Embracing Challenges Listening To Your Gut And Building The Life You Want With Houda Chami

Entrepreneur Hoda Shami joins the We're Out of Time podcast. I wanted to create a safe environment for people not to compete but to collaborate. There is no competition. The only competition is with yourself. No one is going to come save you. You create your own life. You have to fight for your own vision. It's nice to have a niceness. It's a reward for the work you've done. It shouldn't be a focus. Fain is fuel. It makes you fight for a better future. You have to embrace pain. Thank you for listening to the We're Out of Time podcast with Richard Tate. If you haven't already, please follow the podcast. Rate and review. And if you're getting value out of We're Out of Time, share it with someone else you know. If someone has a problem with substance use disorder, please call 1-CALL PLACEMENT. That's 888-831-1581. And if we can't help you, we'll make a referral to someone who can. Please. We're out of time. Hoda, thanks for coming by today. I really appreciate it. It's an honor. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me. Yes, ma'am. My pleasure. Before we even start, I'm a little bit in shock because I've never had anybody here early. Ever. I mean, I've had like the ambassador to the EU was early and the Canadians were early. The rappers are never early. The influencers are never early. They're always late. And you were 10 minutes early. Of course. So you're a business person. None of this other nonsense, right? I think so. No, no, that's your... Understand that I don't know anything about you. Oh, really? Never. Sure. Never. Because I don't do that before we start. Okay. Okay, because I want everybody to have the color of the whole thing. Well, guess what? Yes. I don't know anything about you either. I'm not upset about it. On my life. So we get to know about each other today. I'm excited. See, this is me too. It's lovely. Thank you for being on time. Now that I know you're a business person and I feel a lot more comfortable here speaking to somebody real and believable, Huda, tell me about yourself. Tell everyone about yourself. Well, my name is Huda Chami. I am a Moroccan American. I came here 12 years ago to chase the American dream and chase freedom in the American dream and to create a life for myself as a woman, step out of my comfort zone and actually create something meaningful. I am the founder and CEO of GPN. That stands for Girls Power Network. We are a membership club, society, sisterhood community in Saddle, California. It's been a journey. It started my company two and a half years ago and it's taken off to a speed that I didn't imagine and with the power of course of social media. I'm also like an event producer and I also recently launched my own GPN Creative Marketing Agency, which is going pretty well. A lot of things are happening for me and yeah, I'm an entrepreneur basically. You did that. That's a lot to unpack, but what got to me most and nothing gets to me. People talk to me. I'm like, okay. But what got to me was you came here from Morocco for freedom. What's going on in Morocco? I'm like the ugly American and I don't understand what you just said, but it felt significant in something we need to talk about. So I grew up in Morocco. I was born there. I was born in Casa Blanca. I come from a really nice, humble, successful family. I was never missing anything. When I say to chase freedom, it's when you're leaving a third world country, I didn't feel like I did own my life 100%. Your life is influenced by the people around you, your family. They want you to leave and a certain way to be a certain person. Like an Islamic thing? No, not an Islamic thing. They want you to be, they set up your life for you basically. And I am somebody that I see outside the box. I've never fit. You just wanted more. You just wanted more. I just wanted more for myself and out of life. If I stayed back in my country, I already knew what my life would look like in five, 10 years, I would have married somebody. There is not room to grow there. In America, especially in business, I wanted the world. I wanted more out of life. I wanted to create something from nothing. And over there, America is the only country where you can start from nothing and make it. In my country, it's very hard. It's not like your opportunities are not like here, obviously. Right now, correct me if I'm wrong. Listen, I'm sure you made the right choice. Obviously, you don't look like you're upset about it. But now we can work from anywhere in the world. So the opportunities on your phone or your laptop, even people in LA don't work in office. I don't even have an office. You're sitting in it. I got 250 employees and you're sitting in the office. Nobody does that anymore. Everybody works remote. If you were there today or if people are there today with this, can they have upward mobility or no? Yes. If you look at it this way, I don't think we are destined as human beings to live in one place for the rest of our lives. You can work remotely, but you should be more open to traveling around the world. Why? Because it gives you opportunity to meet people with different cultures, religions, to be more open to that and to build your network. Do you know what's funny today? The kids today talk about networks. As an employer, someone who's an older, I know you don't know anything about me, I'm the chairman of a healthcare corporation. It just seems like people work with people they like. I never looked at it