Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Underdog, to Unstoppable. I'm Nicole Anderson, and today we're proving that no matter the odds, resilience rewrites the story. You're watching now Media Television.
Welcome to Underdog to Unstoppable, the show that dives deep into the journeys of extraordinary individuals who rose from adversity and transformed their pain into power. I'm your host, Nicole Anderson. Today's guest has a story unlike any other.
Jose Pereira is a former CEO of Cicco Petroleum, a resilience mentor, and the creator of the Executive Resilience program.
But beyond all his professional accomplishments, Jose survived 1,775 days as an international hostage, an experience that reshaped his purpose, his leadership, and his relationship with the human spirit.
He now helps CEOs, entrepreneurs and leaders connect success with fulfillment, overcome adversity, and build lives grounded in resilience and purpose. His book, From Hero to Villain shares the true story of the sick Go six and the lessons he carried out of captivity.
Jose, welcome to the show.
This first segment explores a pivotal part of your experience.
How you protected your mind when the world tried to break you, and how viewers can apply those same principles when they feel trapped in their own lives. Welcome, Jose. I'm happy to have you. Many viewers feel confined by their circumstances, jobs, relationship trauma, fear. When life feels like a prison, the mind often becomes one, too. This segment is going to help our audience understand how to reclaim mental strength and in situations that feel helpless.
Can you tell us how you kept your mind from breaking when your freedom was taken away?
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Well, you know, I want to first for your audience, put a little bit the context of the situation. You know, this happened eight years ago.
In fact, it happened one day ago. I had my eighth anniversary of this. Unfortunately, it happened. We went through this on November 22, 2017. So two days ago, we had eight years that this situation happened. I was the CEO here in the US in Houston, I'm Houston based, and I traveled to Venezuela because they asked me to do a presentation in Caracas, Venezuela. I'm Venezuelan born and that was during the first Trump administration. And they were having issues.
What is happening today, by the way? And I flew to do the presentation. I didn't see nothing wrong because it was my normal course of business.
I was getting retired, by the way, in the middle of the presentation In Caracas in November 22, I was doing that presentation and they came, the guards of the counter intelligence police of that country.
And we were accused to be American spies, committed treason to the country among a bunch of More charges.
And there's where we were captured and we were thrown in a dungeon during the next five years. We stayed five years as a hostage.
So answering your question, how you can survive something like this because you don't have to be a physical hostage for anybody that's hearing this, because people can say, no, this situation will never happen to me, first of all, you will never know.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: You probably thought it would never happen to you either.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Beside that, you don't have to be a physical hostage because you can be a mental hostage. You can be going to any situation in your life.
And I always mention that when the adversity comes, it comes. You're not prepared.
Nobody's prepared for a situation like this. In my particular case, I did more than 30 years in the oil and gas and the people that know the oil and gas industry is very challenging.
There is a lot of risk and you are trained to manage the risk. You do a lot of risk management training, but nothing like what happened to me. And that is something that you can mirror in your life.
There are situations in your life that when they come, you are not expecting them. And that of course, gives you anxiety, give you fear, gives you that you can feel lost in the process that you're going through. That was what happened to me when we were captured and they put us the handcuff and drove us to a dungeon for the next years. The first days I was like, this is not happening to me.
Because it's very normal when you go into a situation like this that the first thing that you will do is deny it.
You will say, this is wrong. This is something wrong. This is not happening to me. I begin to say, hey, I'm going to fix this. This is a big mistake.
But then there comes a turning point when you decide to say, okay, this is real, this is happening.
And this has to do with the mindset.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I was going to ask you, like, what your mindset was like when you got taken and then the subsequent days after. Can you fill us in a little bit on the thoughts how you stayed strong?
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Well, this was a process.
You can imagine that we went through a lot of. We say five years, but let's say that in the beginning, my first year, I was in a solitary confinement. We were six guys to Uralians. That's why we became the cit Go six. I flew to Venezuela, being the CEO with my five vice presidents. So we were six guys. When we were captured, they put us the six separately. I was in a solitary confinement.
