What Courage Really Looks Like: Freedom Beyond Fear

What does courage really look like? Is courage the absence of fear, or is it taking action even when fear is present? In this inspiring, heartfelt episode of Conversations That Make a Difference, Teresa Velardi sits down with The Honorable Blanquita Walsh Cullum, award-winning journalist, humanitarian, media leader, and co-founder of Voices Against Trafficking, for a powerful conversation about faith, fear, resilience, freedom, veterans, human trafficking awareness, gratitude, and living courageously. Together, they explore what it truly means to step forward despite uncertainty, how courage can lead to freedom on the other side of fear, and why every one of us has the power to make a difference.

You’ll hear moving stories about
:✨ The meaning behind courage and resilience
✨ The National Memorial Day Parade and honoring veterans
✨ Human trafficking awareness and the mission behind Voices Against Trafficking
✨ Why telling your story matters
✨ Teresa’s personal journey through fear and finding freedom
✨ Faith, gratitude, healing, forgiveness, and purpose
Plus, Teresa shares her inspiring COURAGE acronym to help you live boldly and authentically:

C – Commit to playing FULL OUT
O – Open your mind and heart
U – Understand and be authentic
R – Resolve differences through forgiveness
A – Adjust to change
G – Gratitude unlocks prosperity
E – Evolve gracefully

Courage doesn’t mean you’re fearless. It means you keep going anyway.

If this conversation inspired you, please LIKE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to help us spread more meaningful conversations that uplift, heal, and inspire.

Resources from this Episode:
Book: 'Voices Against Trafficking: Courage is Contagious: Uniting Voices and Nations in the War Against Human Slavery'  https://a.co/d/09rOvOls
Learn more about Voices Against Trafficking: https://voicesagainsttrafficking.com/
Gary Sinise Foundation: https://www.garysinisefoundation.org/
Tragedy Assistance Program For Survivors (TAPS): https://www.taps.org/
Soldier Strong, founded by Chris Meek: https://www.soldierstrong.org/
DJs Against Trafficking & Hunger Music Marathon event September 26, 2026 https://linktr.ee/DJsAgainstTrafficking
Book: 'Killed to Order' by Jan Jekielek: https://a.co/d/04N4TbxJ

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Transcript

Conversations That Make A Difference with Teresa Velardi

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Conversations That Make a Difference with your host Teresa Villardi. We believe that authentic, meaningful, and diverse conversations are the glue that binds us together. Our discussions remind us we have the power to uplift, challenge, stretch, and invite dynamic group. Are you like it? Feeling like your life taking your hands to light. Join us for conversations filled with gratitude, values, abundance, authenticity, and faith. Here's the host of our show, Teresa Villardi.

The Serenity Prayer

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Hey everybody, and welcome to Conversations That Make a Difference, your five o'clock show on Tuesdays on YouTube. I am here with Blanquita Column, and we are going to be having a conversation about courage in just a few minutes, but we're going to get started first. You know, we start with a prayer. We always say the serenity prayer. So let's do that. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. And I also want to tell you that it is by God's grace that we are indeed fabulous, blessed, and highly favored, living in our greatness, using our gifts and talents, making a difference in the lives of others with passion and purpose. And all of God's great universe is conspiring in our favor. And together we say gratefully, Amen. Amen. Amen. That's a good way to start, right? Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Absolutely grateful.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

Blanquita, I'm going to read your bio

Meet Blanquita (BQ) Walsh Cullum: A Life of Service

SPEAKER_03 2:03

so I don't leave anything out. This is a hefty bio we have here, and we've got a great conversation ahead for you. So the honorable Blanquita Walsh Cullum is an award-winning broadcast journalist. Blanquita, I'm going to call you BQ because I know that's what people call you.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

She's And you know how that happened. Can I tell you real quick? Yeah. And the guy said, Darlin, what's your name? I said, Blanquita. And he said, Oh no, if it doesn't fit in a belt buckle, Darlin, we can't say it. So he calls me BQ.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Well, alrighty then. BQ served as a Senate-confirmed governor on the United States Broadcasting Board of Governors. In that capacity, she served as chairman of the committees on Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Radio and Television Marty, and the Middle East Broadcast Network. She was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame as BQ and named champion of radio by Multicultural Correspondence Association. She serves as MC for the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C. And yesterday was her 20th time as the MC for that parade. Her radio program, The Hard Question, was nationally syndicated and will soon become a podcast. For nine years, she was the president of the National Association of Radio Talk Show hosts. And Blanquita is the president and co-founder of Voices Against Trafficking and associate editor of their new Voices of Courage magazine, one which I have a copy of right here. And currently she is the executive producer of International Reporters Roundtable, a television show featured on the Epic Times NTD network and serves as an on-air media coach for over 30 anchors and reporters for the network. I am honored to have you on the show.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Good to see you again. You do so much for so many. I'm honored to be on your show. Please.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

Thank

Behind the National Memorial Day Parade

SPEAKER_03 4:22

you, thank you, thank you. So let's start with what yesterday. What is the experience of hosting the national? This is the national um Memorial Day parade in Washington, DC. And 20 years you've been doing this.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Tell me about a little bit more than we it started really in 2004 when we dedicated the World War II monument. And they wanted the American Veterans Center was tasked with putting a little parade together. And it was fabulous. You know, we had interesting people, fabulous people that showed up. Winston Churchill's granddaughter came in. We had a couple of the judges that were uh on the court for the Nuremberg trials, and it was a fabulous experience. Lots of uh uh men and women who served in World War II in Vietnam. But since then, it's been going on. Now it's an official parade, it's the biggest one in the country. One of the parts of it that I love the best is that we stop at a certain like yesterday. Yesterday we started a bit earlier than normal. At 11 o'clock, we stopped the parade to have the national moment of remembrance, to really remember the sacrifice of all those men and women who have served our country and many who paid the ultimate price. And I I adore working on that parade. I've worked with some great co-hosts, I've met some wonderful heroes that I'm I'm happy to share a little bit of the journey.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

