Healing And Finding Your Voice with Altovise Pelzer

 

Finding yourself in a place of ruin is never fun. However, it could be an indication of a new life. It may take years, but healing from past trauma is possible and finding your voice after holding onto a secret is a reality. Best-selling author, professional speaker, and life coach Altovise Pelzer’s life experience is a testament that you can overcome hurt and pain and use those experiences to benefit the world around us. She talks about a personal tragedy that she shares with her two daughters – molestation. Instead of being frozen in her circumstance, she had a game-changer mindset that moved her to start World Voice League. She also hosts the #SpeakEasy Podcast where she and her guests who are going through related ordeals in life inspire each other.

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Healing And Finding Your Voice with Altovise Pelzer

I have Altovise Pelzer, a bestselling author, professional speaker, live streamer, life coach and Founder of the World Voice League. She also hosts the #SpeakEasy Podcast, your number one podcast for unscripted perspectives on becoming and staying a successfully paid speaker. Altovise is a mom of four that will break out into impromptu dance parties, take a beach trip or read a book, but homelessness and molestation greatly affected her life. She had a turning point in her personal life after decades of being silent about her molestation and after finding out both her girls were molested, she decided to pivot to change the game. She has decided to motivate women to leverage their life circumstances by learning to love their voice. She takes women from abuse to applause by equipping them to define, accept and use their voice. Welcome to the Game Changer Mentality podcast.

I was sitting here going who was he talking about? Who was he introducing? Is he waiting for somebody else to come through and be sitting next to me or something?

It’s all about you, who you are and what you do in the world, which is why I was so eager to get you and have you on the show to hear your story. You’re like a sister to me because I’m a speaker, you’re a speaker and you help women use their voice as a speaker. You’re targeting people who have a story, who has hurt in their life something to share that was devastating, but yet you showed them how to use that in such a powerful way. First of all, I applaud you for that. I wish I had one of those buttons that I could press and everyone would start clapping and roaring for you because you need that level of recognition. Thank you for what you do. Why don’t you start by telling us about you? We have so much to talk about what you do and your story. Tell us a little bit about your business and how you got started.

I was a serial entrepreneur. I’ve done Avon and Herbalife. I’ve done a lot and I was always there. Behind the scenes person pushing and motivating everybody else and that was me. I was never the person out in the forefront. I’m an introvert. Leave me at home with a nice book and some nice music and I’m good to go, but in 2015 after a conversation with my oldest daughter about trust, I actually blurted out for the first time ever that I had been molested as a child. Imagine attempting to go through and help my children go through healing when I found out that they had been molested at the ages of three and five. Doing all of that without ever telling anybody about my story and my voice wasn’t being heard, but I was still trying to go and help them heal and do everything that I needed to do for them. This conversation happened in 2015, I said, “I’m finally going to write the book. I’m finally going to do some things.” I’ve felt good about being able to talk about it. I wasn’t going to shout it from the rooftops but I can write a book. It’s always interesting, you always start and say I wanted to write a book.

I know all about that, that’s what I said. I want to write the book and here I am three books later, podcast, speaking on stages, meeting great people like you and it’s not going to stop, I can relate.

 

I wanted to write the first book, get it out there and before I get to write the first book, do you know what happens when we say, “I’m going to do something great. I’m going to do something amazing. I’m going to change the world?” All heck breaks loose. On December 31st of 2015, I was evicted from my home. I had to shift there, we’re pulling everything and putting any on the sidewalk and I said, “No, everything’s supposed to fall in line and fall in place.” I’m supposed to be having this great year next year, the next day is the New Year. I said I had a decision to make, “Do I do what I normally do and have my pity party? Say what was me, I never get to do anything, I never go anywhere, I always have to cancel my plans for one reason or another.” Do I go ahead and take this trip? I said, “I’m going to do something different. I’m going to go ahead and take this trip.”

I got on my flight on January 1, 2016. The first flight was great and got to my layover. My ticket doesn’t have a group number on it. I go over to the booth, I hand them my ticket and they said, “No problem, go on with group two.” They’d call group two, I get up, get in line and then I hear my name over the loudspeaker. I’m like, “They’re going to tell me, it’s a fake ticket and I might get arrested.” That’s immediately the first thing that went through my mind, I have a vivid imagination. I was going to get arrested for buying a fake ticket because I was trying to be cheap and bought one on the website. All types of things were in my head. I get to the booth. They hand me the ticket and they say its first class. It completely shifted everything for me. If I had allowed myself to do what I normally would do, which was have my pity party, cancel my plans, and not going forward because of the setbacks of my circumstances, I would not have had that first-class ticket.

