Blaze Your Own Trail - Surrender to Rise with Elena Rodriguez

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

In this episode of the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast, host Jordan Mendoza interviews Elena Rodriguez, an entrepreneur and coach who shares her inspiring journey from a challenging childhood to building successful businesses. Elena discusses her early life, family dynamics, and the impact of her parents' entrepreneurial spirit. She reflects on her struggles with identity, relationships, and personal loss, emphasizing the importance of resilience and faith. Elena also shares valuable insights on entrepreneurship, coaching, and the power of community, culminating in her current projects, including the Surrender to Rise initiative and Prospera TV Network.TakeawaysElena's journey is marked by resilience and faith.She faced cultural challenges growing up as a minority.Family dynamics played a significant role in her life choices.Elena chose to prioritize family over success at times.Her entrepreneurial spirit was influenced by her parents.Running a fitness studio taught her valuable business lessons.Coaching became a natural next step in her career.Personal tragedy led to a deeper understanding of strength.Elena emphasizes the importance of community and support.Her projects aim to empower others through shared stories.Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Elena Rodriguez01:10 Elena's Early Life and Cultural Background05:11 Navigating Family Dynamics and Personal Struggles09:14 Transitioning into Adulthood and Relationships13:35 Entrepreneurial Journey Begins17:28 Lessons from Running a Fitness Studio20:35 Entering the Coaching Space22:45 Overcoming Personal Tragedy and Building Resilience27:51 Finding Strength Through Faith33:09 Advice for Overcoming Hard Times37:22 Surrender to Rise: Events and Community BuildingConnect with Elena: https://popl.co/profile/D9O3aawC/dashWork with Elena: https://prosperatvnetwork.com/Connect with Jordan:LinkedInInstagramTikTokOrder a copy of Jordan's new book The Life-Changing Power of AdversityThe Blaze Your Own Trail Podcast is exclusively sponsored by CityGate Studios     Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host and I'm joined by a very special guest today. Her name is Elena Rodriguez. And I'm going to have her tell you a little bit about who she is and what she does today. Hello. Thank you for having me. Yes, I am based out of Indiana.

So there is more than corn in Indiana. I am an entrepreneur. I have Show Your Crown Enterprises and it did not come easy. So let's just say show your crown enterprises is here because God put me through some tough education and now we're here to change the world with it all. Love it. And we're going to dive into more about what that exactly means a little bit later into the episode. But my favorite part of the show, Elena, is really taking a rewind and getting deep context into my guest story and their journey. So where were you born and raised? And let's talk a little bit about the adolescent years, elementary middle to high school. What type of kid were you? What type of things did he get into? Were you more into academics? Were you into sports? What type of kid were you? I'd love for you just to give some context. Yeah, I was born right here in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I have an older sister. So it was just the two of us. And my parents were very successful entrepreneurs. And so growing up, I was always at my grandmother's house. She babysat for me. So I grew up learning only Spanish. And speaking,

only Spanish as my parents became more successful, they wanted to move me and my sister to an area where they felt we would have better education options, a safer environment, just an opportunity to really step into new space. And, you know, I see where they were coming from. That was a great decision, but it actually positioned me and my sister in a place where everywhere we looked, no one was like us. All right? And so what I mean by that is by the time I went to kindergarten, I really spoke only Spanish and I was the only minority in my school. Everyone was white. Like everyone. I was, I was the only minority. And so trying to learn English in kindergarten, you know, I remember that. I still remember that. And, and,

The community was so small that by the time I graduated, it was with the same students I went to kindergarten with. And there were only 186 kids in my graduating class. And yet I was still the only minority. And so I felt really conflicted because on the weekends, I would still get dropped off at my grandmas to, you know, be babysat and we'd go to the baile and I'm seeing my cousin's drink and party and all the things going on, and then I would go back to school, and I'm like, Pompom-Pom Captain, student council president. And it was just really tough. But my parents became very successful, very early.

And so I grew up not really wanting or lacking anything. I went to kindergarten in a mink coat because my dad's love language was material things. And all I wanted was that plastic fluffy coat that all my friends had. And so I always just felt odd, not for any really doing of my own, but just who my parents were, where they had us. My dad was an alcoholic. And so when he would come around, he would bring gifts and then we wouldn't see him. And there was money everywhere. So I grew up very early, you know, one of my first meals that I remember ordering for myself was a filet mignon.