That's awesome. And so yesterday, is there anyone who our audience might know who was in attendance that you had the opportunity to do?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

I mean, come on. Well, every year we have the great Gary Sinise, okay? This is the first year we didn't have Joe Montaigne, was had a little family issue that he couldn't make it this year. And I love Joe Montaigne. His uh uncle, Willie Novelli, had served in General Patton's army, and until he passed, he would join us every year. But Joe's this well, I think it's either his first or second time he couldn't make it. But Gary Sinise, I'm going to tell you a fun little bit of trivia that most people don't know. I love Gary Sinise. And you know, his Sinise Foundation helps so many veterans, so many families every day. But you know, there are only a few honorary Marines, and these are Marines that have to be named by the commandant of the Marine Corps. Well, let's see. You might know a couple. For example, there was Chuck Norris, you probably know. You had uh Brigadier General Bob Hope, he was oh my goodness, yeah. You had, let me see, Colonel Jim Neighbors. Remember Jim Neighbors? Yes, one that I think everybody will know. Master Sergeant Bugs Bunny. Oh my goodness, yeah. Of course, the fifth one is Gary Sinise. Yeah, and he deserves it. I mean, he was a lieutenant Danny. Well, he'll oftentimes he'll play with a lieutenant Dan band, but he is a man who absolutely honors everyone. And then yesterday we also had Lou Diamond Phillips, nice, uh you know, Mr. La Bamba. And uh, we have a lot of different we had a wonderful performance by a Nashville brand, pretty new singing star signed his contract last year at the age of 100 years old. I'm talking about a veteran by the name of Don Graves, now 101, sang God bless America. Wow, everybody stood up. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. But

Gene Simmons' Powerful Personal Story

SPEAKER_01 8:01

last year we had somebody that I think that your audience would know that I I like to mention because he's such a good guy. And you wouldn't kind of you think, well, this guy's a super rock star. And I'm talking about Gene Simmons. Oh, yeah, and Gene Simmons of KISS, his mother was rescued by the American military. She was in Mutthausen concentration camp. And so for that reason, he never smoked, he's never drank, he's never had any substance. Because why would he hurt his mother, who gave so much for him to live? And he is a kick because um he says, nobody better ever say anything about the American military, or they'll have to deal with him. But he's a very, very good guy. And uh, you know, and the other touching thing was this last year when he was riding along in the car, he was sitting seated next to a hundred-year-old veteran, one of the last guys still alive that rescued his mother. Wow. I mean, you know, but you see the gold star mothers from, and they carry portraits of their children that they've lost. You know, you you see the young Marines, you see over 30 marching bands from schools all over the United States. You think of what moms and dads and friends will do to try to raise the money to let those young people come over and participate. You see, you know, every kind of great Purple Heart gold medal winner, and probably a lot of people don't realize, you know, the only president that really was was given a uh uh the uh the good the Congressional Medal of Honor, do you know who received it? I don't know. Um well it was one of the presidents that had the same name. It was one of the presidents who had the same last name. One of the Bushes? No, bully bully. It was Teddy Roosevelt. Oh, Teddy Roosevelt, yes. Teddy Roosevelt was raising, you know, the the troops uh at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio,

Courage in the Face of Sacrifice

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Texas, and the Spanish-American War. And uh, but quite a great man talk about courage. You know, he said the courage goes to the man that's actually in the arena.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Yeah, exactly. That um, yeah. Oh man, if I could find that real quick, I would love to read that poem because that's that's just really, really powerful. Very powerful. I didn't think to bring that up here. So, but yeah, but so many. So here you are in Washington, DC, with all these people. And and if you could estimate how many people were in attendance just to watch the parade, how many people would you say were on that uh along the parade route?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

It was hard for me to say because this year they they they arranged the way that we do the parade a bit different, so I couldn't actually look face to face to the crowd like normal. Uh we've had the crowds be as big as 300,000. And we've also had a situation that um we you know how many people actually were um watching it last year just online? A billion. What? A billion because this year it could be probably as much or more. We were on Facebook, we were on YouTube, we were on Fox, we were all over the country.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

That's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah, it's kind of like uh media today can get the message out regardless of whether it's a parade or whatever the message is, it can be out there in an instant, in an instant. And that's one of the beautiful things about the internet.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

But the but the thing about it is, Teresa, you know what's great about that crowd? Wow, first of all, it's the one crowd where people are not afraid to scream and cheer for the American Patriots. They're not afraid to say, if you say, Is there anybody out in this parade that's army, they go nuts. If you say, is anybody out there that's a marine or coast guard, they go crazy. And the thing of it is, if you say, God bless America, people will say, God bless America, they're proud to be Americans. And you get old people, young people, every race, every color, everything you can imagine, the people that are very loving about our country and appreciate the sacrifice that so many have made. Yeah, you know, fun to hear are the Rolling Thunder. Now, this year they weren't there, but in the past, the Rolling Thunder, all those motorcycle guys, they've come in the past, and you hear the vroom, vroom, vroom. It's a kick.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

Yeah, that's awesome. You know, and a lot of these uh these motorcycle clubs like Rolling Thunder, and um, there's a few others that are really doing great things for people who have needs. I know that um uh somebody in my community lost her um lost her uh fiance um several years ago in um trying to, I don't even remember whether it was Desert Storm or one of the one of the uh those wars, but um and they he was part of that or one of those motorcycle organizations, and they every year they come and they honor this man and this fallen soldier, and they feed the hungry, and it's just amazing to me.

