Thriving Alcohol-Free with Mocktail Mom

EP 120 | No Girl Left Behind: Marissa Cherepanov's Path to Leadership and Sobriety

• Deb, Mocktail Mom • Season 1 • Episode 120

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Join Deb as she welcomes Marissa Cherepanov, a leader in female empowerment and a dedicated advocate for women in leadership. 

Marissa shares her inspiring journey to sobriety, the challenges she faced during COVID, and how a pivotal conversation with her child led to a life-changing decision. Discover how Marissa's commitment to change not only transformed her life but also inspired her involvement as CEO of the No Girl Left Behind organization, empowering women across North America.

From her struggles with alcohol to her commitment to empowering women through the organization, No Girl Left Behind, Marissa discusses the pivotal moments that led her to change her life. 

She emphasizes the importance of resilience, visualization, and the power of community in overcoming challenges. 

The conversation highlights the profound impact of sobriety on her family life and her mission to inspire others to embrace their potential.

Follow Marissa on Instagram or connect through No Girl Left Behind. 



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Speaker 1:

Buckle up, friends, and welcome to the Thriving Alcohol-Free Podcast. I'm your host, deb, otherwise known as Mocktail Mom, a retired wine drinker that finally got sick and tired of spinning on life's broken record called Detox to Retox. Let this podcast be an encouragement to you. If alcohol is maybe a form of self-care for you, where you find yourself dragging through the day waiting to pour another glass, I am excited to share with you the fun of discovering new things to drink when you aren't drinking and the joy of waking up each day without a hangover. It is an honor to serve as your sober, fun guide. So sit back and relax or keep doing whatever it is you're doing. This show is produced for you with love from the great state of Kentucky. Thanks so much for being here and big time cheers. Okay, hey friends, it's Deb. Welcome back to Thriving Alcohol-Free. I am so happy to be here.

Speaker 1:

We have a very special guest today. Marissa, who I'm friends with on Instagram, is joining us today, and you guys, you are just going to love her. But can I read your bio? I'm so happy you're here. Thank you for joining Thriving Alcohol-Free. Thank you for being here. Marissa is a recognized leader in the female empowerment movement and a dedicated advocate for women in leadership. As the founder of Inspire with Marissa, she provides career coaching and motivational support to help women achieve their highest potential. In her role as CEO and visionary of the no Girl Left Behind organization, she spearheads global initiatives that inspire and equip women to embrace leadership and drive meaningful change throughout empowerment events and workshops. Marissa is also a high performing sales leader for Pandora. I really want to hear I don't know your sober journey. I would love to have you share about your journey to sobriety. And then I definitely want to talk about no Girl Left Behind and just starting over. Starting over Does that sound good? Kind of my agenda for the day.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I have been sober off of alcohol for two years, one month and 21 days. Do you? Want to know something crazy the other day. I couldn't remember if it had been one year or two years. I had like an actual brain lapse and and I was like wait a second, there's no way that I passed the two year mark. It must have been the one year mark that I passed and I couldn't even like for a second. It was like a flash in my head.

Speaker 1:

But that's because it's just become your life. It's just become your life, right.

Speaker 2:

I stopped keeping track and so it's yeah, it's just who I am. I will say in 2021, 2022, those were like really rough years for me. Covid is kind of what catapulted that Because, again, I've been in kind of like the retail leadership, a big box fashion industry for about 20 years, so you can imagine COVID kind of shook that to the core years and so you can imagine COVID kind of shook that to the core. Yeah. So I was in a position where they did like a mass layoff and I think, coming back when it happened, I never would have said that like I was affected by the trickle of COVID.

Speaker 2:

You know I was like well, you know, because I was able to continue to keep working a little bit, because I was able to pivot and get another job, but when I really stepped outside of it and looked back like that was hard, I didn't realize how hard it was when I was in it, but I think that's what started me drinking more. So by 2022, I'd gotten to a place where I was just really unhealthy and drinking after work, you know, like having a glass of wine after work, because everybody does and it's sure, sure, and then having cocktails, you know, and get togethers on the weekend. Anyway, by 2022, not only did I look unhealthy, but I just mentally was unhealthy. So I'd gotten up to my highest weight. You know, I was like a size 16, 18. And I was like 220.

