Sophina Placencia · 52 min
Sophina Placencia took the fall for financial misconduct she didn't commit, spent a year in jail, and came out more purposeful than ever, determined to help the people who help people.
Hear this story
Sophina Placencia grew up in her mother's nonprofit organisation and spent years trying to escape that world. When her mother retired, Sophina left a stable federal job to lead the organisation, driven partly by her grandmother's final words about meaningful work. She set an audacious goal: to end homelessness in her community. To learn how, she travelled to study other organisations, leaving her team to manage day-to-day operations. While she was away, she discovered that staff members were stealing from the organisation. Financial records revealed money disappearing despite successful fundraising and incoming contracts. Sophina called her mother, convened the board, froze the accounts, and filed a police report. She thought that was the end of it.
Four years later, an anonymous complaint to the Attorney General's office triggered a new investigation. By then, the statute of limitations on the original employee had nearly expired. When Sophina went to the Attorney General's office to give her account, she was read her Miranda rights. Suddenly she was a suspect, not a witness. Without money for trial, she took a plea agreement, even though she knew she hadn't stolen anything. She frames her year in jail not as someone else's crime, but as her own failure to oversee her team properly. She took responsibility as the captain.
That year changed her. She approached it as a mandatory vacation and deliberately developed parts of herself she'd neglected: her humour, her lightness. She made small improvements to conditions for incarcerated women by managing inventory better. When she came out, she restarted her for-profit business, but kept working with nonprofits. Her greatest insight came through therapy and vulnerability: the people who reached out during her lowest moments, even when she couldn't hear them, planted seeds that helped her rebuild. Today she works with nonprofits and social entrepreneurs, helping the people passionate about helping others.
“I'm a firm believer that it's the way that you approach things that determine whether or not you're going to uber struggle with things. I approach going to jail like it was going to be my mandatory vacation.”
“I'm passionate about helping the people who are passionate about helping people.”
“It just helped me develop the things that were already there. They just needed light or space to be able to develop.”
The hero, today
Sophina went to jail because she did not do a thorough enough job overseeing her team as executive director, and she takes that accountability rather than blaming the person who stole the money. Being open and vulnerable about conflict, rather than trying to appear strong and capable, allows people to absorb what others are trying to tell them, even if it does not register immediately. The approach you take to adversity determines how much you struggle with it; Sophina deliberately framed her year in jail as a mandatory vacation that allowed her to develop parts of herself she had neglected. Small acts of problem-solving within the authority you have, done legally and without fanfare, can create real change in oppressive systems. A support network of friends who show up with postcards, phone calls, and genuine care is not optional when rebuilding after catastrophe; it is what makes the first steps possible.
Yes. Sophina Placencia is a real person who shared their own story in their own words. Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit that shares first-person stories of overcoming adversity, told with the person's consent.
Kintsugi Heroes, a registered Australian not-for-profit. Every story is shared with the hero's own consent and reviewed under Kintsugi Heroes' trauma-informed content standard before it goes public.
Sophina went to jail because she did not do a thorough enough job overseeing her team as executive director, and she takes that accountability rather than blaming the person who stole the money.
Being open and vulnerable about conflict, rather than trying to appear strong and capable, allows people to absorb what others are trying to tell them, even if it does not register immediately.
The approach you take to adversity determines how much you struggle with it; Sophina deliberately framed her year in jail as a mandatory vacation that allowed her to develop parts of herself she had neglected.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 00:07
Welcome to the Kintsugi Heroes podcast, where we share inspirational stories of everyday people going through different challenges and how they overcome them. Please be aware that the story you're about to hear may have moments of deeply felt emotions and personal experiences. If anything you hear has a triggering effect please reach out to someone who can help keep you safe. If you love this conversation, we'd love you to like and share it with your friends so we can continue to share more inspiration and hope to as many people as possible. Now listen up for our next hero story. My conversation with this next guest, it was Just incredible. I was so blown away and grateful that Safina Plasencia agreed to come on to Kintsugi Heroes and share with me her story of shock, actually. A beautiful girl who grew up with a mother who ran a nonprofit business, and Safina was brought up and trained and taught all about that business. She had her own life, her own business interests, and She was a very determined young woman. She ended up taking over that business and running it. And in her youth, I guess, in her wisdom, she knew she needed to learn a lot more about how to run the business and unfortunately trusted too many people. The wrong people in the organisation took advantage of her. It ended up, of course, costing her her job and her livelihood because she ended up having to go to jail. Because of the actions of those that were in her team. And she shares that story of being in jail for a year, how it changed her life, the inside mechanics of, of survival and what it got down to, you know, what was valued whilst being in the jail, and then how she took that and all the lessons outside when she came out and how her life had changed and then what she's done ever since. She's so smart, she's so energetic, she's very purposeful. And now she continues to help businesses who are purposeful, that are nonprofits. And she does that through an organization called Mission Money Assets. She was just a delight. I was really honored to have her on the show. I know you'll enjoy this as much as I did. Without further ado, this is Sofina Plasencia. Hello, here we are. It's another episode of Kansuki Heroes, and I'm here with Safina Placencia. Hi Safina, how are you today?
