Today we’d like to introduce you to Anisa Rodriguez.
Hi Anisa, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
To talk about my story and the woman I am today, I have to go back to the beginning. To that little girl from Chicago. When I was 7 my mom sent my brother Matthew and I to live with my grandma in Lakeland Florida. Not because we were bad or anything but to start a fresh start. My mom came down a couple of months later, and we stayed in Lakeland for like a year, then moved to Orlando. Florida was so bright and different. Very beautiful and tropical. Very different from Chicago. I was so young that I don’t remember much of Chicago, but from what I do remember it was very different. My mom was a single mother of 4 kids. (I’m the youngest of 3 boys) She didn’t get much help from our dads. It was government assistance and working 1-2 jobs to make things happen for us. One thing I will say, she made it possible for us to have what we needed and wanted. My dad lives the entrepreneurial life. Growing up I saw my dad in nice cars, have multiple properties, and businesses he built from the ground up. To me if he lived a more comfortable lifestyle and had more freedom. I saw both sides of the world, and both sides came with a lot of sacrifices. I had a relationship with my dad but I didn’t see him a lot, he lived in Chicago for awhile, then moved to Florida. But with his career he traveled a lot from Chicago to Florida. So the life I really knew and experienced was with my mom. She made struggle look easy when I was younger. Since I was a little girl I’ve been telling my mom I am going to buy her a house and retire her. I’m sure she used to think I was just a little girl talking, but I never stopped telling her; to this this day. I would day dream and have the visions in my head being rich and star. I truly didn’t know what it I was going to be but I knew I was going to be something big. I always had that strong feeling inside of me. And deep down inside of me I felt this wasn’t my life, like this isn’t how life is supposed to be. Growing up my aspirations were to be a high-fashioned/celebrity makeup/hair stylist, and to be a model. I really loved playing with my hair and makeup when I was younger, took sooo many pictures ( I still do lol). But truthfully, I was so scared and shy to do anything. I had really bad social anxiety. Growing up people wouldn’t think so but I was a very shy fearful child who was scared of the world and people. Very anti-social. Not at school; at school I was popular. I loved school and always had a lot of friends. For some reason, people always gravitated towards me. Don’t get me wrong though I was very fun, positive, full-of-life child when I was myself and comfortable. But I was only comfortable with my friends and the people I was around daily. I’m still like this, i just know how to handle it better. So, when I would tell people this, they wouldn’t believe me because what they saw was the opposite. If I felt comfortable I would be myself. I went through a lot of traumatic experiences. At very young age, I went through a really traumatic experience. So it was really a trauma response if I’m being honest. Before the age of 10 I went through a lot more than the average kid. So although I was shy, I had a lot of friends but I also had a lot people who didn’t like me because I was me. I was bullied for the mole on my forehead, my weight, rumors were created, girls hated me over boys or whatever reason they had. They didn’t like me. I was bullied a lot, I played it cool like it didn’t bother me. I had tough skin, I learned to be that way because of my older brothers. So, some things didn’t get to me, but a lot of things did break my spirit. There’s a lot of things I wish I had experienced but I didn’t because I was so scared and afraid of the world or being talked about more, judgement or opinions. So, fast forward to my senior year my worries completely changed. I got pregnant and was having a little girl on the way. So my senior year wasn’t your normal senior year. Trying to catch up on my school and stay afloat. Life became too much for me so I started doing homeschool. Everything got very hard to juggle, her dad was having legal problems, household problems and the emotions of becoming a mom. I was very depressed in my pregnancy with all the chaos going on around me and living through. I eventually dropped out of school and focused on becoming a mom. I had to start thinking about my daughter. It was very hard. At 19 years old I’m a new-time mom, doing it by myself, trying to maneuver through life the best way I can. Her father got locked up when I was like 8 months pregnant and again when she was a week old. He was away for a couple of months. So I was doing it by myself. I had a support system don’t get me wrong. But it was all on me. And Around this time, social media became a big thing. At first, I was using social media for what it is. Posting pictures and keeping up with your family and friends.
