From Atheist to Advocate Gods Transformative Power in Anna’s Journey with Ana Megrelishvili
Have you ever wondered how someone can overcome a traumatic childhood to become a beacon of hope and change? In this powerful episode, I sit down with Anna Megrelishvili, a remarkable woman whose journey from poverty and abuse in Eastern Europe to becoming a successful entrepreneur and advocate for the homeless in the United States will leave you inspired and motivated.
Anna shares her incredible story of resilience, from growing up in a dysfunctional family in Georgia to immigrating to the US at age 20 on a scholarship. We explore her transformation from a driven corporate professional to a faith-led community builder, and how a divine encounter changed the course of her life forever.
Key Takeaways:
- The impact of relational poverty on homelessness and society
- How overcoming trauma can lead to personal growth and societal change
- The power of faith in transforming one’s life purpose
- Strategies for building meaningful connections and community
From Atheism to Faith: A Transformative Journey
Anna candidly discusses her transition from atheism to Christianity, including:
- The unexpected spiritual experience that sparked her faith
- How her newfound beliefs reshaped her priorities and life goals
- The challenges of reconciling her past with her new purpose
Addressing Relational Poverty
Discover how Anna’s organization, Christian Professionals Network Worldwide, is tackling the issue of relational poverty by:
- Fostering meaningful connections among professionals
- Providing mentorship and support for individuals experiencing homelessness
- Creating a global community focused on philanthropy and social impact
This conversation is filled with powerful insights on personal healing, community building, and finding purpose through adversity. Whether you’re seeking inspiration for your own journey or looking to make a difference in your community, you’ll find valuable wisdom in Anna’s unique perspective.
Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the transformative power of faith, resilience, and human connection. Tune in now and start giving a heck about creating positive change in your life and the lives of those around you!
Connect with Ana Megrelishvili
Website: https://cpnworldwide.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/megrelishvili.ana/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cpofatl/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anamegrelishvili/
Connect with Dwight Heck:
Website: https://giveaheck.com (Free Book Offer)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/give.a.heck
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwight.heck
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Giveaheck
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@giveaheck
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwight-heck-65a90150/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@giveaheck
X: https://x.com/give_a_heck
Chapter Summaries(Full Unedited Transcript after Summaries)
00:00:02
Anna’s Journey from Georgia to the United States
Anna shares her background growing up in Georgia and Russia, experiencing poverty, abuse, and dysfunction. She describes immigrating to the US at age 20 on a scholarship, determined to build a better life despite her traumatic past.
00:34:32
Finding Faith and Purpose Through Homelessness
Anna recounts her transformative experience of encountering God through a homeless woman, leading her to embrace Christianity and find her purpose in helping others. She describes founding Christian Professionals Network Worldwide to address relational poverty.
00:59:12
Addressing Relational Poverty and Homelessness
Anna explains her mission to solve relational poverty through CPNW, focusing on building community and providing mentorship to prevent and overcome homelessness. She shares statistics on loneliness in America and its impacts.
01:05:46
Writing as Healing and Connecting with Jack Canfield
Anna discusses how writing her book was cathartic and helped others feel less alone. She shares how Jack Canfield’s work transformed her life and led to co-authoring a book with him.
Full Unedited Transcript:
[00:00:02 – 00:02:06]
Good day and welcome to Gibahack. On today’s show, I welcome Anna Magrilla. Anna grew up in the country of Georgia in Eastern Europe in a highly dysfunctional family experiencing hunger, violence and abuse. Anna immigrated to the United States at the age of 20 on a scholarship with the Bara College in Kentucky where she hoped to begin a better life. After years of success in business, Anna had a transformative experience that resulted in surrendered faith as a result of a God given vision and a founded the Christian Professionals Network Worldwide in Atlanta, Georgia. Blending her passion for positive change with actionable initiatives, CPNW goes beyond typical networking by integrating business relationships with service or orientated values, fostering global community transformation. Grounded in Christian principles, Anna Insurer CPNW serves as a collaborative hub uniting faith driven leaders to pursue societal betterment. Through the CPNW foundation work, Anna addresses relational poverty by facilitating meaningful connections and providing a support network. CPNW foundation focuses on mentoring the homeless, providing them with relationships and support necessary to rebuild their lives and break the cycle of poverty. Anna shares her journey of healing and resilience in her book Finding Courage to Change while also Contributing to Powerful Female Immigrants, Volume 3. Sharing her inspiring journey from Georgia to the U.S. anna’s impact extends to co authoring Success Redefined with Jack Canfield, earning her recognition as Amazon bestselling author. I’d like to welcome you to the show, Anna. Thanks so much for agreeing to come on and share with us some of your life journey.
[00:02:07 – 00:02:12]
Hi Dwight, thank you so much for having me. I’m so thrilled to share my story with your audience.
[00:02:13 – 00:02:48]
Oh, I’m, I’m excited to hear it. As we talked about before we hit record, I’m very selective about who I have my show and the thing that triggered me the most, and we’ll get into that as part of discussion, is somebody going from being an atheist to a Christian. You told me a little bit about it and I guarantee you my audience is going to love that story because at the end of the day people think we’re stuck and that we can’t evolve and that we can’t continue to climb, that we stay camped in our life. And that’s not true, right? Sometimes outside influences can help us change and for you that was God and to me that’s exciting.
[00:02:48 – 00:03:03]
Yes, absolutely. The journey has been transformative and exciting and I’m thrilled to share the story with you all because it has a unique twist to it for sure.
[00:03:04 – 00:03:29]
Right on. So Anna, as I talked to you about, I focus on the origin story. So please tell Me your origin story, key things from your childhood to adulthood that led you to where you’re at currently. Be as detailed as you want or undetailed as you want. Regardless, I’m excited to hear the rest of the story you started telling me earlier, but obviously the listeners want to hear the first part, so go ahead, Anna.
[00:03:29 – 00:04:33]
Thank you. I often say that I’ve lived three lives in one and I can really separate my lives in three stages. And in every single one of them, it’s almost like I was reborn and I’ve grown and changed and everything in my circumstances have changed as well. So the first part of my life life was growing up in Eastern Europe. So I was actually born on a moving train. My mother was going from Moscow, Russia. Back then it was Soviet Union, of course. And so every country that’s now independent was part of this massive country. And my mother was a student in Moscow, Russia, and she was going back on summer holidays to give birth to me in Georgia, where my family is from. And you know, I decided to come almost a month early. And so she went into labor and I was born on a train. And I always joke that even from my birth, I really like to make an entrance. That’s it.
[00:04:33 – 00:04:35]
That’s awesome. I love that.