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 02:54
I'm good, Evelyn, how are you?
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Small acts of problem-solving within the authority you have, done legally and without fanfare, can create real change in oppressive systems.
This conversation includes a second-generation advocate returns to nonprofit work, the mountain she wanted to move, finding the money gone, the impossible arithmetic, calling her mother and the bank and the statute of limitations expires.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 02:56
Good, thank you. Whereabouts are you calling in from? Where am I meeting you?
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 03:02
Uh, Wainai, Hawai'i.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 03:03
Fabulous, fabulous. I love the interconnectedness of, um, this, this podcast and the people and People come from all over the world. It's beautiful. Well, this is about you and your story, so I'd love to kick things off by handing the mic to you and asking you to take us back to the beginning of your story and let you kick off.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 03:27
Yeah, so it's, uh, truly a pleasure to have been asked to speak with Kitsugi Heroes to kind of dive into my story. I own a for-profit business, and I worked predominantly with nonprofit organizations. I never thought that I would work with nonprofits ever again. And the reason why that is, I actually spent a year in jail because I was working for a nonprofit. I had come to the work. I'm a second-generation advocate for those living in poverty. It sounds very grand when I say it that way, but ultimately my mom was the first person in my family that I know of to have started a nonprofit. She started when I was really young and I grew up within her nonprofit as well as within the industry. But as much as I grew up in it, I hated being voluntold every single weekend and every single summer to help her with her nonprofit or help one of the partners in their nonprofits. And I was like, you know, service is supposed to be from the heart. It's not supposed to be something that like Mom and Dad go tell you like, "Hey, go do this." And it's like, "Ah." So it left a bad taste in my mouth. And it was evident when I ended up working for the federal government, I tried to move as far away as possible from nonprofit work. As luck would have it, I ended up being asked to put in my resume when my mom was retiring and I actually didn't think too much of it. I thought that it was just to fill a pool of resumes. So when I did it, I was just like, "Ugh, it'll be fine," because I know that my mom was actually grooming her program director to kind of take over her job. So I was very, very, very surprised when they said, "Oh, we want to choose you," offering me employment. And again, I was working for the federal government at the time.. And I like literally had to make a decision, continue doing the thing that I knew that I had fun doing. It paid well. Like, let's be real, nonprofit work doesn't pay a lot. It pays well. I get, you know, I put 20 years under my belt and I'll be able to retire. Or I take the more altruistic route and say to myself, okay, can I actually do something meaningful and impactful?. And that was the route of going through the nonprofit. And when I made the decision, unfortunately my grandma had passed that year too. So her passing and her final words to me on helping my mom do her work because her work is meaningful, kind of, it made me feel like she was gonna haunt me if I didn't choose the, the latter. So I was like, all right, let me, let me, let me say yes and see what I can do, even though I never thought that that was going to be it for me. Well, in the middle of going through all of that, I usually liken my story to Moana, the Disney movie, where the chief takes his daughter up to the mountaintop and says, "Moana, one day you're going to leave the village and you're going to put your rock on top of the mountain." When I took over the position, I was just like, "K, what I'm going to do in the world is I am going to end homelessness in my community." because that's what I could possibly do. I'd build upon my mom, what my mom had started, her foundation. And, but I didn't have all of the answers and I'm not the nonprofit professional, but I did understand well enough that if I'm going to tackle something as big and as large, I need to first understand who are the big players in the game, talk with them, speak with them, and figure out like, what could I learn from all of those people and how they do their stuff and make the impacts that they're making and bring that information back home to Hawaiʻi. So that's what I did. I spent a good portion of my time traveling and learning and experimenting with some of the knowledge. Whilst I was doing that, I didn't realize the people I left to run the day-to-day while I was traveling were doing some very nefarious things that led me to going to jail and when that had happened, it made me rethink through all of my original reservations about getting into the nonprofit industry that, you know, I love the service attitude, I love the work that nonprofits do, but one, it's a cutthroat industry because funding pots are so small and people don't get paid enough. And there's just so much need. And so when I realized that nefarious things were happening under my very nose, it was like, I can't trust people, you know? And it brought all of that back up, all of those original reservations kind of back up. And so I was like, crap. But going through that period, before this interview, I was actually like really thinking through all of the emotions and all of the things that I was kind of going through when I was told that I was being investigated, I told myself, like, "It'll be fine. They're gonna know. Like, if they're gonna— the investigators, the Attorney Generals are gonna know. They're gonna look and they're gonna see that I had nothing to do with it." And then I remember being pulled into the Attorney General's office with their lead investigator and He was like, "I'm so glad that you came in." I'm glad too. And I told him, "I'm glad too, because finally I've been saying I want to give my side of the story because everybody else has been interviewed but me." I was naive. I took