Latest / Stuck No More Voices / Unleashing Voices of Healing and Innovation with Naomi Riley
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, welcome.
- 0:00Speaker 1: It's the Kingdom Mentor podcast, soon to change More on that in a bit.
- 0:06Speaker 1: So glad you could join us right now.
- 0:08Speaker 1: We got another great interview.
- 0:09Speaker 1: I'm really going to enjoy this, especially if you're into mental health.
- 0:13Speaker 1: But I wanted to say something first.
- 0:15Speaker 1: There is a pivot in the house.
- 0:17Speaker 1: Check out TeresaCraftcom.
- 0:20Speaker 1: I am pivoting and enjoying every minute of the pivot of more using AI to help faith-based people make money and have a kingdom impact.
- 0:32Speaker 1: So that's what we're working on behind the scenes.
- 0:35Speaker 1: I say we.
- 0:35Speaker 1: I guess it's me and my cat, but I hope you stay tuned.
- 0:40Speaker 1: Check out TeresaCraftcom.
- 0:41Speaker 1: And, of course, I'm still in close alliance with Girl Power Alliance for Personal and Professional Development.
- 0:47Speaker 1: So with that, let me just give a warm welcome to my friend who's joining us, naomi Riley.
- 0:53Speaker 1: Hey, naomi, hey, how are you?
- 0:56Speaker 1: I'm so great.
- 0:57Speaker 1: Now.
- 0:57Speaker 1: Naomi is one of those amazing connections that I've gotten since the mastermind, and we were at a mastermind last week and it was like we were barely within two seconds of talking and we were talking about AI.
- 1:11Speaker 1: I love it, but that's not what we're going to talk about today.
- 1:15Speaker 1: I'll have her on for another one, but Naomi is someone who is using her wealth to make a difference her success in a business to make a difference.
- 1:25Speaker 1: So, naomi, introduce yourself, and Connie, let's get started.
- 1:28Speaker 1: I really want to uncover this and get behind the story of something that is so needed today.
- 1:34Speaker 1: So, first of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.
- 1:37Speaker 2: So my name is Naomi Riley.
- 1:39Speaker 2: I am an owner of Virtua Ventures Consulting.
- 1:44Speaker 2: I have helped thousands of business owners and individuals kind of maneuver their way through the pandemic.
- 1:51Speaker 2: I worked in the niche tax business and have guided them on the laws for COVID relief.
- 1:59Speaker 2: Through that, I have been able to kind of counsel money on their mental health, because we all know that the pandemic was a bit of a struggle, right.
- 2:09Speaker 2: Yeah, it was very, very difficult.
- 2:11Speaker 2: In 2017, I was in a car accident and I suffered a brain injury along with other injuries, but it took doctors about nine months to diagnose what had happened to me.
- 2:25Speaker 2: That came with a lot of anger and resentment and frustration, just because the distracted driver that hit me could go on with his life.
- 2:35Speaker 2: Yeah, mine was altered for the rest of mine, so that was super frustrating, and there are many things that have happened in society that we've kind of allowed to happen With no fault of our own.
- 2:50Speaker 2: It's just as we grow and things develop, technology develops, we kind of just go along with it.
- 2:58Speaker 2: Well, there's problems that have happened due to this, distracted driving being one, and so when I started a campaign, it started out to be just a distracted driving campaign to help drivers and kids and a lot of individuals kind of understand, like, what are the ramifications of a distracted driving accident?
- 3:18Speaker 2: Right, so that was in 2017.
- 3:22Speaker 2: And I started doing a lot of research so three years of research, by talking with judicial officials, neurologists, psychologists, and the list goes on emergency workers and whatnot.
- 3:36Speaker 2: We realized that there were really 10 huge specific problems that we're seeing in our society.
- 3:43Speaker 2: So I took that and I put together a smart pledge program for students.
- 3:50Speaker 2: It takes them through 10 of our country's biggest dilemmas from distracted driving to discrimination, to acts of violence with or without weapons, to cyber bullying and bullying, human trafficking, domestic violence and assault.
