Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned lifestyle and high performance coach. Welcome to

listen up the podcast. On this podcast, I do what I do best, taking complicated information

that is relevant to us now and breaking it down simply with actionable steps you can implement

to level up your life.

I also regularly interview some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on the

planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than anything they ever dreamed

possible, creating everything from nothing.

If you are new here, I encourage you to go back and listen from

episode one when this podcast was previously called Leveling Up for the full transformative experience.

Today I'm here with Melissa Wagi. And listen, today, so today, she's a bestselling author,

an international speaker, founder of Epic Talks, Miami, which is the number one marketing event in, sorry, networking event in South Florida. She's a high performance mindset coach. She has a whole list of accomplishments, but who she is today is not even close to who she was growing up. This story is going to blow you away. When I heard her story, I wanted to whip out a recorder right away. So I'm excited to have her on the show today. Melissa, thank you so much for being here today and talking with my audience. Thank you for so much for having me. Gosh, you've accomplished so much and you're just such a light. And I love everything you do now, who you are in the world, how you've shown up. But take us back because I know you had a very, very different child and that people

probably expect. now, who you are in the world, how you've shown up. But take us back because I know you had a very,

very different child than people probably expect. Growing up was not easy for you. Could you take

us back to who you are? Like, I want to go back to when you were a kid even. What was going on?

Well, I was born into heroin addict parents. So I had a mom and dad that were highly addicted to heroin. And because of that, they lost their three kids. So I went into the foster care system at the age of three. And it was, I don't come from a victim mentality standpoint. I'm so grateful for my past because I truly believe because I went through that

is who I am today. So that's pretty much it. I was in the foster care system until the age of 15.

You know, I had my trials in tribulation struggling with identity of, you know, being in a family

where I was confused, you know, and I didn't feel that I had the love that I deserved as a child, you know, even... So I'm going to cut you off right there for one minute because I have so many... Because I love how you just like scoot it over. Like, oh, I was just born into a heroin addict parents, and they lot... But I'm not a victim. So I want to talk to you a little bit more about that

because there's a lot of people listening right now that are in a circumstance situation where they

can't see past that so I want to if you're okay with it I want to sort of dive back into that like

first of all do you remember being three with your parents you have any memory of that at all

I actually do I remember a memory where my mother was high on the couch and

...