over the organization when I was 24. When everything happened, I was just budding 30. He started reading me my rights. I was like, whoa, wait a minute. Like, I've seen enough crime dramas to kind of understand that if they're reading me my rights, then they think they have something on me, and I don't know what that is. And so it's like, nah, I better go consult with Endo's attorney. But I didn't have any money. I was in servitude to my— to the nonprofit. I didn't make a lot of money, and I did a lot of hard work and I didn't have anything to show for that when I was going through this, go through this investigation. And so I ended up having to take a plea agreement because I didn't have money to go through trial. In between getting told that I was being investigated, being read my rights, going to jail, my mom had actually passed away. And so it was a horrible time, but it was also really good. I hate to say it this way, but it was really good because she bled for that organization, starting it up on her own. Well, not really on her own, but she was the brain, she was the mastermind behind starting it up and galvanizing people to help support it and build it up to a mid-sized organization. So by the time she passed, it was kind of like a breath of relief only because I didn't want her to see if things were gonna go south and I go to jail, or if things went south and the organization closed. So it was, it was a no-win. I'm glad that the organization is still in operation today. The people that I ended up training to take over my job when word came down that I was, that the situation was going to be investigated, I already had started planning my succession. And I'm so glad that the organization is run and the people that I trained are still there. They're still in leadership positions. And so my mom's legacy lives. And I started out my for-profit thinking that it was going to allow me to get away from nonprofit work, but Here I am again, supporting nonprofit clients. And I think it's because service, that's what it boils down to. I went through a really tough time going through trial, having to take a plea agreement and say that, yeah, I had a hand in all of it when I know that I didn't. But it taught me a lot of lessons. And I mean, I kind of laugh about it now only because it's kind of like, what other nonprofit administrator midsize has experience managing midsize organizations? What other nonprofit administrator has the experience of doing that plus being on the opposite side of the coin where I get to live as one of the clients that we serve day in and day out by having a mandatory vacation in jail? I'm a firm believer that it's the way that you approach things that determine whether or not you're gonna uber struggle with things. I approached going to jail like it was going to be my mandatory vacation and allow me to think and allow me to focus on the things that I know that I neglect because I'm such a workaholic. Um, and so, yeah.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 12:40
Wow. Um, I've got questions, Sophina. The first one that came to mind was You've shared a lot there, and such a powerful story, and, and there's a lot there. When you first realized that something was wrong with these people doing some nefarious activities and that you were going to be in— you were going to be found out, what did you feel, um, and how did you respond to yourself and to others around you?
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 13:14
Yeah, so how did I feel? Oh my gosh. So I was already asking for a lot of stuff in terms of reports because things just weren't kind of adding up. I was being told— this was also at the height of just economically the state as well as the federal government was going through some financial turmoil. There was a financial crash in 2008 that the US experienced, and of course it affected global markets, but that was just the start of a systemic problem, and it trickled down to the state of Hawaiʻi. And when it trickled down to the state of Hawaiʻi and they were trying to budget their— they were trying to balance their budget, nonprofits got affected because let's face it, a government contract is a golden egg for any nonprofit. And so When I kept being told by my staff that, "Oh, you know, it's because of that, the things that were happening funding-wise in the state, that's the reason why we may not be able to cover payroll or we may not be able to pay this particular bill to a vendor," I was like, "But we've been doing fundraisers. But we've been doing, we've been bringing in money. Like, I don't understand how we're not solvent. I'm not understanding how we are running out of money.". And so I started asking the questions. I started asking for more reports. And finally, just one day I went into an office. I went into my, the, the second office. We had multiple sites. So I went into a separate site and that's where we housed all of our books. And I came across, um, our financial statements and our bank statements. And I was like, wait a minute, what are some of these, these things? And that's when I found out and When that happened, I was pissed. Words cannot explain how pissed I was. Piss is a really good word that encompasses a lot. But I was also scared because it was kind of like, shit, we get a lot of money from our contracts. That money is no longer there. It's just a matter of time before staff complains that we have to go through a pay lag, or our clients complain because we're not able to fulfill on some of the services because we need to pay out for vendors to do some of the things. And it was a time of, gosh, it was a time of high stress and a time where not only was I pissed and I was scared, but it was a time where I lost trust in everybody, including myself. And so it was painful.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 15:55
Yeah, it would have been. I mean, you're— you've got faith and a lot of, um, investment in your team to do their jobs and do it at the same level of integrity as you, especially when you're in service. And to find out that they're, what, taking money from the company? Literally stealing, uh, from people who need it and from everyone there. It's, it's, uh, pretty heart-wrenching. Take me through what happened then. Like, how did you address it, and then how did it end up with the authorities?
