From Homeless to Empowerment Architect

and decided I don't want to see that happen to anyone else

and decided to start an agency dedicated to protecting and decreasing risk factors for people. Barbara Parker is a transformational counselor, mindset coach and the founder of BF Empowerment Center. She helps women overcome limiting beliefs,

heal from life's challenges, and step confidently into their purpose through faith-centered coaching and personal development. Being that helps me get up every day, especially during a hard day when I have somebody who comes to me and say,

"Hey, you saved my life." "Hey, I didn't think I could finish school." "Hey, you know, I started this business." "Seeing their victories is what keeps me motivated." If someone's listening and they're feeling stuck right now

and they're in one of those situations,

“can you give us, get them some tips? How do they start this?”

Focus on. It spans the globe. Like a super high school, get to their health. (crowd cheering) It's our over, I'm telling our weird.

The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. (crowd cheering) (crowd cheering) Oh, that is sensational, too. (crowd cheering)

Open. Check how the was the lead you said, Paul. It's the bottom of the planet. You can live your dream. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Legacy Make.

'Cause we have a true legacy story today for you

from homeless to build a more than a million dollar business.

Barbara's now on a mission to help impact 44 million people through her special mindset system that she's developed. She's already impacting thousands of people, bringing their goals to life, changing their lives, which is what legacy is all about.

So I'm so excited to hear the story in everything else today. Barbara, welcome. Thanks, Ruby, for having me, I appreciate it. Of course, so look, amazing journey. Literally what legacy is all about, right?

Coming from adversity, changing your own life, and then wanting to change the lives of others. So I really love that. Let's dive in, how tell us the story, homeless, to where you are now, trying to summarize it for me.

So I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, my mom then raised me in Atlanta, Georgia, and then I decided to move to Akron, Ohio. So in that course of moving, I did not prepare well. I trusted the wrong friend, and I ended up homeless.

Me and my young son, he was four. And from there, I rebuilt my life and started going to school, lost my cousin as a result of intimate partner violence, and decided I didn't want to see that happen to anyone else. And decided to start an agency dedicated to protecting

and decreasing risk factors for people. Well, and then, and what about, let's fast forward to present day. How you tell us about what you're doing today, how you're helping people, but at the system that you've got. So the system that we have right now, I'm working with Damon John,

Grant Cardone, Mikey Edwards, Montana Love, and also Ted again to help make sure that we're able to impact teens and adolescents to have lives where they're protecting themselves before it becomes that issue. And with that program, we're also helping their parents and couples.

“Got it. And you know, it's so great what you're doing, right?”

And like I said, how does it feel just going from that homeless position where you know, worst possible situation, right? To now being able to save other people and save them from that and change their life. Like, just big picture. How does that feel to be, be a full circle?

Oh, it feels amazing. Like, it's the thing that helps me get up every day,

especially during a hard day when I have somebody who comes to me and say, hey, you saved my life. Hey, I didn't think I could finish school. Hey, you know, I started this business. Seeing their victories is what keeps me motivated.

Yeah, sure. So tell us about the system to help them do that, though, right? Like, you know, I know you've got your own methodology and you've developed that. And you've helped hundreds of people thousands of people already. And you have the big mission to help 44 million, right?

Yeah. So, so tell me how it works. Someone comes to you. How do you coach them through this? So, they come to me overwhelmed. And many things on there to do this. Or just trying to figure out how to organize their thoughts.

So, sometimes we just spew everything out and then we sift through it and figure out what's going to be the most effective, the most efficient and develop a plan from there. Can you, can you give me an example, maybe?

“So, obviously, about naming names, but someone that came to you, well, are they?”

And where are they now? So, I was working with a young lady who was recently

And she didn't know what she was going to do.

She was crying all the time. She didn't have any motivation. She was in a job she hated. And she wasn't sure how she was going to make ends meet. But she was an engineer.

So, she had a really high-paying job. But still wasn't sure because she was living above her means. So, you know, we took her through budgeting, worked through some of herself esteem issues using daily affirmations and things of that nature to where her friends start to

and be her confidence when talking to strangers. She soon started dating a guy that she really thought was going to go somewhere. And in a process of working with me, she started going business and it started thriving to where she then moved out the state and took her business with it.

Well, it's really cool to, you know, you see that so much, that, you know, when she stopped valuing yourself,

“more and changed the perspective on yourself, right?”

Everything around you changed. It's like, like, instantly gets wildly at a new job or new business, maybe new partner, maybe new friendship group or current friends or jealous now. This whole, one, three, six. Yeah, you're right, just from the brain.

