March 14, 2024 • 32 mins
In this episode, my special guest, Mia Perez, shares her story of bouncing back from heartbreak and divorce while giving hope to other women in her community.
Mia Perez is a Keynote Speaker, Best Selling Author, and Designated Master Storyteller; with a background in Entertainment. Mia is a Mindset & Emotional Performance Strategist and a leader in the area of empowerment. She birthed her organization V.I.V.A Women’s Empowerment Community in 2017. Through this platform and her gifts and talents, she empowers women to live their lives with Vision- Inspiration- Voice - Acceptance in a High-Value Feminine way.
Through her own life experiences, she now teaches others how to Reframe Challenges, Rebuild Confidence, and Re-Imagine New Possibilities
Connect with Mia Perez at miaperezent@gmail.com
Mia Perez is a Keynote Speaker, Best Selling Author, and Designated Master Storyteller; with a background in Entertainment. Mia is a Mindset & Emotional Performance Strategist and a leader in the area of empowerment. She birthed her organization V.I.V.A Women’s Empowerment Community in 2017. Through this platform and her gifts and talents, she empowers women to live their lives with Vision- Inspiration- Voice - Acceptance in a High-Value Feminine way.
Through her own life experiences, she now teaches others how to Reframe Challenges, Rebuild Confidence, and Re-Imagine New Possibilities
Connect with Mia Perez at miaperezent@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:53):
Hello and welcome to all beautiful soulsout there. You're listening to the Restore
My Soul Podcast with Princess Millon's,your favorite grief coach and emotional wellness specialist.
In this space, we will helpthose who struggle with grief and loss
and have real conversations about how toovercome it in every area of life through
our personal stories, practical information andwisdom from Princess, and for special guests.
(01:19):
We are here to educate, inspire, and empower you with the strategies
you need in your emotional healing journey. We do not offer medical advice,
but we believe that we can alllearn to heal by creating a mindset to
grow, pass our pain and pushtoward our purpose. Our goal is to
remind you that grief is a journeyand you do not have to walk it
(01:40):
alone. No matter what the painor loss is, you can be restored
and live fully in your purpose.But let's push through the pain together as
we share our stories of resilience inone episode at a time. Hey,
Hey, hey everybody, thank youso much for joining us again for another
(02:01):
episode of the Restore My Soul Podcast. Welcome in all beautiful souls out there.
I am Princess Milling's your favorite griefand emotional wellness specialist, and you
know we are here to make surethat you're educated, that you're in power,
and you're inspired in your emotional wellnessjourney. I just thank you for
(02:22):
being here today, and I justbelieve that we know we all have a
story. We are all different inour erarors and our walks of life,
but we can create that mindset topush past our pain and walk into our
God given purpose. I am soexcited for this interview today. I have
(02:43):
a very, very very special guestthat is near and dear to my heart.
Mia Perez is my special guest todayand she is phenomenal. She is
a keynote speaker, she's a bestselling author, a designated that's her storyteller
if you listen to her right.And she has a background in entertainment and
(03:06):
production. So outside of all ofthat, she is also a mindset and
emotional performance strategist and a leader inthe area of empowerment. So she birthed
this organization called Viva Viva and it'sa women's empowerment community. She founded it
back in twenty seventeen. And throughthis platform, through her gifts, through
(03:30):
her talents, she empowers women fromall walks of life in the areas of
vision, inspiration, voice, andacceptance in her own way. So she's
known. You know, she toldme she pivoted a little bit, but
she has been known as the bounceBack Queen. And we know that through
(03:51):
her own life experiences where she's hereto share her story today, that she
also teaches other people, other women, how to reframe their challenges, how
to rebuild their confidence, and howto reimagine their new new possibilities in their
life. So I want to welcometoday and for our podcast, Mia Praiz,
(04:13):
Thank you so much for being here. Sis, I'm so excited,
Princess. I'm so excited to behere as well. We've been talking about
it for a while, so let'sgo. I'm so excited to let me
tell you just your intro alone.I was just listening to it and I'm
like, I'm already inspired. Ilove that intro, so beautiful. Absolutely,
(04:34):
thank you so much, so excitedfor you. Yes, it's been
a while coming right, So nowwe are here and I know we have
I know you have a powerful storyand I want people to hear it,
and I'm just excited to be ableto have this conversation really about how to
bounce back, how to bounce backwhen we have when we feel like we
(04:59):
have lost it all? Right,we have lost it out. I've been
there, Mia, You've been there. I'm pretty sure many of the ones
that are listening that they've been therewhat they felt like they've lost it all?
But how do you bounce back fromall of that? Right? So,
I know we're going to have awonderful conversation and through your powerful story,
right, So, I want youto just start off by sharing some
(05:24):
of the challenges, some of theobstacles, some of the difficulties, some
of the pain that you've had toface as you have gone through your journey.
Because we hurt your bio. Weknow you as this awesome woman of
God, this awesome mindset strategists,right, but it takes a journey to
(05:46):
get where we are, right Sotell us a little bit about your journey
and getting to where you are rightnow. Yes, yes, Princess,
And I think one of the thingsthat we just need to start off with
you and I know is when wetalk about bouncing back, it's because God
(06:09):
is so faithful that he says hewill take all things, yes, will
make them work for our good.So it was the good, it was
the bad, it was the terrible, and he brings it all together.
That's really the key to bouncing back, right. So that's the one thing
that we just have to make mentionupfront that it's really God redeeming our story
(06:30):
that makes us bounce back. Butif we were to think of where do
you get the strength from in thosemoments, that's where, like in those
valleys, it doesn't look like there'shope. It doesn't look like the potential
of what could possibly be any goodand become of this. And one of
(06:58):
the things that I struggled with isnot having yes hope in the Lord.