And believe me, you Had a lot of time to think and rethink and your mind is all over the place.
So my first thoughts were really, really bad.
I was thinking here I knew that we were accused to be American spies in a communist regime. You can say, hey my friend, this is going to last forever.
So my first thoughts were thinking, I'm not going to make this.
So I was really in a big despair because the mindset, my mindset was not prepared for this.
But it comes, it's a process coming to you that in my particular case, I had a 30 plus years marriage with wonderful kids and grandsons. And I began to think in them.
I begin to get worried what will happen to them if I die.
Right, of course, a change in my mindset when I begin to think in my family.
And there's where the things can change in your life. And to anybody that's hearing this, if you are going in a process in your life, think about the people that care of you, think about the people that love you.
If it really has value to stay there or to move on. Because this is a very particular choice. You have only two choice. You can stay there or you can move on.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Very, very true.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: To move on. It can be one day, one week, one month, one year, or you can stay there forever.
In my case, I decided at some point to move on. I cannot say how long it took it, but we decided to move on.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: So how long do you believe when you were in captivity, did you regain hope that you were going to get out? Like how long did it take for that to stop the fear and anger from taking over your spirit?
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Well, that's an interesting question by the way. I mention it very vividly in my book that moment because let me put this in context.
As I said, I was in despair, I was lost, I was having even suicidal thoughts at some point.
And around 10 months, after 10 months, let me tell you my conditions. I was in a dungeon in a three story down basement.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Oh wow, that's incredible.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: No windows, locked door all day long, light 24, seven turned on, no running water, starving, eating every two or three days, one meal.
We were having a lot of illness, so the situation was really, really hard.
So around 10 months, a period of 10 months, one day they opened the door and they asked me to get dressed up because I'm going to have a visit.
And they put me in a room to wait for somebody. And when the door is opened, it was my wife.
My wife appears after 10 months. She took the risk to travel there and I was happy and scared at the same time. And I asked her, why you came here, this is not safe. And she told me, and that was the first time because I was literally, you know, I didn't know what was going on. I was clueless.
So she explained me that during all these months she had been working, she and the other five families with the US Government to get us back. So they were actively working to get us back.
So now I see her giving me that message. And Deb gave me something that is called the hope.
I begin to have it.
And when I heard about all what they were doing, the other thing is that by that time the two ambassadors, the situation began to go so tense that the two ambassadors were recalled. Up to today, there's no ambassadors, so there's no direct relations between the two countries.
So they recalled the ambassador.
And that's why my wife appeared there, because she was like a messenger bringing the message of what the US Government was trying to negotiate and to hear what the Venezuelan regime wanted for us. Because this is something that, for your audience, the people are not very familiar with this, but this is something that is called the hostage diplomacy.
And this is applied by many these regimes like Cuba, Afghanistan, Russia, Syria, Myanmar, North Korea, China, many of these, Iran. Iran is the biggest one. So they take normal people, high stakes, normally high stake people, but normal people. So I was not a politician, I was a business guy.
So they take you because the intention is to use you and leverage you, so you become a political pawn. So that's what happened to us. We became a political bond. And that's why it's so difficult to bring you back, because it becomes to be negotiation between two countries. Can you imagine that? I got caught in the middle of the negotiation between Venezuela and the U.S.
come on.
I never thought that that could happen to me. And it's really hard negotiation because these people begin to ask a lot for us.
So now I'm here. But it gave me the hope that I knew that they were fighting.
And I saw my wife as strong and she told me that everybody was okay, the other family were okay. Everybody was pushing hard to bring us back. And when I went back to the room, now I have hope.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: So with that, now I.
Let's talk more about that hope in our next segment. So coming up, we're going to talk about rebuilding and how Jose put his life back together after years of stolen moments.
Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more unstoppable stories and strategies for turning obstacles into opportunities.
