In Episode 60 of The Red Bra Project our amazing guest highlight, Jennifer Myers shares such a strong, moving & powerful personal story. One that literally leaves you thinking for hours, even days after listening about alllll of the stuff that “could have” possibly happened in your own life with one different decision. How one fun night out in college could have led somewhere dark or maybe letting go a little too hard during a Spring Break could have resulted in some lifelong consequences or simply falling into what felt like the right crowd at the time to feed something inside you were looking for led you down a path full of doors that were best left unopened. We learn from our youth in so many ways and Jennifer courageously shares with others in the hopes that they can learn from her own mistakes.
Jennifer went from being the all-American girl to trafficking marijuana for a decade, getting arrested by the federal government in 2002, waiting 2.5 years to be sentenced, and was finally sentenced to 3 years in federal prison (served 17 months). Inside prison she was deeply impacted by the women incarcerated on draconian mandatory minimum drug sentences–mostly all mothers, and became deeply concerned about the millions of children who’s mother’s were locked up behind bars. She felt something needed to change and since her release in 2007 it’s been her calling to do something to help make a crack in the criminal justice system. To give women who are usually forgotten, a voice –to empower them and help them be heard. Now, she also works with men, many lifers inside prison too on a high security yard all adding to how she is continuously working to help empower others.
Those are the soundbites of Jen’s story. We are honored to intimately share with you deeper through Jennifer’s own vulnerable and authentic telling of her story with us about her feelings, emotions, thoughts, breakthrough(s) and journey navigating her experience.
Jennifer is a mid-west girl at heart. OH – IO to be exact, attended THE Ohio State University and like many young college grads at the time, moved up north to experience the young, stylish and sophisticated city lifestyle of Chicago, Illinois. Chicago was also the perfect city to launch her young and ambitious career in Modern Dance. Performing and choreographing for seven years in Chicago and around the mid – west, Jennifer eventually became artistic director of her own company, Structure. At a certain point, a sorority sister of Jennifer’s introduced her to a man who she said was an absolute great guy. Upon meeting one another, Jennifer and this guy, named Dale hit it off, quickly becoming involved with one another. Jen later learned that he was running a marijuana trafficking operation.
“I made a really poor choice at some point to stay with him and then I got involved,” Jennifer shared. “I engaged in this about 8 – 10 years until I was arrested by the Federal Government. After a long 2.5 years was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison and I served 17 months in Federal Prison Camp, Alderson. So that is my story which has created the whole next decade and a half of my life afterwards,” Jennifer heartily shared.
Rewinding a little bit, Jennifer loved dance but admits that it was a tough life and doesn’t make a lot of money, especially in the beginning. A full-time job in the day, rehearsal after rehearsal at night for weeks leading up to a couple of performances. If anything, Jennifer was happy with what she was doing, loved performing, loved modern dance, but admits money was hard. When she met this new man in her life she had no idea she wanted the lifestyle she was about to get a glimpse of.
“I feel like when I met this guy, his name is Dale, I started to feel like there’s something wrong with me in my life. Like, what’s missing, how can I get this, too? You know, I didn’t plan my life for this. So yeah, that’s sort of how it happened,” Jennifer shared.
There’s so many parts of Jennifer’s story that we could have spent a few hours really diving into and learning more about.
Jen wrote a memoir called Trafficking The Good Life that covers so much more. It gets amazing reviews and has already been added to our book list! What we were able to chat with Jen about was what was going through her mind at the exact time she found out the man she was dating was involved in trafficking marijuana.
“I remember specifically the night he told me. We were sitting on the edge of Lake Michigan. It was night. The moon was shining, our feet were in the water and I was feeling really close to him. And he sorta turned to me and said, Jen I have something I need to tell you, I said Ok. He said, I’m running a marijuana drug trafficking operation. The Mexicans have taken somebody’s son, kidnapped him, they are holding him hostage across the border, we owe them money and I have 3 days to get this amount of cash. I was stunned,” said Jen.
She went on to explain that he really was a good guy from what she knew of him, she felt safe with him, he was very well liked by everyone. Upon finding out this information from Dale, she initially just wanted to take care of him and she chose not to leave. Looking back, Jennifer shares she really didn’t quite understand at the time the magnitude of what his words were, it almost didn’t feel real, in a sense.
