Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Michelle Renee talks about her new book “NINE DAYS: Living With My Soul Wide Open After Violent Trauma.”
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
- 0:06Speaker 2: It's the show that she is the secrets of success
- 0:08Speaker 2: experience firsthand by Marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I
- 0:12Speaker 2: will know he's giving me advice on many occasions. In
- 0:14Speaker 2: the case you didn't notice, I'm not broke, you know
- 0:17Speaker 2: He'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs and entrepreneurs and industry decision
- 0:21Speaker 2: make because it's what he likes to do, It's what
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- 0:25Speaker 2: my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations.
- 0:28Speaker 1: Here we go.
- 0:30Speaker 3: Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald. I host the weekly Money Making
- 0:32Speaker 3: Conversation Masterclass Show. The interviews and information that this show
- 0:36Speaker 3: provides are for everyone. This week, I'll be speaking with
- 0:38Speaker 3: Michelle Renee. After a life altering home invasion that leaves
- 0:42Speaker 3: their life shatter. Its single mother, Michelle embarks on a
- 0:44Speaker 3: terrifying forty two hundred mile road trip into the Alaskan
- 0:47Speaker 3: Wilderness to return to her daughter. You can only hear
- 0:50Speaker 3: these interviews on Money Making Conversation Master Class Show.
- 0:53Speaker 1: Keep Winning, Keep Winning.
- 0:55Speaker 3: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories to
- 0:58Speaker 3: start living your own. People always talk about their purpose
- 1:00Speaker 3: of gift. If you have a gift, leave with your
- 1:02Speaker 3: gift and they'll let your friends, family, or co workenstaff
- 1:05Speaker 3: you from planning or living your dream. My Gusto on
- 1:08Speaker 3: the show Her Day is Michelle Renee. She's a published author, producer,
- 1:11Speaker 3: and writer on the film based on her first book,
- 1:14Speaker 3: a true crime title Hell Hostage. In A second book,
- 1:16Speaker 3: a memoir title Nine Days Living with My Sole Wide
- 1:19Speaker 3: Open after Violent Trauma.
- 1:21Speaker 1: Is just recently released. It's about multiple stages and her journey.
- 1:25Speaker 1: She's been featured on.
- 1:25Speaker 3: Forty eight hours on CBS in Paramount plus Huffington Post
- 1:29Speaker 3: earned her Trauma Informs a certification for coaches for the
- 1:33Speaker 3: Center for Healing in twenty twenty three. She's been recognized
- 1:36Speaker 3: for a non violence advocacy and trauma survivor outreach efforts
- 1:40Speaker 3: by the State of California, the City of San Diego,
- 1:43Speaker 3: the City of Chicago, and the White House, to name
- 1:46Speaker 3: a few. Michelle is available for speaking engagements, as you
- 1:49Speaker 3: well know because of her abilities, but her book Nine
- 1:53Speaker 3: Days Living with Your Soul Wide Open, app and Violent
- 1:56Speaker 3: Trauma is what we're talking about today. Please welco with
- 1:59Speaker 3: the money making come station, mastic class Michelle Renee.
- 2:02Speaker 4: How are you doing, Michelle, I'm doing fantastic. Thank you
- 2:05Speaker 4: so much for having me on the show.
- 2:06Speaker 3: I appreciate it, you know, Michelle, Can I use the
- 2:09Speaker 3: word perky perky, you see, like a perky personality, and
- 2:13Speaker 3: then you put the word violent trauma right next to
- 2:16Speaker 3: it in a book?
- 2:17Speaker 1: How do you marry that? How so?
- 2:19Speaker 3: Because it has to be you know, to maintain this
- 2:22Speaker 3: personality I see, which is upbeat, which is very welcoming.
- 2:27Speaker 3: Thank you tell me a little backstory to allow me
- 2:30Speaker 3: to understand this personality and the role you play in
- 2:34Speaker 3: changing people's lives and violent trauma.
- 2:37Speaker 4: You know, I grew up in a I grew up
- 2:39Speaker 4: in a home that was really challenging. I grew up
- 2:41Speaker 4: in a violent atmosphere and even way back when I
- 2:45Speaker 4: ran away when I was fifteen, and I knew I
- 2:47Speaker 4: didn't want to stay in that environment. And I think
- 2:49Speaker 4: that that really lent itself and sort of getting that
- 2:52Speaker 4: grit and that you know, that that hustle that I've
- 2:55Speaker 4: had from such a really early age, and that determination
- 2:58Speaker 4: to remove me from a situation that was so you know,
- 3:01Speaker 4: that was that was really suppressive. You know, and I
- 3:05Speaker 4: think leading up to you know, being very career oriented
- 3:09Speaker 4: and saying I'm going to beat the odds and going
- 3:12Speaker 4: into banking, and leading up to the violent trauma and
- 3:15Speaker 4: the violent crime, really that sparked the road trip for
- 3:18Speaker 4: me to go from here into the Alaskan wilderness by myself.