Speaker 1:

I can't even imagine you. Do you want to see a picture You're like the picture of fitness? Do you want to see a picture You're like the picture of?

Speaker 2:

fitness, oh really, oh well, yeah, if I can pull it up, but yeah, well, there's an Instagram page. So I ended up getting on a weight loss shake colon broom and it didn't work the first time and then the second time I gave up alcohol when I started it. So I lost about 80 pounds in about eight months. I really committed just wholeheartedly to changing my lifestyle. So what prompted me and I will say, because people often ask, like, what made you quit drinking it was a conversation and I talk about this on everything but a conversation with one of my children. So I had known for years that I didn't want to drink the way I did. I knew that and you know how you tell yourself in your head just quit drinking, just quit drinking. And I knew that I would quit one day. I just didn't know when or how. But I knew that something would make it happen and you start to lose faith because you have rock bottoms that don't make it click right. And I talked about my rock bottoms. You know I had things happen in my life I crashed a car and that wasn't a rock bottom. You'd think that you know a sane person would say okay, I have an issue I need to calm down, but there were so many rock bottoms that didn't make it click. And so that's why I say sometimes on these types of interviews if you're in that spot of you keep trying and it's not working, give yourself some grace, because all of us in this community tried it over and over until it worked. So it's not like you're not normal, it's not like it's, you know, a bigger, like you don't have the capabilities or the courage, it's just that it takes time, and so give yourself a little bit of grace. In that time is what I always say, great advice. And so that conversation with my child we never talked about alcohol, and I've said it over and over, but I it was like in that moment, which is crazy, I haven't even said this part before but, um, uh, our family is Russian and our Christmas is on January 7th instead of December 25th, okay, and so it happened to be on Russian Christmas that we had this conversation, so my sobriety date happens to be Russian Christmas, which is kind of ironic, um, cause it's just a huge party holiday. Yes, so, yeah, and so I don't remember being wasted when we had that conversation, but I'm sure earlier, you know, during the festivities. I probably before I had that conversation, given the holiday.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure I had a couple of drinks, but I do remember sitting with my child and looking at them and thinking their life could be better if I didn't drink, and what I talked about in the beginning, when I did some podcasts at some rehab facilities. It was like I had a flash of foresight into their future and it was probably partly because of the things I went through and I'll get into that, but it was like I could see them 10 years from now, the way we were living, and in a flash I just for a second, it's like the universe gave me a glimpse of what their lives could look like 10 years from now if I was living differently. And in that flash it happened so fast. And I just remember sitting there, you know, because what we were talking about in that conversation was how's life, what's going wrong, what's going right, what can be better. And they kind of had a moment, a vulnerable moment, and said you know, we're struggling, things are struggling School, homework, friends, girlfriends, friends, whatever it is Just talking about teenage struggles and it was almost like I felt like I could knew gosh.

Speaker 2:

That was like, you know, almost two and a half years ago. I knew what was coming. I knew I had to be present because I've got four kids and they're just coming up to the ages. You always have to be totally present, but I just thought. I guess part of it like even seeing it out loud now, thinking about it like when I really needed that, I didn't get it, and I think that's part of the reason I went down such a bad path. And so I think in that moment with that child, I almost feared them going down a similar path if I didn't immediately give them what I knew I needed.

Speaker 2:

You know, it was like I was living a certain way and I knew what the outcome was gonna be because I lived it and I knew I could fix it, and the only way I could fix it is if I gave up alcohol. And so I knew in that moment that was it, that was what I was waiting for. That flash, that gut, like you know, a lightning bolt to your chest, like the universe slaps you in the face and says I just gave you and I just showed you what life could look like. You know it's up to you. Make a choice right here, right now.