And it's like, it's kind of crazy how, how that can change people. So, you know, I imagine most of your, the people you're helping, right? They're similar to this client and maybe even many worse situations. I imagine, right, but they're on how they're stuck. They're unhappy. They've lost their job or lost their partner

or they're just miserable or they're going through bankruptcy or almost bankrupt or obviously even worse. I imagine abuse and all of these things, right? So, if someone's listening and they're feeling stuck right now and they're in one of those situations,

can you give us, give them some tips? How do they start this process to rebuild that life?

Focus on one thing that's going to help you make the most progress first.

And then build out a systematic list of like making it smart, what we'd like to call smart goals. Specific, measurable, achievable, reachable, and time limit it. Yeah. So, you kind of take that one thing and then you figure out, okay, just focus on this. Because when you're trying to focus on 10 things,

you don't have a target that needs a problem. So, you know, sit with them and they'll say, hey, these are all the things wrong. And I want to so I want to fix all these things. You'll say, great, but let's pick one to start with right now. And what is that normally? The job or the partner or something.

I imagine, right? One of the big book is, is it? Um, it depends on a person and what's the most the thing that's causing the level, right? Well, it's right switch. And sometimes, when they're doing it by themselves, I say, work on one thing. If you're working with me or my team,

then we might actually help you with working on three or four things. So, just kind of moving as quickly as possible so you can see what's happening. And some of those things, interestingly, I imagine some of those things are not even

“the part of the boy from the girlfriend, the job, it's the internal first, right?”

It's like the confidence, right? How they see themselves. Yeah. So, if you expect something to go wrong, you're going to pull that energy and you're going to only find the things that go wrong. Yeah. Meanwhile, you're ignoring all the successes that tell you to keep going. We're actually talking on another podcast, another legacy member about she was saying,

you know, if you're only, if you think about a black Ferrari, you'll start seeing more black

Ferrari. Yes, right? Yeah. So, it's your perception and they've always been there.

It's just now your consciousness opens. So, if you're looking for the negative things, they'll keep popping up and up. But the world's most successful people, they see all the good things. Right. Right. They see the best of things. So, how does one, you know, you're a mindset expert. You've done this for a long time. I'll ask you, how does one switch over, right? They imagine a lever they go from the negative.

I don't look. How do they pull it over to the positive outlook? So, even though, and I was talking to my husband the other day, he was having a hard time with his business and he was looking at all the things that was every day in business, right? Yeah. And I was telling him that. I'm like, "Only reason I'm not in trench with you on this is because I've already lived through it several

times." And so, I'm like, "Okay, I'm gonna let you have your pity party for a second. We're gonna be here." And then I said, "Okay, now what's in your control? What can you do about it?" Yeah, yeah. And then I was sitting the light switched and then the joy came back. Yeah. And then he started to do the thing he needed to do to still achieve success. Yeah, that was deception, right? And I mean, obviously, very fortunate, you know,

“there to guide. Yeah, there. Because we have quite a realistic show or not, right?”

Most of the time, husband and wife, they don't listen to it. Right? Yes, they're here from someone else, but fortunately, but it is interesting because,

so, one million, you know, the entrepreneurial communal upset, because a virtual assistant, or someone overseas, overbuild a thousand dollars, right? And I'll tell them, yeah, happen to me 10 years ago, wait till one day, it's an employee steals two hundred thousand

“dollars. Right? And it refrains it. All of a sudden, it seems a lot right now. Right?”

And it happens. Not a deal. Right? And yeah, it's just constantly, I think in life in general, everyone's gonna have a lucky life in some instances, right? Definitely some get more worse than upwards. I understand that, but everyone's gonna get hit with some things, and it's how you perceive these, and then you move through these, and you'll become these, and, and I mean, the biggest one too is just how long do you let it, you dwell on it, right? Right? So you're

husband, and you get its world on that for two weeks, right? Or you can be a world on it for two minutes, I moved on. Yeah. And our family, we don't believe in failures, just setbacks, and learning opportunities. So, you know, he only got maybe an hour to why, and I was like, all right, now what are we gonna do on the idea? You get times up. Right? You know, you got a piss and get off the pie, like we're not finicking. Yeah, yeah. Well, my good friend and a business partner, my less brown,

famous mindset, but you know, you wait, it's his famous saying, setbacks, a set up, set up for a

comeback. Right. Oh, and I always love to, even as cheesy, but I love to use it, you know, all the time,

because, and I've witnessed it, been in business 15 years now, every time it gets really, like, every time it sucks, I always explain, like, for some reason, it's like, it's like, going for a dark tunnel. And when you go for a long dark tunnel, it's, you can't see the

“of a handle. All right, time, right? But as an entrepreneur, you have to believe the reason”

end to the tunnel, and I've been very good at that as well, meaning he's successful. And then you get out the other side of the tunnel, and it's always better than that. Yes, it's always more beautiful, the other side than the place you came from. And I think the difference is a lot of people quit in the tunnel. Yeah, they stay in the tunnel. Yeah, stuck in the tunnel. They give up in the tunnel. So what advice would you give to someone about really believing that it will get better on

the other side? Because you've, you've lived through worse than me, right? Like, homeless and all those things. So you believe even more than I have. How, how did you get through the tunnel? You know, the Scarlet O'Hare, it'll give better tomorrow, type situation of, all right, close your eyes, tomorrow's fresh window mistakes in it, you know, and a green gable. It's kind of like that

thing. Always hung my hat on. You know, today, all right, today's up tomorrow will be better.

