wavePod

TAKE THIS PERSONALLY: Empowering Human Trafficking Survivors One Bead at a Time - The Bobby Bones Show | Wave AI Podcast Notes

Back to The Bobby Bones Show

TAKE THIS PERSONALLY: Empowering Human Trafficking Survivors One Bead at a Time

The Bobby Bones Show

Sat Oct 25 2025

Summary

The Bobby Bones Show — "TAKE THIS PERSONALLY: Empowering Human Trafficking Survivors One Bead at a Time"

Date: October 25, 2025
Host: Morgan (from "Take This Personally")
Guests: Shannon & Amanda, founders of Ring True
Theme: Purpose-driven entrepreneurship transforming the lives of human trafficking survivors through employment, empowerment, and community.

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the mission behind Ring True, a jewelry company founded by sisters Shannon and Amanda to empower human trafficking survivors by providing them with meaningful work, healing, and dignity. Morgan explores their business model, their personal motivations, and what it’s meant for the women they serve — as well as for themselves.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin and Mission of Ring True

Launch During Lockdown: Amanda conceived the business in 2020 during the COVID lockdown as a response to uncertainty, isolation, and a desire to make meaningful impact.

“The idea felt outside myself… I never want to give my time and my life to something that's not going to be meaningful or make an impact in some way for other people.” — Amanda (05:13)
Sister Partnership: The business expanded as Amanda’s sister Shannon joined in, each bringing unique strengths: Amanda making the jewelry, Shannon handling logistics and business ops.

“I have the hands of Shrek… I'll nerd out and do the spreadsheets and ship stuff to people. You go ahead and make that jewelry yourself, yeah, God bless her.” — Shannon (05:59)
Human Trafficking Focus: Not just charity, but employment: survivors in safe housing can earn income making jewelry while continuing therapy in a safe, supportive environment.

“To have an opportunity to earn for themselves is really empowering. That’s what we’re doing.” — Amanda (03:26)

2. Working with Survivors

Safe House Operations: The sisters instruct survivors in jewelry making within safe homes, allowing them to work at their own pace, on their own terms, in the midst of trauma recovery programs.

“They’re not in the mind frame to go work at McDonald's…So, this is so awesome. We get to go in where they live…show them how to do this...They can do it on their own time.” — Shannon (08:04)
Beyond Therapy: The power of joy, laughter, and normalcy is just as powerful as therapy. Crafting together brings community, story sharing, and genuine connection.

“We're not therapists, but the piece that we're able to bring is just joy and laughter.” — Amanda (10:03) “For them to have a break...our mission is that too. We just go about it in a different way.” — Amanda (11:25)

3. Impact, Empowerment, and Growth

Survivor Support Club: Launched to give consistent work and support to survivors and to engage those wanting to help at $25/month, sending jewelry and highlighting the survivor who made it.

“Instead of just giving to charity, what this does is it actually provides a job and helps survivors feel empowered.” — Amanda (22:15)
Life and Job Skills: Survivors learn not only jewelry making, but also time management, filling out timesheets, banking, interning, and basic business skills — all vital for future independence.

"It's not just making jewelry. They're learning responsibility, time management...all the things that we do for our business." — Shannon (28:14)
Compassion and Patience: Through working with trauma survivors, Amanda and Shannon developed deeper patience and empathy, learning to accommodate trauma-impacted behavior and apply that understanding elsewhere in life.

“People matter. I can take more time with them and give them more space to be who they need to be.” — Amanda (30:43)

4. Personal & Organizational Transformation

Transformational Work: The project has healed not only survivors but the founders themselves, helping Shannon in her journey as a widow and giving her new purpose.

“I didn't feel like I had a purpose…It completely changed my life. Now it's my full-time job, I'm passionate about it, it’s what gets me up every single day.” — Shannon (17:16)
Action Over Intimidation: Facing the vastness of social problems, Amanda encourages others to start small — often you have more to offer than you think.

“You can start small and take small steps towards making a difference…don’t be surprised when it changes your life.” — Amanda (41:33)

5. Advice and Encouragement

On Burnout and Self-Care: Doing heavy, emotional work makes boundaries and therapy vital.

“When you're doing heavy work like this, you really do have to try to protect your peace…Therapy can help a lot of people.” — Shannon (40:35)
On Finding Your Cause: Focus on what you can do instead of being paralyzed by all you can't.

“Trying to fix everything in the world is never going to work. So find something that you care about and focus on that.” — Morgan (35:48)

Notable Quotes & Moments

Amanda on the heart of their work:

“It's more of a mindset of this is for them. Less about the profit, more about the person.” (29:50)
On Compassion:

“I've met other people in my life who…I will experience similar interactions with them and I'm like, you have trauma brain…Now I have so much more compassion.” — Amanda (30:44)
Wit & Warmth:

“We would throw this business in the trash. I don't even care about jewelry...It's a pure love for them that keeps us going.” — Amanda & Shannon (30:08)
Legacy for Children:

“My oldest is 13...I've explained to him what human trafficking is…We're gonna help change that.” — Amanda (37:00)