And we're back. I'M Nicole Anderson and you're watching Underdog to Unstoppable on NOW Media Television. Lets keep pushing past limits together.
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Welcome back to Underdog to Unstoppable. We're here with Jose Pereira discussing the emotional impractical reality of rebuilding a life after great pain.
For many people, starting again after trauma feels impossible, like there are too many broken pieces to ever reassemble.
This segment explains how rebuilding happens one step at a time. How trust, confidence and the purpose return gradually and how resilience becomes a daily choice.
So Jose, on the last segment we talked about when you got your hope back.
And so I want to talk a little bit more about getting your hope back, your freedom, and then how you rebuilt, rebuilt your life once you were free again. So can you talk to us a little bit about that?
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Oh yeah. Well, I came back in October 1, 2022. So I had three, three years and one month. I came back.
So three years, so it's not so long.
And we came back to a prisoner swap. It was a miracle.
I coming back miracle not only because the negotiation that was hard, it was because I had a lot of issues there. I can mention here. I suffer pneumonia, bronchitis two times STDs, two time Covid.
I suffer a heart attack.
I have fainted. I had a three day coma. So I went through a lot of things. So I came back not only physically but mentally doing my best because by that time we were trying to take care of ourselves but the condition was really terrible. So when I came back through this prisoner swap, I remember that we arrived here in a military base here in San Antonio, Texas at Army Brooks Military Base and stayed like 10 days in a decompression program that is the same program that they do for the Missing in Action and the Prisoner of War. I went to that program, heading back to my house 10 days after. I was thinking, what am I going to do with my life?
I didn't know what was going to be my life after this.
And I remember going with my wife Driving back from San Antonio to Houston, she gave me a phone.
I had a phone after five years, my first iPhone.
I didn't forget how to use it.
In the middle of the road, the phone began to ring.
Who is calling me? And I answered, and he was a journalist. ABC wanted to have an interview. And he said, how you got my phone? He said, no, we talked with your kids and they gave me your phone. So you know journalists, that's what they do. So they located me and they wanted to do an interview. So I gave the interview. The day after I arrived, my wife had a store and we did an interview in the store.
And I remember when the journalist was finishing the interview, she told me, Mr. Pereira, what is your next move? What are you going to do in your life?
And my mind was blank. I didn't know what to say.
I remember I said, well, I'm going to open a Twitter account.
I'm going to begin to tweet.
Today my Twitter account is I have a great community and today I have around 100,000 people in my social media.
So I really need tweet.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Do you know I've never sent a tweet ever.
I haven't. So you have me beat there.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: So what's really funny, because my Twitter account became a Twitter account for the hostage community because I got connected. Because after one month, I went to Washington to say thanks, give thanks to all the people that worked very hard to bring us back. Congressmen, people, officers, people of these foundations. And I got connected with several foundations in Washington that work with the hostage community. And today I'm very connected to them.
My voice and my image has been used in several campaigns. Every time I can help, I'm supporting them.
And one of the things that I begin to meet with other families that have gone through this situation in other countries, and I have begin to meet with another former hostage in other country, Milimia. I know all of them. All of those people that you see in the media are my friends.
So because we began to do like a bonded, right?
[00:19:33] Speaker A: You bonded. You have stories.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Of course, bonded. Not only bonded.
Every time there was something going on, they called me. I began to kind of. I became like a beacon of hope for many families. Is there where my idea to create a coaching program came Because I said, okay, Jose, you had this leadership experience that you had during more than 30 years in the oil and gas, but now you had this experience of being a hostage, a survivor. So I combined that and I created a coaching program.
In fact, in the beginning, I was Trying to coach the families, but it was too exhausting.
It was really draining me too much. So I created a coaching program that today I do for C suite executives and businessmen, business owners. So I tweaked that coaching more to how I could help people trying to, you know, take out their hostage situation in their business, in their life, and how many things that they can use, things that really work for us, how they can implement in their business to be successful. So that's what.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Is that why you started your. You wrote your book?
