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May 3, 2023

202. Braving the Storm: Shametria Gonzales' Human Trafficking Story

202. Braving the Storm: Shametria Gonzales' Human Trafficking Story

Happiness Solved with Sandee Sgarlata. In this episode, Sandee interviews Shametria Gonzales. Shametria’s extraordinary story of transforming her life from being trafficked, and escaping extreme poverty to being a Founder, life coach, and real...

Happiness Solved with Sandee Sgarlata. In this episode, Sandee interviews Shametria Gonzales. Shametria’s extraordinary story of transforming her life from being trafficked, and escaping extreme poverty to being a Founder, life coach, and real estate investor is the inspiration behind her bold mission to teach others that it is possible to do the same. Today, fans worldwide revere Shametria for her mastery of teaching people how to accomplish unfathomable goals and tap into their limitless potential. Shametria has spoken on stages like the Zurich Classic, Dress for Success Worldwide Conference, and Grant Cardone 10x Growth Conference – just to name a few. Shametria has committed her life to provide women that have been trafficked with Homes for Grace and Unleashing people to speak all around the world.

 Connect with Shametria : https://shametriagonzales.com/   

Connect with Sandee www.sandeesgarlata.com

Podcast: www.happinesssolved.com

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Transcript

00:00:10 This is happiness solved with America's happiness. Coach Sandee Sgarlata.

 

00:00:21 Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining me today on So Happy You're Here. I'm Sandee Sgarlata. I was born in Virginia Beach and raised in the Baltimore Annapolis area and had very humble and tragic beginnings. And as a result, my life was a hot mess. Thankfully, 33 years ago, I got my act together and since that time, I have dedicated my life to serving others and raising awareness that no matter what you've been through, you can choose happiness and live the life of your dreams.

 

00:00:51 Happiness Solved is dedicated to giving you content that is empowering, motivational, inspirational and of course, a dose of happiness. It's my way to give back to the world and share other people's stories. This thing called life can be challenging and my guests share their amazing stories, wisdom and life lessons that demonstrate anyone can choose happiness. You see, happiness is a choice and the choice is yours. Today's episode is amazing and I am so grateful for you.

 

00:01:21 Thank you for listening and don't forget to leave a review and follow me on social media at coach Sandee Sgarlata. Enjoy the showmitria. Gonzales I'm just like starstruck seeing you again. We met in DC. I saw you on stage and I'm even getting choked up now just because your story is the most powerful story I have ever heard.

 

00:01:53 And before we hit record, I was like, I'm just going to let you share your story because you are just such a rock star and it's such a privilege to have you here today. So tell everybody your story because it's really incredible. Yeah. First of all, I just want to say thank you for having me here to be able to share the message. A lot of what I wanted to do as being on stage is get a chance to connect with people off stage.

 

00:02:23 The stage is beautiful, but it's the work that's done off stage. It's these conversations where we have a safe space to really dive deep into what it is that my story is about and how I believe that my life has changed so I can inspire and change others. These are the spaces that you created, right? So I just want to say thank you for create a safe space for me to be able to tell my story. My name is Shamitry Gonzales.

 

00:02:48 I like to say that I'm a small town country girl who had a really big dream. So as a young girl I grew up, I was born with crack in my system. So I felt like the fact that I'm even here is a miracle. So a lot of back sure in the was the crack epidemic and so a lot of kids had been born with crack. Most of them didn't make it, a lot of them were premature.

 

00:03:12 But for myself, I just so happened to be strong enough to pull through. So from then on out. Both of my parents were both addicted to drugs, so we kind of went back and forth. I'd stay here, I'd stay there. I got adopted.

 

00:03:27 Then I went to foster care. And finally, at the age of 15, I was like, I'm done with this. So I emancipated myself from the state of Texas, and I was like, Look, I already have complications, but I get two checks. Give me my money. I will get a job.

 

00:03:40 I will go to school. I will report back to you, and I will be an adult. And the judge was like, okay, we'll let you go. We see you. So I always had this fight in me.

 

00:03:51 So this went well for about maybe a couple of months. And I was working at Sonic Driving, which was right across the street from a place called Lewisville High School. So one day, these two girls pulled up in a car, and they were like, how much money do you make? I was like, I make $100 a day. I'm grown.