[00:04:35 – 00:09:11]
Yes. And so it’s very interesting because my father actually has not met me until I was two years old. So back then during Soviet Union, every man who was not in university and my father was not was required to go through a two year service, military service, and it was, there’s no way to get out of it. And so he was sent actually to Siberia region of Russia to do his military service. And so I was born while he was there. He wasn’t allowed to leave. And so I was about two when my father met me for the first time when he was done with his military service. My family actually, even though we were in, you know, Georgian originally, we lived in Moscow, Russia for 10 years. My mother was there in university and then we kind of stayed. And that was an interesting experience too because during that period of the 90s, as you know, Soviet Union collapsed. It was just a complete mess economically. They, I mean, mafia was really ruling the, the country for the most part. And more than any, if you remember, back in the 90s, Russia was going through this war with the Chechnya region. And so people from Chechnya region, they’re also caucus region like Georgian. So they look like a lot like me. I have dark hair, dark eyes, and a lot of Russians are more blue eyes. You Know, blonde hair. And so there was a lot of aggression toward people who looked like me during that period because of the war. And so I just remember externally always being fearful because I went to school, school and I had children spit on me, call me names, just awful, awful experience of racism toward me. I grew up feeling just very ugly because I didn’t fit into that community. I didn’t look like most people where I was growing up. And so it was very challenging. And then internally in my family it was not much easier. My, both sides of my family have been generationally just dysfunctional and the trauma kept passed on generation to generation. And so my father, like his father struggled with alcoholism and so it progressively got worse and worse, especially after my brother was born when I was seven. And then it was just progressively got worse and it was different reasons. My father lost his business so he couldn’t really deal with that. And so he would go on this crazy binges where he would just walk away from our family. We did, we wouldn’t know where he was. Back then there were no cell phones and my mother was a stay at home mom. And so imagine my brother at that point was maybe one going on to two. I was about eight and we’re starving, there’s no food in the house. And so my mother sends me as an 8 year old girl out in the street to collect bottles so I can take those bottles to recycling plant, basically get eventually enough money to go buy a loaf of bread. And so as a 8 year old I am going in the streets collecting bottles, you know, ramaging in garbage secretly, you know, being very hopeful that none of my classmates will see me because how embarrassing is that when your classmates will see you going through garbage? And so that period really shaped my desire for material wealth. To me, being wealthy meant being safe, being well fed. And so a lot of trauma that I had later on and triggers like in regards to like I needed to store food in the house and so on came really from that period. And I remember I even stole food from my classmates because I was so hungry at school. And so it’s a lot of shame associated with that too. And but then now as an adult, it gives me a lot of empathy and understanding, like why sometimes people in dire situations commit crime because I was that person. You know, I stole food because I just was starving.
[00:09:11 – 00:09:47]
Well, I’m going to add in there, look at, look at, in the U.S. itself. So Canada is 40 million people. The U.S. has over 40 million people that don’t have enough food in their Their, their, their fridge or their cupboards. They live from, from social check to social check. At one time it was food stamps. But it’s a sad situation. People, if you’re listening and you have a lot of food and you have heat, shelter, and you don’t have to do what Anna’s done, really be grateful. Gratefulness is going to be the most powerful tool you can have in your arsenal. Sorry about that.
[00:09:48 – 00:18:12]
No, you’re absolutely right. And we’ll get to that. Because a lot of my work that I’m doing now, honestly, comes from also that experience because we were really on the verge of becoming homeless at some point. My father paying rent. And you know what happens when you stop paying rent. You know, your landlord wants you out. And really the only reason why we didn’t become homeless is because of my grandmother. So my mother’s mother ended up selling all of her like gold jewelry and just kind of wealthy belongings that she had to buy us tickets to get out of Russia. And she was the one who brought us out of Russia into Georgia. But otherwise, you know, when you are an immigrant in any country, you’re really relationally poor. You don’t have community around you because you’re starting over. You don’t have your family there. You don’t have a lot of friends, especially if you’re in this kind of hostile environment where there’s a lot of racism towards you. It’s a very, very challeng challenging environment to grow up in. And I think that also had an effect on deterioration of my father’s alcoholism, just all the things that were happening. And then eventually the alcoholism led him to begin. I was, I think eight and a half, maybe nine when my father started sexually abusing me until I was about 12 or 13. And so during that time, you know, I never told my mother because there was a lot of fear. My, my father hit my mother consistently. And so I was afraid that if I told my mother or if, you know, there will be just consequences to me, my mother and my brother. And so I lived most of my life like I did. I was in my mid-20s when I for the first time told somebody that that happened to me as a child. So imagine, on top of everything going on in Russia, my family, and now I have to carry this shame and dark secret and always feeling like there’s something wrong with me because of what my father is doing to me. So I just really, you know, had very low self esteem at that point. On top of it, when I moved to Georgia, it was very Interesting paradigm shift. So imagine in Russia feeling like I was the ugly duckling. Well, I go to Georgia, where I am the definition of beauty in Georgia. And so I have suddenly all these teenage boys coming up to me, telling me like they’re in love with me. And so, like, my teenage mind back then, I was like, what is happening? Like, I don’t understand what’s happening. And then my. My parents made a mistake that a lot of immigrant parents make. And when they bring their children to the U.S. they didn’t teach me any Georgian. So my first language was actually Russian because they wanted me to integrate into Russian society. They did not teach me how to speak Georgian, even though I was Georgian. So when I moved to. Back To Georgia at 12, I didn’t speak the language. So now, again, I don’t fit in the society because to this day, I have a little bit of accent speaking in Georgian because it wasn’t my first language. And so then, you know, this. This attention from. From boys coming, and I was like, well, this is really crazy. I don’t know what’s happening here. And so. And then my grandparents are telling me, because now I’m supposed to be this beautiful girl in this society. They’re like, oh, you’re just gonna get married at 16. You’re gonna just have babies, and that’s your life. So basically, I was told by my own grandparents, you’re not worthy of anything beyond just being somebody’s wife and mother. So all of these messages I receive, and then there was this moment that really changed my life. And back then, I didn’t know that this was really God speaking to me for the first time. Because I was not just atheist. I resented an idea of God. You know, you heard everything I went through. I was so angry. I said, if God exists, I want nothing to do with him, because if he allows for all these horrible things to happen to me as a child, I don’t want to do anything with this God. And so completely rejected an idea of going to church or anything. And so I have this moment. I’m 13, and I’m in the schoolyard. It’s a break between classes. And I don’t have a lot of vivid memories from my childhood. That’s one of the things that our brain does to protect us from our traumatic experiences. But this particular memory is so vivid that I can still remember what kind of weather it was, what I was wearing. It was just very, very unusual. And it felt like I was outside. It was fall day. And suddenly it felt like just things Quieted down like, almost like slow motion. And I’m looking, and suddenly there’s this voice inside of me that says, you are meant for more than this life. And that was kind of like this jolt that I received, and it really transformed everything moving forward. I got this fire that I just said, I’m gonna get out of my life and the circumstances, no matter what. Again, back then, I thought this was me speaking to myself. But hindsight, now, knowing God, I understand that this was really the first time that God spoke to me. Because if it was me, why would I say, you are meant for more than this life? I would have said, I am a meant for more than this life. And second, with all the messages I was receiving as a child, there was absolutely no reason for me to have this kind of, you know, motivational speech inside of me to change my life. But that was the moment that really transformed everything going forward. So I was 15 when I found out that there is this program funded by the US Government, that if you win, you come to the US as an exchange student and live there for a year. So I start going through the process of applying, going through. There’s multiple stages. Now. I’m keeping this whole thing secret from my family because I knew that if my father knew, he would not allow me to go through. My father was so controlling. So I had no control over my body, my time. Just to give you a perspective, like, I wasn’t allowed to pierce my ears, shave my legs as a teenager. You can imagine, like, all the things that people made fun of me. I wasn’t allowed to be outside of the house outside of the time that I was in school. So I had no social life. It was very much controlling everything about me, including my body. So I knew he wouldn’t let me go for a year to the US So I’m doing this in secret until I go to the final stage. And that at that stage, you had to bring in your family. At 15, I was so smart. Like, now looking back, I was like, wow, this is. Was very conniving of me. But I knew exactly how to manipulate my father in order for him to let me go. So this was my plan. I went to my mother and my grandmother because I knew I had to have the whole team with me. And I told them, like, this is it. Like, if I win, I’m going to go to the US this is how we need to sell it to my father. We need. You need to. When you talk to them, you need to tell him, like, wow, can you imagine what people are going to say that your daughter is going to the U.S. they’re going to think like, wow, you’re such an amazing father that you’re giving her this opportunity. And so we really like manipulated my father. And I was 15, like masterminding this whole thing.
