S6 E22 | If you don't quit...

This whole podcast is a story. It's a journey. One woman's dream of stopping evil, saving lives, of creating remarkable ripple effects all over the world. And we hear another episode of how that girl's dream comes to fruition. Speaking of purpose, am I allowed— are we allowed to talk about greatest purpose that both you and I have? Like that number one, numero uno?

Well, this is our podcast.

Yeah, it is, right?

We can do whatever we want.

Aerial Recovery. Oh my gosh, have we blown up.

Thank you for being a board member.

Yes, ma'am.

You have done so much for the org. So I did not just ask him to be a board member because we're friends and we have a freaking awesome world-changing podcast together.

And I'm really good looking.

But he has raised so much money through your for-profits by backing this cause. But then you've also been such a hero to our heroes. One of the coolest things that we want to arm them with is learning how to be financially self-sufficient and financially abundant. And I always ask them, hey guys, selfishly, why do you think we want you to be rich as crap? Uh, I said, so you can come Work with us whenever you want. You can serve, you can come save, all those things. You have that time freedom, and you also have that financial freedom to be able to make these kinds of decisions. And so it's been really fun. It also keeps our overhead down if you can do it for free. So, you know.

And a lot of them want to. That's the beautiful part. A lot of them really, really, really want to.

They want to. And so he has given them so many stock classes. I know you've given hundreds of hours of one-on-one mentorship time. You've just been a great leader for our initiatives and champions. So we really appreciate just all you've done to serve with your time, your talent, uh, and all of your resources. It's been amazing. So it's been nice to bring you onto the board and give you so much more of an inner circle view of how to help us grow because we are a board-governed nonprofit.

Yeah. And, and we're still early in the game as well.

Yeah.

Right. Like we're still figuring things out.

Always.

But we're doing a great job. And the amount of impact and the amount of evil that we stopped and lives that we saved last year.

It's been the most growth ever. And it's so funny when, you know, we had some people try to attack us, which we'll get no airtime to talk about them. But I wanted to share that because it's always not the funnest thing. I do not get Motivated like you on haters or whatever, or people questioning my character. I don't like that. And because I'm like all heart and it's all on the table and I do this for free. And so it's not fun, but in it all, I kept speaking, God, you got to show me the blessing in this because it feels distracting. And our, our house is so in order. We were so positioned for growth. And then we did, like quick too. My dream this whole time was to be able to stop trafficking. And specifically since last April, our anti-trafficking has blown up. We have access in so many different countries and we just put together our first U.S. proposal because it's just never been able to happen where we can work with this country's government to really stop it here.

Wow.

America's been— America and the UK are pretty closed at working with outside groups besides their own. government groups, but we have public-private partnerships in all these other nations to support them with our knowledge, with our resources, with our equipment, with our teams, and they all are so grateful, and now they're calling us. It used to take 10 years to get into one country, but this year we've had 7 countries call us and ask, can you please come in and help us stop our children from being sold? So it's a huge honor, and then we just submitted our first proposal to be able to do this in the United States. And so, come on, really cool dream come true that this year we will be the largest anti-trafficking org in the world for rescues.

Yep.

For actually going and doing the rescues. There's definitely bigger orgs than us.

Yeah, of course.

But that's a really cool dream come true. And at the same time, really freaking heartbreaking.

Why so?

Because we're way too small to be the only org that does things the way we do it, the scale we do it. We're really, really small.

Tiny.

And there's hundreds of millions of dollars, billions, sorry, there's $150 billion a year being made on trafficking. And we have found children as cheap as $7 for 24 hours being sold. So it's not like it's a billion dollars each. Like, this is a really big problem. We need a lot more resources to be able to actually crush the head of this snake. It's a big deal. So keep us in your prayers. Um, this is some of the darkest darkness. We've chosen to take on multiple darknesses, which is straight up dealing with suicide.

Yeah.

Dealing with people who have either attempted or committed to suicide. And we are, we are creating different suicide prevention programs, but our most successful one right now is Heal the Heroes. The whole program is a suicide prevention program, and we've got some cool stuff coming out this year, but to have them not only not want to kill themselves, but see themselves as how I believe they were called to be, which is actually as heroes who are qualified and capable of saving lives and stopping evil. Giving them the opportunity to serve is our program. Yes. We're not out there building houses. We're not out there, you know, giving a bunch of random jobs or college degrees or any of that. That's, those are all important. But our actual path to healing is by providing them access to serve. So it's a really cool recycling program. They have, it saves their lives to go save lives. It saves their lives to go save lives. But, uh, but yeah.

And it does work. It does a lot of internal work. It does a lot of shifting. For a couple minutes, talk about the Divine Nine.

Oh man. We just had the Divine Nine, which is Platoon Nine out on island.

9 platoons, Brittany.

Nine platoons in.

Ten coming up.

Nine platoons in, and we we came up with this program because of the struggles that my husband went through with the retirement process and feeling like he might be lost, you know, not having purpose, and then also being told that you're broken, you're disabled, you'll have all these problems with PTSD, TBI, da da da da da, and then having that identity shift and just watching. Man, as an entrepreneur, I challenge everything, but like, as a government employee, they believe them. I was like, whoa, you just believe what people are telling you?

Yeah.

But you know, it's hard. They're actually trained to take those kinds of orders. And so, to work to undo all that mental damage and to let them believe in themselves by seeing what they're capable of and understanding their mission is not over has been absolutely critical. So, we had our 9th platoon, platoon 10's coming around the corner, so excited. And we many times pick people who, like I said, have either attempted or are planning the end of their life. And we have not lost one.

