morning. And this is before. My mom had the last two children. So she had five children to my dad, my mom and dad had five kids together. They got they went through a divorce. And then my mom had two more kids at a later date with her. Then husband too, she ended up getting divorced from him as well. So at the time, though, I was probably about four or five years old. All right. And it was a Sunday morning, and we were getting ready for church. Now my mom was it was really important for us to go to church in the back in those days, because she wanted us to have that foundation, right. And I do believe that, although I don't physically go to church anymore, I still have a lot of beautiful things that I've learned foundationally because of that, so I appreciate her doing that. But I digress. So back to the story. So I we were about Fiverr I was about four or five years old. And it was a Sunday morning. And my mom said to us, Hey, guys, we're we got to get ready for church. Okay, so this was sort of a routine that we had every Sunday morning. Here's my mom by herself getting all five children ready for church, right? We weren't always the best behaved. There was a lot of us. So, you know, just imagine that right? So she's getting us all ready for church. And then it dawned on her that there is there's no money for her to give in the tithing and offering plate this this week. Okay. Now, as I mentioned, it was really important for her to give back. Right? So we were giving back of our time, we were volunteering, we were doing different things. And so that was actually one thing that she was very adamant on was that I'm going to give back to the church. And I know people have different opinions on this. And I have different opinion on this as I get older as well. And I'm more cautious of I do live a very contributory life, meaning I give a lot to charity, but I'm very selective because I know that you know, people in organizations can't take advantage, right? So but just to kind of look at that church at the time, they were doing a lot of work in the community, they were we could see what was going on, right, we could see the level of impact that they were making. So it was really important for my mom to give back to the church even though she didn't have a lot to give. So I'll never forget, we are getting ready. And my mom goes, we don't have enough money, or we don't have any money to give in the offering plate today. And she goes but that's not going to stop me from giving. She goes alright guys, here we are. There's five of us and my mom and we're gonna have a scavenger hunt to see what kind of money we can come up with in the home. So she made a little game of it which I'll never forget because it was fun night it was fun for me. I had no idea the impact of what was going on at the time. She sends us on this scavenger hunt. And she goes, just literally, like, tear everything apart. If you have to look underneath the couch cushions, you know, look under your bed, empty out your change purses, you know, go through all of your stuff and just see how much money you can come up with. Because although this would be the last money to our name, we're gonna give it to the church today. She was adamant on that. And so we ended up going through the whole house, and searching for all the money that we could find. Okay, now, mind you, we had this white minivan that was going to get us to church and back. And my mom had even said at that point, we're not going to be using this money for gas, even though we need it, we're going to give it to the church. So there was just enough gas to get us to and from church. And that was it, there would not be any more gas in the vehicle for the rest of the week. But that was okay with her, she knew as long as we could get there and get home and she could give whatever money that we came up with, to the church, that we would receive it back. And she was not worried about that she had a very, very piece about her. So we went searching for about 1520 minutes all around the house. And she goes alright guys, come on back. So we walk into the dining room, and she goes empty out however much money you have. And let's empty it all out on the dining room table. So we're emptying our pockets and our change versus we're proud of how much you know, we've been able to accumulate all all of us kids, and we pour it out onto the table. And I get a little emotional here, so forgive me. And it was 76 cents. And at the time, you don't know what that means. As a mother of five children, to have no gas in your vehicle. And to have 76 cents to your name. Oh, sorry, guys. I've told the story a million times, and it always gets me. So she was adamant on giving that 76 cents to the church at that point who wasn't really going to help. But it was a symbol of her trust in God. At the time, she trusted that no matter what she was going to be provided for. And she would give her last penny to prove that that was how she felt. So I remember we drove to church. And you know, we got there, just fine church was about 2025 minutes away, we got there just fine. And we're sitting in the Pew, we're going through the service, they're passing around the offering plate halfway through or whenever they do it. And I remember her being nervous. And her holding the change, like tightly and really trying to kind of put it down because these offering plates were those metal offering plates that kind of like make noise, you know, if you put if you just drop all your change in it, she was she was embarrassed that she was only putting $.76 cents in the in the offering plate. But she tried to do it as quietly as possible. And I just remember that. And then, you know, we we moved on. And we ended up getting home safely. She was a little worried as we're driving home that we weren't going to have enough gas to get home. But we got home safely. Everything was fine. And we walk up to the front door. And in the front door, there is a card. And it was an anonymous card. And it had a note in it that said, you know Susan, who was my mother, Susan, God had, you know, however, I don't know exactly what it said. I mean, I'm trying to remember 20 - 25 years ago, but something along the lines of Susan, God laid it on my heart to bless you with this today. And it was like $500 in cash $300, $500 something like that again, long time ago.