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 16:34
Yeah, so the first step I— those first step I took was obviously I called my mom. Uh, she was retired at that point, but she was also an advisor to me, and I was like I needed guidance to figure this out. And so I called her up and I was like, I need you to help me pull the board together because I couldn't necessarily raise the alarm to my staff right then that, hey, we're sinking. I called her up and I was like, hey, do this. And I need to go down to the bank to figure out how we can get her card cut off, how we could get her off of our signature card so that she can't take out money. And so that was kind of the two-pronged effect, the two-pronged steps where it was, okay, let me convene my board because we have a major problem. And then two, let me go solve this current crisis where we have money in the bank. There's potential that she could take everything else out. I don't know if she did already, but let me go down to the bank and figure out how much money we have in there. So at least that way I can provide information to my board once we've convened. And when I went down to the bank, I was at a loss for words because we had done business with this bank for a really long time. And I know the branch manager and I was sharing with branch manager like, this is what was happening. And so she was just like, did you call the cops? And I'm just like, we have to. I haven't done it yet, but I know that we have to. My only concern right now is just protecting whatever money that we have in there, and I can do everything else. It's just dealing with the crisis right now. Right. And when she was looking through the account, there's more money's being taken out, like actively. And I was like, no. So I went through every which way with her in terms of like, what can be done? Like, how can I prevent? And there was so many steps in between that, um, I needed to do before I could actually get her off of the accounts to stop the bleeding? I mean, we're already in the middle of convening the board. And once we do that, I know that, you know, the police reports and all that stuff is going to come out, but all of that is going to take time. Like, what can I do right now? And so she was just like, well, the best thing you can do right now is just close the accounts. You have the authority to do that. Close the accounts. And I'm like, okay, let me, let me cash out everything, put it all in cashier's checks. Let me cash it out. Let's close down the account. So whatever we have left, we don't need to, you know, we, we're not going to lose. And then went back to the office, called the police. That was the next step. And then called to see where we were at in terms of convening the board. And in the middle of that, my mom had come to the office and to kind of I got to show her what I was looking at and maybe she could make heads or tails in terms of like, am I overreacting or am I seeing what I'm seeing? Right? And so she was just like, no, you're not overreacting. You are seeing what you're seeing. And then I told her, okay, what do we do? You know, we have to go call out, not just the board, we have to go call our contractors. And so she goes, let me go ahead and take care of that. And so I know that all of our state contractors were notified, including at the time, because of all of my traveling and bringing back all of the knowledge I was gaining, I was gaining exposure as kind of like an expert within the field. And so I sat on government task force. And so one of the people that also got notified was a governor's liaison to let him know that this is what's happening with our particular organization. And That was in 2009, '10. It was bridging those two. And we kept it under wraps. We notified everybody that needed to be notified. My staff didn't really know too much. I didn't let known to them how bad the situation was, only that we're short a few employees. We're having budgeting issues. My staff did go, as well as me, we did go through pay lags. We tried to give, I mean, I tried to be as forthcoming without raising all of these flags because the community is so small that, you know, I'm gonna, we're gonna try to make it right, but we can't let potential donors know that there's a problem, otherwise all of that dries up as well, you know? But we were taking steps to, to mitigate the issue. And I thought that that was it. I filed the police report, let all the people that needed to know know, and I thought that that was the end of my job. My job was to do all of that and then go back to operating less staff. And about 5 years later, well, 4, close to 5 years later, I receive an email. It was an anonymous complaint that was addressed to the Attorney General's office, to all of our media outlets, our state contractors, the statute of limitations was running out on the person that I filed the police report on, and that there was fiscal misdealings happening in my organization. And so that started just a whole barrage of things that had the Attorney General, Attorney General could not ignore. And so that's what really sparked the true beginning of the end for me in the nonprofit. Um, and so, yeah.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 22:14
Wow. Um, so it took a while. Can you explain, uh, what the statute of limitations means? Uh, because a lot of listeners wouldn't understand that because it's an American, uh, for sure thing. And, um, and tell us also what happened to the girl, the, the one that actually took the money.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 22:32
