B (9:43)
Like, well, just crazy, crazy stuff. I used to be a business coach and I used to teach people business. Right. And then I met my would be husband and he was this consummate businessman and he and I just started all these companies. We started a recycling company and we scaled that. All the, all the waste companies were telling us, you're going to be out of business in six months. And in six months we had 60% of the market share. So we built that up, we sold that within six years. Then we started a waste company. Actually, that was back in 1993 when recycling was the buzz. We were going to open a waste company and I said, no, we gotta rebrand it as a recycling company. So we did that, took over the market share, sold it. Then we started a waste company and we grew that to be the fourth largest privately owned waste company in the country. We owned a railroad, three landfills, I don't know how many trans stations. We had thousands of trucks. Just, it was, it was crazy. It was very big. Then we got rid of that. We owned a five star campground, a racetrack. We owned a, the fourth largest short track in America. We owned that for 20 years. We'd just been in like every everything. And then I was the first woman to own biomass company that was retrofitting coal plants to wood. And so I found myself thrust into this world of, you know, I didn't really know what I was doing at the time, but I learned really quick and that was, that was very interesting. So we would provide fuel to the power plants so that they could transfer over from coal to wood. But then I got out of that because I really, I really didn't agree with what was behind all of that because that was, that was a whole, that's a whole discussion for another day. But I got out of that. And then because I was doing all the PR and marketing for all of our companies, like my ex husband and I, we had like 48 different companies at one time and we were really busy, really, really busy and it was really fun. I had three kids, I was raising at the time and it was, it was kind of hectic, you know. But then we got divorced and that's when I started my biomass company. My first contract was for $10 million, which was kind of amazing. I was flabbergasted. But that was cool. And after I got out of that, then I was really, I got into a lot of real estate because my ex husband and I were big time developers. We, we had, we were doing 400 custom homes a year and we were, we were all over the country doing development. And so when I, after I divorced him, I started doing real estate on my own and built up a little real estate portfolio. But it wasn't fulfilling to me. Like all of this stuff, I was doing stuff and it was fun and exciting and we were expanding and all of that stuff. But my, my soul really lies in helping people because I've done a lot of human rights work. Like I used to work in the prisons in Mexico where we, we rehabilitated over 6,000 hardened criminals. We took them, they were addicted to crack, meth, heroin, you know, you name it, they were, they were addicted to it. And we rehabilitated over 6,000 inmates, got them off drugs, taught them how to read, detox them, brought them through, you know, life improvement courses. And stuff like that. We reduced the recidivism rate from 89% down to less than 2%, and we reduced the crime rate by 55% down there. Then we expanded that to a few other prisons. So I was working with these, you know, murderers, gun runners, drug runners, that sort of thing. Thing. And then after I came back from doing that, I. There was a lot of gang violence that was going on in my city. And I saw, you know what, I got to do something about that. So I put on this big, huge conference. And I flew a friend of mine in who grew up next door to Tookie Williams, who started. I can't remember if he started the Crips or the Bloods, but he grew up next door to him. And he flew in with me, and he and I went on this. This tour to just handle the gang violence. And so we put on this big symposium, and we brought together 114 different groups, and to stop the violence, we started the largest Stop the Violence coalition this side of the Mississippi. And then my friend had to fly back to la, and at one of our discussions, there was this guy sitting in the back. He had the teardrops down his face, and he was sitting there like this in the back of the room. And my friend says, watch him. He's the real deal. So every week for a year, might have even been a year and a half, I took him out for coffee. The first six months, he was just sitting there, you know, with his arms crossed, looking at me. Didn't even talk to me. But I bought him coffee and, you know, spent some time with him. After about six months, he started opening up to me. And then I found out that he was the head of the gang that was doing all the gang violence. And I was taking him out to lunch, and so I said, hey, you know, let's do something about it. He goes, actually, to be honest with you, Ms. Teresa, he was so nice. Really. He said, I really want to. And I said, okay. So I taught him how to study. And when he learned how to study, he was a different man. And then he brought me to. He brought this other guy to me who was really like, you know, this gang banger dude. And he brings him to me, and the gang banger dude is like, you know, why the hell I gotta listen to this over here, right? And. And he goes, listen to her. And he's like, I don't want to listen. And so I push him up against the wall. And I'm like, listen, you little. I go, talk to me. Like that. And, and Louis, I, I said worse, but I'm not going to say that. And, and he's just looking over it and he looks over at Luis and he goes. And Luis goes, listen to her, she's the real deal. So, so got him on a study course on how to study. And they made a truce and we stopped all the gang violence in the city. So that was truly amazing. And then Luis and I went to the mayor and told the story to the mayor and got the mayor to donate the crack houses to us in the city. And we took the gang bangers and taught them building trades. And in each of these crack houses, we renovated the crack houses. And then at the end of each house, one of the gang bangers would be gang bangers got a house for themselves. So we were getting these kids out of the gangs off drugs and rehabilitating the city at the same time. It was amazing. So that for me was really like what I like to do. And after I did that, I was searching for something else. You know what I have to do something that's impactful in the world, which led me to what I'm doing now, which is this oxygen company that is healing people like crazy.