- 4:08Speaker 1: Well, let me, let me stop you.
- 4:10Speaker 1: We got to understand that.
- 4:12Speaker 1: So, when you're telling me something devastating happened to you and out of that such amazing good has come, so I'm going to pull you back.
- 4:23Speaker 1: We got to get the story.
- 4:24Speaker 1: I want to hear about that.
- 4:25Speaker 1: So you're in the midst of this.
- 4:26Speaker 1: I'm in the midst of this crisis.
- 4:29Speaker 1: Yeah, so that just started as you were recovering.
- 4:34Speaker 1: First of all, how long, how many months did it take you?
- 4:37Speaker 2: It was about nine months until they finally diagnosed me.
- 4:41Speaker 2: I was in and out of the rehab hospital many times.
- 4:45Speaker 2: I drove myself to the ER many times.
- 4:48Speaker 2: I was thinking I was going to die.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Take me through that black hole.
- 4:52Speaker 1: Was it just like?
- 4:53Speaker 1: I mean, what were some of the symptoms and what did that do to you emotionally, mentally?
- 5:00Speaker 2: So, mentally after I recovered from the accident, or physically after I recovered from the accident, I looked okay, but I would have these horrible, horrible head pains, to the point where I would want to stab my own eye out with an object.
- 5:17Speaker 2: It was so absolutely awful and I couldn't.
- 5:20Speaker 2: There was nothing that could heal the pain that I was feeling.
- 5:25Speaker 2: So I would go take myself to the ER, probably one or two times at least a month, because I was having these issues going on, and so they would treat me.
- 5:36Speaker 2: They would give me some medications that were not really helping me, right.
- 5:41Speaker 1: But they did not diagnose it.
- 5:43Speaker 1: They didn't diagnose it, it was not diagnosed At this time.
- 5:46Speaker 2: It was not diagnosed and they would give me to a point where it was calm again and so then I would go back home and work on my thing.
- 5:57Speaker 2: Whatever I was going doing that day, and I mean, I had a really slow recovery process.
- 6:05Speaker 2: It took a long time for me to kind of come back and and re put things together.
- 6:14Speaker 1: What was the recovery process?
- 6:15Speaker 1: Was it a mental?
- 6:18Speaker 2: Through physical rehab mental mental and cognitive.
- 6:22Speaker 2: So, even just moving things and moving my arms the right way, and just they were encouraging me the whole time to put sentences together, to remember certain things.
- 6:34Speaker 2: I had a really bad, bad concussion.
- 6:36Speaker 2: And people with brain injuries their brains actually slowed down when you have a serious injury and at times they don't recover.
- 6:48Speaker 2: So I wake up every day with gratitude and I've always done that, so I would always pray before I would go to therapy.
- 7:00Speaker 2: God, please give me a reason for why this happened.
- 7:04Speaker 2: And all of that therapy went through two rounds of physical, mental and cognitive.
- 7:12Speaker 2: Then I went to a pain injury clinic and at that point I had started praying on seeing like the gun violence that we're seeing in our society and a lot of different things, and so I just kept saying, lord, if there's something that I can do to make it right, then please give me guidance to help our next generations Right.
- 7:35Speaker 2: And so over that time I started writing down and researching like what are the major things that are going on in our society?
- 7:45Speaker 2: You know?
- 7:47Speaker 2: So you see the gun violence, you see the destructive driving, you see the discrimination, you see all of that.
- 7:52Speaker 2: So I thought, wouldn't it be great if there was a place for students, a safe space where they could come in and they could learn on our national statistics, then they could have programs for each grade level and then they could also access with our smart card.
- 8:09Speaker 2: So our smart card is one of the first that's been developed and students are able to go to our website and get all the 800 numbers that they ever need, from basic 911 988 to talk to a counselor.
- 8:21Speaker 2: Then there's the human trafficking hotline, there is a teen pregnancy hotline, there is the poison control hotline.
- 8:30Speaker 2: All of these are accessible at the four, at the students, just to push up the amazing.