- 3:22Speaker 4: For me, it was really about how do I not
- 3:26Speaker 4: allow myself to get stuck in a situation that was
- 3:30Speaker 4: going to dim my light, that was really going to
- 3:33Speaker 4: keep me from enjoying my life, that was going to
- 3:35Speaker 4: keep me from really experiencing joy and happiness and success
- 3:40Speaker 4: in those types of things. And when you really stay
- 3:43Speaker 4: focused on that instead of asking yourself after you go
- 3:47Speaker 4: through something traumatic, and it doesn't have to be as
- 3:49Speaker 4: something as traumatic as what we've been through, but when
- 3:51Speaker 4: you keep asking yourself why me? Why me? That really
- 3:55Speaker 4: is a place where people just get so stuck, And
- 3:59Speaker 4: it's really difficult when you're focusing on that to focus
- 4:03Speaker 4: on what is next? What can I learn from this?
- 4:06Speaker 4: How can I get back to a place of joy
- 4:09Speaker 4: and abundance and success and live my life in a
- 4:13Speaker 4: way that is going to be more of an example
- 4:16Speaker 4: for my daughter that I want her to see and
- 4:18Speaker 4: not the opposite of that. So that was really the
- 4:21Speaker 4: catalyst for me. And I really believe that growing up
- 4:25Speaker 4: the way that I did and really leaving a violent
- 4:28Speaker 4: situation early lent itself to me having the mindset to
- 4:32Speaker 4: kind of do that same thing in this situation as well.
- 4:35Speaker 3: Mindset that's what we're all about. And when you say
- 4:38Speaker 3: the word violent trauma and you've been certified and coaching
- 4:42Speaker 3: for this, what exactly is that when you when you
- 4:45Speaker 3: receive a certification.
- 4:48Speaker 4: Well, I ended up, you know, I was already talking
- 4:52Speaker 4: about violent trauma from the perspective of someone who had
- 4:55Speaker 4: survived it, overcome it, have come out the other side.
- 4:59Speaker 4: Decided I want to live my soul wide open, and
- 5:02Speaker 4: I'm already talking about it from that perspective. But I
- 5:04Speaker 4: really wanted to know trauma more intimately from an intellectual
- 5:09Speaker 4: and intellectual perspective. So I decided to take a certification
- 5:13Speaker 4: course that was all about learning the deeper things that
- 5:18Speaker 4: happened to us on a physiological level and in so
- 5:22Speaker 4: many other ways what happens to you, and learning more
- 5:26Speaker 4: about PTSD from a more intellectual perspective, so that I'm
- 5:30Speaker 4: not out there talking about this just from an experiential place,
- 5:33Speaker 4: but also a more educated place and a more educated
- 5:36Speaker 4: space around trauma, because I wanted to understand it for
- 5:39Speaker 4: myself too, on a different level than just I experience this.
- 5:44Speaker 4: So I really wanted to go and learn as much
- 5:47Speaker 4: as I could about trauma and the effects that it
- 5:51Speaker 4: has on people in the aftermath, and how people adapt
- 5:56Speaker 4: over time once they go through trauma, or they go
- 5:59Speaker 4: through complex trauma, they go through repregenerational trauma. Those types
- 6:03Speaker 4: of things really fascinated me, and I wanted to know
- 6:06Speaker 4: what the long term effects of those were and what adaptation,
- 6:10Speaker 4: you know, out of a survival situation look like. And
- 6:13Speaker 4: so I ended up taking this course and becoming certified
- 6:16Speaker 4: in it's called Trauma Informed Certification, so that I have
- 6:20Speaker 4: as much information as I can from that other place.
- 6:24Speaker 4: It was really important to me to do that.
- 6:26Speaker 3: Cool I'm speaking with Michelle Renee. She's the author of
- 6:29Speaker 3: a memoir Nine Days Living with My Soul, Wide Open
- 6:33Speaker 3: appter Violent Trauma. Let's kind of like explain what violent
- 6:39Speaker 3: trauma is because if we know about domestic violence WOL,
- 6:41Speaker 3: domestic violence fall on the violent trauma.