Yeah, so, um, uh, in the U.S., uh, of course we have all of these laws, right? In Hawaii, or at least in Honolulu County, there's a statute of limitation that's— there's a law, there's a rule that says if somebody cannot be charged within a certain period of time, then those charges get dropped automatically. And so that's what the statute of limitations are. And for Hawaii, for a crime like this, it's 5 years. This was coming up to the 5-year mark. And unbeknownst to me, because, you know, I filed the police reports, I expect the police to do their job. When the anonymous complaint went out and the Attorney General's Office started taking a look at it, apparently the 5-year mark came up. And the person who I filed the police reports on, the excuse from the police department was they couldn't find her. We're on an island, but they couldn't find her. And that's why they couldn't arrest her to charge her. So the Attorney General's Office was asking themselves, like, well, one, why, right? Why that? But two, did we, you know, like, what else is going on, right, within the organization? And so when I got called into the Attorney General's Office and I got read my rights, I was already on leave. We had already gotten a letter, an official letter from our state contractor that said essentially I need to leave or they're going to pull the contract. And so I worked with my board and I said, you know what, that's right, but I fully expect to come back once all of this is done. And when that had happened, Like I mentioned, I was in the dark, but I started seeing news articles about how the person that I filed the police report on, she can't be charged because the statute of limitations ran out. I'm like, "Oh, shit. They need somebody." Excuse my language, but it's real. I was like, "They need somebody. The state needs to show the public that they're going to be accountable. And why not just like, I'm the perfect person to take that fall. I had a board of directors. I don't know how— it's easy, right? To have your highest paid employee be like, well, she's the one with the daily operational decision making. So it was just one of those. But what I found out after I had spent, gosh, so many years going through the court system and then having to spend a year in jail and then finally coming out, I found out that the Attorney General took up the case against that previous employee all the way up to the Hawaiʻi State Supreme Court to argue the fact that she should still be able to be charged because the state didn't find out until that anonymous complaint rather than 5 years previously when I officially notified them that something was happening. And so the State of Hawaii, the Supreme Court said that, "Yep, she can be charged." I don't know where that case has gone. The pandemic ended up happening and I know that everything got pushed behind in terms of dockets and all of that stuff. But yeah, to this day I have no idea. But it makes me mad that after going to jail, finally the State of Hawaii says, 'Oh yeah, we can charge her.' Go figure.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 26:14
So you went to jail for her crime, is that right? Effectively?
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 26:20
I wouldn't, I wouldn't necessarily say that I went to jail for her crime. I went to jail because I should have done a better job. That's why I, that's why I, I don't protest me going to jail and having that experience. I didn't know what I didn't know. I also knew that I trusted the people that I trusted. The person that was taking a lot of monies, in fact, she was being groomed to be the next executive director before my board, before the board asked me to put my resume in. And I was fully prepared to put my hat behind hers. But once I put in my resume, I had no decision-making ability or voting ability because, you know, conflict. I have my resume in there too. And so I never thought not to be able to trust the people, right, that I had that were responsible of helping me make decisions. But it was also, my attorney put it nicely where she goes, you know, blind trust is not a legal argument. And I'm just like, well, but still people are people and, you know, we trust who we trust, and I thought that we were in the same game together. How can you not trust your teammates, you know?
Aveline Clark (Host) · 27:39
Sorry for the interruption.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 27:41
This is Ian Westmoreland, the founder of Katsuki Heroes, and thank you for listening to this story from one of our amazing heroes. Our mission is for these stories to provide hope and inspiration to people experiencing life challenges and to also educate the broader community on how best to provide support. If you would like to help us to continue to produce more hero stories and cover more adversity themes, we would welcome all donations. These can be made via our website, kintsugiheroes.com.au. The donate function is at the bottom of the home page. We'd also welcome any feedback. You can email me direct using ian@kintsugiheroes.com.au. Now let's get back to the story. That's why I say I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that I went to jail because of her. I went to jail because I was a team leader. I was the captain of the team. And, you know, I'm better for it now because I know how to build a better team. I know how to make sure that I ask the questions. That I need to ask to make sure that all the team players are doing what they're supposed to be doing and making sure that I'm not going to catch the fall again and have some issues.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 29:03
Thank you. I'm glad that you've got a smile, right? And you can see the positives in all of this, which is just wonderful. How did that one-year mandatory vacation change you?