[00:18:12 – 00:18:20]
But calculated manipulation. If it’s for the good, there’s nothing wrong with that. And what you wanted to do is good. So I think that’s amazing.
[00:18:21 – 00:34:32]
But I was just like, wow, like I was really good at 15 to be able to like come up with this plan. So anyway, that’s how we kind of worked it. Worked it and he agreed. So I come to the US and this is again, I really see God’s fingerprints in my life without even realizing back then that this is what was happening. So, you know, I grew up in a family where I never felt loved, I never felt protected. And suddenly I’m assigned this host family. So I go to live with them for a in Denver, Colorado. And they’re an older couple, like close to retirement age. I’m their 13th exchange student. They’ve done this a bunch. And this was the first time I saw what a healthy family should look like. I’ve never seen a functional, loving family before. And I was like, wow, a woman has voice like she is loved and adored. She does not have to be afraid of her husband. Like, this is amazing. And then, you know, I see just kind of how US culture is. And I was like, wow, women have equal rights. We can do whatever they want as a career. And I said, I have to come back to the US no matter what. So this was my plan. So I had to go back after a year back to Georgia. And because of the visa requirement, I was not allowed to come back for two years. So I got a scholarship with the Georgian government to go to university there. But in my back of my head I was like, I need to get to the US somehow. Well, my family was dirt poor. I started working, but I still was making like 400amonth. There was no way I could come to the US and study unless I got not just full tuition scholarship, but everything else covered because my family would not gonna help me. So one day I’m giving a training in the American library. And during lunch hour, while everybody was just having fun and just chit chatting, I come across this big book, like thick book, and it has all colleges and universities of the United States listed in it. So I’m sitting for the whole hour frantically just looking through all the colleges and universities that that offered Scholarships to international students. Out of that thick book, I was able to find three. So then I go home that evening, and I’m researching all three. And out of three, there was only one college, Berea College, that offered everything. Tuition, room and board, health care, job. If you got accepted, I said, this is my chance. So I only applied to one college. By God’s will, I got in. And I came to the United States when I was 20, by myself, two suitcases and a hundred dollars, and that’s it. And I just was like, this is it. I’m gonna make it no matter what. This is it. Well, wealth acquisition became my God at that point. I was like, I am gonna work hard. I’m gonna make a lot of money. I’m never gonna starve again. So, of course, I decide to pursue business degree. Then I get my mba. I got scholarship for that as well. Then I start in my career, and I go into sales. Because in the United States, if you’re really good in sales, you can make a lot of money. And so I said, this is the career for me. So for over 10 years, I’m in different corporate sales, like, flying all over the world, just making money, living my life. My big American dream was I wanted to buy a condo in the middle of the city. Like, that was my big. Like, if I did this, I would achieve. I’ve made it like, this is it. So I achieved my goal. In March of 2020, I buy my condo in Atlanta, Georgia, where I live now. And I decide I’m going to put in thousands of dollars to renovate it, because I want it to look exactly how I want it to look. Well, of course. Two weeks after I purchased my condo, US shuts down with COVID I’m, like, freaking out. Did I make the biggest mistake of my life? Somehow got through the renovations, move into my beautiful condo. About a month goes by, and I’m sitting on my couch in this beautiful condo, drinking my coffee, and the thought comes in my head, well, now what? All the things that I thought would make me happy and fill that, like, that emptiness I’ve been feeling, it didn’t come through. And so that was the mindset shift, where I was like, there has to be more to life. I cannot continue being in this hamster wheel for the rest of my life, working more to buy more stuff, only to be happy for 30 days. And I think that was really the thought process that led me to eventually the third part of my life and the transformation that I’m living now. I woke up in October of 2020 at 3am, wide awake. I’ve never prayed in my life, but that particular night, I was compelled to pray, and I didn’t know how to pray. So I said something like, God, if you exist, what’s the purpose of my life? Why do I keep feeling this way? And unexpectedly, I hear a voice. Not inside of me, outside of me, there’s a voice that speaks, and it says this one phrase. Go to the store, Prepare food, feed the hungry. That’s it. And of course, I am very, very logical. Highly logical. So I’m laying in my bed, and I was like, did this happen? Am I dreaming? Like, did I make this up? And I was like, you know what? I’m not going to deal with this tonight. I need to go to sleep. And then I’m going to decide in the morning. So I go to sleep, and I wake up in the morning, and I can feel in my core, no, something did happen to me last night. So I call into work and I tell them, hey, I need a day off for personal reasons. Can come in today. So I go to the store, buy all the supplies, and then I prepare 24 bags of lunches, pack them all up, put them in my car. And then there are a lot of people experiencing homelessness in the downtown area of Atlanta, Georgia, where I live, and I’ve seen them. So I just start driving to that area, and every time I would see somebody in the street, I would stop, offer them lunch. So I was doing that for about an hour, and eventually I come across this whole group of homeless hanging out together. I parked my car, I count them, and then I count how many bags of lunches I have left, and I have exact number of lunches left. And I was like, wow, this is weird. So I was like, okay. So I grabbed this whole big bag, walk over there, give all the lunches away. They’re happy. I’m like, okay. I. I finished what I was told, literally was about to get in my car. Suddenly, one of the homeless ladies calls me, and she says, honey, come over here. So I walk back over there, and she says, I have a gift for you. Like, oh, okay. So she has this big bag of all of her belongings. So she’s looking and looking, like, for a while, looking for something in her bag, bag. Eventually, she finds it. So then she pulls it out and hands it to me, and I look at it, and it’s this little bird made of clay, like this little statuette. And it’s a. It’s a sparrow. And on its chest it was written now in God’s hands. I read it and I just burst into tears. Like, it felt like this lightning just struck my heart. I am embarrassed. Like, get in my car. And I am sobbing. I’m like, like ugly crying. And I was like, the only phrase that keeps repeating in my head is, God is real. God is real. God is talking to me, like, freaking out. I’m. I’m driving home. I get home and I literally order my first Bible from Amazon. I was like, I gotta figure this out. Like, what is happening? I need to read and learn. And so I get the Bible in the mail the next day. So I start reading the Bible from, like, beginning to end, right? Like, just chronologically. And I don’t understand, of course, half of the things I’m. I’m reading. So then I’m Googling. Like you would Google a restaurant, the best churches in Atlanta, and literally pick a church based on Google reviews and just go to church. So it ends up being this Baptist church that I start going to. So I go by myself for months. And an interesting thing that a second time that God played in, in