- 8:37Speaker 2: So I personally wanted to create a program that was easily duplicatable, that could be done in any single nation.
- 8:45Speaker 2: So I've been working hard on it for the last three years and we came out and put 25 awesome activity books finally together.
- 8:56Speaker 1: They're mostly awesome.
- 8:58Speaker 1: I saw that you thank you for sending money, so once again it's like from tragedy to purpose.
- 9:04Speaker 1: Yeah, because you were successful before this brain injury, so was that hard to get back into even just your own business?
- 9:12Speaker 1: So?
- 9:14Speaker 2: my business is different.
- 9:15Speaker 2: Yeah, so my business was different prior to my brain injury.
- 9:19Speaker 2: I look at it as I wasn't as smart.
- 9:23Speaker 2: I was more like I was just kind of a go with the flow.
- 9:30Speaker 2: I was the stay-at-home mom who raised my three kids.
- 9:33Speaker 2: I was involved with the PTO, the PTA, and so I do look at my brain injury as a blessing now, yeah, not when I was in it, oh man, no, not when I was in it.
- 9:46Speaker 2: It was the worst thing I had ever gone through.
- 9:48Speaker 2: But God brings us through, it's not like.
- 9:52Speaker 1: I had a friend who I'll see if I can read what she said.
- 9:55Speaker 1: We know the verse all things work for good, but she says all things have God's purpose in them, even the tragedy, even the.
- 10:03Speaker 1: You know.
- 10:04Speaker 1: It's funny that you're the second person I've interviewed.
- 10:06Speaker 1: I don't know if you've met him.
- 10:09Speaker 1: What's his name?
- 10:11Speaker 1: Ryan?
- 10:13Speaker 1: He had a serious injury and he woke up speaking Spanish.
- 10:17Speaker 1: Wow, they did totally rewire his brain and everything you're talking about.
- 10:22Speaker 1: But once again, from tragedy, now he's speaking and finding stages for people on TED Talk.
- 10:29Speaker 1: So I just love to see God's redemption work.
- 10:32Speaker 1: You're three years into the mental health for the youth.
- 10:37Speaker 1: Is that correct?
- 10:39Speaker 2: Yeah, so, as I said, you know, I put three years of research into what could make our program work.
- 10:45Speaker 2: Wow, and over the last year, we put together our programs for students and our books will be finished within a week.
- 10:55Speaker 2: Our guests are uploaded.
- 10:57Speaker 2: They're finished, but they need to be uploaded on our website and then on our app.
- 11:03Speaker 2: I am working with app developers for the like, the embassy and things like that, so it's been a very big blessing.
- 11:11Speaker 1: And you know kids.
- 11:12Speaker 1: You know kids always have their phones, and for them to have an app, this is groundbreaking.
- 11:19Speaker 1: So now our people rallying with you and providing some resources and finances to this is a major worldwide thing.
- 11:28Speaker 1: So how is the financing of it going?
- 11:32Speaker 2: Well, you know, to be honest with you, I am such a perfectionist with everything, so I funded this whole project from the, from the blessings that I've had with my other business right, and so I knew how I wanted to see it operate, and so I didn't ask for funding, I didn't look for support in the beginning, because I knew exactly what it needed to do to operate.
- 11:57Speaker 2: Now, as we move forward, yes, we will be looking for the government's come in or, you know, financial support, for more ever.
- 12:06Speaker 2: But you know, again, I just had to dot the I's, cross the T's and make sure that it all works perfectly.
- 12:13Speaker 2: So you know, as once the app is done and the books are on our website, that's where we'll be.
- 12:21Speaker 2: You know, branching out to the media, I just got my media page done, so you know, you're one of the first to interview me I was.
- 12:29Speaker 2: I was on a podcast or IG live yesterday, so it is groundbreaking but interesting is you.
- 12:36Speaker 1: you're an example of kingdom wealth.
- 12:38Speaker 1: I want to know the money, but I want money for what I've said.
- 12:44Speaker 1: You like, I love that.
- 12:45Speaker 1: Do you know that?
- 12:46Speaker 1: And you are such an example and I understand.