Speaker 2:

And I came out of that room and I told my family I'm never going to drink again. I don't ever want to drink again. I want my children's lives to be better. I want my children's lives to be the absolute best they can be. I want them to be future leaders. I want them to live to the max, mach 10, take it all in. And I know that if I'm drinking I'm holding them back from that, completely holding them back. So that was what made me decide to quit drinking, and I sometimes laugh about like how I did it Once I knew I wanted to do it.

Speaker 2:

It was like I made this like detailed, meticulous plan on how to not pour myself a drink after work, because I drank every day after work and I drank every weekend and I drank at every party. In fact, I hosted most of the parties. So I mean, I was known for hosting parties and it was fun for me and it was my thing, and so that was another thing. It's like how do I not be that person? But in that moment, in that, those few days, it just my kids became more important than all of that.

Speaker 2:

I just needed to see it, and so I did go out and buy a ton of like seltzer water and kombucha no non-alcoholic stuff yet it was just kombucha, which I don't drink. Kombucha, I don't know if I'm saying it right. Kombucha I don't drink it anymore. I probably had enough to have my share. I even Googled like if it's safe to have it, I think online. It said like you know one a day, you know, cause it's got all the stuff in it, but I would drink it like in replacement. So sometimes I would have like three after work, like I hope everything's okay Getting through doing what you need to do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I just needed to get through it and I knew I needed to keep. You know, something in my hand that felt like a drink, because I was so reliant on that routine. I just didn't want the alcohol. I don't mind having something in my drink, I just didn't want the alcohol. And I wanted to keep my hands busy and my mind busy so that I didn't have time to sink into that dark place. And so I went out and bought like three adult coloring books and like canvases and paints and I've always been like a crafty-ish person. You know, that was the only thing I knew to do in the very beginning and I used that crutch for a few months. And you know, my family knew and I still have the pictures. In fact, one of the first pictures that I did freehand is still up in my garage.

Speaker 2:

I love that they're just like little clips of me working through sobriety. And then one day I didn't need it anymore. One day I didn't need an adult coloring book, and one day I didn't like the taste of kombucha anymore and I thought, you know, I'm going to try a non-alcoholic beer. Some I liked and some I didn't. And then you kind of find the ones that are, you know, an acquired taste to you. Yeah, and so now I think I want to say, like around probably six months, I stopped needing all that stuff. And don't quote me, I don't know the exact month, yeah, yeah, but just in general, like yeah, and by the time I think, gosh, not this Was it this last summer. It must have been. Well, no, it's like I didn't even realize it'd been two years.

Speaker 2:

But I do remember like one of the first times I went to an outing with a very large group of people for like a big drink fest, you know, like out summer day, boating on the beach.

Speaker 2:

I remember like one of the first times going to one of those things and and not being nervous about it, and that was probably like less than a year and just under a year, you know, six to eight months or something. So I will say, like in time it all gets easier and I spoke about this before too but you get to a point where you're not even embarrassed to go buy a half rack of non-alcoholic beer, because it's not like I'm gonna go pound those 12 non-alcoholic beers. That's insane. But I wanna have something in my fridge for like next week if I feel like I want to grab something. You know, and sometimes I don't want a seltzer water or a Dutch. You know I mean I always want a Dutch, but yeah, so I mean, you know, in all things, if you haven't quite yet jumped over the hump and gotten to sobriety, give yourself some grace. If you're in the very beginning days of it, give yourself some grace and just know that you know we're not special for getting over those humps.

Speaker 2:

We just had to go through it, just like you do. You just have to face it or find your little niche that keeps your hands busy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

It was those books. And then I went into further education. I jumped on board with Linfield and their Women in Leadership program and this is just a testament to the amazing things that happen when you give up alcohol. So many opportunities come in front of you when you're fully present and aware of your capabilities and what you can offer the world. And I just renewed my status with them, you, when you're fully present and aware of your capabilities and what you can offer the world, and I just renewed my status with them. So I'll be on their board of advisors until February of 2026, just helping with the women in leadership curriculum and having meetings and things like that.