Because you can give advice to anybody that wants to start over, Right. But feels scared, whether it's a hostage situation that you went through or hostage in their business, like you said a little while ago, or hostage in their life. Is. Is that why you wrote your book? To give advice on that? Do you have something that you can share?
[00:21:17] Speaker B: Let me tell to your audience how the book came, because after one year of our captivity, as I said, we were starving about that time, I lost £100. 100.
So there was no US representation. So there was no direct negotiation. So the UN intervened. So a commission of the UN flew to Venezuela to. To begin to negotiate and release the UN and the un they could get the pressure to get us to get the sicks together.
So they put us, the six together.
Because by that time the situation in Venezuela was really bad. There was lack of medicine and food. So they asked our families to begin to provide that food.
It was a nightmare that the logistics, because the six family were here in the US So bringing food to Venezuela with a sanction was really difficult. So my family, what they did is that my eldest son, he moved to Colombia. And from Colombia, that is in the border with Venezuela, he began to send food to Venezuela. And somebody in Venezuela pick up the food and they cook it, and they cook it and send it to me. It was a very complicated logistic sounds.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Here from one country to the other to get you food. That's already insane.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: They did it during four years. They did it during four years. Four years.
But there comes something.
Every time I was receiving the food, I received it three times in the week. Every time I was receiving the food, the food was a representation of the love of my family.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: The food.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: For those who want to learn more about your executive resilience program or your story, where can they connect with you?
[00:23:12] Speaker B: They can go to my webpage called JoseConnect.com if you go to my webpage, JoseConnect.com you can find my coaching, you can find my speaking. Because I today are an international speaker, too. You can find my book and you can find my podcast and my TV show, because today I'm host in the Spanish NOW media with a program called Leaders in Quebrantabre that is unbreakable Leaders. But the story of the book is that during those times that I could receive the food when I was returning, at first hands, I began to smuggle her letters inside that and those letters I keep sending to my wife and receiving letters from her during three years.
And we compiled around 1,000 letters. And those letters became my book.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: And it gives other people hope, right?
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: So that leads us to coming up next, we'll explore how trauma transforms into purpose and how anyone can turn their hardest moments into something powerful. So I'm really excited to hear more about the book and the letters that inspired your book. Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more unstoppable stories and strategies for turning up obstacles into opportunities.
And we're back. I'm Nicole Anderson, and you're watching Underdog to Unstoppable on NOW Media Television. Let's keep pushing past limits together.
Welcome back to Underdog to Unstoppable. In this segment, we talk about transformation, the moment when pain becomes purpose and trauma becomes a message that can change lives.
Viewers often struggle with shame, guilt, or fear from their past.
This segment helps them to understand how those experiences become powerful tools for growth, service, and impact.
Welcome back, Jose. I'm happy to have you. So how did you begin turning your trauma into something that could help others?
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Well, as I mentioned in the other segment, that was something that came, I truly believe the hands of luck all over this process because as I said, I flew to Washington one month after I came back, and there came something that for me was kind of a I didn't know what was going on because again, five years, I was like lost in translation. I was like coming in a time machine. So I didn't know what was going on. So I learned that our family had created with other 19 families, a campaign called a Bring Our Family Home Campaign, is a foundation that today attends hostage survivor and attend family, et cetera. And they had to put the pressure to get us released. They had created a mural, a mural wall, a big alley in Georgetown, Washington, that today is called the Freedom Alley, where the faces of the 19 hostage were there.
Sifu Tom, the faces. And my face was there.
And one of the faces I was in that mural was this basketball player, Brini Griner. So Brini was kind of famous.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Yeah, she's held Hostage in Russia.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There was Brini Griner, Trevor Reid, Paul Whelan, Paul Rosuzena, Luke Damon.
But a lot of people that have been in the present, Matrargi Murata Abbas, people all over the world that today all of them have come back, by the way. All of them, almost 95% of them have come back. And I was there in that mural. And when I arrived to the mural, it was funny because I saw a bunch of journalists all over for all the medias.