- 6:44Speaker 4: One hundred percent. Domestic violence falls under the umbrella of
- 6:48Speaker 4: violent trauma, any sort of violent trauma that anybody has survived. Really,
- 6:53Speaker 4: what trauma is and what violent trauma is a traumatic event.
- 6:58Speaker 4: So when a trauma event, have domestic violence, child abuse,
- 7:03Speaker 4: it could be so many things. You know, there's so
- 7:05Speaker 4: many things out there. There's you know, human trafficking and
- 7:08Speaker 4: so many things happening out there in the world that
- 7:11Speaker 4: are under that umbrella of a traumatic event that ends up.
- 7:15Speaker 4: And when we're in a trauma response, it isn't the
- 7:18Speaker 4: event itself, It is the reaction to that event that
- 7:22Speaker 4: is the trauma response. So there's the traumatic violent event,
- 7:27Speaker 4: and then there is the trauma response and our bodies,
- 7:31Speaker 4: our brains, everything, everything, spiritually, in every way, our body
- 7:37Speaker 4: sort of takes that hit from that traumatic event and
- 7:40Speaker 4: we go into trauma response based on how we were
- 7:43Speaker 4: raised or based on whether or not this is a
- 7:45Speaker 4: one time traumatic event. Is this multiple traumatic events? Is
- 7:49Speaker 4: this complex trauma that's been happening since childhood? Is this
- 7:52Speaker 4: generational trauma? There's so much to it that causes us
- 7:57Speaker 4: to go into tap into Like me, I grew up
- 8:01Speaker 4: in a violent situation, So do I tap into those
- 8:03Speaker 4: survival techniques and those survival coping mechanisms that I adapted
- 8:09Speaker 4: as a young child in order to survive, and all
- 8:13Speaker 4: of the things that we do when we're in survival mode,
- 8:16Speaker 4: Do I tap back into those? Am I tapping into
- 8:19Speaker 4: those now? Even though the traumatic violent event isn't even
- 8:22Speaker 4: happening anymore. Am I still living in a state of
- 8:25Speaker 4: trauma response? That's what people do when they don't heal
- 8:29Speaker 4: and dive deeply into what's going on with themselves internally, mentally, emotionally, spiritually,
- 8:35Speaker 4: When we don't dive in and really figure out how
- 8:38Speaker 4: we're going to apply the right kind of medicine, because
- 8:42Speaker 4: it turns into this adaptation to this violent event, which
- 8:47Speaker 4: is the trauma response. It can turn into all kinds
- 8:50Speaker 4: of diseases and depression and all kinds of things if
- 8:53Speaker 4: we don't figure out what the best sort of medical
- 8:56Speaker 4: or medicine is to heal that. And it's different for
- 8:59Speaker 4: it's different for everybody, Like what worked for me might
- 9:02Speaker 4: not work for somebody else. What worked for somebody else
- 9:04Speaker 4: might not work for me.
- 9:05Speaker 3: Well, that's why I liked the fact that you said, Rashan,
- 9:08Speaker 3: I got certified because I didn't want to keep telling
- 9:11Speaker 3: my story, because my story might not be relatable because
- 9:14Speaker 3: your situation wasn't domestic violence. Your situation wasn't child the
- 9:19Speaker 3: physical child's abuse. Your situation was a kidnapping, home invasion
- 9:24Speaker 3: situation that traumatized you and your daughter and has led
- 9:27Speaker 3: to a trajectory in your life that you didn't plan
- 9:30Speaker 3: on because at the time you were you know, you
- 9:32Speaker 3: had risen up in the banking industry. You was a
- 9:35Speaker 3: regional sales manager, the vice president, the branch manager, had
- 9:38Speaker 3: a thirteen year banking career that was successful that was
- 9:42Speaker 3: flipped through a home invasion. And so now you're talking
- 9:46Speaker 3: about that's part of your life. You can't walk away
- 9:48Speaker 3: from that. Now you're talking about your new life, which
- 9:51Speaker 3: is the story you're trying to tell now, the nine
- 9:54Speaker 3: days living with my soul wide open after violent trauma
- 9:57Speaker 3: and basically, ladies and gentlemen, after a life all a
- 10:00Speaker 3: home invasion and bank robbery leaves her lives, her and
- 10:04Speaker 3: her daughter's lives shattered. You know, this single mom and
- 10:08Speaker 3: her dog embark on a transformative and terrifying forty two
- 10:12Speaker 3: hundred mile road trip in the Alaskan wilderness to return
- 10:15Speaker 3: to her daughter, and it prepares her to face one
- 10:18Speaker 3: of their kidnappers again.