 

00:04:12 I live my best life. And I like to say there's predator, and then there's prey, and a predator always knows what prey to look for. So while I'm thinking that I have these friends, and I have these amazing women that want to look that took an interest in me and want to be a part of my life, and they lured me in by saying, look, you're young, you're pretty. That ain't enough money. You can't even survive with that.

 

00:04:38 If you want to make some real money, come with us, and we'll show you the way. I'm, like, took a little while, so they kept coming back. They kept coming back. Every time they came back, they were in a different car. They had money.

 

00:04:51 They would tip me well. They were really nice to me. So eventually, I'm starting to look at them like older sister figures. I had a volleyball game. I even invited them to my game.

 

00:05:01 They came, and I was like a lot of attention around them because you could tell they kind of look like strippers. But to me, I didn't really judge them like that because they were just really nice to me. So after that game, I just remembered them. I was like, Look, I'm so tired of working every day. I'm a student athlete, but I can't really take care of myself like that on the money that I make, plus be in school.

 

00:05:25 My whole thing was, I want to go to school, and I want to go to college and play a sport one day, because I was always a really good student athlete. So the girls were like, look, come with us. We'll show you what to do, and we'll make away. So I went with them, and I met this man named Snake. I didn't know what Snake was or what he did or who he was.

 

00:05:45 I just knew that he was like this father figure to the girls. He was going to be like a father figure to me. So Snake kind of was like, look, you're young, so we'll just have you waitress. So I'm like, okay, cool. I'll waitress.

 

00:05:58 How much money a day? He was like, well, the only thing is you don't have to worry about anything. You don't have to worry about car, house. You don't have to worry about nothing. All you have to worry about is just getting money, and we work together as a team, so when you make money, I get the money, but I take care of you all.

 

00:06:15 I'm like, done deal. That makes no sense to me. That makes a lot of sense to me. So long story short, this went on for about a year, and as time continued to go on, he was like, well, look, you're a little older now, so now we're going to be doing something different. And I was like, okay, cool.

 

00:06:32 So he was like, now instead of just waitressing, we're going to have you dance. I'm like, Well, I'm not old enough to do that. I don't really want to dance. He was like, well, look, with the family, everybody got to pull their part, and you're not making enough money. Psychological, again, I'm looking to this man as a father figure.

 

00:06:47 I'm like, oh, I'm not doing what? I'm not making you happy? I'm not pulling my weight. So I started dancing. Still didn't get any money, still was just kind of being taken care of.

 

00:06:59 So about a couple of months later, he's like, look, you're making some money, but now we need to go to the big leagues. There's this thing called Molly, and it really helps you to forget. So if you take it now, you could do the work, and you don't have to remember. I know you don't like people touching and stuff like that. I'm like, Makes sense.

 

00:07:19 Well, I'll do that every night. So it started to affect me because when I would wake up, just didn't feel right, didn't seem right. Like, I kind of remembered it started off one way, and then every night it was like I couldn't work out anymore. I was late for school. I started kind of felling out of classes.

 

00:07:39 And so I'm like, okay, well, something's not right because my body is changing. It's different. Just as a woman, it was different. So I'm having to clean myself more, and I'm just not feeling comfortable. So long story short, this goes on for a couple more months.

 

00:07:56 Finally, I'm like, I can't do this in school. So I drop out of school, continue to do the work. Then I find out I'm pregnant. I know I'd never give anybody consent. One thing be protected.

 

00:08:10 You'd be smart about it. So I told him, and he beat me up. He punched me, he slapped me. He taped my mouth closed. He put me in the basement, and he was like, you're stupid.

 

00:08:23 I was like, I messed up. How could I let this happen? I should have been smarter than that. And this went on for a while, so I did keep the child. I had her.

 

00:08:35 Her name is Avriana. She's 13. She's such a beautiful little soul. After that, everything was different. So I had the baby, and I was like, you know what?

 

00:08:45 I can't do this and not have a plan. So I was like, let me just finish my last semester of school, but I need to do it undercover. So I told him I was going to work day and night shift. So in the daytime, I still went to school. And at night, I was able to work and make enough money because I was, like, working back to back to back.

