Meet Shametria Gonzales

We recently connected with Shametria Gonzales and have shared our conversation below.

Shametria, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I was a young women that had a ton of hard times growing up! I was tossed around home to home! I. Didn’t have any money. I was trafficked and assaulted while I was a teen. I had a baby as a teen! Things were going really bad for me and soon I would get my break. A coach saved me. He allowed me a chance to change my life and I went to college, started advocating for women and children. After that job I started working for a 501c3 that’s cared about men that had just got out of the prison to get back on their feet and stay out of trouble so my life was going good. I started to feel imposter syndrome when life started to feel to good. I would ask myself why me. Who am I? Why did I get saved? I was basing all my actions on the fact that I wanted to prove people wrong! It was so sad. I wanted to show everyone I was somebody and I overcame my past. I could not shake the feeling like no matter how hard I tried people would just see me as who I used to be! Now I see how God has blessed me to see that and I was able to overcome it by shifting from one perspective to my own perception. I started to see I was worthy and worth all the good I was receiving. I practiced daily affifmations and devotionals that allowed me to graps a new perception of myself.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My Story

My story is one of many women in the world. I was born in a small town called Garwood Texas. My mom and dad were extremely poor and addicted to drugs. This caused me to be tossed around from city to city and home to home. It was rough until I decided to emancipate myself at the age of 15. I worked and forged paperwork to get myself into high school. I thought I was on a roll until I met 2 women that would persuade me into joining a sex trafficking ring. I thought I had finally found a family to be a part of but what started out as wanting to help me out slowly turned into them being abusive, controlling, making me do things I won’t speak on till this day, and telling me it was what was best for our family. I was living a double life. I had school in the daytime and I became a sex worker at night. This continued for a few years until I met a pastor who would reintroduce me to God. I started to open my mind to a different outlook on life and after surviving that life, surviving being run over by an expedition, drugged, and left for dead my pastor came and rescued me. He helped me get a scholarship and life for the 1st time in my life was starting to turn around. I got a full scholarship to Southern University at New Orleans. I played volleyball and basketball for them. After college I started searching for ways to use what I Learned from both sides of life to help others become the best versions of themselves. After years of advocacy, community organizing, and working in politics for the State of Louisiana I felt like it was time to start sharing my story. I wrote a book with my 9-year-old daughter who suffered my traumas with me. Together we found healing, forgiveness, and slef-conciousness. My career started to take off. I created a Community Action Project for women that were released from prison to be able to shift their mindset from being in prison to being in the free world. I started my coaching company Unleash to Speak where I’ve personally coached a community of women on how to stop being stuck and move forward in their life. I teamed up with a real-estate Millionaire that taught me how to build wealth, built a team of people around me that were there to help women navigate life and heal, and started working on my dream of becoming one of the worlds most influential minds of the 2000 century. No matter what came up against me I never stopped believing and reaching to become the best version of myself. I worked really hard to change my life and I am so happy I never gave up on my dreams! Life just keeps getting better because I believe it’s going to always get better! I have been speaking on stages all over the world and was just a finalist at The Great American Speak Off. It’s like American Idol but it’s for speakers. I was able to be the only woman finalist to speak at a growth conference this year! I am working on so many new things! I have Think and be Healed, a new book coming out that has the secrets to the way I was able to heal my mind after being sexually trafficked and beat on to becoming a owner, founder, author, speaker, realtor and life coach. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish!

I have some events coming up and different things I am hosting! You can find everything at my website @shametriagonzales or SHAMETRIAGonzales.com

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1) Change your mindset and you can change your life!

2) Energy grows where is flows

3) Be the person you want to become

Those were 3 principals I lived by that made my journey that much easier! I understood the principles of life and how to navigate space with love and grace. I always read books, listened podcast, created vision boards, hard Ough lever friends and thinkers around me, and was on point with finding a way to show up as my best self!

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
The Alchemist! It allowed me the opportunity to go on my journey in life and become the best version of myself. It gave me a reason to keep going. I knew if I stopped I would fall or break. I never wanted to settle or give up bc I knew the power of going after your life’s calling or your dream. Everything you needed would be provided! Also the people that are supposed to be there for and with you will be.

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