my life is that during my time when I was in college, I was assigned a second host family. Well, this host family, my host father was a pastor of a church, and my host mother worked for largest international missions organization in the, in the U.S. and so they gently tried to introduce me to God and Jesus. And, you know, I went to church with them a couple of times as, like, courtesy, but I was just, nope, shutting everything down. So Meanwhile, this is 10 years that this couple is literally praying for me, like, for me to find God. And I call them and I tell them, this is what happens. And my host mother just like, like, you know, I almost gave up. I. I gave up praying because I thought after 10 years, the life you’re leading, you’re never gonna quit this life because you just have everything you ever want. And I guess I needed to know that sometimes God’s prayers get answered at his timing and at our timing. And so it’s. It’s really incredible how God twice, not once, but twice placed me with this two Christian families who had this influence on my life. Well, fast forward about a year after that incident with the Voice, I get baptized by my host father. I drive back to Kentucky. He baptized me in his church. It was just very emotional ceremony because they are my adopted family who’ve been praying for me for so many years. And so that was just such a beautiful, beautiful journey with them. Well, then I have this feeling Like, I am meant for more than just being in sales. I need, I have a purpose that’s different than this. I want to make a difference in the world, but I don’t know what it is. And as you know, it’s very scary to quit your cushiony corporate job to go into unknown. But I, the unhappiness was growing so much. Even though I was making so much money, no money was even like, like needed for me to just stop feeling this miserable. So I was already planning my exit out of, out of corporate. And I wanted to take like a few months of a sabbatical, but maybe in the summer. Well, January 31st of 2022. No, 2022, yes. I wake up and my phone is blown up. My family back in Eastern Europe ends up being a national news because my grandfather, who was 82 years old at that point ends up stabbing his son, my uncle, 30 times in his sleep with a knife. So, you know, media is reaching out. People are calling me, they’re sending me news clips of my grandfather in handcuffs. Like, imagine seeing your, like where you used to grow up in the childhood, your childhood home is in the news. The knife that your grandfather used to prepare food for you is the knife he used to like. It was surreal. Like you really, I felt like this is a movie, this is not real. But I, that was the moment that really just broke the, you know, the back of the camel with the straw because I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I have to quit my job now. And so the next day I went in and gave my two week notice, which was scary, but I just needed to figure out what is it that I’m seeking. And I realized during that time that I’ve always worked because of money and because I needed to support my family back home. But I never took the time to learn, like, what is it that makes me happy? What is it that I’m passionate about? What is it that I want to do? What’s my purpose? So I said, I’m going to go on a year long sabbatical. So I put my condo up for sale and I said, okay, God, take me anywhere. I’m willing to relocate anywhere in the world. I put everything in storage, packed suitcases, and I decided to start by healing my past. So I went back to Georgia because I resented going back since I was a, you know, 20 year old girl coming to the US and I said I need to heal that relationship because I cannot heal myself until I, I heal where I’m from. I traveled to 12 different countries, reconnected with old friends. And then a lot of meandering happened during that time. But eventually the sale of my condo fell through at a closing table three times with three different buyers. And so at that point, I said, okay, clearly God wants me back in Atlanta. So I pulled my condo from sale, moved to Atlanta, and then I started going on silent retreats. So during my first silent retreat was incredible journey where I wrote my book Finding courage to change in two days. When I was there, lots of just incredible things and God stories happened during that time. And then I went the second time at the end of my sabbatical to really seek. Like, I still didn’t know what was my purpose. And during that time, it was really like God was quiet. I didn’t hear anything. I’d prayed, I meditated. Nothing was coming. It was nothing. And it was the last prayer session last night at the monastery. And finally I was like, okay, God, like, I didn’t hear what you want me to do with my life. So I guess I’m going to go back to sales. And suddenly, like, whoosh. I get this vision of this, like, business plan of everything that I’m doing now with Christian Professionals, like the networking, the helping the homeless. And like, I. I’m on the stage, you know, like, we’re really doing this incredible work in. In the whole United States. And I just fall down on my knees and I start crying. I’m like, how am I supposed to do this? No. Like, I’m nobody. I have no power, no money. Like, I don’t even have a Christian friends. I was atheist most of my life, and so it was really, really overwhelming. But then, you know, eventually, and I, two weeks later, I started Christian Professionals of Atlanta as a networking organization. And then. Then a year later, rebranded to Christian Professionals Network Worldwide. Then six months after that, started the foundation where we now mentor the homeless. And I think it’s just such a beautifully crafted story how God brought me to know him through a homeless woman. And my purpose in life is really help elevate people experiencing homelessness out of. Out of that. So there we are, and we’re here today.
[00:34:32 – 00:35:04]
Yeah. So you talked about the meeting the homeless woman, but you had already had God intervene in your life prior to that. So God works in mysterious ways, like they say, right? And you had all these very unique experiences where you had things flood into your mindset. You felt like something washed over you. And then your biggest pivotal change. You’re mentioning about that woman. Did you ever wonder about that lady? After the fact. Did you ever.
[00:35:04 – 00:35:38]
All the time. I wish I would have. I, you know, I close my eyes and I still vaguely remember what she looks like. I, you know, I now serve with different organizations that serve the homeless. So I always look for her when I serve, but I have not been able to find her again. But, you know, I hope that we, we meet in heaven so I can thank her because she, she transformed my life. And you know, it’s. Our society often forgets and disregards people in the streets.
[00:35:38 – 00:35:40]
But look at, oh, of course, what.
[00:35:40 – 00:36:20]
Transformative experience she had on my life and how it had this trickling effect with the work that I’m doing. And I think I share this story often with, with different audience because I want them to understand, understand that God, literally every single person is viewed by him, that we are his children, we are his daughters and sons. And, and he doesn’t want us to be left alone without community, forgotten, living under the bridge. That is not the life he wants for us. And so every, every life can have an impact on somebody. And it can be.
[00:36:20 – 00:36:40]
I think about this, I think this home, about this homeless woman that give you, you know, she dug through the bag to find this trinket that she gave you and it talks about God. I’m wondering if that was her pivotal point. Maybe the reason you don’t see her is maybe God spoke to her to help her get out of her circumstances because of her kindness.
[00:36:41 – 00:36:43]
I, yes. You know, I.
