Dawn L Placer, Neighbor

My story:

Some might consider me a leader. I just consider myself driven; albeit, I am driven to help others. Leadership can develop in a variety of ways and under different circumstance.

During my pre-teen years, I witnessed my mother being abused by my father. When my mother left, she decided to leave myself and my two brothers behind because she was a stay-at-home mom and didn't know when or how she would get a job, let alone be able to support anyone besides herself. But once I voiced that I wanted to be with her, I went through a horrific three year custody battle.

You see, my father didn't want me to leave and he made up every story possible to make it sound like my mom was an awful person. He became very scheming and conniving, listening in on my phone calls, changing the clocks so I would miss her visits, taking letters out of the mail, and more. I quickly learned to stand up for myself. I left the house to use the pay phone to call my mom or her lawyer. My mom and I marked our letters with a code so we would know if any were missing. I stayed home from school nearly 50% of the time so it would look bad to the judge. I just knew I needed to take action in order to get to stay with my mom.

At age sixteen, one fine mischief night, I had finished up working at the mall. I took the bus home as usual and was walking home from the bus stop when I noticed a man walking a few blocks behind me. I crossed the street in hopes he wouldn't follow. He did, and the next thing I knew he had his arms wrapped around me, he whispered in my ear and picked me up. Once again, my instincts to take action kicked in and I fought back. He put me down and ran off.

High school was an awful experience for me. I never liked it and I didn't even graduate. Immediately following 'graduation' year, I got my GED - with flying colors. I became an office administrator and I did manager.

In my early twenties, I was married to an army man. After two years of proverbial honeymoon period, things drastically changed and I found myself the wife of an abuser. After taking it for four and a half years, I decided enough was enough. Time to stand up for myself yet again. After spending a weekend in a shockingly depressing abuse shelter, and a year of marriage counseling, I left him.

Soon after, I chose to attend college in hopes of becoming a teacher. An auto accident changed the direction of that path. I had to put college on hold so I could work and attend physical therapy. Fortunately, I had begun dabbling in computer code and I decided to try to apply for work in the computer industry. The first I.T. position I had doubled the salary I was making as an office admin. Things were looking up!

Marriage two came in my early thirties. This was a much better marriage. However, after about seven years, my husband decided to change careers from I.T. to real estate investor. Sadly, our marriage changed as well. Our finances became secret along with other things. I discovered he had purchased not one, but two hand guns without discussing it with me first. One gun was in the house and one was in his car. Mind you, at this time we had a four-year old boy. I also learned he had been going to the gun range when he said he was going on real estate appointments. Additionally, discovered pot in my husband's nightstand drawer.

In 2010, I took my son and left my second husband. I had three-thousand dollars to my name, no other savings to speak of, a bankruptcy on my credit report, and no job. My son and I moved in with my parents where we stayed for seven years. Working with some great financial planners, I built up my credit score. I also purchased life insurance, acquired some money markets, and an IRA account. Life was looking great!

In 2017, I moved my son and myself into a beautiful apartment. I had been working as an I.T. Consultant since 1995. I liked my job but it wasn't my passion. In 2018, I became a health coach. I found helping others to be very fulfilling.

In 2019, I became a volunteer EMT. This was quite the achievement for me since school was not my thing to begin with. Three months of nearly endless homework with tons of reading, and classes were two times per week and once every weekend. I did all of my homework and studied before every quiz. I past each and every one of them. I even past the National EMT test the first time around.

Even with all of these achievements, in 2022 I realized I had reached a glass ceiling. Not just financially, but in life in general. It was time to make another move - time to take action. Coincidentally, my younger brother who now runs a multi-million dollar company, invited me to an all-day motivational speaking event on zoom. That was my next turning point. I realized that I wanted to be a life coach and motivational speaker.

For the very first time in my life, I wrote out my goals. I am here and I want to be there. Now, what actions to I take to get from here to there? I promised myself that within one week I would have my LLC in place. On the exact day I set as my goal, I received my signed documents from my attorney. I did it! I was now an entrepreneur! I am the founder and owner of ASPYRE Life Coaching.

I have learned to never settle, never be comfortable, never be content. Life is too short to be anything less than exciting. Living and working with purpose gives us the passion and drive. As leaders, we are called to continuously grow and live as our best self and to call that out in others. We are creating the future no matter our past - - or perhaps because of it.