PTSD Support: T.A.P.S. - Soldier Strong founded by Chris Meek

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Well, you you have TAPS, which is another organization that helps out like that. You have several organizations that are there to help with the returning soldiers that face mental health problems, because someone said to me, uh a very good friend said, BQ, you don't realize that when you're in the middle of of any kind of engagement or action, your adrenaline goes up and you just kick in, but then when you come back to regular life, it's it's slow. And you and and he says, You have no idea how many suffer with post-traumatic stress syndrome. Yeah, and so a lot of these guys, and one of you know, I'm sure you know him because he's a good friend of our our mutual dear friend Andy Berger. We're talking about Chris Meek, who has a program called Soldier Strong. Yeah, and it's important that we don't let them down, that we help.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Chris is a Chris is a good man. Um, I understand he's made a movie or something recently, I think. Oh, we gotta find out. I yeah, somebody, somebody in the community has done something of that nature, and of course, there's books coming out.

Bruce Ladebu - author of books about courage

SPEAKER_03 14:55

And um, our apologies that Bruce couldn't make it today. Bruce is under the weather, but we're still gonna talk about his books because they speak to courage. Um, his first book um is the David, um, the David effect. And you know, here's the thing. What we're talking about earlier, as far as God gives you God gives you what you need when you need it. So God gave David Goliath, but he trained him up to be a king. Okay, so it was in the Goliath, through the Goliath, that he became a king. You want to talk about courage. And now Bruce's next book, which just recently came out, is called The Shema Code, um, facing adversity with unshakable courage. And Bruce has some great stories, great story stories that showcase the courage that he and his organization have in helping those who have been trafficked, and among other things. So um, we hope you feel better, Bruce. We'll see you on the show another time. I'm sure that he's going to be uh part of the event that we are doing

DJs Against Trafficking & Hunger event Sept 2026

SPEAKER_03 16:00

in September.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

Um, DJs against trafficking and hunger. Um, we did last year, we had you joined us for part of that. Um great. It was great, right? We had DJs from around the world and our own Dizzy D, who produces this show, um, helped to put together uh DJs from around the world. And we're doing it again. So save the date, September 26th. We will uh have information out all over the place, and as the time comes near, we can um we will give you all of the logisticals and you can always donate. You don't have to wait for the event, you can always donate to this through Voices Against Trafficking. Just go there and donate. And um, and we have lots of things that we're giving away uh for people who do. So thank you so much for your support ahead of time on that. But we have a great lineup of people who are going to be talking into these two issues of trafficking and hunger.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

So yeah, you know,

Voices Against Trafficking - Andi Buerger

SPEAKER_01 16:59

you've been such a real angel of support and strength to our mutual friend Andy Berger, who is the founder of Voices Against Trafficking, of course, not only a survivor of it, but she's been a real champion and has saved so many lives, which you know, that in itself, it's kind of like even the people that have participated in the parade. You think about them, some of them you you wonder how the courage came to them at the time they need it. With Andy, she survived despite the brutality, but she just didn't, you know, hole up and not go out and make a difference. She decided, despite it all, she was gonna save people.

Why Survivors Sharing Their Stories Matters

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Exactly. People that you want to honor and praise.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

And that's you know, she lives on a principle that I actually encourage people to live live by. I came through some crap. We all have come through some stuff, right? So, my my opinion, especially like when it comes to writing books and stuff, um, my opinion, people for a long time said to me, Teresa, tell your story. And I was afraid to tell my story because oh my goodness, what if they find out? What if these people find out? And um, I can tell you that the people who did the people who do the things that they did to other people, myself included, they don't read books anyway. So tell your story. Tell your story for the purpose of this. If you have gotten through something, yes, and you can help someone else by giving them a hand up simply by sharing the experience and how you manage to come through it courageously. I think that we owe it to one another to give a hand up and to tell the story that we are that we've been through. And Andy does that not just through not just through her voice, but through her actions. And you got to back it with actions, people. Yeah, you can't just say it, you gotta do it.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

You know, she said things like this to you, I'm sure, Teresa, and I've seen it, where you see a victim that's been trafficked, and they don't want to talk to anybody. I mean, they're so brutalized, they can't talk to anybody, but they see Andy and they see someone that they know will understand them because she suffered, and that she's and and she that's why she's been so incredible when she saved people that you would think are unsavable because they've been so screwed up. And she's been a really she's brilliant. I just adore her and and would do just anything for her because she's such a good human being.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

Yeah, she is a good human being. Andy is recovering from social surgery, so keep her in your prayers, everybody who's listening. Um, she she's gonna be here in a few weeks. We're gonna bring her back, um, and she's gonna tell us how well she's doing and what she's got, um, what she's got going on, um, and people that she's gonna bring to the conversation that we're gonna have on the 26th of September. Again, DJs, against trafficking and hunger. So save that date, September 26th. So,

Courage Through Fear

SPEAKER_03 20:00

Blanquita, how do you define courage?

