The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex - She Protected Lives—Now She’s Changing Them with Business: Special Interview w/ Nadia Clark

Episode Date: April 5, 2025

From the Streets of Oakland to Serial Entrepreneur: The Raw Journey of Nadia ClarkIn this gripping episode of The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex, we sit down with Nadia Clark—a U.S. Army veteran, former Oakland Police sergeant, and now a serial entrepreneur and published author. 🎙️Nadia shares her incredible transformation: from surviving shootouts and witnessing the dark underbelly of human trafficking to rediscovering her identity, healing from trauma, and building her own business empire. 💥💡 Key Takeaways:Life lessons from law enforcement and military serviceCoping with PTSD and healing through self-awarenessHow Nadia turned pain into purpose through entrepreneurshipReal talk on human trafficking, mental health, and resilienceWhy mindset is everything when starting a businessThis episode is raw, real, and transformational. Don’t miss it.📕 Grab Nadia’s book "Things I Think About and Other Works" — a deeply personal look into her life experiences.NADIA: https://www.instagram.com/nadiaramelle/👇 Leave a 5⭐ review & share this with someone who needs to hear it.

I was almost murdered on duty in 2016. A young man came on my passenger side of my vehicle, holding a Glock with an extended mag and started firing at me while I'm stuck in my vehicle. My seatbelt had locked in place during the collision, so I couldn't even feel it. I just know I got hit, I couldn't move. Now there's a gun at my only escape.

And there's this man standing there, and we're staring at each other. We're not that far from how we're sitting right now. And I could see his eyes, and it wasn't as if he was angry, happy, sad. It was like just void like something just wasn't there. Hey guys and welcome back to the level of podcast. My name is Paul Alex and I'm here with another guest guys. Now you know these interviews have been crazy guys. Thank you first off for making us the top 10 business podcast in the United States currently.

Guys we are trying to get to the number one spot. Okay. So if you want somebody to motivate you, if you want somebody to keep you accountable every day of what you've got to do in life make it happen, guys, live life by design. Guys, this is the show you need to promote. Okay. So share with a friend, share with someone you like. All right.

So for our guest today, she goes by the name of Nadia Clark. She is straight out of California, guys. She is a military veteran. California guys she is a military veteran former police sergeant man has done incredible incredible things in law enforcement guys and now she's a serial entrepreneur going into merchant services aka the credit card machine business Nadia how you doing today I'm doing all right Paul thank you for having me no absolutely and Nadia I to mention, she is the author to this book, Things I Think About and Other Works.

This is your very first book, Nadia? That is my very first book. I love it, I love it. And just to give them the cliff notes about this, anybody that's hearing, listening, watching right now, what is your book about? So as Paul said, I spent a lot of time in law enforcement, military, and just living life out here as a black woman in America.

And so, going through some difficult times in my life, I needed to express myself. And one of my outlets, one of my things that brought peace and joy into my life was writing. And what came together from my writing was this book. And it's a series of stories that have happened to me that I've witnessed and just parts of my life that I wanted to share with the world that I pray and hope bring impact to whoever reads it. I love that. I love that. And that's the whole point of this podcast. You know, I tell people, yeah, I raised him a career law enforcement, you know, ton of different experiences, but at the end of the day,

it all comes down to self help. You got to motivate people. You got to get the right mindset, right? In order to go ahead and kill it in business, you have to get your mind right. And I'm a big believer in that. So let's go ahead and get started. First question, tell us a little bit about your background, um, where you come from, what motivated you to even start in the military? Well, both my parents were Marines. Both from the South.

I grew up around Devil Dogs my entire life. I watched them serve, and I wanted to play a part. I actually wanted to be a drill sergeant in the Marine Corps. With the smokey bear and do all the yelling and the pointing with the knife hand. I saw it and I was just enamored with it. So it was a natural fit for me to go into the military. But I actually went into the police first. I went into the military, went into the army, went into the army in the reserves as an officer.

So I went through basic training while I was a full-time police officer. Wow. Yeah, at the age of 27. That's amazing. That's amazing. So at the age of 27, how long were you in the police department at that time? I started at 24. Okay, 24.

So about three years, and then three years in, obviously you have some experience, and what department did you work for? Oakland. Oakland PD. Oakland, California, baby. Oof, one of the roughest cities in America. Facts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How was it working in that city?

Oh man, it was... It's hard to encapsulate in just words, especially for this podcast, but it was the most exhilarating, dangerous, vulnerable. Any adjective that you could bring into to describe just fast paced, unknowing type of activity, that's Oakland. Straight up. So how did you do in that? like, how did you feel in that environment?