It made me think and believe I can’t quit. I can’t give up because I never know if my first-class ticket is waiting for me. That changed everything. That changed the game. I became the face of my brand. I started speaking. It was still a journey, I started speaking and I published three books in that first year. We published book number fourteen, fifteen and sixteen. I said I’m on a goal to publish in a hundred books. It was a phenomenal experience. It changed the game for me and then it also changed the game for my family as well.

This all started from a mistake because you didn’t mean to open up and be that vulnerable with your daughter or daughters at the time. You were casually talking about trust.

You have those intense moments of conversation with your children and it was in an intense moment of conversation that I blurted it out and it led to that moment of me crying and her looking at me. Us having a conversation about it, but it felt different for me because I was always thinking so much about everybody else’s feelings. Everybody else’s lives and making sure everybody else was okay, that I never even truly tried to heal for myself with what I had been through. Even as a child, I never told anyone because at the time I wasn’t living with my mom. I was living with an aunt and it was at a friend of an aunt’s house. My mother at that time was in college, getting her degree so she could have a better life for me and her. I felt I had to hold this secret and that’s what drew me to helping women who had gone through abuse because that’s what it is. We feel like we have to hold on to this secret, and we have to hold it under lock and key because if we talk about it then what happens to the other person? We’re holding on to this poison that’s killing us.

It’s like being in prison because you can’t let yourself out. You want to let yourself out, but you can’t. Let’s talk about what that did for you. I know it opens you up, you wanted to help more people through your books, your speaking and things like that. Be an example of what’s possible for the world but I want to back up a little bit and get personal with you. What did it do to you from a personal standpoint? If I’m understanding you correctly, you hadn’t shared this before. Not only are you sharing this but you’re learning some things about your daughters that you didn’t know before. I’m assuming based on the conversation that there were some mixed emotions. I want to know from you. What was that like?

I found out about them being molested in 2009. She and I had this conversation in 2015, it was years after I had found out, but we went through such a transformation. We moved from Philadelphia to Maryland away from everybody that we knew into this itty-bitty hick town. We were City, we were Philly. In Philadelphia you can get anywhere day or night by train, plane, automobile to the slow hick tale where it’s a bus that goes around in one big circle and they stop at 6:00 in the evening.

You don’t get more than that. For me, I went through depression. I was in low self-esteem. I went through being the people pleaser. I had years where I didn’t laugh, I didn’t smile very often. We’re taught and not just taught through words, but we’re taught through actions to put your head down and weather the storm. It will figure itself out or things will work out some way, somehow and in the midst of that, we forget. You told them put their head down and weather the storm, but you could have told them to get an umbrella. You could have told them to go and find shelter. There are other options. They didn’t have to stay out there in the storm. They could have been at least sheltered and a little safer.

Holding on to the secret of being abused is like holding to a poison that's killing you. Click To Tweet

At that time, it felt all heck was breaking loose. I was trying to commute from Maryland to Philadelphia to work. I even had to leave my job in Philadelphia. Once I left that job, I couldn’t find a job for years. I felt like a failure. Here it is, I’m a mother and I can’t protect my children because my girls were molested. Here it is, I’m a mother, I can’t pay my bills because I was already living paycheck to paycheck and I felt like a failure. There was nothing and nobody could say anything that could change the way I felt.

Fast forward to that conversation in 2015. That was one of the first times that I felt, by me releasing that, I was doing something to heal me, to take care of me. I remember my mother coming home, it was a few days before Christmas, she had been working two jobs because she was buying all these gifts and she wanted to make sure that we had stuff under the tree and she came in. My mother was never the, “We had to wait until Christmas to get gifts,” type of person. She was never, “You had to wait until your birthday to get your gifts,” type of person. She was showing us some of the things that she had gotten, some outfits and stuff. She was like, “Go ahead,” and give it to you and then she passed out on the floor. That’s what I remember. You go until you can’t go anymore for the ones that you love, but that’s false. That’s not how we’re supposed to live our lives because if I go until I can’t go anymore, who’s going to be there to take care of them? Who’s going to be there to take care of whatever needs they have? Who’s going to be there to support them? Who’s going to be there for all of those things, but that’s what we’re taught because that’s what we see.