Speaker 2:

But I will say, right around the time I stopped needing the adult coloring books, I launched into this very long, extensive course at Linfield. It was like a I don't know. They gave you like 12 months to complete the course. I think I completed it in less than that. But it was something to keep me busy. You know it was further education. I enjoyed it. It was in the industry that I'm passionate about, so you know I looked forward to it. But just finding things to keep yourself busy that'll benefit you in the future, I think is a huge key thing. You know, if there's something that you're passionate about, google how to get certified. You know reach out to someone that can get you on that path and there's nothing stopping you from doing that If you're sober and you're bored. You've got so much to give to the world, so find where it should go and give it.

Speaker 1:

That is such good advice. That is such good advice. And figure out. Yeah, keep busy and figure out. You know what is it that you're interested in and find a way to serve the world with it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so that's really just what I've been doing. Incredible, no girl left behind. Did you start this after you got sober? I didn't start it I should say no, I have a business partner. Her name's Kiki Rosema.

Speaker 1:

She's the founder.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

No girl left behind.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and so again, the way the universe works is so crazy. Remember, I told you I had done the weight loss thing.

Speaker 1:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

And again, this is a great story. You're going to love this. I was traveling for work, for the leadership stuff that I do, and I was alone for like two weeks in a studio hotel in Seattle, seattle, okay.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

It was one of my first work trips, traveling, staying in like a hotel alone for a long time, sober, okay. And so I was kind of bored and I had just lost all that weight and I thought there's, you know, there's something I can do with this. This is a lot of weight, it's a huge transformation. So I started bugging the company that created the weight loss shake and initially they told me like leave us alone.

Speaker 1:

They didn't know who they were talking to.

Speaker 2:

But I kept bugging them and I kept bugging them and I kept bugging them and eventually I signed on as a spokesperson for them and so they used my name and my picture and my voice to launch like ads and commercials. I think they said there was even like some billboards in Europe or something, but I don't know if they did that. But I leaned into that hard but again I was sober and bored and needing something to do. So all of these things fed the boredom.

Speaker 1:

I was no longer bored.

Speaker 2:

I always had something to look forward to.

Speaker 2:

It was like the next step, the next step, the next step you know, and so the founder of no Girl Left Behind actually ran across one of my weight loss ads. Really, yeah, and we connected and then we kind of became best friends and we still talk every day. But the more we got to know each other and then when we really dove into, you know all the things that she's done. She created it. She has so much vision to all the things that she's done. She created it. She has so much vision and I'm blown away sometimes because sometimes she'll send me a message on something that she achieved or she did and I'm like how You're so amazing, so she's phenomenal, kiki Rosema. And the more we talked we kind of just realized it's a perfect match, it's a perfect fit If we partner up and we work together.

Speaker 2:

She's in Canada, I'm in America and we meet pretty regularly. So us coming together and that's one of the things I talked to. I just did another podcast live. I talk about like the miracle of crossroads in your life, the people you meet, and that's a huge one for me. You know, had I not been alone in that hotel in Seattle, bored, staying up till 3am building a business case to push to the weight loss company to beg them to make me a spokesperson, to have them tell me no for months, to just keep asking them for them to finally say okay, lady, you can be our spokesperson. You know, had I never done that, she would have never saw that ad.

Speaker 2:

We would have never connected, I wouldn't have anything to do with no Girl Left Behind. I might have not even ever heard of it. So, again, it's all of those things that come into play in the next step. And I think when you ride that ride, you know, sometimes I feel like mentally I'll get off track. And I listened to something recently that talked about when you're on the right track, like picture it like a huge beam over the globe, right, and it's connecting, and you're riding that beam, and sometimes you get knocked off and go on another one and I'll literally stop myself and tell myself, like get back on.

Speaker 2:

I call it. Sometimes this is going to sound so funny, but I'll say to myself cosmic slice, because they explained it like a slice of bread, like take a slice of bread and slice it, and they did this whole mental thing. And so I just paraphrased in my head okay, I'm going to remind myself to get back on my cosmic slice. So anytime I feel like I'm off track, I remind myself I got sober the weight loss company alone in that hotel at like 2am is when I sent the email or something, and so I just remind myself that these are all seeds that I planted after sobriety.