Like did you get used to the adrenaline rush? Did you get used to just the controlled chaos? How were you on a daily basis doing that job? Chaos was just life at that point. Just as fast paced as Oakland moves internally and externally, you have no choice but to adapt. Because if you don't adapt in an environment like that, you're gonna get swallowed up and eaten alive, period. So it was a comment upon whoever put on that uniform

to just make adjustments in not only professional, but your personal life in order to survive that place. Wow. And what did your parents say when you first joined the police department? Were they happy? Were they proud? It's funny, I didn't tell them until I was

all the way through getting hired. Wow. Yeah, I kept it from them, because I didn't, I wasn't sure what their response was gonna be. I just felt, I felt the call and I just wanted to go through with it. And I didn't want any other distractions.

And I did not want anybody's Extracurricular noise in my ear, right? So I wanted to go in it without any sort of doubt Nothing. Yeah, so I didn't want to tell anybody. Yeah. No, it makes sense, you know You you talk a lot of people talk about what they're going to do and then they'll end up doing it. That's facts. Yeah. So you did it and then you talked about it, which is the right way to do it. Yeah. I love that.

I love that. Okay. So three years into the department and during this time, were you like a beat cop or were you doing in the department? So right after FTO, which is field training, I went right to the beat. I went to one of the craziest beats in West Oakland at the time. Cut loose with what we call it in Oakland by myself working. One of the most dangerous parts in Oakland.

Yeah. MLK West Street Market Street, just a lot of old school gangs, a lot of old school activity. Was there a specific name for that part of Oakland? Ghost Town. Ghost Town, okay. So for all my Bay area people in California, if you know what Ghost Town is,

make sure to share this with people from California. So they're able to be like, wow, Ghost Town, right? So, okay. So you're in Ghost Town three years in, obviously you're loving the job. And then what made you, like go back to the day where you were like, you know what, I got to go to the military. So what made you execute on that?

It was something that I always wanted to do. Okay. And something caused me to pause the trigger, to pause pulling the trigger after high school because I almost went into the Air Force after high school. Same thing when I graduated college, I was going to go in the army. I wanted to go and be an officer. It was the height of the invasion of Baghdad, actually.

And my parents, like I said, they were both Marines, and they both still live near one of the bases. So they were working on base as well. I don't know what they were seeing. And they never really tell me, don't do something. But for whatever reason, whatever they were witnessing, they actually really tell me don't do something but for whatever reason whatever they were witnessing they actually asked me not to go. Wow okay. And so I was like well I'm just gonna join the Oakland Police Department then. Close enough. I'm not gonna tell anybody about it either. I'm just gonna go do my thing and so around the time I went it, I signed my paperwork in September 29, 2010.

So it was about three and a half, four years in, because I started 2006 in Oakland. And at that time it was economically not doing well. That was the, what was that collapse called in 2008? The housing crisis of 2008. The trickle down effect was, I'd never seen anything like that. You're talking about people losing jobs, cops losing homes, homes abandoned all over Oakland boarded up and just homeless and then violence picked up. It was like the wild wild west at the time.

And so for me, I was kind of sitting on the cusp of getting let go. And there was 85 that eventually were let go. And we weren't sure how far deep they were going to go into my class. So I wanted a backup plan and it was something I always wanted to do. So I was like, why not? You know, I wanted to keep serving. I wanted to do it at the highest capacity I felt at the time. And so I was like, I'm going to sign this highest capacity I felt at the time and so I was like I'm gonna

sign this paperwork I'm gonna I have my college degree I'm gonna go be an officer United States Army. I love that I love that and then how how is the training once you enter there because like typically when people go to the military they're like they're young but they're like 18 to like I think max 21 so you already being being towards the end of your twenties, did they look at you like, what are you doing here? Yes. Yeah, I can imagine. I remember there was one drill star and she's like,

Clark, you're not no spring chicken anymore. So I'm kind of running. And I remember that like, dang, she's so right. Cause I'm surrounded by 17 year olds, 18 year olds, 19 year olds. And I'm in here in my late 20s with a full-time career. I've been to college, I've lived life already. I was playing college hoop.

Making money. All the things, and I put it on hold to go serve my nation. And it was, it took a lot to hold my composure because there's a lot of mind games when you go to boot camp. Of course. Because they're trying to retrain you how to be we're training you how to be a soldier We're training you how to how to take orders take directions be very clear in your mission

And so I was already I was already there because I I grew up again. My parents are black and southern They were both Marines and I was with the Oakland Police Department. So I was already structured and ready to go. So for me, it wasn't as difficult as I was witnessing some of the 17, 18, 19 year olds. I remember our first day of boot, because there's zero days, what they call it. It's when you get off the bus

and you start going into your actual boot camp and they do something called smoking. So they smoke you. Where they bring you into whatever area or unit you're part of carrying your duffel bag full of your crap, your shoes, all your gear and have you put it over your head and start exercising with it. So you're running a place with this big duffel bag over your head and we're just going between that and dropping down doing push-ups, doing sit-ups, doing all kind of calisthenics

I remember there was a 17 year old kid I think he was on the verge of turning 18 or he just turned eight something like that and he Starts breaking down crying and I'm just like oh They're not ready for this, you know, and it dawned on me like I'm Like I'm gonna be alright. Yeah, I've cried my tears over this kind of hardship. Yeah. You know, this is. It's nothing new.