But I didn't have the guidance outsideof let's say, conventional therapy. I
didn't have what I am now towomen, what you are women, which
is that other side that physically Icould see someone who's been where I am,
(07:23):
yeah, right now, but theymade it to the other side because
now I have tangible hope of thatgood right, And I think that's altogether
what brings us to our mission andwho we are as women of empowerment that
truly look to have the women bounceback because we've been there. Now we're
(07:47):
on the other side, and wedon't forget. We didn't forget of who
we were, the promises we madeto God, if you help me,
I will help the woman before Imade that promise. So now as we
are you and I in this workand many of the amazing women we know,
(08:07):
we're able to reach back and helpthose women bounce back as well.
Absolutely absolutely, And that's what it'sall about because we know that our stories
are not just for us, rightus, it's for us to do something
with it, and that thing thatwe have to do something with it is
to empower and encourage someone else ourold self. Right, we look at
(08:31):
the person that we used to be. We look at the one the person
that went through that challenges or thatpain or that trauma, whatever happened in
our life, and just like yousaid, we wish we had had someone
back then, and then now webecome that person. So it's not just
for us, it's for us togo back and reach back and be able
(08:52):
to help somebody else. I likewhat you said about having that tangible hope,
right, that tangible hope to tosee the outcome or the aftermath of
when you overcome something right, right, So the tangible hope. So tell
(09:18):
me one one of the biggest thingsthat you had to bounce back from and
that now you can see that youyourself walk into that tangible hope that other
people are seeing from you. Right, So I will share this. I
(09:39):
was the other day. It wason Thursday this past week. I went
from being on a webinar like afirst I met with my mindset coach.
Then I went to a wealth webinar, and then a daughter from school.
I had to sit near by,thirty minutes away to a five star hotel
(10:00):
and I'm having a meeting there.Wow, and use amazing. Everything's like
I mean, you just feel theenergy of the people that you know they're
in a certain place in their life, right. And then I leave my
daughter at her church rehearsals and Ihead over to a women's transitional home for
at risk women. They house themfor twenty four months while they're you know,
(10:20):
helping them they left abusive relationships andthings like that. So I look
at my life and I'm talking tothese women because it's the first time they
see me yeah, And I hadto tell them that, and not from
a place of oh, look atme, look at where I am now.
No, it was a place ofI want you to know that I've
(10:41):
been in your shoes, maybe notat a transitional home, then where you
are, where you don't even knowhow to start over. And the fact
that I can have been at afive star hotel an hour and a half
ago and now I come to you, Wow, that is the power that
I want them to see. I'mhere physically with you because I want you
(11:03):
to know. I want you tohear from me that I've been where you
are, that I thought that I'vecried your tears and there is hope.
And one of the things that Ishared with them is that I was reading
them when I opened the chapter fora Bleed with Viva, which is the
visions and voice acceptance. Those arethe four pillars on how Ire rebuilt my
(11:26):
life. So I was sharing withthem that there was this one time in
the middle of just total chaos atthe house and I was in this like
panic attack. I could barely breathe, and your body goes cold to hot,
and I take off in the carand I start driving and I went
to this hill that's literally within mysame neighborhood that I never went up that
(11:48):
hill because the only reason why youwould go there is unless you live in
those homes on that hill. Butout of the blues that one day,
out of the blues, I'm drivingup that particular hill and as I'm going
up, this is around five thirtypm or so. As I'm going up,
I'm finally my body just like releasesall the tension and I finally start
(12:11):
to cry because when I was athome, I couldn't. I was like
everything was just being built in.It was that feeling like you want to
scream, but you can't, You'retrying to hold it in. I was
just leaving a traumatic experience. Sonow that I'm going up the hill,
my body releases everything and I juststart sobbing. And I'm sobbing uncontrollably,
and as I look, all ofa sudden, like I try to wrap
(12:33):
the tears off my eyes, andthere's a spectacular sunset in front of me.
Oh wow, And it just takesmy breath away. As I'm crying
in the middle of my my tears, it just takes my breath away.
And I'm looking at it, andPrincess, I'm captivated by the beauty of
that sunset, and I'm just I'mthere lost for a few minutes. And
(12:54):
then the sun starts going down,and then the darkness starts setting in.
And when that happened, it hitme. I thought to myself, what
happened to my light? I usedto shine that beautiful and now, sadly,
I feel more comfortable with the darknessthat's setting in. Oh wow.
(13:18):
And I didn't know what I wasliving in my life. I didn't know
that that was an abusive relationship.But I will tell you this. I
remember telling God, God, Idon't even know what I'm going through,
but I know it's not right.I don't feel safe. I don't know
what it is. I'd never beenthrough anyone who did drugs or domestic violence
or anything. But I said,Lord, if you get me out of
(13:41):
this, if there's anywhere my lifeover, I will serve you. I
will create the space that I don'thave right now, that I cannot find.
I will create this space for women. And in that moment, Princess,
Yeah, I saw which I hadalready seen, but it didn't even
pay ten to me. I sawlike flickering lights and it was a plane
(14:03):
that was going over. And I'veseen those planes always go over that's same
like, because I lived in thatarea, and all of a sudden,
I had this vision. I sawmyself standing and I saw a crowd of
women and they're clapping and they're liketears, and I just thought, God,
(14:24):
like, what is this? AndI didn't receive it at the time,
but it was the Lord telling methis place where you are now,
I'm gonna take you. You're goingto be flying to different cities, to
different states, who knows, maybedifferent countries, and you are the one
carrying that hope to the women.That was two thousand and thirteen. I
(14:46):
believe that. Twenty eighteen, I'mhaving one of my Viva Women's events and
as I am talking to the crowd, I have a video of this.
I'm talking to the crowd, I'mextending my hand with the microphone and the
women are clapping their crying. Godshowed me vision of who who was created
(15:07):
to be and that hill. Yeah, I lose my home through everything that
happened. And guess where I'm living. I live right now on this hill.