Highlighted Segments with Timestamps

[02:55] — How Ring True started and the "why" behind the business
[05:10] — Taking the leap in uncertain times; faith and motivation
[08:04] — Implementing the work model in safe homes and respecting survivors' needs
[10:01] — The healing power of laughter and non-traditional support
[15:22] — Personal growth and insights from running Ring True
[17:15] — Shannon’s journey from grief to new purpose
[21:56] — "Start with one person" philosophy and the Survivor Support Club
[28:11] — Transitioning survivors into job skills, business internships
[29:46] — Compassion, patience, and learning from trauma-informed work
[39:24] — Final words of advice: boundaries, therapy, and belief in making a difference

Conclusion

Shannon, Amanda, and their company Ring True are redefining what it means to “help” by prioritizing dignity, agency, and genuine connection over charity alone. The episode is a passionate, funny, and ultimately hopeful look at how ordinary people — armed with heart and persistence — can help restore futures, and themselves in the process.

Where to Find Ring True:

ringtrueco.com
Instagram/Facebook: @ringtrue_co

Endnotes

Morgan’s summary: "Trying to fix everything in the world is never going to work. So find something that you care about and focus on that." (35:48)
Final lessons: Protect your peace, don’t be afraid to start small, and remember that working for something bigger than yourself transforms everyone involved.

Loading summary...

Transcript

A (0:00)

This is an iHeart podcast.

B (0:04)

Hey, audiobook lovers. I'm Kalpen. I'm Ed Helms. Ed and I are inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with our new podcast, Irsay the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Each week we sit down with your favorite iHeart podcast hosts and some very special guests to discuss the latest and greatest audiobooks from audible, listen to Earsay on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Earsay and start listening on the free iHeartradio app today. Limu Emu and Doug Here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

C (0:52)

Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

B (0:55)

Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Ferry Unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Affiliates excludes Massachusetts.

C (1:05)

This is Amy Brown from Feeling Things with Amy and Kat.

D (1:07)

Isopure protein helps you focus on more of what matters.

C (1:11)

Like feeling your best every day with great tasting nutrition. That's high protein and low carb. It's never been simpler. I use Isopure unflavored protein every day.

D (1:20)

And I have already restocked three times.

C (1:23)

Since first trying it. Actually, I think I've bought it four times now because my daughter took a bag of it to her dad's house with 25 grams of ultra filtered protein and you can add it to things.

A (1:33)

Like guacamole, pasta sauce and more.

C (1:35)

It tastes great on everything. Enjoy more of what matters today@isopureprotein.com and.

D (1:41)

Get 20% off your order when you use code MINDS20 at checkout.

E (2:00)

Take this personally with Morgan.

C (2:05)

Now we are in part two of the series that I never saw coming. It's another sister business. These are women I've been working with for several years now. They created the company Ring True and they did it to help human trafficking survivors. I love their mission. I love everything that they're all about. So it's time for you guys to finally meet Shannon and Amanda. I'm excited to bring on two. Two people who I've recently worked with in the last few years. Their names are Shannon and Amanda and they created the company Ring True which is incredible beyond just the jewelry that they make, which I'm going to let them share that whole story. So guys, thanks for coming on.

A (21:56)

I love what you said about, like, just the one person keeping your eyes open for, like, how can I make a difference in my everyday life? Who are you rubbing shoulders with? Who are you seeing? I already knew the people that were at the safe house and I was donating money because I started making all the jewelry by myself. Like, I didn't originally think I'm going to work hands on with survivors and teach them to make jewelry. It was like, I'm going to make it all myself and then I'm just going to donate. I'll donate money that I make back into this thing. So it was. But it was like, through the relationships that I had and like, the people around me that I just started getting a little closer and a little closer, asking questions, learning about things, not, not immediately assuming that I knew everything. Because I'm the type of person who I'm like, I'll throw myself under the bus right away and be like, I don't know anything. Teach me what you know. So if you're willing to just ask questions, you'll start to learn what are the needs that are around me. And then as far as human trafficking goes, like, we do have people ask us all the time, like, how can we get involved with what you're doing and how can we help? And so we actually started a program called the Survivor Support Club, which is every month, the ladies are making jewelry all the time. And, like, we have events that we do or around Christmas time, we'll sell a lot. And we have a lot of boutiques across the United States that carry our jewelry. But those orders come in sporadically. Like, we never know when a boutique is going to run out of bracelets and need more. So in order to keep the ladies we're working with consistently working, we have the Survivor Support Club for people who are like, I want to help these ladies and I want to help them all the time. So you get a brand new piece of jewelry every month. So we make these rings. These are like little fidget here, I'll bring them up here. They're like fidget style rings. So I've got one on my thumb and you just roll them around. They're like an anxiety relief kind of thing. So sometimes we'll send out those and then other times we'll send out bracelets. So they'll come on these little cards that are attached and then it says this is Yasmin. So it'll have the name of the survivor that made it, but we'll send out like a new one of those every single month to the people in the club. And either they keep the ones they like or save them up to give them away as gifts for birthdays or at Christmas time or whatever. But it's a way that people can support survivors every month and it's $25. And instead of just giving into the to a charity like how I was doing when I first started the business, what this does is it actually provides a job and it helps the survivors feel empowered. They don't feel like people feel bad for them. They feel like people are appreciating the work that they're doing and they want what ladies are making. And that is I think the life changing piece for them.