It's nothing new. Nothing new under the sun. I'm here to just do a job and get the skillset that I plan to get from the military. Yeah. So that makes sense why you transitioned into entrepreneurship because I think for most people that do great in entrepreneurship are typically people that have that level of

Discipline and you have to be proactive and you have to be a self starter, right? And you also have to take in perfect action Yes, you can't be a perfectionist with this. You know this And I think it's the same thing being that we both have experience in law enforcement I mean in law enforcement you go to a critical incident you go to any type of situation And you got to think on your feet facts, you know Please appeal police economy. Yeah, Oakland they train you on some of the most severe and common, you know Penal codes and crimes that happens in the city of Oakland, right like robbery and burglary and you know all that stuff Yeah, but but at the end of the day you still run into something you may not and all that stuff, right? Which is common in Oakland. But at the end of the day, you still run into something you may not know.

That's correct. Right, so you're able to think on your feet. So it makes sense why they call that activity in the military, you said smoking. Smoking, yeah. Because they're literally smoking out the people that are not built for it. Yeah, that makes sense.

And it becomes evident really fast. Yeah, yeah. So let me ask you, so how long did you end up serving? In what? In the military. Military, 11 years. 11 years. So 2010 to 2021.

Wow, wow, that's quite a while. Quite a while, I actually left as a captain. I love that, I love that. Okay, so let's go ahead and go back into your law enforcement career. Okay. Okay, so let's go ahead and go back into your law enforcement career. Okay. Okay. So in law enforcement, how did being a law enforcement officer shape the way you view the world now?

I have to say I was completely, completely naive into the way the world worked. I grew up a bit sheltered. I grew up in the desert out by Joshua Tree. Yeah. to the way the world worked. I grew up a bit sheltered. I grew up in the desert out by Joshua Tree. My dad was gone a lot because he was always serving, always overseas back and forth. I don't know what he was doing over there, but he was doing stuff. You know what I mean?

And so it was just me, my mom, and my sister. So we had our little unit and like I said, they were very strict. So I did not have a lot of experience being anything outside of my little bubble in the desert. So going out into the world, especially a place like Oakland, I'm now exposed to an urban environment that is ripe with history, ripe with violence, ripe with culture. Just beautiful architecture, paintings, and also a lot of sadness. You're talking, I don't know what I can say or not say to get-

You can say whatever you want. Okay. I mean, you're talking about maiming, raping, the amount of shootings, burglaries, robberies, home invasions, the homicides. I could not believe this is how we're out here doing each other, retreating each other. And it was mind-blowing. And then to see the politics that are involved.

And then wanting and feeling this desire and pool to want to help and save and finally realizing that you can't. You can't. There's nothing, nothing you can do. Yeah. And it's almost feels by design. Yeah. Yeah.

No, absolutely. I remember, you know, I had a very similar feeling towards the middle of my career and I will always use the concept of just imagine if you were in a boat and you were the only one in that boat and the boat was sinking, right? The boat's sinking and you're trying to, with a bucket, go ahead and take out the water and you have a little bit of progression

but at the end of the day, the water's gonna fill up the boat. And I feel like that's how it is to be a police officer specifically in Oakland because there's so many good cops that do great work. Great work. Great work. And they put their passion into it and they're about it.

And man, stories, stories for days. For days. But what it comes down to it is just, there's not enough. There's not enough cops. There's not enough support. There's not enough there's not enough cops there's not enough support there's not enough morale there's not enough people backing up the police you know and then people realize you know now especially in 2025 they're like why is crime going up why is why is why is there homeless tents everywhere you know

what's happening to all the cities now, you know, besides Oakland, you know, it's happening all over California and all over the United States, right? So to go into that, let's go deeper into your career, okay? What was something you would say you witnessed in your law enforcement career that still lives with you till today. Can I touch on a couple things? Yeah, of course. So my first, I'll tell, I'll tell, I'll tell it like this. My first interaction with human trafficking, I encountered a 12 year old girl.

We had something called the hostro out in Oakland. I don't know if that's still the same term when you came through. Yeah, international. International, but I was in West Oakland. It was San Pablo. Oh, okay, yeah. So San Pablo used to be a major hostro

while the girls of the night would come or the women of the night would come out and do their thing, pick up the johns, do whatever it is that they do and return the bet. So there was one night I was driving into the office and one of the things that senior police officers tell you is don't drive the major thoroughfare or something's going to pop off. I was on my way in for the night and I decided I got this.