And, you know, I'm in first grade. You know, everyone's wanting pizza and cheeseburgers. And so I just was always really odd. And at eight years old, my parents did divorce. My dad left. And I was a daddy's girl. And he left. And when he left, the business fell apart.

And my mom ended up working like three jobs. We had no money. So I went from one extreme to the next. and no one really talked about it. You know, no one really shared anything. And so it's amazing looking back that I kind of grew up thinking money and success broke families apart. I didn't realize so much that my dad was an alcoholic and that there was affairs in there and all that kind of stuff. I didn't see that at eight years old, but I just knew that money was there and then money was gone.

And I just always thought that work, success, business, it equated to losing or, you know, your family falling apart. So for a long time, I hid from success without realizing that that's what I was doing because I would rather have been poor and keep my family together than successful and have it fall apart. And, you know, growing up, I was very smart in high school. I put pressure on myself to do the A's and B's. And really no one was ever around, though. Once my dad left, my mom remarried, but no one was ever around. No one was putting pressure on me, but it was something that I just did to myself. But yet when I would go to my grandmas on the weekends, I was starting to drink.

I was partying. I was hanging out with my older cousins. And I was just really conflicted. And it was like no one cared. No one saw where I was or what I was doing. So one of the weekends were at a Mexican dance and the band that was playing, one of the guys was a young bass player. I was 14 getting ready to have my kintanietta. And he was in another state.

I lived in Indiana and he lived in Illinois, but they were there because he was playing for the dance. I don't know. We became boyfriend and girlfriend somehow. And he ended up standing up with me in my Quintaneda, but I dated him long distance through high school. We wrote letters. We weren't even old enough to have our driver's license yet. But let me tell you that the moment I got my driver's license,

I was like high-tailing it a three-hour drive. And he was very poor. Okay. He was a Hispanic family. They were in this Mexican band, and he was very poor. And I loved being with them all because there was. a family there. There were cousins that ate together. They played basketball in the backyard. And when I went home, I was by myself. So I actually ran away from home. My senior year of high school,

I was Pompom-Pomp Captain, homecoming court, had all these opportunities in front of me. But I had just had it. I ran away. I threw my bag out in my bedroom window and literally like drove my car and went to Illinois. And my mom at the time ended up calling my dad at that time he lived in Arizona and and she just said let her go just let let her be let her find her way so I lived with that family I lived with them and we were together for like gosh well into our 20s and then he got another girl pregnant so so let's just say that that I have gone from riches to putting pots and pans down when the rain out you know outside was falling in our bedroom and to be here today is like pretty amazing but I chose to run away from success in order

to choose a family and I and I never thought that they could exist in the same space. Sure sure. I appreciate you sharing the context and you have a unique perspective. Some people only see one side. They don't get to see both sides of the coin. So I'm sure that that continues to add value to the things that you're doing, the way that you serve your clients, the way that you help people, because you can relate on both ends. You know, you know that there can be abundance. And then you also know that think times can be tough, you know, and when you can have both of those lenses to be able to look through, it becomes really, really powerful. And so I'd love to see. So now here you are in your 20s, right? Your longstanding relationship. You left everything that you knew so that you could be

closer to community, even if that meant living under your means. And so what do you do next, right? You're in your 20s. Do you start working? Do you go back home? Like I'd love to just know what was the next choice that you made in your process of growing and becoming who you are today. Yeah. So, so when I went to live there, it was the start of my senior year. And I enrolled myself in the high school there. And to graduate from that high school, I needed one additional PE credit, like in gym class. And the way that the schedule ran, I was going to have to go to summer school to get that PE credit, where at home, I already had all my credits, you know. So I did come back home for the second semester so that I could just graduate. I thought, let me just graduate and get the heck

back out of here. And really at that time, all my, my mother had remarried by then. So I had a stepdad. And at that time, all they, all they said was just graduate. You know, just graduate. I'm very hardheaded. I'm, I'm very, when I set my mind to something, you're not going to change it very easily. So they knew that I was probably going to go right back to Illinois. But they said, just graduate. Get your diploma. And so I came back, did the walk through, got my, got my diploma. And then I did. go back and got one of the best jobs in the little tiny town that is there and just worked, just worked and supported him. Of course, at that time, it was like all of their dream to have this big Mexican band

and hit a big like Selena, you know, and things like that. So I kind of just enjoyed traveling everywhere they played. But as we started growing, it became evident that, okay, I'm the one working here. What's going to happen? And we kind of decided like either you're going to come to where I live in Indiana and try to establish some sort of a security foundation or we just kind of have to figure out like what's next. So in that, there was little breakups back and forth, breakups. And I just had some really good opportunities where I grew up. I started working for a CPA firm.