Oh my goodness. Wow, Solet me tell you, God takes
you places from that story, thosevalleys. He will take you to the
mountaintop. I am living here onthe mountaintop. And God is that good?
(15:33):
Yes he is, Yes he is. That is so wonderful. You
had to go up the hill toget to the sunset, right, and
to see and and see. That'sthe whole word right there, Miyah,
that's a whole word because we don'tnormally, we don't want to climb the
(15:54):
hill. We don't want to gothrough the thing, right. We don't
want to experience, of course whatsometimes we have to experience. But sometimes
it's only when we have another perspective. We have another perspective about what we're
going through. And for us beinga believers, we know that we have
(16:18):
to pray and ask God to helpus in the area and you know,
to push through and do what weneed to do. Right. But it's
it's wonderful how you used what wasgoing and owning your life right, not
as an excuse to side step,or not as an excuse to back down
(16:44):
or dumb yourself down, or youknow, pretend that you don't have a
purpose in life, but you usethat to make sure that you are helping
other people as well. And Ilove your perspectives on how you're able to
not only empower the women at thetransitional home, but you're able to empower
(17:07):
even those that you were sitting atthe five star hotel, you know what
I'm saying. And so it's justa wonderful thing. What does empowerment mean
to you? So I know I'veread, and I know I know you
as an empowerment speaker, right,but what does that truly mean to you?
And how does it how can itbe helpful for other women and that
(17:32):
that are that are that is listening. Empowerment And we need to be actually
very careful with that word, withthat word too, to be very specific
about what kind of empowerment we're talkingabout, right, And if we're talking
about the spiritual empowerment from God,that's one thing, right, because we
(17:55):
can get caught up in the empowermentof the world. That's such a powerful
word and it's very redundant. Everybodyuses it, yes, right, the
true empowerment when you're going through thosedifficult times. Because let's be honest,
Princess, you know this and Iknow this. Sometimes God is silent and
that's piercing like that is just likeGod, like where are you? Right?
(18:22):
So it's in those times that youhave to for me, how at
least that I can say how Iempowered myself is like I said, Viva,
I had to dare to dream again. I had to have a vision.
If you don't have a vision forwhat's to come, like we have
to blindly. I mean if youhave to just like cover your eyes and
(18:44):
be blind, like the Bible said, right, you have to walk by
and not by sight. Because ifI were to be looking everything that was
going on around me, there wasno possible human way I was going to
get out of that. Right.Backstory to that real quick, I had
went from every domestic violence and thespectrum of abuse, every single one of
them. When I left, Ileft, I lost all three businesses.
(19:07):
I went from being the woman whohad a two million dollar home thriving businesses
to losing my home, almost homeless, bankruptcy. I ended up on welfare,
food snaps, all of that.So it's like when you have everything,
you lose everything, you don't evenknow how to get back up.
It's a very lonely and dark place. And it was in those moments that
(19:29):
I had to be like, Okay, wait a minute, I need to
dream again. I'm worthy of dreamingagain, and what does that dream look
like? What does that vision looklike? I had to find things and
people that inspired me. That wasthe inspiration. I had to find a
voice, and when my voice wasstripped and I didn't have a voice myself,
I found voices yes, spoke tome that I identified with, that
(19:55):
that I resonated with. And thenI had to in the empowerment of it.
I had to accept the fact thatmy life was not the way I
planned it out to be and forgivingmyself for it. That was empowerment for
me. It's like it's it's takingeverything of the circumstances that have been thrown
at me and then being able totake them. And I can't say I
(20:18):
laid them at the feet of Jesusat the time, because my spiritual walk
is so much stronger now than itwas back then. But I knew at
least I had an acceptance and aknowledge that it was only me being able
to surrender things to God and absolutelyfor Him to be the one to empower
me. So empowerment means those thingsto me, which is a Pillar's visions,
(20:41):
cration, voice, acceptance. That'show I empowered myself through God,
absolutely, and it's a wonderful wayfor other women to be able to do
the same because I can relate toyou as far as being able to just
try to find that voice, thevoice that you need and the season that
(21:03):
you needed. And a lot oftimes when you're going through it's like you
lose your voice, like you arepowerless in a way, and you know
your identity sometimes and what you haveto say, you feel like you don't
have any value, especially if you'rein a point where you feel like you've
lost it all. And that's thething, you know, some of us
(21:26):
go through the seasons where we definitelyhave lost it all or we feel like
we are there and we just don'tknow what to do right. And so
I like the fact that you saidsomething about we have to find our voice.
We have to find the voice thatwill help us or empower us,
to educate us, to inspire usto bounce back and become resilient to those
(21:52):
things that almost took us out right. We have to find that voice,
right. And I'm hon a andI know that you are honored as well
to be a voice that people canglean from, that they can learn from,
and that they can be empowered from. But as we are looking to
find a voice to help us,then we have to make sure that we
(22:18):
find our own voice to know thatwe are powerful and we have a purpose
and God has a plan for ourlives too, right, And so I
love that about finding the voice,So let me have that. Yeah,
go ahead. Yes, A lotof times we make the mistake of thinking,
when I finally overcome this, whenI master this, when I fully
(22:41):
heal, then you can use me. Come on, And you know what,
God didn't wait. When I hadmy first VIVA event was in twenty
seventeen in my backyard and three daysbefore only ten women had signed up or
not signed up. Ten women weresupposed to come, and I was like
the three people speaking, the girlhelping you put anything together, my mom,
(23:03):
my, roommate. It's like itwas just the people organizing it.
Yeah. I just went forward andI pushed, and twenty five women still
showed up. I didn't feel worthyof sharing my story. I was still
in court, stuck for five years. I couldn't even use my voice,
That's what I mean. I couldhave sat on the excuse of saying,
wait a minute, I can goto jail if I start speaking. That's
(23:25):
a court order. But I said, okay, I'll create events because women
will heal from this. So Ijust created the event. I had other
women come and they spoke because itwasn't me speaking now, it was them.