“I did not value the gravity of the situation, I didn’t respect it. And that’s the energy I left with. I didn’t feel like I was in danger, I didn’t feel like he was in danger, isn’t that weird…I mean I was 24,” Jen said.
It wasn’t too long after that moonlit conversation in Chicago that Jennifer decided to become involved with the operation. She and Dale were back in Ohio and she knew she was unhappy visiting her parents right before Christmas. She realized she wasn’t sure if she loved him, but yet at the same time she felt trapped in a sense. She wondered how could she go back to her old life after living the type of “higher lifestyle” she had been experiencing and living alongside Dale?
“The truth is, to claim some sense of empowerment for myself and freedom from a man, I said I wanted to get involved. Literally, I take 100 percent responsibility for it. I asked to get involved and I wanted to. I wanted to make my own money,” Jennifer shared.
Over the course of the years, Jen understood that whoever she shared the truth of what she was doing with ultimately put them at risk. She never told her parents the truth. She did share the truth with her close friends who were very supportive. Fellow dancers, artists, who did not see the consequences either and were in total support of Jen.
This is where Jennifer shares the beginning and very telling details of how she started. From her natural unsuspecting look, to as it turns out being able to calmly deal with a high level of stress to the growing vehicle sizes, larger and larger loads of marijuana with more people being involved. With every bit of growth came an excitement and thrill that grew right along with it. Addictive. Literally seeing hundreds of thousands of dollars can be very addicting, Jen openly shares. “It’s interesting because nobody was getting caught. The truth is everyone gets caught in the end because it is very rare that anybody would stop doing that unless they were being forced to stop, that’s just how it works,” said Jen.
Jennifer pauses in our conversation to share a very pivotal point of her story with us about her dance partner who suddenly passed away from an aneurysm. Jen, at the time, 26 years old was deeply impacted by the passing of her dance partner, of course. She stopped dancing and started spending all of her cash on a personal spiritual search doing things like traveling to India, working with spiritual gurus and more. These choices to delve deeper into her own spirituality completely changed her life and is one of the most valuable lessons that she gained knowledge, wisdom and insight from. Jen moved to San Diego for a spiritual community. Off and on, she tried to get out of trafficking. A few times she did stop, sold all of her stuff and continued with her spiritual search.
Not completely removed from the organization yet, Jennifer received a phone call from Dale asking her to rent a storage unit for the team where boxes of marijuana would be stored for a few hours waiting to be picked up. She did this twice. The second time the phone call from Dale was to report that the house the drop was made at was raided by the SWAT team & DEA – arrests were made. After that call, Jen felt frozen, three months passed where Jen was unsure of what to do next…until the knock came on her door.
During those three months, Jen buried her head in the sand and tried to stay focused on building her Real Estate business. At one point she reached out to the attorney on their case and asked what she should do with the storage unit. He advised her to cancel it. Jennifer called the storage unit business to cancel her unit and was met with a continuous string of questions on the other side of the phone. Finally, out of frustration, Jennifer said, she wanted to cancel it because she was going out of country. Which Jen has a quick laugh at now and admits that is the WORST possible thing she could have said because the DEA was watching – waiting for the next activity on the unit. She feels that with that one call, she probably turned herself in that day!
The very NEXT day, the DEA showed up to arrest Jennifer because they thought she was fleeing.
“I remember waking up the morning I was arrested. I remember I had my journal because I journal every morning and map out my day. I wrote at the top of it, if a tree falls in the forest do you hear it, the trees are screaming we can’t hear them. It’s this poetic thing. Then I thought to myself, this date feels familiar. Like, is it somebody’s birthday? What am I missing? Who’s birthday is it? It was like I was meeting my destiny. It was the weirdest thing. It felt like I had a premonition of my arrest,” Jen shared.
From the day of Jen’s arrest, she spent 2.5 years on house arrest pursuing Real Estate while dealing with bribes and harassment along the way. There were a LOT of people involved in the case which resulted in a lot of time between the day Jen was actually arrested, to trial to serving her sentence.