I drive down San Pablo and there was a bus stop over on 32nd and San Pablo where all the girls used to hang out and it used to be thick. But for whatever reason this night, there was only one standing there and she stood out to me and there was something about the lighting and that it's beyond me. And I know that was, that had to be divine for me to see her and especially under the light and the way I saw her because it illuminated in such a way that never seen before It was almost like a spotlight was directly on her and something in my stomach turned and I was driving the opposite direction So something told me to turn around so I flip flip a u-turn

I pull up on her I walk out of the car and as I'm walking up to her as I'm approaching her the closer I get As her face becomes clear she gets younger and younger and younger. She's caked with makeup. She's half dressed, it's cold outside, and she's shivering. As I walk up on her, I ask her, well actually before I reached her, before I started asking her, I could smell her. I was like, what is this stench? It smells like she hadn't bathed in a while. So I walk up to her and I ask her, I said, how old are you? She says, I'm 12. Wow.

And I said, when was the last time you bathed? She said, two weeks. Wow. So where are you from? She got snatched out of a group home. And I said, when's the last time you ate? She said, I don't know. This young baby girl, little caramel complexion,

looking like somebody could be in my family, staring at me on the verge of tears. And I said, let's go. Take her to McDonald's, get her her little few favorites, take her down to YSD, which is our youth services division. I check her in, and that was the last time I heard about her. And it's still, she's still in my heart today. Because that was my first encounter with this very gross,

just depraved activity that goes on in the streets, that goes on just... I don't know if people care. They talk a big game, but to see this 12-year-old in action, I don't know how much you can really care to allow this kind of thing to go on. I know other people saw her. And she's been gone two weeks. I mean, she's been there off and on for two weeks and no one even thought a thing.

And there's grown men taking turns with this young girl. It almost caught me right now talking about it, because that, the smell of her, the look of her, the makeup, the sound of her young voice, it resonates in my brain to this day, in my heart to this day. I can't even look at a child without that image coming back in my head.

Yeah. You know? And it's just amazing that we have a culture that participates in such depravity. You know, that was just one of many that I encountered after that. Yeah. Situations like that, you know, it's human trafficking has been around for such a long time.

And I think up until recently, they just started coming out with movies like The Sound of Silence or The Sound of Freedom. I'm sorry. And it was regarding HSI, human or it's a Homeland Security investigating human trafficking of kids in Colombia. And then that's when they made it a big thing here and specifically in Miami. But that's when I found out about it. I found out about it a few years ago. And, you know, you got people on social media talking about, oh, stop human trafficking. But realistically, what are you doing besides making a couple

posts on social media while you're comfortable at work while these kids are getting trafficked? Right? Are you actively going out there and actually trying to help these kids at group homes? Cause that's typically what happens, right? I worked vice for a few months after I came back from Narcotics Task Force back around 2018 to 2019.

And I saw horrific, I mean, exactly what you were talking about, Nadia, horrific things. Majority of the prostitution that happens in Oakland are juveniles, are juveniles, and they're ranging. I mean, I never heard 12, which is crazy to me, but I would encounter 15 and up so many times during our operations

where they actually look like they're in their 30s because of the makeup, the amount of makeup, but then once you wipe that off and you start asking them questions, they're kids. They're kids and you're like, where's your mom and your dad? They're like, I haven't seen them in months. Or they do connect with the mom and the dad,

but the mom and dad don't care. Right? And they're usually from another city. Right? So at the end of the day, this has been a big, big problem that I think more resources should be put towards. You know, more resources, more officers, you know,

and the politics that plays behind this is insane. I mean, I remember when we were going ahead and doing our operations to get, you know, the pimps, the guys that were actually traffic, these young girls into this. And the DA wouldn't prosecute because why? They're so overloaded with cases. So they have to take the ones where it's basically like a layup of here, literally, we saw him kidnap her and put her in the car, which never happens. You never see that as a police officer, right? It's usually her word against his.

And yeah, it's just not enough in court. Yeah. Definitely not. They actually changed some of the laws. I don't remember when it happened, what the actual change was, but the sentencing change for the males, the pimps. And there was protections.

There used to be a lot of protections for the young ladies, the women, and those disappeared as well. Yeah. I'll speak of another incident. There was a 17 year old girl I used to talk to. She was on the stroll. She said her mother started her out, young.

And one day she just didn't show up. I found out a week later, she was found in a nearby park stripped, raped, and beaten and left naked in the park, dead. And these are the kind of stories that no one talked about. And these are the kind of things that are happening. You're talking about a lot, you're talking about-

On a daily. On a daily. On a daily, no, for sure, 100%. I mean, I remember being in field training and during my last week of field training. Same situation. We saw a juvenile. She was stripped. She was raped and she was left in the middle of the street.

And we roll up. We're like, what happened? You know, she tells the situation and we'll grab the coat, wrap her up and then, you know, get her some assistance. But at the end of the day, this is something that the media doesn't go ahead and broadcast. Wow. You know, it's crazy to me. The amount of illegal activities that happens like this, like human trafficking, the shootings, the murders. It's almost like the politics play a big role to cover this up. Huge.