as a network. I sometimes think when you say something like that, you lose authenticity, not you, anybody. For me, I prefer, yeah, I just want to go out and meet interesting people. I'm like a professional friend. That's really what it is because people work with people they like. Does that make sense? I guess, but it's all about your perception, how you define network. How you receive it, it's all how you receive it. That's not how you meant it. You meant it. That's how kids talk today. Believe me, it's a different language. I just wanted to give you that feedback for when you're talking to people because you present so well. You're very impressive. You showed up early. Come on, man. It's a compliment. Yes, ma'am. Nothing pisses me off, actually. I always take it as a lesson or blessing. I don't get pissed that easily. I really don't. You know what's the most impressive thing about you? The most impressive thing about you is there's nothing more romantic to me ever than starting something from nothing. Nothing. You don't know anything about me, so I started from nothing. I was homeless. I practiced law for 13 years without a law license. I made a lot of money and I had a huge cooking habit, so I'd take care of that. Then I started a rehab without ever going to rehab and turned it into a nine-figure sale with no debt and no partners. I stayed for five years in a non-compete situation. The day my non-compete ended, I called my old company and I spoke to 10 of the best people in the industry. I said, I'm sorry for the late notice, guys, but everybody comes home today. All of them gave notice within one hour. 14 followed a couple weeks later and then my next six and one. I've got 31 of the best practitioners in the world that left a 21-year fully mature, world-renowned treatment facility and came to do this with us. It's impressive. But here's the cool part. That's the most romantic thing in the world, building something from nothing. I did it once, but then I got bored. When you come back, you're supposed to do with other people's money because you never want to donkey off the fortune that you just made because you know what happens when the guy with the fortune donkeys it off, don't you? Right? Swinging from a shower rod. Okay, that's what that guy does. Bind, give a shit. So I'm into this thing. I threw like 20 million bucks into it. We're just now breaking even. How long did you take? I started in June of 23, so now it's been 24, 25, 26 months. Okay. Right? No guts, no glory. You take the risk. Because why? Why? Because there's nothing more romantic than this. Is there? Is there? No. You have that in you. You're going to be rich. You're going to be a good lady. You're going to have everything. There's nothing you're not going to have. And I'm never wrong. Not about shit like that. All right. You immigrated to the United States chasing opportunity. What was the moment you realized your pain or struggle had to become your purpose? You know, when I came here 12 years ago, I was in a very abusive relationship. Abusive relationship? Abusive relationship, correct. I went through depression and I was suicidal. So I saw death. I was like beating myself. I hated myself, how I looked like. I was not social. It was really, really bad. And one day I looked at in the mirror and I fixed my smile. And they say, fake it till you make it. I was walking every day. Just I didn't want to smile, but I was faking it. Faking it, faking it to become habit and then till it changed my life. And then I realized that it was the moment that I realized that I have to turn my pain into power. You're the best. You are the best. You know, it's funny. It's funny. Growth never happens from anything other than pain. It doesn't. Of course. Change doesn't occur ever until you're in enough pain that you've had enough. Of course, pain is fuel. Pain is what makes you going, is what makes you fight for a better future to be the best version of yourself. You have to embrace pain. What do your parents do? My dad owns a law firm. Where? Morocco. Nice. My brother also is a lawyer and I'm the rebel, basically. Hold on. I don't believe in school. I actually dropped out of school and I came here. I had one year left to graduate and I was like sitting down in the classroom and then everything went blue. Everything went blurry and I was like, this, I'm out. If I stay here, I would have such a miserable life. I went to business school. I don't believe you learn anything when it comes to business in school. Business comes from experience, working for somebody and mastering your art, the system, whatever you want to create. And I don't believe in school. I think school creates followers. It doesn't create leaders. So. Fail again. School doesn't create leaders. It creates followers, basically. On man time. Employees. One more time for me. On man time. School creates followers. It doesn't create leaders. It creates employees, basically. Yes. True words were never spoken. All right. In a world obsessed with individual success, you built a network rooted in sisterhood. What made you choose community over competition? Well, let's rewind that. Why I created it? I created it because I wanted to create my own family and the family that I've never had. I wanted to create something genuine and I wanted to create a safe space, safe environment for people not to compete but to collaborate in order to get to the top. You need to collaborate. There is no competition. The only competition is with yourself, is to bother yourself. You will