I wasn’t into it sooo much at first.
Moving forward, I did what I had do as mom, doing the best I can. Working different jobs, sometimes I couldn’t even work because I didn’t have a babysitter or daycare. I was very limited on options. While doing the best I can. I had stepped foot into the nightlife. My cousin Monique started taking me out with her, I was meeting people; promoters, DJs, and her friends. I was a new face on the scene. Through meeting more people my followers were going up and I think at this point I was on my second Instagram account. I didn’t like having a lot of followers so when it got to a certain amount of followers on my first account I deleted it. I believe same thing happened with my second Instagram. When I felt like it was too much for me or too many people were looking at me and paying attention to me I would delete it. So with stepping foot into the night life and meeting people. It was really lit my comfort zone but I was going out to forget my problems and what I was feeling inside. I was meeting a lot of people, I became a familiar face. One night I went out with my homegirl Courtney, she told me we were going to go out with these two other girls. When she told me that I wanted to cancel on her because I didn’t like being around people I didn’t know like I said i had a lot of social anxiety. Good thing I didn’t, I met these two girls. Jennifer and Fani, meeting these two girls it changed my life. They were confident, fun, bold women. Thick, curvy and had good energy. Over time we became best friends, they had a following and knew a lot of people as well. But the confidence they had, boldness, and bright light they had. It helped me become more confident, and bold, and walk more into that life. I was always very insecure about my body because I was bullied and teased for being “thicker” than society liked. I was always called fat. All type of names. I hated my body especially after gaining so much weight and had so many stretch marks, I had that pouch and “ugly stomach”. So I felt at the time. I wasn’t used to this body I had. Don’t get me wrong, my daughter gave me a body but with birth control, the bad habits I gained with going out, I gained a lot of weight and didn’t like it. I was still getting used to being so “thick”. So when I met Jennifer, I seen how she embraced her body, her stretch marks, thickness, beauty and all. I was like wow and she helped me. She was telling me since the day she met, girl you’re beautiful, embrace it, be confident. They really helped me start getting out my comfort zone and start loving my self a little bit more than I did. They also worked on parties; they were apart of Henny Fest. They would call me blondiee because my hair was platinum blonde so I had changed my Instagram from “anisaaayvette” to “arblondiee” which came from them. AR is my initials. So it just came to me. So from there I was basically branding myself “arblondiee”. Different opportunities came out meeting all these different people and being in the nightlife. I started working with this guy named jolly juice. I started working at venues and parties selling his drinks. Through that opportunity, I started meeting more people. In 2016 I did my first photo shoot, with a local photographer named Tahoevisuals. It was so dope, after that more opportunities in that field started presenting themselves. I started collaborating with other local photographers and did more photo shoots. I started building myself and brand. Throughout my journey, I just posted that, my journey, what I was going through and my experiences. I was private but open on my social media about my circumstances and experiences. Me doing that, women would write to me saying how I inspire them, help them on loving and embracing their bodies. How my confidence helped them on their confidence, just these amazing heart felt messages. I honestly didn’t understand because I was just posting myself, and I was struggling with exactly what they were struggling with. I didn’t love myself or how I looked. My weight became a big problem for me. I gained so much weight; I wasn’t living a healthy lifestyle all around. My weight was always insecurity but at this point it made me depressed with myself. I didn’t like how I looked even as a kid because of how much I got called fat. When I looked good it wasn’t good enough to me because the world always made me feel that way, I was still always fat. I just learned to live with it honestly. So after doing photoshoots, created a brand off “arblondiee”. I started talking about making t-shirts with me on it. So, 2017 summer of that year, I met this “DjNateofficial”. I didn’t know anything about him and only seen him dj at the venue I worked at. So, a promoter I was going to start working for downtown was creating a new night and needed a DJ. So, for some reason he came to mind, I ended up talking to him about the night and he was down to work. The night didn’t end up happening. But, from there we kept in touch, and created a friendship. After a while, he wrote to me about a business deal. He told me “Blondie I’ll fund your t-shirts if you be my co-host on my radio show” I was so damn scared but I said yes. One thing about me I was so scared of the world but I still took the steps and the opportunities that were presented to me. I was always determined to find a way and make it happen. I was tired of my life and the environment I was in. I hated working 9-5’s. The schedule either worked with me or didn’t, I had