What did you say to them after learning the news above?

When I first found out what, they were three and five. I couldn’t say much of anything. I broke down in tears. I called my godsister and I don’t even know to this day how she understood what I was saying on the phone because it was tears. I was screaming. I was crying. How I found out was, I made it a habit of asking them how their weekend was when they came back from their father. The response I got was completely different. They were telling me that their stepbrother couldn’t be there anymore and my oldest daughter is relaying it and remember, she’s five. She’s relaying this whole storyline to me and I’m like, “Nobody said anything to me, nobody called me. What are you talking about?”

It was them telling me. You know how they always talk about, “A child may be lying or a woman might be lying.” If you knew the behind the scenes of what somebody has to go through in order to tell their story, that is not something you go through for fun. Even though I wasn’t the one who had to tell the story, they had to tell it over and over again. They had to tell it to me. My godsister got there with my brother-in-law and they told it to them. The police got there and they told it to them. We had to get escorted over to the hospital and they had to talk to the doctors and nurses over at the hospital. They had to talk to the social workers at the hospital, then we had to go to Special Victims Unit and talk to the ones in Special Victims Unit. We spent a whole day talking to people.

I’m an introvert. I don’t want to talk to them trying to explain it. Originally, I thought it was just my oldest daughter and then when she talked to the police, we found out that it was both girls. When we got to the hospital, we had a separate set of police officers at the hospital with us. When the doctors came out to tell me that it was both girls, the officers left. It was two female officers, they left and walked out into the waiting room. After we were done talking to the doctors and social worker, the officer came back and she apologized. She said I felt myself getting upset and I had to leave she said, “Because I have a daughter.” It’s a whirlwind. I had them explain what happened, all that they had endured and knowing in my mind where this could lead them. At the end of the spectrum, you have the overachiever, the stripper, the drug addict and a lot of them have gone through some very traumatic things in their childhood. I said I didn’t want that for my kid. It was a heck of a journey. It still is a heck of a journey. I’m excited and proud of the young ladies that they have become, but I still know that it’s still a daily prayer to make sure that they stay on this track.

It’s devastating enough to have to go through something like that for yourself, but then to know that your daughters went through that same thing. That’s probably the worst thing. If you’ve gone through that situation, the only thing that can make it worse is to know that your children have followed that. Tell us, how did you get up from such devastating circumstances?

It was writing and eating. I went through so many issues with my weight going up and down and even after rebranding my whole business in 2016, still having issues with trying to get things in order. That was it. If I did not have the time that I spent writing, I wouldn’t have had that release, I wouldn’t have had that opportunity to get things out of our head. A lot of times, we go through a lot simply because we’re rehashing things in our head, we’re replaying things. We’re replaying what was said to us, what was done and the only way for us to stop replaying it in our head is for us to write it down, which is one of the things that I do with my clients. I make them write and they fuss at me but you have to get it out of your head. You’ve got to think it’s in your head along with the dry cleaning and getting the cat food and making sure the guinea pig gets their nails clipped and all of that wonderful stuff up there. You’ve got to get it out your head and that was it for me. It was getting it out of my head and then what elevated it was when I decided that this was my mission and that I wanted to see other women come through on the other side of whatever abuse they had went through. I wanted to see them come out on the other side better and not bitter.

How did you get to that?

Music.

 

Music made you want to contribute. I get writing it down and getting it out, but you’re taking it to another level because you can write things and not share it. To write something and then share what you’re writing, that is very deep and meaningful to you and maybe perhaps somewhat shameful. There’s the fear of judgment and a lot of other emotions that can come along with sharing that but you’re putting yourself on the front line saying, “I want to tell my story and use it as an instrument or your vehicle to free other people.” As an introvert, what led you to want to be that person?