I thought I wanted to become a CPA. And so in one of those kind of like moments of breaking up, that that is when he got someone else pregnant. And it really did break my heart. You feel like you're with somebody from the time you're 14. And I thought we were going to spend our lives together. So that cut very deep. But what I realize now is part of the pain of that relationship falling apart was that I was losing his whole family. And I didn't really have anyone.

I say that again. My sister's seven years older than me. So she was already off married doing her own thing. And I realized now that I was losing everyone. I was losing his sister, his brothers, his mom, his dad that had taken me in. So that was really difficult. So for several years, I kind of just coasted. I was lost.

I did the work thing, lived on my own. I drank a lot, didn't make really good choices. I just was kind of lost. I would look in the mirror and not be very happy with. who was looking back, but really didn't care. I thought, well, if I'm paying my bills and no one, no one's really around, this is going to be as good as it gets. And it's really sad to look back and think, like, man, that's where I was for a good chunk

of my days. And then I ended up meeting somebody who ended up becoming my husband. And we had two kids. We were together 16 years. But, yeah, that was a pretty dark time. Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds tough.

I mean, you build very tight-knit, close relationships. over a long period of time. Yeah, anybody's going to feel there's a loss there, you know. And then you give the circumstances of how the separation happened, which is now there's going to be another person's involved that, yeah, I could see how that could cut really, really deep. So, so now, and then you remarry, you get married later and you have some kids. And, and, and so while that process was happening 16 years of your life, what did you do for work? Were you working? Did you have a business? Did entrepreneurship come down the road later after that relationship? I'd love to just know how everything panned out.

Yeah, I've always been surrounded by entrepreneurship. So even when my mom remarried, they opened another business. Like they had another business and they were in the restaurant, restaurant kind of bar business. And so I started working there. And, you know, by now I'm in my 20s and I ended up managing the bar. And, you know, they knew that they could trust me and I had no problem running things. So I was doing that for several years, especially like when me and my husband, we were dating, right? We were still just dating and he was loving it because it's like everybody thinks owning a bar and a restaurant is like so much fun.

And you walk in and it's like cheers where everybody's like, Norm, hey, come on in. And so he was loving it. And we had a good time. Have live entertainment and you get to know people and, you know, things closed down. and you have that after hours where you just hang out. And so, yeah, it was a really good time. But I knew, like, if we're going to get married and we want to start a family, I knew what it felt like growing up in that environment.

I knew what it felt like having parents that were never home because they were out drinking. And, you know, we could never go to dinner and just have family dinner because someone would always see us. And then they'd want to talk to my dad. And then, you know, it's like, it's not like we were celebrities, but when you're that successful, yeah, people want to be around you. They feel like important. And then my dad was always a type that's like, hey, let me, let me take care of your meal or let me buy you, let me buy you around.

So, yeah, everybody wanted to be around Johnny. And I just remembered that. And so I remember telling, you know, my husband that if we're going to have kids, I can't be in this industry. We can't do it. I won't do that. And so I decided to leave and my parents quickly sold the business once I left. They were older and I think they realized I was really running it and they just decided it was time to sell. So we get married and I have my first child and I think I'm going to be this like stay at home mom.