- 12:49Speaker 1: It's not just as much perfection as you want to.
- 12:53Speaker 1: You don't want anything to taint the message that's in your heart, so I applaud you.
- 12:59Speaker 1: I'm so excited now.
- 13:02Speaker 2: Well, the, the, you know, the, the saying that God blesses us so we can bless others.
- 13:07Speaker 2: Right, really, that's, that's our motto, that's my motto and that's really what I really believe in.
- 13:13Speaker 2: So, so beautiful.
- 13:15Speaker 1: So now are you at the point of well, on this show notes, if you're listening, we'll definitely put some links that are available.
- 13:23Speaker 1: Are you at that place now where you can share some links?
- 13:27Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, for sure.
- 13:28Speaker 2: Yeah, you can go to text pledgeus.
- 13:30Speaker 2: Learn about our mission and our project.
- 13:32Speaker 2: You can download.
- 13:33Speaker 2: Download the smart card to get all those numbers.
- 13:37Speaker 1: I have checked that out.
- 13:38Speaker 1: It's very professional.
- 13:40Speaker 1: I'm sorry to make a mistake.
- 13:41Speaker 2: Oh, text pledgeus.
- 13:42Speaker 2: We don't own thecom yet.
- 13:44Speaker 2: Hopefully we will soon.
- 13:45Speaker 2: So, yeah, text pledgeus.
- 13:48Speaker 2: We are on the socials tic-tac, snapchat, instagram, facebook, all of those.
- 13:55Speaker 2: Yeah, and our app will be available soon.
- 13:58Speaker 2: So we can't wait to incorporate AI in it.
- 14:03Speaker 1: We're just talking about the AI, just about AI with Naomi.
- 14:06Speaker 1: That's exciting.
- 14:08Speaker 1: Let me just ask you a little AI question how much of AI did you use as you were developing your material?
- 14:16Speaker 1: Did you use any, or were you still just testing it?
- 14:19Speaker 2: No, well, I did ask our curriculum coordinator.
- 14:22Speaker 2: She said that she used a couple little things for the high school project, but not much.
- 14:28Speaker 2: So I can't wait to upload our documents, create a robot and all these little things and get kind of experiment with it.
- 14:37Speaker 1: I can see you having a bot where, if the kid has, if the youth has any question, boom, it's going to spit out the answer.
- 14:43Speaker 1: That's exactly.
- 14:44Speaker 2: Right.
- 14:44Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we're excited.
- 14:46Speaker 1: Next pledgeus.
- 14:47Speaker 1: Now.
- 14:48Speaker 1: I just got to tell you how do you feel at this point, looking back at the travail of your soul and your mind.
- 14:55Speaker 1: What kind of feelings do you have now?
- 14:58Speaker 1: Do you just have pure anticipation, or what?
- 15:02Speaker 2: I do have a little anticipation just getting it out there, getting it visible to everyone.
- 15:09Speaker 2: But I have a lot of gratitude again, because I wouldn't have done all of this if it weren't for a great team of people behind me.
- 15:16Speaker 2: So, I don't take.
- 15:18Speaker 2: Yeah, I was the you know inspiration and the developer in the beginning, but now I have a great team of people behind me that are really pushing for it as well.
- 15:28Speaker 1: So is this something that we can put on our websites too, as either promoting it or yeah?
- 15:34Speaker 1: Yeah, you can.
- 15:36Speaker 1: You can put your link, yeah, you can.
- 15:39Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, you can put your support of us, believe in what we're doing or cause.
- 15:44Speaker 2: If parents want to get involved, they'll be able to download our books or buy them on Amazon.
- 15:51Speaker 2: Okay, we encourage that schools register to get involved.
- 15:55Speaker 2: Do it out, so you know, just do what you can to help students out.
- 16:02Speaker 1: And that's all available on text.
- 16:03Speaker 1: Pledgeus yeah, you can take your link and that's it.
- 16:09Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope you just go through the rounds of podcasts and publicity, because this is truly something that is a great need and you've and I like it.
- 16:20Speaker 1: You said, hey, I'm the great need.