So whoever it is, whatever itis, that I hope that who
listens to this, whatever it isthat they go through, is that they
understand. Don't wait to be thefinished product. Find the people that speak
(23:48):
into your life, that resonate tohelp you find your voice. Start walking
in your power. Don't wait forit. Yeah, that's beautiful, And
that's on the phone. And that'sso important to know because a lot of
times we go through so many thingsright and we don't feel worthy. We
(24:08):
don't feel worthy of the call.We think that God can't use us as
we are right. But you canpick a million people out of the Bible
right and know that God uses usjust where we are. You know that
we are worthy to be used byhim. So I thank you for adding
(24:30):
that to that, because I knowit might be somebody out there listening they're
at the point where they've lost itall. They might be the one that's
in the abusive relationship. They mightbe the one who you know, just
like me, have lost parents,children, things like that, and they
just don't know. They're stuck intheir pain. They're stuck stuck in their
(24:55):
loss. They're stuck in that placein life and they just don't know where
to go. But that is soencouraging to understand that we are still and
we can still be used, right, And that is what Yeah, to
tell you that that's where God usedme the most. But I was in
that place. I was stuck incourt. I would turn Facebook Live on
(25:18):
and I would just talk to peoplebecause I needed people to know what it
really felt like, and that gaveme hope. So I love what you're
saying because don't wait to be theproduct. Don't disqualify yourself because you're not
out of that pain yet. Becauselet me tell you, sometimes when we're
in pain, that's when God usesus the most because we can speak from
(25:40):
that place of pain. We speaklife into people. People identify themselves and
then they don't feel alone anymore inthe world. I love that you said
that, Yeah, and absolutely,because we can get we can continue to
be stuck, and at some point, I believe it's a choice. It's
a choice to be stuck. Youknow, we we a lot of times,
(26:00):
we don't have control over what happensto us sometimes, but we do
have a choice to remain stuck inwhere we are right And so this just
has been such a powerful conversation andjust knowing that that we can bounce back,
we can be resilient in those thingsthat is meant to you know,
(26:25):
distract us, deter us, destroyus, right, and that we can
make sure that we kind of pressthrough and push through to our purpose.
And I am so glad that youwere here today, and I just want
to kind of end this out byyou just saying just a few words to
encourage somebody today who they feel likethey're stuck. They feel like, you
(26:51):
know, all hope is lost,they feel like they don't have a voice,
they don't they feel like that theyhave lost it all. What would
you say to that woman today?I would first, I would first have
to say it's okay, Like it'sokay to feel the way that because I
(27:15):
think a lot of the times wewere so hard on ourselves, right,
we judge ourselves, we're already feelbeing judged by the world, and then
we judge ourselves. And I wouldask you to give yourself grace, give
yourself love. And I feel themost powerful thing is I do this in
the women that I work with,is to do this exercise and go back
(27:40):
into excuse me, go back intothe room where that little girl was sitting
when you were living. Go andsit with her on that bed, Sit
on the bed with her and justtalk to her, and talk to her
with so much love and compassion andforgiveness. And I think if we see
(28:02):
ourselves in that way, we're ableto not be so hard on ourselves.
We're able to inspire, like youcan speak life over yourself. Don't wait
for people to speak life over you. You can do it if we come
from that place. I think thatthat's the things. And to again look
for women like Princess, like myself, like women that have a story that
(28:25):
have overcome there on the other side, because we will be your voice for
you that if you don't even havefaith right now, borrow our faith and
we will show you the way.Find the podcast that speak in to your
life and just grab a hold,grab a hold of God. Let me
tell you. God never ever letsyou down. Ever, absolutely he never
(28:48):
lets you down right, And Ibelieve that there is healing. There's healing
when we speak life over ourselves.There's healing. Even when we're doing the
work and we don't feel worthy,we don't feel like we have the strength
or whatever, that's healing for usas well. So that's what I found
that even when I was doing stuffand I wasn't fully out of the danger
(29:14):
of what it was going on inmy life, I was not fully healed
from that thing. I wasn't fullyover it, if you want to say
that. But there's a healing whenyou begin to speak, when you begin
to not hold things in, whenyou begin to move in your purpose along
the way, there's healing for youtoo. So I'm just so excited.
(29:37):
I'm so thankful for you being heretoday, Mia, And this was a
long time coming. I'm so gladwe had this conversation about how you bounce
back when you feel like you've lostit all right, And so before we
get out of here, I wantyou to just quickly tell everybody how to
connect with you on social media orwhatever you need to tell them, and
(30:00):
how they can you know, connectwith you. Yes, yes, of
course. Well they can find meon Instagram at Miaprez dot official and Mia
press Speaks or yeah, on Instagram, you could connect with me there.
Just go ahead and request me asa friend, send me a little message,
and I'd love to stay connected.I will be starting my podcast up
(30:22):
again soon as well, and yes, I'm excited to serve. I think
twenty twenty four is going to bea year of a lot of healing and
revealing for a lot of people ofwhat that next step and what God wants
from you. So dream, dreamagain, dream bigger, and just never
give up. Yeah. Well,thank you again so much, Mia for
(30:45):
being here, and we Yeah,I hope you will come back maybe one
time and we'll we'll do something else. But such a pleasure to finally have
you on the show. Absolutely Thankyou so much, absolutely well, Thank
you all so much for being hereon this episode of Restore My Soul podcast.
(31:06):
Thank you so much. Thanks forMia for being here and to be
able to share her testimony and beingable to empower us in the way of
letting us know that there is lifeafter your pain. There's life after trauma,
is life after the things that you'regoing through and when you feel like
(31:26):
you have lost it all, youcan certainly bounce back from it. So
thank you also for joining me today. Make sure that you continue to follow
me on all social media at PrincessMillan's and my website at Princessmillings dot com.