And that didn't work well for me. By the time my son was one, I weighed more than when I went in to deliver him. Staying at home just, it just didn't work for me. So I remember going and taking a fitness class and I knew that I could take him into the child care room and it only lasted an hour and it was so fun and I started feeling really good. And that entrepreneur side of me perked up again and said, you could get paid for teaching class. You know, get your work. Don't don't pay for classes. Get certified and get paid to teach classes. And so that's what I did. I actually licensed, became a fitness instructor. And then I taught at a studio for a little while, but the owner wasn't really doing a whole lot with it. And so I said, let me take over. Let me, let me run this. And so before you know it, I'm the owner of the fitness studio. She's teaching for me. And I actually ran a fitness studio 14 years. And wow, that's a lot of years for sure. Yeah, that entrepreneur side, just when it's in you, it's in you. So I owned a brick and mortar building and had nine associates. I ended up

traveling the United States to evaluate other instructors and their facilities. And then all of a sudden, it just seemed like planet fitness, anytime fitness, max fitness. So what like all these big franchises were like growing all around me. And I just couldn't compete. You know, I didn't have a 24 hour model and we didn't have equipment. It was like physical teaching. So At that time, I was approaching 40, and I thought, okay, maybe it's just time to wrap her up. But then it was like, but now, what do I do? I've never worked for anybody. I never had an actual job. So that was interesting. From that moment forward, it's like, what do I do here? And yeah. So I'd love to find out, and I think this would be helpful for our listeners, what lessons did you gain in business in that 14 years of running a fitness studio that's,

still apply to the businesses that you're involved in today? It's very simple. I run by a model that's three sections only, and it's ACR. You've got your accumulation, your conversion, and your retention. And it took me a long time. I kind of overcomplicated stepping into my new business space of the coaching speaking, author, you know, all the things. I overcomplicated it because I thought it had to be very different.

And it's really not. It took me a while to connect the dots and be like, just go back to your old school, what you did for 14 years. It worked for you. And you're constantly in a state of accumulation. You've got to get in front of people. You've got to meet people. You've got to bring people in. You're constantly accumulating. And we would call that like your lead gens and all those things up front. But you're constantly accumulating. But then how are you converting them? You know, how are you converting them into trusting relationships? That's the way, you know, I look at it. How are you? are you converting them? And then how do you retain them? How do you keep them? So really it's just simple. And I think we overcomplicate it. And I just learned to bring that model from having a successful fitness studio for 14 years into my business today. Love it. Love it. I love that model. And I use a similar one, which is, you know, attract, nurture, nurture and convert, right? You got to attract people. You got to nurture that relationship and then convert, right? And then I think the other one is treat people well, you know,

if you treat people well and you add value and you're integrists, then they're going to continue to go to bat for you. They're going to bring other people into your ecosystem. And so let's kind of shift to what you're doing today because, you know, you have a lot of different things that you've, you know, tried all of them in the entrepreneurship realm, but today you're doing something in a vertical that's completely different than those. And so I love, that's what I love about entrepreneurship. It's like once you have the systems, the processes, and the framework, you can kind of insert into anything that you're doing to your point and have success. And so let's talk a little bit about, and which one did you start first? Did you start coaching before you wrote your first book?

Did you write a book first and then start coaching? And then you also have the TV networks. There's so many different lanes and pieces to the puzzle. And I'd love to find out which one landed on the board first. My first one was I became a coach. I licensed through John Maxwell back in 2017. Once I had closed my fitness studio. I really had never worked for anyone. So I took an entry, I'm 40 years old, right? I take an entry level in a hospital system in the scheduling department. So I'm just wearing a headset scheduling appointments. It wasn't even full time, didn't even offer benefits, like none of that. But I thought, let me just start somewhere. Well, within 12 weeks, I actually was promoted to a leader over the whole training team and reported to two directors.

So when you learn skills, you take skills with you wherever you go. I remember everybody thinking I was nuts for applying for that promotion when I had just started, but I got it. And so I did that for four years, but within that four years, I wanted to grow and expand myself. And so I'm a fan of John Maxwell. And when I discovered I could license through that and go into the coach. coaching space, that's, that's what I did. But I quickly learned that I still had to be unique and do things my way. So coaching was like that first step that I took and I went into developing workshops and retreats. And I worked mostly with women. I decided to leave my job, that corporate leadership

position because I believed in myself that much. And at that time, you know, my husband owned his own business also at that time. So it was agreed that he would kind of just support things for the first year while I got this, you know, up and going. Well, eight weeks after I left my job, he had a heart attack and he ended up passing on Christmas Eve. Sorry for your loss. Thank you. That was Christmas Eve 2018. So many things transpired throughout like throughout after his passing. But one of the things, my very first official business, let's put it that way, came from creating a lead magnet. I looked at it as a lead magnet because, again, I worked with women and I really believed in confidence and self-esteem, but I knew that you have to bring women together. You have to get them

in intimate settings in order to establish those relationships. And lipstick has always been my thing. And so I actually just created a lipstick line. And again, people thought you're nuts. Like, what are you doing? But to me, I love ideas that seem like out the gate. Like, it's like, how would you even do that? But to me, I knew if I can, if I can sell 50 lipsticks and they all sold, but then I thought the gauge of success is would they come back for more? And they did.