SPEAKER_01 20:03

I, you know, courage is one of those things. It's uh courage is doing something despite the fact that you are fearful, but you know you have to move forward. Courage is something that's almost you're propelled in it. It's kind of like if you believe in the Holy Spirit or if you're a person of faith, uh, you're infused with the the fact that you must do it. You can't stand back and not do it. And uh I I look at people that have been inspirational to me and have come forward to help me at times in my life that have been very, very difficult. And I think, why did they do it? Why did they help? Why did they stop? Because they knew they had to do that. It's that little inner voice saying, Come on, I now let me share something with you. I'm gonna share this

The Soldier’s Creed: Commitment, Strength & Honor

SPEAKER_01 20:56

with you. I mentioned this earlier, and I think it's important because during the parade, you know, um, I I like people understand the commitment that these soldiers make when they go forward. One of the things is they have a soldiers' creed that says, I'm an American soldier, I'm a warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army values. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. I am disciplined physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself. I'm an expert, an expert and I'm professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life. I am an American soldier.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

And they and they have a code of conduct, which I'll just read one or two of these, not the whole thing, but go ahead, yeah. Just a little bit. Because I think it's important people understand this. This is it's similar to the the soldier's creed. It says, I'm an American fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life and their defense. I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist. If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy. If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners, I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way. When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war? I am required to give my name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions and the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies.

SPEAKER_03 23:32

Yeah. Wow. You know, uh last um last time that we we had a show, we talked about some things that you just stuck, you just hit on um now with the um with the what you just read. So I I heard you say there is community, there is collaboration between everyone in order to be able to make um a plan work. There is confidence and camaraderie that people need to have in order to be able to do the job and do it right, not just for our country, but with anything that you are working with. Um, I think that that's those those documents. I think people should should have them as a way to live life in general, not just not just as a service person for our

Lessons in Resilience from POW Survivors

SPEAKER_03 24:23

country.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

You know, in my career, I've interviewed several people who were held prisoner in the Henoi Hilton. Oh my Vietnam. And they said that the horrible torture was so bad that almost all of them had a period where they would break or where they would come close to breaking. And what they did with each other, according to those rules, they would, and you know, they had the tapping method that they created in the Henoi Hilton to communicate. They would tell them it's okay, you've done nothing wrong. Start resisting again now. Begin resisting immediately, begin again, start over, do it again. And I have to say, you know, having met so many of these men and women who have been exceptional in serving our country, in what many ways you think I'm not worthy, but you think, thank God they've been there, and that we need to make sure that we honor them to the utmost.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

Absolutely, absolutely, and boy, it takes it takes our courage to do that for theirs, them for having provided the courage that they are able to muster up to even say, yes, I will enter this role and I would give my life for this country. It's just the amount of courage that that takes is beyond anything that I can imagine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

You know, I was uh looking at some of my pictures of my old colleagues and people that I never actually met, but that I knew about when I was working with Voice of America. And a lot of people think about when you know the Cold War ended, but they didn't realize the input and the impact of one guy that really made a difference in bringing down that Cold War, and that was a DJ. A DJ by the name of Willis Conover. He broadcast for many years to Russia, and what he played for the Russian audience was jazz, American jazz. Uh, you know, he he had um Duke Ellington and all the Benny Goodman and all these different kinds of great jazz uh groups and and musicians that they would try to listen to in the sneak because they loved jazz so much. And Willis Conover became this like underground superstar during the Cold War. There's a lot of ways to win on the war, and some of it's through the heart and the soul, some of it is through I met in Beijing one time. Uh I'm sorry that I'm rambling, but you you started.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

I mean, you've you've you've been all over the place, sister.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

I was in I was in Beijing. I was at one point um the chairman of Radio Free Asia, and I also worked with Voice of America at the same time. I couldn't go into Beijing under the cover of Radio Free Asia because it was so tough. So I had to go under the the Voice of America title. But I met with this young man who was a minister and his wife, he was Asian, and they had been threatened a lot. Nice young couple. We met out in the open at a restaurant, and sitting at a table just across the way from us, like where you can see my background where my sofa is about that distant, was a table of seven men that had followed him there, okay, and he and his wife. And I said, How do you get the courage to continue? You think about that. They follow him everywhere, you know, because he believed in Jesus Christ. He's trying to be a practicing minister, had a big flock, and um, but he said he knew it was his duty. Eventually, it they started, they were gonna kill his kids, and he had to get out. But the other person that I'm going to introduce you to, and I know you're gonna have him on your show, is Yanya Kelleck, who's written a book called Kill to Order. Because I don't know if many of your audience know about the Fallen Gong. They're like a meditative religion that's kind of like Buddhism. You know, they they meditate, they do exercises, they they are a very uh kind group of people, and they grew, uh, especially around the time of Tiananmen Square to such proportions that the Chinese Communist Party became threatened by them. And what they did is they started arresting them, and then somebody got the idea that they would kill them for their organs, and they set up this whole thing which continues to this day, where people who have lost or have a kidney that they need, a heart that they need, any kind of body part, uh, they will go to Beijing and and check in and have a transplant at the at the risk of someone being uh tested that fits the same blood type and organ type, and they've killed over a million people. Wow. And so, you know, it's it's like you know, you think about the fact that after World War II, we couldn't talk about the horrors of the experiments of Joseph Mengala, it's going on worse in China. And even though our doctors avert their eyes, the majority of them certainly don't support it, but people will fly from the United States to China, send their tests, get their thing. You know, how many how long does it take to get an organ? I mean, it it you get on list if you're lucky, but if you think you're gonna die, Uncle Charlie's gonna die if he doesn't get his kidney, somebody will go to China. But who dies to be able to let Uncle Charlie get the kidney? Yeah. So you'll talk to him, I know, but these are interesting times of people talking out and being courageous to face it.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

Yeah, exactly. Because we have to, um, I believe it's our responsibility to um lift a veil of all the crap that's going on in the world. Uh I I say it that way, things that um we will we can't we can't even think about, we can't even imagine are going on in this world. And it's it's