Y'all remember that grief is a journey, but you don't have to walk
it alone. Okay, We'll seeyou in the next episode of the Restore
(31:49):
My Soul Podcast. Thank you forjoining another episode of Restore My Soul Podcast.
Be sure to listen and watch eachweek as we can continue the conversation
on how to bounce back from thesetback of grief and loss and to become
resilient so that you too can thrivein life. Don't forget to like and
subscribe so that you don't miss outon any new episodes, and share this
(32:14):
with as many people as possible sothey can be encouraged in their emotional wellness
journey. We invite you to followPrincess Milons on all social media platforms and
on the website at Princessmilins dot com. Thank you for listening and we'll see
you in the next episode of theRestore My Soul podcast
Hello and welcome to all beautiful soulsout there. You're listening to the Restore
My Soul Podcast with Princess Millon's,your favorite grief coach and emotional wellness specialist.
In this space, we will helpthose who struggle with grief and loss
and have real conversations about how toovercome it in every area of life through
our personal stories, practical information andwisdom from Princess, and for special guests.
(01:19):
We are here to educate, inspire, and empower you with the strategies
you need in your emotional healing journey. We do not offer medical advice,
but we believe that we can alllearn to heal by creating a mindset to
grow, pass our pain and pushtoward our purpose. Our goal is to
remind you that grief is a journeyand you do not have to walk it
(01:40):
alone. No matter what the painor loss is, you can be restored
and live fully in your purpose.But let's push through the pain together as
we share our stories of resilience inone episode at a time. Hey,
Hey, hey everybody, thank youso much for joining us again for another
(02:01):
episode of the Restore My Soul Podcast. Welcome in all beautiful souls out there.
I am Princess Milling's your favorite griefand emotional wellness specialist, and you
know we are here to make surethat you're educated, that you're in power,
and you're inspired in your emotional wellnessjourney. I just thank you for
(02:22):
being here today, and I justbelieve that we know we all have a
story. We are all different inour erarors and our walks of life,
but we can create that mindset topush past our pain and walk into our
God given purpose. I am soexcited for this interview today. I have
(02:43):
a very, very very special guestthat is near and dear to my heart.
Mia Perez is my special guest todayand she is phenomenal. She is
a keynote speaker, she's a bestselling author, a designated that's her storyteller
if you listen to her right.And she has a background in entertainment and
(03:06):
production. So outside of all ofthat, she is also a mindset and
emotional performance strategist and a leader inthe area of empowerment. So she birthed
this organization called Viva Viva and it'sa women's empowerment community. She founded it
back in twenty seventeen. And throughthis platform, through her gifts, through
(03:30):
her talents, she empowers women fromall walks of life in the areas of
vision, inspiration, voice, andacceptance in her own way. So she's
known. You know, she toldme she pivoted a little bit, but
she has been known as the bounceBack Queen. And we know that through
(03:51):
her own life experiences where she's hereto share her story today, that she
also teaches other people, other women, how to reframe their challenges, how
to rebuild their confidence, and howto reimagine their new new possibilities in their
life. So I want to welcometoday and for our podcast, Mia Praiz,
(04:13):
Thank you so much for being here. Sis, I'm so excited,
Princess. I'm so excited to behere as well. We've been talking about
it for a while, so let'sgo. I'm so excited to let me
tell you just your intro alone.I was just listening to it and I'm
like, I'm already inspired. Ilove that intro, so beautiful. Absolutely,
(04:34):
thank you so much, so excitedfor you. Yes, it's been
a while coming right, So nowwe are here and I know we have
I know you have a powerful storyand I want people to hear it,
and I'm just excited to be ableto have this conversation really about how to
bounce back, how to bounce backwhen we have when we feel like we
(04:59):
have lost it all? Right,we have lost it out. I've been
there, Mia, You've been there. I'm pretty sure many of the ones
that are listening that they've been therewhat they felt like they've lost it all?
But how do you bounce back fromall of that? Right? So,
I know we're going to have awonderful conversation and through your powerful story,
right, So, I want youto just start off by sharing some
(05:24):
of the challenges, some of theobstacles, some of the difficulties, some
of the pain that you've had toface as you have gone through your journey.
Because we hurt your bio. Weknow you as this awesome woman of
God, this awesome mindset strategists,right, but it takes a journey to
(05:46):
get where we are, right Sotell us a little bit about your journey
and getting to where you are rightnow. Yes, yes, Princess,
And I think one of the thingsthat we just need to start off with
you and I know is when wetalk about bouncing back, it's because God
(06:09):
is so faithful that he says hewill take all things, yes, will
make them work for our good.So it was the good, it was
the bad, it was the terrible, and he brings it all together.
That's really the key to bouncing back, right. So that's the one thing
that we just have to make mentionupfront that it's really God redeeming our story
(06:30):
that makes us bounce back. Butif we were to think of where do
you get the strength from in thosemoments, that's where, like in those
valleys, it doesn't look like there'shope. It doesn't look like the potential
of what could possibly be any goodand become of this. And one of
(06:58):
the things that I struggled with isnot having yes hope in the Lord.
But I didn't have the guidance outsideof let's say, conventional therapy. I
didn't have what I am now towomen, what you are women, which
is that other side that physically Icould see someone who's been where I am,
(07:23):
yeah, right now, but theymade it to the other side because
now I have tangible hope of thatgood right, And I think that's altogether
what brings us to our mission andwho we are as women of empowerment that
truly look to have the women bounceback because we've been there. Now we're
(07:47):
on the other side, and wedon't forget. We didn't forget of who
we were, the promises we madeto God, if you help me,
I will help the woman before Imade that promise. So now as we
are you and I in this workand many of the amazing women we know,
(08:07):
we're able to reach back and helpthose women bounce back as well.