Speaker 2:

All of it's intentional, all of it happened for a reason and I just have to stay on that. I stay on the path, stay on the cosmic slice, and it'll just keep going where it's supposed to go. And I do remind myself, even if it goes to a bad place, I'm on the right track, I'm on the right cosmic slice. So even if it's bad, I know that it's still the right track. So I don't fear it, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2:

I just wrote in one of my articles and I say it to my teenagers and I say it in my presentations you cannot control the roller coaster that is life, but you can see the track in your mind and as long as you know you can control that track in your mind, then it makes the journey extraordinary. So I just learned to not fear what happens and just know it's all part of the plan. And so then I started sharing things about sobriety, like, like you and I talked, it all started with sobriety. Like we leaned into Instagram when we got sober because we were kind of bored. Yeah, the very first time I was on a like a closed like AA, not AA, but it was like a sober podcast.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Someone said why'd you start drinking? And no one had ever said that before.

Speaker 1:

You should say why'd you stop drinking? Yeah, Interesting yeah. I don't think I've ever been asked that. Why'd you start drinking yeah?

Speaker 2:

And same thing. It kind of threw me for a minute and I thought you know if I really think about it. And then I said, okay, I wasn't planning on saying this and I've never said this out loud and this is something that I've never really acknowledged about my past. But I said I had some things happen to me when I was a teenager and I never dealt with them. I shoved them in a suitcase, zipped it up and put it in a cabinet in my mind and walked away from it and I think part of me getting to like the COVID and the drinking was me never really mentally kind of evaluating what happened to me and how I got through it and how awful it was. You know I'd locked it away for so many years and so I said on that podcast that I, when I was 17, I was a runaway and before that because I often like to start with the fact, like I don't want people to think I was like escaping a horrible childhood or anything like that my parents were phenomenal, my mom was a nurse and my dad was a lawyer for the state and I was a gymnast and I did pageants and life was fabulous. So it can happen to anyone. I don't want people to think that sometimes you see people in a bad place and you think, well, they must have come from a really bad family. No, not always. Sometimes things happen. Yeah, I ended up running away from home and finding myself in a really bad place, wrong place, wrong time. Things happened really fast.

Speaker 2:

But when I was 17, I stood trial for seven felonies, including attempted manslaughter. And they decided to try me as an adult because I was so close to my 18th birthday. Yeah, and they said like're going to make this stick, we're going to make an example out of you. And I didn't even realize what I had done wrong. To be honest, I was so young, I was 17. I was a cheerleader like in the wrong world. So by the time I was 18, you know. So I stood trial. We did a plea bargain. I took some lesser charges, but I had just decided like that life's over, you know, everything I knew is over. This is my life now.

Speaker 2:

So when I got out, you know, and when everything was done, I took lesser charges, but I was living on this. When they let me out, I was on the streets and I was dubbed a felon. So I couldn't get back into the life that I had once had, and so I lost contact with my family. I spent about three years in a very, very dark place. So that's what's going into all the books and that's what I'm working with people now. But again, I would have never mentally dealt with it had I not talked about it on that podcast, had I not linked into Instagram, had I not quit drinking. You know what I'm saying. Like it all trickled down just from giving up alcohol.

Speaker 2:

So it took me about 10 years to get everything off of my record. I couldn't apply for any jobs that were significant because of my record. So I was like a waitress bartender for many, many years, saving up money. I talk in the book about the day I remember I walked away from that life. I remember going to my father's house and knocking on his back door, you know, and I remember him telling me I can stay on the couch until I get it figured out. And then I got a waitressing job and saved up money and got my own place and eventually became a mother. I eventually got the charges removed and once I knew I was in a good place, I applied for the first job that I really wanted, having no experience at all, and this wonderful woman who I'll never forget, that I'm going to give you a shot.