- 10:21Speaker 1: This time.
- 10:22Speaker 3: The first time was in that violent situation. This time
- 10:25Speaker 3: is it's in the control situation where she absolutely has
- 10:28Speaker 3: the power. Let's talk about this book. Did Was it
- 10:32Speaker 3: healing for you?
- 10:34Speaker 4: Well, it was really healing, And to go back on
- 10:36Speaker 4: something that you just said, it was interesting. Even though
- 10:38Speaker 4: the home invasion, which is the catalyst of the book,
- 10:44Speaker 4: when they broke the door down, they absolutely broke open
- 10:47Speaker 4: Pandora's box to my childhood, which was absolutely riddled with
- 10:51Speaker 4: domestic violence and child abuse. I grew up in a
- 10:54Speaker 4: very violent home, a very abusive home.
- 10:57Speaker 1: Apologized and mistaken.
- 10:59Speaker 4: Oh, it's okay, So, but this is a great point.
- 11:02Speaker 4: I love that you brought that up because this is
- 11:04Speaker 4: what a lot of people do, which is what I
- 11:06Speaker 4: did when I ran away from that. I just had
- 11:09Speaker 4: that never look back mentality. I'm just gonna run from it.
- 11:12Speaker 4: I'm never gonna deal with it. I'm gonna stuff it,
- 11:14Speaker 4: I'm gonna I'm gonna be successful and put on this
- 11:17Speaker 4: suit every day, and I'm gonna hide behind this suit.
- 11:20Speaker 4: No one's gonna know that the Michelle that grew up
- 11:23Speaker 4: like this and ran away and lived on the streets
- 11:25Speaker 4: I'm going to prove that I'm somebody different, right that
- 11:29Speaker 4: them breaking down that door broke open my whole life
- 11:33Speaker 4: and for me to prepare to die in those fourteen
- 11:35Speaker 4: hours being held hostage, I had to come to peace
- 11:38Speaker 4: with my life, including my childhood. So the road trip
- 11:41Speaker 4: to Alaska ended up being me really going into all
- 11:46Speaker 4: of the violent trauma that I survived, including the kidnapping,
- 11:49Speaker 4: home invasion, including the domestic violence that I grew up with,
- 11:53Speaker 4: and seeing what happened to my mom and what happened
- 11:55Speaker 4: to me and who my dad was, and really trying
- 11:58Speaker 4: to understand his tortures. So and you know, coming to
- 12:01Speaker 4: this place of understanding and sorting through all of that,
- 12:04Speaker 4: so many people don't ever take the time because it's
- 12:10Speaker 4: really hard work to go in and really and really
- 12:12Speaker 4: be committed to healing those places within yourself so that
- 12:16Speaker 4: you can live from a higher vibration, which is really
- 12:19Speaker 4: what I'm all about. And so, yeah, I mean going
- 12:23Speaker 4: into the road trip and starting to think about the
- 12:26Speaker 4: people who did this to us, right, I really started
- 12:29Speaker 4: to wonder who they were, what happened to them, And
- 12:32Speaker 4: that's when you know you're getting to a place of real,
- 12:35Speaker 4: real deep healing. When you start to get to a
- 12:38Speaker 4: place where you're allowing compassion to have space to live
- 12:42Speaker 4: and breathe, and you're allowing love to enter into the
- 12:45Speaker 4: situation and understanding to enter the situation. That's when you
- 12:49Speaker 4: know you're on the right path to healing. And that's
- 12:50Speaker 4: what happened on the road to Alaska.
- 12:53Speaker 3: Well, you know, the interesting thing was I you know,
- 12:56Speaker 3: I've never had violent trauma in my life like that,
- 13:01Speaker 3: So I can't wrap my head around it.
- 13:04Speaker 1: Uh.
- 13:04Speaker 3: I'm aware of being depressed in my life. I'm aware
- 13:07Speaker 3: of loneliness in my life. How do you compartmentalize that?
- 13:13Speaker 3: Michelle Renee? You know the fact that that is in
- 13:17Speaker 3: your memory bank, that violent situation happened in your memory
- 13:20Speaker 3: bank as a rush, though, is a negative rush.
- 13:26Speaker 1: That will always suddenly. You can probably wake up.
- 13:29Speaker 3: You can probably have a happy moment and it just
- 13:31Speaker 3: hits you. You can, and God for me, if you
- 13:34Speaker 3: have a sad moment and it hits you, it only
- 13:35Speaker 3: makes you sadder. How do you deal with those those
- 13:39Speaker 3: I like to use the word attacks hit you. How
- 13:42Speaker 3: do you reconcile and how do you overcome those moments?