Absolutely absolutely, And that's what it'sall about because we know that our stories
are not just for us, rightus, it's for us to do something
with it, and that thing thatwe have to do something with it is
to empower and encourage someone else ourold self. Right, we look at
(08:31):
the person that we used to be. We look at the one the person
that went through that challenges or thatpain or that trauma, whatever happened in
our life, and just like yousaid, we wish we had had someone
back then, and then now webecome that person. So it's not just
for us, it's for us togo back and reach back and be able
(08:52):
to help somebody else. I likewhat you said about having that tangible hope,
right, that tangible hope to tosee the outcome or the aftermath of
when you overcome something right, right, So the tangible hope. So tell
(09:18):
me one one of the biggest thingsthat you had to bounce back from and
that now you can see that youyourself walk into that tangible hope that other
people are seeing from you. Right, So I will share this. I
(09:39):
was the other day. It wason Thursday this past week. I went
from being on a webinar like afirst I met with my mindset coach.
Then I went to a wealth webinar, and then a daughter from school.
I had to sit near by,thirty minutes away to a five star hotel
(10:00):
and I'm having a meeting there.Wow, and use amazing. Everything's like
I mean, you just feel theenergy of the people that you know they're
in a certain place in their life, right. And then I leave my
daughter at her church rehearsals and Ihead over to a women's transitional home for
at risk women. They house themfor twenty four months while they're you know,
(10:20):
helping them they left abusive relationships andthings like that. So I look
at my life and I'm talking tothese women because it's the first time they
see me yeah, And I hadto tell them that, and not from
a place of oh, look atme, look at where I am now.
No, it was a place ofI want you to know that I've
(10:41):
been in your shoes, maybe notat a transitional home, then where you
are, where you don't even knowhow to start over. And the fact
that I can have been at afive star hotel an hour and a half
ago and now I come to you, Wow, that is the power that
I want them to see. I'mhere physically with you because I want you
(11:03):
to know. I want you tohear from me that I've been where you
are, that I thought that I'vecried your tears and there is hope.
And one of the things that Ishared with them is that I was reading
them when I opened the chapter fora Bleed with Viva, which is the
visions and voice acceptance. Those arethe four pillars on how Ire rebuilt my
(11:26):
life. So I was sharing withthem that there was this one time in
the middle of just total chaos atthe house and I was in this like
panic attack. I could barely breathe, and your body goes cold to hot,
and I take off in the carand I start driving and I went
to this hill that's literally within mysame neighborhood that I never went up that
(11:48):
hill because the only reason why youwould go there is unless you live in
those homes on that hill. Butout of the blues that one day,
out of the blues, I'm drivingup that particular hill and as I'm going
up, this is around five thirtypm or so. As I'm going up,
I'm finally my body just like releasesall the tension and I finally start
(12:11):
to cry because when I was athome, I couldn't. I was like
everything was just being built in.It was that feeling like you want to
scream, but you can't, You'retrying to hold it in. I was
just leaving a traumatic experience. Sonow that I'm going up the hill,
my body releases everything and I juststart sobbing. And I'm sobbing uncontrollably,
and as I look, all ofa sudden, like I try to wrap
(12:33):
the tears off my eyes, andthere's a spectacular sunset in front of me.
Oh wow, And it just takesmy breath away. As I'm crying
in the middle of my my tears, it just takes my breath away.
And I'm looking at it, andPrincess, I'm captivated by the beauty of
that sunset, and I'm just I'mthere lost for a few minutes. And
(12:54):
then the sun starts going down,and then the darkness starts setting in.
And when that happened, it hitme. I thought to myself, what
happened to my light? I usedto shine that beautiful and now, sadly,
I feel more comfortable with the darknessthat's setting in. Oh wow.
(13:18):
And I didn't know what I wasliving in my life. I didn't know
that that was an abusive relationship.But I will tell you this. I
remember telling God, God, Idon't even know what I'm going through,
but I know it's not right.I don't feel safe. I don't know
what it is. I'd never beenthrough anyone who did drugs or domestic violence
or anything. But I said,Lord, if you get me out of
(13:41):
this, if there's anywhere my lifeover, I will serve you. I
will create the space that I don'thave right now, that I cannot find.
I will create this space for women. And in that moment, Princess,
Yeah, I saw which I hadalready seen, but it didn't even
pay ten to me. I sawlike flickering lights and it was a plane
(14:03):
that was going over. And I'veseen those planes always go over that's same
like, because I lived in thatarea, and all of a sudden,
I had this vision. I sawmyself standing and I saw a crowd of
women and they're clapping and they're liketears, and I just thought, God,
(14:24):
like, what is this? AndI didn't receive it at the time,
but it was the Lord telling methis place where you are now,
I'm gonna take you. You're goingto be flying to different cities, to
different states, who knows, maybedifferent countries, and you are the one
carrying that hope to the women.That was two thousand and thirteen. I
(14:46):
believe that. Twenty eighteen, I'mhaving one of my Viva Women's events and
as I am talking to the crowd, I have a video of this.
I'm talking to the crowd, I'mextending my hand with the microphone and the
women are clapping their crying. Godshowed me vision of who who was created
(15:07):
to be and that hill. Yeah, I lose my home through everything that
happened. And guess where I'm living. I live right now on this hill.
Oh my goodness. Wow, Solet me tell you, God takes
you places from that story, thosevalleys. He will take you to the
mountaintop. I am living here onthe mountaintop. And God is that good?