Courage to Speak Up & Make a Difference

SPEAKER_03 30:50

it takes it takes um a certain kind of person to step up and say, no more, no more, or I'm gonna do something to make a difference. And that's what um that's what courage is about too. So um courage that you know, uh a lot of times I used to say courage is fear that said its prayers. Because yeah,

Teresa’s Personal Story of Starting Over

SPEAKER_03 31:14

because you know, even through through my own situation, I was consistently praying for courage to do something that I I wouldn't do to, you know, I wouldn't have to do if I wasn't having to take care of myself and my son in situations that could potentially harm us. So I had to, I had to like suck it up and just and then just do it, you know. And when I moved here, when I moved from uh from New York to Pennsylvania, uh friends of mine from high school moved me here and and said to me, Who do you know? I said, Two people. Oh man, you're the bravest woman I know. You don't know anybody. No, I don't know anybody. So, but I but I wanted to leave because for safety's sake, I wanted to leave. You know, I wanted to leave. Yeah. Um, so I did, I did what I had to do. And so courage actually brings freedom on the other side of fear.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

So you know, courage comes in crazy ways. I mean, uh, you made me smile there because I was thinking of you know the Wizard of Oz and the Wizard of Oz, uh the line to say, What do they got that I ain't got? And he goes, courage. But you know, I think of wonderful people in my life that came in at times that helped, and and and you think you're helping them, but they turn around and they're actually helping you. Yeah, one of the great people that uh she's no longer with us, and she was so magnificent. I bet a few of your folks in the audience have had uh a beer of this family, the Coors family. And Mrs. Coors, who was married to Joe Coors, the senior coors, Pete's mother, uh what her name was Holly Coors, Holly Hansen Coors, and I met her in San Antonio, and uh I had uh I was working as a special uh uh employee for them to try to help them connect with the Latino audience in San Antonio and had a big luncheon there, and she was sitting with the mayor and the union people, everybody was there, okay? But she looked like she was like a little sad, and I said, Do you want to go out and get some gifts for your grandkids? And she said, Sure. And then that conversation, sometimes you meet people and you become good friends in weird ways. And she said to me, Do you speak Spanish? I said, Well, yes, I do. She said, Well, you know, President Reagan, he's gonna name me ambassador of the Americas, and I'm going to have an entrepreneurial women's conference in Guatemala, the first one that's ever been held for women. Would you help me? I said, Sure. I mean, that's kind of blown away, and we end up becoming kind of friends because I'm, you know, helping her get planning. And she has, you know, women from Costa Rica and Panama and from all over, you know, uh El Salvador, Mexico, you could everyone in the Western Hemisphere that was Black Country. And when I show up, I think I'm just gonna be Holly's bag lady. I'm happy to help her, you know, had me become the chairman of the session. Well, I was blown away. I I had to address that whole session of all these brave women and stories that they told. For example, there was one woman, Nani Echeveria. They called her the cookie lady, because in Honduras they had a tremendous percentage of the babies that were born that have cleft palate syndrome because they didn't have iodine in the food. Wow. So she figured a way to make cookies that had the iodine to help the mothers learn how to make them so the babies wouldn't be born with the cleft palate.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

All these creative people that were there, she Holly would go into a place like uh Jamaica or Haiti or the Dominican Republic. We all became what we called Holly's dollies that would would travel with her. She'd she'd build orphanages and and complete villages, you know. She didn't use her status to become, you know, commended or become famous because she was from a strong family. She did it because, like you said, courage, because it had to be done. Exactly. And she's how I actually decided to come to Washington, DC, from San Antonio. And I can remember, I've never talked about this ever on the air before. I was standing in my bathroom wearing a Mexican outfit because I was ready to go and MC a Latino event. And a friend of mine said to me, who is visiting, was going to drive me over there. She said, Are you going to go to DC or not? And I said, Well, you know, I was kind of a struggling single mom. Um, if I could just get a call from someone that would invite me to go to Washington, D.C. to make a speech about that event in Latin America, and they'd pay for my airfare and put me up in a hotel. I know I could make up my mind. Well, as God is my witness, five minutes later, the phone rang. I got a call from Elia Mendoza who asked me to go speak at the channel and they would fly me in and put me up in a hotel.

SPEAKER_03 36:31

How about that?

SPEAKER_01 36:33

And that event I ran into a friend from San Antonio whose husband was going to be the head of the transition for President Bush. I went to visit a friend who was working at the census. The guy said, Come meet my boss. The woman said to me, You speak Spanish? I said, Yes. She said, You've been the media and you know how to do all that. I said, Yeah, would you like to be the head of the 1990 Latino Division for the Census? Oh my goodness. And then I worked for President Bush after that. From that bathroom pronunciation and faith in God, if God would let send me that message. And it happened five minutes.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

You see, I you know, I have to say, I have to go here for a second

The Power of Gratitude

SPEAKER_03 37:16

because a lot of people are like, um, I say gratitude and courage, courageous prayers, grateful and courageous prayers make things happen. I believe God moves on those kind of things. You know, you can't be crying, oh God, if only I had. Well, you know what? John 10 10 tells us that Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly, right? So if you're grateful and you speak from a place of something that you already have, if if someone gives me whatever, I'll be happy. Okay, here you go. Your wishes, you know, he blanquita, let me use your gifts and talents for the good of the other, other people. And that's what that's what I believe that that God that God does. It's not like genie in a bottle, your wish is my command.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

No, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:07

No, yeah, it is like BQ. I have given you this these gifts and talents, you use them for the good of others. You got your dress on, okay. Here's your plane ticket, you know.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