So it doesn't scare tourists. It doesn't scare businesses from coming into the city until they actually come into the city They get their businesses burglarized Taking advantage of and then they end up going right like majority of what's happening to the area right now, right? But um, man, that's that's some insane stuff and you know guys you might be listening to this You're like Paul. Why are you so calm listening to this guys? I was in law enforcement You know, I know Nadia be listening to this. You're like, Paul, why are you so calm listening to this? Guys, I was in law enforcement.

You know, I know Nadia for quite a while now. So, yeah, I'm pretty familiar with a lot of these things that happen in the world. So, okay, Nadia. So, let's go ahead onto the next question. How did you actually, and this is a big question because a lot of people are like, didn't you get PTSD from this Nadia? Like, how are you like coping with this? So let's go into that. Mental health is huge, especially for first responders. So a lot

of first responders don't get help until it's like too late. And they're like, dude, like, what am I doing? Right? Almost happened to me where I'm like, what am I doing? Like I'm killing myself for this job. I'm barely seeing my family. My relationship at that time was crap. You know, you're just going down a spiral, a black hole, right? And a lot of police officers,

they find themselves in the same situation. You know, a lot of people don't talk about the suicide rate with police officers as well, which is huge. And that's something that the media doesn't cover, right? So how did you end up coping with all these events that happen in your life? Because you're seeing stuff that most people in this world will never encounter. Right. So it took me a while to figure out how to cope. It was actually after I left, because when you're in the fire like that, you can't put it out. It's hard to heal in a place that got you sick, period.

And this is, I'm gonna tell a little bit of this story, reason why I'm not even a police officer anymore. Like I was almost murdered on duty in 2016. I was nearly executed. I was, I guess Paul said it, I was a sergeant at the time. I was responding to a call to help out another sergeant. I got T-boned by a drunk driver on my driver's side. Push, he hit me so hard.

I was in an SUV. He was in an SUV. He hit me so hard, he pushed me three lanes onto a light pole, almost into a building right there on the corner in East Oakland. And as I'm in this car trying to figure out my exact location because I was just completely rattled a young man came on my passenger side passenger side of my vehicle and with a holding a Glock well I thought was a

Glock with an extended mag and started firing at me while I'm stuck in my vehicle. And so that was one of my biggest turning points of my life. And the moment after all that settled, I realized I had not been coping at all. I was drinking, I wasn't sleeping, I was having continuous nightmares. I was trying to go to therapy but it was reactivating over and over again. You're talking about wrestling with naked men. You're talking about, that's an interesting story, a couple of those. You're talking about, again, the homicides, the shootings. I've had people's brain matter on my boots,

on my uniform, on my skin. And I'm just supposed to go home and just be okay and live a normal life. And the other thing they don't talk about is men and women hold things very differently. So I'm watching my male counterparts be okay for the most part, or at least pretend to. Or, yeah, appear to.

Appear to. Appear to. And I'm trying to uphold that same image while slowly dying inside and I could feel it. Because I'm witnessing all these just horrors and not being able to do anything except put a little bandaid on an arterial wound and not understanding why I can't do anything.

And so it wasn't until almost losing my life that it made me sit down and take inventory of what was actually going on and take inventory and that excuse me and that inventory led me to finally realize I had no idea even who I was. So if I don't know who I am, I don't even know how to begin to cope. So the beginning of coping for me started with knowledge of self. Who was I in this world? Who was I as a woman? Who was I even in that uniform? The military uniform? Who was I outside of all that? And it turns out I wasn't even separated

from any of it. All of it bled into one thing and I was just trying to move through life as my identity as a police officer, a military officer, and a black woman. Because that's what everybody's telling me I am. Everybody's telling me I am. And the one person that didn't ever ask was myself. Like, who are you? So that was the beginning of the coping, is coming to awareness, acknowledging, and then holding myself accountable for all the things I was doing

with not coping properly. So Nadia, thank you for sharing that with us. I mean, that's a crazy chaotic experience that anybody would go through during those moments where the suspect was shooting at you in the car. What was your thought process? Were you like actually getting shot at or like you didn't react or? It was wild.

So initially I got hit by the car, I got T-boned. Yes. So I'm sitting at this corner and I remember the dispatcher asking me, where are you? I said, I'm at, I said, what's 73rd? And I couldn't remember the name of the street. I was knocked, my head was just knocked around. I went out a little bit, came back,

and just trying to figure out where I'm at. And then looking over to my passenger side and seeing that gun barrel, it was like, is that a gun? Yeah, like you were shot. I was shot, like I just got the, I just got the shit knocked out of me from this SUV. And I'm trying to figure out where I'm at. And all of a sudden now my driver's side door is completely smashed in.

There's a cage in the back. Airbag, airbag. So you're stuck. I'm stuck. And the other thing was I could not move at the time and I couldn't figure out why. I had my seatbelt on. My seatbelt had locked in place during the collision. I had my vest on, of course, so I couldn't even feel it.