- 13:47Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 13:47Speaker 4: I call those moments being hijacked. We get hijacked, right,
- 13:52Speaker 4: They come in and you just they just invade and
- 13:54Speaker 4: you're just emotionally hijacked like that. So yeah, I mean
- 13:58Speaker 4: when those moments you come up, the important thing is
- 14:01Speaker 4: is that you get the help you need. We went
- 14:03Speaker 4: through a lot, a lot of therapy in the initiative
- 14:07Speaker 4: just because of the PTSD and the I mean we
- 14:09Speaker 4: were we were.
- 14:10Speaker 1: Are you doing therapy for a while.
- 14:12Speaker 4: No, I'm no longer in therapy, okay, So when those
- 14:15Speaker 4: things happen, it's really important that we're able to stop
- 14:20Speaker 4: and remind ourselves that we are no longer in that situation.
- 14:25Speaker 4: When the violent traumatic event happened, we are not there anymore.
- 14:29Speaker 4: We don't need to respond to it. To this trigger,
- 14:34Speaker 4: which is what they're called. When these thoughts and things
- 14:36Speaker 4: come up out of the blue, we don't expect them.
- 14:39Speaker 4: What is this trigger? It's just reminding me that this
- 14:43Speaker 4: happened in my life and I can't control that, but
- 14:46Speaker 4: I do not have to relive it.
- 14:52Speaker 5: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations. Masterclass
- 14:56Speaker 5: with Rushaun McDonald HBCUs represent Excellence. If you attend or
- 15:01Speaker 5: are an alumnus, of an HBCU. We want to hear
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- 16:00Speaker 5: Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaun McDonald.
- 16:06Speaker 3: Welcome back to Money Making Conversation Master Class. As you know,
- 16:08Speaker 3: I've been speaking to Michelle Renee in regards to a book.
- 16:12Speaker 3: As I left foot Break, I noted that we may
- 16:16Speaker 3: be hitting some triggers for a lot of our listeners
- 16:18Speaker 3: and viewers who watch the show, Money Making Conversation master Class.
- 16:21Speaker 3: And there's a number you can call it National Domestic
- 16:25Speaker 3: Violence Hotline. That number is eight hundred seven ninety nine
- 16:28Speaker 3: seven two three three. That's eight hundred seven nine nine
- 16:31Speaker 3: seven two three three And basically one of the reasons
- 16:35Speaker 3: I brought you on the show because you are awakening
- 16:39Speaker 3: a lot of people to situations that they should be
- 16:41Speaker 3: getting out of. And I always tell people, you know,
- 16:44Speaker 3: certain things happen in life. They might seemed really bad
- 16:48Speaker 3: at that moment, but they can also become a blessing
- 16:50Speaker 3: later on. Do you how do you feel about what
- 16:53Speaker 3: happened to you and what's how does it changed your life,
- 16:56Speaker 3: change your daughter's life.
- 16:57Speaker 1: I won't use the.
- 16:57Speaker 3: Word blessing because I don't want to put words in
- 16:59Speaker 3: your mouth, but you are changing people's lives with this book.
- 17:03Speaker 3: You are impacting people in a direction that you were
- 17:06Speaker 3: not going to do if you didn't happen, if that
- 17:09Speaker 3: ugly situation didn't happen in your life.
- 17:11Speaker 4: Michelle, Yeah, this is you know, for me to even
- 17:16Speaker 4: think about that is kind of emotional because I can
- 17:21Speaker 4: say with absolute certainty that this was a blessing in disguise,
- 17:26Speaker 4: and that not again staying stuck on, you know, being
- 17:32Speaker 4: labeled that victim and wanting to really understand life after
- 17:37Speaker 4: being victimized. You don't have to stay a victim just
- 17:40Speaker 4: because you were victimized, and really asking what can I
- 17:43Speaker 4: learn from this? How can I grow from this? How
- 17:45Speaker 4: can I There are so many gifts in this that
- 17:49Speaker 4: I could go on and on, and one I'll just
- 17:51Speaker 4: share and this is to, you know, shout out to
- 17:53Speaker 4: all the moms out there that are single. Moms are
- 17:55Speaker 4: working so much, and I was working so much. My
- 17:58Speaker 4: daughter was in before school care and then she was
- 18:00Speaker 4: at school and then after school care and I would
- 18:02Speaker 4: rush to pick her up. And I was in corporate America,
- 18:05Speaker 4: which is great, but for me, I had always wanted
- 18:08Speaker 4: to be sort of this much more of a present mom,
- 18:12Speaker 4: but because of my circumstance, I couldn't do that. I
- 18:16Speaker 4: had to work and pay the bills and all these
- 18:18Speaker 4: other things. And when this happened, I decided that, which
- 18:23Speaker 4: leads me to why I started my company, to Verb
- 18:26Speaker 4: Media Group. I decided that I was going to.