 

00:09:03 And I would say, I'm going to take it. But then I just was conscious of what was really going on. So you stopped taking the Molly? Yes, and I started smart girl. I started to see what was really going on.

 

00:09:18 Right. And there was three strikes and you're out. Right. So the first strike was the baby. I'm like, okay, I have a baby.

 

00:09:25 I'm by myself. Two, one of my best friends, we're going to call her Cinnabuns for the name. That was what they called her. Everybody had a name. My name was Addiction.

 

00:09:35 Her name was Cinnabuns. So I remember she took them. I didn't take them. So we went through the night, and everybody was like, sleep and stuff like that. So the guys left.

 

00:09:47 My job was to call and have the person come pick us up when everything was done. So I called, and I'm like, hey, Cinnamon, wake up. And she wouldn't wake up. So I'm like, freaking out. And I'm like cinnamon.

 

00:10:00 I'm slapping her face and stuff. So finally she kind of, like, started foaming, like, in her mouth. So I'm sorry. This is just like we have something called House Moms. They're like, Madams, they don't do any work.

 

00:10:17 They watch us. They make sure we're in line. So I call her, and I'm like, look, I don't know what's wrong with her, but I'm about to call the police. She was like, if you call the police, that's it for you. Don't you ever do that.

 

00:10:30 We about to come take care of it. That was the last time I ever saw Cinnamon buns. I don't know what happened. You don't know what happened to her? I don't know what happened.

 

00:10:40 But there was a pastor. I didn't know he was a pastor at the time, but he was one of my clients. He was undercover. Wow. He had been building a case the whole time.

 

00:10:51 I didn't know it, but he was just nice to me. He was like I was the only one who had, like, a little, you know, I talk too much. I'm a speaker. If you get talking, then he, you know, but he saw that in me. He saw something in me.

 

00:11:03 I was the only one who was in school. I was the only one who had this drive, but I still was doing this work, and there's no way I was going to leave Snake. I had loyalty, and now I know it's called survivor's remorse. That's the terminology that my counselor uses. But basically we went through all of that.

 

00:11:22 And that was strike too, because I started to see him different. Like nothing before that changed it. But when I asked about her again, my mouth taped. Put it down in the basement for three days. That's punishment.

 

00:11:35 No food. And that's kind of like so I'm like, okay, I can't ask questions anymore. Like I'm going to let it go. But I told my pastor about it, who at the time I thought was my client, and that was enough to build the case, because at that point now it's not just we're trying to get these girls out of this that are doing it, because he was trying to prevent me from getting a prostitution charge. I angle, which the sad part is basically that was enough to build the case.

 

00:12:04 So they come in, they raid the house, they lock everything down, they get the women. This breaks my heart. Every single woman except me got a prostitution charge. Yeah. So that's one angle to look at.

 

00:12:17 It number two, every last one of them, they shut the home down. They were misplaced. One of the girls committed suicide. When you take away all that somebody knows and the love of life, it's psychological. It wasn't that we thought that we were doing something wrong.

 

00:12:35 It was like we were a family. But those things that happened to me, so that was my strike three. I'm like, God, you helped me have a healthy baby. If I would have took what my friend took that night, I would have been dead, too. I can only assume that I've never found her.

 

00:12:53 I've looked out, nobody had family, so there was no cousin or mom to reach out to. And that's part of what they're looking for. Yes. And I have to share this because now people can be aware of what's in our backyard taken. It's not like pimp and walking down the street.

 

00:13:12 These are multimillionaires that have nice houses, nice cars. They weren't black and they weren't Spanish. I'll just say that so when you think of it, you think that this wouldn't happen, and in this community, but these are affluent men that are hockey players, basketball players, pastors, directors of organizations. And I'm going to send you an article in case anybody wants to read up on this. They just brought this ring down in February of this year, and that's the.

 

00:13:50 One that you were in. It's just a similar one. It's the same area, it's the same people. I won't say it's the same person. But it was a pastor, a youth hockey player, a director of a not for profit, a politician, and a director of a school that were all a part of this.

 

00:14:12 And I have the article, so I'd love to send it to you. It was in Frisco, Texas, which is one of the most affluent areas in Dallas, collieville lewisville all the area that I was in. That's crazy. I want to make sure the audience understands what you're talking about. You were, in fact, being sex trafficked, trafficking.