I just know I got hit, I couldn't move. Now there's a gun at my only escape. And there's this man standing there. And he had the drop on me. And we're staring at each other. We're not that far from how we're sitting right now. And I could see his eyes, and it wasn't as if he was angry, happy, sad.

It was just void. Something just wasn't there. And so I'm trying to piece all this together and put out on the radio where I'm at. Where's my gun? Is he going to be able to get in this car? What do I have to do right now? Like, just so many thoughts just running through my head

and everything actually was kind of wild. Everything almost felt silent. I could hear every single breath, the inhale, the exhale, leaving my nose, exhaling out of my mouth. It was chaotic, but it was calm all at the same time. It's like I couldn't make sense of it. It's this, I was about to watch myself die in this filthy patrol car.

And I remember the thought of my, because I'm not married, no kids. I remember the thought of my parents being given an American flag folded up. And that was the only thing they would have left of me. So those are the kind of thoughts that were going through my head at the time. Wow. Wow.

Yeah. So from there, that incident happens. Does he end up getting arrested? Does he end up getting caught? What was the scenario in there? So what I found out later was, so my incident happened on a Saturday night. It was July 23rd, 2016.

It was actually amongst a rash of police shootings in the country. There was, I think New York, then the five in Texas, and then like the three in Louisiana. Mine happened right after that. And so he did what he did. He left the scene and he was, I guess he went to Stockton. They found him on the following Thursday. Eight hours standoff. Two kids were held hostage. Two kids were held hostage. He came out after think I said, I think it was about eight hours, locked him up and he's now in prison today.

That's how they ended up finding him. Everybody told him, everybody. No one even showed up for this man's trial. From my understanding, the community wasn't happy about what he did. They thought it was messed up. Did it ever come out, the reason, like his thought process on why he did. They thought it was messed up. Yeah. So. Did it ever come out, the reason, like his thought process on why he did it?

Yes. But here's the kicker, it never made. Never made the media? Not like that. It hit a couple of papers in the bay. I heard it hit one of the national ones, but it was like one of those brief little run-ins and that was it.

Right. So it turns out he had just been released from prison. He had just did a bid for, it was either home invasion or regular robbery. I don't remember that part. He was 29 years old. He had a disdain for police. He had been writing on his social media. He wanted to kill a cop.

He wanted to be part of the movement that was going on at the time, the BLM movement, and he was very caught up in the extreme portion of that. Right. He saw an opportunity with me and he took it. Because apparently this was on the, this was in the police report. He was yelling obscenities and, you know, I'm gonna kill this cop, F the cops, F police before he started shooting at me. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Yeah, I mean, this is an insane story, but it gives me some type of, you know, thought process on back then, during the time that that happened with the BLM movement, absolutely everything. And it's just, to me, it's crazy how a lot of people in society follow a trend that they know nothing about, right? Because with the whole BLM movement,

I mean, those founders, they ended up scamming everybody that invested into that organization, right? So, I mean, to have somebody go ahead and be an extremist of an organization like that against the police that actually try to help people is insane to me. But I'm glad things worked out. So after that, did you continue police work? What was what happened next? That was my last day ever. That was your last day ever.

My last day ever was me being in a hospital bed being stripped of my uniform, my gun belt. So it felt symbolic. I never went back. I never cleaned out my locker. I never cleared out my desk. That was it. I was in a lot of pain, like not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually just destroyed.

They talk about the straw that breaks the camel's back. My back was broken. There's some things in life that you'll never be sure if you recover from. I thought that was one of those moments for me. I was not sure if I was going to make it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to make it. I remember thinking and being pissed at God. Like, why didn't you just take me out? So I don't have to live through this. I don't have to live with the knowledge

of what people do to each other out here. I don't have to live with the knowledge that this black man that looks like me, even though I know it's not personal, there's so much more behind that, tried to murder me, execute me at one of my most vulnerable points. And all I wanted to do, again, he

doesn't know me. We've never interacted. And all he wanted to do was end my life. To me, something was very disconnected. And I came to the conclusion, like, just because you do not see the yoke around somebody's neck, it does not mean they are not enslaved period. Whether that's rhetoric, propaganda, poverty, you name it. We're walking around in times where people don't even know that they're enslaved. And so for me I was very very angry And I had to do a lot of reconciliation with myself in order to even think about him and think about everything that transpired in my technically 10 years on the job there.

And I was left to just pull the pieces back in slowly, little by little, 1% of the time. There would be days, Paul, where I would go three steps forward, a thousand steps backwards. And a lot of it was alone. And so, it's like I still think about him today. Of course. I think about him all the time.