transportation or I didn’t. I didn’t trust anybody with my daughter, I didn’t trust daycares, and didn’t have a lot of help from her dad a lot of times. So, I always did the best I could. That feeling inside of me, being something big, retiring my mom, and buying her a house was getting deeper for me but also felt like a dream that was fading. I had people who believed in me and saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself sometimes and they would pour into me, guide me and reminded me of the bright light inside of me. I did the radio show with Nate, we had a team and started to create a movement. It was called the shmoney team lol. We started networking, I started introducing Nate to the promoters I knew. We collaborated with promoters and Nate started djing for them. The team and radio show didn’t last a long time, but out of it me and Nate became a team. One day Nate and I were talking about the T-shirts, I told him I didn’t want to make the shirts with me on it no more. That I wanted to start a women empowerment group. I wanted make t-shirts with “empowered women empowered women” on it. I wanted to do a photoshoot with different women in it. He loved the idea and we did exactly that. I got some friends, Nate got the shirts made and we did the photoshoot in my living room. It was a dope experience and was excited, but we ended up losing all the content. December 2017 I was booked to be in a music video. Through that connection later on, he put me onto this professional studio. March 2018 I booked a photographer and the studio, got my girls did the photoshoot. This shoot was about loving ourselves, embracing ourselves and each other. No matter what shape size color or background we came from. We were are all beautiful. I put the pictures out and it was a hit; the people loved it. We got amazing feed back. While building this up, behind closed doors I was going through it. June came I was getting evicted. I started living with my friend Nicole. I still kept doing what I had to keep it going with empowered women. Coming July, I did another shoot but never got the content to that shoot. July was the month that truly changed my life. My ex-boyfriend Ivan had passed away, man I never felt no type of pain like this in my life. I got so depressed, so lost. At that point, I didn’t care about nothing anymore but being a mom, making sure Zaniyah was healthy and good. August came and my friend moved to Detroit, we had to move into my grandma’s apartment. That itself was a challenge. Family wasn’t getting along, fights and arguing. We were back and forth between my grandma house and hotels until we found a place to live. I started working at world of beer and a hookah lounge at night. Talking to my homegirl about empowered women, in December something came to me to throw an event. This event will be free, women would come network, show off their business and talk about their testimonies. I didn’t have a clue on what I was doing I just went with what was on my heart. January 2019, I did exactly that. A free event women come show off their business, network and speak on their testimonies. After that, I started putting t-shirts out for empowered women. I did my next event March 2019 called Mami’s & Mimosa’s. Women came to network, show off their business, I had performers, vendors. I went deeper on talking about abuse, loving ourselves, and more topics. This event hit, everyone loved it and got such amazing feedback. Next I put out arblondiee t-shirts with me on it, I did another event. A pop-up shop with all different brands, businesses, performers, and influencers from Orlando. It was a great turn out. 2019 was a great run. I put out 4 different t-shirts, did 3 events it was good. I took a lash class got certified and found a job in call center that worked with my daughter schedule. So Going into the new year I’m in my apartment, got a job. Everything was falling into place. January 2020 my daughter broke her arm and had to get surgery. she legit broke her arm, had like rods in her arm. It was so hard for me, that accident led to me losing my job because I had to attend my daughter. She couldn’t do nothing, she broke her dominant arm. So, I started to focus on my lash business, with me losing my job I couldn’t pay my rent and got hit with an eviction. As I go to try and fight this and pay everything I had to, the world gets hit with hard news. COVID 19 and we have to go into a lockdown. Now I had no choice but to sit down. Doing that made me face many things that I was hiding and running away from. I wasn’t in a healthy relationship, I was dealing with depression. On top of everything I was going through, I’m trying to find ways to make money, so I joined a networking marketing company called Monat. I tried it out, I wasn’t feeling too confident. So, I didn’t continue. About 2 months later my sister-in-law, calls me about an opportunity. It happened to be an opportunity to join Monat under one of the top earners in the company. So, I agreed and my brother James paid for my business LLC to join Monat with her. I was so ready to change my life, and to me something had to give at this point, my life was just not it. I felt like there’s more to this. Struggling, pain, pay check to pay check, toxicity. I felt like I hit rock bottom again. This company started teaching me so many things from personal development, manifestation, spirituality, and business. It was helping me to start walking down a better path. I was working on all levels to do better; especially my health. I reached 230lbs and I started taking these products called total life changes. 