 

00:14:34 Because a lot of times people think because until I heard your story a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea this was going on because I was always under the assign. It's just lack of education. We need people like you talking to the young women and men. Yes. Because you think that it's being trafficked is being like, being kidnapped, and you never see them again, and they're being sold off in other countries and this and that.

 

00:15:04 There's so much trafficking going on right here in the United States, just like you said. Yes. And it's so important that especially the young men and women get this because they have poor upbringing and they don't even have to be emancipated like yourself or homeless. They could just have a poor family life, and they need something else. Yeah.

 

00:15:31 And I would say the three things that people look for, they look for kids who feel abandonment, they look at for kids who feel rejected, and then they look for kids that have no family. So those were the three criteria, and I didn't know that at the time. And then it's gradual, so it looks like it starts off one way, and then they finally get you. They don't just say, do this. They work you into it.

 

00:15:54 And little by little by little, they make it happen. So again, I will link that information for you, that article, because this is very big, and it solidifies everything that I'm talking about because now they understand what this really is, and they just got I mean, the whole thing from top to bottom. FBI did a full sting. They have more technology now to be able to uncover this. So kudos to that FBI agency.

 

00:16:21 Absolutely. Because this is time and again, I think a lot of people don't even realize that things like this are taking place right in our backyards. Yes. So, like like I I always tell people so after that happened, the pastor had me write my story to every HBCU in the country. HBCU stands for Historically Black University.

 

00:16:44 And they at the time had a lot of funding for women like myself who had went through poverty and kind of had been in situations where they were oppressed and had not the typical background, but they had a will to want to win, and they wanted to be educated. So for me, I just so happened to be a student athlete. So I got 28 scholarship offers. Oh my gosh. From all around the country.

 

00:17:12 I chose to go to Southern University, and I chose them because they gave me an apartment. They allowed me to red shirt. They gave me a full academic and educational scholarship I'm sorry, athletic scholarship. And I was able to go to college. I was able to graduate in six years.

 

00:17:31 I stayed there. I was funded the whole time. I did not share my story with anybody. I just told them that I was shmitria and that I was adopted. But I had overcome many things because at that time, I did not equate my story to being trafficked.

 

00:17:48 I didn't equate it even being pimped. I just equated it to domestic violence. So I finished college, started working as a community organizer. And if people don't know, barack Obama's first job was a community organizer. That's somebody who does work, that deals with politicians and deals with advocacy.

 

00:18:07 I worked with the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault. I had worked with the New Orleans Family Justice Center, which is a center for women who had been domestically abused. And then I worked for the justice and Accountability Center. And these are all not for profits. I was a servant leader.

 

00:18:22 I was changing my life. Like, I was so happy I had my daughter that time. I had gotten a boyfriend, and I had a son. And my life blew up when I was 27 years old. And I had done so much work that this group wanted me to come and do a story, do my memoir.

 

00:18:41 They wanted to do my life story, and they wanted to do it in the form of a play. So while we're there, we're about to do the play. We're trying to get everything figured out and worked out. And I have a group. It's called packerson's.

 

00:18:54 Hedge fund, billionaire hedge fund. They're there. They're listening to my story. I have a therapist there. I have the organization who's going to do the play.

 

00:19:03 And I tell my story like what I just told you. The play was about domestic violence. When I finished telling my story, everyone was in tears. And the woman who was writing the play, literally, she ripped up her idea of what she was going to write. And she grabbed my hands, and she was like, did you ever get any money for what you did?

 

00:19:29 I said, no, Ma'am. I was like, but I was lucky because he let me go, and he could have. And she just burst out crying. She was like, have you ever heard of the term trafficking? I was like, no, like taken.

 

00:19:44 She was like, yeah, like taken. I said no. I wasn't kidnapped. They just kind of tricked my mind. She was like, Were you locked up?

 

00:19:58 I was like, yeah. Everybody was locked in at night for safety. Everything she was saying, I was justifying. And finally she said, Shametria you were trafficked. He used your body to make profit.

 

00:20:14 And that is not okay. And you are not lucky that he let you go. You are blessed that they brought down that ring. I know this is hard for you to hear, but your story is so powerful, I cannot represent it and not tell the truth. And I was just like, for the first time, I had to come to copes with fact that it was not okay what happened to me.