But my point in telling this story is that I learned that's one of the most impactful things that ever happened to me as a child, because I recognized and realized a couple things from that event. Number one, how important it is to have faith. How important it is to trust that things are always working in our favor, whether we realize it or not. And to step out in that faith is so very important, because there are so many things that are actually going on behind the scenes that you and I will never know what actually going on. And when we step out in faith, then we can see on the other end, how much things will actually work out when we do that. So that was number one. Number two, I learned right then in there, that when you give, you always receive back. And so how real it is that karma and the law of attraction, what you put out, will come back. And most times it comes back tenfold. Right? And that number three is you can't out give God, the universe source, whatever it is that your beliefs are, you can't out give them right, you cannot give God that when you give to others, when you provide value to others, you will always receive it back. And so that was one of the most impactful events that ever happened as a child for me, because I realized those things. And I've never let those go. I have never let go the fact that when we give value, we will receive it back. But the important thing with that is that we don't we release the expectation. See, I remember my mom, not not ever thinking that she was going to get that 76 cents back. Not that it was a lot of money. But it was a lot of money to her. It was all she had. That was literally her 76 cents, like her giving someone 76 cents today, just to kind of fast forward for a second. She's in a much better financial position today. 76 cents today, I'm sure false through her person, you know, I mean, who even keeps track of $.76 cents anymore, right? But to her back then it was all that she had. That was it. And so her giving 76 cents back then was a hell of a lot bigger of a difference than her doing that today. Right. And so that was everything that she had. So when we give, we receive back when we give with no expectation of anything coming back, I remember her, she didn't have any expectation of that. And of course, she burst into tears and you know, $500 back then 25 years ago, so it's 2021 today, you know, that was a long time ago and $500 was a heck of a lot of money. Okay, for us, at least back then. So moving on, my mom ended up. As I mentioned earlier, she was divorced from my father, and was single for quite some time and then decided to get remarried. So she got remarried. And this was an abusive, mentally physically, emotionally abusive relationship and marriage. But before that happened before it turned sour, my mom had two more children. So there are seven of us total, and five to my dad and then two to my stepfather, but none of them could be any more or less my siblings. They're all I don't call them half siblings. They're all my siblings. Okay, and I am the second oldest child, and I'm the oldest girl. So I have one older sibling. And that's my brother, john. So there's john. And then there's me. And then there's Jeremy, my younger brother. He's 18 months younger than me. Then my mom got the buy one get one for you. So the twins. There's Brittany and Bethany, who are my younger sisters. There's Brianna. And then there's Stephen. So there's all of us. And realistically, my mom did an amazing, amazing job, despite her circumstances. So she went on to get married, she went on to get divorced, which was a good thing. They were married for about 14 years, she got divorced. But during that timeframe, things were very, very different in the household. So the beautiful mother that my mother is still beautiful. Okay, let me just clarify there. But the beautiful spirit that she had when we were growing up to back to that story, I was just telling you about the beautiful spirit that she had. And just the light that she shown off in her life was was so amazing. And when she got married and turned, it turned into this abusive relationship, a lot of that was hidden for quite some time. And so because there was so much going on behind the scenes in this marriage, and of course, as an adolescent at this time, you know, I had no idea of what was going on. All I saw was the tumultuous relationship and the tumultuous nature of things in the home things were very militant. Things were very difficult and it was A chaotic, chaotic household, let's put it that way. It was very chaotic once they once they got married.