You know, all the media was the Journal, New York Times, abc, fox, cnn. And they interviewed me there because I didn't know, I was not aware that I was the first person that had come back to go to that alley. And that's where I began to get that connection with the media, all this stuff.
And I decided to create my coaching program, but I didn't speak.
So that year I was invited to speak in the Congress, and after that I spoke in un So I had spoken two times in the un and after that I began to get invited. I began to talk in Ivy Leagues, universities, museums, Fortune 500 companies.
I have been actively speaking this year. I did like 50 speeches, you know, and I created my own because I began to get interviewed in podcasts. I did like 200 interviews all over the world. But I decided, oh, I love this, I want to do my own show. And I created a podcast called Building Resilience.
And it evolved and it came to be my TV show here in Almedia. So now I have the podcast, the TV show.
The book that I'm heavily promoting is going to be for Black Friday, the second edition. He became an Audi book. It's being translated in several languages. He won several awards. It was a best true memoir, 2025 in the International Book Award. He won four times Amazon bestseller. So, you know, I begin to get exposed in the media. And for me, it was funny because I never did nothing at easy in the past.
So I decided to turn that pain into what today for me is my purpose.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: And how do you get people who have a past, who could be ashamed to stop feeling ashamed, but to start using their past for good? Like how can you provide some advice or some guidance to people on how to. How to move forward from everything that's happened to them?
[00:29:29] Speaker B: Everything has to do with faith. Everything has to do with faith in you, in faith in God. Because the thing is, when you have faith, when you begin to really understand what a faith is, that is that not seeing you where you are today, looking yourself where you really want to be. And when you find your purpose and you really pursue those dreams, the situation begins to change. And I'm going to say something here to your audience.
Neuroscience. They confirm that the observer can transform what is observed. What that means that you can change your reality. I agree you have to work intentionally. You have to believe in yourself and believe in God. So there's the way that things can change. So if you're ashamed using your value, and I'm here to say that that's not true. And when I talk about my second book that came out is called Unbreakable, my show is called Unbreakable. And my program, my coaching program is called Unbreakable because I truly believe that everybody has inside that unbreakable spirit. Because remember, we are image of God. But you have to unleash it, that you have to believe in yourself.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: And I can attest to that statement.
Know even given my past and the things that have happened to me, my faith has what, what has led me to what we're doing in our communities, in, in the world. And just having that faith and knowing that it's not always going to be bad, right? Like there's a light at the end of the tunnel. There's hope. There's things that we can all do together to make this life better.
So I couldn't agree with you more on, on faith and God and believing.
And I think sometimes we, we in the media and those of us that speak out, we kind of hesitate a little bit away from our faith, right? But we understand that it's something that we need to profess, right? Like our faith. And, and that's what's going to get people through to the next, you know, the next stage of their lives.
And that brings us to healing.
I think that, you know, you had a lot of healing to do to get back to your family. You had your healing, did you helping others in these times, did that help heal you? Did that help propel your healing?
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Oh, yes, of course. For me, being vocal with this has been part of my process, but I'm going far beyond because I now not only want to heal myself, I want to help to heal each others.
That's why I created, I'm starting a foundation that is going to launch this even Tuesday. It's is called Angels Helping in Earth. My foundation is to help in a Hispanic community trauma recovery for people that have suffered trauma. So for me, helping others to heal and to discover that after their trauma, they can be better person, do better is part of my new mission in life.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: So we're gonna, we're definitely gonna talk about your angels helping on Earth like that. We're definitely going to have a lot more conversation on that.
But let's, let's talk a moment on you giving some advice to our viewers that can make their hardest, that can take their hardest moments to start something powerful.
So it's, you know, people don't know where to start.
You know, a lot of people live in their pain. And if helping others can help us, what can we do to give advice to our viewers and our audience today to turn those hardest moments into something more meaningful and something powerful?
[00:33:32] Speaker B: One of the hard things is believe in yourself. And if you're going to any situation in your life, I'm going to show you this band that I always carry here. This band was given by my wife when she visited me.