 

00:20:46 And she said, don't be afraid of the monster in your story anymore. And I realized that I had monsters in my story and I was trying to protect them. And so this day, that day, it changed everything because I went home and I bald. I had written a book called The Reflection. I see.

 

00:21:05 I thought I was completely healed. I went to college. I did everything like, I thought that was behind me, and I thought it was just that I was beat on and sexually assaulted to have my child. And that was not it. So at the end of the day, that changed everything.

 

00:21:21 So I went from being someone who was advocating for others and I went on a journey to heal myself. And that's where everything started. So I started up this company called Unleash to Speak, because I felt like women like myself had a voice and that if they didn't know how to properly use their voice, their pain would be turned into profit. And I started going to every fundraiser I could in fundraising for women who had been trafficked. And I started working with different organizations, and I started to actually tell my truth and not be afraid if he was going to feel some way about it and actually shedding light on what this work was.

 

00:22:02 And I started doing Keen sex in the law to help women, safe dates and healthy relationships, to help young girls at schools to understand what a safe date and healthy relationship is so they wouldn't have to go through what I went through. And so that's what got me to the point to where I went to this thing. I started speaking and speaking and speaking. I'm like, I'm just going to be a speaker. So I started doing all these conferences and workshops and training, and that's what got me to this organization called Ten X Stages.

 

00:22:28 And they have this thing called the Great American Speak off. And it's like for anyone that wants to know, it's basically the American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance, but for speakers. And so I'm like, no one's going to care about my story. And I just so happened out of 30,000 people to be the only woman to make it to speak at Growth Con. And I told my story in front of gurus and people, and I don't know exactly what network it's going to be on yet.

 

00:22:56 And I do have an NDA so I can't say too much, but let's just say that the story that I was not aware of, that I didn't even know was my true story and what it really represented is basically what I'm using as a speaker in order to change the world. Because changing the world means that you change people's perceptions on truth, and you can only do that through telling your story. That's true. That's where I met Sophia Willetts, who is a very big mentor to me and amazing. Are we ready to bring her in?

 

00:23:30 Yes, we can bring her. I love having first on my podcast. All right, we are going to bring in Sophia Willett. And so tell us a little bit about Sophia. Yes.

 

00:23:41 Sophia Willett is my mentor. She is my sister. She is like a best friend to me. We met at the Great American Speak Off, and she actually had a foundation called Home for Grace, and that is a not for profit where women she had bought a home for women who had been trafficked. And she was looking to come there because she was a huge real estate broker.

 

00:24:03 So she was looking to come there and basically just start her pitch on how she can basically get her message out to the world that she had made millions in real estate. But it was so much more than that. Hey, Sophia.

 

00:24:18 Sorry, underdressed for this beautiful event, but I'm so glad to be here. You look amazing and nice to meet you, Sophia. Nice to meet you, Sandy. Thank you for having me. Of course.

 

00:24:31 I was just saying this is a first. I love this. I love spontaneity. Yes. Having an extra guest.

 

00:24:40 Look at you looking all fly. Love it. She's so beautiful. I know. Inside and out.

 

00:24:46 And that's hard to find nowadays. Yes, for sure. So basically the point I was at Sophia was telling her that I had lived a life of advocacy work. I had found out what had happened to me. I had been saved from being trafficked, and I was ready to share my story with the world.

 

00:25:03 And you were this big broker who had made so I was telling them that you were a broker and you had come to the Great American Speak Off to be able to share your story and to really empower women to be financially free. And I had been in advocacy work all my life, and I was a new real estate agent. And I was basically going there to try to tell my story, to help women to be empowered that had been trafficked and to really break through and kind of like, still just crafting my own story of being empowered. To say that I didn't know too much about financial freedom. I didn't know too much about real estate.

 

00:25:39 And then you, on the other hand, who had this beautiful story of why you wanted to help women in your own life, you had went through some things. I'll let you share that if you want, statistic wise, why your heart had went out for women that had been trafficked and you had just bought a home for them. So me and you, I spoke, she spoke, and we were like, we have the same mission, literally. Yeah. It was such a beautiful moment, and we're both vulnerable to be able to go out there and put ourselves out there, which is not easy to do, especially in front of thousands of people.

