A CEO learned to embrace her past — and that helped her make her future

The path to success is rarely a straightforward one, and that has certainly been true for Precious Williams.

The founder and CEO of Perfect Pitches by Precious, Williams’ journey started earlier than most.

“I grew up in the inner city of St. Louis, Missouri. And I was told from a very young age that I would never make it out of the ‘hood,” Precious Williams told CNBC’s Make It. “As a Black woman, I was told, too fat, too Black, no Ivy League degree, there’s no way that I could have a career in media or working with the biggest companies in the world.”

But Williams was determined to find success, no matter what.

“I spent a large part of my life being ashamed of not being wanted by my parents, feeling lost in my family and feeling like the black sheep because I wanted success that I had never seen in my community, in my life, or anyone around me in St. Louis, Missouri,” Willams confessed. “And I went through school, full scholarships to college, law school; did everything supposedly right and yet I still felt unfulfilled.”

Her first company, Curvy Girlz Lingerie, took her on “Shark Tank.”

“People said it would never take off. My family and friends wouldn’t invest in me. So you know what I did? I created a pitch that was so good that he got me on national television. And when I pitched, I walked away with $500,000,” Williams explained.

But her story doesn’t end there. Unfortunately, Williams later found herself homeless, but she refused to give up on her dreams.

“I went through a dark period in my life, where I was homeless and a severe alcoholic,” Willams said. “Now I’ve been clean and sober almost six years, walked out of homelessness almost five years ago, restarted my company Perfect Pitches by Precious, became a world-class, master communicator, international professional speaker, four-time number one best-selling author of business books on pitching.”

Williams has found, too, that openly sharing what some may consider an embarrassing story has helped her on her path to success.

“When I opened up and became vulnerable, and shared how it really happened and not the social media story of perfection, it changed how people saw me,” she said. “They saw me as someone that they wanted to work with, someone that they would pay handsomely to teach and train them how to bounce back from rock bottom multiple times.”

From this, Precious Williams learned her six biggest lessons which she shared with us. Watch the video above to learn more.