- 16:22Speaker 1: I think it's government sport.
- 16:23Speaker 1: I want to make sure it was done and right, right, and even curriculum.
- 16:28Speaker 1: I want to control the curriculum.
- 16:30Speaker 1: We're not going to be talking about this way out stuff.
- 16:32Speaker 1: So, oh, man Woo.
- 16:34Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to shout it from the mountain, I want to put it on my website, I want to put it wherever and then definitely give you some oh wow.
- 16:43Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 16:44Speaker 1: And speaking of that, what would be the best thing?
- 16:47Speaker 1: Someone's listening to this podcast or they're watching us live Hello Life.
- 16:51Speaker 1: What would be like the best thing to begin from a parent's perspective?
- 16:56Speaker 1: Let's just do the parents, Okay.
- 16:58Speaker 2: So if your student owns a smartphone, you can go to text pledgeus and download our crisis card.
- 17:06Speaker 2: That way, you know that your student has all of the emergency hotlines that they're ever going to need in a crisis situation.
- 17:13Speaker 2: We all know that the brain acts differently when it's in crisis.
- 17:17Speaker 2: It's to fear, fight, flight or fun, and so you know we really need to make sure our students have everything that they're needing if they're in a crisis situation.
- 17:30Speaker 2: The brain doesn't stop developing until age 26.
- 17:33Speaker 2: And sometimes they can make hasty decisions when they're in crisis that they're going to regret later.
- 17:39Speaker 2: So our goal is to make sure they have everything they need to be in a crisis.
- 17:45Speaker 2: If they're in a crisis situation, the next thing you can do is to get your school involved.
- 17:52Speaker 2: Let them know about our project and what we're doing, and all anyone has to do is send us an email at admin at text pledgeus, and we will get you all the support that you need.
- 18:04Speaker 2: Parents, you can download the books as well if you want to teach your kids at home or wherever.
- 18:10Speaker 2: Just, it's a way to slow down the brain and to educate students on some of the things that are going on in society.
- 18:18Speaker 1: Yeah, I like the example you gave me when we were talking about this at the mastermind.
- 18:23Speaker 1: You said let's say, a kid runs his car through a tree and all of a sudden, all those cortisol and all the stuff in the brain just goes off.
- 18:32Speaker 1: Yeah, and they don't know what to do and even to just to be able to administer.
- 18:41Speaker 1: Or maybe he's like wait a minute, mom downloaded this text pledge thing.
- 18:44Speaker 1: Let me see, I don't know.
- 18:45Speaker 1: I just think of a lot of different ways that this could really help.
- 18:51Speaker 1: And I like the thought that you got it into schools.
- 18:53Speaker 1: I would love to see some school have a class.
- 18:57Speaker 1: That's all it is about.
- 18:58Speaker 1: If you want to get your school involved, remember it's admin at text pledgeus.
- 19:03Speaker 1: I'm sending these in the notes Get your school involved.
- 19:08Speaker 1: Admin at text pledgeus.
- 19:09Speaker 1: And I like what you said the brain when, when you know it, when, when there's a trauma I know that Great neuropsychotherapy for trauma there's so much that you get stored in the body and you need, like the workbook, you need something and Really some more, and maybe so I can see this this is what my vision is for it Now just speak as a prophetic is that I can see school counselors Having this.
- 19:42Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the school involved.
- 19:46Speaker 1: Get your counselor involved, the more she at the ground roots of this, mm-hmm, I believe it can explode because it's such a need.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Mental health, trauma, health For young people.
- 19:57Speaker 1: In fact, no, I was just Naomi, I was just talking to my daughter.
- 20:01Speaker 1: She's 25 now and she's really learning about the trauma she went through a child and now being able to work through it and process it and realize, oh, I'm, I've been labeled this, but I'm not that label labeling, as my friend says, you know, and to see, now she's 25, I Think what if she had this material when she's 15 or 16?
- 20:25Speaker 1: I know, think about, oh, and I just I think you can, I think you can.
- 20:31Speaker 1: When you say mental health, I think most of time you're like, okay, that is trauma and there's.