3 products. Nutraburst, Nrg and Iaso detox tea. My mom bought me these products from her manager who lost weight on them and sold them, she thought they would help me lose weight and they sure did. After months of just trying my best to get it the business side of Monat. I was still broke and going through it. It got me feeling like I was just in a deep dark spot. Like how did I get here again, eviction, having to find somewhere to go and live, toxic environment, my daughter was being affected by everything. Her mental wasn’t the best and emotionally wasn’t her best. I realized what was going on with my daughter and it broke me. A voice came over me telling me to send her to live with her dad. I battled with it for a little bit but the voice didn’t stop. That was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to do. My daughter had never been away from me longer than a week. So, for her to leave full-time it broke me but like I said the voice didn’t leave. I talked to her dad and asked him for help, I felt like it was time to switch roles for a little. I’ve been holding it down by myself for 8 1/2 years. To me it was my time and my opportunity to really get me right on all levels. I was so grateful because I wanted to change in every way possible, go 10000% into me to become better because I wasn’t going to get my daughter back until I was in a better position. I had no time to waste because I couldn’t be without my daughter for long. My WHY changed. On social media, I’m very open about my life. I feel like so many people hide the real and I tell it all. I was posting about my weight loss journey and the products I was using. I was recommending it to people and something was like get more information you can be getting paid for this. So, I call my friend Grace who was in total life changes. I asked her for more information. She was like I’ve “been waiting for you”. We talked for awhile on the phone, I told her what was going on. In that conversation she said I believe in you, I’m going to pay for you to join and start now. I was so broke at time. I will forever be grateful. I locked in because she took a chance on me and the only way, I could repay her was to do exactly what she visioned in her mind. New year comes, I tell myself this will be the last year anybody can call me fat, broke, last year I will be struggling. I locked in with myself, my products, and God. Another big goal of my goal was to get closer to God and build a real relationship with him. I started going hard. And the hard work was paying off, I was dropping the weight. Building my business and my team. I was getting customers and sign-ups. I was on fire for months. And one thing about me I was real and raw about it. The messages I was getting from people. Yes, people now men and women are writing how I inspire them, how I help them and give them the motivation they needed. I was helping transform people’s lives whether it was me posting or them purchasing my products and losing weight. While changing my life I was helping others do the same. I focused on my health and wellness business and losing weight. I was working out with friends. I started to find a new passion that aligned with my purpose. Empowered women is one of my purposes I was called to but I had lost it, I felt I couldn’t lead or preach on stuff I wasn’t living by. I put it on the back burner but I still kept it alive as much as I can, I started doing my daily prayers on live on empowered women page. May of 2021 my life took another turn. My best friend son had passed away, things started shifting with me and my business and life. I had to find a place to live, the house we lived in got sold. My business was dropping. Things weren’t going so good for me. I realized as I got closer to God the challenges in life got harder and intense. I was going through deeper things it was so hard. I was healing, growing, and transforming. God was blessing me with what I was praying for I just didn’t realize it at the moment. I just felt like I was going through hell again. I was fighting battling trying to get back to the top. With my business, with life, and everything I had going on. 2021 was really my transformation year. God changed me from the inside out. I started to get aligned with a few other women in the company and started trying to build with them. My coach Myshelle kept poking me about empowered women, to get back into it, leverage it and start building it again. At the moment I wasn’t feeling it. But one thing for sure she didn’t stop she’s like this is special, this is it girl i don’t know how you’re not doing nothing. I just kept focusing on my health and wellness business. But I guess God agreed with my coach because I started getting tugged back to it. I told my brother, Nate, I wanted to do Mamis and Mimosas pt2. The people wanted another event and has been asking for this one. I was like let’s do it in March he was like alright bet. So, I start looking for a venue, while looking for a venue something came over me said no may so I changed the date to May 21st I don’t know why I just listened to the voice in my head. I found a venue downtown loved it, got all the information and was planning. One Sunday I go see Nate DJ at a lounge called vision. After a couple of days or so, something came over me and was like vision vision vision. A big feeling inside of me was telling me I