never succeed if you copy. You compete with yourself. You create for yourself and for others, bringing them value. So that's how you stay authentic. You're a thousand percent correct. Correct. And your emotional intelligence is far ahead of your age, for sure. I mean, you're very impressive. But I want to talk about that yet. Rhyme me, though, I do want to talk about exactly what your business is. I don't want to leave it airy-fairy. I want to know exactly what you do. I mean, it's very simple. I lead and I run. I lead. And I run a membership community for women. And what do they get out of it? Events, sisterhood. What's events? Give me an example of an event. We do, we host events monthly for the community. Yes, everything that I do, I don't just come and host events. I host events. Everything that I do, I do with intention and purpose. That is going to empower people through, you know... So tell me about the last... Experience. I mean, I've done so many, can be like a wellness event. We bring healers, practitioners. And we said, it has to be the intention. I want you to leave my events with an impact, you know? Of course. So that was the last one, the wellness... I mean, I've done last month, I mean, I've done so much. We did wellness, networking. It's like, every time is different. We did like... If I throw on a dress and a wig, can I come? Some events are actually for both men and women. And the last event I did was in collaboration with Poise Wellness. This, my friend owns this big wellness community. And we partnered together and we had at least, I think, like 500, 600 people. All collab with the one. Really? That would be amazing. Yeah, why not? I mean, I'll check the venue. Let's see if the venue is nice. The venue? Oh, where would the venue? You need a venue? Yeah. You like this venue? Yeah. We can do... Can we do a ceremony ritual here? Yeah. We can do whatever you want to do. We can do whatever you want to do. I don't care. I'm cool with it. Well, I'll find you. I'll find you. Yeah. Good. All right. Behind the curated posts and polished events, what personal struggles do you still face as a woman leading other women? I mean, it's, you know, being a leader, it's a challenge because everyone look up to you. Everyone comes to you if there is a problem. I'm like, I am the founder of this community, but I have also like my own personal life. And, you know, anytime that there is a problem, they have to come and like, they come to me because I am the face of the company. And I don't want to deal with that, you know, but I do. And you have to understand that people like women are very emotional. So you need to be more, I'm going to say that gentle with your words, you know, be more understanding of their feelings and how they approach things. So, yeah. What do you say to women who feel like they have no support system who don't feel powerful yet? To go find that support system. How would you do that? Find community. Very important. What do you think about? Community can be anything. It can be your best, one of your best friends. It can be your family. It can be your girlfriend. I don't know. It can be any therapist. Find someone to talk to. Find someone that you trust enough that you would be vulnerable. You know, being vulnerable is a good thing because you're just like, go. Sometimes you need to let go and, you know, be able to be transparent, fully transparent. Transparency is good because you clear everything out, you know? So, yeah. I think women should be reminded of their beauty, should be reminded that they are capable of achieving things. You also need somebody in your life to remind you how capable you are to motivate you. It can be, as I said, community, friend, whatever, a coach. Sometimes it's very good to have a mentor or a coach. You know what's coming up for me right now? Yeah. You know, because I'm thinking to myself, wait a minute, what you talking about? Like more women go to college today than anybody. There's a ton of women CEOs. We just had a woman vice president. She had multiple women secretaries of state. A ton of governors throughout the country are women. And I'm thinking, what you talking about? And, yes, there's always going to be a residual effect because of the history that women, some women are going to be looked at by small minds as being less capable than men. But there's ignorant people everywhere. I think what's happening, correct me if I'm wrong, but based on your upbringing, this means so much to you that you're taking a lot of what was there, right? And superimposing it or projecting it onto here. I'm not saying that it's not there. What I'm saying is it runs deeper for you. It means more because of your background. Is that true? Yes, it is true. Okay, there it is. Good job. Okay, well, you know what? Then your experience is going to end up helping a lot of women because, like I said, there's a significant portion of the country that thinks they're better than women. And I think the exact opposite, actually. I think women are so much better than men. It's not even debatable. Like, what do I have doing 90% women working at Carrera? Yeah, I mean, women are the best to work with. They're soft, right? They're more competent. They're self-starters. They're more loyal. I mean, I can go on and on. They're also more understanding. For sure. You know, and they can actually understand people. They're very emotional, so they understand people's feelings and how to approach things and how to communicate. If you could give your younger self one