- 18:28Speaker 3: Start it in twenty fourteen, right in twenty fourteen. Pardon me,
- 18:32Speaker 3: you started a company in twenty fourteen, correct.
- 18:34Speaker 4: Yeah, in twenty fourteen. So yeah. I ended up being
- 18:37Speaker 4: the very first time I was ever in the parent
- 18:40Speaker 4: pickup line, sitting in my car waiting for the bell
- 18:43Speaker 4: to ring, and she's running out when the bell rings.
- 18:46Speaker 4: I'm a tier. I'm bawling in my car. I'm a mess.
- 18:50Speaker 4: Sure the other moms were like, oh my gosh, what's
- 18:52Speaker 4: wrong with this lady? But I was so emotional about
- 18:56Speaker 4: being able to be there to just pick up my
- 18:58Speaker 4: girl when the bell and then being there for her
- 19:02Speaker 4: in so many other ways because this violent trauma, this
- 19:06Speaker 4: violent event, like what you just said, woke me up
- 19:09Speaker 4: in so many ways that we just don't even have
- 19:13Speaker 4: enough time to go through it all. But if you
- 19:16Speaker 4: commit yourself to getting to a place of understanding and
- 19:20Speaker 4: really saying, I survived that I'm still here. What am
- 19:24Speaker 4: I going to do with my time that I have
- 19:27Speaker 4: now that I survived that, What am I going to
- 19:29Speaker 4: do with the rest of my life? That decision's up
- 19:32Speaker 4: to you.
- 19:33Speaker 1: Right.
- 19:34Speaker 3: The book that we've been hyped and talked about and
- 19:37Speaker 3: is broken up into four parts, is the first part.
- 19:40Speaker 1: One is the Naked Truth. Part two is So Wide.
- 19:44Speaker 3: Open, Part three is Land of the Midnight Sun, and
- 19:47Speaker 3: part four is I'll stand by You. Why did you
- 19:50Speaker 3: break the book up into four sections?
- 19:54Speaker 4: Because the the violent event that the catalyst for the
- 19:58Speaker 4: book and the road trip to Alaska happened quite some
- 20:01Speaker 4: time ago and recently during the pandemic, and I think
- 20:05Speaker 4: you read the book during the pandemic. We received a
- 20:09Speaker 4: letter back in response to a letter that we had
- 20:12Speaker 4: written eleven years ago to one of the men in prison,
- 20:16Speaker 4: and we didn't know, huh yeah, one of our attackers.
- 20:21Speaker 4: We didn't know if you'd ever read it, get it.
- 20:23Speaker 4: We had no idea. We wanted to release all the
- 20:26Speaker 4: negative associated to the situation and let this person know.
- 20:31Speaker 4: And and really it was it was telling ourselves we're
- 20:35Speaker 4: no longer hanging on to the negative attached to the situation.
- 20:38Speaker 4: We're letting it go. Here's who I am. I'm standing again.
- 20:42Speaker 4: I've healed. You didn't know me before this, but I
- 20:45Speaker 4: was a teen runaway. I made mistakes, I you know,
- 20:49Speaker 4: survived doing drugs and domestic violence and all these other things.
- 20:52Speaker 4: And I've I'm standing again, and I want you to
- 20:55Speaker 4: know that I don't see you as a monster, and
- 20:57Speaker 4: I hope that you, in some way, shape or form,
- 21:01Speaker 4: can heal and stand again, because it's not only terrible
- 21:05Speaker 4: that you did this to us, it's really terrible that
- 21:07Speaker 4: you did this to yourself and your family. So we're
- 21:10Speaker 4: just releasing all negativity and we wish you the best.
