This was a special episode. Got to record this in person in mid December with my book club brothers Jacob, Samuel and Stephen. This past fall of 2022 we all read The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr together. Since then we have stayed and touch and have been developing a brotherhood together.
We go on a journey and talk faith, growing up and reflections on our faith in God. This was a special night of recording and talking and I am so honored to have these brothers in my life and I am excited for the future. I hope you enjoy our talk.
BIO of Jacob:
Jacob Swodeck is a husband, dad, veteran real estate guy, Clippers fan and a learner of all things true.
Stephen F. Pflücker is a Faith Driven Entrepreneur, comes from the Business Banking world where he has more then 10 years of experience. He grew up as a pastors kid and was heavily involved in the ministry till He left not only His family but also the Things of God. It has been about a year that God got ahold of him. He has chosen to have God at the center of all His relationships and is in the business of Empowering others and growing Gods kingdom for the glory of God.
Samuel is a thrilled Father of two sons. And brother to Stephen. I love Yeshua and my Father.
I manage short term rentals via Airbnb and am currently studying Hebrew. I have a BA in Theology. Professional table tennis player. Part of an awesome book club.Aspiring chef of Peruvian cuisine.
Still coming around I don’t make a sound And if I speak it’s not About you,
I don’t know if it’s true I can’t be all about you, I come and go and it’s Misery, I need the company, You get me on the empty,
I drive and drive To stay alive, You want a story, I need the money, I’m losing here, Losing you, That’s the fear,
Can’t remember How to remember What your love was like, But what we got I Forgot cause I can’t Grow or let it go,
Still coming around Or going down, Making it up Or getting out Before you go around This mountain town, Tell everyone you love The way I look when I leave.
Louder Now is back with a new episode for a new month. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. My guest today tells her story of surviving domestic abuse and how to move in post traumatic growth. I so enjoyed talking with her. She is also doing big things and helping so many people now. Proud of her and honored that she shared on this podcast.
Agape’s BIO:
Be Your Incredible Self (BYIS) best describes Ms. Garcia’s tenacious attitude towards empowering others. Garcia, over the past 35 years has navigated through domestic violence, privacy, safety, vulnerability, and the mindset to endure personal adverse events in life.
Her survival of a double attempted homicide while 8 months pregnant (by the father) and the desperation to survive became the catalyst to the foundation of BYIS while achieving an undisputed outlook of independence. During her journey to overcome, Garcia learned that extreme independence is a trauma driven response and a natural one which can be defeated through focused, self awareness and intentional control.
Through her own walk, harsh lessons brought on by extreme independence resulted in areas of her life being sabotaged repeatedly. Her personal journey of post traumatic growth has led Garcia to dedicating her life in developing transformational programs, various forms of coaching, certification courses and establishing a nonprofit to help real time victims. Her commitment is to provide lifelong transformational habits that can restore your powerful internal sense of control. One of her personal statements, ‘You don’t live anywhere but in your head’ is why some of her laser focus teachings are on aligning your mental and emotional belief system.
As her passion grew from her own personal struggles, Garcia became active within the community receiving a Mayoral appointment to work with various Law Enforcement and Government agencies.
Garcia has spent more than 20 years in the corporate world holding positions in Office Administration, Project Management, Compliance, Policy writing, Team building, Training, Leadership and Consulting. She continued to serve other organizations including the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS), Board of Directors, and holds a current membership in the FBI vetted private sector program of InfraGard. As VP of a Security Consultant Company, she has developed programs with leadership responsible for security and emergency management. These emphasize awareness toward identifying different stages of human behavior leading towards violence mitigation.
While working, attending school, and raising her kids as a single parent, her personal priorities of housing, safety and privacy for her children were of utmost importance. This required Garcia to navigate through various self-help centers, state, city, local programs, systems and assistance to create a stable foundation for her family while providing the ability to assist others. She also volunteers and collaborates with local law writer(s), in support of bills under Public Safety.
Garcia believes in the need to feel loved, wanted, and cared for as a part of life in all of us. Living through emotional tugs of war and learning to apply a controlled healthy mindset to overcome voids, shortcomings, and to break unhealthy cycles is who she is today versus the opposite of where she came from. Today, she prides herself on meeting the daily challenges of being vulnerable and safe at the same time while empowering others to Be Your Incredible Self.
Garcia’s personal mission is to help lead others in transforming their survival of Domestic Violence (DV) into Post Traumatic Growth and to mitigate the depletion of resources for real time victims.
Sharing her personal testimony has empowered so many others. She loves teaching her BYIS formula of: How to combine Situational Awareness with Emotional Intelligence to control your triggers.
*** Technical Glitch–there might be some echo towards the end of the interview..not sure how to fix this but just to let you know there might be an echo** Thank you!
THE RUCKUS JOURNAL 