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 29:19
Oh, let's see. Um, I wouldn't say that— I wouldn't say that the mandatory vacation changed me a lot, but it did allow the parts of me that I wanted to develop more develop. Um, what I mean by that Because I'm such a workaholic, I actually had 3 jobs at one point in time while I was working for the federal government. I was doing community work and working for a private company and working for the federal company. Like, that's what I mean. Like, I'm really a workaholic. I know that I can be super serious because some of the things that I was working on are serious stuff. Like, I worked in security. Don't joke around about security, right? And so, But I knew that even with my friends, a lot of them would be like, you're so serious. And I knew that that was an area that I really wanted to develop for me. And so when I was on my mandatory vacation, I was just like, well, okay, let's be optimistic and let's try to develop these skills instead of being known for Safina, very stoic, and Safina, very serious. Let's explore Sofina, a character, right? And quite literally, like, I've had a lot of days in jail where I just laughed until I cried. And there were a lot of times where things were really bad and it was laughter that kind of got me through. So I wouldn't, and that's why I say I wouldn't necessarily say that I, Jail changed me a whole lot. It just helped me develop the things that were already there that just needed light or space to be able to develop. And I made some pretty good relationships with the people in there. And yeah, I'm just, yeah, as I'm sharing that, I'm seeing some of their faces and I'm seeing some of the situations that has happened and it still makes me laugh to this day because I'm like, People are people and they're so funny and they're so fallible. And it's like, if you can't laugh about our little nuances that make us us, like, oh gosh. But I think because of that, it's made the world a lot better place. And me doing my work and working back with nonprofits, like, it helps me bring a sense of humor to the situation. Guys, I know it's like life and death, but let's, let's, let's think about this. We're arguing over pink paper or blue paper, you know? And it's funny sometimes when you think of it that way. It's like, oh yeah, blue paper, pink paper, paper is paper.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 32:17
Absolutely right. And it's all perspective.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 32:21
Absolutely.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 38:15
See, even at the lowest of low points, you can still learn, you can still have fun and you can still grow.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 38:20
Absolutely, absolutely.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 38:23
And I think it's when we have those low points, right? It's when we have those low points in life, regardless of whether you're in jail, you're in your, you know, your luxurious house, but it's the emotional low points and the environment we're in. And when we have those, they are the moments that really test us, don't they?
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 38:40
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 38:42
It sounds like you got through. You're obviously a very tough person. And you got through and it's made you a, hopefully, and from what I can tell, a more rounded and open and balanced person. You're smiling, you're laughing about it, you've got perspective, you've got gratitude. Hey, you were doing a gratitude journal whilst in jail when you were put there for something that you shouldn't have been put there for, even though you acknowledged the reason why you were there.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 39:13
Yeah, absolutely. You know, there's that, there's an old adage that says, you know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And it was going through those experiences that like I had a tangible, I had tangible examples to kind of look back to and be like, yeah, those, those moments, those experiences could have totally killed me. It could have, you know, it could have definitely redirected some of my energy, some of my passions. The passions that I care about, you know? And coming out was even more difficult 'cause I had to start over again. And how do you start over again now with a criminal record? But, you know, and it was a weird time because it was also going through that and seeing and feeling, seeing and feeling the strength that I had as a person, as an individual, and then coming out and have to redo it again. Because, you know, that was a structured environment. And now I'm just like, oh, there's the whole world now, like so many options, as opposed to in there I only have like a few options. And it's like, okay, well, how do I do what I got knowing the limitations of what other people perceive as limitations? For sure, I could have easily gone and got a job at like a McDonald's or fast food because entry is low, and typically those are really good second chance opportunities, but that would've been a waste of some of the knowledge and some of the experiences that I had. And however, if I go for the positions that I could really flourish and I could really help other businesses make an impact with, like those jobs, it's always the background history that's going to prevent me from from qualifying and it was just like, ugh, why? But I was just super fortunate that the people who know me while I was going through everything and the people who know me leading up to me going to jail, they stuck by me and they supported me and I continue to have their support today. Even though I wrote, even though I've become a whole, a well-rounded person and a strong person, I wouldn't have been able to do it without my support network. And, you know, these are friends, you know, that didn't need to, but a postcard, you know, while I was in jail, checking up on me post-jail and just seeing like, how am I doing? You know, that meant a lot. And that's what contributes to finding a path, not really finding a path, finding a, finding the strength to take a step on that path.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 41:57
Couldn't agree more. Couldn't. That's, yeah, absolutely. It doesn't matter what the adversity is, you know, it doesn't matter what we're going through. It's having, having that support network that really does get us through. And I like the way you put it, finding the strength to take a step.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 42:17
Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of people that have a hard time with it.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 42:22