It was music. I have a love of music. The running joke in my home is if you were standing outside of my home, you would not know what nationality lived in my home. Everything from K-pop to merengue to jazz to reggaeton. Everything and anything plays in my home but when I look this artist in particular, every time they go and write, they’re sharing a piece of them. What are some of the best songs on the planet? Breakup songs, makeup, I love you, I hate you, those songs are literally our lives. They’re our journey and you see how they impact people. You see the emotion. Someone can listen to a song and start to cry or they may not even hear the song per se, but a memory of the song can bring tears to their eyes. For me, I had to go through a process of learning that tears don’t mean weakness, they mean strength. Sometimes you needed to cry in order for you to heal because you need to cleanse what was going on and the thoughts that were in your mind.

That was what influenced me. If they can get out and do it, then I can get out and do it. My first speaking event that I did in 2016, I did some over the phone, teleconferences and things like that. I thought I was the bee’s knees because that’s perfect for an introvert. I don’t see you, you don’t see me. I can hide behind the screen. I said, “Go for it,” but I did an event and it was in 2016. We were in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s hot in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s November or December and I had a jacket on the whole weekend because I was nervous. I was not only speaking but I was hosting. I was emceeing and hosting and then also doing a breakout session.

I had a jacket on all weekend that everybody around me thought, “She has a jacket. It’s the business attire, she looks nice.” I was sweating like a pig over an open flame and it was the only way for everybody not to see me sweating. There were 150 people in the room. I got up there, my old nervous self and I did it. I spoke and it’s so good. We do the breakout session, and everybody had five people here, five people there. I had twenty people at my table and there are multiple sessions going on at once. I looked up and all these people are pulling chairs from other tables to bring them over to the table. I was so nervous and this is funny because as a speaker, I always train my clients whenever you speak, you record yourself either you do a livestream or you record yourself whichever but you always record yourself.

I was so nervous, I didn’t even record myself, but at the end of it the last thing I said to them was, “At some point, you have to walk away from what people called you in order to walk into what you’re called.” I made them take their name tags off and rip them up and throw them into the middle of the table. They went off and they were like, “Thank you so much for that. That was released.” People are crying. I’m like, “Wait, pause, timeout.” I didn’t think that was going to be the response, but it was another time of me going and saying, “I’m going to go all-in. I’m going to go ahead and get this done.” It sparked me going and speaking out of the event. It sparked me going and joining Black Speakers Network which is an African American speaker’s bureau. It sparked me going ahead and saying, “I’m going to see other women be able to do the same thing in their own journey, in their own life and I’m going to be there for the journey for them. I’m going to show up.” It sparked all of those things, but that first time, I knew that I was going to pass out.

Tears don't mean weakness, they mean strength. Click To Tweet

I commend you for that because as a speaker, a trainer and someone who helps people that want to get into the speaking business improve their speaking skills. One of the things we talk about and teach is about, being nervous is an indication that you have something important to do and it’s okay to be nervous. We have a process for getting over the fears, getting grounded, being in a place of service. You realize that it’s not about you, it’s about people and then understanding that you have something to share. That you can build that relationship, you can relate to other people and then show them how you earn the right to share that story because you’ve overcome it. You have tools and techniques on how you’ve overcome it that may provide themselves beneficial to someone else who’s in a similar situation. Maybe not the same thing, but maybe the tools that you’re providing can apply to that situation.

First of all being able to get over the fear of being your authentic self, having gone through some traumatic experience. To get on the stage and do that in front of a lot of people as a speaker is yet another challenge in itself. Let’s start with the experience. What do you say to someone reading this that wants to come out? Maybe not want to be a speaker, we’ll get to that, but want to share their story with a loved one or be able to get it out of them. To feel better, have a better day, a day that they don’t feel worn down by the weight that they’re carrying from experiencing such a traumatic experience and not being able to share that with someone.

The first thing that I always tell people is, and it sounds a little harsh, but you have to be honest about where you are. A lot of times we try to bury what we’ve been through, we try to hide it, we want to show up with our best foot forward. We show up, with makeup on, the hair and nails. We show up with our best suit on and you’ve got to strip all that away. You’ve got to say honestly, “Where are you? Are you bitter? Are you better? Are you still hurting?” When I found out about my girls, I tell people it was almost as if the wound for me was reopened. I thought I had healed from it, but I had not. When you reinjure something, it takes longer for it to heal and not everything can be healed with a Band-Aid and peroxide.