- 21:14Speaker 4: And really that was our letter. That was the you know,
- 21:17Speaker 4: kind of the core of the letter. He responded during
- 21:21Speaker 4: the pandemic, and that response was absolutely mind blowing. So
- 21:25Speaker 4: in order to tell the story in a very cohesive
- 21:29Speaker 4: way all the way up to the very end, which
- 21:31Speaker 4: I don't want to give it away, which is incredible,
- 21:40Speaker 4: go fick it out, but really what to tie it
- 21:44Speaker 4: all together to this really incredible climactic ending that to
- 21:49Speaker 4: me is just so, which is the absolute core of
- 21:54Speaker 4: my message and why this all happened, And like what
- 21:57Speaker 4: you said, what can this do for me? Did this
- 21:59Speaker 4: have and for me? Not to me? It really really
- 22:04Speaker 4: is a way for us to a way for me
- 22:08Speaker 4: to share what can really truly happen when you let
- 22:11Speaker 4: compassion and love be the driver in your life. No
- 22:15Speaker 4: matter what you know.
- 22:16Speaker 3: I know titles mean something. I was involved with three
- 22:19Speaker 3: number one best sellers with Steve Harvey recently a bestseller
- 22:24Speaker 3: with Steven A. Smith his book Straight Shooter, and so
- 22:28Speaker 3: titles mean something. So when you say the Naked Truth,
- 22:32Speaker 3: I just want you to explain to my listeners, why
- 22:35Speaker 3: did you? What does that title mean? And we're not
- 22:38Speaker 3: going to go into detail with the rest of the
- 22:40Speaker 3: chapters that are associated with that part one, but what
- 22:44Speaker 3: does the Naked Truth mean?
- 22:46Speaker 4: That has a lot of layers to it, actually, but
- 22:49Speaker 4: the Naked Truth was really about what peeling back all
- 22:53Speaker 4: of those layers in your life and just stripping down
- 22:58Speaker 4: and stripping everything away, all the programming, all the messaging
- 23:03Speaker 4: from when you were a kid, all the everything, stripping
- 23:07Speaker 4: all of that away and really getting to the core
- 23:10Speaker 4: authentic you and starting to begin a relationship with yourself
- 23:17Speaker 4: from from a place of complete nakedness. And that came
- 23:21Speaker 4: true on the road trip as well. I found myself
- 23:24Speaker 4: just being so raw, so naked, both metaphorically and physically.
- 23:30Speaker 4: You'll read about that in the book.
- 23:31Speaker 1: Well, y'all, yeah, you read the book.
- 23:38Speaker 4: Yeah, read the book. It's I'm I'm very I'm very
- 23:41Speaker 4: raw and very real in this book. And I did
- 23:44Speaker 4: that because I really wanted people to understand and relate
- 23:49Speaker 4: to this and understand, especially with the naked truth, and
- 23:53Speaker 4: not only doing that, you know, going into you know,
- 23:56Speaker 4: some of the trials stuff and some of the things
- 23:58Speaker 4: that they brought up about.
- 24:00Speaker 1: Basically flashbacks to what happened.
- 24:04Speaker 3: And that on this Alaska, Germany what your dog is
- 24:08Speaker 3: forty two hundred mile trek to get back to your daughter.
- 24:11Speaker 3: That is the whole summation about this. There's a it's
- 24:15Speaker 3: a terrifying journey, it's a transformative journey, and it's a
- 24:19Speaker 3: life altering journey because you learn about yourself, you learn
- 24:22Speaker 3: about your fears, you learn about overcoming fears, but more importantly,
- 24:26Speaker 3: you get back to your daughter.
- 24:28Speaker 1: Now.
- 24:28Speaker 3: Now in part two, it talks about soul wide open,
- 24:32Speaker 3: s o U L wide open?
- 24:34Speaker 1: What is that? What is that symbolizing?
- 24:36Speaker 4: Oh, that is my essence now post event, post kidnapping,
- 24:43Speaker 4: that's the essence of who I am. I truly believe
- 24:48Speaker 4: in living with your soul wide open and being open
- 24:51Speaker 4: to experiences and being curious about people and places and things,
- 24:57Speaker 4: and understanding and showing up for you yourself and saying
- 25:01Speaker 4: yes to as much as you possibly can in your lifetime.
- 25:05Speaker 4: Because this is it. You know, are you going to
- 25:08Speaker 4: sit around and wallow in the fact that something happened that, yes,
- 25:12Speaker 4: it was traumatic and it was hard, and it was
- 25:15Speaker 4: challenging and difficult and all and sad and hurtful and
- 25:19Speaker 4: painful and all of these things. But if you're still here,
- 25:24Speaker 4: you have the opportunity to curate an incredible life and
- 25:28Speaker 4: appreciate things in a way that you've never ever appreciated
- 25:32Speaker 4: them before. And so for me, soul wide open is
- 25:35Speaker 4: about living in complete, utter gratitude with massive amounts of
- 25:40Speaker 4: curiosity and spontaneity and love and that enjoy and that,
- 25:46Speaker 4: to me is what living with your soul wide open
- 25:48Speaker 4: is all about. And this road trip really really is
- 25:52Speaker 4: what helped for forty two hundred miles.