- 20:36Speaker 1: So we live in a traumatic world, but the youth face are different than so much more.
- 20:43Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, each of our grade level on Materials have a specific book on mental health.
- 20:50Speaker 2: Oh, that's how important it is.
- 20:52Speaker 2: You know, just everything affects our mental health and if we're not taking care of that first?
- 20:57Speaker 1: Wow really suffering, so yeah, I just so know that now, after losing my husband and then going and really not, I think, and I was doing okay but really not really realizing the mental Capacity of what that was and and the 26 years of marriage were tough too.
- 21:14Speaker 1: So good for youth, but it's not bad for some adults.
- 21:18Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I love your heart, I love that you're really and I know you're not just sitting on this, you're, you're working on it and you're working on some other things to make it all the more sharper as it goes along the way.
- 21:32Speaker 1: And I just applied you for that.
- 21:34Speaker 1: So what would you say?
- 21:35Speaker 1: Many final thoughts.
- 21:36Speaker 1: What would you say?
- 21:39Speaker 2: So, to a parent.
- 21:42Speaker 2: As we approach the holidays, I Can be a little bit of a stressor and I'm gonna say something that I said yesterday and someone's Instagram live is that we all grow through different journeys and Just keep an eye on what your kids are doing and getting themselves involved with.
- 22:03Speaker 2: If they tell you that they don't feel comfortable with a certain situation, just let them know.
- 22:08Speaker 2: It's okay, just to remove themselves, right, because sometimes kids cannot be the nicest.
- 22:14Speaker 2: It's our job to remind each other to be kind, and there's a lot of bullying and things that go on right now.
- 22:22Speaker 2: So we just really have to remind our kids that it's okay and their value would be on measure.
- 22:28Speaker 1: So that's a message, that's a message for today, wow.
- 22:34Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much.
- 22:35Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean.
- 22:37Speaker 1: So Text pledge dot us is really the main.
- 22:40Speaker 1: There's no phone.
- 22:40Speaker 1: The phone numbers are all down there now.
- 22:43Speaker 2: Yeah, if you click on the crisis card.
- 22:46Speaker 1: Okay, you'll be able to see that all of the that's where they'll get and pretty, and you got an app, whoo, we're gonna have to have it's not finished.
- 22:57Speaker 2: Yeah, it's when it is.
- 22:59Speaker 2: Oh.
- 23:03Speaker 1: Yeah, I just speak blessings, I pray more doors really open right now for you.
- 23:09Speaker 1: Just talk it up on every podcast you can think of.
- 23:11Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to you going on TV.
- 23:15Speaker 1: I see you on Fox CNN really going and taking this and the neat thing is I Know your heart's gonna be able to handle it.
- 23:24Speaker 1: The capacity yeah, cuz you.
- 23:26Speaker 1: This is where I think some of that capacity Came from.
- 23:29Speaker 1: Wow, who would have thought a brain injury and learning to recover from that would give you, nail me, the capacity to be a voice, a huge voice, and I pray for your team.
- 23:42Speaker 1: They got to continue to bring you good people who share in your vision and don't dilute it.
- 23:46Speaker 1: So I just have to speak that out over you, girl.
- 23:49Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such a dear person to seeing you at the next mastermind.
- 23:56Speaker 1: So, thank you so much.
- 23:58Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere.
- 23:59Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere.
- 24:00Speaker 1: I wanted I will, okay.
- 24:01Speaker 1: So I just wanted to say thank you for listening to the Kingdom Mentor podcast and check the show notes please, on All of this with Naomi and check the show notes.
- 24:12Speaker 1: Notes with Naomi and I share in this, really that AI is not a evil thing.
- 24:19Speaker 1: You put AI in the right hands Kingdom hands and really change could happen.
- 24:24Speaker 1: You can also go to Teresa Croftcom, ford slash AI, so I look forward to talking you into the next podcast and it's gonna happen.
- 24:34Speaker 1: A name change is coming.
- 24:37Speaker 1: Thanks so much for my listening.
- 24:39Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again.