[00:36:43 – 00:38:09]
Reciprocal, right. You started it. She, she, she give you. And I think God, God works. You know, the biggest problem though is, is God talks to a lot of us. We just don’t listen. We don’t open our minds up to listening to something else. And that’s one thing I learned is when I pray, if I pray about something and I don’t, you know, I go to sleep, I wake up and I haven’t really got that answer. I pray again. But it’s also the alternative. Sometimes you get an answer and you go, well, that can’t be it. And you pray some more. You get the same an. So you know, it is what it is. God. God works with, with us all the time. We have the blessings of me looking outside right now that we had snow again. Like where I live, we have snow. And I think to myself, well, it’s overcast, it’s gloomy, and people will be, oh, it’s not a very nice day. No, it’s. It’s a great day. Every day I wake up above ground is a great day and utilize different things like that to help myself. But one of the things that really interests me too is you talked about your two, I call them billet families or sponsored families. You had two of them and the secondary family, would they, would you have frank discussions with them? Would they be blunt with you? Or was it always more of a casual conversation about your integration within, you know, Christianity and, and all the options that you get right by being a Christian.
[00:38:10 – 00:39:10]
So they really led by example. I think that now looking back, I think they are a really wonderful example of what Christian families are like because they were not preaching at me because you know, it’s really going to have an opposite effect on somebody who is burned by religion or rejects God if you start preaching the Bible at them. What they’ve done is really showed me really living the values of Christianity out in the, within their family and how they treated me. I’ve never, you know, my own family never treated me as well as this non blood related families treated me. And, and I’m just forever grateful to them because that was the first time I’ve experienced what normal family should look like and be like. Because imagine how many mistakes I would have made in my personal life if I didn’t have these experiences because well.
[00:39:10 – 00:40:18]
God brought them into your life. It’s, it’s pretty straightforward, right. As your guide like we talk about today, you know, I have five children, four daughters and a son, right. They’re all adults, but at the end of the day I’m just a vessel to raise them. That’s their parent, their number one focus in their life. The number one person that are God is their, their children to God. I’m a vessel that was privileged enough to help grow them up. And just because I’m their dad doesn’t mean that they haven’t had, had family circumstances that are non blood related like you, that haven’t made a huge impact in their lives. I have people that aren’t blood related to me that I hold them more dear to my heart than some people in my family. And that’s no disrespect to my family. Our family sometimes does not take us serious enough. How was it when you decided like were you sharing with your, your grandma and your mom and everybody back in Georgia about the fact that you were, you were having these experiences or did you keep it more under the, the down low when it, when it came to the fact that you were looking going from being atheist to a Christian?
[00:40:19 – 00:42:42]
So with my blood related family when I immigrated to the United States, that was really A turning point for my mother’s and my father’s relationship because I was that emotional cushion for my mother. So we had a reversal of roles where I was really a parent and she was a child. And when I exited that relationship and came to the U.S. that was kind of the moment when my mother realized that she needed to exit that abusive relationship with my father. So she finally filed for divorce. It was just, you know, my father almost killed my grandmother and that was kind of, it was awful. Like police was called. It was just horrible. Right. Well then, you know, my mother again starts relying on me emotionally, financially. So we have that unhealthy relationship for quite a few years until fast forward to when I became a Christian. Well, when I became a Christian, really a lot of healing happened during that time and also a lot of self awareness. So one of the things that I evaluated is the reason why I was sending money back home was, was really not because I, I was a good person. That was not the reality of things. I was sending money home because I felt guilty that I was living in this nice, safe country while they were still back home. And it was really my way paying for like exiting that whole dysfunctionality and just separating myself. And then I realized that my mother was still a young, you know, she was like 52 at that time. They, you know, and my brother was like 26. They completely relied on me financially and so they were like my children at that point. And so I had a lot realization that if I continued this way, I’ll never be able to really have a family of my own because now I, I already play a role of a protector and provider for my family. I had a lot of like feminine, masculine priorities shifted in my, in my life. I was very masculine at that point, just building my corporate career.
[00:42:42 – 00:42:45]
And was that masculinity to protect you?
[00:42:46 – 00:43:13]
Well, there were multiple reasons. One is because in my corporate career, I was often the only woman in the board, boardroom, right? Like I was always in construction industry, which is highly men dominated industry. And so I felt like I had to be this very domineering woman in order to stand on my own. Plus I was a provider protector for my family. Like I said, when you play that role, it’s just that brings a lot of masculinity.
[00:43:13 – 00:43:16]
It’s exhausting though it sounds exhausting.
[00:43:16 – 00:44:01]
It is. I had no friends. Like I was just so miserable as a woman. It was just not a good time. And so now I’m shifting and I’m realizing, okay, okay, I’m dysfunctional. With my family, that needs to be fixed. And so then my mother, when I cut them out, I said, listen, you need, you’re both young, you need to go get jobs. Like, you can’t be relying on me. I need to build my own life. I need to form a family. I’m in my 30s. Like, I want a family. You say you want a family for me, like I need to shift. Well, my mother attributes this change to me becoming. Becoming a Christian. And so she then thinks, and basically starts telling everyone that I joined a cult.
[00:44:03 – 00:44:04]
Really?
[00:44:04 – 00:44:48]
Yes, because, I mean, think about that, right? I first cut off her financially, then I quit my corporate job. I go on this journey, right? She’s like, she’s in a cult because she can’t understand the. All this is happening because I’m really reborn, right? I’m trans transforming myself. And so I have no communication. So I cut out my father and my father’s side of the family as soon as the divorce was going through. Because, you know, what he’s done to me is really, I forgave him, but I didn’t think that he deserves to be part of my life. So he deserves my forgiveness, but that’s about it.
[00:44:48 – 00:46:31]
Well, you also deserv forgiveness, right? That’s one other thing that people, we, we forgive others for in, you know, trans transgressions and trials and tribulations, but we forget to forgive the number one person, and that’s ourselves. You can actually forgive people without ever communicating with them because it’s healthy for your mindset. You can forgive somebody without putting yourself in a dangerous situation. And after what your father did to you, there’s no excuse for it. It doesn’t matter how he was raised or what he went through through at the end of the day, excuses or success, you can’t have both. And you decided to transcend all that garbage, be tenacious and look where you are today. And I don’t blame you for cutting your mom and your brother off, because at the end of the day, the more we are supported and not allowed to trip and fall and put a band aid on our boo boo and struggle to get forward, the more we become dependent on society and then it affects our six inches between our ears. Our mindset is very negative. We look for negativity to, you know, overshadow the fact that we don’t like our lives. And like your mom, you know, you’re in a cult and stuff. At the end of the day, though, tenacity is a superpower. And I’m hearing that time and time again throughout our conversation, even before we hit record. And, you know, whether you’ve heard it or not from your own family, I am proud of you. And I’ve only got to just know you, like, you’re amazing woman. I, you know, an amazing human being. I look forward to us having further discussion, but now it’s your turn. Again, sorry, I just. I felt the need, but maybe it was God. Yeah, right.
[00:46:31 – 00:46:32]
Absolutely.
[00:46:32 – 00:46:33]
Who knows?