 

00:26:17 And for me, I had went through a big transformation. I've been very successful in sales for many years, but not necessarily in relationships. And so had a very hard upbringing, a lot of abuse, and then you get into from an abusive relationship with your father to a violent one with men, and so you don't know how to break out of that cycle. So I have a great relationship with my dad now, but it took me years to get there. But I would show up my relationships very masculine, very dominating, and doesn't work in marriages.

 

00:27:00 I've had a past failed marriage with two kids, but the financial freedom part I was able to get out of an abusive relationship because I was able to be financially independent. So it's exciting to be a woman and not be dependent on a man, but not say that I don't need one, because we all need to be with someone that built us up and wants us to be the best version of ourselves and a team. For me, it was hard to break out of that cycle. I just continued those same patterns in my new marriage. And it took me going to a Tony Robbins program, and it cost me about $100,000 to go to this mentorship program for one year.

 

00:27:48 And it was the best investment. I found my purpose, I learned how to show up in a relationship, I learned how to become the best version of myself. And that really inspired me to create the Home for Grace for survivors of trafficking.

 

00:28:04 I think the biggest thing is since COVID it's gone up about 153%. The average age in our state is 13 years old. The national average is 17. Being Demetrius, she has a 13 year old. I have almost a 13 year old, or she's going to be 14 soon, right?

 

00:28:24 Yeah. Okay, so we're in the same boat. I have a ten year old son. I think by the age of twelve, they've all been exposed to pornography at such a young age and on social media, that's how they're targeted. It starts there and it really hit home for me because it affects everyone.

 

00:28:47 It affects every marriage, every relationship, every family and child with a click of a button and you can see some pretty nasty stuff, or you can get anything in an instant. And I'm like, man, what if we created an awareness called let's Start at. Home. Like home for Grace. Let's raise our standards at home by not opening up pornography, telling your children how to not be predatorized, or how to do safe dating, having a higher standard home because it starts there.

 

00:29:23 Once we can start there, then I think we can have more of an impact on home. Because every day people are just looking for love. And maybe they haven't had the right upbringing or the right background, but these are from my past 40 years of life. I've learned how to navigate through some really bad relationships, how to get on healthy ones, how not to be unhealthy in a relationship like myself showing up personally. So I've just learned a lot over the years and now I'm just attracting that light.

 

00:29:58 And I think that's why me and Sumatria really connected very well because we wanted to be that light for the world, for these really dark places that are out there right now. And it's going on. This is continuing to get worse. But if we can make a difference just starting at home and then providing homes and resources for survivors of trafficking, and then being able to get apartments where they can actually transition out of our program. So our goal is to have a twelve week program and then have a then what?

 

00:30:30 Which is an apartment. Because a lot of these programs will last like, I think a month or two. They're right back on the street. Like, how are they going to be able to support themselves? Right.

 

00:30:41 And that's part of the problem with rehabilitating people. Whether they come from the prison system, homelessness, it's like they need those skills and the skill set in order to continue. Right, yeah. And to help deal with the issues that got them there in the first place. Yeah.

 

00:30:59 And I feel like Sumitria has an incredible coaching program to speak and she's getting people together to do a retreat healing. She's really working on the back end. I'm working on I do commercial real estate. So the apartments is where I'm very gifted at. And I've done about 1000 different transactions and I've done about 16 different buildings myself.

 

00:31:29 Personally, right now I'm becoming a government contractor. So I'm going to be able to pick up properties from the state and be able to give these women a more of a permanent type of situation to get homes. And Dimitri is working on the healing part. I'm working on the mentorship part for people that want to get into real estate. Like, Dimitria is our first sponsored guest and she's learning the commercial real estate game to really become financially independent.

 

00:32:01 How to sell apartments, how to buy apartments, how to invest in them and create another way of legacy and an empire for herself and her family. So the part that I was at that actually loops in really good because I just got to the point of this is where everything shifted for me, sophia, actually, after that event, Sophia brought me out. When I saw her there, I was like, look, you have a very good presence. You have so much class. I feel like men still kind of come at me with that low vibration and make me feel like a piece of meat almost.