So exactly, you're 100% right because you go with the idea, and I can, in fact, I should have brought it for you. Have a little being grateful, absolutely being grateful. Thank God every day for anything that you have, even in the darkest time, you still look for the light because God will show the

Finding Purpose Through Your Gifts & Talents

SPEAKER_01 38:39

light. But to your point, it wasn't going out there to get glory, it's not going out there to try to be the most famous person in the world. You're being put in a place to make a difference for good. And isn't that what life is about? Absolutely. You want to be a good grandparent, you want to be a good co-worker. You, my father used to raise this saying, make sure that no matter what you do, he said, I don't care what you do. Whatever you do, if you're gonna be a street cleaner, be the best street cleaner, if you're gonna be a reporter, be the best reporter, if you're gonna be this, be the best. But make the world better for your being there, not for your personal glory, but for making the place better.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

Exactly. And

Daily Gift Book Series

SPEAKER_03 39:20

what a great segue into what I'm gonna tell you right now. So I'm a ceramic artist. God gave me the ability to make pottery. Um, I learned of it and in uh in high school when the teacher said to me, You've done this before, I'm like, uh, never. But it came so easy to me. It was, I knew it was something that I had been gifted with. So I'm I'm having this conversation, you know, leaving the world a better place, right? I know I'm supposed to I'm having this conversation at the potter's wheel with God with God. I'm saying, so is this what you want me to do? You want me to leave pottery, beautiful pots to make a difference in the lives of the people who are, you know, coming after us, and then it'll leave a legacy, leave something of beauty for somebody else. And then I heard in my spirit there's books. And I'm like, what? Now I had through my through my hardest times I was journaling and I thought to myself, I was having that conversation. Don't tell, don't tell, don't tell. But um, that eventually and that eventually went down the tubes, as I said earlier. But I got a daily gift, gratitude first. So we have gratitude, right? I love that. Yeah, right. So this is the first one. Then from here, we went to a daily gift of hope, and then from there we went to a daily gift of kindness, and then from there we went to a daily gift of peace. And our dear friend Andy goes forward for this book, right? So we went to a daily gift of peace, then we went to a daily gift of friendship. Now we're working on a daily gift of inspiration, and I know that you're going to submit something for a daily gift of inspiration, and that's coming out end of June, beginning of July. So, you know, God uses your gifts and talents. Yes. And if you think the one that you have is all that you have, think again, he gives you more because he is an abundant God. And when you are grateful for what you have, he gives you more, you know, and and and of course, the Sermon on the Mount comes to my head where Christ is speaking before 5,000 people. And what does he do? Takes a little boy's lunch, five loaves, and two fish. He looks to looks to God and says, Thank you. That's the prayer of thanks. And he fed those 5,000 and have 12 baskets left over. That is abundance. That is abundance. So, my word to you to if you're if you're listening to this, be sure that you actually become who you were indeed created to be. And this is my hands, my pottery, because God blessed me with these gifts. So, and he gave me a mouth to talk. I feel ultimately I feel blessing.

SPEAKER_01 42:12

Clearly, and you have your friends that are, you know, it's like we have to put our hands over because we want to talk a lot too.

SPEAKER_03 42:19

Well, you know, it's it's and and you know what? Uh I'm saying this, people say, Oh, yeah, well, well, but you have you have whatever, whatever, whatever. No, it just takes courage to say yes, to say yes. When you get that little prompting, it takes courage to say yes. And look at all the things that you've said, you've said yes to, BQ. Look at all the things that you've said yes to. Um, and and you partner with Andy of her voices again.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

She's well, you know what happened is Andy. How that happened. Andy was on my show. I had a program called The Hard Question. I still have it, but I don't not doing it quite as much now because I'm a little bit busy. But I had Andy on the show, and I could see that she needed to do more. And I said to her, you know, Andy, it would be great if you could become an umbrella organization for all these other people that have organizations, they don't lose their 501c3s, but once we speak out, we can speak out as one. And Andy, that she she just made it happen, she did it, and she created voices against trafficking. And everyone that's on, and we encourage everybody that's watching or listening to go to voices against trafficking.com. Yes, and you will see all the charter members that are on there, you'll be surprised. It is not uh right versus left. We don't we're not at all partisan on that record. We we feel it's right versus wrong. Exactly. We stand together, and you'll be surprised the the different types of People that are charter members, and we we are unified in trying to fight the evil of human trafficking. But she's the inspiration, she's the inspiration, and she you know meets with good people like the famous Teresa Villardi. Wonderful human being that you are, and you know, the makes the show come together. We love Disney.

SPEAKER_03 44:23

I love having I love I love doing this. I love I love having people like you on the show who are making a difference in the world and want to tell the world um that they can do it too, as well. So I think if everybody owns their little piece of their um you know, their gift, that this world could will be a much better place. And the objective is to have people like yourself who are speaking into your gifts, your talents, your passion to make a difference, um, and and help people, overall help people um in whatever ways you can to see that you know life can be good, even when it feels like it's failing, it can be good. If you look for the good, you will always find it, always find it, and you will always find somebody willing to give you a hand up

Hope, Healing & One Step Forward

SPEAKER_03 45:17

if you're speaking this language.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