[00:46:33 – 00:49:07]
Thank you so much. And I, I think, you know, the more I speak about just dysfunctionality and the ugliness of, of my upbringing, there are so many more people that are coming forward and saying, oh, this happened to me. And this is what ends up happening to us. Especially those people who have no communication with our biological families. There’s this nagging feeling that we have to work through is like, what’s wrong with me? There’s that, that thing like, what’s wrong with me? Why is my family doesn’t love me? Or like, we are taught by our families that we only are deserve. We only deserve love if we bring value or if we do things for people. And it’s a very dangerous place to be in, especially for women, because then you’re starting to form romantic relationships that are unhealthy because you really start playing a role of, oh, I can only be loved if I do these things for, for my man. Or it’s just. It’s just very, very dangerous pathway to go through. And, and the biggest thing that happened to me recently is. And it really honestly just happened because I realized how much love I have from God. Right. This is the only and first time I’ve experienced unconditional love and to be loved just for me. And I’ve had so many different beautiful experiences where he showed me during, you know, my silent retreats. So this is one of the practices I’ve adopted for the past two years or two and a half years. I’ve done about eight silent retreats because I go away, cut off the rest of the world, and I’m just there to listen and to hear God. And every time I have just incredible transformative experience that allowed me to grow. It showed me, you know, my business plan. I’ve written a book, so it’s. It’s a beautiful practice that, that is just part of my life now because it allows me to tap into that higher power and higher wisdom. Like you said, he’s always communicating with us. I like the analogy that it’s that TV that’s always on and with the volume kind of turned down. But it’s always. But we are the ones who need to turn up that volume and make a conscious decision to, to listen.
[00:49:07 – 00:51:23]
Well, I like the fact that you go on those silent retreats because I look at this and, and God knows where that I don’t mean any ill will. But at the end of the day, going to a silent retreat and actually listening and, and, and knowing that’s your job, is to listen and not communicate. Sometimes we need to do that in relationships too, be a better listener than we are. A person that needs to communicate back, that has all the answers, that has a better story than the person we’re talking to. Sometimes we just need to listen to somebody like Anna and just, just literally wrap ourselves in your story and, and in your experiences and your tenacity and realize that at the end that God wants us to connect with people and we need to treat him like we need to treat people. Listen more than we talk and appreciate all those little nuances that Anna has and other people in your life. And God shines down on us. He’s smart. He, you know, if you believe God smiles, God’s smiling down, thinking, wow, Anna, look what you’ve gone through. Look what you continue to do. You are a true servant of humankind and of me, and I appreciate it. And then I don’t. There’s been people on my show, I honestly believe I’ve told people this many times that I think God is the reason that I’ve connected with them. I think God was the reason that you reached out to me and that I get. Get sometimes 8 to 12 requests a week just from that one service. And I go through them and there’s lots of times I just don’t match with them. Yours intrigued me. So God works in mysterious ways for both of us. And now we’re here recording a podcast that people around the world are going to listen because I even have. I even. I have countries they don’t listen to every episode. But there’s Russia, there’s all over Europe, there’s all over Canada, the US Guess right. Some episodes are hit more countries than others. I don’t know how the algorithms work, but I think God’s going to make this episode something that it’s going to transcend what I’ve done in the past to make sure people realize that you can feel helpless and in a sea of loneliness, but you can truly experience his love by listening, by putting yourself out there and ignoring all the negativity of family and friends. France.
[00:51:23 – 00:51:42]
Yeah. And you know, right before your Podcast. You know, I prayed, I always pray for God to lead the conversation, for me to really put my ego aside and to talk about whatever God wants me to talk about. And today I’ve shared some stories that I honestly have not shared before.
[00:51:43 – 00:51:46]
I appreciate that. I really do.
[00:51:47 – 00:52:13]
That’s okay. And that’s kind of. I, I allow for whatever comes because my purpose on being on your podcast is specifically, that is, if I can even my story can resonate with one person and help them and be inspired that they can get out of their current circumstances and they can overcome whatever they’re going through, then my job is done. Like this is, this is it. It’s like one person at a time.
[00:52:13 – 00:53:09]
Well, that’s how it should be, though. That’s even my podcast. If I had one person only listening to it, I would be satisfied. I very seldom look at the analytics anymore because of the fact that God doesn’t want me to look for answers from my podcast that are driven on numbers that are materialistic. Oh, I’ve got this many downloads or this many listeners or blah, blah, blah. It’s, it’s about God wants me to connect to one person. And if it’s that one person is multiplied by a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, fantastic. But it doesn’t mean that people really get what you I are talking about, even if they do listen to it. You have to be the willing. You have to have that within your heart and your mindset that you know, there’s better than us, there’s more than us. Doesn’t mean that we’re bad, but there’s bet God is better than us. Right. Jesus is better than us, in my opinion. Right. He was the only person that was sin free that ever walked on the planet.
[00:53:09 – 00:53:10]
Yes.
[00:53:10 – 00:53:20]
Right. So there’s so much more that we deserve in our lives. And I think honestly we connected because of it, of God’s intervention. I really do.
[00:53:20 – 00:57:09]
Yeah. And you know, I’m. I’m feeling compelled to share one more story, if I may. Go ahead. So one of the things that I feel I want to share with the audience is that healing is very, very important. So if you’ve gone through something in your childhood and all of us have had, had something in our childhood, I really believe that going through different healing, like I’ve done all kinds of different therapies and you know, there is obviously faith driven therapies I’ve done in alternative medicine and all kinds of things and everything got me to the next stage. And I tell you why it’s important. I Had part of my identity was that I never wanted to have children. I had logical explanation behind why I didn’t want to have children. Like, I didn’t want to pass on my jeans for my family. I loved my lifestyle, I wanted to help many children. Everything was, I just don’t want to have children. And I completely thought this was my decision. About three or four years ago, I had a breakthrough in therapy where suddenly it was like a light switch that suddenly got flipped and I went from not wanting to have children to wanting children within. Just like right now. Right. And this was such an aha moment for me because I was like, wow, I was allowing my trauma to dictate such an important life choice. And I didn’t even realize that was my trauma dictating it because I truly thought this was my decision. Now I’m sharing this not because I believe that every woman has to have a children. That’s not the point. The point I want to make is that why would you allow your past or your trauma unconsciously dictate your life choices and decisions? Don’t you deserve to make your own choices? And I would have made a completely different life choice if not for the healing journey that I’ve been on. And so I want to share this very personal story for this particular reason is that we don’t know what we don’t know. So you think you might be fine. You think that you’ve gone over whatever it is that you went through without realizing it’s still sitting deep inside of me. Like, I. I was stuck in anger stage toward my father for a very, very long time because I had a lot of suppressed memories that came out through hypnotherapy. And then I was able to address that anger issue through that particular type of therapy. Listen, like, this is so needed. I think every adult needs to go through at least some sort of therapy just to make sure that they’re fine tuning whatever might have happened to them in their childhood or their adult life so that they can truly be their best versions. And I can tell you since I’ve gone through that my quality, my better qualities got better and my worst qualities got, just subsided. And I feel like I’m really blossoming as a woman now. And a lot of those masculine traits I talked about have been just, just down. A lot of my femininity just shines. I used to hate people just being annoyed by people, and now my work is people. I built communities. I run a networking organization, run a foundation that helps the homeless, and I love it.