had to do it at vision. I told Nate I wanted to do it at vision, to plug us in. So, we ended up going to the venue to talk to the owner unfortunately she wasn’t there I got her number and hit her up but she didn’t answer. I kept telling Nate we need to into vision, he talked to a promoter he said he got us, he will plug us in. I was doing a photo shoot and I had some alone time, again a voice in my head was like call her. So, I did I called her she answered. Spoke to her, I told her my vision for mamis and mimosas what it was about and all that great stuff. She told me she had weekends booked at vision but that she has this event space that would be perfect for what I was doing. So, we set up a date to meet. I had a really strong feeling about this and the venue. The day of the meeting i felt it in my bones my soul that God was moving. That someone thing was going to happen. Especially this venue I had a strong feeling about it. So, when we go to meet her, I knew it was the venue I knew it was the one. That God was working he led me here. It was the exact venue I suspected and wanted, the owner ended up being someone I follow on Instagram and followed for years. She said yes to us collaborating on Mami’s and Mimosa’s brunch experience. This event I wanted to continue the networking aspect but something way bigger. I wanted to do seminar-like event. Where we come network show off our business but to really learn. Learn from each other, learn from women with the experience and knowledge. Learn to how to become the best version of ourselves. How to gain your confidence, power, self-love, etc and also learn how to start a business, the tools, resources, tips and strategies on having a successful business. So, I found different women, influencers, and educators to come speak. Some women who helped me on my journey as well to come speak. Speak on their testimony, business, and the resources/services they provide. I tapped into financial education, self-defense and women’s safety, manifestation, spirituality, personal development, poetry feminine care, investing so many things and had vendors of different women businesses come show off their business and network. So, we get things rolling and started promoting. We had to change the date to May 22nd. I just this event truly off the voice of God and what was on my heart. The tools and resources I had in front of me. To be honest, I didn’t have no money, like really money to put into this event but it didn’t stop me cause I knew God was going to make it happened. One of my favorite quotes to say is “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. I felt it in my heart God was going to show out in this event and he did. He blessed me in every area i needed help. The resources, the people, the money and sales. I put so much into this event. The love, intention and work I put was beyond what I have done before with my other events. God really showed up and changed all our lives that day. It wasn’t about the money, the ticket sales nothing, it was about the transformation and awakening we were all having in that room. So much power, love, intention, support compassion. It was shown, it was so beautiful to see the sisterhood that was being built. It was something we all needed, and need more. God is doing something different with Empowered Women and our city. I helped so many women’s dreams come true that day. The opportunities that was created and happened from me doing this event not only for myself but everyone who was there and attended. That meant more to me than a million dollars, changing someone’s life and helping them become better is priceless. This is not the last of the events, this is just the beginning of empowered and AR. What we have to bring to the city and world.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it has not. From bringing to now it has been hard. It’s all unfamiliarity and uncomfortable. I had no clue what I was doing. And didn’t have to many people to turn to for help. A lot of people didn’t believe me or me, didn’t see the vision on what I was doing or didn’t have the knowledge or resources to pour into me. People telling me to just get a job because what I was doing and building wasn’t paying the bills or taking care of the household. People close to me betraying me and using me. I was losing people I loved, I was being judged by the people I loved. I was figuring it all out by myself as I was going. I was trying my best to make it happen and bring the visions I had in my head to life while doing my best not to knocked down by life. I had people talk down on me, about me, doubt me, try to discourage me and more. I battled with a lot along this journey and chasing my dreams. I did it with no money in my pocket at times, no hope or drive, with no guidance many times, I did it with the world against me and my back against the wall. I just kept following my heart and what was in front of me, even if it lead me somewhere else. I still kept doing my best to keep going not give up. The drive I had, the desire to make it happen gave me the strength to not give up no matter what. I felt so alone at times and broken at times about it. This has been far from easy or smooth. I’ve gotten through of it and continue to get through with the grace God. I learned that nothing is never easy or smooth, especially when it’s out of the ordinary routine of the average person and American story.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Empowered women and arfitness?