Maybe you cannot see it here, but here it says, never give up.
[00:33:48] Speaker A: Never give up.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: So while you're going in your life, no matter how many times you have fall or you have failed or you have broke or whatever have gone in your life, there's always, that's not the end of the road. There is a new beginning. You have to believe in yourself and never give up. Never give up.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: I agree.
I tell people all the time, like, it's going to be okay, right? Like it is going to be okay.
And you just have to keep moving forward. Just keep going.
I have a really close friend that always says to stay consistent. Right? Just keep going. And I, and I think the never give up. And I love that you carry that on your wrist and that it's something that your wife gave you on her first visit when she got to see you and that you were able to keep it right and remember and look down and gave you hope.
Maybe we can challenge our viewers to get a saying that they can wear on their wrist, right? That that can help them every day. Look at it and say, let's keep moving.
We have so much more to unpack here, but we'll be right back. And up next, we're going to close with Jose's newest mission, his nonprofit Angels Helping on Earth, and how he is turning captivity into a purpose. Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more unstoppable stories and strategies for turning obstacles into opportunities.
And we're back. I'm Nicole Anderson, and you're watching Underdog to Unstoppable on NOW Media Television. Let's keep pushing past limits together.
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Welcome back to our final segment of Underdog to Unstoppable. In this closing chapter, we explore Jose's new mission, his non profit angels helping on earth launching this Giving Tuesday.
This work is born from the darkest chapter of his life transformed into a calling to help trauma survivors rebuild their lives. This segment reframes trauma as a catalyst, catalyst for purpose, and shows viewers how meaningful change can grow from extreme leadership. Welcome back Jose.
We're really excited to find to finish our segments on your nonprofit.
So your nonprofit launches this Giving Tuesday, which is tomorrow, right?
[00:36:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Yes. Can you share the moment during your captivity when this dream first came to your heart?
[00:37:00] Speaker B: Well, let me tell you to the audience and people have to hear this here because maybe we'll feel a little crazy. You know, we were like in our third year of our captivity and by that time we were really strong with our faith and we were praying on a daily basis. We had like a three hour prayers and reading the Bible. So we were heavy praying and sick of us. So we did it like within three hours as I said. So that allowed us that when it arrived midnight, we were in peace, resting in peace. So in the middle of the night I had a dream.
I had a dream where God came and was showing me like the future and he was telling me that I will need when I come back to create a nonprofit. And he gave me the name and he told me I was going to have a TV show and I saw everything going and I thought that it was a dream because I didn't have that revelation really. I thought that it was a DVD dream and I was awe.
But when I woke up I did like a drawing because I was smuggling nervous with my wife. I did a drawing and I draw like an org chart.
When I came back my wife had a drawing because she thought it was weird when I sent that letter to her.
And I begin to see things coming after I came back, coming in the way how I saw it in the dream.
And when I began to see the things coming exactly how I dreamed it, I said I need to start this nonprofit.
And it was funny because I have a therapist. Her name is daisy. I have three years with Daisy, with CS each week.
Because in the beginning, I'm having PTSDNs, sister. Now we are practicing and we. And, and. And when I'm talking with her, she's going to be partnering with me in these nonprofits. She's going to be my biggest supporter because she's a trauma recovery specialist. So now, now we're launching this nonprofit because for me, it's important that one of the big things, one of the big challenges that Islamic community here is here in Houston and in Florida. It's the same going to start here in Houston because we're going to be doing baby step until we can grow. But the point is that the people that comes here to this country, sometimes they're trying to escape the situation in their foreign country. You know, problem with the government of that country, like Venezuelan, for example, or problem with abuse or even human trafficking.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: I was going to say trafficking. That's a huge thing for somebody coming over behind that.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: But the point is that nobody take care of them.
So the people have to move on, do their life here in this country, but they don't get support.