Yes.

Yes. And that itself is a miracle. It really is a miracle. I'm so grateful because again, we've even had people come on the chats and say, goodbye, I'm out. And we've been able to come up with strategies because it's still a cry for help.

Yep.

It's still cry for help. We've been able to get people to them fast enough to where they don't. So Divine Nine, they came out and we had some of the most battle-hardened men I've ever seen in my life, just covered in tattoos from head to toe, head to toe, not even a spot left except for like this part of their face. Yeah.

Yeah.

And about halfway through the event, one of them said, I've never believed in God before, but I feel him here. Can I get baptized? I don't really even know what that is, but I know it's something about like washing away the old to walk into the new. And we actually have a chaplain come to these events. And he said, yeah, and then 8 more. Oof, I got chills even saying it. I'll cry.

8 more.

Has to be baptized. That was so cool. It's so cool to see when you don't give up how God will use you, just like your wife is. I've never even thought of that before you said it. Like you said about Svetlana, is things aren't happening to you or for you, but through you, which is so cool. And the island story itself, and all the highs and lows that came with, like, listening to God when I didn't want to be a real estate person, listening to God when I Took on these really challenging, dangerous neighborhoods, listening to God about the crazy idea of buying an island, going through a hurricane, going through COVID, not quitting, even though it looked like I should quit, and how hard that was on every level— alone, as a female, financially, all the things. It was so tough. But when you don't quit, the ripple effect of your life, it's so much bigger than you. You quitting is so much bigger than you.

Yeah.

Because 9 Men who have really struggled with addiction and a whole list of things, but mostly even wanting to live, chose to wash away that identity. And one of them is actually here in this house this week.

Mm-hmm.

Wash away the old man and to step into all that God has for them. And it was one of the most cool moments of my whole life when they raised their hands up, covered in tattoos, like I said. And then each one was actually, um, They would stay in the pool and put their hands on the next guy. And so there's 9 men. And we just stayed there for hours. And it was so beautiful to just watch God meet people.

Yeah. It's remarkable.

It is. It's so cool. And you're just part of something. If I could share one thing to our listeners, you're part of something just so much bigger. Dang it. And it's not going to be perfect. Your attitude matters. Your perspective is going to absolutely lead to your level of joy throughout all of this process. But if you do not quit, you win. If you do not quit, you win. You're going to have good days, bad days, people are going to turn on you. But it's not about another human's opinion or perspective of you. It really is important that you take the time to hear God for yourself. And to continue to be guided so that you can make these decisions because at 12 years old, he might've planted the seed in your heart that you're going to go rescue kids from trafficking. And at 36, you finally get to kick in the freaking door and arrest that piece of crap that's doing it. And to use that entrepreneur brain that you thought God was doing this with your world and it didn't make any sense, but then he's saying, remember when you learned this in business?

Yeah.

You're going to use this to unravel entire trafficking freaking networks. I taught you to think so different, right? And it's going to take this specific brain in this specific girl's body. I took you here and made you this gender for this reason, to be able to have this breakthrough. So stop freaking questioning it. Stop thinking I made you wrong and start walking in all that you are.

Come on. I loved it. Thank you. And what she said a moment ago, right? Simply this: do not quit and you will win. Do not quit and you will win. Which is awesome because you and I were going back and forth. Me and Brittany were going back and forth like, are we doing another one?

It is every year.

I don't know why. We do every year. Like, are we gonna do another Broke to Woke? It's like, it's so much time.

A lot of time.

And energy.

Costs money for us.

And money. We have kids.

We got kids. We don't live around each other.

We're flying across the country. There's all kinds of things going on. Woke, it's a weird thing. Oh my gosh. And then we do an event together or a summit together. And every single person on this island is like, we're here because of Broke to Woke. And because you Just pour out your heart and let us know what your soul looks like. And I think that's really ultimately our objective is we're people, family. Me and Brittany are just 2 people.

Super imperfect.

So imperfect. We have so many flaws. We have so many mistakes. But we do not quit.

That's right.

And if we don't quit, we win. And for every one of us out there, for every single person listening, do not quit. Because if you were shown what's really gonna happen, you wouldn't believe it. And then you would just stop because you're like, that's not me, that's not my life.

It's too big.

It's too big.

Can't be possible.

6 years ago, neither one of us know each other. And ironically enough, none of this is happening, right? Like none of the AeroReel, none of the Heal the Heroes, none of the AeroReel Recovery, none of the stopping human trafficking, like our purpose and stepping into it, and the educational components and the real impact. Just keep going. For anyone out there, whatever you're facing, whatever struggles you're facing, just keep going because it's worth it.

And you're worth it.

And you're worth it.

You are worth taking the time to have a plan. You are worth taking the time to have a vision, to ask yourself important questions, to decide what matters and to know that putting up with bad behavior does not have to be part of your future. You are worth fighting for. And I want you to start fighting for you first, because you're going to teach the rest of the world how to treat you.

Keep going. And ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, heroes and sheroes from around the world, we'll see you again in season 7. Let's be honest, you love this podcast. It's amazing. We love you. And we want to continue to help you succeed. You see, both myself and Brittany, we do connect with individuals, and we really dial in, help them expand their purpose, understand their impact, grow their wealth, grow their money, grow their prosperity, and start stepping into An entirely different atmosphere of wealth, of time, of commitment, growth, of impact. We want to help you. We're going to coach you. Go to broke2awoke.com and let's have a conversation. Let's see if we're the best person to get you to where you want to be, to help you, to help you shift, to help you move, to help you expand. It's gonna be a great conversation and we can't wait to have it.