There are four main principles that actually get
at vulnerabilities of traffic.
One is when you have a little to no opportunities. Two is when you have a little to no education. Three is when you have a little to no income.
“And the fourth one, which is very important,”
is when you have unhealthy, unknow love. That's coming from the family. Patricia Watts is a resilient, visionary, and purpose-driven leadership strategist. U.S. Army veteran in the founder of W.E. model U.S.A.
and N.W. Care. She is known for empowering women through faith, advocacy, and leadership. Once you understand how big this criminal activity is, it happens all over.
And when people don't think it's in their backyard, you are mistaken. Because right here in the United States, every city, every state, every county, every neighborhood has something of traffic in.
And it's the second largest.
[music playing] It spans the globe. Like a super high school. Internet Elvis. [music playing]
It's not over. I'm telling how weird. The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. [music playing]
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast. I'm your host today, Jason Tyler, and I am joined by Patricia Watts. Welcome to the show.
Thank you. How are we feeling today? I am still in fabulous. How is it in Sunday Miami, even though I know it's a little colder than we're going to.
“Well, that's what I was getting ready to say.”
It is not sunny today. You brought the cold down with you. But I got my own sunshine. You know what? That's right. So before we go into your full interview,
what can the viewers expect to learn about you in your episode of Women Empower? I think that you will learn the whole concept of what a woman is. From my earlier days to my beginning career until now, I think it speaks all about women empowerment and what we can achieve.
Beautiful, beautiful. So walk me through kind of those early days where you grow up. What were some of your early lessons that molded you into the Patricia that I have sitting in front of me today? Yes, so I am a Brooklyn, New Yorker originally.
Yes, but my family, my father, was a pastor and my mother and father, both migrated from the south, Virginia and North Carolina moved to New York. But by the time I got into my junior high school years, I had moved down to Newport News, Virginia.
I stayed there until high school was completed in the church and in sports. But then, I went into the military. I actually did 22 years in the military. The police several times.
My branch were you in? I was in the army and I actually, my field, was intelligence. And so traveled all around the world.
I am a only child, but traveling has never been
not part of my life. And until today, I still travel probably four times a month going in and outside of the world. I mean, you're on a weekly travel. I am.
I see it. So this is something that I ask a lot of our guests here. And you know, I've heard this is sort of a narrative through line through a lot of our guest experience. How does your faith inform the way that you conduct yourself in business?
Very important in a very useful question that you ask, because I believe that we will all put on this earth for one reason. And that's to serve. And I believe that all throughout my life, that's my calling. I've been serving until
you'll see the future what I am doing as well. And I don't know if we want to give, you know, the viewers here, we want to make sure that they have something to look forward to in the episode. So we're going to keep that a secret.
“You guys, if you want to know what's going on in the future with Patricia,”
you're going to have to go check out our episode. I'm sorry, we're not going to reveal it right now on this podcast. But talk to me a little bit about what's going on in the now with your business. Where are we at right now?
Yeah, so 22 years in the Army from there,
I worked at the State Department with a diplomat for 17 years.
“I actually retired in 2025 from the State Department,”
but the State Department in the Army aligned me, culturally and internationally, to understand people. And once you understand people, you understand the challenges,
as well as you understand the benefits from being global. And I think right now, what I am is that I have been, I have a nonprofit, and my nonprofit actually covers human trafficking
and he and child sex trafficking. And so once you understand how big this criminal activity is, it happens all over. And when people don't think, it's in their backyard, you are mistaken.
Because right here in the United States, every city, every county, every neighborhood has something of trafficking.
And it's the second largest crime in the world.
I have a, there's a woman that I'm working with that was a part of, a part of inside success here. And she has a script for a film, and the film is titled "Every 40 Seconds."
And I'm working on the script with her, and we're trying to get it produced and put together. But every 40 seconds, a child goes missing, whether it's in this country or worldwide.
And like even, right now, it's such a huge topic of discussion, especially with them files coming out. But we don't want to talk about all that.
But it's such a huge industry that operates on the basement level of society. Like nobody sees it, you don't see it going around. And sort of your experience with that.