So you creating a generational trauma, because people carry that trauma and they will and transfer that trauma to their kids and their young kids is becoming a generational problem. So one of the things that our nonprofit wants to take care is to cut that process and help them. So for us, it's key that our genealogy is nonprofit because we are going to, as we said, we're going to be in here Houston, but our vision is to do it nationwide.
[00:40:57] Speaker A: And you're launching the nonprofit with support from the Kingdom Fundraiser Organization.
Can you tell us a little bit about that partnership?
[00:41:07] Speaker B: No. Kingdom Fundraiser is a good pastor, a good friend. Pastor Willie Peterson, that for these things that if you ask me how I met him, I will say it was God to lead it to me. I remember he was doing.
I interviewed.
He was doing a seminar, and I came to the seminar, and after finishing the seminar, I chatted with him and said, I need to talk with you.
And after the meeting, we did a zoom call. And I said, pastor, I need to work with you. And he said, why? Because God told me that you were gonna work with me. And he left. He said, if God said it, I have to do it.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: Yep, he said it. You have to do it. You don't have a choice.
[00:41:54] Speaker B: And he has been a blessing because he has been helping me organize everything. And he's helping me in launching for the fundraising because the general idea is we're going to do the soft launching this Giving Tuesday, but the big launching is going to be here in Houston. We're going to do a party. He's going to come here and I'm going to invite all the people that has been with me all this journey, including those foundations that today I support them and our community. So we're planning to do a big launching for beginning of next year. So this Giving Tuesday is going to be like a soft launching.
The nonprofit webpage is Angels in Dot Earth Angels in Dot.
If you go there, you will see all the vision of the nonprofit, all the mission of the nonprofit. Beside the trauma recovery has another thing, but the main thing is going to be in trauma recovery. And if you support this, resonate with you. There's several bottles to be made there through PayPal, Stripe and other methods of the nations.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: Which part of the mission feels like it's the most urgent to you for the Houston Hispanic community? I know they're all urgent.
But if you had to pick up, pick out one of your mission from trauma recovery, legal guidance, financial literacy or hands on support, which one would you consider to be the most urgent need for the community trauma recovery?
[00:43:38] Speaker B: And because the Easy is a T recovery space analyst, we're going to launch tackle that thing from day one.
[00:43:48] Speaker A: Okay. And for people listening who feel hopeless or lost in their own struggles, what do you want the launch of Angels Helping on Earth to show them about resilience, purpose and the power to begin again.
[00:44:04] Speaker B: Part of the mission beside trauma programs, we're going to be doing kind of training.
I particularly are going to be doing some trainings in resilience and leadership. Part of what they do in my coaching, I'm going to try to put it in that and share with them for free, you know, so if you go to the webpage, you will see there the way you can connect with us. We want to partner too.
So other foundations like yours, for example, if we see benefit married with a good partner, we want to be partnered.
We don't want to do this alone. For example, I have a good friend here in Houston that he's heavy in the food pantry service. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to partner with him. So he's having that. I already talk with him to partner with him. So we want to partner. We could. We want to do collaboration.
[00:45:00] Speaker A: So Jose, the work that you're doing is extraordinary and not even to mention your history, your past your journey, where everything has taken you.
Where can people follow your mission? Donate or learn more about Angels helping on Earth.
[00:45:17] Speaker B: As I said, we have a web page called Angels in Doc.
Okay. If you go Angelsin Earth, you will see that webpage. You will see all the things that the foundation will do. And there is the donation button. They have several donation buttons. It even has a QR code if you want to take it.
[00:45:44] Speaker A: Okay.
So please go check out Jose's nonprofit Angels in Earth is the website and go check it out and make a donation and help trauma recovery in the Houston Hispanic population.
Jose, thank you for your courage, your resilience and your leadership. Your story is a powerful, powerful reminder that even in captivity, purpose can be born and that no pain is wasted when it becomes service to others.
To our viewers. Thank you for joining us on Underdog to Unstoppable. Remember, you are never too broken to begin again. We'll see you next time.