And if you are feeling particularly sad or down or alone, because it happens to all, some more than ever, um a lot of us, try to find a place that you feel confident in that you can get out of yourself and help someone else. Because even if it's going to a hospital or helping uh, you know, in a senior's home or anything, helping in a little animal shelter, something that will take you out of yourself because when you're deeply depressed, you can't see anything but the well that you're in. Exactly. Uh, there and I I I I find this with a lot of the people that I've talked to, especially with these groups that are trying to help these um injured soldiers and so forth, and trying to help them take one more step. By you taking one step, even if it's getting out, smelling the flowers, walking in the rain, opening the door, doing something that's positive, trying to take one more step because you can make a difference for good. Even if that one little step doesn't seem like it was a big deal, tomorrow you'll take two steps. Tomorrow you'll take three steps and turn off anything that's negative for crying out loud.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

Put happy music on. Listen to rock and roll, listen to Motown, get your mojo moving, you know, do something that makes you bring back a happy memory so that you get out of the well. Because, you know, it's very difficult at these times when people especially don't respond for one reason or another. To your point, Teresa, they're looking at the they're looking at the phone, they're not listening, they're not hearing, and you want to be acknowledged. Well, sometimes if they don't

Don't Quit poem

SPEAKER_01 47:20

acknowledge you, forget it. You go find something, a movie that makes you feel happy, a book that makes you feel happy. You know, my mother made us learn this poem, and it's called Don't Quit.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

You know that poem is when things go wrong as they sometimes will, and the road ahead seems all uphill, and you feel tired and you just don't want to go on.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Rest of you must. Don't you quit as each and every one of us learns? We don't know what's gonna come around the next turn. Yeah, and that's what's important because today can be dark, tomorrow can be a little bit dark, but the next day the sun may come through. Yeah, and you've got to keep trying and make a difference for someone else, even if they don't know who you are. It will lift your heart and your soul because that will make a difference for the good.

SPEAKER_03 48:16

Yeah, and then be grateful for the fact that you did it because when you bring gratitude into the situation, you will be given more experiences to make you feel like you made a difference. Yeah, thank you, God.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

Yeah, I talked to his mom. I'm a Catholic, I talked to his mom a lot. Uh, she and I are pretty good friends. I talked to his mother a lot because I figure, yeah, look at what happened at the wedding at Cana, right? Yeah, the first first miracle. Was he gonna turn his mother down? Are you kids? He's probably saying, Oh mom, I don't want to do this right now. Come on, the little couple, honey. They they need to have the wine. Is he gonna turn his mother down? Of course not. Does he make wine? He doesn't just make wine, he makes the best wine.

SPEAKER_03 49:01

Best wine, exactly. Exactly, exactly. Did you see that? Have you did you watch The Chosen?

SPEAKER_01 49:09

I haven't watched, I've interviewed them. I haven't watched it yet, but I will because I know it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 49:14

Yeah, and there is the wedding of Canaan is is actually um uh one of the one of the in one of the episodes, and the way that um he gives in to his mother's his mother's um request to do this first miracle is just it's just beautifully done. It's beautifully done. And yeah, yeah, crazy. And and and then, oh, I'm not gonna give it away. You have to watch it.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

But you know, me, your Catholic friend, and whoever's out there, whatever faith you are, I always ask everyone to pray for those that are no longer with us anymore. Because they're not so far away that we can't talk to them and thank them. And if if we left not in such good terms, forgive them and ask them to forgive us because we don't need any extra burdens for them, and they don't need any extra burdens from us. That starts lifting the healing, even if it's not perfect, you gotta press forward one more day, one more step to make a difference for good.

SPEAKER_03 50:21

Yeah, exactly. Make a difference for good, absolutely. So now you've done this 20th year of the uh of the parade of the memorial parade. What's next for you? What what else do you have on your agenda for the rest of 2026? BK?

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Well, I got a lot going on. I'm gonna be doing a few things with NASCAR, I'm gonna be doing more stuff with the um Epic Times and the the talent from NTD, which the is their television sister organization. I of course am doing stuff with voices. I'm a grandmother, soon to be a grandmother for the sixth time. Wow, congratulations!

Hope is the Best of All Things

SPEAKER_01 51:02

Thank you so much. They're the loves of my life. I I am I am so grateful to God every day of my life for those babies. And you talked about something. One of my little granddaughters one time, when she was a little girl, uh, was staying with me at my house. And when she left, she would always like to leave me little messages. And I I finally I I thought this was so beautiful. She left a little message for me that said, Hope is the best of all things.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 51:29

And she was only like about six years old when she wrote this. And I thought, where did she get that inspiration? Where did that even come from? But it was so precious, you know. I saved it, and I think of her because she's right. You can do more if you have hope. You can love, you can have strong faith, you can be kinder because hope is the best of all things.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, um, when that's and she was about six years old when she said that. Out of the mouths of babes, you know, out of the mouths of babes come the things that we we probably most need to hear, you know.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

The sweetest. They're the sweetest.

SPEAKER_03 52:10

Yeah, absolutely. I I have my nephew, my great nephew, I don't have any grandchildren yet. I have a grandpuppy, but I don't have any grandchildren yet. So but I have great grandnephews, great nephews, grandnephews, whatever you want to call them. I'll never forget when I was um speaking at my mother's funeral and I was talking about how um how my mom taught me how to be a friend, and you know, and there were people in that room who had been her friends for like um since they were in the in the second grade. And now I look back at my life and I think of to myself, but I just came from a reunion that I have people in my life from the second grade, right? But my nephew was sitting in the front row, and um, we were talking about um uh my my mom. I was talking about my mom, and and he jumps up and he says, I know where she is, and I'm like, Where? And he says, She's in heaven telling Poppy all about us because he never met us out of the mouths of babe. So he uh now, oh my goodness, now he's 26. But you know, I think it was like yeah, he's innocent that sweet.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