(15:33):
Yes he is, Yes he is. That is so wonderful. You
had to go up the hill toget to the sunset, right, and
to see and and see. That'sthe whole word right there, Miyah,
that's a whole word because we don'tnormally, we don't want to climb the
(15:54):
hill. We don't want to gothrough the thing, right. We don't
want to experience, of course whatsometimes we have to experience. But sometimes
it's only when we have another perspective. We have another perspective about what we're
going through. And for us beinga believers, we know that we have
(16:18):
to pray and ask God to helpus in the area and you know,
to push through and do what weneed to do. Right. But it's
it's wonderful how you used what wasgoing and owning your life right, not
as an excuse to side step,or not as an excuse to back down
(16:44):
or dumb yourself down, or youknow, pretend that you don't have a
purpose in life, but you usethat to make sure that you are helping
other people as well. And Ilove your perspectives on how you're able to
not only empower the women at thetransitional home, but you're able to empower
(17:07):
even those that you were sitting atthe five star hotel, you know what
I'm saying. And so it's justa wonderful thing. What does empowerment mean
to you? So I know I'veread, and I know I know you
as an empowerment speaker, right,but what does that truly mean to you?
And how does it how can itbe helpful for other women and that
(17:32):
that are that are that is listening. Empowerment And we need to be actually
very careful with that word, withthat word too, to be very specific
about what kind of empowerment we're talkingabout, right, And if we're talking
about the spiritual empowerment from God,that's one thing, right, because we
(17:55):
can get caught up in the empowermentof the world. That's such a powerful
word and it's very redundant. Everybodyuses it, yes, right, the
true empowerment when you're going through thosedifficult times. Because let's be honest,
Princess, you know this and Iknow this. Sometimes God is silent and
that's piercing like that is just likeGod, like where are you? Right?
(18:22):
So it's in those times that youhave to for me, how at
least that I can say how Iempowered myself is like I said, Viva,
I had to dare to dream again. I had to have a vision.
If you don't have a vision forwhat's to come, like we have
to blindly. I mean if youhave to just like cover your eyes and
(18:44):
be blind, like the Bible said, right, you have to walk by
and not by sight. Because ifI were to be looking everything that was
going on around me, there wasno possible human way I was going to
get out of that. Right.Backstory to that real quick, I had
went from every domestic violence and thespectrum of abuse, every single one of
them. When I left, Ileft, I lost all three businesses.
(19:07):
I went from being the woman whohad a two million dollar home thriving businesses
to losing my home, almost homeless, bankruptcy. I ended up on welfare,
food snaps, all of that.So it's like when you have everything,
you lose everything, you don't evenknow how to get back up.
It's a very lonely and dark place. And it was in those moments that
(19:29):
I had to be like, Okay, wait a minute, I need to
dream again. I'm worthy of dreamingagain, and what does that dream look
like? What does that vision looklike? I had to find things and
people that inspired me. That wasthe inspiration. I had to find a
voice, and when my voice wasstripped and I didn't have a voice myself,
I found voices yes, spoke tome that I identified with, that
(19:55):
that I resonated with. And thenI had to in the empowerment of it.
I had to accept the fact thatmy life was not the way I
planned it out to be and forgivingmyself for it. That was empowerment for
me. It's like it's it's takingeverything of the circumstances that have been thrown
at me and then being able totake them. And I can't say I
(20:18):
laid them at the feet of Jesusat the time, because my spiritual walk
is so much stronger now than itwas back then. But I knew at
least I had an acceptance and aknowledge that it was only me being able
to surrender things to God and absolutelyfor Him to be the one to empower
me. So empowerment means those thingsto me, which is a Pillar's visions,
(20:41):
cration, voice, acceptance. That'show I empowered myself through God,
absolutely, and it's a wonderful wayfor other women to be able to do
the same because I can relate toyou as far as being able to just
try to find that voice, thevoice that you need and the season that
(21:03):
you needed. And a lot oftimes when you're going through it's like you
lose your voice, like you arepowerless in a way, and you know
your identity sometimes and what you haveto say, you feel like you don't
have any value, especially if you'rein a point where you feel like you've
lost it all. And that's thething, you know, some of us
(21:26):
go through the seasons where we definitelyhave lost it all or we feel like
we are there and we just don'tknow what to do right. And so
I like the fact that you saidsomething about we have to find our voice.
We have to find the voice thatwill help us or empower us,
to educate us, to inspire usto bounce back and become resilient to those
(21:52):
things that almost took us out right. We have to find that voice,
right. And I'm hon a andI know that you are honored as well
to be a voice that people canglean from, that they can learn from,
and that they can be empowered from. But as we are looking to
find a voice to help us,then we have to make sure that we
(22:18):
find our own voice to know thatwe are powerful and we have a purpose
and God has a plan for ourlives too, right, And so I
love that about finding the voice,So let me have that. Yeah,
go ahead. Yes, A lotof times we make the mistake of thinking,
when I finally overcome this, whenI master this, when I fully
(22:41):
heal, then you can use me. Come on, And you know what,
God didn't wait. When I hadmy first VIVA event was in twenty
seventeen in my backyard and three daysbefore only ten women had signed up or
not signed up. Ten women weresupposed to come, and I was like
the three people speaking, the girlhelping you put anything together, my mom,
(23:03):
my, roommate. It's like itwas just the people organizing it.
Yeah. I just went forward andI pushed, and twenty five women still
showed up. I didn't feel worthyof sharing my story. I was still
in court, stuck for five years. I couldn't even use my voice,
That's what I mean. I couldhave sat on the excuse of saying,
wait a minute, I can goto jail if I start speaking. That's
(23:25):
a court order. But I said, okay, I'll create events because women
will heal from this. So Ijust created the event. I had other
women come and they spoke because itwasn't me speaking now, it was them.