Well, it is, and I'm just going to keep it more transparent. And in the United States, when you start looking at Brown and Black children,
they come missing more than anything. And the sex part of it is normally about 70% of those that are, I'm trapping it, is involved in some type of sex activity, too. My, my, my, my issue is that there are four main principles
that actually get at vulnerabilities of trafficking. One is when you have a little to no opportunities. Two is when you have a little to no education. Three is when you have little to no income.
“And the fourth one, which is very important,”
is when you have unhealthy or no love. That's coming from the family. So when you are in these four categories, and you're lacking, there is where you become susceptible,
and you become at risk.
The problem is that the law enforcement don't capture all of that.
These, we have solo activities that don't work together, and that's the challenge that we have. And so how are we, you know, if you could give a message to,
you know, you express those four levels of vulnerability that these children who are trafficked face, how can we as a society help to address those better? Yeah, so I think it's something that I do under we model USA. Something is called stop the traffic and walk the runway.
Well, my actual platform is a model, and it's called stop the traffic. But what it does, it does grassroots campaigns. The best prevention from traffic in is actually education and awareness.
One should enable her, once businesses,
once everyone understand what the problem is,
and how much is happening in that area, they're able to do more. You know, when that a car is in your neighborhood, and it's sitting here the same time that children are going in and off the school bus,
and you don't know that car. If you were told about it, you're able to look,
“and not so much that you have to do anything,”
but make a call. If something suspicious is happening, make a call way on the, on the, on the side of risk and threats. And at least make sure that we're doing our part.
Our part is looking out for each other, and that's the part that we have gotten away from, because we're too busy. When things are happening right in the school, when things are happening right in your home,
something is wrong if you're not detecting it. And it's, it's so true that like that, one piece of knowledge can help you look at a situation like that,
A car being parked outside,
where it shouldn't be a particular time of day,
and go, hey, that's suspicious. That's weird. I'm going to report that. That's right.
“It's just one piece of knowledge that somebody might be missing,”
but if that one person can get that one piece of knowledge, you don't know how many kids that you just saved through creating that knowledge for that person. That's right. And that's so, so important.
Yes.
Talk to me a little bit more about model USA.
Yes. So we model USA. We actually look at youth anywhere from the ages of six, all the way up to 30, and actually enhance their careers by allowing them to come on our platform.
We do full productions of modeling in fashion shows,
“red carpet events, anything that a youth can learn from.”
Because first, by using the platform to actually build their career, we also educate now and making them aware. So they're not only using their platform to actually model, but they're telling the stories. They're learning so that they won't become vulnerable.
We all know that in the industry, in the fashion and the modeling industry, you're very vulnerable on the online and offline.
You never know unless you're doing your homework and you're aware of who
are you giving your information to? Who are what they're doing with your pictures? Where are they asking you to go? And you sometimes feel you caught up in all excitement. You sometimes put yourself at risk, too.
“And you must track of those different touch points, right?”
That's right. But the main thing is just like with anything. And it goes along with games as well. If you feel like this environment is accepting you, even though it might be fake, you're more used a prone to go into it.
Thinking, but you gotta remember, nothing that sounds too good is ever all the way. Good. And as again, it's all about education and awareness. And so I do these campaigns all up and down the East Coast and hopefully, in 2026, it was spread nationwide.
I do have a award, Lifetime Achievement Award from the President of the United States. Previous one. But it still is applicable. Important distinction. It still is applicable for the work that I do.
I definitely feel like everyone should be taking care and looking at our, our youth. And as well as our women, a lot of our women are at risk, too. And that's so true. Guys, if you're still watching at this point, you're here in the episode.
And you want to learn more about Patricia and what she's doing. Where can they find you on the internet, socials, website, things of that nature? You can find me everywhere. You only have to pull up, we model USA.
And if you pull it up on Instagram, on YouTube, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, you will find me and you will find some of the beautiful children that I'm working with, too. Beautiful, beautiful. And guys, make sure that if you're watching still here at this point in the episode,
make sure that you go and check out Patricia's episode of Women in Power. That's going to be streaming shortly after this episode of the podcast drop. So make sure you guys go and check that out for the full story, and to see what's going on in the future with we model USA. But for me, hear your hosts.
I'll see you guys in the next one.