tool, not advice, but an actual emotional or mental tool to survive what you went through, what would it be? Everything is temporary. Keep going. Wait, wait. I don't know. No, no, no, no. That was beautiful. Do you know what I call that? Living with unresolved problems. That's muscle that you built. Okay. If you can live with an unresolved problem, and your heart rate is just like that, and you say, okay, I don't know what this is, but we'll figure this out. I don't know the answer to this, but I know where I can get it. Whatever. That's where you need to be. That's exactly what you just said. It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Do you know anything else on that? There is a problem. There is a solution. Not maybe at that specific time, but let the time find the solution for you. It's going to come. It's going to appear. The solution will appear. So don't be mad. Don't stress. Don't panic. Everything will be fine. Everything will be okay. Just keep going. So there are so many things when I was growing up, I was like, oh my God, why have this problem now? Oh my God. And then if I just understood that everything is temporary, just let it go and just keep going with life. And you realize that there are more important things in life than just one problem. And the second you're done with that problem, another one comes up and it's... But that's the beauty of life, which has... Life wouldn't be what life is if we didn't have any problems. Life is about resolving problems. It's about finding solutions to thrive, to bother ourselves, be the best version of ourselves, and build things. So... Do you know what I was just thinking when you said that is no one will come to save me. Only I can save me. Of course, yes. Yeah. And so when I was thinking of you, I was thinking that you knew that, right? But do you feel it viscerally? Like, do you really believe? These people can work with me and they're smart and they can do what they do. But no one's going to save us but me. Like, it's here. Like, if I don't get it done, okay, we're finished. It's all on me. Do you ever feel that way? Yes. Do you know what my dad once told me? Tell me. No one is going to come save you. The only savior in life is your pocket. It's the only thing that can save you. And some people think it might be crazy but we are here in this life. You create your own life. You have this opportunity to create your own life. This is your own fight. You'll fight for it. No one is going to fight your own fight. No one sees... No one is going to see the same vision as that you have between your eyes. You have to fight for your own vision. You have to fight for your own life. You should be living in Silicon Valley. So you shouldn't be here. There's no reason why you should be here. You have to move. You have to move to Silicon Valley. There's no reason for you to be here because you're so elegant and you're so... You have a singleness of purpose. You have a singleness of focus. Okay, I'm not going to say you're not going to kill it on your own. You f***ing are. But you need to be up there with the energy. Let me tell you what else is going to happen to you. Okay, you're going to be a fantastic man. Okay, he's going to be everything. And then you're going to f*** together with him. Rule the world. You got to go up there. That's what... Excuse me. I'm God's favorite. Okay, I'm a legit moron. Okay, I'm up here. You want me to help you? Here, this is what... This is it. God sitting here, there's Moses and there's Jesus. And God says, hey, guys, see that guy Richard Tate down there? I'm going to make him somebody. And then both these guys take money out of their pocket. Both Jesus and Moses. And they go, I'll take that action. No way, not him. Pick the homeless guy over there. You'll probably be right, but not this idiot. Okay, I'm telling you. This man, this... I am his favorite. I get these things all the time. Yes, I'm only half nuts. But I get this thing all the time. I'm telling you where you need to be. That is why you are here today. You need to go to Silicon Valley. That's where you need to live. That's where you need to build your life. That's where you're going to meet the people to help you to achieve all of this. To achieve all of your dreams. This better make that... Because when she's a billionaire and I call her and I say, hey, I need some money for this charity and she tells me to go off. I'm going to play this to everybody. No, honey. No, I've been told to off by richer people. No, writing a check. I mean, money is just a tool. I'm not after the money. I want the money to create things. I don't want to be a consumer of life. I want to create things for the world. I find joy in creating things and building from nothing. This is what I love the most. But you don't want... And see it come into life. But not things. You're not into things. Listen, it's nice to have nice things. It's a reward for the work you've done. It shouldn't be a focus. Like, it's nice to have nice things, but with the limit. You know, things are just things. Do you fly private? Sometimes. Do you want to fly private all the time? Fuck yeah. Excellent. I was just testing you. But not just me. What do you mean? I want... To take everyone. Yes. I know. This is what I'm... Oh, I know who you are. Joy is not me. It's being able to have the resources for to fly the people that I love. Baby, we're the same person. The only thing that's different between us is I'm older and I'm a different sex. Other than that, we're the same soul. Okay? It