Speaker 2:

And I started at the bottom and I worked my way up and in months I had, you know, achieved a few promotions and then started taking on larger things and more promotions and larger things, and then found myself, you know, helping with billion dollar acquisitions, with CEOs, and I had. It was like I had. I was finally back to the life I was meant to live, but I had just kept what happened for those 10, 13 years. You know, the 10 years of just being silent about what happened in the three years I spent in the dark place were just. I never talked about it, I never told anybody about it. The only people that knew were, like close family members, about what really happened to me. So now I'm able to share. What I share in the workshops is because now I was finally able to realize, like, how the F did I get through that? Right, I was 17 and how did I get through that? And so I've really been diving into that, what I think it is.

Speaker 2:

I spent a lot of years as a gymnast and I talk about the mental rehearsal training that I went through. So that was before the Dark Place. So I had those tools in my mind before I got to the Dark Place. I was able to mentally go into those spaces in my mind since I was a very young child and the gymnastics training that I went through I mean they really taught you how to my mom would send me to these camps in like Texas and California and we'd go through hours of mental rehearsal training. And I did that for 13 years of my life. I retired at the age of 14 in 1997 with a national title, and so those skills that I had from an early age I carried with me when I went to a bad place. And so those skills that I had from an early age I carried with me when I went to a bad place.

Speaker 2:

And I talk about how I always knew I would get out. I always knew like that I was meant for more, but it's just like I felt very stuck. And so one of the things I just talked about recently is the guardian angels in our life that help us pivot. And when I was in a really bad place, constantly going back into my mind and picturing myself you know the best version of myself I would always picture her, no matter where I was.

Speaker 2:

I was able to go into a room, go into a corner and picture my best self and know that I would get out one day. I always knew I would get out one day and so I think, never giving up hope and never stopping the visualization, you know, even when things were awful and they were handing down charges, like I still had that version of myself, you know, and there were times when I would break and think like, oh my God, life is over. But I talk about the guardian angels because a gentleman pulled me aside and said you don't belong here. And that was the first time where I just spoke about this. But I remember thinking I know he sees that I agree with you.

Speaker 1:

I've been feeling this for years. I agree. I'm glad somebody recognizes that.

Speaker 2:

And that him, but it's like I needed someone.

Speaker 1:

You needed somebody to say it.

Speaker 2:

Right, because I'd been in it for a few years now and I was already selling and I, you know, homeless, and so it just felt like this is me.

Speaker 1:

This is what I'm doing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so it was after that conversation with him that I went out and I reached for help and I ended up getting the charges removed and going through that whole process and walking away.

Speaker 2:

I talk about how part of what pushes me with the no Girl Left Behind event is I feel like the universe put those people in front of me almost to show me that I can be one of those for other people Like I want to help, I want to be that for someone. You know the girls that come to the event, like whether it's one or two or 50 or a hundred of them that have that moment of like. Oh yeah, I can control my destiny, just like she did. You know, even as bad as it was, her life still turned out exactly how she wanted it to, but it's because she kept visualizing it exactly how she wanted it to in her head, which ties back into you can't control the roller coaster.

Speaker 2:

I couldn't control that. They were going to try me as an adult, at 17. I shouldn't have been tried as an adult and they would have been misdemeanors. It would have been a slap on the wrist and I probably would have gone about my scholarships. I probably would have a different life and have children with different names, right, but that's not the way it went down. So I have to almost just acknowledge that it's part of the ride. I can't control the ride. But as long as I can see that track, if I never lose sight of that track in my mind, if I stay on my track, then it's going to be okay and it's just all part of the process.

Speaker 2:

But I will say, none of this came into, you know, full circle for me. I wasn't able to fully mentally grasp it all and what happened to me and how I got through it and able to share it, until I gave up alcohol. It's like the alcohol was keeping a foggy lens over my truth and once I removed alcohol it was like, oh my gosh, now I know why I went through everything I went through, like resilience, recovery, female leadership. I mean all the things that have happened to me, even the last 20 years of the fashion leadership experience that I have. It all ties into where I am now and again, had I never quit drinking, I would have never made the ad for the weight loss company, I would have never met the woman who created no Girl Left Behind.