And so for me as a, you know, 13 year old or so whenever they get married, I ended up, I was probably a bit younger than that. But I ended up around that time starting to rebel a little bit, okay, I was I always tried to be the best child that I possibly could be. I always was very intelligent with school, I graduated with, you know, high honors, I was voted most likely to succeed. And I think it was Middle School, you know, so I had lots of lots of like raw talent. But at the time, because of how tumultuous things were, I started to want to be away from the home, I didn't want to be around the family as much thing started getting very difficult with all of my siblings. And I wasn't the only one that rebelled. But I certainly did. And so, at the age of about 15, I met my boyfriend at the time. And we ended up started, we started dating, and even though I wasn't supposed to be, you know, with this with this guy at the time, I didn't really care because of what was going on in the home. And so I ended up at 17 years old, we ended up getting pregnant. And, you know, because again, I just I didn't feel like I could go to my mom at the time, she was so overwhelmed with a lot that was going on, with all the other children with everything else in her life at the time. And so I just didn't feel like I could go to her and I ended up getting getting pregnant at the age of 17. So when I told my mom, what was going on, she goes, Okay, you know, you're the mother, you're, we're gonna, we're gonna make this work, right, and you're gonna do what it takes. And so I ended up having my daughter halfway through my senior year of high school. And I went on to still graduate with high honors. And so that was important to me to graduate high school. And I knew that, although I didn't necessarily, I started getting to a place where I was almost depressed, where I was like, okay, things are so hard at home, things are so difficult things are so different. And now I'm pregnant. Right. And I was also in a tumultuous relationship. So there was a lot of lying, cheating, things like that, that were going on between the father of my child, and me, Well, I didn't, I wasn't the one doing the lying and the cheating, but that's neither here nor there. So with that relationship, that was also very abusive. But as you can imagine, you know, growing up in a house like that, you tend to repeat some of the things that you saw because you think it's normal. So I didn't really question the fact that he was, you know, cheating, and we were fighting all the time, and he was lying and doing all of the things because realistically, that was part of what I saw growing up. So I just I didn't know that, you know, we don't know what we don't know. And I've never really had been able to this point see an example of a healthy relationships. So I had no idea I just kind of thought that this was the way that things were

So I was very much so getting to the place where I was sad a lot. And once I got
pregnant, that had actually given me hope. Because I was 17. Lost, I was a child myself. And I was at a place where I said, this is something that's going to give me something to live for. And as sad as that sounds back when I was a child, I always remember that I always felt like I was, there was something more like I always knew at the bottom of my heart that I was destined for some level of greatness in this world. But because of the tumultuous relationships that took place, in my life, and because of the stress in the home, I sort of lost myself for a while. Right? Have you ever been in that place where you just don't know, you know which direction to go, and you just feel very lost. So that was where I was at that stage of my life. And when I got pregnant, I knew that this was it, I needed to get my shit together, so that I could make a life for this baby. And so I went on to deliver my baby again, halfway through my senior year of high school. So I went back and finished getting my getting my diploma so that I could make sure that I graduated high school. And I knew that I needed to get to work. So I started working right out of high school. And I started on the hamster wheel of life, right? So my mom was actually at this time, she finally went back to work after her second divorce, she went back to work, while not back to work, I guess, went to work, because she was a stay at home mom for the long the longest time. And so she went to work. And she worked for one of the local banks. And she has started a few years before I graduated high school. She was doing really well for herself. She started off as a part time Teller, and worked her way up to where she was making what I would have considered really good money at the time. And so I said, Well, why don't I just start working at the bank, right? Because she couldn't get me a job. Like I literally just knew that college wasn't an option for me. And I knew that I needed to start somewhere so I could provide a life to this little girl. So I went on, I she got me an interview, I got in the door. And that was all that I needed. I just needed the opportunity. Right. So I started working at the bank. And that's when the hamster wheel began because I started just working as hard as I possibly could. And literally, like I was almost like a sponge again, like I was a child like sponge where I was like asking anybody that would mentor and guide me. I knew that I wanted to create something beautiful for my daughter. And I'm like, just teach me what you know. And so I was constantly in this place of learning and growing. And I was getting promoted, I got promoted within three months of working at the bank. And I kept getting promoted year after year after year. And then probably about five years in or so I got to a place where I hit a plateau. At that point, I was making more and more money every year, I was doing really, really well. I was winning awards and different things, I was actually starting to feel feel like I had found something that would help me to really grow and really provide the kind of life that I wanted to live. And then I hit this plateau since about five years and where I just it no longer was fulfilling me. I wasn't I started really just and when I talk about the hamster wheel, I mean, I was like going and going and going, and I wasn't progressing. I wasn't actually seeing progress. I just was burning myself out. And I was confusing the movement in my life for progress, meaning I just kept going, going going, but not you know, recognizing that I'm not the Energizer Bunny, right? I can't just keep going and never run out of steam. And so it got to a place where I really started questioning. Do I want to be in this industry anymore? Do I want to continue to do this? I don't even this isn't fulfilling me. And I really started just questioning everything in my life. Because I recognized at that point that you know, I had a child so young, all I've been doing is just working and just doing everything that I possibly could to create a beautiful life and here I am like sis doc and although I was making decent money at the time, I was completely lost. And I just felt like the same feeling of of that that loss feeling that I felt during my adolescence where I'm like, What is the point of all of this, like, I've done nothing but struggle my whole life to this point, and there's got to be more, you ever have that feeling where you're like it, there has to be more than this, this cannot be wireless sent to this earth, just the freaking struggle like this. And I started seeing people being in the banking industry by that time, you know, I went from a part time teller to probably a loan officer by this point. So I was I was handing out loans and doing some investment planning and things like that at that time. And so I just remember seeing people who would come into the bank, and you start to develop relationships with your clients, you know, see them every day, in some cases, especially people who are retired, and I started looking at these people who would come in, and I'm like, you know, you're retired, you have live on a fixed income.