The sweetness and the innocence, it makes a difference. So funny with grandkids, you know. I know a lot of your listening audience out there, and you're they all understand this because you know, you you you as a grandmother, you want to do anything that your your kids, grandkids want you to do, and of course, you know, I'm a typical Latina. I wear a lot of makeup, the big hair in Texas. We say the higher the hair, the closer to God. So anyway, they look at all my makeup and they'd say, Oh, Mimi, that's my grandma's name. Oh, Mimi, tomorrow when you go to the school, will you wear this? Well, they were having an event at the school. I said, sure, I didn't know what the event was. So they get out, you know, one of my evening dresses. And will you wear these earrings? I say, sure, I'll wear those earrings. Big long diamond earrings. And will you wear these heels on their big high gold ho tea? Oh, of course. Whatever you girls want me to wear. And they say, Oh, meanie, that looks just so great. And of course, I wear it and I show up at the school, it's a track run. And I'm in there and they're looking at me like, okay, who's this weird broad? And I just say, Well, you know, the girls chose it, and then everybody goes, Oh, it's okay, it's all right. Crazy.

SPEAKER_03 54:45

Oh my god, I got such a good laugh out of that. Something told me it was gonna be something like that, a soccer game, track round. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're they're joy, they're joy embodied. They are, they're joy embodied.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

And they're just they're so sweet and so innocent, and and what's fun is you know, I I like to show them the old movies, you know. If they I say, You want to see a funny story? Well, let's watch Abbott and Costello. Let's watch, I'll make them watch the old movies, even in black and white. And so consequently, you know, for little kids in this generation, they know who Jimmy Stewart is, they know who Gregory Peck is, you know. They they've seen those crazy movies.

SPEAKER_03 55:29

Yeah, that's so awesome. That's so awesome. We are coming up to the close of the hour very soon. So, is there anything um that you want our audience to know from this conversation? Um, you know, about anything that you have going on in your life that we may not have touched

Support & Thank Veterans

SPEAKER_03 55:46

on?

SPEAKER_01 55:46

Well, the most important thing is because of the veterans, if you see them, I I always thank them for their service and thank their families too, because they they give as well. Not everybody is nice to them. Be nice to them. And the other thing I'm gonna tell you think this is crazy. If you see some somebody that looks good or is doing something nice, don't hesitate to tell them, hey, that was nice of you. Because you that's you know what, not anybody's gonna recognize it. And that's being a friendly person, a nice person, like you, Teresa.

SPEAKER_03 56:18

A kind person, yes. Yeah, I often say kindness is free, sprinkle it all around. Absolutely, yeah, you

C.O.U.R.A.G.E. acronym - A Blueprint for Life

SPEAKER_03 56:27

know, so well, thank you so much for all that you've shared. I want to leave everybody with a couple of things. I wrote out an acronym for courage, and you can find it at the um underneath the video on YouTube. It's in part of the description. So if we take every letter from courage and we we put a spray uh um uh a sentence to it, courage, the letter C, commit to playing full out. Anything less is cheating yourself. Oh, open your mind and your heart to new possibilities, choose to live outside of your comfort zone. You understand, be understanding and allow yourself to be seen authentically. R, resolve your differences. There is great healing and forgiveness. A adjust to change, take your time while stepping into what I call your new shoes. Gratitude is the G, and it is the key that unlocks the door to prosperity in every area of your life. Begin each day with a life-changing practice of gratitude. Keep a journal, three things a day that you're grateful for and tell somebody else. And as Blanquita says, make sure that you say kind words to other people. That's in gratitude for who they are having stepped into your world for that moment. And then E stands for evolve, evolve gracefully and embrace every moment.

SPEAKER_00 58:03

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 58:04

That's my my um acronym for uh courage, and I have so enjoyed our time together. This hour flies by. I can't say that it goes. Yeah. And we once again we send our um our best wishes to Bruce that he will get well quickly. And um, you know, I am looking forward to what you will submit for the inspiration book that's going to come out uh uh either the end of June, beginning of July. And hopefully we will have more people stepping up for the next one in the series, which is happiness and joy. And that'll come out around the col holidays, around the Christmas holidays.

Live Courageously, Communicate & Make a Difference

SPEAKER_03 58:47

So, for everyone who's listening, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for tuning in every week. We are making a difference together in the lives of others and every single conversation that you have. Lift your head out of the devices that you are looking at for most of the time during your day. Teach your children to talk to one another. Communication is key to resolving differences, to living a good life, to developing good relationships, to have loyal friendships. Communication is key. And that's one of the things that keeps me coming to this show and bringing guests like the incredible BQ. Um coming to the coming to the table to have a conversation. Um and actually, tomorrow night we're doing something really cool. We're gonna have our very first, we're gonna call it coffee talk. That's it. We're having coffee talk tomorrow. Just just look at my Facebook page and find the the link where you can register for that. And hopefully, we will have a lot of people bringing their New York accent to the table. But until next time, make sure all the conversations that you have with those in your life or even with yourself are making a difference. We'll see you next time. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:17

That brings us to the close of another episode of Conversations That Make a Difference with host Teresa Vellardi. We want to sincerely thank you for tuning in and sharing your time with us today. Our greatest hope is that today's discussion inspired your personal growth, encouraged you to share your unique gift, and gave you the courage to write your own magnificent story. If this message resonated with you, let's keep the conversation going. Take a moment to like, comment, and subscribe on YouTube and follow us on our conversations that make a difference Facebook page. This will ensure you never miss a moment of inspiration. We air new episodes every Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern time. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. It truly helps us reach and empower more people. Until next time, keep making a difference. We look forward to welcoming you back next Tuesday to our next conversation.