You’ve got to be honest about where you are. That honesty led me to, “I’m going through depression, I need to go and seek counseling.” There are some things that need to take place. I can’t sweep this under the rug and that step is usually the hardest step because for so long we’ve tried to pretend it didn’t happen. That was it, it didn’t happen, I got over it. No, you didn’t and once you accept that that’s how you can start the healing process, that’s how you can start the healing journey. Once I know where I am with it, I’m no longer giving it power. I reclaim my power.

After I come to grips with where I am mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, I can say, “What’s going to be the next step? What’s going to be the next thing?” I tell people, “When you go through this process, it may be that you’re talking to 5, 1, or 5,000 people, but the journey ends when you’re no longer here. It doesn’t end when you tell your story, because you’re telling your story one time may lead to you writing the book. You writing the book may lead to you speaking on stages, you’re doing interviews. It leads to so many other things.

 

For me telling my story, the introvert was live streaming on periscope that part nervous, shaking and sometimes it was me and the little peri man in the corner. I got into a habit of being able to talk about it. When I started talking about it, no matter if there were ten, five, or no people and they may catch the replay, I always said, “I want to help one person.” When I took my eyes off of trying to help the masses and want to be on stages and listen, “I’m coming for you. Oprah, I’m coming to sit in your chair.” All of those things, because we think those things, it was a matter of, “Can I inspire one person? Can I help one person? Can I change the trajectory for one person?” If I change it for one and then they change it for one, it’s a ripple effect.

To add to that, “It’s okay to be where you are.” That’s what holds them back from going forward because they can’t come to grips with where they are. It’s not okay to be there, “Not me, that would never happen to me. I’m too pretty for that. My family is this,” but things happen. No one has that perfect life regardless of what it looks like on social media. Regardless of what kind of car you drive, what kind of job you have, how big your house, whatever. Everyone goes through things and they go through it on different levels. I say that everyone has a proverbial wheelchair if you will. Everyone has that crutch and no one wants to be in that spot. You don’t want to be seen in a place of vulnerability. What I found and perhaps you have as well is that, it’s one of the most humbling places you can be. It’s that opportunity that comes with it if you have the right mindset around it. Not everyone is going to go through what you go through, experience what you experience, but because you’ve experienced it, there are things that you can pull out of that can be useful for others.

For some people, they found their life purpose. They found that thing about them that they can contribute to life and it’s like a fire that destroys a force or the Sahara, it has greenery within some places in Africa. They get the fires and it burns and it seems like it ruins everything but it brings new life. Some of you find yourself in that place of ruin. It’s always to remember that it could be an indication of new life. Unfortunately for some of us, we have to get to that place and experience that hurt, pain and discomfort, which is never fun. I don’t wish that on anyone, but the most important thing is how we respond to those types of circumstances. Our thought process around those circumstances dictates how we overcome and how we can use those experiences to benefit the world around us.

Because I’m an introvert, I love podcasting because it’s me and you, we talk. When I interview speakers and authors it’s me and them, we talk. Most times I make them laugh. I’m in my element, and I found that it doesn’t matter the nationality, the age. There are some core elements within people that join us and link us all together. We also hurt, we all want joy, we all want friendship and we want to see people do well. It’s the people that you come in contact with. Once you go through that process, you’ll start to see that in people.

You can change the toxicity that's going on in our society even if you're doing it one person at a time. Click To Tweet

I’ve had CEOs, six and seven-figure brands come and it’s the same core thing. Some of them have been homeless, some of them have gone through divorce, and some of them have lost a child. I connected with one young lady and it’s so interesting because I listened to her story and I tell her story is an inspiration for me. She listens to my story and tells me my story is an inspiration to her. For some reason we’re always either doing an interview on a podcast back-to-back or at the same time. One day she was like, “I’m in tears listening to your story.” For years, she was fighting to get heard, to find her child. Her child had been abducted for years. I said, “How strong are you to keep that fight up?” She got her child back and I was overjoyed as if we were best friends. If I was her neighbor down the street, I wanted to go to her house and hug her.