[00:57:09 – 00:57:43]
This is your blossoming is amazing how you blossomed into who you are and realizing that learned behavior from our family isn’t necessarily genetic and going to pass down. We just have to break that chain, get out of that learned behavior and you’re with. With who you are and who I’m meeting now. Children would be a natural progression for you to pass on your kindness, your. Your ability to empathize and you know, want to help out other people. My goodness, I can’t. Do you have kids though?
[00:57:43 – 00:57:47]
I don’t. And that’s the thing. I don’t know if it’s in my cards and in my future. Right.
[00:57:47 – 00:57:49]
But if it is, it’ll be amazing.
[00:57:49 – 00:57:53]
Exactly. But then it’s my choice. Right. It’s not trauma dictating my life.
[00:57:53 – 00:57:55]
Exactly. That’s very powerful.
[00:57:56 – 00:58:25]
I live with this open hands and surrender for everything in my life. Now that fancy condo I bought, I guess what, I sold it because I needed that money to grow this organization. And you know, know I’ve sold my fancy car everything. Like the material things I was killing myself for in over 10 year career honestly don’t matter anymore. Like I don’t care about anything that’s material because I can’t take it with me to my.
[00:58:25 – 00:58:27]
Well, it’s just another trinket.
[00:58:27 – 00:58:28]
Exactly.
[00:58:28 – 00:58:31]
It’s another fancy bauble.
[00:58:31 – 00:58:38]
Yeah. Like even this interview is going to be left out there on the Internet it long after I’m passed away. Right.
[00:58:38 – 00:58:40]
It’s Evergreen. Yeah.
[00:58:40 – 00:58:48]
This is your legacy. You building this podcast like this is worth so much more than anything that’s material.
[00:58:48 – 00:59:11]
Oh, of course it is. So you inspired the creation of the Christian Professionals Network and it’s worldwide. Can you share a little bit more information with the, with the audience about exactly what your. Your mission is for. For that network and where do you focus your desi. Like your energy? I know you said homelessness and other things, but could you be more specific about that?
[00:59:12 – 00:59:58]
Yes. So if I were to summarize what the purpose of everything that I’m doing is. I’m solving relational poverty in this world. And what relational poverty means is really lack of genuine connections and in some countries is better than the United States because it’s still very communal. United States is very individualistic as a society and as a survey. And this was before COVID so I’m sure the numbers are worse now. One in five Americans reported to be feeling lonely and isolated. And that’s just before COVID Now I’m guessing it’s probably one in four Americans Feels this way.
[00:59:58 – 00:59:58]
Wow.
[00:59:59 – 01:04:47]
This has a very significant effect on our health, health, on our happiness, and on our economy. So there’s different studies. Like, I’ll, I’ll give you a couple of examples of what loneliness causes in our country. So one is loneliness is the same as smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day. It has the same health issue, like health effect on us as humans when we feel lonely. And, and economically. They did this survey in the United States, and they estimate that 9.5 billion with the B dollars gets lost in productivity because of people feeling lonely, isolated, because it causes them to be depressed, missing work, less productive, being on antidepressants, all these issues. But then relational poverty is the number one reason why people become homeless. Us. So remember when we talked about almost 40 million Americans who live at that poverty line, paycheck to paycheck? Well, what will determine who will become homeless and who will not? When something unexpected happens, and you know something will happen at one point, loss of job, health issue, car breaks down, divorce. If they have friends, family, faith, community, some sort of community around them, they will most likely have somebody who will catch them before they fall. Like, if they’re not able to pay rent, they can ask somebody to help them out. If they’re relationally poor, they can’t pay rent, they’re most likely going to become homeless. And so it’s a leading cause for homelessness. It’s not mental health or substance abuse like most people think think. So relational poverty is a huge, huge issue in this country for many, many reasons. So with my organization, we have kind of two parts of the organization under Christian Professionals Network Worldwide. On one side, we do networking. So we bring professionals together to meet, to grow their circle, not just for work, but for social and just for friendships as well. But I do it again for the purpose of philanthropy. I always focus on them using their sphere of influence to help our community. So we always feature different nonprofits. We do different volunteer projects and really focus on education and just community building on that side. On the foundation side, which is our nonprofit side, we have partnerships with existing home homeless shelters where we pair Christian professionals with the families and just people living in the streets and people who live in the shelters. And so mentorship is that missing piece for people to not just get out of homelessness, but stay out of it. There is a recidivism rate that’s between 30 to 70% currently in the US that within five years, somebody who experienced homelessness, got out of it, will get back into it, because that piece of the relational poverty is really not fixed by existing organizations. They focus on physical needs, they focus on jobs, but what about the community? And so community building is super important on so many aspects. So I started in Atlanta, Georgia. We really approved this concept. We have now people joining us from all over the world for our online programming. But my really goal is by the end of the year we’re going to open the second chapter and then really start opening chapters after that, first in the US and then globally because nothing like this exists. There is not one organization that’s networking organization for Christian, that’s worldwide focused on philanthropy, focused on. On solving homelessness issue worldwide. And so this is the vision that God showed me. I’m just really fulfilling what he showed me. It’s going to look like. And this has been our third year. So everything that I talk about happened in two years which seems like so unreal and how fast it’s moving. But it’s just been such an incredible privilege and joy of my life to find my purpose. And I feel like, like if I won lottery and had a, you know, $300 million in my bank account, I wouldn’t change one thing. I would just do the same thing, but much faster because I have three magnified. Yeah, exactly.
[01:04:47 – 01:04:54]
Well, money’s money can be a tool. It doesn’t have to be a weapon in our lives to be materialistic. Right.
[01:04:54 – 01:04:57]
So yes. So that’s what we do.
[01:04:57 – 01:05:46]
That’s awesome. I want to talk a little bit about your book before we wrap up the podcast here because you were reflective of of three different books, right? Your book find Encouraged to change and then contributing author to Powerful Female Immigrants Volume three. And the one that I find the most intriguing is Jack Canfield. I’ve been to on some of his events and stuff, read some of their books. Such a powerful man. But two part question. What was it like writing your own book? Did you find it cathartic? Critic? And did it make you realize that you were either not healed enough or that you had talents and treasures that you had dismissed? Did. What did writing your own book do for you? And then we’ll talk about Jack.
[01:05:46 – 01:07:21]
Yes. So I’ve never thought of myself I would ever become an author. That was never on my like to do list or dream list. It just so happened during that silent retreat. It felt like honestly like a divide divine download. I was just there typing being my whole story for in two days the book was done and it felt very healing. I think it was part of the healing process to put it down. And I Wasn’t sure. You know, I prayed about it because I was like, okay, God, is this more for my healing or is this something that needs to be published? And you know, I heard a very clear message, no, this needs to be seen by other people. And I get now why? Because when women read my book who’ve gone through the same thing I’ve gone through, the experience they get for, for the first time they don’t feel alone because they see the same patterns of behavior that we, we do when we’re survivors of child sexual abuse. And then they’re like, oh, okay, so there are other people who’ve gone through it. I. It’s not just me. And, and so it creates this healing community because you’re healing really gets faster when you’re part of the community who’ve experienced the same thing. It was really scary right before I published it because imagine like that was the moment when I knew, this is it. I will no longer be this individual who nobody knows. Like my whole story is out there. You know, it’s, it’s.