took you a while. You didn't pick that up. I mean, this is exactly... This is perfect. You're perfect. This is where you need to be. You need to be in Silicon Valley to meet a man like me 20 years younger and a lot smarter. Hi, kitty babe. That's who you are. That's where you need to be. Your whole world's going to change. What's the craziest or most powerful moment that's happened since starting Girls Power Network? Something that shook you, changed you or made you cry? Seen it coming to life, but the reason I've never said why, how I created this, I lived spiritual enlightenment. I'm sorry, one more time. I lived spiritual enlightenment. You lived it or you needed it? I lived it. And I lived it. It was like when going through phases in life. It took me like one year just leaving this enlightenment and they were nice that I didn't sleep and I felt energy around me. And then I started to become very creative. Sometimes I'm like, how did I do this? This is just not me. There must be another frequency. There must be another energy with me or that showed me the way. It's impossible because I wasn't this smart before. I wasn't the person that I was, that I am now. Anyway, I went through these phases and then one day, but I was sitting down and I started talking to, we call it God, I don't know, to the, you know. I am ready to receive. I'm ready to wherever you have in store for me, I'm ready to receive. Call me crazy when I was also younger back in my country. I was very, what am I going to say? I didn't have that much friends and I was very reserved as a kid and I was always talking to energy or talking. I was like, and I knew deep inside me that I was destined for something bigger in this life. I didn't know what it was at that time. I was, but I felt as like this is not me. I'm destined. I'm not be here. I'm destined for something else. What is it? I don't know. When I came here, I started feeling it. I started feeling, oh my God, I am on the path. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I am on this path. And then I leave this, I did that Tony Robbins seminar. It did change my life. You know, it was like rebirth, like enlarge the power within. And then I lived spiritual enlightenment and then, and then I, as I said, I felt energy around me. But now when I created this, I was sitting on my bed and I had this idea. I started with WhatsApp group chat and I had this idea. I was like, okay, it's time. I'm going to create a community now. And then from that moment, I know that I'm not alone. People think I am not alone. I have energy around me. I cannot see it, but I feel it and it talks to me. It talks to me. It tells me. I know exactly what, remember this. I know exactly where I'm going to go in life. It's just a matter of time and it's just about taking the steps. It's about trusting the process and enjoying the journey. And it just tells me, just be patient, be patient, be patient. You're right where you're supposed to be. So just so you know, that is my exact experience. Really? Exact. Exact. I don't know. Sometimes I think maybe I'm crazy. I think so. I thought so too forever. I thought so too forever. But you got a lifeline just like I got. When I was smoking crack, I would say, God, I'm sorry. I know I'm disappointing you. I know I'm a disappointment. But I love you and I swear we'll start again. We'll try again. But during this run, keep me safe. Okay. And I promise you we'll try again. I always had that connection that you had. No one taught it to me. My parents didn't teach it to me. No one did. I always had it. And you feel the pull. And when you feel the pull, you go that way. And you have the faith to know. You probably like me. You probably check in multiple times and you're like, are we okay here? Are we good here? Yeah. Right. And then I get a warm blanket. A feeling over me. If I get the warm blanket, I know I'm good. And if I don't, I keep searching. You're going to have everything, all of it. And you can't explain this to people. You can't. Because they'll look at you like you're insane. You talk this kind of shit to other business people. If you're asking for money, they'll be like, you don't know anything. Okay. But your heart is good. Thank you. And you have it. You feel it, right? I do. I do. Then everybody else, because that's all that matters. Trust me, I've gone through so much bullshit. Okay. I've lived a life where I've been shot at numerous times in just horrible, horrible. And then I've had the best of everything on, by the way. You are, you're going to have it all, all of it. Because you're heart-centered and you're God-centered. And you're right. Money is just the tool to make the world a better place for you, your friends, and everyone you can. Right? You are so impressive. How do people get exposed to the Girl Power Network? I mean, you can find us on social media. Our handle is Curse Power Nets. The website is www.cursepowernetwork.com. And the Instagram also for the agency, we do everything, production, events, strategy, PR. I mean, we do it all. So it's GPN agency. That's the social media on Instagram. So yeah, just hit us up on WhatsApp Business or DMS. So yeah. Awesome. All right. Well, I want to thank you guys for watching and thank you for having me. I just want to leave this podcast on this note. Just believe in yourself. Never stop believing. Never give up. Stay consistent. You can do it. Anything is possible in life. Just be at the right place with the right people. And you can make it happen. And see you next Tuesday.