Meet Yvette Smith of Attitude of Gratitude Global

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yvette Smith.

Hi Yvette, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
The Attitude of Gratitude the Global (A.O.G.G.) was founded by myself, Yvette Smith in 2015. I am 51 years old, a mother of two and a G Ma to four. I am a daughter, a sister and an aunt. I am single and prepared for wife status. I have over 20 years as an Allied Health Professional. I started my own business called Details Decor & More! Event Management in 2016. Journalism is a hobby, but gratitude is my passion. I am a realist, advocate, activist, and I use my platform to minister Gratitude. I had to learn the gift of Gratitude through my life experiences and how I can not take it for granted.

A.O.G.G. is an inspirational and motivational group that specifically focuses on developing, practicing, cultivating, and manifesting the attitude of gratitude intentionally by including the Act of Gratitude into our daily routines.

I believe this intentional act makes you feel better, attracts abundance, and gives you a better quality of life. It also brings you closer to your higher power and for me that’s God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. For others, it could be the same, or the universe or whatever they believe in. My hope is by the grace of God, because of gratitude, I have lead at least one to seek him.

One thing about this group it is all-inclusive. We may not all embody the same spiritual beliefs but we do believe that gratitude is something that we should all have.

Some people have asked me, where do you get your gratitude and how did it come about or are you always grateful? I have to say, no I have not always been a grateful person. My gratitude was born out of a life of pain, which turned into a passion and that passion let me to purpose and today that purpose has given me my power back. Today, Gratitude is my Super Power! The power to reach thousands via social media where I allow myself to be used as a vessel with a mighty but simple message which is to be more grateful. I am also living and walking proof that you can see how gratitude has changed my life since 2010 when I gave my life back to Christ.

In March of 2004, I was a shooting victim in a domestic violence relationship that not only tried to take my life and my brothers but my children were present during the shooting. The person who shot me and my brother was my daughter’s other parent. Needless to say we were all mentally affected and today we all have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) among other mental health issues that developed in my children. I survived, my brother survived, my children survived, however the mental quality of life has been a difficult one. You see PTSD does not go away it is not something that is suddenly cured. It is a diagnosis that you learn to live with. Today, all these years later, I do see a psychotherapist and a psychiatrist so that my mentals is at it’s best.

I took care of my children immediately after the shooting, they were in every therapy there was to put them in, however it would take me to 2007 to address my own mental health issues and then it would take me to 2010 to give my life back over to Christ, thanks to therapy.

All I can say is man, when I let God back in, the doors and the possibilities that opened up for me have been reigning down in every area of my life. God is truly a way maker, a promise keeper and the light in the darkness that is who he is for me not just a song. He is my refuge, comforter, and friend.

Fast-forward to 2015, the year I started, Attitude of Gratitude Global.

Attitude of Gratitude. It had not reached the global part yet. The first few years of this group, it was called The Attitude of Gratitude Group. The global came when I consulted with God and I told him I wanted the message of gratitude to reach the masses. Later I was given the vision of where I would be lead. My thoughts and ideas expanded and the possibilities had grown bigger then local and social media, what was revealed is a Global vision and mission.

Life was great until my gratitude was tested the same year I started the group, 2015. I have to thank a few people for the start of the group and the group continuing. First, I want to thank my Pastors, Wayne and Myesha Chaney for their permission. They started a campaign that challenged us congregation members to create Small Connect groups that would intentionally get you to break bread and share time and space with other congregational members that you may or may not know and to do it in a more intimate setting outside of the church basically, church outside the walls. There was a four-week leadership program we had to complete then we had to go to a church panel of four and present our ideas, plans, outlines, or curriculum course.

This was a challenge for me because I didn’t know a lot of the congregation, I was only a year old at my church home. I wanted to be real and be genuine so I had to think deep as to what I was willing to be transparent about. I then consulted God and told him what I was doing and I prayed over it. I didn’t want to step into his kingdom without his blessings. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t equipped in the area and that I didn’t know everyone in the church or that I was considered new. You see, the way I approach life is, I don’t know it but I can learn it! and people don’t scare me. After consulting with God, a week or so went by and one early morning, I woke up with a pen and writing tablet as the information downloaded, I wrote and cranked out a six weeks of fun in the sun curriculum that embodied Gratitude in less than two hours. I was so proud and I was confirmed as an acceptable vessel. I also met with the panel they accepted my plan. I then went out on a mission to find the best location for the group to meet.

For three years, we would meet at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, CA. There is where the everything came together. The earth, wind and the fire (we were the light), the blue sky and the ocean sea kissing each other, there to receive us where we could give and receive the gratitude. The other person I want to thank is my son, Eron, for insisting that I did not stop the group gatherings after he was in a train accident that could have no correction should have taken his life but he was spared by the grace of God.

However, my son said no mama please don’t stop, people need to know that this group exists and that gratitude is something that people should have. I still want to be a part of the group so don’t stop it, I will just take my pain medicines and I’m going to still come out there with you and I want to talk to people about my train accident and how good God is and how I’m how grateful I am. My son motivated me to keep going and I can not be more thankful enough for his insistence. He did what he said he would do, he took pain meds, we had comfortable chairs for him and when he could not continue, we had people in the group to help take him home. I also have a childhood of abuse from my mother and from peers and being bullied. You see, my pain has definitely turned into a superpower, G R A T I T U D E.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I know it’s not been an easy road some of the struggles along the way have been childhood tragedies, childhood abuse, childhood bullying, childhood molestation and living bi-Coastal between two parents.