And you have nothing like other than a, you're living at poverty level, you know, you have no money saved in the bank, and you're struggling every single month to get by, and then 2008 hit. And I watched the whole economy collapse. before my eyes, I was in the industry that I saw people losing everything that they worked their entire lives for. I'm like, this cannot be it. Like this, isn't it for me, I can't live my life like this, I cannot go to work for the next 35 years of my life, 40 years of my life. You know, for a gold watch a retirement and die on average of six years later, which is this statistic. You know, I saw people who were as terrible as it sounds. I mean, I don't mean to be morbid, but 2008 was a catastrophic year. And people were losing everything, people were committing suicide, because they were losing everything that they had worked their whole lives for, you know, people were losing their homes losing their retirement benefits losing, I mean, the amount of loss that took place during this time, it just, it was overwhelming for me. So I really got to a place where I was like, I cannot live this way, I need to get out of this industry, I need to get out of Pittsburgh, I need to like something needs to change in my life like this is this just can't, I can't handle any more of this. And so at about around that age, around that time in my life, it was so much stress and pressure that I was under. And let me back up for a second, I was a single mother at this time, because the father of my child and I had only lasted about another six months after she was born. And you know, the cheating and the lies and whatnot, I just couldn't we couldn't continue that way. Now, just for the record, I do not harbor any ill will towards him as an individual, we were very, very young. So I just want to clarify that, you know, although he's not a part of our lives anymore, which is okay with me. He's I don't look at him as a bad person. And I want to make sure that I'm, you know, letting you guys know that I'm not bashing him as an individual. I don't think that there's, I don't think that that's necessary. We all choose our path in life. And then there's consequences to those paths. And so he's not a bad person, I don't have any ill will towards him.

We were just very, very young when we had kids. So anyway, back to this stage. So around that area of my life, I had just decided things were completely overwhelming. And I remember being at a place where I just couldn't handle that anymore. And by this time, I was over the age of 21. And I was never like someone who partied a lot. I was always really studious and never really succumb to any type of like peer pressure. I never tried drugs. I never really drank I never even cared to do any of that, even as a teenager. And then once I had my daughter and like I have to be responsible, but at this stage of my life, watching all the loss that was taking place, just looking at my life and wondering if I was even going to have a job after this, you know, because the financial industry was collapsing as well. And so it just became so much pressure on me and I didn't know how to handle it at the time that I turned to partying and drinking. I just made the decision that like you know what if I can't escape it on my own, I'm going to escape it with alcohol and partying so there was probably a good summer of my life where it was dropped my daughter off on Friday night pick her up on Sunday at my mom's and I was partying all weekend. Just to try To be able to get some relief from the mental pain that was going on in my life at the time. So I was really a child raising a child from the time that I was, you know, had had gotten pregnant. And so I don't blame myself for those things, I've actually very much so forgiven myself for the decisions that I've made as she was growing up.