Absolutely. Um, we're getting to the end of our, our time together, and I've got a couple more questions for you. How, looking back along the whole journey, has there been, uh, one moment or, or an overarching kind of aha moment or a gem that you've gotten from it? And I feel I can ask you that because you've— you're so positive and open about the experience that you went through.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 42:47
Aha moment or gem. Um, let's see. Things are not as bad as it may seem. I feel that I had a more emphasized experience on my lows because I wasn't sharing a lot of it with other people. I didn't know how to articulate it, you know? And I think the biggest aha is One, therapy helps. I was, uh, prior, prior to me going through everything, I was very, I was very prideful in terms of I can do this. And I think a lot of that just kind of stemmed from I need to be a model for my clients. Therefore, like, they need to see that we're capable and we're capable of solving our own problems. Um, I don't know if that's just pride or just stubbornness, but maybe a little of both. But I think in looking back, the biggest aha was it may have not been as extremely felt as it was if I could have just talked to somebody and be open about my vulnerabilities that I, you know, when every— when things happened, part of that trust, that loss of trust in myself, I didn't want to hear from other people who would tell me, "Well, why did you do that?" I didn't want to hear that. And because I didn't want to hear that, I didn't express because I didn't want to hear it. And I think with the right audience or the right ear, like a therapist and friends that act as therapists, that know not to say that. Why didn't you? Yeah, that means the world. And I've taken that in my work whenever I'm listening to my clients or whenever I'm listening to their clients or even till today where I'm getting calls from my friends asking me about services and the people that they're calling for are their friends and their friends are just going through the worst time. The best thing I could do is just, "I understand, you know, I understand, and here's how I can help." There's no right way or wrong way to do things. So that's the biggest gem that I think that I've taken is be a good listener, as well as if you're going through something, just be open and honest about it, because I think people just naturally will feel that authenticity when you're open about it. When you're open about trouble, when you're open about conflict, um, and just be vulnerable in that.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 45:30
Love that. Thanks. Okay, my final question for you, and this is one that I ask everybody at the end, and that is, is if there's someone listening to your story who can relate, maybe they're going through something similar, or there's something, or, or yeah, they can just identify with what you've said, and that they're in, in a state of challenge, what would you like to say to them?
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 45:54
So if they're in a state of challenge, if you're in a state of challenge and you feel like you're kind of at your tilt, um, there's no more avenues, there's no more— you're, you're really at the bottom— the best advice I can give is take a breath and talk to somebody. Like, take a breath and talk to somebody. I was fortunate that people had, well, not a lot, maybe one or two had called while I was at my low. Even though it was hard for me to hear their perspective at that time, those words penetrate even though you're at your low and you don't hear them immediately. I don't know, for some odd reason that's kind of in our, maybe it's a survival technique that we just inherently have, that even when we can't absorb the information being told to us at the time because we're so conflicted and we're dealing with so much and there's nothing more to do but just kind of like wallow in it. When you're talking to people and they, you know, when they talk to you, for some odd reason it gets embedded into your subconscious. And it may not be evident right then and there, but you're going to wake up and you're going to be like, oh, that's what that was. I feel a little bit lighter. The weight is not going to decrease all that much, but just a little bit means a lot. And so if anybody is struggling with conflict or whatever the case may be, just take a deep breath and call somebody. Don't go on social media to do that. Definitely not social media, but call somebody. Maybe it's an acquaintance that you met over coffee or something and be like, hey, this is out of the blue, but I felt like we connected at this point in time. I was wondering if you could lend me your ear, you know, human to human. So yeah, that's the best advice I can give. Served me a lot and it served me well.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 48:03
It's great advice. Yeah, look, you put it really well and that's all it takes. It's very, very simple. Human to human. We're all humans. We've all been there at different times, you know, in the— in those periods. And it's important to be able to reach out.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 32:21
And it sounds like your time in jail gave you that, that space, like you said, and you've come out and you've got fresh new perspectives about life and about where to place energy and, and keeping things light when it needs to be.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 32:34
Yeah, no, I, I definitely think so. But, you know, I always, I always tell people that jail is either going to, um, it's either going to defeat you or it's going to motivate you to do, to, to break things, so to speak. It's going to help you firm up your resolve. And that's what I mean about Break Things. And so when I was in there, like, as much as I, you know, I took the perspective every single day to be grateful for something, I wrote a journal every single day to be grateful for something. But not every day was like that. And there were times where I saw the injustices and the things that I knew as a service provider, like there are organizations, there are people out there that been trying to help, but the people in here are just not getting, and it's just oppression by the system, so to speak, right? And it wasn't just the service providers that were falling short, but it was also like our jailers were super falling short. And there were so many moments of abuses that it was like, I remember the thing that firmed up my resolve about how when I get out, I'm going to restart my for-profit company, my marketing company, and I'm going to work back with nonprofits. And