Speaker 2:

So it's really yeah, it's honestly like when I tell people that giving up alcohol can be life changing, like I'm not joking.

Speaker 1:

It's so life changing. It is so life changing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's our relationship with our children, careers opportunities. Yeah yeah, the miracle of crossroads.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's been a wild ride. I actually have another article coming out, I think this week in Expert Profile magazine called the Power of Perspective. I believe something like that. Part of what I talk about is matching the feeling. I just talked to someone this morning about that. You know, if you say well, I use the car analogy and a lot, but I feel like a broken record. I've said that so many times. But I guess, like one thing I just saw, is you just literally pretend that it already happened in your gut. That feeling like they say Like they've won the lottery over and over and I'm not saying like this is what.

Speaker 1:

I do Right, right, right, but just yeah, but just what?

Speaker 2:

does it feel like yeah, but just what does it feel like? Like you just picture, as if it already happened. And so I was just talking to someone this morning that was, you know, saying like, oh, I wish this would happen, I wish this would happen. And I said, but us wishing it would happen is pushing it further away. Right, the more you wish, the more you push. So why don't we just appreciate that we already have it, we already know it's coming. We just don't know when, we don't know how.

Speaker 2:

Just the exact same way I was in those dark places or when I was trying to give up alcohol, I know in my head it's going to work out. I don't know exactly how, I don't know how many road bumps are going to be in front of me, I don't know how many mountains I'm going to have to climb, or how many climb, or how many dark places I may have to go to to get there, how many tears or whatever. But now that I know it's all part of the process, bring it, bring it, let's do it. You know Like, yeah, just do it. And so powerful for somebody to do it. Yeah, yeah, it was a bad raid. I write about it in the book. It was one where they brought in dogs and, yeah, seeing people's faces get mauled is rough. It was only 17. And what's crazier?

Speaker 2:

is now I have kids close to that age and I cannot even fathom if they were to go.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, I have a 17-year-old yeah 18, 16, 10, and 6.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, like my teenagers for fun on the weekends like hang out with me and dad.

Speaker 1:

Go to Dutch Bros, we pick out coffees yeah, we get coffees.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we hang out and so I. I just I think of where I went from age 17 to like roughly age 20. Man, I mean, I don't even I. Just it's crazy. To me it's still unbelievable. And I think part of the reason it's so unbelievable again is because I didn't even start sharing it or owning it, Like I kept it hidden for over 20 years. Yeah, because I was 17 when it happened.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so powerful to share it, so life-changing for other people to hear your story and be so inspired.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you, cause I um so inspiring I thought should I share it, you know? But now I'm at a point where, um, I want to share it, you know, and um we're working on another book. There's a high level.

Speaker 1:

Tell everybody about the book. Tell everybody about the book and then can you explain. No Girl Left Behind the event.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, so I'm co-authoring a book with Marco Robinson. He's amazing. He's a TV host out of Europe, a Netflix producer, he's done philanthropy, he's done so much work around the world. He brings together communities. He's just amazing. Honestly, Google him so he brought together people that had a story of impact where they turned their life completely around. Anybody that had a story of just you know, completely rock bottom to success. He wanted to know about it. And so I think there's I don't know exactly how many books. I want to 14 of us in each chapter. So each chapter is a person's story of what happened to them. They explain how they got through it. They give you the tools, they explain how successful things are now, and then there's going to be options for you to even go online and like latch on to those tools from each individual person. If you want. Wow Over by Marco Robinson and many other authors, Each volume is going to be released simultaneously.

Speaker 2:

I'm in volume two Great. And then my volume is kind of like just a high level explanation of what exactly happened and it's interesting because it is written as a storytelling, you know, and it's again, it helped me because I wouldn't have even met him had it not been for all those things. I told you that happened, but it was the first time in my life that I went very detailed into those days and what happened to me, Like when I walked into the financial institution where everything went down, when they found everything on me, like the ride to the police station getting handcuffed. So I go into those details why it happened and what happened in the book. So Start Over is the book and my chapter is what Happened to Me. And then I'm also working, possibly with Marco I'm not, we're still working out things but to tell, the three years that I was in that place a lot of things went down and so we're working on kind of explaining or figuring out how to exactly word it and where to put it and what to say. You know, because I've said before that I just want to do it under a pseudonym, that's terrible, but I mean it was terrible.