- 25:54Speaker 3: So something road in like ninety miles or you know,
- 25:57Speaker 3: you know, to the next state. Now, this forty two
- 25:59Speaker 3: hundred miles with a dog through Alaska. Now this night
- 26:02Speaker 3: through Texas. Now Texas can get hot, but through Alaska. See,
- 26:06Speaker 3: the best thing. The closest I've gotten to Alaska is
- 26:08Speaker 3: a cruise And believe me, I would be trekking outside
- 26:12Speaker 3: of that cruise ship. So I uh, this book is
- 26:15Speaker 3: very compelling it's very eye opening.
- 26:17Speaker 1: And I just I just, I mean awe as well.
- 26:22Speaker 3: As we wrap up talking to Michelle Renee nine Days
- 26:25Speaker 3: Living with My Soul Wide Open after violent Trauma?
- 26:29Speaker 1: What can this? Is the book available now? And where
- 26:31Speaker 1: can they get it? It is?
- 26:32Speaker 4: Yeah, they can go to my website if they want to,
- 26:35Speaker 4: Michelle dash Renee dot com. It's on.
- 26:38Speaker 1: You said it really quick. Now can you slow it.
- 26:40Speaker 4: Down, Michelle dash Renee dot com and go to Amazon.
- 26:47Speaker 4: You can get it in the kindle version, you can
- 26:50Speaker 4: get it in paperback version right now. The hardcover will
- 26:53Speaker 4: be coming out in on July the first, so that's
- 26:57Speaker 4: coming up quick. And then we will also have it
- 26:59Speaker 4: in a hardcover with the dust jacket and all that
- 27:01Speaker 4: kind of stuff. Everything available on Barnes and Noble coming
- 27:04Speaker 4: up in the next two weeks as well. But right
- 27:06Speaker 4: now today, go to Amazon and it's there.
- 27:09Speaker 3: And if anybody's listened to this called the or family
- 27:11Speaker 3: member or friend or yourself. The National Domestic Violence Hotline
- 27:16Speaker 3: is eight hundred seven nine nine seven two three three.
- 27:19Speaker 3: That's eight hundred seven nine nine seven two three three.
- 27:24Speaker 3: Because in this conversation to doing this interview, you may
- 27:26Speaker 3: have hit some I may have hit some triggers and
- 27:29Speaker 3: or you may have hit a point where you want
- 27:32Speaker 3: to talk to someone. You need to talk to someone
- 27:34Speaker 3: and realize that you're not alone. That's one of the
- 27:37Speaker 3: badges that my guest carries. I call it a badge
- 27:40Speaker 3: of courage, a courage that she's willing to step out
- 27:43Speaker 3: and be honest about what happened to her, reveal it
- 27:45Speaker 3: to the general public, not only in story but also
- 27:48Speaker 3: in public speaking opportunities. But more importantly, I want to
- 27:50Speaker 3: thank you for coming up money making Conversations Masterclass Mischaerer
- 27:53Speaker 3: Day an interview that I've I've never done this type
- 27:56Speaker 3: of interview on my show. It's an interview that my
- 27:59Speaker 3: show is dominated by female listeners, and I think it's
- 28:01Speaker 3: important that they understand that there's so many different layers.
- 28:05Speaker 3: Sometimes you have to unburden yourself to be successful. You
- 28:08Speaker 3: have to realize the truth that may be blocking you
- 28:11Speaker 3: from your success, and some of it may be denial,
- 28:13Speaker 3: when some of them may be understanding.
- 28:15Speaker 1: May you just need.
- 28:16Speaker 3: To step out and if this is holding you back,
- 28:19Speaker 3: tell someone so you can start seeing your blessings come
- 28:24Speaker 3: in multitudes and not limited opportunities. Thank you Michelle for
- 28:27Speaker 3: coming on Money Making Conversation master Class.
- 28:29Speaker 4: Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
- 28:38Speaker 5: Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
- 28:40Speaker 5: Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan
- 28:46Speaker 5: McDonald is produced by thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc.
- 28:49Speaker 5: More information about thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc. Is
- 28:53Speaker 5: available at thirty eight fifteen media dot com. And always
- 28:57Speaker 5: remember to lead with your gifts instetive, extinct, respective and
- 29:06Speaker 5: beaton set astoun