He's actually in, he's close, he's in prison kind of close to where I live. I got the paperwork not that long ago because I get notifications of when he moves. And I think about him and I think about me and I think about culturally like where we are as black people out here and what led him to doing that. What in his mind, what in his history,

what in his conditioning pushed him to that point where he wanted to end the life. And you asked me about coping, asking those questions, being in being able to ask those questions, allow me to forgive not only him, but myself because I fought myself a lot. I felt guilty on leaving the streets.

I felt guilty about what happened to me. I felt guilty that he didn't kill me. It was wild. And I just don't know, you know? I tried my best to help as many people as I could in that timeframe, in that uniform. But I realize now that that was not my calling and purpose. That was for that particular season

to prime me for whatever comes next. To prime me to even have this discussion today. It's heartbreaking what goes out there, what is going on out there on the street. It's heartbreaking to know that someone wants to end a life, that someone wants to put a 12 year old on the streets to be pimped out, that somebody is so disconnected from life, they just, they shoot themselves up with poison just to not feel their existence. Yeah.

Yeah. That's as real as it gets. It really is. And I resonate all with all that as much as you guys know about my background in law enforcement everything. I still back the blue. I still have a lot of friends, which I consider family that still work in law enforcement. I have the most respect for all law enforcement officers out there because you guys are doing a job that most people will not be willing to wake up

every single day to do. So kudos to you, keep doing it, keep doing God's work because that's what exactly you guys are doing. So to transition from now, law enforcement, military, back to law enforcement and having a critical incident that changed your view on life. Okay. Let's start talking about now your entrepreneurship career that you have going on right now.

I want to talk a little bit about your book and then I want to talk about exactly what you're doing right now to actually help you and fulfill you and you know, how you're touching lives and changing lives right now. So let's get into it. Okay. Okay. So question one, when did you start transitioning into entrepreneurship? When did you start transitioning where you're like,

you know what, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna write my book. I'm gonna go ahead and start looking into business. So part of the wake up that I had from that incident led me to that, led me to the book, led me to entrepreneurship. I knew I didn't want to go backwards. I knew I didn't want to work for anybody ever again, especially going through the military, going through the police. You know what it is.

There's some people that I remember wanting to promote because I don't want to work for you. I know how you get down. I've seen your action because I don't want to work for you. I know how you get down. I've seen your action. I'm good. You know what I mean? Same thing in the military. Right.

Same thing in the corporate world. I wanted to carve out a lane for myself. I have all this experience, have all this skill set. I'm like, where does it go? I tried actually to work in corporate America a bunch of times. I had somebody design my resume, I think it's called a CV now, put it out, rejection, rejection, rejection. I couldn't believe it.

I'm just like, I have all this experience. I was a military officer. You're super qualified. No one cared. So I was like, forget this. I'm going to do something for myself. I want to make an impact I want to I want to be challenged and I want to do something that's gonna feel like I still have purpose in this world And so for whatever reason sales was just like like a blinking light over and over again

Insurance actually came to me first. Wow, and I wanted to wait. Go ahead was this Nadia? So my incident happened in 2006. Oh, I forgot about this. I actually tried to start a security company. This was crazy. I was... Pretty, no disrespect guys, but pretty cliche for a former police sergeant to be like, hey, you know what?

I'm just gonna open a security company. That's like the number one side hustle that cops do. Yes, so it was, had to be 2017, 2018. So right after, I was just like, I gotta keep moving because I'm like fighting myself. Like I said, I'm fighting myself. You gotta keep yourself busy. Had to.

Especially when you work in Oakland. I mean, a lot of police officers there, they end up coming back when they leave to another agency because of the amount of work. Right. It keeps you busy. It does. So, I'll even touch on before I forgot about this. That before that happened, I was actually enrolled at the Berkeley

extension taking classes, become a CFP, a certified financial planner. I knew I, my body was, my body was breaking down. I could feel it. I had, I guess at 10 years at that point, I was like, I got to figure something out. I was, I was, I was about to buy my third home and I had tried to do another couple businesses But they had money stolen from me. I was just like what is going on? It happens it happens a business man to me last year man So just thousands of dollars all that hard work just gone like that and there's nothing I can do about it

We're supposed to sue this guy. He stole from me. He doesn't have any money. Exactly. So what am I gonna do? That's what you're gonna sue him for. And so I remember after that, after I had my incident, so 2016, I officially left, I tried to start a business, like I said, it was 2017 or 2018, with a fellow police officer who then stole money from me.

Oh my God. So I was just like, forget this. I actually went to work for a, I think it's now Fortune 100 company. And again, I was there for about a year and a half, two years, and again, I was just like, what am I doing? I don't want to do this. So I looked back into insurance again.

So it didn't fulfill you at that time? No, nothing. Okay. Nothing. The entrepreneurship route, I kept hitting the wall. It's just like something's not fitting. Something's not right. I feel like I need somebody to follow.