Speaker 2:

And no Girl Left Behind I could talk about that forever. So no Girl Left Behind is a female empowerment organization. It started a few years ago in Canada and we've now launched in the United States. So people often say to me, like what do you actually do? What do you actually do. What's it about? It's an all-day event and we travel around North America, we choose our cities and then it's about 200 to 500 attendees per event. And it's just an all-day. Women's, you know female empowerment, latch arms, boost each other up. But what we pride ourselves on is we don't just speak to you, you know, it's not just another speaking event. There's hands-on workshops, there's all sorts of things. So the brunt of the day everyone comes in at, say, like 9 or 10 am and we have like a little breakfast snack thing and then we separate people by age. It's age nine and up.

Speaker 2:

Depending on the age, they go through certain workshops with different people and then we bring everyone back together for a breakthrough, you know, and then we separate them again into a workshop. You're back and forth through these workshops, but while you're in the workshops you're getting to know all these people that want to be a part of this huge movement, as well as our empowerment team. The other thing that makes it so unique is that you have the opportunity to stay connected to our empowerment team after the event is over, so it's not like you go to the event and then we say goodbye, never see you again. You can reach out to any of our empowerment team anytime you want. You know there's people that exchange cell phone numbers. We're getting ready to offer some post event things online to the attendees.

Speaker 2:

For me, the biggest win of no Girl Left Behind is witnessing in real time girls' lives changing. You know, and just everyone always says the same thing I wish there was something like this when I was younger. I mean, I can say that too. I wish there was something like this when I was younger. Right, maybe different choices, who knows, but seeing the girls transform. So I mean, there's girls, it's a day of fun. You know, it's not a dark day, but we do. There's tears, there's laughter, but there's girls that get to a very vulnerable state by the end of the day and they end up confessing things to their friends or their aunts or their neighbors or their mothers and saying, like you know, I never felt comfortable enough to say this, and now I'm going to say it Anyone can come, you don't have to be a mother or a daughter, it's just females all females from anywhere, all walks of life, and we're getting women buying tickets from states all over the country, all over North America too.

Speaker 2:

So it's just been for me. It's been amazing, like I said, because it feels like everything I went through and meeting the founder, it's just all full circle, because now I feel like I have a platform where I can share what I went through and how I got through it, and if I can reach just even a couple girls and give them that confidence to make them bulletproof, then I feel like I'm paying it forward.

Speaker 1:

It's life changing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, those people that were my guardian angels and my stepping stones and my guiding lights when I was in a rough place. Now I can be that for them. You know, and I went through it for a reason. I'm on a platform where I can share it, so it feels full circle, but, yeah, no Girl Left Behind. It's a transformative experience and that's the best way I can explain it. I mean, we have testimonials and case studies, but I love. What I love when I hear about the event is when someone comes to me and says, like I didn't even realize I had these issues and now they're out and I feel better, you know, like I let things go during the event.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for you're so inspirational to me and I just am so grateful for the opportunity to hear your story today.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, yeah, no, this has been phenomenal. I enjoyed our chat now and the earlier chat and getting to know you. Yeah, I want to. I want to talk to you more. I feel like we there's so much more we could talk about Same.

Speaker 1:

Same. I feel the same way. Yes, yes, okay. Lots of love, lots and lots of love to you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Big time cheers to you for tuning into the Thriving Alcohol-Free Podcast. I hope you will take something from today's episode and make one small change that will help you to thrive and have fun in life without alcohol. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social, send up a flare or leave a rating and a review. I am cheering for you as you discover the world of non-alcoholic drinks and as you journey towards authentic freedom. See you in the next episode.