 

00:32:35 And she was like, look, don't worry. I got you. She brought me out. We did some business etiquette coaching. She got me a full wardrobe.

 

00:32:45 She helped me. She took me to the apartments having hands on approach, and I had to bring her on here because a lot of times there's a strong man behind somebody. But I had a strong woman behind me, and I have strong women behind me. And it's only right that we show that, and we show up because, yeah, we need a man as far as that family dynamic and that love goes. But when you really want to persevere and you want to push through and you don't have one, you better believe there are some strong women that will step up and that'll be there for you.

 

00:33:14 And everything that she wanted to do, whether it was teaching financial literacy to me, business etiquette, whether it was bringing me to her family and her home and giving me a safe space to just be a woman, and to just giving me a sister showing love, it really is a full around. Like, it's not halfway in all the way, like one in, one out. It was all in. And we worked, and we're working right now. I'm working on the retreat.

 

00:33:42 She already bought the house, so we're working on getting the house, getting the women, actually, to the house, and then we have a program for them. And then she's working on the back end to get the apartment so when they finish the program, they can go into the apartments. She's teaching me multifamily real estate, so now we're working on getting me a deal. And it's just this wraparound beautiful co partnership and co creation of something that is bigger than us, and it just takes one. And that's my message to people today.

 

00:34:11 Remember, I think at that event, at her story, summit circle, one of the ladies actually said, it just takes one good friend, because she didn't have any friends. And I think for Sophia, she had some women friends in her life, but they weren't aligned with her vision and her mission. And for my yeah, they unfortunately stood me up on my birthday, my grand launch of my sponsorship program, and I was just like, I'm so proud. But what I didn't expect was I initially was like, hey, you'll be the face for home, for Grace. You're beautiful.

 

00:34:45 I love your story. We did some videos. We got her a makeover, got her some new clothes and stuff, and then we just became I don't know how to describe this like family over just a period of time. And then I was like, man, this girl's a BA. Because she yeah, okay, so I don't have a college degree, but I know how to make money.

 

00:35:12 But she's pretty much done with her MBA and she's ran foundation. So she was my missing component of putting all our structure together. I just had a really big dream and I invested a quarter million dollars into my foundation. I'm like, how do I make this work? Now I'm just going to these events.

 

00:35:34 But I didn't have my missing half. And you need partners and teammates to get there faster in life. And I feel like she's more than a teammate. She's my family. And we're going to help thousands and thousands of women.

 

00:35:47 My goal is to at least get a million units. I know it sounds like a really big goal. It's okay. You've got to have those big goals, Sophia. Yeah.

 

00:35:55 When we did our courses in Oakland, dimitri stayed out for an extra day because she was a speaker. I think it was fear into faith. It was my first sermon. Yeah, it was her first sermon. So she stayed.

 

00:36:11 I went home. But that night, God was definitely with her in that moment because she met the mayor of Oakland. They have 5000 units abandoned. Yes. And they can't get investors to buy them because there are so many rules in California, there's so many regulations.

 

00:36:31 And then when you buy a property, you have to pay 3.1 third of the sales price in tax. So it basically eliminates your cash flow when you're going to invest into a property in California. Plus you have rent restrictions. An investor pretty much can't rebuild. But Oakland has such a high homeless program.

 

00:36:50 But Shametria has just put in out her light that night and they noticed her. They invited her to sit. Once we get our program in place, we could get those 5000 units and maybe the state will give them to us because I'll be a government contractor at that point. And why wouldn't they, right? And I think the beauty part of that is sometimes when you show up, your gift will always make room for you.

 

00:37:15 Literally. I had went to Sophia and them had took me to the restaurant the night before. So that's another thing. Your level of excellence is only as good as your level of exposure. So I was exposed.

 

00:37:26 Really nice restaurant. Normally I'll just be like, let me get some Uber eats. But something was like, just go back there, go by yourself. Go treat yourself like you've worked so hard. Go get you something to eat.

 

00:37:37 I'm sitting there and this person comes up to me and they're like, hey, how are you doing? I'm like, I'm nice and friendly, like, oh, I'm doing good. We start to talking and they're like, wait, think you need to meet somebody. So I go over there. The whole time, I didn't even there was a mayor.