Realistically, I, I share all of this with you to let you know that sometimes people can look at your life today. Especially when you're on the other side of these things and say, Wow, you really have it together, or it's easy for you to say, you know, because your mindset is so positive, or this and that. But I really want to share this stuff with you guys, because I want you to understand that it wasn't always this way. And me getting to where I am today took a lot of a lot of time to look in the mirror and figure out what it is that needed to heal within me. So that I could be the person that I was that I am today. Right. And so where things shifted for me was when I met my mentor, okay. And so there was a time in my life where again, I was still kind of in this place where I was recognizing and realizing that partying and drinking was certainly not fulfilling. My job wasn't fulfilling, I felt like I was trying to go from, you know, tumultuous relationships or situation ships, if you will, because they weren't really, you know, positive relationships from situation, ship, the situation ship, and trying to find fulfillment and all of the things, right? Because realistically, we as human beings, we want to feel fulfilled, we want to feel like we are doing the things we're always kind of searching for, what is it that's going to fulfill me. And one of the things that I always knew was that my faith was very strong as I was a child. And I knew that that wasn't lost. And I felt like it was time to sort of turn back to that, because for me, what I was doing wasn't working. Okay. So with that piece of it, I want to go back to when I met my mentor. So that's where I was when I met my mentor. And he came into my life. And he saw more in me than I saw in myself. And to be quite honest with you, I don't really care for him in the beginning, because he challenged me, he challenged all the decisions that I was making. He was somebody that I was working with. And so he I met him through the bank that I was working out at the time. But he challenged my decisions, he challenged the things that I was doing, he challenged me because he knew that there was more available for me, I didn't know it at the time, but he could see it, because he also had been through his own journey of life, and was able to create something amazing for himself as a result of doing the work, right, doing the internal work. So he saw more in me than I saw in myself, and he started working with me. And, again, I sort of challenged him, I sort of resisted it from the beginning, because especially when you're living from a place of your ego, which is we'll get into that in future episodes. But when you are living from this place, where, you know, you believe that you know what's best, and you're sort of close minded to what's going on outside of you and, and other people's opinions and perspectives and things like that I got to a place where I was so resigned, that I just really didn't want to hear anybody else's opinions. I really didn't think that continuing down this path of where my career was good for me. And so I sort of was resigned to and I was actually considering getting out of the industry completely. And I was I was very far along in that thought process. So when someone came along and told me that there was more available for me, and that I could really impact people's lives and help them on a deeper level than I was. I wasn't 100% open to it. So it did take some time. But I'll never forget, we sat down. And at one point, my mentor and I we sat down and we set something called SMART goals. Now SMART goals are something that I set with my clients all the time now. But back then that was the first time I had heard of smart goals. SMART goals are it's just an acronym for a cool way of setting goals, right? That helped to to make sure that you're setting goals properly. But we sat down and he explained to me SMART goals and we started looking at the future. Now this is the first time anybody had really done this with me. I never had someone come into my life and say okay, what do you actually want to create in the future? I never even thought about that before. I just kind of thought that like, I don't know, you know, you go to work, and I guess you work hard, and maybe things will happen. But that that was so far from where my thought process was. So when we sat down, this was amazing, because he had asked me a question that really changed the trajectory of my life, and helped me to see things from a different perspective. And he said, what kind of income would you make? If you could make any amounts of money in the world? And I just kind of like, almost laughed at it. Because I'm like, What do you mean? Like, you can't just go make any amount of money that you want? Like, aren't you caught? Aren't you confined to what you do? And, you know, that kind of thing. If you guys have been listening to me at all, or watched any of my Instagram stories, or any of my YouTube videos, or just even any of my content, now, you'll see that this is a very different way of thinking than I used to think. Right? So I think very differently now. But back then I'm like, What do you mean, if I could make any amounts of money? And so at first, I answered with $80,000, I'm like, I think I would want $80,000 I think any less than that. I would be living paycheck to paycheck, any more than that, I would be maybe greedy, because I always thought that like rich people were greedy, right. And so I didn't want to be greedy. I wanted to stay humble. I didn't want people thinking any differently of me if I made more money or anything like that. So I remember saying $80,000, and he just looked at me. Now I wasn't that far away from that amount of money at that stage of my life. Okay, I was probably like, 25 or so. And I wasn't that far away. And that wasn't a bad living. I wasn't making a bad living at the time for being where I was in terms of how much I was earning. I was I didn't have a college degree I learned from I just literally learned on the job. Right. I learned from mentors, I went and got certain licensing. So I did have some, some education through the banking and the different licenses I took and all that, but I actually didn't go to college. So for me, going to work right out of high school, and the poverty level that you guys heard me talk about earlier, to making the kind of money I was making at the time, I was actually pretty proud of myself. I'm like, I wasn't that far away from that $8,000 number back then. So I said 80,000. And he just looks at me, like, Are you serious? If you can make any amounts of money in the world, you would choose 80 grand like, can you dream a little bit here. And again, I never really had anyone asked me to dream bigger. So that's where I started. And then for some reason, I just said, Fine. I want something very tangible. How about $100,000. And I said, I'll make $100,000. And I had no idea of how it was gonna happen. Or if it was gonna happen, or any of it, I had zero idea. And so he goes, Okay, and then he goes, let's get to work. And he kind of like drops the mic, you know, it's like one of those Mic drop moments where he's like, Alright, let's get to work and drops the mic and walks away. And I'm like, wait, like, wait, what like that. It's that easy. And he's like, let's go. And so we developed a game plan as to how to get there. And it wasn't, what, nine months later or so that I had my first six figure year.