So whoever it is, whatever itis, that I hope that who
listens to this, whatever it isthat they go through, is that they
understand. Don't wait to be thefinished product. Find the people that speak
(23:48):
into your life, that resonate tohelp you find your voice. Start walking
in your power. Don't wait forit. Yeah, that's beautiful, And
that's on the phone. And that'sso important to know because a lot of
times we go through so many thingsright and we don't feel worthy. We
(24:08):
don't feel worthy of the call.We think that God can't use us as
we are right. But you canpick a million people out of the Bible
right and know that God uses usjust where we are. You know that
we are worthy to be used byhim. So I thank you for adding
(24:30):
that to that, because I knowit might be somebody out there listening they're
at the point where they've lost itall. They might be the one that's
in the abusive relationship. They mightbe the one who you know, just
like me, have lost parents,children, things like that, and they
just don't know. They're stuck intheir pain. They're stuck stuck in their
(24:55):
loss. They're stuck in that placein life and they just don't know where
to go. But that is soencouraging to understand that we are still and
we can still be used, right, And that is what Yeah, to
tell you that that's where God usedme the most. But I was in
that place. I was stuck incourt. I would turn Facebook Live on
(25:18):
and I would just talk to peoplebecause I needed people to know what it
really felt like, and that gaveme hope. So I love what you're
saying because don't wait to be theproduct. Don't disqualify yourself because you're not
out of that pain yet. Becauselet me tell you, sometimes when we're
in pain, that's when God usesus the most because we can speak from
(25:40):
that place of pain. We speaklife into people. People identify themselves and
then they don't feel alone anymore inthe world. I love that you said
that, Yeah, and absolutely,because we can get we can continue to
be stuck, and at some point, I believe it's a choice. It's
a choice to be stuck. Youknow, we we a lot of times,
(26:00):
we don't have control over what happensto us sometimes, but we do
have a choice to remain stuck inwhere we are right And so this just
has been such a powerful conversation andjust knowing that that we can bounce back,
we can be resilient in those thingsthat is meant to you know,
(26:25):
distract us, deter us, destroyus, right, and that we can
make sure that we kind of pressthrough and push through to our purpose.
And I am so glad that youwere here today, and I just want
to kind of end this out byyou just saying just a few words to
encourage somebody today who they feel likethey're stuck. They feel like, you
(26:51):
know, all hope is lost,they feel like they don't have a voice,
they don't they feel like that theyhave lost it all. What would
you say to that woman today?I would first, I would first have
to say it's okay, Like it'sokay to feel the way that because I
(27:15):
think a lot of the times wewere so hard on ourselves, right,
we judge ourselves, we're already feelbeing judged by the world, and then
we judge ourselves. And I wouldask you to give yourself grace, give
yourself love. And I feel themost powerful thing is I do this in
the women that I work with,is to do this exercise and go back
(27:40):
into excuse me, go back intothe room where that little girl was sitting
when you were living. Go andsit with her on that bed, Sit
on the bed with her and justtalk to her, and talk to her
with so much love and compassion andforgiveness. And I think if we see
(28:02):
ourselves in that way, we're ableto not be so hard on ourselves.
We're able to inspire, like youcan speak life over yourself. Don't wait
for people to speak life over you. You can do it if we come
from that place. I think thatthat's the things. And to again look
for women like Princess, like myself, like women that have a story that
(28:25):
have overcome there on the other side, because we will be your voice for
you that if you don't even havefaith right now, borrow our faith and
we will show you the way.Find the podcast that speak in to your
life and just grab a hold,grab a hold of God. Let me
tell you. God never ever letsyou down. Ever, absolutely he never
(28:48):
lets you down right, And Ibelieve that there is healing. There's healing
when we speak life over ourselves.There's healing. Even when we're doing the
work and we don't feel worthy,we don't feel like we have the strength
or whatever, that's healing for usas well. So that's what I found
that even when I was doing stuffand I wasn't fully out of the danger
(29:14):
of what it was going on inmy life, I was not fully healed
from that thing. I wasn't fullyover it, if you want to say
that. But there's a healing whenyou begin to speak, when you begin
to not hold things in, whenyou begin to move in your purpose along
the way, there's healing for youtoo. So I'm just so excited.
(29:37):
I'm so thankful for you being heretoday, Mia, And this was a
long time coming. I'm so gladwe had this conversation about how you bounce
back when you feel like you've lostit all right, And so before we
get out of here, I wantyou to just quickly tell everybody how to
connect with you on social media orwhatever you need to tell them, and
(30:00):
how they can you know, connectwith you. Yes, yes, of
course. Well they can find meon Instagram at Miaprez dot official and Mia
press Speaks or yeah, on Instagram, you could connect with me there.
Just go ahead and request me asa friend, send me a little message,
and I'd love to stay connected.I will be starting my podcast up
(30:22):
again soon as well, and yes, I'm excited to serve. I think
twenty twenty four is going to bea year of a lot of healing and
revealing for a lot of people ofwhat that next step and what God wants
from you. So dream, dreamagain, dream bigger, and just never
give up. Yeah. Well,thank you again so much, Mia for
(30:45):
being here, and we Yeah,I hope you will come back maybe one
time and we'll we'll do something else. But such a pleasure to finally have
you on the show. Absolutely Thankyou so much, absolutely well, Thank
you all so much for being hereon this episode of Restore My Soul podcast.
(31:06):
Thank you so much. Thanks forMia for being here and to be
able to share her testimony and beingable to empower us in the way of
letting us know that there is lifeafter your pain. There's life after trauma,
is life after the things that you'regoing through and when you feel like
(31:26):
you have lost it all, youcan certainly bounce back from it. So
thank you also for joining me today. Make sure that you continue to follow
me on all social media at PrincessMillan's and my website at Princessmillings dot com.
Y'all remember that grief is a journey, but you don't have to walk
it alone. Okay, We'll seeyou in the next episode of the Restore
(31:49):
My Soul Podcast. Thank you forjoining another episode of Restore My Soul Podcast.
Be sure to listen and watch eachweek as we can continue the conversation
on how to bounce back from thesetback of grief and loss and to become
resilient so that you too can thrivein life. Don't forget to like and
subscribe so that you don't miss outon any new episodes, and share this
(32:14):
with as many people as possible sothey can be encouraged in their emotional wellness
journey. We invite you to followPrincess Milons on all social media platforms and
on the website at Princessmilins dot com. Thank you for listening and we'll see
you in the next episode of theRestore My Soul podcast
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