I genuinely want to see people do well and even at the core of what I do with my clients is service, I’m a service-oriented. I tried being money focused and nobody signed up for my programs. That’s a whole other situation. I had the $1 million plan, I had it all planned out and I had the marketing. I had everything and not a person. I went through three classes that I launched and zero people signed up for each class. It wasn’t until I decided that I was going to be my unique self and go into what it is that I wanted to do when it came to helping people, serving, impacting social change. Not everything having a dollar sign attached to it. I’ve been able to connect and meet with some of the most amazing people that speaks volumes for me. I look up and people that I know are on the news and this person did this TED Talk and I’m like, “I know them.” It goes back to the core.

Once you go through that, going from being bitter to better, and nobody wants to call themselves bitter. You don’t have to call yourself bitter, I’ll do it, I’ll take the brunt of it, you don’t have to do it out loud, it’s okay, I understand. When I went through my divorce, I was bitter. When I found out my girls were molested, I was bitter. When I had to move from Philadelphia to Maryland, I was bitter. I’m better now, but I was bitter then and I’m thankful for the process of what I went through because I couldn’t go and help people when I was bitter. I would have poisoned them instead of helping them. I know that each person that I help move from bitter to better, they’re able to help somebody else. Hopefully, we can change the toxicity that’s going on in our society even if you’re doing it one person at a time.

What is the one thing you say to individuals that are aspiring speakers? How do they find their voice?

 

Become a unicorn. I am lovingly called a unicorn. I don’t fit into anybody’s box. I don’t fit into anybody’s bubble quote and I don’t fit in society jeans. You’ve got to figure it out. I feel that showing up as my unique self, allow people to genuinely connect with me. When I’m on stage, I don’t like PowerPoints. I’ll use them if I have to because people are wanting to pull me more towards corporate trainings for certain things but I’ll use them if I have to. I don’t like PowerPoints and business cards make me itch. I had to do everything different, networking events I don’t show up like everybody else. They normally look at me and go, “Let me find out what she does because she’s not in here in a three-piece suit. She’s different.”

We have to be okay with our differences. I show up in live stream, I don’t have makeup on, my hair is normally either out or it’s in a puff or if I may do style with it and I’m not dressed to the nines. The fanciest thing you’ll see on me is my earrings. I have all types of earrings. I like nice-sized earrings, but outside of that, I no longer show up always in a dress. Sometimes I’ll have on a dress. You have to show up authentically you. What I found is that especially in the speaking industry, is coming into it, a lot of people think, “I need to sound like Lisa Nichols.” You’re not Lisa Nichols, we got one of those already. You need you to be somebody different.

“I want to sound like Oprah. I want to be like Oprah.” I understand you wanting to replicate her model, that’s great, but she doesn’t even sound like her. You find that thing that makes you different. Literally whenever I travel, I have unicorns that I have on my table that stands out. If I have a nametag anywhere, it says unicorn on my nametag, that stands out. That’s a conversation piece all in its own because we’re in this era where you don’t know what that means. You’ve got to ask a question. I’m straight, it’s just that I stand out in business. I also found out if you have multiple billion-dollar companies is you’re considered a unicorn as well. Over in I want to say either in Japan or China, that’s what they call you. You’re a unicorn if you have multiple billion-dollar businesses, so I’m claiming that. I’ll take all of that, thank you.

Putting that in your brain.

I’ll take it. I will not turn it down.

How can people reach you if they wanted to learn more about you, perhaps work with you, find their voice. How can they connect with you?

The easiest way to connect with me is to join us in our free Facebook group. If you put in #WorldVoiceLeague, our free Facebook group will come up. It’s a global community, there are people in there from all over the world and it’s an opportunity for you to share your voice, your stage. We have other things for you to be able to work with us, but once you come into the community you get an amazing welcome from me. You also get more information about working with me if you want to work with me as well. That’s the easiest way. You can check me out on social media and we’re @WorldVoiceLeague on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

You have a podcast, the #SpeakEasy Podcast as well, correct?

The #SpeakEasy Podcast where we go behind the scenes and give you the ins and outs of what it is to be the successfully paid speaker or offer, I am the host. That’s one of the reasons why people go, “That whole introvert thing? Is that just something you tell people? You don’t act like an introvert.” I said, “No. That’s my zone right there.” That’s it, it’s me and the person. There’s nobody else on there. I can do whatever what I want to do. They’ll hear it later and probably think I’m a nut job.

There are a lot of introverts in the speaker industry go figure.