That 2.5 years was intense, needless to say. Her spiritual practice, the guidance she received that we talked about above and the support of her family & friends helped her through her pre-trial time.
Jen knew she was the one who put herself in this position, she did this to herself.
It literally felt like her life was on pause. Jennifer started to research online in the hopes of finding someone she could talk to who had been in her shoes once before – specifically during the waiting period. She was desperate to find someone that could relate to her. She dug and dug and finally found someone to help support and talk to – a Prison Consultant, David Novak. They were able to meet up in person and Jennifer shares how much it helped to just talk with someone who could relate to her. This part of Jen’s story is integral to why and where the next chapter of her life led to, in which we learn about next!
Inside of prison, while it was overcrowded, extremely tough and every single day was a challenge – Jennifer made some unforgettable relationships. Her eyes were opened to a world she didn’t know existed. She was blown away by how many women were locked up in a prison camp on long sentences for non-violent crimes who were mothers. She was mind blown and knew she had to do something to start creating a change, a positive change when she was released.
Jen was encouraged by a special man who stood by her side on the outside while she was locked up on the inside. He inspired her to dream and that is exactly what Jen did, she allowed herself to dream. Dreaming helped her to keep her faith and hope. She talks about grabbing onto the art of dreaming and how powerful it is, especially in such an extreme situation.
When Jen was released in 2007, she was determined to not give up. The economy was headed towards a down turn and jobs were tough to come by. Jennifer was not only adjusting to life back on the outside now (she explains how much she changed in 17 months) she was also trying to figure out what was next and how she belonged. Jen kept going and eventually wrote and had published her memoir, Trafficking The Good Life.
Momentum started from there. Jen began speaking to kids in middle & high schools across San Diego county with a non – profit sharing her story while continuing to create new relationships. Jennifer met a woman who she wrote a 14 month curriculum with to help empower at risk teen girls and women coming out of prison about making positive choices. These girls & women were educated and inspired about not only the power behind making positive choices, but that the opportunity to make those positive choices does exist. They founded a non – profit and are on their 3rd program working with the San Digeo Federal Probation.
Jennifer now works with women going into prison as a consultant, exactly what David was to Jennifer when she found him online during her pre – trial time. In addition, Jennifer has been working with men the past 3 years as well and has produced the first Tedx inside of prison, that she has actually now done twice.
Presently, Jen loves to help people with idea making and really hone in on their speech for potential Tedx speeches. Yes, Jen is open to coaching if you are looking to be a Tedx Speaker!
Jen feels like what is coming through her is bigger than her. She feels like she fell into her calling. She never planned on making her life all about her time in prison, what she is doing is beyond her. She shares how much she receives in return from what she is doing and giving as well. Such a complete relationship.
When we talk about fear, Jen has learned how to live with it when it comes. “So many people want to push through it or get rid of it. I don’t think fear ever leaves us. WE just have to change our relationship with it. When I am feeling fear or anxiety, I try to slow down my day, slow down my life. I know it is a time not to make decisions, but it’s a time to take care of Jen,” she shared. Nurturing fear in a way that one needs at that time is an approach to dealing with fear Jennifer prefers and works for her.
Jen’s Red Bra Moment: “Awww….when I was incarcerated the most authentic parts of me I’d forgotten came to help me when times were scary or tough–including my writing and making art. There were a few really scary days for me. A really bad fight where a woman hit somebody with a lock in her sock and another when a woman died in her cube. What started happening for me is that these parts of me, the deepest parts of myself started appearing for me to be ok. The biggest, deepest parts of me started to rise up and I started to write poetry or make art in my cube from the letters I received,” Jen shared.
Jennifer’s heart is all about loving beyond boundaries and lifting one another up, which is told through her story. The emotions felt of determination, grit, vulnerability and so much more are truly magical and impactful. Grab yourself a beverage, relax and listen to Jennifer’s incredible story of strength, possibility and growth. Thank you Jen for sharing your heart with us. We loved our time spent with you!
Here’s where to connect with the brilliant, humble & kind Jennifer Myers:
@jenmyers198 on IG
Trafficking The Good Life – Jennifer’s Memoir
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