it was actually through my 1-year mandatory vacation that I firmed up my ethos. The ethos is I'm passionate about helping the people who are passionate about helping people. And the situation was, you know, one of the girls, she got fired from her job. And these are not well-paying jobs. They're like 25 cents an hour. And she got fired for her job because apparently she was talking stink about one of the guards. And so she came back to our module with the guard that she was talking stink about. And as that guard was writing up the paperwork to fire her from her position, our guard was like, you could hear their conversation talking about, oh, you can fire? Inmates from their jobs just for them talking stink about you? And so they're talking about how to do this, and I'm just like, this is terrible, you know? And I'm kind of overhearing it while I'm in the middle of my job. And then the next thing I know, that guard that was like, oh, you can do that? Ask one of my roommate, my bunkie, hey, so, "Make sure that the girl that just got fired has the worst uniforms." And I was like, "What? We already in jail. Like, you wanna punish her because she said something about your coworker?" And like petty stuff, right? She said something bad about your coworker. And now you're saying to my bunkie who, has a job that will not say no to the guard, right? To give her the most shittiest clothes that we got and everybody wears the same things. Like, that didn't sit well with me. And this is what I mean about, like, it firmed up my resolve that, you know what, I can do something, even as little as fixing this particular problem without causing a fuss. And so what I ended up doing was making sure 'cause I was in charge, I was a module clerk. So I was in charge of making sure that all of the inventories were stocked and all of that stuff whenever we had new girls or girls exit. So I made sure that we requested new stuff, new clothes, to a point that all of the tattered and old and overused uniforms eventually got out of our inventory and only new stuff was in our inventory. And it made me kind of smile and chuckle where when we were out at rec and I could hear the two guards, because we had two female modules in our jail, I could hear the two guards from the separate modules kind of talking to each other. And they were just, the guard for my module was like, "Hey, you notice a difference between our girls?" And so the other guy was like, "No, what difference?" She's just like, "You know, the girls from my module, they look, They look a lot better than your girls. And so I'm kind of chuckling to myself because I'm hearing this conversation. The other guard goes, what do you mean? And so she goes, I don't know. I don't know. It just kind of looks like our girls look better than your girls. And here I am chalking it up to, it's probably because the uniforms are a lot more pressed. You know, they're better than all of the other ones. And, you know, unfortunately, all of that tattered uniforms has to go somewhere. Unfortunately, it goes through the other module. And so, yeah, that's what I mean about like, I think that story just kind of encapsulates bringing out that humor, optimistic side to me, but also it encapsulates firming up resolve. I could have just said, no, you know, like, shit, I should be afraid to lose my job because they're looking for ways to fire people from their jobs. Instead, I was like, no, no, no, let's go, let's try to see if I can fix this and I'm going to do it legally. I'm in charge of this, this is what I can do within the little authority that I've got. I can manage the inventory. And yeah, so I thought that was the funniest conversation, but it made me feel good.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 48:19
Absolutely. Absolutely. Gosh. Yeah, let me take that in.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 48:27
I just want to thank you for sharing your story today. You're a brave lady. You've been through a lot. And I've chuckled along the way as you've been sharing the story and how the universe keeps bringing you back to the nonprofits and service. And you obviously have a lot to give and you're doing— I know. Look, for those that are listening to the audio, she's shaking her head and, you know, now she's laughing. But you're there for a reason and you're doing good and you're doing amazing given what you've been through. So full salute to you. Um, and thank you. Thank you for coming here, for showing up and for being a warrior in a sense with a heart, you know. And that's, I think, the most beautiful way you can approach the world and be in the world.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 49:19
Absolutely. Yeah. Any pain that I think we go through, sharing it can be useful for somebody else. And so thank you. Thank you guys so much. I don't like the terms warrior or hero or anything like that, right? Like, it always makes me uncomfortable. I'm just trying to be a person that helps. And if I can help by sharing this, my story is— oh, I'm pretty sure that there is a nonprofit or social entrepreneur out there that, not knowing what they don't know, may run into the same issues that I have, um, with less support than maybe I had. Um, oh gosh, it's— it will drive you to drink. And I say that humorously, but also very realistically, it will drive you to do the things and just know that if I could, anybody can. And whatever little— that sounds very cliché. I think whatever little experiences that we've kind of gone through, other people are experiencing the same. And if you've kind of overcome them or in the middle of overcoming them, just that little step helps. Share it, share it.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 50:42
Thank you so much. It's been an absolute honor and a privilege today to speak with you. Thanks.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 50:47
Thanks.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 50:53
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes. Please like and share the show to your friends so we can get this out to even more people. If you have a story you'd like to share with us, please reach out using the contact details below. And join us next week for our next Heroes story. Until then, keep being you, and remember that we are all heroes in our own unique way. Only when it's broken. Only when it's broken. When it hits you in the middle of the night and the truth burns so bright, only when it's broken, only when it's broken. Take pride in those cries, it's only for tonight, and then you rise.
Sophina Placencia (Guest) · 51:54
Only when you're broken. Only when you're broken. Only when you're broken.
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