And so then I started having little home parties. And then I would feed those women into the retreats or the coaching programs. So I've had that business now for four years, and now I'm actually teaching other women how to use it as a lead magnet in their own business as well. But that was like, I want to say outside of coaching, it was my first creative launch to do something very unique in order to grow my coaching business. And I just created a cosmetics company. Love it. Yeah. And then you give people the opportunity for ascension, right, through the retreats or through different things. And as long as they're part of your ecosystem, right? That's the whole point is you need to get them in.

It's somehow, right? That's the point of a lead magnet. For those of you listening and you haven't heard that terminology, it's essentially, and I like to look at it almost like a lost leader in some cases, right, where it's not about being the most profitable, but it is about building relationships and getting people bought into you. Because once they're bought into you, it doesn't matter if you launch a book, if you launch a TV show, if you launch a podcast.

guess what, they're bought into you. So talk a little bit about that and how that's played a significant role in the other endeavors. And what was the next thing that you decided? Well, it sounds like the retreats were kind of next. So outside of retreats, what did you end up adding to the arsenal next? Well, the thing is, is after my husband passed on Christmas Eve, throughout the year, I discovered that I was basically married to a stranger. It's one of those where there's a life that is being lived and you know nothing.

about it. So a lot of the work that I do today came from having to rebuild myself. I did lose all my money. I discovered a five-year affair nine months after he died. I lost my home. I had cars repossessed in the middle of the night. I mean, it was a horrible time, but I still wrote a book. I still wrote a book. It was called Broken Stronger. And it was about how to break free and step into entrepreneurship. worship. So I still wrote a book. I still held true to, I got this. I can do this. But I was, I was crumbling inside. I was actually becoming broken stronger. And that's the main reason for the lipstick. I needed women in my life. I needed color. I needed community. But so beyond that, then the book came out, but we were in the COVID shutdown, like the pandemic. So my book launch, I had to open my books in my house and couldn't have anybody even come around. So that kind of flopped. I mean, we were stuck indoors for quite a while. So I just had to get creative.

And I ended up doing a lot of online workshops and trainings and group things. And so I built my coaching practice virtually and ended up with clients from around the globe. So I'm very comfortable in the virtual space and I've used it for my benefit. Today, for example, today we have what I call is our, Christmas in July 24-hour live stream-a-thon. And it came from me becoming widowed on Christmas Eve. And it's simply to just pour hope and love and joy out in the world, but we bring guests on from around the globe.

And I stay live for 24 hours. And it's amazing. So, you know, all the little things that you piece together, when you keep that focus on the people and how it can serve and make this world a better place, The options are limitless, for real. Love it. Love it. And I've got a question.

I think I probably know the answer to you, but I'd love to get your take on it. You know, broken stronger. You know, where does your hope come from? You know, where does that tenacity and the fact that it doesn't matter, you know, if my cars are being repossessed, I lost my home, all these setbacks, right? And you still remain positive. You still have joy. It seems like you have peace.

You have calmness. So where does that come from for you? For me, it's my job. G-O-D. Okay. My God, I call him my G-O-D. He's my grand overall designer and just my level of faith. And I have to say that my faith, thank goodness I was dropped off at my grandma's from the time I was a little child because, man, you know, as much as she partied and she loved to dance and my grandma, she drank, she smoked, like all these things. But no matter how late we were out, we were up for church on Sunday. And just her faith, her faith was beautiful. And she had. had a lot of loss. She lost two sons. She lost her husband and she had 12 girls left to raise. My mom has 11 sisters. So I was just very close with my grandma. And so my level of faith was always,

