502. Venus Morris Griffin, As Seen on Humans of New York

Ali on the Run Show

Ali Feller

Run, Health & Fitness, Women, Inspiration, Runner, Entrepreneur, Sports, Fitness, Health, Running

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2022

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“I’ve just been struggling to survive. To figure out how to survive. I want people to see me and say, ‘OK, let’s not look at what we think people are.’ Because everybody has their own struggles. Life is tough!”

Earlier this month, I found myself glued to my phone, rabidly refreshing the Humans of New York Instagram account, waiting for updates in the 13-part story about a woman in Augusta, GA. The woman was Venus Morris Griffin. Today, she's a hugely successful realtor and mom of seven. But the road to becoming one of Meybohm Real Estate's leading agents (Venus has closed more than $500 million in sales she she started with the agency) has been anything but easy. In fact, it still isn't easy, Venus says.

In this conversation, Venus talks about her difficult childhood, about falling in love with a man at USC, and about having six children together. She talks about being home with the kids — the youngest was just one year old, and the oldest was 15 — while her husband was away on a work trip, and getting a call in the middle of the night from a sex worker. A call that changed everything. Not only was Venus's husband, Tripp, sleeping with sex workers, Venus also learned that there was sexual abuse within the home. Today, Tripp is serving a 45-year sentence for child molestation. Here, Venus talks about how she kept moving forward, how she showed up for her children and for herself, and why she started running to get through it all. Plus, she talks about what it was like having her story shared widely through Humans of New York, and both the amazing (a book! a movie!) and less-amazing (losing clients and sales) responses.

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What you’ll get on this episode:

How Venus is celebrating her 50^th birthday (5:20)
All about being featured on Humans of New York (8:00)
On vulnerability, and how Venus started running (15:15)
What Venus’s childhood was like (21:20)
Meeting Tripp (23:30)
The role of faith in Venus’s life (31:40)
The scary moments in Venus and Tripp’s marriage, and why Venus decided to get her real estate license in 2008 (33:50)
The middle-of-the-night phone call that changed everything (43:00)
What life looked like after Tripp went to prison (52:30)
How Venus navigated motherhood (1:02:40)

Follow Venus:

Instagram @venusmorrisgriffin

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Alley on the Run Show.
0:06.6	I'm your host Allie Feler, and every week I talk with people who are doing exciting
0:11.1	things on the run and beyond.
0:14.0	We all share that love for running, and that's what brings us all together.
0:18.0	But of course, there's more to life than what happens on the run itself, and this show
0:22.1	is about the in-betweens.
0:24.0	We're talking about the moments and decisions that have shaped who we are today, and the
0:28.2	lies.
0:29.2	Why do we do what we do?
0:30.9	And how does getting sweaty factor in?
0:33.3	Earlier this month, I, along with hundreds of thousands of others, was captivated by one
0:39.6	woman's story, as shared by humans of New York.
0:43.5	Venus Morris Griffin is a hugely successful realtor in Augusta, Georgia.
0:48.5	She's a mom to seven kids, and as you'll hear many times in this conversation, she's
0:53.6	a mom first.
0:54.6	But for a long time, she was also a wife.
0:58.4	A wife to a man named Trip, who is currently serving a 45-year prison sentence for child
1:04.6	molestation.
1:05.6	Now, this story is not about Trip.
1:08.5	This story is about Venus, and about her life, growing up with a drug and alcohol-addicted
1:13.9	mother, never knowing her father, never feeling like anyone had her back.
1:19.0	She and Trip had children, and then one night, while he was away for business, she got a late
	...

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