[01:07:21 – 01:07:25]
Well, it’s your legacy. Yeah, yeah. 100.
[01:07:26 – 01:07:50]
But at the same time it’s like, wow, like what are people going to think? Like, nobody knew really a lot of my story I never thought of myself of a public speaker who’s going to be talking about these things that happened. So it was, it was a little scary publishing it, but, you know, I’m glad I did. I think that the purpose of the book is to help other people.
[01:07:52 – 01:09:28]
Absolutely. It starts with helping us. I know for my, like I said for myself with my book, it was very cathartic and, and help me because my book is like my podcast and, and even my financial professional business starts at the origin to work on people six inches between their ears so that they can. Otherwise people get their finances in order, budget, goal setting, etc. Etc. It falls apart. Like you were mentioning about that 5% that end up being homeless. Again, it’s the same idea. We need to educate people not to fall into the same traps or get sucked by back by the same negativity that controlled them throughout their lives. So I, my book was very cathartic that way. I learned a lot about myself more so there was lots of tears writing it, editing it. I don’t know if that’s the same for you, but very, very powerful to write a book and leave that legacy behind. My great, great, great grandkids can listen to however many podcasts I have. They can read my book. They can find out about grandpa great, great Grandpa. Right. And I don’t even need to be here. And maybe, maybe that impact, that effort I put in, that sadness that initially happened when I wrote it and then happiness was, you know, roller coaster. Emotions will make a difference in their lives. Right. So just unselfish. Right? Just do the book. Whoever’s listening, write a book if you want to. You know, there’s somebody out there that you’re going to make a difference in their lives. Lives. So yeah. So did you meet Jack Canfield through your business? How did you meet Jack?
[01:09:29 – 01:11:53]
So Jack transformed my life and mindset. So I was going through a really difficult time right after I graduated my mba, I was going through, I got married while I was in college, very young, very stupid, made a terrible choice as, as you can imagine. So I was going through divorce. I was broke, stuck in so much credit card debt, barely making it in my job. And I was in Goodwill and came across Jack’s book Success Redefine or Sorry Success Principles. And I was like, what do I have to lose? So it was $3 and I bought that book and I just started doing all the exercises. And a lot of of the things that he does is exactly, that is mindset shift. And I just remember within three months I doubled my income, I moved to a new city, just like got my career just on completely different track. So I was just like, wow, like I’m so grateful for Jack. Right. So then I moved from Kentucky to Atlanta and Jack was coming to Atlanta and doing his like three day like a coaching workshop in Atlanta. And I was like, oh, I gotta go, I gotta meet Jack. He, he, he, he transformed my life. So I go and you know, I get the VIP because I wanted to just have lunch with him and just really like tell him thank you for everything that he’s done. And so that was a, a great experience. Well, people who’ve gone through that got on this special list that Jack sends out for his project and I guess a, a little over a year and a half ago I get this email from his team and said Jack is working on this new project and he’s looking for entrepreneurs to apply to basically write a chapter in his book about what does success mean? And it doesn’t necessarily mean what American dream regular success looks like. So I applied, went through some interviews with his team and then submitted my chapter and then I got selected as one of the entrepreneurs in that book.
[01:11:53 – 01:11:54]
Wow.
[01:11:54 – 01:12:19]
And actually in September of last year we again met as a group with Jack at in Hollywood to receive this quail award that is given to bestselling authors. So that was such a cool experience. Just be on the red carpet with Jack. He just turned 80. He’s retiring this year. So he’s just touched a lot of lives.
[01:12:19 – 01:13:02]
Oh yeah, he’s touched mine too. Absolutely. Not to the level of you, but thank you for sharing that. That again, God speaking to you, speaking to Jack. All this hap. Everything happens for a reason. If we look for. Right. The hidden meaning of stuff instead of always questioning in a negative way. So that’s, that’s amazing. Congratulations on that. Being a bestseller is. Is a great achievement. I remember when mine came through and I was just like, yeah, this part of, part of me thought, now I’ve arrived. But really have I. Not really. Right. I’ve arrived in a sense that people like, like my book. But it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to stop and camp. I’m going to continue to climb and support.
[01:13:02 – 01:13:03]
Yeah.
[01:13:03 – 01:13:15]
And keep people moving forward. So, Anna, if you had to give our listeners one last closing message, what would you tell them in regards to giving a heck and never giving up.
[01:13:17 – 01:14:02]
No matter what your circumstances are? Just know that it will pass and you will not just survive, but you can thrive. And do not allow for your dark moments and your pain to be purposeless. Use that as the source of your greatest strength. And just like I’m sharing all my darkest pain, most painful stories with you today and, and hopeful that this will inspire you to be better and to seek healing and just to get out of your circumstances, you can be that same light for somebody else. But first of all, you can be that for yourself.
[01:14:03 – 01:14:13]
Oh, absolutely. That’s a great message. I appreciate that our time is almost up. I want to respect our listeners and your time. What is the best way that people can reach you?
[01:14:13 – 01:14:24]
The best way to learn about everything we’re doing, including to reach me, is just go to our website. It’s cpn worldwide.com fantastic.
[01:14:24 – 01:15:05]
For those new to give a heck, Those watching on YouTube or listening on your favorite podcast platform, you Simply go to giveaheck.com Go to the top click on podcasts, you’ll see Anna’s smiling, beautiful face and below that will be all the show notes. So including the links to access her, any social media connections she may have and you’ll find a chapter summary of the whole show as well as a full unedited transcript. If you want to look for something specific that you really enjoyed in the show, it’ll help you narrow it down. So again, give a heck.com I appreciate you being on. Any last words that you’d like to say, Anna, before I close the show off?
[01:15:06 – 01:15:20]
Just. Just grateful for this time together. I’ve shared so many stories I’ve never shared before, and I. I pray that it will have a positive impact on one person who needed to hear this.
[01:15:20 – 01:16:07]
Well, that’s awesome. I know. I have many guests that have used our podcast episodes where they’ve shared things that they haven’t shared before, and they use it as a marker and tell people, you want to know more about me, go listen to this. This. Right? So that might be a positive for you to do, too, because I think our conversation was amazing. I already have been thinking in my mindset who I’m gonna text to say, you really need to listen to this. And my editor, who’s a Christian, he’s gonna love this. He’s gonna absolutely adore this. His name is Julius. Very, very kind man. But anyway, I really appreciate it. Thanks so much for being on Give a Heck, Anna. I appreciate your time and sharing some of your experiences. Experiences so that others, too, can learn. It is never too late to Give a Heck.