it was always there. I really feel like I was always that calm child. I was always more wise than I needed to be. It just came naturally to me. So I always feel like God was always speaking to me before I understood that that's what it was or who it was. So God had showed himself to me before my husband died. God's the one that gave me the title, Broken Stronger. Because I don't know if anybody's listening or even if people have the faith if they're listening, but I actually told God when he said, you're going to write a book. I'm like, I don't even like to read. So, and I didn't. At the time, I was like, I don't have the patience to just sit and read. a book. So I really told God, I think you got the wrong person on this one. And it makes me chuckle

today because it's like, you ever tell God, do you think he made a mistake? And so one night, I'm brushing my teeth. I had just had neck surgery and I was literally silenced. That's when he started telling me, you're going to write a book. And I kept putting it off and I kept putting it off. And that night he said, you will write a book. It will be called Broken Stronger. And I just paused. I heard it clear as can be. And in that moment in the bathroom with like toothpaste running down my arm, I was able to see like a movie trailer, all these little flashes of pain that I had gone through clear back from a little girl,

clear back from my dad leaving, running away from home, you know, just all this death and just all these things. And God, he swooped it up. Like he let me see it and I was able to see my strength. So I'm like bawling. All this is happening in like a split second problem. but it felt like it was going on forever. And I was able to see my own strength, but then he actually just like took all that pain away. He showed me what he could do. He showed me the healing that he

could do. And what I realize now is he was creating space for what was ahead, because my husband's heart attack was ahead. Losing everything was ahead. Discovering the affair. Like all of that was in front me, but I was able to get through it because God already showed me what he could do. Didn't, it didn't fear it? Did it feel good? Absolutely not. Did I feel like Rocky in the ring just getting the crap beat out of me? Every time I feel like I'd stand up, boom, there was another blow. Something else was happening, but I just knew, God, I don't understand this right now. I don't, I don't like it right now, but I trust that in time you will show me what this is. is all four. And that's why we have Show Your Crown Enterprises today.

Love it. Appreciate the context and giving us that access. And I've seen God do so many miracles, you know, in my world. And so I'm a big believer that he always puts us through the things that are needed for us to experience so that we can live the mission that he's called us to do. And that's why I wrote the book called The Life-Changing Power of Adversity, how to overcome struggles, unlock your potential, and blaze your own trials as success, because I believe that there's power in adversity, and I know that you understand that all too well.

So let's talk a little bit about, you know, what occurred next. So you write the book, COVID happens, you don't even get to have the launch that you want, right? Another adversity, another setback. Some people could look at that and it could crush them, but of course, because you're broken stronger, not weaker, you keep going. So what did you do next after the book launch?

I know you start coaching people from all around the world. And I know that you're doing some incredible things today that I want to get into. But before we get into those, you know, you have built multiple businesses. You know, you've combed from rock bottom and come to the top. There's a lot of listeners that they're either on rock bottom right now, okay, and don't want to admit it. They might be facing it next week or next month or next year. And then there's people that are having wild success because of the setbacks that they've experienced. So I'd love for you to give, you know, What are your top three tips for somebody that might be experiencing some really, really hard times, like times that they don't like that they're going through it and they don't want to get up and have to face it the next day?

What three pieces of advice would you give to that listener today? Well, the first one of this came from God at a time. This was right after discovering the affair. I went into a really, really dark hole, okay? And he said, and I share this, stop wasting your precious. time asking questions, you know you will never receive answers to. So to me, what that means is many of us are in situations that we want to know or we want to go back and ask or we're spending all this time trying to find out or figure out. And really, that energy, those minutes can be spent

focusing on what you can do forward. So my first thing is stop wasting your precious time, asking questions that you know you will never receive answers to. The other one for me was, what's the worst thing that can happen? Worst case scenario. And so when I was literally watching everything like fall apart, I asked myself, like, what are you afraid of and what's the worst thing that can happen? For me, the worst thing that could happen was losing my home. And I remember calling my mom and saying, if something like this should happen, can me

and my two sons move in with you. And she's like, absolutely. I mean, we're very close, but I wasn't going to just assume I could move me in my older sons. And so I had that conversation. It was excruciating. But you know what? I did lose the home. But I had already planned for my worst case scenario. And my worst case scenario wasn't that bad. I got through it. So I think sometimes we fear things because we don't know, like that unknown is very serious. scary. But if you can look at what is the worst possible outcome here? From your perception, what is the worst thing that you think that could happen? And let's say that it does. How would you handle it? And when you realize that you do, you can create a solution. It's not, you don't have to be as

