Interview: Dr.Venus Opal Reese Talks Book Tour Coming Up at Highways
By: Don Grigware Jan. 10, 2020
Best-selling author, acclaimed international speaker and business mentor Dr. Venus Opal Reese will kick-off her latest tour, The Raw Truth Book+ Tour, during MLK weekend at Highways in Santa Monica. Highways is stretching the limits once again to add enrichment to the Los Angeles theatre scene. Dr. Venus is one very theatrical lady who tells our readers in detail where she came from and how she has risen to the heights of fame and success.
Tell our readers about your background and how it affected your current career. As a writer, I am always pleased to see someone rise up out of poverty, take charge and shape their destiny.
Dr. Venus: By the time I was 16, I was living on the streets of Baltimore, MD, eating out of trashcans and sleeping in urine and beer. On the streets, everyone lies. Streetlife is rooted in survival. I had to discern quickly what a person wanted and what to say in order to stay alive. I became masterful at hearing what people are NOT saying.
This specific capacity is my "million-dollar moneymaker." Everyone has one. It's formed in a moment of crisis when life knocks you to your knees. I can "hear" what people will buy from only you that is rooted in your lived experience. I then position, package, and price it so my clients become the highest-paid leader in their industries, live fulfilled lives and leave a legacy that transforms the world. Simply put, I turned myself into a category of one and I do the same for high net-worth, top-performing, high achievers, business owners, and experts. If I hadn't lived on the streets, I would never have grossed $5 million in less than 6 years, without loans, investors, a sales team, or government funding.
It's not in spite of the streets but BECAUSE of what I learned on the streets I am now able to empower and model for others how to "pimp" their pain instead of their pain pimping them. My clients have grossed millions by implementing my strategies, systems, and programs.
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What does your book detail? Is there a specific plan to follow?
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Dr. Venus: From the means streets of Baltimore to Stanford Ph.D., to Black Woman Millionaire, The Raw Truth: A Pimp's Daughter's Diary is a relentlessly honest and emotionally intimate account of my spiritual healing from a traumatic childhood to salvation and personal power. Inspiring, disturbing, and as "real" as it gets, enter a world very few survive. Ruthlessly authentic, sensually erotic, and viscerally explicit, this story is a road map to guide you, if you're ready, from socially acceptable acts of self-hate to self-making, self-love, to ultimately self-respect.
Explain the different parts to your evening, so our readers know exactly what to expect.
Dr. Venus: The Raw Truth Book+ Tour: Pimp Slap The Past Into Peace, Purpose, Passion & Profits is a 3-part experience. Unlike conventional book tours, this is a full-day experience for book lovers, lifetime learners, and theatergoers.
1. The Book Signing: Bring your copy of my bestselling book, The Raw Truth: A Pimp Daughter's Diary, or purchase one on-site (come early to get yours before they are sold out!), and let's grab a photo together.
2. The Wealth Workshop: During this three-hour session, I will share how I turned my painful and traumatic childhood into millions. And meaning. If you have ever felt trapped by the past, knowing there's SO much more for you, don't miss this session.
I am also including "love seats," where a few select audience members get to come on stage where I use my multi-million-dollar brain to show you how to monetize your pain or turn your pain into purpose!
We will finish the session by passing the mic to members in the audience (you?) for "Share YOUR Truth" moments to be witnessed, heard, seen, and confirmed by a loving tribe of fellow "Truth-Tellers" who understand.
3. The Solo Performance: This is where the book comes to LIFE! It's one thing to read my powerful and raw words on the page, and it's great to learn how YOU can pimp your own pain into peace or profits. But to SEE, FEEL, and WITNESS me bringing my words to life? It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you can't get ANYWHERE else on the planet!
How much spirituality is involved in the program?
Dr. Venus: This program is rooted in my personal relationship with God-as a street urchin. I talk to God like he is a Black Man who just got out of prison. #realtalk So, my relationship with God is VERY "Street." In my imaginings, God is a gangsta not an angelic white man in the sky. Because I grew-up on the streets, I needed a God who bleeds; someone I could relate to. So, the entire program is rooted in my personal, street-life centered relationship with God. It's important to know I didn't meet God in the church. I met God on the streets. I met Jesus in the club. (Kirk Franklin's "Stomp) So, if a person is "religious" they will clutch their pearls when they hear how real and raw God and I roll. I curse, cry and pray-sometimes in the same breath.
My work-written, taught, or performed-doesn't fit into a box of respectability. As a girl from the streets, I don't traffic in respectability. I traffic in truth. I wasn't built for the church. I was built for the marketplace. I am foul-mouth, sexually explicit, queer-identified and into kink. AND I love the Lord. Just like the imperfect vessels from the Bible-from David, to Moses, to Saul turned Paul-I'm a hot mess on a good day! That doesn't mean I can't love you. And it doesn't mean God can't use me for those of us who would NEVER make it with a "traditional" relationship with spirituality.
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How do audiences generally react?
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Dr. Venus: My audiences are hungry for the truth. Some have to set aside their judgments of what a Godly woman would say or talk about, which I regard as admirable. But those who are open-minded and open-hearted walk away inspired, with new fresh perspectives and wisdom. I always recommend audiences check out some of my Facebook or Instagram live streams, YouTube videos, and blog articles to get a sense of my flow before they come. That way the aren't surprised by how I remix the sacred with the streets. I got an edge on me. I do prepare new audience members, fans and followers for what to expect before I start my programs. I make it my business that everyone who comes to my tour stops and performances are taken care of.
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Money is mentioned in the pr. Do you specifically encourage making money as one of the goals or does it come as an aftermath of success?
Dr. Venus: Money is not "effort." It's energy. "Making" money is hard work, so I don't advise it. The millions I have manifested come from healing my own historical, cultural and familial traumas-not my effort. Working hard will not make you rich. It will only make you tired. Most people have been taught to bring in money from what they "do." Rich people bring in money from what they "know."
When I say "know," I don't mean skills, talents or credentials. There are tons of people who have the same skills, talents, and credentials that you have. So, you end up in a rat race where the cheapest price wins. The key isn't "doing." The keys that have made the biggest difference in my life, allowing me to fulfill my destiny, have NOTHING to do with "doing." Truthtelling. Healing. Surrender. Allow. Trust. Receive. These energetic states are magic. The more you heal the more you can receive, without earning it, proving it, overcoming it, hustling, grinding, or slavin'.
I can show you how to break your first million in minutes (and I will at the wealth workshop) but money is the easy part. Healing-that's the rub. When you identify your million-dollar moneymaker that is rooted in your pain-not your brain-and you price, package, and position it properly in the marketplace, financial AND emotional freedom, success, and fulfillment are natural fallouts.
Sum up your life in one sentence. Use past, present, and future in your statement.
Dr. Venus: From the Streets to Stanford, Ph.D., To Hot Mess Millionaire. My life is a miracle.
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Dr. Venus Opal Reese presents The Raw Truth Book Tour at Highways Performances Space & Gallery, located at 1651 18th Street, Santa Monica, on Friday January 17 at 8:30 pm, Saturday January 18 at 8:30 pm and Sunday January 19 at 3: 30 pm. Plus you may attend a free open rehearsal on Monday January 13 at 8: 00 pm.
Contact the following link for tix: https://highwaysperformance.org/ :
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