I need somebody who's done it, who can prove it to me, and also has results in the space. Right. And everybody I was coming across was like, something about it, like, I don't believe, something about the spidey senses we get, that was what we call in police work, or just that little thing goes off. You got a feeling. You got a feeling, straight up. It's always believe something about the you know the spidey senses we get that was we call in police work or just that little thing goes off like you got feeling it's always a gut feeling you know something don't feel

right like do your due diligence so you're running into people especially online it's like there's something about you that just not fitting like you're saying this thing but kind of life have you lived like what made you become how did you become a coach? How did you get this money? Is that your Lamborghini? Like there's so many questions I can't have answered and it's not like they answer you.

They're not really transparent. So, but I knew I wanted that. I actually went into a lot of different coaching programs to just to even improve upon myself. So I could, I needed to bridge the gap on my discernment because there was a, there was a big gap because I was coming out of police work in military with being told what to do and now there's this there's what people don't understand about going to entrepreneurship that's a whole nother

skill set a bunch of soft skills and a little bit of hard skill making that transition to going to work for yourself absolutely and I understood because I said it took a lot of inventory that I needed to fill that gap before I could even think about going into entrepreneurship. So just to clarify on that, Nadia, are you saying that you had to take care of a lot of personal things first, like things that you were still dealing with and coping with from your law enforcement, military career, before you can even think about starting a business? Is that basically like what you're saying right now? Yes, so apologize for that, yes. No, and you're fine. It's just for me, I have to run it through my head

in order to like just clarify, but then also my audience. You gotta think about it. Like a lot of people that watch this, they're trying to get into entrepreneurship, right? Just think about like the humble beginnings of like when we first started, like the first business, even if it failed, even if you want to whatever. But at the end of the day, a lot of people are not able to go ahead and actually execute on the business because they're dealing with a mindset problem.

And that's what it comes down to. A lot of times it's the mindset problem. So I respect that. I respect the fact that you were able to acknowledge that before you even got into entrepreneurship. Like you have to fix myself. With me, when I was building one of my first businesses, guys, I'm gonna be real.

I was depressed. I was working. I was, you know, I was drinking a ton of caffeine. I was like, man, am I gonna have a heart attack? My doctor was like, dude, you're not gonna have a heart attack? My doctor was like, dude, you're not gonna have a heart attack. You just, you gotta be cool off the coffee and stop eating big meals.

I was like, all right, all right. So, it just depends. It's knowing you, right? And that comes with experience. 100%, and my experience was I had no idea who I was. So how can I even help that person? How do I pour into somebody when I can't even pour into myself? So I knew I needed no idea who I was. So how can I even help that person? How do I pour into somebody when I can't even pour into myself?

So I knew I needed to, like I said, bridge that gap from where I was to where I wanted to be. And that required first and foremost, working on who I was and how I wanted to show up. Because I couldn't do it. I could fake it till I make it, but again, I'm running into people who are doing that same thing, and it's very transparent to me that that ain do it. I could fake it till I make it, but again, I'm running into people who are doing that same thing and it's very transparent to me that that ain't it. Authenticity is what

wins. Authenticity, vulnerability, that's what gets you in the door. That's what builds relationships. People want to know you before they buy your product. They want to know you before you quote unquote sell them on anything else that you may or may not have, that you may or may not can give them. So it's like, how do I go and sell insurance? How do I go, what was the other thing I tried to do? How do I go do anything in life without first presenting myself in such a way that people would even want to respond to me?

People will want to talk to me. People will want to reach out to me and pick at my knowledge and ask me questions. And so first things first, like you said, mindset, my mindset had to be 180 because I'm coming. You're talking about heartbroken, depressed, drinking, just yoloing. I don't do people say yellow anymore. I don't even know. heartbroken, depressed, drinking, just yoloing. I don't do people say yolo anymore? I don't even know.

Yolo, yeah. You dated myself? Amelia on the back, he's like, no bro. Can we say that shit anymore? He's like, for all the youngsters right now, yolo means you only live once. You only live once, baby. Yeah, yeah, you only live once.

Yeah, I dated myself. Yeah, it's all good, it's all good. Yeah. So, but I'm sitting here living life like that because my life almost ended. So I just like, I'm just gonna live like that. And I'm also a big believer in leveling up your mindset as well. Good stuff, Nadia. Like, I really appreciate that.

So guys, we are running out of time. Once again, thank you for tuning in. Nadia was awesome. Unbelievable story, guys. From being a police sergeant to being a serial entrepreneur. Once again, thank you for tuning in. Nadia was awesome, unbelievable story guys, from being a police sergeant to being a serial entrepreneur and even an author. Guys, if you haven't read her book yet, Things I Think About in Other Works, check it out.

We're gonna have the links in the bottom of this video. And if you're listening on Spotify and Apple, make sure to leave a review, leave a five-star review to help us out. Reach out to number one guys. We've been the top 10 business podcasts for the past six months now in the United States. This is the Level Up Podcast with Paul Alex. I'll catch you guys on the next one. Thanks for watching!