Turning Your Pain Into Power with Michelle Van Etten

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a brand new friend! One of the best things about what I do is that I get to connect with so many amazing women from all different walks of life. When I met this energetic mompreneur, I knew that we were going to be fast friends. Michelle Van Etten is someone who has really been through life’s challenges and has made it to the other side. Now she is a fantastic business woman!

Michelle is from Vero Beach, Florida, and when she got out of high school, her life took a challenging turn. She was in an abusive relationship and started to realize where her life would end up if she continued down the path she was on. So she did what most 18-year-olds do after high school and went to college, but things still didn’t improve. Michelle made some bad mistakes and decisions that ultimately affected other people. But not the way you think. As she told her story to others, they were able to see their own challenges they go through, and they would be able to come out on the other side. I really wanted to get to know the REAL Michelle because, as you all know, I am all about authenticity.

Michelle was finally able to get out of that abusive relationship and saw that she had lost all sense of who she was as a person. She realized she trusted people so easily that she was taken advantage of by another male student one night in college. That one situation set her down a dangerous path. She was in a constant cycle of hating men, hating life, and not caring if she lived or died. She became an exotic dancer and started doing drugs.

One of the biggest incidents happened when one night, she was out with her brother. When her parents would have a really bad day, they would leave the house and go out for a drive. They drove down the road to a train crossing. A train was coming, but the train was stopped on the track, so they had to go around the train. Seven hours later, a girl saw the train, went around it, and the train was going full blast. Michelle realized at that moment she could have been hit.

Since that day, Michelle stopped doing drugs and quit dancing. She got a bartending job and ended up going back to college. By the time she graduated college, she had received honors, and her life was looking more positive day-by-day. One of her highlights was being able to speak at the 2016 Republican National Convention in front of 50,000 people. But through all that, she still believes she wasn’t at her best self.

Michelle was only accepting perfection at that time in her life. As a result, she sank into a deep depression and gained about 40 pounds. She felt horrible about herself. Michelle didn’t see what she had actually accomplished in her life. Once she really started to think about all she had done, she wanted others to see who you were is not who you are. Every person deserves a second, third, fourth, and fifth chance to get it right. Because if you’re not stumbling forward, you’re not getting anywhere. Life is all about failure, and without that, there is no progress. You just get back up and start over.

If you want to listen to the rest of Michelle’s amazing story, check out the latest Goal Digger Girl Podcast episode!

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