I came from a broken home a divorced family. I literally had a mother who still had down south mentality but she was living the city life sometime after my parents divorced, she became a single parent who dominated and dictated what my father could or could not do, my life totally changed from that experience.

I didn’t really have the mentors, the women mentors in my early life. I didn’t get those women mentors until later in my adult life.

Men and women relationships were often confusing for me growing up. There were some relationships I saw nothing but love, and there were many relationships where I saw violence displayed and then there were other relationships where there was a mixed bag of both. I personally did not understand relational love and as such, I chose the wrong men to procreate with and to marry. My parents were so busy hating each other that they forgot to talk about love, the goodness of it, the joy of it, the kindness in it. And hid their own relationships until they felt like letting me know about them. As a result, I mimic what I saw and often times I got it wrong, real wrong.

In 1992, I broke off the engagement to my son’s father due to Domestic violence. In 1996, my husband, not my son’s father, tried to kill me with his bare hands, left and divorced him and in 2004 my daughter’s father tried to kill me after a nine years relationship by shooting me, and I still have bullet fragments in my leg until this very day.

My son was at a train station standing at the platform waiting for the train to come into the port he and my brother had been drinking earlier that day it was a very intensely hot day. He and my brother were heading to the beach catching the train to get there and while he was standing in the heat, he passed out and fell just as the train was coming into the are the portal area. He was drugged slightly his whole right side of his body had severe gravel burns but his the rest of his body was intact. My son only got a pelvic fracture. When my son came too, there was a man there with him that he did not know because my brother had left him for dead, he mentally could not handle what he thought had happened to my son, so he left. This man, this angel, stayed with my son until the EMT’S attended to him, however by the time they got my son on the gurney, the man was nowhere to be found no one had seen the man. My son inquired about this man over and over no one knew who he was talking about. For the next three months, my son would have to learn how to walk all over again, I would have to attend to his burn wounds get him to doctor’s appointments and so on. He had to literally come back home and live with me and that is when I had decided that I would give up the extracurricular activities, the group, and just make sure my son got the medical attention that he needed and deserved.

As you know, we’re big fans of Attitude of Gratitude Global. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The organization, Attitude of Gratitude Global, is all-inclusive group. We started out with eight in person members in 2015, and we have grown to almost 408 social media members as of 2021.

What sets me aside from others is that I know I am an influencer and as such, I have been able to take my business of Event Planning, and create a community events, like I did in 2019 in Long Beach, CA. I brought out local small businesses, entrepreneurs and artisans together under one roof as well as book authors, who were my guest speakers. I did it with the help of ticket sales and Sponsors who believed in the message. People from all over the city of Los Angeles came together in one place, on one day, at one time to be a part of this Gratitude Movement.

That’s my plan to go Global, to come together locally and include the community efforts of all who believe in our mission and vision.

I see myself getting the message of living gratefully out there to the world, event by event, city-by-city, state-by-state, and country-by-country. I have many more years to go, I’m just getting started!

Again, the group is all-inclusive, so children are included as well and one of my most proud is events for this year will be Girls Gather N Gra-TEA-tude. The event will be a Tea Party, next month in June. Girls from ages 5 to 12 will be invited to this private affair. Our goal is to talk to the girls about their vision for their future and why gratitude is so important as they grow in life. We will affirm each young lady, and one of our activities will be Vision Boards, where we will help them manifest their futures so that they can contribute to this world in a positive way.

Currently, the group is on Instagram and on Facebook. We also have a YouTube page and we have an online business website where I sell our AOGG merchandise, as well as other inspirational items or products that are made by entrepreneurs, small business owners, or local businesses within the community. I believe that when you collaborate with others who are also reaching their goals, it takes nothing away from you to reach back as you are climbing up to help others. That’s how you stay blessed, by being a blessing.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
My transparency, resilience and strength and the ability to accept a NO or that my mission and vision is not for everyone and that’s okay.

My drive, determination, persistence, and relentless efforts to keep going, keep moving, keep pushing, and keep fulfilling the purpose that God has placed before me. The understanding that too much is given much is required. I am chosen, I’m confident in that, and I know that the road to get the goal reached will often be lonely, but God has been a good teacher and he has prepared me for this all my life.

My willingness to give of myself of my time of my finances and whatever it takes because that’s just the person I am and the wisdom to know when I need to be replenished and rest.

What makes me most successful I think, is the fact that I believe in what I’m doing. I have a true genuine believe that anyone can incorporate Gratitude daily, if this if you want to do, anyone can draw to their higher power and be a better version of themselves if that’s what they want to do and anyone can make better choices if that’s what you want to do. It’s free will as we journey through life’s ebbs and flows but it is also what you do with what your face with, the way you react and how do you respond that determines your attitude, which determines your direction or altitude in this thing called life. You can be better and do better or be bitter. I chose to be better. I mean, why have an attitude when you can have Gratitude?

Contact Info:

• Email: global.gratitude3@gmail.com
• Website: https://aogg.company.site
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLkFp1gjdxs/?igshid=1f7zsyeznco0i
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/595425083966502/?ref=share
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/SzzoT8mG4Jc

Image Credits:
Donna Dymally Photography, Vet Tix, Yvette Smith