You’ve got to learn how to turn it on, turn it off and take your time out by the pool. I confess I’ve been known to do that. One of the things that I found is that our voices have been hidden enough so we got to get out there. It may be writing a book, speaking, getting out, doing a tour, going and connecting with people at shelters or whatever it is that you’re supposed to be doing is the opportune moment for you to do it. You have access to everything you need. What you don’t have, I can guarantee you somebody will show up with it.

Not only is it a good thing to do, it’s a responsibility. That takes on a whole different tone. Thank you for coming on the show. This has been a wonderful conversation with you. You are an amazing author, an amazing speaker and more importantly an amazing human being. This has been great and I’m sure the readers can appreciate that as well. Before we depart, I would like to ask you one more question, what is a game-changing mentality message that you would like to leave with us?

For me, the game-changing mentality is doing what no one else is willing to do. The majority is out here and they follow the crowd and then they want to show up and do this or do that. I always tell people, “If everybody’s going to left, there might be time for you to go right. If everybody’s hopping on the bandwagon for something, maybe it’s time for you to find another way.” I’ll give this little hack that I told my clients. Everybody’s running to social media, but with all of the stuff going on social media, maybe it’s time to go back to the old way of marketing, the mailer. Maybe it’s time to go back and send some people some postcards in the mail and reintroduce yourself.

Get back to those real connections and those real conversations; they matter. Click To Tweet

It’s intriguing me because we talk about building relationships and we’ll have to ask ourselves, are we building those relationships on social medias? It seems so convenient to connect, but what’s missing is that true connection. It’s that authentic connection about receiving that postcard, that mailer and how personal that is and how personal that can be. Demonstrated that you truly care, that you’ve taken the time to handwrite a note and seal the envelope, stamp it with a stamping, pay the shipping to send that off, that says a lot.

I took my clients and my team and I said, “You’re going to go through your friends’ list, groups, everything.” They have a whole workbook that they had to go through and by the end of the day, we were like, “I didn’t even realize some of the people I was connected to, I didn’t know who they were or where they came from. Why was I in 3,000 groups? What was that?” It’s many different things, but get back to those real connections, get back to those real conversations, they matter.

Thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate you and what you are doing and what you represent in the world. It is beautiful.

I thank you for having me.

There you have it, another successful episode of the Game Changer Mentality podcast. Whenever everyone is going well, you might want to consider going right. Until next time. Peace and love.

Important Links: 

• Altovise Pelzer
• #SpeakEasy Podcast
• #WorldVoiceLeague on Facebook
• LinkedIn – World Voice League
• Instagram – World Voice League
• http://RodneyFlowers.com/get-up-book/
• http://RodneyFlowers.com/essential-assertions-book/
• https://RodneyFlowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734
• http://www.Instagram.com/worldvoiceleague
• http://www.Facebook.com/worldvoiceleague
• http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/worldvoiceleague
• Is Life Knocking You Down? Read Rodney’s inspiring story – Get Up! I Can’t. I Will. I Did… Here’s How! https://rodneyflowers.com/get-up-book/
• Recognize Your Positive Potential – Essential Assertions by Rodney Flowers https://rodneyflowers.com/essential-assertions-book/
• Get Access to Rodney’s Daily Inspiration in your Inbox Today https://rodneyflowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734

About Altovise Pelzer

Altovise Pelzer is a Best-Selling Author, Professional Speaker, Live Streamer, Life Coach and founder of the World Voice League. She also hosts the #SpeakEasy Podcast, your #1 Podcast for unscripted perspectives on becoming and staying a successfully paid Speaker.

Altovise is a contributing author to the #1 Best Selling book “Speak Up! The Ultimate Guide to Dominate in the Speaking Industry.” World-renowned speaking legends Dr. George Fraser @gcfraser and Les Brown @thelesbrown wrote the Foreword and Afterword for the book.

At her core, Altovise is a mom of four that will break out into impromptu dance parties, take a beach trip or read a book. Homelessness and molestation greatly affected Altovise. She hit a turning point in her personal life after decades of being silent about her molestation story even after finding out both her girls were molested.

This was the catalyst for her decision to motivate women to “Leverage Their Life’s Circumstances” by learning to love their voice. She takes women from abuse to applause by equipping them to Define, Accept and Use their Voice as a Speaker.

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