Today we’d like to introduce you to Ronnie Costa
Hi Ronnie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Providence, RI, in a tough neighborhood, and I learned to do everything the wrong way. I had no healthy male role models in my life, just six very dangerous uncles whom I admired from as far back as I could remember. I never thought I would make it to 25 years old because of the way I was living my life. I started getting into trouble with the law at a very young age, and once I became an adult, I quickly learned that being locked up wasn’t for me. I moved to Long Beach at 26 to get away from the life I knew and to do something different.
Coming to Cali was by far the best thing I could have done for myself at that time. I began working with at-risk young adults and fell in love with helping people change their lives. Fast forward to 2024, I have now been in the social services and mental health field for close to 20 years, and I say all the time that I am grateful, thankful, and blessed for the life I get to live.
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, unfortunately, I am hard-headed and always had to find out through trial and error the right and wrong ways of doing things. For years, I was told I should open my own business because I was really good at helping those who were also hard to reach. I was always successful with the clients who were “resistant to change,” but I didn’t know anything about working for myself, so I always stayed working for other people in roles that I would get bored with. When I was in my early 20s, I was told not to get out of line just to get into another line, so it was easier to stay at jobs where I wasn’t using my fullest potential than to try and find something better. At times, it was more comfortable to sit in the uncomfortable than to change it.
In 2019, I decided to start my own company working with clients one on one, but Covid put the brakes on that quickly for me. In 2022, I launched again, and the beginning was very slow. Lots of people told me I wouldn’t be able to compete with the big companies that had been around for years. If I didn’t have a big website and a big brand, I would never make it. Six months in, things began to slowly pick up to the point where I needed to hire part-time people to work with me servicing our clients. At the beginning of 2023, I needed to bring in a few more full-time staff, and I’m extremely grateful.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We are a concierge coaching and case management company that works with clients all over the globe with different disorders, whether they are learning disabilities, mental health disorders, autism spectrum disorder and substance abuse disorders. We also work with neurodiverse clients. We work with adult clients, from corporate executives to gang members who are trying to change their lives.
We offer a full spectrum of services, from day coaching, 24-hour companions, interventions, and safe transport to and from residential treatment.
What CounselingUNLMTD is known for the most is always giving our clients the very best. We take on some of the toughest cases and have been successful with clients that nobody else has had any success with. I believe the key to this is always giving our clients exactly what we have promised.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
In 2022, we began working with clients on the spectrum. Neurodiverse clients with an extensive history of aggression that regular programs wouldn’t accept. I knew nothing about this population at all, but I wanted to learn, so I gave it a shot. Now, two years later, we have been very successful working with this population. Watching their growth is by far one of the very best parts of my job.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://CounselingUNLMTD.com
- Instagram: @counselingunlmtd
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/ronniecosta3?mibextid=LQQJ4d