Tomorrow might suck, too. But, you know, there's another tomorrow. Yeah. You know, you can't quit, you know, at some point I went through about being suicidal. And I didn't realize that like there was a tomorrow. So it makes it where I understand people when they're in that dark tunnel, and you don't have any hope. Looking for that one little sliver of hope is tomorrow's got us stuck less than today. Sometimes it's just that one little thing. I do like the tomorrow thing,

“like I don't say how you do, but I say to my team, you know, breaking about life is every day,”

24 hours, the clock reset. Yeah. It's the new start, right? And, and it's kind of funny how that works is, you know, you do have some just terrible days in business. Everyone's going wrong, right? Even like the Uber Councils on you, everything you can imagine, drop your phones, screen cracks, staff member quiz, the website breaks, and they all seem to happen in one day, right? You're somehow, right? But, and you have to, you know, when those days happen, you know,

it sucks. And I always just say to my team and even just keep saying to myself, you know,

it's bedtime soon. I'm waiting for bedtime because I can go to sleep wake up and start a fresh. You right? So I think, you know, that constant reminder and training so good. So I love that. So next question I have for you, um, tell me about the future, right? Build in the legacy, 44 million people is the goal. Why did that number come from and what's the plan to get there? Came through some of my coaching that I've had with the Greg Cardone team. So, you know,

I had to stop being the smartest person in the room. So I had to seek out people who had gone to the places that I aspire to go. And so that's causing me to seek out grant, brandin, as well as, um, Damon John. Yeah. And so friends are mine too. You know, great people, right? Yeah, if they are there, someone's gonna sweetest people. And, you know, it also helped me with getting in touch with like Montana love and Mikey Edwards and Ted Ginn. So working with

those professional athletes helped it to be something that I can new I can make a difference. I could bridge that body in mind to make things a lot more speed up the processing. So connecting that for a lot of times the people are disconnected when it comes to the mind and about the you treat one and not the other. And let's talk about the 44 million, you know, like,

the world, live events? I would love to just see the vision. So yes, I plan on doing a lot more coaching,

we're opening up centers in, um, ten states initially. Nice. And then we'll expand into the-- That's gonna be more local, driven, some centers where people can come in. Yeah. And what about online is their online side of this? Right now we're doing virtual counseling, um, so the goal will be we'll be adding in some coaching for it as well. Love that.

Okay, so last few questions on you, your episode, everything like that legacy.

Someone's watching, right? And maybe watching this before your main episode comes out,

“which tells your whole story, in every like that, uh, what can they expect from the episode?”

They can expect to learn about the things that they can do to help people that have experience intimate partner violence, um, recognizing some of those signs and helping to teach them ways to keep themselves safe in a conflict. Love that. And let's talk about legacy for a little. Obviously you're trying to build a big impact in the world and leave a legacy through the people you help, but what does a legacy mean to you? A legacy is for me, it means exponential

change. So, you know, it's one of those things, uh, if I help three people and those three people

“help three people, and then so on and so forth, just seeing that, those that I couldn't touch”

others can. So in part in my spirit and other people, so that way they can catch other people before they fall, so we don't lose needless lives. Look at that. And what about someone that wants to try and build a legacy? Maybe the inner bad state right now, maybe a situation like you've been in, right? Where it's just, you're just trying to survive, right? And they want to switch from that and now turn their life

around, change the lives of others as well. What tips, general tips would you give them about

“impact in lives and build an legacy? One thing I would probably say is get as much knowledge”

as you can find people who are willing to mentor you and share their knowledge and also, you know, get some EMDR dealt with any trauma that you've experienced that maybe getting you to some stop points. It'll help you break through and get through that next level. Look that. And last question, they want to work with you. A lot more about you. Follow you. Maybe have a session with you or the team. How do they find you? We can be found at 526 South Main Street in

Akrono Highell. Also, we're available at [email protected]. Our phone number is 3303682400. As well as our handles are bf empowerment and clean BL Parker. Love it. Well, awesome job so far. I know you're changing all our lives and obviously an epic story yourself going going from where you've gone to today and what's to come. Super excited to see it all in the episode and just see the whole story come to life and also excited to see what you do over the long term.

So, guys, that's a wrap. I legacy in the making. I'll see you guys soon and as always,

keep working hard to build a legacy and change lives.