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Serial entrepreneur, Sharmeeka Brooks, popularly known as Bawse Lady is a woman who’s journey to success was no easy path. With struggles came lessons and those lessons ultimately became the reason as to why she is so powerful today. We recently had the chance to sit down with the Bawse Lady to discuss her experiences along the way, an exciting new book, and much more!

Tell us about your book, Tell All Transformation Book.

My Tell All Transformation Book is really about everything that I’ve been through in my life from being of Jamaican descent, watching my mom come to America and work three jobs. She wasn’t able to be a parent to me. While she was working those jobs, she struggled so much. I had to personally get a job at the age of 14, so I had to grow up faster than most people. I took on a lot going to high school, having to work, having to decide what to do and what not to do, and it led me to become a teenage parent. I had my first child at 18. I struggled with her. At that moment, I became depressed, suicidal, and hated my life. I had so many skin imperfections, was overweight, and the self-esteem/confidence was so low. I felt like I couldn’t accomplish anything in this world. When we moved to Miami, the struggle continued. At the age of 31, I was fired [and blindsided] from my job of ten years. I had nothing. I worked to struggle. At one point in time, I had to make a decision. Did I want to pay my mortgage or my car note? I couldn’t afford to pay both. I made the decision to pay my car note because I felt like I had a little more time to figure things out. My car seat and car broke, and I couldn’t afford that, so I had to put bench in my car to ride to work. It was so unstable. I had to endure so many things in life to become the entrepreneur I am today. I started that at the age of 31. It was hard as well. It was all a test to lead to that testimony. I wholeheartedly believe that God put me through all of those things because so many people just look to me for that hope and inspiration. I’m open about my downfalls and failures. It has helped people mentally. In that book, it’s about understanding that falling down is really a part of the process. If you don’t fall, you’ll never know how to stand tall. It’s going to change so many lives.

How do you juggle life as a serial entrepreneur, author, motivational speaker, and more?

To keep myself sane, I get up and read my Bible. I actually just went on a three-week spiritual fast from everything. No social media or I didn’t work on any business. I fasted until 9pm, read my Bible, and prayed all day to get some type of clarity. On a day to day, I get up at 7am, read my Bible, and walk to my glass door, look at the sky and converse with God. I like to say converse rather than praying because when you’re praying, it’s like you’re asking for something. Nonetheless, however people pray to communicate with him, we definitely have a conversation. That helps me mellow out. I go an exercise to get my body going. That’s how I keep myself balanced. I felt like I wasn’t balanced so that’s why I took the three-week break to get more closer to God. It changed everything. I was a brand new individual. In 21 days, you form a habit. Those 21 days changed everything for me.

What inspired the creation of Foundation to Elevation?

When I first joined Instagram in 2012, I looked at everyone on there. I was watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Beyoncé, I was seeing all the amazing women. I followed so many of the socialites and thought, ‘Wow. I look up to them and I want to be like them.’ When I first got on social media, that was my goal. When I became an entrepreneur in 2013, I didn’t make that much but in 2014, I made seven figures. I found myself in January 2015 when I was doing my taxes that I was dead broke. I spent my money on stuff I thought that would make me a socialite. Clothes, jewelry, all these things, I spent it all. In 2015, I made the decision that I didn’t want to go back to that life. I asked God to help me not go back to being broke. At that moment, I had a taste of both sides of the playing field. I wanted to live a much better lifestyle monetarily, but this time around, I wanted to make sure I kept God first. In 2015, I started telling my truth on Instagram because I was telling lies. Times prior to that, I kept empty shopping bags and post them on social media, just living a whole life full of catfish, basically. I made that decision in 2015 to tell my truth. In 2017, so many people were in my DMs asking to be taught to grow or start their business. I decided to rent a room and tell everyone at that one time. My patience was very thin at that time. A DM is not a place where you can conduct that type of business to really change. The answers are short, I’m trying to multitask, doing a million things. That’s how Foundation to Elevation started. One of the things that I decided to do also when I did my seminars was to make sure that I’m giving back to the community in some sort of way. I wouldn’t take money, I wanted to monopolize on the people that came so that they would have an audience to showcase their merchandise so that people can make money. Ever since there, Foundation to Elevation has been growing! What I have coming is going to be mind blowing.

What are you currently working on and what can we expect to see from you in the future?

In the rest of 2021, I’m working on opening a restaurant. I’m looking into becoming a real estate mogul by having quads, triplexes, and getting into units. For Foundation to Elevation, I just released by first e-book [on July 22nd]. I’m going to have financial planners that will be doing a world tour with my seminars. I’m also going to have webinars. It’s really about uplifting the community, women, and teenagers so that they can have a real place to come for authentic information that will equip them throughout their life. People need real information so that they can grow. I incorporate a lot of credit information because I went from 500 to 775 all on my own, without going to a credit repair company. If you can give that information to a mother, an aunt, or uncle, it’s better to teach them the importance of credit and how to fix their own credit so that they can teach it to their children to build up their bloodline. I’m also in network marketing. There’s this amazing company called Total Life Changes, I do coaching there. My goal is to assist them to help them grow spiritually, mentally, and physically. Within Total Life Changes, I was the only person ever in network marketing to be a business owner, step into the field. In my first year of doing it, I earned $2.5 million. My goal is to duplicate that and help someone else be able to meet that same goal through Foundation to Elevation. Everything that I know is what I teach in Foundation to Elevation. I took that information and applied it to the network marketing part.

For more on Bawse Lady, click here.

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Click here for more on Foundation to Elevation.

 

 

Featured Image by James Odell