And so I don't say that to impress you, I say it to impress upon you that really it took me dreaming bigger. It took me actually seeing having somebody come into my life and saying, Hey, this is possible for you. Because it's possible for me, right? Because I believe, especially now that what's possible for one person as possible for the next. We don't actually just have like these, some people are talented with things naturally gifted. But research has actually shown that it's not the talent that wins out. It's the practice. It's the work. It's the inner work, it's doing the things, it's taking the action, when you don't want to take the action, it's actually moving forward, and having the proper strategies that are going to get you to your goals over talent every day of the week. 100 out of 100 times that work ethic is going to be the talent. And so that, for me was another very impactful moment in my life because I recognized and realized that the law of attraction was real, and that speaking things into existence was a very real thing. Okay, and so, in order to keep this episode at a length of time that you guys can absorb everything. I'm going to cut the story off there. And I'm going to go into on the next episode, I'm going to dive into what happened from that point. Okay, and where I am today, so that you guys can see the contrast because today I live a very different life. Okay? since that point, I have never gone below a six figure year. And my goal that I can see on my vision board right over there is my first seven figure year. So you can see how things have shifted quite a bit, right? From 76 cents, to our whole entire family's name, to having a goal of seven figures, that's very real, it actually attainable, Okay, at this space in my life. And so again, I don't say that to impress you, but I say it to allow you to see that it's absolutely 100% possible to create any kind of life that you desire with the right mentors, which is, by the way, why I'm so passionate about being here, because I had someone come into my life and say that I see more in you than you see in yourself. And I'm going to show you the way because I want to, because I feel like it because I can, there was really no reason that he had to do that the gift that he gave me as a result of doing that work, is something I will never be able to repay. The only way that I can repay it is by paying it forward, which is why I'm here. I truly, truly want to be that mentor. And that coach and that guide for many of you if you're open to it.

So having the right mentors, having the right strategies, having the right mindsets, having the right subconscious beliefs, and we're gonna dive into all of that stuff. And so I believe again, but it isn't the talent, and it's not your circumstances, okay? Because let me be honest with you guys, I'm gonna go back to where I grew up. If you look at where I grew up, and the poverty that I grew up in, there's no statistical reason. And I am the statistical anomaly to be where I am today. versus just repeating those same patterns. Do you see what I mean? So poor people typically remain poor, and rich people remain rich. And we're going to talk about why in these next episodes. Okay. But the idea is, how do you go from this place of being poor? And I mean, poverty level poor, right? To a place of where I am today? How do you overcome that? How do you get to that place, and I really, truly believe that it's all of those things that I just mentioned, having the right guidance, having the right strategies, having the right mindset, having the right subconscious beliefs, reprogramming, those negative thoughts and beliefs that come up. And this is all part of what I've done. This is all part of what I do every day. And this is all part of what I teach with my clients. I can't wait to share more with you guys. Thank you so much for tuning into this. I really appreciate your support. And I'm so excited to continue this story so you guys can learn about how I got where I am today. And then where I'm going because again, just the same way that I spoke that first six figures into existence. I'm going to speak the seven figures in and I want to show you guys how to do the same for you. I want to show you how to speak into your life, whatever existence that you desire, because I know that it's possible for you to I'll catch you guys in the next episode.

See you there!