Empowered Women I feel is my purpose and arfitness is my passion. All though they go hand and hand. I created arfitness through my weight loss journey. I started taking tlc’s products and they were changing my health and life. Me being basically a social media influencer and being how I am I was just showing my journey. I saw the influence I had and people were purchasing the products. I decided to join, I needed money and I needed to take my health more serious. I was 230lbs, something had to give. I joined and started taking it more serious, and with doing that it brought back up a deep passion I had. Younger me was a active kid, I loved sports. You can say I was Tom boy ish. I lost 50lbs on my journey, in that process of accomplishing this I wanted to help women accomplish the same. If it was possible for me, it’s possible for anybody else. Arfitness fell in the line with my purpose, helping people transform into their best selves. While doing that it helped me fall more in love with what I already loved low key. Serving people. Empowered Women is my women empowerment group/movement. It’s to really shine light on women empowerment, body positivity, and creating a sisterhood. I felt like no one was doing this or speaking on it. Our community our city really needed it and still does. So I wanted to use my platform to help open doors not just myself but the women who wanted and needed it. In the Bible, it says be fruit and multiple and that is my goal, my vision. Learn, teach it and pour into other women, help them find themselves, help transform their lives, support and uplift them. Empowered Women was my way of giving back to my community and city. Using my platform to showcase the talent and power in our city. I want women to leverage it for their benefit and win. They both have their own purpose but serve the same purpose. “Be fruit and multiply”.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
God really first and foremost. But my parents, my brothers and honestly my daughter. It wasn’t easy for them to understand and it’s okay, but the love the have for me and wanting to see me win they supported me. With anything, if they could they did. My best friend Dj Nate official honestly with out him empowered women probably wouldn’t be here. We took a chance on each other from day one, supported, guided and uplifted each other. We honestly are like peanut butter and jelly. Nate will play any position he has to, to see me win. Jolly juice giving me the opportunity to work with him, it put me in the position to network and meet a lot of people. Also, one of the people who encouraged and help me to start and build empowered women. Putting together my events. God bless him, and grateful for that. To my best friend Alyssa who has been with me from the beginning every event, photoshoot anything she’s there helping me putting it together the ideas and themes everything I need she’s there. And she’s also the one who came up with the name Mamis and mimosas. To my best friend Tamika my right hand. Whatever I need or down to do she’s with it. To my daughter who is literally my motivation, she pushes me so much. To my friend, coach, and business partner myshelle. She literally will be there to remind me who I am, won’t let me give up, helped me grow mentally spiritually emotionally, and business. Who put the battery into my back and reminded me of my purpose. To all my friends, supporters, and honestly, the strangers who write me daily to keep going, to keep my head up. Who uplifts me who supports and encourages me to keep going. That inspire them. Who purchases from me, believe in me and keep me right I am so grateful for everyone who’s played any kind of role on me getting where I am today. Thank you Ivan, you were my angel sent from above. This man helped me become who I am today while being here physically and now in spirit. Rip my love!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shoptlcnow.com/home?lang=en&sponsor=Arblondiee
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empoweredwomen_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arblondiee/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/arblondiee?s=21&t=CzetemOFCGhoEMnBo5AjXw
- Other: https://msha.ke/arblondiee/
Image Credits
John Ruggiero
Sydney photos
precise entertainment