 

00:37:52 So I'm sitting there talking. We got all these people, this band, they had just performed for the mayor. This band had performed, so they were there, and the band was talking, like chitchatting and stuff. Then we started talking about my mission, and I started telling them about Sophia and what I'm doing with Growth Con and all this stuff, and they're like, I don't even think you know who you're talking to. They started talking numbers in units.

 

00:38:15 They're like, look, we need to get these units sold. Nobody wants to buy them. So the next day, I call Sophia. I'm like, you will never believe who I met. So it's just a part of just show up.

 

00:38:24 If there's anything I could say in my life as we wrap this up, because I know we have to be cautious of time, but in my life, everything that I have done has been because I showed up in the room and I didn't show up like somebody else. I didn't show up saying, I'm a multimillionaire and I'm doing this and I'm doing that. I showed up saying, hey, I don't have that much, but I have more than enough, and I'm grateful for what I do have. And this is my dream. And everybody who's supposed to be there to support that, everybody who's supposed to be there, all of my friends, everyone who's in my life right now, it came through.

 

00:38:56 Manifesting my dreams by just speaking it. I just told the truth. I was not afraid anymore. I don't care about what people think about me. They can judge me.

 

00:39:06 They can say, oh, she doesn't matter. None of that matters because there are women. Don't forget your vision board. Your vision board. No, I literally have my vision board right here.

 

00:39:15 Look. Since I have this little cool thing.

 

00:39:21 It'S a little blurry, but that's okay. It's blurry, but that's where it's at. I love it. Both of you ladies, what you are doing just gave me chills, and it took everything that I had not to start bawling my eyes out, because it's just, like, amazing. Thank you.

 

00:39:40 It's just unbelievable what you two are creating, and I'm so grateful to be able to share it with my audience. Sorry about the cat. The cat is showing up because the cat knows that we're talking about some really amazing things and it wants to be a part of it. You would nurse my baby and she would lay next to me, and then she would go like this with the baby. Yeah, my baby is two and a half now, but she's still very attached.

 

00:40:11 So embarrassing. I will make sure that you're actually where can they find out more about homesforgrace or homes? Homes for Grace. Yeah. So we have homeforgrace.org that is Hmeforgrace.org.

 

00:40:28 And they can go there. They can find out all of our information. We actually have an event where we're doing a fundraiser. Sophia has this new amazing program called Learningappartments.com. The program that she's teaching me to empower other women financially, to be able to be able to get past the rat race.

 

00:40:49 And really, I mean, she gets three to 500% returns. Like, my mindset isn't even thinking little anymore. Like, I'm thinking big because there's big things out there. So we're actually launching that on April 13. And so we're going to be given all of those proceeds to Home for Grace so that can be found@learning.com.

 

00:41:08 What is that website again? Learningappartments.com. Okay. That's where they can find out more about the program, but it'll also be on Homeforgrace.org. And then for myself, I have Shimetria Gonzales.com.

 

00:41:22 Everything's going to be to that as well. So me and Sofia partner in almost everything that we do, literally everything.

 

00:41:31 It's shmitriaconzalez.com. So it's just my first name, my last name, and then and then again, we are doing Brace Ministries. That's going to be on YouTube. It is so many things that we have going on with all of it with the same intention. I feel like when you have the right intention, you don't have to worry about attention.

 

00:41:51 No. Yeah, not at all. We are so excited and grateful to be here with you. And I don't know how I got to be on your, I mean, obviously demetria, but just you choosing her. I choose her, too.

 

00:42:12 I just want to bring so much love because she deserves it. Yes. And I want people to love her the way I do. Well, I tell you, she's one of the most amazing woman I have ever met. And I am going to be here in the sidelines watching you and cheering you on, and I will be here to support you in any way that I can.

 

00:42:36 And both of you ladies, thank you so much. I will make sure all of this is in the show notes so that people can find you and support you as well. And just thank you for what you do.

 

00:42:47 Really incredible. We need to step up and might as well be us. Absolutely. And thank you, listeners for joining us today. Really appreciate it.

 

00:42:58 Thank you. Have a good one.

 

00:43:11 I certainly hope that you enjoyed today's interview. Thank you so much for joining me. And as always, I hope that you and your family are healthy and safe and that your lives are filled with peace, joy, and happiness. Take care, everyone.