fearful. And that allows you to breathe a little bit easier in this moment. So that, so that worked for me. And the last one that I would say is I truly feel that the power and the strength comes to you in that moment of surrender. Seeing death, I always talk about that you can be here for breakfast, but you can be gone by lunch. And so when people always say you're not promised tomorrow, it's like you're not promised your next minute. So when you realize that if you don't even have control over when you're going to take your last breath, how much control? do we really have over any of this? And so that moment of surrender, that moment of saying, God, okay, I trust that what you're doing here, I just got to roll with it right now. Again, I don't like it. But the moment that you release that, then that is the moment true power does

become yours because it's coming through God. You're just the vessel. You're just the vessel for him to carry you through. And I think those three things for me at the forefront every day, what the situation, they really helped me keep my strength no matter what. I love it. Yeah, great, advice and tips. And what I basically got out of that is we need to take the pressure off ourselves. You know, we don't need to know it all. We don't need to have it all. We just need to surrender. And so talked a little bit about your events. So I know you do an event. I believe it's called surrender to rise. If I remember correctly, and then you've also have an amazing TV network. So talk a little bit about those two assets that you've

created and how they can add value to people listening. And if you've got an event coming up, I'd love to know about it. And we're, of course, at the end, going to plug all your information. Thank you. Yes. So Surrender to Rise. That actually started as a book that came into my mind. And then I thought, it's a chapter book now. I thought I want to help other people share their surrender stories. We need to share more proof that there is power in the surrender and be that example because when people are feeling low and when people are feeling down, they do feel alone and they feel like something's wrong with them. Like how did they get here? And I thought, we need to show that we're all hot messes and we all have problems and we all have been through it. But there's a beauty in that power of surrender.

So surrender to rise started just as a book that I brought in a couple other ones. women and I call us our comeback queens. I'm like known as the comeback queen. And so, you know, I talked about this book featuring other comeback queens. And then I had a gentleman say, you know, there are comeback kings too. And that just like paused me, right? So, so with the book Surrender to Rise, so then I started interviewing men. Like, would you share your story? How would you feel about coming under a book that is like, you know, put together by me, but it's featuring stories of just men. And we ran into two things.

Ego and vulnerability. They felt would be very difficult to share true stories. But you know what I found is that the men that had gone through the surrender? That wasn't an issue for them. They had already gone through that so they were ready to share their story.

So surrender to rise, we now have a King's edition. It's incredible stories of these men coming back from prison, coming back from drugs, Like so many surrender stories. But then because that was building such a community, we now have Surrender to Rise Live, which is a live event. We had one this past May.

The next one is September of 2026 in Arlington, Texas. And we're talking massive transformation and healing taking place. So I'm really excited for that. But that's how the book series started. And as I'm always looking to help people in small. business. That's my sweet spot. I know how hard it is to get started in entrepreneurship. I know how lonely it can be, especially when you're doing things that the people closest to you might not understand. So I love helping people in small business, but I also know you've got to get seen.

You've got to get clear on your message and you've got to get in front of new people so they know who you are. They know what you're doing. And that is why we have the Prospera TV network today. I did not set out to create a faith-based streaming channel. We're on Roku in 17 countries, but you know what? That's what God's done. And so that's what I'm doing here. Love it. Love it. Well, I know the events are creating so much impact. The books are creating impact. And now you're giving people the opportunity to essentially be the media for the greater good. And so I love all the things that you're building. You are a true trailblazer, my friend. And that's why you were invited to come on the blaze your own Trail podcast. So tell the great listeners out there where you want them to go find you.

A show your crown.com. Everything. That's the hub. I mean, we've got Prospera TV Network, Surrender to Rise. We have all these things. But if you go to show your crown.com, you'll be able to find everything from there and you'll be able to contact and reach me from there as well. Love it. Well, hey, I appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to come on the show. I know our listeners are going to get so much value. Folks, if you're struggling today, just know that there is success on the other side of that, but it might just take you having to surrender to rise. Thank you so much, Elena, for coming on the show.

I hope you enjoyed your time as much as I did, and I cannot wait for our listeners to hear this. Thank you, Jordan. Thank you for having me. My pleasure.